May 2010 Church Newsletter Preview

CUTE, CUDDLY CHRISTIANITY

There has never been a shortage of inspirational stories and sayings—at least not in any of our lifetimes. With the advent of the internet, the words of advice are now only a mouse-click away, for almost all of us have friends who click “forward” on their e-mail and send them to us, and other friends who post these “good words” on their facebook statuses.

Just one problem. Based on my own experience, most (yes, most) of the stories Christians e-mail to other Christians are either untrue or embellished to the point of misrepresentation. And many—perhaps most—of the sayings or adages are more false than true. And the “moral of the story” is oftentimes almost completely opposite to the radical gospel of Jesus. They are all very nice, very sweet. But often they are just plain wrong!

Here’s one example, a posting from facebook:

God Knows Best, that's why He says NO!

At first glance, this seems true enough, right? Or at least harmless enough, don’t you think? But think about what it says and implies, based on what we believe about prayer. What does this adage say about prayer? In what ways might the saying imply that prayer is mostly “asking for stuff for ourselves” instead of “the most important way we say thank you to God” as taught by the Heidelberg Catechism? If you pray, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” does God ever say no?
How would you respond to this facebook posting? Would you just click “like” and forget about it?

Think for a moment…

Hypothetically, do you think your friend be offended if you challenged the adage? Would it be best to just ignore it? Is it best to just let it go?

I wonder…

And I’d be curious to know what you think about it, too…

Sometimes I just let it go. There’s not enough time to write about everything, after all. But sometimes, especially with a close friend, I will formulate my thoughts and take the risk of trying to do as the Bible teaches, “to speak the truth in love.”

I’d be curious to know how you would respond.

But anyway, for what it’s worth, here’s how I answered:

RE: “God Knows Best, that's why He says NO!”

I understand the sentiment, I think, but I don't think we should be teaching that sentiment to our children. Seems to me there's very, very little in the Bible about God saying no. And lots and lots about yes.

Just a few quotes from Jesus on this subject... "You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it" (John 14:14); "Ask and it will be given to you... (Matthew 7:7); "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you" (John 15:7).

In my own family's life, we might very well ask, Did God say no to our prayers for healing? What do you think?

As we explained to our kids about a year ago, God said yes and yes and yes. Carolyn's many surgeries and four years of chemo and numerous "little miracles" were all YES answers to prayer. Even in dying there was healing and wholeness. And through the grieving process and in our "new normal" God continues to heal us. God says yes!

Finally, and just as important in our understanding of God, I do not believe God looks down on all the families of the world (all of them praying for protection and good health) and says, "Hmmm, Father Knows Best so I think I'll give this family an adventure with cancer. Like green veggies, they won't like it but it will be good for them! Ha-ha!" No, that is not how God works in the world. Whenever the Bible talks about God's Mighty Acts, the actions are acts of salvation in the fullest sense of that word. Cancer is part of the broken and hurting world in which we live—it is not something “given” by God.

The world is filled with mystery and ambiguity, with unanswered and unanswerable questions. God is far beyond our understanding and yet fully revealed in the face of Jesus, the Lamb, on the cross. And yet ambiguity is okay because Jesus has promised, "I will be with you always...." Mystery is okay because Jesus has promised, “No one can snatch them out of my hands.” God is beyond our understanding. Yet God is Emmanuel—God with us. And that, my friend, is God’s grand and glorious Yes!

CUTE AND CUDDLY CHRISTIANITY: ADDENDUM

There is no shortage of “cute and cuddly” quotes and stories. There is a time and a place for them. But “cute and cuddly” is not an accurate portrayal of the “tragedy, comedy, and fairy tale” (Frederick Buechner) of the Good News. God did not send his Son into the world to bring us a cute and cuddly religion. The crucified One is Lord. Our faith and hope and transformation is shaped by the cross. There is nothing cute and cuddly about the cross.

Jesus died—not to bring comfort to people who are already “pretty-darned-good” and who are already quite comfortable—but to save sinners. We are all poor and needy; we are all shipwrecked and in desperate straits. God did not send Jesus to condemn this hurting and broken world, but that the world through him might be saved.

A POSTSCRIPT: “IN SEARCH OF… HAPPINESS”

Poets agree, happiness cannot be bought, neither can it be sought after. Happiness comes in the midst of not seeking after it, arrives in the midst of mopping a floor, shows up uninvited while emptying the in-basket. The deepest happiness always comes as a surprise party. "Seek God, not happiness--this is the fundamental rule of all meditation" (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).

Happiness surprises. Joy surprises. Grace surprises; the Spirit surprises! Poet Edward Hirsch says, "The stars surprise the sky." I like that. I like surprises.

A POEM (BY WENDELL BERRY): “WHY”

Why all the embarrassment
about being happy?
Sometimes I’m as happy
as a sleeping dog,
and for the same reasons,
and for others.

Glad to be on the journey with you…
Pastor Randy

Not an Option: a sermon for Maundy Thursday

“A new mandate: Love one another!”

Scripture readings: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14; John 13:1-17, 31b-35

SERMON
“Not an Option”
by Randy Lubbers

That’s “Not an Option!” Every heard that? It’s a phrase used to describe something that “just ain’t gonna happen.” For example:

“Dad, can we skip school today?”
“Sorry, that’s not an option.”

There are some things so out-of-bounds, so impossible for whatever reason… they are… just simply… not an option.

However, there’s another way to read this phrase…

In football there’s a play called the “triple option” – the quarterback takes the ball and can (1) keep the ball, (2) hand it off to the fullback, or (3) pitch it to the tailback. Lots of options.

And we all like options, unless there are too many; like in some restaurants:

“Baked, au gratin, mashed with gravy, hash browns, American fries, French fries, rice pilaf, or veggies…”
“Ummm could you repeat that?”

Every car now has something like 275 options with multitudes of combinations making it possible to line up 100,000 red Mustang convertibles and yet all of them are slightly different. Lots of options.

We sometimes say, “I’d like to keep my options open.”
Generally, options are a good thing.
Options make us feel like we’ve got some choice in the matter.

People without options are imprisoned. Sometimes literally. In prison bedtime (“lights out”) is predetermined. Then the lights go back on and the horns blare when it’s time to get up. Breakfast is scrambled eggs… or scrambled eggs. No options for prisoners and slaves and workers treated like slaves.

Free people have options.


Now for the children of Israel living in slavery in Egypt, there were not a lot of options. But in anticipation of Pharoah changing his mind one last time, the Lord gave Moses and Aaron instructions for the Passover. The blood of the sacrificed, slaughtered Pascal lamb would be a sign and the angel of death would pass over those houses. But even in their deliverance there were not a lot of options. The instructions are clear—ignoring them is… not an option.

We sometimes fail to remember the connections between the first Passover and our Holy Week and Easter observances. Christ, the Lamb of God, is our Passover. Christ took bread and wine and said this is my body and blood freely given for you. Christ offered himself up to be the unblemished, wholly-sound Lamb to be slaughtered.
But before any of that, the gospel of John tells us Jesus offered himself up in another way. He took the towel, filled the bowl, and washed the feet of his friends. As we sang, he suffers and serves ‘til all are fed… and “shows how grandly love intends to work….”

Jesus takes the role of servant, of slave. And Jesus calls us to “go and do likewise.” Jesus calls us to be servants.

Now this idea of being a servant doesn’t feel quite right to many of us. After all, weren’t the children of Israel set free from being servants? Aren’t we set free in Christ?

I think a big part of the problem with the idea of servanthood relates to the mistreatment of some Christians over the last 2000 years by bigger and more powerful Christians. Examples abound— Christians with guns took away the lands of Native Americans while others were trying to convert the so-called heathen Indians into becoming servants of Christ. Christians justified slavery and preached, “Servants, obey your masters in the Lord.” Theologians in Latin America have been reminding North American Christians for decades of God’s “Great Requirement”: To act justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with God. Too often the richest people and cultures respond to the cries for justice by recalling Christ’s call to servanthood. Well it’s pretty easy for CEOs to tell people about being “a servant to all.” But the servants don’t really need reminding. Even today in many churches, only men can vote and preach and make the rules—and the women… do women’s work… the women… serve. So it should be no surprise, really, when the idea of being a servant doesn’t ring true.

Not to mention: We live in a world where serving isn’t very high up on the bucket-lists. In our culture, winning is almost everything. Greed is good. Violence is tolerated—even exalted—it’s cool to be tough, cool to be a gansta. Church youth groups shoot each other up with paint balls—“it’s just for fun.” And the kids rightly point out, “Hey, even my dad plays MafiaWars on facebook… it’s just for fun, right? What’s the big deal?”

I thought it was an April Fool joke at first, but it was headline news in the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the April Fool jokes are usually at least below the fold.

Strapped for cash, schools and boosters bring in professional wrestling to raise money. A school administrator says, it might have been in bad taste, but it happened nevertheless. In one match “…a wrestler playing an Iranian made a show of unrolling a rug and kneeling to pray…” as the crowd booed and jeered.

We live in a world where the strongest are rewarded and the weakest left behind. We live in a culture that doesn’t merely tolerate “me-first”—it’s promoted. We live in a time when it is not really so difficult to imagine a crowd of thousands—urged on by an irrational, screaming voice—to turn on someone and shout, “Crucify Him!”

Being a servant? Not an option.
Serving? Pastor, aren’t there better words you could use?

But “serve” is a big word in Exodus.

The deliverance of the people out of servitude to Egypt was the Deliverance of God’s people into the freedom of… serving the one true God. Freedom. Without serving God…. Is just… not an option.

And Jesus… in a world where everyone is striving to get served first… takes the towel… and puts LOVE into action… serving the disciples… washing their feet.
And this is what love looks like:

Caring for people you love when they’re sick—not always pretty or fun;
Patience with people who you might not even like;
Listening when you’d rather be doing anything else.

Love is not always pretty. As Christ demonstrates, love is the humble act of a servant. “And this is my new mandate,” Jesus says. “Love one another. As you have seen me put love into practice by being a slave to all, that’s what I want you to be doing. Love one another. That’s how people will know that you are my followers.”

Love one another.

For those of us set free from servitude to evil to serve God and God alone: love-one-another is what we must do. It is Christ’s command.

It’s not an "option."

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit…

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless God’s holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and never forget all God’s benefits. We praise you, O God, for making your divine truth real to us in Jesus Christ. We ask that what we do, how we love, and the way we love, may increasingly become a worthy response. Amen.

East-a-whaaat?

Jesus said, “Nobody lights a lamp and then covers it with a basin or puts it under the bed. You put it on a lampstand so that those who come in may see the light” (Luke 8:16). The After-School Bible Class and I were talking about what it means to “let your light shine” and one of the answers was something along the lines of “coming to church.” We talked a bit about “when” and “why” people come to church.... Sundays for worship and Sunday school, special meals to be with people they know in the church, weddings, and so forth. And especially during Holy Week....

We talked about Easter and Good Friday and two of their comments and questions stuck with me. One, about Good Friday, after we talked about the crucifixion of Jesus: “Why do they call it Good Friday, if he died?” The other, about Easter, after I explained how Jesus’ death conquered death for all time because Jesus rose from the dead: “He did whaaat?”

The comment reminded me of the funny E*Trade television commercial—“milk-a-whaaat?!”

Most adults in the church know that Jesus rose from the dead. Many understand that the resurrection of the Lord is why Easter is the biggest day of feasting and celebration in the church year. Yes, bigger than Christmas.

But on Easter morning almost no one is astonished. Almost no one is amazed.

But we ought to be.

“He did whaat?”

He rose from the dead.

“How?”

Well, the Bible doesn’t tell us exactly how. The New Testament book of Romans says Christ was raised “through the glory of the Father”—that is, by the glorious power of God.

But we don’t know how.

All we know is that it happened. As Frederick Buechner wrote, “He rose. A few saw him briefly and talked to him. If it is true, there is nothing left to say. If it is not true, there is nothing left to say. For believers and nonbelievers both, life has never been the same again. For some, neither has death…”

Christ arose!
“East-a-whaaat?”

We ought to be
amazed,
flabbergasted,
confused,
lost in wonder,
speechless.

Christ arose!

There is nothing left to say.