Puncturing Our Presumptions

Following is a short presentation that I gave at Pocatello First United Methodist Church's Leadership Summit today.

A day or two ago, when Pastor Craig was asking me what the title of this talk should be, I told him that I had many talents, but coming up with titles was not one of them. But when I saw Puncturing our Presumptions, I knew that it was perfect. Because that is the main thing that gets in our way when we try to connect with people who don’t have experience being in the church.

As you have already heard and seen in our program and guide for today, the Methodist Church’s main purpose is “the formation of disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”

One aspect of that is training the people who are here.  As Paul calls it in Eph 4, “Equipping the Saints.”  And when Paul talks about “saints” throughout his letters, he is not only talking about people like Mother Theresa or Francis of Assisi (though they would certainly qualify).  He is talking about all of us, those people who are a part of the church.

But in Matthew 28, Jesus calls us to make disciples of ALL nations.  That can mean going out to show new people about Jesus.  The church has both bad and good example of that in our history.  But it can also mean those people who find their way to us.  It might be a person who crosses our path at work, school, or even the grocery store.  Or, it may be someone or a family who wanders into our church on a Sunday morning.

But Wait, There's More ...

Come to the City of God

It's the new year, and towards the end of the book of Revelation, the Bible talks about God recreating a place for God and humans to live together. Let's look at it together, a sermon that I gave on New Year's Day.

Revelation 21:1-6

Happy New Year! We are entering a New Year, and our biblical reading tells us about a new creation.  Revelation is such a funny book of the Bible. Well, there aren’t a lot of laughs in it, but it is interesting. What’s interesting about it is more than the fact that it almost seems like a science-fiction movie.  There are epic battles between good and evil. There are enough fantastic creatures, symbols, and images to make your head spin. We are given glimpses into heaven and what it’s like. Evil reemerges again and again, but at last good achieves its final triumph.  What’s interesting to me is how everyday people, not to mention biblical scholars and theologians, run so hot and cold about it.

People, especially in the western world, either seem to avoid it entirely or they delve into it trying to figure out the code, thinking it will help them to predict about the end of the world.  Martin Luther didn’t really have any use for the book of Revelation. Yet, it was included in the Bible and has remained so through breaks between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox, through the Protestant Reformation, and the Counter-Reformation.

Strangely enough, after the Reformation, the Protestants stopped considering several books as part of the Bible, such as Sirach and 1st & 2nd Maccabees. It seems to me that if other books were going to be removed from the Bible, this would have been the time, but Revelation was not.

What is its value?  I said that it is in the western world where people usually either dismiss Revelation as too complicated or dig into the details trying to figure out when Jesus will return.  However, there is a group of people for whom this book is very important and popular.  That is where the Christian Church is severely persecuted and oppressed.

But Wait, There's More ...

And Throw Him into the Darkness

I heard a sermon yesterday by Pastor Craig based on a biblical text that I have always found disturbing, Matthew 25:14-30. It's a story that Jesus tells about a rich man who gives differing amounts of money to three of his servants to watch over while he's away. Then, what happens when he comes back.

The problem that I have with the text is how it ends. The servant who returned the money intact, no more and no less, is punished.

28‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29 For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (Mt 25:28-30, NIV)

Quite frankly, it doesn't sound very "Christian" to me. It doesn't seem to match up with Jesus' mission statement in Luke 4:16-21.

16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
   18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
   because he has anointed me
   to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
   and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
   19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Isaiah 61:1,2)
 20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21 and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus is talking about helping the poor and the oppressed, not rejecting people who don't make a lot of money or are less successful. It just doesn't mesh. The Matthew passage is what is sometimes referred to as a "difficult reading." No kidding.

The problem with difficult readings is that people tend to avoid or ignore them.  However, if we consider the Bible important or even a way for God to communicate with us, can we just pick and choose what we are going to accept in it and what we can safely ignore? The logical side of my brain says no, but the emotional side can not get past a passage that seems to say that it's okay to throw people away.

That was why I was so excited by the sermon I heard yesterday! It allowed me to see this Matthew passage in a whole new light.

It's not about money, success, or the lack thereof. It is about how we use our God given talents. At the time the passage was written a "talent" was a large sum of money, but we don't even think about it that way anymore. We think of talents as abilities that people have.  The important part of the story is that the third servant hid his talent in a hole. He buried it and did not share it with anyone. He horded his talent.

What happens when we don't share ourselves and our talents with others, the community, the world? We find ourselves isolated, lonely, and alone. We find ourselves in the darkness.  It is not a "punishment" from a ruler. It is a natural consequence of our actions.  What's more ... it's an invitation ... An invitation to participate in the community to help and give joy to others by sharing what we have.

Now, that sounds more like the Jesus I know.

Are You “In the Word” … Jargon in the Church

How Language Isolates the Church from the Wider World

I did not grow up in the church.  When people talked about being a “Born Again Christian,” I really didn’t know what they were talking about.  I knew that people in certain Christian denominations or from particular regions of the country were more likely to call themselves “Born Again” than others, but what did it mean?

Then others would talk about their “Walk,” or the “anointing” of Jesus (or a particular person for “ministry”). The bottom line was that I was confused. I wouldn't be surprised if you're confused too.  However, this kind of language gets used every day in churches all around the United States.  It’s a specialized language that’s supposed to it easier for us to talk to each other. It’s a type of jargon.

When I looked up Jargon at Dictionary.com, I found several definitions.  The primary of these is,

“The language, especially the vocabulary, particular to a particular trade, profession, or group: medical jargon.” 

That really does define how the church often means to use its particular language, but how it’s perceived outside of the church (or by visitors) matches much more to the fourth definition. 

“Language that is characterized by uncommon or pretentious vocabulary and convoluted syntax and is often vague in meaning.” 

 In other words, rather than making things clearer and more precise, it makes the speaker or the group seem pretentious, elitist, and exclusionary.

The funny thing is that this can be found among congregations that want to be the most open and hospitable as possible. These Christians go around blissfully unaware that people unfamiliar with the church don’t have the slightest idea what they’re talking about.

So, what am I talking about?  Evangelism, another one of those $5 jargon words, and a very scary one for people in Mainline denominations. In the case of Christians, evangelism is sharing information about Christianity with people outside of the church.  If they’re not familiar with Christianity, they’re certainly not going to understand Christian jargon.  In fact, it may scare them away.

What’s the moral of this story? When you’re talking about the church or Christianity (regardless of where you are or who you’re with) resist using our technical Christian terminology. You never know who might be listening.

Peace out. ;)