Run Christian Run!

I’ve known a few runners in my life. It’s not something that I am particularly fond of. Running is so much work, and not just during the race, but there is so much training and working before hand. Running, or perhaps more accurately, racing sort of takes over your life.

Despite my avoidance of the track, I think there are a couple of good lessons that we, as Christians can learn from runners. Paul used the language of running a race in his first letter to the Corinthians, so if you think I am copying from someone; I am.

In 1 Corinthians 9:25 Paul says “Athletes exercise self-control in all things…” (NRSV). And it’s true! The athlete changes the way in which he or she lives his or her life for the purpose of training his or her body to be good at the sport in which they participate. Everything that the athlete does is taken into consideration: sleep, diet, exercise, extra-curricular activities. In other words, the athlete’s life is centered on the sport. It defines who he is and what he does in all situations.

This is what Christianity should look like for us as well, Paul continues: “Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one.” (NRSV) Paul connects something that the Corinthians were familiar with to the Christian walk. Athletes train all the time, and in all things. In the same way, the Christian’s life is centered around Christ, and every action is part of the game. Every action is important to the Christian and every action that one makes should bring him or her closer to the center, closer to Christ.

A second lesson we can learn from the runner is this: to run a race requires training. We may understand this, but I don’t think that we often internalize it. I think that we have become very good at trying but not so good at training. In reality, if I were told to run the marathon in the Olympics tomorrow, I could TRY with all my heart, and I would not be able to cross the finish line, let alone win the race. It would require TRAINING. In the same way, I do not think that we can be faithful to our mission, which is to show other people Christ’s love, by trying really hard. To be able to show others love, we need to train ourselves.

And like with runners, training can be difficult, but it also brings about its own set of joys.

Eucharistic Emulation

I went to a church service this weekend, and like all good Church of Christ services, the contribution was preceded by a short speech that outlined why we should put our money in the plate.
There is a phrase that is common to the pre-contribution speech; You've all heard it, maybe you've said it, maybe I have, but this week, I just couldn't stand it.

"It's God's money anyway, so why shouldn't we give? We are just giving that which isn't ours in the first place."

Maybe I'm wrong here, but I mean come on, that's ridiculous! Okay, so technically it is good theology. Yes, everything belongs to God, so we really are just giving what doesn't really belong to us anyway. But tell this to a father with 4 kids and is struggling to make ends meet, tell him that it is God's money so he should just give it up, but be prepared for a fist fight.

I often wondered why we had a fascination with the phrase "seperate and apart". I mean, I understand that collection was not a part of the Eucharist, so we use those words to save our butts, but why didn't we just put the collection at a completely different part of the church service? I was often told the rote answer: "It's convenient to do it all at once." But that argument doesn't hold water for me, perhaps there is something more.

After thinking about it for the past 20 years or so, I finally have an answer that I find to be satisfactory; According to Church of Christ tradition, the Lord's Supper is a time to remember the life-saving actions of Jesus on Gethsemane. But it is not simply a mental assent to the fact that those actions took place, but something much deeper.

The Lord's Supper is a time to step into the world of Jesus, to experience again the sacrifice of the cross. We do not step into this world to simply remember with our heads, but to remember with our hearts. This type of remembrance is not simply to know what happened, to encourage us to emulate that spirit of Christ which was self-sacrificial. Emulation is the point of the Lord's Supper, not simply knowing.

So then, if the Lord's Supper is meant to draw a response out of us, in response to, and emulation of the sacrifice of Christ, maybe, the collection has been placed in the correct place after all.

"We are just giving to God what is already his", how trite and small that makes the offering, how devoid of theological and personal significance! The offering is not, should not, and can not be an easy thing, it is precisely the opposite, it is a sacrifice!

In the past we have, in attempts to make it easier for people to give, reduced the sacrifice required of us to "It's God's anyway, right? So we might as well give it to him, cause it's not ours."

Following the Lord's Supper with the collection is a beautiful, appropriate, theological progression. We move the Church from remembering what Christ did, to experience and emulate the concept of sacrifice. The collection is not a time for us give to God what is already his, it is a time to practice and begin entering into a Christ-shaped life: a life of sacrifice.

In the Know

In the movie “The Man Who Knew Too Little”, Bill Murray portrays a man, “Wally”, who signs up to participate in an audience participation theatre, but, unbeknownst to him, gets involved in an actual adventure. He doesn’t know the guns are real, and the danger is imminent as he continues to believe that he is part of the show.

This knowledge, though comically misguided, changes the way that Wally reacts to the things that are happening to him. When he is in an extremely difficult situation he acts as if he were a secret agent, believing that no real harm can come to him since, after all, it is all just make- believe anyway. This idea intrigues me.

What if we all were part of an audience participation theatre? Would it change the way that you handled everyday interactions? Should it change the way that you see yourself, and others? Would we be more heroic? If everything were fake, would we be able to act in a manner in which, at the end of the day, everyone goes home happy?

The truth of the matter is that no, not everything is fake; we live in a very real place and time. But we do know something. Or perhaps, more accurately, we know someone.

As Christians, we have entered into a relationship with the creator and sustainer of the universe, the LORD of Heaven and Earth, and our ever-faithful father. But does this change us? Should it? The early church was encouraged by Paul to let their relationship with God change their lives.

In Galatians, Paul reminds his readers that their relationship with God means that they no longer act in the way that they used to when they were enslaved to other things “Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods. Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits? How can you want to be enslaved to them again?” (Gal 4:8,9 NRSV)

Again, in Romans, Paul encourages his readers to turn away from sin “We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin…. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:6,11 NRSV).

We have knowledge that can and should change our lives, drastically altering the way that we see God, those around us, and ourselves. Will we let this knowledge change our behaviors this week?

Other passages to consider: Eph 6:9 , Rom 5:1-5

Skills

The theme for this year’s camp at Spring Mill was “Whose Life is it Anyway?” and we discussed the importance of giving of our lives to God, since our lives belong to him already.

There was, of course, a time for the campers to write down the areas with which they struggled in their lives, and to give them to God. Many campers went to the front of the stage and dropped their cards in a black bucket. This was not really unexpected, as this is a common theme at many camps, youth rallys, and Sunday morning services.

However, later on in the week, the campers were invited once again to the stage to fill out new cards. Instead of writing down the things that they struggled with, the campers were asked to write down all of their skills and abilities that they were willing to give to God. Suggestions such as teaching and singing ability were present, but also offered as possible ideas were ability to work on computers and other “non-churchy” skills and talents. These abilities were offered to God along with the camper’s struggles.

I thought that this was a great idea, for a long time, it has been the mindset of many people that they really don’t have anything to offer to the church community. The simple truth is that you don’t need a degree in religion to be a fruitful member in the faith community. There are many things that the Church could really use some help in that Lee and I, though we have degrees, can’t do very well (It’s hard to believe, I know).

Do you like to organize? The library tends to get a little disorderly every couple of months. Do you like to cook? There are a lot of people that for one reason or another would appreciate an occasional meal (trust me; you do NOT want me doing that ministry). Maybe you like kids; offering free babysitting to members of the church (or to the community around you!!) so that the parents can go grocery shopping or have a night out is a great way to use your passions to help others.

This is also what we are attempting to do with the SHAPE program; we don’t want anybody to volunteer for something that they don’t really want to do; that makes it difficult on all parties involved. With a congregation the size of Elmwood, there are enough people, with enough different interests and passions that many things can be accomplished, simply by doing something you love to do, and would do anyway. Maybe you think you have a weird useless skill… maybe your skill is playing Parcheesi… maybe you could start a Parcheesi league and invite church members, and non-church members as a way to introduce people to Christian community. Everyone is important and everybody’s skills are valuable!