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Have a Nice Life?

In less than a week I will make the terrifying transition from undergrad to college graduate. I have very much enjoyed my time in undergrad, and I’ve pretty much checked everything off college bucket list. Still, over the last few weeks I have paused numerous time during some activity to entertain a mini-panic attack about the futue.

Curiously, the comment from other which most often ignites my anxiety is this: Have a nice life.

I have been greeted with this salutation several times, and I find it ominous and overwhelming. Have I not had a nice life so far? Have I not started living so far? Is this person going to look in to see if I’m having a nice life.

It’s not so much that I am worried about the quality of my life as I am worried about the quality of my relationship with these people. We will go from seeing each other everyday to possibly never seeing each other again. Honetly, we’re no good at goodbyes.

I wish I was less intimidated to express my appreciation for these people. How blessed I felt to see them each day and how much I hope to see them again. We are a guarded society, emotion is seen as weakness, and that’s a shame.

I hope to write more as I work through the many changes I will go through over the next few months. Nothing interesting, just writing practice and chronicling my thoughts.

Wishing you Grace and Peace,

-Kena

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A Positive Approach

“It’s hard to believe that the greatest division in American politics these days is ‘pro-‘ or ‘anti-Chick-fil-A.'”

This is not the well reasoned, disillusioned thought of a seasoned theologian or pastor, but a tweet from late-night talk show host Conan O’Brian. And yeah, I agree. It is hard to believe.

Chick-fil-A reported record breaking sales yesterday in support of President Dan Cathy’s belief in traditional hetero-sexual marriage. “We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit,” the President told CNN. “We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.”

Regardless of how it came about, people began to associate the restuaunt with the anti-gay marriage movement (or pro-traditional marriage), and everyone has been taking sides. The result was my Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram feeds filled with updates and photos of that delicious, tender chicken sandwich.

And as delicious as their chicken is, something just doesn’t seem right.

For a lot of us, the problem is we’re all out looking for a fight. We want to take a side,stand up for what we believe in and go to battle for Jesus. Besides, the fight is already among us. There’s no choice but to pick our weapon (either sandwich or sandwich board) and join the fight!

For Christian’s especially this is a problem. Believe it or not there are God-fearing, Bible-believing, Once-was-blind-but-now-I’m-seeing people on both sides of the gay marriage debate. Real people with logic, reason, experience, intelligence and credibility. And both sides want to fight for Jesus and the Bible and people and family.

In 2 Timothy, Paul says time and again to is protege Timothy to avoid this kind of fighting. “Have nothing to do with ignorant controversies,” he says, “you know that they breed quarrels.” Gay Marriage is a real issue. It calls into question our understanding of Jesus and the Bible and the government and countless other things. But to think this problem is solved, or even helped by eating a sandwich is absurd.

In the mists of all this chaos, I’m reminded time and again of that tender question “what would Jesus do?” And although, a number one combo is technically kosher, I’m just not convinced that is the course of action he’d take. I think there is a better option here. I think if we take just a moment, breath deep, and don’t let ourselves get swept up in the madness we can begin to see some middle ground. Or at the very least, some common ground.

Despite the polarization and animosity in America, and all too often in Christianity today, I still have hope for creative peace making. We all share a common humanity. The people inside and outside the Chick-fil-A are all people, just like you and me. We’re all people who need food, and shelter, and love. And for far to many of us even those common everyday things are hard to come by.

We need a reorientation. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never solved a problem with someone while they were on the opposite side of the highway from me. I have solved problems by working with others, side-by-side together.

I am a better person for the people I’ve known. For the experiences, opinions and stories others have shared with me and we have shared together. I believe that working together to serve the common good we can find some common ground. If we could put aside what divides for just a moment we could begin to see what unites us.

If you are interested, some friends of the Union Mission in Roanoke Rapids, NC are trying to turn this negative into a positive. They’ve asked people to donate $6, roughly the cost of a Chick-fil-A combo to support of their homeless and food ministries. Perhaps this will spark your own idea for creative peace making. If you are interested the link is below.

http://www.facebook.com/events/271066759662009/

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Freedom

This summer certainly has had theme. This has been one of those seasons of life where God has definitely been trying to teach me something. It began with a term paper I wrote back in the spring. I daringly chose to discuss the theology of the Declaration of Independence. Also, in my Ethics class we discussed the the topic of freedom as part of the Christian ethical system. Then the church I have been interning at this summer has had the over arching theme of freedom guiding its Bible studies, ministries and worship services.

All that is to say, I’ve thought, talked, and heard a lot about freedom. And it’s something that we need to examine. Long before the School House Rock taught us all about the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World,” people were talking about freedom. The American Founding Father’s didn’t actually invent it. But, consider what political freedom actually is. What do the talking heads mean when they say they want freedom for a country or for the American people?

At the heart of every definition of freedom is choice. The ability to be responsible for our own lives.

In our individualistic, materialistic culture that choice means the right to chose Pepsi or Coke, paper or plastic, Democrat or Republican. It’s a smorgasbord type freedom which takes us through life like a buffet; we take what we want because it satisfies in the moment. And hey, it’s a free country.  At the end of the day when you’re on the couch having eaten 2 plate fulls of what felt good an hour ago at “Big Pet’s All You Can Eat” chances are you’re not going to feel very free. It leads us to read “the Pursuit of Happiness” as “the pursuit of whatever I feel like” or “the pursuit of whatever idea or goal I have at whatever expense.” That’s not freedom.

“The Pursuit of Happiness” is not whatever I feel like or want. It’s not the Lexis or promotion. It’s the end at which all life aims. It’s why we’re all here on earth. It’s what we’re all striving for.

As Paul Wadell explains in his book Happiness and the Christian Moral Life, our political, social and economic systems give us the capacity for freedom. They are the structure that allow us to chose, but those choices can lead us right back to a spiritual slavery if we’re not careful.  They do not formulate the Virtue of Freedom.

In his book Wadell asks “who is the freest person you know?”  Jesus is the freest person I know. Free from death and shame and sin. And when we follow him we chose a life not of Pepsi, paper and Republican, but of self-sacrificing service and humble devotion to God.

For the Christian, freedom is not just the ability to chose, but is a virtue practiced and perfected in community as we love one another and love God. We need freedom. It is the key to our dignity and person-hood, and true freedom is only found in following Jesus. And in that freedom there is Joy.

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Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

I am interning at First Baptist Church in Asheville this summer. This is my homily for the Wednesday chapel service. There are so many things that I would say different, but I’m glad that I did it. The summer series is based around the beatitudes, and saints or other spiritual figures are matched with the passage. My verse was “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” Matthew 5:3 paired with St. Francis of Assisi.

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit — St. Francis of Assisi

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But to Serve

When I consider the term poverty in spirit I am reminded of my Grandmother.
My grandmother was the picture of humility. Always, meek and eager to help. She led a simple life of devotion in the isolation of a ranch in West Texas. She attended a church of less than twenty-five people situated between two massive properties. She was the only member of the tiny church who was not related to one of the two families which owned the sounding property. This was where her funeral was held.

I remember the moment when I realized she was going to die. She had been battling cancer for some time, and for a while things were looking good. It was Christmas Day and we had just finished a late dinner. We had opened presents with all the extended family, and the combination of shredded wrapping paper and dirty dishes created an environment that testified to the excitement of the day. I absentmindedly began to clean up along with my aunts, and I realized my grandmother was resting on the couch. She wasn’t helping us clean. For a moment I was confused. She was always the first to serve and looked for anyway to help even when she was tired. I remember her washing dishes, changing dipper, watching children cleaning floors all without ever being asked. Why wasn’t she helping us now? Then I realized she was too sick to help. She could no longer serve the ones she loved. Although we eagerly longed to serve her especially in her hour of greatest need, that is not what she lived for. She lived to not to be served but to serve, and her health had robed that from her. A few months later she died surrounded by her daughters. It was a tender, bitter-sweet moment when she left us to be with Jesus. She had no more work here with us, but I know she is serving her master in heaven.

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I Don’t Know How to Love Him

I have just started my internship at First Baptist Church of Asheville. So far it has been an ah-mazing experience. Over the past two weeks the church has been obsessed with the youth choir’s presentation of Jesus Christ Super Star. With good reason, the entire body has worked diligently on the program for nearly a year.  More than the incredible skill and talent with which it was executed, I was impressed by the deep spiritual maturity the congregation and especially the youth who worked so hard on the controversial rock opera.

A few days after the presentation, the cast was interviewed by the pastor in front of the church during a talk-show style event. Each teenager acknowledged how their perceptions of Jesus had been affected by the opera. Most of them were challenged with the mystery of the incarnation and what it means for Jesus to be fully human and fully divine. They discussed heady theological issues with a maturity difficult to find in many seminaries, let alone a youth ministry.  One statement, offered by an sweet young girl who played Mary Magdalene, struck me with an indelible blow.

“People always ask me who Jesus is to me, and to me Jesus has always been best friend,” she said.  “My whole life he’s been the one I turn to. Well, in this musical I had the opportunity to play Jesus’ best friend. And when we started rehearsal I realized I didn’t  know how to act around Jesus. I was standing right next to him and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what it looked like.” She smiled and I thought that the tears in my own eyes would be mirrored in her’s. But she simply looked out in to to audience and said in an sweet even tone “but Jesus really is with me all the time. He is my best friend, and he is standing with me. Still, most of the time I don’t know how to act around Jesus. And I think that’s true of all of us sometimes.”

 

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Reconciled

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.   2 Corinthians 5:18-19

The first time I heard a sermon on reconciliation I found the idea almost magical. That not only has God brought us near to Him through Chris, but also we are to be committed to the same action. We are to emulate His actions in dealing with one another. Loving one another like Jesus loved us and bringing relationship where sin has divided.

One of my Professors was trying to explain to us the Holy Spirit’s work of reconciliation. To emphasize his point the professor read us an account of a deacon who caught several men, all very young, in the act of vandalizing and robbing his church. The police came and arrested them men, but Sunday the pastor had an idea.  He asked that a love offering be taken up for the robbers and their families.”Don’t spread the word that we’re doing this,” he said, but he wanted to do something radical. All the things they stole and destroyed were material possessions that could be replaced. The church responded by donating money, visiting with their families and giving them the same electronics they men tried to steal.The pastor and his church wanted to show that they didn’t care about the stuff; they cared about their souls. For this they received attention and acclamation from several news agencies and the local and national communities. This action seemed so unique to the outside world. What motivated such an action? The gospel.

As my professor finished the story, he look around with a smile and asked what we all thought. I was startled when every person he called on thought the church naive. Even the kindest and gentlest members of our class believed they were rewarding theft and that those men don’t deserve it. Some asked if the men had changed their ways as if our soul motivation in showing graces was determined by the results. I became heartsick at the thought. Of course these men didn’t deserve it! That is exactly why this church acted the way they did. This church showed these men in a tangible way that their sin was forgiven, and they desired to be reconciled with them. They did the work of reconciliation. It was hard and it cost them. It was against their instincts and against culture. But it is the ministry of Christ.

We are all sinners. We should never look down on any expression of grace. None of us deserve the blessings we receive. Those thieves didn’t deserve the gifts of that church, and I don’t deserve the gift of Christ. The beauty of grace is that we don’t get what we deserve. God makes the sun to rise and the rain to fall on the good and bad, and we are to show love in the same way. For in Christ we are forgiven and reconciled with the living God. We are called to forgive others always if we are to be forgiven, and we are to reconcile whenever possible if we are ever to bring the Kingdom of God hear on earth.

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