Worthy of the Call: Confession

In my women's Bible Study, we are chugging through the book of Philippians. One of the study books, Living the Letters: Philippians, collects excerpts from various books and asks questions to draw out the main point of the text and newly illuminate its topics. This is an excerpt from In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen, for Philippians 2: 1-8 on the topic of 'One Another.'

“The sacrament of Confession has often become a way to keep our own vulnerability hidden from our community ... How can priests or ministers feel really loved and cared for when they have to hide their own sins and failings from the people to whom they minister and run off to a distant stranger to receive a little comfort and consolation? How can people truly care for their shepherds and keep them faithful to their sacred task when they do not know them and so cannot deeply love them? … It is precisely the men and women who are dedicated to spiritual leadership who are easily subject to very raw carnality. The reason for this is that they do not know how to live the truth of the Incarnation.”

Mr. Nouwen's work is always challenging for me read. I wish the I could read context of this excerpt. What are the passages that surround it? How does he recommend resolving the issues he raises?

He takes no time in raising two central issues to the Christian life: Confession and Sexuality. I will divide my thoughts between two posts. [One of the most challenging things about blogging is to condense volumes into one digestible kernel of Truth. These posts will represent only where I am in wrestling with these life-long topics at this very moment. My views are subject to change, if God wills.]

It is very interesting that those who focus on spiritual leadership “do not know how to live the Truth of the Incarnation” and so are “easily subject to very raw carnality.” It rings true. How many pastors and prominent evangelists have fallen to adulterous behaviors? So many that I practically expect it. It seems only a matter of time before another scandal arises – and that is truly sad.

We must pray for and hold our leaders accountable, all the while remembering they are human, too. We must not be tempted to hold them to a higher account than we are willing to submit to ourselves. Clearly we must stop this double-standard pattern and lift our leaders up to the Only Perfect One. We must trust that He is always at work, crafting each of us into a more perfect and new creation. We must allow our leaders to be human, to be real, to struggle, to come to us for help and prayer. Confession is not a popular topic. It is an even less popular practice. But it is essential if the Body of Christ is to function well. The Apostle Paul challenges us in his letter to the Ephesians:

“I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (4:1-3).

I heard a gifted teacher, Karen Kutz, last Autumn (2010) illuminate this idea. Living a life 'worthy of our calling' is to remember how impossible the calling is, but how amazing that God gives us the ability, in small steps as we follow Him, to start fulfilling that calling. She reminded me how easy it is for anyone to slip down the slope: anyone could be a monster. The only thing that keeps me from it is God's Grace. In humility, we should hold onto that knowledge – God's Grace is the only rescue, the only redemption. And when we choose to follow Christ, to accept the Father's adoption (Eph. 1:5), we must extend the Grace we hold onto out to others, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ, especially our spiritual leaders. Let us not fall for the Lie that some sins are worse than others. [That is another post.]

Yes, we must challenge leaders, ourselves, and everyone, to strive for excellence, but we need to come down more often on the side of Grace rather than Judgment. “For it is by Grace you have been saved...it is a gift from God” (Eph. 2:8-9). We must Practice Grace, leaving the rest to God.

Bryce's Faith Story

I'm finally ready to share the story of my faith as it has wound through my life. I'm going to warn you all up front: it's not pretty. If you don't want to hear me talk about ugliness that most everyone experiences in life, and my struggles with it, then you may not want to click through to the story. I assure you that I'm not sharing anything here that I'm unwilling to discuss with anyone in person.

So without further ado, my story:

Quote of the Week: Capon

I've seen some bloggers share thoughtful quotes; here's one I read today.
Spot on and thought-provoking. Also, it sheds new light on my baggage with music...

From Between Noon and Three by Robert Farrar Capon:
(Capon is speaking of the outrageousness of God's grace. Here he is responding to a reader's concern that he is not serious enough about morality. The Latin phrase, loco parentis, means 'in the parental role.')

If we are ever to enter fully into the glorious liberty of the children of God, we are going to have to spend more time thinking about freedom than we do. The church, by and large, has had a poor record of encouraging freedom. It has spent so much time inculcating in us the fear of making mistakes that it has made us like ill-taught piano students: we play our pieces, but we never really hear them because our main concern is not to make music, but to avoid some flub that will get us in Dutch. The church, having put itself in loco parentis, has been so afraid we will lose sight of the laws of our nature that it has made us care more about how we look than about who we are - made us act more like the subjects of a police state than fellow citizens of the saints....[we need] the ability to take our freedom seriously and act on it, to live not in fear of mistakes but in the knowledge that no mistake can hold a candle to the love that draws us home. My repentance, accordingly, is not so much for my failings but for the two-bit attitude toward them by which I made them more sovereign than grace. Grace - the imperative to hear the music, not just listen for errors - makes all infirmities occasions of glory.

Thoughts on "Going Back To Our Christian Roots"

There is an unwavering assertion coming from the Christian Right, arguing that the U.S. should "go back to its Christian roots." A YouTube video came by my inbox today that depicts a Christian tour guide enumerating various religious acts performed by early U.S. presidents. I can't debate the historical veracity of the claims in the video, but I think they completely miss the point.

Many of the actions cited by the tour guide in fact do appear to be clear violations of the First Amendment. To pick one example, a president held church services in the Capitol rotunda, using the Marine Corps Band as worship leaders. Just because it's the president's executive order, and not a law passed by Congress, does that make it legal? A president violated the Constitution (admittedly in a way that didn't seem offend anybody at the time), and just because he was Christian, we Christians are supposed to aspire to that "ideal"?

I think not. Like it or not, the U.S. is not, and never was, a Christian nation. Yes, the vast majority of the founding fathers were Christian. I buy that - though they still held some shockingly different beliefs than their Christian Right boosters of today. Yes, Christian morality and ideals are pervasive in our Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. I buy that - though they are by no means completely reflected (never forget the need for the 13th amendment, fixing a gross violation of the ideal that "all men are created equal").

But thank God that the founding fathers also saw the need for religious pluralism, even in a day when the competing religions in America were all basically Christian. They had much clearer memories of the many gross acts of violence that Christians had done to each other when the government did establish Christianity as its religion. (Note that the last of those links describes persecution performed against other Christians by those favorite American Christian ancestors of ours, the Puritans.)

So it is that arguments by folks in the Christian Right that our government should return to its glorious Christian roots always smell to me like "historical snobbery" (one of my favorite C.S. Lewis-isms). History has shown Christian after Christian in power committing acts similarly heinous to those committed by those of any other religious leaning. Who do these people in the Religious Right think they are that they're better Christians than those that have gone down that road before?

Does this mean that Christians shouldn't be in government? Certainly not. But it does mean that we'd be foolish to expect Christians in positions of political power (Bush and Obama) to be any more perfect than anyone else. Does this mean that Christians shouldn't vote as their faith convicts them? Certainly not. But I strongly believe that it does mean that Christians should never seek the establishment of their religion in any government in this fallen world.

God's approved governmental structure is clearly theocracy. He demands unwavering devotion from (and lavishes scandalous grace on) those who choose to be his disciples. And yet he doesn't force himself on us. He woos us, by his truth and goodness that is so fundamental to this world around us. He draws us by the shocking goodness of his own sacrificial exposé of the vulgar baseness of our own human religiosity (yes, we need to identify ourselves with the religious establishment of Jesus' time). Shouldn't we worry more about loving God above all else (including our money, our entertainment, our jobs, and "our America") and loving our neighbor (including the ones on the opposite site of the globe)? Those are the roots that Jesus told us to get back to. I've a lot of work to do myself.

We are ALL Needy, WIL 16

"For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer" (2 Cor. 5:14-16).

Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to spend my Saturday evening cooking, serving, cleaning up a meal for Seattle's Central District's People in Need. In about an hour, we fed 125 people, some of them twice and thrice. My guard was halfway up, heightening my senses and reactions. I haven't served at this location before. You never know exactly what you'll encounter.

Programs specializing in People in Need must have strict rules of conduct, to keep the peace. I was very impressed with this Operation; how orderly the clients were - they knew the drill, they complied in exchange for Needs Met.

Cooking and cleaning is something I can do. It's easier than having a conversation, searching for things in common with someone who lives a very different life. Practical service necessary - and safer. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs clearly states that Basic needs must be filled in order to begin addressing higher needs, including Spiritual ones. (This is one reason I struggle with ministries that require attending a Gospel service before the meal. But that is a different post.) However, Practical service is a contact point, an in to some relationship.

Because I am Needy and still invited into wholeness in Christ, His friendship compels me to open myself to others in Need - Everyone. If I truly believe He died for ALL, I should see them as Deeply Loved, just as I see myself. I can look at them through Christ's Eyes, have compassion on them, identify with them.

"17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us" (2 Cor. 5:17-20a).

Although I cannot vouch for their Belief, I can testify to my transformation, my responsibility to accept others because I am accepted. I am Being Made New every morning because of His faithfulness and love (Lam. 3:22-23). As a recipient of His grace, a Being changed from glory to increased glory (2 Cor. 3:18), He asked me - sometimes commands me - to do what I can, where I am to bring others into His Love.

Miraculously, I was able to see each man as an individual, see past their shabby exterior, see their humanness in the midst of their struggle to survive. Many would not meet my eyes; some would only mumble that they wanted everything available on their taco. They seemed crushed under the weight of Deep Need.

Some may call what I felt Pity, but I placed myself in their shoes. I pray they felt more than Pity, that they felt Compassion - Compassion beyond me, from the very heart of God.