Breaking From Tradition

Families change.  We sometimes don’t like to admit it, but the elderly die and infants are born and our families just keep changing.  One problem is that as our families change so must our traditions.

I was watching the most recent episode of Ugly Betty and it was all about family changes and changing traditions.  This episode was very timely for me, as I just spent Thanksgiving with my sister and mother in Madison, WI.  My sister was unable to go home due to work obligations and I was going to be in Madison chaperoning a youth event anyway- so we decided to have thanksgiving there.  My mother decided to come up and join us and thus our long-standing tradition of family dinners at my grandparents’ houses changed...at the very least we took a temporary break from tradition.

I thought it would be hard on my mother, especially not having dad there, but we all had a wonderful time.  My mother insisted on having a full thanksgiving meal, so she packed up turkey, dressing, potatoes, gravy, pie, cookies, etc.  into the car and brought thanksgiving to Madison.  It definitely wasn’t thanksgiving as usual around Carrie’s tiny table in a small one bedroom apartment, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t Thanksgiving.  This year’s holiday was not deficient of anything, it was extraordinary and special in its own way.

The church is no different:  In the church we must stop holding so tightly to our traditions.  We must begin, instead, to honor the past as we look forward to the excitement of the future.  We must bring a relevant Christ to a new and exciting millennium -and we will probably have to use new methods!

I spent the past week with my sister and mother and had a thoroughly enjoyable time.  I won’t look back longingly for “the way things used to be,” but instead I look forward to next year’s Thanksgiving holiday for whatever lies ahead.  Perhaps next year will be thanksgiving at Grandma’s house - or my mother’s house - or maybe we will have thanksgiving in Fiji.  Who knows what the future will hold.

I Have Been Violated.

Okay- this is freaking me out a little bit.  I got back to school and thought I would drive out to Lincolnshire to the IMax and watch Beowulf.  I didn’t want to drive half an hour just to find a sold out show or something, so I purchased my tickets on-line on Fandango.  I even had to setup an account on Fandango...so it’s not like I set this up and don’t remember...   Next thing I know, I log into Facebook and it is on my mini-feed that I purchased a ticket for iMax to see Beowulf.

Somehow Fandango knows my facebook or vice-versa and it got connected through my email address and wham-bam-thankyou-ma’am....   My business is being announced on facebook.  Has anyone else had this issue?  Does it feel weird to anyone else?  I’m sure it is a facebook application that I’ve downloaded that ended up doing this, but still........

Bullies.

This morning on 103.5 the morning talk show was about school bullying.  They were discussing Bill O’Reilly’s appearance on The View.  It was interesting to listen at first, but then as calls came in, I realized that no one was talking about the underlying issues!?!  Why is it that children bully and is it a new thing?  So far as I know there has always been schoolyard bullying.  It is the tactics that have changed and, perhaps, escalated.

As I consider what it was like to grow up, I think that bullying was simply a part of my formative years.  I’m not saying that it is right, but I think it natural as children learn about interpersonal relationships.  In fact, having been the victim of bullying (although I never thought of myself as that) helped me to become the person I am today.  In fact, it is still a part of my life, today...does bullying ever stop?  We become more sophisticated with how we bully, but it continues throughout our lives.  We perpetrate bullying and we are victims even as we move through adulthood - we just have new names for it:  “business”, “politics”, and “war”.

I don’t believe that bullying is something that we can stop.  I’m not even fully sure we should - even if we could...  I believe we must accept that bullying is part of our growing up process, but we can not accept the escalation of violence and the new ways in which bullying now takes place.  Most of all, we must work toward the elimination of hate crimes that happen daily in schools.  We must make schools a safe place for our children and we can accept nothing less.... but can we control the actions and words of others?  No.

We can only control ourselves:  our own actions and our own words.  We must consider this when dealing with the issue of bullying.  How do we model kindness for others?  How do we change attitudes?  It is not by creating a new law or rule!  It is not by retaliating!  We can only affect a change of heart when we share the love that God gives us.  We can not simply implement new District-wide policies or put more police on-campus.  We must mobilize our churches to go into the schools.

First UMC in Green Bay has begun to do this.  They do not go preach or evangelize in the school - that wouldn’t work (or be legal).  They have 80 adult volunteers that volunteer as aids in the classroom.  They are there to show the children that they are important and loved.  I have seen this first hand and I have to believe that it is working.  It doesn’t just help the child experience God (LOVE).  It can be a deeply spiritual event for the adults who volunteer without even the uttering “God” or “Jesus”.

I'm Back!

Wow, it has been a crazy few weeks.  I had a midterm exam in Old Testament, on which I did well.  I turned in my midterm essay for History...don’t know how I did on that, yet!  I completed my practica in my United Methodist Worship class (we develop and led a worship service) and we did well on that (my litany was only so-so, it didn’t “draw on the theme of the service”).  Tonight I have a quiz on the latter prophets, my rule of life is due on Wednesday and Thursday I have a paper due on Stookey’s Eucharist book.

I write all of that only to excuse my on-line absence over the past few weeks, but now I’m back.  This weekend I should have been reading for my Old Testament, but instead I am catching up today.  I went to Janesville, WI to worship with a church (the church for whom I led a youth retreat a few weeks ago).  It was fun to see the youth again and to  get away from the seminary for the morning.  When I got back Sunday afternoon my friend Jill, from Green Bay, had just arrived in Chicago, so she picked me up on her way down into the city and we were able to catch up.  I came back up on the train around 8 p.m. and was able to read some old testament on the train home although I was sitting near to a nut case and it was hard to concentrate.  I should tell you the story:

This strange guy starts hitting on this odd girl who sat next to him.  He starts telling her everything about him and his job.  She clearly was not interested after just a minute or two and you could see her eyes roving for an empty seat away from the guy.  Everything about her verbal and physical cues should have told him that she wasn’t interested, but he asks for her number and she wouldn’t give it to him. (smart girl) but he just keeps on it - all the way until she was off the train and then he continued swearing and kept muttering about how she was playing hard to get....    weirdo!

It has been a busy but fun weekend.  Now I just have to get back to work today so that I am well prepared for tonight’s class.

Hoping For Mail.

Now that I’m in seminary I get way TOOO excited when there is a letter waiting in my mailbox.  I could be someone writing me a note, it could be a check, it could be a note saying “you have a package waiting”, and there are always bills, too...  I feel a ‘let down’ when I go to my box and there is nothing waiting for me (or if it is just a bill).  Does anyone else ever feel that?

There is a sense of anticipation for me as I go for the mail and as I draw closer that anticipation grows as well.

Two weeks ago we turned in a paper on the church calendar for our United Methodist Worship class.  One of the things that becomes startlingly clear  as I read Calendar: Christ’s Time for the Church by Laurence Hull Stookey (Abington Press, 1996) is that in American culture today we have forgotten what it is to relish in anticipation.  I open up my Mail program for instant email.  I go online and watch my favorite television show instantly on a whim.  I can purchase something immediately, online, and have it shipped to my home the very next day.  Our world is full of instant gratification.

The story of Christ is a very different story.  It is a story of waiting and hoping.  In fact, even before Mary began her anticipation the world had been anticipating.  Why is it, then, that we skip advent.  Why is it, then, that Christmas turns into one day?  Christmas is a season beginning on December 25 and Advent is the season of anticipation for four weeks prior.

What if we put away the wreaths and holiday packaging and left them until later.  What if we pushed Christmas away until  December 25 so that we could truly appreciate its absence right up until that most joyous season begins?

Several pastors I know do not like to use Christmas Carols during advent.  Churches tend to hate this.  They hate to wait until Christmas because they want it to feel like Christmas all through lent.  I think this is because in America we hate to wait.  Perhaps during the upcoming advent season you and your family can find some anticipation amid a season of craziness.  Perhaps you can learn to appreciate the excitement of anticipation...   Perhaps you will more fully embody Christ when you learn of the excitement of His coming!

The Church Is Falling Apart.

The job of a prophet is to speak the word of God.  Here it is:

Love the Lord your God with all of your being.

Stop worshiping Baal.

Stop squandering what I [God] have giving you.

Love your freakin’ neighbor.

The list goes on, but these Truths are not just ancient wordplay, nor are they recent revelations.  These are (badly paraphrased) words of God spoken through the prophets.  The prophets were not always revered (or even tolerated) by the people, but they laid down the law on behalf of God.  Let me tell you a couple of things:

We live in a world which has forgotten what it is like to invite God to dwell with us.  We go to church once a week, perhaps, but we don’t know how to live out our faith anymore.  Mostly this comes about because our church leaders no longer model faithful living.  Pastors want to have a nice car, house, pension, etc. so how in the hell can pastors expect others to drop their nets and follow them when they still have their net grasped in their hand?  We forget what it is to be inspired and instead fill our pulpits with mediocrity.

Laity in the church must claim their ministry.  Our laity must go out doing the work of the poor at the danger of losing life and limb.  We want to insulate ourselves from harm or death and our churches worry about lawsuits.  The truth is that our ministry into the world can not be without risk.  The early Christians risked death by meeting together.  When was the last time you risked death by going to church?  We must be fully committed to embodying our faith.

God is calling us to an authentic faith.  God wants us to drop our selfish ambition and greed to follow the life of Christ.  That can not be accomplished once a week nor is it accomplished in church council or slick advertising.  Our churches need to grow, but not in numbers.  Our churches (and their pastors) much first grow in spirit and commitment.  Let our churches speak loudly and with relevance to a broken world.  Let us proclaim the truth, even when it is hard to hear.

Our churches must begin to model stewardship. Forget these ridiculous buildings and projection systems and fancy coffee/bookshops in our churches.  Let start with basic Biblical literacy and interpretation and if we can learn to do that - let’s take our resources and begin to change the world (not our foyers).  What???  You think that it takes a nice looking building and fancy equipment to have lots of people?  Our churches don’t need a lot of uncommitted people, we need to model a committed faith that uses resources to change lives not to build a bigger freakin’ budget.

Our churches must strive to help our communities and the people in them to be transformed physically, emotionally and spiritually.  We might pretend to do mission in a sterile and safe way with part of our ‘budget’, but that just isn’t good enough for God.  God said it best of all “Love the Lord your God...and your neighbor as yourself”.  God didn’t say just love your neighbor with the scraps that are leftover.  God said to love your neighbor AS YOU LOVE YOURSELF.  This isn’t easy, but if we begin to live more simply we can also begin to simply provide for those around us.

It is time for change.  Let’s not take baby steps. Let’s not downplay the significance of our sin.  Let’s not molest the Bible until it makes us feel justified in our lifestyle.  Instead - Let’s start a spiritual transformation in the church.

Try it.  I don’t want to have to pull out my sword and get all “Old Testament” on you. (see Exodus 32)

Just Dorking Around

I’m not sure really what to say today.  I should be working harder on my reading day, but I’ve had my mind on a lot of other things this week.  This is a long weekend for us (a five day weekend for me!) and I think that makes it even harder to focus and get my work done.  Lots of students have put together birthday parties and “night out”’s  for this weekend so I’ve found myself with many fun things to draw my attention from my work.  I have a paper to start on the church calendar (liturgical year / church year...) and a presentation to put together for my Old Testament class...plus I have a content quiz in O.T. and a midterm coming up in that class.  Ugh!

Well, I should stop thinking about it and start doing something about it, so I’m logging off and buckling down!