An African-American President

Barack Obama ended his acceptance speech for the presidency of the United States of America this evening with the benediction that "God Bless America!" To be fair, Obama is such a confident orator (if I had his skills I could have been a preacher) that he probably didn't use the exclamation point...for him it was just a period.
But here it is, the point at which we as Americans get to see how well we do at living out our diversity. I don't really worry too much about that from Obama, as he is probably pretty use to it, but some of us do not have a lot of practice. I wonder if we will use race as the reason for why we do not trust Obama on a decision of his? I wonder if we will use race to critique his style, his family, or his demeanor? One thing I have learned from my African and Asian students over the years is that race is part of a person, but it is not everything of a person...as President-Elect Obama has shown in his drive for the Presidency of the USA, where change and ideas, not race, are his calling cards.
In some ways the USA gets to catch up with the Christian understanding of equality in front of Jesus Christ. Christians have as our calling to live free, without prejudice or bias, for all people who are freed in the cross of Christ. (At one time the Apostle Paul said there is no "male or female, slave or free, Jew or Greek.") Of course, the irony of ironies is that for some the USA is a "Christian nation," but they have never lived out that part of their Christianity which celebrates the freedom at the expense of self-protection. (One of the often unspoken fears about diversity is the apparent threat its makes to our self-security. Diversity does not threaten anyone's self, but it appears that way to some.)
So, with President-Elect Obama we get to live out a world where the freedom we have in Christ becomes the blessing we share with others. It is possible, although I'm not 100% convinced, that P-E Obama understands how God "blesses" America. If he's like me, he guesses that the blessing comes when Americans bless the world...not attack it, denigrate it, disrespect it, or trivialize it...but when we become a positive force for the life God has given the world in Jesus Christ. When we surrender so that others may live, others may receive blessing, when we carry a cross so that our lives show a greater world than we have ever imagined...well, then maybe God "blesses" America...and just maybe our faith is not in vain.

Voting and the Christian Faith

So tomorrow we vote...and it is the United States of America thing to do...but would Jesus vote? I'm not sure, as there really wasn't any chance for him to vote, and he certainly didn't live in a world that valued his opinions and rights just because he was part of the Roman Empire. So we vote, but should we--as Christians--vote? (As Citizens we should, and I will, and I hope all citizens of the USA do.) As Christians of the USA we vote, and as such we vote for those people who most reflect our values and opinions, and if our Christianity is important to us, then not too surprisingly we tend to vote for people who reflect our Christian values and opinions, no matter what they are. Since Christians are all over the value and opinion map, you can pretty much find a Christian who supports and espouses your view of Christianity...except maybe for the Mennonites, but then again, they are most likely to be the Christians that don't find voting particularly salutary.
The process of voting seems to be slightly non-Christian. I mean, voting has winners and losers. Christianity has firsts and lasts, but that's not the same as winners and losers. For example, when Christ says "the last shall be first, and the first shall be last" all of them, first and last and last first are included in the kingdom of God. There are in essence, no losers, just a question of who gets to eat first. Winners and losers exist in a world where some eat, and some don't, and that just doesn't seem to match up well with the stuff Jesus talked about for all of us. Voting, in and of itself, doesn't seem particularly Christian.
So on Wednesday there will be winners and losers. In our race for President one will get to keep avoiding his job as a Senator, and the other will go back to the Senate (as a loser). There will be people wearing shirts saying "Don't Blame Me! I wanted Ron Paul." (You could actually put anyone on that shirt, as my daughter did in 2004 when she made one that spoke for Hillary Clinton. Which, surprisingly, would be appropos this year as well.)
In a world where we vote because we're citizens rather than disciples of Christ is there anything to offer? It seems to me we can offer our communities an opportunity to steward God's mysteries rather than our personal values and opinions. As a leader of a Christian community, I assume most people don't hold the same values and opinions I do when it comes to things like citizenship. But when it comes to things like disicpleship, well, then we tend to be on the same page. We pray for the Spirit to help us discern, we look for the power of the cross to free us from despair, and we trust in the mercy of God for a gracious world. No real voting there, as when it comes to God, it's not a vote...it's an election, done by God, not by us.

Dangerous: Freedom!

One of my favorite lines in the Bible comes from the Apostle Paul's second letter to the people in the town of Corinth. He writes, "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new." (2 Cor. 5.17) I like it, although on a technical level, I've never really seen any of us Christians live as if it were true. We pay lip serice to such an idea of newness and freedom, "metaphysical compliments to God" as my advisor says, but do we really believe "everything" has become "new?"
We certainly don't believe "everything" is new in Christ. "Some things," maybe; "many things," possibly, but EVERY-thing? No way. Something stayed the same. And the battle lines are drawn...(They can be drawn anywhere, but in our tradition currently we're drawing the lines on heterosexuality...we argue that God disapproved of homosexuality before Jesus Christ and after Jesus Christ...so Paul's wrong, everything isn't new. Our accepted sexual orientation is still the same...Paul should have known better.) By the way, it's stuff like this that keeps me from believing in anyone who says the Bible is inerrant...because if it were, either Paul's wrong here or the current persecution of homosexuals based on the revealed presence of Christ in the world is woefully sinful. Your choice, but it seems to me you can't have both...but I digress.
Secondly, we often fudge on what we mean by "new." Oftentimes "new" really means "refreshed," or "slightly modified," or "tweaked," or "not re-inventing the wheel." One of the famous Lutheran Biblical scholars always asked his students, "How new is "new?" Is it completely different, a la Monty Python's "something completely different," or is it similar, but improved?
These are legitimate concerns that you have to deal with if you believe Jesus Christ came into the world to make creation, (that's everything), new. Now, if you don't...well, then you probably have your own existential questions to deal with, but for us Christians this is the stuff that keeps us up at night. Because you see, we always have to ask ourselves, "did Jesus die for this?" Did Jesus Christ die so that the rich can do whatever they want, and the poor have to accept it? Did Jesus Christ die so that we can hate people we already don't understand and currently fear? Did Jesus Christ die so that ignorance can replace compassion, and cluelessness can be an excuse? Every situation from the most mundane to the most important presses us to that question!
I am not professing any answers here...the freedom we have as new creations of Jesus Christ precludes me from binding your conscience or your body to my way of newness. In actuality, I'm as guilty as anyone of abusing this freedom, of plotting to bind a conscience or two, but...If you're free...you're free.
This freedom comes at cost...there are no bailouts here (if my God behaved like the US Government I think I'd have to be an atheist!)...trusting in God, trusting in the new creations God has made in Jesus Christ, provides the greatest freedom humanity can ever know or experience...both beautiful...and dangerous.

Do Not Despair!

As much fun and energy I have experienced in Christian congregations over the past years, there is still a twinge of disappointment in them for most Christians. It has to do with heaven--maybe--in that we always think or expect that the local congregation should be the most heaven-like place in town. That somehow that "foretaste of the feast to come" should make the local congregation more honest, energetic, loving, hopeful, and helpful in the community and in the world. Of course, it turns out that Christian congregations are just one more "estate" in the community, and as such it is filled with the same failed hopes, unfulfilled dreams, back-biting, and sloth that characterizes so much more of our world. And when the congegation does that...well, some get disappointed...
I wonder if this hasn't always been true of the Christian faith? That somehow we are the religion of failed hopes and expectations ever since Jesus of Nazareth wound up on a cross rather than the White House lawn. I guess we have always wanted more from God than God promises to deliver, but still, that leads to disappointment...Are we better off for it? Perhaps. Maybe we can truly live out suffering because we come from suffering? Maybe failure is the key to our future?
When a parishioner runs up to me--all excited for a new venture or program or a ministry that could be offered--I too am hopeful at the prospect...but in a while...the world goes back to black, as the song goes.
I don't think the despair is intentional on anyone's part,but it just comes about as we get captured by a glimpse of the beauty, love, and hope that God gives us, and often we want to share...or need to be shared with (at least for a while). God is tricky this way. We don't get the whole picture, just a lifting up of the corner of the veil...and if we try for more....WHAM! The majesty of God cannot be broached. So, with just a hint, a glimpse, a whisper, a flash brilliance, we plan and dream, minister and work, love, laugh, and cry. Always expecting this time to be different. This time it will all come true...
Now, for many, this type of pollyannish thinking and living seems such a waste...and I suppose it is...but so what? We've seen a better world, a better way to relate, a better life to live, and just because we can't get it now doesn't mean we need to throw the baby out with the bathwater...I love how Garrison Keillor ends his weekly radio show, not because it's corny (it is), but because it's important to "keep in touch." How else, but with our family and friends, do we deal with the disappointment that today in a few short hours is just yesterday? So do not despair at failure, but rather use it to connect with the rest of us.

What's a Congregation for?

In my book (a Ph.D. disseration I never published), I argue that there is an intrinsic relationship between the life and being of the Triune God and the life and being of humanity. The metaphor I chose to use (the Divine Congregation and the Human Congregation) tries to get at something I believe is essential to Christian faith and life.
For me, it is impossible to distinguish between the "one" and the "Three" in the doctrine of God (we call that the Holy Trinity), and between a person and a community united in faith in God through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit (we call those congregations). So, for example, when the Spirit leads Jesus out into the desert after he is baptized by John, and Jesus prays to the Father...if Peter walks by at 100 yards what does he see? Does he see three "beings" of some kind having a conversation; or, does he see Jesus talking to himself; or, does he just see a big cloud of unknowing?
Just as the One God, Three persons unity of our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier is a mystery, so too the human congregation and the people who populate it is/are a mystery. That is, when a person in a congregation receives grace through some event (say the reception of the eucharist--holy communion) does everybody in the congregation receive it too? If not, how can we explain the unity we have in God, as if God is somehow divisible in human ways? But if we say we all receive grace, how come some folks don't seem to acknowledge or live in that grace? So maybe we are not united in God? This is the kind of stuff that drives me to keep Knob Creek nearby!
Since this kind of questioning seems to "get" us nowhere, practioners of Christianity have looked for other ways to talk about the community bonded in Jesus Christ, and empowered by the Spirit of God. (Many professional theologians have also jumped ship here as well, prefering to explore questions of epistemology rather than ontology as a way to get deeper into the ways of God. I'll never forget my doctoral adviser's first question to me: "Do you want to write theology, or just write about how to do theology?") This leads practioners to find the meaning and purpose of congregations under disguise as sects, as alternative communities, as economic engines, as corporate marketers, or just about any other type of community we have...
But is there something unique about a Christian congregation that makes it different from every other type of community? Before you rush to an answer, consider some of these things:
First, if you say a congregation worships God, in the this case the Christian triune God, what about other communities that worship God as well, such as nursing homes, hospitals, some civic clubs, and what not...how then are Christian congregations different using that criterion?
Secondly, if you say a Christian congregation is unique because God calls it, your doctrine of creation is somewhat lacking. For Christians, God calls every person and community into life and being, and a congregation is no different...
Thirdly, (and lastly for our purposes only) the public that makes up a Christian congregation is the same public that makes up a town or a city; and therefore, the people cannot be unique because their very uniqueness (the joining to a particular community) is something they share with everyone! (And if you share something with everyone, how "unique" is that?)
It seems to me that if a congregation exists, it lives and moves and has its being in the righteousness/faith/relationship (those three are all synonymous for me these days) from which it springs forth--namely, God's gracious promise to love everlasting--and the congregation shares that righteousness/faith/relationship with others to create communities of justice, peace, and hope. A Christian congregation then gives away the relationship that created it, and it dies to itself, to each other-- in a trust of a life in God that never ends.