The Night I Met God @ AA

There is a lot of talk about heaven and hell right now and I guess that is a good thing at the start of Holy Week. Rob Bell is the topic of the cover article of this weeks Time magazine, he has a new book out exploring old ideas about heaven and hell that will get the Evangelical all hot and bothered. I agree with most of what Bell has written, it isn’t all that new but seldom discussed and certainly rarely preached by any pastor who wishes to keep his/her job. Within the Christian tradition there has always been the desire to keep God far off in a heaven beyond the stars. Unreachable, all knowing and seeing, a God who lives in a heaven with streets of gold and 24/7 worship, a place that, by the churches standards few of us will ever see. On the other hand, hell is that place under the earth where there is tormenting and gnashing of teeth and will be the everlasting home for those who do not “accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior” like Jews, Muslims, Democrats and pretty much everyone else. However, and don’t you just love howevers, I think Christian tradition is wrong. Heaven and hell are right here, right now. How do I know this, because God told me. Yep that is right, God, the Almighty, Powerful and everlasting God the Mother and Father of creation. God didn’t appear to me as a burning bush, didn’t engage me in a wrestling match on the banks of the Red River, God came to me, and spoke to me at an AA meeting the other night. Sandy and I were invited to an AA meeting where Max, a friend who attends Recovery Worship, was receiving his four year medallion. He was going to tell his story and wanted us to be there. Through Max, God told me about hell. Max grew up on an Indian reservation here in North Dakota. His mother was Native American his father was white. He talked about life and how he would regularly get beaten up by white kids because he was Indian, and beaten up by Indians because he was white. He talked about the hell of becoming an alcoholic while in high school and how his drinking cost him the possibility of playing basketball at UCLA. He told us about how his drinking kept him in constant trouble with the law and ruined his marriage and almost cost him his children. He then talked to us about his recovery and how AA has saved his life. As he was telling his story I noticed that his sixteen year old daughter Demi was there, and I could see how difficult this was for Max. After Max was done Demi went up front to present her Dad with his medallion. Then, suddenly God spoke to me through Demi and told me all about heaven. There were probably one-hundred people in that room and by the time she was done there was not a dry eye in the house. Through Demi God spoke words of love; love for a father who has changed in so many ways. Demi’s words describe a Dad who is now sober and who is now there for her when she needs him, who loves her unconditionally, who is a role model for her. Despite the inevitable divorce she told of how her dad has worked hard to keep the family united and functional. Demi talked about wanting to grow up to be just like him and how she wants to be the very best she can be because of him. Some people like to talk about the war between good and evil. Well, good wins, always does, always will. Evil will win its occasional battle but good will always win in the end (just read the end of Revelation!) In Max and Demi’s case, heaven wins! They are the miracle of recovery; they are what keeps me going when the burdens of ministry become heavy. Nothing fillls my heart with more promise for those struggling in the program then looking out on Sunday morning and seeing Max and his daughters Demi and Megan sitting in worship together, God is good! You want to learn about hell, you want to experience heaven; you want to meet God face to face? Go to an AA meeting or come and visit Recovery Worship.

Living in the midst of Reformation

It is an interesting time to be “church.” Some say denominationalism is dead. While I serve a worshiping community that does not consider itself a denomination we probably would not exist today if it wasn’t for the ELCA, so I would disagree with the theory that denominationalism is dead. Some denominations act as if they are dead, or dying, or simply running in place, as they have been for centuries. They view the world through the eyes of those Patriarcle Fathers who lived in a time and a place much different from where we are today. We Lutherans are as guilty of this as other denominations. Many in Lutheran Church today quote Luther as if he lived next door. Luther lived in Germany in the 1500’s when the Pope ruled supreme over Europe and few questioned his leadership and survived. What Luther and other scholars of his day knew of the Bible, the culture of first century Palestine, even the Greek and Hebrew language was different from what scholars know today. Yet, we hold on to every word that Luther wrote as if God himself spoke it. Before you email the Bishop and demand that he withdraw my Ordination papers don’t get me wrong, Luther is important but I think we need to set some of his writings are from a different time and place and their relevance to us today in 2011 needs to be reviewed. I think the church is in the midst of a reformation. The Episcopalians in the USA were first, along with one or two other protestant denominations. We ELCA Lutherans took the plunge at the last Churchwide assembly. I am speaking now of issues far wider than sexuality, I am talking about what it means to be church. By the simple act of ordaining homosexuals in a committed relationship, we have set ourselves free to be church. Sure, we have seen a relatively small number of congregations leave, and that is ok, for them, and for us. We live in a time of some great scholars who are very different, from N.T. Wright to Rob Bell. They challenge us to think, something rarely seen in some denominations. Bell especially challenges us to rethink scriptures, not in some modern New Age way but by doing something that people who say they read the Bible literally don’t, reading it as a whole and not picking one or two passages and building a fortress church around those words. He, along with N.T. Wright wants us to stop using the Bible as a weapon in the grand war between good and evil. Read Revelation, God wins! Love Wins! The church of the future will be the church with the largest capacity to love. In a hundred years, I believe people will look back at the church of today and see the reformation that is happening. Those denominations that are brave enough to change will thrive.

God Takes a Mulligan

There are a couple places in the Bible where God shows regret. In 1 Samuel 15 God says “I regret that I made Saul King.” Saul had turned his back on God and had not worked out so well at being King, so God had David anointed king while Saul was still on the throne, thus beginning one of the more interesting stories of the Bible. Earlier in scripture God shows regret. In Genesis 6:6 God we read, “And the LORD was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved God to his heart.” It is comforting to me that we have a God that has been God enough to take a “do-over” we golfers would call it a “mulligan”.
Can we be bold enough or comfortable enough with our God to say that God made a mistake? God’s plan for creation was not flawed, God had high hopes for Adam and Eve but they blew it, and over time God had had enough so God contacted Noah who builds an Ark and the rains came and you know the rest of the story. If God is an all knowing, omnipresent, super deity how could this have happened? If God is all knowing, (God is) God should have known from the start that Saul would make a rotten king and so the mess with David could have been avoided. Wasn’t God paying attention? Had God taken his eye off the ball? As a friend at Recovery Worship said, “maybe God relapsed.”
Knowing that we have a God who has not always had plans work out the way that God had intended is pretty good news for us, his creation. We have made decisions, done things, hurt people, and simply screwed up and because of the cross we are given a mulligan. “Nothing separates us from the love that is in Christ Jesus” we hear Paul say in Romans 8, great news. The Grace of God knows no limits, we simply need to repent…..and try to do better the next time.
Every Sunday when we take that long pause during the confession to open ourselves up to God we begin the journey of forgiveness. When we hear the words of absolution it is like we just walked over and picked up the ball and put it back on the tee for another try at life. We know that we will try harder, keep our head down, eye on the ball, slow our swing and hope for a better effort the second, and third, and forth swing at life. Grace is such a great gift isn’t it?!?!