Readiness for Trouble

Dear friends,

This week has been a doozy for me. Monday started with a long and uneventful drive up to Pennsylvania where Mennonite Church USA got together a group of half a dozen of us new pastors to receive some training,  some education, and a lot of opportunities to get to know one another and provide mutual support over the course of 3 days. It was awesome.

And then on the way back, my car broke down. Everything’s fine now, I was able to get a tow and a fix, and after a mere 24 hours got back on the road, but that uncertainty, when you don’t know how severe the problem is, how much it will cost to fix (IF it can be fixed), who to call, what to do, the uncertainty chews at you. You’re alone, in the dark, by the side of the road (and it doesn’t help if your phone is out of power). You feel the stress of the situation threatening your heart, putting pressure on your mind, throwing you off balance and making it easy to become paralyzed or make poor decisions. You feel blinded.

I was blessed and sheltered by God in ways I could never have asked for, and still I felt that pressure: I broke down 15 miles north of Harrisonburg, where I have friends and family aplenty. The tow truck driver was willing to trust me and bill my credit card in the morning after their office opened back up. God accompanied me in so many ways, most visibly in the face and hands of a rest stop attendant who shared openly about his incredibly rough past while showing me all kindness and care, helping me get clarity on what was wrong (serpentine belt fell off) and helping me get in touch with repair shops.

And yet for all that, I still felt chaos knocking on the door. We do our best to prevent and prepare for these things, but even the most minor hiccup in our plans carries the potential to derail our fragile sense of security. This week’s passage from 1 Thessalonians talks about how we Christians, of all people, should know to expect bad days, and know to prepare for them.

But how? How do you expect the unexpected, prepare for the unpredictable? By digging deep wells of peace, by building one another up with strong bonds of friendship, by taking moments to open our eyes to God’s action. In a word, by abiding in Christ.

The new pastors’ meeting was that kind of preparation for me. My time with you in worship and fellowship is that kind of preparation for me. My time with scripture; my time with family; my time with Creation, all these things, stored up over time, allowed me to take each setback, each moment of uncertainty over the last two days, and put it in perspective. So here I am, attending to my weekly responsibilities-- a day or two late, to be sure, but all is well.

When the boat rocks, when the engine locks, let us remember that all will be well.

Blessings on all of you for the readiness you have given me,
Andrew

While We Were Gathered

Dear friends,

"Holiday Season" supposedly doesn't start for another few weeks, but I'm already seeing some Christmas decorations in stores. It's no wonder; Christmas is America's favorite holiday by far, and there are many people who want to get into the "Christmas Spirit" as soon as possible. It's a time of year when we tell stories about generosity and encourage one another to be kind and hospitable. What could be wrong with that?

Well, if you're looking for someone to tell you what's wrong, you never have to look farther than the words of the prophets, and this week's passage from Amos cuts right to the heart of why we often feel so upset with public displays of religion in America. 

Why would God say "I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies"? Isn't it good to go to church? Isn't two months of holiday cheer better than none?

While we were gathered this past Sunday, 27 children of God were killed by a young man who should have seen himself as beloved and his 26 victims as family and friends. Instead he was, by all accounts, filled with petty hate and inspired by the supposed glory of taking human life. 

When a country filled with churches and obsessed with Christmas sees so much bloodshed and injustice, both here and around the world, I resonate with the grief and impatient fury felt by God and expressed by the prophet. How dare we as a nation claim God's favor? How dare we look forward to the Day of Reckoning? 

I don't think God really wants us to give up our festivals and our solemn assemblies. But I do think God wants us to keenly experience the divine grief and anger at violence and injustice that blossoms while we look the other way, and I think God wants us to do something about it. Let that holy fury make you strong and bold, make you stiff-necked and sure-footed in the fight for justice. Because without that fight, the Reason for the Season is just so much noise.

Blessings of fortifying fury and healing grief be with you all this week,
Andrew

Retreating to the Altar of Truth

Dear friends,

Fall is a time of change, a hinge time, a turning of one thing to another. Not just the leaves, but our clothes, our habits, our diets, and even our personalities must transition with the season. But all of those changes are made a bit easier by an awareness that things will go back to how they were before, that the shortening days will lengthen again and peaches will one day be back on the menu.

Most of us can deal with that kind of cyclical, predictable change pretty well; after all, we’ve dealt with it many times before. But what about the changes that are much bigger, much slower, and much more difficult to undo? What about changes in society, ecology, and politics?

The fact is that our Christian sensibility, which leads us to reach out and directly engage those who disagree with us, works best when we can find a way to eat together, talk together, when there’s an opportunity to actually connect as human beings and ignite the flame of Christ’s love that lies dormant in every heart. This works well for personal discussions of politics, but when it comes to things like the now-frequent marches of racist hate groups in this country, we may need to approach things differently.

This week’s Psalm 43 is a prayer for those who have seen clear truth and are oppressed by vile lies. It’s a prayer for hope and patience, and for deliverance from deceptive people.

If current trends continue, there will at some point be another white supremacist rally at a nearby town or campus. When that happens, we may be best served to draw away, to “go to the altar of God.” It is good to show up and resist those who distort history and worship their own skin color, but unfortunately even well-intentioned resistance can add fuel to groups that thrive on hate. Rather than giving them the spectacle of resistance and violence that they crave, we might gather at a different place and make clear that God’s light and truth shine among us.

Change doesn’t have to be threatening, nor does it have to be irreversible. The darkness of hate we now see in so many hearts in this country may continue to get worse, but God’s light will be victorious in time. In Christ we become part of turning the tide; there lies our joy and our confidence. The nights may be getting longer, but we already look forward to Christmas when the daytime will begin to gain ground.

God’s light and truth be with you each day,
Andrew

The Depths

Dear friends,

The days are darkening as winter takes hold, and it seems like we all know someone who is struggling to keep up their spirits (or are struggling ourselves.) This week I was struck by an old devotional I stumbled across from the Mennonite publication Rejoice. Written by Nancy Witmer as a meditation on Psalm 42, it spoke to my own feelings of deep sadness as I look at the world around us in general and at the suffering of people I know and love in specific. I don't think I can improve on Nancy's words, so I've reproduced them here. I recommend that you first read the psalm and dwell on its expression of endurance in the face of depression, and then allow Nancy's words to bring the scripture into your life:

I admired Laura. She was a confident woman, a 

glowing Christian, a willing worker and leader in the church. Laura

reflected the best qualities of the model woman of Proverbs 31 and

of the New Testament heroines, Dorcas and Priscilla.

Then a series of hardships dropped on Laura. A family member’s

long-term illness and too many responsibilities slowly crushed

her upbeat spirit. Mental and physical exhaustion drained Laura’s

positive outlook on life, leaving in its place a deep sadness and

despair.

“I don’t even want to crawl out of bed in the morning,” Laura

told me. “Every day is harder than the one before. It’s been ten long

years. Where is God? I’m trying to believe that he is in control of

my life, but I can’t see it now.” Laura sighed. “Nevertheless, I must

cling to God’s promises because I’ve got nothing else left.”

The writer of Psalm 42 also struggles to trust in God. This former

worship leader now questions whether God even remembers

him. Sadness swallows his former joy. Enemies surround him with

taunts and threaten his life. Despite the psalmist’s desperation,

however, he tells himself, “Hope in God; for I shall again praise

him.”

Today, we find ourselves in a hopeless situation. We’re exhausted

and weary. We feel like God has forgotten us. May we take heart

and continue to hope in God. We will praise him again.
                                     -Nancy Witmer

"Deep calls to deep," as the psalm says, and the depths of our despair calls out to the depths of God's love. May that unfathomable, abiding love be your daily companion and nightly song.

Blessings of strength and hope,
Andrew

Time is... Caesar's?

Dear friends,

“Time is money” they say, and the fact is we spend a lot of our time earning money (or saving it by doing work we would otherwise have to pay for.) Even those of us who are retired or in school are still in money’s orbit, either preparing for a career or managing our assets and relationships after our career. We try not to let ourselves obsess over it, but we can’t deny that money still matters a lot.

But if money is what we receive in exchange for our God-given days and hours on this earth, it seems we should give those gifts back to God first and foremost. That being the case, why does Jesus tell us to “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s” in this week’s gospel passage? Is he really saying all our money belongs to the government first and foremost because it has pictures of presidents on it?

Many of Jesus’ friends and neighbors were deeply opposed to paying Roman taxes, since they saw the horrible things the Roman armies did with that money. Today, some of us intentionally resist paying war taxes but the majority of us are (more or less) content to pay our part; we see the money doing a lot of good! We need infrastructure and the rule of law. Beyond that, many of the practices and priorities of the Christian church have turned out to be such good ideas that over the centuries the government has decided to get involved-- literacy, care for the sick, care for the poor. These are valuable things, and the government has proven a reliable, if flawed, provider.

I think Jesus was advocating for a middle ground; neither total rebellion against government taxes, but also not a total acceptance of the way things are. He’s telling us to play along with the system, but to always keep in mind God’s broader perspective. We should still feel ambiguous about paying our taxes even as we do pay them, aware that our ultimate allegiance calls us to look for ways to reform or even abolish the system we support.

May we all experience some freedom in that ambiguity, freedom based on an understanding that God’s Image is infinitely more valuable than Benjamin Franklin’s.

Grace and peace be with you all,
Andrew