WEEKLY COMMENTARY: If Our Lives Are Ruled By "Luck," What's Left For Us To Determine?

Last month I spent a day in New York City.  As the return train to Summit left Pen Station, I spotted a former neighbor walking up the aisle, and I motioned to him to join me.  My friend Tom and I had first met years before in a Bible study class.

After a little catching up about our respective families, I remembered that Tom has been an engineer employed by a prominent internet communications company.  Predictably, we were soon asking each other how our work was going.  I proudly admitted that I had retired a few years earlier, But I was keeping quite busy.  Tom said he was now doing much of his work in foreign countries, and that he had recently returned from Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.  I remembered that a huge earthquake had devastated that country recently.  Tom said that it had killed nearly 9,000 people and had badly damaged the infra-structure of the country.

"It didn't help," Tom said, "that the country is in the middle of the Himalaya Mountains, quite remotely placed between India and China."  Tom had seen widespread ruin across the country, and many dead people along the road sides, and bodies being collected from collapsed buildings and houses.

"And it made me realize," Tom continued, "that we are so lucky.  We are so lucky to be living here and not there."  He had some tears in his eyes when he said that.  He admitted he was sort of overwhelmed with gratitude.

I listened quietly, and then said, "You have so much gratitude, but then what?"

"We're just so lucky that we live here instead of there." Tom said.

"Really?  That's it?" I said to Tom.

I paused and then asked a question: "When you witness suffering, but then declare yourself to have apparently achieved salvation in the "religion of gratitude" because you have had good luck, do you think maybe you have fallen short of what God would have you do?"

I paused to think about my next words.  "While I think God does want us to feel gratitude," I said, "I do not think God particularly wants us to feel 'lucky'.  I think God wants us to witness the pain and suffering of others, and rather than just feeling 'lucky' because the adversity missed us ---- God wants us to rise up and do something about it.  Doesn't God want us to help address this pain and suffering with a helping hand?

I continued:   "Feeling 'lucky' is like saying that the gods pick one person to live in the suburbs of the richest nation on earth, and another person to starve.  In a worldview limited to 'luck', any righteous behavior by us is just not relevant.  'Luck' suggests that we are powerless and unable to change anyone else's "bad luck".  Furthermore, at some point the worldview of 'luck' just doesn't pan out.  At some point one realizes that this religion of 'luck' isn't enough, and we really long for newly focused hearts ---- for something as extreme as a new heaven and a new earth for humankind." 

"I think I hear what you are saying," Tom responded.  "What is missing from the religion of 'luck' worldview is the perspective that we get in a Christian community, that would take us from thinking ourselves merely 'lucky', to actually doing something about the hardships of other peoples' lives.  At some point, if one thinks about it at all, the person with the self-made religion of 'luck', can use his God-given brain and the wisdom of hard experience, and start to ask angry and provocative questions, to begin seeing holes in the spirituality of the status quo..

We were now approaching Summit Station, so I needed to say something that would wrap up our discussion.  "The civil rights movement didn't happen because people felt 'lucky'.  The hungry don't get fed, the homeless don't get sheltered, and the world doesn't change just because people who are doing okay feel 'lucky'.  We need more.  As Christians we expect more, way more, like a new heaven and a new earth, and because we follow Jesus, we had better expect to be involved in making it happen, side-by-side with other people.

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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 summer at CPC.

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A New Challenge For You !      Introducing Commentary  Dialogue:

Here is an attempt at conversation with our audience.  Based on this week's story, here are two questions for you.  We have over 200 readers, and they have opinions worth hearing.  If anyone responds to me on any of the following questions, your comment will be printed next week, with an invitation to our other readers to comment further.  Importantly, to encourage participation, I will not identify the author of any comments submitted, although I reserve the right to identify myself if I comment.

Question #1:

In a huge and distant disaster like the earthquake in Nepal, does any humanitarian relief effort by CPC members or church-wide at CPC, make sense?  Would we we better advised to direct our efforts and money to some need closer to home, where we can better ensure productive results?

Question #2:

Perhaps "good luck" plays some role in the lives of each of us ('luck": by chance, being in the right or wrong place, at the "right" time)?   How much should we at CPC try to increase the chances of "good luck" in the lives of the poor and homeless who may think "good luck" has forgotten them?  At what point would we become intrusive in their lives?

I hope to hear from you.

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WEEKLY COMMENTARY: What's The Point of 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 Baptismal ritual, the purpose was not so clear to me.  Later, I did a little research on 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 (The Lord's Supper or Communion).  The act of baptizing, always includes the causing of water to flow upon the body of the baptized person while the one 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 formally united with the Body of Christ ---- that worldwide fellowship of Jesus' followers.  In effect, the Baptism ritual makes the baptized person fit to receive further aids to God's grace, later in his or her life.

The service of Baptism is usually also a Christening, when 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 gain a new identity as followers of Jesus Christ.

Family gathered around the baptismal font, or the congregation just sitting in church pews ---- 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.  In participating in the Baptism we profess that our faith in Jesus Christ transcends political and personal differences.

The ritual of Baptism has ancient roots.  Presbyterians have recognized in Scripture that Baptism is one of two Sacraments initiated by Christ.  All four Gospels report the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the River Jordan.

According to Luke (3:11, 23), when Jesus was about thirty years old, John the Baptist appeared on the scene in Palestine.  Some say John was a Hebrew prophet, but born after the period of officially recognized prophecy had ended.  But, he was a striking figure, dressed in hair cloth and a leather belt, and eating locusts and wild honey.  His words and bearing attracted a large following as he preached and baptized in the Jordan Valley.  In prophetic

manner he preached the judgement and redemption by God.  Repent, he warned his hearers, for the kingdom of God is at hand.  He spoke of the coming of God's Messiah, so that Christians afterward said that he was the forerunner of Jesus.  John's rite of baptism was a kind of anticipatory cleansing which prepared one for entrance into the Kingdom.

Mark tells most simply of Jesus' experience as he was baptized by John.  He saw the heavens open and the spirit of God descend like a dove upon him, and he heard the voice of God saying to him, "thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased."  (Mark 1:11)  Like the prophets before him, Jesus felt called by God to a special vocation.  The Spirit of God was upon him, giving him his appointed task to do, leading him into his unique destiny.

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These words are brought to you by the CPC Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage your spiritual growth in the coming months.

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WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Some Things That Presbyterians DON'T Believe

While living as committed Christians and followers of Jesus Christ, Presbyterians hold some beliefs that are different from what other Christians believe.  A while back, the Presbyterians Today magazine cited eight such belief differences in an article by Presbyterian pastor James Ayers.

Where do you stand on each of these eight topics?

1.) Good works or grace?  Conventional wisdom says that good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell.  Are you good enough for heaven?  Are you sufficiently righteous to go to heaven when you die?  Presbyterians have always insisted that, as we are all sinners at birth, no one is ever good enough on their own to deserve salvation.  We are saved only by God's grace. Despite our failures in life, God already has decided to save us as evidenced through the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus.

2.) Reincarnation or eternal life?  Some Eastern religions say that after we die, we are reborn as another person or as an animal.  They believe that the world is an endless cycle of death and re-birth.  Therefore that one continually gets "another chance" until we finally get it right. Presbyterians believe that Scripture does not teach reincarnation.  Instead, it points us toward eternal life in the presence of God.  Think about it ---- isn't belief in reincarnation just a severe form of believing in righteousness by one's works, as one lives over and over until we have attained a certain level of goodness?

3.) Fate or predestination.  Some believe that every event may be caused by previous events. If so, they say, it is an illusion to suppose that your decisions actually change things in your life.  If you do a good deed, that is what you were fated to do.  If you do something evil, that is just the outworking of your predetermined fate.  This is different from the Presbyterian doctrine of predestination, which says God chose us before the world was formed, but we are predestined to be free to make the choices made in our lives.  We make many choices every day. Predestination teaches us that God has given us a new and big freedom ---- the freedom to fulfill our own destiny as we understand it. 

4.) Alter or table?  An alter is a place where a sacrifice is offered, and it is often viewed with special reverence.  In the traditional Roman Catholic understanding the priest during Mass re-offers Christ on the alter as a sacrifice to God.  Presbyterians believe the sacrifice of Christ has already been offered once and for all.  The sacrifice needs no repetition, and the action of the priest cannot make it occur again.  Therefore, Presbyterians see the Lord's supper as taking place at a table rather than at an alter.  Although many communion tables are rather ornate, the table itself holds no particular significance or holiness for Presbyterians.

5.) Purgatory, heaven, hell.  Where do people go when they die?  Many people would say "heaven or hell."  Yet in the Middle Ages people thought that if heaven is where the saints stand in the holy presence of God, and hell is where the wicked get sent, what about those people who have not had a chance to have all their sins forgiven?  Their lives would still be impure when they die, so how can they exist in heaven, alongside the holiness of God?  Thus, the doctrine of purgatory was created ---- a place where any sins not forgiven since the last confession with a priest, would be purged.  Presbyterians believe God will indeed redeem us and cleanse us from all our sins, and we will be readied for heaven, without needing to postulate a third possible place to go when we die.

6.) Ranking sins.  In Roman Catholic thinking, when you die you are carrying the guilt of all the sins you have committed since your last confession.  If your sins are venial (relatively slight), you now work them off in purgatory.  A mortal sin, in contrast, cannot be resolved in purgatory. An unconfessed mortal sin means you are damned to hell.  Presbyterians do not believe that sins can be graded this way.  Sin is sin.  Forgiveness is God's free gift in Christ. Confession and assurance of pardon by a priest, are not what enable God to forgive us,  Rather, direct confession to God in confessing our sins, is what enables us to recognize or feel or experience that we are forgiven.

7.) To whom do we pray?  When you have problems, you may ask your friends to pray for you.  But why restrict yourself to present-day friends?  Why not also ask Radiant Christians from previous centuries to offer up their intercessions on  your behalf?  This is perhaps the most positive way to think of praying to the saints.  Yet there is a problem here.  Asking Mary (the mother of Jesus) or Saint Joan to pray for you becomes praying to Mary or Saint Joan.

But praying is an act of worship and devotion, and this should be offered only to God, in the Presbyterian view.

8.) Authority figures.  Where is the authority of the church based?  Our differing understandings of appropriate church governance are perhaps the greatest source of disagreement among Christians.  We have different ways of ordering our lives together as communities of faith.  Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist and Episcopal churches believe that temporal authority is carried in the office of the bishop.  The doctrine of the "historic succession of bishops" means that bishops receive their authority from previous bishops, all of whom received their authority from still earlier bishops.  Catholics and some Anglicans trace this authority back to the apostles themselves.  Presbyterians believe church authority is not carried in individuals this way.  Instead, church leaders can declare the will of God only on the authority of Scripture.  However, Presbyterians are on record that their way is not THE way, but simply the way that works best for them.

Now that you have taken the test, how "Presbyterian" do you think you are?

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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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WEEKLY COMMENTARY: After Jesus Was Crucified, What Gave Energy To His Message?

The New Testament records the teachings and preaching of Jesus.  We believe Jesus was the son of God.  We believe God put Jesus into our world to show us how to live.

But then, Jesus was arrested, tried, crucified, and he ascended into heaven.  How could the small group of Jesus' disciples have the energy and foresight to then take Jesus' message throughout the world?  Today, there are more than two billion followers of Jesus in the world. 

As it turned out, soon after Jesus' ascension to heaven, the Jewish world (centered in Jerusalem) launched their annual celebration of Shavuot.  Because it was the end of the winter wheat season, it was their long-standing tradition now to thank God for a good harvest.

Perhaps more importantly, however, Shavuot also commemorated the giving to us by God of the Ten Commandments, at Mt. Sinai, fifty days after the Exodus.

Shavuot was one of three annual feasts celebrated in Jerusalem.  Every Jewish male was required to participate.  More than a million Jews from all parts of the Old World were said to stream into Jerusalem to celebrate and worship in the magnificent marble Temple.  The city was filled to capacity and throngs of celebrants filled the streets.

Suddenly, during the Temple service of Shavuot, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came and filled the house where the disciples were gathered.  The disciples were filled with a new spirit  ---- the Holy Spirit. Tongues of fire seemed to rest on each of them, and they spoke in other languages.  Immediately, bewildered people "from every nation under heaven" gathered around them.  The people marveled that they could understand the the disciples as they spoke and preached.  The disciples were thus empowered to proclaim the gospel of the risen Christ. They went into the streets of Jerusalem and began preaching to the crowds gathered for the festival of Shavuot.

These were people like you and me, but they were suddenly inviting Christ into their lives. Thus, they were allowing God's spirit to fill them and to empower them to do His will.  In an important sense, this was the birth of our church, because it was actually the birth of a community of believers.

Although some people mocked, about three thousand others believed and were baptized. Christ had promised his Apostles that he would send a "counselor" as his replacement, and on Pentecost they were granted the "gift of the spirit."  (Acts 2:1 - 4)

At Central Presbyterian Church, we celebrate this event each year.  We call it Pentecost.  In 2016, we celebrate Pentecost on Sunday, May 15, fifty days after Easter.

What Christians saw on the day of Pentecost was God giving His power to the people.  The Holy Spirit, who was thought by the Jews to reside only in the Temple, now had moved into a new "temple" ---- the "temple" of individual Christian believers.  God was demonstrating that He was beginning a new age, an age rooted in His people.

Whereas, in the era of the Old Testament, the Spirit was poured out almost exclusively on prophets, priests and kings, in the age of the New Testament, the Spirit would be given to all people.  All would be empowered to minister regardless of their gender, age, or social position.   The Church of Jesus Christ would be a place where every single person matters, where every member contributes to the health and mission of the church.

If there is a sign of the Spirit, it is unity-through-diversity.  There is no challenge in uniformity, no need for the Spirit in homogeneity.  But, there is no greater challenge, no greater need for the Spirit, than when people who live and look fundamentally different are baptized into one body.

So, Pentecost is a "thank-you" feast.  But, the mark of how thankful we really are is how much we care for those people who do not have as much as we have.  The mark of Pentecost is how much the community that was filled with the Spirit, cares about what they offer others ---- their time, their money and their love.  In this new "temple," the question is:  How much care do you feel in giving over to others what God gave you?

The next time you witness a sign or wonder from God in the form of the unexpected presence of Grace, note that God does do unexpected, divine and wonder-infused things.  In our reason-dominated age, a commitment to professing awe and wonder at a work of the Holy Spirit is just the kind of counter-cultural message that people need to hear.  The life of the Church continues to depend upon the Holy Spirit.

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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage your personal growth this year at CPC.

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WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Must We Choose Between Meditation and Being Engaged With the World?

I confess that sitting still, especially for long periods, does not come naturally for me.  Often, I find church meetings to be painful.  We spend all that time in discussion and sitting still.  I have nothing against the spiritual side of things.  I just find it hard dealing with it when sitting still is involved.

Which is why 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've got a crew of people setting up coffee.  Downstairs and upstairs there are folks watching and instructing our children so that the parents can take this moment of silence and peace.  So, right in the middle of a 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 life here on earth 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 Jesus' feet, 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 Development Team, hoping to encourage some personal spiritual growth this year at CPC.

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