What is your “heart’s desire?”

From my sermon for October 31, on Luke 18:25-19:10, the stories of the blind man and Zacchaeus:

What desires do you have in your life?  We all have them.  What are yours?  Some people’s lives are totally defined and consumed by their desires – think addicts and alcoholics; think the insecure who constantly want attention; think leaders of all stripes who always want more power and prestige; think the rich who can never have enough in their bank accounts.  For most of us, however, desires pop up from time to time, and need to be kept in proper context.  Which is very difficult in our day and age, when advertising is directly aimed at creating desires in us we didn’t know we had.

On a whim last week, I Googled “desire,” and the second listing (after a definition) was for a smartphone:  HTC has packed every feature under the sun into the Desire, along with a slick user interface and plenty of processing power. The Desire is a smart phone that inspires lust.

Excuse me, but if you end up lusting after a smartphone, we need to have a serious talk!

But back to my original question: do you have a “heart’s desire?”  And does your heart’s desire dovetail with your Christian faith?  Do you desire an encounter with Jesus?  …Enough to make a fool of yourself?  Would you be willing to shout at the top of your voice…or to climb a tree?

In your list of desires, is there room for such things as righteousness and justice?  How about wholeness and peace?  Is your heart’s desire the same as Jesus’ desire: to make you into the child of God you are meant to be?

The truth is that we are lost.  We are the Lost – those whom Jesus came to seek and to save.  We cannot achieve our heart’s desire on our own.  And we certainly cannot achieve what we desire if there is not some blessed alignment with what God desires for us.  The Gospel truth is that wanting something bad enough – even striving for it with singleness of purpose – is not going to get us to the deepest longing of the human heart, which is to know that we are loved by God.  It takes an encounter with Jesus for us to know the true character – and the true fulfillment – of our heart’s desire.  Only in Jesus Christ do we understand fully what will satisfy us to the core of our being.

Is your heart’s desire to know…and to be known by…Jesus?

Poetry

Yesterday I “led” a gathering of some colleagues who gather regularly for sharing, prayer and encouragement.  We spent some time meditating on and discussing John 1:1-18, eventually considering how “the Word” and “words” are important in life and ministry.  I then invited the group to peruse a listing of one-line quotes from various poems, to pick one of the lines, and then to create a poem of their own based around that line.

My time of preparation for leadership was a great way to reconnect with my love of poetry.  As Kathleen Norris says, “poets speak with no authority but that which the reader is willing to grant them.  Our task is not to convince but to suggest, evoke, explore.”  This is, to me, an apt description of preaching as well.  In fact, Fred Craddock wrote a book on preaching entitled “As One Without Authority.”  I would love to be more poetic and less prosaic in my preaching; to be more evocative and less prescriptive.  Certainly the younger generation in our time is looking for art rather than explanation.

As a result of my preparation, I now have a new “favorite” poem (at least until the next one comes along).  It is by Mary Oliver:

The Place I Want To Get Back To

is where
in the pinewoods
in the moments between
the darkness

and first light
two deer
came walking down the hill
and when they saw me

they said to each other, okay,
this one is okay,
let’s see who she is
and why she is sitting

on the ground like that,
so quiet, as if
asleep, or in a dream,
but, anyway, harmless;

and so they came
on their slender legs
and gazed upon me
not unlike the way

I go out to the dunes and look
and look and look
into the faces of the flowers;
and then one of them leaned forward

and nuzzled my hand, and what can my life
bring to me that could exceed
that brief moment?
For twenty years

I have gone every day to the same woods,
not waiting, exactly, just lingering.
Such gifts, bestowed,
can’t be repeated.

If you want to talk about this
come to visit. I live in the house
near the corner, which I have named
Gratitude.

Finding a Way Forward

Nearby to the convention center in Minneapolis is a popular restaurant called “Hell’s Kitchen.”  One section of the eatery is the “Far Side Pub” and, yes, the wall of the pub is plastered with reproductions of “Far Side” cartoons.  More specifically, the cartoons are all related to the subject of Hell and the devil.  Prominently displayed is one of my favorites:  a new arrival to Hell is standing before a pair of doors.  One is labeled “Damned if you do” and the other states “Damned if you don’t.”  Satan stands by berating the man, saying, “Come on, come on, it’s either one or the other!”

There have been many times during this General Assembly that I am sure the commissioners felt the same way choosing between competing sides of the issues which they have faced.  There are so many questions that have no easy or obvious answers.  And yet, somehow, a way is found to move ahead.  Decisions are made, God’s will is discerned, and the PC(USA) once again moves into the future seeking to make God’s kingdom real in the world.

God bless the commissioners of the 219^th General Assembly.  God bless this Church.  God bless the world.

Speak, Lord; Your Servants Are Listening

Is the will of God discerned when the vote on an issue passes by 51% to 49%?  I suppose it all depends which side you are on.  Nevertheless, in our Presbyterian polity the answer to that question is, “Yes.”  Or, perhaps, “Yes…for now.”

One of the basic tenets of our polity is that those elected to govern are not to reflect the will or interests of their “constituents” but rather, in all their deliberations, are to seek the mind and will of God.  As a pastor I have seldom experienced votes in session meetings that were as close as 51%-49%.  Most congregations are fairly homogeneous and, though sessions often deal with contentious issues, there is the time and will to reach consensus.  Thus most votes are overwhelmingly for or against.

But with the expansion of geography comes increasing diversity of opinion and belief.  And so, in presbytery, synod, and General Assembly meetings one finds more debate, more rhetoric, more passion on particular issues.  This results in greater numbers of votes that are not unanimous, and some that are very close.  Yesterday (Thursday), the 219^th G.A. had two such votes – one motion passed by 50 votes, and another by just 24 votes, out of a voting body of some 700 delegates.  The will of the majority is to be understood as reflecting the will of God for the church.

But today (Friday), the assembly is debating whether to “reconsider” the vote that went 51%-49%.  If the decision IS to reconsider, what does that mean?  Did the assembly not hear God correctly yesterday?  Or is it more likely that, in the midst of all the debate and rhetoric, the voice of God was muffled and indistinct?  It turns out that the motion to reconsider failed, and so the body has decided that God’s voice was indeed heard correctly last night.

How hard it is to discern God’s will in the midst of the noise of life…and the noise of the church!

Being Connectional, Even When It Hurts

What does it mean that the Presbyterian Church is a “connectional church?”  Among many possibilities, I believe that it means we are committed and bound to one another, to live together and work together in spite of our differences, in spite of all the many ways we can end up disagreeing with each other.

A subject that has come up, both in committees and now in plenary session, is the desire among some churches in our denomination to create affiliation presbyteries – non-geographical bodies which would allow “like-minded” congregations to join together for mutual mission and support.  “Like-minded” means “conservative.”  Most everyone who speaks in favor of this concept cite the frustration and sadness that can be found in conservative churches over the future direction of the PC(USA).  Yet, we are told, these churches still wish to remain in the denomination.

I am concerned that such a move does violence to our long-cherished value of being connectional.  We need to live and work together and bring to our governance and our ministries the wide range of perspectives in our denomination.  I understand the frustration and the sense of being “outside-looking-in” that is expressed by our conservative brothers and sisters.  But this request to allow them to withdraw from the greater fellowship in order to play amongst themselves would, I think, lead to segregation and ostracism, rather than the greater power and voice they believe they would gain by such a move.  I would miss them, and I would miss the opportunity for us to talk and work together.

“Unity in diversity” is another value we hold dear.  It is sometimes a quite misused phrase.  Unity does not happen without diversity existing in one place.  When we pull apart into like-minded groups, we make our task of seeking unity all the more difficult.

Youth Are the Church of Now

When I served as a commissioner to the 209^th General Assembly in 1997, I was seated next to a young woman in the committee on which we served.  She was a “YAAD” – a Young Adult Advisory Delegate.  Every presbytery is invited to send a YAAD to the Assembly meeting.  These young people have voice and vote in committee meetings.  In plenary sessions they have voice, but only an advisory vote.

I remember being quite impressed by the seriousness with which my neighbor approached her task.  She was a student at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN, and was considering the prospect of attending seminary.  She was a lifelong Presbyterian, and was eager to play her part in leading the PC(USA) into the future.

The YAADs at this year’s Assembly are likewise quite in evidence and quite committed to their responsibilities.  Their presence is bringing a freshness and welcome infusion of energy into the deliberations.  The plenary sessions (so far) have all been opened with prelude music from local praise bands.  A short time ago, during an electronic voting “glitch break,” a group of YAADs got up on stage and led the assembly in a dance interpretation of the song “Istanbul” by the group They Might Be Giants.  It was quite wonderful to see so many commissioners, young and old, moving around with their arms in the air, letting out whoops at appropriate times in the song, with great smiles on their faces.

Maybe we as a denomination can learn to dance and whoop more as we celebrate God’s joyful work in our midst.  Perhaps one day other Christians in our country will look at us and say, “Those Presbyterians… they’re giants in the love of Christ!”

The real work begins

And so to the time of plenary…

After two-and-a-half days of discussing, debating and deciding myriads of items of business in committees, the commissioners of the 219^th General Assembly are now meeting en masse in one giant hall of the Minneapolis Convention Center.  Between Wednesday afternoon and Saturday morning there will be nine plenary sessions to conduct the business of the Assembly.  Most of the business will consist of hearing the reports of the nineteen Assembly committees.  Some of the items will be “no-brainers” and the decisions will be made quickly.  Many items will generate lengthy and heated debates.  At each General Assembly, as Friday evening approaches, many bets are made as to how late the body will adjourn that night, since it is the final opportunity to resolve all the business forwarded from the committees.

I was a commissioner to General Assembly in 1997.  In many respects not much has changed in how the plenary session is conducted.  But in several respects there are vast differences.  Then, as well as now, most of the voting is done with electronic keypads.  But whereas in ’97 all the pads were connected to a central hub by a huge network of wires, in ’10 everything is wireless.

In 1997 I received a giant pile of paper prior to the assembly, and a commensurate pile during the assembly.  I came home with two binders, each about 2” thick.  In 2010 all business is conducted electronically.  Each commissioner has a laptop computer, and items for discussion and decision are automatically displayed on their screens at the appropriate time.  As an observer to this Assembly, I sit in the back of the hall.  But I, too, can connect to “PC-Biz” with my laptop and follow along with the documents up for discussion through something called “SessionSync.”  Two downsides to this:  1)no electric outlets – so I can only participate for so long before my battery shuts down; and 2) internet access is blocked in the hall, so that commissioners are insulated from outside influence and distractions.  Once I finish writing this post, I will need to go outside the hall to upload it to my blog.

One final difference between 1997 and 2010 is the sophistication of the audio and visual equipment in use.  There are multiple video screens in the hall, with high-definition projections of speakers, of videos which support various reports, of voting results, and of various bodies of text.  The audio system in the hall is extremely clear.  In all respects, the result is to leave no one in the hall too far removed from the action.  One can only hope that the commissioners will, in the next few days, discern God’s will for our church as clearly and distinctly.

Decent and Orderly…or something like that

The rallying cry of Presbyterian government is “decently and in order,” and nowhere are we more blessed (or cursed) by our obsession with regularity than in the business of the General Assembly.  I have been sitting in on the work of several of the committees, and to an outsider it would surely be quite maddening.  “Roberts Rules of Order” is the framework for debate and discussion, and it is quite easy for commissioners to become overwhelmed by motions, amendments, substitute motions, perfected amendments, etc., etc.  Seeking the will of God in the midst of all this parliamentary maneuvering can be quite frustrating.  And this is just committee work!  The 19 committees of the Assembly will all be sending their work to the full body beginning on Wednesday, and it is conceivable that many motions which have been hotly debated and arduously perfected in committee will be torn apart and reworked during plenary debate.

It ain’t easy being Presbyterian, but somehow we do believe that God reveals his gracious will through our decent and (mostly) orderly process.

The Joy of Worship

Almost any pastor will tell you that there is great joy in being an ordinary worshiper as opposed to being a worship leader.  Pastors are known (well, let’s say that I have been known) to seek out worship opportunities even when on vacation, just for the blessing of being able to lift up heart and voice in praise without the burden of having to be “up front.”

The week of our PC(USA) General Assembly offers daily worship opportunities, which are almost always uplifting, creative, and joyful.  The opening worship service this Sunday morning past was no exception.  It was a two-hour service featuring the Lord’s Supper, a baptism, many musical selections, as well as a wonderful sermon by our immediate past-moderator, Bruce Reyes-Chow.  The elements of the service were diverse in style and origin, and participants represented the wide range of ethnicities to be found in the congregations of our denomination.  The two hours flew by and my wife and I were reluctant to leave, even as the last notes of the postlude (Widor’s Toccata) faded away.  Truly the Lord was in that space, even if it was a convention center assembly hall!

For me, the baptism was very emotional.   I encourage parents whose children I am going to baptize to remember and celebrate their child’s baptismal day each year as if it were a birthday; to tell their child the story of the day of his or her baptism, in order that as the child grows, he or she will “remember” being baptized.  Imagine the stories that will be told to the young bi-racial girl from this past Sunday!  “Upwards of 5000 brothers and sisters in Christ joined us that day, my dear, as you received the blessing of God in the waters of baptism.”  We sang the hymn “I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry,” with tears in our eyes.  May God send special blessings upon the life of this new member of Christ’s family.

Report from General Assembly 1

It is not without a large grain of truth that the PC(USA) General Assembly is called a “family reunion.”  I have encountered several old friends already in just 24 hours here in Minneapolis.  That doesn’t come close to matching my wife Barbara, however.  She has been a presbytery executive for less than a year, but has already made scores of new friends among her “MGB” (Middle Governing Body) colleagues.  She has been greeting them right and left and, of course, introducing me to these friends.  And so my sense of the Presbyterian family has grown by several dozen “kin.”

Tonight (Saturday, July 3), the Assembly is undertaking the first of the “serious” business of the gathering, which is to elect a new moderator.  This person will run the meetings of the Assembly over the next week, and then serve as the public face of the PC(USA) over the next two years.  There are six candidates for moderator; quite a few more than is usual.  So I write this piece as we begin by listening to six nomination speeches, which will be followed by six candidate speeches and six rounds of Q&A.  Then the commissioners will vote in a series of rounds until one candidate receives more than 50% of the votes.  The winner will immediately be installed as the new moderator, succeeding the Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow, who has done (in my opinion) a marvelous job representing our denomination over the last 2 years.

One of the moderatorial candidates made an interesting point in her speech.  The commissioners were hearing tonight from six individuals who EACH felt the Holy Spirit calling them to stand for moderator (that is the proper language; one does not “run” for moderator in our church).  How are we to understand this?  How are the candidates to understand the perceived wisdom of the Spirit – who has called five individuals to experience the anguish of “defeat?”  Truly this is a test of the Christian belief that God calls us forward into paths unknown.  Our journeys with God will not always reach the destination we assumed was the goal at the beginning.  Destinations with God are merely waypoints.  God walks with us through thick and thin, through triumph and tragedy, and it is, ultimately, the journey itself that is the purpose – not the destination.

…And so finally, shortly after 10:30, we have a moderator.  It only took four rounds of voting (plus about ½ hour of technical glitches which prevented a sizeable number of commissioners’ votes from registering).  Cynthia Bolbach, an elder from National Capital Presbytery, will lead us through this next week.  She was my personal choice after hearing all the speeches and answers during the evening.  She is not necessarily a charismatic presence, but her dry humor and humble approach to the office of moderator proved to be assets the commissioners could not ignore.