C&E Christian

This morning I gave a sermon on our need to serve as Christ served. In my sermon though, I had talked about how if we give of ourselves, our time, our money, our talents; if we give of our full selves we must take time to receive. Otherwise we will burn out. Well this afternoon, as I was driving home from lunch, I had yet another epiphany. I was thinking about the sermon I had given this morning and had thought about this relationship of “receiving” and “giving”. I had talked about the need to receive God’s grace, give the grace we have recieved, and then repeat. Kind of like the slogan for RISE UMC, “Receive Love, Give Love, Repeat.” As I was meditating on that it hit me why we have so many C & E Christians. If you don’t know what I mean by a C & E Christian, I am talking about those who say they believe in Jesus, but only show up to the services for Christmas and Easter. I thought about the proclaimation at these services and it made so much sense to me why they never seem to return.

The Candlelight Service

       If you have ever been to the Christmas Eve service you know what I am talking about. The candle light service is a service that many look forward to each year. It is the service that I especially was drawn to as a young boy, especially one who liked to watch the fire burn. During this service though, we would hold our candles and the pastor would talk about how the light of Christ had entered into the world on that first Christmas. And how as we share that light we are to not force it on others, but offer it. By the end of the song, typically “Silent Night, Holy Night”, the room is full of light from the many candles burning brightly. This is truly a great testament to the light of Christ that enters into our lives when we see Jesus on that Christmas Eve, but it becomes problematic when we fall trap to the understanding that I receive this light and then am done. It becomes problematic when we feel as though Jesus is a one stop shop. Our relationship with God is more than a one night stand, but it is something that is on-going and must be brought back again and again. John Wesley preached a sermon on the duty to constant communion and I believe what Mr. Wesley meant by this is that our relationship with God is on-going. It is a relationship of receive and give, and repeat. It is counter intuitive to the receive the light of Christ and be done. We must receive the Spirit day to day, hour to hour, and minute to minute. We also then must give the fruit of that same Spirit day to day, hour to hour, and minute to minute. Our Christmas goers in this candle light service often leave thinking, “Huh, this Jesus thing is simple, I received the light of Christ and now I am complete.” But in reality, that relationship needs ongoing attention.

         Easter Service

      And then, these same Christmas goers, for one reason or another come back on Easter Sunday. Although they have missed the whole week before of the Sunday Jesus comes into Jerusalem with the praises of the people, the Monday of Jesus in the temple courts teaching against the marketplace temple, the foot washing and the last supper shared with his disciples on Thursday, the Friday morning that Jesus was hung on the cross, and the Saturday of observing a time of silence and mourning while Jesus is laid in the tomb. They miss all that. The week of the dying love that Jesus shared in order to have a relationship with them. But yet they come to the Easter celebrations where the message received is that because Jesus is alive so will also you too for eternity if only you accept Jesus in your heart today. Forget your past, and who cares about what you do in the future, but if you accept Jesus and the resurrection, you’re done!

              What a similar message to that of the Christmas candlelight service. There is no receive love, give love, repeat. It’s all about receiving! It is true that the receiving is vital, we must receive God’s divine grace. BUT, “We LOVE, because Christ first loved us.” There is a response to receving that love. And that response always is a response of sharing those gifts, those treasures, that love that we received in Christ. AND THEN, we must receive and give, receive and give, receive and give. Hence the reason weekly worship with our faith communities is so vital to our relationship with God, brothers and sisters in Christ, and the world around us. If we as pastors happen to talk about that response of giving, we more than likely forget to include the repeat. We need to be again receiving that gift of God’s grace over and over again. And in the C&E Christian sermons, we as pastors forget to talk about that repeat to our receive and give relationship with Christ!

Where are you God?!

An all too common theme that we see throughout the Psalms is this congregational cry of,

“WHERE ARE YOU GOD?! WAKE UP FROM YOUR SLUMBER!”

It is a cry that for one reason or another in this day in age we do not hear from the lips of our 21st century congregations. Are we too proud to cry out to God? Are we too afraid that God could not handle our true feelings and emotions? Are we just not mature enough in our faith these days to really lay down the laments of our people. I certainly know that each day I read the news there seems to always be something that had happened that qualifies the church to cry out to God on their behalf! Are we afraid of being complainers to the Lord of Creation?

This line of thought came to me one early morning, about 4:30 or so as I heard my 8 month year old son crying out for help. He had stuck his arm through the railing of his crib and had awoken with fear that he could not get his arm back out. As I heard his cries through our video monitor, I immediatly sprung into action as I crossed the room in the dark, went through the hallway, and entered his room. The expression on his face was an expression of relief. I un-trapped his arm and placed him back in the middle of his bed. He immediatly rolled over, and feeling the safety of being watched over, went back to sleep. The crying out, as I sat there and looked at him, was instinctual. He was not taught to cry out, but being made in the fashion he was by our creator he was made to express his needs in a lament.

As we grow up, somewhere along the way forget how to cry out. We are afraid to awaken our guardians or parents. I don’t know about you, but I for one was the child that would walk into my parents room at about the age of 10 and just stare at my father until he woke up. If my staring didn’t do it, then I would begin to whisper as softly as I could, “Dad.”

<Nothing>

A little louder, “Dad.”

<Nothing>

And this conversation would continue until finally I surely terrified him. Apparently I am not the only child who has had this experience as well known comeidan Bill Engvall tells a bit of his own experience of being the father who is awoken in this manner.

(Start at 3:37 till the end)

This is where I though believe many of us are in our relationship with our sleeping Father. We are for some reason just too scared or too immature to let our Heavenly Father know that we are in need of him. We have forgetten how to cry out like the Psalmists of the past. Maybe we think that God can’t handle it…but until we learn to become real with our Father in heaven, never will we be able to mature in our faith. Until we allow God to respond to the real needs of our lives, we will have to settle for a metiocre relationship that is superficial. It is in our crying out the with the deep hurts that we experience do we begin to let God into the stuff that makes up who we are. And it is then, and only then, does God really allow the Spirit to transform our lives. Because our lives are not made up of the superficial things that go on at skin level, but the real stuff that keeps us alive is deep within.

I believe this is why a true sign of maturity in a person is the ability to ask for help when it is needed. To be able to cry out, “I need your help!” This is precisely what the mature in faith have done and have shown so well to us in the Psalms of lament.

Psalms of Communal Lament:

• 12, 44, 58, 60, 74, 79, 80, 83, 85, 89*, 90, 94, 123, 126, 129

Psalms of Individual Lament:

• 3, 4, 5, 7, 9-10, 13, 14, 17, 22, 25, 26, 27*, 28, 31, 36*, 39, 40:12-17, 41, 42-43, 52*, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, 61, 64, 70, 71, 77, 86, 89*, 120, 139, 141, 142