Excuse Number Nine

Last week’s column on Excuse Number Ten for missing worship, “God will understand” sparked some interesting comment--and I do welcome those responses.  They hone my thinking about this human tendency to place the responsibility for both major and minor decisions squarely on the shoulders of others. I know how often I become what I call “othered.”  That’s not “bothered,” by the way.  ”Othered” is the act of letting the actions of others dictate my own actions.  I set aside personal responsibility for them.

So this week, I am looking at one of the most “othered” of the reasons not to attend worship gatherings.  Excuse Number Nine:  “Someone at the place of worship hurt my feelings and never apologized properly.”  

I do not deny hurt feelings.  We do hurt one another.  All the time.  Much of the pain we live with was probably unintentionally inflicted.  Nonetheless, there are clearly times when major disagreement, mispoken  or unspoken words, and unresolved conflict rip relational fabric to shreds.  Mending seems impossible.  Furthermore, apologies themselves may fan the flames.  “I’m sorry you took offense at that.  I apologize,” is possibly the worst apology ever spoken, but I hear it often.  The speaker takes no responsibility for any possible wrongness of his or her actions or words. The recipient is fully to blame.  

Here’s a list I’ve made of other really bad apologies I’ve heard over the years:

• "I'm sorry you misunderstood me.  I apologize."
• "Did I do something I need to apologize for?  If so, please tell me."
• "I'm sorry your feelings are hurt.  I hope you will forgive me."
• "I sure didn't mean to do something that would make you hurt.  I'm sorry."
• "Please forgive me in advance for what I'm about to say."
• "I'm sorry I lost my temper/broke the ____ (you fill in the blank)/hit you.  But if you had only listened to me in the first place, it never would have happened."
• "I'm sorry I wrecked the car.  But you knew how upset/drunk/drugged I was.  You should never have let me drive."

Do you see the “othering” in all these apologies?  It’s pretty easy to recognize--everything is the other person’s fault.

When these types of conversations take place, healing becomes challenging.  When these conversations take place within the covenant community of a corporate place of worship, the hurt compounds.  We really do have higher expectations of those who identify as part of a worshipping community, and we should.  So the anguish goes deeper here than in other places.

What now?  One option: simply separate and drop out.  We use the immaturity of others as an excuse, feed our anger and bitterness, and refuse to gather with others at worship with self-righteous justification.  “If they were better people, I’d be there.”

Another option:  Ask this question: “I wonder how many people I’ve hurt and don’t even know about?” How many “othered” apologies have I offered?”  

Then there is the vital question:  “How much grace do I want to receive?”  Once that is answered, we stare at the corresponding question, “How much grace do I want others to receive?”

“Forgive us our trespasses (sins, debts) as we forgive the trespasses (sins, debts) of others.”  These words form the centerpiece of healthy covenant worship life:  the mutual giving and receiving of forgiveness.  It is the hardest thing anyone ever does.  By offering forgiveness, we forever set down the possibility of vengeance.  

But by offering forgiveness, something else happens.  Chains fall off, souls and often bodies are healed, relationships are restored, and the kingdom of heaven advances.  What will you do with your hurts? Feed them or free them?  Please know this:  I don’t say this is easy.  I do say the act of forgiving others is more God-like than any other human action.  It’s time to set this things down and enter again into holy connection.

Reason Number Ten

As I work my way through my list of excuses people give for choosing not to give regular time for the care and nurture of their souls in a corporate gathering, I have to look at myself.  I have used Excuse Number Ten, “God will understand” multiple times as a justification for doing something I know I shouldn’t--or for not doing something I know I should.

God will understand.  When I look at that statement just by itself, I become aware of my hubris--how easily I decide for God!  What a quick trip for me into the mind of the Holy and Almighty One where I, limited as I am, can say with such certainty, “this is no big deal to God.”

I have enough insight into my own soul to know that when I start using words like that, I’m about to make a choice that is invariably the least helpful of the possibilities in front of me.

I’ll try a few on for size here:  

• God will understand if I do not have active compassion for those on the margins (because someone else will?).
• God will understand if I systematically bully or mistreat others (because maybe they don’t have real feelings like I do--so God made them a little less important than I am?).
• God will understand if I violate my own conscience to a point where that violation has become so habitual that I can no longer hear that quiet voice (because God really is a heavenly-placed magician who will spread pixie dust over the devastation I offer to myself and others so it will all mysteriously turn out just fine).
• God will understand if I skate my way through life, cheating and lying (because I’m really just human, after all, and not much can be expected of me, especially the hard work of becoming conformed to the image of the Holy One).
• God will understand if I sleep in on yet another day of worship (because, after all, I do deserve that day of rest after working so hard all week!)

It gets kind of sick, doesn’t it?  I can excuse anything I want to do with those words, “God will understand.”  I can dismiss the failure to take up any responsibility with those same words.  

Even so, I also find a profound truth in the phrase, “God will understand.”  It touches upon the whole concept of grace, but in a way that leaves the idea empty.  Grace:  the wondrous and mysterious action of God that intentionally invites all us creatures into what I call a state of forgiven intimacy--both with the Holy One and with each other.  By flippantly dismissing this invitation as “God will understand,” we land in the quagmire of what is often called cheap grace. The invitation costs everything.  Our reception of it as “God understands my laziness and is happy with my excuses” tramples this invitation and heaves it into the trash bin.

Understanding and communicating the nature of grace may be the impossible quest.  Grace really is God’s free gift to us.  That gift is the invitation to return joyfully to the heart of God, with complete forgiveness offered.  But too often we think this gift can be simply set aside until it becomes more convenient to receive it.  In other words, we don’t value it, don’t savor it, and don’t take the time to respond with thankfulness.

Participation in worship does not earn one’s way into heaven.  It does prepare us to recognize what Jesus often taught: the kingdom of heaven is all about us.  Worship trains our souls to be more receptive to that joyous grace.  Worship teaches us to live out the image of God stamped upon us as we learn to forgive those around us.  More about this next week, as I explore excuse number nine, “Someone (or several someones) at the church hurt me and never apologized.”

Reason Number Eleven

Come into this scene with me: a loved one has died and the family wants a clergy person to guide them through the really tough time of loss and grief. We clergy who spend much of our life at the crossroads of death and life are often able to bring not only some comfort, but helpful perspective at these times. 

When the person who had died is unknown to me, I seek to learn the history and find the patterns of the life lived. I probe for the good and funny memories; I visualize a mental picture of this one whose voice will not be heard again, whose unique mannerisms are now a thing in the past, and whose secrets are gone. 

On occasion, somewhere along the line, this statement pops up, "He (or she) was a wonderful person, but not a church-goer because he/she didn't like church people much." And so I give you Excuse Number 11 of 15 I've heard for not attending worship: disliking the people who do choose to worship together.

One possible reaction to that statement: "I wonder if that person will find heaven to a be kind of hell then, because it will probably be pretty well populated with those very ones she/he disliked and avoided during this physical life." But that is a flippant response for a serious situation. 

First, what has happened that gave church people such a bad reputation? I wrote some about that earlier and will expand on it later but now I'm also pondering a troubling second issue: the hopelessness of the situation. The power of decision-making for a vital life experience has been placed in the hands of others. As a result, the individual has lost much of his or her humanity.

Hang with me for a minute on this while I sort out that last statement. By refusing the necessary action of soul and moral development found in the regular discipline of God-centered worship and instruction, a human will never reach his or her full potential. This loss is a loss for all of humanity. The loss takes place when "church people" are so disliked because . . . and here I get stuck. Whoever these church people are, and there must be many of them, they have been handed the power of life and death in ways they never wanted. Instead, they suddenly responsible for what are actually individual decisions for people they do not know.

I'm having trouble getting this down on paper, so let me try again. I won't do what is good and holy and necessary and joyful for me to do because . . . I don't like someone else, so it is really their fault because I don't find them likable. 

I'm taking a deep breath here--those who heard my message last Sunday know what I'm taking about--that sign of exasperation. 

What does liking someone else have to do with this anyway? Gathering with people we may or may not like in order to experience something far beyond those petty likes and dislikes brings vibrant life to expanded souls. Consider what it means, for example, to receive the sacrament from the hands of someone whom you don't care for--and who might not find you their favorite person either. This transcendent moment shows what the love of God is all about--that reconciling love that invites us to be more human . . . not less human. More in the image of God, not less, not shut down, not trapped by human dislikes that bind us in unforgiving chains of blame.

By willingly and with open hearts entering the presence of those for whom we hold some antipathy, we discover what Jesus meant when he said he came to set the captive free. Fetters are loosed, we leap with light spirits, and give space for true Light to enter.

Reason Number Twelve

Today, I explore excuse Number Twelve of fifteen for staying away from a worshipping community:  "They all teach and believe different things.  How do I know which one is right?" 

Let's consider the logic to the statement.  We see different ways to practice medicine, educate children, repair cars, cook chicken, clean a house, run a business, grow a garden, program a computer, cut hair, have a satisfying marriage.  Multiple opinions do not mean that we quit seeking medical help or sending children to school or finding better ways to cook a chicken or anything else.  We don't really expect people to agree in these areas.  Look at national (or local) politics.  Disagreement is real, and people are passionate about those disagreements.  Nonetheless, most of us still live and work within our political system. We've not headed off to some isolated island to live a primitive, non-political life, should such a thing even exist.

When it comes to theology--and the word theology simply means "words about God"--there is no way for one human organization to have a complete handle on that kind of truth, any more than one school of medicine has absolutely the last answer to any given disease.  We live in a fantastically complex world.  We are surrounded by mysteries in the tiniest particles and in the utter vastness of space, galaxies, universes.

To come together to worship God offers time to explore that vastness and those mysteries. We bathe ourselves in contemplation of such greatness.  Worship also lets us recognize just how little we really know and how small we are.  Many say they acknowledge the hugeness of this universe.  But most of us really think the universe is our own life, our wants and needs, our hungers, thirsts, appetites, desires.  So, often without thinking, we seek a theology that lets us stay the center of the universe.  Since everyone inhabits a different universe because of different life experiences, personality types, family and genetic influences, cultures, races, sexuality and gender, our theologies also differ.

I used to think that I could get a handle on some absolute objective truth out there.  I would be the one to really, truly understand God and what God wants for you and for me.  While I still think there is absolute truth, holiness, love, mercy and justice--because I think this is the nature of God--I have learned that all of my efforts to fully understand it and wrap my mind around it will inevitably be both limited and prejudicial.  

That does not make my seeking after God futile; it does help keep me humble in the midst of that search.  

So, to expect that all church gatherings would teach the same thing is to also say, "I can fully control God."  It's called "God in a box" and we stay the center of the universe. The differences make the exploration of the Holy One far more fascinating and adventurous.  I say this with much confidence: no one, and no religious institution has a perfect handle on the nature and purposes of God.  Any group that says, "us, and us only," has placed God in a very tight, humanly constructed box and has thus become God.  

Why not celebrate the different theologies?  Why not recognize that such differences give us hope?  Why not see how to develop spiritually with different modes of worship?  Look at the world--only a mind of infinite creativity could bring this into existence.  Different churches, different theologies--could it be that they reflect the Mind of the Maker?  Could it be that this is not such a bad thing?  I personally do not embrace all theologies.  But they can all teach me something. Perhaps the same would be true for you.

Excuse Number Thirteen

The excuses continue. Why do people neglect caring for their own soul by avoiding regular gatherings, which I call church? Here is excuse number thirteen of the fifteen I've heard over the years: "The church has done terrible things to people."

To this I say, "Yes, it has." I myself have been a vocal critic of the harm done by many religious groups. It saddens me to think about it and I see no sense in whitewashing this. In the name of religion, people have been tortured and murdered, children abused, governments toppled, buildings burned, nations ruined, people systematically robbed, scientific advancement hampered, while people with honest questions and private doubts have been ridiculed and excluded. It breaks my heart.

If this were all the church has done, then it should be wiped from existence immediately. If this were the only accomplishments of the church, the church has proved itself unholy, destructive and evil beyond redemptive hope.

Unfortunately, we humans seem to be hard wired to remember the negative, and to ignore the positive. This is why news stories only tell us about the horrific and sad news of the day. Newscasters don't mention the millions of people who weren't in a fiery crash or murdered by an angry ex-spouse.

The same psychological reasoning deploys with the horrors committed in the name of religion. There is little news value in mentioning the millions of people who routinely, and with an amazing amount of joy, give themselves away in the name of God to feed the hungry, heal the sick, and clothe the naked. We have silenced the Good News and refuse stories of people who choose to live by the fruits of the spirit, giving of themselves in every way imaginable.

The scandals make the news--and rightly in my opinion. Evil needs to be exposed. But for every unscrupulous person in the pulpit, for every church bureaucrat who covers up evil for the sake of career advancement, for every religious thief who keeps sticky hands in the pockets of trusting people, there are millions who have heard the words of redemptive love and have set out to live faithfully, seeking peace, justice and holiness.

When we use this excuse, "The church has done terrible things to people" to separate ourselves from a worshiping community, we help perpetuate the evil. When righteous people will not gather together to form strong bonds of worship and service, then . . . evil remains unchecked.

Look at it this way: in nearly every case of religious abuse, it stems from unchecked and unaccountable power. The charismatic cult leader who draws others and then strips them of independent thinking in the name of some "higher power" is actually gaining power for him or her self. Every abuse situation involves a powerful person violating some vulnerable person, and then demanding secrecy or else destruction will rain on them or their loves ones.

Clearly, we must use discernment when entering into a worshiping community. Here are important questions: How much secrecy does the religious organization demand of its adherents? Is there a tight and often undisclosed path to the seats of power where only a few hold ultimate decision-making rights? Can the "rank and file" question decisions without fear of retribution? What kind of protection is offered the most vulnerable, particularly children and those with special needs? What accountability structures have been deployed? How open are records, particularly financial records? Keep in mind that in any organization or family, the greater the secrets, the more unhealthy and cult-like the environment. That kind of atmosphere sets the stage for abuse and evil to flourish.

The church has done insurmountable good. The world would be infinitely poorer, meaner, and unhealthier without it. But any organization with an unchecked power center will ultimately self destruct. Find an open worshiping community and offer yourself--there is joy unbounded to be experienced there.

The medium is the message

Marshall McLuhan understood something that many ignore:  the way we present ideas has more of an impact than the ideas themselves.  I suggest that the North Texas Conference Strategic Planning Team has indeed ignored this, and unfortunately, it is hurting their cause.

The Wikipedia summary of McLuhan's idea:  "The medium is the message is a phrase coined by Marshall McLuhan meaning that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived. The phrase was introduced in his most widely known book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, published in 1964. McLuhan proposes that a medium itself, not the content it carries, should be the focus of study. He said that a medium affects the society in which it plays a role not only by the content delivered over the medium, but also by the characteristics of the medium itself."  

Twice now, Dr. John Fielder has sent emails to the clergy asked us to read important articles giving further explanation to the entire restructuring plan.  The emails contain links to archived copies of the North Texas Reporter.  I just now clicked on the link and timed how long it took me on a wireless DSL connection to open the file:  15 seconds.  That is approximately 14.5 seconds too long for the average person today to wait for a link to load.

Then, once I actually reached the archived newspaper, I had to scroll down halfway down the first page and hope to find the correct article, since a direct hyperlink was not possible, and then scroll several pages further down to find the rest of it. No hyperlink there either.  Because this is a photographic image of the NT Reporter, there is no way to mark and copy portions of the text in order to paste them in another document and make some reasoned responses to them.  Portions of it would have to be retyped into a response document--a huge time waster with the risk of a misquote.  Also, because of the nature of the photo-embedding in a PDF file, there is no way even to make comment about the thoughts and create a hyperlink to a specific point in the articles.  All this greatly limits the possibility of interactive discussion, something the Internet is remarkably good at.

In other words, after re-reading the article (I did read the print version when it came out), it still remains very inaccessible to me for comment and reflection and inaccessible to others in a way that would stimulate more dialogue.

Now, I believe the intent is good, but the medium chosen indicates almost no understanding of how current information flows in what is called "the cloud," that fascinating place of bits and bytes that forms how the younger generation--and much of my admittedly older generation, perceives the world.

Assuming McLuhan is right, and I do believe he is, the very medium being used by the Strategic Planning Committee to communicate a matter of vast importance has obscured the reception of that message almost to indecipherability.

Take what I am writing right now.  This is written in googledocs--none of this is stored on a computer I physically own.  In a few moments, I will publish this as a webpage, where it will immediately be sent to the blog called "A Pastor's Thoughts"  where I offer reflections on church life and also publish the articles that also go into other print media (The Denton Record Chronicle and The Krum Star).  Within 30 minutes after posting this on my blog, a service called "twitterfeed" will pick up on the fact that a new posting as arrived, will send a shorted URL to my Twitter account which, within about 2 seconds, pushes it to my facebook account.  There it is available for reading and comment.  Now, of the hyperlinks I just made in this paragraph, only one goes to the same kind of file the Strategic Team wants me to read.  That is the one to the Krum Star, a lovely, and very tiny, publishing company that publishes small town local papers, full of important information for those localities, but with no influence outside those physical boundaries. I don't think that is the kind of image desired, but that is the kind of image that is sent with this type of communication:  this is hometown news only and we are a lifetime from the cutting edge. The Medium Is the Message.

Much hard work has gone into this year of listening, meeting, planning, and restructuring.  I believe the intent is beyond reproach.  I also believe the medium being used to communicate this plan says, "Out of touch, unaware of the world in which we operate, old school, and how can they possibly be talking about new places for new people?"  

And that is a problem.

I have sent this message to the North Texas Conference Strategic Planning Team.  I don't think it is correct to offer public critique like this without giving them a chance to see it.  I just sense a lot of unrest of the part of clergy and laity about the restructuring plan and wonder if this is part of the problem.  

All comments are very much welcomed.

Mom, Nothing Else Matters

I just got off the phone with my oldest son.  He was phoning from Abu Dhabi, where it was 1:45 a.m. at the time of call. He was preparing to board a flight to London, where upon landing, he will immediately switch terminals, find his wife and two young children and the four of them take off for Bogota, Colombia. By the time they land, Jonathan will have been traveling for about 35 straight hours.

His wife, the lovely and long-suffering Adriana, (because of my son's peripatetic work life, they have lived in six different countries in their seven years of marriage), is ill.  London physicians have recommended immediate surgery, but are vague about the situation.  Adriana wanted to go home to Bogota, where her brother is a well-respected physician, and be treated by people he knew, and in a language and culture where she is far more comfortable.

And Jonathan said, "Nothing else matters."  He quickly coordinated travel plans for the four of them, spending huge sums of money on last minute ticket purchases.  Her brother went to work and lined up a series of specialists that she will see almost immediately upon their arrival in South America.

I asked about his job situation, as I knew he was in the middle of leading a large team on a complicated project there in Abu Dhabi.  His response, "Mom, nothing else matters."  He has simply told people what was happening, and received the same response from them:  "Nothing else matters. Take off."

Jonathan also mentioned that, completely out of the blue, two very, very nice job offers came his way a few days ago and within 45 minutes of each other.  We talked briefly about them, and then he said again, "Right now, nothing else matters."

No matter how complicated our lives are, no matter what lucrative employment opportunities arise, no matter what our colleagues need from us, when someone we love faces a life crisis, nothing else matters.

His voice caught as the tears threatened to flow.  I promised prayers, and offered all love and support.  There is little of a practical nature I can do for them.  Her parents will take good care of her and the children.  I'm useless in Bogota because of my limited Spanish, and the children are better off there than here because of the large extended family is there to offer care, fun, comfort and the more familiar Castilian language.  Plus, my next-in-line daughter-in-law in New York City has just learned she's going to have a C-section on June 9, and I'm the backup plan to help with their three-year-old should there be an early labor and emergency surgery becomes necessary.

Really, nothing else matters at this point.

Now, God does matter . . . and in the providence of God, we have been given the joy of family and close friends to love, to honor and to drop everything for when the crisis hits.  Because, in the long run, the relationship with the ones with whom we live and love in holy covenant really are the only things that matter.  We know this intuitively, and we also know from Christian theology.  God offers salvation to us, God's bride, because . . . nothing else matters. Really.  God held nothing back in the offer of grace.  All was given to us freely.  Because in the long run, nothing else matters.

I ask your prayers for my family.

Reason Number Fourteen

Today I offer reason number fourteen of fifteen about why people choose not to attend a place of worship.  I define a place of worship this way: a gathering of unrelated people where, for at least a couple of hours a week, they intentionally attend to the transformational development of their spiritual life.

Excuse Number Fourteen:  "The church didn't help when I needed it." 

I receive somewhere between three to six calls a week from people I do not know who (choose one): want the church to pay their utility bills; pay for a hotel room; pay for car repairs; and/or want me personally to listen at length to their life story and then give them some money.  If I'm not here when a call comes in, I'll often hear a message, "Call me back IMMEDIATELY."  If I can't give what they need, the caller often hangs up on me. 

One women, phoning the parsonage very late one night, wanted me to go to Western Union and wire her some money, right then.  Recently, I was in a complicated meeting when some stranger walked into the church building, told me he was a United Methodist Pastor from a southern area of the state, and needed help immediately.  I told him I would fill up his car with gas, left the meeting, followed him to the filling station, and inserted my debit card at the pump. I then watched as he pumped a whole 1.8 gallons of gas into his tank before it clicked off.  

Many of these seeking help seem to be reading from a standardized script, for I've heard the same story from multiple people.  "I was just driving through and the (some necessary part) fell out of my car and I have to get to (some distant city) today because I have a job opportunity there."  Or, "I have a very sick child and I'm going to get kicked out of my hotel tonight if you don't come over here right now and give me some money." 

There are others who have tenuous ties to the local church community who expect the church to read their minds, figure out that they need something, and make sure that they get it, and are really upset when it does happen, so decide not to attend any more.

I know that people hit hard times, and others just need a comforting ear.  I help when I can--its part of my responsibility to help our neighbors.  However, I do get frustrated with those who think the purpose of the church is to make their lives easier, to fill their empty pocketbooks while they have no reciprocal obligation to the holy community.  It has long been my experience, both in my own life and in the observance of others, that those who are most generous with time, service and money demand the least. The opposite is very much true:  those who give the least have an uncanny ability to suck others dry.

Let me be clear:  the purpose of the church is NOT to make lives easier or make people rich, no matter what the health, wealth and prosperity preachers say.  The church is called together to become the living embodiment of Christ.  We are to teach, baptize, make disciples, rear our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and practice holy living with one another so we may be equipped to serve the world, move more deeply into our salvation experience, feed the hungry, visit the prisoners, clothe the naked and go to the cross of forgiveness and reconciliation for others.

The church is not here to meet your needs.  That idea comes from a consumerist society, and puts all focus on self, not on a Holy God whose presence calls us to transformational living.  The church is here to remind each of us that we have the Image of God stamped upon our souls, and that we have been given the gift and responsibility to cooperate with God in the healing of the world.  It's a call to sacrifice, not selfishness.

More Ponderings on Itinerancy and Appointability

One of the reasons I chose United Methodism as my place of service is the connectional system. I think such a system ultimately reflects more health and has more opportunity to be fully transformational than stand-alone isolated churches.  Just as I don't think there can be a spiritually healthy Christian who refuses to interact with other Christians, no matter how challenging that can be, I also don't think that churches can be spiritually healthy when they choose to disconnect from other Christian bodies and act fully independently.  I've been a part of the independent Bible church movement, and I know how easy it is for such a place to become cult-like and scarily ingrown.

There are those who have great power in this organization by virtue of position, salary, status and influence.  This has the potential for great good, for good leadership must exercise holy power to actually lead and make important decisions. But power, as most of us know, is also addicting, and, once achieved, very difficult to give up.  And that is where I wonder if giving even more power to Bishops not only to make and fix appointments, but to able to deny someone an appointment for this undefinable "ineffectiveness" reason has crossed the danger line. 

Ideally, an itinerant clergy offers so much to so many.  At its best, congregations are given the right pastoral leadership for their particular time and place of ministry.  Messages are fresh, and the laity know that the church is ultimately theirs to love, nurture and grow, and not a personality cult of a particular clergy person.

At its worst, it is punitive, both for clergy and congregations, and extraordinarily unequal in its manifestations.  Instead of a means of graceful service where needed, it becomes a career path, with reward appointments going to those who know the right people and can play the game well, but who are not necessarily the right person for that particular church or administrative ministry setting.

One question I've often pondered: what would happen if some of the clergy who have the proven gifts and graces to facilitate great growth in churches, or have served with exceptional  competence in high-level administrative positions, were to be appointed to small, struggling, entry-level pay and substandard-parsonage churches? Would they find it part of their connectional responsibility and receive the word of their moves with joy? 

I firmly believe that most clergy with the high-status and high-pay appointments work very, very hard to serve the greater good of the Conference and for the kingdom of heaven.  They are not sitting back in isolated luxury, ignoring their responsibility to the connection.  But they are also not going to be left out of the next round of appointments while the far more vulnerable ones, those who do serve the struggling churches, could easily get axed because they can't show visible results. 

I am just very, very concerned.  It's too much power in the hands of too few. And it is increasing the distrust level that already exists among the clergy.  We are not modeling the gospel message here.

Guaranteed Appointments and Universit...

I see multiple parallels between the university faculty tenure package and the system of guaranteed appointments for itinerant clergy in The United Methodist Church.  In both cases, the path to that place of security is long and tortuous.  The supplicant must leap over tall buildings and navigate treacherous obstacle paths. He or she is subjected to multiple and often painful evaluations by groups of peers.  At some point, certain scholars are deemed ready to be awarded tenure, and certain clergy become Ordained Elders in Full Connection with the Annual Conference.  Unsuccessful candidates drop by the wayside, eventually, we hope, landing in fields that seem better suited to their gifts and talents.

The purpose of both procedures is to ensure freedom after such status has been achieved.  Scholars enjoy the freedom to do academic research, even if it means reaching unpopular conclusions.  Clergy embrace the freedom to minister and preach with prophetic voices, even if it means they are not especially popular with certain church members.  

Yes, we've all suffered under faculty who became lazy after tenure.  But they are few.  Most embrace their scholarly work with passion and love for their field, pushing boundaries, engaging their students, providing the best of the life of the mind.

Yes, we've also all suffered under clergy who became "ineffective" after ordination.  But they also are few.  Most have hearts that seek to beat in rhythm and harmony with the heartbeat of God.  This means calling out sin, courageously following Jesus to the cross, caring for the least of all creation.

Tenure is disappearing on many campuses now.  This is primarily an economic decision.  It is expensive to keep tenured faculty.  Guaranteed Appointment is getting ready to disappear.  It is expensive to maintain a group of clergy in full connection.

Sad as it is, I can understand money becoming God on university campuses. But money becoming God in a church situation?  How grievous.  There are other ways to deal with those clergy deemed "ineffective."  And I'm still waiting on a definition of ineffectiveness.

Effectiveness and Appointments

The buzz is everywhere for United Methodist Clergy:  a commission has declared that the day of the guaranteed appointment is done. Here's the report.

There's quite a bit of discussion about this on Facebook and I'm sure lots of other convesations as well.

The question:  what is an "effective" clergyperson?  How does someone decide who is and who isn't "effective?"  On first glance, this should be all that hard.  Surely an effective clergy person is one who leads his/her church into greater growth and ministry.  That would mean it all comes down to numbers:  the church that is getting larger, growing its budget and, most especially, paying all its apportionments on time, must, by definition, have an effective pastor.

The problem?  We as United Methodist Clergy, also agree upon ordination to be itinerant. In other words, we are supposed to serve where ever the Bishop and Cabinet decide is the best place to serve.  And some of these places of service have long histories of toxicity and/or decline, often for unforeseen demographic reasons.  It is possible to engage in transformational work at such places, but it is a years and years long process.  Short term measures like "how many people joined your church this year; is this  year's confirmation class larger than last years; how many small groups for children/youth/adults do you have?" will not honor the difficulties encountered by even the most dedicated, hard-working, intellectual, spiritual, organized, and gifted pastor. 

 Put the cream of the crop in a toxic church, or one where the numbers have been declining for years.  If the pastor survives at all, it may be 10 or 20 years before real change takes place.  Churches like that generally must decline before they can grow again.   Because of the nature of the itinerancy, toxic and declining churches tend to flip pastors quickly, removing all possibility of real, sustained movement toward health and vibrancy again.  

This is a very, very messy situation. 

Effectiveness and Appointments

The buzz is everywhere for United Methodist Clergy:  a commission has declared that the day of the guaranteed appointment is done. Here's the report.

There's quite a bit of discussion about this on Facebook and I'm sure lots of other convesations as well.

The question:  what is an "effective" clergyperson?  How does someone decide who is and who isn't "effective?"  On first glance, this should be all that hard.  Surely an effective clergy person is one who leads his/her church into greater growth and ministry.  That would mean it all comes down to numbers:  the church that is getting larger, growing its budget and, most especially, paying all its apportionments on time, must, by definition, have an effective pastor.

The problem?  We as United Methodist Clergy, also agree upon ordination to be itinerant. In other words, we are supposed to serve where ever the Bishop and Cabinet decide is the best place to serve.  And some of these places of service have long histories of toxicity and/or decline, often for unforeseen demographic reasons.  It is possible to engage in transformational work at such places, but it is a years and years long process.  Short term measures like "how many people joined your church this year; is this  year's confirmation class larger than last years; how many small groups for children/youth/adults do you have?" will not honor the difficulties encountered by even the most dedicated, hard-working, intellectual, spiritual, organized, and gifted pastor. 

 Put the cream of the crop in a toxic church, or one where the numbers have been declining for years.  If the pastor survives at all, it may be 10 or 20 years before real change takes place.  Churches like that generally must decline before they can grow again.   Because of the nature of the itinerancy, toxic and declining churches tend to flip pastors quickly, removing all possibility of real, sustained movement toward health and vibrancy again.  

This is a very, very messy situation. 

Gardening And Churching

This morning, Joe Emerson and I had an opportunity to tour the community garden at Denton Bible Church.  We started our own last spring when we moved into our new facility, and have big plans for the future for this.  The opportunity to see what someone else has done is priceless, and the organizer of it, local businessman, Gene Gumfroy, generously shared with us his experience, what he has learned, and offered some help as we get ours going.

I learned yet once more, as I have had to do many times, that nothing "just happens."  Certainly, there were some significant answers to prayer, particularly for them the donation of the land needed for the garden.  But good gardens only happen with a lot of work.

So do good churches.  Churches where people actively live out the "one another's" of the Christian faith--giving, serving, honoring one another, forgiving, bearing with, encouraging, admonishing, inviting, going to the cross, reproducing healthy, vibrant offspring . . . those kinds of places only come from hard, hard work, all carefully supported on the foundation of prayer and willingness to live by the mandate, "God's will be done."

I've spent many hours this spring as well in my own garden.  I look at the mistakes I've made there, the plants in the wrong places, some of which I'm going to have to dig up, the inadequately prepared ground in some areas, the seeds scattered that never came up, and the ones that came up nicely, but were quickly eaten by whatever interesting little critters inhabit the soil.  I also look at plants that are healthy, lovely, some already flowering, others starting to reproduce good things that nourish the body.

Yes, just like the church--the garden is an art form.  I can listen to the experts, learn from them, but I still have to create my own space, with the soil here, with my specific weather patterns.  

After we had toured the gardens and I ran an errand or two, I was heading home listening to This American Life on NPR.  Ira Glass had done a fascinating story on why it was that 10,000 NGO's in Haiti have been unable to do anything to raise the standard of living there.  Enormous obstacles arise over simple things that would help enormously.  The story is worth listening to and can be found here:  http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/408/island-time.  It's Act One, 10,000 Brainiacs.  

In so many ways, this reminds me of the work of the church:  the obstacles to getting even one simple thing done can be huge.  Yet, we can do it.  We can stand firm against evil; we can work together even when we disagree on so much; we can say "yes" to God with the offer of salvation, both now and for eternity.  We can.  But we will never do so without huge challenges.  That's the nature of both churching and gardening and anything good that we set out to do.  It is only evil that comes easily, that "just happens."  

Reason Number 15

Do I think everyone should worship God regularly, i.e., at least weekly, with a group of unrelated people who come together for this express purpose?  Of course I do, just like my dental hygienist thinks everyone should floss every day and the local nutritionist thinks that everyone should eat healthy, not junk, food and the teacher of Russian literature thinks that everyone should read War and Peace, and the exercise guru thinks everyone should be walking 10,000 steps a day.  Each of these experts has good reasons for these mandates and also knows that many won't do these things, as helpful and important as they are.

But the mandate that seems to bring both the most guilt and the most creative reasons for NOT fulfilling it is the one about worshiping regularly, commonly spoken of as "going to church."

One morning recently, I found myself thinking of all the reasons I've heard, and used myself, over the years for not engaging in that important life discipline.  I decided to list them.  Within moments, I had written sixteen reasons for lack of church attendance.  Only one of them seemed reasonable, honest and legitimate.  The rest  . . . well, I've decided I'm going to write about them for the next 15 weeks.  While each excuse is different, there is this one commonality:  they all blame someone else for not being there.  It's never, ever our own fault.

So here we go.  Excuse Number 15:  "The church is full of snobs who are judging me."

First, let's look at the truth of this statement.  People do judge others and often for good reasons.  We observe and make snap decisions about those we see, and often name those people "unacceptable" or "unsafe" by means of those decisions.  This is human nature:  we leap these decisions because the need to do so is built into us for the sake of survival.  When meeting a stranger, our evolutionary response is, "Is this person friend or foe?"  So, let's not be too judgmental about the need to judge others.  It is a survival mechanism.  People without the capacity to be discerning about others live in real peril.  Not everyone is good. Not everyone can be trusted.  We need to be able to tell the difference, and there is not always time to thoroughly check out the other before making a decision about the next step.

However, many have heard the command from Jesus, "Judge not, lest you be judged."  Jesus speaks here of the kind of judgment that makes decisions only God gets to make.  This type of judgment condemns people to eternal separation from all that is good and holy--and no human being rightly holds that power.  Such judgment is in God's hands, and God's hands only.  

So, to get back to the excuse of the week:  what is really happening when someone says, "Church people are judging me," is that the speaker himself or herself is busy judging others, finding them unacceptable, and assumes that others are doing that in return.  In psychological language, this is called "projection."  We project upon others our own internal life and thoughts and assume such thoughts are also theirs. 

The more important question: "Why am I so sure that they are snobs and are judging me?  Could it be that I myself am a snob and am judging them?"  Remember, when making the assumption that they are guilty of such spiritual snobbery and ungraciousness, we have very much judged them and found them unacceptable.  So we have done to them the very thing you say we hate:  we ourselves are guilty of spiritual snobbery and ungraciousness, and then we wrap ourselves in a comfortable blanket of self-deception.

Excuse number 15 holds no water.  Attend worship.  Confess your sins.  Put down your judgments upon others and be incredibly surprised at how warmly you are welcomed. 

Less is More

I was on my hands and knees under some playground equipment looking with some amusement at the neatly arranged line of small rocks set up underneath it. We were getting ready to put a heavy layer of high quality mulch onto the church play yard and I wanted to make sure everything was ready. Because of a drainage problem, we'd been delayed doing this, but once the french drain was dug and working properly, the time had come.

What touched me about the neat row of rocks is that I knew those rocks had come from the newly laid french drain. Some children had picked them up, carried them to the equipment, and probably made up a story about them as they placed them in that row. A simple act of creatively flowing imagination, using the materials at hand.

There was no guided play there, no one telling them what to do or what the rules are or putting them in organized "rock lining up" leagues. No scheduled practices, no uniforms, no fees, no parents trying to figure out how to manage three practices and two games a week for several children and youth. No carefully selected, age-appropriate non-toxic toys, no impenetrable packaging to penetrate (as an aside here: I am convinced that the person who invented that clear heavy plastic packaging that takes sharp knives to open and which then leaves nasty edges to tear at exposed skin will at some point suffer torments in the seventh circle of hell), no assembly required, no trash cans to fill.

Less is so often more.

When my children were little and we took them on long car trips, I learned in time that the less I provided for them to do while confined in the automobile, the more creative they were with that time and their minds, and the more relaxed they were. When I felt that I had to make sure they were entertained every moment, the quarrels began, and the level of discontent rose exponentially.

Less was very much more.

Come with me on this analogy to the nature of church life itself. The "church" is at its best a group of people who gather to worship and praise God together--something done poorly, if at all, in isolation--make friends, teach their children the nature of real goodness and the reality of a holy God, and live out their salvation as they care for one another and joyfully invite others into a life of forgiven grace. The "less" in this scenario is the good news: "Christ died for us while we were still sinners. That proves God's love for us. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven." A simple sentence that opens to everyone willing to receive it the fullness of God-with-us life, both here and hereafter.

We've complicated it, added our rules and leagues, almost organized it out of existence, needed to tame it so that no one is really challenged by it, and packaged it in such a way that hardly anyone can actually get in. In many denominations, mine very much included, it takes so many years to ordination, years full of confusing, multiple and often contradictory requirements, that the only ones who make it are the somewhat obsessive-compulsive folk who just can't say "no" to the impossible challenge. With some churches, it becomes necessary to pass a litany of doctrinal hurdles in order to make sure only those in perfect agreement get a seat in the house. Meetings are conducted by Roberts Rules of Order and its multiple layers of motions, sub-motions, amendments to motions, and amendments to the amendments, as though such rules display the nature of God, rather than rich relationship that encourages us to honor one another.

The more layers we add, the less it is the church.

Personally, I'd like to halt this madness. I'd like to see creativity flow again with our children, and our relationship with God and one another become the rule of the church. Anyone with me on this one?

Less really is more.

Tough to be a Teen

Childhood has never been easy and parents always face complex tasks.  For most of history, it was important for families to produce as many children as possible in order to have an adequate labor pool.  Early years were rarely some sort of innocent time of play and joy, but were preparation to begin to work along adults as soon as possible. Children brought in the crops, cared for the animals, worked in sweatshops or did whatever else deemed necessary for survival of the family unit.

Even with a less agrarian world and lowered need for large families, childhood today looks like a minefield for many. Young girls in impoverished families are often married off early or sold into sex slavery.  Young men are forcibly conscripted into military service or find themselves with no options for employment and thus are consigned to lives on the margins of economic survival. In countries where a large percentage of adults have been afflicted with HIV, children are rearing their own younger brothers and sisters, and in conditions horrific to the pampered American eye.

That very pampering has led to a growing danger for our own more sophisticated and comfortable teens: an electronic world and record where there is no such thing as forgotten history, and where reputations can be shattered in an instant and never rebuilt.  Today's teens engage a world where one typical "pushing the boundaries" mistake can haunt them forever. The digital world never, ever forgets or forgives.  

The youth of my generation secretly read "adult-content" magazines by flashlights under the covers. The youth of this generation snap compromising photos of themselves or others and merrily send them to friends or post them on social networking sites.  What could be a fairly innocent exploration of their emerging sexuality--and if you think they don't explore it, you are living in a different world than I--can now blow up into a life-long albatross.  

One possible scenario:  an underage teen snaps a photo of his or her partially undressed body in a way that exposes private parts, sends it to a boyfriend or girlfriend (current terminology: "sexting") who is then, like it or not, in possession of child pornography.  That youth then sends it on to other friends, so he or she is not just in possession of it, but has become a distributor of it.  An adult:  parent, teacher, or pastor perhaps, receives it, and that person now also potentially faces being charged with possession of child pornography.  All in this scenario can be prosecuted and judged guilty of a felony offense. Should that happen, they have to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives, along facing with the possibility of prison time and all the other serious and endless ramifications of felony convictions.  AND, such photos exist in cyberspace forever. They may unexpectedly appear at inopportune times such as the journey to higher education, employment applications, housing decisions or anything else that might necessitate some sort of electronic search of a person's life and background.

Parents, engage in the sacred task of child-rearing with seriousness here. When you provide a cell phone for your offspring, you own that phone.  Contact your phone service provider immediately and arrange to monitor their text (and sext) messages.  You owe your children that protection.  When you make computers available to them, you own those computers.  Do not permit them to use them where they can work unmonitored by you.  Know their passwords to their email accounts and social networking sites and check those sites frequently.  Youth deserve that protection, however much they might argue with you about it.  Remember: teen brains are still developing. Impulse control almost doesn't exist and won't develop well for some years yet.  Be courageous.  Step up here.  This is serious.

The Punitive Nature of God

The Punitive Nature of God

According to this article, found in the British Newspaper, The Telegraph.co.uk, extramarital sex causes earthquakes in Iran. I'm not kidding. Here's the quote:

Attractive women who snub traditional Islamic clothing to instead wear fashionable clothes and apply heavy make-up, caused youths in the country to “go astray” and have affairs, Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi said.

The hard-line cleric said as a result the country, bounded by several fault lines, experienced more “calamities” such as earthquakes, the reformist Aftab-e Yazd newspaper reported him saying.

Wow--that will keep them submissive to religious law, won't it?  Have extramarital sex, and be guilty for causing massive death and destruction to wholly innocent others.  

On the surface, this sounds pretty ridiculous to most people I know.  Yet, as extreme as this sounds, I hear such thinking about God and God's punitive nature all the time.  Something happens that is bad or unwanted, and many will immediate jump to, "God is punishing me . . . (or you or someone else) because of my actions." 

Is that what God is about?  Does God work with nature and events to hurt and destroy so that fear of punishment will encourage certain behavioral standards?  Does God manipulate clouds, storms, tectonic plates, volcanoes, other people, automobiles, airplane electronics, world politics, etc., in order to keep people from crossing some moral line?  Did riotous living in New Orleans bring about Hurricane Katrina?  Are the sexually promiscuous responsible for the downing of the World Trade Towers on September 11, 2001? Did the recent earthquakes and Haiti and Chile occur because some unmarried people couldn't restrain their urges? 

Don't get me wrong--I do think sexual intimacy outside the covenant of marriage is problematic and unhealthy.  Human beings are created for the kind of relational activity where physical intimacy is an expression of trust and vulnerability already built emotionally, physically, socially and spiritually.   That kind of trust and openness doesn't happen outside covenant and commitment.  Without that kind of connection, sexual encounters offer momentary pleasure at the cost of long-term hurt.  Nonetheless, are thoughtless sexual encounters adequately evil so as to cause the kinds of death and destruction that earthquakes in urban areas bring? I don't think so.

There is something more going on here and I contend it is the need control the behavior of others in order to keep ourselves in a bubble of unquestioned comfort and power.  If, by the use of fear and threats, we can force others to do what we want them to do, then we do not have to face our own demons and our own ability to be destructive.  The vicissitudes of life lay squarely at the feet of someone else--be they seductive women, punitive and nasty deities, or poor, helpless men who can't control their sexual urges.  

Again, I ask, "Is this what God is about?"  I've recently been re-reading the Gospel of Mark, an exciting narrative about Jesus' many encounters with the ailing, oppressed population in ancient Israel.  There is no indication he came to enforce perfect morality.  Instead, there is much emphasis on a holy healing, a freedom from oppression, and an extravagant love that invites everyone to take part.  Everyone--not just the morally or doctrinally elite.  Everyone--the broken, the sick, the troubled, the outcast.  Everyone--including you and me.  I'm saying "yes" to this healing  I hope you will as well.

Well, I am slowly easing my way back into work again.  It was a needed time off.  I'm also grateful I made the decision NOT to go to London, as much as I missed seeing the family over there, as the chances are I would not be returning for quite some time!  Instead, I experienced a time of much solitude and silence, rhythmic work and rest, and much restoration.

Here's a video link that was sent to me recently that is worth watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY

After you watch that one, please consider watching this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVzAxKsjTug

They are both thought provoking pieces.  After viewing them I encourage you to consider how to continue to offer the wonderful timelessness of the Gospel message to a world where nothing stays the same minute to minute and yet we are still creatures who need to be able to hear God's voice.  Please make comments--I'd love to hear from you.

Grounded

Grounded 

Grounded--that's been the word for many European passengers who had booked airline flights in the last week. As of right now, some of the flight restrictions have been lifted, but no one really knows what will happen in the next hour--or days. The last time this particular volcano in Iceland erupted, it kept spewing ash for eight months. Nature trumps all human plans.

Shortly after all the flights were grounded last week, my oldest son, who lives in London, phoned. As it turns out, he had been on the last flight into Heathrow that was permitted to land before that airport was completely shut down. He'd been working in the Middle East, and the rest of his team was stuck there--and stayed stuck there.

Although he lives quite a distance from Heathrow, his neighborhood is in the normal flight pattern for many landings and take-off's there. On Saturday, he called to tell me about a big picnic his family was having in their backyard and how nice it was not to have any planes flying overhead. He didn't realize until their disappearance what a constant background noise they made, even though the planes were still high above them. 

We also talked about the systemic effects of a prolonged European flight grounding. He predicted that soon less than seasonal fruits and vegetables would soon be in short supply for them--and probably over-supplied in the US since they have to go somewhere. Airlines and airports, of course, are being badly hurt financially over this, but trains are packed, hotels spilling over and anyone who owns a boat or ferry or taxi is cleaning up. He heard of one colleague who spent over $3,000 on a taxi to get from Paris to some place in Spain. And this is apparently not uncommon.

Big systemic effect--that's the situation. One thing affects another thing which affects many other things and everything ends up being changed. 

I think of those who are temporarily grounded right now, with their plans disrupted, and normal rhythms way out of sync. Will they be able to use this time to see things that have been invisible to them before? Just as my son suddenly discovered how nice it was not to have the background noise of the overhead flights for a while, will others find out that some of their patterns also might be bringing "background noise" that they'd might enjoy dispensing with for a while, or even longer? Will this forced stop give space to think more deeply about their lives, their choices, their relationship to things much larger than they are?

Many live as though their plans are all that matter. An event like this helps to re-evaluate such a mindset. We humans, who often think we have such power, really are pretty puny in the face of the natural world. Recognizing our puniness, in other words, some healthy humility, can serve as a big step to also recognizing the powerful love of God who was and is willing to accompany our puny little selves into every situation. A baby step, perhaps, but a way to see a temporary grounding as a huge blessing. 

We really are not in control of things. Our hope lies in a God who does hold all creation together, and One who can both laugh at our hubris when we chose to ignore or disparage the thought of such a God, and who also continually says, "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."  That is the place to be, whether flying or grounded.  

 

Shouting from the Rooftops

I often wonder why on Easter morning the world can't find peace. Of course, there are different calendars for dating Easter, so different traditions celebrate it on different days, but I don't think it would be all that bad to have more than one day of real peace. But we don't and we won't because war is easier and habitual and it gives us an excuse to hide and cheat and deceive--both others and ourselves.

As this particular Easter approaches, my thoughts go to the growing revelations in the Roman Catholic Church over the issue of pedophile and abusive priests. I don't suppose such revelations will be the end to the institution that claims to be the final repository of divine truth, but I admit to deep anguish that even one of those sworn to the life of sacrament willfully destroys children and youth, or willfully ignores that destruction, all in the name of being the instrument of God.

I remember when studying church history how dismayed I was when I saw that the efforts of the Reformers in the 16th century ended up shattering into splinters the then somewhat unified voice of Christianity coming from the Roman Catholic Church. Since that time, the rabbits of church multiplication have bequeathed multiple Christian groups, all sure they have the handle on the truth and often barely able speak to one another across doctrinal lines.

And yet, there must be reformers anytime an institution purports to speak for God but does so only in the voice of the privileged few who self-select who gets to come in and who must stay out. And especially when some of those privileged few whisper in the darkness, "What just happened is our secret. You must never talk about it."

It takes nearly superhuman courage to break those bonds of dark secrets, especially when sexual boundaries of children and youth have been crossed by those who were publicly affirmed as trustworthy. The experience of shame and the risk of public censure coming against the victimized combine into such a barrier that by far the easiest path is to remain silent, to keep the secret, and honor the promise never to speak of it. The voice of the dissenter must nearly always be silenced when that voice insists that those things which are hidden must come to light in order for the true Gospel is to appear and actually do its work of redeeming us.

In truth, the current scandal in the Roman Catholic church only reflects the private scandals in which most of us live: we seek to keep much hidden, hoping by so doing, that things will eventually either disappear or right themselves somehow. But they don't.

Jesus taught that those dark secrets will all eventually come to the light. The beginning of the Gospel of Luke, chapter 12, reads: "During that time a crowd of many thousands had gathered. There were so many people that they were stepping on one another. Jesus spoke first to his disciples. 'Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees,' he said. 'They just pretend to be godly. Everything that is secret will be brought out into the open. Everything that is hidden will be uncovered. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight. What you have whispered to someone behind closed doors will be shouted from the rooftops.' "

Yes, be on your guard. Be on your guard that you are not deceived by a religious or social structure that says, "This is a secret between you and me," or says, "Only the initiated get to know this." It is a setup for abuse, it is the way of death and destruction, it is a denial of the resurrection that says, "Be free to worship in spirit and in truth."

The first disciples, after a time of prayer, proceeded to tell EVERYONE about the resurrection of Jesus. It is not a secret for the select, but is hope for those who had no hope.

That is Easter. That is life after death. That is true peace.