COSLC Newsletter September 2007

What makes us Spiritual, Christian, Lutheran? What makes us Humble, Dedicated, Loving? What gives us Strength, Passion, Faith? Is it all even understandable? These are huge concepts to digest and understand. These aren’t things that just happen as we get older. These aren’t things that just one day manifest themselves. These are traits, beliefs, and attitudes that make us who we are. If one brick could make a house, then we would be at ease, but it takes more than that to keep us safe, dry, and warm. Just like life can’t be built on any one principle alone it takes many principles and understandings to build a solid individual.
What does make us Spiritual, Christian, and Lutheran? From birth we constantly want to seek knowledge and understanding. This is the reason we ask why the sky is blue, and other similar questions. It is this need to understand more that gives us our spirituality, our need to identify further then what can be seen, to comprehend and understand the heavens. For most of us our spirituality is cultivated via our parents into belief. For some it is a belief that Jesus died for our sins, and that no matter how bad we mess-up or stumble God will always be there, watching out for us. As we grow older we then begin to ask questions inside our faith. For some, such as Lutherans, this is encouraged. This is what our Denomination thrives on; it is why Martin Luther separated from the Catholic Church. It is Luther’s understanding of faith by grace that fuels us to ask questions because we know that if a question leads to a fall, God’s Grace will always be there as our safety net.
How then do we become Humble, Dedicated, and Loving? The mere idea of faith by grace opens the doorway to humbleness. To put ourselves in front of others can be an act of faith as large as jumping from ten stories into a safety net. Making a mistake in front of that group whether it is the church, our colleagues, our family, or a group of complete strangers can be an incredibly humbling experience. It is humbling of ourselves before others and God that can give us our Dedication. When we are humbled we realize that our fears of inadequacy and failure melt away because others are not judging us as hard as we judge ourselves. This is the doorway to understanding that God does not judge us as we judge ourselves. This in turn breeds a Dedication to others and God that is based not on our fears and inadequacies but on a humbled Love. This Love is steadfast and endearing and is willing to be open to others in a way we did not know when we were consumed in the fear of being humbled.
How then in this Love do we find Strength, Passion, and Faith? A Love that pours from us to others gives Strength not just to ourselves but to those we interact with as well. This isn’t a Strength of domination or power over others, but is a Strength of Loving and caring to see another succeed. As our ability to truly Love increases, so does our Strength giving us the Passion and drive to help others. Our Passion then doesn’t act on the whims of our wants and needs but acts to provide for the needs of others. Passion as we know it changes from a physical desire to a spiritual longing. A Spiritual longing that increases the Love, Strength, and Passion of others so that they may be able to go out and do likewise. This Passion not only gives us willingly to others, but also increases our Faith. It increases our Faith because if it were not for our Faith we would not be on this journey. Then as our Faith increases through Love, Strength, and Passion so to our Love, Strength, and Passion increase because of our Faith.
Go forth then and grow In Love, Strength, Passion and Faith.

Respectfully given with Love, Strength, Passion, and Faith,
Nick

Is it about Jesus or God

As Christians do we worship Jesus or do we worship God? It seems to me that we focus too heavily on Jesus and not enough on God. Was Jesus Important? Sure, as a Teacher and the Grace his death brought. But as the dictionary describes it, Christianity is based on the religious principles taught by Jesus. So is it right to raise the teacher above the subject matter? It's like asking if a math teacher is above his subject. You love and admire the teacher for the way they teach and the warm feeling you get when you begin to understand why a parabola can be graphed from an equation that consists of more letters then it does numbers. Is that going to help you when it comes time, in the real world to figure out your taxes, or calculate a food budget? Probably not. Now, Jesus and Math teachers may not have much in common to you, but the principal is the same. What Jesus was trying to teach was a belief in God that was loving and giving not only from God to human but then from human to human. It wasn't a love that could only be transferred from God to Jesus to human to believing human. It was a belief and love that transcended borders and cultures not through wrath and force of belief but through love and compassion for all mankind. A math teacher's gift to a student is knowledge and how to apply it in the real world, just as Gods gift to us through Jesus is Grace and Love, not Jesus himself.

For those of you who think you know God because you can quote scripture: Ask yourself why Mother Theresa spent so much time with the less fortunate.
For those of you who think wars and violence will lead to the end of disputes: Ask yourself why the Mahatma was able to end British occupation with out lifting a hand in violence.
For those who feel that monetary wealth is the only way to happiness: Ask yourself why the Buddha gave up a life as Monarch to live a life of poverty.
And for those of you who think you know “suffering” because you have seen the Passion of the Christ: Ask a Holocaust survivor how life can continue after suffering.

What is the point of Giving without Joy, or the purpose of Doing without Pride, or the Reason for loving without Sacrifice?

Where has the joy in giving gone?

Budgets for large churches must be met somehow. Forcing tithing not to be done out of joy but out of necessity. People are led to believe that their place in heaven could be in jeopardy if that check of the right amount doesn’t make the offering plate. Which to me sounds like buying your way out of purgatory. All so the pastor and his cronies can buy bigger houses and bankroll bigger retirements. A church in Michigan recently bought a home for their pastor. No big deal right? Unless the home sits on 4 acres and is over 11,000 square feet costing over 4 million dollars. Of course it is owned by the church, a non-profit, so that means it is costing the town $40,000 in taxes every year. Could there have been a starving country we could have fed with this money or possibly a few hungry, sick, or homeless families in America that this money could have gone to? Probably not, as the elders of the church put it, we honor our athletes and actors with giant bankrolls and multi-million dollar mansions what are we saying if we don’t do the same for a man of God. I believe that if someone wants to be a man of the cloth so he can live in a 4 million dollar house he may be in the wrong profession. I don’t think our clergy need to go poor but I also think a Church that can afford to buy a house of that girth has a greater responsibility to the community in using that money for more Christianly endeavors. The last time I read the Bible I could have swore greed and envy were sins? Interesting how this pastor and church don’t see the correlation. And in a church that size, you don’t think there is one parishioner who may be starving or on the brink of losing their meager home or struggling to pay medical bills? This is the kind of thing that pushes people from Christianity. They see too many churches like this and not enough that make it a joy and goal to use their finances to help others. This could be because the churches with a greater bent towards helping others don’t have the operating budget that allows for flamboyant shows of wealth to get peoples attention.

JESUS CAMP!

This movie is a must see and an incredible eye opener. I could drone on about how many things were incredibly wrong with the way these crazy’s abuse the kids but all of that is obvious. What I have to say is about the biggest victim of this movie. Beyond the children as a whole there is one in particular. He is a small boy with blinding blond hair in a bowl cut. Unlike the other main, more outspoken kids he only has a small section of dialog, one I might add, that is the most honorable dialog out of the whole movie. A boy sitting in a room full of kids with incredible zeal, a boy who is worried because he doesn’t feel that same zeal. He speaks of doubting the Bible and God at times. This elicits a response of gapping horror from the parents and the head preachers. Why is no one proud of this young boy who has the courage to say these things to a group of peers who feel very strongly the opposite? Why does no one encourage this boy to ask questions? Why is that such a bad thing, to ask questions? Multiple times these children are brought to tears and while many seemed genuine, this young boy’s looked more like frustration. Tears that were for the want to understand. To know the zeal all these other kids feel. Why it can’t be a zeal that encourages questioning is beyond me. When you see this movie, if you have not already, don’t be sad for Levi the Evangelist in training or the two girls who are headed on the same path, because they are content in what they have “chosen”. Instead be sad and concerned for the young blond boy and the others like him who cry out of frustration because they are not allowed to question.

Did Hitler go to Hell?

Whoa, there must be some form of parody in the universe, a dictator who tried to commit the genocide of all Jews. Surely he went to Hell. But, what if by the grace of God he didn’t. I am not asking you at any point to believe in or act upon the ideas and propaganda of a psychotic ruler who thought the benefit of all mankind included the eradication of the Jews. Nor am I standing behind or saying I believe in the mission of any Nazi or Neo-Nazi organization. Do I think Adolf Hitler went to Hell? In short… Yes. But only after some major thought was dedicated to this topic. The act of condemning or believing someone should go to Hell is rather presumptuous; Only God can decide who will be welcomed into Heaven and who will be condemned to Hell.
In Church a couple of Sundays ago Pastor Dan brought up an interesting point that led me to this topic. Has your Karma run over your Dogma? In other words Karmaticly you believe good things happen to good people and that of course the converse is true, that bad things happen to bad people. This thought process allows you to stand on the sidelines and point to people and say, “That bad thing happened to that person because of the negative things he has done.” However, Christian Dogma states that good things and God’s grace can happen, to even the worst of people.
Just a small side note, in stating that Christian Dogma holds to this belief I do also have to say that I acknowledge that various other beliefs hold true to this same tenant, that God’s grace and love are imparted upon even the worst of individuals.
So again I ask; did Hitler go to Hell? No, but only when assuming that he felt remorseful and asked for forgiveness for the atrocities he had committed. To me this is the strongest tenant of any belief whether it is religion or a 12-step program, a person must acknowledge the problem they have and ask for forgiveness. Without this, a person will have shown no remorse, and therefore have not shown a reason for anyone to help them. First they must show they are willing to help themselves. Not to say that others shouldn’t try to help or that they won’t, but in most cases without the self-realizing step that what they have done or what they are doing is wrong, what reason is there for a person to stop? With this caveat in play, I may have to change my answer.
Based on what I know of Hitler, he believed with all of his heart and soul in what he was doing. He was very committed to his ideas of Arian superiority and how they pertained to the eradication of the Jews. He also carried out his decree with extreme fervor, as we all know. Whether it was mass execution, murder for personal gain, or concentration camps, Hitler carried out all his actions with methodic and remorseless precision. This leads me to believe based on simple human nature he did not see fit to ask for forgiveness, let alone believe he needed it. But, in that off hand chance he did ask for forgiveness, I am positive God welcomed him with open arms and tears of joy.