Longevity and fidelity are harder and harder to come by these days. We glorify the fast-paced instant gratification of an always changing world. Let's reclaim the patient, long-term, gut-it-out, in-for-the-long-haul persistence that most of life requires. Anyone can do something for a day. Try doing something day after day for 60 years. Last Sunday, I was honored to participate in the renewal of vows for my dear friend and colleague, Ed Dubberke, and his wife Joan. They walked to the front of the chapel, arm in arm, just as they had 60 years ago. They repeated their vows to one another . . . "in sickness and in health . . . until death parts us." And they asked all in attendance to join them in praising God.
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With the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage, many Christians have responded in fearful panic. We are entering an era very different from the last century. Among American Christians, there is fear of changing societal norms and the continued marginalization of Christianity in what was once believed to be a “Christian nation.”
By contrast with the “Christian panic,” I am really excited about being a Christian in this new era. Why? We are returning to our pilgrim roots. A pilgrim is one who journeys a long distance; a traveler and wanderer in a foreign place. God’s people have a pilgrim history, living as strangers in a foreign land, exiles in a country not their own (Gen. 12:1). Augustine wrote, “The Heavenly City, while on its earthly pilgrimage, calls forth its citizens from every nation and assembles a multilingual band of pilgrims.” While pilgrims make a home in lands that God has given, they are never quite comfortable in any one place. If we put too much faith in an earthly dwelling, we find ourselves disappointed. So we tread on, our feet walking the earth below, our eyes set on a land beyond. Because we know of a heavenly City, we live lives on earth that are distinctly hopeful. The church in this modern era must reclaim the pilgrim way, discovering what it means to be a church “at the margins” and not at the center. What is the pilgrim way? Here are five pilgrim traits: Last week I was with pastors from around the St. Louis metro area. While talking about our people, we discovered one of the greatest challenges people face is busyness.
"People's schedules are horrendous." "Everyone is over-committed." "No one has extra time." Being too busy is a major issue in our fast-paced society. There are more demands on people than ever before. And it's leading to stress, depression, divorce, burnout, and health issues. So what do you do if you're too busy? Martin Luther's theology of vocation is all about setting priorities. Here's how you can begin to set clear priorities and defend against unhealthy busyness. Baseball's ratings are declining, and it's fanbase is aging. In an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal, Matthew Futterman shows how baseball is on a mission to be relevant in a fast-changing culture.
Sounds a bit like the church in America. Aging, declining in numbers, and denominations collapsing. Baseball has been known as "America's game." And Christianity has been known as "America's religion." You could argue against both of those today. From a modern marketing perspective, Jesus' strategy would be considered unorthodox if not ineffective. In business today, you have to tailor your product to the consumer. Give them options. Make it easy to want what you're selling. By contrast, Jesus says, "Follow me," and proceeds to make the way difficult. Has he "sold" you on following him? He says, “Strive to enter through the narrow door.” (Luke 13:24.) The way is singular, without all the options and choices. Are you sold yet? I've been wrestling with Jesus' "narrow" statements in Luke's gospel. Here are four observations on the "narrow way" that actually inspire me to follow him. In December I had lunch with six college students. I wanted to hear what challenges they face and what hopes they have for the future. A common thread in each of their reflections was an intense burden to succeed. It’s no longer enough to have a diploma or even a high GPA. I’m sounding like an old man, but I feel like "things are harder for kids these days." I believe the Great Recession intensified an already hyper-competitive and status-seeking society. We are conditioned to strive after bigger and better. Positions of prestige. Jobs that are lucrative and well-compensated. Offices of honor. Places of admiration and influence. We live in a status-seeking society. I have two frustrations with the word "love." First of all, the word “love” is so overused in our culture that it’s empty of meaning. It has become a complete cliche. For instance, "love" can mean:
"It's always seemed strange to me. The things we admire in men, kindness, generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second." - John Steinbeck through the character Doc in Cannery Row Does the Christian life look different from any other life? Is life in Christ visibly distinct? John Steinbeck comments that the great traits and values that we admire are hard to work out in real life. While we may admire them, it's easier to fall back into the system. And these admirable traits often lead to "failure" while traits of self-interest lead to "success." Greed is more advantageous than generosity. Meanness easier than kindness. And so on.
So is it possible to actually live out the radically selfless calls of the Christ life? To "love enemies?" To sacrifice for the sake a resurrected Lord? To stick with one spouse for an entire life? To give without expecting anything in return? To rejoice in suffering? To set aside individual profit for the sake of communal benefit? Increasingly, life in America is more like Babylon than Zion. Christians have to navigate a "foreign" context where the system's values and beliefs run counter to the calling of the Christ life. How do we live the "Zion life" while in Babylon? A visibly distinct, peculiar, and counter-intuitive life that confounds our neighbors and confronts the present system? No answers, just asking the question. Daniel 1:4,8,9 The Battle of Little Big Horn (Custer's Last Stand) Big Horn County, Montana You still might be bloated from Halloween candy. I recently heard that next to Christmas, Halloween has the highest level of "holiday" consumer spending. So in the shadow of Halloween (and the hope of All Saints Day - Nov. 1st) allow me to be morbid.
I recently returned from a hunting trip to southeastern Montana. While I spent my childhood in a rural setting, I've been urbanized for the last 17 years. Engaging a wide open and isolated land reminded me of life's raw realities. Whenever humans cluster in cities, we tend to domesticate death. We insulate mortality with health care and safety regulations. We distract ourselves from death's severity with entertaining distractions and bustling busyness. The proximity of mortality is heightened in isolated land. A Montana rancher lives with death's reality every day. You cannot escape the fact that death comes without discrimination. There are the bare bones of a calf devoured by coyotes. There is the abandoned and dilapidated shack that housed people three generations ago. There is physical danger all around. The bull that kicks in the corral. The rattlesnake in the bush. The increased danger of a flat tire miles from help with no cell service and cold night approaching. On the frontier, death is not hidden and it's always a step away. As a pastor in a city, I see death domesticated all the time. It's not that death doesn't exist. It's that we veil and sanitize it. The hospital is clean and shiny. The funeral home is warm and inviting. Mortality is trivialized in gratuitous video games, crime shows, and silly Halloween costumes. Its stark finality is avoided. "The cemetery is a reassessment of priorities." I bear the conviction that resurrection is a greater reality that death's finality. So I am not deterred by the cemetery or the the abandoned homestead. They remind me that I am limited. When death is no longer domesticated, we can honestly evaluate what we are doing with our limited time. Questions I've been asking:
When death is no longer avoided, life's priorities come into focus. The organizational guru, Stephen Covey wrote about the “scarcity mentality” in his best-selling book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: “Most people are deeply scripted in what I call the Scarcity Mentality. They see life as having only so much, as though there were only one pie out there. And if someone were to get a big piece of the pie, it would mean less for everybody else.”
By contrast, he writes of the abundance mentality: “The Abundance Mentality, on the other hand, flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security. It is the paradigm that there is plenty out there and enough to spare for everybody.” What does this mean? |
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