Faith
About this blog
Thinking the Faith, Praying the Faith, Living the Faith is written by the PC(USA) Office of Theology and Worship.
Thinking, praying, and living the faith is at the core of ministry in the Office of Theology and Worship. In the following videos, learn more about what thinking, praying, and living the faith means to the leadership of the Office of Theology and Worship. Discover why it matters and what difference it makes in our lives, work, and worship.
Charles Wiley
Barry Ensign-George
David Gambrell
Christine Hong
Karen Russell
Recent posts
- Our Challenging Way: Faithfulness, Sex, Ordination, and Marriage
- Unity, Confessions, and the Book of Order
- Come and See
- Please and Thank You
- Back to Basics on Ash Wednesday
Categories
- Theology (32)
- Worship (26)
- Faith (23)
- Spirituality (13)
- Leadership (11)
- View all categories →
Archives
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
I debated on whether or not to post this here so as not to be perceived as entering one way or the other into what’s going on in Orlando at present. But the irony and promise of today cannot go unnoticed.
Today is the first day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity . . . and the start of the Presbyterian Fellowship Conference in Orlando where some of us are exploring the nature of that unity.
About a year ago, the Rev. Dr. Marion McClure Taylor, director of the Kentucky Council of Churches, was invited to speak to us here at the Center of the PCUSA. Today’s sermon was such a Word to us here in Louisville that I asked if we could share it more widely with the church. May the Spirit work as it will in the spirit of prayer in which it is offered:
“GOODNESS AND MERCY SHALL FOLLOW”
Marian McClure Taylor
PresbyterianCenter, January 18, 2012
Good morning! It was in this very space that I took my ordination vows and marked many other occasions with colleagues who are still here and colleagues who are not. It is very meaningful to be back here.
There is pain in the air today, however, and it is underlined by the fact that today begins this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. InOrlando, some Presbyterians are considering just what Christian unity means to them. They may also be considering what they think Christian unity means to the Presbyterians with whom they disagree. As if this were not enough to contemplate in relation to the Week of Prayer, during this service today we will also enjoy Holy Communion together, a sacrament that Christians continue to fence off from each other in many settings.
In light of this, I was most drawn to the lectionary options for today that are being used by Christians who celebrate today the confession of St. Peter. May God’s light shine in our hearts and minds with these readings from Holy Scripture.
Psalm 23 (The shepherd leads through shadows to pastures)
Acts 4: 8-13 (Peter speaks about having healed a man)
1 Peter 5:1-4 (Peter urges tending the flock)
Matthew 16:13-19 (Jesus calls Peter the “rock” and gives “keys”)
I.
Psalm 23 is a favorite scripture for many of us. It reminds us that God is not only good, but is pro-actively good in leading us through sufferings to a better place.
I treasure a reflection on Psalm 23 I heard during a trip toChinain 2001. Several aging pastors who had survived internal exile experiences duringChina’s Cultural Revolution sat with me and talked about their lives. One of them, Pastor Bao, told his story as an illustration of the truth of Psalm 23. He offered his life as a proof that God gets us through the valley of the shadow only to get us to a better place. So he talked about his having been targeted by the Cultural Revolutionaries because he was a Christian pastor, and about his life of forced labor in a place far from home.
Originally Bao was assigned to the factory floor piecework lines, but when the management needed someone who was literate in the business office of the cafeteria he was moved there. That was the only special consideration he ever received. None of the factory rewards could go to a Christian pastor. He was the only Christian there, and his loneliness was compounded by the knowledge that his own son, so far away, would not get a proper education because of the social shaming this exile represented.
In the midst of this loneliness and grief, Bao made a decision. He simply resolved to be the best worker he could be, no matter what. He reasoned that if he lived in anger, his example might deprive someone of the chance to know God.
His fellow prisoners had originally bought the official idea that Christians were by definition foreign-influenced and could not be real and trustworthy Chinese citizens. But by the time the Cultural Revolution ended, it turned out that fellow prisoners who had watched and admired him had come to want what he had. They came inquiring about Christianity and soon wanted to be baptized along with their children. Pastor Bao described the better pasture to which God had led. He said he thought his work camp experience gave him a new kinship with his Chinese people, a new ability to pastor them in humility and compassion. He believed that pastors’ experiences of suffering alongside other Chinese led to much of the extremely rapid growth of China’s churches. Those same churches were now helping his son with employment and education.
Pastor Bao closed his reflection on Psalm 23 by saying again that the God he trusted had found ways to use suffering for good. Goodness and mercy had followed him. God did not want suffering, but found a way for all things to work together for good for those who love the Lord.
II.
It appears, however, that this trusting approach to God’s providence, and willingness to be reshaped as humble vessels through shared suffering, this is not what humans really want most of the time! God’s providence doesn’t work fast enough for us, and doesn’t work predictably enough for us.
On the contrary, we humans have a tendency to look for how we can protect ourselves (and also the church we love), and so we look for some spiritual power tool we can use for that purpose. It is quite natural to explore how our words and actions, and maybe our ecclesiastical arrangements too, relate to the power of the cosmos, if only to find relief and protection.
This eagerness for protective spiritual power is on the rise in theUnited States. Most recently I noticed it when I went to the Big O Tire store in St. Matthews! I was waiting for Big O employees to examine one of my tires. So I started channel surfing on the lobby’s TV set. On one channel was a woman named Gloria Copeland, of Ken Copeland Ministries. Her main teaching was that special spiritual power for blessings is evoked when one says the right words and renounces the wrong ones.
It is easy to criticize this kind of theology. But in more subtle ways, do we not all feel under pressure sometimes to find a spiritual power tool for the woes and the opportunities around us? The urge arises from the vulnerability of our lives, knowing we will die, knowing we are weak before the great forces of nature, knowing that predators abound. Maybe these things we fear are called “de-mons” because so many of them start with “de”: death, disasters, despots, delinquents, diseases and divisions!
III.
Today’s scriptures point us in a very different direction, however. We are not pointed in the direction of seeking spiritual power. We are pointed instead in the direction of proclaiming and trusting in the spiritual power of a God who knows all about suffering and can turn it to good in God’s own time and ways. We are pointed toward a God of compassion, the God-With-Us in Jesus Christ.
And make no mistake, the other scriptures we read today carry the same message that Psalm 23 does!
For all the polemics about the Matthew passage in which Jesus calls Peter the rock and give him “keys”, it is clear in these readings that Peter himself understood the keys to be nothing more nor less than the Gospel message.
In the Acts passage, Peter was questioned about his role in healing a man. Did Peter reply “I healed him by saying the right words?” Did Peter say, “God gave me special authority?” No, Peter replied that God raised Jesus from death, made Jesus Christ alone the cornerstone for salvation and it is in Christ’s power alone that we mortals find salvation.
The First Peter passage reverberates with the same attitude of that Chinese pastor who, like Peter had identified with Christ’s sufferings, had trusted in God’s goodness, had done the work before him willingly, and had set an example that attracted others: “Now as an elder myself and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, … I exhort the elders among you to tend the flock of God that is in your charge….”
And so it is only the teaching and living of the Gospel that frees us, frees us from the anxieties that compel so many human beings to look for some solution other than simple faithfulness.
I offer you this word today, knowing as I do so intimately the pressures and challenges of being national staff in these times. For all the suffering of Pastor Bao, at least no one expected him to find a solution to the wave of historical events, or to hold together a far-flung people. So many Presbyterians in the pews misunderstand the role of national staff in the democracy of the PCUSA, and their voices can get inside of your heads. Today I remind you to allow only one voice, the Shepherd’s voice to reside in your heads. Do you hear that voice, saying…
“I love you?”
“I am sufficient for you?”
“I know your sufferings?”
“I have a pasture in mind for you?”
“I love my church?”
“Follow me?”
The sacrament of Communion immerses us in this very mystery of our faith, the mystery of God’s compassion that enters into suffering and also leads to a better place. The sacrament of Communion turns our minds to the cornerstone of our faith -- the suffering of Christ for our sake, and our acknowledgement that he is the Savior. We are first and foremost to trust in the proactive goodness of this particular shepherd. He knows about the valley of the shadow. He accompanies us through it, and will bring us to a better place.
What is true for us as individuals is true for the church as a whole. (In fact as a sign of God’s presence in and through the church, the Catholic sisters in Nazareth, Kentucky, are praying for our worship and for our denomination today!)
This is a precious moment in which to give ourselves over to the Good Shepherd once again in trust that God’s goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives, and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. This is the table the Lord prepares for us in the presence of the de-mons of death, disasters, despots, delinquents, diseases and divisions. And our cup overflows.
As General Assembly Mission Council staff, we are servants of the church. We pray daily for the church and the world God so loves. Today, especially, we're praying that regardless of what pasture we believe our Good Shepherd is calling us to, that we hear that voice above all others.
- Posted at 5:25 p.m.
-
- Tweet