Meant to Thrive

For the first time in our lives, my wife and I have finally managed to keep two plants alive for two years.  We bought one for our daughter and one for our son.  We allowed them to pick the plants, along with the help of  our local plant expert who identified both as low maintenance and hard to kill (one is in fact a cactus).  We've tried--neglecting them on multiple occasions, but in each case, with little work, both were restored.

What I've found in my limited experience as a botanist, is that there is no middle ground for plants.  They are always thriving or dying.  When in good soil, appropriately watered (not too much, nor too little), correct amount of space and sunlight--plants do well.  In fact--it is almost like they care for themselves, creating their own food stretching for the sunlight.  When the plant is not thriving--you don't need a plant doctor to tell you something is wrong.  Quite obviously the plant is dying.  It droops, turns from vibrant green to brown it no longer reaches for the sun--and if it is a fruiting plant, it produces no fruit.

This week's Gospel lesson (Luke 13:6...) is Jesus' parable about the vineyard owner looking over a fig tree for the third year in a row to see that it continues to bear no fruit.  Like I said, I'm no botanist.  For this reason, I do not know an orange tree is an orange tree unless there are oranges on it.  You can tell me that I have a cherry tree, but if it has no cherries, I'm not sure I will believe you.  You might say, well its not the season for cherries--or well, your climate doesn't support the production of the fruit--but it is a cherry tree--even so I struggle to see it--for me cherries are what make cherry trees cherry trees.  Apparently Jesus agreed. If the fig tree bears no figs, it is of no use--cut it down.  Luckily for the fig tree, the gardener is not quick to despair--but Lord, give me one more year--let me tend to it--give it new soil--pay close attention to it--then if it bears no fruit, we will cut it down.

I believe the tree in this story are our ministries.  The ministries of the church, the ministries we all take on personally.  And during the Lenten season, it is time that we consider our ministries--look at the trees we've planted, watered, and cared for--are they bearing fruit?  Are they thriving?  No?--then its time to cut them down--or rather perhaps redouble our efforts truly commit to nurturing them this year in preparation for next year's evaluation.  It is not enough that we work the garden--God expects fruit.  God expects thriving.  Anything less is death.  The fig tree can claim to be a fig tree, but without figs... I'm not buying it, and neither is God.

"And the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control," (Galatians 5: 22-23).  Where these are not cultivated there is no Spirit; such ministries either require new focus and attention, or they need to disappear.  Where is God calling you to garden this year?

When Freedom is Oppressive

I've read reports this week that Iceland is seeking to ban internet pornography.  The arguments in a western democracy are well rehearsed and predictable.  On the one side, freedom is our core shared principle, and there is no freedom more sacred than speech... and this material has been protected as speech.  On the other hand is the broad accessibility of internet material, and our fear that certain material will harmful--particularly to the young.

That is the interesting thing about this particular law.  It cites violence as its primary locus of concern.  Halla Gunnarsdottir, a political adviser to Iceland's interior ministry told the Christian Science Monitor, "When a 12-year old types 'porn' into Google, he or she is not going to find photos of naked women out on a country field, but very hardcore and brutal violence."

Historically there are limits to free speech, when the speech causes harm to others.  You cannot yell "Fire" in a crowded theater, etc.  In New Jersey, recent laws against bullying restrict certain kinds of harmful speech that are apparently not protected by our constitutional freedoms.

The harmfulness of pornography cannot be underestimated.  Iceland is focusing on "violent" varieties of  pornography--but I would question whether there are any other types.  When we misunderstand the nature of our bodies great harm is done not only to children who may come across inappropriate images, but to the subjects who become convinced that nudity is their most marketable gift and viewers whose perceptions of healthy sexuality are significantly warped.  

The fact that Iceland's proposed legislation will likely be thwarted is an important reminder that western values are not necessarily representative of the ways of God's coming reign.  Pornography will likely continue to be protected free speech in Iceland and the rest of the "western world"--but let us not be confused--freedom can be oppressive, and as long as perversion of human sexuality is protected by free speech, there will be victims.  For more about the victims and what you can do to help, see Beauty for Ashes Ministries.

Infinity and Providence

In preparation for this week's message on "Why Can't I See God's Will?" I was reflecting on what it means for an infinite God to interact in a finite world.  If we assume that God is at work in the present world, it means that one whose time is different than ours is at work in our time. 

It is likely that you can see the implications of this by your own experience.  Perhaps you share with me the experience that each year seems shorter than the previous.  Here we are in mid-December already, and I feel like I just got used to 2012.  You might wonder why every year seems shorter than the previous... I suggest it is because each year is relatively shorter from the perspective if finite beings.  We only have a certain number of years.  so each year is in relation to our beginning.  A five year old experiences a year to be a long time because it is 1/5 of their life.  A 50 year old experiences the year to be a much shorter period of time because the year is only 1/50 of their life.  this means that a year in the eyes of a five year old is like 10 years in the eyes of a 50 year old.  It takes 10 years for the same change in lifespan that a five year old experiences in just one year.  This continues.  For the 100 year old, it would take another 20 years to experience the same change in lifespan as the five year old in a single year.  So, it doesn't just seem that a year gets shorter and shorter as we get older--it really does (relatively speaking).

So then consider our finite experience of time from the eyes of our finite God.  The psalmist writes, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God... for a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past or like a watch in the night." (Psalm 90:4).

If this is true, then God--who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow... and God who is without time... when that God interacts in our world time is no factor - so it would see if God can continue to interact in our present, God can also continue to interact in our future--right now... and God can interact in our past--right now.

What does that have to do with Providence and God's Will?  Sometimes people wonder whether they missed God's path.  If at some point they strayed from God's plan for them.  Made the wrong decision, married the wrong person, attended the wrong party, took the wrong job, said the wrong thing at the wrong time...  Despair can set in.  How can we be sure we are on God's path?  Surely God has a path for us as we believe he intended it from before the foundations of the earth--so the scriptures say.  And yet how does that work when people have the ability to make up  their own minds--to choose the good or the bad--to follow or not follow God's desire for them.  Perhaps it was God's will that you get a particular job, but the employer does not listen to God's voice and finds a reason to go with someone else--is God thwarted?  Is all lost?  Can we even claim that God has a will and a plan in light of the ease with which you, I, or anyone else can ruin the plan?

But if the infinite God is at work in the past, present, and future of our finite world, then perhaps God's perfect plan is more of a perfecting plan.  In other words, when we step off the path God has laid for us, it isn't so much that God puts us back on the right path as it is that God adjusts the path to include the place to which we have strayed.  In this way our God is not just perfect, but is perfecting.  What was not perfect is made perfect by the God who is continuously seeking us out -- not hiding from us and hoping we can navigate the complicated map that is God's will.  Rather God's will is to redeem lost sheep - not by laying a trail of bread crumbs and hoping the sheep make it home to the other 99, but leaving the 99 to go and search.  So it becomes God's plan that the sheep was lost in the first place that God's diligent, loving, searching nature might be revealed.

Paul told the Romans not that bad and evil would never happen, only that whatever happened God was working it together for good for those who love God and are called for God's purposes.  That is a picture not of a perfect God that us imperfect humans must figure out--it is rather the picture of a perfecting God who realizes that we and others will get off the path, but that God will make our paths - whatever we've done to them--that God will make our paths straight--raising the valleys, lowering the mountains; and making us holy.

The Gift of Disaster

It seems every time there is a disaster it is always noted that the silver-lining is the way in which communities come together to comfort each other and rebuild.  We say, "Isn't it a shame that it takes a disaster to bring out the good in all of us."  Living near the wreckage of Sandy, we are getting inundated with people all over the nation who want to do something to help.  Indeed this is fantastic! 

The reality, however, is that soon the initial desire to help meet the need will give way to fatigue and aid will slowly decline.  Before long we (as a society) will be back to yelling at each other over differences of political opinion, social and cultural differences, etc.  And yet there will be part of us that will remember how wonderful was the unity of purpose.  We will wish for those days of community again.  Until the next disaster when like clockwork, we will say, "Isn't it a shame that it takes a disaster to bring out the good in all of us."  So we must struggle with this:  Is disaster a gift from God?

I do not mean to suggest that God desires death, illness, injury, etc.  But I wonder if when material things are destroyed and people's lives hang in the balance, we are forced, at least momentarily, to cease our "love of money, and material things."  Having nothing else, having seen such great loss--we draw toward one another.  We want to give even if we have nothing.  And we feel good about it because finally in the midst of disaster we behave according to our operating manual.  We assume the loving and giving image of our creator.  Perhaps on occasion God ordains our losing everything so that we can find the one thing that matters.

Before the storm came, my six year old daughter reflected, "Even if the storm means we can't do Halloween, I'd rather have the storm--because God turns the world upside down.  He takes what seems the worst and makes it the best!" (a child of two theologians!!)

I have no doubt that God is working this disaster for good for those who love God and are called according to God's purposes.  It is the promise of scripture, it is what always happens in times like this, it is my personal, immediate experience of the world I live in, and it is reasonable--we often emerge on the other side of hardship stronger than before.  In fact, the outpouring of love for one another is not the silver lining - Rather that is the big picture.  It is the storm and its destruction that is small in comparison.  And so part of me is thankful for the storm.  Not thankful that people are hurting and without places to stay.  But thankful that it is bringing people together--thankful that we can begin to talk about the things in life that really matter.

The House on Sand (Reflections from the Eye of the Storm)

We who live in Somers Point and the surrounding mainland area of Southern New Jersey are seeing life return to normal fairly quickly following Hurricane Sandy.  In fact, if it were not for reports from our friends and family that live on the barrier islands, we might think this storm was not as bad as many have made it out to be... 

This has led some to an obvious conclusion--the barrier islands did their job.  They take the brunt of storms and thereby protect the mainland.  Theoretically people would live on the mainland, and the islands would be more or less vacant land masses that protect people from storms.

That said, I am deeply grateful for the economy of the islands.  I find the Ocean City Boardwalk a place I can count on to get away, touch the power of God in the waves, the wind, and the vastness of the ocean and miles of beach.

It is in this context that I hear the words that many have remembered again: "The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” (Matthew 7:27)  Of, course this describes the house of the foolish man who built his house on sand.

Some of us are tempted to cite this teaching as words of warning that rebuilding on the barrier islands of New Jersey is foolish--in fact some go so far as to say that Jesus said that it should not be done.  But I'm afraid we miss the point.

Jesus, though we know he was a carpenter, was not giving construction advice.  He was pointing to people's experiences of the natural world and drawing spiritual conclusions.  He wanted his hearer to imagine two houses side by side--both experienced the rain, the wind, and the waves - one stood and the other fell.  The one that stood had the strong stone foundation while the one that fell was built directly on the sand and was easily washed away.  Jesus' message was not to build in a place where the waves will not crash - the waves will certainly crash - they do not discriminate, they hit houses on the rock as well as houses on the sand. 

We should not think that building on the barrier islands = the sand, or the corollary is that building on the mainland = the rock.

Fit to Serve?

Today, a fellow pastoral leader (of a different denomination) referred to me as "young man."  He certainly didn't mean anything by it, we were leaving a meeting, I suspect he doesn't know my name, and so he said to me, "See you later, young man."  [Why is it that it seems appropriate to respond to someone as a young man, or young woman, but the same is not true with regard to referring to someone as an "old man" or "old woman?"]

Its not the type of thing that offends me--I am relatively young (especially as far as pastors go) and I am a man--so technically speaking he was correct--I am a "young man."  However, it had the ring of the type of thing I heard as a teenager or a college student.  My dad used to refer to me as a "fine young man" up until about the time I got married and became the sole provider for not only myself, but also my family (about a decade ago).

Moreover, I think my gut response that this felt inappropriate was connected to an earlier experience this week.  A local hospital was conducting a community needs assessment in our church, and when I met the woman from the hospital who was organizing the assessment, when she first met me, the first thing she said was, "You are not old enough to be a pastor!"  Ha!  If I'm not old enough today, what she would have thought 10 years ago when I began serving as a student pastoral intern?  Moreover, I am this year the traditional age of Jesus at his death (33).  If I am not old enough for ministry, neither was he!

But this posting is not actually about age--in reality, I am long over being considered by some as too young for a pastor.  More to the point is holding this idea against another.  My Father-in-Law, now near sixty had expressed that he sometimes feels as though there are people who think he is too old to serve.  That at 60+ you just can't be cutting edge enough in the church to meet the needs of these fast changing times.  So apparently there are people who think pastor's should be older than 40, and younger than 60. 

Why is there such a narrow picture of the most appropriate age for ministry?  I think it is tied to an overall assumption that the call to pastoral ministry must be rare.  There are any number of excuses which people can give themselves from entering ministry--I'm too young, I'm too old, I'm not "holy" enough, I have bad history, I'm not smart enough, etc.

This points to a deeper issue that sometimes we speak of God as so holy, righteous, and transcendent--such that the idea that we can serve this God, that we can speak to the nature of our God--that we can share the love of this God seems almost impossible.  But our God is not one who stays far off and distant.  Our God is not one who uses the obvious people to share demonstrate God's love.  God uses a stutterer to talk to Pharaoh, a murdering adulterer to be the greatest king of God's people, a king who was a descendent of a Midian woman who threw herself at Boaz to convince him to have her as his wife so that she and Naomi could live.  The list goes on--murder, prostitution, stealing--nothing is a barrier to being used as God's servant.

I believe that we put barriers on who we expect God will use because too often we don't expect ourselves to be used.  Serving God in certain ways is for uniquely called people--those who few who must somehow meet special unknown requirements--certainly they won't be too old or too young, they have some unique connection to God--something the rest of us do not have.

Let us not be surprised that God uses all kinds of people for all kinds of different reasons.  I am not too young, and my friend from this morning is not too old.  The recovering addict is not too broken, and the workaholic is not too busy--God cam close to us, walked among us, and promised to be with us always.  God is in our midst and can use any and all of us--we know this.. it isn't surprising, so lets stop acting surprised when God uses a variety of people in varied ways.

It's Not Me... It's You...?

Most of us are familiar with the infamous break-up cliche, "It's not you, it's me."  We laugh at it because we assume it to be an obvious misstatement.  It is a phrase used by the person initiating the break up--so we assume that they must have a reason--something against the person with whom they are splitting that has led them to this action.  And so for the person who has decided it is time to break off the relationship to say, "Its not you, its me" fails to capture our imagination as to what led to the ending of the relationship.

However, in pastoral ministry, I have learned that sometimes--broken/hurting relationships are not always about us.  In fact a core Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) training point is that we (people/pastors included) often become defensive because we fail to see that when a person is angry at us, we are not always the reason such anger is being experessed.

Recently a friend with a very sick child posted on his facebook page a picture stating that "Jesus is the Great Physician."  An atheistic/agnostoc "friend" responded that it was childish and silly to think that God heals people.  (see my post on "Truthiness" for how we come to say things online that we might not say in person).  My first thought was that this person had picked the worst possible time to debate "theology," and I almost responded before thinking better of it.

I remembered something.  "Its not me... its you."  The person who made that comment was not talking to his "friend" who had posted the picture or really to anyone else.  He was working out his own issue with faith or lack thereof.  Had such a statment been made to me while one of my children was sick, my initial inclination would be to become angry: "What is wrong with you?"  The funny thing is I typically don't get angry in theological discussions.  If I had experessed such anger, any close friend of mine would wonder why I had responded so forcefully in light of a theological disagreement.  They would have to remember the context that I had a sick child.  Suddenly my response is not about the person to whom I am responding but rather it is about what might be going on in my own life.

For this reason, I encourage everyone to remember that when someone acts or responds to you in a way that feels inappropriate, or even angers you--it may not be about you.  It may be about them...  Jesus said, "You must not oppose those who want to hurt you.  If someone slaps you on your right cheek, you must tirn the left cheek to them as well.  When they wish to haul you to court and take your shirt, let hem have your coat too.  When they force you to go one mile, go with them two."  Why would Jesus teach his disciples to be so passive--to not stick up for themselves?

I believe it is because Jesus realizes that when a person slaps you--its not all about you.  There is something going on in their heart.  If we respond as if their slapping us was about us, we fail to allow the space for them to come to know what it is that is going on in them.  So today, if your coworker lashes out--don't assume it is about you, they might be dealing with problems at home.  How can you love them?  If your spouse suddenly explodes with anger at an apparently small thing--they might have had a bad day.  Sometimes it really isn't about you...