Monday, March 24, 2008

Holy Discontent


CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!

I write with the excitement of the empty tomb in my heart. I would like to relay a story from my trip to the Holy Land. We were visiting the chapel which is built around what might have been the tomb that Jesus rose from, one of the guys on the tour (a bit of a cut-up) went into the small space and emerged and looked at our tour guide saying, "He's not there!" our tour guide smiled, others in the group laughed. Later, the tour guide hearkened back to that moment and said, "Isn't it wonderful that Jesus wasn't there. Some people come to the Holy Land looking for Jesus. But for us, Lutheran Christians, we hold Jesus in our hearts because we know that we won't find Jesus here ... we know that he has risen, Alleluia!"

I have to admit that in the midst of the excitement over Easter I find myself with Holy Discontent (a concept coined by Bill Hybels to discuss those things that one feels so passionate about they can do no other than act on them) about the way most people treat Easter. I was almost pleased to see a larger than average crowd gathered for worship yesterday. It was nice to see some new faces, people who were maybe visiting from out of town, but more than likely people who feel that they have now done their duty and don't have to return until Christmas. So why even come? What's the point? Does it somehow lift your guilt from the year to know that you've taken this one morning to be with the Lord?

I also have to add that the worship space was beautiful. It was nicely adorned with colorful flowers, lively artwork, and vivid altar decorations. But I can't help but to think that next week we will be back to one or two flower arrangements, plain walls, and an altar adorned with a basic white cloth.

Does God not deserve our best when we come for worship? Should we not bring the excitement of Easter to worship each time we come into God's presence? Can we not make our relationship with God a priority and carve out time each week to be in God's presence?

A friend of mine who is a pastor in Wisconsin recently wrote on his blog about his frustration with his confirmation class. I added a comment to his blog that essentially said, "the system is broken and we can't be afraid to fix it." My friend understands the problems, but it seems he is trapped in a system that won't allow him to fix the problem. He is trapped with apathetic parents who are dropping off their children to "get religion" (sorry parents, Christianity is NOT a spectator sport). He is trapped with apathetic kids who would rather being doing anything than sitting in a confirmation class (I say, let them ... if they don't want to be there, I've got better things to do with my time). He is trapped in a system where confirmation is a "rite of passage" that can be compared to High School graduation, at the end of which the students say, "I'm outta here" (and statistics show how many young people leave the church at the point and NEVER come back). He's trapped with families who are at least honest enough to tell him, "I have more important things to do than to be a Christian." (again I say, good riddance, we don't need you in the church).

Now, I may sound a bit harsh ... afterall, if we get rid of all of the people who don't put God first all of the time then we've got no one left (and yes, that includes the pastors, because frankly, we all sin and put other things before our relationship with God once in a while) but there are communities of people who at least try to put God first in their life. I have been fortunate to be part of such communities. People who long to gather on Sunday mornings not for the coffee and donuts, but for the experience with the Living Saviour. People who realize that church is not just a Sunday Morning event, but spend each day of the week serving God in all that they do. People who are so excited for ministry that they are telling their friends about what happened in church on Sunday or in their small group on Tuesday night. Do these people sound familiar? They sound a bit like Jesus' disciples, but they also sound like people I have met in various places across the country.

Just like the picture at the beginning of this blog shows, the tomb is empty ... it's time to tell people about it and be excited about the life we get to live because of it!

Friday, March 7, 2008

Out of Touch

So, here I sit in California in March. It is beautiful outside (sorry to those of you who are still frozen in your ice caves in the Midwest) and here I sit blogging (where I am usually doing a heap of reading for classes so it's not like I usually get to enjoy the beautiful weather).

I feel a bit out of touch. I was just catching-up on some of the blogs I read (see the links to the right) and discovered that my alma mater's hockey season has drawn to a close. I wish I were more in touch with the pulse of the hockey season, but here in California, it's just not something that is important. When the games aren't on television it's hard for me to remember to check in on the results. I know, I'm a bad fan, but that's life.

I did catch the press conferences of the Brett Favre retirement. It truly is the end of an era. When I was in San Diego celebrating my 9th Wedding Anniversary recently, my wife and I saw a picture of Joe DiMaggio with a quote about how he played each game for the fans. I feel like that was Brett Favre in many ways, he did what he could to make the games fun to watch. I'm not sure there are a lot of players like that anymore. We hear a lot of complaint about how they are "underpaid" (yeah, that's what I think when I wonder if I can afford to buy my 10th vacation home) and how they "deserve" what they get. Whatever happened to the good ol' days when families could afford to go to games (baseball, hockey or otherwise) and watch a good event. Now it's just businesses that can afford the insanely high ticket prices!
I've also attempted to get in contact with people who I fell out of contact with by using this great new tool called Facebook. It's interesting. I don't know that I'm in any better contact with people, but at least some folks I hadn't heard from in years know I am still alive (and if they care to notice, they also know roughly where I live now, too).
In other out of touchness - when did Insurance agents stop being the person I go to when I need to make a claim? A friend borrowed my car yesterday and unfortunately it was broken into when she had it. The annoyance factor in this deal is quite high as she spent nearly 4 hours on the phone yesterday with different people trying to get the window repaired ... then today I spent another 2 hours. We still aren't sure whether or not someone will call to talk about the items that were stolen out of the car! Add to that a terrible experience with the Oakland Police Department ... let's just say unless it's a homicide they don't care.
Well, that's it for now ... hopefully y'all aren't as out of touch as I.