What follows is anything BUT a God thing – and not really in keeping with typical Express content – but I can’t pass up the chance to tell you about it.
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A local grocery store chain's latest sales circular trumpets a new “fuel rewards” program, by which we can “Save on Gas!” at their stores' pumps. It will not surprise you that an asterisk rises above the exclamation point. The small print reference at the bottom of the ad produces the following math:
If a customer spends $50 on groceries and then buys at least 10 gallons of fuel (about $40...until tomorrow), he or she will receive...wait for it... $0.50 off the cost of the gas!
Fifty cents. Not ten or twenty – They wouldn’t think of minimizing their customers like that.
And not one of those meager thirty or forty cent discounts – Such reductions are for amateurs.
Fifty – that’s right, fifty – whole, complete cents. You save more than one-half of one percent when you fuel up.
Three bags of groceries: $50.
Ten gallons of gas: $40.
Saving $0.50 on your $90 trip to the grocery store: Cents-less.
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No prayer. This kind of thing doesn’t have one.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
God Things - Act III
Act III of our play begins with Shari’s atypical appearance Thursday afternoon on the stage of our church as she returned from a medical test (usually she’d be at her workplace). It is she who greets the twenty-something year-old woman who enters the building looking for communications assistance because her vehicle is sputtering on the verge of an empty gas tank.
By phone the woman attempts to reach by a couple of family members, to her dismay connecting only with their voice mail. The second message she leaves is plaintive understatement: “Not having a very good day today. Talk to you later.”
The three of us end up seated in the office, forming something of a triangle of concern about whether she could make it back home to her three children. It’s not long before it’s obvious that the woman’s sojourn into our company is no happenstance, but rather a new expression of God’s gathering confidence in our capacity and desire to move beyond our walls and into the lives of people for whose needs, in the past, our attention to self would have precluded active concern.
As in the previous acts of this divine production, I will not sedate you with details of the hour-plus the three of us shared. Again what matters is the day’s rousing conclusion.
We respond to the woman’s need by offering a gift sufficient for gas to get her home and to her own resources. But before the small but useful financial transaction, comes a touching, enlightening, hopeful conversation about kids and faith and spiritual hunger. By the end of our conversation she commits herself and her kids to join us Sunday morning, telling us, “I don’t know what made me stop here. I thought about going to that other church next door, but something told me to drive in here.”
We tell her that her decision is a God thing. Shari happened to be there, allowing the young mom to meet her kids’ prospective Sunday school teacher, and giving witness to our congregation’s informal Sunday morning dress code. The woman's inability to reach her family members opened the door for our church’s participation in her life. And we still had available a copy of our latest church newsletter, an issue in which my column is about our efforts to reach people not currently connected with the church.... A God thing.
The woman drives away smiling, confident that she will make it home and encouraged that she and her kids, at least one of whom has been actively hounding her mom to get connected to a church, will be learning and worshiping this weekend.
So yet again God has opened gates that for so long our church has kept closed, even barricaded – gates into acts of service and provision for people in need; gates into conversations about how a relationship with Jesus changes your life and frees you to care about others. For the third time in seven days, God presented us an opportunity to demonstrate the legitimacy of the claims of those vision words our board discussed last week: meeting needs, healing wounds, and connecting people to Jesus. And for the third time in a week we accepted the offer.
Today’s encounter reaffirmed an important lesson for our and any other church wanting to escape the imprisonment of its dying ways: First meet people at their point of need, then talk faith and church.
He did it that way, of course. Jesus instructed people to praise God only after giving them cause – via restored sight, healed limbs, or exorcised demons, for example. Can you think of a time when Jesus preached without also providing? He knew that meeting needs created credibility. He knew that helping people overcome their circumstances opened ears, hearts, and minds. He knew that tangible deliveries of God’s goodness produced optimum conditions for receipt of spiritual truth.
Meet needs. Heal wounds. Show concern. Establish trust. Practice what you preach. Open doors. Be the Jesus you claim. THEN offer a connection.
Three times in the last seven day that sequence has worked, to our exuberant delight; it a far cry from our previous mantra: “Wait for people to come. Hope they fit in. Feel bad when they don’t. Wait for the next one.” Three times God has said here’s a chance for you to show me you’re serious, and we have been.
As the woman drove away, my spirit considered crying out, “Enough already! We get it! Bless someone else for a while.” That craziness lasted only an instant, however, when I remembered we are always only a breath away from the wilderness. God, I cried, keep doing your thing.
Here ends the most blessed Express trilogy yet. Blessed, not because of its literary merit, theological prowess, or spiritual maturity, but because each piece testifies to hope and new life – witness of which not long ago I was not capable.
At the first of this year I was lost on a cynical, desperately pessimistic sea. My creativity was stymied. My vision was blocked. My heart had withered. My hope was gone. I was playing out a string and considering options for a second career. By ‘08's dawning, I had given up: on myself, my calling, and the congregation I served. Oh, I was still trying. I hadn’t stopped writing sermons, making hospital calls, or caring about our people. But I had stopped believing. More than once I confronted God, demanding an explanation for the two decades-plus I had wasted in a ministry that, to my broken perspective, was a mistake, or, more cruelly, a divine but mean-spirited practical joke on me.
Things have changed. Much to my surprise and praise, I have found new reason for my and our season. Sure, we will still doubt and wander through scary valleys. Further, I can’t imagine that the next seven days will hold a candle to those that just ended.
But that’s okay. For we have seen things, felt things, acted in response to things, and cried in praise to the one who provided those things...all those God things.
Pray with me:
God, for all your magnificent and undeserved productions of grace, we say thanks...and just know that we’re in line ready for the previews of your next show. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
By phone the woman attempts to reach by a couple of family members, to her dismay connecting only with their voice mail. The second message she leaves is plaintive understatement: “Not having a very good day today. Talk to you later.”
The three of us end up seated in the office, forming something of a triangle of concern about whether she could make it back home to her three children. It’s not long before it’s obvious that the woman’s sojourn into our company is no happenstance, but rather a new expression of God’s gathering confidence in our capacity and desire to move beyond our walls and into the lives of people for whose needs, in the past, our attention to self would have precluded active concern.
As in the previous acts of this divine production, I will not sedate you with details of the hour-plus the three of us shared. Again what matters is the day’s rousing conclusion.
We respond to the woman’s need by offering a gift sufficient for gas to get her home and to her own resources. But before the small but useful financial transaction, comes a touching, enlightening, hopeful conversation about kids and faith and spiritual hunger. By the end of our conversation she commits herself and her kids to join us Sunday morning, telling us, “I don’t know what made me stop here. I thought about going to that other church next door, but something told me to drive in here.”
We tell her that her decision is a God thing. Shari happened to be there, allowing the young mom to meet her kids’ prospective Sunday school teacher, and giving witness to our congregation’s informal Sunday morning dress code. The woman's inability to reach her family members opened the door for our church’s participation in her life. And we still had available a copy of our latest church newsletter, an issue in which my column is about our efforts to reach people not currently connected with the church.... A God thing.
The woman drives away smiling, confident that she will make it home and encouraged that she and her kids, at least one of whom has been actively hounding her mom to get connected to a church, will be learning and worshiping this weekend.
So yet again God has opened gates that for so long our church has kept closed, even barricaded – gates into acts of service and provision for people in need; gates into conversations about how a relationship with Jesus changes your life and frees you to care about others. For the third time in seven days, God presented us an opportunity to demonstrate the legitimacy of the claims of those vision words our board discussed last week: meeting needs, healing wounds, and connecting people to Jesus. And for the third time in a week we accepted the offer.
Today’s encounter reaffirmed an important lesson for our and any other church wanting to escape the imprisonment of its dying ways: First meet people at their point of need, then talk faith and church.
- Remember Teresa, the woman with epilepsy, whose house needs organizational help? She was quite open and anxious to talk about faith, but we piqued her interest by engaging the wounds of her life.
- How about the three siblings whose mother’s funeral was the core of “God Things, Act II”? Some or all of them and their families now expect to join us for worship this weekend, but their interest in our community arose because one of our followers of Jesus joined them at a funeral home, stood with them at a grave side, and journeyed with them through the valley of the shadow of death.
- Finally, Thursday’s spiritual traveler drove onto our premises, likely well aware of her spiritual needs. But our willingness to add to the few fumes in her vehicle’s gas tank fueled the trust necessary to share her heart with us.
He did it that way, of course. Jesus instructed people to praise God only after giving them cause – via restored sight, healed limbs, or exorcised demons, for example. Can you think of a time when Jesus preached without also providing? He knew that meeting needs created credibility. He knew that helping people overcome their circumstances opened ears, hearts, and minds. He knew that tangible deliveries of God’s goodness produced optimum conditions for receipt of spiritual truth.
Meet needs. Heal wounds. Show concern. Establish trust. Practice what you preach. Open doors. Be the Jesus you claim. THEN offer a connection.
Three times in the last seven day that sequence has worked, to our exuberant delight; it a far cry from our previous mantra: “Wait for people to come. Hope they fit in. Feel bad when they don’t. Wait for the next one.” Three times God has said here’s a chance for you to show me you’re serious, and we have been.
As the woman drove away, my spirit considered crying out, “Enough already! We get it! Bless someone else for a while.” That craziness lasted only an instant, however, when I remembered we are always only a breath away from the wilderness. God, I cried, keep doing your thing.
Here ends the most blessed Express trilogy yet. Blessed, not because of its literary merit, theological prowess, or spiritual maturity, but because each piece testifies to hope and new life – witness of which not long ago I was not capable.
At the first of this year I was lost on a cynical, desperately pessimistic sea. My creativity was stymied. My vision was blocked. My heart had withered. My hope was gone. I was playing out a string and considering options for a second career. By ‘08's dawning, I had given up: on myself, my calling, and the congregation I served. Oh, I was still trying. I hadn’t stopped writing sermons, making hospital calls, or caring about our people. But I had stopped believing. More than once I confronted God, demanding an explanation for the two decades-plus I had wasted in a ministry that, to my broken perspective, was a mistake, or, more cruelly, a divine but mean-spirited practical joke on me.
Things have changed. Much to my surprise and praise, I have found new reason for my and our season. Sure, we will still doubt and wander through scary valleys. Further, I can’t imagine that the next seven days will hold a candle to those that just ended.
But that’s okay. For we have seen things, felt things, acted in response to things, and cried in praise to the one who provided those things...all those God things.
Pray with me:
God, for all your magnificent and undeserved productions of grace, we say thanks...and just know that we’re in line ready for the previews of your next show. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
God Things - Act II
As described in the previous entry, early Monday morning I spoke with a lady named Teresa, whom God had led into our congregation’s path, whose needs we are able and willing to meet.
In Monday’s late morning I met with the three daughters of a woman whose funeral I will conduct on Wednesday. The getting-to-know-you sessions I hold prior to writing funerals have a predictable rhythm to them, so for most of our first hour together, I got what I expected and needed to create an experience for the gathered mourners, but little else. Following the prayer with which we closed our formal session, however, things changed...and so did I.
“I have a question about your services,” said the youngest of the three daughters, a thirty-something mother of one, who owns a poignant personal story. I thought she was going to ask how much they should pay me for the funeral – the objective of similar questions others have asked – but it turned out she really wanted to know about our church.
I could tell you everything she, and eventually her siblings, asked about, but that would quickly grow tiresome, so it will suffice to say she was a seeker...in our church building, a seeker! [A "seeker" is a spiritually hungry person who claims no particular loyalty to or heritage in a specific congregation, denomination, or faith tradition.]
If you read this from afar, you may wonder about the exclamation point. It’s there because we don’t get seekers in our church. Seekers are usually young, selective, and dismissive of older congregations such as ours. Seekers prefer an eclectic menu of options for themselves and their kids. Seekers lean toward live bands and large auditoriums, not the recorded accompaniment tracks and A-frame sanctuaries that churches such as ours offer.
When I tell you we don’t get seekers, I mean we don’t even see seekers! It’s as if we have a neon sign flashing in the front yard: “Warning: No Seeking!” It’s as if a spiritual search animates otherwise-dormant enzymes that equip seekers to sense when a trip onto a particular congregation’s premises won’t be worth the effort. It’s as if God leads people away from churches like ours because God knows that for them we’re not a good match.
But there they were, three seekers sitting five feet from me, asking about our church, telling about their past – and not always positive – church experiences, wondering whether it would be worth their effort to disregard our flashing neon no-seeking sign.
I label this conversation as the second act in a “God Things” play because for several years many in our congregation, including myself, have believed we weren’t ready or even capable to receive (i.e. serve) the people we claimed to seek. We have interpreted our failure to connect with the unconnected as a sign of God’s verdict against our approach to people and ministry. But as Monday morning became Monday afternoon I experienced potent evidence of that verdict’s apparent nullification.
We can reach people we haven’t reached before. We can speak the words they need, offer the hope they crave, embody the encouragement they seek, and be the Body of Jesus that just might connect them to the power they – and we – so desperately need.
This piece is terribly provincial, I fear. Many who read this blog aren’t part of our congregation, and hence won’t feel much claim to the exuberance I’m trying to express. But you who live beyond the shelter of our particular church do know what it’s like to cry out for God, to implore God to be obvious in your life, to offer reassuring evidence of God’s permanent and passionate presence in your struggles. You know, regardless of the seat from which you view this post's action, how urgent can be our need for divine intervention, and how broadly our spirits can smile when that intervention becomes obvious....Welcome to our province.
My spirit smiles because of what God is doing in the life of our particular congregation; I hope our story offers you and your congregation (if you claim one) encouragement. If you or your church has a story of your own “God Thing,” tell us about it in a comment, or, if you want to give it a larger treatment, send it to me for inclusion in the Express as regular posting. If you’re still waiting for your God thing performance to begin, tell us about your wait (remember those anonymous comments); we will hold you in prayer.
And in case you’re not yet satisfied with the God thing currently on display, one final scene from Act 2:
During my conversation with the lady’s three daughters, one of them noted her understanding that her son’s grandmother had once attended our church. She first gave me the name of the grandmother, which I recognized, and then her son, whose last name I needed to connect the dots to a photo I believed I had in my office, a picture of the grandmother and grandson taken 10-12 years ago.
“Before you leave today, let me see if I can find that picture,” I asked, thinking I knew where to find it.
As they prepared to exit the building, I went into my office, quickly found the desired photo, then offered it to the broadly-smiling mother of the grandson, she by then wearing wide and moistened eyes, not owning any pictures pairing those two.
The God thing in that picture’s transfer was that I knew exactly where to find it. Amidst the calamity which is my office (hard as it will be for people who know me to believe, I am not the most organized person in the world), the picture I gave away Monday lay exactly where it had lain for the last many months: on the floor, near the corner of my desk I navigate daily to find my chair. The photo had been there for months – face up, a small obstacle over which I had stepped countless times – offering a daily visual reminder of two people who used to call our church home.
Now you might think I hadn’t picked that photo up because I was messy. You might call it nothing more than good fortune that it was the only one whose whereabouts I could have reported with any certainty as the daughter talked about her son’s grandmother. Or, you might devise your own explanation for how it was I knew just where to find the perfect send-off gift for this family of seekers (as in the people we’re trying to reach, but never even see). Go ahead. But I know better.
It was a God thing!
Pray with me:
God, keep moving. Keep acting. Keep speaking. Keep loving. Keep surrounding. Keep shouting. Keep delivering. And then welcome the praise as we sing, “God thing, you make my heart sing....” In the name of Jesus, Amen.
In Monday’s late morning I met with the three daughters of a woman whose funeral I will conduct on Wednesday. The getting-to-know-you sessions I hold prior to writing funerals have a predictable rhythm to them, so for most of our first hour together, I got what I expected and needed to create an experience for the gathered mourners, but little else. Following the prayer with which we closed our formal session, however, things changed...and so did I.
“I have a question about your services,” said the youngest of the three daughters, a thirty-something mother of one, who owns a poignant personal story. I thought she was going to ask how much they should pay me for the funeral – the objective of similar questions others have asked – but it turned out she really wanted to know about our church.
I could tell you everything she, and eventually her siblings, asked about, but that would quickly grow tiresome, so it will suffice to say she was a seeker...in our church building, a seeker! [A "seeker" is a spiritually hungry person who claims no particular loyalty to or heritage in a specific congregation, denomination, or faith tradition.]
If you read this from afar, you may wonder about the exclamation point. It’s there because we don’t get seekers in our church. Seekers are usually young, selective, and dismissive of older congregations such as ours. Seekers prefer an eclectic menu of options for themselves and their kids. Seekers lean toward live bands and large auditoriums, not the recorded accompaniment tracks and A-frame sanctuaries that churches such as ours offer.
When I tell you we don’t get seekers, I mean we don’t even see seekers! It’s as if we have a neon sign flashing in the front yard: “Warning: No Seeking!” It’s as if a spiritual search animates otherwise-dormant enzymes that equip seekers to sense when a trip onto a particular congregation’s premises won’t be worth the effort. It’s as if God leads people away from churches like ours because God knows that for them we’re not a good match.
But there they were, three seekers sitting five feet from me, asking about our church, telling about their past – and not always positive – church experiences, wondering whether it would be worth their effort to disregard our flashing neon no-seeking sign.
I label this conversation as the second act in a “God Things” play because for several years many in our congregation, including myself, have believed we weren’t ready or even capable to receive (i.e. serve) the people we claimed to seek. We have interpreted our failure to connect with the unconnected as a sign of God’s verdict against our approach to people and ministry. But as Monday morning became Monday afternoon I experienced potent evidence of that verdict’s apparent nullification.
We can reach people we haven’t reached before. We can speak the words they need, offer the hope they crave, embody the encouragement they seek, and be the Body of Jesus that just might connect them to the power they – and we – so desperately need.
This piece is terribly provincial, I fear. Many who read this blog aren’t part of our congregation, and hence won’t feel much claim to the exuberance I’m trying to express. But you who live beyond the shelter of our particular church do know what it’s like to cry out for God, to implore God to be obvious in your life, to offer reassuring evidence of God’s permanent and passionate presence in your struggles. You know, regardless of the seat from which you view this post's action, how urgent can be our need for divine intervention, and how broadly our spirits can smile when that intervention becomes obvious....Welcome to our province.
My spirit smiles because of what God is doing in the life of our particular congregation; I hope our story offers you and your congregation (if you claim one) encouragement. If you or your church has a story of your own “God Thing,” tell us about it in a comment, or, if you want to give it a larger treatment, send it to me for inclusion in the Express as regular posting. If you’re still waiting for your God thing performance to begin, tell us about your wait (remember those anonymous comments); we will hold you in prayer.
And in case you’re not yet satisfied with the God thing currently on display, one final scene from Act 2:
During my conversation with the lady’s three daughters, one of them noted her understanding that her son’s grandmother had once attended our church. She first gave me the name of the grandmother, which I recognized, and then her son, whose last name I needed to connect the dots to a photo I believed I had in my office, a picture of the grandmother and grandson taken 10-12 years ago.
“Before you leave today, let me see if I can find that picture,” I asked, thinking I knew where to find it.
As they prepared to exit the building, I went into my office, quickly found the desired photo, then offered it to the broadly-smiling mother of the grandson, she by then wearing wide and moistened eyes, not owning any pictures pairing those two.
The God thing in that picture’s transfer was that I knew exactly where to find it. Amidst the calamity which is my office (hard as it will be for people who know me to believe, I am not the most organized person in the world), the picture I gave away Monday lay exactly where it had lain for the last many months: on the floor, near the corner of my desk I navigate daily to find my chair. The photo had been there for months – face up, a small obstacle over which I had stepped countless times – offering a daily visual reminder of two people who used to call our church home.
Now you might think I hadn’t picked that photo up because I was messy. You might call it nothing more than good fortune that it was the only one whose whereabouts I could have reported with any certainty as the daughter talked about her son’s grandmother. Or, you might devise your own explanation for how it was I knew just where to find the perfect send-off gift for this family of seekers (as in the people we’re trying to reach, but never even see). Go ahead. But I know better.
It was a God thing!
Pray with me:
God, keep moving. Keep acting. Keep speaking. Keep loving. Keep surrounding. Keep shouting. Keep delivering. And then welcome the praise as we sing, “God thing, you make my heart sing....” In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Monday, May 19, 2008
God Things - Act I
Three or four months ago, a woman spoke to me in the produce aisle of a local Wal Mart. She had seen and appreciated one of the short reflection pieces I regularly record for the Quad Cities’ ABC affiliate television station. Her gesture of mega-mart recognition prompted a subsequent broadcast reflection in which I spoke of our encounter and fame’s fleeting fortunes. End of story, I thought.
Last Friday that same woman - named Teresa - called our church office, responding to my “First Christian Church. This is Bill Coley,” with “Hi, Bill Coley. I’m the person you met in Wal Mart.” She told me she had seen the follow-up reflection – which just happened to have aired on her birthday – as well as the one from the most recent week that encouraged acknowledgment of personal fault, weakness, and need. “I’ve been thinking about it, and I believe it’s time for me to acknowledge my need,” she said.
She then told me about an accident some years ago in which a horse kicked her in the head, a concussive injury that resulted in the disabling condition known as “temporal lobe epilepsy.” Details aren’t necessary here, except to say that among its aftershocks is that she needs some help organizing her home...so, the call to us.
Do you see the God thing here? Teresa – who spends most of her time in Rome (Italy)! – happens to be up at 2:06 a.m. in her home in Milan (Illinois!) to see one of the recorded reflections, then runs into me among a grocery store’s vegetables. Our brief conversation produces (look closely, or you’ll miss the cleverness) another reflection, which she sees on her birthday. Connection made, she then views a third recording, one that encourages her at her point of need, in response to which she decides to call for help.
That’s a great big God thing.
Last week our board gave favorable first reactions to new language to describe the vision of our church, a word picture that describes the kind of church we believe God is calling us to be. The language says, “We will be a caring community of hope and encouragement that meets needs, heals wounds, and connects people to Jesus.” Two days after the board meeting, Teresa called. Two days after her call, eight people from our church signed up to be part of a ministry team that will assist Teresa in her organization.
We cared. We encouraged. We will meet a need. Vision will become reality. That’s a God thing.
Today I called Teresa with news of the team’s formation. She labeled this entire journey, from first reflection viewing to ministry team creation, a “miracle,” a.k.a. a God thing.
God blew me away today, not only because our and Teresa’s paths again crossed, but because in the afternoon... well, that’s a story best told in act II. For now, I close with encouragement. God wants to blow you away. God wants to show you grace, give you mercy, provide you hope, and make big, bold splashes in your life. I can’t know what those incursions will look like for you, but today’s act of the long-running play, “God Things,” offers at least two possible directions from which they might arrive: either to you, at your point of need; or through you, as God’s response to another’s need. Or, most likely, both.
Don’t close your eyes or your heart. God’s play is too good to miss.
Pray with me:
Thanks for allowing my life (our lives) to be your holy and remarkable playground. You are awesome beyond our words, but, hallelujah, not beyond our reach. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
- - - - - - - - -
p.s. Please check in occasionally with the comments section of the entry called "A Relationship by Any Other Name," which immediately follows this one. As of this item's posting, two well done comments have been offered; others are welcomed (dare I say, expected?) Keep the conversation going!
Last Friday that same woman - named Teresa - called our church office, responding to my “First Christian Church. This is Bill Coley,” with “Hi, Bill Coley. I’m the person you met in Wal Mart.” She told me she had seen the follow-up reflection – which just happened to have aired on her birthday – as well as the one from the most recent week that encouraged acknowledgment of personal fault, weakness, and need. “I’ve been thinking about it, and I believe it’s time for me to acknowledge my need,” she said.
She then told me about an accident some years ago in which a horse kicked her in the head, a concussive injury that resulted in the disabling condition known as “temporal lobe epilepsy.” Details aren’t necessary here, except to say that among its aftershocks is that she needs some help organizing her home...so, the call to us.
Do you see the God thing here? Teresa – who spends most of her time in Rome (Italy)! – happens to be up at 2:06 a.m. in her home in Milan (Illinois!) to see one of the recorded reflections, then runs into me among a grocery store’s vegetables. Our brief conversation produces (look closely, or you’ll miss the cleverness) another reflection, which she sees on her birthday. Connection made, she then views a third recording, one that encourages her at her point of need, in response to which she decides to call for help.
That’s a great big God thing.
Last week our board gave favorable first reactions to new language to describe the vision of our church, a word picture that describes the kind of church we believe God is calling us to be. The language says, “We will be a caring community of hope and encouragement that meets needs, heals wounds, and connects people to Jesus.” Two days after the board meeting, Teresa called. Two days after her call, eight people from our church signed up to be part of a ministry team that will assist Teresa in her organization.
We cared. We encouraged. We will meet a need. Vision will become reality. That’s a God thing.
Today I called Teresa with news of the team’s formation. She labeled this entire journey, from first reflection viewing to ministry team creation, a “miracle,” a.k.a. a God thing.
God blew me away today, not only because our and Teresa’s paths again crossed, but because in the afternoon... well, that’s a story best told in act II. For now, I close with encouragement. God wants to blow you away. God wants to show you grace, give you mercy, provide you hope, and make big, bold splashes in your life. I can’t know what those incursions will look like for you, but today’s act of the long-running play, “God Things,” offers at least two possible directions from which they might arrive: either to you, at your point of need; or through you, as God’s response to another’s need. Or, most likely, both.
Don’t close your eyes or your heart. God’s play is too good to miss.
Pray with me:
Thanks for allowing my life (our lives) to be your holy and remarkable playground. You are awesome beyond our words, but, hallelujah, not beyond our reach. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
- - - - - - - - -
p.s. Please check in occasionally with the comments section of the entry called "A Relationship by Any Other Name," which immediately follows this one. As of this item's posting, two well done comments have been offered; others are welcomed (dare I say, expected?) Keep the conversation going!
Saturday, May 17, 2008
A Relationship by Any Other Name
Last week the California Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional state statutes that prohibit same-sex couple relationships from being called “marriages.” The decision basically says that the California state constitution provides equal protection for people, whatever their sexual orientation, and hence for couples, whatever their make-up. Granting the term “marriage” to opposite-sex couples, but not to same-sex couples, violates the equal protection clause, and risks second tier status to those couples, a result that cannot be tolerated without it being in the “compelling and necessary” interests of the state. Since the court could find no “compelling and necessary” reasons to prohibit same-sex relationships from being called “marriages,” it ruled the state laws unconstitutional.
I hope I didn’t bore or lose you in that summary...well, perhaps I hope I did bore you, because it might help make the point that the California ruling, however much bluster it generated from pundits and partisans, focused on just one piece of the gay marriage controversy: Can a state such as California, which grants extensive legal protections to so-called “domestic partnerships,” refuse same-sex couples a specific title to their relationship? Is it constitutional in the Golden State for one group to “marry,” while another group may only “partner”?
[If you're curious, a link to the court's opinion is below the prayer that concludes this piece. It's long and tedious, so I recommend that you stick to the first 12 pages, which comprise the opinion's summary.]
This week’s decision was about the name attached to the relationship between two persons united in a committed, covenantal relationship. It was not about whether gay marriage is constitutional.
Which suited most of the religious folk engaged on this issue just fine, because they don’t want to argue about a name or a constitution, anyway. They want to contend over whether gay marriage is “right,” “moral,” or “biblical.” Do you? I am genuinely curious; do you? Or better, how do you?
I thought I would write a piece dissecting the gay marriage issue from a spiritual/theological/biblical perspective – and I probably still will – but when I read the California court’s opinion summary, I was so taken by their avoidance of the issue people really care about, I decided to change course.
As a person of faith – if you believe yourself so to be – what do you think about gay marriage? Don’t tell us whether you think it’s lawful or constitutional or enforceable or practical; tell us, in a comment, how you address the “right or wrong,” “moral or immoral,” “biblical or unbiblical” questions. You may not know for sure; fine. Then tell us the issues that matter to you, the questions for which you wish you had better responses. Tell us the one question about gay marriage you would ask Jesus, since in the Gospels he says nothing about either the specific subject or the broader issue of homosexuality.
Using your comments as guidance, I will fashion a future Express piece on the subject of gay marriage, which, no doubt, will prompt other comments, and more Express pieces, which will produce more.... [Please remember that anonymous comments are truly that, anonymous, and are also valued here; remember also that you are free to post more than once – perhaps as a new thought, or in response to another’s entry.]
I don’t know how most of the people who read this blog think about gay marriage. Here’s my (and your) chance to find out, as well as your chance to foster dialogue. I await and anticipate your response.
Pray with me:
God, some subjects we deal with in society are really hard; some, like this one, sometimes seem impossible. Give us wisdom and discernment as we reflect, and kindness and self-control as we respond to each other. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
- - - - - - - - - - -
P.S. Here’s the link to the California Supreme Court ruling (you'll have to paste it into your browser's address window):
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/S147999.PDF
I hope I didn’t bore or lose you in that summary...well, perhaps I hope I did bore you, because it might help make the point that the California ruling, however much bluster it generated from pundits and partisans, focused on just one piece of the gay marriage controversy: Can a state such as California, which grants extensive legal protections to so-called “domestic partnerships,” refuse same-sex couples a specific title to their relationship? Is it constitutional in the Golden State for one group to “marry,” while another group may only “partner”?
[If you're curious, a link to the court's opinion is below the prayer that concludes this piece. It's long and tedious, so I recommend that you stick to the first 12 pages, which comprise the opinion's summary.]
This week’s decision was about the name attached to the relationship between two persons united in a committed, covenantal relationship. It was not about whether gay marriage is constitutional.
Which suited most of the religious folk engaged on this issue just fine, because they don’t want to argue about a name or a constitution, anyway. They want to contend over whether gay marriage is “right,” “moral,” or “biblical.” Do you? I am genuinely curious; do you? Or better, how do you?
I thought I would write a piece dissecting the gay marriage issue from a spiritual/theological/biblical perspective – and I probably still will – but when I read the California court’s opinion summary, I was so taken by their avoidance of the issue people really care about, I decided to change course.
As a person of faith – if you believe yourself so to be – what do you think about gay marriage? Don’t tell us whether you think it’s lawful or constitutional or enforceable or practical; tell us, in a comment, how you address the “right or wrong,” “moral or immoral,” “biblical or unbiblical” questions. You may not know for sure; fine. Then tell us the issues that matter to you, the questions for which you wish you had better responses. Tell us the one question about gay marriage you would ask Jesus, since in the Gospels he says nothing about either the specific subject or the broader issue of homosexuality.
Using your comments as guidance, I will fashion a future Express piece on the subject of gay marriage, which, no doubt, will prompt other comments, and more Express pieces, which will produce more.... [Please remember that anonymous comments are truly that, anonymous, and are also valued here; remember also that you are free to post more than once – perhaps as a new thought, or in response to another’s entry.]
I don’t know how most of the people who read this blog think about gay marriage. Here’s my (and your) chance to find out, as well as your chance to foster dialogue. I await and anticipate your response.
Pray with me:
God, some subjects we deal with in society are really hard; some, like this one, sometimes seem impossible. Give us wisdom and discernment as we reflect, and kindness and self-control as we respond to each other. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
- - - - - - - - - - -
P.S. Here’s the link to the California Supreme Court ruling (you'll have to paste it into your browser's address window):
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/S147999.PDF
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