Who won't you pray with?

Who won’t you pray with? Last week, I was up north giving a talk to the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship in Minocqua on the occasion of the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Would I pray with Unitarians? Of course I would. As far as Unitarians go, I have always found that these “non-Christians” always act so Christ-like.

After my talk, I retired back to my hotel room and decided to have a drink at the bar before I retired for the evening. As I was sitting there, I heard a group of about six middle-aged men talking about church, preaching, and pastoral work. The barkeep told me they were Lutheran pastors attending a conference in town.

So, I introduced myself to them. They were cordial and I invited them to come to the Lutheran men’s retreat being held in Poynette this coming May. Then one of them declared, “We’re not Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) pastors, we’re Wisconsin Synod Lutherans (WELS). I remember telling them that I considered this a great opportunity to talk with WELS pastor. Although I had served in city with a WELS congregation for nine years, I had never met their pastor. While we had invited him to our local clergy association, he never attended.

Then one of them said they had “doctrinal issues” with other Lutherans (including Episcopalians). I told him that while we may have “doctrinal issues” with one another at least we can come together, as St, Paul suggested in his Letter to the Romans, because of a simple declaration. Paul said, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9) Not enough, I was told. First we must have unity in doctrine. Now I don’t want to pick on Wisconsin Synod Lutherans because I have to admit that I have run into this with other Christian denominations over the years.

Now I have to confess that I have prayed with Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and even non-believers who were just being careful. How can this be that some Christians cannot or will not pray with other Christians? I have to admit that every time this has happened to me I have felt, well, discriminated against. While I am not being excluded on the basis of my color, race, gender or sexual preference, I have still felt a nagging sense of being excluded on the basis of my belief because I didn’t believe exactly as someone else did!

The next day, I got online and went to their church’s website. Under “Questions and Answers,” I found this: “What’s the difference between WELS and other Lutherans?” They answer that that Christ's prayer in John 17 is that his followers be brought to complete unity in order to let the world know that God the Father sent him as our Savior (vv. 20-23). They also call to the questioners attention that “God also cautions us to avoid false teachers (e.g. Romans 16:17) and people whose lives do not follow his Word (1 Corinthians 5:11).”

Yes, that is true and I can agree – so far – that we Christians need unity and ought to beware of false teachers and evil persons. But they go further: “So we believe that Christ intends us to be united in doctrine and practice with other Christians before we join in proclaiming the gospel of Christ, gather together around the Lord's Table, or engage in other forms of church fellowship (my emphasis). This is the faith that Christ has given us, and it is the key difference between WELS and many other Lutheran church bodies.” (From the WELS website at: http://www.wels.net/about-wels/doctrinal-statements).

This is the faith Christ has given us? Now I am not a scholar of the New Testament, but in my reading of what Jesus said and did this is NOT the faith that he gave us! This is divisive, discriminatory and simply untrue. But what does this look like to those who are not Christians? They must think we are nuts! We certainly would not look like a group of people others may want to join unless exclusion and separation was what they were looking for.

And this exclusion and separation among Christians is not just to limited to musty “doctrinal matters;” it goes to deep levels of the human community like who can be married or buried and who cannot? Which child will be baptized and which one will not? It goes against human nature by limiting leadership roles to only those who are male or restricting those who can partake in the Lord’s Supper. Exclusion and separation do not build community.

The night ended and I sadly departed having been unsuccessful in gaining their acceptance of my comments or me. These were not bad or evil men, but on the day in which I was celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I had the feeling I was being discriminated against. This is not something a white middle class guy like me has experienced very often – if ever! Maybe this is part of what discrimination, segregation and apartheid are all about – if you look and act like one of us, then we may accept you.

The gospels tell us Jesus intentionally broke the “unity” rules of both his religion and society by talking to women, eating with sinners and healing lepers. Sure, Jesus wanted unity, but not at the expense of marginalizing those deeply in need of a loving and forgiving God! Yes, Lord, I do pray that we all would be one – the “oneness” of loving inclusion that you died for!

My Journey With God's Holy Spirit

I thought I would share my journey with God’s Holy Spirit especially what I experienced last weekend on a retreat I led with Pastor Rob Nelson at the Bethel Horizons Camp near Dodgeville. I, like many of you, were raised in a church that was more concerned with what we said we believed than what we did. One thing we didn’t do, was talk about the Holy Spirit (except, perhaps, on Pentecost Sunday). The Holy Spirit is what those Pentecostals did (and they handled snakes, too, didn’t they?). Mystery and transcendence were not part of my spiritual life.

So, how was a white boy from Minnesota ever going to get a chance to meet and experience this Third Person of the Trinity of whom he said he believed? It would be a long time because it was much easier for me to think about God than to experience him.  Yet, in John’s gospel, Jesus talks about God’s Spirit.  He warned us about the Spirit of God when he made an analogy between it and the wind, "The wind blows whenever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit" (John 3:5-7). Wow! Spirit-filled people are unpredictable -- they move like the wind! Jesus further tells us that God’s Spirit can (and should) dwell in us. In fact, it was his parting gift to us!  Maybe that's why a large part of the Church has shys away from the Spirit.

My own journey began when I was a teenager serving with the Marines. One night, when I was stationed in the South Pacific, I looked up and contemplated the millions of stars above me and I suddenly felt the presence of God. Yet I continued to ignore God and run away from him. Years later, God caught me.  I finally was touched again by God’s Spirit as I was just as suddenly called to ordained ministry! Soon after, I attended and participated in an Anglican evangelical mission at Regent College to a city near Vancouver. From that time forward, my life with God’s Spirit became a great and "windy" adventure.

The young Anglican students I met at Regent were on fire for Jesus – there are no better words for it! I have never witnessed anything like it before – it was the fire of the Holy Spirit working among those who believed. They prayed at the drop of a hat, sang praise songs, and were the disciples I had read about in the Book of Acts – men and women “filled with the Spirit!”

They spoke boldly about their faith, laid hands on each other and prayed for those who were sick or hurting. They even worked to cast out demons, prophesized, spoke “words of knowledge,” and some even prayed in a private prayer language -- “tongues.” And these were Anglicans! They opened my heart to experience God more fully than I had ever imagined possible.

I had to make a decision. Was I going to be closed to these strange (yet biblically-based) practices, or was I going to be open to them? I decided to be open. Soon I was giving testimonies in local churches, preaching on street corners, and laying hands on people and praying for those who were sick. And one night in a prayer group my new friends prayed that I would receive the “gift of tongues.” It didn’t happen right away but years later, when I was teaching the Alpha Course, it did.

That week-long experience at Regent College almost twenty years ago changed my life and moved me closer to the presence, awe, majesty and mystery of God. Last week, I had another powerful experience.  Pastor Rob and I took a group of Lutherans to the camp with the objective of fully “experiencing” God rather than just thinking or studying about God. It was a bold adventure that became a mighty experience and one that created a local group of spiritual warriors for God.  I wrote this note to Rob when I got home:

“Whew! There is NO doubt that God is working mightily among us at New Heights Church. It is truly a time to move and to say out loud, ‘No more old church,’ but a spirited, transformed church! While I cannot envision now exactly where we are going or where we will end up – we, nevertheless, are on the move with God. And in doing so, God has unleashed a number of spiritual gifts within this church in so many areas that it almost seems like a little Pentecost has happened – another birth-day of the church!


“The out-pouring of spiritual gifts, growth in childhood education, teens, men in mission, as well as a number of other new ministries tells me that something big is happening here and I, for one, want to be part of it.


"So what it is we have to do now? First, we must continue to be OPEN to God’s Spirit and direction (not me but thee, God!) remembering that above all the spiritual gifts, St. Paul tells us LOVE is the greatest: love in mission, love in welcoming the stranger, love in healing our pain and brokenness, love in repairing fractured relationships, and love in empowering a greater God-future. Hang on! I’m not sure where we are going, where God is leading us, but I’m in for the ride!”

I have come to understand that God wants us to worship and love him with our entire body: with our whole heart, mind, strength and being. And when we do so, we become powerful disciples ready and willing to work to bring God’s reign closer as we serve others. It is God’s Spirit that pours gifts of love, joy, peace, kindness, faithfulness, self-control, patience, generosity, and gentleness upon us. It is also God’s Spirit who brings us the spiritual gifts of wisdom, strength, knowledge, prophecy, healing and discernment.

I perhaps have gone on too long, but I wanted to share with you what I have experienced and how you can, too. You can experience the fullness of God and be filled and empowered with God’s Spirit – all you need to do is ask and pray. I guarantee it will rejuvenate your spiritual life. That is my hope and prayer for you on your own journey.

Winter God Walk

For me, my morning hike has become a big part of my spiritual journey…

sometimes I put praise music on my ipod and just float along on my snowshoes.

Other times, I tend to do a lot of God-thinking...

Like this morning…

God your trinitarian life your household pursues me
you as grand designer the mover the one who lit
the big bang firecracker
now a threesome
but god i need a template a model of what
and who and how you wish me to live and be
thanks you sent jesus
his word accounts of those
who walked (and still walk)
close to him then the spirit
sent to help me like a designer
myself to follow the template
that model who was once one of us
whose spirit infuses directs and
tickles my heart so i begin to
sense to know and (failingly)
act more like you
don’t stop.

Celtic Christians

Some of you know that I am a big fan of Krista Tippett who has a weekly broadcast on American Public Radio called “Speaking of Faith.” Early Sunday mornings, Sabine and I used to listen to her program on the way to serve at St Peter’s in North Lake. Unfortunately, Krista’s program is not broadcast in the Madison area; however, you can still hear her at http://www.speakingoffaith.org/.)

During one of her recent programs, she replayed an interview she had with the late Irish poet. John O’Donohue, who unexpectedly died in early 2008. You can hear it at http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/johnodonahue/. This interview is worth your time and will, no doubt, cause you to do some deep reflecting as I did.

One part of the interview deeply moved me when O’Donohue, in his deep accent, read the opening line from his book, Anam Cara:

“It’s strange to be here. The mystery never leaves you. Behind your image, below your words, above your thoughts, the silence of another world waits. A world lives within you.”

Whew! The majesty and mystery of the spiritual world around hovering us is something the Celtic tradition has given us. I am reminded of Celtic prayers for gardening, milking cows, and doing all kinds of chores. I know this tradition has moved me as I recall that I used to end my celelbration of the Mass with prayers like these:

Bless to me, O God, the earth beneath my feet.
Bless to me, O God, the path on which I go.
Bless to me, O God, the people whom I meet.
O God of all gods, bless to me my life.

Bless to me, O God, my soul that comes from on high.
Bless to me, O God, my body that is of earth.
Bless to me, O God, each thing my eye sees, each sound my ear hears.
Bless to me, O God, each scent that goes to my nostrils,
each taste that goes to my lips,
each ray that guides my way

O Christ, there is no plant in the ground
but it is full of your virtue.
There is no form in the strand
but it is full of your blessing.

There is no life in the sea,
there is no creature in the ocean,
there is nothing in the heavens
but proclaims your goodness.

There is no bird on the wing,
there is no star in the sky,
there is nothing beneath the sun
but proclaims your goodness.

George Hunter has written an excellent book on this traditiion, The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West… Again. Hunter describes the work of early Christians evangelizing the Celtic people of the British Isles in the late 4th century and incorporating many of their ancient spiritual practices into Christianity.

Celts had a very unique and particular way of spreading the message of Jesus. Contrary to much of Christian evangelistic practices today, the Celts believed that belonging comes before believing. The Celts invited seekers come and belong; to participate in their community. In time, they would come to believe. There was no “belief test” before they could belong to the community. The Celts had confidence that the Christian faith is more caught than taught!

Why would a person want to join these Celts? Because the Celts practiced an absolutely radical form of love and hospitality. They were known for setting up monasteries where the social problems were and not away from them. They focused on working with those whom others would not wish to associate.

I once heard a theologian say that he has ceased talking about God. Instead, all he is interested in now is where people experience God. Because where people experience God is where God is, and, he says, there is nothing more he can say or add.

The Celts knew this 1500 years ago.