the fallen

i am not impressed with political leaders or religious leaders who take a "hard line" stance for any topic - because they always fall from grace. it is the "speck and beem" thing Jesus told us about. spitzer is just the latest in a long line of "leaders" who have stood hard on what they saw as a moral issue, only to fall to that same moral issue. when i was a kid my grandfather taught me that, "those who scream the loudest against something, are usually what they are against." i have seen this many times, and more so over the past few years -

leaders who shout "anti-homosexual rhetoric" are caught with gay prostitutes, paying for some pretty kinky stuff. leaders who stand on a "anti-drug" campaign, only to find themselves in rehab working on "personal demons." leaders who shout for a "moral center" are found to be so far to the left, or right, that they lose all creditability. this seems to be the way of the world, shout against and fall into the sin you stand against. but when they do fall, they aways ask for the grace they refused to show others - i am reminded the the swaggart/bakker thing, where swaggart rode bakker about his "sexual immorality" only to stand before his own congregation a short time later asking for forgiveness and grace - yet he offered bakker none.

the hard part for me is not what they are against, or that they have fallen, but that they lived a lie for so long that it is hard to see value in anything they have ever shared - i mean, if they lied that big about who they were sleeping with [and paying big bucks for it] then how can i trust anything they promised? if they lied to the people closest to them, their family, how can i, a stranger, trust anything they have to say? i have lost all confidence in our political leaders, our religious leaders and anyone who claims a "moral right" for any reason - because they all have fallen way short -

now, we can "caulk this up" to them being "human" and they are, but actions must match words. if those we seek to be leaders are not sharing with us a reality we can see and express - who is there to trust to lead? leaders keep complaining that people are not supporting them, well it could be we are just waiting to see who falls next.

just some thoughts i have been having today as i read the spitzer stories - and how they relate to all the flash backs that seem to be going through my mind of past "leaders" great and small.

were do we find common ground?

before i start, i want to explain that i believe Jesus is my Lord and Savior - while i have never had an issue with that, i have to say i am very uncomfortable thinking i need to say that before i go on - and why is that? because i am going to write about "common grounds" between christianity and islam - and i know, if i did not "qualify my words" some would take them out of context - and that is the scary part. there are some who would refuse to dialog, and i pray for them all.

recently i came upon a site called "a common word" where some 250 islamic leaders [originaly 139 signed and more were added] signed an open letter to the christian church seeking dialog between us and them - and that is very cool. they sought to open the dialog with what we hold in common - our belief in one God and our love for others. this excited me because i saw it as a way of being able to stand and talk - to come to the table with two core, common realities and start a dialog of peace - peace between the two major religious groups of the world - because if we are not at peace with each other, the world will never be at peace. but i wonder if it is really possible? not on the islamic end, but on the christain end.

as i read through the site i was impressed with the words of many of our "christian leaders" - but not overly impressed; there was subtance but very little "let's have a cup of coffee and talk" stuff happening. we can do more - how? easy. as local church leaders we can open dialog and friendships with local islamic leaders; we can go and have a cup of coffee - we can start this at a grass roots level, where our voices are not heard on a national stage, but in the hearts of local people, where it counts. while i am encouraged over the voices of the "leaders" i am reminded that for us, Jesus is the head of the church [the true leader] and we are representatives of Jesus on earth - so we, the local church people [pastors and all], should be taking the actions to speak to the hearts and minds of islamic followers in our communities - not to convert, but to have an open, honest and meaningful dialog on what we hold in common -

let's be honest, it is too easy to find the differences, and to be honest i think it is cheap to find them - what costs more, what drives our hearts, should be the desire to find a common ground - a common word - where we can stand and stop the killing in the name of religion - if not, if we are unwilling to take that step we will soon find the world at war, based on the misconceptions we hold about each other and that would be very sad.

changing the world

do we as followers have a faith that can change the world? i often wonder, because if i hear many evangelicals right, our faith is not enough to change us - never mind the world we live in. if, our faith is unable to cause in us a new life, what makes us think we can make a new world? what makes us think we can bring something to the world that will change the direction? if, our faith just "saves us" but does not "change us" what value is it? what value is a faith that does not change our walk, direction or journey?

i was wondering this today as i sit in my favorite coffee shop sucking on my chai latte - what value is a faith that does not change us at a core? if all we can say is "i am saved" but not changed, are we truly saved? it seems to me that we have a great deal more to think about when it comes to the words of Jesus and paul - that when we decide to follow Jesus we are changed, we become a new person - we no longer desire the things we did before - we become "children of God" and in that we seek to live a life of love and forgiveness. we search for ways to unite and not divide; we strive to know others and love them - because we are told we must. if, we are not changed and if we are not seeking out a path of love and forgiveness we can not claim to be followers on a journey of faith where Jesus is the lead.

that may sound harsh, but i am tired of hearing "followers" claiming to love others and yet not wanting to truly love them - people who claim forgiveness, but who do not forgive. i desire to be connected with people who truly desire to live a changed life and seek out the kingdom of God on earth - by loving others and truly forgiving those who have done us wrong - consider it a "christian sanity" where when we strive to be "sane" we know we are to follow the teachings of Christ, even the hard ones.

check out these passages [click here]

emerging and methodists

it might be best to start out with a disclaimer, i attended a umc seminary called drew and pastored a few umc churches in my day. now, that being said i still think a great deal of my theology is based more on the wesleyan traditions and less on other traditions. wesleyan theology connects for me - it allows me to develop a flow on information in my walk of faith that keeps me centered on Christ. I like that, and i think i know why -

the "wesleyan quadrilateral"

scripture - the Holy Bible (Old and New Testaments)
tradition - the two millennia history of the Christian Church
reason - rational thinking and sensible interpretation
experience - a Christian's personal and communal journey in Christ

for me, those allow me to develop a solid emerging walk that calls me to action, prayer and vocation. it allows me to see a christ-centered community of faith seeking to be a missional reality to the world we live in. it speaks to me of a ative and living faith where i can express a narrative theology, with an honest expression of a generous orthodoxy. it allows me to find an authontic community where people, all people - even the broken - can find a home and reach the face of God. in that community i can see to be in conversation and dialog with all people, regardless of where they are in their faith journey. i have found it to be a place where the community can express themselves in creative and dynamic ways.

are they perfect? no, but i can say that they are accepting of others - and that is cooler then being perfect.

searching for grace

where do you find grace? where can we, as humans, find grace and unconditional love? where can we find a place that welcomes us for us? where can we be loved for who we are and not what others demand of us? where can we find a place where we are acknowledged as having value? where can we find a place that helps us over come the pains of life? where can we find a place that simply will help take the pressures off our shoulder? where are we welcomed when we are broken? when we are lost? when we are searching? when we are crying out in pain? where do we find grace?

to be honest, i am not sure. i am not sure where we could ever find this place - a place that just takes you as you - a place that allows you to be flawed, and loves you in spite of the flaws. while i expect the "let down" of people, i do not expect the "let down" of people who profess to be "followers" of "the way." you see, at some level i expect "people" to stab me in the back, but i do not expect to fall to "friendly fire." how do we get past that? how do we get to the point where we as followers truly live in grace?

i am flawed, big time flawed - and i have never said i was not - yet in the "flawed nature" i do not think i have ever walked away from a person in need [and if i did i am so very sorry] - i have tried to be a shoulder, a ear, a voice to help and support. i have tried to be a voice to those who profess to be "followers" and call them to a life that strives to make a difference - sometimes my words and advice are not the best - but i am ok with that - all i can say is i strive to care - i strive to show some level of grace - sometimes more and sometimes less. given that, i have to say that over the past few years i have been meeting people who just seem to ignore the love and grace of christ for others, and it causes my heart to hurt - i cry over the way others seem to treat those seeking grace, love and forgiveness - and they do it in the name of "jesus." it is as if a man is crying in the cold and all they will do is "pray for him" and give him a bar of soap; then say, "look, we helped him by doing the best we could." then, when someone says, "no, you should have given him a blanket" they reply with, "all we had was soap, so we did the best we could." but the question echos, is our "best" that we are called to give - or are we called to go beyond our best, and into the world of meeting the needs of others?

you see, in my flawed nature i understand that living in grace, and sharing love and forgiveness with others, pushes me beyond my best; it pushes me to give of myself to the point of giving away part of myself - it means, that if i truly desire to share with others i must give a piece of myself in the process - and never ask for it back. i must be willing to give of myself, to the end of my life, to help others. this is not the "prevailing wisdom" which teaches "we give of what we have left" - we would never think of giving of ourselves to the point of our lives.

but if we are unwilling to truly go beyond our best we never truly seek to give grace, forgiveness and love to others - oh, sure we will talk a good game, but we will never truly do anything to help.

so, where can one find grace? in you? in me? in the community of faith we gather in? where does one find grace?

welcoming and inviting?

some questions:
how do you define feeling welcomed into a "church?" what would make you never step foot in a "church" again? how would you define feeling "invited" to a "church?" what do you think are the core realities of feeling welcomed and invited? would you feel welcomed in a "church" if you could not find it? would you feel invited to a "church" if there was no one around who could tell you where the "church" was? if you called a "church" on sunday morning, looking to go, but could not speak to a person and only heard a tape [without directions, or even address] what would you do?

the story:
last sunday i had that exact experience - i tried hard to find a local christian church, disciples of christ congregation in sacramento [it is not my style to give the exact name of the local church - besides, what happened after was even more enlightening] only to get no where - the local church had the wrong link to a map on their site, so i googled the address and got directions. after driving in the area for a while i was not able to find the church - so i did the next best thing...

first i stopped into a local store and asked for directions - the store was filled with people getting their morning stuff and no one, no one [not one person there], had ever heard of the church. facing the reality that this church was not connected to the community, i did the next thing i could think of, i called the church. now, i was "in the area" and it was about a half hour before services so i figured i would catch someone in the office and get directions - but all i got was a voice message - so i drove around some more and called again - all i got was the same voice message - so i stopped by a local church in the area and just brushed off the experience as "well, so it goes."

the more i thought about the experience the more concerned i got about the reality of how i felt, so when i got home i decided to email the regional minister for the disciples and explain my frustration and let them know that the way the church "acted" [or did not act] allowed a lack of "welcoming and inviting" to the church - i did not think the email was that bad, it just explained my view and how i felt - the response i got spoke volumes to me - because it discounted my feelings and simply gave excuses as to why the church acted as it did - i replied back and simply expressed my concern about having my experience discounted and how i felt about being given a list of excused for why the church did what it did [or did not do]. but the next email was not a reply from the regional minister, but rather from someone he asked to email me and "explain deeper." the email was rather interesting, and very condescending. she tried to make me feel as if i was the problem for feeling unwelcomed and i did not understand. again, all i got from her was the same list of reasons why the church acted as it did - and my feelings were discounted and pushed to the side.

feeling welcomed and invited:
to invite someone to my home i need to give them the address and help them find the house. if i give the wrong address, or do not give the directions, i am telling them - in a round about way - that they are not welcomed at my house. the same is true for the church. if you tell people, "come" but they have no idea how to get there - you are not saying "come" - you are saying "stay away."

now, there can be a million reasons why a church would not be welcoming or inviting but to be honest none of them are valid. let's be honest, and say straight out, that there there are no reasons for a church to be closed. we all know it, we all say it but we still give excuses for those who do it. one of the first things we need to remember is that it is not "our home" - it is a gathering of community, open to all who are seeking to know christ - what if i was a person who was not a follower, and in a quick decision decided to "go to church" - and could not find the church - would i go again? would i look at it as say, "well, looks like God did not want me to go to church."

while i am not impressed with how the church closed its doors to the community, i am less impressed with how the "leadership" of the denomination simply making excuses for the church. we, as followers, need to be open, honest and stop allowing bad behavior of leaders and churches as they ignore the reality of being open and inviting.

closing:
it is not my desire to "pick on" the "christian church, disciples of christ; i am certain other church have the same problems. but keep this in mind, the "vision" of the disciples of christ is "to be a faithful, growing church, that demonstrates true community, deep christian spirituality and a passion for justice"

yet i wonder; for me, the interesting thing is that to "demonstrate true community" means people are welcomed and invited, to have a "deep spirituality" means we are willing to be more like christ and less like others and if we have a "passion for justice" we do not ignore the feelings of others, and their realities and make excuses for the actions of others.

more pondering

with all the stuff flying around about the episcopal church, i just wanted to add my two cents - well, half a cent - i am not that important. i need to start out saying that i know katherine jefferts schori from when she was the bishop in las vegas. i was talking with the episcopal church about planting and worked with them - katherine was great, but there were a whole lot of very old closed minded priests in the episcopal communion [some very cool ones also] - so it just did not click for me [i am sure it did not click for them either, but this is my story and i get to write the history :) ]. but i digress, let me get back to my "pondering."

with the fresno diocese leaving the communion of the american church i got to thinking what was happening in the episcopal church - now, i live in sacramento, ca so i figured i would look into the church here and see what was happening - all i have to say is, if this area is a "norm" for the church they are in pretty bad shape - in the "northern california diocese" there are over 16,000 "baptized believers" in the church, and of that just under 6,000 are in church on any give sunday - now, that may not seem like a big deal, but i tell you i was shocked - think about that, 62.5% of the "members" of the church do not attend - and that is the norm for the episcopal church, and many other churches as well. why? what would cause 62.5% of the people who are seen as "members" not show up on sunday, or any day for that matter?

liberal? i don't think so. conservative? not that either. irrelevant? now i think we are getting somewhere - yes, i believe the episcopal church, like the umc, the lutherns and many other denominations, have become more comic relief and less communion of saints. we find small, silly and seemingly just stupid things to fight about - so we are fair game for the late night comics and conversations at the bar. when a church that serves an area with just under 3 million people and can "boast" [at best] 6,000 people, on a good sunday, there needs to be a honest and healthy look into what is and is not being said in the church. but my ponder falls to this, the church will not look deep into what is happening, so i wonder if anything will change?

just something i am pondering