Congratulations to all of our high school graduates!
My daughter graduated from Waynesboro High School last weekend. As a parent, I have thought quite a bit about the experiences of our young people, and the world they are coming to inherit. We start with a part of their lives we are all tired of: the coronavirus pandemic. There is a great photo exhibit at the Shenandoah Art Center right here in Waynesboro done by a Waynesboro High School senior that shows the effect of the coronavirus on the year of a student. Uncertainty is one of the words that comes to mind. A colleague of mine the other day used another psychological term he learned that is being used about the effects of the coronavirus on our lives: languishing. We are able to function, do our tasks, but those things that give us joy are more elusive because of the looming concerns of the day. I give thanks we appear to be approaching a greater degree of normalcy, for the sake of our youth. Ironically, one of the things we (often unfairly) accuse our youth of is a dependency on technology (as if we are not!). At the same time this past year has shown us both the benefits and the liability of technology. It has allowed our children to continue learning, and to continue in some way to be connected, but it has also revealed how important being face to face is. In our Christian faith, one of our two celebrations of the Church year, Christmas, is focused on the fact that in order to reconcile the world to God’s self, God came to earth Incarnate — in person — through Jesus Christ. Zoom has allowed us to continue to do many things, but we have missed much in not being together. We have become more used to, and dependent on technology. And what we are able to do with technology continues to amaze. I read an article the other day on how three manufacturers in the world make 80% of the microchips used in phones, computers and things like automobiles. The facilities they are manufactured in cost billions, the chips are made of wafers that are cut by lasers, making “cuts” 5 microns thick, 1/16th the size of a human hair. I think of my mother who remembers the first car her parents got, and their first tractor, using horses and buggies before that. Now, there is a machine that etches silicon chips for the cell phone I use that has thousands of times the capacity of the first computer I bought out of college 35 years ago, which itself was considered a marvel, able to a hundred times what took a room of tubes and wires the size of a house to do just 60 years ago. My daughter and others going to college, technical schools, entering the world of work or joining the military are entering a world that is changing quickly. It changed radically during my last 43 years beyond high school. It will change radically again. There are significant problems. Our vulnerable dependence on technology was revealed last week when a gas pipeline was rendered useless because hackers gained control of it. Pollution, climate change, fundamental disagreements about the future of our nation abound. There are a few individual American citizens who personally have more net worth than multiple nations containing millions of people. We continue to reckon with our past in this nation, and how we treat one another. What can we tell our daughters and sons as they graduate? Psalm 71 is a beautiful prayer, written by someone who has experienced much in life. The writer talks about achievement, defeats, of much joy, of the depths. There is a sense that the writer is considering all of his or her life as he or she writes. There is a simple prayer which I encourage our youth to pray in this time of graduation and the beginning of looking ahead to what is next: For you, O Lord, are my hope; my trust, O Lord, from my youth (Psalm 71:5) And then this look from the writer’s current age of many years later: O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. This time of life, graduation from high school, is often spoken of as a time when we stand on our own two feet, when we “spread our wings and fly,” leaving the nest, all the ways we speak of assuming more responsibility for one’s daily journey. It is at this time to remind our youth of the deep well they can draw from when they do this; God, who is our source of trust, hope, love. Congratulations, graduates, and may God guide you in all that is ahead.
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“Hi, I’m Paul, and you’re wrong.”
I don’t know of many conversations I’ve started with spouse, family, friends, strangers or fellow Christians that would continue with any substance if I began in this way. It doesn’t mean I can’t disagree with someone else. I just know if I start by identifying what’s wrong with someone else, things go nowhere fast. “Honey, I’m home, and how many times do I have to tell you, you’re wrong to leave the garbage can in the alley like that!” Yeah, that’ll move things along. Of course we’re not talking about things that don’t really matter. We’re talking about issues and ideas that are important, that we think have an impact on our future, sometimes on our eternal future: things that do matter, things we believe should matter. When they do, it often means we want to say something about it, that we’re compelled to say something about it. Any reader of the Bible can point to countless examples of this. God sent dozens, if not hundreds of prophets to warn Israel. The book of Acts in the New Testament recounts many times that “there was no small debate.” And yet when Jesus walked this earth, he surprised the Pharisees, the scribes, the leaders and authorities of his time, because he “ate with tax collectors and sinners.” There is more than one time that these authorities grumble because Jesus wasn’t telling people they were wrong. Instead, our Lord Jesus sent people out to proclaim Good News, also known as the Gospel. In the Book of Acts, we are told the Holy Spirit sent the disciples to the Samaritans. Samaritans were wrong, they were not worshiping God in the right way. They were people who many reasoned didn’t belong in Palestine, because their ancestors were from a different part of the world than the Israelites. “Share the Good News with them,” the Holy Spirit told the Church, not that they’re wrong. Same thing with the Ethiopian eunuch: Deuteronomy 23 is clear no eunuch should be allowed near the people of God. What the Holy Spirit tells the disciple Philip (Acts 8) is to proclaim the gospel to this very person riding in a chariot in the middle of the desert. He would never not be a eunuch. But God sent Philip anyway. Now there may be many who would say the gospel is a gospel of repentance, and that would be true. However, we need to be clear what repentance means: it means turning in another direction. Repentance is not the same as blame, or telling someone they are wrong. It is an invitation to another way, the way of Jesus Christ, the way of God’s love for the whole world. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). If you and I are honest, every one of us is in need of repentance. We’re all wrong by this definition. And yet, that’s not where the Gospel ends. But now, is Paul’s, and more importantly, Jesus’ announcement to the world. But now, there is grace to make a way forward. That’s why there is a cross we look to, a Jesus we are thankful for, a God of love we rely on to help us change direction. These times we live in are uncertain. Many things are being brought into question. We are on edge, and it doesn’t matter what side of the political or ideological spectrum you are on. Something happens when we all get on edge. We want to circle the wagons. We search for those of like mindedness. We make camps where our kind can feel safe. We want to identify who is wrong. The world Jesus walked in was just such a time, as was the world of the New Testament. But something amazing happens: God chose what is foolish, what is weak, what is low and despised in this world — in other words what is wrong — to bring human wisdom and strength to naught (I Corinthians 1:27). And Jesus sent his followers out into this world, not to circle the wagons. One could even argue when they wanted to keep the early church circled, the Holy Spirit of God blew the church out into the world, so the gospel would be made known to everyone. There was plenty of disagreement expressed in the church. Many of the New Testament letters show how the church divided into camps. In the Revelation of John (2:1-7), the church of Ephesus was given a letter written by the Risen Christ which tells them, “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers … [and] tested those who … have [been] found to be false.” They had become experts at identifying who was wrong. “But I have this against you,” Jesus declares, “that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” The risen Christ then says to the church at Ephesus that they need to repent, change direction, and to “do the works you had done at first.” They acted out of love at first — agape love, love that offers one’s self for the sake of another, like Jesus did, for the sake of the message Christ has given us to share. A friend of mine recently shared with me a story of his great-grandparents. In the 1950s and early 1960s, when you went into their kitchen, you found the strangest set of photos. There was a picture of Jesus, and a picture of Adolf Hitler, one right next to the other. The great-grandparents were Nazi sympathizers during World War II, and even into the 1950s the great-grandfather was a proponent of German nationalism, a firm believer that the world would be a better place if all German-speaking areas were all under one rule. And they were strong Lutheran Christians, believing in their Lord and Savior Jesus. What a story! My friend remembers as a child the “no small debates” of that family. None of their nine children subscribed to their parents’ political beliefs. But to this day, my friend, who attends a Jewish study group of the Torah, and is gay, remembers his great-grandparents with love; they were hard-working, they raised nine children with love and few resources, they passed along the faith that is so important to my friend’s life. Nothing wrong with that. Last weekend we celebrated Valentine’s Day.
Like most holidays, it was an opportunity for us to pause for a moment from everything that typically makes up daily life. We work, we volunteer, we have a schedule; we go to school, we have to do homework, we have to figure out our taxes. There is family life, there is sports practice, we want to get a round of golf in; we want to walk the Greenway. There is the news, the headlines, and our opinions of what is going on in our nation, our world. We’re still masking wherever we go, we miss seeing our friends, the family didn’t come for Christmas, and even though we Zoom, it’s not the same. There are health concerns, we are waiting for our first COVID-19 shot, we’re scheduled for our second. We’re starting chemotherapy treatments. We’ve been having pain in whatever part of our body for weeks now, and those we love are telling us to have it looked at. The direction of Valentine’s Day is deeply prescribed in our society. Roses, chocolates, jewelry, cards with lots of hearts, and until this year, maybe even a romantic getaway for the weekend; an effort to show the one you love that they matter to you. And yet, even if we only look at the candy hearts given during this holiday with their little coy messages, we know that love is “at the heart” of Valentine’s Day. The apostle Paul wrote a letter to a small church in Corinth that is now a part of the Word of God we find in the Bible. In the 13th chapter, Paul includes one of the most powerful descriptions of love ever written. If you attend a wedding, there’s a 90% chance or greater you will hear the words of this chapter recited as the couple prepares to exchange their vows to one another. I believe I Corinthians chapter 13 is the ideal writing for this week we are in, but not for the reasons one might suspect. If you read the whole letter, you’ll find that people — in the Church mind you — are not getting along. They’re not getting along at all. We’re not talking about married couples; we’re talking about people who work with each other, live in the same neighborhoods, go to school together, go to church together, who listen to the news about the world around them and see things differently. We’re talking about a church where some people came to the church potluck with a picnic basket that looks like it belonged in a Downton Abbey episode, while others can barely afford to bring a paper plate of PBJ sandwiches on clearance-table white bread; and the picnic basket folks are not inclined to share. There are people looking down at others because of where they get their meat and produce. There are people who are vegetarian; others who definitely aren’t. There are some who think worship should be reverent, quiet, and respectful, while others believe you can’t really worship unless the music is loud and the people are clapping and singing and praying in tongues. And they all lived in a city that was known throughout the world as being as diverse as any place in the world. Everybody had come from somewhere else; Greek, Roman, Asian, Arabian, African, European: there wasn’t anyone missing in that city, or in Corinth Church. And in that church there were views about sexuality about as different as you might imagine they are today. I mention this because it’s in the letter Paul writes. By the time he gets to the 13th chapter he has talked about a big chunk of everyday life: just about everything that is a part of OUR everyday lives. So how does Paul counsel the church in Corinth to deal with all of this? He begins by telling the church that God’s spirit has given gifts to everyone that will allow them to be the body of Christ that God wants the church to be in the world. And then he talks about a more excellent way. Not as a special event, or something you put on display, like Valentine’s Day, but a way that is the ground of everyday living. Love. Love is patient, kind, love protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres, rejoices in truth. It is not envious, boastful, arrogant, rude or self-seeking. It doesn’t keep a record of wrongs. It doesn’t delight in evil Love never fails. Now these are all beautiful descriptions of love. But keep in mind that these lists of what love is and isn’t are not delivered to a group of people who are in full agreement about things, and on the same page. Love is described to a group of people who have a lot to disagree about. Important things. Holidays offer moments for us to pause from the grind of daily life. And hey, if flowers and candy are the thing that makes your honey happy, by all means, I hope you visited your local florist or candy shop before last Sunday! It is important to show those you love that they matter. And yet life continues far beyond Valentine’s Day. And love, far from being the at the center of one day, is at the heart of every day. Because God is love (I John 4:7-8). To move forward daily in this world, faith, hope and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. |
AuthorPastor Paul came to Grace to serve as our Pastor in October 2012. After a first career in product and graphic design, he was ordained in 1993, and has served as a parish pastor in Virginia and South Carolina. He is married to Jill and they have two daughters, one at Roanoke College and one at James Madison University. Archives
December 2021
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