Hit the ball and point out that the ball returns to the paddle only to get a good swat.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus returns to his home. He is among the people who knew him as a boy. He is Joseph’s and Mary’s boy. Jesus, the carpenter. Their children had played with him. The town was filled with his carpentry handiwork.
But the word about his recent activities has them curious. The crowds gather to take a look at the hometown boy. Jesus has been curing the sick!
We are familiar with the return of the local youth who has gone off to make a name in sports or show business.
Naturally, the town likes to claim a small piece of glory for having nurtured the star.
That’s what is happening in today’s gospel story. Jesus, the miracle worker, is home!
Nazareth gathers at the temple where Jesus has just revealed that he is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.
Things start out well enough. The people are astonished and proud.
Jesus himself poisons the crowd. He leads them on.
Jesus fails to play the expected role of humble hometown boy, acknowledging the support bestowed on him in his youth. In fact, he is anything but humble. He bypasses his local roots and claims the heritage of the prophets.
I suppose you think I’m going to save you just because I know you. Well, good neighbors, that’s not the way it is. Elijah fed only one widow. Elisha cured only one leper. Just because I can do miracles doesn’t mean I will do miracles.
Who does he think he is?
(Here you might borrow the imagery from the epistle lesson-1 Corinthians 13). Somebody grab a mirror and make him look at his face. Who do you see in the mirror? That’s right. You are Jesus OF NAZARETH. You are no different from any other Nazarene. Rein it in, Jesus. Remember your roots.
It’s hard to imagine how the hometown crowd turned so suddenly into a lynch mob, dragging the man they had watched grow up to the edge of a cliff, fully prepared to hurl him to his death.
As you tell the story you might demonstrate the mounting tension with the paddle, hitting the ball faster and harder each time the ball returns to its starting point.
Jesus has control of the situation start to finish. He knows that he is finished with his hometown. He knows what lies ahead. The edge of the cliff is no threat.
It is Epiphany, the season of revelation. That’s what this story is all about. Jesus has revealed to his closest neighbors that he is no longer—and never really was—of the world that reared him.
Make no mistake. He is meant for bigger things. Out of his way. He’s coming through.
Today two Ambassadors revisited Trinity, Havertown. One of the Ambassadors had missed the last visit and had a special interest in visiting. In 1949, he had completed his seminary internship training in this parish. He didn’t expect to find anyone who remembered him from 64 years ago, although they have one congregational pillar who is about 101 who might recall him.
We found little had changed since our first visit. They still have a great choir which was about one third of the congregation, which numbered about 45. We were impressed with their dedication to their youth during our last visit. Today they were having a fund-raising spaghetti dinner to fund a mission trip for their youth to South Dakota.
So that’s why there is a picture of buffalo on their website!
Their web site has been upgraded in the last year and they are venturing into social media. Since December they posted about five blog entries. They seem to be posting them on their neighborhood patch.com, which we recommended to congregations some time ago.
We know social media ministry is work because we have done it. Web sites become effective evangelism tools when you post as close to daily as possible. (2×2 now has about 150 readers each day with 2000 new visitors per month. We’ve been posting daily for about 18 months now.)
The Book of Nehemiah Tells Our Story
The Rev. Dr. Dolores Littleton is Trinity’s pastor. For her sermon, she retold the story of Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. She did a faithful retelling, but we noted that she left out the intrigue, which is what makes the book of Nehemiah so interesting to us at Redeemer.
The people of Redeemer were (are) intent on rebuilding the church in our community after decades of neglect. You might think our denomination might support the work of its members but over the years our only meetings with SEPA were intent on wearing down the people of Redeemer, while SEPA carefully calculated how our failure might benefit them.
There is a chapter in Nehemiah where those in opposition to restoring the temple try to trick Nehemiah. Understand that 140 years had passed with no one lifting a finger to restore the temple. They hadn’t cared a fig that the temple lay in ruins.
Nehemiah shows up and sets out to do the impossible. He enlists the support of people who are willing to sacrifice to see ministry restored. Many of them have no Jewish roots! Only now do we find people, including religious leaders, interested in cleaning up after 140 years of neglect. They intend to take advantage once and for all. Failing that, they want to stop Nehemiah at any cost.
Frustrated that their early attempts to discredit the temple rebuilders are unsuccessful, they at last try to arrange meetings to “talk.” Nehemiah sees through the ruse and refuses to meet with them.
This is precisely SEPA’s strategy in trying to destroy the ministry in East Falls.
The ensuing five years has been little more than attempt of Bishop Burkat to save face and punish the people of Redeemer for making her attempts to take our property and cash assets more difficult than she projected.
The people who supported Redeemer’s rebuilding have been taken advantage of — just like Nehemiah’s workforce. Nehemiah put a stop to this, demanding that the people toiling and sacrificing for the temple be treated fairly. Sadly, there has been no such voice in SEPA Synod.
It is OK with the Lutherans of SEPA Synod if the people of Redeemer are left homeless (a real possibility, folks!) as SEPA claims all the congregation’s assets and pursues them in punitive court cases, which they undertake as they plead immunity from the law for themselves.
Like the Book of Nehemiah, the opposition has no real plan for Redeemer’s property now unused for worship or any other good purpose for nearly four years. They simply don’t want someone else to succeed where they never bothered to try.
We only hope that the story of Redeemer ends with ministry restored and the people revalidated— just as the book of Nehemiah ends.
The hard-hearted SEPA Synod shows no sign of returning to the word of God. There is no passion and voice to defend the workers.
Here’s the difference between Nehemiah and SEPA leadership. Much of the Book of Nehemiah is a list of names that would otherwise be forgotten today. This difference is probably the reason most people don’t read this book very thoroughly.
Nehemiah valued the people. He carefully recorded the names of the workers who risked their lives to complete the restoration of the temple. Their ancestry and affiliations are recorded for all time. Nehemiah cared about the people and their relationship with God. They were worth his attention, his work, and if necessary, the sacrifice of his life. He did all he could to protect them as they served the Lord.
The value of Nehemiah is in its detail. A lowly servant in the court of a foreign king had the wherewithal to restore Jerusalem.
The Book of Nehemiah — all of it — it should be required reading for Lutherans!
A friend wrote a note of encouragement this week to Redeemer, a congregation that continues to be abused by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (SEPA / ELCA).
He wrote that our situation reminds him of a song by Alice Cooper of the 70s. He quoted a song:
“I went to church, incognito, when everybody rose. The Reverend Smith, he … he recognized me, and punched me in the nose. I said, ‘No more Mr. Nice Guy.'”
That doesn’t begin to describe how the Lutherans of East Falls feel about the way their denomination has treated them. But it’s as close as anyone in the church has tried to get.
In our previous post we talked about the demise of the offering-based church. We wonder if it was ever a good idea!
The church will never be able to do more than patch the ills of society if it relies on the offerings of the needy to sustain a comfortable lifestyle for the parish.
Programs and outreach will then be created to benefit the affluent with a nod to the needs of the poor. Rich kids will travel to poor areas for a short-term mission project and then return to their comfortable lives.
The poor? We address their needs once or twice a year at holiday time.
Consequently, the model of the church relies on a caste system. We, the givers, serve the unfortunate takers. The takers are excluded from full participation in church because they cannot contribute.
Today’s difficult times have pushed this faulty model to the limits.
Without substantial gifts, the local ministry cannot provide outreach even within its own community.
The problem trickles up. The local ministries cannot sustain the regional bodies and the regional bodies cannot sustain the national church.
There is a stick in the spokes of this treadmill.
The offering-based church may survive, but it is unlikely to thrive or grow. Church statistics support this conclusion.
A new model must be found.
Local congregations must assess their ministries as if offerings do not exist.
They must begin to operate their outreach endeavors in a way that will sustain them in increasing mission and fund future initiatives.
Property assets are first. How can property be used in a way that the costs of maintaining the property will be covered through use.
This has led many churches to operate day schools. Good start.
Second are the talents of the people. Congregations can probably get far more value from their memberships by utilizing the vast range of lay skills and knowledge beyond the offering plate.
Most churches attempt to involve lay people in approved roles — lectors, choir members, Sunday School teachers, etc. They rarely consider if those willing to volunteer are really any good at these skills. Their most valuable gifts may be in areas the Church has never considered allowing lay people to influence.
Redeemer found among its new members a professional architect, property manager and mortgage broker. The three got together and began to donate their expertise to form a ministry that would help our growing immigrant population identify and purchase first homes. Their efforts would guide immigrants through the purchase of a starter home. The projected annual income from their volunteer services would have created a recurring income of about $10,000 per month. (An entire annual offering plate income.)
Two other Redeemer members had worked in child care for several years and worked to earn a day care license. Redeemer was helping them start a daycare on Redeemer’s property that would have created an immediate benefit to the congregation of $3000 per month, growing to upwards of $6000 per month.
Another member was interested in social media.
Since the Synod decided (against church law) that they should control Redeemer’s property, all the plans of Redeemer were scuttled and resulted in a five-year legal battle. The only project to survive Synod’s interference was the social media project.
As this project begins its third year, it is poised to begin creating a significant return on the two years invested.
In each case, Redeemer was working with its own resources to forge new ministry. There was no support from the regional or national church.
Our resources/Our ministry.
The regional church (in our case the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America or SEPA / ELCA) promotes such initiatives and encourages congregations to do new things.
Then it destroys innovation to meet its immediate needs.
If small congregations are to ever again thrive, the vision of small churches like Redeemer should be encouraged and fostered. Innovation has a price. Without it every congregation will face slow demise.
The church has always relied on offerings from followers for survival. That reliance has meant different things in different ages. In Jesus’ time we know that there were followers, many of them women, bank-rolling the disciples and later the apostles.
As the Early Christian Church grew, the contributions became expected. Failure to contribute whole-heartedly was even a death sentence in one Bible passage.
As the church grew across different cultures, contributions took on different forms. Some contributed by going off to war to fight the infidels. (If successful, they might be rewarded with land and title!) Farmers and tradesmen contributed to feeding the large number of clergy and maintaining property. (If successful, their standing in the community would grow.) Artisans donated their talents. (If successful, they might find a patron and their art would preserve their names forever.)
Monetary tithes were never enough to keep church leaders comfortable and hence by the fifteenth and sixteenth century, church leaders had instituted a turnkey financial model. Pay to play or pay to pray. Indulgences. That incensed one young monk and the Reformation was on!
This was happening at about the same time as a bountiful mass of new land was discovered across the ocean. For the first time, there was someplace to go to escape the oppression of the church. Protestants began leaving in droves. Fresh start.
For years, many American churches copied the same model and congregations contributed their skills and work product to the maintenance of a parsonage and clergy. Monetary offerings were only part of the typical church budget.
Today’s clergy often laugh at these days, although there are few alive who actually remember them! They seem to forget that the contributions were made with love and sacrifice. A chicken given to the pastor was a chicken not available to feed the family.
In the most recent decades, clergy have been less likely to accept parsonage-based or non-monetary pay. Small congregations which thrived on non-monetary model through economically lean times were fairly suddenly priced out of existence. We are still experiencing the fallout from this shift in economic model of the modern church.
This doesn’t mean that things cannot change again.
2×2 believes that any church that relies solely on monetary offerings is scheduling failure. It may not happen for ten or twenty years but the path is fairly certain.
We have studied the statistics of congregations in our own denomination and regional body. Failure is the norm. It is almost universal. Large churches are in decline. Medium-sized churches are in decline. Small churches are the first to feel the pain. The others will follow. Survival is so tenuous that it outranks mission in budget priorities.
Stand before your people with your hand on a Bible.
Today’s message corresponds with the political activity of this week.
We inaugurated Barack Obama for the second time.
The oath of office was recited, hands on not one Bible but two, linking this moment, this time with what has come before. Martin Luther King Jr. used one of the Bibles. Abraham Lincoln the other. The lives and vision of these two men shaped our present reality. The next four years may shape a new reality for our nation, the effects of which we will not know, perhaps, for another generation.
What comes next?
The speech. President Obama proceeded to tell the world how he intended to live up to his oath, honor the legacy of the office and his campaign promises.
Jesus is doing the same thing. He has returned to his hometown. He attends his home temple. He reads familiar words and then he puts himself inside those words.
Compare the good things Jesus intends to do as fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy with the types of promises leaders make today.
There is a lot of talk in the church today about power. There is even more posturing.
Constitutions are dusted off. It’s easy to find the denomination’s favorite passage that at first glance gives the bishop and synod council powers over individual congregations. Its pages are well-worn. The sections that support the current desire of leaders are easily quoted from memory. All other sections or even sections that further define the powers are ignored.
The constitutions define very specific powers and they are all to be read in the context of the church’s founding document — The Articles of Incorporation. Very few people in the church ever read these foundational documents. This includes bishops and synod councils. Delegates at Synod Assemblies don’t give them a moment’s thought. Does anyone at a Synod Assembly stand up and ask if they have the power to take votes on some issues?
The Articles of Incorporation define the scope of responsibility. They set the rules for the writing of constitutions and the altering of constitutions over the years. If they are never read, there is a danger of writing new church bylaws that conflict with founding documents. This has created the backdrop for church legal issues, including the ones the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (SEPA) faces with Redeemer, that little passionate church in East Falls, Philadelphia.
Bishop Claire Burkat reviews the constitution and finds the powers she seeks. She probably cited them to the other churches she closed with less trouble. No one challenged her.
She declared way back in 2008 (or even earlier). “I have the power to close that church and I intend to close it.”
Maybe she does. Maybe she doesn’t. The courts didn’t rule that she does. They deferred to the church to make that decision. In making that decision the church must follow its rules — which most people in the church have never read.
Five powers vested in the church
Let’s not argue any more about it. Putting all constitutions aside, we know very well that the bishop has significant power — should she decide to use it.
Let’s just look at powers the bishop and church leaders have.
Where would we be today if Bishop Burkat had cited the following powers?
“I have the power to help that church and I intend to help them.”
“I have the power to love Redeemer’s people and I intend to love them.”
“I have the power to forgive the people of this synod who disagree and I intend to forgive them.”
“I have the power to reconcile with the member churches of this synod who are unhappy and I intend to reconcile.”
“I have the power to be a peacemaker, if I value peace over acrimony.”
These are the powers given to Bishop Burkat and all the members of SEPA Synod as defined in our founding documents: the Books of the Bible.
2×2 has been friends in ministry with a church movement in Pakistan for a year or so, New Life Ministries. We’ve watched the passion of the leaders who travel into the countryside around the northern city of Faisalabad — an agricultural hub in this Moslem country near the border of India.
A few months ago they shared reports of the frightening unrest and the fear that gripped their families. We’ve heard how the children struggle for acceptance in the schools.
We’ve also heard of their brave celebrations, marching on Palm Sunday through the city streets, the house churches they are starting and the baptisms in the river.
Pastor Sarwar Sadiq writes to us now with their goal of creating 1000 new home churches this year. They need Bibles. They are looking for gifts of $13.50 to purchase hard-bound Bibles for the home churches.
More than that they need our prayers. Know that they have been powerful and loyal prayer partners with us. Here is a link to their web site where you can learn more abut them. www.nlfministries.weebly.com
AT&T Commercials Reveal the Thinking of Young People
AT&T is currently airing a series of commercials that feature a small group of children. They appear to be carefully chosen, boy/girl/boy/girl, some diversity and all comfortable with a camera recording their answers.
A moderator asks a question. The children give a few obvious answers but with the creative twists of youth and the voiceover concludes, “It’s not complicated.”
Most of the answers are just cute. A couple are more revealing.
In one, the children are asked about the difference between fast and slow. One boy answers with great empathy for a child his age.
Another shows the situation many students deal with daily, especially girls. The attention goes to the show off. Everyone else is shoved aside.
Which is better? Doing one thing or two things at the same time?
The children agree. Two is better.
One boy demonstrates with silly movements. All sit and watch as the moderator turns all attention to his antics.
I’ve never seen anything like it! he exclaims.
The girl sitting between them tries to attract his attention and starts to say, “Look! I can do it too.”
The moderator cuts her off turning all attention back to the silly boy. Analytically, the boy is contributing nothing. But he continues to get the attention.
The girl shrinks into the background and accepts the passive role assigned to her.
How often do we turn our attention to the show offs, with nothing to say, and ignore the contributions of the quieter members of our church or congregations?
Our busy ambassadors needed somewhere close to visit this week so we returned to Zion, where we had visited two years ago. One ambassador returned on her own for a mid-week service, so technically this was our third visit to Zion.
Things have changed a bit at Zion. They have a new pastor, Rev. Sozinho Alves, from Angola.
As we entered their organist was reviewing hymns with the congregation in preparation for worship. He was teaching the hymns, sharing his vast knowledge of church music as he familiarized the congregation with what was to come.
Robert Camburn knows our Ambassadors because he is a resident of East Falls. He and two of our Ambassadors once worked at the LCA national headquarters in East Falls. He stopped what he was doing and came to greet us, pronouncing my name like a Fallser. From the day I moved into East Falls and the mailman asked me if I was one of the East Falls Gotwals (not Gotwald), I have had to accept my new name—even from my Fallser husband. It always makes me smile.
We saw today a church very like Redeemer.
First. They have a color bulletin similar to Redeemer. Large print format. Smaller churches can do this because they don’t need to print dozens and so the expense is not formidable. Just like Redeemer there was a puzzle on the back for the little ones.
Attendance was up from our last visit—about 27. Similar to Redeemer. The congregation was quite diverse and seemed acclimated to diversity, worshiping as one. There were two rows of young people and at least one baby. Good age representation.
They still operate a school as Redeemer was about to when Synod made this impossible.
We had two native African pastors working with us. They have one.
Our visit to Zion proves the point we have been making in recent posts that small churches are best situated to take on the SEPA’s stated mission goal of diversity. Larger churches tend to take the separate but equal approach. One group meets at 10 am—the second, usually newer group, meets at 1 pm—something like that. Smaller churches can bypass that while larger churches retain that model for years—sometimes never becoming one.
It also proves that Redeemer was not a legitimate target for Synodical Administration. We’ve visited many congregations with statistics the same or lower than Redeemer’s. The ruse of Synodical Administration was about property and assets and never about mission potential.
Olney has two Lutheran churches and at least one other (Mt. Tabor) just across the boulevard.
From Roosevelt Boulevard to the Montgomery County line, East Falls and the largest geographic neighborhood in Philadelphia, Roxborough, has just one small ELCA congregation located on a crowded back street. SEPA has taken the assets of Grace, Epiphany and Redeemer. They have put nothing back into these neighborhoods. SEPA has abandoned this part of Philadelphia — still fairly well to do, working class and professional neighborhoods, making sure they got the resulting wealth — which they squander on a hierarchy that is largely unneeded in the modern world.
Getting back to Zion, the people were all friendly and talked to us. This has become rare. Most of the 54 churches we have visited do little more than say hello and never engage in conversation.
The members of Zion seemed unaware of what is going on just two neighborhoods away from them.
They graciously gave us the altar flowers, which we sent home with the ambassador who SEPA Synod shamelessly is content to allow to personally suffer the consequences of their interference in East Falls to the point that she is threatened with losing her home and retirement income. She will celebrate her 79th birthday this week. Sixty-two of those years were spent in selfless service to her congregation and some to the national church. Being a Lutheran in East Falls is thankless.
Join Bishop Ruby Kinisa as she visits small churches "under cover" to learn what people would never share if they knew they were talking to their bishop.
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Contact Info
You can reach
Judy Gotwald,
the moderator of 2x2,
at
creation@dca.net
or 215 605 8774
Redeemer’s Prayer
We were all once strangers, the weakest, the outcasts, until someone came to our defense, included us, empowered us, reconciled us (1 Cor. 2; Eph. 2).
2×2 Sections
Where in the World is 2×2?
On Isaiah 30:15b
Be calm. Wait. Wait. Commit your cause to God. He will make it succeed. Look for Him a little at a time. Wait. Wait. But since this waiting seems long to the flesh and appears like death, the flesh always wavers. But keep faith. Patience will overcome wickedness.
—Martin Luther
Jesus Goes Home