Giving Freely, Freely Given

I was quite troubled recently upon reading an article about a church in downtown Washington, DC experiencing financial crisis because, among other reasons, the payroll was usurping the church’s budget. How did we come to the point that nobody wants to serve their community of faith unless a financial transaction comes along with it. Scripture says, “Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages” (I Timothy 5:18). It has become common practice for pastors to draw a salary and benefits package even in modest congregations. However, that was not always the case nor is it required. Jesus and the disciples had jobs.

Now, everyone wants to get paid from the collection plate. Musicians in large churches command six-figure salaries, although they hold outside employment and serve on their own terms. It is not uncommon for singers in the choir to likewise be compensated. Callista Gingrich, wife of presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, was recently profiled for her participation in a church choir for which she is paid $80 per service.  Can that reasonably be considered sacrificial worship? Not anymore than her conversion from mistress to wife can be considered honorable.

I have even heard of Sunday School teachers without any investment of formal training trying to shake down churches for compensation. If a gift has been given to one freely from above, can it be commoditized and billed in good conscience? I’ll bet the old ladies of yore are turning in their graves. The church is spending so much having church that it does not have much left to be the church through outreach and missions.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). The gospel is free. There is no requirement for receiving it and certainly not an incumbent financial burden. The converse is that upon accepting the grace so freely given to you, all that you are and all that you own are at the disposal of the kingdom.  So if no one ever pays you to do what God has endowed you to do, do it anyway.

Erotic love has been reduced to sexuality in the modern era.  Its true essence lies in receiving some form of gratification in return for what one offers. Forget “a good deed is its own reward.” Like Lucy in A Charlie Brown Christmas, “I want what I’ve got coming to me; I want my fair share.”

Benevolence, or agape, is the highest form of love. It does not expect anything in return. It is no respector of persons. It will give itself even to those who do not deserve it. Sound familiar? That’s how God loves and requires us to do the same.

So when you leave the family gathering today, don’t calculate how much you spent on others and got shortchanged in return.  You have no idea how much your sacrifice meant to the recipients or the generosity it will consequently inspire are. It may not come back to you, but it will make the world better.

In the same manner, think of ways you can give of yourself to your community of faith without considering it an investment in anything except eternity. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:21). The aforementioned church was able to execute its mission more effectively after members forfeit their so-called right to market-rate compensation and offered their service sacrificially. Imagine what the church could be if we all did the same. 

Living a Lie

One of the hardest things for the church to accept is that there are a lot of people with a legitimate gripe against it. We like to talk down to people who do not participate in organized religion. However, for some people, it is in their best interest not to do so. Think about the boys molested by priests, girls impregnated by their pastor, men and women who were shunned because they would not tow the party line, or adults scarred by bad teaching and cultish behavior to which they were exposed in childhood. The list goes on.

The conspiracy to conceal the criminal behavior of Jerry Sanduskya, former football coach at Penn State, have left me speechless. How can a person witness the atrocity of a ten year-old being raped and walk away? How could university administrators value the illusion of honor over the sanctity of children’s innocence? Why would they not only continue to allow the perpetrator to be present alone with children and use the institution as cover?

The most valuable book for me as I recovered from my trauma drama with the church was People of the Lie. It is a disturbing account of the psychology of religion and how evil permeates the religious realm as we become increasingly organized.  Of course, no one in the church recommended it.  You won’t hear of any group studies of it. If you’ve ever been through anything in the church (if not, keep on living), you will recognize the wreckage and be healed by the analysis.

The author, M. Scott Peck, postulates that we do things as part of a whole that we would never do individually. There is something about being part of a group or wanting to do so. Anyone who pledged a fraternity or sorority (old school) can attest to the insanity of desiring to belong. On the front-end, we draw the line for how far we would go in pursuit of popularity, status, and networking opportunities. Once a person is in the mix and the prize is in view, there is little that they will not do as liability litigation has revealed.

Evil loves institutions.  “So as they become larger and larger, our institutions become absolutely faceless Soulless. What happens when there is no soul? Is there just a vacuum? Or is there Satan where once a soul resided?” When people get locked inside them, they lose sight of their own values and adopt those of what they consider larger than themselves. The illusion of success supersedes moral integrity.

The same goes for Mike McQueary, the graduate assistant who witnessed a prominent coach raping a child. Under any other circumstances, he would have dialed 911. However, the prize of a coaching job was in view and he sacrificed all of his decency and self-respect to keep it attainable. Had he reported Sandusky to the authorities, his career would undoubtedly have been toast. Edmund Burke said “all it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.” Evil apparently has a better record at Penn State than Joe Paterno for this was not an isolated incident.

This brings to mind when my pastor was sexually harassing and withholding ordination from me. It pained me to no end to see people I loved and respected as passive bystanders. “That’s just the way it is” was the common refrain. For that reason, more than a few women have slept for their papers because no one was going to help them get them any other way. So much for the Good Samaritan. Help a victim, forget future preaching engagements, pastoral appointments, and other perks of the position.

Well, like Paul, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14). Fifteen years after entering the ordination process, I still have no papers but my integrity is intact. My preaching engagements are few and far between and I cannot be a substitute Sunday School teacher in my original denomination. However, I sleep well at night.  For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Mark 8:36). There will be preachers and self-satisfied religious types in hell and they will have a lot of familiar company.

People confide in me quite frequently that they don’t get very involved in their communities of faith because they don’t want to know about the evil that lurks within. That’s no different than turning a blind eye, thus aiding and abetting said evil. It is incumbent on you to confront evil if you know, or even suspect, that evil lurks about you. If you cannot do that, then you must leave lest you too have blood on your hands. Be not deceived, bad company corrupts good character (I Corinthians 15:33).  

The good news is that not all churches or organizations are evil. However, they present the conditions for evil to flourish when they become institutionalized. We make choices as a part of a collective that we would never do singularly, especially when there is a reward involved. It can me money, a promotion, elevated social status, or something as simple as recognition.

The most shameful thing is that people have created gods that they consider higher than the crown of Christ. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen (I Corinthians 1:25). This played out at Penn State with more questions about preserving Coach Paterno’s legacy than ensuring human safety. The rub is not that we all sellout on some level on a regular basis, but most of us have not been offered enough for our souls.

Again, Mike McQueary rose from the lowest rung of the football ladder to a comfortable perch within the program as compensation for being complicit in an evil system. It happens every day in institutions everywhere, including the church. Officers, ministers, and those in other tony roles are usually most adept at doing the bidding of church leaders than discerning and obeying the will of God. Only the Lord, their partners in crime, and unfortunate victims know.

Before feeling too smug about how you would have responded in that Penn State locker room, or in any given situation, be sure the cock is not crowing thrice for you. Peck says further “Triggers are pulled by individuals. Orders are given and executed by individuals. In the last analysis, every single human act is ultimately the result of an individual choice.” Remain conscious of the systems you participate in socially, professionally, and spiritually. Strive not to do the work of the devil even as it parades as the higher good.

So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!  No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it (I Corinthians 10:12-13).

New Attitude

Every now and then, I hear a sermon that changes my life on the spot. This past weekend, I went to hear Fred Craddock, professor emeritus of homiletics at the seminary where I earned my degree. In the course of his well-crafted, yet inspired sermon, he shared a prayer he says daily:

“Lord, thank you for work

that is more important

than how I feel about it

on any given day.”

In an instant I experienced prototypical repentance. Repentance is derived from the Greek root metanoia, which means to turn around. It does not simply mean “I am sorry for these my misdoings.” It connotes a dramatic change in disposition.

Fifteen years have passed since I discerned my call, preached my initial sermon, and entered the candidacy for ordained ministry. However, I only serve when I feel like it and on my own terms.

Never for a moment have I been able to deny the call, but God’s people sometimes leave me a bit indifferent about their eternal destiny.  “Let them go to hell for all I care.” Imagine if Jesus prayed that in the garden of Gethsemane. Instead he said Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39).

While he prayed in anguish, his boys who were supposed to be watching his back had fallen asleep. He returned to the garden to pray again after undressing them verbally. Yet, they fell asleep again. Y’all better be glad I was not the Messiah. Good Friday would have been so called off.

Then comes to mind the prophets of old whose cruel fate it was to deliver news that more often than not (spoiler alert) got them killed. Modern prophecy has become incredibly dilute and uninspired. True prophecy would be the antithesis of a Dale Carnegie course. Its primer would be “How to Lose Friends and Offend People.” Such messages would never pack arenas consistenly or facilitate the development of a megachurch.

I cannot count the number of times that God led me to say things that resulted in people never speaking to me again or becoming my mortal enemy on a dime. Jesus warned his disciples:  

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19).

So if you leave service every Sunday feeling like you just left a pep rally or multi-level marketing meeting, you are not being fed. The gospel and committed service unto it are hard pills to swallow. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come (John 16:13). The world—and ironically the church—will not love you more for it.

Nonetheless, I have been repeating new prayers these days:

“Lord, thank you for work

that is more important

than how I feel about it

on any given day.”

Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Please pray with me and let’s see where the Lord leads. There is so much more at stake in our obedience than we can ever imagine.

Love's Labor Lost

Tanned, Rested & Ready

One of the most assuring features of modern computing is that the vast majority of problems can be resolved by simply rebooting. It used to pain me when technical support representatives would ask me whether I have rebooted my computer when it became inoperable or restarted my modem when I could not establish a connection. Of course I did, just not right before I called.

It has been a long time since I had the pleasure of speaking with a technical support representative because I have gotten into the habit of shutting my systems down on a regular basis. This prevents the cache from becoming too cluttered to allow processing to occur efficiently and keeps the memory from becoming overloaded.

In the same manner, we must clear our calendars and rest our bones. Doesn’t matter whether we take a staycation or traipse the globe. What is important is that we all maintain a cycle that gets interrupted on a regular enough basis to keep us functional.

We can run from the modern workplace, but we cannot hide. We remain tethered to the office virtually 24/7 with smartphones, laptops, and cool tablet computers that blur the lines between work and play. Some of us insist on it seemingly thinking “who’s gonna run the world while I’m away?” He that keepeth thee will not slumber. (Psalm 121:3b).

I have news for you: there are no indispensible people. Workers drop dead every day and the show goes on. How many Thanksgiving turkeys have been ruined because the host insisted on slicing it upon removing it from the oven rather than allowing the required twenty minutes for the juices to redistribute? Just chill!

God was proactive in creation in modeling the necessity of taking a breather.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made (Genesis 2:1-2).

God took a day off and the whole of His creation remained intact. God has ordered us to do the same with far less at risk.

I have experienced stress-related illnesses several times in my life. Sadly, they are considered badges of honor in the circles I travel. “I’ll take your chronic insomnia and raise you an ulcer.” “Wait a minute, Bob had a heart attack at 44 despite his healthy diet and vigorous exercise routine.” “Point and game.”  I say this tongue-in-cheek because there are no winners in the burnout game.

No profession is more prone to burning out than pastors. Congregations think they can’t do without them and some spiritual leaders perpetuate those sentiments. I am happy to live in a city where absence is expected in the month of August (except for the first Sunday, funerals, weddings, guest appearances, and crises). The church likewise scales back its level of activity. This increases overall productivity as it is impossible to reflect on the redemptive nature of routine things while they are still being engaged.

In the end, none of the things we use to drive ourselves into an early grave are worth the gravity we place on them. This is evidenced by the shift in priorities by those who live to tell about the effects. Go ahead and spend more time with your kids, plant a garden, play with the dog, go to the game, read a book, or simply sit in your favorite chair and vegetate.

In the same way that God provided for humans to be restored, God also ordered us to return the favor to the rest of creation.

Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; But in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard (Leviticus 25:3-4).

If you have not taken a vacation this year, plan one. If you returned from vacation more exhausted than when you departed, use your Sabbath privilege for which it was intended. And even if you find yourself in an involuntary Sabbath, take it for the blessing that God intended: rest in Him to be conformed to His likeness and will.

So give it a rest. Your family will thank you. Your friends will thank you. Your co-workers will thank you. And God will bless you.

Summer Madness

More familiar to me on the Fourth of July are the words Frederick Douglass delivered on this day in 1852 than those penned by our Founding Fathers.
 

Fellow citizens, pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I or those I represent to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?... Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony.

While the words of the Declaration of Independence are filled with lofty ideals of personal dignity, individual freedom, and the fulfillment of dreams, they were inconsistent with the order of the day in which hundreds of thousands of men and women were excluded from their vision. They didn’t even bother to explain the discrepancy away.
 

I cannot tell a lie and pretend that I am not patriotic to the core. Growing up in the nation’s capital amidst politics, monuments, pomp and pageantry fashioned me into one who believes the founding ideals can become reality. I can recall no grander time than the nation’s Bicentennial when the city celebrated all year long like I have never seen since. People came from far and wide displaying a unified euphoria that we had made it that far.

 

To remain on message, I have to examine how the society that has emerged this side of the pond corresponds to the demands of the Gospel. Do I believe in the doctrine of Manifest Destiny that seeks to justify theft, murder, and exploitation on a level the world has ever seen? Heavens no!

 

What I do believe is there is an indomitable spirit that will allow us to achieve whatever is in our hearts to do. The Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17). Not only that, we are free to exercise faith—or not—without interference from the government. The fact that we can do all these things without state-sponsored force or oppression should at least elicit a “hallelujah.”

 

In spite of its ignominious beginnings and present shortfalls, America is as good as it gets on this terrestrial ball. Nowhere else on earth can a person of modest birth even imagine that they too can one day be President.  Or if politics is not their fortè, then they can aim at entrepreneurship, education, public service, entertainment, or a myriad of fields of personal endeavor with a reasonable chance of arriving where their natural talent, hard work, and good fortune propel them.

 

The following hymn captures the sentiments of the day:

 

This is my song, O God of all the nations,

A song of peace for lands afar and mine.

This is my home, the county where my heart is;

Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;

But other hearts in other lands are beating

With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

 

Americans are not the only ones God wants to be free. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some barbeque and fireworks in my near future.

Who's Your Daddy?

It is quite unsettling that we have come to a time in our society where over half of the children are being raised without their natural father in the home. In the particular area of Washington, DC where I reside, a startling 8 out of 10 children do not have their father in their life. Regardless of the reason, many children are struggling with God’s revelation of Himself as our Heavenly Father because of the strained or non-existent relationship with their earthly daddy.

I remember one of my seminary professors lecturing on the appropriateness of using gender-neutral language to reference God. Her rationale rested on the high rate of absentee fathers and negative role models in some communities. She looked at the angry little black woman on the third row for what she thought was a certain confirmation of her point. And I told her it didn’t bother me because I have a good daddy.   

The following is a passage is from the encounter between Jesus and the woman at the well (who the writer did not see fit to name).

"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."  Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. (John 4:19-23)

She was from a people called the Samaritans who had general knowledge of Israelite religious practices, but maintained their own social and religious systems.  The woman wanted to know who had it right. She asked Jesus whether the religious practices of her fathers, the Jewish fathers, or even somebody else’s fathers were more acceptable to God.

Jesus revealed that the geographic location of worship and social constructs around them are inconsequential. Genuine worship of God emanates from the spirit of whosoever recognizes and responds to God’s gift of redemption. In the same way, our society gets hung up handing down religious traditions more than spiritual legacies.

Jesus asserts here and throughout this gospel that it is the relationship between each person’s spirit and the Spirit of God that matters. You must be renewed from above, not from the pew. Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman is significant because her relationship with Christ and not her birthright established her status in the eyes of God.

Fathers fill an important role in families. That is why God revealed Godself using the metaphorical imagery of father in scripture. It’s not that God has a set of male genitalia.  But that God relates to humanity the way a man should relate to his children.  Sigmund Freud said “at bottom, God is nothing more than an exalted father.”  Earthly fathers are challenged with the duty of modeling the characteristics of our heavenly father and eventually leading their children to faith.  Therefore, fatherhood is an extension of a man’s discipleship.

The most traditional role of father that God appropriates are first as protector. That’s why the psalmist calls God his refuge and his fortress a deliver and shield. A very present help in a time of trouble (Psalm 46:1).  The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear. The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?  (Psalm 27:4-5).

The world deals with you differently when you’ve got a daddy.  When I was growing up, boys in my neighborhood wouldn’t even date me. They envisioned my daddy standing by the door with a shotgun.  While he was more than likely nodding off on the sofa. But it doesn’t matter, It’s the perception. When I was attending graduate school at a fancy university, the children of the rich and famous were known for selling wolf tickets. If they got a C on a paper, they would storm into the professor’s office saying “Do you know who my daddy is?” If they got pulled over for speeding, they would likewise say “Do you know who my father is? And trust me, it worked!

Secondly, God has absolute authority. God has established order in creation. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. That’s why God’s children do not walk in the counsel of the wicked nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of mockers. But their delight is in the law of the Lord and in God’s law they meditate day and night. They will be like a tree planted firmly by streams of water which yield its fruit in due season and its leaf does not wither. And whatever they do, they prosper (Psalm 1:1-3).

Right after my grandmother died, my father came to me and said “I need you to do such-and-such”. I said “I hear you, but I was planning on doing thus-and-so.” He looked at me again and said:  “I need you to do such-and-such”.  And I looked at him again and said “that’s not really convenient for me because I had planned to do thus-and-so.”  He looked at me a third time and said “I need you to do such-and-such.”  And then I got it! Even though I’m grown, I did such-and-such. That’s the same way we bargain with God. However, God’s plans for us are not negotiable.

We love to speak of God as provider. That’s why Charles Wesley wrote:

Father I stretch my hand to Thee

No other help I know

If thou withdraw thy self from me

Oh wither shall I go.

Psalm 27:35 tells us, I have been young and now I’m old, but I have never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. When you are a child of God, you have a blank check drawn on heaven. Nothing that you need to fulfill God’s purpose for you will be denied.

As disciplinarian, God chastises those whom God loves. Discipline is not simply about punishment. Discipline comes from the Greek root ascesis from which we get the word “ascetic”.  It implies training and was used frequently to describe the rigorous training required for preparing for the Olympics. The net effects of living the ascetic life are physical purity, mental focus, and preparedness.  Knowing God as Father renders the believer impervious to intimidation because they are prepared to withstand any trial and have far more fear of God and the consequences of disobeying Him.

Discipline is also about commanding respect. As Father, God does not owe us answers. Recall the story of Job demanding explanations for why he was suffering so much loss.  The Lord replied to Job out of the whirlwind for four long chapters about God being sovereign and having done all these wonderful things and Job being a mere mortal who had no idea. Yet, God did not in those four long chapters give Job a clue as to the cosmological nature of his trial.

That account reminds me so much of my dad because he can lecture you for hours and have no idea what his point is. But in the end, like, Job, you simply respect the position.    That’s an important point because we as children can be disrespectful to our fathers, but we must maintain that respect because fathers slip up just like everybody slips up. By your respecting him, and his role in your family, you remind him that he has to live up to that.

Most importantly, God is our trust. God can do anything, but fail. Sometimes it feels like God has made a mistake or forgotten about us when things don’t  go our way. God never sleeps nor slumbers. Rest assured that God is working things out for good, although the details may be concealed from you at this time.

God is all these things to us, but our children do not recognize it despite a church on every other corner.  Jesus said:

Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:43-44).

I John 3:10 describes Satan’s children as those who do not do what is right as well as those who do not love their brothers and sisters. We have got to free our communities from the lie that they are not children of the King.

You give control over yourself to whose voice you incline your ear. If you follow the natural order of this perverse world, then you are the offspring of the devil who is the ruler of this world. If you transcend, by faith, consistently taking hard rights over easy wrongs, then you demonstrate by your fruit that you have been born again by the spirit of God. 

There is no separating the disposition of the heart from the act of recognizing God for who and what God is .  Each miraculous change in our behavior makes God that much real to us and hence worthy of praise. Anything short of that is mere hypocrisy. The good news is that God is accepting children for adoption daily. And desires genuine praise from them. Choose your daddy today!