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In This Moment
On Discipleship
Lillie Langtry entered the world in 1853 as the only daughter in a family of seven children born to an English minister and his wife. Blessed with better-than-average resources, she grew up in circumstances of relative ease, married a man of means her family did not approve of, and went on to live a life of excellent social connections and world-wide acclaim as an actress. In fact, she has been termed the superstar of her day, not unlike Ingrid Bergman in her own time, and Angelina Jolie today, at a time when "proper ladies" did not set foot on the stage and retain their reputations. But Lillie Langtry's life also included some missteps, bumps and personal tragedies, including several affairs outside her marriage, her husband's alcoholism, her brother's death and alienation from her adult daughter. She appears to have handled herself with strength and determination throughout her life. Her spirited and practical approach to living is reflected in a quote from Ms. Langtry I recently happened upon. "The sentimentalist ages far more quickly than the person who loves his work and enjoys new challenges."
Although I am certain Ms. Langtry and I would never have traveled in the same social circles, I admire her no nonsense, logical application of enjoyable work and new challenges as an anti-aging device. Ms. Langtry's observation could also be applied to coming to a deeper understanding of what Jesus included in his call to those who wanted to be his followers.
Although not containing the glitz and glamour of the life Lillie Langtry lived in the high society of nineteenth-century London, I am sure there was a powerful attraction to become a part of Jesus' inner circle. Several places in scripture indicate that people approached Jesus about becoming his followers. At other times, Jesus approached individuals to come work with him. "As they were going along the road, someone said to him, 'I will follow you wherever you go.' And Jesus said to him 'Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.' To another he said, 'Follow me.' But he said, 'Lord, first let me go and bury my father.' But Jesus said to him, 'Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.' Another said, 'I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.' Jesus said to him, 'No one who puts the hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:57-62)."
While seemingly rather abrupt, Jesus is very clear with both those who apply and those whom he recruits to be his followers about what they can expect their lives to be like as his followers. This new life encompasses wholly different rules than they have ever encountered before. The covenant relationship they have understood between God and Israel would become very personal, very real, if they make a choice to take on the role of disciple with Jesus of Nazareth. If they say, "Yes," Jesus is telling them they will not be able to count on having a home and all its usual comforts, even a consistent place to sleep every night. They may not be able to put their families first in times of need, and they may not even have the luxury of saying good bye, or explaining where they are going or why. If they choose to accept the call to discipleship, inherent in that choice is that their first priority will always be proclaiming the kingdom of God.
Jesus understood the task at hand, and he was very clear on the amount of strength, persistence, fortitude and faith it would take to move forward into the living of the choice to follow him. He knew, and wanted, his followers who would be disciples to make a conscious, informed choice before saying, "Yes." More than one person has said yes to a new employment situation, only to realize after the fact that they had signed on for something they never expected. Jesus didn't have a whole lot of time to waste, and he needed people committed to God and God's kingdom. There was no room for sentimentality, now or down the road.
"As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, 'Follow me.' And he got up and follower him (Matthew 9:9)." Matthew seemed to have worked out his decision and was ready to accept the offer when Jesus came to him that day. Perhaps he had been in the crowd when Jesus preached his Sermon on the Mount. Maybe he witnessed a healing or had heard of Jesus' reputation from a friend or colleague. For whatever reason, Matthew had weighed the choice and its consequences and was ready to follow Jesus and put the kingdom of God first.
So attached are we to the numbers of church growth and the business of maintaining the physical facilities that house our religious activities, that we frequently misrepresent the true nature of discipleship to those who come to the doors of our houses of worship seeking what Jesus had to offer. It seems as though we are afraid to tell people the truth, that faithful discipleship can be a huge inconvenience, messing up your weekends, your free time, your me time, simply because that is what it is by design. Choosing discipleship, following Jesus in proclaiming the kingdom of God, is choosing a complete reordering of your priorities. This one choice will cause dramatic consequences that will change your life.
Jesus was honest with those he recruited and interviewed for the position of disciple. He didn't sugarcoat the job description, he didn't misrepresent the realities of the work, and he didn't try to make people feel guilty if they chose not to follow him. Jesus only wanted those called to make their own choice about this thing called discipleship. Jesus wasn't interested in making disciples of those who made their decisions on romantic notions or sentimental ideas because those choices would have no substance or staying power when times get tough. Then, as now, Jesus calls to discipleship those who will love the work and enjoy the challenges.
God's blessings, Cory
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In This Moment
Walking in the Dark
What's the weather like in your neck of the woods? We've had some pretty intense storms the last few days where I live and another one is simmering outside my front widow. A storm that rampaged through on Tuesday night provided a spectacular light and sound show, which worked out well because it also took out the electricity for my whole city. While I truly love a good thunder storm, losing electricity for five hours was startling. The lights went out, and my first instinct was to reach for the light switch. The switch worked just fine, but its relationship with the power company was on temporary hold. So, I made my way to the kitchen, pulled out some jar candles and welcomed the soft glow of civilization back to my home. The next morning my neighbors and I compared notes on the prior night's events. When I mentioned the romance of candlelight, they paused, and asked, "Do you have a flashlight?"
Surprise! In that moment the light bulb went on.
It had never occurred to me to get my flashlight out of the hall closet. Despite being more convenient to use, and much easier to transport from room to room, I automatically searched out the candles as the emergency tool for the situation. The candle did tis job, helping me function until I went to bed that night. But I also came up against the usual safety concerns caused by using an open flame, and I had to be cautious about how I handled the candle as I walked around my house. Anything that could catch fire easily had to be avoided. Three cats, very comfortable and confident moving the dark, were another consideration. Tripping over a small furry beast because I couldn't see her in time was a huge consideration. My gratitude at sunrise was also a relief. The electricity had come back on during the night, and all was well with my world.
Looking back over the experience, I would do things differently. I would probably still use the candles, but only as beacons in each room, not as headlights for leading me through the hallways. Candles have their place and are useful, but they are not exclusive among the emergency lighting resources.
As I was sitting with my candles and rediscovered flashlight, I remembered Jesus' words to us about light. "You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under a bushel basket, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:14-16)." What kind of light was Jesus talking about? Where does this light come from? How do we obtain this kind of light? How does it become a part of us?
There are some assumptions on Jesus' part as he addressed the people before him during his Sermon on the Mount, of which this passage is a part. Jesus is speaking to people who have some sense of God as a part of their lives, those who we might term the already converted. But as much as this mainly Jewish audience would have been aware of their historical faith, they had not heard anyone speak like Jesus did about how their faith impacted the world around them. Their faith was a source of hope for them, and could be for anyone they showed it to. Believing in God gave them this light, this hope, and once it was theirs it became their responsibility to let this faith lead the way, like a lamp in the darkness, not just for their own benefit, but for the whole community. As a result, God would be honored. It made no sense to claim a belief in God without letting people know that in their actions, just as there was no point in lighting a lamp if all they were going to do was hide it from view.
Considering Jesus' words today, neither is there any reason to claim a faith that is never made visible, or is revealed so rarely that people mistake it for an archaic candle, familiar only to them as something used for romantic ambiance, rather than a practical, everyday tool, always accessible and ready to use. How we obtain this light is be believing in its Source. How this light becomes a part of us is in the active living of that belief in our thoughts, words and deeds.
God's blessings, Cory
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In This Moment
Going to the Party
A friend of mine loves to give parties. He delights in putting together all the particulars from decorations, to menus, to flower arrangements. Most of all, he just enjoys sharing his gift of hospitality. As a guest at his home I have been treated to beautiful surroundings, great food and a warm loving atmosphere. But I am also treated to some very fine company in the variety of guests who are welcomed to his table. Although many of us do not travel in the same social circle, we are a part of his circle. Because of this one connection, we have come to know each other, and look forward to seeing each other once or twice a year at our friend's home. It is a place we love to be, and it is another reminder of how much we touch each other lives.
It is rather confusing to me, then, this parable of the Great Supper Jesus tells while dining with a group of lawyers and Pharisees one evening. Jesus had just finished speaking about hospitality and humility when, "One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, 'Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.' Then Jesus said to him, 'Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, 'Come; for everything is ready now.' But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a piece of land and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.' Another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.' Another said, 'I have just been married and therefore I cannot come.' So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of this house became angry and said to his slave, 'Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.' And the slave said, 'Sir, what you have ordered has been done, and there is still room.' Then the master said to the slave, 'Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner (Luke 14:15-24)."
Now, that is a very unhappy host. And why shouldn't he be? Dinner parties take a large amount of preparation, and the care in the details extends to those invited. It is with the quests in mind that the gathering was prepared in the first place.
But, back up for a moment and reconsider that last telling comment from our Biblical host. Is he still upset, or simply stating a fact? "For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner," has always seemed to me to be an angry admonishment, almost a threat, to put the people who didn't attend the gathering firmly in their place. basically, these folks who didn't show up better wake up, smell the coffee and realize what fools they were because now they weren't going to be invited to any dinner, ever again.
But what if that wasn't the intention of the parable's closing line at all? What if Jesus was simply saying that those who didn't come to the dinner didn't have the opportunity to enjoy the feast, really taste the richness of what their host had to offer? That is a very different perspective, one of sadness and regret for a guest who would have savored a meal had they welcomed the invitation and attended the dinner. Rather than bitter feelings and anger from the host toward his no-show guests, feelings that would surely result in these people never being offered an invitation again, there is some sense of bewilderment that leaves room for reflection by an open heart and spirit as to why the snub occurred. The host may not like what happened, but he also has not pushed these guests out of his life forever. And, in fact, he has welcomed more people to his table, desiring to always fully extend his warmth and generosity, desiring a full table at every meal.
Perhaps God's response to our excuses for not coming to the table for the Great Dinner is one of equal bewilderment to the host in Jesus' parable. I know that my friend who loves to give parties would not be angry for long if I didn't attend one of his gatherings, but he would be disappointed and sad. I have been invited to sit at his table because I am loved and cherished as a friend, and that wouldn't change because one invitation had been rejected. I can't imagine that God who loves and cherishes me, God who created me, would treat me any differently.
The Great Dinner is ready, and we are all welcome. We may let other situations in our lives deter us from attending, maybe even on more than one occasion. But God never stops extending the invitation to us to sit down with our dinner companions to share in and savor the taste of all God has to offer.
Until next time, God's blessings,
Cory
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In This Moment
The Neighborly Thing To Do
While browsing through the website for my hometown newspaper, the Door County Advocate, I found myself drawn to the Traveling Back section, an impromptu history lesson of Midwestern sensibilities about small town life ranging back ten, twenty, and sometimes a hundred years ago. Since my own memory is stretching back farther each day, sometimes I stumble upon events I remember or which involve people I used to know. One particular story caught my attention today, and I thought you might find it interesting too. Taken from "50 Years Ago, July 17-19, 1956," the event chronicled includes a cow, a lightening bolt and a resurrection of sorts.
"A West Jacksonport cow, knocked unconscious by a lightening bold July 13, is alive and well today because of a quick-thinking Wisconsin Public Service meter reader who administered artificial respiration. The meter reader, Bill Wiesner, was in the area when the lightening struck the cow, knocking it over with its legs in the air. Wiesner pumped the front legs and a neighbor came over to help. When the cow showed signs of life, the two men, assisted by the cow's owner, Frank Lautenbach, heaved the animal to her feet and she ambled away."
Residents of the Northeastern United States may possess a frugal Yankee nature, and the Southerners can lay honest claim to some fine hospitality, but we Midwesterners are as practical and multi-talented a people as you will find anywhere. We are also a neighborly sort who like to see things work out to best advantage for all concerned, especially defenseless animals minding their own business on a stormy afternoon.
The story is from a vantage point a few years before my time, but it apparently wasn't all that unusual for someone who could help someone else in an emergency to do so. Although the frontier was already faded into the distance, the pioneer spirit of assisting each other for the good of the whole community was a strong instinct that still clearly served its intended purpose. Nowadays we hear more about not being able to get service people to our homes to handle their actual jobs, let alone extending themselves to just be kind and helpful. God forbid you should have an electrocuted cow in your back yard when the cable company representative finally shows up to install your high speed interned connection because they probably won't have the skills or the inclination to revive the poor animal.
Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan, found in Luke 10:29-37, doesn't speak about what occupation this traveler who assisted the beaten and bedraggled victim of the story held, or what a glitch taking the time to provide help may have put into his own schedule. What we do know is that Samaritans were not well-loved or even respected by the Jewish community at the time, and perhaps Samaritans felt equal disgust toward their Jewish contemporaries. Basically, Jesus was being put in a corner by a lawyer who wanted to justify his own position on how to inherit eternal life. Jesus and the lawyer had already squared off on loving God, our neighbor and ourselves as was written in the law. But the lawyer wanted more, something specific to prove to himself and whoever was listening, that would indicate what the law really meant. So the lawyer asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" What the lawyer meant was, "What does it mean to be a neighbor?"
And so, Jesus recounted the full parable, how two people who should have helped the beaten up soul on the side of the road walked on by before the Samaritan stopped to help. And then Jesus posed a question back to the lawyer. "Which of the three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?' He said, 'The one who showed him mercy.' Jesus said to him,"Go and do likewise (Luke 10:36-37)."
Jesus' parable answered the question, teaching us that being a neighbor meant extending our thoughts, beliefs and actions beyond the social norms and societal pressures of minding our own business and not helping people we are told not to like, even if there is no discernible reason not to help or like them. By stretching ourselves out a bit, exercising compassion and kindness and lending a helping hand to someone in need, we are living into the great commandments. We are also extending God's grace a little further into eternity. We are being neighbors.
And so we are called, to do the neighborly thing, whether that means resuscitating cows, helping a fellow traveler with medical treatment and lodging or providing a cup of coffee when our next door neighbor's supply has run out. We are called to be neighbors, to offer kindness and compassion and mercy whenever we can.
God's blessings, Cory
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In This Moment
We Are God's Caretakers
An Inconvenient Truth, the documentary and book by former Vice President Al Gore, frames global warming, it's causes and effects, and helps put this worldwide issue into perspective. Gore's supporting website tells us that, "Carbon dioxide and other gasses warm the surface of our planet naturally by trapping solar heat in the atmosphere. This is a good thing because it keeps our planet habitable. However, by burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil and clearing forests we have dramatically increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere and temperatures are rising." Increased temperatures mean adverse effects on the earth in weather patterns, glacial meltdowns and plant and animal life which we are already witnessing. What we can expect is more heat waves, more drought and increased sea levels at our coasts that will force human beings and animals to migrate to less threatening areas.
Gore's premise in asking us to pay attention to global warming and its effects isn't to frighten us to the point of paralysis, but to nudge us to see the truth, assess our own contribution to the problem and to take action to change our own behaviors so that we can collectively reduce the amount of carbon we are dumping into our atmosphere. Gore's philosophy is two fold. We need to take global warming out of the political arena and focus on it as a moral issue. We also must realize that between denial of the problem and the despair of the destruction we have caused there is the simple phrase, "Do something." Global warming is reversible if we recognize the truth, claim responsibility for our part in causing it and correcting it, and then acting to correct it.
While talking about his work, Gore has mentioned that the Biblical truth of humanity being caregivers of God's creation resonates with him as a person of faith. "Then God said, 'Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth (Genesis 1:26)." While we are given dominion as caretakers, stewards of God's abundant creation, the earth is still God's domain. We are holding our planet in trust for each other and the generations that will follow us.
Somewhere along the way we have lost sight of what it means to pay attention to the rhythms of nature and what our mutual home has to share with all of us. We have become very adept, particularly here in the United States, at feeling entitled to take as much as we can get. We are three percent of our world's population, and yet we use twenty-five percent of our world's resources. Why? We persist in believing we should be able to have whatever we want when we want it, and this belief extends to our energy use across the board. A perfect example is our American response to rising gasoline costs. We alternately complain about the price of a gallon of gasoline and then say it won't affect our driving habits. We also seem to have no understanding that the rest of the world pays far more than we do for gasoline and all other energy resources. Many developing nations only have electricity sporadically through the day. Energy is costly, both for our pocket books and for the earth.
"We know that all things work together for good for those who love God who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28)." Paul's words to the church at Rome are never more true and applicable then they are today. I go back to Gore's understanding of where we are right now with global warming. We can deny the reality, despair over our misuse of God's gift of the earth to us, or we can do something. We can learn to walk and ride our bikes more often because, as my mother often said, "It won't kill you." We can turn off lights and computers when we aren't using them. We can eat fresh, local foods instead of frozen foods that take ten times more energy to produce. We can turn our thermostats down two degrees in winter and up two degrees in summer. Everything we do to reverse the effects of global warming will make a difference and heal the Earth. It is not too late. Yet.
We are each contributing to the problem of global warming and we must each contribute to the solution. We owe this to ourselves, each other and to God to care for what we have been given. We have a moral obligation and a responsibility to our faith to leave our earth in better shape then we found it. We know better and we must do better, or we will feel the consequences. And then it may be too late.
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In This Moment
A Fourth of July Prayer
Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion has been a Saturday night staple on Minnesota Public Radio for years. Filled with stories, music and commercials from fictitious companies like Powdermilk Biscuits and Bertha's Kitty Boutique, the showcase of the program's second hour is the news from Lake Woebegone. Keillor claims Lake Woebegone as his hometown, a small place in Minnesota farm country filled with Norwegian bachelor farmers, Swedish humor and human drama that only exists in Keillor's vivid imagination. We are privy to Lake Woebegone's charm because of Keillor's delight in sharing his world in such a beautiful, gentle fashion. This past weekend a special treat was in store. Keillor took A Prairie Home Companion on the road to Tanglewood, Massachusetts, the summer home to the Boston Pops Orchestra. The whole broadcast was also recorded for PBS Great Performances, which aired Sunday night. Listening to A Prairie Home Companion is glorious. Seeing the program is even better. Oh, and one more tidbit was Meryl Streep, who acted in skits, read poetry and sang a sweet duet with Keillor.
But it was the show's closing that has stayed with me. An auditorium full of people joined the cast in singing an a capella hymn, America the Beautiful. The first verse moved easily from the peaceful, reflective gathering. The second and third verses were guided by Keillor, line by line. The camera scanned the faces in the crowd first, offering a deep, steady remembrance that this song was what our country is supposed to be about - beauty, abundance, caring for one another. The camera moved back to the stage, back to the faces that had entertained us so eloquently, and rested on the face of Meryl Streep. Ms. Streep was singing softly, appearing as though she was looking to the back of the room at something unseen to anyone else. Tears glistened in her eyes as she brushed several more from her cheek.
I realized my own eyes were filling with tears at the poignancy of the moment. I realized in that moment that my prayer for our country on this our two hundred thirtieth birthday was quite simple.
God, help us.
We need God's help if we are to ever pull ourselves out of this horror of occupation in Iraq. We need God's help to find a new way to interact with other countries in ways that are respectful and productive. We need God's help if we are to take responsibility for our country's direction in handling our own issues. We need God's help in determining how to overcome poverty and homelessness, to provide health care for all our people and equitable education for our children. We need God's help in helping each other, in being for each other, in ways that are tangible and that matter. We need God's help to live into the blessings God has granted our country with the intent of America the Beautiful. We worship a relational God, and we are citizen siblings who must overcome the family squabbles or we will lose the family business.
We need God's help to do justice to the vision of hope our founding mothers and fathers first crafted for us. We need God's help to expand this vision, to continually make it more inclusive, and not spend so much of our energy trying to keep people out. We need God's help to learn to love kindness and to act on that kindness everyday, in simply honest and profound ways that will change people's lives, including our own.
And we must, absolutely, welcome God's help to walk humbly in God's grace. This is my prayer for our country on our two hundred thirtieth birthday together.
God's blessings,
Cory
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In This Moment
Faith is in the Gopher Wood
In an interesting turn of events this week we have had massive rain storms in the Northeastern United States, resulting in flood evacuations in Pennsylvania, and an archeological team from Texas believes it has found Noah's Ark in the Elburz mountains of Iran. Good timing. The team which claims the discovery feels quite confident in identifying its find as the famous ship. "I can't imagine what it could be if its not the Ark," said Arch Bonnema of the Bible Archeological Search and Exploration (B.A.S.E.) Institute, a Christian archeological organization dedicated to looking for Biblical artifacts. Since the Ark truly was of Biblical proportions, about the size of a small aircraft carrier, and this ship is claimed to be similar in size and dimension, the B.A.S.E. team could be right. "The idea is, if we can prove that the Ark existed then we can prove that the story existed, and more importantly, we can prove that God existed," said Bruce Fellner, author of Where God Was Born.
With all due respect to Mr. Fellner, that type of logic would never fly with my high school geometry teacher if I had tried to apply it proving theorems in his classroom. Fellner's logic didn't fly with my friend either. She raised a number of solid questions. "What proof are they looking for? God is God, faith is faith. How can you document God's existence? And, most importantly, how will proving that this is Noah's Ark make the world a better place?"
She also pointed out that we have been down this road before. Remember the discovery of the Shroud of Turin a number of years ago? Publicized as the possible burial cloth of Jesus, testing eventually did prove that the shroud was old enough to have come from the time in which Jesus lived. But who is to say that another mother whose son suffered the same fate as Jesus didn't also lovingly wrap her son's body for burial? Unless Mary stitched a camp ID tag into the Shroud of Turin saying, "If found return to Jesus of Nazareth," we really don't know who was wrapped and buried in it. And, quite frankly, does it matter?
Consider your own faith for a few minutes. Why do you believe in God? Is your faith dependent upon archeological finds or tangible objects that you believe have put the power of God into the palm of your hand? If this is Noah's Ark, will your faith be altered? Do you think more people will discover their faith because there is proof God was around for the flood? Will the world be a better place if we can say we have visited Noah's Ark?
Fellner's logic doesn't fly with me either. The story of Noah's Ark is not dependent upon the Ark's existence being proven in this discovery, nor is God's existence, then or now. If they were we would not have knowledge of either. But both the story and God's presence among us have been spoken of and shared over and over through time, and both continue to be shared to this day.
What this all may come down to is gopher wood. The Biblical account of the building of the Ark indicates that it was made of gopher wood. In an interesting turn of events, we don't know what gopher wood is. Perhaps we will need to take its existence as a matter of faith.
God's blessings,
Cory
