Michael Jackson

June 27th, 2009

In every generation there comes people who are almost worshipped by the general public. In our day some of these people are/were: Elvis Pressley, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson, Billy Graham, Michael Jordon, Dale Earnhardt, Jr.,and Tiger Woods. These people are extremely popular and find it difficult to move about in the regular world without concern for their well being. Some of them have excelled in their profession by being far better than other people in their field. Some of them are very good at what they do but there is something in their looks, and/or demeanor which seems to draw great crowds of people to them. Most of them do not really understand why they become idolized.

There seems to be a common thread in all of them. They trust a source which they can not consciously control for their creativity, and ability to perform.

Since they can not control it they seem to live in the fear that they will be separated from it. Anxiety comes into play. Some of them seem not to be able to deal with their  issues and some seek help in drugs. Those who turn to drugs usually end up with tragic conclusions to their lives. Those who learn to handle not being in control seem to live long and productive lives even after the peek has passed.

We all need the foundation of rocks Jesus promises in his teachings.  Following those teachings is the only thing which gives us strength to deal with such issues in life.  These teachings give us the strength to face, undertand, and learn  to live without being in control.  Christ teaches us to  love ourselves.  In loving ourselves we are no longer dependent upon responses from other people for our well being.  We learn to accept success, failure , and all the other issues of life with a confidence that God will work it all out for us.  After all I am convinced this “source” is no other than the Holy Spirit.

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When the Holy Spirit comes!

June 11th, 2009

Most of us have been in a worship service that seemed to switch from ordinary to “wow”!

As I write this blog I am allowing my mind to wander back to such times. I remember a funeral service for the father of two teenage boys. An old Presbyterian pastor was invited to offer a prayer. The old man talked to God and explained to him the pain of the wife, two sons, and a congregation of perplexed worshippers. The place became uncomfortably quiet, like the moments before an electrical storm and the barometric pressure falls. As my wife and I made our way to the graveside we looked at each other. Both of us had tears in our eyes, and lumps in our throats. I felt weak. I knew I had been in the presence of the almighty.

The Spirit was everywhere. I was reminded of: I Kings 19:11 “Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

I decided to hold a healing service in First Church. The service was being televised. No one had ever been to such a service in a staid old UMC church. I held the service because I believe God through His Holy Spirit heals people. As our liturgy says he heals our physical illnesses, relationships with God, relationships with one another,  brings reconciliation within communities, within individuals with themselves, and between us and creation. I believed there were many in the congregation who would desire this healing. I blessed the oil, and issued the invitation naming the essence of healing available through the Holy Spirit. . The organist played the hymns of healing in the hymnal. Several people immediately got up and came toward the front. Before they got there the isles began to fill up. That eerie quiet noted before surrounded us all. God was there through his Spirit. The emotion which united us was total relaxation, and slow tears of joy.

The service was recorded on video. I watched it to see if it were my imagination. The recording was as powerful as the service had been. The local public service TV station made a copy of the service and played it on Wednesday Evenings for 6 weeks.

Fifty years in the ministry have taught me that without the Spirits presence the church does not really exist. We are dependent upon the Spirit. Luke identified the situation in which the spirit lives … “They were all of one accord … same mind” Acts 2.

A sensitive person knows immediately upon entering a sanctuary whether the Spirit is in this place or not. One can feel it.
A ministerial colleague of mine was called back to a former church to help bury one of the saints. He said when I entered the sanctuary I felt a cold dreaded atmosphere. He said it was very difficult to perform his duties of the hour. As he was leaving the graveside with the pastor he asked Him if something was wrong in the church. We are in the midst of the bitterest fight I have ever known in a church. The Spirit had left that church. I am convinced that the Spirits presence is that good feeling people have when they are together to worship God.
 
The spirit comes when we allow the Spirit to use us. Many of us make the mistake of trying to use the spirit.

At a worship workshop many years ago the leader made a statement that has rung true to me for years. “The Spirit is in the liturgy”. Lead the worship but let the liturgy do its work. Too many feel it has to be jazzed up a bit, explained, witnessed to, or talked about. Enter it faithfully and let it do its work and you will be surprised what happens. Don’t be afraid of the quiet! As Elijah discovered God may be in the quiet moment. 

As our church sociologists try to figure out what has gone wrong in the main line denominations of America.  Let me suggest our problem is more spiritual than sociological.  We are a dead, spiritless church.  Sixty minutes of pure boredom does not fill the hungry heart,  or excite one to serve God.  When the spirit is present that church will grow!

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Thinking Theologically

June 11th, 2009

Are your theological interpretations of the faith
growing?

For thirty  of the forty years I served the church in an appointment
by Annual Conference I served on a Board of the ministry.  The
responsibility of  the board was to ascertain when a candidate  was
ready for ordination.  Most candidates began their seven year pilgrimage
with a childhood interpretation of the faith.  Most of them grew
considerably over those years in their theological concepts.  The reason
they grew was the boards insistent on thinking theologically.  Thinking
people are growing, maturing individuals worthy of leadership.  Most of
the people who move upwards in the ministry are individuals who are these
maturing people. 

One of the best ways to  grow is to share your thoughts on the faith with
your peers.  Most of us have views of the faith that differ from each
other.  In discussing our thoughts we grow.    One of the
tragedies of the ministry is that we stay to busy with our work that we have
little time for reflection.  Without reflection our sermons become filler
material and bore our congregations to death.  More and more empty
spaces appear in our sanctuaries.  In fact our churches are dying because
of combination of boredom and rejection. 

In challenging the minds of our people we enable their faith to become a living
reality.  Several years ago I received a telephone call from an individual
from a church that I had served 30  years before.  His question that
he was afraid to ask his pastor was a statement  …  “Tom Jesus
was not  God  … was he?”    The man who was asking
this question was in his seventies.  He was the most successful
businessman in town.  I knew he was always trying to figure out how to
make a buck,  but I was completely surprised that he was engaged in
serious theological thinking.  Undoubtedly his pastor was not because he
did not feel free in asking him this question.  

If you are not struggling with your theology and preaching that struggle you
are cheating yourself and your congregation.  Few clergy wind up serving
their seminary professors as pastor.  I had that responsibility  
about 25  years into my career.  The man who taught me theology in
seminary  invited me out to lunch and in our conversation shared his
pleasure in finding a student of his who had taken the theological
enterprise  seriously.   We spent the rest of our time together
discussing our individual struggles.

When I started this blog site I had the hope that it would become a place where
clergy could and would share their own struggles with the faith.  It is in
sharing our differences that we grow.  Each one of us has thoughts that
could help another become a stronger preacher, person, and leader in the
church.
























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Easter is What God Did!

June 11th, 2009

Maundy Thursday is what Jesus did.  He went to the cross, and validated the truth of his teachings and ministry.

On Easter God raised Him up as the Christ.  Christmas is the birth Jesus. Easter is the birth of Christ.  Resurrected , Jesus was no longer subject to the limitations of the human body.  He took his place with those white figures on Mt. of Transfiguration.  If you have problems with Transfiguration Easter will slay you.  The nature of that body has never been fully determined.  Many believe it to be spiritual in nature.  However, the Synoptic Gospels tell of the risen Christ eating breakfast with his disciples,  and Thomas being able to feel his side and hands.   Can spirits take food like humans? 

The risen Lord could appear where he wished …  Emmaus, Upper Room, down by the seashore for breakfast.

Easter is one big mystery!  Yet, it stands at the center of the Christian Faith.  Most of us expect to be raised from death to another life. 

At this point we are dependent upon the actions of God.   At my age questions of  eternity take upon themselves more importance than they once did.  I find myself trying to imagine what a place would have to be like for me to want to be a part of it for eternity.  When one is young one is in the process of becoming.  How exciting that phase of life was.  Middle age finds realizing many of the goals pictured earlier in life.  We found some goals fulfilling and others disappointing when we reached them.  In the closing years of life memories are good but not enough to make one want to linger there for ever.

So it all goes back to the beginning … God!    Knowing He has brought us safe thus far we have to trust Him for the future! 

 

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What’s our price?

June 11th, 2009

Every Easter finds my thoughts at basically the same place … Am I willing to die for what I believe?

 I’ve never faced this reality. However, many times I have presented truths to the congregations I have served, and have had to decide how hard I would push, or drop an issue.

 Even in the Annual Conference and in the Boards and Agencies on which I served there were always critical issues that I found myself supporting to the disfavor of my peers. Some of the time I knew it would affect my appointment, and maybe even cost a friendship but I stood steadfast. Never did I risk my life!

In many ways clergy are always hanging out there by themselves trying to give leadership in a time hostile to the church, and even to the faith. Like Jesus we have to decide whether we will recant, back off, or face the music. I pray I never have to test my limit.

Too many clergy have given up too soon. I know a church where the clergy has not preached a sermon on Christmas Sunday, or Easter Sunday in over 12 years. I often wonder how this could happen? I think it is plain laziness, and not believing that the message is important. However, most clergy would never give up these greatest of all opportunities to preach the gospel.

When have we stood up for the rights of others? Where were we in the Civil Rights movement? How about the issue of women clergy in our church? One day the homosexual issue is going to come to a final vote in the church, and we are going to have to make a decision one way or the other … Will we follow Biblical teachings, or current day civil rights?

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Historical Jesus/Theological Christ

June 11th, 2009

 

In the last 25 years the difference between the historical and theological Jesus Christ
has become so cloudy that an alarmingly high percentage of clergy use them
interchangeably with out even knowing it.

The historical Jesus was a human being who lived 2,000 years ago.   Jesus believed and taught
salvation came through hearing, and following his teachings.  He was
angered by the religion of the day taking advantage of people at every turn. 
He  taught our  faith should set us free to live.  The religion of his
day used religion to put people in religious shackles. On the mount
of Transfiguration Jesus made his decision to go to Jerusalem and face those who
would kill him for his teachings, and for being a threat  to them. 
Had he not gone to Jerusalem and faced the authorities to defend his beliefs he would have never  become the Christ. He was
killed due to his radical teachings and actions.

The theological Christ (Messiah) was  his contemporaries interpretation of the meaning of
His life.  Paul, who never met Jesus, or sat at his feet,  was the one
who gave us our theological interpretation.  Strangely enough he
interpreted Jesus through the teachings of those whom Jesus came to straighten out
…  namely, the sacrificial theology of Judaism.  

“Christ”  was the personality, teachings, and life image Jesus projected
while he lived.  In the resurrection Jesus was raised up the Christ …  The
one God used to tell and show us how to live. 

A good secular example  of what happened would be Vince Lombardi, 
famed coach of the Green Bay Packers.  In life he was larger than life. 
In death  his teachings and actions became alive in thousands  of
coaches throughout  the land.  Lombardi has more influence in death
than he had in life.

The only honest way to really preach the Easter Message is to be sure that
the historical and theological  are not confused.  The man Jesus was never and is never God. John said Jesus understood the mind of God and His teachings came through
the Holy Spirit.  They were from God.  Jesus was the Son of God. His teachings contained the mind, reason, and
understanding of God.  One can say the teachings are God.  Jesus was not God.  Son of God … Yes!  Never has a physical being been God.  God is Spirit.

 

 

 

 

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“THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD”

June 11th, 2009

 

IIn the 19th century, when it was established that life had begun in the
oceans, some scientists reasoned that the earliest forms of life might still be
there, hidden in the deep, dark recesses of the open sea, where human beings
cannot descend. They were certain that in that world of darkness lay the first
forms of life. They even had a name for that oceanic nursery. They called it the
“Urschleim.” They chose a German name to give it scientific respectability.

In 1872, Sir Charles Thomson left England aboard a ship called the Challenger
to sail through all the oceans of the world to test this theory. For four years
they sailed the oceans, sixty-nine thousand miles, dragging the ocean bottom.
They found rare forms of life, many of which were grotesque, but they didn’t
find anything new. Time and time again they would play out four miles of rope,
and then pull the rope back in. They found the same animals every time.

So you could say they didn’t find what they were looking for. What they found
were life forms that had descended from creatures that could be found in the
shallow part of the ocean. They concluded, therefore, that life was created at
the surface, and then descended into the depths, perhaps for reasons of
survival, and then adjusted to a life of darkness at those depths.

To do that, to live at those depths, they evolved into grotesque kind of
animals with huge mouths, way out of proportion to the rest of their bodies, in
order to catch any morsel that might float down to the bottom of the ocean. They
also had huge projecting eyes, in order to catch a glimpse of any light that
might be down there.

That’s what life in the deep is like, its distorted life. It’s not life the
way God created it to be. So the Challenger expedition was considered a failure,
in that it didn’t find what it was looking for. But in another sense, it was a
success, because it substantiated that life began in the upper oceans, near the
surface. And there is one reason for this, and the reason is light. Without
light there would be no creation.

Now here is something to ponder. Genesis tells the Creation story in the same
way, in these words: “Darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of
God was moving over the surface of the water. And God said, `Let there be
light.’” So before science, Genesis said light is the agency of creation.
Without light there would be no life.

Then look to the New Testament, to the Gospel of John. John’s gospel begins
with a story of Creation as well. In fact it begins with the same words that the
story of Creation in Genesis begins with: “In the beginning…” Only John says,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was
made.” Then, like Genesis, John says that light is the agency of creation. He
proclaims it in these beautiful words. He says that Jesus is the “Word” that was
associated with God in the beginning, and Jesus has come to us. Then he says,
“In him was life, and the life was the light of the world. The light shines in
the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

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Authority of Jesus

June 11th, 2009
Authority of Jesus:   Tom
Faggart
This text is the corner stone for the crucifixion of
 Jesus Christ.   He comes with a new core for religious
teachings.  He does not document what he
teaches with the authorities of his day, nor do they measure up to the law of
Moses.  They are radically different from
anything in the Jewish History.
The law of Moses was based on accomplished human
acts.  Jesus was interested in the inward
intention of the person who committed the act. 
Sin for Jesus could be committed by word, thought, and deed.  If I understand the Jewish teaching … sin came
in the committing of the act.
Jesus’ authority rested on insights given him by the Holy
Spirit.  Therein was the core of his
authority.  Paul Tillich taught that the
difference in Jesus and other human beings was his openness to the Holy
Spirit.    Acting through Jesus the Holy Spirit provided healings, teachings unique to Jesus.  In those acts and teachings was the
Grace of God bringing life and salvation to humanity.   The
proof of the reality of Jesus’ teachings were the results they produced.  Jesus himself said that those who heard and
did his teachings would be like a house built upon a rock that could withstand
storms and stress.   Strangely enough not following the teachings of
Christ and giving respect and reliance upon the Holy Spirit maybe the reason for the
downfall of the modern church.
The church has preferred to argue over whether Jesus was
God.  We are totally immersed in an old
pagan need for a sacrifice to appease God. 
Even the prophets in the old testament declared God did not want
sacrifices.  He wanted his followers to
love kindness and mercy and to walk humbly with him.  God in fact despised our offerings. 
An unloving human being can not even imagine a God of
Love, and understand the power of Love. 
Jesus did!  Consequently, His
commandments reflected that understanding. 
Human beings, (preachers)  who act
out of love will soon understand humanities distrust for love.  “No one gives something for nothing”, is an old
saying.  What are you going to get out of
it? 
Jesus’ payment was in seeing a human destroyed by life become free to live.
“You shall know the truth and the truth will set you
free”  John 8:32

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EFFECTIVE CONGREGATIONS

June 11th, 2009
  1. Love their particularly community. Their pastors have found a way not only to love their congregations but also their neighborhood. Effective pastors help their congregations move beyond love of themselves, turning their congregations outward.
  2. Rise above mere contentment with things as they are and do what is necessary to expect and welcome change, disruption, and movement, similar to that of the Risen Christ.
  3. Find a way to welcome the stranger and to practice radical hospitality in the name of Jesus Christ. They find a way to be as interested in those who have yet to join the church as those already in the church.
  4. Have a clear sense of their primary purpose and keep focused on their primary God-given missions.
  5. Enable lay leaders to lead, not just manage. Lay leadership that feels a strong sense of responsibility for the future of their congregation.
  6. All have a strong, change oriented, gifted pastor.
  7. Make growth a priority and figure out how to grow.
  8. Keep focused upon Jesus Christ as the originator of, and the purpose for the church (rather than church as just another human oriented institution).

How does your church answer to these qualities of effective churches? What specific steps would your congregation need to take to live into the future in a different way?

William H. Willimon  …Bishop UMC North Alabama Annual Conference

 

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Wisdom and Jesus

June 11th, 2009

Intelligence and Christianity need not be in conflict! Educated people are taught to think!


“Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” I John 8:31


    John in his gospel declared that Jesus was truth.


   When distorted ideas are paraded as truth, eventually the distortion will lead to the down fall of the idea …  Only truth will not pass away.


   An example: During a musical program recently the Christmas Story was read, and a multimedia program with pictures on a large screen helped tell the story. About half way through the lesson I developed a head ache, and my mind started to question. What’s going on, I thought?


   The angels bothered me. Never before had this happened. As I thought through why this was happening I discovered the feathered covered wings on the back of a beautiful lady was distorting the story.


   There is no Biblical record of those who approached Mary as having wings.


   The only place I could remember the cherubim having wings was in Isaiah 6. Angels in Genesis appeared as men like the natives. The only difference seemed to be they had unusual powers.


In the modern world people just don’t see angels with wings on their back. So any presentation of such pushes the story to the realm of fantasy. I am convinced that on the subconscious level it becomes an unrealized reason for doubt and disbelief.  The Christian Faith is not fantasy.


A member of the board of ordained ministry asked a young clergy where he got his idea that Jesus must have been a woman? His response was: “I am  a trained biologist.”  My specialty is genetics. If you make an offspring from a single cell the sex will be determined by the sex of the individual from whom the cell came. 


Mary was a woman. Since there was no male interaction.   Jesus had to be a woman. Members of the board were livid! They kept him on probation another year to get his theology right.  I thought it quite funny.


I told the board after he left … the man was right. It’s just another reason why so many people believe Jesus really did become the Christ at his Baptism when the Holy Spirit descended upon Him like a dove.  The next year he was passed!


In order for the church to survive in a more and more intellectual world we need to tout the truth of the gospel, and not the fantasy of the gospel.   We can do so by sharing the truth and letting the fantasy slip by the way side. 


 

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