Wednesday, October 31, 2018

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Two Lost Sons


You may remember the story Jesus told, that we call "The Prodigal Son"  (Luke 15: 1 - 3, 11 - 32).

A man had two sons.  One day, the younger son demanded that his father give him his inheritance immediately, not at the father's death.  The younger son then went off and spent all of it capriciously and unwisely.  The young man had gone off and lived a self-indulgent, dissolute life.  He was now alienated from the father (who represents God in this parable), and ceased to love him.  Didn't the father now have every right to denounce this son?  But, upon the younger son's later, humble and repentant return home, the father forgave him and told the household servants to prepare a great feast of celebration ---- because his lost son has returned!

And then there is the elder brother.  He is fastidiously obedient to whatever his father wishes.  But he is completely under self-control and quite self-disciplined.  However, when he hears of the feast and fuss his father is making over the return of the "bad" younger brother, he too becomes alienated from the father and refuses to join in the feast his father is giving to celebrate the younger brother's return.

The lover of prostitutes is saved by his humble return to the father, but the man of moral rectitude is still lost!  The older brother's problem seems to be the self-pride he takes in his highly moral daily life.  Unlike his brother, it is not his wrongdoing, but his righteousness that may keep him from wanting to share in the father's feast.

What is wrong with these two different ways of life, as represented by the two sons?  They represent the two ways to be our own Savior and Lord.  One is by breaking all the moral laws and setting one's own course.  The other way is by mindlessly just keeping rote moral laws and being very, very good.

Most people think of sin as merely failing to keep God's rules of conduct.  But, Jesus' definition of sin goes beyond that.  Folks like the older brother believe that just by keeping all the moral laws in our daily behavior, then we will have "rights".  God thus will owe us ---- there will be  answers to our prayers, a good life, and a ticket to heaven when we die.  So, we do not need a Savior who pardons us by giving free grace, for we will be our own Savior.

Jesus does not divide the world into the moral "good guys" and the immoral "bad guys".  He shows us that everyone is dedicated to a project of self-salvation, to using God and others to get power and control for ourselves.  We are just going about it in different ways.  Even though both sons were wrong, nevertheless the father cares for them and invites them both back into his love and to the feast.  In the view of Jesus, while everyone is wrong, everyone is loved, and everyone is called to recognize this and change.  But, the prerequisite for receiving the grace of God is to know you need it.

A man who has violated virtually nothing on the list of moral mis-behaviors can be every bit as spiritually lost as the most profligate, immoral person.  Why?  Senior Pastor Timothy Keller of the Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, has written: "Because, sin is not just breaking the rules.  It is putting yourself in the place of God as Savior, Lord, and Judge, just as each son in the parable sought to displace the authority of the father in that son's own life.

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These thoughts are brought to you by the CPC Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping that you will discover some personal spiritual growth this Fall.
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Tuesday, October 23, 2018

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: What Is The Status of Animals In God's Creation?


If someone blesses me, Webster's Dictionary says that means they "invoke divine care" for me.  Suppose I bless a pet or other animal?  Does that imply that the animal has a soul subject to divine care, like me?  If that animal does have a soul, does this mean that all animals have a soul?  If so, do animals go to heaven when they die?  Will I meet any of my former pets in heaven?

Lately, some Christians (particularly in the Roman Catholic and Episcopal denominations) have adopted an annual formal practice of blessing animals.  The selected animals are presented in a church worship service by members of the congregation.  Those who have initiated this practice say the ceremony is meant to remind the congregation of their stewardship over God's Creation, and how we have cared for it ---- or not cared for it.  Therefore, must I never kill an animal as a source of food for myself?  Must I become a vegetarian?!! 

I wasn't sure how to answer these questions, so I turned to the Bible.  In the Book of Genesis I found the following, in the Bible's "Creation Story.":

           Chapter 1, Verse 25:  "God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the
                                               livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that
                                               move along the ground according to their kinds. And God
                                               saw that it was good."
                             Verse 26:  "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our
                                                likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the
                                                birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over
                                                all the creatures that move along the ground.' "
                             Verse 28:  "God blessed them [mankind] and said to them, 'Be fruitful and 
                                                increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.  Rule over the
                                                fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living 
                                                creature that lives on the ground.' "  

Simply put, the Book of Genesis seems to give us a "license" to kill or do whatever else may "please" humankind, with respect to God's earthly creatures.  Killing animals for food would seem entirely OK.  In fact, don't animals themselves kill each other for food and self-defense?

However, Jesus himself teaches that "not a sparrow will fall to the ground" without the care and attention of God.  (Matt. 10:29)  If we have failed to notice this fact, perhaps it is because we have been too taken with the idea that we are made in the divine image, and we have not really been reflecting on the great responsibilities that such status brings. 

Author Philip Sherman, in a recent issue of Presbyterian Life, argues that a greater sense of responsibility for animals has developed in the last 100 years.  "As some animals have transitioned from utilitarian purposes (labor, production, food) to companionship (pets, therapy dogs and cats, and service animals like seeing-eye dogs). a new element has emerged ----      LOVE.  Many Christians today love certain animals, and give them a special status by calling them "pets".   We remember St. Francis of Assisi and his passion for the care of God's creatures.  Today, we sometimes even link to animals some passages of Scripture about love, and how we are supposed to treat those we love.

Of all the traits previously thought to be the exclusive possession of human beings, perhaps love and compassion have been the greatest.  The possibility that many animals are capable of deep emotional lives, with some kind of love, including grief and gratitude, seems accepted increasingly among many in the scientific community.

Should we deny that animals are capable of some kind of love, and that humankind may have feelings of love for some of them, only because Genesis never mentions this possibility?
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These thoughts are brought to you by the CPC Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping that you will discover some personal spiritual growth this fall.
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Wednesday, October 17, 2018

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Two Ways To Seek God's Forgiveness of Our Sins


Recently, I was walking near the Summit Train Station, when I bumped into a neighborhood friend.  After a few words of greeting, my neighbor Ben sighed and remarked that Rosh Hashanah would begin at sundown on the next day, which was Sunday, September 9.  "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 time 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, September 18," my friend continued.  "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 to 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 are born morally neutral, with both an inclination toward goodness, leading to a productive life and being concerned for others ---- but, also an inclination toward evil, the baser instincts and selfishness.  The moral laws of 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."

My friend continued, "The ways in which individuals can miss the target 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 as the confessing group, we have committed the whole range of sins (from A to Z), the full gamut of possible human failings.  For every target that could have been missed someone among us 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 have corrupted our own character, we have corrupted the character of others, 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 have actually hurt).    We say, "Forgive 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 target 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 'not-guiltys', but it is interesting year to year to see how my failings either remain constant or shift with circumstances," he said.

We had just reached my street and I wished there was 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 walked toward my house, 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 it is done formally only once a year.  However, I do 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 sins we may have committed.  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 Presbyterians need a little more intensity and depth, while perhaps the Jewish practice would benefit from a little more frequency, in seriously addressing personal sinfulness?  But, one solution does not fit all people!  Each of us must find out our optimal intensity, depth and frequency to address our inherent tendency to sin.
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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 growth this fall at CPC.
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Tuesday, October 9, 2018

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Is Poverty Only About Bad Choices?


When I was a teenager, I remember my grandfather would often come for family dinner.  On one occasion at the dinner table, my young sister reported seeing a man that afternoon begging for small change outside a store in the local mall.  She said she had felt very sorry for him.  On her way back to the family car, she had dropped a quarter into his collection box.  She told us it felt good to help someone in need.

At dinner, Grandfather was the first person to react.  "Folks need to stop whining and begging, and get a job.  It's all about taking personal responsibility."

My dad chimed in, saying there is something to the "personal responsibility" narrative, but any of us can also make bad choices in our lives.  He continued, "Self-destructive behaviors ---- such as dropping out of school, hanging out with the wrong type of kids, taking drugs, bearing children when one is not ready, can eventually lead to poverty in adult life."

"So true!" my mother affirmed, "yet researchers are also learning the roots of these behaviors, and that they are far more complicated than mere "human weakness".

My mother then pointed out there is growing evidence that poverty and mental health problems are linked in complex, reinforcing ways.  My mother referred to a Gallop Poll of a few years before which found that people living in poverty were twice as likely to have been diagnosed with depression as other Americans.

It occurred to me, that if one is battling mental health problems, or is a grown-up with traumas like domestic violence (or perhaps witnessing a family member shot dead) aren't you more likely to have trouble in school, to have trouble in relationships?

"Don't forget," offered my dad, "that economic and social stress robs us of some "cognitive-bandwidth."  Worrying about bills, food or other problems, leaves less capacity to think ahead or to exert self-discipline.  So, it is as if poverty imposes a mental tax."

"Furthermore," said Dad, "when people have an elevated level of stress, they are less willing to delay gratification ---- they become more impatient for immediate rewards, and thus are more prone to "bad choices."  So, you can see, a person's circumstances can land them in a situation where it's really hard to make a good decision because they are so stressed out.  And the decisions they get wrong matter much more because there's less slack to play with."

It was time for dessert, but my mother had something to say first:  "I wonder whether America's ideology of social and economic mobility, the "Horatio Alger" notion that people can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, may empower some poor people but leave others feeling like failures, brimming with self-doubt that makes bad choices all the more likely.  Certainly, self-doubt is seen widely among the poor."

Later, as I thought about our dinner conversation, it occurred to me that what caused the poverty problem (besides a person's circumstances) for many of the "street poor" is an element inside them, and changing that internal element is the only way many of them will reduce their level of poverty.  Perhaps my grandfather had been correct at the start when he thought the solution was simply about "personal responsibility."  It's just that he had been very simplistic in this view.  For example, an emphasis on developing personal responsibility is part of any 12-Step program, which tries to confront alcoholism, but these programs also have many other facets, including weekly meetings and peer support.

But, for society to place the blame entirely on the individual seems to me a cop-out.  Our culture is cluttered with excuses for bad behavior.  It's always said to be somebody else's fault.  In some sense that may be true, but the victim's bad choices are real and have consequences.

So, as long as we are talking about personal responsibility, let's also examine our own.  Is it more than putting a few coins in the street beggar's outstretched hand.  Do we have a collective responsibility to provide more of a fair start in life to all, so that children are less propelled toward bad choices?

If the evidence is overwhelming that we fail kids before they fail us, when certain programs would actually save public money while elevating personal responsibility, is it time to stop making excuses  for our own self-destructive behaviors as a society?
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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage in you some spiritual growth this Fall.
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Monday, October 1, 2018

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Lord, Make Me Useless!


 Last Spring, I came across an article in The Presbyterian Outlook magazine,
              that brought me up short!  I have thought about its message many times since
              then.  I would like to share it with you.
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"My prayer used to be for God to make me useful.  Make me useful, God!  Where this plea originated during days already overflowing with unending tasks and responsibilities, I do not know."

"Praying at a hospital bedside or serving in a soup kitchen makes me feel needed and useful.
I suspect physicians suturing a wound or teachers helping children learn to read or mechanics fixing an engine, understand the satisfaction of unequivocal usefulness."

"But 'make me useful' morphs quickly into 'make me valuable, admired, affirmed.'  Make me useful has 'me' at the center.  My silent prayers of confession become less an exhibition of a contrite heart and more a display of my need for approval, both divine and human.  I share this not for self-inflicted public shaming (which is just another form of egotism).  I name it because this personal prayer has non-spiritual implications."

"Prayers for usefulness fit nicely in a culture that prizes individual agency and independence.  In our modern context ---- where everyone from artists to prospective adoptive parents need platforms for self-promotion, where aging is a moral failing and poverty is a mortal sin, where illness is attributed to a lack of willful, positive imagination ---- usefulness smacks of the American Gospel that ---- God helps those who help themselves.  God aids the efficient and effective.  God approves of those with a can-do spirit, the 'try-hards' as my grand kids dub their relentlessly top-grade-seeking peers.  We come to believe the 'blessed are the useful', for they shall get a cookie and a gold star.  Hence, our need for regular worship, as an antidote."

"Worship suspends the loop of endless, self-referential usefulness.  Jesus said blessed are the poor and the meek, the hungry and merciful.  Jesus lollygags around dinner tables and keeps company with the least useful of society ----  children, the blind, lame and shunned.  The story we proclaim and call the Word of the Lord in worship counters the heresy of usefulness-seeking professed on every American street corner."

"Jesus came to save sinners, not laud winners.  God's grace for us in anticipation, reveals our worth.   Our self-achieved worth does not earn us God's favor.  Neither aging nor illness, disability nor exhaustion, failure nor ineffectiveness will separate us from the love of Christ Jesus our Lord.  God looks upon people not as we do, and works through those we think unlikely candidates ---- murderers, adulterers, shepherds, fishermen, Samaritans and tax collectors.  In other words, people for whom we often have no use.  The reconciliation of the world was ushered in on a cross, not an award ceremony or military parade."

"Worship, by definition, moves our focus away from ourselves and to God.  'Me' gets un-centered in the hope that I might get out of my own way.  Nothing we have or possibly could do merits or moves God's loving kindness towards us.  God in no way needs us.  God's plans include us but do not depend upon us.  While we were yet sinners Christ died for us.  While we yet sin, Jesus prays for us."

"Furthermore, Jesus loves the ones I don't like, and I am called to love them, too.  We are commanded to love our enemies, rather than cozy up to the powerful no matter the cost to others."

"Collective personal confession, prayers of the people, the Lord's Supper, the Word read and proclaimed week after week, and worship, will shatter the myth of my usefulness goals and the entire American gospel built merely around pragmatic achievement, and the supreme worth of the individual human spirit alone."
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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage some spiritual growth for you this fall.
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