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Church as a M*A*S*H* unit
Devotional/Discussion thought of the day:
It’s nearly 1 o’clock, and I am just starting to write my devotional today – which is kinda sad – because it is part of my personal devotion. Part of the reason is that things have been topsy-turvy, with several people needing to know God’s presence, and a busy schedule and once again, I feel pulled in a bunch of different places, and all I want is to find some down time. I feel like a character from my old favorite show, M*A*S*H*.
To be honest, I would hope that people think of me as like a cross between Fr. Mulchahey and Hawkeye, but I am probably more like C.E.W. III. ( When we were deciding my son’s first and middle name – even though it wasn’t the reason – it seemed right that he would be William Kristopher – the actor who played the priest!)
But in reality, a church is like a MASH unit – we are in the middle of a raging war against forces of darkness. and we are brought constantly those are wounded. A number of them are bruised and battered and won’t make it – they will stay in our wards until its time to leave this life – and several have recently. Some are here for a shorter time – a time of respite and healing, and then they are back off into the war. Dinged but not destroyed, hurt but able to function, able to heal. Others would head home, their lives changed, but their ability to cope with the damage due in part to the work of the doctors – all of them including CEW and Frank Burns. I remember well the incident with the pianist/private who lost his right hand – and CEW showed such compassion in showing him the musical masterpieces written by a composer – who only had a left hand
Indeed, each church is more the staff of the MASH than those treated there. Each one of us has a few screws loose – you have to, in order to survive a war. We have all the different characters, from Radar to Hot Lips, from Frank to Colonel Potter, and of course the inhabitants of the swamp, and the priest who was the only sane one, but that’s because he was more aware of God sustaining him. Some of us even have a Corporal Klinger or two… who thinks he’s not broken, but pretends he is broken, and finds he’s broken in other ways. We are a surgical unit – that works on hearts and minds brutalized by life, and a spiritual battle with enemies that are not human, yet, do great damage. Healing is only found in Jesus… and the Holy Spirit guides our words, actually His words of life – that surgically cut away the damage of sin, and bring healing to wounded relationships.
At its best… the church ministers in its community in spite of their brokenness – yet its their brokenness that allows them to survive. We laugh, and cry, and even go catatonic, but find the ability to get back to work when the sound of the wounded arriving on choppers echo into our lives. It is then we rely on God, and work without stopping, and as a team – for lives are on the line, not just physically, but spiritually, not just our patients, but our own as well.
We’ve got a motto here at Concordia – that would describe them well there. We are a place where people are healing in Christ, while helping others to heal.
Sometimes that healing is heading heavenward. Sometimes it will be moving on… changed, but perhaps more alive.
But we will forever be changed – by serving those whom God brings…
Lord have mercy, and help us see, and communicate – You have!
Broken people do heal – here is the promise delivered!
Devotional/Discussion Thought of the day:
I write a lot about broken people – and even about broken churches. One of the reasons is there seems to be an endless supply of them. And every time I think I am completely healed, or those I minister to are, life comes along and seems to break us again. It really doesn’t, but boy does the agony, and the pain, feel like we are broken again.
St. Paul reminds us what it is like to be broken, even as he reminds us of our being made whole….
3 There was a time when we too were ignorant, disobedient and misled and enslaved by different passions and dissipations; we lived then in wickedness and malice, hating each other and hateful ourselves. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour for humanity were revealed, 5 it was not because of any upright actions we had done ourselves; it was for no reason except his own faithful love that he saved us, by means of the cleansing water of rebirth and renewal in the Holy Spirit 6 which he has so generously poured over us through Jesus Christ our Saviour; 7 so that, justified by his grace, we should become heirs in hope of eternal life. 8 This is doctrine that you can rely on. I want you to be quite uncompromising in teaching all this, so that those who now believe in God may keep their minds constantly occupied in doing good works. All this is good, and useful for everybody.
Titus 3:3-8 (NJB)
Obviously the way we were, – very broken- you can’t but read that and realize that Paul is describing people traumatized and torn by sin. As much their own sin ( which we don’t like to face at all ) and the sins of those around us, and even the sins of those who went before us. To be blunt – life being broken sucks!
Yet, God doesn’t – He won’t leave us there. I absolutely love the description of baptism in this and those two words:
Rebirth – being born again of water and of spirit – taking what is dead, and giving it new life.
Renewal/Restoraton – to make brand new! (and it seems like He has to do this daily – sometimes hourly)
It changes everything – our brokenness – no longer is there – though it may appear that way, though it may cause us to struggle,. That is why Paul urges us to keep teaching this – without any compromise – because our hearts need to trust in God’s doing this, more than in the circumstances in which we find ourselves! We are healed – by His stripes ( see Isaiah 53) God hasn’t abandoned us, He has rescued us and we can and do praise Him as the One in Psalm 22 does, as we realize we are not abandoned – we are His!
Living in view of that is different than living broken as well…. for our thoughts become less and less about ourselves – and more about others who are broken. We begin to do good works because He is working in us. This is a promise long awaiting prior to Christ – God’s great plan – which so many testitfied to – but one of my favorite promises of it is found in Ezekiel:
36:25 I shall pour clean water over you and you will be cleansed; I shall cleanse you of all your filth and of all your foul idols. 26 I shall give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you; I shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies and give you a heart of flesh instead. 27 I shall put my spirit in you, and make you keep my laws, and respect and practise my judgements.
Ezekiel 36:25-27 (NJB)
God has done amazing things to those He has cleansed – as He fulfills a promise to take our weary broken, anxiety laden hearts, and transforms them into His own image….
As we cry, “Lord, Have Mercy” may we trust that He has done what He said He would do! AMEN!
A recipe for healing broken people and church
Thought of the day:
Last night I finally started writing a book. It’s an odd thing, since I don’t see myself as a wise sage, or a wildly successful pastor. Just a plain ordinary, slightly crazy pastor who believes that God puts churches in places to bring healing to the broken in that community. And the only time a church should “close” is when all the broken in the community are healed and are perfect. In other words, the need doesn’t happen until Jesus returns.
Of course the statisticians will tell you that there are life cycles to church – usually a 40-50 cycle where around 20-25 the church starts slowly dying, or at least losing its significance. I know a few that fit that model, and I know a few that have been around 10o or 200 years, or more. Go to Eurpose – there are some there that have been in use for 1000 plus years – and in India, 1800. So while the stats guys have noticed a phenomena – it ain’t necessarily a law/ My book will be about keeping the church in the business of healing, in the business of salvaging people, and their relationships. There is hope for such churches, and for those who attend them, and for the community that surrounds them.
The hope is found in soup – specifically “stone soup” and focuses heavily on the sacraments, and on Eph 2:8-10 – especially 10:
“2:10 We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which God has already designated to make up our way of life. Ephesians 2:10 (NJB)
As a lutheran – we focus a lot on 8 and 9 – and for good reason. But if there is a answer, if there is a way to stop churches from closing, it is in realizing that we are God’s art work, His poetry, and there is much work to be done as we heal from the damage of sin, and the work, the poetry God has called our lives, because He called us, is key in that process of healing, together.
I’ve seen it happen, in churches in the desert – in a church in the suburbs. This isn’t some how to get er done book, with methodologies to implement. It’s a radical way to see the church return to faithfulness, one ingredient at a time. The recipe is a parable, and realizing the truth in it. A truth best described in Eph 2:8=10
So pray for me. as I write a parable about healing broken lives and broken churches, simply with sacred simple things, water, a Stone, and some bread.
Thanks!
oh and realize, that this book is about all of us… for there is hope for all – no matter how broken, how burdened, how alone.. as we heal together in Christ!
Broken People Healing in Christ..one step
Thought of the day….
Earlier this week, my devotional/discussion thgouth included the mission statement of my church. “where broken people find healing in Christ, while helping others heal”
It had more hits than any other devotional blog I have written, and some pretty nice comments came to me. (By the way – feel free to comment and discuss what I right about here). It made me think about the need to discuss what it means to be broken, and what it means to be healed, and how this happens when we find ourselves gathered with others in God’s presence….
The first step is a challenge in our society is difficult – it is not only admitting we are broken people, but mourning and being mortified that we are. Isaiah demonstrated this sorrow and pain this way…
6:5 Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.”
Isaiah 6:5 (NLT)
Have you ever, when someone asks you “How is it going”, really wanted to be honest. To let them know that your heartbroken, or anxious about finances, or challenged, and cannot find any reason for hope? That you are struggling with depression, or worried about what you might hear at that next doctor’s visit? That you don’t know how to deal with the issues your kids misbehavior, but it scares you none the less? But of course you say, “It’s going fine!”
Or what about us as a people, do we take great pride in our country, and pretend that everything is okay? That families are being ripped apart, that children are growing up without any sense of ethics or morality? Do we grieve about a country that is so calloused by sin that we don’t notice that most television shows include adultery as the norm? Do we realize how many people live in great need? Do we realize we are more concerned about having to pay for abortions, than the fact that 50 million lives have been tossed away?
The first step? It’s not admitting we are broken people living in a broken world.
It is realizing it.
And realizing – that no matter how much we try…. we can’t fix what is wrong…
We can’t do miracles on that magnitude. There is only One who can… the One who created us, and can re-create us. We can trust Him, depend on Him, know that He will fix, heal, repair and make it all new.
For that is why he came…even as He explain in his first sermon – as He quotes Isaiah,
4:18 “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” 20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Luke 4:18-21 (NKJV)
As your heart cries out, about your own brokenness, or the brokenness of this world, my you realize that for you as well… today this scripture has been fulfilled… as Christ heals your brokenness, and mine, and the worlds….
The Broken: Repair or Replace?
Discussion/Devotional thought of the day:
Last week I was at a convention of my district. As things progressed, as people were elected and resolutions considered, debated, passed or passed by, it hit me.
We live as a “reactionary” church.
Most of the resolutions seem to either try to correct past resolutions of past conventions, or strengthen that which was decided, and proven to be too week to be effective. Rather than deal with past errors – we keep treating the symptoms, rather than the cause. Examples abound, as we struggle with the vocations of laity and the pastoral office, as we struggle with having a governance which is basically a representative democracy, and how that works in a manner where those elected have pastoral/ecclesial responsibility over those who elect them.
So we try to fix what’s wrong, we elect people who we think are wise, or at least persuasive, or who we know someone who knows their pastor…and we make our judgments that way. We take that which is broken, and try to bend it back, use duct tape, whatever will allow it to function – even if it functions barely…. and we become satisfied for another three years, and pride ourselves on getting it done.
It is reminiscent of our spiritual lives as individuals, and as the church at large. Rather than deal with issues, we deal with the repercussions they cause. An example – the debate over abortion and insurance. We fight (or at least gripe about) the legislation, and battle those who pass it. What if the majority of our time and money was expressed in the teaching of God’s love, and explaining how God created us to live? If we worked for actually brining the means of grace to broken lives, which doesn’t just “cover up” the cause of things, but recreates them anew in Christ?
What if people understood what it meant to be baptized, and began to cherish that which they had been given?
What if we grasped verses like this….
5:17 So for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old order is gone and a new being is there to see.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NJB)
What if we understood that God doesn’t just repair us, but has made us new?
We pray, “Lord, have mercy!” Now go, and live this day, confident in that mercy that just doesn’t repair the consequences, but completely renews our hearts and our minds.
AMEN
