Evanglizing the Lutheran Faith

Just read an online Associated Press article about a group called Lutheran Coalition of Renewal (CORE). This group is exploring the possibility of forming a new Lutheran organization after the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) voted this past August to lift a ban that had prohibited sexually active gay and lesbian pastors from serving as clergy.

This is not about that decision.

This is about one line in the report that bugged me. One of the organizers (Ryan Schwarz of Washington, DC) said that "While this is of course a wrenching decision, there is also a sense of hope in refocusing on our true mission, which is evangelizing the Lutheran faith."

I don't think there is a "Lutheran faith."

A disclaimer: I am a life long Lutheran. I was raised a member of the American Lutheran Church one of the synods that merged with others to form the ELCA in the 1980s. I now belong to a Lutheran Church Missouri Synod congregation. This is not to get into a discussion of Lutheran theology and doctrine.

But over the past six months I have visited a lot of different churches from a lot of different denominations. And none of them have the lock on salvation.

Period.

What I mean is this: I do not achieve salvation because I am a member of a particular synod, church, denomination or faith. I achieve salvation and eternal life because Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins and because I believe that he did.

Period.

And that salvation is between me and Christ. A church or a church body can not get in the middle of that.

Denominations have a lot to do with our comfort. We are more comfortable in this church with that style of music. Or our friends go to that church. Or I like the youth leader. Or the pastor really speaks to me. And hopefully, by belonging to a local church, I am built up to go out and tell others about Jesus and what he did on the cross.

And I should not care which church or denomination they end up going to as long as it is a church that teaches that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross for my sins.

But there are many churches and denominations that are teaching other stuff. And I have to avoid those. These are Christian in name only.

I am to evangelize only one "faith" And it is not the Lutheran faith or the Catholic faith, or the Methodist faith or any other faith except this one: the faith that Jesus Christ is my Savior, the Christian faith.

For I am convinced that my brothers and sisters in Christ are spread across denominations and synods and churches and the world.

Period.

Moldy Prayer

Looked at a couple of houses recently. Older houses that have some issues. Or a lot of issues.

A couple have had mold. Some people just try and paint over the mold. After a few months (weeks?) the mold starts to show through. If you really want to get rid of the mold you have to rip out the wallboard and solve the problem at the source. If you do it right you (or the person you sell the house to) won't have to deal with it again.

Kind of like prayer. All too often my prayer is just a surface prayer. Just a list of please do this and please do that and please get it done before breakfast.

Don't get me wrong. There are times when a quick prayer is all that I can pull off. Like when I am reffing a soccer match.

But if I really want to be an effective prayer, I have to get in and do the heavy lifting, the work. I have to grapple with the issue at hand and what God is telling me to do. I have to be willing to put my sweat and blood and tears into prayer.

And that means tearing off my walls before God. And letting Him in to clean out the moldy corners of my life that I don't really want to deal with.

And it means that I can't just gloss over the issues at hand. I have to put time in and work through them.

Prayer is work. And too often I approach it as play...

Hope

I don't watch much network TV anymore. I watch a somewhat eclectic mix of shows mostly on cable.

These tend to be shows like Eureka!, Ninja Warrior, Warehouse 13, Unbeatable Banzuki, X Play and the Dog Whisperer. In addition to the soccer and other sports shows.

But lately, I've started watching a network show on ABC: Flash Forward.

Interesting premise: The entire population blacks out for a couple of minutes and experiences what is going to happen six months in the future. Some see good stuff, some see bad stuff, some see mundane stuff, some see impossible things and some see nothing.

As the show goes on people develop a certain fatalism about the flash forward. Common thought is that you can't change what you saw. There is also the idea that those who saw nothing die before the six months are up.

Hopelessness that they can influence their future is creeping into all the characters.

Except one. He decides that he can not live with what he sees in his flash forward. So he takes a drastic step to make sure that it doesn't happen. He takes a swan dive off the top of a building into concrete.

And the game changes.

Suddenly.

Drastically.

Hope is back. The future is not set in stone. It can be changed. What people saw in the flash forward is not what is going to happen. And it really starts to throw people for a loop.

The guy who committed suicide gave back hope.

Got me thinking: Am I a hope giver or a hope drainer?

Do I drain hope from others through my words or actions? Or do I encourage others with my words or actions? Is my hope based on others and their actions toward me or is my hope in Christ? My choices matter.

Always.

I am not certain about where the show is going. And I am not so set that I have to see every episode.

But now, I am interested in how it turns out...

Paranoid Prudent Prepared

I walked to and from work today.
Actually, I did it twice since I walked home for lunch also.

I saw a couple of interesting things: a dead skunk that crawled up on the sidewalk after getting hit by a car. A game trail running from a culvert back into the woodline behind the local grocery store.

But the reason I walked to work was that the district was hosting a swine flu (H1N1) vaccination site with about 2,700 doses. I didn't want to fight the parking situation. Of course I couldn't jaywalk in my usual spot since the police were parked there to control traffic. Had to use the crosswalk and wait for the light.

The School District did a good job of handling a lot of traffic and was ready for the parents bringing in their kids to get vaccinated.

But as I saw the lines of people forming at 6 AM for a 9 AM start, I was struck by what would bring people out with their kids that early in the morning for a nasal shot.

Disclaimer: I do not plan to get a flu shot. Every time I got one in the past I would get sick about a week later. So I don't get them anymore. And I don't get the flu much anymore either. But if you want to get one that is up to you.

Anyway this isn't about flu shots, its about paranoia and being prudent and being prepared. You see we can go too far in any of these.

As I thought of the hundreds of people lining up, I wondered about paranoia and how it affects us. We can go to great lengths to try and protect ourselves and loved ones. But the Bible tells us that we are not to "worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matthew 6:24)

But we are also called to be good stewards of all that is entrusted to us. And that means to me that we must be prudent in how we use the resources that we hold. And we should also be prepared for what may happen. Such as a tornado here in Kansas. Or a blizzard in Minnesota. Or a hurricane in Florida.

Not paranoid over what may never happen. Such as a hurricane in Kansas or a blizzard in Florida. And I want to be clear that I am not saying that people who get flu shots are paranoid.

Paranoia is fear. And fear and worry sucks the joy from our lives so that we miss the beauty of what is going on around us.

Such as a walk to and from work on a gorgeous Fall day.

Small Circles

We tend to run in small circles.

I don't mean that we go out and physically run in small circles. That is boring. But when you think about it our sphere of contact ends up being pretty small.

It was kind of driven home when I was looking at a website recently that has had some impact both on us and for people around the world. The author has written some very popular books. They recently published some statistics on the readership of the website.

They average around 40,000 unique viewers a day. From around the world. So that is out of billions of people. In the grand scheme of things it is a small part of the population.

We may have lots of contact with people in the course of performing our jobs, or at church or at school. But ultimately we have a pretty small circle that we are involved in.

And that is OK.

You see I have to deal with whoever is in front of me right now. That is my responsibility. Not to change the world.

To develop relationships with those around me.

And if I can have impact with the small circle that I run in, I can be content with that...

Mercy Rule

Its playoff time! Win or go home in Kansas high school soccer.

Last night I reffed my last high school game of the season. Wasn't much of a game. An 0-13 team against a 16-0 team that is number one in the state and ranked three in the nation. A result of having a one seed face a twelve seed in the playoffs.

It wasn't expected to be much of a game. But for the first twenty minutes I was surprised as the 16-0 team seemed to have difficulty finding traction on the sloppy surface and committed weird fouls and unusual offsides and inexplicably knocked the ball out of play on several occasions.

But ultimately, they got their game going and ran up a 10-0 score right before the end of the half.

And in high school soccer, the meant that the mercy rule was invoked and the game was over.

The mercy rule is this: Any time you are up ten or more goals on an opponent and you have played at least a half of the game the game is over.

It is a good thing. Prevents the score from being run up too high and players injuring other players out of frustration and anger. I know some people will say that it is a sign of the times that we don't play it out to the end.

I disagree.

But that is a rabbit trail to follow at another time.

But anyway, it got me thinking: Do I need a mercy rule in my life?

Are there times when I am so consumed with winning, with being right, with getting the last word in, that I forget about the other person and what it does to them?

Are there times when I plow ahead regardless of the situation bound and determined to get to the "finish" without regard to the cost to those around me?

Are there times when I forget mercy and compassion and let my competitive nature take over?

And unfortunately, for me the answer to those questions is all too often: Yes.

And that is not good.

Funny thing. After the game was over you would be hard pressed to tell which team won and which team lost and get the answer right.

The losing team chased down their coach and sprayed him with water and gathered at midfield as a team and cheered and celebrated. Maybe they were just glad that their season is done and they don't have to practice anymore. Don't know the reason why but their joy was there for all to see.

The winning team gathered up its gear and left after meeting with the coach. Not a lot of joy expressed. After all they were supposed to win this way.

And me? I was glad the game was over and I could go and get warm.

And as I wrote this I had the thoughts creep in that I had written about this situation before.

Guess I better learn the lessons this time...

Thanks

Today a refereed a soccer match.

It was a Under 15 girls match of the first division. The teams were very evenly matched.

The game was very even until late in the game and fairly physical. I thought I did a pretty good job of managing the game and letting the players on the field decide the outcome.

There were the typical comments from parents and coaches about what a horrible referee I was. I don't hear that every game but I did hear a it a couple of times. What is especially grating is when I am working hard to get into position and see something five yards away and a coach (or parent) forty yards away complains about the call.

Anyway, after the game, had the usual player and coach hand shakes and the coaches said "Thanks."

I debriefed with my assistant referees and we were pretty happy with how we worked the game.

And I got ready to run lines on the next game.

And then something unusual happened. A parent came up to me. That is usually a bad sign. It doesn't happen often. They usually want to complain or say that I took the game away from the players.

This guy came up and shook my hand and said: "thanks, you called a great game and really kept things under control."

I was kind of struck dumb at that one. This gentleman recognized what a difficult task it is and how hard I was working. And he appreciated what I (and the rest of the crew) had done.

I don't know what team he was rooting for. And it wouldn't change anything if I did.

Reminds me that I need to be more appreciative of the work that others do.

And tell them that I appreciate the work that they do a lot more often...