Hungry for God's creation

Ashley and I wanted to do something for Lent this year to both test our resolve and help the environment. As former hippies in Berkeley, we've heard a lot about concerns for God's creation can be acted out in one's daily lives.

We compost our food scraps and we recycle; and we try to use products that don't create a lot of trash. We have become more aware of the gas we use and drive more sparingly. Once, after reading how much diapers go into landfills, Ashley researched cloth diapers and we've used them ever since. From reusable zip-lock bags, grocery bags, sandwich bags, produce bags, and even smoothie pouches, we've made a dent into our carbon footprint.


But like many Americans, we were less aware of how exactly our diet impacted the environment: specifically our meat consumption. Saying nothing of the treatment of the animals we consume, we negatively effect the environment every time we eat meat. In an excellent article in The Guardian, John Vidal writes that the "combined climate change emissions of animals bred for their meat were about 18% of the global total – more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together."

I read that "a Vegan driving a Hummer does more for the environment than a meat-eater driving a Prius."

I find that to be shockingly profound. I think it would shock a lot of people to realize that the meat they eat is as bad- or worse- than the gas the use.

Perhaps equally shocking is that the world consumes twice as much meat as it did 30 years ago. Twice!

Not only does this effect green house gas emissions, but it also takes more of the Earth's resources. Let me explain. Corn is good. It grows in lots of places and has nutritional value. It's also part of a balanced diet for cows, who eat 8-14 lbs of "cow food" each day. They are killed when they reach three years old, and for argument's sake weigh 1000lbs, 400lbs of which is turned into edible meat. 10lbs a day for three years  is 10,950lbs of food for 400lbs of meat in the grocery store.

 Vidal writes, "other academics have calculated that if the grain fed to animals in western countries were consumed directly by people instead of animals, we could feed at least twice as many people – and possibly far more – as we do now."

And that's just food consumption- not water or land.Land is perhaps the biggest problem that we face. Again, Vidal,

"A Bangladeshi family living off rice, beans, vegetables and fruit may live on an acre of land or less, while the average American, who consumes around 270 pounds of meat a year, needs 20 times that."

20 acres of land to support my eating habits. I feel ashamed. It was then I realized this simple logic: the bigger the animal, the more land they need, food they eat, water they drink, and methane gas the release.

That's why Ashley and I gave up beef and pork. I haven't lost any weight, gained more energy, or lowered my blood pressure. It wasn't about myself. It's about God and our charge to care for God's creation.

Too often we operate out of a "what's in it for me" mentality. Our hotels boast a greener initiative to save money on laundry. Cleaning products boast greener solutions in order to sell more soap. This half-hearted view of saving God's creation will get us no further than a marginally deserved pat on the back.

But if each of us does something as simple as reduce our intake of beef and pork with the conscious intention of helping to save the planet, then we can begin to call ourselves stewards of God's creation.

This is the first step toward a sustainable future. And it's as simple as making more side dishes or ordering a smaller sandwich. Only you can prevent Climate change.

Life's Not Fair

A Sermon inspired by the story of the Prodigal Son parable in Luke 15

To listen to this sermon, click here.

 

I’m Lost.

Maybe you can help me. 

I always thought that God was fair- the kind of ruler whose Judgment is spot on- never to harsh or to lenient- but perfect. God’s decision making skills, God’s leadership, and God’s authority are all never wrong.

But this story- the one from Luke- this “parable” - is about a dad who is a wimp- and about two kids who grew up with a wimp for a dad.

People have been trying to say what this story is about for forever.

Each time someone “figures out” what the story is about, they change the title.

For example, we call this the story of the prodigal son. But some bibles title the prodigal son and his brother, some, this as the forgiving father- and still others, the father and his two sons.

What does this tell me? That we don’t exactly know what this story means.

That’s why I’m lost. Maybe you can help me. 

When Ashley and I were in premarital counseling, we took the Myers Briggs personality test. The same one that I had to take before going to seminary, and the one that Pastor Rinn and I talk about almost daily when we are talking about how to pastor to all of you. 

In that test, Ashley and I came out as exact opposites. Like many clergy before me, I am an ENFP. Like many science-minded people before her, Ashley came out ISTJ.

The pastor who did our counseling encouraged us to go home and- question by question- analyze our differences. 

There is one question that still to this day that we still talk about.

You ready? 

Would you rather have a boss who is fair or kind? Think about it-

At its core, this is a fundamental difference in thinking. On the one hand, a boss who is fair, keeps stability in the office by treating everyone equally all the time. On the other, a boss who is kind, treats every situation and difference as a case unto its own.

Ultimately, the answer about the boss question is really about you- not your boss. Are you fair or kind? Hopefully you lean toward one of those.

If we dig deeper on this self-understanding- we find another truth-

Do you generally treat all people the same, or all differently? 

Are you the scientist, grouping people and ideas into categories to insure order and stability, or are you the artist who refuses to be defined by limits, rules, or laws?

Are you the goody-two-shoes or the prodical?

Are you an older brother or the younger?

And, once you’ve answered that one: think about this- which one is God?

Ultimately, God can’t be both. 

This is the core problem in the story of the prodigal son- of the forgiving father, or the father and his two sons- however you define the parable.

There are two sons. The youngest- the one who is entitled to less- takes his share of the inheritance and leaves. He loses it all. The older son, stays, works hard, and assumes that he will be his father’s favorite because he assumes that his father is like him- fair- not kind.

The younger son- who lives- and indeed- thrives- on the kindness of others- finds himself penniless. So he finds someone in a faraway land to give him a fair job- go feed the pigs. The younger son says- I will go ask for forgiveness, and perhaps I can be a hired hand- not a son, not a slave- but dad’s kindness for me will get me somewhere in the middle.

He goes home. His father runs to him. The father- who gave his son the inheritance BEFORE he died, now welcomes the deadbeat back home, BEFORE the son ever apologizes. The father is a chump.

If I were putting titles on this chapter- I’d be inclined to call it, “The enabling father” or “Two generations of chumps.” As a father myself, I am appalled by this guy’s laissez- faire parenting style. 

That older brother- that one who worked the fields- he wanted his father to be fair to both brothers, regardless of the circumstances. And that’s not what he got. He got –for lack of a better word- screwed. 

NOT ONLY did his brother leave him in charge of the house, the fields, the animals, and their aging father, but NOW his brother comes home, his father welcomes him back. 

So that’s why I’m Lost.

Maybe you can help. 

If I really think about it- if I let my anger at the unfairness fester- I realize that everything that is left on the farm now, contractually, belongs to the Older son- so when the father tells the servants to kill the fatted calf, he’s going into the Older brothers life savings!

It’s one thing to enable the dope, but throw him a party? The greek word for party is euphraimo- like euphoric. Over a dead beat son who came home without an apology? I agree with Craddock when he says

Of course, let the younger son return home. Judaism and Christianity have clear rules to allow sons to return home, but where does it say that the return should include a banquet with music and dancing? Yes, let the prodigal return, but to bread and water, not fatted calf; in sackcloth, not a new robe; wearing ashes, not a new ring; in tears, not in merriment; kneeling, not dancing. Has the party canceled the seriousness of sin and repentance?

I’m lost, maybe you can help me. 

I don’t understand this story. Honestly- I want to give up. This is the most ridiculous parable I’ve ever heard. 

Actually- there’s another parable that bugs me. You know the one about the lost sheep- and the shepherd leaves the 99 sheep to look for the one. What is that about? Is it FAIR to risk the safety and security of 99 to find one? Of course not! Isn’t one sheep within the margin of error? 

The idea of this parable- I think- is that the shepherd is driven by his emotions. In an effort to be kind to the 1, he is irrational and unfair to the 99. 

Obviously, these parables are supposed to help us reflect on God, and how God treats us. But I find myself thinking that God does not usually reward the ones who do all the hard work. In this story, God- the father- rewards the opposite- bad behavior- the same thing with the 99 sheep- he rewards stupidity.

This is the problem that Paul writes about to the early church. The people hear that grace is free, so they keep on sinning. God’s a sucker. Everyone gets grace who wants it. We can take our inheritance, squander it- and recant on our death bed.

It seems to me- that we should all be under the same rules- or laws. And that anyone found guilty before God should have to pay their consequences. Period. End of Sentence.

But that’s just what I think. 

It’s not what I know.

What I know is that if God were fair, and treated us all the same, we would be condemned, because the law always condemns.

What I know is that if I got what I deserve, I might as well enjoy the fatted calf now because it will be the last happy moment of my existence.

What I know is that I am the sheep that wandered away. Lost and confused, I got what I deserved. Going after me is to seemingly reward stupidity.

What I know is the terrible truth about all of humanity. We all want to believe we’re the righteous brother. But we’re all wrong.

We are all prodigal.

What I know- wretched man that I am- is that I need someone to deliver me, to welcome me, even when I don’t deserve it, and even when I’m not fully repentant.  

What I know is that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to Him. 

What I know is that I’m not, no will I ever be, worthy of Christ’s sacrifice for my sake.  

What I know is that I’m lost.

Only God can help me.  

A Dissapearing God

I hate sounding old.

                                        I mean, I REALLY hate it,
                                                                                  but some things just need to be said.

I am becoming more convinced that we are a nation of followers, and not in a good way. 10 years ago, there were movies, songs, and TV shows that featured God prominently. Now there are next to none. God is not dead, just extinct in pop culture.

It all started for me a  couple of months ago, when a friend of mine (another pastor) called me laughing hysterically. In between laughing, he tells me that a women from his church had gone into his office professing CREED to be her new favorite band. She made him listen to three songs from the late 90s band, despite his insistence that he remembered the band clearly. For those of you who don't remember the late 90s, Creed was this intense, loud, guttural band that unabashedly sang songs about God. And they were popular. 

This song, "Higher" was a top 40 hit:

So let's go there
Let's make our escape
Come on, let's go there
Let's ask can we stay?
Can you take me Higher?
To a place where blind men see
Can you take me Higher?
To a place with golden streets

Here's the thing- music young people listen to today is mostly terrible. Music we listened to 10 years ago was mostly terrible too, but at least it had a message. Creed was mediocre at best, but at least the world was talking about God.
And they weren't the only ones. Six Pence, Lifehouse, POD, Reliant K, Switchfoot- all of these were big bands with big hits, and all started out in "christian rock."


Those songs are relegated to the "Mix" radio station,  aka the station for people who liked the music 10 years ago.

On a top 40 station, you're likely to hear this:

 

Today I don't feel like doing anything 

I just wanna lay in my bed  

Don't feel like picking up my phone, so leave a message at the tone 

'Cause today I swear I'm not doing anything

  
Not exactly inspirational. It's no wonder why churches aren't packed when there are social messages floating around in people's brains like that one. 

Before you all go quoting Mumford and Sons in the comments section, music isn't the only genre I find lacking. TV and Film are easily as agnostic. 
  

Here's a list of shows I watch today:  
How I Met Your Mother
Big Bang Theory
Modern Family
The New Girl
The Office
The Walking Dead
Mad Men
Girls 


Not a one of these shows has a main character who actively believes in God, Christ, church, or prayer. And yet nearly all of these shows try to portray American youth culture.  

Emphasis on the word try. 

 According to the pew research poll, "Among Americans ages 18-29, one-in-four say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion." 

When asked the question, "Do you believe in God," nearly 96% of all Americans answered "yes". Atheists and Agnostics make up only 4% of the US Population.

Why isn't God talked about anymore? Call me an old-timer, but I remember TV shows amd Movies that regularly developed plots on faith and religious culture. Remember The Simpsons, Joan of Arcadia, Touched by an Angel and *7th Heaven? Are there any prime-time shows like this anymore? How many crime scene shows have replaced them? Cold Case, Bones, The Following, Breaking Bad, and Dexter- these are not social upgrades!

Remember films like Dogma, Keeping the Faith, Bruce Almighty, Angels in the Outfield, All Dogs go to Heaven, and Raising Helen (I remember that one because Kate Hudson falls in love with Pastor Dan)? A main-stream movie like this hasn't been made in 10 years- since The Passion of Christ. 

It's like Mel Gibson scared everyone away from the genre.

Pop culture has lied to you by telling you that religion is not important to people. By the most conservative estimates, 20% of the US population attends worship every week. But look for one in five characters on television who fit that description, and you'll be up all night. We like to say that we water down religion in pop culture to not offend people and not be controversial, but by doing so we have made our characters less interesting, less dynamic, and less relate-able to the billions of people who believe in God. TV characters are more likely to be two dimensional, blown over by whatever whim or impulse their quarter-life-crisis interrupted their trip to the mall.
  
What's worse- in order to make up the gap in interesting people, 

we turn our dials to Serial Killers 

because they have depth, 

because they believe in something.

If the goal was to not offend people's religions beliefs, consider it a failure.  I'm offended.

I never thought I would miss Creed, and I still don't, but I miss feeling like there is a place for me in popular culture. 

If you agree, slap on your WWJD bracelet and let's get people talking about God some more.       

-Rev. Daniel Pugh






 

1 Corinthians 13, Valentines Day, and Boy-bands

              What is real Love? 

Poets, philosophers, screen-writers, psychics, preachers, tabloids, and every boy-band of all time  have all be searching for language to accurately describe and define real love.

And in the next eleven days, millions of men will pay Hallmark to help them find the words. Save your money, guys, and listen up.

1^st Corinthians 13.  How many of us have heard this at weddings?

Love is patient and love is kind. These are sweet words from Paul. Aren’t they???

They remind me of a wedding of a young woman named Sophie.

She and her boyfriend started dating in high school youth group. They  dated through college and he proposed their senior year.  The wedding was beautiful, the pictures beautiful, the bride was beautiful. The words of 1st Corinthians 13 were read, and they were read beautifully.  

A few short years later, however, Sophie fell out of love. She sat her husband down and asked for a divorce. Sophie severed communication with many people in her life. She said that she didn't feel like she was being "true to herself" anymore.    

Her husband was distraught. He sat in a lonely apartment and started boxing up his things.  He took the wedding photos off the walls, and as he did, he thought about those sweet words of 1^st Corinthians. What happened? Wasn't love enough? Where were those sweet words of 1st Corinthians when times got rough?

He went back and looked at those words. He studied them and prayed. He asked for discernment, and read what others say about love. Here's the answer that he got.

When you put these words back into the source of the letter, you realize that Paul has a much different tone than we are used to.The people in Corinth were struggling to love each other.

It’s important when reading a newspaper to realize what section you’re reading. You wouldn’t read the front page, the cartoon, and the editorials all the same way.

The same can be said about scripture. Paul is not writing a psalm. He is writing a letter. This is advice. 

It’s not cutesy love. It’s tough love.

It should read to us as tough advice. 

Love is patient. Love is Kind. Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things...

There is no easy answer for why some relationships endure and others do not.

But we can say this: Love is tough.

 

Ultimately, we have one choice to make. Either we allow God to fill us with the Holy Spirit, so that our soul can be aligned with God, or else we will always have a spot that is empty, that is searching. And when your soul is empty, you're going to want to fill  it with passing emotions. Love comes in many forms. Eros, or romantic love, is fleeting. Agape, which is God's version of love, is eternal.

----

Let's make a distinction between authenticity and integrity. Authenticity is being true to yourself. Integrity is being in tuned to God. 

When I was a youth director I would take my guitar with us to Mexico. And during the trip, what started out as a perfectly tuned guitar would get a little out of tune. Without a tuner, all I could do was tune the guitar to itself. The chords sounded OK. Every day I'd tune the guitar to itself again, and we got through worship and praise just fine. But by the time I got home, the guitar sounded ok, but flat. After I tuned it, I struck a chord again. This time the sound was pure. It was perfect. It was in tune with it's destiny. The sound was heavenly. 

Getting a guitar in tune is like being filled with the Holy Spirit. It's having integrity that doesn't come from itself, but aligning itself with a higher power.

1st Corinthians 13, is talking about aligning itself with God's Agape.

Patience, kindness, non-resentfulness, truthfulness, endurance: each of these by itself would be a tall order to fill. Each would take training and stamina, like that of an athlete or a champion. As far as I know, there has only been one who  has been able to champion these words, and He is champion of the world. 

In Luke 4, Jesus Christ enters his home congregation after being tempted by the devil. He is now filled with the Holy Spirit. 

Which brings us to our Greek word of the day.  

You Greek word is pleroo, it is translated fulfilled/filled.

Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit.

When I talk to young people, I make a distinction between authenticity and integrity.

Jesus has been preaching and gathering a buzz. He goes to his hometown and delivers a whopper of a sermon. He sits down, and says, “today, this has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

After worship, Jesus is going to leave, and the people wonder why. Jesus tells them that he is called to be with all people.

Have you seen that movie (there are several) where  some person discovers something that is powerful, and instead of sharing it with the world, they keep it to themselves? 

That’s what the Nazarenes want Jesus to do. They want to keep him for themselves.  It is as if they are saying, "If you just stay here Jesus, you can be our preacher. You can get those people who don't come to worship very often, and maybe they will believe and come every week" -(This is not a new problem, by the way).

There are problems in Nazareth and Jesus could be a good parish rabbi. But that is not what he is called to. And when he explains that, they are filled with rage. Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit, and they are filled with rage. 

When Jesus refuses to stay, the Nazarenes decide that they are going to throw him off a cliff because if they can't have him, then they nobody can. 

This is what I call  "a toddler’s version" of love. A toddler might say that if you “really” loved me, you’d let me have another piece of cake. Or if you "really" loved me, you wouldn't go to work today.  

The is operating from the empty place. It's the sort of thing that Paul is a talking about when he says,

"If I speak with the tongue of angels, and have not love, I am just a noisy gong or a clanging symbol."  or- if I may add- an out-of-tune guitar.

 And, similar to a toddler, when they don’t get what they want, the Nazarenes are full of rage.

The kind of love Paul writes to the Corinthians 13 about being patient and kind are about the farthest thing from their mind.

When we think about love in its purest form, we think about God.

C.S. Lewis writes, “God creates the universe, already seeing the flies buzzing around the cross, and He does it anyway. God is love. God creates out of love.”

Our prayers, our ministries, and indeed our lives are in response to God's love for us. God loved us first. 

Once you are filled with the Holy Spirit, we are given the stability that it takes to be vulnerable to love others. 

So whether you are getting married, about to purchase a valentines card, or thinking of starting a boy-band, consider these words again from Lewis, “One of the miracles of love is the power to see through love’s enchantments without becoming disenchanted.” 

Tuning your heart to Agape love will help you to walk like Jesus. And His are big shoes to fill.    

-Pastor Daniel Pugh

Tragedy, Mental Illness, and Christmas

My initial response was to not to comment on the tragedy of the shooting of twenty elementary school students and six teachers in Newtown, Connecticut. I decided in the beginning that part of being a responsible blog owner is knowing when to lay off an issue when it doesn't pertain to your area of specialty. 

This blog is a pastoral response. 

The gospel reading for church this weekend is based on Mary's song of praise, after finding out that she is pregnant with the Messiah. She sings, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior." I'm preaching on this text in a few days, shortly followed by Christmas Eve services where we celebrate the birth of Jesus who is Christ the Lord. It's a happy time.

Jesus has come. Jesus has died. Jesus has risen. 

But tragedy still finds us. 

I have friends who like to put the phrase "post" in front of everything. We're "post"modern, "post"christian, "post"9/11. The idea of "post" is that life is new now, that we have become self-aware of how wrong modernism/Christianity/9/11 was. "Post" means we want to define ourselves in a new way. It means that whenever we experience something, we learn, and adapt our behavior so that we do not make the same mistakes of the past.

Every generation is "post" the previous generation, destined to succeed where others have failed. But for every two steps forward, we fall one step back, because self-awareness does not lead to perfection. 

Call it sin, imperfection, or brokenness- but the human condition is like a piggy bank that has been smashed and hot-glued back together over and over again.



The problem of human suffering is called Theodicy. It is often posed like this: 

God is all powerful
God is loving
Human suffering exits. 

The theological puzzle is to have more than two of these statements be true. If God loves us, and can do anything, then why not stop people from suffering? 

There are volumes written about the problem of Theodicy. You ought to be weary of anyone willing to give you the easy answer. 

But here's a hard answer. Do we really know what it is like for God to love us? We imagine God as a grand parent, who, will spoil us any chance He gets. Without repercussion, God coddles us, spoils us, and yields to us for all of eternity. 

Is that love? 

In your version of heaven, are we all consumers taking holy handouts?
 Or is the greater love the love of a parent, who video tapes us while we walk for the first time only to watch us fall. In the long run, giving us free will is showing us the greater love.  
 
The shooting of beautiful children of God by a mentally ill child of God is just about the worst thing I can think of. This is a time when the whole notion of free will seems like a failed experiment.  Tragedy of this magnitude is so horrible that the desired response is to react quickly to ensure it will never happen again. 

We must fight the notion to become "Post" Sandy Hook by buying weapons, beefing up security at elementary schools, or shielding our children from all people with mental illness.

We will never fully get over this. Just like we were never "post" Columbine, or 9/11, or Oklahoma City, or the Holocaust. 

We must remember to breathe. We must be committed to each other's humanity for the long run. We're all in this together. 
 
Look at the outline of human history: the journey from learning how to use tools, to building pyramids, to establishing currency, to the evolution of medicine, to the beginning of democracy, to the end of slavery, to the end of the cold war, to the rise of the internet. 

We're getting better and better at a lot of things.  

But human suffering still remains. Sometimes those with Mental Illness know only suffering.

As my favorite theologian Pastor Martin Luther King, Jr says in his letter from Birmingham jail, "The arc of history bends toward justice" 

Do you know who Dr. King was writing the letter from Birmingham Jail to? 

Clergy who opposed the Civil Right movement. Even clergy sometimes fail to see the justice that we are being called to.

The world is united in the 21st century in a way that it never was before. Lives change quickly as we move on to the next big thing. We are never really "post" anything, because the past is never really gone. We carry the memories of the past forward as we continue to love each other for the long haul.

 Building the Kingdom of God is a marathon, not a sprint. This Christmastime and every time, we weep with those who weep, and we rejoice with those who rejoice. We live in hope. We love in hope. 

   

Santa Claus is coming?

There I was opening my big fat mouth in a recent Sunday School class designed for parents with young children.
As a pastor I have a certain credibility because God and I are close. As a parent, I'm less experienced than many of the other parents in the class. But that didn't stop me from talking too much about what to do about Santa.

I don't believe that parents ought to perpetuate the lie of Santa Clause. Realizing that your parents lied to you is awful.  Then turning right around and lying to your own kids is just plain cruel. So, I spoke with some authority about what I think parents ought to do.

Here's what I said:
"Don't spread the lie. Tell them that Saint Nicolas was a real person, a really good person, and one we ought to emulate. But he died. When we lie about Santa being real, and that lie is revealed, it causes our children to question if Jesus is real, too. If your kids already believe, help them realize on their own that Santa is a myth"

My wife Ashley was sitting next to me. She is my biggest critic, especially in public. Sure, she loves me without ceasing and in the privacy of our home tells me how much she enjoys my sermons and is my biggest supporter.  But she doesn't put up with BS. After my Santa smear campaign, Ashley grabbed my arm as if to get me to shut-up, and said politely to the group that we have not talked about this much as a couple and still haven't had to make up our minds on the idea of Santa and our kids, as if to soften the blow of my anti-Santa stance. She was perhaps right to do so.


Most people aren't on board with killing Santa. Maybe I'm not either. Santa can be fun and magical. I just don't like lying to my kids. I'd like to think that I could let my kids down about Santa honestly and sincerely, and then tell them that we're going to go on pretending just the same.

But what will they think about how we should view Jesus? I dare say there are many Christians who treat Christ in a similar fashion.


We talked in code in the car on the way home:         

Ashley: Our kids already believe.
Me: Not because of me.
Ashley: So what- they learn about it from kids at school, still they believe.
Me: Let's call him St. Nick. At least that way there's a historical figure.
Ashley: Is he alive?
Me: No.
Ashley: Good luck with that. 

Later that night my son Jacob asks me a question to check my resolve on the issue of Santa. He's always a critic:



"Daddy, what if Santa dies before Christmas? How will I get my presents?"

Ashley looks on with the grin on her face, and offers up support for Jacob, "Yeah Daddy, how can you answer that?"

Before I give my answer, I'd like to point out that I've had solid motives here. I don't want to perpetuate a lie only to disappoint my kids later. I also don't want to disappoint them now, only to have them be the ones to ruin "the magic" for all the kids at their schools. Imagine the phone calls that would come pouring in if Jacob's dad- the Minister- ruined Christmas for everyone...

So, I caved- but just a little.

I said; "I can't tell you what would happen if Santa died, but I can tell you that Mommy and Daddy would make sure you got your Christmas presents. Do you believe that?"

He said, "I know. I was just wondering. Thanks, Dad." And then he hugged me, unprovoked.

Nailed it.

The fact of the matter is, each parent has to negotiate their own traditions with their kids. It wouldn't be helpful to set your child as counter-cultural. They'll have plenty of time to do that in their angst-y  teen years. But here's where I think I have firmer footing: We don't have to always give our children answers. The number one thing that happens when you grow up is learning how few things in life have easy answers. When you're a kid, the world can seem simple. But the older I get, the simple things- like how eating gives you energy- have become extraordinarily complex answers.
Imagination is a good thing and arguably a dying art in our culture.
So I say this: Resist the impulse to give answers to mystery. When your child asks you how Santa can be at every mall at one time, or how reindeer fly, or how Elves survive north-pole winters, or how Santa reaches people who don't have chimneys, ask them to imagine it. I've even heard it said, "Well, how do you imagine it?"

If you have to say something about Santa, why not use the words, "The story goes" or even better "The legend goes" to preface your explanation. Because that's what it is: A Legend. We don't use legends much because our culture demands that we take a harsh stance on the historicity of everything.

The Real St. Nicolas was a wealthy man who felt convicted to give all his money to the poor after reading Jesus say, "sell all of your possessions and give your money to the poor." He was later made a Bishop at a young age, and eventually went on to be a the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, where they wrote the Nicene Creed and established a universal church that believed in the trinity and the divinity of Jesus. Because of this council, they were able to have another council in 333, which decided the books of the Bible.

The Legend of St. Nick usually involves a story of a man and his three daughters. The legend says that the man could not afford the dowry for his daughters so that they may get married. Hearing of this tragedy, Nicolas came at night and tossed a purse of gold coins in the window for the first daughter to get married, on the night before she came of age to get married. He returned the night before the second daughter came of age and tossed another purse of gold coins, which landed in the stocking of the daughter that was hanging to dry above the fire place. The father wanted to know who the benefactor was, so he stayed up all night before the third daughter came of age. On that night- the legend goes- Nicolas climbed up on the roof and dropped the coins down the chimney so as to go unseen.

This story is great on so many levels: a minister living up to his vows, daughters who get the life they could not afford, and a parent in distress who is aided by a Saint. Does it have to be true down to the last detail to send the message of near miraculous intervention by one of God's agents?

The reason for the season is to celebrate the birth of the Messiah. The spirit of the season is to spread peace and goodwill to all.

The real St. Nick died on December 6th, 343 AD. His spirit lives on in our imagination.

So my advice regarding jolly old St Nick.

1. Tell children about the real St. Nick.
2. Let their imagination be their guide- not you.
3. Learn to love legends again.

Merry Christmas to All, and to all a Goodnight. 

The Reformation Sermon

Lutherans: Smart-alecks For Christ.

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. And Might I add, happy reformation day. The one day of the year when even the proudest Norwegian might have just a little bit of German in them. And why shouldn't they. Reformation day is the day that we can proclaim boldly those words that Martin Luther made famous: Here I stand, I can do no other. And on this day we have been given brilliant texts to communicate this occasion. Each of them contain a beacon of light for the people who they were written for. It starts in Jeremiah 31, which is one of my favorite texts in all of scripture. No longer shall you turn to your brother and say, 'Know the Lord' for all shall know me" From the least of them to the greatest. For I shall make a new covenant with them. I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more. Just a great verse. 500 years before Jesus we hear these words of forgiveness and new covenant.

And then there's Psalm 46, "God is our refuge and strength. An ever present help in our times of trouble. Though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea... we shall not fear." These words of comfort came from captive Jews, who had to believe in the hope of the future, believe in a God who was big enough to follow them to Babylon. These words formed their sense of freedom in the face of captivity.

And of course we have these great words from Romans chapter 3, words that Martin Luther used time and again, "Since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is Christ Jesus." This becomes the center point of martin Luther's argument against the catholic church and the selling of indulgences. Because he starts using these words "Solo Gracia" by grace alone we can be saved. There is nothing we can do to earn it. It's all what God does for us.

And of course these words from John, chapter 8. This discourse between the Jews and Jesus. They say they have never known slavery, because they are children of Abraham. Really? And Jesus says, "all who sin are slaves to sin. But the knowledge of the truth of God will set them free. These are all great texts, and each of them deserves their own sermon. And, put together, they are really a sermon of themselves, so, we could just sing A Might Fortress and go home.

But these texts have so much to offer us, and what I want to get across to you today, is that the Reformation ought to be as alive today as it was nearly 500 years ago. As we said with the Kids, we should be asking the questions. We should be working on our tradition. We should be forming it around these wonderful texts that have been past down to us.

I want to tell you my favorite story of the reformation that you've probably never heard. Do you remember a man by the name of John Tetzel? Tetzel, like pretzel with a "T" He was the man who was hired by the catholic church to go from town to town selling indulgences. He would go into the town square and talk to the crowds. He was known for two things. First, he would scare people. He would take his hand, and put it over an open flame. And he would talk about the evils of hell, and how there your flesh would burn, and he would put his hand into the flame and burn his own flesh. And the putrid smell of burning flesh would permeate the air and the people there would react out of fear for what he would tell them next. Tetzel's second famous thing was the catch phrase, "When a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs."

This meant that if you gave money to the church, you would receive an indulgence that would move a loved one from purgatory to heaven. This one of the biggest offenses that Martin Luther was against. He would use things like we have here in Romans 3, and he would say, "No, no, no ,no. There's nothing you can do to earn it, it's a gift. A gift is free! There is nothing you can do to earn salvation, it is given to you. Well, anyway this man, John Tetzel goes around selling indulgences, as the Reformation is building. And Martin Luther keeps writing, and Gutenberg invents the printing press- you learned all of this in eighth grade history- right? Gutenberg starts printing Luther's works, and the documents proliferate German culture, and Luther translates the bible into German- the language of the people- for the first time. People can read it for the first time. And people start asking questions for the first time. And you get this rise of what I like to call, "Lutheran Smart-aleck" and they start showing up to John Tetzel's organized activities. And they start heckling him at his rallies, and booing him. And one man even goes up to Tetzel and asks, "can I buy an indulgence for a sin that I haven't committed yet? And Tetzel sells it to him. And later that day, the man and his friends jump Tetzel and beat him up. When Tetzel goes to press charges, the man shows up with his indulgence, signed by Tetzel himself on the same day saying that he is forgiven of his sin, and the man walks away a scot-free. This is what I mean by Lutheran smart-alecks. A couple of us are descendents of them.

So, things don't go well for John Tetzel. As the protest reformation grows and swells to an overwhelming amount of support, the catholic church has not choice but to scapegoat John Tetzel. They start blaming him for everything and they say, "it was all his idea, that not really our theology, what we meant was something closer to this, but John Tetzel, he did that all on his own, that wasn't done out of our jurisdiction, he was doing his own thing. And they excommunicate him. And they hid him deep in a monetary, away from the public eye, and his health starts to fade very quickly. And he's on his death bed- and on his death bed, John Tetzel receives a letter from Martin Luther. We don't know the contents of that letter, but if it's anything like everything else he wrote, it probably mentioned Romans chapter 3. He imagine it said, "John, don't you know that by grace that you have been saved, and there is nothing you can do to earn it. Don't you know that this is the gift given to you. Don't you know that this idea that you go to purgatory for your sins- that's bogus- don't you know that God gives you the gift of salvation and there is nothing you can do to earn it.

We do know the last line of that letter. Martin Luther writes, "I know that [this movement] has another father." Which is his way of saying that I know that you're not to blame, I know that you got scapegoated. You are forgiven. Tetzel died shortly after receiving this letter from Luther.

And I promise you he didn't spend a single day in purgatory. And it wasn't because he bought anything.

I love that story because it shows a Martin Luther who lives what he preaches. It tells a story of a guy who went out of his way to love his neighbor.

See, Luther has this idea of sin. He says sin is the heart curved in on itself. Luther says that sin is when we receive this gift of god and we try to horde it, we try to keep it, and hide God from the world. the heart is not meant to be curved in on itself, it is meant to be open. And when your heart is facing out, Luther says, your neighbors will see it and know it, and the will see in you God's grace that fills your life.

Luther says, now that we have nothing to do- we ought to love our neighbor. Now that we know there is nothing we should do or can do to earn salvation, we ought to turn our attention onto our neighbors and share with them the story that has been given us.

When I was 15 and 16, I started hanging out with these Christian friends. We would meet for bible studies at lunch, and after school. We got together to read Dietrich Bonhoeffer, which made little sense to any of us. But we tried it, all the same. And I started to realize that every time that we started to talk about salvation that I was sort of at odds with the group, and I realized that they were all Baptist or non-denoms and I was Lutheran. And we would talk about infant baptism, and they would say, how can you believe that you can be saved before you have faith, and you're just sprinkling water, you're not even dunking. And then one day they said, Daniel we're worried about you. Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior? can you tell me about the time that you converted, and you came to Jesus? And I became really worried about my own salvation. I felt like I was speaking a different language.

And one day I came in and said, "I have recently been confirmed in the Lutheran church and there's a scripture passage that I would like to share with you and it's Ephesians 2: 8-10, it is by grace that we have been saved through faith, and not of works, so that no one can boast."

And would you believe it, one guy said to me, "I think you've got that backwards, I'm pretty sure that it is by faith that we have been saved through grace." So I said, "let's look it up."

Ephesians is clear, "by grace you have been saved," It ain't backwards. That's the way it is. God saves us before we do anything.  That's the point. That's the central narrative of Christ's life, death and resurrection.

A few days later this question came up again. We were at my house, it was around one or two in the morning. "Daniel, when were you saved? When do you come to Jesus."

I said, "Guys, I don't know what to tell you. I'm Lutheran. I didn't come to Jesus, Jesus came to me." Some of that Lutheran smart-aleck quality shining through there.

And I don't mean to make light of anyone else's faith, all I can do is tell my own story.

Jesus Christ came to me. I didn't go to him. That's the beauty of Lutheran theology that has been passed down to us for 500 years.

And I can tell you this. Of that group of guys, most of them went to seminary. And each of them, in turn, called me to say, "I just got a hold of Martin Luther's Basic Theological Works... I just read Freedom of a Christian for the first time... I just read Babylonian Captivity.... I just read Martin Luther's commentaries on Galatians... I just read his sermon on Ephesians, and I understand better Lutheran theology.

And I'm not saying that any of those guys converted to Lutheranism, but I am telling you this:

500 years later, Luther is the only theologian that you cannot do without if you are going to study theology. Luther is indispensable because of Solo Gracia, the idea that we are saved before we do anything.

And I want to say to you that I think our society needs more of that. I think we live in a meritocracy. What we think we earn is stuff that has been given to us by God. We live in a society that we think we earned it, whatever we have we earned using our own gumption and hard work. And I'm here to tell you Romans 3 and Ephesians 2, there is nothing we can do to earn the only gift that matters. I think our world could use a little more of that. So I want you to take your bulletins home with you to equip you in these conversations. The John text today says, "the truth will set you free"

If you need to have a conversation with someone, have it. You can say, I just want you to know, these are the texts I look to when I build my theology.

Just remember the difference that all of these writings made to the people they were written for.

Just as Jeremiah and the Psalmists were freeing to the Hebrews in captivity, and just as

Paul's writings were freeing to the Ephesians and the Romans, and just as

Luther's writings were freeing for John Tetzel, myself, and my friends,

who will your writings be freeing for? What will your good news look like?

When we continue to tell the story, others can find freedom in our truth. And that is the calling that we have as Lutherans. Because, let's be honest-  we are the reformers, we are the ones who are called to be smart-alecks, to ask the tough questions.

And we know this: God's grace isn't just for keeping- it's for sharing. 

Amen.