Prayer in times of darkness

O Lord Jesus, when all is darkness and we feel our weakness and helplessness, give us the sense of Your presence, Your love, and Your strength. Help us to have perfect trust in Your protecting love and strengthening power, so that nothing may frighten or worry us, for, living close to You, we shall see Your hand, Your purpose, Your will through all things. By Saint Ignatius of Loyola

Politics of Sin

The glamour and the bright lights and the politics of sin,The ghetto that you build for me is the one you end up in,The race of the engine that overrules your heart,Ooh, I can't stand it, I can't stand it,Pretending that you're so smart.-Dead man, Dead man-Bob Dylan: http://www.bobdylan.com/#/songs/dead-man-dead-man

Bob Dylan once said that, "politics is the instrument of the devil." Sometimes I tend to agree. I have a love/hate relationship to politics. You might say, "Being a pastor-preacher is like being a politician." Well, if you are Mike Huckabee, John Hagee and Pat Robertson then you are right-on. However, a Pastor's role according to Historic Lutheranism and most Catholic and Protestant churches is to preach the Word(gospel),adminster the sacraments, provide pastoral care but also like Hebrew prophets speak out for justice and defend the poor and voiceless. This is where it gets political and dangerous especially if you are in a middle or upper class congregation. There is an old saying "Comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable" that is what pastors are called to do and if you are a Christian and follow Jesus expect the same if not worse.

Ok I'm chasing rabbits and kind of getting off subject here. Politics! Yeah right like Republican, Democrat, and Independent. Who does God favor? Anybody with any common sense knows that God does not have a political affiliation. Wait a minute I remember as a child there was this group called the Moral Majority which later became the Christian Coalition that proclaimed Christians were Republicans and the Democrats were not. They not only brought us Ronald Reagan but the two George Bushes. There are now Christian Libertarians and can you believe there is a Religious Left. You can blame them for Obama. Ok we can blame you for Bush.

To be honest this political infighting is tiring me out. I'd rather preach the gospel and just retreat on issues of race, poverty and such. The main message of Christ is that he is the Way, Truth and the life but it seems like many don't really believe that and we can't even talk like brothers and sisters in the faith because we disagree in politics.

44Then they also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?' 45Then he will answer them, saying, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these,(AC) you did not do it to me.
Matthew 25:44-45

The Gospel of Hate

I turned on Am radio and heard Rush Limbaugh say that Obama is an angry black man but the only anger I hear is from white guys on my radio and tv. What's with this? I turned on the religious AM station and John Hagee, pastor of Cornerstone says that we need to get back to the God of the Old Testament where there are no second chances only one chance and zap you are burnt up with his huge congregation loudly applauding with handclaps and amens.

I see more Fred Phelps "God hate fags" stickers than God loves stickers. This is the gospel of hate.

Question: Why Ecumenical? What's that?

I know I should just put the word "Christian" but sadly when people see that they wonder if I'm one of those type Christians and there are all those stereotypes of the religious Right and hypocrites. You put "Ecumenical Christian" then you are labeled a liberal and that is a dirty word in our society even though we have a liberal president. This is not about politics though. Ecumenical according to Websters means 2 a: of, relating to, or representing the whole of a body of churches b: promoting or tending toward worldwide Christian unity or cooperation.
Christians are not supposed to be sectarian but sadly many are. If you don't believe exactly like their group does then you are going to hell. This is why yes I'm Lutheran but I'm an ecumenical Christian meaning I have brothers and sisters of all types.
I also will not make a judgment on those of other faiths or no faiths that is God's business. God has some pretty big shoes to fill and I'm not going to attempt to fill them even though many have tried to.

I can't sleep blog and sermon.

It's late Saturday night and I can't sleep. I'm a lite sleeper. I hear every nook and cranny in this townhome and the wailing cat doesn't help. I don't want to wake Shelia so I go downstairs after swallowing an aspirin and get on this computer. Maybe I'll get tired and go back upstairs.

Oh yeah, the sermon for this week was John 6 about Jesus feeding the five thousand and miracles.

That old song by Jefferson Starship is going over and over in my head. "If only you believe in miracles like i believe, I'll get by or something like that. I could use a miracle right now. it's called sleep. well here's snippet of my sermon:

The gospel of John is often called a book of signs. You see a lot of Jesus’ miracles there. The first sign was the wedding at Cana where Jesus turned water into wine. There’s also healings and there is this unbelievable feeding of the five thousand. This is the only miracle story recorded in all four of the gospels sometimes it occurs two times as in the gospel of Mark so you know the early Christians thought this was important.

A large crowd was following Jesus. What were they looking for? More signs, more healings. They were hungry for physical food but they needed more. They needed a miracle. In today’s world you have two extremes those who scoff at any idea of a miracle. Everything must be proven by scientific inquiry. There is no room for mystery...there is no room for wonder...There is no room for creativity or imagination.. There is no room for a God. Everything must be labeled and studied like it was in a science lab. There is the other extreme that looks to God as a slot machine, a genie. One who will give you what you want and grant your every wish and desire. They follow a god of health, wealth and positive thinking not the one who suffered and gave us his life. There is no take up your cross and follow me in their thinking only the pursuit of personal happiness and self-fulfillment.

Miracles do happen. Many times we take the smallest miracles for granted. CS Lewis says miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story, which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see. Do you believe in miracles? Do you think the birth of a child, a person coming to faith, when a baptism is performed, when we are gathered around a a holy meal or when we are gathered around other believers in prayer, song, or word that a miracle is happening. When you look at creation and realize that God is here. Isn’t that a miracle too?

People were following Jesus because they knew he did miracles and they were hungry. This miracle happened at the Sea of Galilee or the Roman name sea of Tiberius. What is most interesting is this was in the time of Passover. God-fearing Jews went to the temple during Passover. This sounds like a Passover-Exodus story but there is no Moses. The Passover was a festival of national liberation from Egypt. There are feasts originally associated with the sacrifice of a sheep or a goat in the community and unleavened bread to be eaten usually from a barley harvest. Barley was the food of the poor and was needed for substenance. The slaying of the Passover lamb recalled God’s action in protecting the firstborn of the Israelites and the eating of manna recalled God’s nourishment of Israel in the wilderness regarded as bread from heaven. Here is Jesus, the Passover lamb the bread of heaven crossing the sea and on the mountain like Moses when he gave the law. The people did not go to the temple during Passover they came to God’s temple-Jesus-the one prophesied as the prophet who would come that was greater than Moses-fulfillment of all the promises of God-The messiah-God in the flesh.

This is similar to the story of Elisha who fed a hundred people with twenty barley loaves and there was leftovers. Here Jesus fed five thousand with five barley loafs and a couple of dried fish and there was left overs. When I mean left overs- I don’t mean Aunt Sally’s little container of left over cole slaw but an abundance. More leftovers than a Lutheran potluck or any church potluck.

In this story Jesus asks an obscure disciple a question. He asks Phillip who is not known to be a real close disciple like Matthew, Mark, John, or Peter. It says Jesus tested him with a question. Don’t confuse this with tempting but Jesus questions, challenges Phillip. See all these people coming? Where are we going to buy bread to feed them? God challenges us today in the Word as well. Are you listening? Phillip sees the crowd and responds like any rational person would. We don’t have enough money. We can’t pay for that. Sound familiar? Sometimes we just give up and say it can’t be done but with God all things are possible. Maybe we can’t do it but we can tell other people with the help of the Holy Spirit the love of Christ by sharing and finding solutions to their hunger and needs.

Simon Peter’s brother Andrew says, “Well, there’s this boy with only five barley leaves and two fish and just maybe we can give to some.” I can imagine all the others say that’s not enough- oh yeah right. However, Jesus told them to sit down. This was almost like the first Eucharist-holy communion. Jesus fed them. He gave them himself as he feeds us and gives us himself. Jesus took the loaf, gave thanks, then gave it all. They all ate, they were satisfied. There was more of enough. There were left overs-an abundance.

In our society abundance usually means a sign of inheritance or hard work or good luck but here it is a sign of God’s free gift-the miracle of God’s presence- Jesus is more than enough.

If you read on you realize not only does the disciples not get it but the crowd tried to make Jesus into a political celebrity king but he would have none of that. No TV show named after him. Well not yet. The disciples saw him walk on water and were afraid. They don’t get it and they don’t know what to do.

The scripture shows us the way we really are. The word of God is like a sword that cuts and reveals our inner thoughts and feelings. We are exposed, We are just like the disciples and the crowd. We don’t get it and we don’t know what to do with ourselves and what we have. Give it to God. You might not think its much like five barley loaves and two fish but Jesus will bless it and use whatever you have. God is calling you to bless others by what you have. This is the miracle.

Listen to the words of this prayer that spoke to me:

Jesus, all the people came to you

Hungry for your words of life

You took the little they had

Blessed their gifts

Multiplied them and fed the crowd.

They had more than their fill much and many were left over.

O Christ

Please take our small offerings

Bless them, multiply them, make them holy

Use us and the gifts you have give us to care for this needy world.

Amen

I'm a bleeding heart Lib-Lutheran-Christian

What does your heart bleed?

Blogs

The blogs to the right are better bloggers. Some are Artists, Writers, Pastors, Poets, and Musicians. I like blogs that make me think, ask questions, and also ones that remind me that I am dust among dust and we all share this human condition. We all depend on God for life and meaning.

Christianese-Lutheranese- Being fully human

I was raised in a Christian subculture. There was Christian music, books, stores, directories, etc and we had our own lingo. We were in our own little group like the punks, the jocks, the hippies, the geeks-nerds, and the list goes on. Only we knew what the words mean. Those on the outside just looked confused and said, "Well, they are just Jesus freaks' or "religious'. They did not have a clue what words like "Born Again", "Salvation", "Baptism', or even what Jesus was really about. They just knew that they were not like us and could never be because we were too perfect, judgmental, and had our lives so perfect and clean or they knew what big fakes and hypocrites we really were. What if we admit that we were human like them and life was messy and uncertain?

I love talking about grace! It's a favorite Christian and Lutheran term but does my neighbor really knows what that means? Grace means God's unconditional love. Have you shown it to somebody today?

Contemporary Worship service?

Lutherans believe as long as the Word is preached(the gospel of Christ is proclaimed) and the sacraments are administered then it doesn't really matter if your service is Traditional or Contemporary. In other words, Organ and choir or a full Rockin band. However, make sure the music does not center on bad theology of Bless me music vs focus on the gospel(God's love in Christ for us-cross and redemption stuff. This is kind of hard with a lot of Contemporary worship or CCM stuff. I'm not the kind to throw the baby out with the bathwater though. It's called Adiaphora(things indifferent). Luther and the early Evangelicals(they were coined that first) saw nothing wrong with Altar crosses, vestments, crucifixes, (The Mass-the Eucharist-Holy Communion-Lord's Supper) and reciting the creeds, etc. He just wanted to reform the church so its focus would be on Christ and the gospel of good news(Unconditional grace for all). If something did not distract or take away from the gospel then it was okay. So this Pastor will be rockin' Saturday night at 5:30 pm at our "Come as you are ' Worship service. Our Sunday Traditional service at 10 am is come as you are as well. Some of the old timers just don't know it yet. Just don't expect a bad variety show with big hair, bad makeup and asking for donations.

Dechurched

A lot of people in their 20's, 3o's and yes even my age in their 40's do not go to church. I don't blame them. Churches have been tied to bureaucracy, hypocrisy, legalism, and pettiness on non-essential matters. My non-church going believers think God has left the building and they have a point and my Atheists friends doubt God's existence over an institution run by God's followers which is in such disarray.

You might be thinking, "Hey! You are a pastor." "You are not supposed to say things like that."

Luthers theses on the difference of being a theologian of glory and a theologian of the cross is that a theologian of glory calls evil good and good evil but a theolgian of the cross calls what a thing is.

I'm calling what it is. The institution of the church, the community of believers have problems. However, if you are looking for the perfect church or group then you are not going to find one and if you think you and Jesus is enough then you are just fooling yourself. You need community. you need people who will pray and worship with you. Yes we are all sinners, we don't always get things right but neither do you. God is calling us together in Christ.

White Priviledged America wear their feelings on their sleeves while Black America has been struggling through blood, sweat, and tears for equality

...and they are still fighting to prove themselves even after the election of the first Black President

Racism is sin. I believe it is "America's original sin." Reverse Racism? You got to be kidding me? Poor disfranchised white people. We really have it soooo bad. I wish someone would walk in our priviledged shoes-we have never been slaves, beaten, lynched, denied the right to vote(I'm talking males here), considered an animal and the list goes on.(I'm talking about as a race of people not individually)
Yes our current President is an over-achiever and trying to do too much. Some might make the racist comment that hes's being uppity. Hmmm. Maybe he's trying to prove himself to a priviledged race that doubts that anyone who is of another race can lead us.

The election of the first Black President has exposed us for who we really are. We don't like the racism of our past exposed and this event has not only exposed the racism of our past but the anger, hate and racism of the present.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not idolizing Obama. He is far from perfect and I do not agree with him on every issue. However, he shows us the strength and power of a race of people who have been hated and despised similar to the Jews. He has the chutzpah to stand up to the priviledged!

I know racism. I was born in Louisiana. I've seen it and how it separates, categories, labels and divides a group of people who were loved before the foundation of the world by a Savior who came to save us from our sins and bring us all together as one.

Why did I become a Lutheran?

First, a little background. I was raised Southern Baptist. Believe it or not I have some great memories and then not too many good memories(church splits, fundamentalism, End times obsession, God and Country morphed into one, legalism, Judgmentalism, etc etc.
There are some good Christians who are Baptist. My Dad who was a saint. He loved God, knew his Bible and cared for people and some of my good friends are still Baptists. My Mom is a great example who raised me in a good Christian home. She was actually raised in the Church of God(Anderson, Indiana) and now attends the United Methodist Church.
I was Charismatic for a while. The Charismatic movement was big in the 80's and it hit all churches. The worship was lively and similar to the soul of going to an African American church except the theology in some circles got as kooky as Scientology. You follow a Messiah who gives you health, wealth, and emotional goosebumps instead of following a suffering Savior who died for your sins and rose to give you a new life. There was too much emphasis on the gift of tongues instead of the gospel and every pastor was a celebrity and healer instead of the Great Physician who came to give us life and more abundantly. However, There was great music, passion and I'm sure that God's presence was felt but many in the movement follow a theology of glory chasing after holy laughter, Tv evangelist clowns, and manipultive pastors who build their churches on control and fear.
I was a five-point calvinist once. I had all my theological ducks in a row. I had God in a box and I tried to fit everyone else in it. This box is for the elect who believe God chooses them and this other box is for those who don't believe like us so they are the non-elect. God is in control for sure but according to my theology. I still believe in predestination because its biblical but I also believe that Christ died for everyone in the world and is willing that no one perishes because it is biblical. My TULIP died and I was no longer Calvinist. Predestination is a mystery. All I know is that God loves me, sent his Son to die for the whole world which includes me and rose again to give our lives more meaning.
Why Lutheran? I was told. Why Christian? Some ask me. Yeah I'm tired of labels and all the divisions in Christianity but if I would just join a non-denominational group then it would be just another denomination for me(a further split) and I like the concept of house church and just being called follower of Jesus but wouldn't that be just another split from a split? Do we need more groups and movements?
Because I'm a history lover and love Church history in particular I thought what about the Roman Catholics? If you really are a history major then its there but theres the bit about indulgences for sale, infallible pope, inquisitions, celibate priests and even though I highly respect Mary I just can't pray to her. I know Catholics don't really worship Mary. They ask her and the saints to intercede for them. Protestants de-value the saints too much but there is only one mediator between us and God and its Jesus.
The Eastern Greek Orthodox Church broke away then what about them? They do have history on their side but I see a little more law than grace. Yes it's the grace thing. The gospel of Christ that really saves you. God's unconditional love regardless shown in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.
Luther never claimed to be infallible. He was a mess. He was mad at God as a priest. He feared God because all he saw was a God pointing at him in judgment. He receieved the gospel of good news when he read in the Book of Romans that righteouness was a gift from God and not something he had to work for. God's gift freely given and Luther did not have do a thing.
Luther was still a mess. He knew that he was accepted by God but Luther did not always practice what he preached. Man, he was angry at the othe Reformers who did not believe exactly the way he believed on Communion and baptism and then he got angry with the Jews because they did not convert. What happened to Grace? God still loved him so and he had it right about many things when he stayed focused on the gospel.

We are all a mess but God still loves us wherever we are or who we call ourselves. I became a Lutheran because of the emphasis on grace and for historical reasons that as far as I can go but that does not mean that I don't worship with other Christians and I will not turn anyone away whatever you call yourself because what would Jesus do?

Why Lutheran in the middle?

This is my third or fourth attempt at a blog.
Why call this blog-Lutheran in the middle? Well, Lutherans are somewhat of an oddity in the United States especially in the South where I was born. Are you Catholic? One of those high church Episcopalians? Are you a cross between a Methodist and Presbyterian? Then there's the reaction from my Baptist or Evangelical brothers and sisters-Are you saved? Born Again? and the Pentecostals and Charismatics asking me if I speak in tongues or believe in the Holy Spirit. Finally, there's the non-believers and atheists that wonder if I'm part of the Religious Right or one of those people that knock on doors with religious material either the Mormons or Jehovah Witnesses. What are we? Well we are Christians and we have a lot in common with Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, congregationals, and yes even the Baptists, non-denominationals,Pentecostals and Charismatics. More so with the former than the latter but it is Jesus who is the one who unites us as one.
A Lutheran in the middle. In the middle of the Evangelical sub-culture and the politics of Right and Left. In the middle of the theologies of glory which tries to keep our eyes off of the gospel of Christ(theology of the Cross) and on self.
I'm just a follower of Christ who thinks Luther got it right when he pointed to the scripture and says that it points to Christ. Lutherans don't always get it right but when we stay focus on the gospel then God makes it right.