5 Ways I'm the Worst at Following Jesus 29DEZ14

I am a sinner and a saint, all people of faith are. And so some judge me as a real sinner and hypocrite and I confess they are right and I am. But I also ask why they are judging me, is it out of love, or self-righteousness or an attempt to justify their decision not to believe? And I also have to ask, do you only see my faults and failings? Don't you ever see my attempts to be good, to practice my faith as God, as Jesus commands? I will try to do better. This from +Sojourners .....

5 Ways I'm the Worst at Following Jesus

by Christian Piatt 12-29-2014 | 4:05pm

As you may know by now, I’m starting a new project in which I try for a year to really, seriously understand what it means to follow Jesus in western, post-industrial 21st century society. What does that look like? Do any of us actually do it? And to what degree, seriously, are we supposed to actually be like Jesus, as opposed to finding our own way to walk a more Christ-like path on our current context?

Wind-up shoes walking. Image courtesy zimmytws/shutterstock.com

My biggest concern at the moment is that though a lot of us claim to “be Christians,” or even to follow Jesus, a lot of us don’t spend much intentional time trying to figure out what that means and what it looks like in daily life. We try not to be too crappy to other people, try not to kill, steal, adulterate (is that even a word?) or worship graven images. We try to love, and to accept love — though we still hurt each other. A lot. The world is messed up and so far from realizing the fully kingdom-inspired image of wholeness and reconciliation to which God invites us.

And at least in my theological world, that’s on us, not God. I believe, with all of my being, that the audacious vision of God’s kingdom, here and now, isn’t something we sit around and pray for God to make real for us. Like Jesus said, we can (and should) collectively do greater things than even he did. When people experienced healing in his presence, he never said, “Hey, I did that!” Rather, he always told them that it was their own faith that made them well.

That’s pretty amazing to consider. And inspiring. And terrifying.

So here I am, not so much trying to be Jesus, but trying to at least follow his life, teaching, and example better. And in taking my own personal inventory, I can see that I pretty much suck at it. That doesn’t mean I’m giving up, but it’s clear I have plenty of work to do. Here are five examples:

I like stuff. I was raised in culture in which the very economy depended on my affinity for stuff. I mean, what did George W. Bush tell us to do to help us heal from 9/11? Go shopping, of course! I try to break the habit, but dammit if stuff isn’t awesome, shiny, fun, and freaking everywhere. Maybe I need to work the twelve steps for my stuff addiction. Maybe we all do.

I want people to like me. Especially in the public sphere, my career more or less depends on it. I post a new article and watch with either a sense of self-satisfaction or dread as the page-views roll in or stall out at a trickle. I get the sales reports form my publishers and see my own self worth in the midst of the numbers. My ego is so wrapped up in my identity — more specifically, what I do — that it’s hard for me to talk about who I am without jumping to my work.

I’m critical of others. I’m a real pro at finding fault in other people. Some psychologists suggests (and yes, I dropped out of my PhD in psych, thank you) that such a critical view of the outside world is simply an obfuscation to keep us from dealing with our own lingering sense of a lack of worth. But the thing is, I’m onto the fact that, lots of days, I can be a real asshole. Maybe for me, it’s more about assuring myself that everyone else is nearly the same degree of asshole as I am. The thing is, when I lean on this kind of justification, nothing changes. If our sense of worth hinges on comparisons, we’re all screwed.

I let fear dictate my actions. It’s funny to me when people write to me about my writing being vulnerable, brave, or the like, because to me, it’s proof positive that so much of my life is simply about trying to reconcile fear and keep it in some sort of healthy context. By naming it, my hope is that it loses some of its power. But it keeps coming back, and more often than not, it weaves its way into my consciousness like some kind of virus, infecting my judgment and my perspective. If, as Paul notes, we availed ourself to a more perfect love, there would be no room for fear. Clearly got to keep that one on my to-do list.

I’m willful. One of Jesus’ most powerful phrases ever uttered, at least for me, was, “Not my will, but yours, God, be done.” It’s one thing to submit your own will to something bigger than yourself under normal circumstances — it’s entirely another to do it when you’re facing death. It’s not that I think that we’re all called to be martyrs for our faith. Hardly. But if we can’t let go of control and place our own agenda and idea of how things should be in the back seat on the basic, day-to-day stuff, how can we possibly do it when things get really serious? It’s a little trickier for me, since I’m not sure I’m on the “God has a consciousness and will like human beings” train, but I do know, when I take time to contemplate, what is for the Greater Good. And more often than not, I want to get there, but only if I can filter it through my own personal agenda first.

If I achieve nothing more than working intently on these five things in the coming year, I’m pretty sure I’ll be a great deal closer to the Jesus path I’m talking about than I am now. Of course, considering this all is being documented here on a public blog, on our podcast, and ultimately in a book, it may be a bit of a set-up.

Dammit, there I go, putting things through my own personal agenda-filter again. Starting again, again…

Christian Piatt is the creator and editor of BANNED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE BIBLE and BANNED QUESTIONS ABOUT JESUS. He co-created and co-edits the “WTF: Where’s the Faith?” young adult series with Chalice Press, and he has a memoir on faith, family and parenting called PREGMANCY: A Dad, a Little Dude and a Due Date. 

Why The War On Christian Athletes Gesturing To God? 13JUL12

EXPRESSIONS of faith are the right of the believer, and also a great responsibility. Christian athletes are free to publicly give thanks to God and /or acknowledge God before, during and after a game, there is nothing wrong with doing so. Their commitment to their faith will be obvious in their lives off the field/court and their conduct during the game. Given we of faith are both sinners and saints we all need to be careful of how we judge these athletes and their faith. More importantly, we really need to be careful of adopting these athletes as Christian role models because they are human, they, like us, are both sinners and saints, and if we look to them as a role model we will undoubtedly become disappointed. Better to see them the same as we are, and for Christians to look to the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus Christ for someone to admire, emulate and to be our role model. No disappointment there, just grace. See also my postDid God help Gabrielle Douglas win? 3AUG12
This from HuffPost.....
(RNS) Why should religious leaders, of all people, turn their fire on celebrities who use their popularity for public proclamations of the Almighty's power?
In an age when media icons flaunt every sort of indulgence and depravity, prominent members of clergy should find more appropriate targets to scold than athletic achievers like football's Tim Tebow, basketball's Jeremy Lin or baseball's Josh Hamilton, who choose to flaunt their devout Christian commitment.
Widespread discomfort toward well-publicized professions of faith highlights a significant rift in outlook -- not just between believers and skeptics, but between religious people who want to limit theological affirmations to church or synagogue settings and those who announce their ardent belief at every opportunity.
The newly elected leader of the important Reform movement in Judaism clearly shares the instinct to wince at the insertion of too many religious gestures in today's pop culture.
"God-sentences do not flow trippingly off Jewish lips," writes Rabbi Rick Jacobs in his denominational magazine Reform Judaism.
He goes on to suggest "a deep reason for our unease. The God-talk we hear most is hardly worth emulating. Watching athletes pointing to the heavens to acknowledge their savior after scoring a touchdown, you'd think God actually cared about which team won. While I hope God's presence can be felt in all places, including football stadiums, I find it offensive to reduce the Almighty to a football mascot in the sky."
These indignant comments take unmistakable aim at religious sports stars such as Tebow, who hopes to add many Jewish admirers to his adoring fan base when he takes the field for his new team, the New York Jets. Of course, Tebow has repeatedly denied he believes that God bothers to arrange miraculous victories for favored athletes.
When Christian sports figures point toward the clouds or drop to their knees in prayer, they merely express gratitude for the Lord's grace and generosity in allowing them to perform at the peak of their abilities. Is this impulse so different from the instinct of many religious Jews -- including members of Jacobs' own progressive Reform denomination in Judaism -- to recite the Shehecheyanu prayer to observe life's milestones, like watching the graduation of a beloved child, or leaving the hospital after serious illness?
If athletic contests count as an inappropriate place for reflections on godly power, then Jews might find it difficult to explain our traditional "bathroom blessing" (Asher Yatzar), recited for centuries to celebrate the normal functioning of our marvelous bodies. If religious Jews thank God each time he enables us to relieve ourselves, it's hardly outrageous that religious Christians should express their gratitude for hitting a home run or scoring a touchdown before 60,000 screaming fans.
Meanwhile, if critics of public religious displays find it offensive whenever athletes seek to "give God the glory" for extraordinary accomplishments on the playing field, do they find it equally offensive if great artists credit a higher power for amazing gifts that enriched humanity?
The musical manuscripts of Johann Sebastian Bach show him writing the initials "SDG" at the beginning and end of all of his some 300 church compositions, as well as attaching the same abbreviation to many of his immortal secular works. The initials stand for soli deo gloria ("to God alone be glory"). No one assumes that Bach expressed these sentiments to imply some divine favoritism for his music above contributions by his less religious friend and rival, Georg Philipp Telemann. Instead, Bach humbly acknowledged the Creator as the ultimate originator of his miraculous creativity, much as a distinctly blessed athlete in our century might acknowledge the Almighty as the true source of his own health, power and skill.
The argument against injecting blessing and praise into what Jacobs calls the "fleeting trivialities of popular culture" maintains that association with such ephemera actually diminishes our sense of the divine. But the other side insists that expressions of appreciation to a higher power help place even our silliest earthly endeavors in proper perspective, without any alteration of our perceptions of God.
If a champion wins an Olympic medal, an Oscar, a Super Bowl, or even a significant political campaign, and celebrates the triumph with invocation of the Almighty's reign, that victor doesn't claim supernatural favor but rather recognizes mortal limits to his own power. When the most admired public figures take time to express gratitude and share credit, it suggests an admirable quality of humility that remains in short supply in celebrity culture and the nation at large.
(Nationally syndicated talk radio host Michael Medved, a member of USA Today's Board of Contributors, is author of The 5 Big Lies About American Business.)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/13/war-on-christian-athletes-god_n_1669067.html 

Reformation Day Sermon 2011 - Sin and Freedom 6NOV11

HERE is the beauty of Christianity explained by one of the best preachers I have ever read, Nadia Bolz-Weber, the Sarcastic Lutheran....

Romans 3:19-28 ¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.²⁰For "no human being will be justified in his sight" by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
²¹But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, ²²the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, ²³since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; ²⁴they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; ²⁶it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.
²⁷Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith. ²⁸For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.

John 8:31-36  ³¹Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; ³²and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."³³They answered him, "We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, 'You will be made free'?"
³⁴Jesus answered them, "Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. ³⁵The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. ³⁶So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

I was a rebellious teenager and couldn’t wait to be free from the tyranny of Dick and Peggy, my parents.  I pictured being able to stay out as long as I wanted, eat and drink whatever I wanted, and spend time with whomever I wanted.  All I wanted was freedom. And as soon as I was unleashed from the grip of parenting I would be free to have as much fun as I could cram into a 24 hour day.  That day finally came and yet, strangely there still was no freedom.  For I had exchanged one form of bondage for another.  Yet now it was bondage to self.  In my late teens and 20s I just lived under the tyranny of my own selfish desires instead of the tyranny of my parents and I was far from free.    I always thought freedom meant being able to do whatever I wanted but if that’s freedom then I was lied to. It ends up that real freedom is not the same as unfettered access to personal choices. Freedom in the form of me getting to do whatever I want is still being enslaved.  Because selfishness is still a cruel master.
I mention this because in our readings for today Jesus claims that he will make us free.  It’s just that I don’t think he means that he will create an environment where we get to be our own boss and do whatever we want. Plus when it comes to knowing the truth of what we are in bondage to and the truth of what real freedom looks like we often get things wrong. 
This is what we see in the text we read from John’s Gospel.  We know that Jesus is talking to some of his fellow Jews when he says his famous line “you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”.  And then they’re like “Oh yeah, we’re descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone”.  Um, are you sure?  Babylon ring a bell….or, I don’t know… Egypt?  what exactly was it that Moses led your people out of? A carnival? no.  it was slavery.
Rather than give a history lesson, Jesus uses the opportunity to make the point that we are actually slaves to sin.  And that weird denial of reality in which we say “Well, it’s not like we’ve ever been slaves” simply points to the delusions we all seem to have. In some circles those delusions are called Denial. And denial is a wonderful thing…until it’s not. My daughter Harper was a defiant and willful toddler.  I’m sure you’re shocked.  I know my parents were delighted. Anyhow, when she was 3 and we were about to go on a 2 hour car ride we told her she needed to go to the bathroom first.  Not liking being told what to do she become recalcitrant.  When I said honey you have to go pee.  She stomped her foot and said No! Never!  This I can relate to.  I want to create my own freedom but when I do it just always seems to be just another form of bandage.
So when we are offered real freedom it’s like Jesus is saying exactly what is it that God leads you out of?  a carnival? no.  It’s our bondage to sin from which we cannot free ourselves.
But in an age of self care and therapy and high self esteem (and there is nothing wrong with these things per se) but in such an age, and especially in the so-called progressive church, sin is not a popular topic.  As a matter of fact, in the church planting business these days, there is a trend toward eliminating any talk of sin at all…including the confession and absolution at the beginning of our liturgies.  Why?  Because it’s too negative.  People don’t want to hear they are sinners. Partly because they think saying you are a sinner is just having really low self esteem.  But in all fairness our discomfort with the term sin stems partly from the fact that the term has so often been abused and misused in the church.  Especially when sin is preached as something totally avoidable by good people.  Immorality is pretty avoidable…sin is not.  My suspicion is that when people hear “you are a sinner” what they really hear is, “you are immoral”  and if you are someone who doesn’t cheat on their taxes or their spouse and doesn’t murder or steal then you understandably don’t want to spend your Sunday morning having someone imply that you do. But sin, Martin Luther reminds us, is bigger than simple immorality.  Sin is being curved in on self without a thought for God or the neighbor. It can be alcoholism or passive aggression.  It can be the hateful things we think but never say or it can be adultery or it can be that feeling of superiority when we are helping others.  Our being curved in on ourselves will fashion itself in endless variety.  Pretending otherwise just never helps.
See, that’s the thing about truth…Truth…when it is real can cut deep and heal at the same time.  And Jesus says that truth brings freedom.  Freedom from having to pretend , freedom from having to defend, freedom from having to protect. And hearing the truth that we are in bondage to self and that no amount of trying to be good can change that cuts deep but it also heals. It heals because it simply gives us no choice but to be placed in the loving arms of Jesus, the great physician who heals through grace.
Martin Luther, in a letter to another preacher said “if grace is true, you must bear a true and not a fictitious sin. God does not save people who are only fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly.” That’s the other side of the truth coin.  Yes, you are a sinner.  But you are also a saint. Fully made new and alive in Christ. We are all simultaneously sinners AND saints. But sometimes being told that you are a saint can be just as hard to hear as you are a sinner.
You are a real and not a fictitious sinners and you are objects of God’s real and not fictitious grace.
See, Jesus brings real truth and real freedom. He isn’t just sitting in heaven waiting to see if we can pull off the impossible thing of becoming righteous on our own and then condemning us for our inevitable failure.  Jesus subverts the entire paradigm.  Because Jesus actually IS our righteousness.  Despite our lumpy broken lives, we are righteous before God.  But our righteousness is that of a Merciful and gracious God who comes to us in the vulnerability and suffering revealed in the cradle and cross. And the thing is….with the righteousness of Christ there is no extra credit to be obtained. It just is. 
So the truth that sets you free is so much more than the truth of your personal and our societal sin.  The truth that sets you free is also the truth of your unbelievable beauty and saintliness. 
Because it is always the truth of who we are coupled with the truth of who God is that sets us free. And I’m in it for the freedom.  And we are given not just the freedom FROM sin and death…we are without question given the freedom FOR the neighbor. 
         People often give House for All Sinners and Saints puzzled looks. They sometimes furrow their brow and tilt their heads and say Why do you bless bicycles and bring thanksgiving lunches to strippers and assemble bleach kits for IV drug users and sing hymns in bars.  And smiling I always say “I don't know. Because we’re free?”.

Jesus Walking on the Water - A Sermon Sarcastic and Serious from SARCASTIC LUTHERAN 8AUG11

AGAIN this lady touches me with her sermon, because she is honest enough to apply the teachings of Christianity to herself and not only to those she is preaching to....

It’s Jesus walking on the water Sunday here at House for All Sinners and Saints and we thought maybe during Open Space we should have a kiddie pool set up in the back so you could all “test your faith”.  You know – go ahead and give it the old Christian try.  That’s how I’ve always heard this story preached:  like it’s the Little Engine Who Could Have.  As a matter of fact,  here’s a 1 minute version of the sermon I just don’t have the stomach to preach to you….it might sound familiar: The disciples are in a little boat battered by waves, they see Jesus walking toward them and for a moment, Peter is a hero.  He steps out of the boat and has sufficient faith to walk on water.  He actually does it.  Peter musters up what it takes to be God-like and what it takes is faith.  Lots and lots of faith.   Because with enough faith you can walk on water all the way to Jesus. If you had enough faith you could do it too.  And maybe even better than Peter. Because Peter’s only mistake was that he took his eyes off Jesus and that’s why he sunk.   So the moral of the story, and of course every Bible story is about how to be moral…so the how to be moral of this story is that if you in your life are not God-like in your ability to financially prosper or overcome all your failings as a human or defy the forces of nature and walk on water then the problem is that you don’t have enough faith and you should really muster up some more because the thing is, it’s all up to you to make your way to Jesus.  So, don’t be afraid.  Get out of the boat but be better at it than St Peter and don’t take your eyes off of Jesus. You can do it if you really try. End of sermon.  And good luck with that.         
          OK, this is a cynical view even for me, but it’s honest.  Yet I know that having a preacher tell me that the solution to my problems is to just try and have more faith – so I can make my way to Jesus never sounds like good news to me.  It reminds me of The Simpson’s episode where square jawed newscaster Ken Brockman made a set of motivational tapes called “get confident stupid!”.  In the end, I just don’t know how helpful is to say “get faith sinner”.  It doesn’t work. 
But the weird thing is, here you all are. Gathered again around this story of the man who walks on water.  Some of you are new to the story of Christ, and for some of you it formed who you are from the cradle. I could be wrong but I think maybe we aren’t all here because some preacher exhorted us to  “have more faith”.  I think we are here because at some point we heard the Story and the story claimed us. At some point, someone told you the story about this God who created the universe, who spoke through prophets, who came to us in Jesus, who ate with sinners and scoffed at the powerful, who suffered and died and rose again and calls us out of our of own graves to new life.   And here’s the thing about stories…  they tell us who we are. Sometimes a story can tell us what to do but when we hear who we are we then know what to do and God’s story found in the Bible does this more than any other story can.
And I guess this particular story of Jesus walking on water can be reduced to a moral about having more faith.  But, like so much of the Bible, it can also be a way to see who we are and see who God is for us. 
See if you recognize yourself in this story: Because maybe some of us are like the ones in the boat who are afraid. Maybe you are so caught up in the fear of making the wrong decision that you can’t make any decision at all. Or maybe you are like the one experiencing the thrill of stepping into the unknown -  a new relationship or a new job or you’ve just moved to Denver leaving behind the familiar - and maybe the first few steps are ok but then it gets scary.  Or maybe you or the person next to you is the one who is sinking in debt or depression or maybe you feel like you’re sinking because what you could handle last month you just can’t handle now. Or maybe you’re the one who knows you’re doomed, knows that all your own efforts have failed and you are crying out to God to save you and you’re the ones who Jesus has reached down to catch and you’re clinging on to the sweet hand of Jesus with all you’ve got.  or maybe you’re the one in the boat looking in wonder all you’ve just seen… you’re the one who bears witness to the miracle and danger of it all and how the hand of God reaches down and pulls us up and you see it and can’t help but say “truly this is God.” At some point or other I know I have been all of the above.
Yet, a lot of what I’ve heard in the church both with this story and with so many others is not who I am but who I should be.  I should be the one with enough faith to walk on water.  I should be the one whose eyes are always always on Jesus. I should be the one who makes my way to Jesus.
But all these characters in the walking on water story – the cautious ones in the boat, the brave one who walked for a time on water, the same one who is afraid and sinks and calls for help, and the ones who saw it all and confessed that Jesus is the son of God they are all actually equal in their relationship to God because…all of these and you have one thing in common: they are those whom Jesus draws near saying “it is I, do not be afraid”.  The glamorous part of this story is that Peter walked on water. Which I admit is pretty cool. And maybe he almost had enough faith to make his way to Jesus.  But what happens on either side of his short little water walk?  Jesus comes toward HIM.  In the storm Jesus is walking toward the boat, when Peter sinks Jesus is reaching toward Peter then he comes so much toward them all that finally he just gets in the damn boat.  That’s about as with them as he can be. Yet we seem to always focus on Peter walking toward Jesus when the whole story is about how much jesus walks toward them reaches toward them and then even gets in the boat with them.
We might see the moral of the story as “you should have so much faith that you can walk on water toward Jesus” but the truth of this story is that Jesus walks toward us. The truth of the story is that my abundance of faith or lack of faith does not deter God from drawing close.  That even if you are scared to death you can say Lord Save Me and the hand of God will find you in even the darkest waters.  Because this is a story not of morals but of movement. Not of heros of the faith making their way to Christ but of Christ drawing near to you in the midst of fear.  As our reading from Romans says the Word of God is near to you – on your hearts and in your lips.  And for us for today, I would say the Word of God that was made flesh and dwelt among us in Jesus the Christ draws near to you.  He is written on your hearts and is proclaimed from your lips.  He walks toward you saying “It is I, do not be afraid”  and God reaches down when you call his name and as Paul wrote to the Romans Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
¹⁴But – he writes - how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? ¹⁵And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
So. There is actually a kiddie pool in back filled with water and scented oil. I invite you during open space or during communion not to try and walk on it, but to dip your feet in as a blessing.  Feel the cool of the calm waters and know that yours are the beautiful feet of they who have been sent to tell the story of who you are and who God is….and  you tell the story of God so that you and others might call out Lord save us as we continually die and rise in the waters of our baptism. Do not be afraid.  For that is your beautiful story.

My response to Sojourners from SARCASTIC LUTHERAN 12MAI11 & My Thoughts on Sojourners, Coalition Building, and LGBTQ Rights from SOJOURNERS 13MAI11

AN amazing post from Sarcastic Lutheran on conflict within the faith community. I really love this lady's sermons and post, they make me think and often convict me. But one of the most amazing things is she always seems to include her struggles, sins, and doubts in her teachings and applies the gospel lessons to herself as well as the reader and those in her congregation. Here she addresses a conflict of beliefs with Sojourners, followed by a well written post on God's Politics Blog from SOJO........

I’m not so much of a blogger anymore but several people have asked for my response to the fact that Sojourners, described as a progressive Christian commentary on faith, politics and culture seeking to build a movement of spirituality and social change, has refused to sell ad space to Believe Out Loud an organization who is helping churches become fully inclusive of all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. 

I’ll start by telling a short personal story.

Two days after Osama Bin Laden was killed, my father asked if he could read a sermon I wrote a few months back, “Loving Your Enemies Even When You Don’t Really Mean It” to the guys at his men’s prayer breakfast.  Here’s what you need to know about that: my Dad is a member of the Church of Christ (they do not ordain women…indeed women are not even allowed to be deacons or lead a prayer at worship) and the men to whom he was reading my sermon are (to the best of my understanding) wealthy, privileged, and both theologically and politically conservative.  Later that day when we spoke he said “That sermon was so powerful Nadia, I can’t imagine the teachings of Jesus being put more poignantly.  You could have heard a pin drop in that room.” I was thrilled.  Until he said “Of course I didn’t tell them who wrote it”.  And then my heart sank.

I texted him that “perhaps for those in the room who believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ simply cannot be preached by a woman it might be important  to know who wrote the sermon they just heard”.  He texted back “I’ll fight one battle at a time, thank you very much”  Did this feel like shit?  You bet.  Did I feel betrayal? No question. But even in the midst of this I was grateful that 2 days after Osama Bin Laden was killed and amidst the inevitable celebration of our “victory”, that a group of wealthy conservative men heard the message about how Jesus calls us to love our enemies.  And they may not have had ears to hear if they knew I wrote that sermon.  This is the ambiguity of our fragile, messy human existence.  I long for black and white, I really do…but that’s not how I experience the world. 
 
My name is on the Sojourners God’s Politics Blog and I serve a church that is self-described and indeed is “queer inclusive”.  Some of my progressive Christian friends and colleagues are calling for a boycott of Sojourners until they make a bold stand for the full inclusion of our GLBTQ brothers and sister in the church. I respect this.  I too want to take the strong stand for those who are always asked to eat last and least at the table or who are prevented from coming to it in the first place. The change needed in and indeed being experienced by the church right now in terms of full inclusion calls for bold action by those who are willing to take a stand.

But as I thought about what to say or do in response to Sojourners I felt confronted by a terrible ambiguity.  The ambiguity is this: Sojourners has, in my assessment, done more than any other organization to call Evangelical Christians to the reality that a central part of following Jesus is a concern for the poor, a truth largely absent from much of American Evangelicalism.  They have a platform to speak about social justice to those who otherwise may not have ears to hear and this is critical.  While mainline Protestantism is on a clear trajectory toward full inclusion (shout out to the PCUSA here) our free-church Evangelical brothers and sisters are by-in-large not there yet.  By taking a stance on GLBTQ issues Sojourners may lose their ability to be a voice for the poor in the more conservative areas of the church. 

Are the poor more important than GLBTQ folks?  Is it ok to throw the rights of one group under the bus so that another group’s rights might be upheld? I wish there were really clear back and white answers here but the fact is that we live in a much more ambiguous world than that.  As a Lutheran I confess to living in the tension of being simultaneously sinner and saint and living in a world filed with the paradox of such. 

So here’s my response: I confess the ways in which I have favored the rights of one group over another.  I confess the ways in which I long for black and white answers to questions that elude them.  I confess the fact that by staying in relationship with Sojourners I may be hurting my GLBTQ brothers and sisters.  I confess that I may very well be wrong about all of it.

But perhaps by being the sell-out who claims to try and change the system from the inside I might be the one who is changed into one through whom the gospel can be proclaimed to those with whom I disagree.  And who knows, maybe one day I might actually preach at a Church of Christ and if that happens may I be granted humility and grace….because I don’t naturally have those in my heart.  Trust me on that one.

May 12, 2011 | Permalink

My Thoughts on Sojourners, Coalition Building, and LGBTQ Rights

by Brian McLaren 05-13-2011

On my personal blog, I traced my journey on the issue of homosexuality and explored the challenges of coalition-building. It’s from this place that I’ve been reading about the recent critique of Sojourners over their decision not to accept an ad that would have, in their opinion, “taken sides” on homosexuality.
Some progressive Christian friends of mine have been very critical of this decision and the rationale offered for it, issuing some highly critical statements about Sojourners and its founder, Jim Wallis. Other voices have been raised to counter some of the critique. (Here’s one, and here’s another.) And a few have noticed that sometimes progressives can develop a dualistic, polarized rhetoric that is remarkably similar to that of their mirror image, as Aaron McCarroll Gallegos commented:

At some point doesn’t this show the “if you’re not with us, you’re against us” thinking that is exactly what we “progressives” have been fighting against all these years?

I served on the Board of Directors for Sojourners for several years, the last few years of my term as the chair. So I know the organization more closely than most people who have been issuing their assessments. It’s no surprise that phone calls and emails have been coming in asking my opinion. Did Sojourners make a mistake in rejecting the ad?
Yes, I would say, if it were only the ad (which wasn’t very edgy at all) and if Sojourners were only a magazine for progressive Christians.
But my more thoughtful answer is that Sojourners, as I understand it, is doing coalition work. They are currently focused on building a broad coalition of evangelical Christians, Catholic Christians, and progressive Christians primarily around the issue of poverty reduction. And the coalition they’re building is an essential one, especially as our nation makes historic decisions on getting its budgetary house in order.
Will a majority of evangelical Christians continue to support policies that are careless towards poor people – as Tony Hall has so eloquently lamented? Will mainstream evangelical and Catholic Christians continue to put weapons above health care, and tax cuts for the rich above a safety net for the poor? Sojourners’ founder Jim Wallis recently helped lead a fast on this issue — no small thing — and my suspicion is that if anyone can continue to nudge an evangelical-Catholic-progressive poverty-reduction coalition in positive directions, it’s a coalition in which Sojourners is a key convener.
But again, there’s a cost to convening that kind of coalition. One can’t lead on other issues that would split the coalition. (Yes, one can stretch the coalition on some issues, but not too many, not too far, and not too fast.) If Sojourners decides to lead on LGBTQ issues, someone else will have to arise to lead a broad coalition on poverty issues because Sojourners will be — as things stand — excluded from the table. Conversely, if Sojourners decides to lead a broad poverty-related coalition, others will need to lead on LGBTQ issues.
And that’s where I understand the frustration of those who are frustrated with Sojourners. They wish Sojourners would lead in this issue too. Frankly, so do I when I forget how hard it is to build coalitions, and when I forget that taking bold stands is only one important part of the complex process of social change.
If I were to boil down messy contemporary reality to an equation, here’s what it would be:

• You can’t lead a coalition of progressive Christians without being an outspoken leader on LGBTQ issues.
• You can’t lead a coalition that includes mainstream evangelical and conservative Catholic Christians if you are an outspoken leader on LGBTQ issues.

Eventually, Sojourners may change its policy. The organization may decide to switch its focus from a broad anti-poverty coalition to a multi-issue progressive coalition, the kind that many folks thought Sojourners was already leading. Or maybe more evangelical and Catholic Christians will stop refusing to be part of coalitions with gay-affirming folks, making it possible for Sojourners to stretch the coalition faster and farther? Or maybe Sojourners will stay on their current course, staying focused primarily on poverty and paying the price by having to remain silent on other issues? If so, new organizations will need to fill the role of leading a progressive Christian coalition.
But as soon as that new coalition forms, you can count on this: Some folks will sooner or later want it to be more outspoken on more issues than the coalition originally intended. And tensions will arise. And these could be destructive tensions, tearing the coalition apart. But they could also be creative tensions — growing pains, if you will — pushing people out of the status quo into terra nova. I wouldn’t have moved from “conventional” to “accepting-but-not-affirming” to “internally-conflicted” to “coalition-building” to “being an ally/advocate” if it weren’t for a lot of this creative tension. And I’m still in process — unfinished, phasic — because my tensions are not resolved.
That’s one of the curses of being progressive, I suppose. Once you make progress on one issue, if you stop and conserve those gains, you become conservative. (That’s an important job. Somebody’s got to do it.) If you want to stay progressive, you must move on to new issues. Progressivism is a moving target.
Sadly, though, we aren’t making sufficient gains in relation to poverty, as I’ve written about elsewhere. If anything, in terms of income and wealth inequality and opportunity for the poor, and in terms of the raw numbers of people living in poverty globally, we’re losing ground fast, and we’re in danger of losing even more ground.
So my advice is to appreciate Sojourners for their important, irreplaceable work on building a coalition of Christians who care deeply about poverty. And look to others to take the lead on human rights and full inclusion of LGBTQ people, at least for the immediate future.
And feel the beauty, struggle, messiness, and agony of change in all its phases. This stuff isn’t easy. For anybody. And we’re all in it together.
What’s in a name? In this case, more than we realize.
http://blog.sojo.net/2011/05/13/my-thoughts-on-sojourners-coalition-building-and-lgbtq-rights/
Brian McLaren (brianmclaren.net) is a former pastor and the author of over a dozen books, including Naked Spirituality: A Life with God in Twelve Simple Words.

 

All Saints (& Sinners) Sermon from SARCASTIC LUTHERAN 31OKT10

All Saints (& Sinners) Sermon

Luke 6:20-31

²⁰Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. ²¹“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. ²²“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. ²³Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. ²⁴“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. ²⁵“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. ²⁶“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
²⁷“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. ²⁹If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. ³⁰Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. ³¹Do to others as you would have them do to you.

It’s All Saints Sunday boys and girls. I know this might not ever be a popular idea but I am officially suggesting we re-name this ancient feast of the church All Sinners and Saints Day. And here’s why:
 Because a couple months ago Amy Clifford and I were walking down Sherman between 13^th & 14^th when we noticed a large memorial in the courtyard of  that weird Pillar of Fire church across from the capital…you know, the one with big pink call letters KPOF on roof…anyhow…so this memorial said “Alma White, founder of the Pillar of Fire church 1901” I totally freaked.  Turning to ACliff I said “Alma…that’s a woman’s name isn’t it?  Did a woman plant a church in urban Denver in 1901????” Desperate for someone I can place in the category “hero” or “role model” it took me about 2 seconds to pull out my iphone and look up information on Alma White.  My excitement about discovering a new hero only built as I read her Wikepedia entry…and I quote “Alma Bridwell White (born 1862 – died 1946) was the founder, and a 'bishop,' of the Pillar of Fire Church. In 1918, she became the first 'woman bishop' in the United States. She was noted for her feminism, ......and her association with the Ku Klux Klan in New Jersey, .....her anti-Catholicism, antisemitism, racism, and..... hostility to immigrants”

Great. 
The next day I called my friend Sara to tell her the story of how I thought I had a hero but it ends up she’s just a lousy racist… and her response was “email me her name…I’ll add her to the litany of saints along with all the other broken people of God”
I don’t want Alma White on the litany of saints.  It messes with my categories…I want racists to stay in the ‘racist’ box.  When they start sneaking into the ‘saint’ box it, you know, makes me nervous.
But on this day when we remember the dead I wonder if examining how we use categories and boxes might be useful.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like we can avoid using them all together…What ways do we have of understanding the world around us if not through the use of category?  Early in human development putting things in proper categories allowed for our survival… knowing whether a certain plant, for instance,  fell in the category “dinner” or the category “poison”.  So while they are inevitable, categories and our use of them can also be a window into our desires…especially when it comes to our need for purity.. wanting the good people to be all good and the bad people to be all bad. 
So in Luke’s Beatitudes we heard earlier you know the “blessed are”s the and “woe to”s…well it feels like Jesus has a few things to say about our reliance on categories.  He comes and says you know your category “blessed” the big box in which you conceptually place all the good things and the lucky people?  Well, Jesus says, just watch as I slip some unsettling things into your box labled “blessed”  And out of the corner of our eye we see Jesus put the poor, the hungry, the reviled into the blessed box, and do it with impunity.
Then he turns and puts all the wrong people in the ‘woe to you’ box: the wealthy, those with full bellies along with people who laugh. 
And that’s what Jesus does with our categories, our precious ways if being so sure about everything: who is good who is bad who is blessed who is cursed who is right who is wrong.  Maybe Jesus is telling us that our categories and need for purity aren’t actually going to help us understand God at all.
I, for one, think knowing the difference between a racist and a saint is kinda important. But when Jesus again and again says that last shall be first and the first shall be last  and the poor are blessed and the rich are cursed and that prostitutes make great dinner guests then it makes me wonder if our need for pure black and white categories is maybe not true religion at all but is actually sin.  Bonhoeffer said the original sin in the garden of Eden was choosing knowledge of good and evil over the knowledge of God.  We’d rather know what categories we fit in and more importantly what categories others fit in rather than know God and I think on some level what that ends up meaning is that we can either try and be God, or we can know God.  It’s kinda hard to pull off both.
So when Jesus messes with all our categories it’s not a call to get better categories, maybe it’s a call to subvert them all together.  Because what we are dealing with here is not so much an either/or God but a both/and God.  And in a culture that thinks the purpose of religion is the proper application of categories: right from wrong, good from bad, sinner from saint, pure from impure this can be a problem.  Yet suspending the categories for a minute might just allow us to sit in what the mystics called the great cloud of unknowing. 
         And where are we the closest to the great unknowing but when we touch the mystery of death.  Death, the ultimate impurity.
It is finally only a God who does not adhere to our categories who can enter into death itself and say even here…even here on the cross I will be found.  I will be with my broken saints and forgiven sinners not just in times of full bellies and laughter but in times of suffering and despair.  And in this both/and God in whom we live and move and have our being that we are connected to all who were and all who are and all who will be.  So that even the categories of time and space are suspended, supplanted, subverted. This is what it is to be sainted – it is to be entirely human and bound to the broken reality of life yet somehow free from all of it at the same time.   This freedom, this unknowing in the face of God is the key to sainthood that is, to understanding all our lives as belonging to, coming from, going to God.
For it is not our ability to be saintly but God’s ability to work through sinners that makes us and those who have gone before us the saints of God.   It is not our ability to choose good over evil which makes us pure – it’s God’s ability to forever name us as God’s own which makes us saints.  The title is always conferred…it’s never earned. 

  I mean, Alma White was a stone-cold racist who also paved the way for women become leaders in the church.  To say a racist can be a saint is not the same as saying that being a racist is saintly. Martin Luther reformed the church, translated the Bible into the vernacular so that for the first time in history regular people could read it and then toward the end of his life he wrote horrible anti-semetic rants.  Martin Luther King Jr sparked a non-violent revolution in America insisting on the freedom and dignity of all God’s children and he cheated on his wife. 
The point being lets call a sin a sin by all means but if we want purity in our Saints or in our selves we are going to be disappointed.

So on the Feast of All Saints and Sinners let us celebrate not the myth of saintly purity but the God who manages to get all kinds of redemptive beautiful things done through broken saints and redeemed sinners.  And let us sit in the great cloud of unknowing with the communion of saints being certain of nothing but the mystery of it all…and that somehow in this both/and God all of what we see as good and bad and pure and impure…the saints and the racists  all of it is held together.  As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be. Alleluia. Amen