2010 February « Spirit Stirrer

February 23, 2010

Transformative People

On a recent road trip I was scanning the radio stations when I landed on a local talk show. They were speaking about politics, specifically about the partisanship that seems to paralyze any movement towards progress. As a response to a caller’s insistence that what was needed was more transformative leadership the host responded saying “transformative leaders require transformative people.”

I think this understanding speaks deeply not just about politics but also about the church. We are in the beginnings of a season of preparation, reflection and transformation. In many of our churches there is constant talk of decline, shrinking budgets, growing needs, and survival. Most of the conversation in my own local church turns on leadership, the lack thereof, the amount of time required, and the bad leadership of the past. Yet little if any time is spent considering how each of us as people of God can become transformative people.

I find this ironic given the fact that we proclaim a transformative faith. Our central story is the primordial example of transformation – death becoming life. Since when have we been about maintenance and ourselves? And when did we stop looking at ourselves as the source of the church’s decline?

Maybe we no longer take this primordial story seriously, we tell ourselves that new life is wanted:

as long as it does not mean that I need to be reborn.
as long as it looks like the one I’m living now.
as long as we do not have to die to self and be about the other.
as long as we do not have to see the way that God sees!

How long can we continue to ignore this? As a nation we continue to blame other people. Politicians and the so called “Washington establishment” receive most of the blame. In the church it is always the “judicatory,” or “bishops,” or “leaders.” If it wasn’t for these people we would be heading in the right direction, right?

When are we going to recognize that there is really only “us?” That we together are being called to make a difference. That sometimes what we see as important for us is not what is best for the common good. That our call is to love, give, and serve. Somehow in these actions transformation happens.

I guess I’m a little tired. As one of those leaders attempting to be transformational I’m worn out of attempting and not having any followers. I know I sound a little naïve but I’m one who thinks that transformation is possible – that even life from death can happen. No matter how strong, passionate, and how much resolve one has at some point one gets tired of being a transformative agent in the midst of a people that want no such thing.

Change is not easy for anyone and change for change sake is not what we are called to. We are called to a constant re-evaluation of the values that guide our walk as people of God and as members of this society. This constant re-evaluation is at the heart of the Lenten journey. Like the gritty ashes on Ash Wednesday, the process of transformation is edgy, coarse, and at times dry.

May God guide us to recognize our need to be re-reborn. No longer quick to point the fingers and place blame we need to commit ourselves to be agents of the change needed so that God’s kingdom can continue to be evident in the world. May we all become transformational followers of the most transformational leader that ever lived!

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February 17, 2010

Ash Wednesday Reflections

Here it is again . . . it sneaks up on us year after year. After the fanfare and feasting of Mardi Gras comes a season of simplicity and reflection. A season that begins with a mark that makes visible the intention to begin anew.

It comes at the best time, when we have begun to settle in the new year. When the rhythm of life seems to be returning. When nothing seems able to stop us, our hearts are asked to be broken and our masks removed. In some ways we are called to the essence of what it means to be human: life & death, God and each other!

We are also asked to turn from our ways. To stop being so self centered. To cease from our constant need to impress – believing the self deceptive thought that we have arrived. These ways of being cause a rift between us and the world, between the world and its creator. Turning around (repentance), takes an acknowledgement of our brokenness (sin).

It should not surprise us that we are asked to consider our death. Morbose as it might seem, it’s something that all of us need to face. Mortality forces us to recognize our need for something beyond ourselves, beyond this life. Even more important, facing mortality makes us want to live better with more purpose and in communion with each other.

The mark on our foreheads is the mark of acknowledged humanity. We come recognizing ourselves as God’s created people who are given the opportunity to begin again the journey of relationship, the journey of genuine humanness. This journey comes with its own set of relational practices. Prayer, fasting, and giving to the poor are the cornerstones of the Christian vocation. We are called to engage them as we were told to do at our baptism. As we practice them our lives our re-centered on the one who made us and gave us life.

The truth is that we are just beginning once again by recognizing our mortality. Our failure has been our neglect of the life that God promised us and the world. This life is one centered on the restoration of all of creation to the life of God. In this way we become participants of God’s work of making all things holy.

This new beginning allows us to start with a clean slate. It helps us to refocus and give priority to those things that make us the good creation that God made. It also allows us to consider the example of Jesus and his constant call for humanity to be bearers of God’s kingdom here on earth. Our clean slate begins to get filled with the tools needed for redemption. The practices that we take on become the instruments of growing awareness of God’s presence in us and in the world. The stories heard become part of who we are and turn us into story tellers of good news for the world!

Marked we are sent out, the mark cannot be ignored. We are beginning the journey of re-claiming God’s story as our own, for the life of the world.

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February 11, 2010

Saints Go Marching In!

This has been an exciting week for the people of Louisiana. The state gathered in front of our televisions Sunday night to watch one of the most exciting things that has happened in the state in a long time. There was a “buzz” all day as commentators spoke time and time again of this unlikely team that had never won much who now found itself in such a large stage.

Images of four years ago lit the screen. Water everywhere, people on rooftops, the Superdome in shambles. All seemed hopeless . . .

Little by little a team, a city, and a whole state began to rebuild. Now the team had the opportunity to prove how far from the wreckage it had come.

And they won!!!!

Even casual fans, such as myself, could not help but be proud for what this team had accomplished. The last four years have been years of rebuilding not just a team, but a city and a state. The site of people on rooftops fleeing the rising waters now became the site of celebration and joy.

Newspapers all around the state carried headlines of “answered prayers,” “hallelujah,” and “believe dat.” All carried stories of the way that this team provided hope, healing, and inspiration. The headlines spoke in Christian terms and the stories described Christian action. The team had provided much needed good news to the people that they served! They had invested in the city: lived there, set up foundations, helped schools, and became ambassadors for the rebuilding effort. Their “faith” in what their team could do and what each of them could do was put into action.

In the midst of all the celebration and the pride I wondered about the church, had we failed to provide what the city needed most? What the state needed most?

This is not a tirade against a football team. As an adopted son of this state I am proud of this important accomplishment. I was there with all other Louisianians cheering for our team, wearing black and gold, wanting them to win. I believe that sports are important ways of entertainment and competition. They also provide much needed economic impact in the communities they serve.

I guess my real tirade is against the church. We have failed time and time again to inspire, to capture the imagination, to lift up a city and a state from the rubble of destruction and chaos. We have not taken chances: on leadership with passion, on communities of service, on important adjustments at “half time.” In other words we continue to play it safe!

In the meantime people continue to gather. They gather to celebrate a victory, their victory. They also gather to feast and as they feast the hope for the future continues to build, the possibilities seem endless, the embarrassments of the past are put aside. Many were saying that they “believed again.”

I also believe again . . . I believe that the church can live again, serve again, be present again! I believe that we can come out of our apathy, self-centeredness, and lukewarmness to become the people who provide hope, healing, and inspiration to the communities that we serve. People want to believe, they want to be inspired, they want to be part of something that makes a difference. Maybe if we live in such passionate ways, the good news of Jesus that we proclaim will move people who hear it, to “believe again!”

Belief and action opens up the floodgates of renewal, rebuilding, and hope. This is what the church came to proclaim to a broken world. Let the feasting begin!

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February 3, 2010

Best Intentions

God will bring us through this. -One of the Americans jailed in Haiti

I’ve watched with interest the story of the imprisoned Americans in Haiti. Little by little the story gets clearer and cloudier. In the midst of all the other chaos now we have a prosecution. Those detained claimed that they were “trying to do the right thing,” they wanted most of all to “help the children.” Making it clear that they are not “child traffickers.” It reminds me of the saying that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

We might never know the true intentions of these people. In other words I do believe that they had good intentions, that they wanted to do the “right” thing. So many times we want to do the right thing but go about it the wrong way. Other times we are so convinced of our sincerity that it clouds our decision making process. In this case it was the lack of needed legal documents, but there are so many other examples of people trying to do the right thing in the wrong way, at the wrong time, with the wrong outcome.

For so long Christians have been participants in this kind of naive doing of God’s work. Jesus himself told us to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:16) So many times the history of the American church in the Caribbean and Latin America has been filled with this kind of mentality. With the intention of doing good, many denominations have done much harm and as I said in my last article have perpetuated the pattern of colonialism in the region.

Meaning well does not mean that one is doing well. If you want to help the children of Haiti, collect money, send health kits, make connections with your denominational relief work or with the many international relief organizations that are doing work there. Make sure that you know the language or have a translator. Make sure that you are following the laws of the land that you are serving.

In the end this kind of issue poses another distraction and stresses the already crumbled system. Now the Haitian government has to keep up with prisoners, find a way to set up some kind of investigation, prosecution and trial. In the meantime the eyes of the world are momentarily lifted from the devastation towards a different, and less important, direction.

Well meaning people can end up victimizing those who have been victimized already. False promises, false hope, false salvation has been at times the essence of the gospel for many who claim the name Christian. They have meant well but have not done the deep reflection on how their actions communicate and illustrate the good news of Jesus Christ. In their desperation many of these people have believed the promises made and have seen these “strangers” as the way out of their desperate situation.

As people of God we have a responsibility to live out our discipleship to the highest standard. When we engage in the work of Jesus in the world we must do our homework, prepare, and connect. We are not alone so we must carefully learn the sociocultural situation of those that we are attempting to help. Good intentions can many times lead to a bad witness of the good news to those who are observing.

We continue to pray for the people of Haiti. We also continue to call our own to accountability in the way that we help. As we continue to hear the call may we remember that the gospel calls us to best action not only to best intention!

This post originally appeared on Day1.org

Spirit Stirrer

Month: February, 2010

February 23, 2010

Transformative People

February 17, 2010

Ash Wednesday Reflections

February 11, 2010

Saints Go Marching In!

February 3, 2010

Best Intentions

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