Abraham and Chocolate Cake - Genesis 13

From my list of basic parenting Strategies that (sometimes) work:
If there is a last piece of chocolate cake to divide between two children, do not divide it for them. This inevitably leads to arguments over who got the biggest piece. Instead, pick one child to cut the cake and give the other child first choice. This may still lead to arguing, but tends to shift it away from the parent.

The underlying issue is fairness. We seem to have an inborn need to make sure we get "our fair share" and it starts at a very young age.

In Genesis 13, Abram cuts the piece of cake and gives his nephew Lot the first choice. They each have large herds and the people managing their animals keep bumping into each other, fighting over water and grazing land. Abram offers to divide the land and give Lot first choice.

As would be expected, Lot chooses the fertile Jordan valley, with its ready supply of water, greener pastures and urban centers. Abram is left with the high ground -- good land, but with water issues, less reliable grazing land and a more rural atmosphere.

By rights, Abram could have divided things up any way he wanted. Boundaries could be drawn so that they could share the fertile valley. And, based on later events, Lot was probably already a bit of a nuisance to have around. Abram wasn't getting a "fair share."

How could Abram be so casual? He held on to the land lightly because of his faith -- his willingness to trust God and God's promises. He didn't need to hold on to the land tightly, because it wasn't his to hold on to.

How lightly we hold onto things is one measure of faith. Do we worry about how the piece of cake is sliced? Are we measuring to make sure we get our "fair share?"

Coat and Tie Worship

The MMI Weblog quotes John Macarthur as saying, "Some people ask, why do I wear a tie? Because I have respect for this responsibility. I wear a suit because this is a more elevated experience for people. I’m trying to convey what people convey at a wedding: this is more serious than any normal activity."

John MacArthur has it right and wrong all at the same time!

He is right in stating that worship is serious. Waiting on God is serious stuff indeed. And an easy way to look serious is with a coat and tie. But a coat and tie doesn't make worship serious. It is only a surface thing, and has the danger of creating an attitude that "serious worship" only happens when we have the proper uniform, whether it's a coat and tie, robe, or Hawaiian shirt.

There are lots of other ways to do "serious worship." Some appear formal, some informal, some may even involve laughter and joy.

Where John MarArthur's statement really goes wrong is when he separates worship and the “normal activity” of God’s people. Worship is not part of some separate universe, reserved for a particular time, place and set of circumstances. If wearing a coat and tie reinforces it as separate from “normal” then it's time to cut off the ties and give the coats to Goodwill.

Meeting Jesus - Finding Forgiveness

I have been speaking on Sundays about what happens when people meet Jesus.

This Sunday, the focus is on a woman who met Jesus and found forgiveness, as described in Luke 7:36-50.

Along the way I found this statment by Reinhold Neibuhr:

Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime,
Therefore, we are saved by hope.
Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history;
Therefore, we are saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone.
Therefore, we are saved by love.
No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own;
Therefore, we are saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.

Meeting is a verb

Sometimes when I tell people that I am pastor of Plainfield Friends Meeting I notice a blank and/or puzzled expression on their face. They know what a "pastor" is and usually know where Plainfield is, but "Friends Meeting" stops them dead in their tracks! Is it a dating service? A civic club? Or maybe a social service agency? Our sign out front tries to help by adding a line that describes us as "A Quaker Church," but I'm afraid that only confuses the issue more. What is a "Quaker?' A jolly man on an oatmeal box? Or maybe somebody who dresses in old-fashioned clothing and says "thee" a lot?

How about changing the name? Maybe make it Plainfield Community Church. After all, it describes where we are and what we are in terms that make sense to most people.

It doesn't work. It leaves out too much about who we are. It's too generic.

So how do we deal with the blank stares, the puzzled looks and the confusion with dating services and social clubs?

Part of the answer is to affirm who we are as Friends and Quakers. There is a history to share about people whose desire has been to worship God directly and live out lives of simplicity, peace, equality and active caring. It is a good history, full of stories that help describe how we got to this particular place and time.

Another possibility is to reframe the word "meeting."

We assume that "meeting" is a noun and often use it as a synonym for "church" (that is what the sign out front seems to be communicating).

What if we reframe "meeting" as a verb?

We could add a comma to the sign out front, making it "Plainfield Friends, meeting" -- as in "these are Plainfield Friends, who are meeting here." However, this would probably only confuse people more.

Here's another way to think about it--
A verb needs an object, so if meeting is a verb, we need to talk about the objects that we connect to that verb. Who are we meeting when we are "Plainfield Friends, meeting?"
-As a Jesus-centered meeting, we are meeting Jesus. As we sing, pray, listen and wait it is Jesus that is our focus.
-We are also meeting each other. Our worship community is meeting in worship, fellowship and service
-We are also meeting the larger world around us, following in the footsteps of Jesus by meeting needs, demonstrating love and giving of ourselves.

Reframing "meeting" as a verb may help keep us understand better why we are here and what we are supposed to be doing.

Bill

The Problem with "Being Good"

We grow up being told to "be good" in a lot of ways. In fact, part of a parent's task is to help a child learn good behaviors and unlearn bad ones. Being good is encouraged and rewarded in many ways. As children we get privileges and goodies for being good. As adults we get praises and raises for being good.

New Years resolutions focus on being good. We identify a bad habit or behavior that we need to get rid of so that we can "be good." Stop smoking, lose weight, exercise more, read more, write more, save more -- the list goes on and on. These are not bad things but they miss the mark.

"Being Good" is good, but not good enough.

"Being good" tends to focus on what we are NOT doing. I'm good because "I don't smoke, I don't chew, I don't go with girls that do." We stay away from bad things -- things that are wrong or hurt ourselves or others -- and that IS a good thing. But it can become a very passive kind of thing. We can be good by not doing anything at all! Where's the good in that?

"Doing good" is better. Doing good means we are actively engaged in positive activities. We look for ways to use our time, energy and resources to meet needs around us. Doing good changes us and our world.

Jesus didn't spend time trying to be good. Instead he focused on DOING good in a world that was and continues to be very needy. And he changed lives and continues to change this world.

Jesus also reminds us that "doing good" is risky. Doing good isn't necessarily rewarded in our world and in fact can draw opposition, as Jesus experienced.

So why should be "do good?" For Jesus' sake.

As we start a new year, let's "be good" AND "do good."

Bill

How Many Baptisms Does it Take to be a Quaker?

How many baptisms does it take to be a Quaker?

If you're talking about something that involves water, the historic answer is none.

The official answer, as given by the Faith and Practice statements of many Friends bodies, is that there is one baptism given directly by the Spirit. That is all that is needed and it doesn't involve water.

The answer from my experience with God is that it takes a lifetime of baptisms to be a Quaker.

I grew up in Baptist churches. My life was blessed by parents and other people who loved Jesus and shared their stories and the stories of Jesus with me. When I was nine years old I responded to an invitation for salvation and a few weeks later experienced full immersion in the baptistry of that church.

As a nine year old, I wasn't very aware of the theology involved in being baptized, but I knew that getting all wet in front of all those people marked a transition. I had made a public statement that I was a believer in Jesus.

And then I spent ten years or so pretty much ignoring Jesus.

When I was twenty I went through a second baptism. I got wet this time as well, but there was no water involved.

Some friends and I invited ourselves to a party one Saturday night. I don't know who the host was and didn't know very many people there, but it was loud, crowded and fueled by alcohol. In the course of the party, I stepped across a line with my friends that I shouldn't have. My good buddy Ervin then proceeded to pour a bottle of beer over my head.

I stopped. And I knew that God was reaching into my life. God used that bottle of beer to bring me to the place where I knew I had to make a choice -- I could continue messing around with life and ignore God, or I could take the claims of Jesus seriously. It was a very clear and unavoidable choice in front of me.

Paul describes baptism this way in Romans 6:3-4:

Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? [4] We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (NIV)

I was stopped dead in my tracks by that beer being poured over my head. It was a baptism -- I experienced being buried with Jesus and being raised from the dead. My life was new.

At about the same time I was starting to hang around different kinds of Friends. I became part of a Friends Meeting and discovered people who loved others and took their relationship to God very seriously.

And they taught me two new ways of being baptized--

In worship -- being buried with Christ in worship, so that his living presence can continue that job of making me new. It's a process that started when I was a child and it will continue for a lifetime.

In service -- allowing my wants and needs to be buried with Christ in service, so that he can use me to be a small part of creating something new in our world.

It takes a lifetime of baptisms to be a Quaker.

I Survived Junior High Camp

Being a counselor at Junior High Camp is not for the squeamish. Of course there are all the jokes and stories about body functions that junior high boys like to tell. Then there are the games played in and with various food items. Then top it off with 145 kids and adults playing four corner kickball on an indoor basketball court all at once... Which reminds me of the noise level, which varies from low roar to shrieks and more.

On a positive note, Quaker Haven Camp is a beautiful facility, overlooking Dewart Lake in northern Indiana. The camp leadership is genuinely concerned about the well being of the campers, and the camp directors do a great job of making sure the campers learn about Jesus.

There were 80 girls and 40 boys. The boys weren't especially interested in the girls, although some of the girls were eying the boys. At meal time the campers doing meal set up and the counselors were encouraged to sit around in different places, in order to get to know other campers better. At lunch time I sat at a table with one of the boys who helped set up. When the doors opened, the table quickly filled up with six girls. The boy hunkered down in his seat, avoiding eye contact and not wanting to talk about anything. As we waited for prayer and our turn to go through the buffet line he looked more and more uncomfortable. We got up to go through the buffet line and he saw his chance. He never returned to our table.

Junior High camp makes you thankful for some different kinds of things:
--I was thankful I could get the butter out of my hair after the football game.
--I was thankful somebody threw out Jerry's coke bottle filled with dead minnows.

I walked by the beach early one morning on my way to get my morning cup of tea. The sandy area and the grass area were covered with geese. It looked pretty, but I decided I wasn't going to use the beach. (However, the camp does try to clean up after the geese, which I appreciate)

So, you may ask, why would you choose to be a counselor at Junior High camp?

Thursday night, during our cabin time, those seven junior high boys spent some time talking about their desire to serve Jesus and their hopes for the future -- then we spent some time praying for each other's families, friends and churches. That's what makes it worhwhile.

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Somebody Who Asked Good Questions

Vernard Eller passed away on June 18. He was a minister in the church of the Brethren and a retired professor of philosophy and religion at the University of La Verne in California.

He was also a great thinker and writer who always raised interesting questions as he explored what it means to be a Christian today. He was probably most famous for "The Mad Morality", an exploration of the ten commandments as seen through the eyes of "Mad Magazine".

He knew how to raise interesting questions and understood in a profound way that life in God is a journey of discovery.

I remember him for writing "The Outward Bound: Caravaning as a Style of the Church". This short book transformed my way of understanding how we do church. He uses a series of contrasting pictures to describe what the church is and is not. For example, instead of thinking of the church as a "commissary" dispensing grace, truth and spirituality, he argues that the church is a "caravan" on its way to a destination, taking on newcomers, adapting to the needs of the journey, and looking after the needs of those in and out of the caravan.

Sticky Ideas

Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath is a new book on marketing that has helped me think through some of the things we do as a church. The book explores the question of why some ideas survive – they “stick” in our minds – and others die.

The authors suggest six common characteristics of ideas and concepts that are memorable and connect with people. Using the acronym “SUCCESs”, they describe how ideas that stick are Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional and are communicated by Stories.

The good news we have to share about Jesus transformed our world in just a few centuries because it had these qualities. It was a message that bridged languages and cultures and “stuck” in peoples minds and hearts.

We have the same good news to share today, but it doesn’t seem to stick very well. Why is that?

Chip and Dan Heath’s list of sticky qualities caused me to ask myself some questions about what I am doing as pastor and what we are doing as a church. They are good and important questions and I’d like to share them with you:

Simple – Have we complicated the core message of Jesus (“Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand”)? Do our ways of doing church get in the way of knowing and sharing Jesus?

Unexpected – Have we made Jesus so predictable that nobody really hears what we have to say about him?

Concrete – Do we spend too much time in abstract theories and not enough in down-to-earth ministry?

Credible – Are people able to see Jesus at work in our lives and the lives around us?

Emotional – Are people able to feel Jesus at work in our lives and the lives around us? Are we communicating passion in our quiet Quaker way?

Stories – Are we getting good at telling the story of God from the Bible and from our lives?

The good news of Jesus is the ultimate “sticky idea.” Let’s share it.

Pastor Bill