Ben Sternke

Field notes on life and mission with God after Christendom

Christ Community

The death of preaching

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I have followed Bob Hyatt's blog for awhile now, and greatly admire the work he's done in planting a church in Portland. I think we'll probably use the Lent prayer guide he put together as an aid to a fruitful Lenten season at Christ Community.

Bob has an interesting post up (Franchise Ahoy!) about the idea and practice of video-venue churches, where "franchise" churches are planted in various cities with video sermons preached by a pastor in another location (often now another state). His post is about the possibility of Mars Hill planting a video church in Portland, piping in Mark Driscoll's preaching every Sunday, despite the fact that Mark's church-planting network (Acts 29) already has 2-4 churches in Portland that have been planted already.

Bob predicts that if it goes unchecked, this "franchise" mentality of church planting will eventually lead to the complete Wal-Martization of the church and the "death of preaching." I love the comment he made on a Facebook group dedicated to getting a Mars Hill video church in Portland:

"Look- not to be a jerk- but there are already three churches here in
Portland started by the Acts 29 network. A video church of Mark's
teaching is not only redundant (it's all vodcasted, right?) it's kind
of an insult to those who have worked hard to plant the churches that
this video venue would most likely draw people from.

"As someone
who has planted and is planting churches in PDX, I can assure you- my
problem isn't thinking that there are too many churches in Portland.
I'm passionate about seeing as many real churches planted as possible.
But a franchised video church with elders who live in another state, 3
hours away? No- thank you."

What do you think? Video churches? The death of preaching, really? Begs the question of what a "church" is, too, don't you think?

Advent thoughts: John the Baptist

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John_the_baptist
This past week the lectionary readings directed us to focus on John the Baptist, and his "voice in the wilderness" calling the people of Israel to repent, confess their sins, and be baptized for forgiveness in preparation for the one who was coming, who was greater than John, who would baptize with the Holy Spirit.

We ended up focusing on John the Baptist both at Christ Community, (where we follow the lectionary), and Heartland (where we are going through a sermon series called Voices of Advent), and I've got the themes on my mind, so I thought I'd write an extension of some of those thoughts here…

Isaiah's promise is that God will come to redeem his people. They are in exile, but God is promising to come and save. John's call is that, in order to receive this promise, we must repent and be baptized. We must change direction, do something different than what we've been doing, pass through the water to the "promised land". Repenting is simply preparing for a new reality that is coming. When electricity first came to rural America, people had to change the way they lived in order to receive it. Cables and wires needed to be installed in order to receive the "kingdom of electricity" that was "at hand". We must do the same to welcome the new reality God desires to bring to us.

It's interesting to note that when Jesus came on the scene, Luke comments that "All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus' words,
acknowledged that God's way was right, because they had been baptized
by John. But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God's purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John" (Luke 7:29-30). Preparing the way by repenting made all the difference in the world between the tax collectors and the Pharisees. They ones who rejected Jesus were the ones who refused to humbly repent.

The season of Advent is a counter-cultural one. In the midst of the cozy sentimentality that surrounds our culture's "Holiday Season", Advent asks us to soberly examine ourselves and see if we are really ready for Christ to come again, to invade our lives in a fresh way. Advent calls us not only to wistfully anticipate Baby Jesus in the manger, but to actively prepare for Christ to come as King; to really become ready to receive Christ, by prayer and fasting and repentance.

In the midst of the consumerism, materialism, and sugary sentimentality of our culture's "Holiday Season," how can we hear John's Advent voice, calling us to repent and prepare the way for Christ to come again into our lives in a new and deeper way?

All Saints’ Day

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Chinesemartyrs
November 1st is All Saints' Day, which is the "Memorial Day" for the church. It's when the church remembers the saints and martyrs that have gone before us in the faith. It's also a wonderful day to remember the persecuted church around the world, those for whom confessing faith in Christ is dangerous and often life-threatening.

The icon to the left, for example, is called the Icon of the Holy Orthodox Martyrs of China, and would be a great way to meditate on the sufferings of the underground church in China right now. Notice Christ at the top center.

Christ Community will be celebrating All Saints the following Sunday (Nov 2) by reading the Scriptures from the lectionary and then hearing several people give 3-5 minute "mini-biographies" of saints, martyrs, or a group of currently persecuted Christians.

We'll respond in the Eucharist together, and by singing Graham Kendrick's song "How Long?":

As we bring our songs of love today

Do you hear a sound more glorious?

Like the mighty roar of ocean waves

Many witnesses surround us

It’s a harmony of costly praise

From the lips of those who suffer

Of sighs and tears and martyrs’ prayers

Until this age is over.


Aroundthrone
How long, Lord, till you come?

How long till the earth is filled with your song?

How long until your justice shines like the sun?

How long, Lord, till you come?

How long till the earth is filled with your song?

How long, how long?


Lord, help us to live worthy of

Our sisters and our brothers

Who love you more than their own lives

Who worship as they suffer

To embrace the scandal of the cross

Not ashamed to tell your story

To count all earthly gain as loss

To know you and your glory


How long, Lord, till you come?

How long till the earth is filled with your song?

How long until your justice shines like the sun?

How long, Lord till you come?

How long till the whole world hears and the work is done

Until at last we see you return?

How long, Lord till you come?

How long till the earth is filled with your song?

How long, how long?

On All Saints' Day we remember the fact that this is a communal salvation, a corporate faith, and we often don't know what faithfulness looks like until we see it embodied in another human being. When we look back to the saints of history, we are also praying that their faithfulness would become ours, that we could inspire others as they have inspired us.

Who are some of the saints and martyrs in history who have inspired you to "love and good works"?
Or how about a group of currently persecuted Christians?

Healing and hurting

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This weekend at Christ Community’s Word and Sacrament worship gathering I am preaching on Jacob’s wrestling with God in Genesis 32 (as well as Matthew’s account of Jesus feeding the five thousand).

This quote seemed particularly appropriate, considering the strange story of Jacob experiencing Yahweh blessing him and dislocating his hip. It would seem the hurting and the healing go together most times.

"Our healing lies in obedient acceptance of God’s will; but this is no bland resignation. It is a change wrought by anguish, darkness, and stripping. If we believe we can experience our healing without deepening our hurt, we have understood nothing of the roots of our faith. Jesus’ obedience in the circumstances of his earthly life, in temptation and fear, ‘with loud cries and tears’ (Heb 5:7), is what opens the long-closed door between God and our hearts, and, although that door is now decisively open, all must still pass through it to make the reconciliation their own."

– Rowan Williams, The Wound of Knowledge, 20-21.

I think I see in his passage where Jacobs overcomes God (but walks away limping) a foreshadowing of the cross, in that here we see a God who overcomes by being overcome, who wins by losing, who conquers by weakness. It seems to me this has always been the central scandal of the gospel, that Jesus didn’t choose the way of violence and coercion, but chose the path of shame and weakness, patiently enduring evil in order to exhaust it of its power.

Christian spirituality, then, is always cruciform. Despite the sentimentality of much of what is called "spirituality" today, God does not transform us by being our buddy and just telling us we’re not so bad after all. He transforms us by killing us and then raising us up as new creatures. We walk forward in Christian practice by going back to the cross again and again. We live by dying, we win by losing, just like our Lord.

Wildflowers and origami birds

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Tonight at our Word and Sacrament gathering for Christ Community, we read Matthew 6:25-35: Do not worry about your life… look at the birds and the flowers, God can be trusted.

Wildflowers

(Photo by Andy Kershaw, found here).

We handed everyone a little flower to look at as the homily was given, so they could examine it and meditate on Jesus’ words:

"As for worrying about clothes, well, look at the little flowers out in the fields. They just pop right up. They don’t slave away getting or making clothes. But King Solomon in his best outfit was not as glorious as one of these. Now if God so adorns the wild grasses—which are here for a day, and the next day are burned for fuel—won’t he do even better by you? You mini-faiths!"

That’s right, Jesus called us "mini-faiths" tonight. It seems he is not "above" coining a phrase to tease us with. The thrust of the evening was taking Jesus’ statement seriously: "Do not worry about your life."

Origamibird
So we responded by writing some of our major  worries on paper, then folding them into origami birds, placing them on the altar as a way of placing our worries in the hands of God, where the birds of the air are cared for, just like our worries will be if we give them to God.

Here’s a link to download a PDF of the origami bird, if you want to make one at home:

Download origami-bird.pdf

We also sent everyone home with a notecard with Philippians 4:6-7 printed on it: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and
petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

The idea is we put the notecard and the bird in a place in our house where a lot of the worrying happens. It’s a reminder to turn the worry into prayer, trusting God to care for us, and believing the promise that his peace will guard our hearts.

Play at home if you like! See what God might do. Peace to you.