Blessing: Love Is God's Essence, So Let Us Be Loving (based on Ephesians 5:1-2)

If we pay attention to what God does, then we'll know what to do and how to do it, just as an apprentice learns a trade from a craftsman.

Love is God's very essence and nature, so we should learn a life of love. Jesus is the best example we have of this. We need to remember the way that Jesus loved; not cautiously but extravagantly, not in order to get something in return but to bring out the best in everyone and everything. 

That is the example we should follow, with our lives full of that kind of love.

Prayer of Reflection based on Matthew 5:13

Salt and Light by Bernie Rosage Jr.

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste,
how can its saltiness be restored?” -- Matthew 5:13

Please join me in prayer ...

"God, you placed us in the world to be its salt.
We've been reluctant to commit ourselves,
afraid of what it could cost us.
We have turned away from cries for mercy
and our salt dissolved as if in water.
Forgive us.

You placed us in the world to be its light.
We've been afraid of the shadows,
afraid of the poverty.
We have passed by people created in your image
who made us uncomfortable
and our light has faded away.
Forgive us.

God, you placed us in the world to live in community.
You hardwired us to love,
to share in life,
to struggle for mercy and justice,
May your grace take root and come to life in us.

Amen."

Responsive Call To Worship: Where Love Rules Over All (based on Proverbs 16:7)

The Forge (Swords Into Plowshares) by Bo Bartlett

Reader: God of grace, we have come to catch a glimpse of your kingdom of kindness …
All: … a world where loves rules over all, where enemies embrace.

Reader: We want to see a world where division and fear disappear in light of your love.
All: We come to be reminded again of who you are, what you've done, and will continue to do.

Reader: You are loving and trustworthy and you don't give up on us.
All: God, we know you can transform us.

Reader: Turn our hearts to be more like yours.Your love is limitless and your grace is overflowing.
All: For this, we give you thanks and praise.

The Church: Astroturf or Grassroots? - Jeff Wiersma

Here is the bottom line: chasing passing trends in pop culture or commodified churchianity doesn't make us excellent. It makes us redundant!

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, there was a trend in professional sports stadium construction that saw the rise of multi-purpose stadiums.  Among them were Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Busch Stadium in St Louis and Veteran's Stadium in Philadelphia.  They were cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all stadiums meant to host both professional baseball and football games.  Their playing surface was that epitome of modernism; AstroTurf.

But by 1990's, these seemingly cutting-edge complexes were quickly becoming dinosaurs.  The turf destroyed many knees and ligaments, even ending careers in an instant.  Their cookie-cutter field layouts in no way reflected the unique character and culture of their home city.  With the construction of Camden Yards in Baltimore and the subsuquent old-charm parks that followed, the cookie cutter stadium's simultaneous lack of historical feel and contemporary relevance left them weeded out and left behind. 

In his article 'The Church: Imitate or Innovate?' Jordan Davis raises a point about something quite similar that has always seemed to rub me the wrong way in the American Church. I like to call it the franchising of the church, or "McChurchianity." As a recovering evangelical, I have seen more than my fair share of churches attempting to franchise programs or trends in a top-down manner.

Davis writes:

"When the church attempts to imitate culture, it usually falls short. The result is that they wind up excelling in mediocrity. Granted, I'm sure that's not the goal, but sadly mediocrity is what seems to be offered.

We all realize that a copy is never as good as the original. Unfortunately, we have a difficult time grasping this truth in the church. We have ceased innovating and settled for imitating.

Here is the bottom line: chasing passing trends in pop culture or commodified churchianity doesn't make us excellent. It makes us redundant!

I think it's time we free ourselves from the bondage of imitation by pursuing innovation. What I am suggesting is that we innovate our current models while incorporating Biblical methods. We need the revolutionary truth we posses to reshape everything we do — from our marketing, our music, our message to our evangelism."

 From my experience, this difference between a top-down, franchise approach to church and locally-flavored, grassroots innovation is hard to overstate. It's as a stark a contrast as the one between injury-causing, artificial AstroTurf that is trucked in and rolled out and actual living grass, which must take root in the very soil of each city.

AstroTurf and its installation were antiseptic, sterile and top-down.  It was an infinitely faster process with seemingly flawless results and a uniform surface.

Grass and its growth are organic. It requires soil preparation before you can even put a single seed down. Then there is planting the seeds, rolling them into the soil to ensure that they can take root, shading the seeds from scorching sunlight, and watering the seeds adequately. Once the lawn begins ro grow, the work has only just begun. It needs to be fed so that the soil's pH balance is correct. Weeds need to be removed to prevent their broad leafs from stealing nutrients and water from the grass and preventing sunlight from getting in. Each of these stages necessitates the rolling up of sleeves and the dirtying of hands.

4 Reasons We Don't Sing "Praise Songs" At Our Gatherings - Richard Kentopp

People outside the church don’t listen to Christian Contemporary Music, and its not because of their poor spiritual state. It’s because it's second-rate.

If you stumble into a Servant Church or Mosaic worship gathering for the first time you will immediately notice one thing: you don’t recognize most of the songs we sing together.

For better or worse, you will get a unique musical worship experience at each of the community gatherings I lead.  Attribute it to my deep desire to help restore creativity to God’s church, my indie-rock pedigree, or sheer contrarianism: we don’t ever employ any Contemporary Christian Music.

This is not to say that we don’t praise and worship God. It is, however, to say that we don’t employ music from the highly commercialized genre called ‘Praise & Worship’. 

Why Not? I’m among a growing population that is not helped by this music.  And to be honest, I think that most of this music sucks.

1. Much of it is Lyrically Anemic
Lyrically it seems that much of it is made for children and the parents who purchase the music for them.  The bottom line for me is that most popular praise and worship songs simply don’t say many of the things I want to say to or about God. I have found that I am not alone.

2. Musically it is Lacking
Most contemporary music in white western churches is based on the premise that mimicking a popular artist/style/trend will somehow convince people that listen to regular music to abandon it for the Christianized copy.

3. Christians Aren’t Being Creative In Their Sunday Worship
Due to the lowest common denominator nature of CCM and P&W,  we aren't exposed to a new expression of faith in God.  We should reflect the sophisticated, complex, and beautiful God that we worship.

4. It Doesn’t Help Us Reach Those Outside the Church Doors
People outside the church don’t listen to CCM, and its not because of their poor spiritual state. It’s because it's second-rate.  Genre is language. We can’t have people walk through our doors the first time and immediately realize that they don’t know the language. And worse, that they’ll have to learn it to participate.

The full article is available here

Why Doesn't He - Daniel Brown at Do justice

Too often we are content with a fundamentalist reading of society that limits our view to simplistic boot straps "common sense" and a theology of blame.  Neither of these ubiquitous heresies leads to grace and yet we accept them.

John* was walking along the sidewalk. He wore faded, black denim jeans and an Iron Maiden t-shirt underneath his studded leather jacket. Far removed from the latest fashion trends, he was decidedly a child of the 80s as he lit the cigarette he just bummed from someone passing by.

"He should work like the rest of us."

Perhaps. I won't argue the point. What I would argue, however, is that in this "common sense" statement of moral outrage and judgement we have committed a fundamental injustice: we have absolved ourselves of collective sin without any notion of reconciliation.

Even though we made John.

We made him when we bullied him on the playground and in our silence told our kids it was okay. We made him when we thought taxes were too high to justify allocating resources on kids without potential. We made him when our tough on crime agendas made us feel safer and righteous.

The pursuit of justice and reconciliation, the core of our gospel message, requires that we have a more robust theology of sin. Too often we are content with a fundamentalist reading of society that limits our view to simplistic boot straps "common sense" and a theology of blame.

Neither of these ubiquitous heresies leads to grace and yet we accept them. We accept them because they are easy.  We have accumulated poor theology that blinds us not only to the process of reconciliation but to the fullness of grace itself.

The full article is available here

Ken Ham and Bill Nye Debate Doesn't Reflect Reality - Christian Piatt in Sojourners

Science and spirituality only work if, beneath it all, we keep the notion that it's very likely, if not inevitable, that much of what we think and believe is true today will change tomorrow. And that's okay. It's part of being human.

The desire of a vocal minority to cling to a notion that the entire universe is a few thousand years old, despite the clear physical evidence to the contrary, points less to a reasonable alternate view of the observable world.  Rather, it points to a desperate attempt to maintain a dying voice in the cultural conversation. It’s the sound of a once culturally dominant voice trying to resist its own marginalization to the fringes of a society who values the pursuit and evolution of human thought.

The reality is that a healthy number of us who consider ourselves to be Christian embrace science. We think critically. We accept the likelihood that much we think we understand about the world, the universe, and about our faith can (and should) change as we learn new things.

We understand that faith is more about questions than answers, and that the prime mover in our faith practice is to be more like Jesus (especially with how we treat others) rather than focusing so much on trying to make others more like us.

Science figured out something long ago that religion still struggles with. Built into the scientific method is the assumption that all hypotheses and theories should be held loosely, and ultimately, released in exchange for new ones when the evidence before us calls for it.  Religion, on the other hand, tends to carve out a position and defend it tirelessly, from generation to generation, sometimes to the death. Never mind if it’s clearly absurd, counter-intuitive, and based in bronze-age thinking.

Science and spirituality only work if, beneath it all, we keep the notion that it's very likely, if not inevitable, that much of what we think and believe is true today will change tomorrow. And that's okay. It's part of being human.

The full article is available here

A Justice Confession - Jodi Koeman at Do justice

photo by Jodi Koeman

Behind the call for justice there is a little secret, something I don’t think we like to admit. We like the idea of justice more than we like “doing justice”.

You see, I think I’m someone who works for justice, and who tries, as the Old Testament writers describe, “to put things right”, but when I’m honest, I wonder if justice is more of a hobby than a lifestyle for me.

Justice sure is easier when you are not the one stuck in the mess. As we gain more power, we often gain more distance and disengagement. Our vision for justice seems so simple and clear. We discuss the topics, we write the letters, and we voice our opinions with such confidence. We know the ins and outs of the issues, and we can’t believe that “other people” act unjustly. We say, “Why can’t they...?” “I can’t believe they…” “How could they!” Justice no longer becomes something to live out; it merely becomes something to fight for.

What’s the difference? Living out justice means you are part of the action, you are engaged in the struggle, your life looks differently because of justice. Fighting for justice means you can step in and out of the “ring” when it is convenient for you. Fighting can be done at a distance; living out justice is an up close activity. To be honest, at my best moments, I think I’m just fighting for justice, and it’s leaving me feeling a little shallow.

The full article is available here

A Way of Blessing - Kayla McClurg at Inward/Outward

There is no “maybe” in any of his statements, and there is no future tense. He says, “Blessed are you—right now—when…,” not “Blessed are you—maybe in the future—if….”

When Jesus says blessed are the poor in spirit and those who mourn and are meek and merciful, he is not giving preemptive encouragement for the challenging times that surely will come in our lives. He is not saying, if you someday have sadness and grief, you will be blessed, or if you are wronged or persecuted, you can count on God using it in some way.

What he describes are not possibilities, nor probabilities, but the actual current realities.

There is no “maybe” in any of his statements, and there is no future tense. He says, “Blessed are you—right now—when…,” not “Blessed are you—maybe in the future—if….”

The magnet of God’s blessing tugs strongest at those who already know poverty of spirit and grief, who know humility and loss and what it means to hunger for the food of God. They lean toward mercy, probably because they have suffered the withholding of mercy in their own lives. They see life simply, with pure hearts, because events have stripped away the clouds of ego and pretense. They tend to be peacemakers because they already have experienced persecution and blame.

When Jesus says, “Blessed are you when…,” he is talking to folks who already have known the heavy boot of oppression and are uniquely prepared to rise up and follow. People who are low in spirit, hungering for justice and hoping for some hope, right now.

The full article is available here

A Light In This World - Mother Theresa

The Power Of The Gospel - Charles Moore