Dental Clinic and Clothes Closet

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father… for I needed clothes and you clothed me.  I needed my teeth filled and you filled them for me…’  Then they will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you needing clothes and clothed you or needing your teeth filled and filled them for you?’  The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine you did for me.’” (Matthew 25:31-40 paraphrased)

I know… I know… I’m taking some liberties with the Holy Scriptures.  Some may be offended but, in my opinion, the paraphrase is true to the original intent of the speaker; who, by the way, was Jesus.  And, in my opinion, he is delighted; not so much with my loose translation, but with what is happening outside my office right now… right now as I’m writing.

Once a year our church sponsors a dental clinic.  The Baptist State Convention provides a bus that houses two dental offices.  Along with lots of other volunteers, dentists and dental hygienists from our community give their time and talent so that people can receive dental care free of charge.  The clinic is going on right now.  Over the course of the next two days, around 100 patients will receive dental care! 

While they are here, the patients can also walk through our clothing room and pick out what they need, also free of charge.  The people who come here to receive this service are treated with respect and dignity.  They have the opportunity to talk to people who will listen to them and pray with them – really listen and really pray!

It may sound like I’m bragging on our people a little bit… Okay, I am bragging on our people a little bit.  But, in my defense, I think I have a good reason.   

I know that the Christian community gets a lot of bad press these days.  (A couple weeks ago I wrote about "Bad Press for Preachers.”)  I know that some of that bad press is deserved.  Some people who claim the name of Jesus can be crude and cruel, rude and ruthless.  Some vent their hatred and call it “standing up for the truth.”  Some attack others and call it “righteous indignation.” 

I want to say as clearly as I can that those people do not represent Jesus Christ!  Let me say it again.  Those who hurt others in the name of Jesus are not speaking for Jesus, they are speaking against him!  They are not representing the Jesus we read about in the gospels.  They represent some kind of misguided and distorted religious expression but it is not Christianity.  It is not the movement that Jesus launched 2000 years ago.   

So if you are outside of the Christian community maybe you have a good reason.  Maybe you have been burned by a form of religion that claims the name of Jesus but does not reflect his heart.  If so, I hope you can see the other side of the coin.  I hope you can see followers of Jesus actually following Jesus.  I hope you can see that there are many people who not only claim that Jesus is the Way, they actually follow the Way of Jesus!

The Heart of Jesus

“im going to church is fun and u go to learn about god and jesuse.” 

That’s a “sentence” that was posted on my friend’s facebook page last Wednesday night.  My friend is an eleven year old boy who’s growing up in really challenging circumstances.  His mom is trying hard to help him and his siblings break the cycle of family dysfunction.  She has a big job.

My friend (I’ll call him Douglas) was introduced to our church through a tutoring ministry we sponsor in his neighborhood.  He was instantly drawn to the volunteers who were genuinely kind and interested in him.  So naturally, getting tutored led to more.  He and his family requested transportation to our worship services on Sunday morning.  Which naturally led to more.  He and his family requested transportation to our Wednesday night activities which include a good meal and classes for all ages. 

And so last Wednesday night, after he got home, Douglas posted “im going to church is fun and u go to learn about god and jesuse.”

I write about this because I believe what our church is doing for Douglas and his family reflects the very heart of Jesus. 

The Jesus biographers (the writers of the four gospels) tell us that people were bringing children to Jesus so that he could touch them and bless them.  In the ancient world children were not considered to be very valuable, or even noticed by adults, until they were old enough to become productive workers.  (I think sometimes the same thing happens in our world.)  So the disciples were discouraging these people (probably mothers) from bringing their children to Jesus.  Surely the Messiah wouldn’t want to be bothered with the little disease carriers. It would be like the president ditching a Cabinet meeting to baby sit his sister’s kid.

The Bible says that when Jesus saw the disciples turning children away “he was indignant and he said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’  And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.”   (Mark 10:13-16)

 

This is the heart of Jesus.

The gospel writer Matthew says that Jesus once looked out over the crowds of people and “he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’”  (Matthew 10:36-38)

This is the heart of Jesus.

The gospel writer Luke records one of the first speeches Jesus gave.  It would be kind of like a politician publically outlining his agenda for the first time.  Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  (Luke 4:18-19)

This is the heart of Jesus.

In another important speech Jesus said… “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.  Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.”  (Luke 6:20-21)

This is the heart of Jesus.

Sometimes some well meaning person will ask me why our church’s vision is to see our city transformed as we become more like Jesus and lead others to him.  Shouldn’t we be focused on “the church family?”  Sometimes someone will “correct” me by telling me that my primary job is to care for “the flock.”  Which begs the question, who does Jesus consider his flock?  Remember, Jesus looked out on the crowd and thought of them as his flock… his responsibility… his disciple’s responsibility.

So I tell people my job is to make sure the heart of the church is like the heart of Jesus.

By the way, Douglas and his brother and sisters will be baptized as followers of Jesus Christ next month.  I think they will be baptized, at least in part, because our church has a heart like Jesus.

Trying To Understand "Belief" and "Trust"

I’ve blogged about “Belief” before. (Can I Force Myself To Believe?)  Lots of other people have too.

I guess we could read from now on and write from now on and still not really understand fully the ancient Biblical concept of belief. 

Here’s one more attempt during a recent sermon.

If you would like to have a serious conversation about belief in Jesus Christ, please feel free to contact me. rob@zoarchurch.com

Bad Press for Preachers

This morning I felt a familiar feeling as I watched the morning news.  One of the leading stories was about Arthur Schirmer, a Pennsylvania pastor charged with murdering two wives.  When I heard the word pastor, that’s when I got the feeling. 

I want to be really clear.  This is a tragic set of circumstances and, if proven guilty, pastor Schirmer should be punished.  When human beings commit evil acts the public should be informed and justice should be done. 

But this morning as I watched the video (repeated somewhere between six and ten times) of Schirmer in handcuffs being led from his home to a waiting police transport, as I heard the news reporter strongly accent both syllables in the word “pastor,” I still got the feeling.  I guess I would describe it as cross between irritation and grief mixed with a little bit of nausea. 

Maybe it goes back to the early days of my ministry when I was the pastor of my first church.  It was the mid 1980’s and the church was a small congregation in the north end of Mecklenburg County, NC.  I was pastoring the church, commuting sixty miles one way to college and working side jobs to make ends meet, when the Jim Baker scandal broke.  You may remember it.

Jim Baker was the head of the PTL (Praise The Lord) empire based just inside the South Carolina line, not very far from my little church.  He went to prison after bilking millions from his TV parishioners and having an affair with a ministry employee.  I remember driving back from Charlotte one night after visiting someone in the hospital. 

My car was a 1970 something, nauseating brown Ford station wagon that I bought from another pastor for $75.00.  (Yes, I’m that old.)  The front was damaged from a previous encounter with a deer. I had to pull the grill out with a crow bar and tie the head light in place with wire.  It was a real peach!     

So I’m heading up the interstate in my station wagon with no air conditioner listening to one of the many radio talk show hosts waxing eloquent about Jim Baker, Jimmy Swagart, Robert Tilton and a few others.  (By the way, how would you like to be a preacher named Robert Helton when Robert Tilton was on the air.  Can you guess what nick name my fellow co-eds gave me?)

The thing about this particular radio personality was that he made it sound (unintentionally I’m sure) like all preachers are basically cut from the same cloth.  Driving back from praying with a sick person I found myself included in the list of preachers gone wild.  Suddenly I was being lumped into a pile of reprobates and charlatans.  And that’s when I got the feeling the first time.  I almost had to pull the nauseating brown station wagon over and… well… you know.

So I think that there needs to be a little balance brought to the media’s portrayal of clergy.  I want to respectfully point out that for every bad preacher on the six o’clock news there’s another thousand or so actually doing what preachers are supposed to do.  Those preachers don’t get much media attention.

I know a youth pastor who helps kids learn what it means to seriously follow Jesus, who stays awake all night for lock-ins (a long standing youth ministry tradition) and organizes a tutoring ministry for children who fall through the cracks.  I know a pastor who regularly visits home bound seniors, who prays with them and makes them laugh.  I know a pastor who visits men in the jail, prays with them and reads passages of scripture.  I know a pastor who helps homeless people feel like real human beings when she spends time with them listening to their stories and sharing their sorrows. 

The list could go on and on.  Maybe it’s inappropriate for me to brag on pastors since I am one, but I thought it might be helpful to bring a little balance to the media coverage.

One Perspective on Gun Control

In the wake of the tragic shooting in Connecticut, renewed rhetoric is already swirling about gun control (from both sides).  Sometimes one way to reflect on a topic – especially a controversial topic – is to tell a story.

Note:  If you worshiped with the Zoar Church family this past Sunday you have heard the story already.  You may want to skip to the observations.

This story is about a fifth century monk named Telemachus.  Although versions of it vary somewhat, church historians tell us that the account is quite reliable.  It was first recorded by Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus in Syria (393-457 A.D.). You may have heard it.  In 1984 Ronald Reagan told it to the group gathered at the Annual National Day of Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C.

Telemachus was a young man who had pursued all the pleasures the world had to offer and came up empty.  One day he had a vision of Jesus Christ and became one of his followers.  He joined the Jesus movement.

He took up residence in a monastery and lived there for awhile.  But, according to Theodoret, he had another vision of Christ, this time telling him to go to Rome.  The day he entered the capital city of the Roman Empire there was a great commotion.  The Romans were celebrating a recent military victory over the Goths and the streets were full of people.

Without even realizing what was happening, Telemachus was swept into the seating area of the Roman Coliseum.  From where he sat he could see the Emperor, Honorius, in his box seat.  Then Telemachus saw the gladiators run into the stadium, line up before the emperor and give the traditional pledge; “we who are about to die, salute you!”

Suddenly Telemachus knew exactly what was happening.  Soon the gladiators were engaged in hand to hand combat.  With every clash of metal to metal Telemachus winced.  With every bloodletting gash he grieved.  Human beings, created in the image of God, were profaning God and wasting human life in a blood sport designed to satisfy a blood thirsty crowd.  What he saw he could not bear.  So he responded the only way he knew to respond.  

He began shouting, “In the name of Jesus, stop! In the name of Jesus, stop!”  The roar of the crowd made his shouts pointless, so almost without thinking he made his way down to the wall that stood between the crowd and mortal danger.  He cried out, “In the name of Jesus, stop!”  No response.

Then, in and act perhaps more out of love and desperation than courage, he jumped over the wall and onto the field.  He ran toward the gladiators shouting, “In the name of Jesus, stop!”     

Finally the crowd noticed this little monk running around yelling something and, in an effort to hear what he was saying, grew silent.  And then everybody heard – the crowd, the gladiators, the emperor – “In the name of Jesus, stop!” 

For a brief moment there was silence.  Then the silence turned to laughter.  Then the laughter turned to anger at a monk who would dare interrupt their sport.  Telemachus just kept up his sermon.  “In the name of Jesus, stop!”  He was between two gladiators now repeating the refrain, “In the name of Jesus, stop!” 

The gladiators seemed to take their cue from the blood thirsty crowd.  One swung his sword at the monk just missing.  The crowd roared!  And then another gladiator did not miss.  He ran his sword through the little monk, pinning his jerking body to the ground.  The ground turned bright red as the monk’s blood soaked the sand at the feet of his executioner.  Telemachus drew his last breath while his voice still echoed off the coliseum walls.  “In the name of Jesus, stop!” 

Then something strange happened.  The crowd did not applaud or roar with laughter.  In fact, the crowd grew completely silent.  The story goes that, one by one, the citizens of Rome began to walk out of the coliseum.  After a long silent procession the theater was empty.  The emperor watched in amazement, and then he too turned and walked out.  The gladiators stood silently over the lifeless body of a little monk named Telemachus until the doors opened and they were allowed to leave.  Then they dropped their weapons, turned and walked out.

In 404 A.D. the Roman Emperor Honorius issued an edict forbidding gladiator combat in the West.  The story goes that the edict was issued shortly after a little monk died shouting, “In the name of Jesus, stop!”

So what does that story have to do with gun control?  The answer is nothing… unless you consider yourself a follower of Jesus.  But if you are a Jesus follower the story reminds you how to respond to violence and the attempts to control it.

In my opinion, here’s the central truth.  Ultimately, people with weapons don’t stop people with weapons.  People with Jesus do.  Ultimately, people with gun control laws don’t stop people with weapons.  People with Jesus do.

Nonviolent resistance (one of the teachings of Jesus) has historically been more effective at combating violence than any other approach.  By the way, I wonder what would happen to the weapon manufacturing industry if every person who claimed to be a Christian stopped buying them.  While respecting our right to bear arms, I just wonder what possible reason a follower of Jesus would have for owning an instrument designed to take the life of another human being (unless he or she really enjoys pretty serious target practice).

Bottom line, from people like Stephen (who died praying for those who stoned him) to Telemachus to Martin Luther King Jr., those with Jesus in their hearts and on their lips are more powerful than those with weapons in their hands.

“God on Trial… wrestling with the existence of Evil”

Recently a friend of mine sent me a film entitled "God on Trial."  It was extremely well done.  It was also gut wrenching and thought provoking.

The film is set in a WWII concentration camp.  The characters are primarily Jewish prisoners.  In their dim and dingy barracks they sit waiting to find out which ones didn’t make the latest cut; which ones will be the next to enter the gas chamber. 

While they wait, someone comes up with an idea… anything to take their minds off the inevitable.  Why not put God on trial?  God had promised to protect the Jews.  For some it was obvious that he didn’t keep his promise.  He should be prosecuted!

And they did.  I won’t give away too much information, in case you want to watch it for yourself, but the hour and a half long film is made up mostly of these inmates accusing and defending God until they reach a verdict.

I have to admit that there have been times when I’ve put God on trial myself.  For me it wasn’t so much an exercise to determine if he was guilty as it was to determine if he was there.  And there have been times when I decided he wasn’t.  Among other factors, the seemingly unchecked existence of evil in our world has, at times, moved me to pronounce God… “Nonexistent!”

Maybe you’ve been there and done that.  Maybe you’re there now.  If so, I hope you will read a little further.

I think serious reflection about the questions of suffering and evil in our world can actually help us go farther than our current questions and conclusions.  What if we used the reality of evil and injustice to move us to another, deeper question and conclusion? 

What if we asked the question like this… Since evil and injustice are unarguable realities in our world (I don’t think any rational person would argue that Nazi fascism was not evil), then isn’t that strong evidence that the opposites of evil and injustice must exist?

And if good and justice do exist, how do we know which is which?  I mean, how do we determine what is good and what is evil?  How do we know what is just and what us unjust? 

It seems to me that the topics of good and evil or justice and injustice are even more problematic for a naturalist (I guess we could use the term atheist or agnostic) than it is for a theist.  If I have no explanation for the existence of humanity beyond natural causes then how do I determine what is "good" or "evil," "just" or "unjust?" 

To a true naturalist, I don’t know how those categories make sense.  To put it another way, for a true naturalist, human suffering can't be good or bad.  It just is.

In fact, for an atheistic evolutionist (as opposed to a theistic evolutionist) human suffering and death, particularly death at the hands of a stronger power (in the animal or human kingdom), is simply the process of natural selection; the survival of the fittest.   It is not unjust at all.  It is evolution at work, a completely “natural” process.

But if we conclude that evil is real then there must be a reason we reach that conclusion.  There must be a cause (some would say a “great cause”) that moves us, like currents move ships, to that inevitable destination, that logical conclusion. 

I would argue that the “great cause,” “the one” who moves us to that conclusion is God.     

I know that answer is not very satisfactory for some.  But think about the alternative. If I reach the conclusion that there is no God, then I have to carry that thought out to the logical conclusion.  In reference to suffering, evil and injustice, that means that all suffering is meaningless. 

That means that there is ultimately no justice in the world.  That means that the lives of the 16,000 children that died today from hunger and hunger related causes meant nothing.  They lived briefly, they suffered terribly, they died and that’s it.  They passed into and out of a hellish existence and they’re gone.  For them, if there is no God, there will be no justice.

The Bible shares a more redemptive perspective that, for me at least, makes the most sense.  According to the Bible, there is suffering in the world because the world we live in is broken, imperfect, and in desperate need of healing.  From the Christian perspective that healing came into our world through Jesus Christ and someday the healing will be complete. 

I may be telling you stuff that you’ve already heard.  I know it stretches the modern (or post-modern) mind to its limits.  Some won’t embrace it as truth.  But for me it is the only conclusion that makes sense of the world we live in.

For me there must be a God who allows himself to be tried and convicted wrongly, who suffers with and for our broken world; for human beings who have decimated the planet we inhabit, who have violated one another, gone to war with each other and against our creator. 

As strange as it sounds, I believe that this God came to us through Jesus Christ; born to a virgin, laid in a wooden trough, nailed to a wooden cross, resurrected to bring healing to a broken suffering world.

I’m interested in hearing your perspective.

Hallelujahs on Halloween!

I think it’s important to be honest about how the church sometimes messes up.  If you’ve read this blog much at all you probably already know that.  But if I’m going to be honest about what we get wrong, I need to be equally honest about what we get right and on Halloween night one church (it happened to be my church) got something really right!

I have the privilege of being one of the members of Zoar Church in Shelby, North Carolina.

  For several years our church has hosted a Trunk or Treat event on Halloween night.  You may know how that works.  In a church parking lot – or in our case on the ball field – people line up their cars and give out candy to passing kids (and adults) from their trunks.  Ergo…“Trunk or Treat.” 

Each year the folks as Zoar invite anyone from our community, and surrounding communities, to come by and participate.  This year we gave out Bibles to all the children.  960 Bibles were given away, so that means around 2,000 people came through the line.  

This year my job was to help man the prayer tent.  Some people requested prayer on the spot.  Others wrote down requests on cards so people could pray for them later. 

One person wrote on their prayer card, “lost job yesterday.”  I hope she left with more than candy for her kids.  Maybe, along with candy, she received a renewed faith in humanity and God.  Maybe she was grateful to know that someone cared enough to pray.

And we will.  Prayer teams will meet.  Prayers will be offered on behalf of every individual that filled out a card.  Not generic prayers that can be applied to anybody, but real, heartfelt prayers that single out real human beings going through real struggles and need a real God to intervene.  Our faith is small but we will exercise what we have asking God to help.  Along with prayers for healing and strength, marriages restored and prodigals returned, we will be asking God to help this woman find another job. 

(I know we could get into a long discussion about why God seems to hear some prayers and sleep through others.  It’s a fair question but we’ll save it for another day.  Right now the point is that our people are praying for people because they care.  I think that’s important.)

Another woman was crying when she stepped into the tent.  She sat down and told me some of her story.  I won’t get into all the details.  It’s enough to say that she lost her faith in God and people.  She felt like both had let her down.  She was actually hesitant to come to our Trunk or Treat, but kids are persuasive and grandparents are pushovers so here she was, sitting beside me telling me her story.

Now, through her tears, she told me that she was touched by the love that our people shared with her.  She said she had forgotten that there are people in the world who really do care.  Maybe if she had been wrong about people she had been wrong about God too.  She was in the process of moving to the other end of the county and she said she hoped she found a church like ours.  I hope so too.

Between prayer sessions I stood outside the tent and looked across the field and the sea of people.

On a night when people try hard to look scary, I think our people looked saintly without trying to at all.  I saw people passing out candy, popcorn and coke…hugs, Bibles and prayers.  Some were dancing, some laughing, some crying, some praying and some seemed to be able to do all simultaneously.  That night I think I saw the church the way Jesus intended the church to be. 

As I looked around the ball field on Halloween night I whispered a heartfelt “hallelujah!” 

It seemed to be the appropriate thing to do.