Dennis' Pile of Books

This is just a short post to let my readers know about a new blog I've created called Dennis' Pile of Books. I wanted a place to keep track of the many books I have read along with some comments about each book.  It struck me that others might be interested to see what I have to say about certain books, so a blog seemed natural. Immersed in Mystery will still be my primary blog, and I will still note the books I am currently reading, as well as the 10 most recently read books in the side bar, but for those who want to check out some of the other books in my pile here is the link to the new blog: Dennis' Pile of Books

Reflection #14: Hospitality is a Tricky Thing

Over the past number of years I have become more convinced that a primary theme for the Christian church should be hospitality.  We inherit this emphasis on hospitality first from the Hebrew scriptures, and then ultimately from Jesus’ own words and actions.  Hospitality is a big part of what we should be about, but hospitality is a tricky thing.

Let me begin this reflection by giving a brief overview of the importance of hospitality in the Bible.  The book of Genesis has a striking contrast, showing the blessing that accompanies hospitality and the curse that results from inhospitality.  First we have a picture of the hospitality code of the nomads lived out when Abraham and Sarah welcome three strangers. These guests conclude their visit with a blessing of good news – a child will be born, much to the giggling disbelief of Sarah.  (Genesis 18:1-10)  This child will carry the covenant forward into future generations.  Covenant and blessing are connected to hospitality.

In the next chapter of Genesis we see a complete contrast, here the city dwellers of Sodom act with violent inhospitality, wanting Lot to throw his visitors out into the street so that they might humiliate and rape them.  Throughout human history rape has been used to assert domination over others, a horrific weapon of war still being used today.  Rather than welcome the strangers as Lot had done, this mob of Sodom wanted to dominate and abuse them.  The sad conclusion to this story is destruction – those who wanted to hurt and destroy were removed from the picture, wiped out.  (Genesis 19:1-29)  Inhospitality leads not to blessing, but to a curse.

Other times when strangers were received with hospitality in the Hebrew scriptures include Moses being welcomed by a priest of Midian (Exodus 2:18-20), the widow of Zarephath caring for the prophet Elijah despite her poverty (1 Kings 17:7-16), and the prophet Elisha being welcomed in the home of a Shunammite  (2 Kings 4:8-10).  These acts of hospitality result in blessings for both the guest and host.

In the New Testament we see that Jesus relied on hospitality as he went about the countryside teaching and ministering. Sometimes the hospitality is heartfelt and results in changes of the heart, like in the case of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10).  Other times the hospitality is minimal and shallow, as in the case of Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7:36-46).  Before his arrest and execution Jesus himself shows hospitality at the last supper, washing the feet of the disciples, and offering the bread and the wine as the host of the meal.  In doing so Jesus teaches his followers that they are to serve others, they are to offer their gifts for the benefit of others.  Following the resurrection Jesus once again showed hospitality as he invited the disciples to a sea-side breakfast he had prepared for them (John 21:9-13).  Hospitality and Jesus’ ministry are intertwined.

The apostles knew the value of hospitality for spreading the good news of Jesus. Throughout the Book of Acts there are many examples of hospitality shown to Peter, Paul and others.  In the New Testament letters we find many passages encouraging Christians to show hospitality to others. Here are a few:

“Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.”  (Romans 12:13  NIV)

“Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”  (1 Peter 4:9-10  NIV)

“Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”  (Hebrews 13:2  NIV)

Showing hospitality was a characteristic expected of early church leaders (1 Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:8).  It would follow that church leaders today should also be expected to be hospitable.  The exhortations for all Christians to practice hospitality should be as relevant today as in the early church, but hospitality is a tricky thing.

The difficult nature of hospitality is that we can often be blind to ways we are inhospitable.  In my time in ministry I have seen efforts to be hospitable fall short of the mark simply by being unaware or uninformed.  In my years at seminary there was great frustration over the request to use inclusive language at all times.  Being a male I didn’t always understand why women felt left out when masculine dominated language was used in worship. I suspect I didn’t always “get it” because I was of the privileged gender who never felt excluded, and I knew I wasn't intentionally trying to exclude women. That alone blinded me to the unintentional way I was being inhospitable. Over the years I came to understand how powerfully language shapes our attitudes and actions, thus how careful use of language is needed in order to be truly welcoming to all people.  Hospitality is a tricky thing – just because I don’t sense something as inhospitable doesn’t mean that others experience this the same way. I still have a lot to learn in this area, but there has been growth.

Over the years another blindness to inhospitality I have noticed (often in clergy who, in other ways, strove diligently to be welcoming to all people - which makes this example ironic) has to do with the full inclusion of alcoholics.  Working with a fellow pastor who is a recovering alcoholic I became aware of how alcoholics can be very sensitive to being excluded and marginalized. To ensure that we showed good hospitality to such people we made it a practice to always provide a non-alcoholic alternative at Holy Communion for those who could not tolerate wine (for whatever reason). Providing a gluton-free alternative to the bread is a similar attempt to practice hospitality.  I remember how this practice was met with derision by some pastors and leaders in the church. They felt it destroyed the symbolism of being one in Christ, whereas I saw their attitudes as destroying the unity of Christ in actual fact, by making those who already feel shunned by society further excluded from full participation in the community of Christ.

So here is the tricky part, which is the inhospitable act – to anger those who would prefer celebrating Communion from a single cup, or to exclude those who would not be able to receive one (or both) elements?  Is being hospitable to one group showing inhospitality to the other?  In the end, for myself, I came to the conclusion that the manner in which the meal is shared is less important than the fact that it is indeed shared, and shared with all.
  

One of the early controversies in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada was about Communion of the Baptized, in other words, welcoming children to the Lord’s Table. This caused quite a stir amongst folks at the time.  It was seen by some as dispensing with the age old tradition insisting that only those who have been confirmed could participate in Communion.  For others this was seen as an act of hospitality to a group whom Jesus welcomed with open arms.  While it was acknowledged that children might not fully understand the theological meaning of Communion, it was also pointed out that adults don’t really understand the fullness of this mystery of Christ coming to us in bread and wine either.  We were reminded that Jesus said “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me.”  (Mark 9:37  NIV)

Speaking of children, there was a time in our congregation when children weren’t really welcomed by all.  When our children were small my wife Beth insisted on bringing them into worship with her.  In those days heaven forbid if kids made a noise in church! If they did then quickly eyes narrowed and brows furrowed and telepathic messages were sent to the offending mother “Those kids are distracting me, take them out!”  Now I do recognize that sometimes a crying child can be an overwhelming distraction, and in such cases they should be taken out while the tantrum lasts – but my wife was a master at keeping the kids relatively quiet and content during worship, still the glares would come at the littlest noise or movement.

Glaring eyes may perhaps be the most common way in which we send a message of inhospitality.  In earlier years people would be glared at if they wore something considered inappropriate, or if they sat in “someone’s pew”, or if they were simply strangers, or if they sang off key, or if they showed emotion, or if… the list goes on and on.  People can sense when they’re wanted, when they’re welcome, and they can certainly sense when they’re not! I know of too many stories of people who left the church, never to return, because of inhospitable treatment.

Our congregation used to hold Sunday School during the worship services, that was when I first came to serve here over two decades ago.  When the decision was made to shift Sunday School to a time slot between the two morning services (so the children could worship with their families) we discovered that there were many who didn’t feel this was a gesture of hospitality, but rather an unwelcome inconvenience. So once again hospitality is a tricky thing – is it the right thing to welcome children into worship, or is that inhospitable to those who find children in worship to disruptive?  In the end we decided that unless children went to worship with their families it would become more difficult to make worship a part of their life as they got older. We risked welcoming families with young children, and trusted that God could still be worshiped in spite of some possible distraction or noise.  Some did not like this decision, and left our congregation to worship elsewhere. Is it even possible to be hospitable to all?  Is it possible to live out the invitation “All are welcome”?

Most recently the question of hospitality in our church has been focussed on the full acceptance of GLBT persons.  Once again, as with other hot topic issues in the past, the church is trying to cope with internal strife over this question. For some it is simply an issue of yielding to scriptural authority, for others it is a question of justice, love and hospitality. It will take some time for the emotional dust of this issue to settle, but until then it is clear that full acceptance of homosexuals is outside the bounds of Christian hospitality for some, whereas for others it is a clear expression of Christ-like hospitality shown to a marginalized and misunderstood minority.

I end this reflection with the story of our church’s elevator. Our church building has the sanctuary on ground level, there are no steps to navigate in order to enter our worship space. We advertised our church as "wheelchair accessible."  One day it was brought to our attention that we really shouldn't claim to be wheelchair accessible because our Education Center could only be entered by climbing some stairs. This never seemed like a significant problem to me, not until some members who used wheelchairs lamented that they couldn’t attend any functions in the Education Center. This meant they were excluded from funeral lunches, from annual meetings, from special presentations, and other such events that took place in our Education Center auditorium. Once the lament became more public everyone realized “This is not an acceptable situation”.  So engineers were hired to look at some possibilities, plans were drawn up, and soon a construction crew was putting an elevator into our building. After the elevator was installed I noticed just how many people needed to use it in order to get upstairs. I had never noticed this problem before, and now it became obvious how many people were excluded before the elevator was installed. Because I didn’t need an elevator I was blind to the needs of others - I never realized we were being inhospitable prior to that. Since that time I have been often reminded what a great addition to our building the elevator has been, over and over people have expressed appreciation for the ability to join the rest of us upstairs. How could I have missed that before? Hospitality is a tricky thing, sometimes the need for it becomes obvious only after it has been offered.

The church has come a long way in our efforts to practice hospitality, but we can never assume we’re being hospitable enough. Hospitality require attentiveness and understanding, courage and compassion. The easier response to those who are not like us is to exclude or ignore, but Christ calls us to notice and include. While it might not always be easy we can be assured that to practice hospitality is indeed a blessing.
_________________________________

The graphic used in this post is © Daniel W. Erlander. Used with permission.
I have learned much about being hospitable from Daniel Erlander's books.  You can find information on his books and artwork on his website.

Reflection #13: More Choices Does Not Always Make Things Better

A few years back I saw a TED talk that clarified something about human nature for me.  For those readers of this blog unfamiliar with TED talks, they are mini-lectures or presentations given at TED conferences (TED stands for Technology Entertainment and Design).  TED conferences were formed to disseminate “ideas worth spreading” and offer talks on a wide range of subjects.  The talk that opened new understanding for me was by Barry Schwartz.  The bio for Barry on the TED website explains the premise of his talk:

In his 2004 book The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz tackles one of the great mysteries of modern life: Why is it that societies of great abundance — where individuals are offered more freedom and choice (personal, professional, material) than ever before — are now witnessing a near-epidemic of depression? Conventional wisdom tells us that greater choice is for the greater good, but Schwartz argues the opposite: He makes a compelling case that the abundance of choice in today's western world is actually making us miserable.

Barry Schwartz, a professor at Swarthmore College, points out in his book and in his TED talk how more choices does not make people happier or more content.  After listening to his presentation, then reading his book, I was able to understand why people from poor countries can be happier than people in my own country.  We have created a consumer culture where choice is paramount, and the customer is always right. “This is what people want” goes the mantra.  It may be what people think they want, but actually it is an approach to life that seldom satisfies.

Rather than me trying to explain Barry Schwartz’s thesis in print I suggest you to listen to his TED talk, it takes 20 minutes and is well worth the time spent.  For a link to the TED talk click here.

The reason this topic has made it into this list of Reflections on the past 25 years of Ministry is because I think the church has sometimes made the mistake of trying to appeal to people using a consumer culture model and its myriad of choices.  In doing so we may have only perpetuated the dissatisfaction with our churches that is the result of too many choices.

The whole concept of church shopping is a relatively new practice.  A couple of generations ago people tended to stay with the church of their ancestors, and the way the church functioned was the way the church was and people simply accepted it for the most part.  Now people will move about from church to church, staying for a few years then moving on, continuing their search for the perfect church.  The problem is that  there is no perfect church and all churches will eventually disappoint, to one degree or another.

Larger churches, like the one I serve, have been able to offer a wide range of programs and worship styles because we’ve had the resources.  Sometimes we have tried to be all things to all people, assuming that more choice will mean more participation.  To a certain extent it does, but offering many program and worship choices also can place us in the realm of consumer culture, which leads not to discipleship, but rather a user mentality.  When we offer a catalogue of choices we create a subtle message that says “You can think of the church like you think of a store - come when you need something, stay home when you feel you don’t, and if we don’t offer the exact thing you’re looking for try another store.”

There is a fine line here, between offering a variety of programs that meet a wide range of needs, and trying to offer choices to satisfy everyone.  That’s the problem – when trying to offer choices to satisfy everyone we set up unrealistic expectations for everyone involved and that is what leads ultimately to dissatisfaction.  The question we face today is "Where is that fine line between enough choices to be inclusive of all people, yet not too many choices that encourage a consumer mentality and ultimate dissatisfaction?"

I am not suggesting the church be as limited as Henry Ford once was, saying famously “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black.”  There does need to be variety, but also there needs to be an attempt to be realistic in what we can offer, and what we should offer.  We also should be cautious in imitating the consumer culture, a culture that encourages individual greed and entitlement over cooperation and responsibility to the community.

To adapt John F. Kennedy’s famous line from his inaugural speech: “Ask not what your church can do for you, ask what you can do for your church.”  This is a shift from a membership model to a discipleship model.  This moves the emphasis away from a consumer approach, with its unrealistic demands, to a far more healthy emphasis on relationship and service.  If there is to be a wide variety of service in the church it is because the ministry is being carried out by everyone, not just a few paid staff.  This variety grows naturally out of a body made up of many parts, each part contributing to the functioning of the whole.  (See Romans 12:4-7 and 1 Corinthians 12:12-30)

There is need for variety within the church, but variety in and of itself will not be what is needed in the future.  The paradox of choice tells us that sometimes we are better off  with limited variety and learning to work with what we have rather than lamenting what we don’t have and what we might be missing.  More choice is not what’s needed in the church, rather it is thoughtful and relevant choices.  It boils down to the choice between being disciples or being consumers, and that choice will make a meaningful difference.

My Doomsday Prediction

Preface
Well... here we are in the year 2012, the notorious year of many doomsday predictions – most based on a faulty understanding of the calendars of the Mayans.  It is true that  December 21, 2012 marks the end of the 5,125-year-long Mayan Long Count calendar, but what does that mean?  I heard Leonzo Barreno, a Mayan timekeeper, comment in bemusement that no one asks the Mayans what they think of all this end-of-the-calendar concern.  According to Mr. Barreno, who immigrated to Canada from Guatemala where he was trained by Mayan elders to read the ancient calendars, December 21, 2012 marks the end of the current calendar cycle and the start of a new one – something that has happened before (according to the elders this is the fifth time it's happened). This beginning of the calendar cycle is something to celebrate, not fear – but that doesn’t sell well in Hollywood.

It seems like for all of my life I have been living under various doomsday threats. I was a kid at the height of the Cold War and the nuclear arms build up. Watching movies like Planet of the Apes (the first one) and Dr. Strangelove, reading books like A Canticle for Leibowitz all added to the sense of the inevitability of nuclear annihilation.  Throughout my entire life the Doomsday Clock has fluctuated between 12 and 3 minutes to midnight. The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic clock, maintained since 1947 by the board of directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago. The closer the clock is to midnight, the closer the world is estimated to be to global disaster.  I remember that the year I got married the clock was set at 3 minutes to midnight, and at that time there were people who actually questioned the wisdom of getting married and having children given the imminent end of the world.
 
But nuclear holocaust was not the only end-times scenario predicted during my life, there has also been endless speculation about the Bible’s predictions of the coming end of the world.  Things really got rolling in the 1970 with Hal Lindsey’s bestselling book The Late, Great Planet Earth.  My teenage years were filled with music like Larry Norman’s I Wish We’d All Been Ready and awful religious movies like A Thief in the Night.  I was  worried enough about the Rapture in those years that once when my parents hadn’t returned from a trip to Calgary when I was expecting them I became frightened, thinking they’d been taken in the rapture and I’d been left behind!  Was I ever relieved (and a little embarrassed) when their car pulled into the garage.

For the past 4 decades we were told by these self-proclaimed Bible prophecy experts that the end of the world, the second coming of Christ, was just around the corner.  They put together charts explaining the various stages of their end times scenarios, quoting passages from the Book of Revelation as their primary source.  They seemed so certain, and so knowledgeable, and it was easy to get sucked into their prophecy predictions for doomsday.  I had friends who were certain that Harold Camping’s predictions were accurate – the first time around.  In September 1994 they gathered their family together to wait for the end to come.  It didn’t.  Harold Camping, rather than apologizing for his false prophecy instead made a new prediction (and wrote some more books).  Last year both May 21st, and October 21st came and went without Mr. Camping's predicted end arriving.

All this fear-mongering has certainly sold a lot of merchandise.  At the same time it has distracted people from the extensive environmental damage we continue to perpetrate while ignoring the warning signs (there is a doomsday scenario actually worth our time and attention).  Why do we want to know when the end of the world is going to be?  Is it a quest for control, for power over our destiny?  Or is it just fascination with the negative (like our propensity for preferring bad news over good)?

Prediction
While preparing for a Bible Study a few weeks ago I realized that if one was to read the Bible literally (as many of these end-times prophets claim to do) then the Bible itself provides us with a very different possibility for the end of the world.  Here is my doomsday prediction:

In the Hebrew scriptures there is a certain phrase that shows up many times, the phrase “thousand generations”.  Usually this phrase is connected with God’s enduring faithfulness to the covenant made with the patriarchs.  One good example of this is in Deuteronomy 7:9 which reads “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who maintains covenant loyalty with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations…”  Another occurrence is in Psalm 105: 7, a proclamation that “[God] is mindful of his covenant forever, of the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations…”  Or this promising description of God in Exodus 34:7: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation…”  Other examples are found in Exodus 20:6, Deuteronomy 5:10, 1 Chronicles 16:15 and Jeremiah 32:18.

So I reasoned that if God was to be mindful of his covenant for a thousand generations that would put off the end of the world for a long time.  I did some quick calculations: given that a generation could be 20 years (thus 2 generations would become the oft noted 40 years found throughout the Bible).  If we date the start of God’s covenant with Abraham and Sarah to 2000 years before Christ, then we today are currently 4000 year from that point.  Where does that fit into the thousand generations picture?  Well, 20 years multiplied by 1000 would total 20,000 years.  So 4000 of the 20,000 years have passed, leaving us 16,000 years away from the end of the world.  My doomsday prediction based on this Biblical evidence is that the world will end somewhere around the year 18,000!

Personally I don’t put much stock in reading the most of the Bible in such a literal fashion.  Thus when it says “a thousand generations” I don’t think it means 1000 right on the nose (not 999 and not 1001), rather I think it means for a great long time, longer than you can imagine.  Or when the Bible says “forty years” I don’t think it means 14,610 days exactly, as I indicated earlier I think it means a couple of generations, or something like that.  Most of the Bible needs to be read like poetry rather than a technical manual.  The words of the Bible need room to breath, to have the freedom to bring new insights to new generations while at the same time maintaining the original authors’ intention.

The last thing I want to note about using the Bible to predict the end times is that Jesus himself points his followers away from this type of speculation.  Jesus replies to a question about what the signs about the end times are, and when this will happen with these words: “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come.” (Mark 13:32-33)  No one knows, so stop trying to figure it out, instead be ready for the end to come at any time.  Don’t be like the children who wait until the last possible moment to begin cleaning the house before their parents are supposed to get home (a favourite trick at our house when growing up). Instead live our lives like every moment is a gift from God (which they are)!

Every day we need to remind ourselves that our time is limited and thus we should not put off what God wants us to do.  In the words of the prophet: “[God] has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  (Micah 6:8)  We cannot put this off because even if the end of the world is a long ways away, the end of our individual life is a lot closer.  Our lives are fragile and can disappear as quickly as grass fades.  The Psalmist notes: “As for mortals, their days are like grass; they flourish like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.”  (Psalm 103:15-16)

So we should make the most of the time that is given to us, we should strive to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God, we should endeavour to love others as Christ has loved us.  If we put more of our time and energy into heeding this prophetic call, into obeying Christ’s command, rather than wasting it on futile speculation about when doomsday will crash down upon us, then more of God’s reign will be revealed.

Postscript
Science Fiction author Frank Herbert thought about God’s covenant with the descendants of Abraham and Sarah as lasting a very, very long time.  In his famous Dune series, set 26,000 years in the future, a group of Jews show up in the storyline (in the book Chapterhouse: Dune).  If we were to simply calculate a generation as being 25 to 30 years (rather than the 20 years I suggested earlier) then this distant future envisioned by the Dune series would still be within the time-frame of a thousand generations mentioned in the Bible.  All too often humans tend to see their current generation as the only truly significant one, and our ego-centric view leads us to believe that we’re living in a time when the most important things are happening.  Quite the contrast with a storyline that lasts a multitude of generations.

All scripture quotations in this post are taken from the New Revised Standard Version.