Lessons from Fantine

     A few weeks ago, I led a funeral service for a young man who was shot and killed in an apparent drug deal gone bad. The young man went to a location thinking he was making a deal but was robbed instead.
     At the service, as you might imagine, the young man's friends showed up in all their diversity. There were plenty of tattoos and piercings, and people from all walks of life.
     If I am honest, I struggled with judgment. In my mind, I was tempted to write many of these individuals off before even getting to know them. God showed me on this day that he is about the business of saving and redeeming all kinds of people who have all types of stories.
     In Les Miserables, Fantine is a woman who has a child out of wedlock (in 19th century France). After she is fired from her factory job and thrown into the street, she resorts to a life of prostitution. Her soul is stolen in a moment. All of the dreams she had in life are shattered by this one decision. If you have time, download the song "I Dreamed a Dream" from the soundtrack and listen closely to the words. It is the song of a girl who has lost her soul and wants it back.
     It seems to me that there are a lot of lost souls who want a new life in Christ. There are drug dealers, thieves, porn stars, prostitutes, and all types of people who don't like the life they are living but don't know how to get out. There are others, of course, who are quite content to live in this garbage. My heart is touched for this first group of people who want out but don't know how to get out.
     How can we, as the Church, open ourselves to helping these people? How do we get dirty in this mud and yet not get stained? The first step, the most important step, is to open our hearts and to begin to feel compassion for them.
     If you would like to develop a heart for one group of these people, women who have resorted to a career in the adult film industry, I recommend a Web site to you, http://iamatreasure.com/. It is full of personal testimonies of women like Fantine who have found Christ in the depths of their sin.
    If our hearts will be touched and if we are to begin to have compassion on "those" people, it begins by listening to their stories, because they each have one.

Joy for the Miserable Ones

     I just saw the motion picture, Les Miserables, and I am compelled to write about it. It is so loaded with spiritual themes that I could spend days unpacking.

     The most obvious theme, it seems, is forgiveness and redemption. Jean Valjean served 19 years of hard labor for stealing bread (to save his family) and for repeated escape attempts. Upon his release, he is consigned to probation and must report regularly or face life imprisonment as a repeat offender. Moreover, he must carry around papers documenting that he is a "danger to society." Nobody will hire him. Nobody will help him. Nobody will give him a second chance.

     JeanValjean eventually shreds his papers and goes into hiding, only to re-emerge nine years later as a successful businessman, in fact mayor of a small town! His past, though, personified in officer Javert, never lets him rest. Once Javert becomes aware that Jean Valjean is indeed still alive, he commits his life to bringing Jean Valjean to "justice."

    When I think about this theme, I think about Paul's words in Second Corinthians 5:17: "If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. The old has gone; the new has come." I think about how hard it is for us to allow others (and ourselves) to live into this reality.

     Jean Valjean paid his debt to society, and then some, and yet the world would not let his "sin" go. It followed him like a ghost, robbing him of a normal life and, in fact, robbing society of his gifts for leadership! 

     We do the same thing today in the ways we label ex-convicts, for sure. A friend of mine who is involved with prison ministry puts it like this. We have all done something worthy of imprisonment at some time in our life. The only difference with ex-cons is that they were caught!

    This argument breaks down after a point, but I get the idea. We are all sinners! "There is no one righteous. No, not one!" (Romans 3:10) 

     I am not talking about abandoning our justice system, nor am I making a judgment on its merits and deficiencies. What I am talking about is the attitudes we have toward those who have been released from "prison," whether that is the physical place with iron bars and concrete or the invisible prisons in which we have all served time.

    And sometimes, it is we who refuse to forgive ourselves for crimes/sins of the past. At some point, it is time to let it go and embrace the new creation that we are in Jesus Christ.

O Holy Night

     There is nothing like a full sanctuary on Christmas Eve!
     Last night at the 9 PM candlelight service, we had 500 in attendance. The balcony was full, the choir overflowed on the chancel, rows of families filled whole pews. Worship is not like this every Sunday, but it sure is nice to see the way things could be.
     We will always have a spike in attendance on these "High Holy Days," I guess. Out-of-town guests accompany church members and their families. College students are home for winter break. Even those who have fallen out of regular worship habits come to join the family of God at worship on Christmas Eve.
     Say what you will, but I rejoice and give thanks for the turnout last night, even if things won't be like this again until Easter Sunday. I would prefer that we filled the sanctuary every week of the year. I would rather see people make regular worship attendance a priority in their lives, but I'll take what I can get. Better to have them worship once a year and hear the Word proclaimed than not at all.
     Next week, attendance will drop off. Families will catch their airplanes back home. College students will sleep in. Church members who haven't yet cultivated a regular worship habit will resort to old Sunday morning routines. But for today, on this cold, wet Christmas Day, I will give thanks for a wonderful evening of worship.
   

So Now What?

     OK. I've had some time to think about things since my last post. I have searched for the sunny side of things and tried to come back with a more upbeat post, especially since it's Christmas Eve!

     The conclusion I keep coming back to: We no longer live in a Christian culture. That chapter of the Church is dead in the United States of America, and it is probably true in Europe and other western nations as well.

     There was a time when Christ and the Church took center stage in the town square. Stores were closed on Sundays. Prayer in school was the accepted norm. There was no such thing as no-fault divorce. There was a certain standard for musical lyrics on the radio. There were no atheistic groups posting anti-Christmas billboards in Times Square that read, "Keep Merry, Kill the Myth." 

      These trends are obviously sad and troubling. More important than a sentimental longing to get back to Mayberry is the realization that a new generation is growing up without knowledge of Christ, without a base knowledge of the Bible, and with little to no use for the Church. Also, legislation in our nation is becoming more at-odds with traditional, biblical values. I have already mentioned no-fault divorce, but the issue of gay marriage will be decided this year by the U.S. Supreme Court. And although we cannot legislate morality, the laws of this nation have a way of shaping and re-inforcing what we value as moral or immoral.

     None of this is new. I am not saying anything in this post that others haven't beaten into the ground. I think I am just finally awaking to this realization.

     The question now is, "So what?" What are the implications of this realization? Do I settle for perpetual frustration with every headline I read? Do we retreat from the world like the Essenes or do we stay in the game?

     The temptation for me -- always -- is to retreat in the wilderness. It would be so much easier for me to detach myself emotionally from grandiose expectations. The words of the The Lord's Prayer, however, challenge us to work for God's will on earth as it is in heaven. We may not win, but we must continue to work and trust God to bring about the results that He wants. 

     There is something very simple and beautiful about Jesus words in Matthew 5:14: "You are a city on a hill. A city on a hill cannot be hidden." All that we can do is to cultivate healthy spiritual practices in our lives, feed our minds, nurture our relationships, and work faithfully at our craft (whatever that craft may be). When we do this, the Light of the world will overcome the darkness that is now at work.

Maybe the Mayans Were Correct

     It appears the Mayans were wrong.
     I guess, in fairness, the world could still end in the next eight hours (it is now 4 PM CST) but it is highly improbable.
     It doesn't matter, though, because in many ways it seems the world has already ended. Perhaps this is what the Mayans were talking about. School shootings and random slayings are in the news every other day. Divorce, heterosexual promiscuity, and homosexual practice are basically accepted social norms. And God only knows what else is going on this very second.
     It is becoming more of a post-Christian world every day.
     God is sovereign. God will work it all out in the end, I know, but I am struggling to see "His kingdom come, His will be done" right here on earth.
     Others have had the same mindset as me in previous generations. I know I am not the first to look around and see morality eroding and wonder if this is the generation that will see it all come to an end.
    All that we can do is conduct our own lives, raise our children in the fear and instruction of the Lord, and be a Light to others.
    But I'm not gonna lie. There are days like this when it seems the end has already come.
    I sound pretty fatalistic, I know.
    Tomorrow, if it comes, will be a new day and perhaps a better outlook.
   

Pastors Git 'R Done

     In seminary, I was taught not to become the church custodian, A/V technician, cook, and secretary. I should focus on teaching, preaching, and providing pastoral care and let the other folks in the church take ownership of these other areas.
     I could not agree more with this approach. It is the same paradigm that Jethro advised Moses to embrace as the challenges of leadership grew more complex (Exodus 18).
    Paradigms, I have since learned, have their limits.
    There are times when a job -- no matter how low-down and dirty the job may be -- simply needs to get done. It is not that other leaders in the church can't get it done, but sometimes you just have to Git 'R Done.
     Lately I have been the lead staff person/pastor for The Gathering, a new contemporary worship service at Grace Presbyterian Church. It is, in essence, like planting a new church. We have tremendously talented musicians and other leaders, but right now our infrastructure is still in its infancy. The choice is either to let things muddle along and hope infrastructure will magically fall in place. But in the early stages of a new church, no job is too small or too big.
     Call it a paradigm shift for me. I would rather sit behind my desk and write sermons and read books. But sometimes it's time to roll up my sleeves and get to work.
     And it's kinda fun!
   

A Time to Play

     We work too many hours in the United States.
     This is the conclusion of Juliet Schor in her book, The Overworked American. It is an older book published back in the 1980s, but her conclusions still ring true. We work more hours than any other nation because we have to keep up with consumer lifestyles that have become as a runaway train!
     It is no mistake that Schor wrote a second book with the title, The Overspent American.
     What we need is time to play, and not play that serves merely as an escape from work and the demands of life. We need play that, as Jurgen Moltmann writes in his Theology of Play, helps us to imagine a new future. In other words, the games that we play should help us to creatively imagine a "counter-culture." The games appear to participants (on the outside) as just another fun game; but the underlying purpose is imagining a future that lifts us out of this spend-more, work-more lifestyle.
     Our joy is at stake. True freedom is at stake.
     What does this look like in real life? I have some ideas for me personally. I would like to plant a raised garden in my backyard and work on a project that the whole family can do together. First and foremost, it would be fun! But there is also the purpose of imagining a new future in which we are not tied to commercially raised produce that is wrapped in Celophane. It is an exercise that affirms Creation and sustainable agricultural practices.
     Another idea. How about a simple game of hide-and-seek around the house? My children and I played this game the other day and it was a lot of fun! I don't know the underlying, counter-cultural purpose of hide-and-seek, but I'm sure there is one.
     Maybe it is imagining a future in which Mom, Dad, and children are free to laugh and enjoy each other's company, without worrying about homework, swimming practice, e-mails, Facebook posts, and uncompleted projects at work.
     Maybe this is reason enough to play!