Model for Faith
On August 13, 2004, at 10:15 p.m. my wife and I and our dog Penny were covered up with a mattress in the center closet of our house as we hunkered down as hurricane Charlie bared down on our neighborhood. At 2:30 a.m. we walked out of the house to be overwhelmed by the smell of fresh cut wood.
Twelve oak trees were on the ground along our neighborhood. When daylight came, we surveyed the neighborhood, and a tornado had torn the clay tiles off of our neighbor's house ten houses away and slung them into homes next to it. All of the people in the neighborhood came together, and we had the road cleared in a few hours so we could get out. Although we were out of power for eight days in the heat of August, we all helped one another.
The sad thing was when everything got back to “normal” we tend to go back to our cocoons. When our backs are against the wall, we look to other people for help. The goodness of people shines best when our backs are against the wall.
During the past two months, I have witnessed the grip of cancer on my mother. On July 12th cancer took her. However, The cross has the final say. I have witnesses glimpse’s of heaven as she spoke to us.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; Trust also in me. In my Fathers house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Certainly, I am not the first to lose a parent, but it does not mean there is not grief. The disciple’s grief was turned to joy in John chapter 16. Jesus is trying to explain to the disciples he will no longer be with them. Jesus explains even at birth the mother goes through unbearable pain, but she forgets the anguish when her baby is born it turns to joy. During the whole conversation with the disciples, Jesus says with astonishment “You believe at last.” Here are the disciples who have seen miracles, eaten, prayed, and traveled with Jesus. And now they finally believed.
Later in John’s gospel Thomas (doubting Thomas), Thomas says “Until I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand in his side, I will not believe it.” And a week later Jesus appears to Thomas and tells him to put his fingers here and reach out your hand and put it to my side. STOP DOUBTING AND BELIEVE.
Then Jesus says, “Because you have seen me, you have believed, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Our hope and faith are in Jesus Christ and his promises.
“We live by faith, not by sight”
In our worse time when we are mad at God and when we question his ways, and it is difficult to have faith. Patience is the hardest virtue, but if we can look back on how God has worked in our lives, it is easier to have faith.
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see”
I do know in the past few months I have a closer relationship with my sister, I know that would have made my mom happy. We are keeping a close eye on my dad who is adjusting to a new reality after being married 67 years. Through it, all faith has led us through hard times and loss. We will find joy. My mom said to each of us “When I pass to go ahead and morn for a week, then after that get on with your life.”
She was my perfect model for Faith.
Mike Conrad serves as our Worship Director. When he's not preparing for worship or playing an instrument, he enjoys spending time with his wife boating and fishing. Learn more about Mike here.
Disappointing Heroes
Last Tuesday, Major League Baseball had its All-Star game. Normally, if you aren’t a baseball fan, that means nothing to you. But while Josh Hader was having a less than stellar night on the mound giving up four hits, three runs, and walking away with a 27.00 ERA after getting only one out, someone did some deep digging on his twitter page. When he was 17 Hader made several racist and homophobic tweets, and in the middle of the game thousands of people suddenly knew all about them. His parents were given new jerseys to wear that didn’t have Hader’s name on them so that they could avoid abuse from fellow baseball fans.
Last week also saw James Gunn, writer and director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 and 2 fired for offensive tweets made nearly a decade ago. A few months ago, Roseanne Barr had her entire show canceled because of a racist tweet. All of this, and so much more, has happened since the #metoo movement started back in October of last year. Weirdly, Twitter has ended careers and brought awareness to sexual abuse in a way that no other social media platform has done.
The most obvious thing to say is “be careful with what you put on social media.” But it’s surprising that this is still a conversation that we have to have. Even more surprising is that it’s a conversation that needs to be had with adults, maybe more so than kids. A phrase I have to repeat often is “I will not argue with strangers on the internet,” usually after I just argued with a stranger on the internet. But there is a deeper issue that all of this brings up. What do we do about the movies, sports, or other materials that are now tainted by knowing the dark personal history of someone involved?
Do I boycott all the Marvel movies because they hired a director who had nasty tweets a decade before they hired him? Maybe just the Guardians movies? Could I still cheer on the Brewers if I lived in Milwaukee knowing that one of their relief pitchers had racist tweets from his teenage years?
Those cases are where one member of a much larger organization had issues surface. Hader is one of a dozen pitchers on his team, and Gunn was one of hundreds of people involved in the making of the GotG movies. But then there’s the case of John Howard Yoder. He was the author of the book “The Politics of Jesus” which was one of my college textbooks and is one of the books that I recommend to most people who are trying to figure out how Christians should interact with the world and politics. However, I recently found out that Yoder had a history of sexual abuse. What do I do with his book now? Can I in good conscience recommend a book about Jesus that was written by a guy who’s lifestyle didn’t reflect what I read in his book?
And then there are people like Bill Hybels, who over the past 40 years has provided leadership and direction for hundreds of churches beyond Willow Creek, and seen tens of thousands of people commit their lives to Christ. What do we do with his resources and models?
Part of what makes this issue so cloudy is that in the church we read books written by murderers and misogamists (among other less than kind descriptors) all the time. Half of our New Testament was written by Paul who murdered Christians before becoming one himself. The core of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), is traditionally believed to have been written by Moses, who among other things, murdered an Egyptian before fleeing the country. No one is suggesting we discard those sections of the Bible that were written by people with less than perfect pasts. So why does wrestling with Hybel’s and Yoder’s indiscretions feel so different?
Some of it is time and tradition, the books of the Bible have been pretty much unchanged for 1700 years or so. Some of it is we can see the redemptive works of God through the authors. Sure, Saul (later to be known as Paul) killed Christians, but he also had his life radically changed by God and he became one of the biggest people in Christian history while fully admitting he wasn't perfect.
Some of it is supply and demand. There aren’t a lot of other books written by first century Christians who knew Jesus personally. But there are hundreds of books written on theology, church leadership, and politics of Jesus. So while Hybel’s and Yoder’s might be among the best, they aren’t the only ones saying these things.
But I think all of this is missing the point, or at least not addressing it directly. We don’t read books written by Moses, Paul, or even Hybels because of who they are and what they can tell us. We read them because of how God revealed himself through their writings. It’s God that we are drawn to, not the person who wrote down the words. When we look to people as our role models or inspiration, we’re bound to be disappointed, hopefully not by huge scandals, but in some way they will fall short of the glory of God. Maybe this doesn’t help you wrestle with if you should or shouldn’t read anything written by someone who’s had an affair, maybe you had no idea and I’ve just created another dilemma for you (sorry). So to quote one of the murderers who wrote the Bible,
““Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again,The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.”
Being Thankful
Too many times we wake up in the morning sleeping as late as we can and try to do all the things we need to do and get to work on time. Most mornings are a blur. I had a friend who would sit down every morning at 5:00a and read, write, listen to the birds or take in the morning air. That was his time to give thanks. It prepared him for the day ahead. To be honest, I wish I had that kind of discipline. I do not, I do, however, turn off the radio and have a conversation with God on my way to work. I am thankful for the day before me with all of the obstacles that come my way. I always ask for God’s help. He is a God of details.
Steve Jobs the founder of Apple will be known for many inventions and many products we use daily. And the wealth, which he accumulated, is beyond what we can ever imagine. However, he had these words to say in his last days...
“In my lifetime, the wealth I have won, I cannot bring with me. What I can bring is only the memories precipitated by love. That’s the true riches which will follow you, accompany you, giving you strength and light to go on. Treasure Love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends. Treat yourself well. Cherish others.”
Why do we get so carried away and wrapped up in our lives that we miss the moments in our lives that could have counted if we just took the time? Be thankful, greet each day as a gift and thank God for the day. Keep Him close by all day, and He will guide you.
Many of you have been praying for my family with the illness of my mother. We thank you for all the prayers. This time in any family situation is always difficult, and many significant decisions need to be made. I was at home with my family last week, and I went in the pantry, and these were the words taped up to the inside of the door. Lord if you bless me, I’ll thank you. But if you don’t, I’ll be thankful for what I have.
It should not be asking too much for us to slow down and just be thankful.
“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Be thankful and God Bless!
Mike
Mike Conrad serves as our Worship Director. When he's not preparing for worship or playing an instrument, he enjoys spending time with his wife boating and fishing. Learn more about Mike here.
Equality of Women in the UMC
One of the things to come out of Annual Conference this year was the “Resolution Concerning the Equality of Women”. You can find the full resolution HERE, but this is an excerpt of what it says,
“[We] affirm that both women and men are created in the image of God and are of equal worth, we affirm the ordination of women, we affirm open itinerancy, and affirm the equality and calling of women both in our own region and throughout the world.”
This comes shortly after the Alabama West Florida Conference was one of the few conferences to vote no to Amendment I from the last General conference. (For the non-methodist people who stumble upon this blog, annual conference is a yearly gathering of local churches that is almost like state governments creating laws and bills and reporting. General Conference is the national scale, similar to the US senate.)
While there is one sentence about the gender of God that likely inhibited the amendment from passing, both were about gender equality and affirming that women belong in ministry and are of equal value in the eye of God.
The fact that the AWF conference passed this resolution, as well as general conference proposing Amendment I, brings a whole bag of mixed emotions for me. I am thrilled that the resolution passed, I wish the amendment would have passed as well but I understand some of the reservations that people have expressed. But it saddens me that we even have to create these amendments and resolutions in the first place.
The United Methodist Church has ordained women for over half a century, which is more than some denominations but not as long as others. But if you ask some of our female pastors if they have ever felt like they have been discriminated against because of their gender I’d imagine every single one of them would say yes. At my last church, our associate pastor wasn’t even allowed to speak from the pulpit at a community gathering because she was a girl. In college, the best student we had in the theology and ministry department was a girl from a baptist church who felt called by God but had no place to go in her own denomination because of her gender.
So much of this discrimination of women in ministry comes from three passages found in the New Testament.
Titus 1:6 If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.
1 Corinthians 14:34-35 Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.
1 Timothy 2:11-15 Women should learn quietly and submissively. I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly. For God made Adam first, and afterward he made Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived by Satan. The woman was deceived, and sin was the result. But women will be saved through childbearing, assuming they continue to live in faith, love, holiness, and modesty.
It is easy to see why someone would point to these scriptures and come to the conclusion that women aren’t qualified to be pastors or to preach. However, the Bible has a whole lot more to say about women in churches than just these three verses. And even these three verses don’t necessarily mean what we see on the surface in the English language.
I should begin by saying that all three of these passages were written by Paul. He also wrote in Ephesians 4 that “Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service”. It is odd to me then to try to limit these “positions” to only men when Paul himself made mention of women in each of these positions. Junia was one of the apostles mentioned by Paul in Romans 16:7. Philip had four daughters who were prophets (Acts 21:9). Euodia and Syntyche (Philippians 4:2-3), Phoebe and Priscilla (Romans 16:1-5), Nympha (Colossians 4:15), and Chloe (1 Corinthians 1:11) are all mentioned by Paul as well to be important leaders in churches.
I know there are some scholars who say that we can’t prove that these women were actual pastors or THE leader of a church, and while being exegetically easy isn’t a guarantee that it’s correct, it’s easier to say that these women were indeed church leaders and that Paul meant something very different in the three verses above than how we read them in American English. We can even come up with very easy and sensible things that we think he meant in those verses. But for far too many women, especially outside of our denomination, they still have to fight just for a seat at the table. They have to not only preach as good as a man, but do so while making sure they look nice but not attractive (because it might be distracting to men if a good looking women is in front of them), they have to be friendly and personable but can’t show emotion because it will make them look weak, be firm and confident but not be a word I can’t say in a church blog. I could go on and on about how we judge women on a completely different scale than we do men, but I think you get the idea.
And it’s for all of these reasons and more that even though we’ve been under the impression that men and women have been treated equally we still felt the need to make an official statement about it. Because even though some of us feel like we are there, we haven’t arrived yet. We are far from being equal, and now our conference has made a resolution to protect the dignity of all people made in God’s image. But a resolution means nothing unless people actually follow what it says.
Einstein and Barth
I’m currently reading “Astrophysics For People In A Hurry” because I’m a nerd and I’ve always been fascinated by physics. The chapter I read last night was about Einstein's biggest blunder, the cosmological constant, which it turns out actually is still useful, just not for the reasons Einstein thought when he developed it. This chapter has one seemingly small distinction woven through it, the difference between theoretical physics and experimental physics. Einstein did most of his greatest work inside his own head. At the time there were no machines or tests to prove that his theory of relativity was right or to prove if the universe was expanding, stable, or being forced together by gravity.
So what Einstein did was he imagined how the universe would react and respond within certain scenarios. This puts him in the theoretical camp. The other camp is experimental physics. This is where scientists actually try to set up experiments and see if theories are right. If they confirm the theory, they try to get repeatable results. If something comes out different than expected, they try to figure out why it’s different. Essentially, one says this is the way we think the world works, and the other says this is the way the world actually works. They aren’t competing groups, they all work for the same purpose, and they actually need each other.
If you take away all the science language, you get a concept that is everywhere in our world, especially in Christianity. There are those people who love to sit in a room and think about what the kingdom of God looks like and try to discover the true heart of God (i.e. the dessert fathers and monasticism).Then there are those who are actually neck deep in the kingdom and living out the Christian life. It would be a bit like comparing Karl Barth, who wrote mountains of pages in systematic theology, and Mother Theresa who lived the majority of her life living among lepers in Calcutta.
There is certainly a case for saying that as christians, we should spend our time doing both. We should spend time thinking about who God is and how his revelation through Jesus should change the world. We also need to spend time actually trying to live out those conclusions and actively love God and love others. My guess would be that the majority of us fall into one camp, or default mode, than the other. Perhaps we find it incredibly helpful to sit with a close group of friends and talk about the difference between transubstantiation, consubstantiation, and symbolism and how each view presents God in a different way that might send echos through the rest of your formed theology. Perhaps you find that idea awful and would rather just walk around and have people participate in communion in their homes and on the streets. Both are acceptable, yet without each other it would end up either just talking without any action or we give bread and juice to people with no meaning.
It’s this codependency that reminds me of the early church leaders Paul and James. Paul tends to talk about salvation in terms of your faith, or believing, while James said that faith without works is dead. They aren’t contradicting each other, they are merely broadening what it means to actually be a follower of Christ. We aren’t saved by our works, but if we truly believe than we will want to do something about it. So read through the book of Romans, then read the book of James, think about it, then go do something.