Leave the Rest to God

In the Gospel of Mark, chapter 9, there is a story with an unusual twist. A father whose son has been sick from birth comes to Jesus' disciples, and he asks the followers of Jesus to heal his son. The disciples try but fail. Not surprising! In Mark, the disciples can't heal, they don't understand Jesus' teaching and when Jesus talks about his death and resurrection, their concern is whether they can sit close to Jesus when he comes into his glory. Talk about a lack of sensitivity and empathy. Jesus is going to die. The disciples don't feel the pain. All they do is relish the power that may come to them after Jesus suffers and dies. Do you recognize the Church of St. Mark? Tending to others' wounds - out! Caring for folks who are suffering - out! Power and control - now we're talking church! Secrecy and transparency are serious problems in Mark. On the way to Capernaum (Mk 9:33-37), Jesus asks his disciples why they are arguing. The issue was, "Who is ...

I have to tell you something about me. I would like for you and everybody else to like me. In college I was president of my sophomore and junior classes and my senior year, I was president of the student government. What I remember most, though, is that I didn't get all the votes. In seminary I was vice president of the student body my second year and president of the student body my third year. Do you know what I recall the most? I didn't get all the votes. Remember, my vocational aspiration was to become a minister. I was going to lead a united band of congregants as we marched together to Zion. I was in seminary finishing my second degree. I had a successful student pastorate and couldn't wait until the phone started ringing with people wanting me to come to their churches. What you hear is the sound of silence. A church in Tennessee did contact me, but when the church sent me the list of questions, I knew this would never work. Finally I was contacted by a church ...

I grew up in a church where sin (disobedience to God) was seen as a personal issue. Preachers told us that each of us had disobeyed God. If we wanted to be saved and not go to Hell, we had to accept Jesus as our personal Savior and Lord. I can look back to that kind of preaching and see how true it was to a certain extent but how limited it was in so many other ways. If there was any call to discipleship, it was not to do certain things, such as dancing. Interestingly, the people of God often danced in the Bible, but I guess it wasn't slow dancing. This type of evangelism was "transactional". You believed in Jesus so you wouldn't go to Hell, and then you stayed away from certain things, many of which seemed like fun. While the word "evangelism" has good roots in the New Testament, coming from "evangel", which means "good news", still it's an unwelcome word among some followers of Jesus. Evangelism conjures up images of manipul...

Interesting how certain new phrases weave themselves into our vocabularies. Have you heard, "the new normal"? It's alliterative; it's succinct. But I would like to consider where it's abusive to use in some difficult situations. Recently, we were stunned by the killing of 50 worshippers in two mosques in New Zealand. What stunned us was the number of people murdered in a relatively placid country. "Well," somebody said, "This is a part of the new normal." Violence is a staple of our lives. In our own country, school children, worshippers in Jewish temples, Sikh temples, Islamic mosques, and Christian churches have been slaughtered for the "crime" of gathering to pray, read their holy books, and listen to a message from their spiritual leaders. Is this "the new normal"? Is this what we have to accept? The only answer to a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun? This is "the new normal"? Why does it ha...

New Testament scholars remind us that the Greek word, "charis", means both "grace" and "gratitude". From the standpoint of the person offering love, it is called grace. From the one receiving that love, "charis" is gratitude. Fred Craddock challenges us by saying that the final work of God's grace is to make us gracious. When I was a child, my parents taught me to say, "Thank you". Then, "What do you say, Chuck," my mother admonished when someone gave me a gift. "Thank you." My mother has died, but I had always wished that she had let me take the initiative. After countless, "What do you say, Chuck?", I could have said it without any prompting. I have been thinking a lot about Bob Payne. I started attending Training Union (which many of you don't remember). Bob was in his mid-20s, a banker and a graduate of Florida State University, where he had been a campus leader. I think Bob started me on th...

When I started attending a Baptist church, I discovered the power of hymns. Songs like "Amazing Grace" and "Great is Thy Faithfulness" became embedded in my memory and helped to shape and strengthen my faith. This is a time when we used hymnbooks, which says something about my age and generation. The important thing is that the words of the older hymns became a part of the fabric of my life. Especially, in difficult times, I would reach into the barrel of my memories and pull out the phrase of the hymn that would give me balance when I felt off-balance. I know that today in many churches, screens have replaced hymnbooks, but as for me and my house, give us a well-worn hymnal and ask us to turn to a song like "Great is Thy Faithfulness". While I thought that I knew the message of this hymn, it was in the fall of 1984, that some pain in my life and pain in the life of my family opened me to a deeper meaning of "faithfulness". In 1984, I was t...

Often, I have met people who have been raised as children in almost idyllic circumstances. Their parents listened to them, went to their ballgames and their piano recitals. The parents baked cookies for their events and took interest in their lives. Every Sunday, the family went together to church. Of course, there were some bumps in the road. Remember your adolescence? You wanted to forge your own identity. You were not sure that you wanted to be seen in public with mom and dad. At the same time mom and dad were wishing that you were 8 years old again. But other than the normal bumps, the road from birth to when you left home was filled with good smells, good vacations, doing things together as a family, stability at home and great love for each other. But what if the family system of which you were a child wasn't like that? What if you were playing baseball in the street in front of your house when your dad came home, got out of the car, and staggered into the house. You were...