Thursday, August 31, 2017

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Why Do We Bother With Baptism?



From time to time we baptize a person at one of our Central Church Sunday worship services. Usually, the "person" is an infant, often too young even to be speaking.  For the occasion, the whole family turns out, and folks come from out of town to witness and support this event called "Baptism".

At CPC's last Baptism, I realized that although I was familiar with the Baptism ritual, the purpose was not so clear to me.  Later, I did a little research in the "purpose" question.  Here's what I learned --------

For Presbyterians, Baptism is chronologically and logically the first of the Sacraments, and is a prerequisite for the other Sacrament (The Lord's Supper or Communion).  The act of baptizing always includes causing  water to flow upon the body of the baptized person while the person who administers it states that it is being done in obedience to divine command and in the name of each of the persons of the Trinity.

Basically, the stains of Original Sin are being washed away.  The person receiving the ritual, usually an infant is thus symbolically "cleansed" of sin, permitting the person to be united with the Body of Christ ---- that worldwide fellowship of Jesus' followers.  Baptism in Scripture always has the prerequisite of repentance and faith, which are impossible for an infant.  Infants cannot outwardly express faith.  But, in effect, the Baptism ritual makes the baptized person fit to receive the further aids to God's grace, later in his or her life.

If Baptism is a sign that a person is a member of God's covenant community, and if the children of believers are members of that community, it follows that the children of believers should receive some sign that they are members of God's covenant community by being baptized, as though an infant is entitled to a passport that indicates the child is a member of a particular country.

The service of Baptism is usually also a Christening, where the child receives for the first time his or her Christian name, identifying the child as a unique individual in the society of the church and in the world.

Baptism and Communion (the only two Sacraments practiced by Presbyterians) are connected practices, not independent acts.  Baptism begins a lifelong journey of discipleship, and Communion sustains us on that journey.  The role and purpose of the two Sacraments are grounded in a belief that the Sacraments connect us to Christ through the presence of the Holy Spirit.  We respond to the free gift of God's love and forgiveness, and promise to "die" to the ways of sin and evil, because we now depend on Jesus.  With the Spirit's blessing, in the Baptism waters we seek to develop a new identity for the child as a follower of Jesus Christ.

Family are gathered around the Baptism font, and the congregation is sitting in the pews ---- but everybody makes promises that they will help the new baby learn about Jesus.  However, Baptism is but the beginning of a lifelong process of formation in the faith.  God loved this baby even before the baby was Baptized.  Baptism proclaims that God reaches out to us with a joyous free gift of love and mercy before we can do anything to merit God's favor.  The ritual of Baptism is a time to recognize that love and show it out loud.

In Baptism we are brought together as a community, a family defined by water Baptism and not by blood relationship.  By participating in the Baptism we profess that our faith in Jesus Christ transcends political and personal differences.
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These words are brought to you by the CPC Adult Spiritual Education Team, hoping to encourage your spiritual growth in the coming months.
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Wednesday, August 23, 2017

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Finding A Balance Between Just "Being Busy" And Thinking Deeply About What You Are Doing ---- Or Not Doing



Many of us, myself included, seem compulsively busy "doing things," all day long.  Sometimes we never take the time to think deeply about our lives, our relationships with others and our possible future.

Therefore, I really struggled with the story Jesus tells of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38 - 42).  It is all about Jesus praising someone for sitting still, a woman named Mary, who sat quietly in the divine, spiritual presence of Jesus.  Meanwhile, her sister Martha was running around the house, getting food on the table for all the Disciples.  The pressure was on ---- this was Jesus they were entertaining!  Martha scrambled and made it happen, because, well, somebody has to!

In order for some people to sit around being still and having deep thoughts, I am sure there is always another group of people running around behind the scenes making it all possible, making sure the space is ready, the food is cooking, the music is prepared, and the atmosphere is just right for the other folks to have this deep spiritual connection in the moment.

Take our church, for example.  We sit in our pews, having time to pray, to listen to Scripture being read, and to connect with the divine in our beautiful, holy Sanctuary.   But in the Fellowship Room, or in the auditorium, we have a crew of people setting up coffee.  Downstairs and upstairs there are folks watching and instructing our children so that the parents can have some moments of silence and peace.  So, right in the middle of our worshiping, spiritual community, it takes a lot of busy people behind the scenes to create a space for other folks to sit still.

When did sitting still get equated with spiritual depth?  Perhaps back in your earliest memories of sitting in an uncomfortable church pew, getting bribed with Life Savers and gum, while your mother said over and over again with urgency, "Just sit still !"

The truth is, many great religious heroes were people of action, engaged in the world, doers of the Word and not just hearers.  At CPC, many of our members are regular participants in activities like hands-on-mission projects and other continuing, outside-the-church programs which aid and support others.

So, on behalf of all the under-appreciated, "hyperactive" people of the world, let's put away for good that old simplistic interpretation of the Mary and Martha story that goes like this:  Martha was more interested in doing housework than listening to Jesus.

Of course Martha was interested in what Jesus was saying.  After all, she had invited him to her house.  This was a big deal for her !  Is it fair to say that Martha undoubtedly was following Jesus' conversation, keeping track of it, as she went around doing this thing and that.  Martha was not shallow ---- she was a multi-tasker.  And Martha may have found Mary more than a little annoying, sitting there at Jesus' feet, listening as if the world depended on her concentration on every little thing he was saying.

Rev. Lillian Daniel says in her book "When Spiritual But Not Religious Is Not Enough" :  Every spiritual tradition has some tension between action and meditation.  Some tension exists between doing God's will and listening for God's will.  There is some tension between daily action here in our physical world, and the interior life of the spirit.  Some tension between acting and being."

What I sometimes forget in the Mary and Martha story ---- what I get distracted by, just like Martha did, is my own impatience and defensiveness.  When I hear that story, I immediately want to defend being engaged in the world.  And when I do that,  I imply that these two states are polar opposites with no relationship to each other, when actually, that is just not true.

"Acting" and "being" are not opposites, but partners.  Mary and Martha are not two different people, one getting it right and one getting it wrong.  Mary and Martha are two halves of the human spirit, two parts that compliment each other.

Mary and Martha aren't fighting "out there."  They are fighting in here, inside each one of us.

When I ask someone how they are, I often get the answer, "Busy, I am busy."  But couldn't we have lives that are rich and full, but also occasionally still and strong?  Still and strong.  It's an option.

Mary, in her stillness, wasn't being passive.  She was being strong.  By sitting at the feet of Jesus, she was actually standing up to the men in the room (including the Disciples) who thought that as a woman she had no place there.  In seeming to do nothing, she was actually doing something really important.  In sitting still to listen to Jesus, she was actually saying, "I matter, I count, I am somebody."  She was still but she was strong.

If Mary and Martha live inside each of us, who wins the wrestling match?  Only you know the answer for yourself to that question.  Nobody can answer it for you.  In order to even ask the question, we need to slow down and be still, like we can in church or wherever we can be like Mary and get quiet in a holy place.  But, remember, the holy places wouldn't be there if we didn't actively engage, like Martha, and do the hard work.  Do we have to choose?  Can't we embrace both?  Rich and full.  Still and strong.
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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Education Team, hoping to encourage some personal spiritual growth this year at CPC.
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Wednesday, August 16, 2017

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: When God Seems To Not Answer Our Prayers, Do We Stop Praying?



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, Kate, 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 Kate 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, then 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 for this particular injustice?" lies a great deal of mystery.

I said to Kate 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 the request was denied.

Nor is God, I told Kate, 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 Kate 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 good is my relationship with God?  Are we on speaking terms?
          5.) Do I really want my prayer answered?  What would happen if I actually did get that 
                     girlfriend back?

Remember, I said to Kate, this is a human's rationale for successful prayer, and God may have His own ideas.

I pointed out to Kate 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."

Kate 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 Kate'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 their unanswered prayer.  And if two "Christian" nations wage war against each other, citizen prayers on the losing side would not be answered to the satisfaction of the person praying.

What would happen if God answered EVERY prayer?  If you think about it, in effect God would be abdicating.  He would be turning over to us all the world's problems to solve.  History shows how we have handled the limited power already granted to us.  We have fought wars, committed genocide, fouled the air, 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 of our prayers?  What further havoc might we wreak?

But often there is no logical explanation of unanswered prayer.  Author Philip Yancey has given much thought and writing to the nature of prayer.  He says we must place our faith in a God who has yet to fulfill the promise that good will overcome evil, and 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.

Yancey also says that often we may be looking in the wrong places for answers to prayer. Yancey suggests that perhaps the real purpose of prayer is to change us ---- how we see our lives, how we relate to others and how we see our future.  And, importantly, that this occurs gradually and without much drama.

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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Education Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal spiritual growth this summer at CPC.
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Wednesday, August 9, 2017

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Can We Bring Others Some HOPE?



Some of us may be profoundly discouraged about the world we think we know.  So many of our news media sources are relentlessly filled with stories of natural disaster, grinding poverty, war and death.  It is hard not to be drawn into this negativity.  Bad news is news!  Good news doesn't sell TV and newspapers as well.  Therefore, it may be hard for us to realize that in many ways the world is becoming a better place.

Nicholas Kristof, a columnist for the New York Times, reports that fewer children worldwide are starving or dying of disease now than at any time in recorded history, and that more children are in school.  Kristof continues ---- "In impoverished Haiti, health care shows basic improvements.  More than four out of five Haitian children get some childhood immunizations.  De-worming is now widespread.  In the old days, these kids would be dead."

In 1970, columnist Kristof tells us, almost 25% of Haitian children died before their fifth birthday.  At last count, however, the figure was just 7%.  Compare today with 15 years ago.  Now, each hour one less child dies.

"As families grow more confident that their children will survive," says Kristof, "they also have fewer of them.  In 2005, the average woman in Haiti could be expected to have five children.  Now the figure is about three births per woman."

As we think about these positive trends and examples of progress in the world, several things may come to mind.  First, it took joint efforts by the U.N., many governments and numerous not-for-profit organizations, engaging large numbers of people, to make these positive "macro" changes happen.

Secondly, they did not happen overnight.  Indeed some worthy attempts at concerted positive change were failures, and many succeeded only because they were long-term efforts.  Indeed, sometimes it took years before substantial progress was seen.  The issues were not just about funding.  Often, the changes required in people and their cultures met strong resistance.  This resistance had to be overcome, and that often took time and skill.  But, in the last analysis, it would seem that the "change lubricant" most often successful was people-to-people relationships ---- not distant bureaucracy.  It was people teaching each other, encouraging each other, and working side by side.

Well, is there a lesson for you and me in this?  I don't know about you, but I cannot take off a year to go work on a health project in Haiti.  But, if I stay home, are there any other ways I can bring some HOPE to forgotten people?

You know what I am going to say to you ---- that there are some ways.  But, that YOU must find them, in efforts specifically meaningful to yourself.  All I can do is offer some suggestions on how to make your "helping" time HOPE-inspiring in others.

Perhaps the most important lesson I have learned in attempting to bring some HOPE to others, especially to strangers in need, is that satisfying this goal is not a "one-shot" proposition.

Several years ago, when I became a weekly volunteer at Runnells Hospital in neighboring Berkeley Heights, several of us visited mainly on the first floor.  The Hospital termed these patients "sub-acute," because usually they were there for physical therapy after knee or hip replacements.  So, after about 4 or 5 weeks these patients would be discharged home and we would not see them again.  We would have had some nice conversations, hopefully relieving some of the tedium of a hospital stay, but at 20 or so minutes per chat each week, we were not really doing much to instill HOPE.  We would have needed time to build a relationship in order for deeper conversations.

At some point, we discovered that a number of patients on the first floor, for whatever reason, occupied rooms that would be theirs for the rest of their lives!  Some had outlived their families; others had working families or children who lived some distance from Runnells, so their visits to visit the family member at Runnells were infrequent and hectic.  We made a point of spending more time with these "long-term" patients.

Gradually, some beautiful things began to happen.  Not only did the patients begin to tell us how much they looked forward to our visits, but we discovered that under that thin guise of old age and infirmity, they were interesting people, proud to share their feelings, frustrations and hopes for the future. 

These long-term relationships began developing several years ago, and they have grown richer for all of us, as each year passes.  Some of our Runnells friends have died in the meanwhile, but it gives us a warm feeling to recall many happy times with them, and the satisfaction of perhaps having brought some HOPE to their final days.  Often, it brought HOPE to our lives as well.

The "seeding" of HOPE does not require one to be a Runnells volunteer!  But it does require intentional long-term effort ---- and not just one-shot conversations or one-shot charitable projects.  Interestingly it had also required long-term effort to bring such wonderful HOPE to Haiti, as described earlier in this story.

The long-term "seeding" of HOPE in others is usually an intentional act on our part.  Sometimes we may feel a little negativity about the first visit ---- "don't we have other things to do instead of this," we wonder?  If one passes this test, however, it gets easier and easier to feel the personal satisfaction of "seeding" HOPE in others.

Hopefully, you will bring some HOPE to others as we all try to make the world an even better place ---- one person at a time.

It's your move!
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These thoughts are brought to you by the Adult Spiritual Development Team at CPC, hoping to encourage your personal growth this summer.
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Tuesday, August 1, 2017

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: How Would You Grade Your Spiritual Life?



Some of us may be disappointed with ourselves, like my brother Matt.  Not so much with particular things he has done, as with aspects of the person he has become.  Matt lives in Colorado, and we met and talked at a family wedding recently.

I did not know much about Matt's private life, but after a few wedding toasts he was willing to talk freely about his pain in not becoming the person he had always thought he would become.

I told Matt boldly that we are called to become the person God had in mind when he originally designed us.  Matt listened politely.  I asked Matt if perhaps he had removed God from the central role God longs to play in our lives.  I told Matt, "Perhaps you have refused to let God be God, and have appointed yourself in His place."

Later, we had a chance to talk, away from the distractions of the wedding reception.  I told Matt that perhaps what he was missing was some of the mysterious process called "spiritual growth." The goal of spiritual growth, I told him, is to live as if Jesus held unhindered sway over us.  Of course, it is still we who are doing the living.  We are called by God, I said, to make daily life choices as the uniquely created selves which each of us is ---- using our own particular temperament, our own gene pool, our own unique family history.  But to grow spiritually means to make those choices increasingly as Jesus would have us do.

John Ortberg, a teacher, writer and the pastor of Menlo Park (CA) Presbyterian Church, agrees that we may be missing the life that we were appointed by God to live.  Too often, says Ortberg, people think about their "spiritual lives" as just one more aspect of their existence, alongside and largely separate from their "financial" lives or their "vocational" lives.  Periodically they may try to get their spiritual lives "together" by praying more regularly or trying to master some other formal spiritual discipline.  It is the religious equivalent of going on a diet, or trying to stick to a budget, Ortberg says.

The  term "spiritual life" is simply a way of referring to one's complete life, says Ortberg, every moment and every facet of it ---- but from God's perspective.  "Another way of saying it," continues Ortberg, "is that God is not interested merely in our "religious" life ---- God is really interested in our lives as a whole.  He intends to redeem our whole lives!"

As Pastor Ortberg sees it, God holds out the possibility of transformation, and the possibility of our transformation generates hope in us.  Hope is the primary goal of spiritual life."  The goal of spiritual transformation can and should be pursued full-time, he says.  Often we reduce our "tools for spiritual growth" to a few activities, such as prayer and Bible study, or a few periods of the day called "quiet time."  However, every moment of our lives can be an opportunity to learn from God how to live like Jesus tells us to live.

Getting clear on what the "spiritual life" looks like is not a casual affair.  How do we know if we are settling for false transformation instead of the real thing?  Here are a few warning signs offered by John Ortberg:

1.)  Am I spiritually authentic?  One would be "inauthentic" if preoccupied with merely appearing to be spiritual.  Sometimes we may work harder at making people think we are a loving person than we do in actually loving them.

2.)  Am I becoming judgmental or exclusive or proud?  Pride is a problem for anyone who takes spiritual growth seriously.  As soon as we start to pursue virtue, we begin to wonder why others are not as virtuous as we are.

3.)  Am I becoming more approachable, or less?  In Jesus's day, rabbis had the mistaken notion that their spirituality required them to distance themselves from people.  The irony is that the only rabbi that outcasts could touch  was Jesus ---- he was the most approachable religious person they had ever seen.  The other religious leaders had a kind of awkwardness that pushed people away.

4.)  Am I growing weary of pursuing spiritual growth?  Conventional religious goodness manages to be both intimidating and unchallenging at the same time, and this is tiresome.  Intimidating because, for example, it might involve 39 separate rules about Sabbath-keeping alone. Unchallenging because we may devote our lives to observing all the rules and never open our hearts to love or joy.   Conforming to some particular religious subculture may simply not be a compelling enough vision to cultivate the human spirit, 

5.)  Am I measuring my spiritual life in superficial ways?  God's primary assessment of our lives is not going to be a measure of the number of our prayers, Scripture readings or meditations. Rather, the question is whether we are growing in love for God and for other people.  The real issue is what kind of person are we becoming?  Practices such as reading Scripture and praying are important ---- not because they prove how spiritual we are ---- but because God can use them to lead us into the life He desires for us.

Pastor Ortberg summarizes these thoughts by saying that spirituality has to do with having our inner person (our mind, our will our desires and intentions) formed and shaped by the words of Jesus, into a character that will honor God, not simply honor ourselves.
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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage your pursuit of personal spiritual growth this summer at CPC.
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