Tuesday, September 30, 2014

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: If God Is All-Powerful and Loving, Why Is There So Much Evil Around Us?

Webster's defines "evil" as "something that brings unwarranted sorrow, distress or calamity."  If God were indeed all-powerful and all-good, why would he tolerate a world filled with evil forces? How do we explain it?

We all have seen or read stories about present day examples of evil.  Even the Bible gives us many concrete examples of evil.  Sadly, though, evil does seem to keep up with the times, continually updating itself with the latest technology.

For example, last December news reports quoted the Target retail store chain as acknowledging that approximately 40 million credit and debit card accounts of its customers had been "hacked." Target is the No. 3 U.S. retailer.  Affected were Target customers who had made purchases in U.S. "brick and mortar" Target stores over a 3-week period.  The "hackers" apparently had stolen customer names, credit card numbers, card expiration dates and the three-digit security codes on the back of the credit cards.  Furthermore, it appeared that PIN numbers on customer debit cards were also taken, possibly allowing the "hacker" to freely invade and empty the related bank accounts. Furthermore, lazy "hackers" know they can sell "hacked" card account information for $10 or more per account, which would be such easy profit for them.  This is theft on a very large scale ---- so often the case with modern electronic evil.

Many believe that God wants people to be free to choose the path of their own lives.  They call this human condition "free will."  But to be free to make "good" choices, one automatically is free to choose evil actions.  If God wanted true "children," rather than robots, there would always be the risk that we might abuse the gift of free will.  Hackers who steal by breaking into the computer-system code of others, are just a modern symptom of the abuse of free will ---- evil behavior.

A great deal of the suffering in this world really should not be blamed on God.  It results from mean, cruel, inhuman choices that people make.  For example, people-initiated acts of greed, social prejudice, racism or oppression, often lead to the evils of poverty and social marginalization, resulting in misery and premature deaths that could have been avoided.  Even with natural disasters like landslides and floods, much of the suffering that results could be alleviated if people helped out more in the aftermath.

However, this does not explain why God does not block the harm to others caused by our bad choices.  We do not let a child run out in front of a speeding car to let him exercise his free will. Indeed, we would try to block major harm to that endangered child!!  Why doesn't God do that?  Is the need for free will a good enough reason for all the evil that comes with it?  Human free will has something to do with why there is suffering and evil, but does it completely explain it?

Though we may not discern a reason  why God does not always intervene to block evil, it is hard to believe that God does not have a reason.  Could it be that God is offering us the human space to exercise our free will in a positive, loving and intentional way, to blunt the evil impact of some other folks in the negative exercise of their free will?  We always have a choice to make, and God gives us the opportunity to make a positive choice, to take affirmative action ourselves against evil. Perhaps, if enough of us make the latter choice, will we begin to reduce the many forms of evil that God leaves for us to handle.

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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal spiritual growth this fall at CPC.
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Tuesday, September 23, 2014

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Two Styles of Sin Management

My neighbor Ben is a very average golfer, like me, but we try to get together at least once each summer in friendly competition.   Somehow the golfing date this summer got away from us, until last week when we played 18 holes together.

After some small talk, Ben sighed and remarked that Rosh Hashanah would begin at sundown on Wednesday, September 24.  "It is the Jewish New Year's, and my family always celebrates it in the full Jewish tradition," Ben told me.

I was curious about this event.  Being a Christian, I really did not understand much about it, so I asked Ben to tell me more.

"The Jewish New Year differs in some fundamental ways from the secular New Year," my neighbor said.  "The observance, for example, is far more muted.  This is because the Jewish New Year is largely a period of introspection that begins with Rosh Hashanah and extends for ten days until Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.  This ten-day period is meant to be a time of stock-taking, of self-reflection."

"It is customary during this time, for example, to seek out in person those whom we may have offended in the preceding year and ask forgiveness.  So, this period of ten days is a time principally to reflect on how we are conducting our lives and specifically, how we may have messed up.  Given the scope of that task, sometimes I think ten days is not nearly enough time!" he said.

I had to say that as a Christian I regularly search for the same things in my life, and then I ask God to forgive me.

"The ten days beginning on Rosh Hashanah concludes on Yom Kippur, October 3," my friend said again.  "If there is any day of the year when even the most non-observant, non-believing Jew goes to Temple, this is it.  Anyone my age remembers with pride when in 1965 Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers refused to pitch in Game One of the World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur."

I asked Ben, "Why do virtually all Jews in the world go to Temple on Yom Kippur?  What happens there on that day that is so compelling?"

"Well," Ben said, "in the broadest sense, what Jews do in Temple on Yom Kippur is stand as a community and publicly confess their sins.  The Jewish concept of sin differs in some important ways from that of other religions.  Judaism teaches that humans are born with free will, and morally neutral, with both an inclination toward goodness, leading to a productive life, and being concerned for others ---- but, also an inclination toward evil, baser instincts and selfishness.  The moral laws in the Torah ---- starting with the Ten Commandments, but including hundreds of other commandments, are meant to help steer one's behavior toward the good.  To Jews, sinning is like an arrow missing the target.  Sinning, in short, is missing the mark."

My friend continued, "The ways in which individuals can miss the mark during the course of a year are many, and in the Yom Kippur service we stand all together and recite them out loud.  The list we recite ---- and we do it multiple times ---- runs through the alphabet with each letter corresponding to a different sin.  This does not mean we have committed only 24 sins (the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet) but that we have committed the whole range of sins (from A to Z), the full gamut of possible human failings.  For every mark that could have been missed someone among us surely has missed it; and sometime in our lives, we have missed it.     So we stand together and say aloud, "We have been arrogant, we have betrayed, we have stolen, we've corrupted our own character, we have corrupted others' characters, we've been deceitful, we've ridiculed good people, we've made misleading statements.'  And every seven or eight sins or so, we stop and ask God for forgiveness (presumably we've already asked forgiveness from the people we've actually hurt).  We say, 'For all these sins, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement.'  And then we continue with the list of sins."

Ben added that this full day at Temple is done while observing a complete 24-hour fast!

My friend was silent for a few moments.  Then he said, "I like the Yom Kippur ritual because it presupposes that human beings are fallible, that we all miss the mark sometimes, and that with effort, we can control some of our baser urges and maybe do better next year.  I find reciting the litany of possible failures is a good way to take stock ---- as I say the list out loud together with the congregation, I often think to myself, 'Yup, did that one.  Yeah, did that one, too.  Oh, there's one I'm not guilty of ---- at least not this year.'  For me, there are always more 'guiltys' than 'non-guiltys,' but it is interesting year to year to see how my failings either remain consistent or shift with circumstances," he said.

We had just completed the 18th hole and I wished I had more time to talk to Ben about the management of sin.  As a Christian, I did not believe that I was born morally neutral ---- it seemed that I was born biased toward sinning, so I was grateful that someone named Jesus had made a very great sacrifice to redeem me.  But, both Ben and I are in possession of free will.  The problem is that often we don't use our free will effectively to live as God directs us.

As I drove home, I began comparing these two very different styles of sin management.  As Ben described the Jewish approach, there is intensity and depth, with sins specifically named and acknowledged.  But, formally done only once a year.  However, I did assume that Jews are always free to make a "sin self-examination" informally at any time.

In my experience as a Presbyterian, I recall that every Sunday in Worship we formally acknowledge in general terms that we are sinners, without publicly being specific about the whole range of possible sins.  But, we do this every week.  Perhaps we only give our sinfulness a glancing blow, but we do it frequently.

I began to wonder if there might be some real value in each approach.  Do we need a little more intensity and depth, as well as a little more frequency, in seriously addressing our personal sinfulness?  Perhaps it depends on each of us knowing what self-effacing discipline will best help us individually to manage the personal use of our free-will for God's purposes.
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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal spiritual growth this fall at CPC.
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Wednesday, September 17, 2014

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: What Does God Want Me To Do With My Life?

Some Christians emphasize the question "Am I saved?"  Presbyterians emphasize the question "What am I saved for?"  We believe that in Christ, God has saved us, and therefore that perhaps our lives should be lived in grateful response.  But, specifically, what does that mean?  Baptism is a sign that we belong to God, and that we are called for service ---- but where do we go from there?

Prior to the Reformation, vocation or calling was thought to be only for those who worked for the church as priests, monks or nuns.  An important belief of the reformers John Calvin and Martin Luther was that God calls every person.  Vocation (service to glorify God) was not just for pastors and those who work for the church.

John Calvin had high expectations that baptized Christians would actively seek the welfare of others in the community of Geneva, Switzerland where he lived, through education, health care and governance.  For example, he dispatched Elders to inspect fireplaces for safety.  Imagine if pastors today asked for reports from Elders at each Session meeting on their activities for the community's welfare!  But Presbyterians actually are involved in many such activities ---- the PTA, city council, literacy campaigns, clean air task forces, etc. ---- so there would be much to report.

Ministers and other ordained leaders of the church are charged with equipping and encouraging all the baptized to respond to their vocational calls.  They also are talent scouts, always on the lookout for gifts in others that can be nurtured and put to use.  A retiree is connected with Sunday school teaching.  A beautician is encouraged to offer her skills to a women's shelter.  A gifted young musician performs for nursing home residents.

While other church members may influence the call that one perceives, discernment of call often begins within ourselves, with a stirring, a yearning to follow an inner voice.  So, we might start with the questions, "What gifts has God given me?  What is God calling me to do with them?"

At any age, assessing our own gifts is tricky.  We are not always the best judges of our talents. Sometimes we are drawn to a particular path in ignorance of other paths, or out of personal egotistical aspirations, rather than in response to God's call.  There is the old story about the man who saw "PC" in a cloud formation and thought surely he was called to "Preach Christ."  After listening to many of his sermons, some church folks suggested that he was called to "Plant Corn."

We need help sorting out our inner stirrings to find God's call.  Presbyterians understand that discernment of call is not something we do alone, but within the community of God's people.  The best decisions come out of group appreciations of one's gifts.  We may believe that we have leadership skills, for example.  But, do others see that?  If so, perhaps we are on the right path.

The great "call" stories of the Bible demonstrate that a true call from God is often resisted rather than welcomed.  Our Scriptural role models usually did not volunteer.  They did not want to be called, and they did not think they had the required qualities.  Out minding the sheep, Moses was drafted.  He gave many excuses, but God did not accept them.  Some of the most effective Biblical leaders tell stories of being drafted for service, and trying to tell God that they were not the right candidates.  But they did respond to God's call, and we remember them today.

In today's world, where individuals have many options for the use of their time, with many voices speaking and many career choices offered, the Christian understanding of a "calling" as self-sacrificing service to God and neighbor, is not popular.  Perhaps we ourselves are often like the Bible leaders God called, who initially were sure they were just not the right candidates, because it would mean giving up something they were already doing comfortably.

But, discerning one's vocation for God is not just a quest for self-fulfillment, though many do experience deep satisfaction in their vocation.  A response to God's call often does require self-sacrifice and discomfort.  Living out our "vocation" may involve going places where we don't want to go.  It involves "giving back," and it may be costly, in the sense that deep down we would really rather do something else.

Perhaps the question is more like this:  "What am I supposed to do with what God has given me?" This includes how we earn our paycheck and how we spend it.  It includes how we spend our time outside of work.  It includes looking for ways to help others, and acting on them ---- not just for the sick and the infirm, but with the youth in our families and neighborhoods who are seeking direction in their own lives.

No one retires from God's call.  Retirement is just a gift that allows us to serve in new ways.

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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal spiritual growth this fall at CPC.
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Wednesday, September 10, 2014

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Unanswered Prayers

Many people agonize over the issue of unanswered prayers.  I know that for some people, past unanswered prayers form a barrier that blocks any desire to keep company with God.  What kind of companion, who has the power to save a life or heal a disease, would sit on the sidelines despite urgent pleas for help?  In a sense, every war, every epidemic or drought, every premature death, each birth defect, seems to contradict the teasing sense that prayer could resolve it.

I had reason to really think about this a while back when a neighborhood family was in crisis. Their 14-year-old daughter had been diagnosed with a brain tumor.  We all prayed for the child's recovery, or at least for some kind of remission.  It was not to be.  In two short months the child was gone.  Her mother, Marilyn, was particularly swept up in grief, and I attempted to help her work through it.  She wanted to understand why her fervent prayers apparently had gone unanswered.

I told Marilyn that even after confessing in our prayers things we have done wrong and feel guilty about, and asking God's forgiveness, our prayer does not work according to a fixed formula.  It is not ---- get your life in order, say the right words, and the desired result will come.  If that were true, Jesus would never have gone to Golgotha and the Cross.  Between the two questions "Does God answer prayers?" and "Will God grant my specific prayer for this sick child or this particular injustice?" lies a great deal of mystery. 

I told Marilyn that God is not a jolly grandfather who satisfies our every desire.  Certainly for the parents who have lost a child their wish would have been for the child to live.  They would have pleaded with God, but seemingly, he denied their request.

Nor is God, I told Marilyn, a calculating merchant who withholds his goods until we produce enough good works or faith to buy his help.  God does not hand out merit pay.

Then I suggested to Marilyn that Pastor David Mains had a handy checklist for making sure our prayers are on target:

     1.) What do I really want?  Am I being specific, or am I just rambling about nothing in 
                                                  particular?
     2.) Can God grant this request?  Or, is it against God's nature to do so?  (Like a prayer that I 
                                                             will win the Lottery.)
     3.) Have I done my part?  Or, am I praying to lose weight when I haven't dieted?
     4.) How is my relationship with God?  Are we on speaking terms?
     5.) Who will get the credit if my request is granted?  Do I really have God's interests in 
                                               mind?
     6.) Do I  really want my prayer answered?  What would happen if I actually did get that 
                                                                               girlfriend back?
But, I said, this is a human's rationale for successful prayer, and God may have his own ideas!

I pointed out to Marilyn that some prayers go unanswered because they are simply frivolous.  But that clearly her prayers had not been of this type.  I was talking about a prayer like:  "Lord, please give us a sunny day for the soccer match."  This trivializes prayer, especially when local farmers may at the same time be praying for rain.  A last-ditch plea, "Help me get an "A" on the next test," will likely not succeed if the pray-er has not studied, just as a chain-smoker has no right to pray, "Protect me from lung cancer."

I went on to say that athletes often have their own style of frivolous prayers.  Prayers in many sports will thump their chests, raise a finger to the sky and eyes toward heaven, as if asking the Big One upstairs for a touchdown, goal or home run.  Marilyn agreed that my examples of frivolous unanswered prayers were actually self-serving and not in accord with God;s nature. They put the focus on our things, not on the things of God.

We talked about some prayers really being impossible to answer, although prayers for Marilyn's daughter did not seem to fit here.  If a dozen people pray to get the same job, eleven must ultimately come to terms with unanswered prayer.  And if two "Christian" nations wage war against each other, some citizens' prayers will not be answered to their satisfaction.

What would happen if God answered EVERY prayer?  If you think about it, God would in effect be abdicating, turning the world over to US to run.  History shows how we have handled the limited power already granted to us ---- we have fought wars, committed genocide, foiled the air and water, destroyed forests, established unjust political systems, concentrated pockets of superfluous wealth and grinding poverty.  What if God gave us automatic access to supernatural power by granting all our prayers?  What further havoc might we wreak?

But often there is no logical explanation of unanswered prayer.  Author Philip Yancey who has given much thought and writing to the nature of prayer, says we must place our faith in a God who has yet to fulfill the promise that good will overcome evil, that God's purposes will, in the end, prevail.  To cling to that belief, he says, may represent the ultimate rationalization ---- or the ultimate act of faith.
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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal spiritual growth this Fall at CPC.
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Wednesday, September 3, 2014

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Would You Forgive Someone, Even When They Should Be Held Accountable For What They Have Done?



Many years ago, while I was working for a firm in New York City, I had an awkward situation with a friend of mine.  We worked in different departments, but often got together for lunch.  We were good friends, I thought.  His name was John, and he and I had graduated from the same college in the same class.

Maybe it was at the water cooler that I overheard mention of a “hot” project already underway, a project that might bring great changes to our firm.  It required reorganizing the firm to be more off-shore based, to save on taxes.  Of course, I was interested ---- I had done graduate work in international transactions and taxation.  I was immediately excited, and began to look for a way to attach myself to this project.
                   
Wow!  I learned right away that John was already the project manager, and Senior Management expected his final report within a week, after six months of preparation.  I was speechless!  John had never mentioned to me this six-months-plus project.  I was indignant!  Clearly, I was better qualified than he, and being in a different department would not have disqualified me ---- the firm used the best qualified people.  But John apparently had never put my name forward, and now he was in for a large dose of glory ---- including a presentation to the Board of Directors, and a possible promotion.

John had really hurt my feelings.  Was I discovering that, in fact, he was not really my friend?  Was he simply out for himself?

After a few days of angry thoughts about John, I tried to become a little more objective, and realized that at one extreme I could try to make John accountable for the hurt and betrayal he had caused me.  On the other hand, I could forgive John, and we could continue to be friends.  Here are some of the thoughts that buzzed through my head from this dilemma.

Personal accountability lessons have occurred periodically throughout my life, and those lessons have taught me a lot about being responsible for things I have done, or omitted doing.  It has also taught me that people who do hurtful things to me are responsible for their actions.

On a larger scale, society needs accountability for much of what individuals do to each other.  So,we cast those rules as “laws,” enforced by policemen and the law courts.  The penalty for breaking these formal “accountability” rules (laws) is usually to pay a fine, or to be incarcerated for a period of time.

We also have unwritten, but learned, cultural rules related to personal hurt.  These are enforced by individuals informally ---- by guilt, blame, hurt, broken relationships, broken hearts.  Of course, life is not only about brokenness, guilt and disappointments.  It is full of wonderful challenges and deep and abiding connections with our loved ones.  And one of the mysteries that can be the source of great hope is the way in which broken hearts can be mended, estranged relationships can be healed, enemies can become friends and the grievous ways in which we sometimes treat each other are not always turned back on us in cycles of vengeance.   Instead, the response is a love that refuses to return evil for evil.

Forgiveness, of course, is not an easy practice to master.  Sometimes hurts seem too great, betrayals too treacherous, to be forgiven.  Sometimes forgiveness can be mistaken for weakness and vulnerability, even by those who would forgive.
So, how do we forgive?  What does it mean to reconcile with our “enemy”?  Can we learn to forgive those who have hurt us so deeply that the pain does not seem to go away?  How do we forgive when our inner balance sheet, perhaps keeping accounts since childhood, tells us that life has not been fair?

We understand, on the one hand, that God’s grace forgives us and frees us to love one another, to risk confessing our sins and making amends where this is possible and appropriate.  But we also realize that, for victims of sin, it is primarily God’s grace that heals and frees wounded persons from injuries that would sink their souls.

Forgiveness is about being able to accept our human situation, with all the ambiguity and messiness itentails.  It’s about accepting the fact that inevitably people do disappoint one another.  Because we are limited in time, in talent and in ability to truly understand everything about one another, we often miss the mark.

We forget birthdays or an old friend’s name.  We get so caught up in a project that we overlook the misery or happiness on another’s face.  We have to make choices about how to spend our time and resources, which means choosing what not to do, as well as what to do.  Forgiveness means accepting others ---- and ourselves ---- as human and not divine.  Forgiveness means resisting a defensive response when we are hurt or, paradoxically, when we hurt others ---- a response that would mean cutting another off, or cutting ourselves off, from community with others so that we would not be further hurt, or be able to inflict hurt again.  Forgiveness means risking the pain of living, and holding to a hope that disappointments and hurt do not have to be the final word.

Forgiveness is a process ---- a journey.  As much as we might like forgiveness to be a “forgive and forget” moment, lives do not work that way.  Old hurts have a way of resurfacing so we are led to examine a new facet of a wound we had hoped had healed.  Forgiveness is a commitment to face life with a posture that risks rather than protects, while struggling with the fact that there are times when protection is the wise choice.

Forgiveness is not passivity.  It is an active response to brokenness.  While refusing to return evil for evil, forgiveness can also be an act of resistance, refusing to let evil continue.  Martin Luther King, Jr.’s tactic of nonviolent resistance is an example of forgiveness that refuses to let evil continue.  By resisting segregation, civil rights workers were saying no to racism, but by being nonviolent they were inviting the enemy to join the community.  Forgiveness loves the sinner while saying clearly that the sin is unacceptable.

Later that week, John and I did have lunch together.  I told John I hoped his Board presentation would go well.

These thoughts are brought to you by CPC’s Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you in some personal spiritual growth this Fall at CPC.
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