A 7 Central Things Lenten Devotional

               Holy God, Adopted Father of the Baptized, Precious Heavenly Dove who is our Assurance of this new family, thank you for this precious life and our life together. Unite us one to another, encourage us to care for each other, make us curious about one another and allow us to love each other all the more for what we discover as our relationships deepen. Give us a spirit of creative welcome as we continue to care for our siblings. We pray this in the Holy name of Jesus, it is in him that we find life and salvation. Amen.

  It is not good for the body of Christ to be divided. When the church embraces the divisions of the wider world, especially when we bring them into worship, we are infecting Christ with bigotry and prejudice. At the same time, we are not looking to limit how much of a person can show up on a Sunday, how much of who they are is washed and claimed by Christ. As such, the unity in Christ found in Baptism isn’t a shorthand for erasing people’s uniqueness or being “color blind” in a way that blinds us to the totality of who a person is. It is not good that there are many things that crowd out a baptismal life. It is especially worrying that modern life short circuits community in a way that individualizes our baptismal journey—a whole community walks this path together in song, leaving it up to individuals makes a joyful thing into a burden; at best the baptismal life bereft of community is a singular grand heroic act, but for most it becomes an absurdity to be abandoned.            

Franz Schuier, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons Disestablishment-- There was a time, I’ve been told, when Pastors knew that every adult they met, and most assuredly every adult in their congregation, was baptized. I can’t imagine that. Life situations are just not stable like that anymore. On one hand folk “church hop and shop” in a way that wasn’t always the case, so there are often people who come out of a “believer baptism” traditions who have become Lutheran and their kids get baptized on a parallel track to first communion or confirmation. On the other hand, there are people who wanted their kids to “decide for themselves” about religion when they were old enough. I believe this idea is a little fanciful —we don’t do that with languages, “I won’t teach my child English, when she turns 18 she can decided what language she wants to use.” And make no mistake religion is a language, and if we don’t teach a vocabulary, syntax, a

                There is a document called Baptism Eucharist Ministry , that highlights best practices and common agreements across denominations about those three subjects. I remember first reading it in the library of St. Mark’s Retreat Centre in Audley End, UK. I was supposed to be sorting the library or maybe setting up an upstairs worship space, but I started reading BEM and next thing I knew I had read the whole thing. There was one section that sort of haunts me, a section about the misuse of baptism by folk who practice infant baptism, it reads:               “The latter must guard themselves against the practice of apparently indiscriminate baptism and take seriously their responsibility for the nurture of baptized children to mature commitment to Christ.”—BEM page 5.               I think of my own entrance into the body of Christ, was that unserious or indiscriminate? I think too of the many baptisms I have performed where the parents and sponsors are less than perfect c

At three days old, I turned blue. My parents rushed me to the hospital. It turned out I had a hole between two of the chambers of my heart and the main valve wasn’t working right. So they needed to operate, and beforehand, my parents handed me over to a chaplain to baptized me, just in case. Just in case, turned for me, into something amazing. Something more than, as it is sometimes crudely put, “fire insurance.” Yes, my parents received the assurance that I have died with Christ and will rise with him as well—a priceless promise. But also, I’ve received an experience of radical grace, my whole life a gift, just as the doctors fixing my heart and saving my life is a gift. One of the metaphors about Baptism from the Bible is even there; I will put a new heart within you, your heart of stone shall be a living heart… which means I get to live a life in response to God’s goodness, assured that God is loving, I can love. I get to live into the life of the Spirit given to me that day 40

                It’s a common set of verses to throw out there—but that’s because it expresses the uncommon unity we have in Christ. We’ve been welcomed into the family of God’s righteousness, not primarily as students, let alone slaves, but as children, as adopted into one family. It is a family linked together because we trust that God is for us and not against us.               It is hard to trust in, sometimes, that link amongst the faithful. Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and many other divisions threaten to seep into the soul of the Church. It was so at the congregation in Galatia as well. Paul had come preaching a gospel that adding anything to the faithfulness of Christ diminishes the faith. The particular dividing line the Galatians were worried about was the division between Jewish and non-Jewish Christians. The Apostle Peter, Jesus’ right hand man, agreed with Paul’s assessment the (Jesus+ < Jesus Alone) formula… until things got real. Outsiders insisted the divisions of the

                Spirit of the Living God, Spirit of Christ Jesus, gather us in, and gather us out as well, out there beyond our four walls. Inculcate in us a habit of meeting our neighbor, and in so doing meeting the Holy Other—entertaining angels unaware. Give us hearts burning with welcome, so all those people, fragmented by our isolated individualistic present, might find the joy of community. Give us as well discerning minds, that we might know what you are up to, where you are leading us, and how we might gather in the holy name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

  Mike Dickison, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons It is not good to abandon the assembly. Gathering is a habit and it takes practice to do well. It is not good to misuse our liberty, to be distracted by the variety of tasks and options at our disposal and dispose of Christian community. It is not good to be alone. Don’t worry introverts, I’m talking about isolation not the frenetic activity extroverts bathe in. But these plague years have taught us at least that, while the current ethos of our society is to not be joiners—to be skeptical of gatherings—an isolated life is disjointed. Similarly, to put such an emphasis on Christianity as a personal relationship that you ignore any public and communal component—any moment where you might rub up against those with whom you disagree, and in so doing learn from the experience—is to miss being formed into the Body of Christ. It is not good to gather in ways that exclude, that make the as

  The original uploader was Wittkowsky at German Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons Disestablishment —There is an apocryphal story in Baltimore about the Archbishop of the city dictating when the Baltimore Colts could play on a Sunday. Then when the Ravens (by the way isn’t it cool that there is a football team named after a poem?) came to town the Archbishop went to the coach and owner and told them when they could play. The owner laughed in the Archbishop’s face. That anecdote is Disestablishment in summary. There was a time when church and society were in sync; the Christian life was easy because society marched to the beat of our drum.               And gathering together on a Sunday has gotten harder now that society isn’t propping up our worship. Gone are the days when people organizing marathons and youth sports take Christian worship into consideration, gone “Blue laws” that kept people from shopping when soc

                Priya Parker’s book The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters is a book I would recommend to anyone who regularly leads a group or has considered entertaining—including those who plan worship on a Sunday. In it she offers advice and insights about gathering, everything from as a host you should exercise your authority as a German (you’re the boss, create order) and an Egyptian (you’re the host, be warm and helpful) to an analysis of the rise of “pop-up rules” for gatherings instead of trusting that the niceties of etiquette will be followed or even known (which might be helpful for liturgical traditions in a post-liturgical world).               One of the central principles of gathering, that most everything else flows from, is the question why? Why are you gathering? That shapes how many people (and who) you invite, the venue choice, the rules spoken and unspoken; all of it starts with the question why?               And as you we get deeper into this

              My first act as the newly called pastor of Spruce Run Lutheran where I serve, was a painful one, to cancel in person worship. I made the video on my just unpacked personal computer in my messy partially packed partially unpacked home office. It looked a bit like a proof of life hostage video—as did many non-televangelist pastor’s early videos. All around the country and the world people were having to make awful choices in their work, school, personal, and church life not to gather, to assemble.               There is, of course, a case to be made that virtual gathering has advantages. For example, folk who couldn’t come out due to issues driving at night were grateful to participate in Zoom Bible Studies and Livestreamed Vespers. Not to mention that many in the disabled community were overjoyed, and more than a little annoyed, that many aspects of work and play became accessible to them, often for the first time—dispensations they’d asked for and been denied as impract

  Wolfgang Sauber, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons                 Every year at Pentecost we read these names of strange places and peoples, Phrygia, Cretans, Elamites, Cappadocia, and there is always some tripping over pronunciations. These are people from a wide swath of the Roman Empire and beyond—some of the names arguably dated even at the time the book was written. Peoples all gathered in Jerusalem for the festivities, gathered and the Spirit allows them to hear what the Spirit is up to in the world, in the vernacular, the languages of the people gathered. Hear the Gospel without the awkward mispronunciations and stilted tentative speech.               Imagine that, to be gathered and everyone hears. Gathered and experiencing the Spirit announce the event of the Gospel to all of them. Imagine, peoples gathered for the sake of the message about Jesus Christ crucified and risen bringing about a new day!              

Dragon V2 Over Mars - 3D Anaglyph (This is a longer post, so if you need to step back from Lenten reading today or just skim things, that’s totally understandable, take a breather if you need to) A Unified Theory of Lutheranism Today Years back I led an intergenerational educational series called Learning, Lawn Chairs, and Lemonade, and we thought about the Future Church.             Each week I come out with three props to start things off: a pair of glasses, a hammer, and a map. These three props represent the three considerations of Aristotelian Ethics (but if I’d told everyone meeting we were going to talk about Aristotle, no one would have showed up): determine where you are at, what tools you have to get where you are going, and know where you ultimately want to end up.   Glasses (Where we’re at):             I think where we are at, as both a church and a nation, can be defined by 3Ds: Disestablishment, Decentralization, and Demographic Shift.   Disestablishment:

              I often times think the Acts of the Apostles should be re-named the Acts of the Holy Spirit, as so much of the book is the Apostles catching up to what the Holy Spirit is already doing. Another name that might be appropriate is to call it a Book of Baptisms. From the opening lines, reminding us of the Baptism of John, to the famed baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch, to John the Baptist’s followers baptized with the Holy Spirit, to the thrice told story of Paul/Saul’s Baptism, baptism is a clear concern of the book.               Saul encounters the Living Christ, his sins—the ongoing persecution of the faithful—are named by Jesus and then by Ananias. The magnitude of his missteps is manifest before him, before his eyesight is taken from him. His violent acts of suppression were not only done against a group of people, but also against the very chosen one of God! Saul is then cut down to size, forced to rely on a member of the messianic group he had persecuted. He is heal

                My internship supervisor, Pastor Gregg, has a tradition of inviting the Vicar (intern) preach on the Road to Emmaus. It is a strange and wonderful resurrection story that takes you on twists and turns, exposes your rough edges, and functions as a sort of Rorschach test. And, at least for me, it re-affirmed that we meet our resurrected Lord in worship. Read through the story again—maybe even flip through a hymnal while you do it. Cleopas and the other disciple are gathered together, two or three are gathered, and guess what? Jesus is there! He is among them, even when they do not immediately realize that is what is happening. Isn’t that what happens in worship, the buzz of its beginning, yes we’re in the sanctuary to worship, but before (and often during) the prelude we’re meeting the fellow faithful, talking about everything that happened—and in that encounter we happen upon Jesus, who by the time the Pastor begins, “Grace peace and mercy…”, has been half a pew behind

                Welcome to Lent. A time for Alms, Fasting, and Prayer. A 40-day journey through the wilderness toward Easter. A time to ground ourselves to the core of our faith, so that we do not miss the precious gifts we’ve been given.               One of those gifts, I believe, is the gift of the Christian liturgy. Looking all the way back to the earliest descriptions of Christian worship, in Luke’s Gospel, in the Didache (an early Christian Catechism), to Justin Martyr’s testimony to the Emperor, and looking all the way forward to the Book of Common Prayer, the reforms of Vatican 2, the Lutheran Book of Worship, and Evangelical Lutheran Worship, there are some consistent things we do—signs of God’s love we embody together. There are things we practice in worship that spill out into our daily lives. Different folk name and number them differently, my shorthand is the Seven Central Things of Worship, they are: Gathering, Baptism, Confession & Forgiveness, Word, Thanksgiving,