Risky Relationships

Below is a FaceBook post by a girl who spoke no Romanian to another girl who did not speak at all. The two could not exchange words. Yet, they communicated in ways few people can. When Christ is present, sometimes no words are needed.

Maria Cleopatra was a precious girl I met while I was in Romania volunteering at a clinic. She lived to be almost five despite the fact that she had hydrocephaly. It was not expected for her to live this long, and some doubted her ability to understand or relate; however I knew different. She laughed at the sound of another person's laugh, and she cooed and stretched as you rubbed her back or head, places that were hardly ever touched due to her fragile condition. Maria, you will be so very missed, and I am glad you are no longer suffering. ♥

Today is Easter. It is a day we are reminded of the awesome work Christ did for us, the risk, if you will, God took to secure a relationship with Him. Most of us risk so little. We are afraid of the hurt we know accompanies so many relationships. Rejected affections. Broken promises. Betrayed confidences. Yet there are those who seem to risk so much, who are committed to love even when they know that hurt is on the way.

In one sense there is no risk here. The volunteer knew she would return home in a couple months. She knew the child was given “No chance” by medical staff there in Romania. It is a situation made for heartbreak. You know it will happen. You just don’t know how soon.

Have you ever thought how Jesus felt about laying down His life for you and me? He knew we were unfaithful. He knew we would quickly run after some other affection, something else that would attract our eye oh so quickly. Yet, He jumped in boldly. He held nothing back. He let us stomp on Him, beat Him, spit on Him, curse Him, and nail Him to a tree and crucify Him. It was a most serious path, leading to this wonderful day of resurrection, a day that moves us beyond language, a day that cements relationships with the bond of Christian kindness, compassion, grace, and forgiveness.

We follow the example of our Savior when we jump in boldly, giving little or no thought for ourselves, simply committing our hearts to one another, as Christ gave His life for us. When we sing They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love this is the kind of love we are singing about. Christ is Risen! We are loved. We can love in return.

 Pastor Craig

Why Tenebrae?

The purpose of the Tenebrae service is to connect with those people who experienced the loss of Jesus Christ firsthand. As the sanctuary darkens, we experience some of the darkness that overtook their world and their life. When we see the Christ candle leave the sanctuary, we may feel a moment of hopelessness and helplessness. There is nothing to celebrate in this service. Our one hope, that we might indeed be reunited to our Creator, is dead and buried.

I have pastoral colleagues who will not observe a Tenebrae service because they say we live in a post – Easter church. We cannot be without hope because hope has already been raised. Yes, fortunately, that is true. Still, the disciples lived, for a few days, knowing that Christ would never again walk with them, teach them, and show them the power of God in their midst. We live knowing that the power of God is always with us, alive in us through the person of the Holy Spirit.  

Yet we live in a society that, even as it is able to allow us to connect in more ways than any other society in the history of the world, is more fractured than any previous society. We can call, text, E-mail, FaceBook, tweet, chat, etc, but we still know less and less about one another. We lose compassion, never really gaining understanding of our brother or sister in Christ.

Tenebrae reminds us of that brokenness. It tells us that we need restoration.

When the disciples had community, what was its center, its focal point? The community of faith centered itself around the person of Jesus Christ. It did not divide up over mode of baptism or style of music. It cared nothing about pre-millennialism, post-millennialism, or amillenialism. It was immediate because the need for restoration was immediate. We were broken and there was no better time to fix our brokenness than right now. We were too busy evangelizing the world to worry that one of our group should be hated as a tax collector, another was a blue collar fisherman, another was an anarchist, and another, even though he stole from the group, was allowed to stay a part of the community as long as he was willing.

Today we divide over politics, race, worship styles, marriage issues, nationality, and many other things. In so many ways we seem more lost than they ever were. Yes, indeed, the darkness of the Tenebrae seems overwhelming at this point. Our hopelessness seems to equal that of the disciples.

We do know the end of the story. But, now do you have a little better appreciation for the view the disciples had on Good Friday?

Pastor Craig

What does Palm Sunday mean?

This is the time of year we think about Easter. We may think of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, or we may think of eggs and rabbits. Either way, we think about Easter.  However, to jump to Easter so early this week minimizes the rest of what Jesus did during the last few days of his life.

Today we think about Palm Sunday. For many Christians this means processionals into the sanctuary waving palm branches in our attempt to connect with those early disciples. We may talk about the fickleness of the crowd that greeted Jesus and wonder how many of those who shouted “Hosanna” on Palm Sunday shouted “Crucify him!” on Good Friday.

We may think of the symbolism of the donkey. There are those who proclaim it as a lowly beast of burden, maybe even a possible rejection of a mightier steed at the same inn from which the donkey was taken. Taking the “war horse” would have been a rallying cry for a warrior Messiah for which so many of the people had hoped.

Zechariah 9:9 refers to the king of Israel coming in victory and riding on a donkey. Certainly this verse was forgotten by the priests and Levites watching the procession. Kings road war horses when they prepared for battle. However, they also rode donkeys when they came in peace or when the victory had already been won. Jesus’ riding the donkey could have been a proclamation of the peace of God over the wrath of God, or it could have been a proclamation of a victory already won.

In the Roman world, the palm branch was the symbol for victory and triumph and became the attribute of the Roman deity Nike or Victory, a symbol that, along with the people proclaiming Christ as King, would cause many of the Romans present that day a great deal of anxiety.

In other parts of the Roman Empire, the palm was carried in funeral processions to symbolize eternal life and hope in a resurrection.

Any way you look at it, the donkey was far more than transportation and the palm was much more important than an ordinary parade banner. The people, and probably Jesus, were both making bold statements.

What bold statement are you prepared to make as a follower of Jesus Christ on this Palm Sunday?

Pastor Craig

What Should We Do With 2013?

In the last few weeks I put before the session a document entitled A Narrative on the Health of Mission and Ministry of the Church. It is, in part a return to our roots. It was, prior to 1925, the annual report of a Presbyterian congregation shared with a small number of other local churches who shared the goal of “doing better” at the job the Lord had given each to do. There are ten areas in this document. To do all ten of them would be overwhelming. So, the question was put to the session, “If we could only focus on one of these items for the rest of this calendar year, which one should it be?”

The clear winner was: How are you encouraging people to allow God’s Word to shape their priorities and actions, and to nurture constant learning and the life of the mind?

The description that went along with that question was: Reformed people are people of the Bible. How is the Scripture impacting the life or our congregation; nurturing a lifetime hunger and deepening our theological and Biblical understanding? We are committed to making sure faith is understood, expressed, and passed on. We will continue to nurture study and growth, but our study is not designed only to increase our knowledge. Everything we study from the great Confessions of history or our Essential Tenets of Faith is designed to focus back on the Word of God for personal growth and increase in ministry effectiveness.

This is the commitment of your session for the rest of this year. We will indeed do other things as well, but we recognize that our growth in faith is often tied to our growth in study of the Word of God. To that end we will take the Word of God seriously, turning to it for guidance and encouragement. It will be our standard by which we make our decisions.

This is not as though we have never intended to do this prior to this year. No, this is a re-emphasis on learning what our Lord has to say to us through the Scripture, our sister churches who covenanted with us in this process, and what our forefathers in the faith have written and passed down to us across the ages.

It is our hope that this recommitment to these standards will lead each one in our faith community to a renewed sense of presence of the Spirit working daily in us and through us that we might show forth the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ to one another and the world around us.

Pastor Craig

Famous Last Words

 
I don’t want to die!

            Reported as Hugo Chaves’ last words.  

While not definitive as to one’s life, last words give us an insight to a person’s state of mind at their end. If it says anything as to their whole life, I will leave that for others to decide. However, last words do seem to indicate a person’s readiness to finish out their earthly life and to take the leap of faith into the infinite. Is it fear, or a sense of unfinished business here? I cannot say.

Other famous last words include:

See in what peace a Christian can die.

 Joseph Addison, publisher of The Spectator.

Oh God, here I go.  .  .

Max Baer, American boxer.  

Now comes the mystery.

Henry Ward Beecher, Pastor, Social Reformer, Abolitionist.

I am about to – or I am going to – die; either expression is permissible.

Dominique Bouhours, French grammarian.

Let us pass over the river and rest under the shade of the trees. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, He had inadvertently been shot by his own men.

Oh, wifie, I shall have such a blessed time with my Lord!

Charles Spurgeon, Baptist preacher

My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things, I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior.

John Newton, converted slave trader, composer of Amazing Grace

It seems that those who know their Savior best are least tied to this earth at the end. They can rejoice in all that God has given them in this life. They may feel some sadness at events for which they will not be physically present. However, they seem to be able to rejoice in the midst of this sadness, to rejoice as the last page of their earthly life’s story is read, and to look expectantly toward the new thing they will experience and become.
 

Pastor Craig

Forgiveness

How do we forgive one another? How do we forgive ourselves? How do receive forgiveness? What does that even mean?

Someone commented the other day that forgiveness meant forgetting an offense ever occurred. I disagree with that comment. Forgiveness is much more than losing your long term memory. Forgiveness is about knowing exactly what the other person has done and and deciding not to hold them to account.

Isaiah 43:25 says, I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions , for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. The idea here is not one of forgetfulness. God does not forget what we have done. God CHOOSES not to bring those transgression up, not to throw them in our face. God chooses not to recite our list of wrongs over and over again.

The reciting and keeping a list of wrongs is the biggest obstacle we have when it comes to forgiving others. Many times we may want the relationship to be restored but we simply can't get past the list in our head. We try to forget it entirely, but there seems to be a switch or button that always replays the list for us once again. That is why it cannot be about forgetting. It must be about choosing not to hold the other accountable. It is about setting the offender free and, in so doing, freeing ourselves.

But, how do we forgive ourselves when we are the offender? We tend to bring up our own faults and torture ourselves with them. We find it far more difficult to "not remember" our own offenses than the offenses of others.

The doctor in the video is trying to gain forgiveness. He cannot forgive himself for what he has done. Is it possible to receive forgiveness from another if one cannot forgive himself? Will it matter how many times someone else says, Don't worry about it. It's alright, if something inside of us continues our level of anxiety and says NO, it's not alright!

The Gospel is about forgiveness. It is about living as forgiven people. How is that possible if we cannot forgive ourselves. We are not forgiven until that most harsh of taskmasters is satisfied, the taskmaster of self.

The good news of the cross is not limited to a restored relationship with our Creator. It is also about being given a new view of ourselves. We are indeed forgiven people. God has restored to us a life of purpose and taken from us the life of failure. The old things have passed away. In Christ, all things have become new.