Vol 5 No 36 - Do You Know what You Believe?

Most Americans Believe in God but Don't Know Religious Tenets  

The headline of a story on USAToday.com that summarizes the latest U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey of over 3400 random adults in the population.  The one fact brought out in the article that stood out for me was:

Doctrines don't grab us. Only 55% of Catholic respondents knew the core teaching that the bread and wine in the Mass become the body and blood of Christ, and are not merely symbols. Just 19% of Protestants knew the basic tenet that salvation is through faith alone, not actions as well.

Want to know why it is so important for us to have our children engage in the Sunday School, youth group, and confirmation processes?  Want to know why it is important for all of us to take advantage of opportunities to learn more about what we believe through events like our This We Believe study starting this Sunday night?

Quite simply this:  We don't know as much as we think we do about what we believe.

"People say, 'I have a personal connection with God and that's really all I need to know.' Who am I to argue?" says Pew's Alan Cooperman, a co-author of the report.  But religion, as a force in history and a motivator in present times, "has consequences in the world," he adds, so an intellectual baseline, whatever your faith or lack of faith, can "shape your role as a citizen in the public square."

Mr. Cooperman has hit the nail on the head.  Our engagement with religious and spiritual matters has implications for us far beyond a 'personal relationship' with Christ.  

By the way, books are still available for our This We Believe study, and it's not too late to have your middle-school-or- higher aged child enrolled in our confirmation class (we start Sunday morning @ 9:00AM in my office).

See You Soon!

Lamar

USAToday article: 

http://preview.tinyurl.com/2ew5aek

Vol 5 No 35 - Something to Say

A friend of mine shared with me a few years ago that one day, later in the week, a colleague of our called him with the lament of, "I've looked at the texts for this week and there's just nothing to preach.  I don't know what to do."

I've thought of this a great deal since my friend shared it with me, but I think I have erred because I left it in the context of a pastor's struggle with what to preach for a given Sunday.  Thinking through this more lately, looking at our congregation (and the larger church), I have been reminded my friend's advice to our colleague is not just a word to the preacher, but to all Christians.

For, you see, my friend's reply was, paraphrased, "The text speaks for itself.  Just because YOU may not have something to say doesn't mean the text is silent."

Where I think we all could learn from this is from the simple reminder that the life we live is first and foremost about proclaiming GOD in all our thoughts, words, and deeds.

As you go into the rest of this week, or, for that matter, the rest of your life, be vigilant in pursuing a life that tells not YOUR story, but GOD's.  (Oh, wait, I almost forgot: By confession Christ as our Lord and Savior, accepting the Divine gift of salvation and redemption, we have, to use Paul's words, died to ourselves.  Something, I think, along the lines of, "It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives within me.")

Yes.  That's it.  Let us covenant together to live in such a way that it is no longer we who live, but Christ within us.  Then, we will never have nothing to say, for what we declare is Christ's victory over sin and death.

See You Soon!

Lamar

Vol 5 No 34 - The Lingering Stink

I tried, but it didn't work.  Yesterday morning as I was preparing breakfast for our youth, I thought I had learned from last month's breakfast, and opened all the doors of the educational building to try and dissipate the lingering odors of pancakes and bacon throughout the building.  I hadn't done it last time since I was a little gun-shy about opening all the doors a little after 5AM while it was still dark outside.


However, the smell still lingered throughout the building all day yesterday.  Even with my best efforts to try and hit the overpowering odors.


Reflecting upon it later, I had to laugh, for it was a simple reminder that there are certain things that we cannot shake, no matter our best efforts.  And the great news is that the one thing we cannot shake, no matter our best efforts at times, is God's extravagant grace offered to us through Christ our Lord.


See You Soon!
Lamar

Vol 5 No 34 - Called to Fight

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."  - St. Paul.

It's very simple, my friends:  Are you fighting the good fight?  Are you finishing the race?  Are you keeping the faith? If so, how?  If not, why not?

A couple (plus one) of hints as you answer these questions: 

1) It's the work of the Holy Spirit; 

2) It requires effort on our part - this race is not a spectator event; 

3) It can only be done as God intended it through the community of faith, the church - it's not to be done by ourselves.

See You Sunday!

Lamar

Vol 5 No 33 - Where Are You?

The body does not lie.  Ethically and theologically, we are not where we put our good intentions; we are where we put our bodies. - Thomas G. Long, Accompany Them with Singing: The Christian Funeral

In what I believe was a bit of divine intervention, I came across the above quote while reading Dr. Long's work this afternoon.  I say it was divine intervention because I dived into this book after spending most of the morning and early afternoon finalizing the preaching and worship schedule for the rest of the year.

What do the two have to do with each other?  Absolutely everything.  To be a Christian means to take seriously the need to worship together regularly, rejecting the individualistic self-centeredness of America's national religion - Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.  To be a Christian means that we make a priority in our lives our shared journey as people of the resurrection.  To be a Christian means that we do not merely say with our mouths that being a part of the church is important to us; we put our money where our mouth is by being present.

This fall, we will celebrate the sacrament of Baptism, where through water and the Spirit Christ leaves his indelible mark on those whom he knew before they were formed in the womb.  We will celebrate the sacrament of Holy Communion, where we will join the church - past, present, and future - in the sacred privilege of dining together at our Lord's invitation.  We will celebrate the joy of people joining the Kingdom of God by professing their faith.  We will celebrate the reaffirmation of our membership vows and commit to another year of upholding the ministry of this congregation.  We will be witnesses to the work of God through the grace of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit in ways we cannot possibly imagine.

And we will be all the richer for these things.  

As we go into this fall, let us covenant together once again to not miss out on any of it.  We can say with our mouths that our intentions are good, and even delude ourselves into believing that, but the fact of the matter remains that where we are present says more than anything else.

God has not called us to be a community of worship by accident or just to give us something to do.  Let's be sure to not miss what is in store for us because we have been deluded into believing otherwise.

See You Sunday!

Lamar