Money, mulah, filthy lucre, mammon...how do YOU talk about it?

This week's blog question is on a topic that we're all thinking about - especially us'ns who are in the church biz: money. It's stewardship season! And although we emphasize that stewardship (a vastly misunderstood word) is not just about money, it's what people hear us talking about this time of year, as we encourage people in their spiritual discipline of giving, and as we have to make decisions about deploying our congregation's resources for the coming year - monetary and otherwise.

I'll be honest. One of the hottest button topics in our household? Money. We often take different sides on questions about how to use it/save it/give it/spend it. One likes to give more than the other, and for different causes. One often questions the purchases of the other. (Questionable purchases on my side? Woodworking stuff. On hers? Clothes and knitting. We won't go any further there...).

And, another aspect of this: working with our 8-year old about how he uses his allowance, which he's been getting now for about 2 years. We work out with him, as a family, a giving/saving/spending discipline: ten percent to the church off the top, other giving for other good causes, a certain percentage for saving, a certain percentage for spending. This is the beginning of a life-long discipline around the proper use of money. It's dang important, in my book.

I'm really curious about what conversation goes on just before the pledge card goes in - in your mind, or in your family. How do you make decisions about giving, as an individual or a family? How do you make decisions about spending? How do you - consciously or otherwise - teach or share values with others in your family about the proper use of resources?

And, in terms of giving, we talk a lot about a tithe - giving away ten percent. I'm extremely curious about whether people approach their giving discipline in this way - by setting a percentage that seems faithful, and sticking with it. Do you give all to the church? Some to the church and some to other causes? Is a tithe supposed to ALL go to the church?

It's often hard for us to talk about money (harder, sometimes, than talking about sex - perhaps a topic for next week in the blog!) But, fact remains that over 1/3 of the words of Jesus recorded in the scriptures are about the use of resources and material things. For better or worse, we can't divorce our use of money from the Christian life.

And...if you want to comment on a safer topic than this...here's another question: how should we talk about money as a church? Do we spend too little time and attention on it? Too much? I get people giving me both kinds of feedback.

Love to hear from you out there!

--Jeff V.

How would Jesus vote?

The question for this week has to do with what we're all thinking about...well, at least one of the things we can't avoid thinking about: the election.

Obviously, I mean for the title of this entry to be provocative. To claim that Christian faith - the teachings of Jesus - might lead us to vote for one candidate over the other is a dicey proposition. Any attempt to equate the Kingdom of God with any earthly ideology, party or program is a perversion of the gospel. (Theological background on that point? Read The Barmen Declaration).

But on the other hand - is it not also a shirking of our responsibility as Christians if our faith somehow does not gain traction in our political thinking? If politics is simply "the art of living together", how could Christian teaching not have some bearing on our political decisions? Does Jesus have something to say about economics? Over 1/3 of his words were devoted to them. Does he have to say something about our caring for the poor? Personal responsibility? Abortion? You be the judge.

How does your faith relate to your politics...if it does at all? The title of this entry makes the assumption that Jesus would indeed be voting. There are some who assert that Christians - people who are called to be radically "other" - might see the rather radical choice of not voting at all as one that has integrity - especially if you see Jesus as a radical, apocalyptic prophet of the end-times, who was content to leave politics to Caesar, in order fry the bigger fish of the true Kingdom that he came to announce.

What do you think? Let's see if we can break our record of 4 responses!

Blessings,

Jeff V.

Lawrenceville Church a Web 2.0 Congregation? What Do You Think?

Jeff V. writing here.... I'm back after a long summer's nap. This post is really an attempt to re-establish our blogging practice as a church...and that's the subject of the post.

I've obviously been rather reluctant to jump into the whole blogging thing. One impediment is my perfectionism (don't want to post anything in public that doesn't sing, and that I haven't been over with my editor's fine-toothed comb). Hence I'm a rather slow writer, and doing a post regularly seems way too much to do on my already spare time-budget. 

But, I've been doing a bit of reading about how churches need to use some of the "Web 2.0" tools that people - many of them younger ones - are using to connect with each other. 

Why not Lawrenceville Church using such tools to enhance our connections with each other?

My recent experience has confirmed what I've been reading: that some of the new web technologies, far from any atomizing effect on community, actually help people connect more deeply in "real time" and in face-to-face contexts.

I'll give you an example. When I first started using Facebook, one of our newest members sent me a Friend Request. Like so many of the new members - and heck, let's be honest, many of the 850 odd people already on the rolls - I did not know this person well at all. Maybe a few details among the many that people shared at the new member gatherings. But through the bits that he shares on FB, I have a much better sense of him when I see him and his family in person--and of course, that goes for the other folks I keep in touch with on that site. "Hey - I see you like the Mets. How about that Billy Wagner...darn shame, huh?" You get it.

BUT HERE'S WHAT I WONDER ABOUT...and here's what I worry about as the church uses these tools in a bigger way. How do we maintain a healthy conversation, on a medium that often, because you are not communicating face-to-face, lacks nuance, and encourages quick and often angry communication? My rule for email is this: if there's ANY whiff of emotional content or subtlety required, speak person-to-person. 

And in a medium where people can comment anonymously - such dangers seem to me to potentially multiply. Is there a danger of the blog becoming an online "suggestion box", a forum where people in the community can avoid accountability for their communication that we as Christians do well to maintain? Is there a way we can require people not to make anonymous postings? Am I being paranoid?

What do you think?

Last thought - on the impediment I mentioned above - my perfectionism. Here's what I've decided if we do jump in more fully as a church into the Blogosphere, at least for my own writing on it: I am not going to write long, eloquent (well, ahem) posts about theological subjects. I've got enough of a challenge coming up with adequate words for a weekly sermon. 

Instead, here's what I'm thinking. First, to post questions that will enable conversation. Questions like, "Do we spend too much time talking about money as a congregation? How shall we be faithful in our talk about money?" 

Or, "How can we bear witness to Christ's hope as we confront together difficult economic times?"

Those are questions I'd plan to post at some point in the near future, which I hope might provoke some useful congregational dialogue.

Second - perhaps the content for this blog does not just come from me, and the staff - it should come from the members and leaders too. So often, I get eloquent, well-thought-out responses from sermons, via email, and there is no medium to share such things. Seems ready-made for the blog form....

Lastly...here's an honest question. Will people care? Will we make this effort to communiciate - "build it" - and will anyone come? How do we encourage a critical mass of people to use this medium to have a deeper conversation together, such that it really does enhance community life; enough people so that we get a real sense of what is going on in our real-time congregation? That is what I'm most up for - to use this means to have a real, meaningful and faith-building conversation together.

In any case - love to hear the opinions of anyone out there....

--Jeff Vamos

The pope agrees with me?

As a response to my sermon last week, a church member forwarded to me Beliefnet's daily joke (http://www.beliefnet.com/dailyjoke/DailyJoke.aspx?QID=3621). Though I usually delete without reading the joke emails that people send to me, I'm thinking of subscribing to this. I've often found myself on Beliefnet, a wonderful website, full of wisdom from many religious traditions.

Anyway...in doing a little research on that site (since, hey, I was already there...ah, the mind of a procrastinator at work), I discovered this little homily written by Joseph Ratzinger, the man who would be pope.

Check it out: 

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/214/story_21486_1.html

Live into hope!

Jeff V.

Did Jesus Laugh?

Did Jesus Laugh?

This is the central question around which the mystery novel The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco, turns—a book most worthy of reading, not only for its clever plot, but for the theological education it offers its reader. There are some who would say no to that question, and would deny a divine role for laughter. But, the biblical and theological witness might say otherwise.

In his book Laughter: A Theological Reflection, Karl-Josef Kuschel writes of the ambiguous way in which the ancients regarded laughter. Plato saw laughter as something to avoid, whereas Aristotle saw it as healthy because it is characteristics of human beings.

Though some of the early church fathers (such as St. John Chrysostom) denied the laughter of Christ, many found it easy to identify laughter – so characteristic of human joy – with an intimate experience of divine grace. The biblical witness knows the joy of human laughter, as we see from Sarah’s laughter at God’s proposition of a child in old age. St. Paul identifies the gospel of Christ with what is “foolish in this world,” which shames the wisdom of the wise. In John’s Gospel, the very first miracle (“sign”) is a joyful party with singing and laughing, a wedding feast in which Jesus turns water into wine. Kuschel writes of the “messianic jubilation”, the joy and healing of the Christian message, including God’s acceptance of sinners, which must necessarily express itself in divine laughter. He also details a German preaching tradition (not unlike the theme for this Sunday) that allowed the telling of even off-color jokes and stories during the Easter season as a way of rejoicing in the triumph over death that Easter represents.

Risus Paslchalis, the Easter Laugh: should we bring back this ancient tradition of the Christian Church? Presbyterians are not well known for their experience or expressiveness of joy. One of our members emailed me recently, for example, and mentioned that he thought we needed to be more joyful; so much of what we do seems so somber. Sure, we need to be able to sing the blues…to remember the words of Khalil Gibran, that “the lute that plays your music is also the lute that was whittled with knives.” But the corresponding experience to that of suffering love, as we witness on the cross…is JOY.

Now, I have met Mark’s challenge of a blog entry two weeks after Easter! I have discovered how difficult it is to be consistent with a discipline of “blogging”. But, I’m still working on it. The life of a clergy person seems filled with the ebb and flow of urgent business, which all never gets done.

And indeed, I still have a draft of my Mission Statement (I’ve written several in my life), but don’t want to release that here until I’ve really made it my own for this period in my life.

So…back to laugher. What ideas do we have to combat the oft-heard reputation of Presbyterians, that we are indeed “the frozen chosen.” Reputation well-deserved? What can we do about it? Shall we practice “Holy Humor Sunday” every year the Sunday after Easter?

Be well, and blessings,

Jeff V.

A Confession and a Final Critique

I write as I watch the Academy Awards Ceremony...a true procrastinator, as you all already know. I'm behind on my blog entry this week. And I want Mark Smith also to know that I am working on my Mission Statement! But it's not yet ready for prime time. I trust there may still be some interested enough in our blog to read it when it's finally done.

Today's sermon concerned how culture and social influence contribute to the content of our character. I'm the product of a white, middle class, suburban, midwest upbringing. I think of how much of my own character was minted early in life by my family. My own profession I suppose in many ways was inspired by life as the son of a Pastor (though I never thought I'd be doing what he did). This discussion about character has especially caused me to consider what kind of culture I am creating in my own family life - what values I seek to transmit to our son, Will; what values we seek to consciously live out together as a family. 

Culture matters. That was really the main point of today's sermon - our family's culture, our work culture, our national culture; it has a great deal of influence upon our own individual character. But it goes both ways: it forms us, and obviously, we form it. We're all in some sense responsible for the collective character, if you will, of each. 

Is it fruitful to step back and observe what kinds of cultures we operate in, and their character? To what extent are we operating in cultures of integrity, or excellence--or, on the other hand, dysfunctionality? And is it then fruitful to ask ourselves the question, What can I do to help create a culture that values right action?

But a final word about character. I ended this sermon series with a critique of character...of any collective, social attempt to "teach character." Perhaps one could say that the dark underbelly of any such attempt is the extent to which teaching virtue is simply the attempt to acculturate individuals to a social norm. What if that norm itself is unjust? After all, Adolf Eichmann loved Beethoven, and was kind to his colleagues, and was a terrific father, apparently.

In the final analysis, as Christians we can't escape the anthropology of the cross: despite our muscular attempts at virtue, we can never attain a character of life that will insulate us from human sin. We will never be a perfect human being, nor shall we ever build a perfect society. We look at the cross and see our own guilt and failure writ large: we killed God. And at the same time, we see the ultimate symbol of divine love: God gave not just any life, but the divine life as a gift to every human being.

Christian understanding of character begins at the foot of the cross, when we know ourselves to be forgiven for our failures, and redeemed from our perfectionism. That turns out to be the most solid foundation upon which to build a virtuous life. When we know this power, we become, in the words of D. T. Niles, "One beggar telling another beggar where to find bread."

Be interested in anyone's further reflection out there. Some very specific questions:

* What are folks' experience in wrestling with "The Man"? Is it naive to say that an individual can have an effect upon a whole corporate or work culture? Can an individual function with integrity in a dysfunctional culture?

* What do you make of the theology of the cross? Is it possible that we really begin to form a character of virtue when we realize our failure at virtue? 

* What important questions have not been asked in this discussion about character?

Welcome any comments.

 

A Mission Statement

First, some bonus material on last week's theme...dealing with Character and Suffering. Stuff that was left on the cutting room floor. I'm repeating this from a post I did last week, because I thought folk might not see it if they're just tuning in. For today's topic, please scroll down to the next boldfaced stuff.

First is a quote by the ancient Greek tragedian Aeschylus. Dick Brown mentioned it going out from church last Sunday:

"He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. "

Second is a movie recommendation. It's the movie - a true "sleeper" - called The Big Kahuna. It's a short flick - only about 90 minutes - and I think was originally a one-act play. It features Danny Devito, Kevin Spacey and another actor (not a big name). Anyway, most of the action takes place in a hotel room during an industrial lubricants conference - among 3 salesmen. It's about their attempt to land "The Big Kahuna", and involves themes around religion, salesmanship, and...of course...character. An excellent film, well worth a watch. I had my whole confirmation class watch it once.

Today's theme: Do you know what you are aiming at in life? (OK, William Safire..."at what you're aiming....) One of the items I'm going to speak about in today's sermon (egad, I'm behind!) is how important it is to articulate the principles on which our life is based, if one is to be conscious of the kind of character one wishes to cultivate. I reviewed again Steven Covey's book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, which I think is a very good, basic primer on this subject. One of his "habits" is this: Begin with the end in mind. He suggests writing a mission statement for your life, as a way to articulate a) What is most important to you in your life; and b) Around what values (virtues) and principles do you seek to organize your life?

Once we've done this, we can then measure how it is we are acting out of those values and virtues. Is generosity one of my primary values? Well, how am I being generous? Is being an excellent parent a primary goal of my life? What am I doing to be an excellent parent?

For Christians, there's an important principle not to miss here, too. We believe we are not solely "self-powered" creatures - but we are able to accomplish our purpose through a combination of human sweat, and divine help. Prayer is important. Asking God, whose power is able to renovate any human life, how we wish to be shaped and formed, is an important part of the process as well. "Ask...seek...knock." We don't get there only by sheer muscular human will.

So...I guess I have my work cut out for me, after preaching this sermon. To take pen in hand, and write a mission statement. This is not the first time I've done this - but mine needs updating. It really can be a very powerful process!
Anybody out there willing to take a stab?

Onward,

Jeff V.