A Prayer for America, July 2012

Our Father, we are asking today for You to open the heavens and let Your rains mercifully, gently and abundantly fall upon this nation and people. Where the wildfires of violence, lust, and division burn out of control – let Your rain of peace and love cover and extinguish them. Where we experience crippling droughts of reason and sanity, let Your wisdom fall and satisfy. Where corruption and greed ravenously consume, let Your justice sweep down like a flood to purify and cleanse. Where grief and sorrow burden and weigh down, let Your rain of joy and strength lift and raise spirits. Where discouragement and desperation cloud and darken futures, let Your rain of hope reveal a rainbow of promise to come. In this time of trial for our nation in these last years and the ones to come, we ask for the power and strength through the Holy Spirit to repent and turn from away from the things and ways of death and destruction; and to turn to You, and to life, and to purpose. We cry out to you to renew and heal the soul of this nation; that we may truly become one under You. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.

Rev. Christopher B. Wolf
Isaiah 42:7
cbrianwolf@gmail.com
www.christopherbwolf.com

Christopher B. Wolf is pastor of First Reformed Church of Saddle Brook, NJ and is the author of Giving Faith a Second Chance: Restarts, Mulligans and Do-Overs (2007) and With You Every Step of the Way (2011); and the host of Walk With Me, Wednesdays 8 pm on WYFN 94.9 FM-NY and on www.yfnradio.com.

“It is a matter of sharing and bearing the pain and puzzlement of the world so that the crucified love of God in Christ may be brought to bear healingly upon the world at exactly that point.” N.T. Wright

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Credible Christianity

“Can you hear me now?”

This of course was the catch phrase for a top cell phone provider. It was meant to show that its coverage was so wide that it can be received anywhere.

But as you know with communication – it’s one thing to be heard. But there is another question.

“Do you trust and believe me/us?”

This is the question believers and churches might want to be asking today because it seems in North America, the answer from many people is “not really.”

Remember how this all started? Jesus drawing lots and lots of people to himself (with the exception of those who were threatened by him). Likewise, the early Jesus followers as chronicled in Acts 2 were drawing lots of people, causing awe and wonder and winning the goodwill of many. Not exactly what is happening today…

As my good friend Greg and I were discussing recently, some believers and churches today seem to be repelling people more than drawing or attracting them.

Why?

Good question. Here are some thoughts…

Most of it has to do with ethos. Ethos is the Greek-based English word in rhetoric terms that evaluates the speaker’s character and believability.

And what has happened is that American Christianity has become increasingly un-believable on a broad scale, in some churches and in the lives of individual believers.

Author and teacher Patrick Morely says, “The American Gospel has evolved into a gospel of addition without subtraction…we can add Christ to our lives, but not subtract sin. It is a change in belief without a change in behavior. It is a spiritual experience without any cultural impact. It is a revival without reformation or repentance.” I would never say that following Christ is easy. But one thing that seems to have happened is that Christianity has unwittingly (or not) become entangled with American consumerism – bigger, better, more, and superficial in many ways. In other words – it looks great, but is hollow inside. Because while a superficial, country club version of Christianity may be safe and make people feel good – it does not transform inside nor impact the culture around it – it just self-serves. It does not draw people earnestly seeking God because they can sense that there is nothing “new” and “life-giving” in this kind of Christianity.

There is this key scene in the film Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. It’s the scene where Indy finds his way into this chamber where the Holy Grail (the cup Jesus used at the Last Supper) was kept. Indy is followed by two Nazi officials who are after the power associated with the Grail. Once in this chamber, filled with dozens of different cups and chalices, the Nazi bad guy starts to look for the “best” because of course as he says, it’s the cup of the “Kings of Kings.” So he takes a drink of water from a golden and ornate grail and he ages with terrifying speed and becomes a skeleton and basically explodes. Now it’s up to Indy to “choose wisely” according to the old crusader who is guarding the room. Indy shares his thoughts out loud, “The cup of a carpenter.” Indy chooses a very simple cup and alas, it was “the” one.”

The point being there is a huge difference between what we have made Christianity to be and what it actually is – in the purest sense. And therein is this credibility gap and the consequences – the confusion, the division, the repelling and more. We have many believers used to, expecting and defending a golden, ornate version (yes, like an idol) of church and that is why many churches are dying and have long since stopped drawing new believers.

But not all churches are dying. The ones that have the real Jesus at the center, that are missional, that are willing to lose themselves for the sake of the Gospel, that are passionate about reaching the dechurched (people who have walked away from faith and church) and unbelievers are alive and well. Some in North America, but largely in South America and in Africa. They have grasped the roots of early Christianity – when it was authentically dynamic and appealing.

Jesus himself was drawing people through his radical, transforming love and grace, forgiveness, compassion, faithful teaching and God’s power fully on display in his resurrection.

See, Paul knew that to draw people to Jesus, they had to resemble Christ. So he wrote, “Our work as God’s servants gets validated – or not – in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly…with pure heart, clear head…; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love; when we’re telling the truth…when we’re praised, and when we’re blamed; slandered, and honored; true to our word, though distrusted; ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten within an inch of lives, but refusing to die; immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, having it all (2 Corinthians 6:3-10 The Message).” Resembling both the wondrous life of, as well as the cross of, Christ. The glory and the cross cannot be separated.

This is what was drawing people to believe – authenticity – not a show, not a routine, not what “we want,” not a path of comfort, and not even really attractive on the surface – yet offering something real – new and eternal life and a strength and assurance beyond anything this world can offer. Paul pleaded with his friends, “Dear, dear, Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life…(2 Corinthians 6:11).” Amen!

When churches think of outreach today, often the thinking is “programs.” And they have their value. But the very best outreach is a church and members on fire for the Lord in their lives – sharing the struggles of carrying crosses as well as the joy that nothing in the world can take away – and the transformational power and love of God via the power of the Holy Spirit visibly working in their lives. Because as sixteenth century poet and theologian Richard Baxter wrote, “When the people see that you truly love them, they will hear anything from you.”

It’s a mirror moment. Churches and believers need to be looking in the mirror and asking tough questions. Questions like, “Do we resemble the real Jesus, or some kind of glossy, safe, comfortable version of Him?” “Why aren’t people visiting our church?” “When was the last time we baptized a new adult believer?” “Do people see God working in my life?” “Are people inspired to learn more about Jesus or trust more because of the way I live my life?”

For me, it’s about enabling people to believe in God more because of the way they see and hear how I live, learn, lose and love – how clearly they can see and believe in Jesus through me. I just want to be out there saying, “Here I am – no tricks, no gimmicks, when it is all stripped away – I love the Lord and it’s changed my life and I want to share that with you and I want you to know He loves you too.”

People can see and hear us – but do they believe us?

Amen.

Pastor Christopher B. Wolf is the author of Giving Faith a Second Chance (2007) and the forthcoming With You: Every Step of the Way (2011)

Rev. Christopher B. Wolf

Isaiah 42:7

cbrianwolf@sbcglobal.net

www.christopherbwolf.com

“It is a matter of sharing and bearing the pain and puzzlement of the world so that the crucified love of God in Christ may be brought to bear healingly upon the world at exactly that point.” N.T. Wright

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For Real

I get it. I really do. Maybe you do too.

It’s much easier and safer to follow rules or a checklist than it is to have a living, breathing relationship.

Take friendship for example. To be a good friend, one can call regularly, budget time to spend together, remember special days, say prayers, and so on. That would make for a good friendship, right? A safe, superficial, appearance of a friendship.

But think of your best friendships. You’ve fought and forgiven, you’ve loved and laughed when it didn’t make sense, you’ve cried and been silent together, you’ve prayed and wondered late at night, you’ve learned to trust beyond doubt and appearance, you’ve faced weathering storms together and shared the best of times. Now that’s friendship, right?

I know you see the difference. Yes, it might be easier to work off a checklist in anything. And things might be accomplished efficiently and effectively. If that were the goal.

How about the difference between religion and a relationship with God? See, loving God and people involves risk and pain, but also unspeakable wonder and joy. Checklists, well, one can get a great sense of accomplishment 😉

I thought the goal with this was to passionately follow Christ and to be Christ to one another – which takes Word and Spirit working through our confused, sinful, oft-misdirected lives. And yes, following rules and checklists might clean it up a bit and package it nicely, but will they come anywhere near what was intended? No.

Paul warned of this in his letter to the Galatians who like us, wanted to slip back to more comfortable ways shortly after learning about the new life in the Gospel. “Is it not clear that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could easily come by rule-keeping then Christ died unnecessarily, Galatians 2:21, The Message.”

Unfortunately, many churches and Christians today seem focused on the rule-keeping and peer-pleasing kind of religion. Little to no transformation, keep it safe, no risk, no loss (no real gain) but very assuring. Please hear me. The church is of God – it is Spirit-born and led and I love it. As much damage as we sinful human beings can do to it, it’s still holy and it’s the body of Christ. And assurance is a good thing too; it’s the foundation for transformation in a life of faith.

But you and I know when churches and Christians squeeze and box out the Holy Spirit and desire a religious club that provides mostly assurance – the emphasis and the fruit simply cannot be on what Paul called above, “a personal and free relationship with God (through Jesus).” Also, grace will be at a minimum. Because as Paul explained, “rule-keeping and peer-pleasing religion…repudiates God’s grace.” Rules and check-lists – if followed sufficiently produce self-righteousness or “perfection” rather than needing and thirsting for the grace of God – won at the cross – to flow down and wash away our sins.

I guess what I am saying is that it often seems like we are putting religion before or over and above a living, breathing relationship with God – and then at the same time, wondering why so many churches in America are declining or dying.

And I get it. I really do. Many think that in a seemingly unraveling world that grows more and more chaotic, can’t we keep one thing or one place that is sacred and safe? It’s a valid question and comes from a good place.

But the assumption or foundation is a misread. Religion, and more specifically the church, whether in the first century or twenty-first century, is to be both the magnet and vehicle – is the engine to draw, save and equip people for the life-altering, mystifying, exhilarating, always moving toward good roller coaster adventure of daily following Jesus and further revealing His Kingdom. It’s not supposed to be the brake nor the merry-go-round.

To paraphrase the song “The Heart of Worship” – “We’re sorry Lord, for the things we’ve made it; cause it’s all about you, all about you Jesus.” Well today, we’re sorry Lord, for making this more about personalities, ministries, styles, exclusivity, agendas, traditions, performance, programs, and budgets.

The question for you and I – and for churches is this – is it first about a relationship with Jesus or not? Is that the starting point?

It’s the difference between an attractive, safe, preserved, routine shell of a relationship, and the real thing – which is a flesh and blood, Spirit-ual, transforming, shared, saving, eternal union.

Amen.

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Who Knows?

Maybe it’s because I have reached my limit. Maybe you have too.

 

Maybe it’s because I can still vividly remember walking in the 1978 Memorial Day Parade in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, holding an American Flag alongside my Dad and his ambulance corps and feeling so proud of my nation.

 

Maybe it’s because we seem to be on a downward spiral and it seems less and less likely that we can turn around.

 

Maybe it’s because I believe a nation has a kind of soul and our nation’s soul is wounded and ill.

 

Maybe it’s because I have a daughter of a similar age.

 

But I can’t help but be so disturbed by the thought and reality of that little girl’s body found in the garbage dump after having gone missing recently.

 

Kids are supposed to be alive and walking home safely in their neighborhoods. Little girls should be swinging on the swing in the back singing Taylor Swift songs and writing and illustrating books with stick figures and backward letters.

 

But not for Somer Thompson, whose body was, as her father described, “discarded like a piece of trash.”  

 

I know this is not the first time it has happened…and it won’t be the last.

 

But it is a very startling metaphor – a young, innocent girl killed and dumped in the garbage. It screams of a people and a nation that do not value life. And we have known this for a while. It’s just a little more visible today.  

 

How can we say that we value life when we worship nearly everything else but the Author of Life? In God We Trust?

 

It’s more like – In…money, violence, sports, alcohol and drugs, possessions, sex, appearances, video games and ourselves…We Trust. You don’t need to be a person of faith to see where this has brought us and where it is going to lead.

 

The apathy doesn’t help either. Our apathy helps us drift off slowly, painlessly as we have watched our nation’s soul and many of the things of real substance disintegrate.

 

After hearing a message of warning from one of God’s prophets, a people of long ago began fasting. The king of those people was also moved by the message and said, “Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways, and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish (Jonah 3).”

 

And God’s response to those people? “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened (Jonah 3).”

 

What does God see when He looks upon America’s soul? What does God think of Somer Thompson’s body in a Georgia garbage dump?

 

Yet, God does see and respond to repentance and turning our hearts to Him. The people of Nineveh, which I mentioned above, did so, and God relented. He is after all, a God of second chances.

 

I know this is not a typical Living Water. I would have preferred to write something else. But I had to be obedient. As much as I love to talk about grace, it doesn’t take away from how much sin and evil still offend God.

 

And I am no king, but I couldn’t be silent today about how I see sin and evil corrupting our nation and how we have to turn from it – soon.

 

Let everyone in our nation call urgently on God and let us give up our evil ways and violence.

 

Who knows?

 

Amen.

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No Going Back

No Going Back                    

Galatians 2:20-21

 

“The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going back on that. Is it not clear that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.” Galatians 2:20-21 from The Message

 

Rule-keeping…Peer-pleasing…religion?

 

Ouch!

 

And yet it hits home.

 

Based on findings in a national study released this week, USA Today reports, “When it comes to religion, the USA is now land of the freelancers. The percentage of people who call themselves in some way Christian has dropped more than 11% in a generation. The faithful have scattered out of their traditional bases: The Bible Belt is less Baptist. The Rust Belt is less Catholic. And everywhere, more people are exploring spiritual frontiers — or falling off the faith map completely.”

 

To be honest, we didn’t need the study to tell us what is going on. We can see and feel it for ourselves. In a lot of key ways, we have made Christianity, and Church something other than what they were intended to be. It is the way of things – to drift from the place it started. We get that. Everything evolves, people evolve.  

 

But it’s what we have made it. See, Paul was writing long ago to the believers in Galatian churches, already then, warning them not to lose sight of what it’s all about. How interesting that back then, in the first century, that within years, following Christ – a living relationship with God, had become “rule-keeping and peer-pleasing and religious.”

 

Good news, bad news. Good news – it is a human thing – it is hard (not impossible!) to live a Spirit-led life – it is easier to cling to rules and traditions and to please others rather than pleasing God first. Bad news – we are doing the same thing today.

 

See, the way Paul taught Christianity was about it being an exciting, freeing, loving adventure based on the fact that the Son of God loved us and gave himself for us. Not a religion, but a relationship. And in His giving of Himself, we learn to leave ourselves behind and live for Him. And yet it quickly fell away from that.

 

And here we are today, with Christianity hemorrhaging people and “more people…falling off the faith map completely.” Why? Because, we have made or allowed Christianity and Church to become about things that aren’t faithful to its origins. We have made it about institutions instead of people. It’s about money instead of being “living sacrifices.” It’s about appearances instead of the heart. It’s about pleasing people instead of pleasing God. It’s about being safe instead risking. It’s about control instead of passion. It’s about telling instead of teaching. It’s about “my” truth rather than “The Truth.” It’s about performance instead promise. It’s about ease and comfort instead of challenge and growing. It’s about going our own way rather than sharing life together. It’s about pretending to be perfect rather than being open to God and others. It’s about judgment instead of grace. It’s about maintaining instead of reaching out. It’s about us instead of Christ.    

 

Then or now, there is a phrase used to describe when something definitively falls away from its origin or intention. It’s called “Jumping the Shark.”

“Jumping the shark” is a colloquialism used by critics and fans to denote that point in a TV show, movie series’ history, or music band, where the plot or music veers off into absurd story lines or out-of-the-ordinary characterizations, particularly for a show or band with falling ratings apparently becoming more desperate to draw viewers and listeners in. In the process of undergoing these changes, the TV, movie series or band loses its original appeal. Those that have “jumped the shark” are typically deemed to have passed their peak (Wikipedia, CW additions).”

Has Christianity in North America “Jumped the Shark.” It certainly looks like it. Haven’t we “veered off into absurd story lines” so to speak? Haven’t we done desperate things to draw people in? Haven’t we lost our original appeal? Does it seem like we have passed our peak (especially in comparison to Africa and South America’s explosion of Christianity)?

 

But all is not lost. We know what this faith is really supposed to be about. At some point along the way, we have caught glimpses of what it is…what it could be.

 

We have seen it when Christianity and Churches are at their best – a people on fire for the Lord and His Word, boldly loving, forgiving, growing, welcoming others and sharing their lives together. We have seen it when Christians and Churches have broken through routines and pretenses and put their focus back on being a living body of Christ. We have known it when we have caught just a hint of how God sees us and all that is possible in the midst of our sinful natures and brokenness and warped world.

 

Because, once you have even had just a taste of the freedom, of the passion, of the joy, of the unconditional love, of the power, of the hope, of the perfect grace in Christ, there is no going back. There is nothing like it. A real, personal, alive, unpredictable, but always purposeful relationship with God…

 

We all fall off the path at times. But the path is still there…waiting. C’mon, there is no going back now.

 

Amen.

 

Discussion Questions

1. Do you agree that Christianity has fallen away from its origins? In what ways?
2. Do you agree with my description of what it has become about? What are some of your thoughts?
3. Can we reverse this trend of Christianity decreasing? How?
4. How is your relationship with God? Is it alive? Is it through Christ? Is it just based on a church?

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