"Vulgar Grace"

So...just what limits do we want to put on grace?  Who is it that we would exclude?  Who can we not forgive?  So much of our grace is "safe."  So much of it is "pristine" -- "sterile" even!  Even as I pastor I recognize I surround myself with the easy candidates for grace.  Most of the people in my life are pretty easy to love.  Not everyone.  But most.

So it is with great interest I read the following today.  This account from Brennan Manning's All Is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir is stunning.  I could sit and read this again and again. It really tests the limits of my own understanding of grace and it makes me question whether or not the grace in my life has become too sterile...too safe.

Grace is vulgar.

Enjoy.

My life is a witness to vulgar grace — a grace that amazes as it offends. A grace that pays the eager beaver who works all day long the same wage as the grinning drunk who shows up at ten till five. A grace that hikes up the robe and runs breakneck toward the prodigal reeking of sin and wraps him up and decides to throw a party, no ifs, ands, or buts. A grace that raises bloodshot eyes to a dying thief’s request — “Please, remember me” — and assures him, “You bet!”…This vulgar grace is indiscriminate compassion. It works without asking anything of us. It’s not cheap. It’s free, and as such will always be a banana peel for the orthodox foot and a fairy tale for the grown-up sensibility. Grace is sufficient even though we huff and puff with all our might to try and find something or someone that it cannot cover. Grace is enough…

Sin and forgiveness and falling and getting back up and losing the pearl of great price in the couch cushions but then finding it again, and again, and again? Those are the stumbling steps to becoming Real, the only script that’s really worth following in this world or the one that’s coming. Some may be offended by this ragamuffin memoir, a tale told by quite possibly the repeat of all repeat prodigals. Some might even go so far as to call it ugly. But you see that doesn’t matter, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly except to people who don’t understand…that yes, all is grace. It is enough. And it’s beautiful.

Now go back and read this again.

And again.

How "vulgar" is the grace in your life?

Are you "Real?"

How have you experienced this type of grace?

via

Time for Presence

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The evangelization of the world is not primarily a matter of words or deeds: it is a matter of presence — the presence of the People of God in the midst of mankind and the presence of God in the midst of His People.

--Robert Martin-Achard

"Keep Chi in Xmas"

It's a simple reminder at the start of Advent, that the "X" of "Xmas" originally had nothing to do with taking "Christ" out of "Christ-mas" but using a Greek symbol to represent "Christ." John Byron says:

So next time you see Xmas in a store don't tell them "hey, put Christ back in Christmas." Instead you might thank them for partaking in a ancient Christian tradition of referring to Christ with a Greek letter. I doubt many will know what you are talking about. 

The Bible, The Christ, and Evangelicalism

Pastor and professor David Fitch offers the following critiques of evangelicalism, as based in his book The End of Evangelicalism. This is found over at "The Other Journal."

TOJ: You claim that the evangelical belief in the “inerrant” Bible has not really been about the truth but about “being in control of the truth.” It appears that just as evangelicalism continues to fracture into different hermeneutical camps, large church personalities have effectively replaced denominations in defending doctrine. Over this next decade, how do you see the fight of inerrancy shaping up?

DF: There’s a splintering of evangelicalism, and strangely, I would say that the majority of evangelicalism realizes that “inerrancy” is an apologetic strategy whose time is over. It is a strategy that in fact undermines Scripture by defining its authority via a reference point outside itself, by what is an “error” and who gets to define “error,” as opposed to what Scripture is in its relationship to the Incarnate Christ. Nonetheless, it wouldn’t surprise me if the New-Reformed movement among evangelicals makes inerrancy once again a shibboleth to determine who is a true evangelical. Once this happens, I think we’ll all be energized to expose the defensiveness in this move and move on to a true faithfulness.

TOJ: Another hallmark of the evangelical is the “decision for Christ,” but you write that this decision has effectively been “separated from one’s embodied life.” Could you explain that further, particularly how such a deep and personal decision has found such tragic separation?

DF: I refer to it as a separation because speaking of a decision for Christ doesn’t mean anything anymore. I am sure that is an overstatement. But what I try to show in the book is that the decision for Christ has become a master signifier that creates a fantasy, as if to make a person feel good for what he or she has done. Yet it demands nothing of this person. In essence it does what any good master signifier must do—it enables us to “believe without believing,” in Žižek’s famous words. It allows us to be Christians without it meaning anything material to our embodied existence. Nonetheless, conversion is at the heart of Jesus’s call to follow him. We need to recover conversion. I go much deeper into this whole phenomenon in the book. 

You can read more of the interview following the link above.

A Communion Story -- "There's More"

Image by Avondale Pattillo UMC via Flickr

This past Sunday our focus was on World Communion Sunday.  I know most churches do this back in October.  But we had stuff going on.  Now's when it fit our schedule between sermon series.  And, regardless of the timing, it was a day to remember what communion means for our little church and for the Body of Christ around the world.

This is about uniting Christians.  This is about keeping the memorial feast of Christ.  This is about being fed and feeding the world.  This is about community.  It's about communion.  We are made for it.

Well, the sermon was done.

The confession was done.

We had taken up the offering.

And now we were into communion.

I've said, this is the high point of my Sunday.  I love it.  I love presiding.  I love serving.  I love partaking.  I love being at Holy Communion.  And, in particular, I love the way we do it at Girdwood Chapel, where everyone's welcome...especially the kids.

Well, on Sunday one little girl decided to come up on her own.  She's only about one and one-half years old. She didn't want to wait for her mom for the bread and so she walked on down the aisle, following dutifully after some of the other kids.  I leaned down and handed her a piece of bread and said, "This is the body of Christ, broken for you."

Now, this is where the story ends for most 2-year-olds.  We try to have real good bread during communion and most kids of that age just like to have the bread and go.  And that's fine with me.  I think it's wonderful. I think it's holy.  What's funny is that the little one stared at me as I was ready to move on to the next person in line.  She stared at me with a look that said, "There's more."

She wasn't "done" with communion until she dipped the bread in the juice.  After that, she was content to go back and sit with mom.

What's so great about this story is that it shows how the practice of Holy Communion shapes us.  There's memory associated with it.  There's a ritual that even a little girl who's not even two years old can pick up and learn and participate with the grown-ups.

I know that there are many denominations where a "closed" communion is practiced and the thought of having kids this young come up would be completely foreign.  But for us, this fits right in with who we are.  And, my prayer is that, as this little one grows up, it will fit right in with who she becomes.  I pray that, wherever she finds herself twenty years down the road, she'll see bread and cup lifted up and know that it's God free gift of salvation for her.

Swinging the Doors Wide Open For Communion

This past week I commented on a blog post over at Internet Monk about communion, whether it should be open or closed.  In light of the fact that I'm talking about communion in church today, I thought I'd post my response:

I’m a United Methodist and, unlike some UM churches, we swing the doors wide open for communion every week. Everyone’s invited…young, old, baptized, unbaptized, sinner, saint, member, visitor. We do the whole liturgy every week. I often say “This is Christ’s free gift to you whether you’ve been here for 60 years (our organist) or 60 minutes.” We serve by intinction and serve good bread. When kids come forward they often ask for “a big piece” and I occasionally say, “If we all knew we needed a big piece of Jesus the world would be a better place.”

Communion is formative for us. We use it as a theological stepping stone to ministries of outreach and giving.

It’s also a celebration for us. We enjoy that time together. It’s a party every week with a mix of denominations and nondenominations present. Said one of our more conservative evangelical folks, he views it as a little foretaste of the Kingdom of God.

A few years ago, during a visioning process, we asked folks in the congregation to come up with two things they think are most important about our faith community. Most everyone put the following: the presence of children and family AND Holy Communion.

I like [what was said in another comment] about telling people that it’s open to all but to not feel obligated if folks aren’t seeking Jesus. I could do better in the explanation.

I know this style isn’t for everyone and, frankly, might not work in many other UM churches. But it seems to work here and helps define this congregation in powerful ways.

Girdwood Chapel has been formative to my understanding of communion as well.  I believe everything I wrote above.  It's the highlight of my Sunday.  I love being there and I love presiding at communion.

I believe this is what we're made for.

Christ, Culture, & Making Disciples

Being trained in the school of Stanley Hauerwas, where the role of the church is to set up an alternative culture that shapes people in ways that counter the ways that culture shapes them, I found the following at NextReformation.  I thought it was helpful this morning as we prepare for another discipleship class after a week where prayer has been emphasized.

If culture is a cultivating force, then the assertions follow:
1. we are always being discipled. The only question is what or whom is forming us.
2. we will not effectively maintain a discipleship “program” or curriculum without addressing the larger context of formation (the dominant culture)
3. an effective discipling movement must succeed at some level in generating an alternative culture.
4. The Church is intended to be a discipling movement, and therefore, is intended to be an alternative (kingdom) culture.
5. Culture is maintained by language and practices. An alternative culture must have a unique linguistic fund — a grammar of its own. It must also maintain shared covenant practices.

There ya' go.  

So, how do we provide alternative languages and practices in the church to make Christian disciples as opposed to more disciples of the dominant worldly culture?

Here's Where I Find Myself Distancing Myself from Evangelicalism

Well it's ONE of the places. 

It's where evangelicalism has been so very focused on personal salvation as opposed to entering into the salvation story of God's people. 

I thin David Fitch hit the nail on the head as he described Scot McNight's book, The King Jesus Gospel:

I think pretty much everyone knows by now Scot McKnight’s contention that evangelicals equate the word “gospel” with the word “salvation.” Hence, according to McKnight, we evangelicals are really “soterians” not “evangelicals”. According to McKnight, the NT gospel should not and cannot be reduced to “our plan of salvation.”(39). Scot shows in King Jesus Gospel that the gospel according to the NT is best defined out of 1 Corinthian 15.  Here the Gospel is the telling of the whole Jesus Story as the completion of the Story of Israel, the lordship of Christ over the whole world. It is the summoning of people to respond to the completion of the promise to Israel in Jesus Christ as Lord.  Through the proclamation of the gospel, we are invited to enter into this grand work of God in history in Christ. Out of all this, we are saved and redeemed (here’s where salvation is part of the gospel but not to be equated with the gospel). Without the Story (of Israel), Scot says, there is no gospel (36). So Scot singularly does one thing in this book, he shows how “individual salvation” is part of the wider gospel. It is not the whole gospel. The salvation we as individuals receive is something we receive as we participate in the wider work of God in the world to bring in His Kingdom in and through Jesus Christ. Even this “personal” salvation is much bigger than “justification by faith” although it certainly includes that!

Is There An "Extravagant Hospitality" Illustration in Here?

"New Monasticism" What Is It?

As someone who appreciates the writings of Shane Claiborne and the New Day Movement and others, I found this cartoon by ASBOJesus to be pretty cool.

No Man Is Worse...

No man is worse for knowing the worst of himself. 

—Henry G. Bohn