Category Archives: Body Mind Spirit

The Purpose of Scripture

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The Bible is Word Power

Have you heard the concept, “The BIBLE stands for Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth?”   I struggle with that concept.  My fear is that we will turn the Bible into a glorified self-help book that we try to control, rather than the Word of God that comes to recreate us in God’s image.  God’s Word has more than great advice; it has the power to transform us.

N. T. Wright describes this transforming power. “The Bible isn’t there simply to be an accurate reference point for people to look things up and be sure they’ve got them right.  It is there to equip God’s people to carry forward his purposes of new covenant and new creation.  It is there to enable people to work for justice, to sustain their spirituality as they do so, to create and enhance relationships at every level, and to produce that new creation which will have about it something of the beauty of God himself.”   (Simply Christian, p. 182-183)  God’s Word is to actively work at transforming us into the image of Christ.   It calls and empowers us to love God by loving our neighbor in creative, just ways.

Jesus himself had to reinterpret the law because the Pharisees and other religious officials had misused it.   The Pharisee’s loved the Torah (first five books of the Bible), but in their love they tried to control and protect it by building sharp boundaries between holy and unholy.   They tried to avoid all contact with unholy people, so as to remain pure before God.   They used the scripture as their way to stand apart from those in need (lepers, tax collectors, prostitutes, sinners).  Jesus proclaimed a message that engaged the unclean and envisioned a new creation.   Jesus did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17).

How is God’s Word transforming your life?

MAT to PAT

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To Run is to smile!

This week I started a new physical therapy session to see if my running injuries can be corrected.   In spite of eight months of rest, stretching and joint manipulation, I continued to have nagging muscle pain whenever I tried to run.  So after consulting with my doctor, I set up appointments with Fitness Focus in Mahtomedi.   There Shannon Maxiner and her team use Muscle Activation Technique (MAT) to address physical rehab.  To quote a MAT web site,

MAT looks at muscle tightness as a form of protection in the body. Weak or inhibited muscles can create the need for other muscles to tighten up in order to help stabilize the joints. MAT gets to the root of pain or injury by addressing muscle weakness rather than muscle tightness. This helps to restore normal body alignment, thereby, decreasing pain and reducing the risk of injury. http://www.muscleactivation.com/main.html 

I will keep you posted on my progress with this, but the therapy got me thinking about a spiritual form of muscle activation therapy.  Is it possible that we develop a spiritual form of muscle imbalance when we over or under commit our time and energy?   Do we over commit to congregational, community or work activities and neglect the compensating activity of prayer, reflection and conversation?  Or vice versa?  Would a lack of spiritual joy, passion and hope be a sign of this imbalance?  Could there be a Prayer Activation Technique (PAT)? 

One thing I have learned after one day of doing these new muscle activation exercises, they seem trivial and awkward.  I need to trust in the therapy and therapist that they will eventually produce results.  The same is true with prayer and other spiritual practices; you have to trust that the seeds you are planting in God will bear fruit for God’s kingdom.  God is good at taking small seeds and creating something new (Mark 4:30-32). 

What small steps have you take to restore spiritual balance in your life?

Holy Spirit Business

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Holy Spirit comes to work

I am preparing for my first annual congregational meeting at Resurrection Lutheran which will be this Sunday.  Annual meetings among pastors often have the reputation either of being boring, business-as-usual constitutional necessities or of being highly emotional and conflicted debates on peripheral or personality issues.   As a pastor, I don’t want either extreme to happen, but I do pray that the Holy Spirit comes to work: to coax, push, pull and move the congregation towards God’s future.  Discussion regarding a congregation’s priorities can be passionate and yet loving, for we share a common mission to trust, live and serve God.

The book of Acts has a lengthy account of a large church meeting in Jerusalem.  Paul and Barnabas brought a major concern to the whole church for discussion and debate.   Their concern was whether new Gentile members to the church had to fully convert to Judaism before they could embrace Jesus.  Since most of the early members of the church were Jewish and since Jesus was a Jew, many believed that Jewish laws should be upheld.  Paul felt otherwise and a strong debate developed among the leadership of the church.  What rules and regulations, if any, were needed?  After a lengthy debate, the leadership wrote a letter to the many new Gentile believers,  “It seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from fornication” (Acts 15:28-29).  What stands out is that they trusted the Holy Spirit to be part of the discussion.  This was a matter of faith, since the Holy Spirit did not fly into the meeting like a dove and deliver a telegram from heaven.  It was in the discussion itself that God’s Spirit worked.

I think every pastor hopes and prays that the Holy Spirit would be the key partner in any congregational meeting. The Holy Spirit is neither boring, nor highly emotional, but is trustworthy.   The Spirit calls us to trust God in all things.   That seems good to me!

How has the Spirit worked in guiding you and your life with other Christians?

Prayer Helps

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Bishop N. T. Wright

I am preparing for a talk on prayer this evening and wonder if and when anyone uses the written prayers of others to guide their prayers.  I am convicted by N. T. Wright’s comments that, “we moderns are so anxious to do things our own way, so concerned that if we get help from anyone else our prayer won’t be ‘authentic’ and come from our own heart, that we are instantly suspicious about using anyone else’s prayers. . . . We are hamstrung by the long legacy of the Romantic movement, (which) produced the idea that things are authentic only if they come spontaneously, unbidden, from the depths of our hearts. ” (N. T. Wright, Simply Christian, p. 164-165)

I confess that I have at time been such an advocate of spontaneous prayers of the heart.   Yet I also know the value of written prayers that have guided Christian prayer for centuries.   Jesus, being a first-century Jew, learned memorized prayers such as the Shema (“Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is one,” found in Deuteronomy 6:4)  and the Psalms.  He taught his own disciples his kingdom prayer, the prayer we call the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6 and Luke 11).  The prayer of St. Francis continues to “make us instruments of God’s peace.”   Martin Luther wrote short prayers for the morning and evening to be included in his Catechism.   AA groups use Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer to close their meetings.  Written prayers can give shape and structure to our devotional life.

One of my favorite written prayers I learned from the Lutheran Book of Worship, but it probably has a deeper history.   The prayer is part of the morning prayer service and I have used it at various time in my ministry, especially at the beginning of something new.

Lord God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.  Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

What written prayer(s) have shaped your faith life?  In what ways?

Holy Place of Peace

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Hiking below Mt. Rainier

This morning I lead a class on prayer and one of the prayer exercises was a guided meditation, based on Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.”  One method that has helped me enter into silent meditation is to take an imaginary trip to a favorite place that emotes peace.  Many people (especially during a Minnesota winter) might choose a tropical beach with warm breezes and rhythmic surf.  Or a beautiful garden that is under a brilliant blue sky and filled with fragrant blooms.  I choose the Cowlitz Ridge near Mt. Rainier.

I hiked the ridge once, nearly forty years ago.  The week before I left for my freshman year of college, my friend Marv and I decided on one last hike together.  We picked a three-day trip along the Wonderland trail which circles Mt. Rainier.  At first we climbed the steep switchbacks up out of the dark forested river canyon.  As we near the top of the ridge we stepped out of the dark forest into brilliant sunshine and a spectacular view of Mt. Rainier.  We camped in that meadow for two nights, soaking up the beauty and wonder of that ridge.

Now whenever I want a special time of prayer, I go on an imaginary journey to that same spot.  The only difference is that I take the imaginary trip with Jesus as my guide and friend.  For many reason, I find rest, comfort, strength, hope in visualizing him there with me.  As I meditate a deep abiding peace grows up around me.  I realize that I could imagine Jesus with me in other locations, but that spot has become a very holy spot.

I sometimes wonder if I will ever make the hike back to Cowlitz Ridge.  I might, but it is not essential to my spiritual life.  The essential part remains Jesus who is my guide and source of peace and joy wherever I am.

 Has guided meditation helped you in your spiritual journey?  Where do you find God’s peace?

Ocean Hike

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Ruby Beach

As a teenager I backpacked two portions of the wilderness beaches along the Pacific Ocean.   The beaches were part of the Olympic National Park in Washington state and were the only trails open during the winter season (the high mountain passes were snow-covered).

I use the word “trail” loosely, because most of the route was the beach itself. Hikers simply kept the ocean on  their right or left, depending on whether they were going north or south.  Campsites could be found on the beach itself or inside the neighboring forest.  There were no roads or towns, just forest, ocean and beach.

However beach hiking had its tricky sections.   Steep, rocky headlands would jut out into the ocean.  Theses headland had little or no beach so a hiker had a choice.   Wait for low tide and race around the headland or find a trail that led up and over the headland to the open beach beyond.   I carried a tide table with me when I hiked, so I could know when the low tide would be and plan accordingly.   If I arrived at a headland too early or too late, I had to wait or try to find the bypass trail.  (Sort of like trying to find a portage trail in the BWCA.) 

I often think our spiritual walk with Jesus is like hiking on the beach. There can be long sections were the path is very clear and beautiful, yet wild at the same time.  We simply need to remember to keep the ocean (Jesus) on our left or right.  But then we come to some rocky headland, some struggle or challenge, that blocks the path.   We learn to either stop and look at the tide table, (a sort of prayer time) waiting for the tide to recede.  Or we take our chances in finding the wilderness trail (never easy) that leads up and over.    We may even loses sight of the ocean (Jesus), for a time.    Yet the sound of crashing waves and smell of salt air reminds us that Jesus is close by.

What images of walking with Jesus do you carry in your life?

God at Work

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God at Work

Today I read Pastor Tim Keller’s comments about serving God in the work place.  Tim is no relative of mine, but I like the way he thinks, especially being a Presbyterian quoting Martin Luther.  You can check his remarks yourself at http://bit.ly/i77xMD.  A key concept for Keller is Luther’s “Priesthood of All Believers.”  Luther was commenting on I Peter 2:9, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood.”

One does not need to be in the church to serve God.  As a pastor I like it when people volunteer and serve in our congregation.  I often give them special recognition and encouragement.  But the congregation is only one place where a Christian can serve God.  God’s work is not limited to congregations, important as they are.  

I serve God as I love my neighbor, which I can do in various ways.  I love to quote Dr. Marc Kolden, “God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does!”  And we love our neighbor through our daily work as a spouse, parent, worker, community leader and citizen.  The home, the office, and the community are as vital to God as the congregation.

For example, if one owns a small manufacturing company that makes machine parts for cars, the owner loves his neighbor in at least two key ways.  The company is helping provide necessary transportation (car parts) as well as providing employment to the workers.  God would want the owner to be fair and equitable with the employees and with the customers.   In this way God is working through the owner.  God does this with farmers, salespersons, artists, nursing aides, and even politicians.  As Luther wrote, these are the “masks God wears” to accomplish God’s task on earth. 

For sure, we live in sinful, broken world, in which people take advantage of each other.  As sinful human being we can turn work into a false god that consumes our lives.  We can make monetary profit the god that rules our lives.    We need God’s grace mediated through Jesus Christ to call us back to the vibrant life.  And the church can be a community that helps us stay faithful to God’s call at work.

How have you loved your neighbor this past week?

Salt of the Earth?

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A Mountain of Salt

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declares, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt loses it taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot” (Matthew 5:13).  Such a metaphor raises all kinds of questions for me.  Salt seems so ordinary and mundane, something we take for granted.   Yes, it is necessary for making a fine meal, but it is the exotic spices and herbs that get the attention.  Salt brings out other  flavors, but who wants a dish with too much salt?

Years ago, on April 1st, my older sister pulled a practical joke on my siblings by mixing a large quantity of salt into the sugar bowl.  At breakfast, as they spooned sugar on to their cereal, she watched us carefully, saying nothing.  When they took their first bite and then spit it all out, she burst out laughing.   But my mother was not too pleased with the wasted cereal. My sister had to clean up the mess from too much salt. 

When Jesus spoke, salt was used in Jerusalem for temple sacrifices, “You shall not omit from your grain offering the salt of the covenant with your God; with all your offerings you shall offer salt” (Leviticus 2:13).  Could Jesus be inferring that our lives are to be an offering to God, a gift for God to use?  Could we be part of God’s covenant to renew and restore the earth?  Do I enhance God’s flavor in the world?

And just how does salt lose its saltiness?   Perhaps it means that the salt is polluted with impurities and stray matter.   In Exodus 30:35 God instructs the Israelites to make a prayer incense that includes salt, “seasoned with salt, pure and holy.”  I know that my own life at times becomes polluted in ways not pleasing to God.  How will I know when I have lost my saltiness?  Does the community have a role in helping me stay salty?

Jesus’ last phrase about salt being trample under foot makes me smile. In Minnesota there is plenty of salt being spread on roads, bridges, and sidewalks for us to trample upon.   Jesus did not concern his audience with the ice-melting properties of salt, but it is a critical part of our culture. Road salt covers my car after yesterday’s snowstorm, yet I am thankful for its ability to clear road ice. 

What thoughts comes to your mind when Jesus declares, “You are the salt of the earth“?

Celebration of Vibrant Life

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Celebration in the midst of the darkness

What a celebration of talent and joy I experienced  Saturday night at Resurrection’s Variety Show!  I was amazed not only at the wealth of talent displayed, but by the audience participation in the show.   People were clapping, shouting, cheering and affirming all who stood on stage.  It was truly a community celebration of life and joy.  Even the Silent Auction was a  noisy buzz of activity and friendly competition.

It was a creative expression of Epiphany, the light coming in the midst of darkness.  Perhaps I have a touch of Seasonal Affective Disorder (perhaps all Minnesotans have a touch of Seasonal Affective Disorder in January) but I needed a celebration in this snowy winter and the Variety Show provided it.   Joy is a hallmark of Jesus’ followers and I felt that this was a brilliant witness to that joy.  Thank you to all who made the evening vibrate with holy hilarity!

I am also struck that it was a community event in which a large part of the congregation participated.  From children to seniors, from set-up to clean-up,  each person gave to the whole.  As the body of Christ, we each have different gifts and strengths to add to the work of God in the world.   Earlier Saturday morning, a group from Resurrection went to the Disable Veteran Camp on Big Marine Lake to help assemble furniture for new cabins.   Though there was not wild cheering or applause, people experienced God’s joy as they helped others in need.  It was a celebration of service, which is a key part of the vibrant life in Christ.  

 I look forward to seeing how Resurrection Lutheran Church will continue to bear witness to Christ’s power in the world.   Every congregation is called by God to used its gifts, strengths, abilities, and passion to bring God’s light into a dark world.  Every congregation will celebrate and serve in unique ways with its own creative twist.  I am so excited to serve among God’s people here.

What creative ways have you seen congregations live out Christ’s mission?

Stones into Schools Questions

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In my last post I wrote about patience.   A true model of patience is Greg Mortenson and his Central Asia Institute.

Greg Mortenson’s Stones into Schools

Greg Mortenson’s second book, Stones into Schools, will be the subject of  the book club that my wife Carolyn and I are hosting next week.   Greg spent time growing up in Roseville, MN and became a mountain climber.   His first book, Three Cups of Tea, describes how he found his calling building schools in isolated mountain villages of Pakistan.  It is a thrilling adventure story.  In the second book, subtitled Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Greg continues his incredible story of patience and persistence. 

My wife crafted some discussion questions that I encourage you to use for your own reflection as you read Greg’s book.  The questions cover the first 100 pages (which is what we are discussing next week).  Feel free to leave a comment on any question.

  1. Mortenson says, “If you educate a boy, you educate an individual, but if you educate a girl, you educate a community.”  Do you agree or disagree?  Explain
  2. Were you surprised with Mortenson’s comment that religious scholars of Islam have told him that, “Murder and suicide are two of the most unforgivable sins in Islam?”  Why or why not?
  3. Mortenson says that in order to get things done in Pakistan and Afghanistan, “It is essential to listen with humility to what others have to say.”  Is this something that anyone anywhere can do to work for peace?  Why or why not?
  4. Mortenson says that his work demands patience and that “any wise village elder will tell you, anything truly important is worth doing very, very slowly.”  What could we, in our fast-paced American culture, learn from this philosophy?
  5. Does the quotation, “last place first” philosophy (p. 35) of the Central Asia Institute make sense to you?  Why or why not?
  6. How did Mortenson’s upbringing in Tanzania prepare him for his work today?
  7. Reread Sardhar Kahn’s poem on pages 99-100.  What are your thoughts and response?