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  • THE 'UNCHURCHED’:  A challenge for mainline Christianity

    by Rev. Dr. Robert R. LaRochelle

     
    UnchurchedCurrent data indicates that an increasing number of Americans identify themselves as ‘unchurched’. This includes not only those who, in their adult life, do not go to church, but also a great number who were not raised within a church tradition. While it seems to me that more conservative Christian churches have had considerable success attracting good numbers of these individuals, mainline churches, including those who identify as progressive, seem to lag behind. In my area of the country, this has certainly been my impression.
    In a brief article, I cannot delve into all of the reasons or potential strategies for changing this situation. In considering the issue, however, I would like to make these suggestions:

    1. That local churches rethink how we go about getting the word out about our churches. A church’s social media presence is important and cannot be underestimated.
    2. That we recognize the reality that many couples, heterosexual or homosexual, come from ‘ mixed’ religious backgrounds. This includes many individuals who did not have a ‘churched’ upbringing. Resources such as my book A Home United published by Energion may be helpful in encouraging dialogue among those couples, a dialogue that can be extended out to others.
    3. That churches renew their commitment to adult education, while looking for creative ways to do it effectively. Sitting back in the church building and waiting for people to come may have been a great strategy in the 1950’s, but not anymore. We have to look for viable ways to be present in our communities.
    4. That local churches not shy away from talking to people about the unique spiritual resources to be found in their denominational identity. To do so is not to deny ecumenism. As a matter of fact, in my book Crossing the Street, also published by Energion, I contend that we benefit from knowledge of and exposure to a variety of worship traditions, including musical ones. It is simply to say that it is good for a Presbyterian to talk positively about the values of that tradition in presenting a church as attractive to those who know little about it. I would also note that within denominations you will find a depth of theology and theological discussion that should not be bypassed in the quest for ecclesiastical relevance.

    Finally and, tying this all together, is my strong belief that churches have to get VERY INTENTIONAL about reaching out to the unchurched. My suggestion to the reader is that you do whatever you can to make this a real priority in your church. Do what you can to discuss and raise consciousness about this issue.
    I would appreciate your comments!
    Rev. Dr. Bob LaRochelle is Pastor at Christ the King Lutheran Church, Windsor, Connecticut
    Follow him on Twitter at @REVDRBOBL
    Follow Christ the King Lutheran @CTKWindsor
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  • Irenaeus, Human Perfection, and the Nature of the Universe

    by Allan R. Bevere

     
    IrenaeusHere someone may raise an objection. “Could not God have made humanity perfect from the beginning?” Yet one must know that all things are possible for God, who is always the same and uncreated. But created beings, and all who have their beginning of being in the course of time, are necessarily inferior to the one who created them. Things which have recently come into being cannot be eternal; and, not being eternal, they fall short of perfection for that very reason. And being newly created they are therefore childish and immature, and not yet fully prepared for an adult way of life. And so, just as a mother is able to offer food to an infant, but the infant is not yet able to receive food unsuited to its age. In the same way, God, for his part, could have offered perfection to humanity, but humanity was not capable of receiving it. –Irenaeus (second century AD).
     
    In this passage Bishop Irenaeus suggests that God did not create humanity in a state of perfection because perfection requires a maturing process. Irenaeus states that by necessity human beings have a beginning in time and, therefore, must be “inferior” to the one who created them. Humanity is not simply able to receive such perfection; it is something attained over time as one grows in love and grace. Such a lack of perfection is suggested in the Garden of Eden story where Adam and Eve are forbidden to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The fact that they lacked such knowledge prior to their disobedience meant they lacked perfection. As is clear from the narrative, the problem with the first couple was not their humanity, it was their disobedience. There is an immaturity, writes Irenaeus, that goes hand in hand with a lack of perfection. In the same way maturity and perfection are indispensably connected. Since maturity cannot be had instantaneously, neither can perfection. One moves toward it.
    While the going on to perfection theme is very familiar to Wesleyans, it nevertheless challenges us to reflect not only on our own lives and our relationship, our journey with Jesus Christ, but if Irenaeus is correct, it causes us to think about the very nature of the universe itself. John Polkinghorne, a theoretical physicist and Anglican priest, suggests in his book, Quarks, Chaos and Christianity that the universe itself has been created to “mature”, which means that creation is not static and complete, but rather that it is continuing even now, that God is still creating, or in theological terms re-creating. This should not surprise Christians who speak so freely about the human relationship with God as a journey, as one of growth. This is simply consistent with the very nature of the universe itself. Evolutionary theory is nothing more than God’s involvement with creation, creating and also allowing its contingencies to go where they may. God’s creation of human beings with a free will is simply consistent with the free process built into the fabric of the universe itself. God must act consistently.
    Thus, God is not a helpless spectator, nor is God the divine puppet master pulling the strings of a helpless and predetermined creation. Jesus went to the cross as one who chose freely to do so and as one who was fulfilling the will of his Father. The cross of Christ is the fullest expression of the nature of God and the nature of his relationship to humanity and the entire creation.
    As the universe expands outward and history moves forward, God journeys with us and the universe, leading and guiding and allowing. Our hope is not in the universe itself, nor in history, but in the eternal and perfect God who moves with us toward perfection.

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  • A Theological "Chicken or Egg"

    by Bob Cornwall

    SacramentsIn a previous posting I raised the question of what baptism might look like, or at least be understood, in the context of the practice of the Open Table. If all are invited to the Lord’s Table, where does that leave baptism? As I’ve noted in previous essays I am part of a Believer Baptism tradition. It is a position that I have come to embrace. I believe that it has a strong biblical foundation, but I understand that the infant baptism tradition has a long pedigree.
    I’m writing this essay on the afternoon of Pentecost Sunday. It is on the Day of Pentecost that the Spirit falls on the church leading to a display of the Spirit’s presence that leads to a sermon by Peter. People ask Peter about the steps needed to be taken to be saved, and Peter offers this formula – repentance, baptism, forgiveness of sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. It’s a simple process that offers a strong foundation to the Christian experience. In Romans 6, Paul dives deeper into the meaning of baptism. He suggests that baptism connects us with Jesus. That is, we identify ourselves completely with Jesus’ own experience of death, burial, and resurrection. The actual process of immersion beautifully illustrates this act of identification. We experience and burial as we enter the water, and we experience Jesus’ resurrection as we come out of the water.
    As we consider the meaning of baptism in the 21st century, especially when it involves adults who have decided to become part of the Christian community, baptism serves as a sign of union with Christ.  Church of Christ theologian John Mark Hicks offers this vision that I think is helpful.

    Our union with Christ means that his experience becomes our own. We are not only baptized into his death, but die with him in that baptism as we are plunged into death itself. Our old humanity is crucified and buried with Christ just as Christ’s own Adamic humanity was crucified and buried. Jesus was raised as a new human, free from death itself. So, also, we are raised a new humanity free from the guilt and power of sin as well as from the dominion of death. Our union with the death of Christ is also our union with his resurrected life. We rise from the watery grave to live a new life. [Hicks, John Mark (2014-04-27). Enter the Water, Come to the Table (Kindle Locations 977-981). Abilene Christian University Press. Kindle Edition.]

    Union with Christ means that Jesus’ life experiences (including death, burial, and resurrection) become our own. With him we become a new person.
    Baptism, as I’ve noted before, has a variety of meanings and purposes, but ultimately it’s about union with Christ. Even becoming a church member through baptism involves in a sacramental way union with Christ. In baptism we become part of the Body of Christ. As Paul tells the Corinthians:
    For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we are all made to drink one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:12-13).
    Baptism is more than a rite of passage or the necessary first step to taking communion. In this new day communion will often come before baptism. We do experience union with Christ at the Table, but in baptism we consciously seek to unite ourselves with Christ. The Table is the first step toward union, which takes place as we enter the water and then rise again with Christ.  Baptism allows us the opportunity to make this choice to fully identify with the one who died, was buried, and was raised by God so that we might taste the blessings of union with Christ.

    MarriageBob’s latest book is “Marriage in Interesting Times.” It can be reviewed here: http://www.bobcornwall.com/2016/05/marriage-in-interesting-times-another.html
    and ordered here: https://energiondirect.info/small-group-resources/marriage-in-interesting-times

  • Learning to Lament

    by Chris Surber

     
    GriefWe’ve forgotten how to grieve. In our efforts to sterilize and glamorize our lives we have ostracized anguish. It isn’t allowed in our smoke filled light show worship services because it’s frankly a downer. It’s not welcomed in our mass marketed DVD Bible Studies because it doesn’t draw crowds.
    Today we want to happy and in the process we’ve forgotten that God is usually found most easily in our pain. We usually move too quickly through pain and grief. We treat it like a hindrance to spiritual growth rather than the beautiful opportunity for spiritual growth that it is.
    In fact, grief is a necessary part of connecting human pain to divine healing and God’s purposes in it.  “Christians grieve, just like all other human beings.  But the major and all-important difference is that Christians grieve in hope.” (James R. White, Grieving: Our Path Back to Peace) We need to learn how to lament! That is, we must actively grieve before the Lord because it is a necessary part of the process of connecting personal pain to the divine plan and the will of God for us.
    When we suffer the loss of a loved one there is a natural reaction of sorrow and sadness along with the possibility of many other emotional responses. When we are personally attacked or slandered or when someone we love is the victim of violence or abuse it’s ok and even good to allow ourselves to suffer for a season. A lot of Christians today are trapped in unprocessed grief and pain because rather than finding God in their pain through active lament, they glossed over it to get “happy” again. Sometimes we need to weep.[ene_ptp] There is a great tradition of lament in the Scriptures.  Public and private cries of pain and sorrow abound in the Bible. In Psalm 56:8 the Psalmist writes, “Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll – are they not in your record?”  Lament is a normative part of the life of the child of God.  The local community of faith is called to be a community of healing.  The local church is more than merely a place for love to be shown.
    The calling of God on the people of God in community extends well beyond the borders of showering one another with the love of God. In his book, Being the Body, Charles Colson writes, “Fellowship is more than unconditional love that wraps its arms around someone who is hurting.  It is also tough love that holds one fast to the truth and pursuit of righteousness.”   The Church is a place of horizontal connection with one another in our grief and suffering, and vertical connection with God in all things. The fellowship of believers is not only a place for discussions of salvation and broad Bible doctrine—it is a place for lament.
    Lament is the uncommonly tapped resource of God’s people on the path of discipleship. Yet, it is a recurrent theme in the Bible. As evidenced by Scripture, lament is not simply a passive acceptance of the will of God or of the presence of pain in one’s life.  Rather, it is an active response to the external stimuli of pain and sorrow in direct connection with one’s faith in God.
    In other words, it is a natural part of the process of knowing God and following Christ. Contrary to the stoic or snide, happy attitudes found among so many people today, lament in times of trial and grief is common, almost assumed in the Scripture.
    Expressing our pain through prayers, cries, and groans of lament does not divorce us from God.  It is an integral part of honest dialogue with one’s creator.  The biblical genre of lament is abundant and rich, both theologically in the expression of the heart of God for those who suffer, and practically, giving insight and examples for those who suffer today.
    If you are in pain today, cry out to God in anguish! If you are sorrowful, groan with utterances only God can comprehend. My friend, don’t fall into the trap of much of modern church life that you have to be happy to know God. He is very often found in our pain, where He is there, offering healing and love.
     

    “A Prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the LORD. Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to you! Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call! For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread. Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my flesh. I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places; I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop. All the day my enemies taunt me; those who deride me use my name for a curse. For I eat ashes like bread and mingle tears with my drink, because of your indignation and anger; for you have taken me up and thrown me down. My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass. But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations.” (Psalm 102:1-12 ESV)

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  • Pathways to Prayer

    by David Moffett-Moore

     
    PrayerCharlie Brown’s  Snoopy likes to dance, chanting, “To dance is to live, to live is to dance!” and he makes a convincing case. He dances with vigor and abandonment. Snoopy throws his whole being into the dance; in return, the dance expresses all that Snoopy is and hopes for.  I like to dance, but I could never make a living at it!
    I suppose arguments could be made for other elements of life to be full expressions of life. I’ve heard the saying, “Some people eat to live, some live to eat.” Musicians focus the wholeness of their being on the song; athletes focus their energy and attention on the game. My wife Becki loves to garden. For a recent retreat, each person was to bring something that would identify the core of their being; Becki took her garden gloves.
    I want to make the argument that prayer can be the dance of our soul, the expression of our life, the wholeness of our being, the focus of our energy and attention, and identify the core of our being. We are born praying; the cry of the newborn is the cry of life. As it is more normal and natural for us to breathe than to not breathe, so it is more normal and natural for us to pray than to not pray. We may hold our breath for a time, but our bodies will soon return to breathing. We may hold our prayers for a time, but soon our spirits will return to their patterns of prayer. As the body must breathe, so the spirit must pray.
    We pray as infants, “I want. I hurt. I’m frightened.” We pray as children, “God bless mommy; God bless daddy.” We pray earnestly as youth, when we first realize our conscience, “I’m sorry.” Anne Lamont suggests three prayers that are most basic and universal, “Help, Thanks, Wow.”  Meister Eckhart claims, “If the only prayer you would say in your whole life is “Thanks,” that would be enough.” C.S. Lewis confesses, “I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking or sleeping. I pray because it doesn’t change God, it changes me.”
    We can grow in prayer. We can become more mature, more familiar, more experienced, yet all this is a natural development of our native intuition to pray. Over the centuries countless books have been written on prayer, describing it, what it is and how it works, and offering helps for us to grow in our experience and understanding of prayer.  I have added my own humble supplement.
    My contribution to the Topical Line Drive series, entitled “Pathways to Prayer,” begins with this limitation to its intended scope, “This little volume is not a great treatise on the meaning and purpose of prayer, nor is it a scientific investigation on the function of prayer, nor a psychological examination of prayer’s impact on our lives. It is a simple little devotional intended to offer encouragement for those wanting to grow in their prayer lives, with some suggestions on how to do so. I pray that it may be helpful.”
    To one who was born to pray, from one who hungers to pray, I invite you to read it and join with me in the pilgrimage of prayer.
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  • Foot Washing and You (There is a connection)

    Foot Washing and You (There is a connection)

    by Bill Tuck

     
    FootwashingWhen I was pastor of St. Matthews Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, one of my church members told me that one of the most vivid memories that he had from his small rural church was the service of foot washing.  I don’t expect that there are too many of us who have actually participated in church foot washing services.  Some church traditions observe foot washing as an annual practice of their Maundy Thursday liturgy.  Monks in Benedictine Monasteries wash the feet of guests as a part of their hospitality.  But among many church groups today any talk about foot washing usually brings only snickers or sneers.
    John is the only gospel writer to record the foot-washing episode.  John seems to depict the setting of this story on the night before the Passover.  The other gospels set the Last Supper on the night of the Passover celebration itself.  John, however, shows Jesus being crucified on the Passover.  You can debate whose chronology is correct.  John’s purpose was to depict Jesus as the Paschal Lamb.  Raymond Brown, the noted New Testament scholar, observes that there is nothing in the Passover tradition that can be compared to foot washing. This episode then was simply an occurrence that arose out of the need at a particular moment.[ene_ptp] The traditional approach sees this story primarily as a sign of the humility of Jesus.  What was it that prompted Jesus to initiate this acted parable?  The attitude of the disciples as they approached this meal likely gives us a clue.  Many scholars feel that the disciples were probably debating who was going to be the greatest in the Kingdom of God right before they came to the table.  The air may have been thick with hostility.  Angry thoughts were directed at the two disciples who thought they were going to be “big shots” in Jesus’ kingdom when he came into power.
    The assignment of who washed the feet of the other disciples was likely a duty at which they took turns.  No one disciple would have had it all the time.  Whoever’s turn it was this night ignored it.  As the disciples came in for the Passover meal, they reclined on cushions or on the floor beside the table.  Because of the heated debate about who was going to be first, no one was going to stoop to do a slave’s work of washing somebody else’s dirty feet.
    John said: “Jesus took a towel and a basin.”  The King James translation gives an incorrect image in its translation.  Jesus did not wait for the meal to be over before he got up.  Jesus got up and girded himself in the middle of the meal, as though he could stand it no longer.  Had he wondered why no one had accepted the customary duty of washing the feet of the disciples?  He could feel the tension among his disciples, so he stopped eating and took a towel and basin.  He might have taken a sword as a sign of religious power.  He might have taken gold as a sign of monetary power.  He might have taken the Torah as the sign of religious power.  He might have taken a crown as a sign of political power.  But he took a towel and basin—a sign of humility and service—and washed the feet of the disciples.
    Why did Jesus perform this humble act of a servant?  John tells us, “Because Jesus loved them to the limits.”  He loves the disciples to the “uttermost.”  Jesus loved all of the disciples.  Judas was not excluded.  John clearly indicates that Jesus knew that he was going to be betrayed by Judas.  Jesus washed the feet of all the disciples, including Judas.  Can you imagine Jesus tenderly washing Judas’ feet?  Did Jesus whisper to him, “You still have an opportunity to turn away from your act of betrayal?”  Up to the end Jesus tried to reach Judas. Were there still some words of love that were projected?  We do not know.  But the only defense Jesus used was love.  Even his touch, however, could not deter Judas.
    Jesus washed the feet of the disciples and this acted parable symbolized humility and service.  But this action was much more than that.  It was also a sign of cleansing.  When Jesus approached Peter, the “big fisherman” was filled with astonishment and shame because he had been unwilling to perform the fatigue duty of washing the feet of the other disciples.  “No, Lord,” Peter exclaims, “You can’t wash my feet.”  “If you do not allow me to wash your feet, you have no part of me.”  There have been those who have tried to interpret this statement as a reference to baptism.  But it seems to me that this action is a prophetic sign.  It points to the redemptive death of Christ.  John is seeking to tell his readers that this act of humiliation is the sign of the One who would wash and cleanse us all by his sacrificial death.  In one of our hymns we sometimes sing about “the fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins.”  We are cleansed as we are plunged beneath “the fountain filled with blood.”  Foot washing is a sign of the cleansing which Christ gives us through the power of his sacrifice and death.  I believe foot washing is much more than a symbol about baptism.  Our baptism is a sign of the greater cleansing—the cleansing that Jesus Christ brings through the essential washing of his death.  The first requirement of every disciple is self-surrender.  We must let Christ serve us—wash us—so we can be clean.
    John tells us that Jesus was conscious of who he was.  He laid aside his outer garments.  This action was symbolic of Jesus “laying down” his life.  “The laying aside of his outer garment” is symbolic of Jesus’ incarnation.  John states that Jesus knew that he had come from God and was going back to the Father.  He had laid aside his divinity and came into the world in human form.  Laying aside his divinity, Jesus came into the world and took the form of a servant.
    I believe that foot washing was also a sign of Jesus’ death which would bring redeeming grace to cleanse his followers.  Throughout a disciple’s life, he or she would need constantly to be cleansed again, because each one would sin again and again.  Having experienced the redeeming grace of Christ, we will need to return to Christ to ask him to forgive us again for our other sins.
    I think this story is also a sign of a way of life.  Jesus by taking a towel and a basin symbolized that his life and those who followed him were called to imitate the way of service.  “I have given you an example that you should do unto others as I have done unto you.”  Does that mean we are supposed to perform foot washing all the time?  No, that is not the primary message of this sign.  Jesus is our model—our pattern.  He has called us to a higher way.  We are to imitate Christ.  Foot washing is a sign of our call to serve and minister in Jesus’ name.
    In the Eastern Church there is a tradition for a Maundy Thursday liturgy which dates back to the fifth century.  The archbishop enters the cathedral on Maundy Thursday robed in all of his vestments, accompanied by twelve priests and the reader of the Gospel.  After the choir has sung the introits and collects, the celebrant removes his outer vestments and girds himself with a towel and pours water into a basin.  He begins to wash the feet of the priest who represents the disciples.  The priest who represents Judas eagerly sticks out his feet for Jesus to wash and kiss.  Then another priest who portrays Simon Peter is in tears and draws his feet back in reluctance.
    The service concludes with the recitation of the dialogue from John 13 and with the words, “Now you are clean but not all.”  The archbishop turns and points to Judas.  Edwyn Hoskyns, the Cambridge New Testament scholar, states that this ritual drama was not commemorated as an isolated incident in the life of Jesus nor was it merely an example of humility.  “It forms,” he believes, “part of the commemoration of the Passion and the liturgy is dominated by the thought of the Incarnation, the Death, and the Resurrection of the Son of God.”
    Jesus has called each of us to take a towel and basin and go into the world and serve in his name.  It may be that when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, that acted parable was a sign that they were being set apart as servants too.  “I have given you an example that you should do as I have done.”  You are being called to serve as I have been called to serve.  Some of the disciples died as martyrs.  Their call to service required some of them to lay down their life for Christ.
    In churches where the minister wears a robe and a stole, the stole is not worn merely as decoration.  The stole is a symbol of the towel.  It is a visible reminder of service.  Maybe it would be appropriate for an ordination service of a minister or a deacon to include a foot washing service.  The minister or deacon would actually wash the feet of others.  This would be a statement that the minister is being set apart not to be a big shot in the church but to be a servant.
    The Church of Jesus Christ, if it really models itself after him, will take the form of a servant.  Jesus said, “I came into the world not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give my life a ransom for many.”  “The greatest of all,” Jesus said, “is the servant of all.”  “If anyone would be first, he/she must be least of all.”  If his church is really authentic Church, it will model its life after our Lord who took the Suffering Servant as his image.  He was willing to lay down his life in sacrifice for us.  The Church is not to be served or to serve itself but to minister in the world in Jesus’ name.  Jesus calls us not to see whether we can be big shots but whether we can serve.
    Years ago when missionaries first went to China they asked a group of Chinese pastors what most impressed them and appealed to them about the teachings of Jesus when they first heard them.  None of them noted his miracles or the Sermon on the Mount.  One of them said quietly that the thing that most impressed them was the story about Jesus in the upper room washing the feet of his disciples. The sign of foot washing also calls us to practical service.  The Christian life is both prayer and worship, but it is also the bearing and lifting of burdens in the everyday world around us.  Let us take the towel and basin, and follow our Lord who served us supremely through his death and calls us to serve and live for him.
     

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  • Are Business Owners Naturally Greedy?

    by Elgin Hushbeck, Jr.

     
    GreedIn a recent segment on Global Christian Perspectives discussing my last blog post on the minimum wage, the claim was made about opposition to the minimum wage, “That’s greed. Everyone who has argued against a minimum wage, or even a living wage, has wanted to keep the bottom line for themselves.”  (@ the 50:00 min. mark).
    While an argument commonly heard from supporters of increasing the minimum wage, it is nevertheless false.  There are many reasons to oppose the minimum wage. Many supporters of an increase seem to see this as simply an issue between struggling employees trying desperately to make ends meet, and greedy employers who seek to exploit their employees so as to rake in even more riches.  In this view supporters put themselves in the role of riding in on a white horse to force the employer to give up a small part of their wealth and return it to those who really earned it.
    While such a depiction may work for a movie, or more likely a cartoon, it hardly represents reality.  Rather than a struggle between employer and employee, wages are in reality a part of a huge network of interactions. Sure, there is the employee to their employer, but the employer has similar interactions with customer and suppliers.  Then there is the interactions with government which unlike the others is one sided; government demands under threat of force. [ene_ptp] To insist by fiat demand that employers pay more to workers is problematic because it artificially puts constraints on one part a system governed by free interactions.  Can employers just demand that suppliers cut their costs to make up for the higher wages they must now pay their employees? Hardly, as their suppliers are under the same dictate to increase wages.  Can they just raise their prices?  Probably not, at least not all the way.  After all, if these employers really were as greedy as they are so often portrayed then certainly they would have already done so if they could.  The only other place the money can come from is the employers themselves, or from lower labor cost by cutting employees.
    This is where the other part of the myth falls apart. Over half of all employees work for small businesses, and small businesses account for 65% of new jobs, yet most small businesses fail with 5 years. Owning a business is not a matter of exploiting your employees, it is hard work and very difficult to do. Many businesses are struggling, and it is not uncommon for a business owner to have to forego paying themselves, because there is not enough money left after paying their employees, and bills.  This is why following the recent increases in the minimum wage in both Seattle and San Francisco, many businesses simply closed while others cut back their staff resulting in a lot of people, not getting the increase in their wage that supporters promised, but seeing their wage go to zero.  So there are reasons to oppose the minimum wage beyond just greed.
    “Business owner” is not just an abstract label; it represents real people, people who as a general rule work very hard and who are concerned about their employees. Yet not only is the charge that just greed is involved false, it is slanderous and thus wrong on both moral and intellectual grounds.  It is wrong on intellectual grounds because instead of dealing with the evidence, it short circuits the thinking process.  Those making the charge can, and often do, simply ignore any evidence present that runs counter to their beliefs as merely a ruse to mask greed. Thus such slanderous attacks become a form of self-justification, insulating the maker from any evidence that runs counter to their beliefs.
    This can be seen in the fact that rarely do I see supporters actually addressing the arguments I raise concerning the damage done to those who lose their jobs, those who lose their businesses, and those who cannot get employed because they do not yet have the skills to be employed at the minimum wage level.  No, it is far easier to attack mythical greedy employers rather deal with actual damage done.
    In terms of moral grounds, I believe it is immoral to falsely demonize large groups of people.  As I have written in the past, rather we must treat people as individuals, and I believe should assume the best until proven otherwise, and yes, I believe this even includes business owners.
    Yet many of the arguments put forth to support a minimum wage hike are grounded implicitly and, at times as in the quote above, explicitly demonizing those who disagree. If we were to do this with any nationality, race, or religious group, etc., such demonization would be justly condemned. So why is demonizing business owners, or those who oppose the minimum wage because of the damage that is does any different?  Is it not even possible that they are good people who just have a different point of view?
    Nor is it sufficient to say something to the effect of “Well they are not all greedy,” and then go back to arguments based on the premise that opposition is still based on greed.
    I believe that if one person agrees to hire another, whatever the price that is a good thing.  Being employed is better than not being employed, as numerous studies on happiness and self-worth have demonstrated. I also hope that the employees will develop a track record as a good employee and this will allow them to quickly move up the wage scale. If the only job one can find is a minimum wage job, then it is much better to look to the person (do they have skills and work history to get a better paying job), or the job market (why are there not better paying jobs out there).  This, I believe would be far more beneficial than making it even more difficult for employers to hire people.
    For me the minimum wage is a barrier to some from earning a starting wage.  We have far too many people who have never been able to enter into the job market so as to become productive members of society and who are thus are trapped in poverty and dependence. That is not an argument based on greed but on wanting the best for all people.
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  • Call, Response, and Creativity: A Process Interpretation of Philippians 2:12-13

    by Bruce Epperly

     
    GracePaul is the theologian of grace.  God’s grace transformed his life, turning him from persecutor to proclaimer, and assuring him that he was a new creation, despite his past behavior.  Over the years, many who see themselves as Pauline theologically believe that God does everything and that we do nothing.  Left to our own devices, we are lost, completely self-centered, and without virtue.  We can claim nothing of our own but must attribute every good work to God.  An example of this occurred when I congratulated a seminarian on her fine sermon.  Her immediate response was, “It wasn’t me.  It was all God.”  I was tempted to say, “I thought I saw you preaching, not God.”  And, I wondered how she would respond if her sermon was roundly criticized.  Would she have given glory to God or cast herself entirely on God’s mercy, confessing her own sinfulness and inability to do anything apart from God’s grace?
    I believe that Paul is the apostle of creativity as well as grace. In Philippians 2:12-13, Paul sounds much more Wesleyan, almost a process theologian, and not the more passive Lutheran or Calvinist he’s often made out to be. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure” or, as I paraphrase these words, “Work out your salvation with awe and excitement, for God is moving energetically in your life, inspiring you to follow and embody God’s vision.”
    Philippians 2:12-13 suggests a dynamic call and response.  God calls us with possibilities, aiming us in each moment toward beauty and taking us from individualistic self-interest to world loyalty.  God’s grace is prior but aims us toward creativity and freedom.  God wants us to do more rather than less, and places the future of our planet primarily in our hands, though undergirded by divine possibility.
    There is a divine-human dance of call and response.  God is in the business of inspiring us to be more than we could have asked or imagined of ourselves.  God seeks maximal creativity and freedom congruent with the well-being of creation.
    God wants us to be active and is happy for us to be proud of our achievements in the same way as a parent wants her or his child to build on the upbringing  he or she has received and go places the parent has not imagined.  The world God is creating moment by moment is not a zero sum universe in which human achievement takes away from God’s power.  It is an open system in which the more that we do positively, the more God is able to do in the universe.  When we are faithful, we open up new possibilities for divine action in the world.
    Grace is always prior, but our responses invite God to make new responses.  Grace liberates, inspires, and activates new freedoms.  We are more in line with grace when we become graceful creators ourselves.  Accordingly, we can positively say about a sermon or any other achievement, “I’m proud that my sermon made a difference.  God and I were working on this together, and we both deserve credit.” And we can imagine God in the congregation saying, “Atta boy, Atta girl, you did well. You have blessing to do more!”
    Yes, God is working in all things.  Yes, God wants us to affirm the fruits of our labors, giving thanks for grace, and making a commitment to do more for God’s glory and the well-being of the world.  (For more on this theme, see Process Theology: Embracing Adventure with God and Philippians: A Participatory Study Guide)
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  • Whole-Self Spirituality: Nine Lenses for Restoring Soul

    by Kent Ira Groff

    Bless the Lord, O my self,* and all that is within me,
    bless God’s holy name (Psalm103:1). *nefesh Hebrew soul

     
    prayerWhat do folks mean when they talk about soul? It seems so nebulous. Spirituality often gets a bum rap for seeming disconnected from the stuff of life. “Soul”—nefesh in Hebrew) involves the whole self. And the Hebrew Shema is a call to live and love awake to self and others with all our senses: “Hear, O Israel….You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and the all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength,” quotes Rabbi Jesus from the Torah (Matthew 22:37). Shema means listen, wake up, pay attention, contemplate. It’s a call to holistic spirituality: I call it “whole self prayer.”
    When a person meeting for spiritual companioning tells me of a painful experience, I often ask, “How are you praying that hurt—how do you offer that to God?” Mostly I hear back: “I’m praying that he or she will… or that I can…”—mental or verbal prayer. Then I ask,
    “What other ways can you offer or release that experience?”
    The Multiple Intelligences approach to learning, pioneered and developed by Harvard educator Howard Gardner over three decades, offers practical, creative frames for practicing shema with my whole self.[i] Particular modes are highly developed in a person, yet everyone has some aptitude in each. These nine can reframe any profane or profound experience as an occasion for soulful awakening.
    Here I offer a playful, prayerful perspective on these nine ways of tending the soul’s gifts and struggles, always with an eye to a sense of invitation.

    1. Linguistic/verbal: Prayer articulates the soul’s yearnings by playing with words in sacred texts with stories and poetry. The spiritual seeker needs relationships to listen and learn the language of love.
    2. Logical/mathematical: Technological tools connect kindred spirits via the Internet; theological ideas make sense of crazy experiences. The Bible and Jewish kabalistic spirituality play with sacred numbers, like seven to signify wholeness.
    3. Spatial/visual: Our souls resound with awe in temples and cathedrals, with intimacy in house churches; play and pray by exploring geography, cultural exchanges, holy places, a labyrinth—and inner space of imagination (like Narnia).
    4. Musical/rhythmic: “One who sings prays twice,” said Augustine. Play with drum, chant, strings or poetry’s beat echoing the soul’s sorrow and joys; jazz makes the blues beautiful; African American spirituals unite personal and political struggles.
    5. Kinesthetic/bodily: The Spirit inhabits our breathing from our borning cry to our wordless sighs; gestures, used to direct players in a symphony or a ball game, can express the soul’s prayers in bowing, kneeling, dancing, or walking a labyrinth.
    6. Interpersonal: Extroverts tend to encounter the Sacred in community, introverts in small groups or one-to-one; both experience the Holy in playful and genuine relationships, as a surprise line of a conversation can be a prayer or an epiphany.
    7. Intrapersonal: Prayerful playful reflection thrive in solitude, sorely neglected in technological society; silence nurtures an introvert’s joy and preserves an extrovert’s sanity; journaling dream associations unlocks prayers.
    8. Naturalist: Our primal yearnings resonate with natural environments, playfully and prayerfully responding to the Sacred in awe and beauty, in patterns of devastation and renewal in nature, human nature, and nations.
    9. Existentialist: Honest to God prayer can play and pray with the “why” questions of an Einstein, a three-year-old, or a philosopher: Why are we here? What’s it all about? How shall we then live?

    How can these nine integrate our primal knowing with our modern knowledge? Some ask, where are the spiritual and emotional intelligences?
    The ancient Greek Archimedes sprang naked out of his bath when a new scientific truth struck him, shouting, Eureka! Eureka!—“I’ve found it! I’ve found it!” Singer-songwriter John Denver sang about nature’s “Rocky Mountain High.” French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal encountered the mystic Christ via his mathematical calculations. Brother Lawrence was converted by seeing a barren tree in winter. Psalms are full of naturalist wonders and kinesthetic spiritual gestures: walking, climbing, bowing, kneeling, clapping and lifting hands. And the existentialist questions of your life create the seedbed for the Spirit.
    These nine lenses create a practical, observable template to renew holistic spirituality in language, reason, imagination, body, music, relationships, solitude, nature, and questions.
    An invitation: Notice one of two of the nine modes that are least present in your prayer life. Challenge yourself to choose a couple that stretch your normal pattern. For example, if most of your prayers are verbal, you might ask how you might develop intrapersonal practices (silence, centering prayer) or kinesthetic practices (gestures such as kneeling, stretching, dancing; tensing and releasing hands). Group context: invite group members to share one-to-one, then as a whole group.
    [slideshow_deploy id=’2829′] Kent Ira Groff, a spiritual companion for other journeyers, a retreat leader and author of ten books, calls himself “one beggar showing other beggars where to find bread.” Portions are adapted from Kent’s book Honest to God Prayer (SkyLight Paths) and Clergy Table Talk (Energion). Founding mentor of Oasis Ministries in Pennsylvania, he now lives in Denver, Colorado. See www.LinkYourSpirituality.com Email: kentiragroff@comcmast.net
    [i] Howard Gardner, Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons (NY: Basic Books, 2006); http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/education/ed_mi_overview.html

  • Who guards the Holy City? And Why?

     by Doris Murdoch

     
    Guardians 2This is my fourth post on my Holy Land tour.  I’m trying to allow God to lead me to the content of each post. At this point, I’m not sure why I feel led to this post.  The use of traditional guardians in the Holy City of Jerusalem has left my heart warmed and troubled.
    I’m going to begin with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  The church houses the tomb of Jesus Christ; it is the traditional location of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ which would be of great religious importance to Christian pilgrims as it is the most revered shrine in Christendom.  By long term tradition, the Muslim family of Nuseibeh is the official doorkeeper of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  The holding of the key to the church has been in the Nuseibeh family for more than 1,300 years. (The Judeh family, also Muslim, manage the key for overnight security.) The Nuseibeh family holds this tradition close to their hearts and is very punctual and respectful in unlocking and serving God through this daily responsibility of caring for the church.  Five competing Christian denominations, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, and Syrian Orthodox (also a small Ethiopian Orthodox group) enviously [ene_ptp]manage the church.  The Nuseibeh family has helped in keeping peace among these Christian denominations when conflict arises.  The Nuseibeh family describes themselves as “preserving peace in the holy place.”  This all seems to be a cooperative effort by all, but in contrast, it seems like a strange setup for a church that is internally Christian.  The Omar Mosque sits right next door; the Nuseibeh family worships and prays in the mosque.  Who do you think should be the key holder and the door opener?
    In 1995, Israel turned Bethlehem control over to the Palestinian National Authority in accordance with the Oslo Peace Accords. The Oslo Accords did not create a Palestinian state, but it was an effort to bring peace among the Israeli government and the Palestinians. The Oslo process started in Oslo as a secretive meeting; it resulted in the recognition by the PLO of the State of Israel and the recognition by Israel of the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people and as a partner in negotiations. When pilgrims enter Bethlehem, there are security checks by the Palestinian authority. Does this process seem like an effort to encourage peace and equality of power among the Palestinians and the government of Israel?
    Who should have control of David’s tomb and the upper room identified as the place of Pentecost and the Last Supper?  Should it be the Jews, world Christians, the government of Israel, the Roman Catholic Church or someone else?  Over the years, ownership has been by the early Jewish Christians, the Crusaders, and the Muslims; at present, it is under Israeli control.  It is said that the Vatican now desires control of this area.  Why does any specific religious group have to have control over the religious sites, especially those that have religious beliefs and patriarchs that overlap in religious history, basically the Abrahamic faiths of Islam, Judaism and Christianity?
    Scripture tells us that the Lord gave the “land” of Israel to Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 13:14-15; Genesis 26:3; Exodus 6:8) with Numbers 24 defining the borders.  In Revelation 21, we read that the first heaven and earth will pass away and a New Jerusalem will come down out of heaven and God will dwell among us.  There will be no temple building for the “Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” will be the temple and it will be illuminated by the “glory of God and its lamp is the Lamb”. The residents will be those who have their names in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  Leviticus 25:23 says, “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me.”  The lands of the world belong to God; it is all on loan from God in this transient period. When the Jews rejected Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Gentiles were adopted in to God’s family as adopted sons of Abraham. The Gentiles were formally grafted into the olive tree of Jesus Christ even though adoption in the lineage of Jesus Christ had already taken place in the Old Testament through the relationships of Naomi, Ruth and Boaz.  Confirmed in John 14:6, the New Jerusalem will be available to all believers in Jesus Christ for “no one comes to the Father but through Me (Jesus Christ).”
    Romans 11 speaks of the hardening of the Jews until the day of the fullness of the Gentiles, specifically Romans 11:25-27, that “a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; 26 and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. 27 This is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.’ ” With belief, the Bible tells us that the Jews can be re-grafted into the olive tree of Jesus Christ (Romans 11:17-24).  Belief in Jesus Christ through world evangelism needs to be the focus.
    Luke 21:34-36 states,  “Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation (diversion, mental distraction) and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap; 35 for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth. 36 But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”  Is it possible that ownership or guardianship of the various religious sites in Israel has become a mental distraction for the Abrahamic religions of the world?
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