Open up

The following post is an article I wrote, published in the August 2009 issue of The Lutheran.
http://www.thelutheran.org/article/article_buy.cfm?article_id=8341

When you want to reach out to a friend, co-worker, even family member in one of they younger generations, don't say, "join us at worship."

Your invitation probably won't be accepted. I know. It wasn't an invitation to a Sunday morning service but one to serve in a community that brought me back to church. Now, as a pastor in my early 30s, I know, too, that there are many more young people who long for God, not church.

God doesn't live in the four walls of the church - even we who love the church and find there a community which supports us in our faith know that. We know, too, that God sends us out into the world: "Go in peace. Serve the Lord."

So how do you start a new conversation with those folks who tell us they're “spiritual but not religious”? Change the focus from sharing how important Sunday morning worship is to what God is doing—in your own life. Yes, this might will feel awkward at first. Most of us aren't used to talking about our faith lives.

Consider trying some of these seven ways to open up as you reach out:

• Change how you ask everyday questions. Instead of, “How was work today?” also ask, “How was God at work in your life today?” Instead of, “How can I help?” ask, “What can I pray for?”
• Ask your friend or family member to join you in working at the soup kitchen, women’s shelter, or road clean up.
• Share a story about your morning devotions. If the conversation becomes fruitful and the person lives with you or is around often, ask if he or she would do devotions with you occasionally - bouncing around ideas and concepts.
• Share a song you heard at worship or on the radio, or an idea from a sermon that made you think of your friend. This shows you care - and how God works and speaks through other people.
• Pay attention to the spiritual nuances when you watch a movie together. Afterward, ask, “Did you notice ... ?”
• Say grace before every meal, though not necessarily a formal prayer. I often don’t fold my hands and bow my head if I'm with friends who aren't religious. I simply say as I’m pouring the ketchup, “God thanks for the yummy food and good company! Amen!”

Be ready to answer questions about your faith - and to listen to theirs.

In living out these ideas, it's most important to be genuine, to just be you. God’s love is often experienced first through living human relationships. I've had successes and failures. Some people close down because they've been hurt or are making assumptions.

Open up. Refocus your energy and reach out to my generation. The Spirit of God moves in ways we can't understand. But through our actions and prayers, we can stand with these young people - and not just worry as our invitation to "join us at worship" goes unaccepted.

Faith in God defining Life not Death

By Angela Busch

Few quick words of introduction: Pastor Dana is in New Orleans this week for the ELCA National Youth Gathering, so she asked me, her current roommate and a future seminary student this fall at Luther, to do this week's blog. I'll do my best to fill her shoes!

***

I currently work as a sports reporter for the Naples Daily News, and one of my most frequent assignments has been NFL running back Edgerrin James. He's a native of nearby Immokalee, Fla., and this year James became the first Collier County product to play in a Super Bowl. It was a Big Deal, and I spent the whole Super Bowl week and game following James around and learning all about him. He's had quite a football career -- 4-time All-Pro selection, 11th on the alltime NFL rushing list -- but in his past he was known as quite a thug. James played his college football for the rough-'n'-tumble University of Miami back in the late '90s, and few people got to see the family side of him that's well-known throughout Southwest Florida, especially in his beloved Immokalee.

Probably because I'm his hometown reporter, so to speak, and James still spends a lot of time back in Immokalee and Florida in general, I've been lucky enough to start to see that side of him. But yesterday I got a much closer glimpse -- and one that made me think about faith and what it can mean for our lives.

James and his four children suffered a tragic loss last April -- his longtime girlfriend and children's mother, Andia Wilson, died of leukemia. He said he took the loss hard, after having spent every free moment of the 2008 football season at the hospital at Andia's bedside.

Yesterday, James made what was his first really public appearance after Andia's death, and after his requested release was granted from the Arizona Cardinals, making him an NFL free agent for really the first time in his 10-year NFL career.

This wasn't a typical public appearance, though. Instead, with the local Parks and Recreation department, James hosted a free football camp for kids ages 6 and up, from 9:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. at the Immokalee Sports Complex. Of course, it turned into sort of a media frenzy, especially because James brought a few University of Miami and fellow NFL players with him. Most of the reporters at the camp wanted to talk about James' future and where he might play. I needed to get this information for our paper, too, but what really made me listen was when James started talking about dealing with Andia's death.

Finally, shaking his head, he said: "But when you believe in God, well, you know she's in a better place."

I'm not sure what role faith has played in James' life. I've never talked about it with him. But clearly, his faith was giving him a positive, healthy way to deal with the death of a person he'd loved very much. We see this often throughout our lives. When someone dies, people turn to their faith. God, and faith, are at least partial answers to the mystery of death. Faith defines the way we look at death, many times. And using faith to understand death is important.

To me the more important thing, though, is making God and our faith define our lives -- not only the deaths in our lives. When someone dies, people often recognize God's immense power. They give Him the role He belongs in -- they give Him the power to change things for the better and execute a plan that we may never understand.

What if we gave God that power not only in death but in life? What if, instead of simply saying: Because I believe in God, I know that (he or she) has not died in vain, we would say: Because I believe in God, I know I am not LIVING in vain!

This week, I am going to try -- hopefully not in vain -- to put that into practice, to use my belief in God as a definer for my life, in the same way that we allow God's power to define death. What changes could this make in our lives? I am excited to see.

Seriously! What's up with this God thing?

Our church put a video on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF1puQUN6g4) about the ministry we are doing and our vision for the future. When I logged onto our YouTube account there was a comment waiting to be approved. The comment said something like, "You don't do good things because of Christ - You do good things because your good people - God has nothing to do with it!"

As I was deleting the comment, I had to take a deep breath as a surprising emotion overwhelmed me. I was caught between being insulted by such a naive comment and curious if there is truth behind the statement. The words of another pastor quickly came to mind.

I was questioning God's existence one day and Pastor Reed said, "If you died tomorrow and found out that there was no God. Would you wish you would have changed anything about your life, what you did, and what you believed?"

I quickly realized, "no" because what I believe and do gives me so much life now!

I held onto that past memory for a moment and then flashed through all the ways I have seen God work in my life and in the world. Then the words of a fourth century theologian came to mind. Carol Albright summaries the writing of Saint Augustine, fourth century AD, who used a metaphor that brought to life how God is interacting with the world. A metaphor that explains the vastness of God and how God is our source inside and outside of the world we know.

The world as we know it is like a submerged sponge. God is the ever-changing sea, which penetrates the sponge, supports the sponge, nourishes the sponge and gives it life – but is not itself the sponge. As long as the sea flows through the sponge, the sponge may remain alive. God is forever in interaction with the world, yet God is not the world. Like the sea. God is dynamic and mysterious, always the same, yet never the same, whose very being may be experienced as action and interaction (Confessions VII, V, 7).[1]

The ocean provides the source of life for the sponge. The Trinity (our human understanding of God) is doing something to us. This is the fundamental reality of God. God is in action and interaction with us. God is our source!

[1] Carol Rausch Albright. “Religious Experience, Complexification, and the Image of God,” in NeuroTheology: Brain, Science, Spirituality, Religious Experience ed. R. Joseph (California: University Press, 2002), 200.

God-given abilities

By Sarah Teichmann

A few years ago I was sitting with a Bible Study group and we were talking about the gifts of the spirit. It seemed that as soon as we started talking about spiritual gifts one person spoke up and said, “Well, what I really want is the ability to lead people.” Then another person quickly said, “Oh yeah! I really want the ability to be a good speaker.” Then a cascade of conversation really began. Our conversation seemed to focused on all the personality traits and strengths that we lacked, and none of us focused on the gifts and traits we already had been given.

Does that every happen to you? You’re so focused on the things that you wish you could do, and you dismiss the abilities you already have. I often focus on my inability to play any instruments and I forget my ability to sing or sometimes I really wish that I could be a good story teller and I dismiss the fact that I’m a good listener.

Imagine if you were given a really good gift and never used it. For me it’s like the time I received a gift certificate to a great local restaurant. I never used it and eventually forgot about it. One day I found it and finally remembered to use it. Wow! I had the best time and never realized what I had been missing by not using that gift!

God has given us gifts, too. Have you stopped to think about how you’ve been gifted? Maybe it’s a gift of listening or being compassionate. Perhaps you’re the one who is quick-witted and humorous or maybe it’s the gift of companionship that shines through. Take an inventory and think about how you could use your God-given gifts to make our world a better place—be it with your friends, your family, and those around you.

Don’t dismiss those God-given gifts—use them today and see what marvelous things may happen.

Water guns in Church?

I have been known, while preaching, to argue that we need to have water guns next to our hymnals in the pews. On days there is a baptism we could pull out our water guns and drench one another as we play in the baptismal promise. Yes, that means the pews and the carpet will get wet, the hymnals might get a little soaked, and of course the outfit you so carefully picked out for worship – along with your beautiful hair are going to get messed up.

But it would be a strong reminder that we need to play in the life given to us in baptism and to live out our baptism daily. Living out our baptism is fun but it can get a little messy. Dyeing to sin and rising to Christ’s righteousness – which happens in baptism calls us to get a little messy – being active in our faith is not simply sitting the pews – oohhing and ahhhing – over the wonderful things that Christ has done for us. Living out our baptism means following the Spirit that God sent – that passion that ignites our hearts and live a life where we honestly love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves.

A Camera Flash

On Sunday, June 14 three junior high youth and I climbed into my car for our journey to camp. Four and a half hours later we arrived at Luther Springs in Hawthorne, FL – the middle of nowhere! We were excited and tired after our long drive. We unloaded the car, put on bug spray, and joined the rest of the campers for get to know you games.

At camp every evening before bed the counselors gather the kids around a campfire. At campfire we sing songs with guitar accompaniment, read scripture, and enjoy a skit that brings the scripture to life. It is my favorite time at camp. I really enjoy gazing at the coals burning in the fire pit and sitting in the dark with the stars bright above our heads. It is a time when I really want to capture the moment to share with others.

As I have learned throughout life one way to capture a moment is to take a picture. So, I got my camera out and as the counselors were about to start their evening skit I snapped a picture. Then quickly everyone around the campfire started to groan at once. The person sitting next to me says, “Nice one!”

Then I realized that the camera flash had blinded everyone around the fire at once. It was dark – and the flash was bright. I’m sure you know that moment when suddenly all you can see are little bright dots in your line of vision when you once were able to see clearly.

I think God is sometimes like a bright flash in the midst of the darkness of our lives. We think we understand and know God clearly. We finally have this faith thing figured out and then God’s light shines brightly. Unexpectedly our line of vision – our line of understanding – is blurred. When something like this happens, we tend to groan. We want to know and understand our Creator because somehow we believe this will give us comfort.

However, do we really want to understand God? I mean, if our intellect was able to grasp God… what would that say about God?

At campfire when the stars are numerous and bright above our heads I give thanks that though we do not understand God – we do get to experience God.

Jesus in a Tire Shop

It was time for an oil change in my car. I pulled into a tire store that has a big sign out front, “Oil Change $19.95”. I park the car and walk in the door – a man greets me and I hand over my car keys for the oil change – he walks away to get started.

As I am standing in front of the counter I notice a picture of someone on the wall behind the counter. I look at it for a moment and realize, though there is no label, this tire store has a picture of Jesus behind the counter. I was honestly surprised. I see pictures of Jesus almost everyday but this was a picture in an unexpected place.

I look at the women patiently waiting for her oil change and ask, “Excuse me, who do you think this picture is of behind the counter?”

“Ummmm, I don’t know – Jesus maybe?” She responded.

“Are you sure it’s Jesus?” I ask innocently.

“Well it could be a boss – but I’m pretty sure that’s Jesus.”

Then I sit down and we chat about a few other topics and a man who works at the store walks in. He goes behind a different counter and starts working. So, I ask, “Sir, sorry to bug you but I noticed the picture behind the counter – do you know who that is?”

“Huh, haven’t really thought about it before. Jesus maybe?” He responds.

“Are you sure it’s Jesus?”

“Well no – but when the manager comes back here we can ask.”

“Thanks.”

Later, the manager approaches the lady waiting to pay for her oil change and she leaves. Then I go for one more round of questioning.

“Sir, do you know who is in the picture on the wall behind you?”

“Yeah – that’s my boss!”

“Your boss?”

“Jesus.”

“Huh, pictures of Jesus in a tire store, interesting!” I state with a smile on my face.

“Yeah, the owner of this shop is very religious. Did you notice the name of the store? New Life Tires.”

As our conversation continued I eventually shared that I am a pastor in Naples. He then started to tell me his own personal faith story – including current struggles and how he has strayed from the church. I listened – eventually paid for my oil change and left.

I realized that most of us have an image of Jesus in our head. It’s a picture of a skinny white man with long hair and a beard. Yet, when I asked two unknowing bystanders in an unreligious setting if they were sure it was Jesus both questioned whether or not it was Jesus.

I am assuming if we were in a church there would have been no question about who was in the picture. Yes, Jesus is even in a tire shop.

Wonder where else we don’t realize God is present as I go about our day!