Blessings: The Strength for the Fight

We often misunderstand what blessings are.   Most people focus on blessings as a result of some action on our part.   We think we are blessed because we did… (insert a random pious action here).  But Jesus turns this all on its head in the Sermon on the Mount.  Mathew Chapters 5-7 are Jesus’ most important teaching about how people should live out a life that is faithful to God, world, and neighbor.   Jesus’ manifesto in Matthew 5 not only focuses on blessings as a result of following God, but also more importantly, as gifts from God to follow God.   Blessings are grace.  Blessings are also the fuel that helps us in the daily fight of living in a broken and sinful word.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus directly contradicts the pagan messages of the so called “prosperity gospel” or the American cultural idea of “the power of positive thinking.”   We are given encouragement to be honest with ourselves and our real situation in life.   The times when things are not going right, and we are losing heart, are precisely the times when God promises to come.  Jesus reminds us elsewhere that he came not for the righteous but the sinners.  To paraphrase, not for those who stuff is together, but those whose lives are falling apart.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

Grief and loss are part of living in a world in bondage to death, blessings are that which God gives us so that we do not give into despair.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is for those times when we experience the most profound losses.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” 

We are culturally conditioned to honor the assertive, aggressive, and narcissistic.  Celebrities, athletes and CEO’s have replaced Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite and Apollo in our modern pagan pantheon.  We would rather choose a celebrity to lord it over us than a committed public servant. In contrast, God honors the humble, empowers the kind, and inspires those who consider the lives of others as well as themselves.  Because we can’t love our neighbors if no one even bother to think about them.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

Those who want things to improve are working for the healing of our world, therefore why wouldn’t God bless them to continue their important work?  These are the people we don’t like while they are alive and lionize when they are dead.  In order to fix things, we must do things, and our laziness demands we put targets on these people’s backs. Those who work for justice are God’s allies in the healing of our world.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.”

Mercy is how God chooses to engage us.  When we show mercy, we conform our lives to Christ.  We often don’t like mercy because it is inherently unfair, we are letting someone off the hook.  Yet as the incarnation reminds us, God choose maintaining a relationship over abstract fairness.   Without mercy we remain in a prison of our own making.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

If we can’t see the good in our world, our fellow human beings. and life itself, it will be hard to see God because God is good.   When we give into cynicism, we build a wall around ourselves neighbors and world.  The pure heart keeps the door open to the good and therefore God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

Jesus was sent by God to put a fractured world, broken communities and divided hearts back together.   The Hebrew/Aramaic word for peace that Jesus used meant to be whole.   Those who do and make peace help make people, families, communities and nations whole.  They are blessed because they are part of the healing.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Our society and often even our churches will not honor those who are the most faithful; we will judge others using our own fallible criteria.   So, we need a Godly vision, lest we perish, and that vision is the Kingdom of Heaven.  The Apostle Paul writes: And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. 2 Corinthians 5:15 (NRSV) The Kingdom of God is predicated on a single common humanity.  This core idea of our faith is under direct assault.  Those who work for it are persecuted and abused, yet they keep up the fight.  They are able to because they are blessed.  Blessing is the fuel for our Spiritual warfare, so be blessed and keep the faith.

Pastor Knecht

Worship: Are you Experienced?

I noticed that lots of churches today are calling their Sunday gatherings an “experience” rather than a “service”. Changing the names of doing things Christians have done for centuries is a peculiar characteristic of the American Protestant branch of Christianity.  It is one thing that unites both liberal and conservative Christians in this country. It probably has to do with the fact that the United States religious landscape is characterized by competition and we are all trying to get an edge to help our congregations grow.  I understand that changing the descriptor of worship from service to experience is usually done for evangelistic reasons.  The idea of having an experience may seem less threatening than performing a service to people who have demands on their time coming from all directions.

However, worship is the primary action of the Christian community, so we should really take a step back and ask ourselves, is this a good thing?  Does the word experience communicate what we are seeking have happen in our worship?  We should also ask the same question of service.  I would start by taking a looking at our sources and see what they say about what our worship should be. 

St. Paul gave a quick model for worship in his dialog with the Christians in Corinth: What should be done then, my friends? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. 1 Corinthians 14:26 (NRSV)  So, is this experience, service or something different?

To the Christians in Rome Paul would describe worship in the following way: I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Romans 12:1 (NRSV) This one seems move us in the direction of service.   One doesn’t just attend worship but presents oneself as a sacrifice.  But still I think there is more than service going on.

In John 4, Jesus has a dialog about worship with a woman at well in Samaria: But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”  John 4:23-24 (NRSV) Do the words experience or service capture what Jesus is trying to communicate to this woman who was need of acceptance and healing?

If you asked me which term is more biblical overall, it would be the word “service”.  Forms of the Greek verb λειτουργια are used about 15 times in the New Testament and it can be translated as “to serve” or “offer service” and used on several occasions to describe worship.  The English word “liturgy” which traditional churches use to describe worship, is the loan word derived from this New Testament term.

Words that can translated to the English word experience occur 10 times in the New Revised Standard Version.  The King James only uses them 4 times.  No Bible translation uses the word to describe worship.  So, calling worship “an experience” is obviously a modern innovation.  That need not be deal breaker if we keep to the core of what our worship should be but does it?

My gut reaction to using the word experience to describe worship is a negative one.  The word is too passive.   It has connotations of entertainment and its goal seems selfish and unfulfilling.  It is too much like going to a concert or watching a movie and worship should be more.  Yet, I must admit that as a pastor one of the blessings in my current ministry is “experiencing” the ministry of our worship leader and team he has assembled to lead our congregation in song.  On countless Sundays over the years I have had to drag myself out of bed wondering how I could face the congregation I serve, only to have the worship inspire and encourage me to give. So yeah, part of great worship is the experience.

Even though the word service has a Biblical basis, I think it also is lacking.   Worship is not just about what I can bring to God, it is what God can do with, for, and to me.  If it is only about what we do, then worship can become drudgery.   Unfortunately, I have witnessed this happen when we in the church make too many demands of those who attend.   In summary, I suppose we should be careful about limiting the phenomenon of worship to the words we use to describe it or qualify it.

My choice for the congregation I currently serve is to let the word “worship” stand alone. I no longer use words like traditional or contemporary to qualify it.   Keeping it simple helps preserve the idea of majesty and even mystery.  For worship in Spirit and Truth that Christ describes will always be more majestic than our words.   Worship should be “an experience”, but remember we are saved for a purpose which means it should be a “service” to live out our call.   In all its unfathomable majesty worship should encourage, challenge, stimulate, comfort, heal, and all kinds of other things.   For indeed our best worship is when we meet and come face to face with the unfathomable God.

As we come into the church’s great season of worship, I pray that worship in your congregation may be so wonderful as to be indescribable.

Be blessed,
Pastor Knecht




 

What’s Up with Lent?

The season of Lent has been a time when Christians have focused on the core principles of their faith.   Early Church historians point out that Lent was at first the time when early Christians began to teach people about the faith in preparation for their baptism.  Many Christians in the first few centuries of the church were baptized during the Easter Vigil Service (a service that starts sometime after sundown on the Saturday before Easter) to accentuate the believer participating in the event at which Jesus Christ saved the world. So basically, the season was a time prepare new disciples of Jesus Christ.  What ended up happening is that rather than segregate these new disciples to work on their faith alone, the church decided it was best if we all work on this together.  Lent has been and is a time to get serious about our faith ever since.

Lent has always included the following elements to help people commit or recommit to a life of discipleship:

1. A call to repentance: we recognize our need for God and our need to be forgiven for the things that we have done or failed to do.   The words “remember you are dust and to dust you shall return” spoken as ashes are imparted in the beginning of Lent, remind us of our limited nature and our inability to save ourselves.   Since Hebrew Bible times ashes communicate the realization of the believer that life is transient and that only by appealing to the Eternal One can he or she have any real hope.

2. A re-commitment to living out the faith daily: sometimes our healthy patterns of practicing the faith can drift away due to the demands of living in a sinful world.   The repentance spoken of above is characterized by the Bible in one of two ways.  Changing one’s mind or changing one’s direction.   So, Lent can be a time recommit to a practice that has been left behind in the chaos of our living in broken world.  Restarting Bible reading or a prayer practice, or attending worship more often are some common examples.

3. The exploration of new ways to live out the faith: changing one’s mind about one’s faith and starting a new direction in the faith can mean picking up a new practice or new way of living the faith that you might lead you to a closer relationship with God. If you haven’t had a regular devotional life before, Lent is a perfect time to start.

4. The denial of those things that obscure our faith: perhaps the idea of “giving something up for Lent” is the most common way people think about Lent.   People fast so they can remember what it is like to be hungry for something.   This opens the heart of the believer for God.   Lent is perfect time to drop a behavior that is leading your life astray.   It is a perfect time to do away with those things which make us unhealthy and weigh on us.  An essential part of a life of discipleship is to care for the life we have been given because that is what those who love us would like us to do, and nobody loves more that God who sent Christ to save us.

5. The preparation of the heart for the coming joy of Christ’s resurrection: reliving the story of God sending Jesus to the Cross and Resurrection is the best thing one can do with Lent.    We are reminded of our own dignity as well as our brokenness and God’s answer to the dilemma of living in the tension between these two things.   The best part of Lent is about making the story of Jesus real again.  This can kindle hope which strengthens our faith, which in turn can empower us to love others as Christ loves us.

Just as we set time apart for God Sunday of each week, we also set six weeks out of the year to focus on the essentials of our faith.  Lent is a gift to help us not to take the essential elements of our faith for granted.  It enables us to remain grounded in the faith that gives life.  It is this faith that kindles in  us hope for each day and that
hope helps us persevere through all the challenges that we face in life.

Be blessed
Pastor Knecht

Advent and Christmas: It's Not Just for Kids

Have you been around a while?   Have you seen both good and bad in the world?   Does it seem that the changes in the world seem to be leaving you behind?  Do you feel more isolated from others as time goes by?  Then perhaps the story of the coming of Jesus in Luke is just what you need to hear this season.

The Cultural Christmas 

In our culture, Christmas is supposed to be about the kids.   The common view is it is all about presents wrapped under the tree.  The family in well decorated home all gathered watching the children joyfully experience the grace of their parents, grandparents and extended family and friendships.  Much of the media we will view this season will be that that refers back to a lost mythic childhood.  From the old Christmas specials from the 1960's like A Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, and Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, to the comedies of the 1980's and 90's such as A Christmas Story and Home Alone,  kids take center stage.  The adults are the comic foil to the bright shining youthful main character (usually a blonde boy between the ages of 8-10).  The adults are portrayed mostly as clueless or or even evil.  As an old dude, this is not good news for me for obvious reasons.  By the way, neither was it when I myself was a young blonde boy 8-10 years old.  My memories of that time revolve mostly around beloved family members blaming me for ruining the perfect Christmas.   Our cultural Christmas celebrations can be fun, entertaining, and yes profitable. However the real Christmas story found in Luke's Gospel is something more.  It is trans-formative, life-giving, and most of all hopeful. 

The Biblical Advent and Incarnation 

In contrast to our cultural orientation, the biblical story of the coming and infancy of Jesus according to Luke is a lot about older people.   In Chapter 1, we first meet Zechariah and Elizabeth, an older couple, who like Abraham and Sarah are waiting for their first child.   Near the conclusion of Luke 2 at the end of the story, we meet Simeon and Anna, two older, possibly lonely people.  They are portrayed as those who go to the temple on their own each day and wait in prayer to see what God does.   For Luke, these older folks who have remained steadfast despite the ups and downs of life are at the core of the story.   They serve to remind us that God does answer prayer, works miracles, and most of gives reason for hope through the sending of his Son Jesus.  God comes to the aid for those who have been beaten down by the pressure of living in a sinful world. They are those who have their hope fulfilled by the coming of the Messiah.

By the time of Jesus birth, Zachariah, Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna would have witnessed, heard of, and experienced the brutality of living in a country occupied by foreign power and given over to the murderous sycophant puppet rule of Herod the (so called) Great.  They would have been privy to dramatic outrages and everyday slights.  It would have been enough for any person to give up and give in, but they didn't.  They kept the faith.  The words about Simeon are particularly powerful.   "He was waiting for the consolation of Israel" writes Luke. 

Luke affirms not only their hope, but their dignity as well.  For they are not mere victims to be rescued, God actually calls them to play a part in the salvation drama.  Zachariah and Elizabeth shelter the unwed probably teenage mother Mary from the tyranny of being the center of scandal in a small town.  Simeon and Anna help affirm the dignity of the Holy Family as they assist them in following the rituals of their faith community.  The older folks in Luke are part of the story; it is an affirmation of their value before God.  In a youth obsessed culture like ours, where everyone is supposed to look 25, this is certainly good news. 

The People of God 

I meet people like Zachariah, Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna all the time in my ministry.   I meet people who though they have experienced hardship and even tragedy, keep the faith and are part of the story of God at work in our world today.   They hold on to hope despite the evidence they read of in their newspaper or news-feed.  You will meet these people volunteering to feed the homeless, working the polls on election day, babysitting their grand-kids, checking up on their neighbors and  yes, keeping our communities of faith running.  I hate to break it to you, but God did not send his son to bring your child the hot toy for Christmas,  God did this to validate the hope that people like Zachariah, Elizabeth, Simeon,  and Anna (maybe even you?) who have placed their trust in Him. 

Right now, there is much going on that can serve to erode our hope.  I need not catalog it, for you probably have experienced some of it or know of it.  But the story we proclaim every December in the church during Advent is that we have a God who is worth waiting for.  So perhaps with Simeon we too can confess these words:

By the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon us, 
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, 
to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Luke 1:78-79 (NRSV)

No matter what your age, I pray that the dawn from on high will break upon your life this Advent.  I hope that you too may be able to place your trust in God and become part of God's story for our time. For the story of Christ can give hope to people of any age.  Indeed, people of all ages can be part of this story, because the Bible shows us that they have been in it all along.

Be blessed

When Being Good is not Enough

 Am I a Good Person?

This is the question that people ask in times of crisis.  One can ask it when they are going through a difficult ordeal and wonder if the difficulty is deserved.   One can also ask this when they see that there is much in the world that seems evil, and ruminate if he or she is part of the problem or part of the solution.  It is also the question that most people have asked when considering if they are worthy of eternal life.   The story of the rich man which is found in Mark chapter 10 deals with this question in a unique way.

This wealthy man comes to Jesus and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. (Mark 10:17) He is wondering because his answer to the question "am I a good person?" is by the cultural standards of the day a resounding yes.   When Jesus refers the  man to find the answer in scripture, he gives the reply “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” (Mark 10:20 NRSV).  So the man is saying "yeah, I am good person."  Yet this man came to Jesus with a longing in his heart that there was something more important than being a good person in the eyes of God.

 Give It All Away to the Poor?

Jesus tells him straight out what is missing.   In order to inherit the kingdom of God he must do two things.   The first is a tall order: sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor.   Jesus asks him to do this to show love for those he came to serve.  Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes:  "For the follower of Jesus there can be no limit as to who is his neighbor except as his Lord decides." Dietrich Bonhoeffer- The Cost of Discipleship   Additionally selling his possessions will remove any attachments that the man may have which may be keeping him from doing the second more important thing which the man lacks for inheriting the kingdom. 

Follow Me

The second thing Jesus asks is even a taller order.  The simple truth is, that the most important thing this man and anyone else can do for that matter, is to follow Jesus.   The selling and giving to the poor is the prelude to the following.  The following is the harder of the two things that Jesus asks the man to do.  Often when reading this passage, we get so caught up in the enormity of selling all one's possessions that we miss how hard it actually is to follow Jesus.   The truth is that the selling of  all one's possessions to help the poor only leads one to the kingdom if one follows God during the process.  Bonhoeffer explains this perfectly:  "Obedience to the call of Jesus never lies within our own power.  If for instance, we give away all of our possessions, that act is in itself is not the obedience he demands... In fact such a step might be the precise opposite of obedience to Jesus, for we might be choosing a way of life for ourselves.. (one) is not set free from his own self, but still more enslaved to himself."  Dietrich Bonhoeffer- The Cost of Discipleship.  St. Paul was thinking along the same lines in 1 Corinthians 13, when he lists a whole bunch of spiritual and moral gymnastics that he can put himself through and concludes that without love these are worthless.

The fact is that there are plenty of "good people"  who have excellent personal morality, have great manners, and follow the cultural appropriate virtues who never become part of God's work for the world.  I meet wonderfully moral and upright people of every persuasion in my neighborhood.  They can be Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, agnostic atheist or whatever.   Some of these people will at times live more morally than those of us who belong to the church.  The question Jesus is asking us to consider is not whether or not I am a good person, the question is: do I love God, my neighbor and our world?

The message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that through the cross God has shown love to the world.  Through the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus, God reaches across the chasm that exists between human beings and God.  When Jesus replied to the rich man to follow him, he was inviting him to be part of that work. 

The Radical Gospel 

I have observed two poles where contemporary American Christianity can get off track.   One pole reduces the Gospel to a personal morality code.  I see this often in books written for young Christians.  It is as if the Gospel is reduced to method to program the youth to be a part of someone's idea of respectable society.   This is quite common in churches that preach a "prosperity gospel."  If one follows the rules, the quid pro quo is not only admission to heaven, but worldly wealth as well.  This leaves one permanently in the condition of the rich young man as he approached Jesus.  The person is trapped in a bondage to the self.  I think Jesus died for you for something more than this.

The opposite pole is that if we only fix society than all will be good and everything will be in balance.  Utopia will be at hand.  People are only bad because the structures of society are bad, this reasoning goes.   This reduces the dignity of the person into just being a cog in some machine.   If it is only the culture or society responsible for our actions, than we have lost agency, and are something less than human.  I can not see how the cross makes sense if this is all there is.

God did not send his son to die so that we could live in a prison of self-absorption.  Neither was he crucified to create some hive mind where one's individuality no longer matters.   Christ came as love for love.  Whether we are good enough to be loved is not the point, the point is that we are loved.   I hope this is good news for you. It is good news for me because I am good and bad all mixed up and at times struggle to follow the path Christ has set for me.  To me the choice has never been between good and bad, but between love and apathy.  So Christ lays this choice before us, just as he did for the rich young man.  How will we choose?

Our Lighthouse

As I picked up my son at Cross Roads Camp last week they opened worship with a catchy song called "My Lighthouse."  The refrain goes:

My lighthouse, my lighthouse
Shining in the darkness, I will follow You
My lighthouse, my lighthouse
I will trust the promise
You will carry me safe to shore+

The National Park Service states in its educational materials for school children: The two main purposes of a lighthouse are to serve as a navigational aid and to warn boats of dangerous areas. It is like a traffic sign on the sea.*  These two purposes can be used to describe the role of a living faith in Jesus Christ quite effectively.   Christ as our lighthouse can warn of us the dangers of living in a world bound to sin and death so that we do not crash upon its rocks and reefs.  Christ can also provide direction for our life by giving us fixed point to point our rudders to.   When the waves of our culture and the winds work to disorient us, the lighthouse stands firm to illuminate the way home.  The lighthouse is a wonderful metaphor of how Christ can help us live a better life.

As we move into the fall, we will be working in our worship with the texts in Mark's Gospel that describe the ministry of Jesus as he approaches the cross. The actions of Jesus in these texts work like the lighthouse; they warn us of the rocks and they also point our lives in a direction of well being. 

One my favorite texts, which comes up in October, is the short account of the healing of a blind man named Bartimaeus. His encounter with Jesus corresponds to our theme.   Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way. Mark 10:51-52 (NRSV)  According to Jesus, it was Bartimaeus's faith that saved him, it did so by helping him see and giving him a direction to go.

Regular Bible readers may bring up the point that the lighthouse is not an image directly mentioned in the original biblical texts, and they are right.  Both in the Old Testament and the Gospels, herding, desert and agricultural images predominate.  This should not stop us from using this imagery, especially if it helps someone understand the grace of God. There are indeed some maritime images in the Psalms, the letters of Paul, the Acts of the Apostles, and of course the book of Jonah, but a lighthouse is never mentioned anywhere in the original texts.  A quick search in my Bible software application brought up only one instance where the word "lighthouse" was used any biblical translation.   It was used in Eugene Peterson's The Message.   

"I am God. I have called you to live right and well.
I have taken responsibility for you, kept you safe.
I have set you among my people to bind them to me,
and provided you as a lighthouse to the nations, Isaiah 42:6 (MSG)

Using the word lighthouse in this context is really profound.   Isaiah 42 is one of the passages that describes Israel as the servant of God who is the light to the nations.  Christians have long seen the work of Jesus Christ in its words.  Jesus suffering and death serves to show the world how far God will go to show that we are loved.  What I like about Peterson's use of lighthouse in this context is that when Isaiah first wrote these words, he wanted to show how the people of Israel together could be the light to the nations.   They were called to show people the way to God.  If Jesus is my lighthouse and together with my fellow Christians we are the Body of Christ, then we can be the lighthouse.  We can warn of the dangers and show the way home.  This is the work of the church. 

Yes, we have at times failed in this work.  Current headlines remind us of those who used what should be lighthouse to the nations for their own demonic ends.  Between sexual predators and con-artist prosperity preachers it can at times the church is more of black hole than a lighthouse, but we should not give up or give in.  God's call is clear and the light of Christ shines to show us the way to a better shore.  Just because others chose not to steer toward the light and were wrecked in the dark, doesn't mean that the light is not there.   The lives of faithful Christians inspired by the Holy Spirit have helped me and others countless times to avoid obstacles and find the right way to go.  So I invite you to let Jesus be your lighthouse, and that by living as he guides us we can be a lighthouse for others.

Be blessed,

Pastor Knecht

*https://www.nps.gov/apis/learn/kidsyouth/upload/LightCurrA.pdf

+Songwriters: Gareth Gilkeson / Chris Llewellyn My Lighthouse lyrics © Capitol Christian Music Group

Don't Do, Just Pray

I have a weakness that can get me into trouble from time to time.   When I see something broken, I want to fix it.   When I see a broken hinge or door knob, or  malfunctioning kitchen appliance or something wrong on a car engine, I impulsively dive in and start taking things apart.  The screws start flying off and parts are carelessly scattered on the floor or kitchen table as I hack away at a solution. Sometimes I fix things, and sometimes I make them worse. 

Over time I have learned that it is best to think things through and come up with a plan before diving in.  I usually make it worse when I don't pause and think about what to do before I do it.   So now I will watch a repair video on YouTube, or call computer savvy or mechanically inclined friend before starting out on a repair.   I will anticipate what tools I need and lay them out on the table,  I might even get a sandwich bag for the screws and take photos of each thing I take apart before I proceed.  Each pause I take increases the likelihood that I will fix the problem.


Pause to Succeed 

Something like what I am explaining is going on in the biblical book of Acts.   The book starts as Jesus is preparing to ascend to heaven.   It is a time of extreme disruption for the disciples of Jesus, they have seen Jesus arrested, tried, crucified and risen.   Now he starts to speak of ascending.   The disciples wanting to fix things and move out of the place of uncertainty ask. “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” Acts 1:6  

Jesus responds by telling them this knowledge is above their pay grade. After Jesus ascends the angels from the Easter tomb reappear to tell them to stop looking up, basically implying for them to get back to their appointed mission.  The mission as Jesus explained it to them is "you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”Acts 1:8 

The next thing the disciples do is gather together and pray.  That's it.  That's all. "All these (disciples) were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers. Acts 1:14.  Prayer in the book of Acts is an action of anticipation of the activity of God.  It is also a time to clear one's head and get ready for the next thing.  When something big is coming up it is the best thing we can do.  The pause of prayer increases the likelihood that we will fulfill what we are called to do. 

Active Waiting 

This is why when Luke writes in Acts about how the church works best he describes that They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Acts 2:42.   This means that the church fulfills its mission best when it pauses to listen to voice of God, hears the witnesses of the entire community, actively remembers what it is really all about, effectively gathers resources and rests up for the mission ahead. 

Unfortunately the church today does not do this enough.   We seem to be caught between the polarities of doing nothing or acting without thinking. Those who argue for action, discount the church's active waiting as doing nothing, while those who are afraid to act criticize the work of discernment as disruptive to the status quo, not realizing that the disruption is already going on.  Both fail to realize the true virtue of active waiting, which to arrive at a vision.


A Vision for Action 

We need vision in order to effectively act.   This is why the book of Acts is structured the way it is.  It sets forth a vision of what the church could be, one that welcomes those like eunuch from Ethiopia as well as a jailer from Greece, a church that stands for justice like when a young slave girl is exploited by her owners, while recognizing those in power are not monsters, but people.   This vision is continually adapted as God does new things and the church takes the time to worship, pray, reflect, think and plan for the next phase of the mission.

The completion of a vision signals actual readiness for action.  It is the necessary the pause before the initiation of action and it requires prayer.   Thoughts and prayers are important steps when used purposefully for casting a vision of how one should act.   This goes for finding a way through a personal crisis as well as for coming up with ways to go forward together in community.   We should never proceed with out a vision.   This is why it is important to pray before we do anything of consequence.  Thinking and praying seem to be in short supply in our world today, which is why we run from crisis to crisis.  So if someone criticizes you for pausing to pray, just let them know that you need to get it together first, and remember Where there is no vision, the people perish. Proverbs 29:18.   I encourage you to never forget the blessing of prayer it is usually the best thing we can do.

Be blessed,
Pastor Knecht

How is it going at Holy Cross?

If you are wondering how things are going at Holy Cross these days, here is my annual report to the congregation

Pastor’s Report to the Congregation 2015-16

I would like to give thanks to God for another exciting year of faithful ministry at Holy Cross. We have ministered in new ways and old to make known the promises of God.  We have faced joys and met challenges.   Being the church today is always a bit of a scramble as the pace of change in society flies forward, but we take hope in the fact that we have the promises of God, which remain constant no matter what.

This past year we have been saying the following phrase at every worship:  No matter how you classify yourself or the world classifies you, we would like to welcome you to find God with us.   A couple of people have asked, what do we mean by this?   May answer is simple; it is just the restatement of what the bible actually says.  For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him." (Acts 2:39 NRSV)  Our society is more fragmented than ever into interest groups, cliques, age groups, language groups, cultural groups etc.  God however, wants the promise to be for all his children no matter what the world thinks.   Holy Cross has worked to live out this reality of God in the past year so that we are able to change lives by introducing Christ to our neighbors.

We have had wonderful experiences of worship and outreach this year.   Some of the highlights have been outdoor worship at the Fall Festival in Springfield, which was a powerful witness to the community.  I have regularly heard about the impact of this when meeting with community leaders in town.  We then hosted the interfaith thanksgiving service in our sanctuary, which was a vibrant and well attended event which has helped to break down some barriers between us and the community.  Our live Nativity continued as an ongoing tradition.  We started leading worship monthly at the Market Street Mission in Morristown to support the good work they do.  

Our school is rebounding from lean attendance to reach some new families with compassionate care that introduces Jesus Christ.   Our food ministry continues to witness to our desire to bless our neighbors as best as possible.  We have partnered with other Lutheran congregations to try to reach the youth of our area.  Finally we had an amazing evening with Shane Claiborne where we worshiped, were inspired with a message to be the church God calls us to be, and fellowshipped with a diverse group of faithful people from many congregations and traditions.  

All of this is a faithful witness to what Scripture calls us to.  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. (Ephesians 2:13-14 NRSV) Part of what we are called to do is break down walls constructed by society.  Most religions work to build walls between the pure and impure, faithful and unfaithful, chosen and rejected.  Jesus Christ came to do something different: to offer salvation to all.   I can in good conscience tell you that our congregation has tried to take this teaching in Christ to heart.

We have been blessed with relative financial stability this past year because of the fruitfulness of our Step by Step capital campaign which has greatly improved our financial outlook. We are by no means out of the woods, but has been a blessing not be in crisis mode for a while.  Although the coming year may be challenging, we will continue to be prudent in our finances and look for new sources of revenue that contribute to our mission without getting in its way.

Our effort to rebuild our congregation has done well in the areas of community outreach and financial stability.  Where we need to work on in the coming year is the building up of our life together.  We need to grow our congregation by any means possible that is in line with basic Christian teaching. We also need to have better methods to care for one another and build each other up in the faith. The vision is laid out in the book of Acts where the Holy Spirit called together the first church.

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers…. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people.And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42, 46-47 NRSV)

We will need to be intentionally hospitable to anyone who visits us, we will need to put in place structures of mutual care and spiritual support, and we will need transition from a welcoming place into an inviting one. Our church is already quite welcoming; our growing edge will be to become more inviting, less passive, and one that invites others to a new life in Jesus Christ.   I am not as pastor able to do any of this without you. Just as we struggled with financial viability we are now struggling with spiritual viability and the only way forward is if we all work together.

I am confident we can do this, because this is the bread and butter of our congregation. We have committed people of prayer.  We have people who want to help and serve their community. We have leaders who care about what God’s word says.  We have people who hear the call of Jesus to love their neighbor.  We have people who yearn for the presence of God.  

So we are blessed as a church and I am hopeful that these blessing will continue.

Submitted Respectfully in Christ

Pastor Knecht