Spiritual, Not Religious?

It has taken me a couple of days now to "recover" from being in the midst of, visited by, filled with the Holy Spirit on our retreat this past weekend. I wonder, could all of us attending been immolated, caught on fire, roasted by this “encounter”? We should be thankful we survived!

A theme began to be developed by Ben, our worship leader, it comes from Hillsong, "Hillsong" It is still reverberating in my head. I wake up singing it. It will not leave me alone. Christ is our cornerstone; the stone that holds two or more walls steady.

When I said at our closing session on Sunday that this was the most powerful experience I have ever been part of in my 20 years of ministry I was not kidding. I am sure that we saw all the spiritual gifts of the Bible and actually in operation... visions, words of knowledge, prophecy, healing, tongues and interpretation.

On Friday night, Francis Chan's video on the Holy Spirit challenged us to look back to the early church for which Jesus died. Remember that opening?

What I was left with was this:sometimes we have to go back to go forward. And when I mean going back I mean to the very early church of the apostles. Just like Francis reminded us, “When you read the New Testament you see that the Holy Spirit was to change everything."

How is it we will be changed? The New Testament tells us about what the church Jesus died for will look like. This is what I see, a small space, an upper room where Jesus’ followers assembled. A place where feet were washed, the Lord’s Supper celebrated, and the Holy Spirit requested for strength, direction, purpose, and healing. Jesus told them the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, would come and do “even greater” things than he did and they believed it.

They assemble in holy ground, sit on the floor and in a circle. A candle burns – the Light of Christ. They confess their sins to one another, pray for forgiveness, wisdom, strength, fortitude, healing, encouragement, and spiritual “in-filling.” They pray for themselves and others. Songs of praise are sung. Scripture is read and reflected upon. The Lord’s Supper is shared and a Kingdom-enabling activity is scheduled for the community to act upon during the coming week. They bless each other and are sent out into the world.

As they go out into the world they hear the word of God:

"To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom… knowledge… faith… gifts of healing… miraculous powers… prophecy… distinguishing between spirits… speaking in different kinds of tongues, and… interpretation of tongues... If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love... I am nothing." (1 Cor 12:8-11, 28-31; 13:1-2, NIV).

Yes, the practice of spiritual gifts is important, but we must always remember that Paul’s discussion of spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12) is followed by his important dissertation on the greatest of all spirituals gifts that we need to ask for and practice. It comes in the next chapter – LOVE.

Read and listen again. It’s not just a piece of scripture to be read at weddings. It is a prescription, a check-off list, that should direct all of our relationships – at home, at work, and at play (and even at church!).

LOVE IS:

1. Patience
2. Kindness
3. Rejoicing in truth
4. Protection
5. Trust
6. Hope
7. Perseverance

LOVE IS NOT:

1. Envy
2. Boasting
3. Pride
4. Rudeness
5. Self-seeking
6. Anger
7. Keeping a record of wrongs
8. Delighting in evil [1]

 The above is a good way to look at our important relationships! We might say to our loved one, “How am I doing with regard to what love is and is not?” And then sit back and deeply listen to your loved one without interruption!

So what would our relationships become under this love-test? What about how “church” might look today if we followed Jesus' teaching about the Holy Spirit and Paul's description of the early church? 

We all know that doing and following Jesus is more than assembling once a week in a building, singing a few songs, reading scripture, listening to a sermon and then leaving.

It's more and we all know it is. It is so much more that Jesus told us that he would send us a powerful helper to become the people he thought we were capable of – The Holy Spirit, This part of God's personality would show us the way if we would only ask and then follow.

We hear a lot today about the growing group of "nones;" those who when asked about what religion they practice say or check, "none." They are the same group of people who will loudly proclaim they are "spiritual, not religious." They are open to a spiritual encounter but have long ago set aside today's church and our often present hypocrisies.

I must say that this powerful vision of what church ought to be has stayed with me this week and might be a way to draw in those who are looking for a way to be more spiritual (not religious). So, I am wondering, "What would the church look like today if we believed what Jesus told us and did what he asked of us?” 

Can we really and truly follow Jesus? Are we prepared for real, true and lasting transformation that involves a deepening of our spirituality?

I shudder to think what might happen.

---

[1] “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Cor 13:4-7)

Being With the Dying

While I haven't posted a blog for a while (which in my case is a very good sign the life is stable for awhile) I thought I would share the remarks I recently made to members of the  Wisconsin Chaplaincy Association during their annual conference, "Spiritual Care: Perspectives and Modalities." It is a topic that I have become very familiar with during the past two decades -- my life as a priest and pastor.

Wisconsin Chaplaincy Association Annual Conference

The Heidel House, Green Lake, Wisc.

Sunday, Oct 14, 2012

I want to thank you for asking me to come here and share my perspectives on my favorite topic -- death and dying. 

My life has prepared me for dying. And so has yours.

Let me begin to explain this with a story.  It happened a number of years ago during my one-year residency in CPE.

I was called to the Meriter Hospital Emergency Room to give a death notification. A married couple was travelling through Wisconsin headed with their three children to the Dells. They stopped for fuel on I-94 north of Madison when the husband suffered a massive heart attack in the men’s room. He didn’t come out for a while and when he was found, 9-1-1 was immediately called. But it was too late.  As I came into the ER one of the nurses pointed me to the waiting room where I saw a young woman sitting  with three children.

Now you have to know more about me. Some of you do. But death notifications, handling dead and maimed bodies was not new to me. I was a police officer for over 30 years. But what I had learned all those years wasn’t going to help me this afternoon.  The terminally ill, grieving and dying don’t need to hear “just the facts” from a Joe Friday.

What I had learned as a cop was to keep cool, just the facts, do it all in 20 minutes or less and get back to real work – which essentially consists of driving around looking and waiting for trouble. Or as a colleague once told me “hours of boredom punctuated by moments of terror.”

Effective policing consists of developing a non-anxious, controlled, in-charge presence, and NO emotional connection. Not your pastoral model. (I have to say that I, unfortunately, have seen this practiced among my colleagues in the clergy.)

So that day in the E.R., my parallel process was in full operation – wife, three children, husband suddenly dies. What’s that like? All my fears when I was a cop. All those police funerals I attended – sobbing wife and children walking down the church aisle following a casket, blue uniforms, stand at attention.

All that came into play. My wife… my children… Now add many years of stuffing feelings and being boy-strong… misty eyes were okay, but no tears -- and certainly no weeping.

But somehow that day in the ER, within a kaleidoscope of emotions, I must of heard God’s word in Ecclesiastes,

“There is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.” (Eccl   3:4)

This was a time to weep.

After I told them what had happened, I wept with them – deeply. And then I asked them if they would like to visit his body. And the children touched him, kissed him and said “goodbye.”

In group the next day I had the opportunity to do a verbatim on this.

I was never the same again.

Thanks be to God!

In the past, I dodged, avoided and denied death as I served as an urban police officer, parachutist, engaged in full-contact sports, and a variety of other testosterone-laden activities. But that’s growing up male in America. Only the unlucky die.

I often came face to face with death in my prior life: traffic fatalities, recovering drowning victims, investigating homicides, and other varieties of violent mayhem.

But I was lucky. I came out of three decades of policing never having to shoot anyone, not being shot (they missed both times!). Unscathed, or so I thought.

So when I retired from policing to become a member of the clergy, I soon found that I had stuffed a lot of feelings during my years. I signed up for a year’s residency in CPE after seminary. I knew I had work to do.

The major stuffing went on during my years on the Minneapolis police underwater recovery team. A group of police divers whose job it was to recover bodies from city lakes and the Mississippi River which separated the Twin Cities.

During one group session, shortly before I was to be ordained, I thought about those bodies, all those bodies of the children I had recovered. The little children I would bring up from the water and place into the arms of their grieving parents.

Then I thought about what I would soon be doing as a priest, I would again be holding little children, bringing them up through the waters of baptism, handing them to their parents.

But instead of announcing a death, I would announced a message of New Life as these children were “marked and sealed as Christ’s own, forever.”

The juxtaposition was staggering. My deep, buried grief came pouring out. I soon found myself weeping uncontrollably.  Again, an encounter with “the Holy Spirit and fire.”

Only a few months later, my best friend died of cancer. I was then a priest and could minister to him while I loved him. I officiated at his funeral with his family’s priest.

I was coming to see that somehow I was being more and more acquainted with death. But it was a different kind of death encounter than I had experienced in the past.

A few years later my eldest granddaughter, Allison, in her early twenties, tragically died in single car traffic accident near her home in St. Paul one early, snowy morning as she drove to work.

Now this was a new encounter. Facing the fear that all of us who have children know deeply. Into that pain my wife, Sabine, and I entered as we were asked to take charge of the, as they say, “arrangements.”

But more was coming…

Two years later, Sabine, was diagnosed with a terminal cancer. At the time, she was not expected to live more than a year or two.

I thought I was going to die. My grief and fear for her almost overwhelmed me.

This was a new, even deeper encounter with death.

And I have learned a bit more about what it is like to live, walk with a loved one that is terminally ill.

I navigated her unexpected illness face to face with God – I yelled at God, like Moses, told God that I would not let God off from the promises God made. And God never left me alone. God didn’t take away my grief, God just was with me… listening to me… listening to me… understanding me… comforting me.

Then, two years into our cancer fight, my third oldest son committed suicide. I found death can be tasted. It is a bitterness, a gall, that takes time to wash away and each one of us may go through the Kubler-Ross stages but do them differently and in different order.

After his death, for weeks I yelled at God, told God that I would not let God off from the promises God made to me. And God never left me alone. God didn’t take away my grief, he just was with me… listening to me… listening to me… understanding me… comforting me in that familiar person of Jesus.

Through all this I have tried to pay attention to what has happened and what is happening. To be awake and alert. To open my heart. To live into these moments and events. Through this I wrote a ream of poetry and blogged my feelings. Yes, I was learning how to die, too.

Each of us has a story. Some of our stories are short, unfinished. My story is longer, nearing its end.  In each instance it is a unique faith narrative. It is ours and ours only. Narrative has the power to heal – yourself and others as you listen and utter the most important words in pastoral ministry -- “I am with you… we are in this together…”

But to do this, we need to know who we are,  our own faith-set, and work to ensure each person’s faith we encounter is honored and respected. No exceptions.

We live and work in a marketplace of ideas today and a global village of diverse religious traditions – many pre-dating the one you and I may profess.

This has caused most of the traditional functions of a pastor, rabbi, priest or imam, to have been essentially replaced – out-sourced -- today. No longer do people primarily come to us for healing – they go to a physician. No longer do they come to us for counseling or seeking forgiveness or a life-plan, no they go to a therapist, no longer do they come to us for an explanation of how the world works, they go to a wise friend, philosopher, scientist (or “Google” their questions).

I suggest that no one but us is really qualified -- fully and deeply – to be in the terminally ill business. Especially in a world that denies it every day by living like it wasn’t true. Men and women who try to physically change their appearance to look younger, take vitamins, and exercise. And take a pill to either keep their hair from getting grey or to increase their sexual performances to that of an adolescent. For by ignoring aging is to ignore death itself.

We know most physicians don’t like to deal with death and neither do most therapists, philosophers or scientists – nor do some clergy we know – but by default or not, we must. That’s what we do.

That’s our job. The job of a chaplain.

We chaplains are left to perform one of our society’s most important functions – to aid and assist the dying. To help people die. We are the death-responders.

Now I wish I could say that all of us are comfortable with this role. But we must be. That’s what we need to grow into if we think we are not very good at doing this. It’s “job one” for us.

It’s like this: all the other pastoral jobs are gone – they have been out-sourced! Sorry. There is only one seat left for us on this bus.

I look at it like this: you and I are essentially travel agents – the Karons of Greek mythology. Karon was the mythical figure who ferried the dead across the River Styxx to the Other Side.  

And the better we know the territory, the journey, and what death is all about, the better travel agents we will be for those who either request our services or who suddenly find themselves suddenly in our presence.

In the art of ancient Greece, Karon was depicted as a rough, unkempt sailor, holding his ferry pole in his right hand as his left hand received the deceased. He appeared to be an ordinary sailor – not a captain or an admiral – an ordinary person who simply had an essential and  necessary job to do.

And you and I, like Karon, need to comfortable with ourselves, being non-anxious souls who have come to know about the death journey, the river to be crossed, and something about the Other Shore to which we direct others.

You and I should know the territory, the Other Shore – that which any good travel agent is expected to know. For most of us the Other Shore is the foundation of most of the world’s religions. It’s all about the Other Shore, right?

So, we need to know the landscape, direction, and territory.

I suggest we do that  best by paying attention when someone is dying.  Listening. Feeling. Not reading about death or attending seminars or conferences or even listening to people like me, but about being awake and highly alert when we are with them. Being fully-present.

And that means being open, humble, and being a deep listener. Is this not the greatest gift we can give to another person in this busy, noisy, ego-driven, and death-denying society listening?

Real and deep listening… generous listening… gracious listening...

Our presence is to make sure that death, our one last act in this earthly life, remains sacred, holy, and full of both anticipation and possibility and as fear and pain-less as possible.

But we are more than just listening sentinels, travel agents, or ferry-tenders.  We are more, much, much more. That’s because we deal in a realm, an existence, that not everyone can see. To make the Other Shore more visible. To try and describe the life across the river as much as we have come to know and understand it. And to be able to talk about the Other Shore.

As we pole that boat across the river we can talk about the nurturing, primordial, life-giving river we are on. How it has eternally flowed. Its direction and destination always the same.

When it comes right down to it, our challenge today is to help others experience what we used to call “a good death.” But I don’t hear that term much anymore.

That is probably because many of us work in a hospital setting where death is considered a “failure” and not a process through which we all go.

But I still use it in my conversations. I think you should, too. Ask, “What would be a good death for you? How would you like it to be?”
 

For me, a good death means having no regrets. If there are regrets in the lives of the terminally ill and dying we encounter, we should encourage them to make amends, ask for forgiveness, restore the things in their lives which have been broken – that often involves relationships with their children. Doing this helps achieve the inner peace that will be needed in their walk to the river.

As chaplains, they are also things we need to do on a continual basis – make amends, ask and give forgiveness, restore that which has been broken in our own lives; to live “no regret” lives.

When we work for wholeness in our own lives we can be even better help to the dying – and that is to bring the “great possibility” into the conversation as we approach the boat, the river, and the Other Shore.

None of us really knows what happens on the Other Shore – THAT something unexpected and glorious will happen I am sure. How it will happen I do not know. Nor where we actually will go. Therefore, I suggest that we all be  “open to the possibility” – to the unknown – the mystical --even anticipate it.

A good chaplain helps the angry, the doubting, and the fearful as much as we are to help the faithful. We help others consider the promises we believe God has given to all of us.  This is a sacred mission.

After all, we all are dying each day. Some of us are dying faster than others. Each day that passes brings us closer to death. If there is a GREAT AND SACRED MISSION for those of us who serve as chaplains, this is it.

We are the Karons, the death-walkers, who lovingly, humbly, gently take the hand of those who reach out to us during their last steps in this realm.  Our job is to love them and to be courageous knowing and accepting, at the same time, our own anxiety and fear of death.

As we are present with those who are terminally ill, each of us grows a little more as we ourselves let go a little more. We enter with them into a mystical, liminal, and sacred space called death… a space of great possibility. A place where there is no sorrow, a place where God will wipe away every tear.

We walk with them to the ferryboat, stand by them to the Other Shore. And then say goodbye. Our face may be the last human face they see. In these situations, what does our face say to them?

Joseph Campbell once said,

 “We must be willing to let go of the life we planned -- so as to have the life that is waiting  for us.”

Death is letting go of all our great and grand plans. All our earthly hopes. Death permits us to enter into the glorious, yet unknown, life that is awaiting each one of us on the Other Shore.

Thank you for being here today and listening. I have lived much, listened much, experienced much, and believe in Glorious Light on the Other Shore.     

I hope and pray you do, too.

Talking to Men: Accountability

Accountability: the quality or state of being accountable; an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions.

            How accountable are we and to whom? Do we take responsibility for our behavior, sincerely and honestly account for it to our wives, children, friends, even co-workers? And if so, how?

            Accountability reminds me of change and change reminds me of the old question about how many psychiatrists it takes to change a light bulb. The answer, of course, is that you never know because the light bulb must first want to change. Doesn’t the same thought pertain to all of us? If we don’t want to change we never will unless it is a life or death situation. But then if we are sincere about changing our behavior, that’s when accountability can step in (that is after you, the “bulb,” wants to change).

            In my years changing organizations, I have come to realize that there is only one thing that will help a man change – accountability to other men.

            If you are a man who wants to change then tell other men about the change you are about to undertake. Then check-in with two of those men and a weekly basis and give them permission to hold you accountable, ask questions on how you are doing, and that you will answer their questions honestly. You'll be surprised how effective and change-producing this can be.

            After all, we men are good at self-deception. We have learned these behaviors to protect ourselves and our grand self-images. Few of us have ever had the opportunity to see ourselves as others see us. But if we are sincere about our desire to change and seeing ourselves as others see us, this is one good and sure way to do it. 

            At these weekly meetings with two trusted friends answer the following questions:

Since we last met…

1.      As a person of faith, tell us about your highs/lows... struggles & victories?

2.      How have you handled temptation?

3.      How have you managed your addictions or addictive tendencies?

4.      What has been the quality and character of your role as 

              a) husband, 

              b) father, 

              c) friend, and 

              d) co-worker? 

                     Did they meet God’s expectations of you? 

                     Where have you fallen short?            

                     Where do you need prayer and encouragement?

5.      Tell us about how you have practiced your faith so that it has been evident to others in a positive way?

6. What is your plan for the coming week in light of what you have told us?

7. Have you been totally honest in what you have said?

            Men, if you are really sincere about being the man God created you to be, you will seriously consider what I have posted here. Good luck and God bless you!

Don't Talk To Me About Theology!

Seeking God is often about wrestling.

Writing the title of this blog reminded me of that song, "Don't know much about history..." by Sam Cooke in the 60s.

Don't know much about history
Don't know much biology
Don't know much about a science book
Don't know much about the French I took

But I do know that I love you
And I know that if you love me too
What a wonderful world this would be

 I would re-word this for me today as:

Don't know much about theology

Don't know much about church history

Don't know much about liturgy

Don't know much about church politics

But I do know that I love you

And I know, God, you love me too

What a wonderful world this would be

I think there comes a time in our spiritual lives when we simply don’t want to talk about theology. And I think I'm there.

After all, it’s really never kept us out of trouble, has it? I mean, aren’t all our disputes in the church more about theology than how we live, love God and one another? We argue over who’s in and who’s out of the Kingdom until I'm sick of hearing it. 

When others don’t agree with us about our theology, it often leads to mean-spirited words being spoken. I mean our faith is supposed to be about God, isn’t it? Then there is that second greatest commandment: to love each other as God loves us. 

I am to the point in time that God and love is better practiced than discussed. 

So, don’t talk to me about theology!

But what I’d like to talk about is what we are doing with our faith. You know, our practice of being more like Jesus every day. 

Think of it like this: now that Christmas come and gone, let’s talk about how Jesus was born in our hearts. 

And when Easter comes, let’s share how our life has been resurrected by Jesus’ Resurrection. 

And yes, when Pentecost comes, let’s shout out the gifts that God has given us to help others and heal the world.

We hear a lot today about Christian Evangelicals. Well what about Christian Pentecostals?

I want us to think more about being more Pentecostal than Evangelical.

At this point in my life, I want to be more Pentecostal—more Spirit-filled, and recognize and use the spiritual gifts that God has abundantly poured out you and me.

That’s the kind of stuff I want to talk about. As for theology—I guess I just don’t have the time or the stomach for it anymore. 

When God Shows Up!

Why should I be amazed or astonished when God shows up? Shouldn’t I simply expect God to act? Well, I did, but I didn’t this past weekend.

This past weekend was our 4^th annual Holy Spirit weekend venture. My friend and colleague, Pastor Rob Nelson, and I started out by presenting these weekends as a “teaching moments;” to help the faithful learn more about the Holy Spirit and becoming full Trinitarian Christians (Father, Son, AND Holy Spirit).

For the first couple of times we led these weekends together we fell into the knowledge trap. We thought that If we TEACH about God’s Holy Spirit (just like we preach on Sundays) then this transformation should happen. This year, we asked another pastor friend to come out with us, Mike Lee from Lodi who is an accomplished musician and worship leader. The three of us have journeyed together as accountability partners since our first One Year to Live men’s retreat  four years ago.

A couple of years ago, as we prayed about the year’s upcoming weekend, we were literally touched by God – God told us he didn’t need smarter Christians, but Christians who yearn to EXPERIENCE him through his Holy Spirit. And so the weekend began to change from head to heart.

Just before this year’s weekend, I was extra busy with my book (read “obsessed" says Sabine!) and some last minute editorial and structural changes and on Wednesday, Sabine’s oncologist told us she had to go back on I.V. chemotherapy requiring two ½ day hospital visits each week for a number of months. In addition, we have a host of family soon joining us for Christmas. I was tired. Distracted. I really didn’t want to go on the weekend. On the day of the retreat I was extra busy, missed a nap I was going to take and dragged myself out to the Bethel Horizons Camp near Dodgeville where we scheduled this year’s retreat. I was worried about Sabine. The book edits were driving me nuts.

After dinner and some song, prayer and praise, we asked the nearly 20 folks present  if they would like some prayer as the evening began. No one came forward so I said, okay, why not me to start the session? As I stepped into the circle of those in attendance I had a huge weight on my shoulders. I felt strong hands on my shoulders, prayers for Sabine and then something I could actually feel on my shoulders – a slow lifting of weight. I began to feel more relaxed. I recognized my need to center myself this weekend and get beyond my book and its problems.

The evening went well and we finished up around 11 p.m. I thought I was tired and I headed to my room to hit the sack. Once there, I could not sleep. I tossed and turned. Sleep evaded me. In my head, I started thinking about a problem chapter I had. More tossing and turning and then I got up out of bed at 1:30. I had brought my computer along and the chapter in question was right there.  Is this what you want me to do, God? Two hours later, the problems were solved. I went back to bed got a couple of hours sleep and then got up around six. I had a cup of coffee, saw the sunrise in the east and began to feel light as a feather and I wasn’t tired. This was strange. What we all had prayed for last night had now come to pass. But lying in bed earlier, unable to sleep, I was a little ticked with God – hey, God, let me sleep. But that wasn’t the plan God had for me. Sometimes God’s plan is to disturb us.

I should have known God would be up to something powerful this weekend. When Rob and I met on Thursday afternoon we each had received a “word of knowledge.” His word was “surrender,” mine was “self-abandonment” -- virtually the same thing. We shared our words and I knew those words were as much for me as for anyone else in the group. I needed to surrender/abandon myself to God. To let go and let God. To not try and orchestrate God and tell God what to do. God is not someone for me to order around. That’s my spiritual struggle.

Of course, the weekend went powerfully well. Why would I doubt it? Wasn’t that my prayer! God’s Spirit came down and touched us powerfully. God’s spiritual gifts became manifest in the group just like on the day of Pentecost. And we ended with being further empowered and strengthen by the sacrament of  Holy Communion.  We did just as Jesus did. “Take and eat this bread – my body given for you. Take and drink this cup, my blood given for you,”

This weekend, we broke bread together, talked about our problems, prayed for and encouraged one another. God was given glory through song and freed-up bodies. Hands were raised, knees bent, and hearts opened to God.  Yes, we know about this. It was just like the Bible tells us. Just like the Early Church; the Church we read about in the New Testament. The Church Jesus died for. In Acts 2 we read all about that Church: those in it were filled with awe as they experienced signs and wonders. They lived in harmony with one another. Every person’s need was met. They worshipped and ate meals together. They celebrated with joy and exuberance and mightily praised God. So, what happened? Those around them liked what they saw and every day God added those who were saved (Acts 43-47, The Message translation).

Brothers and sisters, that’s the Church. Is it a place you would like to be but cannot find it? It really isn’t a building, it’s a body of people – a community. If you want something different, pray for it. Pray that those who come together in a building and yet who call themselves the “Body of Christ,” can humble themselves to the Lord, open their hearts to God, and then be willing to get out of their heads and into their hearts. Worship in Spirit. And set themselves and their needs aside and open the door for God to come in and dwell – and even mix things up! If we truly pray for God’s Spirit to mightily come among us, stir us up, and pour out his Spirit on everyone, it will happen.

Why should we be amazed or astonished when God shows up? Shouldn’t we simply expect God to act? We can be change, the transformation, that needs to happen. Go and do it!

(Finally, I need to share this powerful video by Rob Bell on God's Spirit called "Breathe." You can see it at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JzjerWHtdM) Let me know what you think.)

Waterboarding is Torture!

In the recent televised debate on national security, several Republican presidential candidates stated their support for waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques.”  There are, no doubt, some Democrats that support this position. But torture is torture -- and whoever says it is not is wrong – Republican or Democrat.

To take the edge of it, we often hear waterboarding euphemistically called an “enhanced interrogation technique.” But whatever it called it is torture and torture is immoral, un-American, illegal, and wrong.

As a matter of fact, after World War II, we prosecuted Japanese soldiers as war criminals for waterboarding our military personnel.  And time and time again, we hear experienced interrogators say that torture is simply not a good way to get useful information. As a police officer for over thirty years, I know that good cops get better information from suspects than bad cops!

We say we are a nation, “under God.” If that is so, then we must remember that God teaches us to defend and respect the dignity of all human beings – not to abuse and torture them.

      This issue is beyond political parties. For example, Senator McCain, our most recent Republican nominee for President, a war hero, and a survivor of torture, said that he was “very disappointed by statements supporting waterboarding. Waterboarding is torture.”

      Let’s get it straight. Regardless of our political affiliation, waterboarding is torture! And let’s not stand for it! So to make sure what we are talking about. Take a look at the Christopher Hitchens video on waterboarding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LPubUCJv58

A Writer Listens to Jesus' Stories

How does a writer like Mary Gordon approach the stories Jesus told? Especially a writer who is just like the rest of us… sometime we believe, sometimes we don’t… sometimes we wonder why all the contradictions in the stories Jesus told and the ones his followers wrote down – the Gospels? This is a great book about Jesus in the narrative, the story, by a person who loves stories and wants to love Jesus.

Mary Gordon grew up in an Italian-Irish Catholic/Jewish family. Her father converted to Catholicism. She attended Holy Name of Mary School in Valley Stream and The Mary Louis Academy High School in Jamaica, N.Y. She is Catholic.

Mary received her A.B. from Barnard College and her M.A. from Syracuse University. She is the McIntosh Professor of English at Barnard College.

In 1981, she wrote the foreword to the Harvest edition of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. In 1984 she was one of 97 theologians and religious persons who signed “A Catholic Statement on Pluralism and Abortion,” calling for religious pluralism and discussion within the Catholic Church regarding the Church's position on abortion.

Novelist Galaxy Craze said this of Gordon as a teacher,

"She loves to read; she would read us passages in class and start crying, she's so moved by really good writing. And she was the only good writing teacher at Barnard, so I just kept taking her class over and over. She taught me so much."

Circling My Mother: A Memoir (2007) marked her return to nonfiction. In 2009 she published a book Reading Jesus: A Writer’s Encounter with the Gospels.  In it, Gordon uses her literary training to read the Gospels.

See what she had to say in this book…

http://books.google.com/books?id=DlZvt855VacC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Mary+Gordon&hl=en&ei=ZEPBTpO1N8nC2wWkqfizBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CEUQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false

Health Advice

There are usually two bits of advice we are constantly given from healthcare providers and clergy: to exercise and to pray. I think it’s safe to say that both are critical for good physical and spiritual health. But of course we are busy and to take time for both of these activities is just too time consuming -- even if we know it is good for us.

So I am going to propose a solution; do both together – exercise while you pray, pray while you exercise! During my morning hour-long exercise (which is either walking our woods, cycling, snowshoeing or skiing) I pray. It isn’t as difficult as it sounds. And I am sure that God accepts this type of prayer as much as God accepts other prayers. Remember the formula: ACTS as a method of prayer? – adoration (praise to God), contrition (self-examination and asking for forgiveness), thanksgiving (for all our blessings), and supplication (asking help from God). During exercise, we can also listen; to be quiet, hear what God is saying to us (this is the part of prayer that we often forget… to be quiet). This is an important ingredient in both contemplative and centering prayer. You can find out more about this kind of prayer at: http://www.contemplativemind.org.

What I am really talking about is “prayer-walking.” And prayer-walking has a long history within all our enduring world religions. For example, I found a great little book online about this kind of prayer at: http://www.newchurches.com/mediafiles/PrayerWalkManual.pdf. And within the Christian Orthodox tradition, “hesychasm” is a form of praying done while walking and constantly repeating the “Jesus Prayer” (“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”).  (You can find out more about this practice at http://www.hesychasm.ru/en/library.htm). And within Buddhism, many monks, like Thich Nhat Hanh, advocate mindfully walking for one’s spiritual health.

I have also found that an iPod is a good way to keep up on contemporary spiritual music from praise to Gregorian chant. Plug in and listen to the wonderful spiritual music that can be downloaded from the iTunes website (and besides, our monthly praise Eucharist will be a lot more familiar to you!).

So this month I am advocating that you consider beginning a program that combines exercise and prayer. I have mentioned before that to either eliminate or ingrain a habit takes about six weeks. So why not begin this fall? Start out with a 30 minute walk and pray the “ACTS” format and then spend the rest of the time being quiet and listening for God. Set a time every day and get out and get praying. The result is a heart that will be healthier both physically and spiritually!  

The Elephant in the Room: Reflections on the Corporate Church

This past week I attended our denomination’s annual meeting. I am sure it was like the annual denominational meetings of most other Christians. I have attended these assemblies more or less since the early 1990s. Sadly, each time I go away disappointed. My disappointment comes from the fact that we do corporate culture so well (resolutions, amendments, parliamentarians, and amendments to the amendments) and Spirit so poorly . Each delegation from each parish seems to come with one (often unspoken) resolve: to make sure there are no increase in parish assessments (read: taxes). If our leaders are able to “hold the line” on parish taxes they buy peace for another year.

So this time I was again thinking: maybe I should just resolve myself to doing corporate; that is, act like a shareholder. But in that case, I would have to delve into the corporate report that tells us all is not well in our part of the Kingdom – after all, if 2/3 of our parishes have not grown perhaps we need some spiritual help. So, why not take some risks? Innovate, experiment! In the corporate world this kind of report would bring uneasiness to shareholders. 

So given where we are today what are we going to do about it? What’s is the plan of our CEO and board of directors to improve? Do things better? Bring about a better “bottom line” in the immediate future. For the “bottom line” in our business is not financial growth or reduced taxes  but rather the making of disciples. And of course there is God’s pronouncements in Matthew 25 as to who should receive our effort in case we are unsure: the hungry, those who thirsty, strangers, sick, or in prison. How have we acted on God’s preference for these people?  Not on outreach, but on “boots on the ground” mission? In the corporate world these could be goals whose performance could then be measured and then action demanded.

On the other hand, I can easily dismiss this corporate-focus of the church. Sure, some business needs to be transacted: positions filled, budgets approved and so on. But if I set aside things bureaucratic, then I am compelled to try and view this gathering in an entirely different way: the way Jesus would. But then I expect something different to happen. Really different.

Now I expect this because I have witnessed it before. I know what I read in the Bible (especially our church “how-to-do-it” manual called the Book of Acts). I expect big things to happen when Christ’s Spirit is invited in. I have seen it in mission-work, retreats, worship, and occasionally when teaching or preaching – and, yes, I have experienced it in my own life. This Spirit transforms lives, heals the sick, and turns hearts to God. I have seen “wonders and signs” and even miracles. And, yes, I expect them to happen -- even during annual church meetings.

Bear with me. Once a year we all get together in one big assembly – a body; to wit, Christ’s Body. To me, this is an immense opportunity for us to hear and share stories of God’s work in the world and be filled with his Spirit. How have we gone about carrying out the Great Commission? Brought the Reign of God closer? How have we fed the hungry, healed the sick and visited captives? How has the Spirit been working in and amongst us? Tell it and tell it out loud. When Christ’s Body comes together it should be a time of great witness, sharing and celebration.

And what about that celebration? When a group of Jesus’ disciples get together in one place for two days, big things ought to happen: heart-wringing celebration through worship and liturgy, unbridled praise, reinforced hope, and a glorious spiritual in-filling! This is Christ’s body here on earth. Yes, it happens! Remember, Christ has no hands, no feet, no voice, but ours. So, let’s clap hands, dance and sing!

But when we get together it is often apparent that we are not what God intended: for the most part, we are overwhelmingly white and we are grey. I feel that it is a condemnation that we have not gone out to the world with God’s message of reconciliation and hope and made manifest the prophecies in Joel 2 and Galatians 3 that we would be ONE in Christ Jesus – and a joyful ONE at that!  Our worship is often the “same-old, same-old.” Yes, cross-generational worship is difficult, but not impossible. Worship can also be a time for innovation, letting go and letting God. Today, we Christians must think outside the box and if the box is old and musty, then we need to open it up to spiritual winds. Those who have read the New Testament and believed it should not accept any less.

The post-communion hymn for our evening worship for that weekend meeting was, “I am the Bread of Life.” The words are powerful and I believe are written to move not only our hearts but our bodies as well. After all, we are talking about being raised up! We sang four verses of the hymn and four refrains of  “And I will raise them up, and I will raise them up, and I will raise them up on the last day.” We are singing about the process of being raised up; renewal, spiritual re-birth. For those of us who have experienced being raised up, how can this not move us? As I looked around, I noticed congregation assembled was either sitting or kneeling. As the verses progressed and the refrain repeated again, a few hands were raised, a few bodies were swayed by the Great Promise – that we will be raised “on the last day.”  Hey, that’s the Message! What does it mean? How does it move us?

I was in the back row and expecting that this, perhaps, would be the moment of spiritual filling I was hoping for; that we, as a body, would be moved as others have been moved in the past. And that we would begin to worship with our whole bodies -- “heart, mind, soul and strength;” We could do that by standing up and raising our hands in the ancient form of prayer to God.  But, we didn’t -- instead, we sat.

Then the words of Jesus in Luke 19 came to me. It was the time when the religious leaders of his time asked Jesus to tell his disciples to stop shouting his praises; literally, to quit causing a commotion, quit embarrassing themselves. But Jesus didn’t tell them to stop, instead, he told his critics, “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” I didn’t want the stones in this church to cry out, so I stood up and raised my hands in praise.

Such is the nature of the Church -bureaucratic versus the Church-triumphant, we get mixed up as to who, whose we are, and what we should be doing. And the reason we become more bureaucratic than triumphant is that we keep on ignoring what Jesus said and did. He promised us great things, “Those who believe in me will do what I do—yes, they will do even greater things” (John 14:12). It is this Spirit which we ought to call into our midst at every gathering; empowering, teaching and leading us to do God’s work in the world. And when he shows up to welcome him!

So as we go about our corporate business, I notice the “elephant in the room” -- the obvious individual no one wants to notice. And, to me, that elephant is the Spirit Jesus promised to send to us.

I don’t know when or where we will ever welcome this “elephant” in our denomination. Maybe I am off-base on this. Maybe my heart has been made Pentecostal. And maybe all is well and it’s just me. But I am sensing that it is not -- and that if we do not start doing the things we know we should be doing, one day, someone, most likely old and white like me, will have to turn off the lights for the last time, say goodbye to a once grand and gallant assembly of Christians who sadly ignored, then forgot, the Third Person in God's household.