Sunday, November 29

Faith on a Business Card

“Behold, I tell you a mystery:”(1 Corinthians 15:51)

“This universe is shot through with mystery.
The very fact of its being, and of our own, is a mystery absolute,
and the only miracle worthy of the name.” – Sam Harris, Author

Many years ago I heard American farmer, author, and poet, Wendell Berry, give a capsule summary of his faith that went something like this: “I believe we are given an existence we can not possibly understand. By a giver we can not possibly comprehend. And the rest is all a great mystery.”

Those words may not sound like much to go on when one is looking to establish a bedrock foundation for faith. But they do bring home one’s rather limited certainty of who we are and how we got here. What is real and what is imagination. What is fact and what might simply be our own mind convincing us of fact.

Over the years as I’ve been challenged by a sermon, perplexed by some new author, or confused by the events around the world, I have found myself scurrying back to grab onto Berry’s words. And his simple yet elegant statement of faith has never failed to provide a solid base to focus my thinking and propel me forward. And as time has gone on, I’ve adopted Berry’s words as my own.

At times, less is more. I’ve heard it said that if you can’t describe your faith on the blank side of a business card, perhaps it’s time to dig down and revisit what it is you truly believe. And Wendell Berry’s succinct summary of his own faith clearly qualifies as a streamlined, no frills, business card essence of understanding. But when explored in detail and taken to their logical ends, the words go much further, and explain much more than they might at first imply.

Just because total understanding is beyond our human powers and just because our lives are immersed in great mystery does not mean we should abandon our effort to bring meaning to life and find trust in our existence. Much can be learned. Not always by what we know. But also by what we do not know.

Prayer: God beyond comprehension, may we always be open to the mystery of You. Amen

Monday, November 30

What We Believe, is What We Did Today

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21)
“Your daily life is your ... religion.” – Khalil Gibran

If you’re having trouble getting your faith onto that business card as we discussed yesterday, don’t feel alone. One of the most difficult things to do in life is to identify and articulate one’s deepest held personal faith. Even more difficult, is to put that faith into one or two sentences. But there is much to be learned by going through this exercise. The trick is finding out exactly what it is you believe.

Father Walter J. Ciszek, author of “He Leadeth Me” suggests: “Think of your day, today. Think of the work you did, the people you met, moment by moment. What did it mean to you – and might have meant to God? Is the question too simple to answer,” Ciszek asks, “Or are we just afraid to ask it for fear of the answer we must give?”

Sometimes we can fall under the misconception that what we profess in church on Sunday is what we believe. If you really want to know what you believe, take a moment this evening to do as Father Ciszek suggests, to replay your day in your mind. Do it with total honesty. And do it with total openness.

If you believe in being friendly, how many strangers did you befriend this day. More importantly, how many enemies did you befriend this day. Name them. Count them. If you believe in forgiveness, name, specifically, the people you forgave today, the ones you forgave face to face and the ones you forgave in your heart. If you believe you are joyful, calculate what percentage of your day was spent in anger, resentment, or grousing. Then calculate what percentage of your day was spent in exuberant joy . . . hopefully dancing. Which feeling dominated your day? If you believe in compassion, name all the specific things you did during the day showing compassion for others. Not thoughts of compassion ... but acts of compassion.

Gordon B. Hinckley, President of the Mormon Church said it well. “Our lives are the only meaningful expression of what we believe.” Faith is not what we say. And faith is not what we might think we believe or want to believe. Faith is what we do. Today. All day. This test tells you exactly what you believe. It tells you where your heart is.

Some will claim it is belief which defines action. But when you inspect things more closely, you will discover instead that it is action which defines belief. You are what you do. And what you do, when you inspect your day, may not be to your liking or be in concert with what you believe you believe. But actions are the fingerprints of faith. They seldom lie.

Prayer: May my heart and life, O Lord, be defined by your Love, that what I do will reflect You. Amen

Tuesday, December 1

The Creation Scripture

“For from the greatness and beauty of created things
comes a corresponding perception of their Creator.” (Wisdom of Solomon 13:5)

“The visible mark of extraordinary wisdom and power appear so plainly
in all the works of creation.” – John Locke, English Philosopher

Writer and poet Maya Angelou notes, “While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God's creation.” This is our first natural step beyond Wendell Berry’s basic observation that we cannot know or understand our existence, much less comprehend the giver of that existence.

Here we discover that, as Maya Angelou suggests, this giver of existence has given with great gusto. And it is not a large leap of faith to assume the giver of your existence is the same as the giver of my existence. And that the same giver might well be the giver of all existence. The rocks, trees, dogs, cats, flowers, sunshine, rain and wind which surrounds us.

And if that is possible, then it would seem we can, within our limited capabilities, begin to probe how this giver of existence might intend us to live. This gift of existence is a Holy Scripture of sorts. Written with the wind. Embedded on the pages of nature. Made available to us through the testament of every living creature. Laying out revealing clues to all the questions and puzzles which perplex us.

Creation is the firsthand account of the creator. Given to us directly by the giver. And while we must always contend with humankind’s limited ability to comprehend its message, we can proceed with assurance that this existence was provided by no mere human who may have transcribed the message in error or worse, purposely injected prejudice or ignorance into its creation. The creation is fresh from the hand of the giver. The creation is the real deal.

But if creation is viewed as Holy Scripture, then where does the traditional Bible fit into the picture? Well, squarely where Lutheran leaders like Rev. Peter Rogness, Bishop of the St. Paul Area Synod, has said it fits. As the magnificent story of a people and their relationship with the giver of existence and the creator of creation.

Prayer: Give me eyes this day, Great Creator, to hear your Word as you speak in the created world. Amen

Wednesday, December 2

Equals Through Existence

“They all have the same breath.
All are from the dust and all turn to dust again.” (Ecclesiastes 3:19-20)

“Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can't buy more hours. Scientists can't invent new minutes. And you can't save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you've wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow.” – Denis Waitley

For the many nature lovers in Northern Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula who make up this synod, it will come as no great revelation that nature and the creation speak volumes. The lakes, forests, streams, wildlife and geological formations retell the story of life each and every day. One moment cruel and harsh, the next moment compassionate and forgiving. There is a natural order to things. And a purpose for all things under heaven.

As Maya Angelou observed in yesterday’s study, “While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God's creation.” Thus, the creation vividly demonstrates that we are all recipients of existence. And it is that realization that makes us all equals. Clearly not clones of one another, but equal recipients of this gift of existence. None is more deserving. None is less deserving. Existence is within us all equally.

No matter what faith we hold, what nation we were born in, what political stripes we might wear, what level of education we have reached or income level we have achieved, we cannot wrestle away for ourselves any more or any less “existence” than our friends, our neighbors, or even our most despised enemies. We are all comrades, held together by this bond of existence.

The writer and Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Jon Kabat-Zinn, has observed, “If you are willing to accept the notion that we are all deeply interconnected then compassion naturally arises.” And it is that recognition of our inter connectedness and compassion that helped give rise to the words of Thomas Jefferson. “We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable; that all men are created equal and independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

But the power and equality inherent in our gift of existence is hardly restricted to one exclusive country, one exclusive religion or one exclusive domain. It is a widely-held given among spiritual leaders throughout the world. Possibly it is best summed up by India’s philosopher, Sri Sathya Sai Baba: “Serve others for they are reflections of the same Entity of which you are yourself another reflection. No one of you has any authenticity, except in reference to the Original. Feel always kinship with all creation.”

Prayer: You have made us one in Christ, O Lord. May we see one another, and love one another, as brothers and sisters. Amen

Thursday, December 3

Forgiveness Works

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you;
but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
(Matthew 6:14-15)

“Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which
what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again.”
Dag Hammarskjold

Forgiveness is a lesson taught by nature, a tool given to us by creation. The world around us continually makes provision for cleansing and renewal. The dead leaves of fall are revived by the green buds of spring. The bleakness of winter wiped away by the blossoms of summer. The dust of a long summer day, cleansed by a cool evening storm. The old buck finds a hollow to lay down and die. The young fawn stands on unsteady legs to face a new world.

“Forgiveness,” says author Joan Borysenko, “is the finishing of old business that allows us to experience the present, free of contamination from the past.” Or as Joan Lunden puts it, “Forgiveness gives you back the laughter and the lightness in your life.”

I have a huge personal fondness for the subject of forgiveness. It is one of those rare phenomenon about which there is little debate between different faiths. Every person can vividly recount instances in their own lives where forgiveness worked wonders. Even miracles. Healing broken families, uniting warring partners, mending great divides. Nearly every one of us has experienced the effects first hand, be we the forgiver or the forgiven. It is the essence of what we know as grace, made manifest in the lives of humanity.

The capacity to forgive is a gift able to transform life and relationships. If there were such a thing as a miracle in a bottle, forgiveness would be it. Yet we make precious little use of it. Sure, we say “I’m sorry” when we bump into someone in the supermarket or when we forget someone’s birthday or anniversary. But the power of forgiveness is not meant to be held in reserve for just the tiny social missteps of our personal life.

Forgiveness is meant to operate in the big leagues, up on the big stage. In fact, the more difficult the situation, the more potent the forgiveness. The harder you find it to forgive, the greater the need for forgiveness. The greater the bad deed or threat from an enemy, the more necessary our response of forgiveness. If we are to believe the creation and if we are to believe the teachings of Christ, then we are charged with being forgivers. And forgivers of those who would call themselves our greatest enemies. As Martin Luther has said, “Forgiveness is God's command.”

The best example we have is provided to us in the passion story. Christ faced an enemy absolutely intent on taking away his life. The situation is strikingly similar to those who insist today that our nation faces an enemy intent upon taking our own lives. And Christ’s response, in the very hour he was being put to death by his detractors? “Father, forgive them.” Not retaliation. Not hate. Not vengeance. “Father, forgive them.”

As humans this may be our most difficult lesson to learn. And the most difficult challenge to living our faith. Novelist Sue Monk Kidd goes so far as to say, “People, in general, would rather die than forgive. It's that hard." But it is precisely that extreme difficulty, that ultimate challenge to our souls that requires us, commands us, to be the forgiver. “Forgiveness is everything.” says Tonya David, whose 5-year-old daughter, an innocent bystander, was paralyzed after being shot by a street thug. “It's everything.”

“At times, forgiveness feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it,” says American author Marianne Williamson, “And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness.”

Prayer: You forgive us, Lord, without condition. Work this forgiveness in us so that we may be at peace. Amen

Friday, December 4

The Theology of Friendship

“Do not become an enemy instead of a friend;”
(Ecclesiastics 6.1)

“It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends.
But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy
is the quintessence of true religion.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Yesterday we talked about the tough task of forgiveness. But there is a corollary to forgiveness. A shortcut so to speak. And that shortcut is friendship. Become a friend first, and the need for forgiveness may never arise. Or as novelist Richard Paul Evans suggests, “The truest grace is not to forgive, but to have never found fault."

But we need to be more clear. We’re not talking of a Theology of Friendship which is some sort of sappy sentimental slogan that you might find inside a Hallmark Card. We’re not talking here about a theology of friend-ly. We’re talking about a theology of friend-ship. And there is a huge difference between the two.

Being friend-ly is a rather passive act. If you meet someone on the street and they nod, you nod in return. If someone comes up during coffee hour after church and shares a greeting, you share a greeting in return. If someone calls you on the phone to engage in polite conversation, you return the polite conversation. These are all acts of being friend-ly, of being nice. Good things to do, no question. But they are not what the Theology of Friendship is all about.

The Theology of Friendship demands that we, you and I, become the instigators of friendships, just as God is the initiator of relationship. We – you and I – are to create friendships. Rather than waiting for someone else to approach us with an offer of friendship, it is we who must do the approaching. It is we who must instigate the act of friendship. Not just in our churches. Not just among our families. Not just in our local neighborhoods. But throughout our nation. And throughout our world.

The creation provides us with some clear direction regarding friendship. Hatred, vengeance, thoughtlessness, anger, and even neglect all lead into a spiral of even more hatred, vengeance, thoughtlessness and neglect, whether it be in nature or among humans.

I believe we are compelled by the gospel of creation, the gospel of the Bible, to practice the Theology of Friendship. To be a people who are aggressively compassionate, aggressively tolerant, aggressively understanding ... not just with those who are like us, or agree with us, but more importantly, with those whom we most adamantly disagree, those who would appear to be our mortal enemy, those who we find most difficult to understand and tolerate.

Abraham Lincoln saw the need for a Theology of Friendship when he said, “The best way to destroy an enemy ... is to make him your friend.” But make no mistake. This Theology of Friendship is tough business. It means stepping way outside our normal comfort zone. To reach out to those we most fear or most despise. It means blasting down old walls of prejudice and hate. As it turns out, we don’t turn the world into a better place by making everyone Lutheran, or Catholic, or Jewish, or Muslim or Hindu. We turn the world into a better place when we make everyone a friend.

Prayer: Jesus, you loved everyone and accepted them as they were, where they were. May our hearts and our minds be like yours, Christ. Amen

Saturday, December 5

Sermon on the Doubt

“Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?”(John the Baptist)
Matthew 11:3

“Doubt isn't the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith.”– Paul Tillich

Our dog, Buster, was a rescue puppy. And when we brought him home from the shelter I immediately began to teach him a few commands, gained his trust that he would never again be abandoned, and inspired his confidence during some on-leash and off-leash training. He quickly became a constant companion who appeared to trust my judgment. After many days I felt he was ready for the next step so I took him down to the lake, walked him out to the end of the dock, and tossed a nice fetching stick out into the water. He looked up at me in total bewilderment as if to say, “Are you crazy man? I’m not jumping in there.” As Erich Fromm reminds us, “The capacity to be puzzled is the premise of all creation.” And Buster’s response was just another example that doubt is a lesson taught to us by nature.

When our son was 11 or 12, we embarked on building a new garage. But first we had to take down the old one, including removal of its thick concrete floor which was reinforced with heavy woven wire. We rented a jack hammer to help the task and he and I took turns pounding away at the unyielding cement, a few chips flying here and there, but very little progress after many hours of effort. Finally my son looked at me and said, “I don’t think we can do this, Dad. It just can’t be done.” But we persisted. We went at it late into the night and started up again early the next morning. And slowly, VERY slowly, we began to break the floor into smaller and smaller pieces which we then had to separate from one another by cutting the wire mesh.

After it was finally done, and the debris all hauled away, my son, who had a fairly wicked sense of humor even at a young age, looked at me and said, “See, I told you we could do it.” Just 48 hours earlier I had never seen two eyes filled with more doubt, not just in our physical abilities, but in the old man’s sanity as well. But then, as we stood looking at the cleaned site, I never saw two eyes filled with more assurance. My son discovered something during that project. Something he would have never discovered had he not passed through a fairly healthy period of doubt. That persistence and hard work can deliver a reward.

As contradictory as it may sound, I’m a big believer in doubt. In the book of Matthew, Jesus says, “Seek and ye shall find.” And as the creation demonstrates, when you are certain, you have no need to seek. And if you do not seek, you do not find. But doubt comes to us as a gift of creation. It is the spark which lights the fuse of curiosity. The motivation which drives our quest for understanding. The force which sets in motion great invention, life saving discovery, and unparalleled personal wisdom.

We need doubt, even doubt about our highest held beliefs. Doubt is nature’s B.S. detector, challenging our faith and reviving our understanding. "If faith never encounters doubt, if truth never struggles with error, if good never battles evil,” notes Gary Parker, “How can faith know its own power?”

Prayer: Lord, doubt doesn't always feel good, but You have taught me that it is in darkness and uncertainty that You are able to do Your best work. I trust that, Lord, and I trust you. Amen