Archive for the ‘paul’ Category

PAUL - Real Resurrection Defies a Holiday

Monday, April 26th, 2010

I’ve never thought of Easter as a season so I’m a little unsure of what it means to intentionally celebrate resurrection for more than one Sunday… or Saturday for that matter.

I grew up with the idea that Easter was a date coming in the spring sometime and on that day I’d get out of bed and go downstairs and find a basket with a little bit of candy and some kind of Christian rock cassette or CD, most likely by Petra or Steven Curtis Chapman.

We didn’t spend much time with such non-holy things like easter-eggs, breakfast or conversation, we had a lot to do. Those “Sunday’s best” slate grey slacks weren’t going to wear themselves to say nothing of my new vest with the snappy jewel-toned paint brush strokes on it… Yes. We had church.

Easter at The Greeley Wesleyan Church meant that you would most likely see a “greatest-hits” medley of the latest Easter musical extravaganza. A passion play that had been performing for the last few nights in the sanctuary. Of course, the enormous handmade tomb was empty… well sort of empty, there was a bright stage light and fog machine inside to make it more dramatic. The crosses that were used in the play last night were now draped in a purple cloth and there were probably a few stray palm branches that had been missed by the janitor next to the piano.

The choir was the largest it would be all year and everyone looked really happy to sing. The music pastor was conducting a small orchestra on the floor as well as the choir in the loft. In between them were the cream-of-crop singers with microphones…and…solos! And Easter was all about the solos!

After the solos the pastor and his Easter tie would give a short message. (Short because everyone knew that the reason for the big turn out was because Easter was one of two holidays the “un-churched” came to church and we don’t want to scare them away with preaching…besides, we were the church with solos!) In so many words he would say, “Look! The tomb is empty! He is alive! So now you can have “victory” over your sin. Amen. Choir. Solo. Offering. Solo. Amen.

After the Christian Easter show, we’d drive to my grandparents house and gorge ourselves on all the pagan bunnies, Cadbury eggs and Peeps we could fit in our mouths. I don’t remember much about lunch or what we did while we were there (besides throw pennies at back porch step) but I remember that my brother and I never came home without a solid pound of chocolate in the shape of rabbit which usually stayed in our freezer most of the year.

Before long we were back in the car on our way back to Greeley. We went to bed soon after we got home because tomorrow was school or work. Tomorrow was not Easter and next Sunday was not Easter either, it was something like “God’s Play-book for your life” or “Unlikely heros of the Bible.” Not Easter.

To be honest, I’m glad that Easter was just a day and I’m not so sure I want to celebrate Easter… at least not this kind of Easter. Easter took to much work. Too much Spit and polish. This Easter says, “clean up and go to church. Act like you have “victory” over your addictions, your fear, your doubt, your  pain.” This Easter takes a short-cut to Sunday and avoids the pathos of Friday and the despair of Saturday. Sure we liked to Honor “Good Friday” and “Maundy Thursday” but we didn’t want to re-live it. Besides, we didn’t know how so what would be the point? Easter the way we did it tried to mask the thirst we had for real resurrection but only succeeded in making us more thirsty.

I think real resurrection defies a holiday. Holidays only make static something that is actually dynamic and living. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t pause and celebrate these wonderful realties that have given us our faith, but to confuse them with an event that is only present once a year is to deny it’s power.

I think real resurrection is a rhythm. It’s a rhythm that involves both death and life, not just life. You have listen, you have to watch… and then you start to see the valleys and peaks and hear the crescendos and the sudden rests. You watch and listen but more importantly you feel it. You feel the death and feel the life. This is a rhythm you must feel… and when you feel it you can only surrender to it, you can never force it.

Not only is it a rhythm, but resurrection is a force. It is a force that does not eliminate death but transforms it and redeems it to be the essential ingredient for life! It’s active and unstoppable. It’s working in you right now… maybe death and life are even happening simultaneously. Do you know what I mean? Can you feel it?

I know you can’t always recognize it because of how poorly misrepresented it has been but it is there. Right now it only looks like death but listen for a bit to the rhythm and feel the pull of God’s gravity. Surrender might not be as hard as you think… Then who knows, you may never want another Easter Extravaganza for the rest of your life.

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PAUL - Stage Lights

Tuesday, January 16th, 2007

Ok, first off, it’s important that you know that “stage” lights are different than “house” lights. When you walk into a theatre or church, house lights are usually already on. They might be recessed lights, track lights or in some cases lamps. After about fifteen minutes pass, these lights dim and instinctively you wrap up any conversations you may have been having about the carpet, or program or video screens and you find your seat. You may sit for a moment in the dark but then…something magical happens! New lights come on! Different than before because although several lights are on in the same room you are in, you can’t really see much of what is around you with any clarity. These are stage lights, they show you what is on stage. Each light is specifically designed to aim, focus, color or restrict light to fit a purpose. Not to show you what is around you, no, just to show you what is on stage. Ok? Can we move on?

Directors, playwrights, actors, musicians and pastors plan and organize words and movements to put under the stage lights to keep you interested and focused on what is on stage and not around you. Occasionally, you may hear a noise like a baby crying or even an adult crying but this is unintentional and ultimately distracting to what is on stage. In moments like that it’s a good thing the house lights are off so you won’t be distracted for long. After you have heard and seen all that the producers of the play or worship service have wanted you to see the house lights will come back on. After blinking your eyes a couple times you will look around, locate the exit, grab your coat, stand and join the line of people heading toward the door. If you came with someone, you will talk about how good or bad the show was regardless of it was a play or worship service. Almost certainly you will have an opinion on the music. You probably won’t think about how many other people there are at the same event until you are in your car in the parking lot trying to merge into the steady stream of vehicles moving to the street. You simply didn’t notice them before… because the stage lights were on. You were watching what was on stage.

So, I was thinking… what if the house lights were left on? What would happen? Would you still watch what was on stage? Or watch something else? How would you feel if you were the person on stage? Would you go on singing? Acting? Speaking? I guess it’s obvious that everyone could see each other not just the people on stage. It would least be easier to see who was crying. And see how far it is from you to them. See how to help. Which might be good or bad…bad, I guess, if you’re at a play… but better, if you’re in a church.

Posted in church stuff, community, healing, mega church craziness, paul | 1 Comment »

PAUL - Masks

Wednesday, October 18th, 2006

About this time last year I was preparing a message on fear because I was the youth pastor of a church in Parker and we were going to have a special youth-led Halloween service… and we wonder why I’m not a youth pastor anymore. I promise we didn’t have enough goats for the ritual sacrifice (just kidding). Actually Halloween has an interesting past and relationship to the history of the church. Halloween began as a celebration to the Celtic new year Samhain, which is the end of the harvest and a time associated with death. Druids and pagans believed that wearing masks would prevent the evil spirits of the dead from entering you, because that way they couldn’t tell if you were human or not. So in a very odd way masks had a sort of spiritual power. Time passed and Rome conquered much of the Celtic lands and by the 800’s Pope Bonifice IV declared November 1st “All Saint’s Day”, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related but church-sanctioned holiday. The night before it, became “All-Hallows Eve” which later shortened to “Halloween” and was celebrated by bonfires, costumes and most of all …masks.

Of course masks were around long before Halloween. Egyptians used masks in worship ceremonies and sacrifices. In ancient Greece, the first actors wore different masks to represent different people or emotions. The name Hypo-crities was developed to described these actors. It means “one who speaks from behind a mask.” The idea behind this was that a person’s true nature was hidden so you could not discern their real feelings… it was really hard to get the truth from a person in a mask. This is where we get our English word “hypocrite”. Hmmmm.

We all know that you don’t have to be an actor to wear a mask. We all wear masks…we’ve been wearing them so long sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between the mask and our own face. The truth be told, masks are rather comfortable and they make other people comfortable, too. Without our masks we are exposed, vulnerable, un-guarded, open to attack…and that’s frightening, terrifying.

Seeing someone else without their mask can be pretty disturbing, too. Because people without masks can appear horribly disfigured, ugly… you can see their scars… or open wounds… inside you wished they never shared that part of themselves. You know what I mean, it’s happened at The Refuge hasn’t it? One of those “whoa” moments when you think to yourself, “I just have to act like that was perfectly normal” and then make sure not to make eye contact because you have this panicky “is-my mask-still-on?” feeling.

The truth about masks is that they have always had a sort of spiritual power. The reason we put them on in the first place is out of fear, and fear has always been a matter of faith. Life without masks is scary, terrifying really. I like it better when mine is on. It feels much more protected, safe. But the truth is with my mask I always stay afraid. Afraid to be known. 1 John 4:18 tells us that God is love and that perfect love casts out all fear of condemnation. Someone once told me that fear was “faith in the wrong thing”. When I put on my mask I am afraid and my faith is in the wrong thing—it is in what people think of me, what I think of myself, the false things I believe God thinks about me, too. The perfect love of Jesus that casts out all fear of condemnation is nowhere to be found.

I believe Jesus is extending an invitation to all of us to take off our masks even when everything thing in us screams “Condemnation!” “Exposure!” “Judgement!” Lately I keep hearing Him tell me, “Paul, masks are a waste of time. Take it off. Let me, let others, see your real face.”

Posted in community, healing, paul, spiritual formation, the refuge | 1 Comment »