I am sharing this story in honor of National Bike to Work Day/Week.
When I was a young boy I asked my parents for a bike, a cool BMX type. So I began to save for it. I did not get an allowance so this took quite a while, a Christmas and a couple Birthdays. When I finally bought the bike I looked at how awesome it was and watched as my brother took off with it for a spin, since I did not know how to ride a bike. For a long time (a year or so) I would come in and look at the bike and dream about riding it, but I was afraid, and since my father would not let us use training wheels it was all the more scary. One day my father, in frustration of the money I spent and the non-use of the bike, gave me the ultimatum to “use it or lose it!” He took me out front and promised to hold onto the seat behind me while I peddled. Within no time I was peddling and going pretty fast, until I realized that my father was no longer holding onto my seat and I panicked. When I asked him why he let go he proudly stated that he had never held my seat and I was biking on my own. I complained that he had lied and, more importantly, made me fall. To which he replied “ you made it all the way around the cul-de-sac on your own before you fell!” To which I noted that I had fallen and that was painful! My dad then said, “Everyone falls when they learn to ride a bike. I could have made that easier for you if you had training wheels, but you still would have fallen, that happens, it’s life. Now you understand how to ride a bike and you know the pain of falling.” My dad was not the spare-the-pain type of parent! Something I think my brothers and I are thankful for. People often ask me those difficult questions of theodicy (the search for a theological understanding for why bad things happen to good people) and I have learned that much of the best verbiage and articulated theology, comes as close to that blunt statement from my father, “people fall, it hurts, that’s life.” For an eight year old it was not the most “pastoral” way of dealing with pain. Though it was the most truthful! I think in a family that is not really bestowed with the best of luck, there is a comfortability with that mystery of “why,” recognizing that there is always something else. A great study of theodicy is the lament psalms, which cry out asking why but always recognizing that there is something more with God. Sometimes it is important to not dwell on the pain, either the avoidance or trying to understand, because that often takes us away from living life. I think often about how after I learned my lesson, though I still fell a few more times, I had respect for my bike and biking became a big part of my life. I know this may sound trivial, the pain of learning how to ride a bike and the deep pains experienced in life are two very different things. I agree, they are. However, I also know that whether minor or major, pain and confusion that hold us back from living hold us back from fully accepting and living into the fullness of what our life with God is supposed to be. In Christ, Bryan
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John 10:1–10
1 Peter 2:19–25 Finding what is RealThe parable of the sheep and the gate is one of the more interesting parables that Jesus gives. In every age, discerning what God wants and what we want is difficult, but what makes it more difficult is trying to figure out whom we are supposed follow. In Early Christianity this was a particularly difficult problem, since there were many who would preach “the word of God” but often took advantage. Paul writes about this a lot, since in the early church there were a lot of people who latched onto the movement only to take advantage of the new believers. There were a lot of reasons why this was advantageous to scoundrels. Since the early Christian movement was apocalyptic, it was easy to get people to part with their possessions and money. Also, though an underground movement, there is always power that comes from taking advantage of others. Many times these false leaders would use the message of Christ, but only to the point where they could assert their control. This often led to causing derision and dissention within the community. Unfortunately, it also harmed the overall Christian message, since people saw the actions and connected them with the movement. Actually, it is not much different than today! Many people cloak themselves in Christianity (and other faith traditions) to hurt and destroy others. The parable of the sheep and the gate is very much about this issue. As sheep we long for a leader and direction. For the most part, we know where that leader is going to come from, the gate. We also know that the gate is only going to allow the chosen to pass through. In this story, both the gate and the shepherd is Christ, so the only true leader is Christ. Thus, Christ alludes to the thieves and bandits. In this case he is referring to “Satan” or the evil one who plans to circumvent the gate and go after the sheep. When thieves come, though they may look all good and well-meaning, they have the explicit purpose of decimating the community for their own gain. However, then the Shepherd comes; his only concern is that the sheep are given life. Often in our community and world we have a hard time discerning what is good and right. But the paradigm that Christ is giving, and that Paul gives, is one that states that the Christian life works for the good of the whole. Unfortunately, this is often ripped apart within our modern society, since so often people jump to any discussion about community building and cooperation to be promoting communism. It is not; in fact, communism in practice is the complete opposite of the biblical mandate, as is rugged individualism. Think about it; as communism is practiced there are an elite group with power who operate to control the people. In rugged individualism, anything it takes to get ahead is justifiable; think about that line “it’s only business.” Either way, one is always going to have more rights or power over another, and this is not the community that Christ envisions for us Matthew 28:16-20
The Great Commission This week at the Gathering we will welcome Sarah Henken, a mission coworker from South America; more about her later. In honor of her joining us, we are going to spend some time with that well-known missional charge, Matthew 28:16-20, the Great Commission. For me, the Great Commission is the best closing for any of the Gospels. I like it because it puts the reader in the position of answering “now you have heard the witness, so what are you going to do about it?” I think I like that because it is a strong reminder that Faith and Action go together. In other words, just because we are saved does not mean that we sit on our hands and do nothing. This reminder that our faith is not supposed to be passive challenges us to go beyond our comfort and attempt to connect with people through sharing God’s love. Unfortunately, The Great Commission, in the past, has been abused. Though many people do not know or remember, this statement was used as a justification for many hideosities including colonialism to genocide. While not part of most mission now, the taint of its use and the horrible aftermath helps us to see why so many show a hesitancy to accept Christian missionaries and Christianity. We also see this abused as we explore religious wars and discrimination. The abuse of The Great Commission comes from a reading that suggests it is the duty of Christians to convert and baptize. While this is true, the passage does not suggest that it is our role to do the conversion; rather, our role is to share, and God will bring them to belief. This means that The Great Commission is not a justification or even a call to forcefully bring people to faith, but it is to spread the loving message of Christ to the world. The inference is that this message of Love is so compelling that they will desire on their own to accept. For denominations like ours, missions of love and compassion were central for our understanding of the Great Commission. This is why, rather than handing out tracts, most our missions are connected to the question of how we help a community become better. Though with the cloud of colonialism, even at that we take a further step back to ask what the needs are and how do we best witness to God through our works and love. Historically we have seen the Great Commission put into work through making our community better by establishing everything from public school systems to many major hospital networks. Today, we live out the Great Commission by recognizing that the church is part of the mission of God in our community, and it is therefore a beacon of light and hope to our communities and place where we share Christ’s love so that they may come to believe. One thing I have learned as I get older it is easy to lose sight of what actually brings joy and happiness. Though I consider myself a generally happy persons there are times when I struggle with the darkness of depression, and that often can become overwhelming. The problem when I get depressed often centers on a disconnect from what makes me happy.
For me, I am most happy when I am out of my space observing the awe and wonder of this world, learning about others and myself, and creating. I know this is what attracts me to religion and to being a pastor. Since we have neither the time nor the ability to fully comprehend God and His creation, I get to be in a perpetual state of awesome wonder when I see and begin to understand God, but often that also points me in the direction of asking more questions, which allows the cycle to continue. Feeling a bit overwhelmed, as every pastor does close to the holy days, I was ready to take a break and reconnect to the faith. This year I decided to follow the Monty Python Line “And now for something completely different!” Not really having a desire to go anywhere, I spent the week on a tour of golf courses around the area. It was interesting, especially since I had not even touched my clubs in over 8 years! While I was in North Carolina and Iowa, I would go golfing quite frequently. Though I never came close to mastering the sport (or even being average). The thing that I like about golf is my ability to practice patience, focus, redemption, and grace. For me, these are four of the most crucial elements of a successful practice of faith. I also think they are four crucial elements of a healthy and happy life. Think about it for a moment. How happy are your when: you are running around all the time; or forcing something that is not going to happen to happen; or never forgiving the mistakes you made; or not allowing you to love yourself? So this past week I stopped and tried (though at times very poorly) to find patience, focus, redemption, and grace. Interestingly, in doing so I found a joy that went deeper than some Hallmark greeting; I was able to touch that place where I was able to see and understand where and how God is in my life and where God was calling me to be. I know it is a lot to put on something like golf, but to be honest, golf had nothing to do with it. Golf like many things was not what brought joy into my life, but it served as a catalyst to see and understand where I might reconnect with joy. So by picking up something that by its very nature if frustrating and difficult, I found the refreshing joy and peace that everyone seeks from a good vacation. But this time I found something more, I really reconnected with God and saw how much a part of my life He is. In Christ, Bryan 1 Peter 1:17–23
Luke 24:13–35 Hopefully all of you who read this have had basic biology and know how babies are made. For the reading this Sunday, this is a very important thing. While the people and the medical knowledge were very different 2000 years ago, they knew that semen was integral in procreative practice (though they thought way to highly of that, but that is another article). For much of the Old Testament, the family line and the Seed (semen) was viewed as sacred. Interestingly, while some would argue that it still does, people viewed the semen as almost having magical powers, which were limited, and thus by wasting seed, one could be interfering with God’s plan. We speculate that this evolved around the need for procreation for survival; even up to 50 years ago in the U.S. agricultural families were huge to be able to tend the land. Purity of seed was also seen as a premium; you could say that is was a form of primitive genetic engineering. When Christianity began, procreation was not an issue much. While still agricultural, there was a sense that they were having some of the urban crowding problems we have today and large families, especially in the urban centers, were not sought after or rewarded. This meant that the seed was no longer seen as integral to a faithful life, though it was still important (again, there is another article there). With the rise of Christianity, one of the lessons which Christ showed through his willingness to engage and minister to gentiles, was that being faithful had much more to do with what happened in the soul. Thus, for Christians, the genetics were not as important as the connection. This meant that birth through procreation came second to the birth through the spirit. In fact, the terminology of the early Christians suggested that instead of an idea of “Conversion” or its evil twin “proselytism” (which caries a forced connotation) the concept was more like adoption. However, the adoption into it began in a rebirth process where the soul was made anew in God and therefore given to God. This rebirth brought the person to a new family where there were obligations and expectations. Moreover, in this new family there is no genetic distinction! We are reminded of Paul’s words on that every time we celebrate communion. And there is no distinction between the “real” children and the “adopted” ones. This is a seismic shift in the understanding of who might be chosen by God, and this points to a faith based on salvation, which comes, not by blood or anything else, but by faith. |
AuthorRev. Dr. Bryan James Franzen Archives
September 2018
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