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From the Pastor - March 4, 2010
What does it mean to be the Church? There are
multitudes of ways to answer this question, and yet it can also help us to
focus in on the core of what is most essential. Following in the path of
someone named Paul, Brian McLaren, articulates well what he considers the
Church’s one grand calling: “It is a space in which the Spirit works to form
Christlike people, and it is the space in which human beings, formed in
Christlike love, cooperate with the Spirit and one another to express that
love in the word and deed, art and action.” He’s speaking about spiritual
space here, sacred space, noticeable in the loving ways that people relate
to one another in community.
Spiritual formation, if it is anything at all, is a
school of love. It’s what Jesus was about on the road with his disciples,
and it’s what his followers all have learned most markedly at the cross and
empty tomb. Jesus gives his life for us and to us, so that we may give
ourselves away as well. I think that being a school of love is really what
our mission statement is all about. So how about making this idea of what
it means to be the church the one central thing that we do? Everything
could fall under this umbrella of being a school of love. Again, McLaren
has an enlightening description of being a school of love and the challenges
involved: “a school of love-which means a school of listening, dialogue,
appreciative inquiry, understanding, preemptive peacemaking, reconciliation,
nonviolence, prophetic confrontation, advocacy, generosity, and personal and
social transformation. Anybody who thinks this is all soft and easy
obviously has little experience in actually seeking to live this way and
helping others to do the same.”
Such a school isn’t about teaching a set ‘knowledge
base,’ but rather about practicing such a way of life in community
together. Just as one learns to dance or play a musical instrument through
practice with an experienced instructor, such is the method in a school of
love. This is a school in which we teach one another and learn from one
another. Listening, dialogue, reconciliation, and understanding require
humility and radical acceptance of one another. Learning to love also
involves doing our own spiritual work of discovering what gets in our way.
And perhaps most of all learning to love involves opening our hearts anew
each day to the one who loves us unconditionally.
This upcoming Holy Week and Easter reveals to us once
again how great is this love.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or
boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not
irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in
the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,
endures all things. Love never ends…and now faith, hope, and love abide,
these three; and the greatest of these is love.
–1Cor.
13:4-8,13
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Mark
From the Pastor –
February 8, 2010
The season of Lent is a
time for being drawn deeper into the very life of God. During Lent
Christians have traditionally practiced the disciplines of prayer, fasting,
and acts of charity. I like to envision Lent like the field outside my
window. We begin in a fallow season, during which the soil of our souls is
cultivated and planted with new seeds, which will burst forth in new life
come Easter. I encourage you to be intentional in discerning what God
desires to grow in you this Lent. What will draw you into a deeper
relationship with God? What will open up new avenues of generosity within
you? What will facilitate God’s wonderful turning happening in the depths
of your soil?
Many people are familiar with the practice of fasting
by giving up something for Lent, yet I think most people fall short in their
understanding of how to fully enter into this practice. The common
assumption is that we’re making a sacrifice to in some way enter into a new
understanding of Christ’s sacrifice for us. There may be some validity to
such an understanding, but I’ve come to believe that the central spiritual
purpose of fasting is to help draw one closer to God.
We choose to fast from something that we enjoy, be it
something we enjoy eating, like chocolate, or something we enjoy doing, like
Facebook. Then, whenever we have a desire to do or to consume the thing
that we are fasting from, instead of giving in to that desire, we turn our
desire towards God. Thus, fasting leads to prayer and becomes the concrete
practice of turning our hearts towards the one who gives us life and who
ultimately is our heart’s deepest desire. What might be the thing that
you’re called to fast from this year in order to be drawn closer to the one
who loves you with an everlasting unconditional love? What do you need to
fast from this Lent in order to be drawn deeper into the mystery and freedom
of God’s love?
I pray that your heart be good soil this Lent!
Pastor Mark
From the Pastor – January 13, 2010
One of the statistics
that we calculate for our annual report each year is our CCC’s, which stands
for Communing, Contributing, & Confirmed members. But I would like CCC to
stand for something other than that at CLC. I hope that it might become a
defining characteristic of our life together, standing for Contemplative
Christian Community.
Contemplatives are people who seek to practice
Luke 10:27- Love
the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all
your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.
Contemplatives take time to discern how God is moving within and around
them. They follow the psalmist edict: Be still and know that I am God
–Psalm 46:10. I keep a quote from Thomas Merton, The Violence of
Over-Involvement, on my desk as a reminder of how contemplation centers
all my doing: “The frenzy of our activism…destroys our own inner capacity
for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our own work, because it kills
the root of inner wisdom, which makes work fruitful.
A Contemplative Christian Community then is an intentionally
Christ-centered group of people sharing their faith journeys together with
one another. Discerning how God’s transforming power seeks to be at work
within, through, and among them, requires that such a community practice
patience, humility, faith, and of course, love.
It’s my desire to continue to lead CLC in the ongoing never ending
process of becoming a Contemplative Christian Community, and I believe that
it’s the deepest desire of all people to belong to one as well.
One aspect of this call is to provide short-term spiritual direction to
any of you, who feel the need for a spiritual tune-up. Spiritual Direction
is not one person directing another in what they should do, but rather a
listening together for the directing of the Holy Spirit. It’s a prayerful
conversation, which can prove very helpful in discerning what God is up to
in one’s life. It can help enliven a stale prayer life, or perhaps explore
why one never really developed. It can seek God’s guidance in healing
brokenness, guilt, grief, or an inability to forgive someone. One can
explore the fringes of their doubt, or tap into a new spring of joy or
peace. There really is no limit to the possibilities of the direction such
conversations take. In actuality it is really up to the Holy Spirit, who is
always the real director in spiritual direction. A spiritual director’s
role is to help one listen to God’s direction through the Spirit.
If you feel called to explore how God’s moving in your life, or how to
take that next step deeper in your journey of faith, or just feel the need
for a spiritual tune-up, then I invite you to give me a call to set up an
appointment. I envision short-term spiritual direction lasting anywhere
from one to six sessions, depending on whatever the particular situation
seems to warrant.
Oftentimes, you really don’t know what God is up to in your life, until
you take time to be still, look, and listen. I’ve mostly discovered it has
something to do with blessing and grace.
Peace and Blessings,
Pastor Mark
From the Pastor –
December 3, 2009
A friend shared with me a prayer for Advent from Ted
Loder’s Guerillas of Grace. I was so moved by its beauty and
simplicity that I decided to not only pray it daily this Advent Season, but
to live it. I will take time to be silent and expectant, so that my
receiving and giving of gifts are no longer two things, but one. Here’s
this simple prayer:
I
Am Silent…And Expectant
How silently,
how silently
the wondrous gift is given.
I would be silent now,
Lord,
and expectant…
that I may receive
the gift I need,
so I may become
the gifts
others need.
I recently heard it said that the original language of
God is silence; all else is a crude translation. Will you join me this
Advent season in entering the silent stillness, allowing God to burn away
all that gets in the way of our living in the fullness of hope and in the
peace that passes all understanding? Silent stillness will pave the way for
a joyous Christmas.
Grace and
Peace,
Pastor Mark
From the Pastor – October 20, 2009
I learned of a new
metaphor recently that I think goes a long way in helping us to keep focused
on our mission of being a congregation named Christ that transforms lives.
It’s simply this: Church is not a Football Game. At a football game the
team practices all week long for the 3-hour game on Sunday. At Church we
come together for a 3-hour practice in order to live out our faith (game-on)
the whole rest of the week.
The pivotal question
then for us all is this: How can we become better equipped through our
participation in worship and other activities at Christ to share God’s love
wherever we are sent throughout the week?
Our primary practice
comes through our participation in Word and Sacrament. Through water, Word,
body, and blood, Christ reshapes our lives into his image. Here we’re
changed. We’re forgiven and freed. Then we’re sent out (game-on) to be
beacons of hope, faith, and love in the world.
It’s really hard, if
not impossible, to be such a beacon without first experiencing the
transforming power of God’s love firsthand in our own lives. We’re called
into community for this very reason, in order that the transforming power of
God’s love may be released anew in our lives so that we’re ready (game-on)
wherever we’re sent.
Some people treat being
a part of a congregation as a spectator sport. But God has ways of waking
people up to the reality that they are the major players in the game.
Players discover many ways to practice their faith and grow in discipleship
in order to be ready for any opportunity to let the light of Christ shine
bright through them. Players also realize the importance of practicing with
teammates who support and encourage one another in a common venture. May
the Holy Spirit guide us deeper into the very life of Christ so that through
our practice together, we’re ready for the game!
Peace and Blessings,
Pastor Mark
Christ Lutheran Church
3401 S. Dixon Road
Kokomo, IN 46902
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