Ask the Pastor, Part 1

I have borrowed a concept from a colleague and friend. The West Bloomfield UCC congregation submits faith n' religion questions that I do my best to answer. We collected our first round of questions last Sunday. Here they are with my humble answers:

How do you define “Christian?”

This is a question millions upon millions through the centuries have struggled with, fought over and died from. Let's start at the foundation:

The word Christian contains the word Christ from the Greek Kristos, meaning “anointed one.” This is the Greek term for the Jewish “messiah.” The suffix -ian is derived from the latin iani, meaning “a partisan of,” like Caesariani means “partisan of Caesar.” So Christian means partisan of the Christ.

The word Christian only appears twice in the entire Bible, and both times rather negatively! Early believers instead used terms like saints, brothers, disciples, and followers of the way. So it is unlikely that the followers of Jesus originated the term Christian.

Likewise, it certainly wouldn't have been 1st Century Jews who originated the term, since the name CHRISTian assumes that Jesus is the Christ, which most Jews denied. Rather, it appears Roman officials in Antioch may have coined the term to distinguish the Jesus movement from Judaism, and they probably meant it as an insult. Within several decades, the followers of Christ would wear that insult as a badge of honor, beginning to identify themselves as Christian.

The long and bloody history of our faith focuses a great deal on the definition of Christian, and, most specifically, on who ISN'T one. So many litmus tests and arbitrary rules of faith have been negatively applied to the term that many modern people of faith shy away from the label completely! As for me, I think I'd return to the original term and define Christian rather widely as anyone who would follow the teachings of Jesus as a self-identified partisan of the Christ. Or more precisely: A Christian, to me, is one who recognizes in some form the messiah-ship of Jesus, and desires and consistently attempts to bring his/her own life into harmony with his teachings.

Jesus is only spoken of one time as a child around 12 years of age. Why not more?

It seems an unfathomable mystery that our Bibles are very nearly silent on the topic of Christ's childhood, and we would dearly love to know more about his first years! But, logically, it is perfectly understandable that we do not. Consider the following:

We know little or nothing about the childhood of any Biblical character, except when some element or experience of that childhood is central to some point being made. What was it like for Moses being raised by an Egyptian princess? We have no idea. How did David pass his time as a five year old? Not a clue. Was John the Baptist a wild child? Beats me. Did Paul get along well with his mom and dad? Can't tell you for sure. Sure, we know that Ishmael and Isaac suffered rivalry and travails as children, but those stories are central to historic assertions the Biblical author is stressing. More often than not, childhood experiences are not documented because they weren't seen as vital to the message.

Most of the first followers of Christ didn't deem his childhood important enough to write about. Why? Some historians say that infant mortality rates were so high in those days that emphasis was placed only on birth (for lineage) and then on “coming of age” around 12 years old (successful survival to one's pro-creative years), with not a lot of societal attention or energy devoted to what we would today consider the vital, formative years of early childhood. It's true. Two of our four Gospels don't even have accounts of Jesus' birth (Mark and John)! Paul, who authored our oldest New Testament scriptures, addresses only the adult ministries and teachings of Christ. What mattered to the first generations of Christians were Jesus' very adult messianic claims and his teachings.

Those who assembled what we now call the New Testament saw no value in preserving stories of Christ's childhood. There are other Gospels out there that didn't make the cut when Christian leaders were deciding what would go into our Bibles and what would not. Some of them have stories of Jesus' childhood. Most of them seem kind of wild and pretty goofy. We aren't missing much by their exclusion, it would seem. So, what we have instead are two stories of Christ's birth (in Matthew and Luke, to prove his Jewish pedigree and assert God's intention from the start), and his experience at Temple as a pubescent boy (showing him entering public life as – at the least – an already unique and profound religious thinker).

I don't believe in the virgin birth or the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Does this mean that I'm not really a Christian?

Can those who would call themselves Christians be skeptical of basic tenets of the faith? Good question. Let me first frame my answer by referring back to my personal definition of Christian above, as one who recognizes the messiah-ship of Jesus in some form and who thus desires and consistently attempts to bring his/her life and relationships into harmony with Christ's teachings.

There are prominent sects of Christianity that insist a belief in the Virgin Birth is necessary for all “true Christians.” It is, for example, an essential element of Roman Catholic doctrine. If you don't believe in the Virgin Birth, you probably shouldn't consider Roman Catholicism or any of the more conservative Protestant sects. There are other branches of Christianity in which this is not considered a make-or-break issue, as they believe Mary need not have been a virgin for God and she to bring forth the messiah. Controversial? Yes. Universally accepted? No.

Not believing in the resurrection of Jesus is stickier, as the Gospel writers insist that the physical resurrection happened, and is an important part of our core traditions. Jesus is real. He is there. The apostles touch him. He eats a piece of fish (Luke 24:41-43).

But you specified bodily resurrection, didn't you? Perhaps you're thinking about 1 Corinthians 15 in which Paul argues clearly that the resurrection one must believe in and embrace as a follower of Christ is a Spiritual Resurrection?

The Gospel writers take great pains to describe Christ's resurrection as both a physical and spiritual event. Paul, on the other hand, speaks of Jesus “appearing” to many, and seems to rally around resurrection as a spiritual phenomenon. If you doubt that Jesus returned with a beating heart, breathing lungs, churning digestive system and all the mundane processes, functions and practical requirements associated with a mortal body, I would suggest there is still room for you in the mystery of the Christian faith. After all, Christ does seem to be in a strange state when Mary Magdalene meets him (she doesn't recognize him until he calls her by name, and then he tells her not to hang onto him), he moves through locked doors and might suddenly disappear when recognized. Couldn't these details speak of something above and beyond a mere physical resurrection? Sure they could.

However, if you deny completely the return in any form after death of Christ and disbelieve his promise to his followers of a new life in some form beyond this world, I can see no good or compelling reason to consider yourself Christian.

Life and School Sport Culture...

I read this article this morning and simply had to share it. What do you think of it? (c.k.)

Christian Science Monitor - Opinion

Columbine and the folly of overvaluing school sports
Ten years later, we are still confusing athletic success with the moral and intellectual kind.
By Jonathan Zimmerman
from the April 20, 2009 edition

New York - In December 1999, just eight months after 15 people died there, Columbine High School won its first state football championship. Americans love a happy ending, and this one was made for TV. National newscasts ran footage of the celebrations at Columbine, which followed a predictable media script: Athletic triumph tempers human tragedy.

And surely, Columbine High School needed any good news it could get. But the impulse to take comfort in sports reflected a larger problem, too: American high schools put far too large a premium on organized athletics.

As we pause to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Columbine murders, we should also reflect on the sports-crazed culture that helped produce them.

Let's be clear: Nothing can excuse the raw malevolence of the two boys, who gunned down 12 students and a teacher before taking their own lives. And they didn't go looking for "jocks" to kill, as early media reports claimed. But they were bullied by athletes, who stood at the top of the Columbine social ladder.

Even worse, adults reinforced this hierarchy. At Columbine, as sociologist Ralph Larkin has confirmed, teachers and administrators looked the other way when athletes hit or harassed weaker students. When sports stars got arrested outside the school, meanwhile, Columbine bent the rules to make sure they could still take the field.

Most of all, the school awarded athletes a special place in its symbolic order. In foyer display cases, sports trophies and memorabilia spoke volumes about who really counted. The hallway leading to the gymnasium featured Columbine's Wall of Fame, celebrating – you guessed it – the school's outstanding athletes.

That doesn't make Columbine unique, of course. Indeed, other American communities lavish even more acclaim on their youthful sports heroes. At Permian High School in Odessa, Texas – made famous by the H.G. Bissinger book "Friday Night Lights" – school officials spent $70,000 for a chartered airplane to fly the football team to visiting games. Meanwhile, the school's textbooks were 15 years out of date – and nobody could come up with the money to replace them.

So let's use this anniversary to think about sports – not just violence – in American schools. Keep in mind that violent crime in our schools has declined – not increased – by nearly half over the past decade. And shootings are extremely rare. Over the past 20 years, about 10 students per year have been shot in school – roughly one per month during the academic year. That's one too many, of course, but it hardly qualifies as a crisis.

Our overemphasis on sports does. When we tie "school pride" to athletics, we give pride of place to student athletes. And we send exactly the wrong message to millions of children: The sports field is more important than the classroom.

Colleges exacerbate the problem, of course, by rewarding athletic prowess with scholarships and special advantages in admissions. That's because so much of their pride, too, is invested in fielding successful sports teams.

And that returns us to Columbine, which won the state football title again in 2002. Once more, the school celebrated its strength in the face of adversity.

"The team and the school and the community at large had every reason to quit, to give up, to descend into total despair, but we've come out of it to a great degree," Columbine's principal said at the time. "We showed amazing resolve and resilience, and maybe, in some way, we've given faith to others, who saw how we responded."

But sports victories don't signify strength, or resilience, or anything else; they simply mean that one team scored more points than another one did. Today, 10 years after Columbine, we are still confusing athletic success with the moral and intellectual kind.

We need some brave school leaders to stand up and state a few simple truths: Sports are not life, and life is not sports, and all of us need to relearn the difference. Any takers?

Jonathan Zimmerman teaches history and education at New York University. He is the author of "Small Wonder: The Little Red Schoolhouse in History and Memory," which will be published in June.

Not Dead Yet

So yesterday, March 11, 2009, a 30-something man dove into the frigid, roiling waters of the Niagara River in an apparent suicide attempt and survived the 180-foot plunge. He even had enough left to try to fight off his would-be rescuers at the base of the falls. Yowsa.

On my church's Facebook page I put forth the following question: If you were the first person this man saw when he woke up in ICU, what would you say to him?

In terms of faith, life, God, death, sanity, insanity...what could it possibly mean when someone survives a self-removal attempt of such total, over-the-top lethality?!? It stretches the perceived boundaries of both physics and metaphysics!

Come on. I have my thoughts. But I want to hear yours first...

My Favorite Super Bowl ad

In Praise of the Faith Community

I love churches. Whenever I am traveling through a new town, my eye scans the horizon for steeples. Whenever a wedding, funeral or meeting calls me to some other church, I almost always arrive early enough to walk around and get a feel for the place, its people and mission. I pick up newsletters. I read bulletin boards and posted meeting minutes. I sit in sanctuaries and simply absorb the residual Spirit and atmosphere. The same holds true for the monasteries, synagogues, temples, mosques and shrines I have visited. I am drawn to these places where profound and profane meet... these formal touch points between Creator and creation. Something sacred has been lovingly built in these places. With each new day and each heartfelt prayer, more faith, more holiness is added.

Even now, as I sit in my office typing out this reflection, I can hear the cars and trucks zooming by on Routes 5 & 20, just 100 yards away. I wonder where people are going. I know some take comfort at the sight of our building. Perhaps some would stop in to explore and meditate if they only had time. Someday... Someday...

Practical concerns like weather and potential vandals require us to close and lock down at times. Still, in summer, I like to throw open the doors to the Spirit wind and wandering travelers. I've met a lot of interesting people this way, as the sight of our huge oak doors thrown open to the world tends to attract the curious, the troubled, the seeking and the holy. I remember one day when I found myself playing host to three very-excited-if-slightly-lost black lab puppies that suddenly burst into my office. They seemed to appreciate holiness, but, alas, their little puppy brains (hardwired to their little puppy bladders) could only handle so much loving acceptance.

I've also hosted itinerant evangelists, addicts, genealogy researchers, fresh starters, con artists, a few birds and one very persistent bat, all thanks to this open door policy.

I remember one day about ten years ago when these two women showed up. One appeared to be in her late 30s, the other was in her 50s, easy, and seemed to be having a difficult time with arthritis. They were hitching and camping their way from the Midwest to Vermont. A trucker had dropped them off in Avon at the end of his run. They'd walked as far as our doors when they ran out of steam. We gave them a hot shower and a warm meal on that early autumn evening. They seemed a bit leery of a pastor and his family, and didn't share much. Family in Vermont? Nope. Friends? Nope. Jobs? Nope. It dawned on me that these two were most likely traveling together to a location that had just legalized gay marriage. Not knowing where I stood on the issue, they probably chose not to share too much. They simply wanted to make it to Burlington unmolested and uncontested. I felt it best to respect their privacy and not force them to answer to my conjecture. It wasn't my business.

They had a tent and sleeping bags. The 50ish lady said she preferred sleeping outside, but I also saw her wince when she rose from her chair.

A local gentleman farmer granted permission for them to camp in the short grass up behind his pond, and, after dinner, I helped them lug their packs and set camp. It was about midnight that the thunder, lightning, wind and torrential rains hit. I drove and ran to their camp, where their tent had collapsed and they were drenched. They agreed to spend the rest of the night at the parsonage.

In the morning it became obvious that the older of the two ladies was unable to continue hitch-hiking and camping. She turned to her companion with tears in her eyes and said "I just can't do it." I jumped online, found a sister UCC church in Burlington (checking quietly to make sure it was Open and Affirming), called with advance word of these two sojourners, and then we bought them a couple of bus tickets to carry them the rest of the way in padded, heated comfort. At the bus station we asked them only to send word that they were safe and well, handed over a couple of box lunches, quickly, quietly prayed a blessing over them and sent them on their way.

We did receive a simple, brief thank you note, but no other word ever came.

Jesus once said that merely giving a cup of cold water to a child was a holy task. He also said:

"if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on
the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."


We'll never be perfect. Not even close, in my case. But it seems to me the most efficient way to eliminate an enemy is to love them into friendship. Who is the enemy of Christ, anyway? Someone who wants to pursue a quiet life of love and laughter? One who would insist on separation, castigation and discord? Any way you think on the issue, Jesus is crystal clear in his directives. Greet all. Love all. Help all on their way.

Yesterday our faith community, West Bloomfield Congregational Church UCC, voted overwhelmingly - UNANIMOUSLY - to throw open our doors to the wandering stranger.We are now officially an Open and Affirming church, though most would say we've always been so, we just hadn't made it formally known. This was not a vote to "love the sinner, hate the sin," but simply, firmly a vote to LOVE.

I pray that you are part of a faith community that does likewise, or are seeking the same. If you are a part of this faith community and have absented yourself because you disagree with the rest of us or the UCC on this or some other issue, I pray that you will return to love and be loved, to be affirmed, and to be a part of this incredible, wide-open, life- and love-affirming mission to which Christ has assigned us all.

How Do You Make Love Stay?

Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love; and then, for a second time in the history of the world, humanity will have discovered fire. -- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Ah, the power of love. That's what Christ offers to us. All this talk of coming again to judge the living and the dead... OK, fine. But with what shall Christ judge the living and the dead? LOVE. And on what basis will we be judged? How well and completely and actively we LOVE. Whoomp, there it is.

I'm not one to artificially separate romantic love (Eros-ish love) from brotherly love (agape-ish love). Truth is, there is nothing more romantic than having a healthy amount of agape mixed in with your Eros To be smitten and on fire with passion is a marvelous thing. To care deeply and work diligently for the spiritual, emotional and physical well-being of the one for whom you feel passion makes that passion even better. However, I do agree it is best not to be inflamed with passion for anyone besides your intended. That would turn church dinners into Melrose Place or much, much worse. True, it would boost attendance for awhile, but, oy, that couldn't end well! Agape without Eros, yes. Eros without agape, no.

To finish the romantic love tangent, when Dan Fogelberg or some other pop singer croons the question “How do you make love stay?”I believe the answer is simple: pay closer attention to your agape (respect, care, compassion, encouragement), and the missing Eros might still come around from time to time. To borrow another Fogelberg-ism, the fire will, indeed, start to mellow through the years. But it can still flare up from time to time with a bit of stoking, so long as you've kept the hearth aglow. Nuff said on that topic?

So, no matter how you are thinking of love at the moment (agape or Eros) let's see if the following lesson will apply. This is a bit from Paul, from his first love letter to the church in Thessalonica. I believe this is Paul's earliest preserved letter...the freshest after his conversion from persecutor of “the People of the Way,” to “Person of the Way” himself. It is full of brotherly affection and friendly advice. It is obvious he deeply loves these folks, and why wouldn't he? Paul first came to Thessalonica after being roundly abused in Phillipi. They loved and listened to him. A church was formed. Paul healed up spiritually and physically among them, then went on his way and was repeatedly stymied in his attempts to get back to visit the ol' neighborhood. So he sent Timothy in his place. Then he wrote this letter to them. In the fifth chapter he says this about sticking together in the hard times to come...that is, making love stay:

5:16 Rejoice always, 5:17 pray without ceasing, 5:18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 5:19 Do not quench the Spirit. 5:20 Do not despise the words of prophets, 5:21 but test everything; hold fast to what is good; 5:22 abstain from every form of evil. 5:23 May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 5:24 The one who calls you is faithful, and will do this.

This reading is remarkable to me, giving in terse sentences the simple instructions for best following together a path of faith-to-wholeness in spirit, body and mind. Here are Paul's rules for a life of love that STAYS:

1. Stay positive (5:16) be happy when they walk through the door,





2. Stay reverent (5:17) really ask God to bless them,





3. Stay grateful (5:18) sincerely thank God for them,





4. Stay energized (5:19) be wings, not dead weight





5. Stay open-minded (5:20) seek the good and Godly, not strife and controversy
   
   
   


6. Stay grounded (5:21a) don't simply shut down, exchange thinking and ideas fully, honestly





7. Stay close to good (5:21b) keep your good/God bearings





8. Stay far from bad(5:22) don't drift into bitterness, gossip, judgmentalism, anger or fear





9. Stay focused (5:23) keep stoking your soul, continually tend to your own relationship with God





10. Stay faithful (5:24) when God blesses you, you can really, really bless others.

Why should we do these things? So God will love us best? NO! So God will love THROUGH us, that we can love better!!! When we are of generous heart and mind, those around us thrive. Don't be stingy with the true love. Open your heart to the “other” (yes, especially the ones in that other group, over there!), because the truth is, there IS NO OTHER. There's only us and God.

Don't give in to the impulse to separate, complicate, obfuscate. Share the love where you are. How do you make love stay? By making more love where you're staying!

Putting Some Multi- in the Media

Looking through some compatriots' blogs, I see that I have been far too verbose, leaving no breaks for the eye...NO PEEKCHURS!



So here is a break for your entertainment pleasure...
















Isn't it strange how the brain works.


I took an intensive course in the "Seven Intelligences" a few years back. It absolutely revolutionized the way I perceive the way I perceive. We all "click" differently, and most traditional measures of intelligence are hopelessly biased toward a few of those ways of clicking, encountering the world and learning.



Realizing that we are differently gifted is relatively easy. Making allowances for those differences in how we reach, preach and teach is far more challenging, but ultimately liberating. In my church, we try to offer different modes of experiencing the Divine. Not sure how successful we are at it, but it is certainly leading our church to evolve.


Our music program is flourishing under the leadership of a cadre of individuals who reach, teach and preach melodically. We have a wonderful member of our congregation who makes banners and wall hangings that are regularly rotated through the sanctuary. We do occasional dramatic presentations, though not nearly enough... We've also added a brand new digital projection unit which will be used in all kinds of creative ways to help people open their hearts, souls and minds to the Holy Experience. And our occasional guided meditations are quite the rage.

Why? Because traditional church can be a mind-numbing experience, when it should be a mind-BLOWING experience.

Here, have another picture:



This is a duck I met outside the Clifton Springs clinic after I spent the night at the bedside of an acquaintance there on a mental health admission. He was a loner (the duck, that is), standing apart from all the other ducks doing their ducky things. "I'm my own duck, dammit!" he seemed to say to the world. "I will not follow the flock.I will not humiliate myself for a scrap of stale bagel. I am the pinnacle of duckdom. "


We spend a lot of our lives being measured to see if we are smart enough, pretty enough, interesting enough, rich enough, erudite enough. But God has created us as part of an amazing palate of ability, flaw, color, dimension and odor (to name just a few variations). Why do we feel the need to categorize, homogenize, institutionalize and sanitize ourselves and each other? I prefer the collage... the mess... the FUNK. How about you?

When was the first time you acknowledged you were different than everybody else? How'd you feel? I think you're weird. Please don't change unless you want to...