What’s Your Hurry?

After this mornings worship service, Karen and I went for what has become our traditional Sunday noon meal at our favorite restaurant, Cracker Barrel. It is such a nice place, we can either wander through the store and see what has been added since our last visit, or simply sit outside rocking in the rocking chairs. Those who know me well, would have no difficulty figuring out which of those two activities I would most enjoy.

While sitting in my rocking chair outside of Cracker Barrel, I was reminded of one of my favorite episodes of Andy Griffith which I believe was called “What’s Your Hurry.” It is about a Sunday morning sermon preached by a guest preacher who talks about the lost art of relaxation and the importance of rest. According to the preacher, it seems that all we ever do is run and go as many places and do things as quickly as we can. I must say that this message shouldn’t be lost on our society today. After the service, the folks of Mayberry decide that the best way to “relax” would be to have a band concert in the park Sunday night. Well, after a great deal of work and commotion it is decided that, since the band didn’t have enough time to practice, the uniforms were in complete disrepair, and the band pavilion was too dangerous for the band to perform on, that the best bet was to just scrap the whole idea. The last scene found Andy, Barney, and Aunt Bea sitting on the front porch recovering from their hectic afternoon’s work when the preacher coming back through town is forced to turn down an invitation to dinner with the family due to a “pressing engagement.” Andy, realizing that the preacher isn’t following his own advice, simply responds to the preacher by asking “What’s your hurry?”

What’s your hurry? This is indeed a problem that we as a society continue to face. Unfortunately, I am afraid that this problem has gotten much worse since that episode of Andy was televised some 45 years ago. After Karen and I left Cracker Barrel, we witnessed one person backing up on a major highway in order to save about 1 minute at a stop light, 2 minutes and ¼ mile down the road later, a motorcyclist was laying in the middle of an intersection apparently stuck by a car, and another ¼ mile down the road Karen and I were almost run off the road by someone who was being impatient and didn’t think we were going fast enough, even though we were going about 3 mph over the speed limit.

It seems like almost a different lifetime, but about 23 years ago, Ben, Terri and I performed in a musical at church called “The Music Machine,” which really was a great experience. I bring this up because one of the songs called “Patients” has stayed with me all of these years, and I think that the words have just as much, if not more significance today. Let me share the words with you.

Have patients, have patients,
don’t be in such a hurry
When you get impatient,
You only start to worry.
Remember, remember, that God is patient too,
So, think of all the times when others have to wait on you.

As I think about the difference between relaxing in my rocking chair at Cracker Barrel, and the several near mishaps on the way home, my wish and prayer for everyone today is to slow down and have patients. What’s your hurry?

Blessings

Time Flies…

As I am sitting here, the clock is quickly beginning to move well past my bed time. It is a little after 11:30 PM on Friday night, and my mind keeps going to the thought that tomorrow is the start of the big Labor Day weekend. I have always enjoyed Labor Day but I must admit that I am also always a little sad to see it arrive because it marks the unofficial end of summer. Now, in a way, that doesn’t really mean much since I am already back in school and to be honest, the kids here in town have been back for a month already, but it still makes me sad to know that fall is almost here, and then winter will be just around the corner.

In one of my classes last week, the professor observed that time seems to travel much more quickly as we get older. His theory was that when you are 5 years old, one year equals 20% of your life. With that perspective one year would seem like a very long time, but when you are 50 years old, one year only equals 1/50th of your life and so consequently time seems to go much more quickly.

Well, that may be a good theory, and it may even be accurate, but I also have a theory about why time goes by so quickly as we get older that I would like to share with you. Let me try to explain it.

When you are young, you always have something exciting to look forward to. You look forward to birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, playing outside, going on dates, the basketball game on Friday night… When you are young you are constantly in a state of anticipation. Well, my experience seems to indicate that when I am looking forward to something with anticipation, it just never seems to get here. I think they even made up a saying about a watched pot never boils.

Now let’s look at the average adult life. How many things do we really look forward to with great anticipation? Not too many, right? Even the Holidays come with a great deal of work, planning, stress or preparations that need to be attended to. Now lets take it a step further, How many things do you look ahead to with a certain amount of fear, dread, or, at the very least, with a certain degree of anxiety? I was listening to a country song the other day where the singer was complaining that there was “too much month at the end of the money.” Well, I for one can sure sympathize with that, and I think that most of the people I know find themselves in that situation.

So, when you are looking ahead with anxiety to the end of the month or the next holiday, or the evaluation at work next week, of course then, time seems to just fly by. My theory then is that when we look ahead with excitement, time goes by more slowly, when we look forward with anxiety, time seems to go more quickly.

The bottom line is that as you begin this Holiday weekend, you should plan as many activities that you love to do as possible. Plan time with your family, put it on the calendar and see to it that it happens, and in making sure that you are looking forward with joy, you will in reality be extending your life!

Do you know what time it is when the elephant sits on the fence? ................ Time to get a new fence!

Do you know why the boy threw his clock out the window? ……………. He wanted to see time fly!

Blessings

Sole Fide.... By Faith Alone

As I mentioned in my last post, I have very much enjoyed the conversations that my blog has started and this ongoing conversation continues today. I received an email asking the excellent question, ‘What was Luther’s problem with the Book of James." Well, I am not sure that there is an easy or perhaps the better word might be “short” answer, but I will certainly try to answer that for you.

First of all let’s be sure that we are on the same page here. We are talking about Martin Luther the 16th century, German Reformer, who was the namesake of today’s Lutheran Church, as opposed to Martin Luther King Jr. who was the assassinated civil rights leader. I remember a Christmas program once where someone portraying Martin Luther was supposed to stroll through the sanctuary while the choir sang a German Christmas Carol. The youth leader suddenly became very concerned asking the question, “Shouldn’t Martin Luther be black?” I just wanted to be sure that we didn’t have this confusion.

One of the foundational beliefs of Martin Luther and of the Protestant Reformers was the doctrine of Sola fide, or “by faith alone.” This doctrine declares that it is only on the basis of God’s grace through the faith of the believer that we are justified and our sins are forgiven. This is one of the key doctrines that distinguish the Protestant faith from that of Catholicism or Eastern Christianity. This doctrine of “by faith alone” is the bases of Martin Luther’s challenge to the Catholic Church who held that it is a combination of faith and good works that are the keys to salvation.

One of Luther’s primary issues with the Roman Catholic Church was the practice of indulgences. This practice essentially held that you could buy your forgiveness, or that of a loved one, by giving money or gifts to the church. In 1517 Pope Leo X offered indulgences to those who were willing to give money to the reconstruction of Saint Peters Basilica in Rome. There was one German Dominican Priest in particular, Johann Tetzel, that especial received the wrath of Luther because of his over aggressive sale of indulgences. Tetzel was credited with the slogan, "As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs"

The scriptural foundation for the doctrine of “by faith alone” is found in the book of Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast. The problem that develops with Martin Luther and the book of James is that James says, “You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.” Here is a little more of what James says about faith and works:

You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that-- and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
James 2:19-26


Uh Oh… so which one is right? Is it by faith alone, or does works have something to do with it? Luther chose to deal with this disparity by holding that the book of James was not important or significant and not to be used for the purposes of doctrine. He was widely quoted as referring to the book of James as the “epistle of straw”

John Calvin, another Reformer and contemporary of Luther, had a different take and simply referred to good works as a consequence or “fruit” of faith. Of course our own John Wesley weighed in on this topic in great detail essentially holding that it is by faith alone that we are justified, and that without being justified by faith, it is impossible to do good works. He further held that once a person was justified by faith through the grace of God, then good works and fruits would naturally flow from this new birth, or being born again. In addition he believed that if works were not evident in someone’s life then perhaps they were not justified at all. Wesley was always very good at taking two opposite opinions and blending them into a relationship that made sense.

So, in a nut shell this was the great controversy. It’s funny that we don’t talk so much about these things today, and perhaps that is a shame. The relationship between faith and works is critical. Can we truly be saved if there is no evidence in our life? Is it possible to do works that are pleasing to God if we are not justified by faith? Does Wesley’s view of good works mean that someone outside of the Christian faith can do nothing pleasing to God? What about someone who dies right after they are justified by faith, and was never baptized where do they fit in? Will they go to heaven?

I love these types of questions! It is in the search of these answers and the answers to countless other questions of faith that one could spend a lifetime in pursuit. What kind of questions are you asking?

Blessings

Sunday's Sermon Topic

I just read the most awesome question.

Are you in the way of Christ or on the way of Christ?

Wow, now that is a thought provoking question. I think I just found my sermon topic for Sunday!

Blessings

“You’ve Got to Be Kidding Me!”

I have to admit that one of the great things so far about my blog is that it has sparked several great conversations. Last night one of my favorite people asked me an excellent question, one that I have thought about many times over the last three years and one that I think I am beginning to get a little better perspective on now that I am on the downhill side of seminary. Her question related to my post, “Do You Believe in Miracles?” “How on earth does someone end up teaching in a seminary who doesn’t even believe in the most basic Christian belief of miracles?” This is truly a wonderful question, and one that I have struggled with for quite some time, so let me see if I can offer a few thoughts on this.

First of all, in the past three years I have had professors, instructors and speakers who were Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Unitarian Universalist, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Atheist, and some who are a mixture of all and everything in between. Some of these people have been professor’s employed by the seminary while others have been guest speakers invited to speak on topics of their specific expertise. In these past three years I have been exposed to many wonderful concepts, ideas and thoughts that I never before even knew existed. Many of these ideas were at the very least mind expanding if not completely mind blowing. These were the ideas that I couldn’t wait to get back home and share in worship or usually more effectively in Bible Study. On the other hand, there were ideas, thoughts and views that I found totally repugnant which I immediately challenged, argued against and fought with every fiber of my being.

Seminaries have a difficult task. How do you prepare someone for the challenges, trials and even persecutions of ministry, especially in the world which we find ourselves living in today? If you have never been exposed to the world and the thoughts and views which are prevalent outside of our own Christian understanding, how can you ever learn to deal with the people who find themselves living in that world on a daily basis?

There are two basic approaches found in seminaries around the world. The first approach is to teach what to think. Believe it or not, sometimes I wish that this was the approach of my seminary. It would be so easy when dealing with the complex, theological, social and moral issues for someone to simply say, this is the best way to think. How many times I have longed for someone to just say, “This is the truth.” Well, as I discussed in an earlier post, aside from Jesus, the truth can sometimes be a relative thing with areas of black, white and all kinds of gray.

The second approach and the one that I feel is the most beneficial, is rather than teach the students WHAT to think, instead to teach the student HOW to think. This is the direction chosen by my seminary, The Methodist Theological School in Ohio.

The more that you study the scriptures, the more you realize how much that you don’t know, and when you begin to factor in the fathers (and mothers) of the church such as Clement of Rome, Saint Ignatious of Antioch, Polycarp, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Athanasius, Augustine, John Chrysostom, Tertullian, Jerome, Gregory, Luther, Calivin, Wesley, and Bonhofer, just to name a few. You learn that these are the people who helped to form and shape our understanding of what it means to be a Christian. An idea as fundamental to Christianity as the Trinity would be a prime example. We think of it as an idea pulled straight from the Bible, and it is, but it was actually Tertullian, more than 1800 years ago, who first introduced in his writings and identified the concept of the Trinity which we take for granted today.

Even our basic understanding of the nature of Jesus was hotly debated for hundreds of years. People lost their lives arguing on multiple sides of an issue which today we simply take for granted. In reality, it wasn’t until the first Council of Nicaea in 325 AD (Think Nicene Creed) that a young scholar named Athanasius, argued against the Arian doctrine. The Arian doctrine said that Christ was of a similar substance or even a different substance from God. Athanasius argued that Jesus and God was of the same substance, hence the great emphasis in the Nicene Creed; We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one Being with the Father…

I share this with you to help give you some perspective on the idea that what we believe today is the culmination of thought, understanding, writings and the work of theologians for 2000 years. Even something as simple as the selection of books which we now have as our canon of scriptures called the Holy Bible were greatly debated for many years. You might not be aware that the Catholic Bible for instance has several more books than our Bible, this is certainly worth the time to research and learn about. Luther, the father of our protestant faith, in the 1500’s even argued that the book of James should be eliminated from the canon, he called it the “epistle of straw.”

I share this with you to perhaps help you see that the Holy Spirit has been working in and through the church for thousands of years. There has never been a time in the history of the church when there wasn’t argument, dissension, and disagreement, including as early as the Book of Acts, and this tradition certainly continues today.

So why would they allow someone to teach that doesn’t hold the same beliefs that we do as United Methodists? I think the reason is that they would like for the students to be exposed to as many ideas, thoughts and theologies as possible in order to allow the student to understand that sometimes what you think may not be as important as the way that you arrived at your conclusion.

So continue with me on this journey and keep the questions coming!

Blessings

Back to School

I have now survived the first week of my next to last semester of seminary. I must say that I have some very mixed emotions about this semester. I think that it is potentially going to be one of the best series of classes yet, as well as perhaps the hardest semester yet.

The first class is “United Methodist Polity.” (Doesn’t that sound exciting?) I actually haven’t attended this class yet. When I arrived on Monday there was a message reminding me that this class won’t start until September 8th. Reminding me? That is to somehow assume that I knew this to begin with. I checked the course schedule, and it said that it started this week, and I checked with some of the other students and they didn’t know about it either. So, I think that when they “reminded me” it is a bit like the times I “remind” Karen when perhaps I forgot to tell her about it to begin with.

The next class is “The History of Christian Spirituality.” This is going to be excellent. The professor, Jeff Jaynes, is wonderful, albeit a bit strange, (in the good sense) and the course looks like it will be very comprehensive. As usual,there will be a lot of reading and writing but no tests (YEAH) which is good when you have a 48 year old brain.

I also have an advanced preaching, Homiletics, class this semester, the interesting thing is that it is titled “Spirituality Foundation Preaching.” I am getting the feeling that God is trying to tell me something about Spirituality, so when I begin to figure out what it is, I will be sure to pass it along to you. We did do an interesting, or perhaps a better word would be terrifying, exercise in class this week. The professor asked the class to look up a scripture that he selected, read it, and then after only five minutes give a 1 minute sermon, NO NOTES. Now you might think that should be easy for me. You might even say, “Hey, you talk for 20 minutes every Sunday.” But, that is with a considerable amount of preparation and preaching on Sunday is just for God and those listening, it isn’t for a grade or in front of my classmates who are going to critique me. What made it worse is that I ended up going next to last, so I had to sit and listen and listen, not knowing when I might be called. I think that this last part was his point. You never know when you will be called upon with only a moments notice and you had better be prepared all of the time with something worth while to say.

This morning I attended my last class of the week, “Multi Religious America.” This class, I am beginning to suspect, will be one of my favorites. I am already intrigued by the first assignment which is to select a religion that you are interested in, centered in America, which was founded since 1960, research it and discuss the themes and conflicts contained within the religion. My first thought was to look at Scientology, but it was formed in 1954 so it didn’t fall within the time frame. So, my next thought was The Branch Davidians of David Koresh fame. I think that should be very interesting. I’ll let you know what I find out.

My final class which doesn’t meet until next Wednesday is my “Cross Cultural Immersion.” “What’s that?” You might ask. Well in early January, I am going with a group of students to El Salvador. This is not a mission trip but rather an opportunity to be totally involved in the culture, staying with local families, sleeping on concrete slabs, and meeting with missionary’s and officials of government and private aid agencies in an effort to understand the challenges faced in their culture. I will keep you posted on that as well.

Well, the 75 hour weeks have begun. In reality, although I sometimes complain about being tired and the work load, I truly understand how blessed I am to be able to experience the life of a seminarian, and I am eternally grateful to those who make that possible for me!

Blessings

Do You Believe in Miracles?

Sunday evening as I watched the Olympic Torch being extinguished, concluding an exciting and sometimes controversial Olympic Games, there was one moment that stood out for me, from among the myriad of Olympic images. It was in the 400 meter freestyle relay, it seemed nearly certain that Michael Phelps hope of 8 Gold Medals was over. With just one length of the pool to go, Jason Lezak, the old man of the US swim team, was about half a body length behind the French swimmer, Alain Bernard. Of course we remember him because he was the guy who said that the French were going to crush the Americans. (Yeah, like that is likely to happen) But, at the wall it is Lezak who out touches Bernard in the fastest relay leg in history to keep Phelps’ hope alive.

That reminded me of another moment in Olympic history that I found myself yelling and screaming at the TV and that was back in 1980 when the US Ice Hockey Team won what was not only an improbable Gold Medal against the best “professional” teams in the world, but some would have considered the US chances as impossible. I still remember the announcer, Al Michaels' asking the question “Do you believe in Miracles?” as the US team won their Gold Medal securing for themselves a permanent place in history as well as in the hearts of all Americans.

Do you believe in miracles? Now that is an intriguing question. Most people say that they do, but isn’t believing in miracles also being willing to ask for them or even expect them? Sometimes in the seminary, academic environment it can become a challenge to express your beliefs. I remember writing a paper on Blind Bartimaeus, making some point about the miracle of healing that took place. I was greatly chastised by the professor for having the audacity to believe the possibility that the story could in reality simply be based on a real event that took place and was recorded by the Gospel Writer. His view was that all miracle stories never really happened and that they are only allegories, metaphors or literary devices used by the Gospel writers to make a point. (Yeah Right!)

Anyway, his opinion aside, I certainly do believe in miracles, and I also believe that they are just as common today as they were back in biblical times. It is difficult to read the book of Acts without asking the question, “Why don’t we see these types of miracles today?” My opinion is that we do. The only difference between our times and those of Acts, is that they recognized the miracles for what they were, blessings from God. They were constantly giving God credit and thanking God for the gifts that they received. Today we are more likely to say, “Wow was I lucky!” or “It’s a good thing I didn’t walk out my door 30 seconds sooner or I would have been involved in that accident for sure.”

Miracles are taking place all around you. Today, I challenge you to open your eyes, your minds and your hearts to the glory, power and majesty of Jesus Christ, and know that God wants to do a miracle in your life today!

Blessings