Days of Profound Gratitude - Thursday, 30 June 2011 - Part VIII

Days of Profound Gratitude – Thursday, 30 June 2011 – Part VIII

After our trip to "the country," we ended the day with a visit with longtime friends who relocated to Sumter, South Carolina from Brooklyn, New York.  All of us belonged to a church in Brooklyn where I served as Associate and then Assistant Pastor.  We enjoyed our time in Sunday Church School, other Christian education offerings, biannual revival services and multiple social and fellowship experiences.  An enduring friendship developed and continues to this day.  Phone calls, exchange of text messages and emails and written correspondence inclusive of seasonal cards maintain our Christian and personal affection for each other until we are able to do so directly.  Each summer, we are blessed with food for the soul in each other’s company as we catch-up with each other.  This year, we were particularly thankful to visit at our friends’ home.  It is a blessing to see their house, its comfortability, location adjacent to a safe cul-de-sac, and listening to a rehearsal of their daily and weekly routines.  

An objective person eavesdropping on our conversation, especially a single individual, may find suspect that we married people with children are very boring types.  Such a surface glimpse fails to appreciate the profound thanksgiving in our hearts as individuals, spouses and families when we reflect upon the arduous spiritual tests we passed to find joy and gratitude in life's daily simplicity. What bores one person may bring utter happiness to someone else.  "One person’s trash is another person’s treasure." After a few formidable faith challenges, we obtained increasing revelations and gratitude for Almighty God's unquestionable faithfulness. In the foregoing times when we studied the Word of God together and fellowshipped at meals, we could not take our current blessings for granted.  What other people may see as boredom, we relish as bountiful blessings. 

Our daily routines enable us to experience the riches of character and eternal wealth that one gains when giving love freely as a husband, father, son-in-law, friend, and pastor and community activist.   We shudder to think how impoverished our lives would be were it not for our families.  Daily tasks of exchanging love within the covenant of marriage and the beloved community of family and friends are not burdens as genuine love bears no expense.  In the words of St. Francis of Assisi, as we die to ourselves in giving unconditionally, God’s love raises us to new life.  Our perennial visit with these friends reminds all of us of just how blessed we are!

As I concluded this average day, I recalled the immortal words of the Psalmist.  “This is the day that the Lord hath made; I will rejoice and be glad in it.”  A day which began with unfounded anxieties ends with profound thanksgiving.  An average day weather-wise for a blistering, sweltering and humid day in June would unfold as an incredible day of interpersonal healing for a brother and me.  The intense illumination of the sun would parallel the new insight my children would gain of their extended family and my childhood context.  Equally, I would rediscover vital ancestral and familial roots.  Rather than relegating them to being relics of the past, I understand their formidable contributions in shaping my character and identity.  I incorporate them as assets as I develop personally and grow spiritually. 

Mostly, on this typical Thursday in late June 2011, I again learn the importance of being grateful.  A heart of thanksgiving is foundational to acquiring happiness, joy and liberty in life.  My pilgrimage to the setting of my childhood became an experience of memory, healing and greater progress toward unconditional self-acceptance and wholeness.  The day began with a torrent of emotion particularly based in fear and groundless anticipations that little had changed in my childhood setting, As my family and I left our friends’ house and headed to the interstate for the two and a half hour drive back to our hotel, I rejoiced as I considered Almighty God’s faithfulness during the thirty-one years since I left home.  I remain grateful for the immeasurable blessing of my life’s journey in the interim.  Physically tired but mentally alert as I drove the one hundred and sixty-five miles, I continually watched a mind movie of the day’s events.   As a very broad smile remained on my face, I entitled the movie, “A Day of Profound Gratitude.”  It is one I will watch many times in the future when I take it out of the secure vault of my heart of thanksgiving.

Reflections on the Life of the Late Reverend Professor Peter J. Gomes - Part Three

Reflections on the Life of 

The Late Reverend Professor Peter J. Gomes – Part Three

Professor Gomes thoroughly discussed with my colleagues and me his previous revelation about his sexual preference. He did so to counterbalance the rising and increasingly dominant voice in Christian circles that insist upon the mutual exclusivity of Christian and gay identities.  He had grown very weary and impatient with a perspective he deemed hopelessly myopic.  To his great surprise, Reverend Gomes said he received unexpected assurances from Cambridge evangelical Christians that he would not be the object of any ridicule or condemnation from them.  He welcomed this gracious overture and commitment.  However, it substantially disappointed him to realize the lack of encouragement from his colleagues in the academic community.  He shared with us that none of them called to offer a word of prayer in response to his revelation.  His disappointment led to a discussion about the ways in which the liberal, progressive segment of American Christianity falls short in actualizing its principles.  Regrettably, the then Governor of Tennessee had decided effective 1 August 2005 to drop 200,000 people from TennCare, the State’s health insurance program.  The cuts put an undue burden on the “sickest of the sick” that had to choose between food and medicine.  Personally, I posited this governmental decision to be a moral issue which the Church and clergy had a biblically mandated obligation to advocate for these most vulnerable citizens who are unable to speak for themselves.  Additionally, the recent military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan began and were sustained without a thorough vetting within the ecclesiastical or academic communities.  I do not recall any provocative or perpetual progressive voice from either group to confront the Bush Administration or Congress about engaging these conflicts.  Whether in pastoral ministry or an academic setting, religiously committed people with a progressive bent failed to actualize the tenets of their beliefs.  Professor Gomes’ sharing of his personal pain and disappointment became a challenge to strive for integrity in rhetoric and reality.

At the time of our collegial colloquium with Professor Gomes, he had served as the Pusey Minister and Plummer Professor for more than thirty-five years.  Understandably, planning for retirement rose significantly on his "To Do" List.  He shared this sober reality with us.  Notwithstanding the length of a clergyperson's tenure or the extent of his or her success, a confluence of personal and professional circumstances inevitably create or coerce retirement from full time service.  Reverend Gomes' willingness to share his contemplation of a forthcoming end of his ministerial service at Harvard led to a collegial question about the type and substance of ministry he thinks will follow him at Harvard.  Professor Gomes discoursed about the disturbing trend within university ministry settings to replace authentic and existential religious and spiritual commitment with psychological counseling.

Reverend Gomes shared his fear the Harvard chaplaincy would assume a psychological counseling model.  He intimated a growing devaluation of religious rituals and genuine spirituality across the nation's college and university campuses. Albeit most significant to achieving intrapersonal wholeness which eradicates religious pathology, counseling is not as widely accessible as is the biblically-based gospel message of personal transformation.  Subsequent to our time with Reverend Gomes, I watched an interview on the Charlie Rose Show in which Reverend Gomes declared unequivocally that the gospel of Jesus Christ remains a compelling message even within the twenty-first century context.  He lamented his inability to convince more of his colleagues of the propositional veracity and existential worth of the gospel.  Within our conversation, he bemoaned the virtual certainty the University would not even try to offer its students this viable option for attaining a joyous and holistic life.  I share his concern.  As a practicing pastor, I realize the immeasurable power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to transform lives whether an addict, alcoholic or white collar criminal.

Further in this Charlie Rose interview, Professor Gomes states his definitive Christian faith.  "It is still a very compelling story.  I regret have not made the argument to convince more of my colleagues." He intimates psychology alone will not suffice to offer integrity, joy, self-acceptance and wholeness.  Does resolving one's intrapersonal challenges necessarily yield these attributes?  Formulaic adherence to religious rituals definitely does not.  However, commitment to progressive and genuine spirituality within an interdependent relationship with Almighty God encourages and empowers anyone to live to the fullest.

Reflections on the Life of the Late Reverend Professor Peter J. Gomes - Part Four

Reflections on the Life of 

The Late Reverend Professor Peter J. Gomes – Part Four

Additionally, when we consider the predominate role of religion in the life of an average American citizen or global citizen particularly in the Middle East, it seems rather short-sighted of any institution of higher learning to ignore or devaluate its intellectual and existential centrality.  Replacing religion with psychology myopically substitutes middle strata, bourgeois and academic lifestyle as the normative standard for enjoying a meaningful life.  This untenable approach disregards hundreds of millions of people for whom college life remains so far removed from daily living.  It simply seems unreasonable to proffer a position that excludes such a large proportion of humankind.  Further, when we consider the impact and influence of religion and spirituality within international affairs (the events of 11 September 2001, the Sunni-Shia Islamic divide in Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia, the extraordinary ability of Muslim clerics to influence the political and social events within Middle Eastern countries, and the role of Buddhism in the conflict between mainland China and Tibet among many other military, economic and geopolitical challenges).  It seems most appropriate that colleges and universities through institutional chaplaincies would equip students with the intellectual methods to achieve an existential faith that assists graduates to contribute significantly to helping fellow adherents in their faith communities to practice an intellectually respectable lifestyle that embraces the respect and dignity of all humankind.   After viewing a few interviews with Professor Gomes with Charlie Rose and "In the Green Room," I obtained a greater respect for the integrity of his Christian faith.   I appreciate his stalwart faith despite the pressure by the academic and dominant culture to relegate Christianity to irrelevance.

Reverend Professor Gomes was unabashedly Baptist as a clergyman.  His commitment to this confessional perspective was most evident in his funeral pre-planning in which he arranged a formal, traditional funeral at Plymouth Baptist Church notwithstanding the very "high church" liturgy of the Anglican faith that would be held at Memorial Church at Harvard.  In response to a question, he cursorily described the plans for his service which he had left in a safe deposit box.  Reverend Gomes said he would prefer mostly hymns of the Christian faith.  In particular, he desired the hymn, “Give Your Best to the Master.”  Furthermore, he shared the verse, 1 Timothy 2:15, would be engraved on his tombstone.  He posits he obeyed this biblical mandate through his teaching, writing and preaching.

Reverend Gomes' funeral plans evidenced a depth of humility not immediately evident when first encountering him. After forty years at Harvard University with the concomitant achievements of earning the distinction as one of the best preachers in the English language, offering sermons at U. S. President George H. W. Bush's inauguration and Westminster Abbey where Great Britain's royal family periodically worships and publishing a few bestselling books, he accepted the equality of everyone in death.  He could have requested the funeral mass of all masses to duly note his superlative achievements. Yet, he did not; rather he followed the example of his beloved parents by planning a funeral at Plymouth Baptist Church where the congregation and neighbors who nurtured him in his formative years and knew him long before his ascent to celebrity could most genuinely celebrate his life as Peter J. Gomes instead of the public persona.  I appreciate Professor Gomes' ability to juxtapose celebrity and commonality.  His fundamental self-acceptance enabled him to find a balance in embracing both worlds without sacrificing the other.  He also did not succumb to disregarding other peoples’ dignity in order to attain his own.

In fulfilling the pastoral directive of studying to demonstrate one's worthiness, Reverend Gomes expansive career as a minister, scholar, and teacher reflects a commitment to a lifelong pursuit of asking and answering questions of faith and spirituality in an intellectually respectable way.  His faithfulness challenges all disciples to serve our Lord similarly.  The extensive religious and cultural pluralism of the global village which a predominant and preferential secular, humanistic worldview in the United States furthers demands all Christians in whatever walk of life emulate Reverend Gomes' example of making this compelling argument.  I argue each disciple has an obligation to meet this challenge irrespective of his or her formal education, socio-economic status, political ideology, or cultural milieu.  This requirement is not the sole prerogative of Christians who live within academe. 

I conclude this personal reflection on Reverend Professor Gomes life where I began.  I continually marvel at his inimitable example of self-acceptance.  I had not encountered anyone heretofore who possessed such a clear and unequivocal sense of self.  I imagine how differently life will unfold for anyone who acquires this divine and spiritual attribute.  On a typical Saturday morning in October approximately five years ago, I was blessed to met a brother, fellow disciple and colleague whose personal authenticity forever changed my outlook on ministry and myself.  Humbly, I hope my recollections of a single meeting with this extraordinary person encourage and empower you to discover your own divine and personal worth.

Pull It From Within Me

“I guess I can pull it from within me.”  Those words characterize a sister’s approach to resolving a problem.  Rather than expecting a miracle, she mines her internal riches.  In this moment of enlightenment, she realizes God graciously gives her everything she needs to conquer any adversarial circumstances.  Whereas the problem is internal, the solution also lies within her.  She merely “pulls it from within me.”

That saying reminds me of a sermon illustration.  A family in Texas owns a large tract of land.  Occasional daydreaming causes the father to consider drilling for oil.  Thinking further about being rich makes him act on this impulse.  He brings a few oilrigs to the property and starts to drill.  At five hundred feet, no oil sprouts forth.  He digs further; at seven hundred and fifty feet, still, no oil emerges.  The father tries again.  At a thousand feet, he still does not discover any oil.  Against his inclinations and conventional wisdom, he digs even further.  Surprisingly, at twelve hundred feet, that blessed black, liquid oil shoots up out of the riches of the earth!  Was the father rich prior to reaching oil?  Indeed, he was!  He merely had to “pull it from within him.”

Likewise, we possess answers to our problems.  Further, we have incredible internal riches.  Will we dig within ourselves to discover inner healing and wholeness?  Ephesians 3:20 says that God is able to do “exceedingly, abundantly more than we can ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within us.”  Yes, God’s amazing and miraculous acts surpass our human comprehension and description.  Yet, He empowers us to work on His behalf.  He places healing and riches within us.  In an interdependent and growing relationship, we obtain peace and wholeness.  The process resembles miners digging for invaluable jewels, minerals and other precious resources.

“Pulling from within me” requires practice of daily spiritual disciplines.  They include self-evaluation, prayer, affirmation of the Word of God, meditation, Bible study, imaging and daily quiet time.  Healing is a process!  It necessitates progress rather than perfection.  It demands commitment and hard work!  Mathematically, you cannot get something for nothing.  Similarly, in God’s economy, spiritual growth and personal development are fruit of faithful devotion to “pulling from within me.”

I recall a now deceased person whom I counseled consistently for a year.  As we discussed her problems and she settled comfortably into the victims’ couch, the sessions went well.  She was content to sit and polish the problem ad infinitum.  Not surprisingly, I reached a point where I began to ask about her ideas for resolving the problem.  She immediately terminated the counseling sessions.  In essence, she wanted me to serve as her enabler.  Instead, I challenged her to reach for the solution rather than stay in victim’s mode.  She refused to “pull it from within herself.”

Self-discipline is one of the most crucial aspects of “pulling it from within me.”  Regardless of your dilemma, self-control arrests the problem.  We eliminate our liabilities; if not, we neutralize them.  Painstakingly following wise counsel of spiritual mentors greatly aids us in this quest.  Spiritual growth does not lend itself to periodic spurts of interests.  It insists upon wholesale commitment.  Daily, we practice self-discipline as we take the next right step in faith.

I pray you will “pull from within you” the answers to your daily challenges.  Almighty God offers practical methods and spiritual tools to resolve any dilemma.  We are neither helpless nor hopeless in any adversity whether internal or external.  We have blessed assurance of divine resources to equip us to succeed and excel.

Are you willing to “pull it from within me?”

You Can't Lose Something You Never Really Had!

You Can’t Lose Something You Never Really Had!

You can’t lose something you never really had!  I realize the obviousness of that statement appears supercilious.  However, I recite it to provoke you to consider whether you are fretting over meaningless losses.  I find many people expending exorbitant time and emotion over “losses” that are actually “gains.”  Yes, no one likes to lose anything.  Some people refuse to gamble because they hate to lose their hard earned money.  We particularly hate to lose relationships in which we made a tremendous investment of time, money and emotion.  Sometimes, we realize we are wasting ourselves with people who do not appreciate us.  After anger dissipates and disillusionment fades, we soberly and humbly acknowledge we never really had what we thought we had.  We did not lose a good marriage because we never really had one.  Again, you can’t lose something that you never really had.

Everyone I know who experienced “downsizing,” “right sizing” or termination found a better employment situation.  As a graduate admission professional, I vividly recall a conversation with a former banker.  On a Friday morning, she learned her job would be eliminated due to a recent merger.  She made an immediate call to the admissions office for an interview.  As we talked, she shared she knew ten years previously she always desired to teach high school English literature.  Yet, she could not yank herself away from the money.  Eventually, she resolved God did for her what she could not do for herself.  This woman completed the application process; she was admitted.  Today, after completing her masters in teaching degree, she happily teaches Shakespeare, Donne, Dickens, Ellison, Morrison, and other great authors to high school students.  This applicant concluded the “loss” of her job was actually a much greater “gain.” 

Cease and desist with the notion God only works in the “light.”  In contradistinction, God powerfully transforms and redeems the “darkness.” The psalmist assures us though “weeping endures for the night, joy comes in the morning.”  The “darkness” of loss eventually yields to the dawn of a new opportunity.  Closing one door automatically opens another one.  Isaiah inimitably paints a picture of God’s redemptive promise in converting our losses into gains.  “I will lead the blind by ways they have not known; along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth.  These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.” (Isaiah 42:16) 

The loss of primary relationships greatly affects us.  Those failures are harder to overcome than other quantifiable matters.  You cannot fully determine how much emotion and love you give to a marriage.  Therefore, when heartfelt relationships end, resentment and bitterness are natural reactions. These feelings inevitably harm the person who nurses them.  Fretting over meaningless losses consumes substantial time and talent available for more meaningful pursuits.  Regret and resentment are just as meaningless as any loss.  A friend of mine starkly parallels maintaining resentments with continually urinating on yourself! 

Loss is a fundamental part of life.  We lose things due to negligence and irresponsibility.  Sometimes, we lose people and possessions because of accidents and natural disasters.  Other times, we lose very important things due to matters beyond our control.  All losses are not equal.  I highly recommend spiritual disciplines of prayer, meditation and self-evaluation.  In utilizing them, you analyze your losses, past and present, to determine their worth.  Afterwards, you find grace and divine power to move beyond meaningless losses. 

A Litmus Test to Enter Heaven?

A Litmus Test to Enter Heaven?

Will there be a litmus test to enter the pearly gates of heaven?  Often, we joke about a cross examination from St. Peter.  Many church members assume they must find the “right” answers during their earthly pilgrimage.  The “Parable of the Talents” (Matthew 25:14-30) and various passages on “Judgment Day” (1 Corinthians 3:10-15) indicate God will hold us accountable for stewardship of time, talent, tithe and temperament.

What did you do with the life I gave you?  How did you invest your abilities and gifts into expanding my kingdom?  Those are probably the questions the Lord will ask.  In the “Parable of the Talents,” the Master returns and questions each servant about use of his talents.  He gives three servants five, two and one talent, respectively.  The first two individuals invest their talents and receive a hundred fold return.  Through fear, procrastination and laziness, the third servant essentially squanders his talent; he buries it.  In response, the Master asks, “What happened?”  Why didn’t you use what I gave you in service to humankind?

Similarly, we will to account for our stewardship.  He gives each person a gift; in some instances multiple gifts.  Yet, those talents and abilities lie dormant.  Books remain to be written.  Music has not been composed and recorded.  Art, fine and performing, remain on the level of a good idea.  Cures to diseases and solutions to social, economic and political problems are desperately needed.  More practically, marriages continue to dissolve in record numbers and families fall prey to sequential, generational afflictions of alcoholism, drug addiction, welfare dependency, substandard education and poverty.  Assuredly, God will ask about our use of resources He entrusts to our care.

The passage, 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, depicts a brilliant image of divine fire and judgment.  The prism of an eternal perspective and light of God’s countenance are such a fire.  Paul imagines our life’s work being tried in the fire.  Some works resemble wood, hay and straw which cannot withstand the ferocity of heat.  Other works like gold, silver, bronze and other precious metals endure the flames.  God will equally test our use of earthly resources.  The fire will consume self-seeking, hedonism and frenetic fight for riches of the world.  Equally, a wholesale individualist approach to life that disregards the need to share with others will not endure eternity’s flames.  In contrast, works that build God’s kingdom and demonstrate His love will last.  Truth, justice, love, respect, dignity and peace are true eternal riches. 

Thank God He will not give us a theology examination as a requirement for admission to heaven.  Practically speaking, ninety-nine percent (99%) of the Church would fail it anyway!  The one percent who might pass cannot rely upon that possibility.  Ultimately, correct doctrine and dogma will probably amount to very little.  What matters is truth expressing itself in love.

God essentially asks are we willing to share His love with others.  Will we spend a lifetime demonstrating our gratitude for His unfathomable grace and limitless love?  Will we live to God’s honor and glory and in service to humankind?  If we will, we are passing the major theological exam of life.  Jesus says the two greatest commandments are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves.  (Matthew 22:34-40)  The entire teachings of the Law and Prophets rest upon these two commandments.  Furthermore, the Johannine evangelist tells us the gospel is essentially a message of love.  In as much as “God is love,” those of us who know “Love,” willingly demonstrate our beliefs by sharing it with others. (1 John 4:7-21).

Necessary Evil?

Necessary Evil?

The idea of redemptive suffering begs the question of necessary evil.  God redeems the suffering of Joseph whose brothers unjustly sell him into Egyptian slavery.  Is this betrayal an act of necessary evil?  It is the catalyst of the dramatic salvation of the Israelite people during an unparalleled famine.  Second, Job eventually receives twice the amount of children and material possessions that he loses initially.  That recompense eliminates the bleak period of questioning, destitution, and misery.  Similar to Joseph, is Job’s suffering an act of necessary evil to depict the goodness and faithfulness of Almighty God? 

Yet, we wonder whether the “bargain” between Satan and God was a necessary evil to enable Job’s ultimate bounteous reward.  Third, was Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of Christ necessary evil to accomplish humankind’s salvation through Jesus’ redemptive suffering?  If you agree that necessary evil facilitates redemptive suffering, then how do you explain God’s goodness and His permission of evil?

For centuries, theologians attempt to reconcile evil’s existence with the character of an all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-present and all-kind God.  How could He allow evil?  Moreover, what leads Him to utilize evil as a necessary condition in the salvation of Israel through Joseph and the redemption of humankind via Christ?  How could an infinite Being who cannot be tempted by evil periodically use evil to accomplish His predetermined purposes? 

Logically, the presence of evil eliminates one of the four non-negotiable attributes of God.  If God is all kind and evil flourishes, perhaps God is not actually all-powerful.  Contrarily, if He is all-powerful and evil exists, then perhaps He is not really all kind.  If God is all knowing, He fails to stop the emergence of evil.  Does His permission of evil means He is really not all kind? 

Furthermore, could not one conclude a seamless line exists between God’s direct and permissive wills?  Is there any appreciable difference between God’s foreknowledge and His predetermination of events, including evil, if God directly intervenes in the affairs of humankind?  Lastly, if He is ever-present, how do we explain His inability to stop evil?  Yet, the question remains whether He predetermines and utilizes “necessary evil” to accomplish His purposes?

The preceding questions are more age-old academic inquiries.  We fight for reasonable answers within our own experiences.  When tragedy occurs, we immediately ask “Where is God in this crisis?”  Why is He allowing this to happen to me?  Since He could have prevented this situation, why did He not?  Essentially, it is difficult to praise and worship God when He permits evil in our lives. 

Praise the Lord!  He redeems pain and suffering.  He utilizes every harmful experience to mature us spiritually.  Mysteriously, God uses tribulations as tests to magnify our spiritual being.  Yet, the question remains whether evil is necessary to fulfill His predetermined plans.

The Bible reveals a sovereign God who determines Israel to be His chosen people.  A drastic famine in Egypt possibly annihilates His people.  Through Joseph God saves Israel.  In Egypt, they multiply greatly and threaten the native people.  Nonetheless, Joseph pays a very costly price to be God’s anointed vessel.  Was the evil of his brothers’ betrayal and Joseph’s unjust imprisonment necessary to save Israel? Did God preordain this evil?