Wednesday, June 28, 2017

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Is It Possible To Give Others Too Much Help?



How much help should we give to needy strangers?

We may face this question many times a day.  Suppose you encounter a panhandler on the street. Are you reinforcing a dependency or meeting an urgent need, if you hand him a $5 or #10 bill?  Are you paying for a hot meal or cheap rum?  People who say there is an easy answer are failing to listen either to their head or their heart.

I have a sweet little dog ---- a Boston Terrier, who weighs-in at about 15 lbs.  She cannot provide her own food.  She must eat the food I give her, or go hungry.  Some days she does not have much appetite for the standard meal I offer her.  So, I am tempted to help her by livening-up the bowl with some salmon or liver pellets which I keep as her "occasional" treat.  The other day it occurred to me that I have lately been doing this almost every day.  Is this enriched dog food now becoming for her the new "normal"?  Do I now need to find some new "super" treat?  In my little world, finding the correct balance for helping seems to require some conscious thought and diligence.

We have a somewhat similar problem when trying to help needy humans.  Some of my friends have told me that homeless folks or "the hungry" are just not taking good care of themselves, so their difficult circumstances are of their own making.  Unlike me feeding my dog because she cannot manage it herself, those friends of mine say, "most of these 'needy' folks are just gaming the system."  But the question I always need to ask myself is where is the truth?  What will be the consequences on the needy person, of my giving, or not giving?

But the questions get more difficult!  What about needy people who appear to be physically or emotionally unable to care for themselves?  And how do we know for sure that their ability for self-help is limited?

How does one select out those for refusal who are "gaming" the system?  It is difficult if one's exposure to that person is a brief encounter ---- such as with a panhandler on a street corner.  To seriously help the needy, one needs to develop at least a brief relationship.  

A good example is the practice at the Elizabethport Presbyterian Center; which regularly offers free hearty food to about 600 people a month.  To qualify, the client applies by answering written questions about family size, regular financial resources and special conditions like special diets.  Then a "participation card" will be issued if the applicant is qualified.  Periodically the Center interviews the client to update that person's application.  Importantly, the food pantry staff and the clients also get to know each other as sort of an unofficial community. The Center has found this process to be very effective in reaching the people who really need help, and thus preventing others from "gaming" the system.

These on-going relationships are important for screening, but also they sometimes lead to new opportunities for needy people, both for strengthening their own self-support efforts, and keeping the clients and their families "in community" so they can help each other.

I love the well-known slogan that "it is better to teach a man to fish, than simply give him a meal."

Our church experience encourages us to practice risk-taking mission and service.  We are encouraged to leave our comfort zone and go to places of mission and service we would never go to on our own.  However, the adventure in going to such places is only the first step. Thereafter, as we discern the right balances in our giving, the question is always how to help people GROW, and then HOW MUCH HELP to give them as they grow? 

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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 summer at CPC.
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Monday, June 19, 2017

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Misunderstandings Between Christians and Muslims



On Saturday, June 17th, our Mission Team hosted, at Central Church, two Presbyterian missionaries who have lived and worked in a war zone for several years.

You have heard much about the on-going fight to recover Mosul, Iraq's second largest city.  One hour's drive north is Dohuk in the Iraqi province of Kurdistan. It is in Dohuk where these missionaries live and work.

While they are not personally under fire, they are focused on some of the evils of long-term war conditions.  They work with displaced persons from Mosul, they help teach children whose schools were destroyed, sometimes they organize medical assistance for people in need, and importantly they show the Christian faith in action.

Our meeting with them was more than just a mission-grant discussion!  While the Mission Team did vote to make a grant to them, the longer-term benefit of this meeting was to explore some ways we can narrow the gap between Islam and Christianity.  This important objective is a goal at Central Church ---- building bridges of understanding between Christians and followers of Islam. This occasion was a nice opportunity to hear first-hand some ideas from Presbyterian folks living in a Muslim culture.

While much of interest was imparted in the verbal discussion, our visitors also offered us some valuable and authentic written materials, as well.  Some of the following is drawn from those materials.

What Muslims Believe:

1.) Muslims understand religion as a whole and integrated way of life.  They see it as the total code of their social and personal values, not limited to just spiritual and God-related beliefs. Secular and Christian-influenced cultures can confuse and even anger Muslims who see things completely through their holistic world view.  For example, they often mistakenly view "Hollywood and sexuality" as part of the Christian faith.

2.) In the practice of Islam, brotherhood and consensus is emphasized, and individualism is avoided.  It is the duty of the "community of the faithful" to enforce the moral and social codes of belief and behavior.  This may explain how a lone Muslim, outside a community support structure, does not feel very guilty when breaking the code.  However, bringing shame on his family or community would be seen as a great sin.

3.) Avoiding shame and protecting honor are the primary motivations of most Muslims. Because shame and honor are community-related, they are to be contrasted with Western emphasis on individualism with its possibly of a strong sense of personal guilt for wrong-doing.

4.) Radical Muslims, often called "Jihadists," use this sense of community honor and shame to recruit and motivate their followers.

5.) Perhaps the greatest conflict  between Western values and Muslim beliefs, is in regard to the role of women.  Some Muslims say that adopting Western values regarding the role and behavior of women would be more feared than the problems they address.  However, many Muslim women say they prefer their family-based life style, as opposed to lonely singleness, sexual exploitation, and the desire for money that makes home and family unimportant.

6.) Muslims are often quite gender-sensitive, interacting man to man, woman to woman.  They try hard to avoid any compromising situation, even just to protect from a possible rumor.  An Arab proverb says, "A man and woman alone together are three with the devil."

7.) Muslims are taught to practice modesty, even among Westernized Muslims. For women, this often takes the form of loose-fitting out-of-home clothing which hides their facial and other female features. For women this is very important because family honor is tied to their behavior and reputation.

What Christians Believe:

1.) Followers of Jesus believe that they are to impact culture for Christ by going into all parts of the world to peacefully bring the message of Jesus to the people who live there.  It wasn't always so, as in earlier centuries Christian Crusades in the Middle East violently attempted to convert or kill Muslims and other non-Christians.  Today, some radical Muslims attempt to use the same method of religious conversion on Christians.

2.) In the West, a division exists between culture and religion.  Religion is separated from government, and some people object to any influence of religion on state institutions and symbols.

3.) Followers of Jesus do influence Western culture and institutions, but less so than Muslims do, because Western culture affirms individualism, and community/family responsibility is less compelling.  Some Muslims say that tolerance of sin and non-Biblical practices continue in Western society to dilute the true Christian message.  Generally, they say, Western culture does not have a widespread sense of the "community of the faithful," compared to the Muslims.

4.) The easy commercialism and acceptance of popular trends in the West play to the fear of Muslims of being dominated and corrupted morally by "Christianity."

This interesting meeting left many of us considering how extensively the culture we happen to live in shapes the practice of our relationship with God.  However, it was reassuring to find we have many ideas and practices in common with our Muslim brothers and sisters.
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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 summer at CPC.
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Tuesday, June 13, 2017

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: How the Reformation Brought Us Closer to the Bible



One history of the Reformation suggests that making the Bible directly accessible to "the people" may be compared in its social and cultural effects to a vast irrigation project which provides water to dry land. "Men's religious natures were provided with life-giving water," it was said.  People could now read their Bibles for themselves and find directly such truths as the sovereignty of God, salvation by faith, and the proper conduct of the Christian life.

Since the Bible was seen as centrally important in all forms of Protestantism, it was not by chance that the Reformation was accompanied by great activity in the translation of the Bible into the various languages of Europe, so that it might be directly accessible to common folk.  Previously, the Bible had been faithfully translated into Latin, but only the well-educated and church people could read Latin.  The interest in language translation was further enabled by the development of modern printing.  Gutenberg built his first printing press in 1450.

Martin Luther was a leader in articulating what would become Protestant thought during the time of the Reformation.  By 1510, Luther had been ordained a priest, but he was deeply troubled by feeling personally alienated from God.  He sought relief through the rigors becoming a monk and joining a monastery.

For Luther, the question was "How is an unrighteous person (a fallen sinner) made righteous in the sight of God ---- especially if he or she wants to be admitted to Heaven upon death?"  Luther tried every means in the Roman Catholic system, seeking to put himself "right" with God.  He did not believe he had been successful.

But as he did further Bible study he began to see that being put "right" with God was not to be earned by human effort.  Instead it is a gift from God which sinful mankind alone cannot earn or deserve.  This free grace, Luther concluded, can be achieved only by mankind's inner trust or faith in God.  But mankind must be truly open to receiving this free grace.

Faith, for Luther, was simply an inward act of saying "yes" to God.  It meant turning with trust and loyalty to God as the center and source of one's life ---- dealing directly with God.  This was a new way to look at religion, rendering useless and trivial much of the elaborate medieval Roman Catholic system, where one's priest was one's only route to justification with God.  In 1519, Luther debated publicly with Roman Catholic leaders.  Luther argued that the Scriptures of the Bible are an authority above the Church.  The following year he was excommunicated.

The natural state of mankind, said Martin Luther, is alienation from God ---- proud self-worship.  By man's own acts he would be powerless to save himself.  Luther placed little confidence in the capacity of reason to turn mankind to God.  Because mankind is "fallen," Luther believed, man's reasoning is itself depraved and sinful, and thus leads man away from God.  Faith, not reason, was for Luther the way mankind approaches God.  By "faith," Luther meant neither the use of intellect, nor so called mystical experiences, but simply by being open to God's grace and love.

 For Luther the good news of this reconciliation between mankind and God is revealed to us through the Bible.   Luther believed in directly teaching from the Bible as the final authority in all matters of religion ---- not just following the lessons of tradition, the Church and the Pope.  Luther said that one had only to read the God-inspired pages of the Bible, with an honest and seeking mind, guided by one's inner promptings from the Holy Spirit.

The riches of faith to be had in the Bible, in Luther's view, made philosophical speculation unnecessary.  More importantly, having direct accessibility to the Bible leads straight to the doctrine of the "priesthood of all believers," as Luther put it.  Thus, God's truth through Christ is not the exclusive prerogative of a priest or the Pope.  Rather, each person may and must guide their own life by Scripture and right reason, interpreted according to their best judgment.  Finding this truth, or rather being found by it, the Christian is a "free" man, Luther believed.  But a part of the exercise of free will consists in bearing witness to others.  As Luther saw it, "the priesthood of believers" meant not only that every man or woman was their own priest, but also that they were a priest to every other man or woman.

Following Martin Luther's teaching  about the supremacy of the Bible, Scripture reading is always part of our worship services at Central Presbyterian Church.  While our Senior Pastor may illuminate the Scripture reading for that day, in the last analysis, as Luther said, it is up to each of us to find within ourselves the intended message of the Scripture passage.  This is the direct word of God ---- no intermediaries required!
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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 summer at CPC.
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Thursday, June 8, 2017

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: What Is A Miracle, Really?



I was at lunch the other day with three friends.  The food was good, but the conversation began to wane, until one friend (call him "A") told us about an experience he had recently.  Apparently, one morning he could not find his car keys.  Friend "A" said he was desperate all day and into the evening.  Then an idea popped into his head.  Sure enough, when he looked in the pocket of his Sunday suit, there were the keys.  "It was a miracle!" he told us with enthusiasm.

However, friend "B" was doubtful.  "Was it really a miracle, or just plain luck?"

Well, that raised some questions around the table, especially "What constitutes a miracle?"  So, friend "B" googled "miracle" and told us  that "a miracle is an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs."  That produced some skepticism around the table ---- would God really get involved with lost car keys, even through the Holy Spirit?

This caused friend "C" to tell us about his 10-year-old daughter who had suffered from advanced leukemia, and some doctors had told them that she had only a short time to live.  But, during her second week in the hospital she began showing signs of recovery, and after five weeks she was discharged home to resume a healthy life again.  Friend "C" was sure this was a miracle and that God had intervened.

Several of us said that we believed very strongly that God is a loving parent who controls what happens to us.  On the basis of that belief we acknowledged that we sometimes may interpret facts to fit "C's" assumption ---- primarily as a defense of God.  That transforms what might be an unexplained chance event into a blessedly good result caused directly by God.

"But, perhaps God does not cause all our miracles," offered friend "B".  "Maybe they happen for some reason other than the will of God.  Can you accept the idea that some things happen for no reason, that there is randomness in the universe.  When the practices of medical science and pharmacology cause a desperately ill child to recover, was it God's will?  Or, was it chance that skilled human hands were available to save her?  Suppose that child had been in a remote place which lacked the drugs and skills needed to save her.  Would it have been God's will that she would die, or was the good outcome possibly just because of geographical good luck?"

It was time for friend "A" to offer his thoughts:  "If, indeed, the cure of this child was due to God's handiwork, does that mean that God also intervenes and decides when a small child with leukemia will die of the disease?  If so, would this be some kind of punishment by our loving God for something wrong done by this 10-year-old child?"

I would have found it easier to believe in miracles made by God if there were some clear connection between the good or bad human deed and God.  A parent who gives a gift or a punishment to a child, but never tells the child why he is being rewarded or punished, is hardly a model of responsible parenthood.

This "round table discussion" went on to ask more questions.  Is there always a reason, or do things just happen at random, with no cause?  Was there any particular reason for that child to be afflicted rather than others?  Perhaps "miracle" cures do not reflect God's choices?  Perhaps things really do happen at random?

Or, it may be that God finished His work of creation eons ago, and left the rest to us. Residual chaos, chance and mischance, things happening for no reason, would continue to be with us.  If that is what is happening to us, we will simply have to learn to live with it, sustained and comforted by the knowledge that the earthquake and the auto accident, like the murder and the robbery are not the will of God.  They represent that aspect of reality which stands independent of His will, and which angers and saddens God even as it angers and saddens us.
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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 summer at CPC.
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