Dust Thou Art and to Dust thou Shall Return, Repent and Believe the Good News!

Today is Ash capital Wednesday, the only Christian day on the calendar that Hallmark will not produce a greeting card for!  It is the first day of Lent - the 40 day (not counting Sundays) preparation for Easter.  Christians typically fast for this period - a form of spiritual preparation for the great high feast of Easter.
To mark our period of fasting - and mourning for the sin we carry and the death that accompanies sin, we borrow from the Old testament tradition of ashes and sackcloth for mourning.  Well, the sackcloth piece has not really been adopted, but we do mark ourselves with ashes - usually on our foreheads in the sign of the cross.

 As the forehead is marked, the minister will usually say "Thou art dust, and to dust you shall return", reminding the person of their mortality, that we carry the inevitability of death within us and that this is theologically linked to our sin nature, and the sins that we may chose.   For added poignancy try being a hospital chaplain and walking through the oncology floor with ashes.   As I did so, I reflected that there is no guarantee that I will outlive any of these dear souls.
In more recent days, ministers may chose the alternative, more positive words "Repent and believe the Good News".  The Good News is that when we could not find God, God has come to us in the person of Jesus Christ, and has done for us what we could not do for ourselves - to remove the guilt and disease of our sin far from us, reconciling us to God and giving us His Spirit within us to comfort, guide and mediate His love to us, for right now and for evermore.  Good News indeed!

This is a free gift from God, but it must be received:  We 'repent' or turn away from living for our own selves, ambitions and agendas, and instead we take upon ourselves the role of servant of God, adopted children, obedient not from fear but from love, to the Father God who freely gives unconditional love, forgiveness, encouragement, and human flourishing (blessing).

So welcome to Lent.  We journey towards the cross that saves us, and the empty tomb that brings us new life.  As we go, we shed the baggage of our sin, and we start with the ashes.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the spirit of humankind

AI is on the rise.  Microsoft has Cortana, Apple has Siri and Google has Google Now.  The Big Three technology companies are all vying for supremacy to provide you with a software assistant that knows your wants and needs and can help you get the most out of your day.  Personally I use Google Now and I'm impressed by how much knowledge about me it extracts from my emails, texts, calendar bookings and telephone calls.  I like it.
This is the current experience of artificial intelligence (AI) and it's been getting a lot of press recently. Eric Horvitz of Microsoft and the people at Google say there is some reason for caution but nothing much to worry about.  Stephen Hawking (a physicist and all round clever person) says it a big threat to humankind, and dear old Clive Sinclair says AI will replace humanity - along the lines of many science fiction stories.  Terminator anyone?

I want to ask...what is it to be human exactly?  Sure computers can gather vast amounts of data, apply analytical rules to it, extract conclusions and even act on them.  Is that all that we mean by 'intelligence'?  If so, then yes, the computers will take over the world.  The Net will reign supreme and we will be reduced to slaves.  Dystopia. But wait a moment...

I'd like to add to the conversation. To be human is to be an integrated body, mind and spirit.  Some atheists and humanists poo-poo the idea of the spirit, and they are welcome to their opinion.  However, I notice that the people that suicide are usually intelligent thinking people, and not always acting on mental illness or momentary grief.  Sometimes these troubled souls are responding to despair and hopelessness that transcends reason and rationality and even just feelings.  There is more to being alive that the mind and the emotions.  There is the connection to God, the Universe or the Higher Power - however you like to nominate whatever it is that is beyond yourself to which we sense a deep connection.  This connection is deeper than memory or imagination (both activities of the mind), bigger than emotions - also activity of the mind.  It effects our bodies, affects our emotions, and provides deep motive, relationship and peace.

We religious/spiritual people have vocabulary to talk about this - not that we understand it all, but having words helps.  Spirit - our spirits and God's Holy Spirit, worship, awe, praise, the night of the soul, the mountain top and the valley.

If the 'net' or my smart phone or computers can help me deal with the busy-ness of life great, but they will never be able to take on the essence of being truly alive - the connection we have to each other, to God, to ourselves and to creation.  To be alive is about so much more than intelligence.  It is about relationship, and that involves all of ourselves.  There is more to consciousness that intelligence.

Ecumenical Creeds?

Christ The Way church is concerned to live-out the ancient Christian faith, contextualized to the modern world. In order to faithfully do that, we need to deeply understand the ancient Christian faith.  This is a very Wesleyan pursuit.  John Wesley had the same concern, seeking for the early doctrines and practices of Christians that later gave rise to more divergent patterns of worship and understanding.

The Church of the Nazarene states in its official Manual that "It receives the ecumenical creeds of the first five Christian centuries as expressions of its own faith" (page 14, Historical Statement).  This statement seems a little vague to me.  I suppose it means the creeds that resulted from the Ecumenical Councils of the ancient church that happened before the year 500 AD.  Those councils were:

• The First Council of Nicaea - 325 AD
• The First Council of Constantinople - 381 AD
• The First Council of Ephesus - 431 AD
• The Council of Chalcedon - 451 AD

The next Ecumenical Council, The Second Council of Constantinople was held in 553 AD, so cannot be said to have been in the 'first 5 Christian centuries'.  It was a council widely rejected in the West, which is probably why The Manual draws the line before 2nd Constantinople.  It did not produce a creed. 

There is only one creed that properly resulted from the first 4 councils, that is the Nicene Creed.  It was first issued as a result of the Council of Nicaea (hence the name), as a sort of communique to announce the conclusion of the council, and to serve as a clear statement of universally held, true Christian belief.  The second council extended the creed, making certain points even more explicitly clear,  The Nicene Creed as widely used today is the result of the second council. 

The Manual, in using the plural 'creeds' must be doing so to embrace both versions of the Nicene creed.  The Apostles' creed did not result from a council, nor is it truly 'ecumenical' as it is rejected by the Eastern churches (Orthodox), and is used only in the Western churches (Roman Catholic, Anglican and Protestant).  So it seems unlikely that the Manual has the Apostles' creed in mind, even though the denomination embraces both the Nicene and the Apostles' creed.  I want to encourage the Church of the Nazarene to clarify this line in the Manual.

As an 'Ancient Future' kind of guy, I embrace both creeds as wonderful expression of the Christian faith, and gifts to the church from God, albeit not at quite the same level of Scripture.    I hope that Christ The Way people will learn the Nicene Creed by heart as a goal for 2015.  Here it is, in a fresh rendering into contemporary English borrowed the the Anglican Church in North America's new 'Texts for Common Prayer':

We believe in one God,

      the Father, the Almighty,

      maker of heaven and earth,

      of all that is, visible and invisible.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,

      the only Son of God,

      eternally begotten of the Father,

      God from God, Light from Light,

      true God from true God,

      begotten, not made,

      of one Being with the Father;

      through him all things were made.

      For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven,

      was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,

      and was made man.

      For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;

      he suffered death and was buried.

      On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures;

      he ascended into heaven

      and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

      He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,

      and his kingdom will have no end. 

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,

      who proceeds from the Father [and the Son],

        who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,

      who has spoken through the prophets.

      We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

      We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

      We look for the resurrection of the dead,

      and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Dones

An interesting article:

http://www.churchleaders.com/outreach-missions/outreach-missions-articles/177144-thom-schultz-rise-of-the-done-with-church-population.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=clnewsletter&utm_content=CL+Daily+20150111

This is the first times I have read the term 'Dones' and to some degree, I resonate.  I also feel that the traditional church has done all that it can to represent the dynamic powerful presence of Christ.  Like some others, I have decided that I am NOT 'done' with church.  I love the bride of Christ so much, and I know Christ can build a fresh new church that shakes off the old morbidity.  I do feel 'done' with the traditional 20th century North American Evangelical Protestant formula though.

Even so - come Lord Jesus...to Church!  I need you Lord - and I need you not just in a consumerist individualistic way that I can opt in or opt out of.   I need you in a genuine authentic loving nurturing forgiving community - which I believe is what You had in mind, Lord, all along, when you invented the church for us,

Preparing for Retreat #2

I wanted to share a little picture that summarizes what many Christians see as the three purposes or dynamics of the church:

I hope you like my artwork!  :-)  

So here are my questions for you - please make a note of your reactions and responses so you don't lose the thoughts...

Which of the three is the most important to you?  least important?

Which would you like to see grow in our church?  What might that look like?

Preparing for Retreat #1

Dear friends...

In late January 2015, (Friday Jan 30 to Sunday Feb 1 to be exact) Christ The Way Church - a new church in Manchester NH, will retreat together.  Really this is a leadership retreat, as the small group that currently gathers are all leaders, each of us in our own style, gifting, perspectives and strengths.  This is no surprise since the Holy Spirit, inspiring Peter writes for us: "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light".( 1 Peter 2:9, NIV)

So our theology of church includes the idea that we are each priests before God - each of us directly 'in-breathed' by God, and so each of us the expectation that God is speaking to us, in-spiring us to live out His will in our individual life and in our collective shared life as a church.  Wow!   As your pastor, then, my role is not to conjure up a vision for us as a church, but to listen to what the Holy Spirit Himself is saying on and through each of us - to discern the 'sweet agreement' between us.  I anticipate that each of us will have a different view of our church, a different dream, because we are different members of the same body.  To use a New Testament simile, (read 1 Corinthians chapter 12 at this point) the foot will have a different perspective than the eye or the ear. Each is valid and necessary.  The vision for our little church will emerge as we all contribute and help to refine the collective vision.  If God is in our retreat, we can expect a gracious consensus.

Note that all Christians do not agree this on.  There are some beloved brothers and sisters that expect pastoral leadership to be dictatorial - like Moses coming down the mountain.  That may be, in some cases.  Church history teaches us that in times of social crisis, God often works with a fiery prophet.  But not all fiery prophets are from God, and moreover it is normative for God to work through gracious consensus.  So that is my expectation.  We shall see!

So here is my first question to get your minds thinking together, and to get out hearts opened to God in prayerful, hopeful, optimistic and joyful expectation:

When you think of Christ The Way church - your church, our church, God's church, what do you hope for?

• for the next 3 months?
• for the next 12 months?
• for the next 3 years?

Please don't let your thought fall away.  Write down now - on a precious scrap of paper, on an email, wherever, what you are thinking.  Just write down the key words if there isn't time to write out whole sentences.  Please email me to let me know.  I will gather and share amongst us.  If you want to write to me in confidence do.  

Blessings to each of you.  God has given me a sharp love for each of you.  I carry you in my hearts and lift you in my prayers.

Pastor Eddy

Beauty and stars

I met a woman yesterday who told me, with no little pride, that she was a non-believer.  She doesn't believe in God, never has and has no interest in God at all.  I respect that, and perhaps can guess where it might be coming from.  We had a pleasant congenial conversation as I took interest in her.  She is deeply committed to the community.  She has served terms in town politics - on school boards, appropriations committees, doing the hard and unpaid work of a community leader.  She started a community band that is going strong long after health issues forced her to quit leading it.  She lives by the 'golden rule' - and says she is a good person.  What she means is - she is not intentionally mean to people.  She is a  nice person.  Indeed I enjoyed chatting with her.
Is she at peace?  No, she isn't.  I sense it.  Neither with herself, nor the universe/God/whatever is out there.

I asked her one leading question:  what does she feel when she watches a beautiful sunset at the oceanside?  She prevaricated and said she appreciated it but didn't 'feel' anything. Fair enough.  It was a leading question and she saw it for what it was.

I shared that for me, I connect with God in natural beauty: the thousand thousand stars in a midnight blue sky; the thousand thousand shade of green in Spring, or orange in Fall; the eternal lapping of the sea on a stony beach; the dragon fly that lands on my arm as I sit on my little deck.  These are touch-points for me - where heaven bends down to touch the earth.

This morning I walked my dog - nothing new there - and the pre-dawn air was cold on my face.  The sky was dazzling with stars.  (Yes, I did get out my cell phone and use Google Sky Maps to identify a few stars - I couldn't help myself.) I thanked God for such beauty and allowed my heart to fill with praise and then give that praise to God as a wordless prayer of worship.  Just a private conversation - me to God, while Penny the dog snuffled in the grass.
Then as I played with my dog - throwing a stick in the darkness, the sun slowly rose.  It's vast light flooded the sky until no stars where visible - only the perfect blue of an autumn morning in New England.

I reflected that our lives are like the little stars - individual, gathered in clusters and bright and beautiful - even the stars that don't acknowledge or sense the coming dawn.  Then the great 'morning star' arises - Christ Himself, whose holy brilliance does not extinguish the little stars, or eclipse them.  No - the stars are still in their place,  They are just overwhelmed by the perfect beauty of the God who reached down to humankind and took all our darkness into Himself and yet rises again to bring them the purest and most beautiful light.  We are indeed made in His image.