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My heart beats for love. I want to be different. I want to be who I am called to be. WORTHY and LOVED!

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Why Mission Trips Fail

The American Church has a very particular approach to mission work. We go to places, sometimes national, sometimes internationally, and hardly ever locally, and try to fix other people's problems. We really want to fix other people's problems, but the subtext is that we are going in to transform other people - that we have what they need and therefore, they need us. But this is not a sustainable model for missions. It leads us to have a superiority complex and to keep traveling and giving money to go above and beyond the high we got helping others last time. Such a model also holds limited relationships - we may remember the people we were with, those who we went to serve, but where does that leave them after we leave? Can the relationship continue authentically? When we come and go so quickly, and give one large sum of money or build a few necessary things, we miss the point that the system is still broken.
What would it look like if we rethought missions? If we went to learn instead of to teach? If we went to hear stories so we could share them? If we maybe didn't even go, but trusted that with our financial background and covenant relationships we could encourage those we want to serve to do what we were going to do for themselves, so they can have pride in what was accomplished? What if we started to think locally, instead of going somewhere exotic in order to get a high? What if?
And if we do go places, how can we make what we do sustainable? How can we make sure that the local people are proud of themselves and find their own abilities? How can we partner with instead of simply giving to?

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Not Family Friendly

Marty is my chinchilla. He is more or less my baby boy. I have other pets as well, but Marty demands the most attention. Chinchillas cannot be left alone for too many days in a row because they need to be let out of their cage to be able to exercise in a larger area in order to be able to digest food properly. When I'm going out of town for more than 2-3 days, I pack up Marty is his little carrier and we head off to my parents house so they can watch him.
I try to call every night in order to check in on how he is doing when he is away, and sometimes even to talk with him while he plays. But last night my parents had to call me because Marty got a little too excited and started to ejaculate. He's never done this before so I immediately start searching the web to see if this is normal or if I should be concerned. (It ends up that he is just entering into adolescence). During all of this searching one person commented on the chinchilla forum in the feed that I was reading about chinchilla ejaculation commented that the topic was "not very family friendly" which really got me thinking... does everything have to be family friendly? Is it even possible to have all topics be family friendly? And what does this phrase even mean?
The two immediate thoughts that come to mind are that it involves not swearing (which the feed didn't) and not talking about sex. While we may be able to control our language, I don't know if it is possible, or even good, to not talk about sex. Especially in this case. The animals we care for have very basic needs, including sex. It is built into their nature in order to be able to survive as a species. Yet, we as humans should not talk about it. We seem to be fine about discussing, or at least arguing about, sexuality, but when it comes to talking about sex it is taboo.
One of my favorite teachers in high school was my health teacher (who was also my gym teacher for three summers). He was a lovely man and he found great joy in talking about sex. On our first day of health class he wrote in large letters across the black board "Sex is good". But he went on to say that it is only this way if you are informed and in love. I believe that we live in a culture that knows little about sex and possibly even less about love, because of the silence the taboo has caused. I'm not sure if we are afraid of talking openly about the intimate, or if we are afraid that open and honest discussion will spur people to desire sex (especially youth), but I feel that our silence makes the thought more tempting then open conversations. And it also makes it less safe. In our attempts to censor ourselves under the banner of being family friendly, we are doing a dis-service to the young people in our care.
If we continue to try to use the abstract nature of being "family friendly" to censor ourselves, I fear for the future of our youth, who will only know about sex from the images they see on tv and in the movies. They will not know about different types of contraception or how to protect themselves from STIs. And as for me, as a celibate young woman with a chinchilla, I would not know how to care for Marty as he transitions into chinchilla adolescence. Perhaps we need to rethink what it means to be family friendly and what the costs could be.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Reflection on NOOMA Dust and Matt 28: 16-20

Friends, we have shared in this devotional video together today because its creator and author can say some of the most important tenets of the Christian faith around discipleship better then I could ever say. While this video did not directly address today’s scripture passage

What I have gleaned from Rob Bell’s message about discipleship is as follows:

First, believing in Jesus does not make you a disciple of Christ. Let me say that again, believing in Jesus does not make you a disciple of Christ. They are two different things. We could believe in the power and message of Christ without feeling the need to go and live out the great commission commanded in today’s passage of scripture. But I believe that when we do not desire with our beings to follow Jesus, to know what Jesus knows and to be like Jesus, and we don’t strive to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world by baptizing and teaching others what Jesus has taught us, that we are not being the church.

There are lots of reasons that we would rather know Jesus ourselves instead of being disciples – discipleship is hard. Its messy. But above all, I think that we do not go and spread this message of hope, love, and peace, because we do not think that we are good enough. We don’t have a seminary education. We haven’t studied the Bible enough. But brothers and sisters Jesus called the not good enough’s, those who others had rejected and gave them the same authority that he had been given. He invested time in them and they changed the world. We do not need to know everything about Jesus or have our methods for sharing Christ perfected. We are simply called to go, and share our love for Jesus.

Are we willing to be disciples, risking ourselves for a message that is bigger then us? Are we willing to venture into the messy places in life, to share the good news that someone once dared to show us? Are we so in love with Jesus that our feet are covered with the mud of the same places that he traveled? And are we willing to truly believe that this is what Jesus has called us to, no matter what? The harvest is plentiful my friends, are we willing to believe in ourselves as Jesus believes is us, and go? Amen.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

The Church is Born - Acts 2: 1-21

One of the first songs that I remember singing in children’s choir went something like this, “I am the church, you are the church, we are the church together. All who follow Jesus all around the world, yes, we’re the church together. The church is not a building. The church is not a steeple. The church is not a resting place, the church is the people.” For a child, this was pretty succinct. I understood what the church was not – the building we gathered in, a mark on the landscape, or a place to sleep. And I understood what the church was – the people.

But as we grow up, the simple answers of what the church is and what it is not, seem to raise more questions then anything else. Chiefly, what people? Only those who look like me? Talk like me? Have my same education level? Those people that I am comfortable around? Only the people that believe what I believe religiously and politically? Those who have the same type of family that I do or make a similar income?

Further, we seem to stop believing in the simple things that the song states that the church is not. We really have come to like our church buildings and steeples. Our bells and banners. And some of us really find church to be a resting place – a place to sit with our family or gather and talk with our friends. A place to rest our eyes or a safe place of respite from the concerns and responsibilities of the rest of the week.

So we are left struggling with not one but two big questions. The first, what is the church and the second, why does the church even matter? Perhaps today’s scripture passage can give us some insight to help answer these two questions.

What is the church? We are told that on the day of Pentecost, the day that church was created, all of the people were together in one place. While we aren’t expressly told what this place is, we can assume it is a house, a common gathering for people throughout Jesus’ ministry and following. Houses in Ancient Israel were not like our houses today with many rooms. They were essentially one room that became expanded as the male family members married and brought their spouses into the dwelling place. While the room expanded, the number of rooms did not necessarily. So we have a group of people, all together, in this one room. Perhaps it was crowded and sticky; maybe they were discussing the teachings of Jesus. Whatever they were doing, they were together. In one sanctuary. There is something about physical togetherness that makes the church what it is. There is something about being in this room with the people around us on Sundays that defines us. Scientists have done research on the atomic level that suggests that when one atom comes into contact with another atom, no matter for how short a time, it is permanent changed. If down to our atomic level this is true, then surely it is true on our physical level. We know when someone is sitting next to us. Sometimes we can even feel what they are feeling – as our breath begins to match theirs in pace or we feel someone’s radiating joy or tension. Our spirit needs to be connected to other human beings in a meaningful way, and when we are in such authentic relationship, even when we are not talking directly to each other, but worshiping together, we are changed. This is why it is vital that each of us is present every Sunday – because we matter to each other in a profound way. This is also why we all gather into one room, not one building, so that we can hear each other affirm the same things we believe, we can see each other worship God in different ways and with different spirits, we can sense God moving amongst this body of believers. And we can embrace each other, as we are the hands and feet of Christ.

The Holy Spirit also marks the church. The Holy Spirit is the often discounted member of the Trinity – this relationship that is internal to God’s very being. It is hard to picture the Holy Spirit, even though there are numerous different images for the Spirit – the most common being a dove. But in this passage the Holy Spirit is described as a violent wind and tongues of fire. But maybe our very difficultly in defining the Holy Spirit, even symbolically, is to the church’s benefit. The Holy Spirit grants different people different gifts, we are told in the 12th chapter of Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth. I also believe that there are different manifestations of the Spirit in different churches – this is why we have so many different denominations. So people can find the place to worship that best touches their spirit in a way that moves them to be Christ’s embodiment in the world. But in order for people to be moved in this way, they Spirit must be present. We must individually invite the Spirit to be present in our hearts each and every day. We must corporately ask the Spirit to move in a mighty way when we gather together, and above all we must trust that the Spirit moves when we ask.

Third, the church is diverse. We are told in our passage that there were Jews from every nation gathered in Jerusalem, and that each was bale to hear the message being spoken in their own language. Revelations 7:9 describes the Kingdom of Heaven as a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the Lamb. Brothers and sisters, the church is the image of the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. The church is filled with people speaking different languages, and people understanding those languages. With peoples of different nationalities, sexualities, races, and gender. And this diversity is celebrated! It is not about making people fit into our way of doing things or those who look and sound like us. It is about letting each person celebrate God and everyone knowing that they are rejoicing in the same Holy and Risen Christ! While some would argue that this is really what the global church looks like on Sunday, I would challenge us to make this be Albright-Bethune, on the local level, on Sundays.

In the second half of today’s scripture lesson, Peter and the eleven disciples stand amongst these people who mock them because they do not understand what is happening, those who are saying that their diverse gifts are marks of intoxication instead of worship and started to preach. He tells the people that God will pour out the Holy Spirit upon the people of God, and that those children will prophesy, see visions, and dream dreams. And why do these things happen? So that people will see God, call upon the name of the Lord, and be saved. So why does the church exist? Because the life and teachings of Jesus Christ matter. We believe that it not only matters to us as individuals, but to the world. We believe that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection changed history and give us hope both in this life present and in the life to come, eternally. Do you really believe that? Or do we gather together just to fill ourselves without a purpose? We are filled by the Spirit as the church, so that we can preach good news to the captives and free the poor. We are filled so that we can serve the world in a way that was modeled by Christ – marked with compassion and grace. We are filled so we can make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Do you believe that? If not, why do we even gather together for such a short time on Sunday mornings?

We are the body of Christ, brothers and sisters! We are the church! Let’s celebrate that! We need not be ashamed of our message or our presence. Over the next couple of months, starting in July, we are going to be talking about the church and discipleship. As we prepare to start this series, I would challenge each of you to write down the three things you think church is. You don’t have to put your name on this, but I would encourage you to place it under my office door. Before we can start to have a conversation about passionate and meaningful discipleship we need to dig deeper into what we believe the church to be. Then on the other side of the same paper that you write your three things, I want you to complete the following sentence. If Albright-Bethune didn’t exist tomorrow it would matter because… What makes us a church? Who are we touching in the community? What are we offering the Kingdom of God? And how are we marked by the Holy Spirit?

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

The Ascension - Acts 1:1-11

One of my close friends from undergrad is a wiz at languages. Her skills have landed her several different internships in China and Germany, among other countries. She is currently working in Germany, and in one of her emails to me this week she explained that she had a long holiday because of the celebration of a holiday – The Feast of Ascension, which commemorates the forty-day after Easter – the day that Christ ascended into Heaven. My friend’s holiday caused me to start to ponder why the ascension was so important as to prompt such a celebration. Perhaps we can struggle with that question together today.

The Book of Acts is composed by the same author as the Gospel of Luke, starting another letter to Theophilus, lover of God. The general premise is that the gospel told chiefly of the works of Christ and his life, while the book of Acts speaks about the formation of the church, the body of Christ. But notice what the author starts this account of the church by telling – the ascension of Jesus.

We have been speaking on and off through this Eastertide season about the disciples paralysis. Their seemingly inability to get it together. Now that they have Jesus back, physically, in their lives they once again seemed to be paralyzed, not necessarily by fear but by adoration without action. The author states that for forty days after Christ’s resurrection he spoke to the disciples about God’s Kingdom and gave them detailed instructions to stay in Jerusalem until God tells them otherwise.

But as Jesus is teaching about the divine kingdom of God, the disciples keep asking about present, earthly matters. Specifically about leadership as they posed to Jesus the question of kingship over Israel. They are still searching for a king. The messiah is standing in front of them, and telling them about a kingdom far greater then what they could ever imagine, yet they are concerned with only what they can see, only about what they have been told about over the years. They want a new David.

I love Jesus’ response to their questions. “You don’t need to know the time of those events that only the Father controls.” God is going to send someone far greater into their lives to be ruler, the Holy Spirit. God is going to give them detailed instructions about when to leave Jerusalem, and presumably what the next step is. But maybe those instructions weren’t enough for the disciples because they wanted someone in front of them to tell them what to do. Someone to command them. For years Jesus had been their teacher and leader. As he continued to speak about leaving them, you can only imagine how they were feeing – the emotions they were experiencing and the images of the rugged cross searing into their minds. They didn’t want instructions that would put the onsis of leadership onto them – they wanted someone to tell them what to do and guide them through their every move. But this was not the plan.

After Jesus gave them their final teachings concerning the Holy Spirit and their mission as his disciples he was taken up into a cloud. Even though the disciples could not see him after he was taken up they kept looking up into the sky. Like a child watching a balloon disappear into the vastness of the blue above them, the disciples kept looking up, hands over their eyes, hoping to catch one more glimpse of Jesus. Hoping that he would come back like last time. But instead they got two angels coming down and telling them to get their head out of the clouds and to get their legs moving – for they had a mission directly from the Lord. Jesus had been taken into heaven, Now is their time to tell everyone, yes everyone, in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria about the good news of Jesus Christ. The message wasn’t always going to be easy to tell, and not everyone would necessarily receive it. They would be called to go to places outside of their comfort zones, but it was now time for them to go out and raise up new disciples of Jesus Christ for the sake of the kingdom of God.

I can just imagine the disciples thinking that this new task was hard, It was not what they signed up for all those years ago when Jesus called out to them. They were tapped to be followers, not leaders. Yet everyone who follows Christ is also called to be a leader. Let me say that again – everyone who follows Christ is also called to be a leader. Being the body of Christ is about this tension between following Christ and leading others to Christ through your gifts and graces, through the story you have to tell. For no one can tell your story like you can, because you lived it. The disciples had to tell others about Christ because all of these years they had these wonderful experiences with Christ and soul-changing teachings. And now that their spirit had been nurtured they were sent out.

I’m sure the disciples didn’t think that they were ready. For sometimes it’s easier to look up in the sky for a sign or in hopes of Jesus returning then to listen to the voice that is calling us to go. To make disciples. A tasks that doesn’t come with a set of instructions or a leader who we can physically see. I fear that these reasons lead to many Christians deciding that it is easier to be a follower then a leader. To be a person in the pews instead of a person of action for the Lord. We want someone to hold our hand and lead us through evangelism instead of taking our message to the streets. Because we are paralyzed by fear. We are afraid that people won’t understand us. We are afraid that we will have to go to places that we ought not go. Believe me, the disciples knew our fears all too well – so they tried to keep their vision gazed upward instead of outward. We don’t trust ourselves or believe that we are spiritually fit enough to be leaders, and neither did they. But if the disciples would not have gotten it together and into gear, we would not be here today – we would not be the church. What would we lose out on if we give into our fears? What will not exist in the future because we don’t want the hardships the come with being leaders today?

There is a song that states, “God who began a good work in you, will be faithful to complete it.” Do we really believe this? Do we really believe that the Ascension was important because it was bringing to completion the life of Jesus here on this earth while propelling forward the creation of the church? Do we really believe that we celebrate this event today because God is still moving the church forward? For God has started the work in us to be leaders for the kingdom of God. Are we willing to let God complete our formation, even if this happens as we are a people of action. We do not learn passively, we learn by doing. We learn how to be by telling people about who we are and what we believe. You have been called by a God who has started something amazing, powerful, and beautiful in you. Are you willing to risk yourself for completion for the sake of the kingdom of God? Amen.