Monthly Archives: May 2013
The Laity and the Clergy – proclaiming the gospel together! Evangelical Catholic IX
English: Woodcut of the Augsburg Confession, Article VII, “Of the Church”. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Thought of the Day:
Thus the priest, like the bishop, is first a preacher, teacher, catechist, and sanctifier before he is an administrator. Priests are leaders of their parishes, as bishops are of their dioceses. But in a fully embodied Evangelical Catholicism, deacons and other qualified lay members of the Church will handle more and more of the routine business of parish and diocesan administration. The pastors— bishops who are true successors of the apostles, and priests who form a presbyteral college with and under the bishop (as the bishops form an episcopal college with and under the Bishop of Rome, the pope)— have more urgent matters to which they must attend. Yet the lay vocation, as understood by Evangelical Catholicism, is not primarily one of Church management, in which only a small minority of laity will be involved. The lay vocation is evangelism: of the family, the workplace, and the neighborhood, and thus of culture, economics, and politics. As Evangelical Catholicism rejects the clericalism by which the lay members of the Church were simply to pray, pay, and obey (or, as a nineteenth-century aristocratic English variant had it, to hunt, shoot, and entertain), so it rejects a clericalized notion of lay vocation as primarily having to do with working in the parish office or diocesan chancery. 34 There is important work to be done in those venues, and lay Catholics can and ought to do more of it, thus freeing priests and bishops for the work they were ordained to do. But the primary lay vocation, as John Paul II taught in the 1990 encyclical Redemptoris Missio, is to bring the Gospel into all of those parts of “the world” to which the laity has greater access than those who are ordained: the family, the mass media, the business community, the worlds of culture, and the political arena, for example. (1)
I’ve mentioned before that I am sort of reviewing this book – Evangelical Catholic – slowing – digesting the differences between how its author describes the changes manifesting now in Roman Catholicism – and what I see in the present and in the hsotiry of Lutheranism – which was originally called – “evangelical catholic”. Not as a devotional persay, but it ends up being so for me.
Today is no different – as I think about the deacons I train (historically assistants in the college – as they were/are ordained )and about the work of the people here in my church. Wiegel’s point about their having a primary vocation of evangelist is an awesome point – I highly agree – and it is their primary vocation, as they bring the gospel into their homes, into their friends homes, into their workplaces and the conversations they have out there in the not so “real world”.
Some would argue that the proclamation of the gospel is the role of the clergy and indeed it is. But it isn’t only the clergy’s work – it is the work of the family of God – YHWH & Son’s (and daughters!) The pastors and priests (and bishops and deacons ) preachin a way that the laity comprehend the grace of God, which the Holy Spirit actively embodies in every moment of their lives – bringing joy and peace into some of the most challenging situations that they, and those around them, encounter. It is there – that the gospel is shown through their lives, through their loves, through the hope they have – even in the midst of situations that would be considered hopeless. Places that wouldn’t necessarily be a place where my black shirt and collar are welcome.
But that is a harder calling for the priest and pastor, to preach in that way. It is a more demanding way, is a sense from the people who sit in the pews.
It is, and isn’t.
For Evangelism isn’t a duty, it is an act of love. It is realizing that what has brought healing and peace to our broken lives will bring healing and peace to others lives. Such healing and peace – in the midst of such brokenness, that we cannot bear to see those who are broken in such a way continue in it. In love we come to them – to help them with their burdens, to calm their anxious souls, to bring healing to shattered lives and shattered relationships. That means – that most of the time – it is the laity that see it first – that come alongside them – that bear them to us, were we continue the word and sacrament minsitry together.
It’s not the laity or the clergy – it is the people of God – as He has called and equipped and sent us…. to bring His love.
This is a good thing! A very incredible thing! God using us all…. how awesome!
(1)Weigel, George (2013-02-05). Evangelical Catholicism (p. 80). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.
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Get up – Get Walking… with Jesus
English: The healing of the paralytic : wall painting in the baptistry of the domus ecclesiae in Dura Europos. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Do You Want? Then Rise Up
John 17:20-26
† Jesus! Son and Savior! †
My Dear Friends, as Jesus comes to you in your brokenness, and with grace and mercy calls for you to get up and walk… may you trust in His healing, and run to His rest and peace!
Poolside – what else do we need?
Rest – Deep, reviving rest…
For some, it may seem like a dream lifestyle, and once adjusted to it, it might be a little want to change from it.
Imagine, you get to lie out by the pool every day, take in all the sun, have people bring you food, have people attend to your needs…well all but one. Some of us might like that as well – for there was no one that would toss you into the pool!
Sounds like the dream California life, and like I said, once used to it, could you give it up easily?
There was once a man who gave it up, in the course of a few moments,
All it took was one question, and one word of encouragement.
It was then, that this man who had spent 38 years, laying out by the pool, learned finally what it meant… to rest.
It is time to get up – and walk and find some real rest….
The Scene –
I want you to put yourself in the man’s place, to imagine the sights, the sounds, the smells, the voice.
The poolside was crowded that day, as it was so many. It would be as crowded as a Palm Springs, Miami or Vegas hotel swimming pool on Spring break, with every spot taken, and people just sitting and laying out, enjoying their week of rest, having people to care for them. Having the staff of the pool caring for their every need.
This pool where the man lay was as crowded, but not with people looking for rest, but desiring to be given an active life, to have a miracle happen that would change everything, that would make them whole. They filled every spot – these blind, weak people, these people who had to have people care for them, because they couldn’t care for themselves. .
I imagine after the first few healings, their attention would be focused on the water with everything they were. Ready like sprinters in the blocks, knowing that the answer to their life would be met with the stirring of the water… but after a few weeks? After a few months?
What about 38 years later..
Was he still as ready? Was he as desiring to get into the water?
Or was He comfortable, and had he made this place a “home”.
It may not be a poolside spot in the sun that has been made our home, our comfort zone. However, each of us can easily tire of this life, and become accustom to a sin, Or maybe we’ve given up on praying for a life that is going to pieces, or we find that we can’t stop that which causes our anxiety. Whatever it is, we can feel blind, weak, paralyzed.
There is a point where the emotional overload, whether pain or guilt or shame or anxiety just pounds us down – and we find ourselves giving up on the possibility of being healed, we think overcoming, or seeing things change… no that’s for others….. We just lie there spiritually depressed and defeated. Not bothering even to ask anyone for help – not even realizing that we can pray for that which we need.
Do you want… then get up…
The authority in that command.
Into this pit of despair, walks a man that draws everyone’s attention. They had heard many things about him, rumors of the healings that run through the families of those who had hoped for healings, and would take any opportunity, consider any remedy, try any curative.
He’s here, everyone is whispering to their neighbors, He’s here….as a thousand desperate eyes, desperate for themselves, desperate for those they love, focus in on this man, followed by a few guys, some of them probably arguing among themselves.
He sets his eyes on one man, the one who has been there so long… and he walks up…and asks….”Do you want to be made whole, do you want to be revived and cleansed?” For those words – get is the word – genesis, and the word for well is the word we get hygienic from. Do you want to become, to be born again…clean, whole, perfect?
There is a part of me, the part of me that is a pastor that loves that the excuse is not considered – that Jesus simply says, “Get up – take away that old mat, and walk. I love the authority, His response, the simple way in which Jesus deals with this man. I wish I had the confidence to do this more, and the wisdom to know when!
It scares me a little as well, as one who wants to walk with Jesus. Does He want me to do likewise? Is Jesus not going to hear my excuses? Will He compel me to get up? Are these words just not to that man, on that mat, besides that pool? Or are they to you and I? Is it time to get up – to abandon the things that hold us back, and walk with Christ?
Friends, He has told us this… and it is time to get up – to leave that old life behind, and walk with Him.
Note what awaits us when we Get up?
The Sabbath!
As the end of the gospel reading – the last sentence, the last thought seemed like a comment made in oversight – sort of a “o yeah – it was Saturday….” A nice passing comment – I thought at first. It caught my attention, and I thought about it a little more.
The symbolism is phenomenal. The very thing this man was to do, on his first day of wholeness, it to keep Holy the Sabbath. To spend the time with God, in prayer, in reading the word, in the community of the people of God, gathered in His name. Not out of duty, but in prayer and praise, in rejoicing with them in their healing, in God answering their prayers as well.
There, walking with Jesus, we gain what most people look for, when they plan a vacation poolside. We find our burdens lifted off our shoulders, our sins erased, our hearts and souls healing, for He is here, just as He was for that man who laid around for 38 years. Telling us to get up – and to walk up here… and find rest in Him.
This man who had for so long laid by the pool at Bethsaida – translated as the House of cHesed, the House of God’s loving mercy. That man found the strength he needed – not just the strength of body, but the strength of the soul. He didn’t find it himself – he was right – he needed someone’s assistance, and that someone was the Lord, the God who heals, the God who makes whole,
The God who says to you – even as He prepares to feed you with Christ’s body and blood, “get up – get rid of the stuff and walk…. and come – rest with me.”
As you do – may His peace flood over you – and may you realize it guards you – heart and soul for you dwell in Christ. AMEN!
If Faith=knowing Him, not just about Him…then Worship is…
Lord’s prayer in Coptic language (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Devotional THought of the day:
7 “When you pray, do not use a lot of meaningless words, as the pagans do, who think that their gods will hear them because their prayers are long. 8 Do not be like them. Your Father already knows what you need before you ask him. 9 This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven: May your holy name be honored; 10 may your Kingdom come; may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today the food we need. 12 Forgive us the wrongs we have done, as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us. 13 Do not bring us to hard testing, but keep us safe from the Evil One. For Yours is the Kingdom, and the Power and the Glory, Forever and Ever, AMEN! Matthew 6:13 (TEV)
It’s necessary to be convinced that God is always near us. Too often we live as though our Lord were somewhere far off—where the stars shine. We fail to realize that he is also by our side—always. For he is a loving Father. He loves each one of us more than all the mothers in the world can love their children, helping us and inspiring us, blessing … and forgiving. How often we’ve erased the frowns from our parents’ brows, telling them after some prank, “I won’t do it again!” Maybe that same day we fall again…. And our father, with feigned harshness in his voice and a serious face, reproves us, while at the same time his heart is softened because he knows our weakness: “Poor boy,” he thinks, “How hard he tries to behave well!” We have to be completely convinced, realizing it to the full, that our Lord, who is close to us and in Heaven, is a Father, and very much our Father. (1)
At the end of the Lord’s Prayer, there is what is called a Doxology, a time of praise and worship. Some translations leave it out – citing that it doesn’t appear in some manuscripts. Some do, taking the opposite approach that it appears in most. I don’t bother with those explanations… all that much.
It belongs there… IMHO… for it is the reaction of what happens when someone can let God be God, when they realize He is by their side, as St Josemaria says, ALWAYS. When we realize how loving He is, how merciful, how close to us, and our Father.
There are a few acronymns that would replace this prayer, this outline of prayer. ACTS is one, ITCP is another. They have been used for a while, but I think they rely too much on our intellect and strength. THey have us start where we should end – with adoration, with hearing how we are to live. They don’t start with the relationship, the prodigal finding himself in the Father’s arms, the mom begging Jesus to heal her daughter, Peter… downcast and distraught, realizing his betrayal.
I think we need to start where Jesus taught us to. To pour out to God our despair, our brokenness, trusting that He is our Father, and as we pour out that brokenness, as He lifts the anxiety, the guilt, the pain from our hearts, as He assures us of our protection and His love. It is then, as He lifts us up, as He calms us, as He reminds us of His love and peace… and His presence…
Then praise, and oh the praise.
I’ve often said we confuse the word translated as “believe/faith” with the gathering and storing of knowledge of God. It isn’t. It is trusting Him, finding ourselves in a relationship where we can depend,on God, and growing to the point where we turn to Him first, rather than trying to do this all on our own. Praise and Worship isn’t about what we do – it is the reaction to what He has done. It isn’t about being perfect enough in our performance, it is, having abandoned ourselves, living in Him, delighting in His presence, realizing we have been revived and healed and restored by Him, and living the life He has given us.
We have been delivered into God’s presence, and He has told us, He is our Father – the incredible picture that St Josemaria paints of the our Father, the one who patiently works with us, correcting us, encouraging and empowering us, who simply wants to walk by our side through life. Prayer is that conversation, that walk – that dance, as we together with God – enjoy His glory, enjoy His creation, and find ourselves led in this incredible dance of joy….
May you realize this day…how close you are to Our Father…
(1)Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 706-713). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
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Is Teaching People That They Must Go to Church Right?
English: Icon of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
devotional thought of the day
3 So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak? Hebrews 2:3 (NLT)
The cheerfulness you should have is not the kind we might call physiological—like that of a healthy animal. Rather, it is the supernatural happiness that comes from the abandonment of everything, including yourself, into the loving arms of our Father God. (1)
“Going to confession isn’t like heading off to be tortured or punished, nor is it like going to the dry cleaners to get out a stain, Pope Francis said in a morning Mass homily.“It’s an encounter with Jesus” who is patiently waiting “and takes us as we are,” offering penitents his tender mercy and forgiveness, he said April 29.. ” (2)
I see it far too frequently, the idea that going to church, or Bible study, or as Pope Francis was talking about, Confession and Absolution is somehow a Christian’s “duty”. To look at these blessed events as duty is a spiritual error, to teach it as such is simply wrong. To teach people they must, they have to do these things – is of the gravest error, for it changes their perception, and indeed robs them of the joy David expressed in the pslams, when contemplating going to the temple, when David rejoiced even at the thought of it.
You see all these events, they are not duties, we are not obligated to, in the normal sense of the word. If we use obligated, it is in the same sense that we are obligated to find treatment for a serious wound, or a broken leg.
We look around – and see our needed of healing, our need of having the things we have screwed up royally fixed, the relationships mended, and in Christ – there is our only hope. Our only hope, the only way we can be delivered from the mess we are in, is by Christ – so what hope is there, if we turn our back on that hope?
We are little children, devastated that we have broken that which should be cherished, and we should find the joy that comes from watching our Father patiently make it like new (or replace it) because of His love for us. Such is the ability to abandon all our fear, all our anxiety, all our grief and shame, for our Father is hear, and all is abandoned as He brings us comfort and peace.
It is that encounter- with the presence of Christ. in the worship service/mass, to realize He is patient with us, not willing destruction – but complete transformation, complete rebirth, complete renewal.
Such is the nature of spending time doing what some call “Christian Duty” or Spiritual Disciplines. Reading the Bible, Prayer, Worship, Gathering with other believers, and yes confessing our sins and hearing Christ speaking words of forgiveness and restoration. To speak of them as duties or disciplines reduces them in people’s minds to being about us, our work, our efforts, our accomplishments, our excercises.
Rather than encounter with Christ, a glorious, freeing, encounter with the One who loves us, who calls us His beloved, His friends… the children of God.
So next time you think about doing these things – realize Who you will meet – and in joy – rush to Him, abandoning all that would restrict your joy together.
Godspeed!
(1)Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 1539-1541). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
(2) http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1301891.htm?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
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Gravity and God’s Grace….
Devotional Thought of the Day….
32 And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” John 12:32 (NLT)
As I walk between the extremes of Christianity, and my own branch of the church, I hear a lot of advice about the church. Some suggest that God will bless the church, if we are faithful to this model. Wait, most of them say that – their models just appear – whether traditional or contemporary, whether doctrinal or social – fundamental or liberal to be at odds with the other models. I would content they might not be as much as they think, they are often making observations about the same thing from different perspectives.
But that isn’t the point.
I would contend that it isn’t how liturgical you are, or whether you church is Lutheran or Catholic or Methodist, or whether you are involved in social ministry, or training the next generation of leaders, or whatever it is. What matters is, is Christ lifted up. For Jesus is where we find hope, it is His love, His desire to reconcile us to the Father, that is seen when He is lifted up on the cross. I will contend that this is the unseen core of the what drives both the church growth crown and the we have to be faithful to our past crowd.
They both love, even if they don’t realize it, how Christ is revealed to them.
The grace and mercy of Christ is like gravity – it is so needed, and the more people need it, the more they get caught in its pull. The more aware they are of being broken, the more they are pulled to the one who is lifted up, just so their souls can find healing. Such was the story of the serpent on the pole – look there – find healing. It was the nature of Solomon’s temple – for believers – look there – find forgiveness/healing, for non-believers, God will hear them – and bring them what they need.
It is, always and forever, about our relationship with Christ, for nothing else provides us with what we need, nothing is like the one crucified to show us His love, His mercy, His desire for us to be His people.
May the Holy Spirit remove from us everything else that catches our eyes,,,, leaving only Christ visible…and then, as the Spirit transforms us into His image – may we see that around us with His eyes.
English: Resurrection of Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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