New Church theology holds many simply precious truths. One that struck me when I read it last week is the idea that salvation is “an ongoing act of creation.” Many see salvation as an act avoiding damnation. Salvation then is not about creating anything but far more about avoiding punishment.
But lets just think for a moment what that might mean to see salvation as a creative act – if that was our “jumping off place.” Creation itself is about growth, reproduction, change, even adventure. Imagine those being the antonyms for “salvation”!
The role of a pastor is far more about walking with people in the present than about predicting the future! That being said, maybe there is some value in offering a few thoughts about 2012.
Economic Dislocation Will Continue
We are in a time of sea-change. Many of these shifts I believe are permanent and will create not only anxiety but dislocation. And the fact is that humanity does very well, usually, at the rock bottom. We figure it out. (Sounds crazy right!) I think that happens because we start looking for places other than our pocketbook for meaning. As Richard Rohr notes "in desperate and dark situations where the old god doesn't work anymore, the old self and the old attitudes don't work anymore. "Our gods much each die until we find the True God." Each dying god is another darkness and another death." Finding the True God is HOPE.
Expect To See Signs Of Hope
The hope will not come in ever expanding financial resources. It will come, I believe, in a "settling." Love whispers. Fear screams. Love will whisper some powerful messages in 2012!
Live Into Solutions
And if you are reading this, you are part of the solution. Live into it. There is a lot of work ahead. NewChurch LIVE is just one part of a different sea-change, a different shift that will meet new economic realities through alternative offerings. We are in the end to be just that - an alternative - an alternative to fear, anxiety, hatred, and need.
We are ready for 2012! May God bless your journey. May God bless this congregation. May God bless this world.
I have not posted here in a long time but I thought I would throw something on we did recently - a sermon on "Wrestling for a Blessing" - something I have been thinking a lot about recently. http://vimeo.com/32862689
"Invest and Invite" is a catchy little phrase and the basis of our growth strategy at NewChurch LIVE. Restated, it means we must "invest" in relationships and then "invite" if and when appropriate. These words though carry with them greater gravity then just a prescriptive catch phrase that informs marketing.
Parker Palmer, a Christian Quaker, wrote the following words about his own spiritual development. "I had embraced a form of Christian faith devoted less to the experience of God than to abstractions about God, a fact that now baffles me; how did so many disembodied concepts emerge from a tradition whose central commitment was to the Word become flesh?" Christianity without the investment in others clearly is a disembodied concept, uncoupled from the incarnational core of our faith.
As we approach Christmas, I am struck by how much the story of Jesus' birth is designed to draw us in. The main characters - Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds, the Wisemen - were inspired by angels, faced fears, were asked to travel. The only individual who did none of these things was Herod, and, well, he does not come out so well in this story. The point is that all were asked to "invest" in different ways. When our goals are clear, when trust is present, when we see the star, we move more easily though the fears that surround us will no doubt accompany us on the trip.
Maybe that is the "risk" of investment. We need to allow the call of Christmas, of Jesus, to actually unsettle us. That "unsettling" should call us to candidly look at where we are investing our lives. Are we close to each other? Are we reaching out? Are we willing to travel? Are we willing to look up and see the star, to see the angels, that will call us home? Can we come to see God incarnate as more than a disembodied concept but as the Other?
No fear, no movement. No joy, no movement. No risk, no growth. Be mindful of this blessed promise, "The Lord is present with you the moment you start to love the neighbor." (Heavenly Secrets)
The role of a pastor is far more about walking with people in the present than about predicting the future! That being said, maybe there is some value in offering a few thoughts about 2012.