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faith without passion?

faith without passion?

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Faith without passion …

… is like playing soccer without the ball. You may go through all the motions, but you don’t really accomplish anything and it’s not much fun!

Faith without passion …

… is like marriage without love. All form and no substance. It may serve a purpose — for maintaining some kind of social stability and keeping people out of trouble, but has no depth or intimacy or life … or satisfaction.

Faith without passion …

… is demeaning to God. If God is God — the one whose breath is the source of life, whose power and wisdom and glory are beyond imagination, whose grace and mercy and love seek and save and lift up a wandering and broken humanity — how can we relate to this God with indifference, with a shrug of the shoulders or a nod of acknowledgment … or a lukewarm faith?

Faith without passion …

… is an oxymoron, because faith is passion!

grief

grief

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Grief …

Grief takes something from us that can never be regained. We cannot get it back … but nevertheless what we do have is enough. We have Jesus.

Jesus is with us … and that is enough.

Faith is not magical. We do not invoke the name of Jesus and expect everything to bounce our way. Faith is mystical. Jesus is with us, at all times, in all circumstances, in this very moment … and forever. And when Jesus is with us, it is not that everything will be okay … it is that everything is okay!

as a mighty ocean

as a mighty ocean

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O the deep, deep love of Jesus
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free,
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me.

Standing on a boat thirty miles offshore, with no land in sight in any direction, the imagery of this favorite hymn comes to life.

vast, unmeasured …

All there is is ocean — underneath me, all around me. There is seemingly no end to these waters, as far as both eye and imagination can see. This is what Jesus’ love is like! Without limit and without end! Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me …

boundless, free …

From this vantage point it is clear: the land does not put boundaries on the sea; the sea puts boundaries on the land. The sea is everything — foundation, source, sustainer — from which all else rises to life.

And the sea is itself a living thing, not made heavy or slow or inflexible by its great size. It is lithe and dancing and free! Always in motion, always changing, unpredictable, uncontrollable. You don’t tell Jesus what to do or where to go … but Jesus’ love is there, boundless and free, of its own choice, of his own will.

Today, from this happy vantage point, the wonder of the love of Jesus is impressed on me … It is like this! Like this ocean! Rolling in its fullness over me!

May the eyes of your heart, the eyes of your imagination, allow you too to fathom the breadth and depth of the love of Jesus for you …

fixed on jesus

fixed on jesus

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Let us run with determination the race that lies before us … keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.

There are a few phrases in scripture that speak with particular clarity and power. This is one of them. It speaks a word the Church needs to hear! This is what holds us together. This is what gives integrity to the Church’s mission. In the face of broad disagreement about theology, about ethics, about church and culture, about worship style, about evangelism, about mission itself, if we simply keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, we will not lose our way.

Sure, we will even disagree about Jesus! But the key is not what we think about Jesus, or what we think Jesus is telling us or anybody else to do. The key is not what we think. The key is keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus! The key is not letting our attention be captured by other commitments, other priorities, other loves.

This word speaks to the Church, but it also speaks to me. In the midst of struggle and pain, joy and sorrow, success and failure, exhiliration and disapppointment, clarity and confusion … I keep my eyes fixed on Jesus. It is the only way …

who am I?

who am I?

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Who am I?

I may spend an inordinate amount of time and energy and worry trying to “make a name” for myself … when I already have a name. God has given me my name: my name is “child of God!” I am a human being, made in God’s own image, and my highest calling, indeed my only calling, is to reflect that image as best I can.

We need to remember our true names! We need to remember the true name God has given to each person we encounter. It is only when we forget that we lose ourselves in depair or become engulfed in great battles over politics or values. Remembering keeps things in perspective and reminds us we have nothing to lose … because everything that matters is already ours and will be ours forever.

about a comma theology

about a comma theology

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“Never place a period where God has placed a comma.”

That phrase, coined by Gracie Allen, serves as the byline to the StillSpeaking identity campaign of the United Church of Christ. It a memorable line, effectively communicating our core identity as a people who believe God IS still speaking, that there IS yet light and truth to break forth from God’s holy Word, that God IS not finished with any of us yet. We are a people on the way, with much to learn and much to do, a people continually being re-directed and re-formed by a God who is still at work among us, opening our minds and hearts to the wind of the Spirit that blows in ways we can neither control or predict.

“Never place a period where God has placed a comma.” But that is not to say that God ONLY uses commas …

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, when God looked at all God had made, when God said, “It is good” … what punctuation would you imagine God might put at the end of that sentence? A comma? “It is good, but we’ll have to wait to see if it stays that way, it may not be as good as it seems,”

Or does God put an exclamation point? “It is good!” All that God has made is good! All of creation bears the imprint of God’s own Spirit. All men and women bear the likeness of God’s own person. It is good!

And when God speaks to us in the words of the gospel: “In Christ, all are made alive” … what punctuation might God put at the end of that sentence? A comma? “In Christ, all are made alive, … with the following limitations and conditions? A question mark? In Christ, all are made alive, maybe?

Or a period? “In Christ, all are made alive.” The gospel is good news because it tells the story of what God has done for us in Christ, what God HAS DONE, PERIOD. The grace of God comes to us as a gift, a completed gift. God’s period is what allows our lives to have commas … and one day, to be brought to completion with an exclamation point!

belief and intolerance

belief and intolerance

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Does religious conviction breed intolerance?

If that were true, then the deeper and stronger my beliefs become, the more intolerant I become of people different from me. But I find just the opposite to be true. The more I know Jesus, the more I become like Jesus — opening my heart and arms to all kinds of different people, especially those the rest of society, even religious society, wants to push aside.

Certainly religion has been a root cause of war and conflict among groups of people … but not religion itself. It is bad religion that leads to division and conflict! It is weak belief that is intolerant, because it is not strong enough to hold itself together in the face of opposition and challenge and so must dismiss and disregard anything that threatens it!

The path to a more tolerant and peaceful world is not less religious conviction, but better religious conviction! I don’t love my neighbor best by setting my belief aside, but by strengthening it. True believers do not start crusades. It would be rather strange, would it not, if Jesus’ truest followers behaved least like him!

true Christian?

true Christian?

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What makes a true Christian? Sometimes it is hard to tell!

People calling themselves Christian worship in any number of different ways — from very formal to very informal, with classical music to contemporary music to Christian rap to no music at all, celebrating communion at every worship service or every first Sunday or once a quarter or even almost never.

People calling themselves Christian have very different political persuasions, from far right to far left and everything in between, from believing that religion should have nothing to do with politics to believing religion should have everything to do with politics.

Some people calling themselves Christian focus their energies on “winning souls,” while other people calling themselves Christian focus their energies on relieving human suffering.

So in the midst of all these differences what does make a true Christian? Or is there no such thing?

I believe a true Christian does worship — in whatever fashion. A true Christian lives out the faith in the real world — which means faith will have something to say about politics. A true Christian cares about people’s bodies and their souls. But the defining characteristic of true Christians — however they worship, whatever they think about politics, however they choose to show love their neighbors … the defining characteristic of true Christians is this: knowing for a fact that they are not master of their own lives.

True Christians know that all they are and all they have comes by grace. They know they must look outside themselves for wisdom and direction. They know that personal value is not earned or won, but is bestowed, a gift from God thanks to the obedience and sacrifice of Jesus.

True Christians are humble, recognizing the very real limits of their own wisdom and power. True Christians know they belong to God by God’s choice. True Christians spend much of their time saying “Thank you!”