Andy's Blog: A Personal Word

September 2007 Archive

September 26, 2007

Sep. 26, 2007

On an internet site called My Heroes, I ran across the work of a young boy named Mattie Stepanek, who has been writing poetry since he was a pre-schooler. Mattie suffered from a hereditary form of muscular dystrophy that had already claimed the lives of his three older siblings. Mattie needed to take a portable oxygen tank on wheels with him wherever he went. Many times his illness would land him in bed in the intensive care unit of the children’s hospital. Outside, Mattie was only able to move about in his motorized wheelchair. Even though Mattie battled a terminal illness for many years, he never saw his condition as an obstacle between him and his goals. Mattie died in 2004, shortly before his 14th birthday, leaving behind a body of work which displays more wisdom than people who live decades longer.

Part of Mattie’s philosophy of life was what he called “playing after every storm.” He writes, “We all have life storms. Times in our lives that are extremely sad, scary, angry. And instead of just suffering through them, and then afterwards just sitting, crying and waiting to be wiped out by the next one, we should celebrate together that we got through. And when the next one comes along, work through and pull through and celebrate again.”

Mattie has had much to say about peace, and about our shared humanity. One of his poems, written when he was eight or nine years old, is called the Language of God:

Do you know what
Language God speaks?
God speaks Every-Language.
That’s because God made
Everyone and Gave
Everyone different Languages.
And God understands all of them.
And do you know what is God’s
Favorite Language?
God’s favorite language is
Not grown-ups’ language,
But the Language of Children.
That’s because children
Are special to God.
Children know how to share,
And they never lose
Their Heart-Songs.

Mattie’s life was a commentary on the words of Jesus, “unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

September 19, 2007

Sep. 19, 2007

Some images stick with you throughout your life. One of those images for me was a visit I made to Coventry Cathedral in 1967. On the night of November 14, 1940, nearly four hundred fifty German bombers participated in a night raid on Coventry. Timed to the full moon, the operation dropped five hundred tons of high explosives and forty thousand firebombs during eleven hours. It was the first attempt in history to destroy an entire city in a single air attack. Coventry suffered enormously.

One of the buildings destroyed was this cathedral, which traced its roots to the 12th century. The morning after the bombing, the cathedral’s stonemason took two charred oaken beams from the debris and tied them together into a cross. Another man, a local Anglican priest, plucked from the ruins three medieval nails and fashioned them into a second cross. These two images became Coventry’s postwar witness, symbols of both Good Friday and Easter. Physical destruction, the burnt crosses insisted, does not have the final word. 

After the war, it was decided to build a new Cathedral – but not on the same site. The decision was made to retain the bombed out shell of the old cathedral as a memorial. The new modern cathedral was built adjacent to the old and connected by a covered porch.

I can still remember walking down the ruined nave of the old church and seeing the altar. On the altar was a charred cross, a replica of the original. In the wall behind the altar, two words have been carved into the red sandstone, their letters measure one foot high: FATHER FORGIVE. Using Jesus’ words from the cross, these words echo the cathedral’s postwar mission: Reconciliation and peacemaking.

Entering the new cathedral there is a sign which explains that the rebuilding done after the war was done by young volunteers from Germany “making amends for suffering caused by their parents’ generation.” In return, Coventry Cathedral, in its first project for reconciliation, helped construct the wing of a hospital in Dresden, Germany which had also been firebombed during the War.

I will forever remember that charred cross on the altar of a bombed out church – and the words “Father Forgive.” For the first time in my life, I understood something about the horrors of war – and Christ’s call that we be peacemakers.

On Sunday, I will be preaching on the Beatitude, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”

September 12, 2007

Sep. 12, 2007

“Follow Me”
The word “disciple” appears 269 times in the New Testament, as compared with only 3 times for the word “Christian.” A number of writers contend that the church has oftentimes inverted this order – so that being a Christian in many churches does not necessarily entail being a disciple.

Part of the confusion is with our use of the word “membership” to talk about what it means to be a part of the church. According to some, the term “member” fosters a church-as-club mentality. The church-as-club membership has its privileges. The church offers staff, services, and programs for its members. The point of church is to provide for the comfort and satisfaction of its members; clergy are there to provide religious services – and there is little emphasis on faithfulness. In the church-as-club, the question, “Why are we here?” is answered with “to meet the needs of our members.”
(“Follow Me,” Anthony Robinson, The Christian Century)

The focus on discipleship is very different. The question “why are we here?” is answered with “to be and make disciples of Jesus Christ.” The focus is outward rather than inward.  Rather than being passive recipients of services, in the church as disciples model, members are actively engaged in living out the gospel.

The church-as-club model wears thin over time. People get bored. They find other ways to get their needs met. A “better club” with more amenities. In never learning what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, people are cut off from the joy, the abiding peace, the life transformed by love, the hope that endures, the power to do what is right and to withstand evil, and the adventure of following Jesus in transforming the world.

John Wesley, who we Methodists claim as our spiritual forefather, had three words inscribed on his personal seal: “Believe, Love, Obey.” Christian faith for Methodists has always been more about a way of life than simply a system of beliefs. It is a process of following – of learning from Jesus, and doing as Jesus did. The old phrase “Jesus Saves” needs to be qualified. We must be concerned not only with what Jesus saves us from but what he saves us for.

Jesus said “Follow me.” The kind of saving Jesus does is not the kind you lock away in a vault. It is the kind that you invest in the world by living a life of love.

September 5, 2007

Sep. 5, 2007

As I have explored the Beatitudes in preparing for the sermon series I am now doing, I have been struck by the depth of these eight brief sayings. There is something about them that strikes at the heart of what it is to be a disciple of Jesus. Words like poor in spirit, meek, mourn, hunger/thirst – all point to the way of being close to God; which is what being blessed is all about. Maya Angelou has a poem called “I am a Christian,” that captures something of the spirit of the beatitudes:

I am a Christian
By Maya Angelou

When I say...“I am a Christian”
I’m not shouting “I’m clean livin.”
I’m whispering “I was lost,”
Now I’m found and forgiven.

When I say...“I am a Christian”
I don’t speak of this with pride.
I’m confessing that I stumble
and need Christ to be my guide.

When I say...“I am a Christian”
I’m not trying to be strong.
I’m professing that I’m weak
and need His strength to carry on.

When I say...“I am a Christian”
I’m not bragging of success.
I’m admitting I have failed
and need God to clean my mess.

When I say...“I am a Christian”
I’m not claiming to be perfect,
My flaws are far too visible
but, God believes I am worth it.

When I say...“I am a Christian”
I still feel the sting of pain,
I have my share of heartaches
So I call upon His name.

When I say...“I am a Christian”
I’m not holier than thou,
I’m just a simple sinner
who received God’s good grace, somehow.

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