Remembering the Source of Our Confidence

Feb 2012 Meeting of PbYukon, Communion Service

Intro: It should have been Pollyanna!

I came home recently from work trip away from Anchorage. In some ways, travel brings on a different kind of tired than other work, so I was ready for a break; and my wife, Cindee, who teaches and is involved in a million other things, was tired, too. So we decided to go see three movies together.

Now, obviously we weren’t thinking. Brain researchers tell us that what we pay attention to over time affects our brain. If we are constantly paying attention to things that stress us out, then our brains start to get stuck in a Stress-loop. Our attitude gets a little itchy, and we aren’t as much fund to be around. Our bodies start to build blood pressure, and we start to forget how to be happy.

For that reason, they often tell us that we need to be careful what we are talking about all the time, or reading, or watching on TV. In fact one of the researchers suggested that people ought to by a copy of that old 1960 movie, Pollyanna. In that one a very positive girl comes to a really bitter town, but her unshakable positive attitude and encouragement hits everyone, and turns the whole town around. He believed that thinking this way would really be good for everyone!

I was not thinking of this at the time, when I returned from my trip away. I just thought we ought to enjoy our evenings together over the weekend. So, for the first night we saw Sea Change—a documentary about how the oceans are absorbing so much of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that the oceans are turning acidic—sort of like coca-cola—and the corals are dying, and the little mollusks that feed baby salmon and cod are next.

The next night we saw Margin Call—supposed to be a fiction movie this time, but it showed the ethical dilemmas that the investers were facing about the time that the markets crashed in 2008. It about made me sick to see the kinds of cruel, cutthroat business that was being practiced.

So the next night we went to see On the Ice. This really is a good movie, made by Iñupiaq people, set in Barrow and about the troubles that drugs bring to friendship and to communities. The movie is wonderfully done—but it is R-rated, and it doesn’t sugar-coat the tragedies that drugs can bring, and you can’t help but care about the people caught up in all that trouble.

I was about ready to go home and buy Pollyanna just to remind myself that it is possible to write a story with a happy ending.

Our Scripture passages today are something like that. Psalm 39 is the recommended evening psalm for today from the daily devotion lectionary. I love that Psalm…but really, what a downer! Yet, there have been times when I kept silent, but the silence burned in me. Have you ever done that. I relate to the Psalmist, who then found he couldn’t stand the silence any more and cried out to God. Yet, when he cries out, he is crying out his anguish…his shame…and his wondering if his short life will accomplish anything of value at all!

Yet, he turns all this pain to God—who is the right one to go to with such deep, deep need.

The Philippians reading was the verse chosen by the Presbytery Leadership Team as the theme for our presbytery meeting. Now, this one must be the Pollyanna Scripture. Paul says he always prays with joy over them (uh-huh!), and he always prays that their love may abound more and more in knowledge, in depth and in insight. Further, he prays with absolute confidence that it is all going to work out.

Fascinating! What a happy ending kind of guy.

Well, I do think the brain researchers are on to something. What we focus on does affect how we think and how we respond to the world—whether the world is bringing us adversity or if we are feeling a moment of great privilege. We can focus ourselves on God’s goodness, and power and great possibility and let this guide us, or not.

But it really isn’t that simple. Scriptures point us to different moments in life—the adversity moments and the joy moments—because life has a whole lot of experiences in it.

Lately, our denomination and our presbytery has been more in the adversity camp than the fun side of life. Indeed, the world is changing rapidly, but the financial, political and social spheres are truly strained. If people are to have confidence, they very much need the gospel, because the need Jesus Christ. Paul has confidence, he says, that the One who began the good work—that is, God—is fully capable of bringing them through it all.

It is not because the people of Philippi had good enough training; or because they have such a wise pastor; or because they live in easy times—Paul writes to them about his suffering in chains!!! They did not live in easy times as Christians.

No Paul is confident because he knows God.

Interestingly, an Episcopalian Christian, who is a sociologist, did a study a while back about how Christians talk about God in their lives. I find it fascinating that the confidence that Christians have still takes different shapes, depending on what part of the faith stirs their passions the most deeply. Now, I am of the opinion that all of these methods of telling the story are deeply important. But you normally find that Christians flock together in congregations that look at God similarly. The whole church, however, needs to hear from everyone if they are not to get caught up in too much Pollyanna Christianity, or maybe too much Rambo warriors for Christ Christianity. Let me show you what I mean.

The first group tells their story in such a way that the human hero (not God in this case) is the one who is steadfast, obedient to God, and faithful. Great way to look at Christian discipleship, isn’t it? These folks are well aware that sin is pervasive in the world, and that God’s holiness is beyond human capability. If we are to be faithful, we must be obedient to the Bible and to the accepted teachings of the church. Enduring faithfulness is the moral. I love this type of Christian!

The second group would never say anything against the first group, or at least not really. But they tell their story as an adventure story of good versus evil. This group is well aware that we fight not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities. They are also aware that God’s holiness and power are beyond human grasp. But they are also aware that God can and does give spiritual gifts to the faithful, for them to use in the spiritual battle. For this group, the human ability is not as hindered by sin, because God empowers them to go beyond themselves. Their story is not about enduring faithfully, but about going forth for Christ. I love this kind of Christian, too!

The third group is aware that human thinking is too narrow and limited to see the deeper truths that God knows, but they are also more aware that the Holy Spirit really is at work with, in and around us. So they are always looking for God to reveal the mysteries through coincidences and signs—but also by working through our conversations and connections with the faithful throughout the church. Together, we are the body of Christ with much to learn from one another. This story is about God teaching and equipping us through the renewing of the mind and the knowledge and depth of insight. What’s not to love in this group?

The fourth group is very aware of sin in the world, but they are most passionate about how that sin works its way into our social attitudes and structures. This group is looking to set people free from prejudices, and set society free from injustice. They Recognize that God is at work in and through the church in very practical ways. So they are engaged in activism, in church boards, as doctors and teachers and many helping professions. They take to heart the scriptures that tell us that true religion is the feeding of the hungry, and caring for the poor, the widow, and the dispossessed. For this group, the story of God is in how God helps us to make our world better reflect the Kingdom of God on earth. How can one help but

Now, all of these stories are scriptural. But each puts a different emphasis either on God’s holiness and power, or God’s work in and through us. They are the different arms of the church.

For my part, I have fallen in love with the different people of the church. But more than that, I have become convinced that all have gifts to share. I have never suffered like Paul. But like Paul I am absolutely convinced that God is able to bring to fulfillment that which he began among us. I am convinced, first and foremeost because of who God is, and what God is capable of. But I am also convinced because I have walked among you and sensed the giftedness that is there.

The hard part for me is that we now have to change. I like to know the plan. I can really get excited about a plan. But God seems not to have given any one of us the plan. It seems that we will have to work together to work this one out together. It is going to take a blending of all four stories.

So, as much as I like to just plug away at things faithfully and obediently, I find that God is requiring that we realize that what we are doing in ministry is no longer practical. We have to find ways of meeting the spiritual needs of the people in ways that work—not in ways that worked in the past. Things have to change. And I have to recognize that God will reveal what is needful if we bring our giftedness together. And so, I am choosing to treat this as a grand adventure story, trusting that the forces that would hold us back cannot stand against the will of God.

I want to take it a step further. Sometimes, we have not treated one another as if we trusted one another. I fear that I have been as guilty of that as anyone. We have to treat one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. We have to build fellowship between the pastors, so that the pastoral leadership can work as a team. We have to find ways of connecting our elders and probably others, so that we can envision the ministry needs in a region and work together on strategies to work them out.

And we have to do this admitting that we have real differences.

But there is something we need to take seriously. The people of the world need the gospel of Jesus. They need it for all four reasons—so that they will know the gospel and the Lord to which they must pledge obedience; so that when they are thrown into the battle, they do so with the whole armor of God; so that they become a practical ministry that raises our children, feeds the hungry and cares for the downtrodden, taking on the injustices of the age; and, as our scripture tells us today, so that their love may abound in knowledge and deeper insight.

For my part, I have spent too much of this past year listening to the negative story and not to the good news of Jesus. I have been caught up too much in Psalm 39 and have not been in Philippians 1. Perhaps this has been your experience, too. And so I challenge you to listen again to the gospel and renew your faith.

Remember: the One who reached out in the Spirit and began the work of salvation in you. Remember the touch of the One who is truly Love. Remember God’s salvation. And accept the promise of God’s healing, restoring, transforming touch. You have been called by God. And together we have been called for such a time as this. God will show us the way. And he who began this work, in you and among us, is capable of turning us in new ways and bring that work, along with us, to all fullness.

Philippians 1:4-6

In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. ...And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.

Psalm 39

¹ I said, “I will watch my ways
and keep my tongue from sin;
I will put a muzzle on my mouth
while in the presence of the wicked.”
² So I remained utterly silent,
not even saying anything good.
But my anguish increased;
³ my heart grew hot within me.
While I meditated, the fire burned;
then I spoke with my tongue:

⁴ “Show me, LORD, my life’s end
and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is.
⁵ You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,
even those who seem secure.^[b]

⁶ “Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom;
in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth
without knowing whose it will finally be.

⁷ “But now, Lord, what do I look for?
My hope is in you.
⁸ Save me from all my transgressions;
do not make me the scorn of fools.
⁹ I was silent; I would not open my mouth,
for you are the one who has done this.
¹⁰ Remove your scourge from me;
I am overcome by the blow of your hand.
¹¹ When you rebuke and discipline anyone for their sin,
you consume their wealth like a moth—
surely everyone is but a breath.

¹² “Hear my prayer, LORD,
listen to my cry for help;
do not be deaf to my weeping.
I dwell with you as a foreigner,
a stranger, as all my ancestors were.
¹³ Look away from me, that I may enjoy life again
before I depart and am no more.”

Message Psalm 29

1-2 Hooray, God, Halleluia! Gods and all angels shout, "Halleluia!"

In awe before the glory,

in awe before God's visible power.

Stand at attention!

Dress your best to honor him!

3 God thunders across the waters,

Brilliant, God’s voice; and brilliant God’s face, streaming brightness—

God, across the flood waters.

4 God's thunder tympanic,

God's thunder symphonic.

5 God's thunder smashes those powerful cedars,

God topples the cedars of the Tsongas.

6 The mountain ranges skip like spring colts,

The Brooks Range leaps up like wild dall sheep.

7-8 God's thunder spits fire.

God thunders, the wilderness quakes;

He makes the whole Yukon plane to shake.

9 God's thunder sets the spruce trees dancing

A wild dance, whirling; the pelting rain strips their branches.

We see all this, and we fall to our knees—we call out, "Glory!"

10 Above the floodwaters is God's throne

from which the power flows,

from which God rules the world.

11 God makes his people strong.

God gives his people peace.

Let us worship the Lord!

The Whole Body of Christ

Over the past few years it has seemed to me that one of the most important roles that I play as executive presbytery of the Presbytery of Yukon is the role of theological worldview translator. The Bible makes it clear that there must be great diversity in the church if we are to be the whole body of Christ. Romans 12 and 1 Cor. 12, for instance, both speak of the great importance of acknowledging diversity in spiritual giftedness. Both indicate that only together are we the body of Christ, though each of us may be called upon to act as Christ’s sole agent in a given situation.

However, I was greatly helped in understanding the importance of diverse theological worldviews by James Hopewell in his book Congregations: Story and Structure. Hopewell was trying to figure out why we have such diversity in Christian denominations and congregations, and why, even in a given denomination, there is often very great diversity.

To begin his study, Hopewell began surveying Christians in Protestant churches about their theological beliefs. He soon discovered that this approach did not work. If he put enough theological jargon words (like grace, or transformation) into his survey questions, people would agree to anything—even conflicting statements! So, he looked for a layperson’s way to test people’s beliefs.

In the end, he turned to a sociological method of asking people to tell the story of important things that happened in their lives, whether those things worked for good in their lives or for bad. He discovered that people told their stories in four ways.

One way was to describe the story’s hero as an obedient, faithful servant. Faithful obedience was the most valued response, because without it, no matter what else people did, their sinful nature would eventually emerge. This group’s theology was grounded in the pervasiveness of human sinfulness and our utter dependence on God’s holiness and grace for anything of value to happen. Such people held up obedience as the most important spiritual trait, and worked hard to hold people to an orthodox faith and to obedient lives. They understand that God’s holiness is not something we can attain, but God’s holiness is the plumb line for measuring obedience.

A second group told their stories with great irony. They were also concerned about sinfulness, but were especially concerned in the way that people are set up by sin through human systems, and were moved by the Spirit’s call for the faithful to work for restoration of wounded people and to continually work for justice in society. This group was excited by the Spirit’s presence and power at work but, ironically, found it most at work in and through people serving God in the world. T

his group valued a practical faith that worked in the world for the transformation of individual people, and of society as a whole. Indeed, these are the ones motivated by Scripture that describes true religion as being about feeding the hungry, caring for the widow and orphan, and otherwise helping our world to mirror the goodness of the Kingdom of God.

A third group told their story as one of that leads to an epiphany (a revelation of God’s will), and to happy endings in the long run. Such people were caught up in the m

ystery of God’s Spirit at work in us and among us, knowing that all things work for good for those who are called. The great dilemma for humans is our limited understanding as mortals. If we are open to learning from one another, and working honestly and diligently to understand one another, and to learn from the clues God is constantly giving us to share with one another, we are capable of constantly growing and maturing in faith. Such people know that God speaks in unexpected moments and unexpected ways, like a burning bush or a star over a manger. And such people know that unexpected people like shepherds and magi can be the ones to bring God’s unexpected good news.

A fourth group told their story as a great adventure. They are very aware that the Devil is at work in the world today, but will not be forever. In the mean time, however, they know that we are engaged in a battle between good and evil, and that our real battle is with principalities and powers and agents of darkness. Humanity cannot prevail on our own, but must depend on God, who gives each of us gifts to use in the battle. Indeed, Christ has won the decisive battle and we, in the end, shall prevail.

From reading Hopewell’s description, it is clear that few of us fit neatly in only one camp. Indeed, all are biblical and are lifted up as important by the biblical witness. However, as humans we tend to be most fed by one, or at most two, of the worldviews.

In fact, Hopewell graphed the worldviews, as seen in the chart below. He pointed out that the ones who lifted up obedience in the face of the tragic power of sin, and the ones who see God’s power leading to individual and social transformation, are both moved by the corrosive power of sin to tear down individuals or societies. The left side of the graph is therefore for them, because they are very much motivated by the pervasiveness of sin in the world. It is not uncommon for a person or a congregation to hold to one or both of these worldviews as their most dominant view.

The right side of the graph, on the other hand, is for those who expect God to bring happy endings, either through openness to God’s mysteries or through giving spiritual gifts, which may be wielded at the right time. The right side of the graph is motivated by God’s power to make things work out, beginning right now. It is not uncommon for a person or church to hold these two worldviews together.

The top of the graph is for those who are most moved by God’s presence in all things and in all events. It is God at work in and through us, Who empowers us to work for just societies, even though sin is always wearing that justice away. Similarly, it is God, Who reveals truth for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. Once this deeper truth is revealed, the body is often moved in new ways, such as when James spoke the deeper incite that emerged from the debate about circumcision in Acts 15. It is not uncommon for both of these worldviews to be present in one person or congregation.

The bottom of the graph is for those who are most moved by God’s holiness and transcendence. God is not creature, and God’s ways are not our ways. It is God Who gives us the revelation to guide our lives in obedience and truth, and it is God Who gives spiritual gifts that empower the ministry to move forward where human strength and ability fails. It is not uncommon for both of these worldviews to be present in one person or congregation.

However, it is very difficult for a church to hold more than two in common. More than two leads to open conflict. The ones looking for people to take on injustice are often impatient with the ones asking that we identify and employ our spiritual gifts. And those who are very aware of the power and vitality of spiritual giftedness have little patience with people, who are continually trying to come up with better human systems.

Similarly, those who are calling on people to listen for God’s revelation about the new thing God is doing are very impatient with those, who are insisting on obedience to orthodox teachings. And those who understand the importance and maturity of obedient life are impatient with those, who are so ready to embrace change that they seem ready to take off at the drop of a hat for the Promised Land, fully expecting a new heaven and a new earth.

Yet, all four worldviews are biblical. Indeed, the whole body of Christ is comprised of all four. Yet, it takes translation to get the four worldviews to recognize the importance and the validity of the other.

My job has often been the job of translator. It is often my job to remind the ones listening together for God’s new revelation to remember to connect what they are doing to the Scriptural revelations, and to be guided by that revelation in their listening for God’s Voice. Similarly, it is often my job to help the faithfully obedient saints to recognize that Scripture calls us to be ready to follow God in a moment and this, too, is faithfulness to Scripture.

It is also often my job to translate for those caught up in the practical work of improving society and taking on the financial and practical problems. I must remind them of the reality that we cannot do it without God and absolutely must recognize the importance of the gifts brought by those who know we are dealing with powers and principalities. Similarly, I often must remind those who are most aware of the Devil’s wily ways that not every disagreement is a diabolical plot, nor should we miss the special giftedness of the Spirit working in those who hunger for justice and work for practical solutions.

For me, the sadness in these times is that we are so slow to embrace the gifts of our brothers and sisters. It is true that each has a blind spot hidden in the gift of their spiritual worldview. It is also true that any given church will not have all four worldviews equally dominant. But somehow the whole church does need all four worldviews, and should celebrate them. Rarely do I see them all celebrated. Rather, in these times where Republicans and Democrats turn on their candidates for not being “principled enough,” and in a time where denominations split and split again over important (to be sure), but still fine points of theology, I fear that we are throwing the baby out with the bath water.

The job of providing an understanding of the place of the different worldviews in the whole church is an important one. It would be a tragedy of the American Christians learned too well the American lessons of using strong speech and decisive moves as the only way of leadership, and have forgotten the way of the cross. Jesus Christ did not back down from God’s way, of course. Yet, neither did he harm, or even leave, those who seemed not to have ears to hear or eyes to see. Indeed, he stayed a part of the people to the end. And in the end, it was his enduring, sacrificial, determined, and truly gifted love that made all the difference.

It is my hope that many others will join those of us at work to lift up the value the diversity of God’s church. Christ's call for unity in the church, and the biblical call to mutual forbearance and discernment calls us to continue listening to one another, so that our congregations will know the value of their own distinctive theological worldview, but will also recognize their need for the others as well.