a Pathway to Grace

Sept. 7, 2014                                         

Rom. 13:8-14, Matt. 18:15-20

It seems a certain little boy reached school age, and his mother worked very hard to make him enthusiastic about the idea [of school] -- bought him new clothes, told him about the other children he would meet, got him so excited about the project that he eagerly went off on the first day, and came home with excellent reports of what school was like. Well, the next morning, his mother went into the bedroom and said it’s time to get up. He said, "What for?" She replied, "You've got to go to school." He said, "What, again?" 

Prayer

Last week was a fairly easy message to give… this week not so much… in fact, this is the first time I've ever preached on this story. And … it’s sort-of a tough one… it would have been easier to reflect on our Romans text. After-all… it’s pretty cut and dried as Paul gives us a prescription on how to live and love one another. Although… I’ve never been one to shy away from the tough teachings of Jesus… the truth is… many times I search them out, and as I've reflected and studied this story I've discovered this story is really about “a Pathway to Grace.”

When you look at our bible story today, at first glance you may be thinking or have heard this story from Jesus as a prescription of how the church is suppose to resolve conflicts among themselves. That as if following some simple steps will guarantee & ensure God’s love for us all and as a faith community. The truth is… this passage has often been abused and used to root out people who didn't agree with the power structures in place. For these instances… it was about changing behavior and inviting him or her to repentance and to go along with the status quo. The problem with this of course is… there was no church at this point… Jesus is still present.

On the other side of the coin… unresolved conflict ought not happen in silence either, nor behind closed doors, nor whispering gossip. Rather… we should address the issues as quickly as possible so they don’t ferment into something larger. So… we should really see this story within its greater context as Gentiles or as I like to say… “the regular people,”  thus this story is really about relationships and more intentionally the centrality of forgiveness & grace.

What I believe this story demonstrates to us is a pathway to grace. Without the centrality of forgiveness in our relationships in mind… it’s easy to hear this story as some divine recipe for dealing with troublesome Christians

Step 1… pull the offender aside & show them their error.

Step 2… if that doesn't work, bring a group.
Step 3… shun and or dismiss the unrepentant offender…repeat as necessary.

No… the heart of Matt 18 is about forgiveness and how important it is to God, how important is should be to us, and about how hard it can be to actually extend and receive it.

David Lose says it like this…  “in the verses just before those we read this week, Jesus tells a brief parable, or really uses an analogy, to get at how much God wants to draw us into God’s rich embrace of forgiveness and mercy. God is like a shepherd who will leave ninety-nine sheep to them-selves, Jesus says, in order to find the one that has gone astray. Similarly, the verses just after our passage describe Peter’s question, “how many times must I forgive someone?” followed by his diligent suggestion of seven. Jesus, however, isn’t satisfied with merely towing the line of the law and so instead says, “seventy-seven,” or about as many times as it takes to love your neighbor back into right relationship with you.” 

So… what does this mean for us?

Forgiveness is from God.

Jesus says in John 13… “Love others as I have loved you,”

John 3:16 states… 

“God loved you and me so much that he sent his son Jesus to make that love known.”

In Gen… “God created everything out of love and it was good.”

And from our understanding of God… we believe our God is a God of love. That forgiveness is really about God’s love for us no matter what our life is like.

Forgiveness is for Each Other.

Well… this is pretty much a given… because we all screw up… Because we put our wants & desires before others. Because we hurt others & they hurt us. There isn't a single one of us that hasn't been hurt by someone or that we haven’t hurt someone. This is life… and why forgiveness is an essential part of loving and growing relationships. And why it’s one of Cana’s core values as we strive to have honest, respectful, forgiving & caring relationships in this community. Though forgiveness is hard to do… forgiveness is the only way to keep relationships hopeful and in place.

Forgiveness is The Pathway to Grace.

If we believe God is a God of love and this love is demonstrated in Jesus.

And if we believe Jesus is the forgiving agent of God’s love for us and how we need to respond & love each another. Then it seems… if Jesus is about forgiveness…. Forgiveness is the pathway to grace and a life of love. Though forgiveness is hard, but without forgiveness our lives remain fragmented to a much larger degree than need be. And when this is the case… we lose ourselves and the power we have as a child of God. Forgiveness is never about the other person… but about us.

I saw this posted on FB from motovationgrid.com… “when you choose to forgive those who hurt you, you take away their power.

Who is taking away your power? What issue between you and another person is robbing you of your life? 

Again David Lose says, “ We believe God cares – really cares – about how we treat each other and are treated in turn. God loves us enough to help us better love each other. And God wants to redeem us enough to embody the forgiveness God invites us to in the form of God’s only Son, Jesus, as he lay upon the cross.

Who and or what in your life today needs forgiving?

What pathway are you walking?

No matter how difficult forgiving can be… Jesus provides the pathway to forgiveness and grace.

When I saw this posted on FaceBook the title caught my attention right a way. So I read it and was so moved by it I had to re-post. What moved me the most isn't that my dad is a right-wing asshole... it's because I have viewed my dad as just a plain asshole for most of my life. What moved me was the response. I hope it moves you to a different place... it has for me.

Ask Andrew W.K.: My Dad Is a Right-Wing Asshole
By Andrew W.K. Wed., Aug. 6 2014 
Ask Andrew W.K.

[Editor's note: Every Wednesday New York City's own Andrew W.K. takes your life questions, and sets you safely down the right path to a solution, a purpose or -- no surprise here -- a party. Need his help? Just ask: AskAWK@villagevoice.com]

Hi Andrew,

I'm writing because I just can't deal with my father anymore. He's a 65-year-old super right-wing conservative who has basically turned into a total asshole intent on ruining our relationship and our planet with his politics. I'm more or less a liberal democrat with very progressive values and I know that people like my dad are going to destroy us all. I don't have any good times with him anymore. All we do is argue. When I try to spend time with him without talking politics or discussing any current events, there's still an underlying tension that makes it really uncomfortable. Don't get me wrong, I love him no matter what, but how do I explain to him that his politics are turning him into a monster, destroying the environment, and pushing away the people who care about him?

Thanks for your help,
Son of A Right-Winger


Dear Son of A Right-Winger,

Go back and read the opening sentences of your letter. Read them again. Then read the rest of your letter. Then read it again. Try to find a single instance where you referred to your dad as a human being, a person, or a man. There isn't one. You've reduced your father -- the person who created you -- to a set of beliefs and political views and how it relates to you. And you don't consider your dad a person of his own standing -- he's just "your dad." You've also reduced yourself to a set of opposing views, and reduced your relationship with him to a fight between the two. The humanity has been reduced to nothingness and all that's left in its place is an argument that can never really be won. And even if one side did win, it probably wouldn't satisfy the deeper desire to be in a state of inflamed passionate conflict.

The world isn't being destroyed by democrats or republicans, red or blue, liberal or conservative, religious or atheist -- the world is being destroyed by one side believing the other side is destroying the world. The world is being hurt and damaged by one group of people believing they're truly better people than the others who think differently. The world officially ends when we let our beliefs conquer love. We must not let this happen.

When we lump people into groups, quickly label them, and assume we know everything about them and their life based on a perceived world view, how they look, where they come from, etc., we are not behaving as full human beings. When we truly believe that some people are monsters, that they fundamentally are less human than we are, and that they deserve to have less than we do, we ourselves become the monsters. When we allow our emotions to be hypnotized by the excitement of petty bickering about seemingly important topics, we drift further and further away from the fragile and crucial human bond holding everything together. When we anticipate with ferocious glee the next chance we have to prove someone "wrong" and ourselves "right," all the while disregarding the vast complexity of almost every subject -- not to mention the universe as a whole -- we are reducing the beauty and magic of life to a "side" or a "type," or worst of all, an "answer." This is the power of politics at it's most sinister.

At its best, politics is able to organize extremely complex world views into manageable and communicable systems so they can be grappled with and studied abstractly. But even the most noble efforts to organize the world are essentially futile. The best we can usually achieve is a crude and messy map of life from one particular vantage point, featuring a few grids, bullet points, and sketches of its various aspects and landmarks. Anything as infinitely complex as life, reality, and the human experience can never be summed up or organized in a definitive system, especially one based on "left or right," "A or B," "us or them." This is the fatal flaw of binary thinking in general. However, this flaw isn't just ignored, it's also embraced, amplified, and deliberately used as a weapon on the very people who think it's benefiting their way of thinking.

Human beings crave order and simplicity. We cling to the hope that some day, if we really refine our world view and beliefs, we can actually find the fully correct way to think -- the absolute truth and final side to stand on. People and systems craving power take advantage of this desire and pit us against each other using a "this or that" mentality. The point is to create unrest, disagreement, resentment, and anger -- a population constantly at war with itself, each side deeply believing that the other is not just wrong, but also a sincere threat to their very way of life and survival. This creates constant anxiety and distraction -- the perfect conditions for oppression. The goal of this sort of politics is to keep people held down and mesmerized by a persistent parade of seemingly life-or-death debates, each one worth all of our emotional energy and primal passion.

But the truth is, the world has always been and always will be on the brink of destruction. And what keeps it from actually imploding is our love for life and our deep-seeded desire not to die. Our love for our own life is inextricably connected to our love of all life and the miracle of this phenomenon we call "the world." We must give all of ourselves credit every day for keeping things going. It's an incredible achievement to exist at all.

So we must protect and respect each other, no matter how hard it feels. No matter how wrong someone else may seem to us, they are still human. No matter how bad someone may appear, they are truly no worse than us. Our beliefs and behavior don't make us fundamentally better than others, no matter how satisfying it is to believe otherwise. We must be tireless in our efforts to see things from the point of view we most disagree with. We must make endless efforts to try and understand the people we least relate to. And we must at all times force ourselves to love the people we dislike the most. Not because it's nice or because they deserve it, but because our own sanity and survival depends on it. And if we do find ourselves pushed into a corner where we must kill others in order to survive, we must fully accept that we are killing people just as fully human as ourselves, and not some evil abstract creatures.

Love your dad because he's your father, because he made you, because he thinks for himself, and most of all because he is a person. Have the strength to doubt and question what you believe as easily as you're so quick to doubt his beliefs. Live with a truly open mind -- the kind of open mind that even questions the idea of an open mind. Don't feel the need to always pick a side. And if you do pick a side, pick the side of love. It remains our only real hope for survival and has more power to save us than any other belief we could ever cling to.

Your friend,
Andrew W.K.

Which Rock?

Aug. 24, 2014                                                                                                    

Acts 5:17-29, Matt 16:13-20

I gave this sermon at Trinity Lutheran Church, Clawson, Mi. as part of facilitating a Core Values process with them. As a trained Transition Pastor I help congregations make pastoral & ministry transitions, and help them peer into the future. 

There is a story of a pastor standing at the back of the church in a receiving line after his first worship service. Everyone was telling him what a 'nice' sermon it was, when a strange-looking guy came through the line, grabbed his hand, and said, 'Pastor, that was the worst sermon I ever heard.'

The pastor was a little surprised, but went right on shaking hands. A few minutes later the same guy came through the line again. This time he said, 'That sermon had nothing to do with the text.'

Later, this same fellow showed up a third time: 'Pastor,' he said, 'If all your sermons are as boring as that one, I'm never coming back here again.'

At that point, a considerate member of the congregation drew the pastor aside and said, 'Don't worry about him. He's just a little crazy. He’s just repeating what everyone else saying.'
--As retold by James A. Harnish, First Things First, 14 June 1992, Tampa, Florida.

Prayer

Imagine you’re walking along side of Jesus…You’ve been chatting about the people that have been healed in the town you just left. You’re amazed… your excited.. the adrenalin is flowing… you and your buddies are high 5ing each other… it’s been a great day. Then Jesus looks you square in the eye and says, “Who do you say I am?”

The question stops you dead ion your tracks… you look at Jesus… Jesus is looking at you… “Who do you say I am?” And you’re stuck… How do you respond?

Does this question strike the fear of God in you?

            Who do you say I am?... Jesus is asking…

That is the question this week… perhaps it’s the question of a lifetime. 

It’s the question we all must answer at some point in our lives. 

It’s a question on what you believe… on what you stand up for.

It’s a question on what’s most important in your life.

It’s a question on what you value.

The question Jesus is asking is not a request for a mere confession or intellectual assent, but do I dare say, a response of acclamation!

 A statement of belief...

A statement of how we live our faith & life.

The past few weeks of the news cycle have been quite crazy…There has and continues to be the mass killing of Christians in Iraq... The suicide of Robin Williams…The shooting of Michael Brown… The terrible flooding in our area… While stuff like this happens all the time around the world… periodically these things get highlighted… bringing us an up close and personal view of life & death and destruction. 

While these events are not related… there is a connection that is real because at the end of the day… there is a response. We need an answer. We are looking for a response to all that is happening. We are looking for understanding and reasons why things happen. Jesus is seeking a response as well.

Our Bible stories today in Matt & Acts are bookends to how Jesus believes we should respond. Jesus’ friends are grappling with how to answer Jesus. The following might be going through their heads. 

        Do we tell him what he wants to hear?

        Do we give the safe answer… John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah…?

        Do we not answer?

Peter of course answers… perhaps for all of them and perhaps a bit hesitantly… “You’re the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” A few verses later Jesus is accosting Peter when he says, "Get behind me Satan." You can visualize the rest of them all nodding in agreement. I believe it’s safe to say… we’d all be doing the same thing. Nodding our heads. This doesn't really get us to where Jesus wants us… does it?

Acts 5 get’s us to the other end. It’s what happens when we respond in the way of faith. You see… Jesus’ friends have made the bold response about who Jesus is and are responding by sharing the story of Jesus with others. Folks… they’re sharing the good news… they are sharing who Jesus is. It’s a value… guiding principle… an important part of what it means to be a person of faith… a Christian! As a result… they find themselves in jail. As a result… it doesn’t stop them… they continue to share Jesus. As a result… it was a risk… at the end of the day… it was about obeying God rather than people. 

Again... Jesus is asking… Who do you say I am? It’s a question of extraordinary vulnerability. The Christians in Iraq are answering… and some are dying. What about you…? Are you responding? Jesus is asking… what will I/we wager our lives? It’s risky… we might be ridiculed… resented… preyed on… even jailed. Really.... which rock do we place our life…Ourselves or Jesus? 

In part… not only is Jesus asking who he is… we have to ask who we are… and after worship we will gather for conversation about what our values you really believe as a faith community. What values you will stake your life as Trinity Lutheran. The values of how you will respond in faith to a community of need. And Values that help you answer Jesus, Who do you say I am?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book “The Cost of Discipleship  says, “The new situation must be created, in which it is possible to believe in Jesus as God incarnate; that is the impossible situation in which everything is staked solely on the word of Jesus. Peter had to leave the ship to risk his life on the sea, in order to learn both his own weakness and the almighty power of the Lord. If Peter had not taken the risk, he would never have learned the meaning of faith. Before he can believe, the utterly impossible situation on the seas must be displayed. The road to faith passes through obedience to the call of Jesus. Unless a definite step is demanded, the call vanishes into thin air, and if men imagine they can follow Jesus without taking this step, they are deluding themselves like fanatics.” (The Cost of Discipleship, 68.) 

How do you answer Jesus? Who do you say I am?

A Challenge to Millennial's

I found this interesting blog article on thespiritporch.blogspot.com from a millennial as a challenge to millennial's. But it got me thinking about how we boomers and older generations view the myth's around them. Perhaps... there's a way to bridge the challenges on all sides of the generational divide. No matter where you find yourself, perhaps, we can all learn something from each other.


a challenge to millennial's from a millennial
Here are some common perceptions about Millenials, their money, and their relationship to the church, followed by what I believe to be the kernel of truth in each and then a challenge to other Millenials (I’m one of them) who are trying to live faithfully in uncertain times.


1. The church is guilty until proven innocent.

Truth - Every thinking adult 18-118 can recite several scandals and atrocities that have chained themselves to the public image of the church. But where older generations might be able to juxtapose a positive image of their childhood church or a pastor that they remember well, Millenials generally aren’t. Or if they’re lucky enough to at least have that (as I do) it is regularly humiliated by the majority opinion of their peer group.

Challenge – As a generation, we pride ourselves on our ability to keep a conscious check on our biases. But how many of us are paying attention to all the clergy collars anywhere there is a peace protest or a rally for equality? How many of us are thinking of Dorothy Day, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Oscar Romero, Desmond Tutu, or Martin Luther King Jr. when we level our critiques of the church? I’m not saying we have to turn a blind eye to the church when it screws up as our grandparents might have been guilty of doing from time to time. Just be fair. And at least recognize the good with the bad.


2. The Church is not a Millennial’s primary clan

Truth - President Obama was wise to promote his health care law on “Between Two Ferns” with Zach Galifianakis not because it shares any deep resonance with his overall message but because the sardonic irony of its presentation is code for a deeper rooted cultural awareness. The intended message was clear: “You can trust me. I’m one of you.” The church has no such social cachet. The churches meeting in some hipster bar or coffee coop might be short term draw for a few, but they’re no Regina Spektor.

Challenge - If you want to follow Jesus but need a community more rooted than “pub theology” and not backward like fundamentalist Christianity, and you don’t believe that your down-to-earth neighborhood church gets you, your worldview, or your cultural mindset; then change it. Millenials are certainly too enlightened to be ageist, no? So give Beverly and Ethel some credit. As a pastor of multiple generations, you’d be amazed how many Beverly and Ethel’s I’ve met who, it turns out, were yearning for the words I had to say when, previously, I might have assumed that I was far too radical for them. Repeatedly, I’ve been all hopped up on my “radical Gospel” only to discover Beverly’s who are on the no fly list for protesting The School of the Americas in the eighties and Ethel’s who have spent decades teaching school for almost no compensation in Mali and Columbia. Lesson learned: I’m not that radical. But I can be, if I get some skin in the game and maybe even humble myself to learn from these people.


3. Millenials don’t want to pay a mortgage and electrical bills for a church when they could be giving directly to a cause that they care about

Truth - Fair enough.

Challenge - This is not an either/or, and most of us give so little to the “causes” that we say we care about, it would be laughable to claim that it is. Beyond that, how many Millenials realize that Lutheran Services in America is the single biggest charitable organization in America in terms of revenue? Last fall, at the drop of a hat, my congregation raised $45,000 to bring 29 families out of extreme poverty in the central plateau. A crowd-funding internet campaign would have required ten or twenty times as many participants to generate that kind of investment. Why was this possible? Because we had been paying electric bills and a mortgage so that we could gather week after week as a community, hear stories, and develop a common vision around a God whose heart is always first and foremost with the poor and who suffers no either/or-s when it comes to their sake.


4. Millennial's have no money

Truth - Millenials have no money, mostly.

Challenge - Giving money away faithfully doesn’t require a steady income and sure handle on the future. In fact, the word faithfullyimplies just the opposite. And no one is asking you to compete with the empty nesters in the fourth pew whose house is paid off, and their one child got a full ride to Yale, and now they’re left with nothing but disposable income. A leap of faith for you might be $5 more per week out of your scarcity where another $100 to them is nothing. The church is the only institution in our society that deals with money whose president and CEO (forgive the language, Jesus) actually gets more excited about the $5 than the $100 (Mark 12:41-44).


5. Millennial's are anxious about the future

Truth – Delayed careers, student loan debt, housing crash; the whole bit.

Challenge - It’s commonplace in our society for us to entrust our future to our money. The theological term for that in which you place your future well-being is a “god.” This nation may have spent centuries going to church on Sunday, but when it came down to the serious business of actually surviving, Christ has never seriously competed with our everyday financial planner for the position of high priest. But money is a particularly unforgiving god whose mercy never overrules his cold, calculating logic He will repossess your stuff and evict you cold and naked the second you anger him. So Jesus’ challenge to people with money anxieties was both counter-intuitive and elegantly logical, get rid of it. Putting money into the plate is an act of defiance against that copper god. In some sense, we’re literally getting rid of him in hopes of discovering a God who is far more gracious.

- Pastor Jared

Silence

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How do you feel when you are forced to be in silence? For a moment? 5 minutes? 10 minutes?

I believe for most of us... being silent for much more than a moment is very disconcerting. We are geared to be productive... it's the American way, Right!

Psalm 46:10... "Be Still and Know that I AM God" is an affront to our American way of life. We are living in a time where culture and society are moving at what seems super-sonic speeds, yet as much as we are reluctant to slow ourselves, we desire some slowness in life. 

When I lived in Florida along the inter-coastal water-way of the Indian River I would often go out and sit on the bench that was located in the back yard of our condo. I would try to silence myself. I would try and meditate. I would try and reflect on what was going on at that moment in my life. Then I'd hear the screeching of tires, car noise, trucks, the fire department responding to a call, etc. It seemed I wasn't sitting but a minute looking for silence when the world crashed in on my attempt. 

Then there were the times when I was able to experience a prolonged period of silence when the silence became too burdensome. It was too quiet. Too still. Too challenging. I often felt I would never be able to experience Psalm 46: 10 in my life. I wonder even today if it is even possible. 

It often seems silence is in short supply. I went to camp a couple of weeks ago. Those of you who do this know that camp is not a vacation or a place where you can rest or even find silence. Not only are you as an adult leader or pastor responsible to do at least a hour long bible study with your kids, but the camp has you do work (at least the Lutheran camps I've been associated with do) around the camp. I told them when I arrived, I am not doing anything for two days. I am going to rest for two days because I hadn't had any time off since the beginning of the year. After those two days I will do whatever you want. I cut down brush & trees. It was good. But consider... I had to make the decision to be quiet & restful. I had to carve out the time and for once I didn't feel guilty. Perhaps... I'm coming to a place where I am beginning to become silent in my life.

All to often I believe we are looking for God in all the wrong places. We tend to listen for God in our activities. In all the noise of life. In the comings and goings of our day when perhaps we need to reassess where we really need to hear from God.

In 1 Kings 19, Elijah has had all he can take. He is at his whits end when God tells him to go up to the mountain and God passes by and the mountain and it shakes. But God says he's not in the mountain. Then a strong and violent wind comes, but God wasn't in the wind. Then a earthquake, but God wasn't in the earthquake. Then a fire, but God wasn't in the fire. Then a gentle breeze comes and Elijah covers himself and hears God. There are various understandings about this, but what some seem to indicate is that God spoke and Elijah heard God's voice in the silence. That God speaks in the solitude of life. 

Perhaps... the silence of life is not only God speaking, but us listening! Maybe we don't hear because we are in too much noise! Too much activity to hear and to listen.

Maybe there's a connection between the amount of noise in our lives and our ability to hear God. If God feels distant, maybe it's not because God is not talking, but simply because we are not hearing.

Mark 1:35... "Jesus woke early in the morning and went out to a place where he could be alone and pray."

My friends... Be Still and Know I AM God.



    










   

A Mirror for Every Corner of Your House

This is something to consider as we look at who we were, are, and will be. It seems we are constantly trying to discover who we are throughout all of our lives with the things we think we can't seem to live without. 

In this opening article of the current edition of the magazine "The MockingBird" editor Ethan Richardson describes our penchant desire to find out true self's. He brings into question how we think we discover our identities and more importantly in the end the cost.   

A Mirror for Every Corner of Your House

After moving out of my old place this spring, I was horrified to find just how much garbage I had piled up in a small number of years. In dusty corners of the house, small reminders of who I thought I might like to be: musical instruments I never learned to play; a Rosetta Stone Portuguese program I never even uploaded; philosophy books on the shelf I thought I needed (and never once opened); a Ziggy Stardust wig and leather tights. I don’t know which is more embarrassing: the money lost on all these endeavors, or the naïveté that made each of these endeavors feel so ultimate. Craigslist helped me remove them from my life. All except the wig.

The funny thing? I am currently doing it all over again. Each piece of my new house is a new self, and ten years later, I’ll happen upon a shirt (a self?) I’d never wear again if you paid me. Maybe the same is true for you.

In developmental psychology this phenomenon is called the End-of-History Illusion. It is our tendency to believe, contrary to past evidence, that who we are now is who we will continue to be forever. Jordi Quoidbach, in his study on the illusion, describes it this way:

People have a fundamental misconception about their future selves… people may believe that who they are today is pretty much who they will be tomorrow, despite the fact that it isn’t who they were yesterday… people expect to change little in the future, despite knowing that they have changed a lot in the past, and that this tendency bedevils their decision-making.

It seems Rod Stewart and The Faces only had it half-right. Sure, “I wish that I knew what I know now / when I was younger,” but I also “wish that I could know now what I will know then.”

We tend not to think this way, though. We rarely think, when buying a pair of shoes, “Will I hate these shoes in a couple years?” Who can tell how we’re going to feel, anyway? And this is not just true for the stuff in our closets, but for the persons who wear them, too. We have an inbuilt sense of omniscience when it comes to our lives. We tend to believe that this self now—or the self we are envisioning—is the Final Self, the one that won’t need discarding, changing, or hiding, like all the rough drafts did before.

It comes as no surprise to us when we see someone else’s Final Self come crashing down. In Hollywood, we actually crave it. As the hate-worship saga continues upon the life of Gwyneth Paltrow, the biggest surprise about her split with Coldplay frontman Chris Martin wasn’t that it felt so curated (she called it “conscious uncoupling”), but that it felt so good to finally justify the disdain. We judge from the couch, She just isn’t who she thinks she is.

So, who are you now? What Final Self is writing the story as you read this? What elements of you will continue to be you when you awake tomorrow? Next month? In ten years? And what will be gone?

The Catholic writer Henri Nouwen talks about the experience of losing, painfully, all remnants of his Final Self. As a celebrated theologian working in an upper-echelon institution, he left the world of his accomplishments to begin working at a center for the mentally and physically disabled. Here’s how he describes the experience:

This experience was and, in many ways, is still the most important experience of my new life, because it forced me to rediscover my true identity. These broken, wounded, and completely unpretentious people forced me to let go of my relevant self—the self that can do things, show things, prove things, build things—and forced me to reclaim that unadorned self in which I am completely vulnerable, open to receive and give love regardless of any accomplishments.

Notice how this “unadorned self” Nouwen describes is devoid of any talk of potential or possibility. All the detritus left of the project of a Final Self is wiped clean and, in its absence, the real self emerges. This seems to make sense of John the Baptist’s poignant surrender at the arrival of Christ: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn 3.30). Maybe there’s something to this unadorned self. Maybe this is the point at which we really do find the “end-of-history” solution, where none of our varied stories of ourselves—past, present, or future—come to matter nearly as much as the one given us in our weakness.

This issue of The Mockingbird is the Identity Issue. In it we cover the various ways in which we try to answer the question, “Who am I?” You will read about benchwarming ballplayers, sell-out hipsters, and the greatest ladder-climbing trickster of them all, Jacob, son of Isaac. You will crunch the numbers within the authenticity economy. You will look at the hashtag obsession known as FOMO (fear of missing out), especially through the work of psychoanalyst Adam Phillips. There are essays on Pete Townshend and The Who, and on the HBO sensation, True Detective.

So here’s your glimpse into the mirror, and to the hope that stands beyond it. We hope you enjoy.

Ethan Richardson

Editor

Entertainment Evangelism

I'm on the Rev. Dr. Brian K. Gigee, Lead Pastor, New Life Lutheran Church, Pearland, TX. e-mail list. Brian is a colleague, fellow Lutheran, and friend. In his latest e-mail to the congregation he serves was a piece on "Entertainment Evangelism" I found interesting. Brian serves in what is considered the "bible belt" and in the shadows of several "mega churches" and yet he serves and works along side of the congregation in one of the ELCA's growing faith communities. 

So... while you may or may not like the term "Entertainment Evangelism" Brian has a different take on it... and one that makes sense to me as well. 

Let me know what you think. 

"I was talking with someone about being a mainline Lutheran church and how we compared to the TV evangelism churches... the reference was about "Entertainment Evangelism"... chime in as you care to... some like it and some don't... and me?... I don't care... and here's why...

Help me carve the word 'en-ter-tain-ment' out... like this...

En = go in

ter = land (territory, terrarium, terra)

tain = hold (the fountain holds the font.)

ment= the state of or practice of... like 'government' = the practice of
governing, etc...

Do people really come to church to be entertained?  Maybe.  I think mostly not.  But, people do expect something to happen in worship.  Something like a change of heart, change of thought, a sense of being renewed... gaining a good perspective on all that's not right with ourselves... I have lots of ways to be entertained... and yet, I do expect God to show up on every Sunday to bless us, feed us and empower us, etc... and sometimes it's joyful... like Christmas and Easter and sometimes it's quieter and more introspective... like Ash Wednesday and All Saint's Sunday... Memorial Day can be like that, too... a quieter time of worship to reflect on those who
have paid a price so you can come to worship this Sunday and I can write about it here...

So, let me put Jesus in the middle of this... as the purveyor of 'entertainment'.... as in Jesus entered our land... entered our world... entered our lives... and holds us... that's what 'en-ter-tain-ment' literally is, right?  Jesus coming to us with the 'font' ... the fountain for our sake...

But, we can't leave it at that...  WE should be entertaining to the world, too!  It is good and right, we say, in all times and in all places... that we should go out to enter the world... our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our homes, our kitchens, our bedrooms and hold on to others...  But I suppose we've got to get out of the church building to do that... and we do... that's why we gather each Sunday... this one being no different!"


He is also now an author... "God Works" you can find it on Amazon for Kindle @ $9.99
http://www.amazon.com/God-Works-Brian-K-Gigee-ebook/dp/B00HFUXFXC