Last Sunday we moved swiftly in worship from waving Palms and shouting Hosannas to the “king who comes in the name of the Lord,” to shouting, “Crucify!  Crucify him!”  In my sermon I tried to juxtapose our desire for winners over losers in contemporary America, with the reversal of the people in Jesus’ day who turned on their hoped for Messiah, when he didn’t match up with their expectations of a “winning” Messiah.  The following scriptures highlight the juxtapostion…

Palm Sunday – “As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, ‘Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!  Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!’” – Luke 19: 37-38

Passion Sunday – “Then they all shouted together, ‘Away with this fellow!  Release Barabass for us!’ (This was a man who had been put in prison for an insurrection that had taken place in the city, and for murder.)  Pilate, wanting to releace Jesus, addressed them again; but they kept shouting, ‘Crucify, crucify him!‘” – Luke 23: 18-20

I still struggle with the paradoxical nature of following a “loser,” who showed us that the only way to truly “win” in the Kingdom of God, is to die to yourself, take up your cross and follow Him.   It means loving not only those who love you, but those who hate you as well.  I much more prefer the Golden Rule, “love your neighbor as yourself” (as long as I get to choose my neighbors), to Jesus’ New Commandment (coming your way this Maundy Thursday!), to “love one another as I have loved you” (John 15: 12).  But I believe, as  Dietrich Bonhoeffer did, that when Jesus says, “Follow me,” that means we are called to die just like Jesus did.  Die to our old self, our false self, and rise to the new self, the True Self revealed in Jesus Christ.  God’s love revealed to us through Jesus’ death and resurrection was more costly than we can comprehend.  Yet, this Holy Week, we are invited to reflect again on God’s love revealed to us in the Cross of Christ, that we may be drawn more deeply into the life of faith, hope, and love now revealed in us through compassionate service and a life of forgiveness.

²¹Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” ²²When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” – John 20: 21-23

I thought I understood what Confession and Forgiveness was all about, after all I have been a Lutheran my whole life, and every Sunday in worship we begin our worship with the Confession and Absolution.  I can almost say the words from the LBW in my sleep, “I confess that I am in bondage to sin and cannot free myself.  I have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed; by what I have done and by what I have not done…”  As a kid, those 10 seconds of silence for self-examination seemed to last forever, as I tried to tell God the worst sins of the week that I could remember, mostly having to do with squabbles between my sister and I, or conflicts with my friends.  Then the pastor would announce that we were forgiven by Jesus Christ, and sometimes I’d “feel better” but other times the words went in one ear and out the other.  But, aside from asking forgiveness directly from people I’ve hurt or wronged in some way, I have never confessed my sins in front of another person, let alone a whole group of people.  Until last summer…

As part of the men’s retreat I attended last summer, we were to spend a couple of hours alone in the woods, reflecting on and writing down the things (sins) of our lives that were a burden and barrier to our life and faith with God.  That was hard and painful enough, but to find out that we would then be sharing our list of sins, failures, and brokenness in front of a group of men, that was almost too much to handle.  Yet after the tears of pain, frustration, guilt, shame, and deep hurt of my sins came out, these men all laid hands on me and prayed for me and in Jesus’ name forgave my sins!  The power and presence of the Holy Spirit flowed through those men as they prayed for me and forgave me my sins!  How can I describe the cleansing, healing, and joy from that experience of God’s grace?  Singing “Amazing Grace” barely touches the reality of the healing power of God’s forgiveness.  It was for me, a real taste of Easter, the new-life given to us through faith in the resurrected Christ.

Yet this taste of Easter, this Amazing Grace is the command and power that Jesus gives to us by the Holy Spirit, to forgive sins!   We forgiven sinners get to be bearers of the Good News of Easter, that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and through faith in Him we have the forgiveness of our sins, the hope of the resurrection to eternal life, and the salvation of our souls.   We get to forgive people in Jesus’ name, who are hurting and burdened by the sin in their lives!  What an amazing gift we have been given, but not to keep for ourselves, but to give it away to a hurting world! 

In his Large Catechism, Martin Luther wrote this about confession: “Thus we teach what a wonderful, precious, and comforting thing confession is, and we urge that such a precious blessing should not be despised…Therefore, when I urge you to go to confession, I am simply urging you to be a Christian.  Those who really want to be good Christians, free from their sins, and happy in their conscience, already have the true hunger and thirst” (LC, pg. 104).

If you hunger and thirst for the forgiveness that comes from the gift of confession, to go a step deeper than the Corporate Confession and Forgiveness in Sunday morning worship, I invite you to call me to set up a time for a Individual Confession and Forgiveness.  We will walk together through a process to prepare you for this sacred rite of the Church.  And let us all receive and share this powerful gift given to us by Jesus Christ!

I asked for topics and questions, and that’s what I got.  Thanks for your suggestions!

For the more theological, spiritual, and Biblical questions, it will take me a while to write a clear and concise response to share with you.

The following item is a little less complicated.  Someone asked: “Have you ever wondered why dress socks are more comfortable than athletic socks?”

Well, no I haven’t, actually.  I tried to find a Biblical reference to socks, but all I came up with were a few items about not being worthy to tie the thongs of the sandals of Jesus’ feet, shaking the dust off your feet at an unbelieving community, and the symbolism of foot washing to servanthood and Christian discipleship.  But now that it’s been brought up I have been paying way too much attention to my socks and how my feet have felt while wearing different kinds of socks.

Here are my musings on socks from this past week:

• Sunday – dress socks, 70-30 blend, a little thin for the weather, but comfortable.
• Monday – casual socks, 100% cotton, thicker than dress socks, and work well with my shoes, very comfortable.
• Tuesday – athletic socks from REI, a blend of high tech fabrics, warm and comfortable
• Wednesday – casual socks, a less expensive pair that I’ve had for a while, too thin in spots, uncomfortable enough to toss.
• Thursday – casual socks, another old pair of socks, reminds me I haven’t bought new socks in a while.
• Friday – yet another old pair of socks, even a little hole by the toe.  Hmm, time for a run to Target.
• Saturday – a warm comfy pair of socks!
• Sunday – wore a pair of dress socks for the 13 hours I was at church, and my feet felt just fine.

My conclusion has to be, whether you are wearing dress socks or athletic socks, wear socks that aren’t old and thin nor socks with holes.  I also was reminded that feet sweat a lot!  According to the website “How Stuff Works” – “With more than 250,000 sweat glands each, your feet are among the most perspiring parts of the body. In one day, each foot can produce more than a pint of sweat!”  Eewww!

Now the reason why I am trying to gross you out with that tidbit of information is to set the stage for a story about learning to be a servant and disciple of Jesus Christ through the aforementioned ritual of washing feet.

It was the final night of our two week church camp counselor training.  We were gathered in a circle in the main lodge for worship and the ritual of foot washing, as a sign of our servant life together as a community of Christian disciples.  We had been tromping around camp all day long wearing our heavy hiking boots (this was at Christikon in the mountains of Montana!).  It had been an exhilarating two weeks of learning, growing, and bonding with new friends.  I was sitting happily on the floor in the circle between two of my new friends, as the wash basin and towel came around.  One by one we knelt at the feet of our friends, took off their shoes or boots, and then washed their feet.  The guitars were playing and people were singing and crying with the powerful spirit of the whole experience, when my buddy leaned over and whispered, “you’ll have to skip me.”

“Wha’?” I mumbled.

“You’ll have to skip me.  If you take off my boots, my bad foot odor will kill you and everyone else in a five mile radius!”  (OK, he didn’t say a “five mile radius” or “kill you” but he was serious.)

Then the wash basin and towel were passed to me.  My friend gave me a look of fear and I hesitated.  But feeling all eyes upon me I started to untie his boots, which took a while, until I slowly started to take the first boot off.  I never knew that smells could hurt!  I jerked away gagging.  The people on either side of us leaned as far away as possible, covering their faces.  My friend just shrugged, as if to say, “I warned you.”

As I tried to control myself (ask my wife about my changing diapers sometime, if you need a good laugh), I then realized I still had to take off his sock!!!

Now at this point I began to realize that what had started out as a touching, powerful experience to complete our training as Christian church camp counselors, had taken on a new, less pleasant, though more deeply spiritual and powerful experience for me.  ”Servanthood,” “discipleship,” “community in Christ,” these are all nice, feel-good phrases and concepts, if you can keep them abstract, sterile, and clean, and away from your nose.  But when a person, and not a concept, is in front of you, and you are called to be their servant, that’s when things get hard, messy, and very, very real.  Truth be told, it is something that we avoid.  Not only don’t we want people to take off those things that hide and cover up the “stinky” parts of our own lives, we don’t want to have to deal with the “stinky”
problems of others either.  So we smile nicely at each other and sweetly reply that everything is going “just fine,” even when it is not.  We all know that isn’t what community in Christ or Christian discipleship is about, but at least it doesn’t smell, or offend us, or challenge us to go beyond our own comfort zone and resources to rely on God for help.

I have to admit that I only washed his one foot.  Partially because of the, well, smell, and because everyone else was waiting for us to finish up (that’s my lame excuse, and I’m sticking with it!).

So, from a question about the comfort of socks, to the discomfort of discipleship and servanthood.  Keep those questions coming, you never know where they will end up.

How do churches grow?  Well, a quick answer is, “Only through Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  A more nuanced answer is that churches grow in different ways and are at different stages of growth – some numerically, some organically, some in maturity, and others grow by incarnating Jesus’ love for others.  While we may stumble over definitions, strategies, and even priorities, for the Church of Jesus Christ, it is an expectation that we continue growing in all of these different ways.

On Tuesday night I had the staff and committees of the church look at the different ways churches grow, and give me their perspective.  Here is a sampling of responses on the area of Numerical Growth:

Positive Growth -

• Participation in our ministries is up, including non-members
• The number of ministries is up
• The number of kids in the new youth choir is up
• The number of youth involved is up
• The number of people being served and impacted through our ministries, especially our service/outreach ministries is way up

Negative Growth (also known as stagnation or decline) -

• Worship attendance has slipped down again, to under 250 per Sunday (back where things were 11 years ago)
• Number of pledges and budget is down
• Slight growth in membership
• Decline in visitors

What does all this mean?  Overall we are not growing numerically.

Historically, Christus Victor has gone through a number of cycles of church membership growth and decline.  The highest point was in the mid-1980′s when worship attendance hit an average of 450 a Sunday, and then, for a number of reasons, dropped the next year to 250.  In 1998 the average attendance was 270.  It grew to 330 for a few years in 2004 and 2005, and then started to slip a little each year, back to the 1998 level in 2009.

There are both internal and external issues at work, effecting church growth and decline.  One book that has greatly informed and challenged my thinking is “Transforming Congregational Culture” by Anthony Robinson.  In the first chapters, Robinson addresses the many cultural changes that have occured in our country, and how those changes are speeding up.  Yet, I find it too easy to point the finger outside the church, and so does Robinson.  We need to be asking some serious questions, even basic questions of ourselves.  The first question we need to ask and answer is the PURPOSE question:  “What is our purpose/mission?”  and “How is it going?”

We are starting to ask these questions, to find out how it is going, but more importantly to listen where God may be calling us to change for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I hope you will share your insights, questions, and ideas in the weeks and months ahead as we seek to be faithful to God’s call and command to grow – in faith, hope, and love of God and our neighbors.

I’ve been rereading a great book from the Alban Institute called, “More than numbers: the ways churches grow.”

Author, Loren Mead, lays out four different ways churches grow, or don’t grow, as the case may be.  Those ways are:

• Numerical Growth – membership, attendance, participation, financial support, and budgets
• Maturational Growth – spiritual growth in maturity of faith and living as disciples of Jesus Christ
• Organic Growth – organizational growth, the structures, discipleship and leadership processes, and even facilities meeting missional needs
• Incarnational Growth – missional growth in serving the needs of people in the community and around the world (this includes Evangelism, which is also connected to Maturational Growth).

While numbers, or the bottom line, are the things we focus on the most, as we have been taught by our culture, that is only one indicator of growth, or even health in a church.  All four aspects of church health and growth are needed for a truly growing and vibrant congregation.

The information and discussion questions in Mead’s book line up nicely with the research and the international ministry of Natural Church Development .  They take a holistic and principle based approach to church growth and health.  Churches need to look honestly at all aspects of their ministry, identifying both their strengths and weaknesses.  Then they can address steps to improve and strengthen those areas that are hindering the whole ministry of the church.

In preparing for and reviewing the accomplishments and goals of the many committees of the church, looking at the church budget and our stewardship trends, reflecting on the faithful work of those council members stepping down, and on the new council members stepping up as servant leaders of our church, I am struck by the fact that we are a work in progress at Christus Victor.  God has done, and continues to do, wonderful things through the ministries of our church and in the faith and life of members and those we serve in our community and around the world.  And yet, we are called to follow Jesus, which means being open to change and being changed for the sake of the Gospel and the Kingdom of God.  One of my goals this coming year is to take stock of where we are and where we need to grow, change, and improve for the sake of the whole ministry of the church, that we may listen to God and follow where the Spirit leads.

Did I get your attention?  Good.

It is a dangerous thing when we open the Bible and begin to read, for in and through these words, written and translated by many different people throughout the ages, God in fact speaks to us and does something to and with us.  This book, this Word of God, both kills us and gives us life.  Hence the whole “danger” thing.

Which makes me so glad that there are five adult small groups, risking the “dangers” of the Bible, gathering together each month for Bible study.  They are learning about different characters and stories of the Bible, or looking deeply at one book of the Bible, or learning more about a particular theme that runs throughout the Bible.  All of which, I hope, is helping them grow in their understanding of what God is trying to tell them and do to them, both as individuals and as a group.  And not only in their understanding of what God has said and done in the past, but more importantly what God is saying and doing today to draw people into a faith relationship with Jesus Christ.

On Sunday, Dec. 6, we began the first of our series on “How Lutherans Interpret the Bible,” as part of our church’s process to study and discuss the Biblical texts at the center of the controversy over the ELCA resolutions.  And I am grateful that so many people attended the first session, and hopefully will follow through on all of the rest.   Or, if people are not able to attend on Sundays, that they sign up to attend the Thursday classes starting in mid-January (sign up at the info desk!).

It is hard work, and risky, when we gather together to discuss both how different people approach and understand the Bible.  It becomes even more challenging and risky, when we have clarified in our own mind and heart, to then begin to share how we approach and understand the Bible.  The ante goes up further when we listen and hear other Christians who have a different approach and understanding of the Bible, which leads them to interpret things differently from ourselves.  As if that doesn’t cause people to faint with trepidation, God promises to show up in our dialog and discussion, to say to us exactly what God wants to say to all of us, and, as often happens, transform all of our understandings to bring us closer to God’s will and heart.  As Mark Allen Powell reminds us, the Bible gives us Jesus Christ, the Living Word of God!

For those who wish to go a little deeper in pondering questions related to our interpretations and approaches to the Bible I strongly recommend this article by Prof. Walter Brueggemann on Biblical Authority and the Church.  It is well worth the slow, careful read.