Advent Week Four: Salvation

Salvation.  A word that has profound meaning yet a word which has, ironically, lost much of its meaning from overuse and imprecise usage among various religious groups.

It is an extremely important term in the Bible.  In the Old Testament its meaning refers to a broadening of space for life.  This is described as being done with divine help, especially when God's people face some kind of adversity or some adversary.

Salvation also comes to focus on the relationship of God with God's people and the people's relationship with God.  It is also utilized to describe some kind of deliverance.  Here we often hear the word 'salvation' with the words atonement, redemption, pardon, righteousness and reconciliation.  The goal of this deliverance is the establishment of God's reign among God's people and the other nations of the world (see Ezekiel 36:22-32, Jeremiah 31:31-34; Isaiah 52:6-10).

In the New Testament, we read of Jesus' understanding of this term which is found in his declarations of the establishment of God's Kingdom.  New Testament writers then take this idea and combine it with the fact that Jesus' name comes from  the Hebrew root meaning "salvation."  Thus God the savior and Jesus the savior become fused together.  Therefore, for the writers of the New Testament, the death and resurrection of Jesus is the focal point for the dawn of salvation (see 1st Corinthians 15).

When we speak of salvation in the Christian faith, we are talking about it in the particular terms of the New Testament understanding.  When we proclaim that our 'salvation' has come or is at hand, we are speaking of the birth of Christ.  We are also looking to the return of Christ as the ultimate completion of that salvation because the resurrection points not only to present significance but future significance.

Taking all the weeks of Advent into consideration, then, we are proclaiming that in Christ peace, hope, justice and salvation are to be found.  As Christians, then, it is our responsibility to not only reflect these ideals, but to so order our lives that we follow the path and person of Christ that our lives are a witness to the person of Christ and our church is a place where these four ideals are sought and celebrated and encountered both in the community and in our faith in Christ.

Advent, then, is a powerful time of definition.  May our lives be so ordered!

Advent Week Three: Hope

Hope is one of the critical words that define our faith.  We are a people who have hope, not just in the sense of the eternal, but as life unfolds, we hold hope near and dear to our hearts.  But this hope (that we often take for granted) was not always so easy to come by.  

So let me speak about hope with regards to death.

In the first letter to the Thessaloniki people, Paul is addressing a group of people who apparently weren't sure about dying and who weren't endowed with an overabundance of hope.  That comes from the concern brought on by the fact that some of the community have died and Christ has not returned.  The fear is that those who died before the return of Christ will miss out on the resurrection.  The people are apparently asking, "What happens to those who aren’t here?  Have they just missed out on the hope of the resurrection?"

The letter of 1st Thessalonians is largely concerned with answering those questions. 

In the face of death, Paul writes gently but emboldened.  He writes to offer hope and to bring light to the darkness.

And to really hear what he has to say, we need to know the culture to which he wrote.  His statement in 4:13 is critical:  “So that you grieve not like others who have no hope.”

In his book Themes in Greek and Latin Epistles, Richard Lattimore details the fact that in that day and age, "Faith in any kind of afterlife is neither clear nor strong."  He then sets out to describe three common tombstone inscriptions:

“I was not. I came into existence. I will not be in the future.  Such is life.” 

A Latin tombstone:  “Suns set and are able to rise.  But our brief light, when it goes under, night is perpetual.  One sleep.”

The second most frequent Greek phrase on tombstones: "Even Hercules Died."  In light of the fact that this was a popular phrase on tombstones, hear carefully what Paul is saying in 4:14:  if we believe that ‘even’ Jesus died AND ROSE.

From the beginning of the letter, Paul has been echoing the cultural norms.  The revolution of hope comes from this one verse.

The “caught up” phrase is taken from Greek culture and tombstones which is a euphemism for death.  Paul turns that back on the people saying that we will be ‘caught up’ not to death, but ‘caught up’ to life.  The hope is for our being with that is the source of our consolation.  Tombs represented a moment of separation.  Paul is talking about death being a moment of joining.  So shall we always be with the Lord.  God is with us.

It is our hope.  It is our faith, and to those first communities of faith, it was light in the darkness.  It is what enables us to gather today and echo the words of the hymn, “O blest communion, fellowship divine!  We feebly struggle, they in glory shine; yet all are one in thee, for all are thine.  Alleluia.” 

It is a season of beginnings, and it is our faith, our hope, and the light in the darkness. 

Advent Week Two: Justice

The second idea of Advent this year is that of justice.  Justice is a word thrown around all too easily and cheaply these days.  People use the word justice when they mean either retribution or revenge.  Justice is not always what we would prefer, but it is a powerful idea.

The prophet Amos speaks of justice "rolling down like waters" (Amos 5:24).  He is speaking to a divided country.  Israel is no longer a united kingdom, but has divided into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judea.  Both kingdoms, of course, believe themselves to be the 'correct' kingdom.

Amos was sent as a messenger to Israel,  His task was to point out to the people that the day of the Lord would indeed arrive, but it would not be a pleasant event.  The reason for its unpleasantness was that Israel had forgotten its relationship with God.  They believed that God was on their side and had stopped worrying about their own relationship with God.

As Abraham Lincoln is supposed to have responded when asked which side God was on in the Civil War, "The question is, 'are we on the side of God?'"

The people of Israel had merely been going through the motions of worship.  According to the prophet, the rituals of worship were empty.  As such, the day of the Lord would be a triumph for God but not so much for the people.

This comes from a flawed idea of justice.  In this day and age we want to see our enemies dealt with severely.  We may even hope that God will judge them particularly harshly.  In our own minds we judge and condemn people but feel a strange sense of security in thinking that the same judgement and justice will not have to apply to ourselves.  Amos states that this understanding just isn't the case.  God speaks through Amos telling the people to remove their noisy songs and preconceived ideas.  Justice will roll down like waters, but it will cover everything and everyone.

Thus, God's perfect justice means that judgment is not just against our enemies, but of our own hearts as well.  Therefore in our hearts we should seek justice.  We have to look at that justice, though, as being just.

Perhaps as we light the candle, we may want to consider approaching the idea of justice with far more humility.

Advent Week One: Peace

The first idea we proclaim this year in our Advent cycle is peace.  Peace is one of those words whose meaning changes depending on the context.  In our world today, peace is largely defined as an absence of conflict.  But peace has more meaning to it than that.  Peace is calm, serenity, even acceptance.  How many of us have heard stories of people who, in the midst of a tremendous crisis, describe a sense of peace descending upon them?  Peace doesn't necessarily mean that the conflict is gone so much as it can mean finding calm in the midst of that conflict.

As we read in the Gospel of John, Jesus gives to us his peace (John 14:27).  Jesus also points out that this peace is not given as the world gives.  In our world, it seems, peace is sought after by making sure that our enemies (whomever they might be at the time) are thoroughly decimated to the point where they cannot retaliate.  In other words, peace is equated with winning.  But that isn't what Jesus is talking about.

The peace of God, described as transcending all understanding (Philippians 4:7) does not arrive from winning a conflict.  In fact, it is often to be found during the conflict.  That's because the peace of God can be thought of as a fragment or a sliver of the larger presence of God (remember that this is all belonging to a God whose peace and totality are beyond our full comprehension).  That peace is given not because we have won, earned, or somehow acquired it by our own means.  It is, instead, given as a gift to us.

But we have to learn how to be people of peace.  We have to learn how to be at peace and offer peace.  If we Christians could get our acts together and live out lives of peace, then perhaps the conflicts across the world would not be so rampant.  Perhaps we could be the peacemakers rather than the sword-makers.  Because the peace of God is described as that which enables us to beat our swords into plowshares and study war no longer (Isaiah 2:4).

What a gift we could give to the world if we learned to accept the peace of God!  May we all, during this Advent season and beyond, strive to be people of peace - a people of peace that comes from God.

Advent 2015

Advent is upon us!
That means a lot of things to a lot of different people.  For some it is the season of preparation for Christmas.  For others it is the Christmas season.  That comes from the fact that some Christian denominations do not recognize or set aside the time of Advent.

I would reiterate what I wrote this time last year:
Advent is something of an unusual time.  On the one hand it is the time of preparation for Christmas and the stories of the nativity, Joseph, Mary, Jesus’ birth and so forth.  On the other hand, Advent is a time of reflection and hope for the second Advent, or the second coming of Christ.  In that respect it is a time of not merely remembering Christmas, but looking forward in hope for the fully realized Kingdom of God.

In the middle of those two understandings of Advent, there is the tension of seeking to encounter the present reality of Christ.  In other words, we continue to seek the presence of Christ in our own lives, not merely looking back at what was and hoping for the future.  Advent is when we stop to reflect on the reality of the unfolding Advent of Christ in our own lives. 

Since Advent is such a tremendously important time in the life of the Church, I hope that you will take advantage of as many opportunities as possible to ‘drink in’ the season to its fullest. We will be having two regular services during Advent: November 29th and December 13th.  The other two Sundays in Advent are special events.

December 6th is the Children's Pageant and December 20th is the Choir Cantata.  We will also be having our Christmas Eve service on Thursday the 24th with a service of Holy Communion.  And, like last year, we will also hold the special "Longest Night" service on December 21st, which I will talk more about later.

I will also be updating the post each week during the season of Advent with thoughts on the four aspects of the season for this year: peace, joy, hope, and love.  So check back in each week during Advent.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Charles

The Celebrations of November

November is a special month.  Most people think so because of Thanksgiving.  That has something to do with it, I am sure.  But it is a special month because this year there are no less than four special days in the church calendar.

The first Sunday of the month is All Saints Sunday.  This isn’t a Sunday that gets all that much press in most churches, but it is the second half of All Hallows Eve (which didn’t have much to do with candy, originally!).  All Saints Sunday is when we take time to reflect and remember the saints of our own local church and church family who have left this life to join the Eternal Kingdom.  As it is the first Sunday, we will be having communion as well, which will add to the reflective mood of the day.

The second event is Christ the King Sunday, which signals the end of the Christian year.  It is a triumphal day that reminds us that celebrates the all-embracing authority of Christ as King of the world and all that is.  The language is a little difficult for some…king not being a word we normally utilize for Christ.  However, as one author wrote, “in a chaotic and unjust world that seems to scorn any kind of authority, many Christians proudly celebrate Christ the King Sunday, where the loving and merciful - and just - king of the universe is praised and glorified.”

The third event is the Community Thanksgiving service on Sunday, November 22^nd, the same day as Christ the King Sunday.  It is a time when we come together as a larger community of faith that stretches beyond just United Methodists.  That evening we will gather to worship together and give thanks to God.

Finally, on November 29^th, Advent begins.  This is the first Sunday of the new Christian year as well as the beginning of the preparation time that leads us to the Christmas Season that begins on December 24^th.  Advent signals a change in the tone of the church, with different colors and decorations – it is a time of joy and wonder as we turn our minds towards the approaching Messiah.

I hope that you will be with us on these special days.  We will also be having a few guest speakers this month as well: our own J. C. Smith on November 8^th and Bishop Richard Looney on November 15^th.  These two capable speakers will be a joy to hear.

It is a time of transition, but one that brings newness and expectation with it.  Come and be a part of it!

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Charles

Growing In Faith - Why it Matters

In church, we talk about faith.  We encourage one another to grow in our faith, and yet we very rarely talk about how to do that.  How does one mature in their faith?  How do we grow?  We make assumptions that we all just ‘know how,’ but we usually stop growing in our faith more often than not.

What we don’t know is that faith, like life, has stages.  Faith is dynamic and vibrant, but we fail to nurture it, and so it stagnates.  That’s certainly not what any church community should want. 

Before we can look at the stages of faith, though, we need to understand what faith is and how it grows.  To begin with we need to understand that faith and belief are not the same thing.  We often use those words interchangeably, but they have different meanings and different emphases. 

Belief is holding to a particular idea, ideology, political doctrine, theological point of view and so on.

Faith, in the context of religion, is the “quiet confidence and joy which enable one to feel at home in the universe and find meaning […] a meaning that is profound and ultimate, and is stable no matter what may happen.”[1]  Belief may be an expression of faith, but beliefs are not faith.

For example, let’s look at Daniel 3:17-18, which takes place in the larger context of the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego:  “(17) If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.  (2)But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

Verse 17 is a statement of belief.  Verse 18, though, is a statement of faith.  Even if God doesn’t save them, they will still not bow down to the gods of the king.  Even if they die, their faith remains in God.  Biblical faith is not placed in the outcome of an event, but rests in God.

This is an important distinction to learn.  So when we read what Paul writes in 1^st Corinthians 3:1-9 about milk and solid food and spiritual matters, we begin to understand that he doesn’t mean to increase your beliefs, your creeds, your laws, or your rules.  He wants you to grow in your faith!  The rules may change.  The laws come and go.  Will your faith falter?

It will if your faith is in your beliefs instead of in the source of those beliefs.  This is why our faith fails to grow as we mature. 

Often, though, our faith isn’t in God, it is in what we believe we should believe about God.  There is a huge difference in saying that you have faith in Christ and stating what you believe about Christ.  That’s why we get so caught up in calling people “unfaithful” because they don’t ‘believe’ x,y, and z.  What we have done is confuse the terms of faith and belief.

Faith, like life, has stages.  I am not the same person I was 20 years ago.  I don’t look the same, I don’t think the same.  20 years ago I was not the same person I was when I was 8.

Paul, in the 1st letter to the Corinthian church wrote:  “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”

I think it would be disappointing, even regrettable, if after all these years I had not grown or gained deeper understandings or perspectives on life.  And yet with our faith, that is exactly what happens.  In our faith we are still where we were 20 years ago or, perhaps worse, where we were when we were 8.

Our faith shouldn’t be so fragile that we fear stretching it.  Church is to uphold and encourage faith.  Sunday School is there to do the practical and particular work of helping you grow in your faith.  Neither Sunday School nor church is there to keep you where you were or, heaven forbid, move you backwards.

So why is this important?

Our faith establishes our character, and our character is seen in the relationships we make and maintain and the ways we respond to crisis.  Our faith has direct bearing on how we seek to live our life with integrity.  Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, we may or may not see the crisis coming, but how we react is a testimony to our faith, not to our beliefs. 

That’s why it matters so much that we grow in our faith.

In the letter of James we read in 4:8a: “Draw near to God and God will draw near to you.”  Think of faith as a pursuit.  The close we seek to be with God, the closer God comes to us.  We do not know the outcome, we may not even get our way.  But those are issues of belief. 

We are to grow in our faith.

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[1]  Wilfred Cantwell Smith as cited in James Fowler’s book Stages of Faith p.11