Reformation Day

This past Sunday we had a wonderful celebration in worship marking Reformation Sunday.  As I explained in worship, Reformation Day is actually on October 31, because it was on that day in 1517 that a Catholic priest/monk/professor in the city of Wittenberg in what we now call Germany finally got so ticked off at the way the Church was being run in Europe that he nailed his 95 Theses (or complaints) to the door of the church in town.  Now, it should be noted, that Luther isn’t the only one who would have nailed papers to the front door of the church.  It was used as a kind of bulletin board for the town.  But regardless, posting his 95 theses on the town bulletin board was a gutsy move.  

As so often happens in history, Martin Luther was the right person living at the right time.  It also helped a great deal that he found a powerful ally in a local ruler by the name of Frederick the Wise (a lot can be said for having friends with money and influence as long as that money and influence is used for God’s purposes).  Perhaps the most important factor, however, was that the printing press was available to Luther in a way that it had not been available to those who came before him.  Because they could be copied rather quickly (by the standards of the times) Luther’s writings spread like wildfire.  It wasn’t long before all kinds of reform movements, some very different from Luther’s, began to take root in cities in France, England, and Switzerland.  Our tradition, Presbyterianism, is the descendent of Scottish Presbyterianism, which is in turn the descendent of the work of John Calvin, a major reformer who was originally from France but did his work in the Swiss city of Geneva.  A fiery Scottish preacher named John Knox (who spent a good deal of time as a galley slave on a ship because of his Protestant beliefs) studied under John Calvin and then returned to Scotland.  The main thrust of the Protestant Reformation (in its many various forms) as a whole was generally to get the Church to return to the Bible as the only authority of the Church, as opposed to Church tradition.  Many of the Reformers saw themselves as working to return to the ways of the early apostolic church.  

I love Reformation history and I have read hundreds and hundreds of pages written by John Calvin as well as many written by Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli.  I’ve read some of John Knox’s work (including the Scots Confession) as well as other documents from other reformers of the era such as the Second Helvetic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism.  Also, I have read many current authors who write a great deal about the Reformation such as Michael Horton, R.C. Sproul, and Kevin DeYoung.  These brilliantly intelligent authors look back to the Reformation in a very similar way that the reformers looked back to the early church—as a kind of pure era to which we must return.  Although I owe an immeasurable gratitude to the Reformers and I have learned a great deal from the contemporary writers who call for a return to the ways of the Reformers, I am not as enthused about the idea of returning to the ways of the Reformers as some Christians are, many of them my good friends.  

But time for both this writer and probably you as the reader is running short so I’ll have to tell you why I’m not as enthused about the call to return to the Reformation next week.

In the meantime, may you all have a blessed Reformation Day on October 31 as well as a day of remembrance and God’s comfort on All Saints Day on November 1.  We will mark All Saints Sunday on November 3.

Grace and Peace,

Everett 

The Bishop of Bling

Over the past few days, Pope Francis has made the news once again for something very positive.  He has suspended the Bishop of Limburg in Germany for using church money to live an obscenely lavish lifestyle. The opulent spending of Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst (what a name!) is so notorious that the media has dubbed him the "Bishop of Bling."  Among other charges against him, it is alleged that he spent $42,000,000 renovating his personal residence.  His extravagant lifestyle has been financed by the offerings that are put into the plate each Sunday by faithful German Catholic worshipers.  It seems as though the Bishop must never have read Jesus' words in Matthew 6, "No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and wealth."

It is interesting that this has made the news this week as we approach Reformation Day on October 31, which we will mark as a congregation as Reformation Sunday on October 27.  It was on October 31, 1517 that a German Catholic priest/monk/professor by the name of Martin Luther finally grew so ticked off with the excesses and greed of the Church in Europe that he nailed his "95 Theses," which were basically 95 complaints against the Church leadership, to the door of the church in the town of Wittenberg. Although this date is said to have begun the Reformation, really the Reformation had been building strength for more than a century. Metaphorically speaking, the dam had been cracking for more than a hundred years, but Martin Luther's actions burst the already heavily compromised dam letting loose the waters of reform. It must also be noted, because we Protestants are often ignorant of it, that the Catholic Church did actually reform itself through the Councils of Trent that took place between 1545-1563.  Pope Francis is trying to do the same thing right now in regard to the greed of Church leaders, what he calls the "closed-mindedness" of some Catholic doctrines, and the horrible tragedy of priestly molestation and the resulting church cover-ups.  

But let's concentrate on the opulence of religious leaders for a moment. The so-called "Bishop of Bling" is merely the most recent example of greed among church leaders.  Popular American preachers like Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, and TD Jakes teach what is called "the prosperity gospel."  They tell their hearers that if they will give money to God, conveniently through their particular ministry, that the giver will receive more money and blessings from God in return.  Meyer, Osteen, and Jakes have mansions and private jets, yet continue to ask the faithful for more money.  A friend of mine who is an elder in the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria told me that there are many Pentecostal prosperity preachers in Nigeria (and throughout Africa) who have become multi-millionaires from the money given by poor, even destitute, African people.  On a much smaller scale, I've known a Presbyterian pastor who always drove a brand-new Cadillac and wore a Rolex watch.  Also, I've sat in a presbytery meeting and watched as a pastor fought tooth-and-nail to keep the presbytery from setting a minimum salary that congregations must pay a pastor, a minimum of only $40,000. Come to find out, that pastor who was fighting against the $40,000 minimum (I was making $37,000 at the time) had a yearly salary close to $100,000 along with six weeks of vacation and four weeks of study leave per year.  This is most certainly not merely a Roman Catholic problem; this is a Christian problem.

This morning I opened up my email and read my daily devotion from Franciscan Priest Richard Rohr.  Here is part of that devotion:

The biblical bias toward the bottom has been called by some the "preferential option for the poor."  But it is an option, an invitation: it is a grace, and it emerges from inner freedom--or else it would not be from God.  In the last analysis, the Bible is biased; it takes the side of the rejected ones, the abandoned ones, the barren women, and the ones who have been excluded, tortured, and kept outside. This is all summed up in Jesus' own ministry: He clearly prefers, heals, and includes the foreigner, the non-Jew, the handicapped, and the sinner--without rejecting the people of power, but very clearly critiquing them.

I believe what Father Rohr is writing about is true; that is why I struggle with it.  I try to live a simple lifestyle. It may not seem that way to a lot of folks, but I do.  It is true that I live in a huge, almost 3,000 square feet, stately, freshly renovated house.  This could be interpreted as opulence. But it needs to be known that this is simply the house the church owns, the house the church provides for my family and me. We enjoy the house, but we were just as happy in our little 1,100 square feet house in Oklahoma.  "But what about your giant TV?" you might ask.  We didn't pay for that either; it was a housewarming gift from someone in our family. We didn't ask for it; they just gave it.  "Well, I see you wearing expensive Ralph Lauren shirts."  I bought one of those at Ohio Thrift for $3.00.  The other one I bought for $7.00 at the outlet mall. Anything I own that is name brand I bought at a thrift store, off a clearance rack, or it was given to me as a gift.  "But sometimes you play golf."  Whenever I play golf I only do it when someone else is paying for it or if I've been given a little extra money as a gift.  Plus, my set of clubs was given to me for free from someone who pieced it together from spare clubs.  I drive a 2005 Toyota Matrix with 125,000 miles on it and stains on the seats.  Danielle drives a Mazda with 50,000 miles on it. We've never bought a new car or owned a luxury car and we do not plan to do either one.  This church provides generously for my family but all of our money goes back to the church, to pay bills, or to provide opportunities like scouts, piano lessons, and ballet lessons for our kids.  

I'm certainly not the Bishop of Bling or Joyce Meyer, but I must continually allow myself to be critiqued by the words of Jesus.  We all must allow ourselves to be critiqued by his words.  As we celebrate Reformation Sunday this week, let us remember that reformation is always needed in our larger church bodies, in our local congregations, and most importantly in our own lives.  May the controversy over the "Bishop of Bling" be to us a reminder to search our own hearts.  Let us all remember the words of our Lord Jesus, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  

It is my prayer that this week we will all realize and live into the fact that we are blessed by God in order to be blessings to others.  See you on Reformation Sunday!

Grace and Peace,

Everett

Greetings from Louisville

Earlier this year I applied to The Collegeville Institute Writing Pastor Workshop, and thankfully the selection committee chose me, along with eleven other pastors and church workers from all over the United States as well as a writer from Zambia and one from Nigeria.  We were selected to participate in the weeklong workshop with all expenses paid (minus travel).  That is why I am spending this week on the campus of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.  Our professor for the week is Dr. J. Bradley Wigger who is a writer and a professor of Christian Education here at the seminary.  Interestingly enough, he is also doing research around the world on children who have imaginary friends.  How cool is that!

 

We have completed two days of morning and afternoon workshop sessions, afternoon writing assignments, and a meeting this afternoon with the former Poet Laureate of the state of Kentucky, Maureen Morehead, who teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing program at Spalding University here in Louisville.  Tomorrow we will meet with the current Poet Laureate of the state of Kentucky, Frank X. Walker, who is a professor at the University of Kentucky.  To top it all off, our workshop sessions and evening meals are held in a beautiful old mansion here on campus!  Thank you so much for allowing me to use my remaining study leave time for this wonderful experience. 

 

As a part of the workshop and afternoon sessions, Dr. Wigger gives us certain writing assignments or writing prompts.  I wanted to share with you what I wrote to complete two of these assignments. 

 

This morning, Dr. Wigger gave us a copy of Psalm 8.  As a writing "warm up" he told us to take five minutes to write a short memory prayer for children based on the Psalm.  Here is what I came up with in those five minutes.  It is very simple but that's the point.

 

The whole planet says that God is great.

Babies say it and animals too.

Even space says that God is great.

      And God says back, "I love you." 

 

The second (and final) assignment I'd like to share with you comes from a writing prompt.  Dr. Wigger gave us four opening phrases from which to pick.  We could only choose one and we had to start our story with that phrase.  The piece was to be fiction and it was to be only 600 words.  He sent this assignment with us during our midday break and writing time, and told us to spend about an hour on it.  Of the four prompts, I chose, "Since the plane had a layover in Kathmandu..."  Here is what I wrote:

 

Since the plane had a layover in Kathmandu, a layover caused by what the pilot had called “a glitch,” Barbara found herself standing near the front of a line at the airline ticket counter.  In front of her, a balding businessman yelled at the employee, “I don’t care how you do it, but you better damn well get me home.”  Barbara watched as the young woman at the counter pecked feverishly at her keyboard searching for a connecting flight that would satisfy the man, and then repeatedly saying in her broken English, “I am so sorry, sir.”  Barbara believed the employee but, as she looked back at all the weary travelers, she knew no one else would be as understanding.  She considered abandoning her spot near the front of the line as an act of selflessness.  She’d been working on that, trying to be more giving, more open to “promptings” as her priest had called it in his homily several weeks earlier, but she decided that the Kathmandu airport was not the place to have a breakthrough in generosity. 

She tried to push the thought from her mind, but it was too late.  The thought of moving to the back of the line, of willingly being last, had quickly been planted inside of her and had sent down roots before she could yank them up.  As Barbara listened to the man grow more and more irate and watched the woman directly in front of her standing with arms crossed and doing her best to sigh loud enough that everyone could hear her, Barbara was overwhelmed by the strange feeling that it had been someone else that had planted the thought in her mind.  “Go to the back of the line,” she kept hearing whispered into her ears, but from the inside. 

 "I’ve been away from home too long,” she said to herself.  In fact, she’d been gone so long she wasn’t even sure where home was anymore.  Her house, the house she’d shared with her husband, Ted, before he left her for a woman who was willing to give him the kids Barbara never wanted, was practically a museum.  There was no one waiting for her there, and that is why her boss had chosen her to go to Shanghai, where she had been for four weeks training her Chinese counterparts in plant efficiency and safety.  “Go to the back of the line,” she heard again, this time echoing throughout what seemed to be her entire body.  Barbara looked behind her.  “I must be going crazy,” she thought when she saw that there must have been a hundred people behind her in line, a line so long it snaked out toward the terminal exit. 

 

Barbara’s thoughts were interrupted when she heard the young woman’s voice call out, “Next.”  Barbara looked toward the counter and saw that the woman was now talking to her.  She stared back at her for a moment, unmoving.  “Next!” the woman called out again, this time her voice heavy with frustration.  “Go to the back of the line,” Barbara heard again.  Her foot began to tap nervously.  Finally, much to the confusion of the woman at the counter and to everyone behind her in line, Barbara listened to the prompting, picking up her carry-on bag and making the long journey toward the end of the line.  As she walked, she felt obedient and free at the same time, but when she was just a few steps from the end, she glanced up at the terminal exit and the voice returned, except this time it said, “Keep walking.”

 

Thanks again for letting me loose for a week.  I will be back in time to lead worship and preach this coming Sunday.

 

It is my prayer that you have a blessed week during which you see God at work in your life and the image of God in others.

 

See you soon!

 

Everett