Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Thoughts for Second B's 53rd

I forgot to post this in advance of Second B's 53rd anniversary last Sunday:


It's anniversary weekend at Second B and this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we will
celebrate 53 years of congregational ministry. In advance of what I know will be a
great weekend, I want to go ahead and thank all those who have worked so hard to make
this a very meaningful anniversary.

As part of our anniversary events, the Men's Prayer Breakfast group hosted a special prayer breakfast on Tuesday. We made an extra effort to invite a number of former participants to come back for the breakfast. It was a good morning. How pleasing it is when brothers dwell together in biscuits and gravy!

I was asked to bring that morning's devotional and my thoughts were inspired by the
work of Phyllis Tickle, our upcoming 2012 Adult Retreat leader. In her book The Great Emergence, Tickle argues that approximately every 500 years cataclysmic forces converge to fundamentally re-shape Christianity. Tickle cites the fall of Rome
around 500 AD, the schism which separated the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches around 1000 AD, and then the Reformation around 1500 AD. Tickle suggests the church is in the midst of yet another such cataclysmic eruption today. Tickle locates the eruption in the scientific and philosophical discoveries of Albert Einstein. According to Tickle, Einstein's insights into the metaphysics of time and space combined to at once revolutionize scientific and technological discovery, while at the same time calling into significant question certain philosophical assumptions about the nature of truth. In short, Tickle argues the church is in the midst of a great shakeup wherein the church is being forced to wrestle with the matter of authority -- especially what we Protestants mean by the authority of Holy
Scripture. Tickle believes the church will have to discover new and creative ways of reading Holy Scripture if it is not to be locked into wooden interpretations
which continue to be proven unsatisfactory for the modern age -- the issues of slavery, women's rights, and the creation vs. evolution debate come immediately to mind.

What I wanted to communicate to the men at the prayer breakfast is that Second B ought not to fear such a revolution. In fact, very early on in the life of Second B we decided to face head-on the questions that are being raised. This is most clearly symbolized in our service logo, the Atomic Ichthus. I cited a 2008 Second Page article by former pastor Hardy Clemons which told the story of how the Atomic Ichthus came about. In that article Hardy said the church was looking for a symbol which would adequately communicate Second B's goal of being a contemporary people of God. He made several points about the Second B values that were being communicated, three of which I shall leave with you: 1) Second B is a "church which is both genuinely Christian and intentionally contemporary” 2) We "value open inquiry and valid questionasking as a part of faith" 3) We "seek new truth, welcome new insights, and avoid fear of change to which we feel led by the will of God."
As we celebrate this 53rd anniversary, I believe Second B is well poised to embrace whatever new truths are yet to be discovered in whatever revolutions are to come.

Our God is the great I Am -- the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Yet, our understanding of this God who came to us in Christ continues to evolve and transform. For as Harry Emerson Fosdick -- one of Hardy's great mentors -- was fond of saying, "Astronomies come and go; but the stars abide."

Our North Star is fixed; and it beckons us to journey to even greater heights to ascertain it.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Prophetic Words for a Fallen Hero


Father Mike preaches a prophetic word at the funeral of a fallen Chicago police officer.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Young Enough to Feed 5,000

Our forty-two children have all returned from summer camp in Brownwood and I am happy to report it was a great week. Forty-two kids are the most any of us can remember going with Second B to camp and we are all very excited about how well things worked out, even with that many heads to count.

I want to say thanks to our children's pastor Judy Bryant and all our adult leaders who gave up a week to make camp possible. Special thanks also to our Missions Division and numerous individuals for helping to pay the way for a number of kids who otherwise would not have been able to make the trip because of lack of funds. This year ten of our Kids Hope kids along with a number of kids from within our own church membership received partial or whole scholarships to camp. Without all you leaders and sponsors camp simply would not be possible. Thank you.

Though camp really is about fun; its also about growing our children in the faith. A week away at camp provides the time and space for our pastors and adult leaders to connect intentionally with our children and talk to them about life and about life with God. We simply don't have these same kinds of opportunities back at home.

This year one of the lessons we studied was from John 6:1-14 where Jesus feeds the five thousand. A multitude of people has followed Jesus up a mountainside and soon runs out of provisions. The disciples wonder where they are to get enough bread to feed so great a crowd. And then one of Jesus' disciples, Andrew, points out that a young boy has brought five barley loaves and two fish. I read Andrew's words with a certain degree of mocking, "Oh, isn't that cute," condescension. He responds to the boy's meager offering the same way I might respond if we had a flat and my son offered the spare from his Tonka truck. And yet, it turns out that the boy's meager offer really is enough. The next thing we know the whole multitude has been fed.

The point of our study and the subject of many conversations later in the week was that these kids are coming of age. They are old enough to see the needs of this world. And they are old enough to see that they have gifts that they might can share. And, above all, they are young enough to trust that Jesus might take their meager offerings and feed a multitude.

Let us be so young.