In my first congregation, I would often arrive at church consistently at about 9:00 am. I would follow my patterns, and after awhile I noticed that I began to run into the same guy standing on the sidewalk right where the sidewalk and the walk to the church entrance was. I always said “Hi,” and he was friendly back, and I would make my way to work, and he would continue on his path. After a few weeks, I stopped and said “Wow! We always seem to meet at this time.” He smiled and said “I know” and continued to walk.
When you don’t know you need to be looking for something you often miss it. And in this case I had. This persistent man wanted to talk with a pastor, but he did not know how to go about it. As I talked about it with my staff they let me know a little of the backstory, so the next morning I was ready to take our relationship to the next level and have a conversation. Turns out he had wanted to talk for a long time, but he felt he was so bad of a person he could not even step inside a church. When I told him that everyone who asks for grace will receive it, his body relaxed, and I invited him to my office. We talked for hours. Interestingly, the “sins” he was so ashamed of were really not that bad, but the inner turmoil of stress, self worth, and perceived evil, kept him from having any relationship with God. Moreover, this inner conflict made him feel like he was not even worthy to talk to someone who could help. He needed me to initiate the conversation. I often say that the biggest hurdle of having a faithful life is the inner conflict; this includes guilt, questions of worthiness, and so on. The hopeful thing about the message of Christ is that none of that really matters, because the Christ who came to save us knows our hearts, and what every worry or inadequacy we feel is really bound to this world and not His. This is why when Christ says, “you cannot truly live unless you live through me,” He means that what we often think is important (the things, problems, concerns of this world) hold us back and create within us turmoil and inner conflict. In fact, often when we have our doubts or question our faith, it is the voices that come from the inner conflict that hold us back. So the problem that most people face is getting beyond that conflict within. Interestingly, for most people the first step is to admit to the struggle. We often say in counseling that you can never help someone with a problem unless they first admit that they have one! This bears true to faith as well. You will never be able to find your faith until you can identify the barriers that you put on your own faith, the stumbling blocks that are there. But once you know them, your world can open because they are no longer your driving force, God will be.
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If you have ever lived near Philadelphia, you know one truth about the United States that most of the country does not, July 2 is actually Independence Day. The reason for July 4th, depends on the legend, but it was July 2 when the Declaration of Independence was completed. However, it is known to most historians that the signatures were gathered on August 2, 1776. Why is this important? Well it really is not, other than a reminder that what we often think of as clear or black and white is not.
The truth about the founding of our country is that the move for independence was a common desire to have an unjust ruler ousted. In fact, it was the only thing that most of the colonies could agree on. Even at that there were some, like New Jersey, that waffled in their support on the separation from England. The funny aspect, now 238 years later, is that often we have declaratives of how perfect the founding of our country was. In school, the war of independence is often romanticized, and the picture that you get was that our country had their act together. The truth about the founding of our country is that they really did not know what they were doing. There was a lot of thinking that went into it, studying to make it right, but what they embarked to do was a new thing, and it was risky. In fact, the first government that we had was so bad that people were beginning to petition to go back to the control of Europe. In time, we all know the story, we developed a republican form government dictated through the constitution with democratic ideals. Much to the surprise of the rest of the world, our country survived, if not for unity, for the mere determination of the people to make it work. Interestingly, as people take the church they often look back 2000 years ago and idealize the early church. They do so in a way that is romantic and sometimes giving the church a lot of credit for knowing more then it did. A movement you often hear in the church “to bring the church back to the simplicity of it essential tenets. We forget that when the disciples and Paul go out, they do so under the direction of Christ, but they do not have a manual of operations. In fact, the canon of the New Testament is not even solidified until the 4th century. Once that was solidified, they still did not agree, since some groups wanted to continue to follow other gospels. It is safe to say that the early church was anything but unified. At times the early church, as described by Paul, was even hostile towards one another. But what Paul teaches over and over is that to be the church we have to work on being the church. Interestingly, Paul reminds us that the unifying aspect of the church is our faith in Jesus Christ. He also points out that what kills the church is when we use Jesus Christ for our own gain or as a weapon. But people do that. We often forget what is really important in life in order to let an issue or a debate or our desire to be right destroy everything else. We see that in our country as we see politics turn from the struggle to be a common people to being a sporting event filled with winners and losers. We see it in the church when individuals who don’t get their way leave instead of seeking a common place to come together. While I do not agree that America was ever founded to be a “Christian Nation” -- there really is no historic proof of that -- there is a lot of Christian influence and similarities, the biggest being that we are called to live in community and continually struggle to find our common place, whether that be a good citizen or a believer in Christ. As we spend the next few weeks thinking about the theme of reconciliation, I am going to take us on a journey through the Confession of 1967. The confession is one of the greatest works on reconciliation in modern Christendom. Born in a time when the church was at it strength and the Presbyterian Church was very active in social witness, the confession of 1967 looked back to the time of World War 2 and asked the questions, how did that happen, and how do we prevent it from happening again.
In a very real way, the idea and discussion of reconciliation was a deep and profound reordering of how the Presbyterian church engaged the greater community and world and has set the direction for mission, ministry and social witness from that day forward. Unfortunately, like many of our confessions, many in the church only know parts or slight references to it without really understanding the fundamental change in individual life and corporate worship that the confession calls for. What all scholars and theologians know about faith is that over time it begins to fall into a pattern where the faithful discussions turn to practical concerns. When this happens the church opens its doors to a myriad of abuses. This was evident for the minds that wrote this confession, including Karl Barth, many who studied under him and others who were shaped by how the Nazi regime used religion as a tool for their evil pursuits. So following the preamble, it should be no surprise to see that the confession starts with Sin. In fact, if you have ever listened to one of my classes on theology, I always start there. Why? Because sin is the great equalizer in the human experience. We are all sinners, and while some might say that one sin is greater than another, all sin separates us from God. This is why whenever we study or debate issues, we are called to do so with open hearts and minds so that we might see where we fall short. I like to say, I know I am wrong, but this is what I think. I also know that when I do fall on the wrong side of a particular issue, there is a truth that I know that helps create a greater understanding and often a better proposal. It is funny as I read the outside comments about the General Assembly. My dad received a letter concerning abortion. Actually, unless you were paying VERY close attention you would not think that there was a single overture about the issue. It asked for a study that would look into the current churches stance. (Click here for the denominations stance) The interesting thing is that the report took the leap that by voting no on the overture, which took a lot of discerning to even realize it had anything to do with abortion, to mean that we supported late term abortions, which our denomination does not. But that is the nature of the times we live in to take a story and make it work for our needs, not necessarily God’s. There is no doubt in my mind that the people who wrote the derogatory article my dad sent me are well-meaning Christians, but they take and make the fundamental mistake instead of seeking the deeper truth they relied their version. Instead of seeking understanding, they furthered their position. It is only when we admit to our sinful nature, when we admit that we can be wrong, that we can begin to be reconciled and grow in our faith. |
AuthorRev. Dr. Bryan James Franzen Archives
September 2018
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