Recovery Worship of Fargo, ND

Recovery Worship of Fargo, ND
A fellowship of Christians who have choosen to live by the 12 steps of Recovery.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

The Prophetic Voice

For the past two weeks and for the rest of Lent we will be taking a look at a few of the Prophets of the Old Testament at Recovery Worship. People at Recovery Worship don't think much of the Old Testament; you can hear the moans after the reading. "Too much Law, with little or no Grace" they say. "The God of the Old Testament is always mad, and way too much killing" they add. There is Grace in the Old Testament, plenty of it, you just have to look a little header to find it than in the New Testament.

For the past two weeks we have had readings from Jeremiah and his warnings to the people of Israel in the time prior to the exile into Babylon. Back in my days at Gettysburg Seminary I can remember the first day of the Prophets class when Dr. Schramm started the class by saying, "The Prophets are not your friends." Old Testament prophets did not bare good news, they were chosen by God to bring His/Her word to a troubled people. The prophets were not well received, Jeremiah faced many hardships during his ministry. Even Jesus stated the hardships that the prophets faced. "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!" Matthew 23:37

The Prophetic Voice is still with us today. The church is called to be the Prophetic Voice in our world, hoping that it will have an influence in a world where injustice, hatred and poverty impact the lives of millions of people. The problem is, as it was in the day of Jeremiah and the other Old Testament prophets, how do we know if the Prophetic Voice we are hearing is from a true prophet or a false prophet? In our debate about sexuality, social justice issues, just war and other hotly debated issues, how do we discern the true will of God in such matters?

Today we hear people accusing other people in the church of not believing the Bible is the Word of God. Some people thump their chest and proclaim that they are true "Orthodox" in their faith, or "Confessional" as if they have the inside track on Biblical interpretation and only they know the true Word of God. The problem I have with all of this is, the more I hear from these folks, read their blogs and web pages; I have come to believe I am listening to false prophets.

I have often wondered if the people Jeremiah was directing his words were like these people, "We have never done it that way" would be a familiar complaint I am sure. There are things in our church today that we take for granted, yet at one point in church history it was the Prophetic Voice, "crying in the wilderness" for change in the church. In 1880 Anna Howard Shaw was ordained in the Methodist Church (today United Methodist Church). I can only imagine the outcry from other denominations, especially us Lutherans. The ELCA didn't ordain a woman until the early 1970's, and there are still some men complaining about woman ordination. It took some time for the Prophetic Voice to break through, and unfortunately still is not breaking through in all denominations. It puzzles me today when I hear female pastors condemning the ordination of openly gay men and women; I guess Biblical interpretation only applies when it benefits you, sad.

As a divorced man I am thankful that the ELCA does not prohibit divorced men from ministry despite Jesus sharp condemnation of divorce in Matthew.

For a long time in the early 1800's mainline denominations supported the idea of slavery, quoting Bible verses to support their views. Thankfully, Prophetic Voices within the church began to be heard and by the time of the Civil War most mainline denominations were fighting for freedom of the slaves.

The list goes on and on, thankfully the progressive theological Prophetic Voice has generally prevailed for the good, and it will continue to prevail. There will always be churches that choose to ignore the Prophetic Voice, to hold on to the Biblical interpretation of Spurgeon and other archaic scholars. However, there are more and more churches willing to listen to the Prophetic Voice of today and open their doors to all of God's children.

See you next Sunday

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Law, Gospel, & AA

We Lutherans love the Law, we also love Grace. Some Lutherans seem to love the Law a whole lot more than they love the Grace, and some Lutherans seem to love Grace a whole lot more than they love the Law. We are taught at seminary that every good sermon must contain both law and gospel in order to be a good Lutheran sermon. "You must convict before you can offer the Grace" as a former colleague of mine used to enjoy saying.

I decided a long time ago that if I was going to favor one side over the other it was going to be Grace over Law, especially here at Recovery Worship where the congregation is all too familiar with the law. However, it took an evening with a recovering alcoholic and a drunk, to understand that in many ways. AA is much more Law & Gospel than is the Lutheran church.

It happened last Wednesday, I was at the church when the phone rang, and the man on the other end of the line was very drunk. He slurred his words as he told me that he needed somebody to talk with, and he wondered if I would come over to visit him. Believe it or not, this is the first time this has happened in my almost three years as pastor of Recovery Worship. I jumped in the car and headed for the address that the man had given me, feeling good that he thought to call me.

However it soon dawned on me that I really didn't know what I would say to him. Not being an alcoholic I knew that any attempt to express myself to him would be met with a drunken, "Pastor Ray, your not an alcoholic, you don't know what I am going through," and I suddenly realized while drunk on his butt, he is absolutely right. I am a pastor. I thought, sitting next to this guy, reading the 23rd Psalm is not what he needs right now, he needs another alcoholic. So, in a very rare moment of sound thinking, I knew who to call. I called a good friend who has been in recovery only about as long as I have been at Recovery Worship but at the time I didn't know who else to call. I was delighted when he agreed to meet me at the man's apartment.

I got to the apartment about ten minutes before my friend did; I walked into the apartment and sat down across from a very intoxicated man. Sure enough, I had not been there two minutes and I heard the words that I had anticipated, "Pastor Ray, you don't understand, you aren't an alcoholic." I assured him that he was right, I didn't know but someone was coming over who did understand. For the next ten minutes I heard him cuss and swear at me, his wife, and life in general.

When my friend showed up he sat down next to the drunk on the couch and looked into the man's eyes and said, "If you don't stop drinking, Pastor Ray will be doing your funeral real soon." For the next hour and a half I watched as a recovering alcoholic preached the best law & gospel sermon that I have ever heard. The drunk asked me to call his wife; she had left him earlier in the night telling him that she would not come home again. "She didn't leave you." said my friend to the drunk. "You as much as kicked her out; she would not have left if you had not started drinking."

Several other "truths" came to light during the conversation. The reason the man called me was simple, all of his buddies have given up on him. They are tired of listening to his BS and his lies. They are tired of listening to why it is everyone else's fault that he drinks and why he won't go to treatment because "they don't know what they are talking about."

My friend told him over and over again, "go to treatment, go to meetings, get a sponsor, work the program and you will have a life; keep drinking and you will lose your family, lose your job, and in the end, you will die." The prophet Jeremiah could not have said it better.

The good news is, the sermon worked, at least for now. The next day the man let me take him to a local treatment center. Who knows if it will work this time, we can only pray that it does. The one thing I know for sure, if it doesn't work he can only blame himself. We tried, we tried really hard.

See you next week.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Prayers from the God Box

Prayer is an important part of recovery, prayer for a friend wallowing in addiction, prayer for those struggling in recovery, and for the will of God in one's life. Prayer is mentioned several times in the Big Book of AA; every open meeting I attend is opened with the Serenity Prayer and closed with the Lord's Prayer. In order to pray we need someone, or something to pray to. In recovery it is a Higher Power as "we have come to understand Him." At Recovery Worship prayer is an important, and lengthy, portion of the service. Step six says we were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character, and then in step seven, humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings, all of this done through prayer.

At Recovery Worship we have a "Turn Things Over to God Box," a locked box with a slot in the top and pieces of paper for people to write. I asked the folks at Recovery to write down those things they wanted to turn over to God. Things that hang over them like a piano hanging by a thread, concerns that keep them awake at night. Prayers for personal concerns, prayers for loved ones, or, if necessary simple comments concerning worship or anything they would like the pastor to know. I wasn't sure what the reaction to this little exercise would be: would anyone put a prayer concern in the God Box, my goodness was I wrong. As people came up for Communion people placed their folded sheet into the box, I was surprised! It looked like voting day in Chicago; people were stuffing the God Box.

On Monday I began reading the prayers from the God Box. I was amazed at the honesty and openness that I read on those pieces of paper. Prayers for healing, recovery, reconciliation, faith, forgiveness, prayers for children who are fighting addiction, prayers for estranged parents, prayers for forgiveness of adultery, the most touching were the prayers of thanks for the ministry of Recovery Worship. Children gave up prayers of healing for their parents; parents said prayers for their children.

One young woman came up to me and told me of her prayer request. She had recently lost her boyfriend and she had not been able to find closure with his death. I remembered reading her prayer on Monday. She told me of a dream she had, in the dream her boyfriend was sitting in a chair in front of a very bright light. As she walked over to him he stood up and gave her a hug. She was overcome by warmth that made her feel at peace, he turned and walked away toward the light. Through her prayer she has turned it all over to God's care, by writing the prayer down, walking forward in church and placing that prayer in the God Box she was able to find closure in her life.

The Turn It Over to God Box has become a permanent fixture in our sanctuary.

See you next Sunday!