Faith Venture

When a referee is watching a challenge for the ball in soccer (football), she is not reading the mind of the players to judge intent. She watches actions. She can see where the players look and what they do. If a player glances back to see where the opponent’s head is and then jumps bringing back an elbow that “just happens to” hit the other player in the eye, we all know what that action was. A deliberate striking action. Not an accidental act.

We are in the Advent season. We may not be going to stores quite so often as usual, but we still hear messages and songs of peace and joy. We may receive greeting cards proclaiming peace and joy. We may see people on the streets and in the stores who may greet people with peace and joy greetings.

However, people not in your club, the Christian church club of choice, are not really listening to you. They are watching you like a hawk eyeing a field mouse. Intently. Do your actions belie your words?

Or perhaps some words slip out that betray inner conflicts. Perhaps words of condemnation, derision, racism, sexism, even hatred slip from between your lips undermining that earlier proclamation of peace and joy. Perhaps you pushed someone aside in the rush to grab that toy in the store. Perhaps you sounded your horn aggressively at someone in the parking lot while trying to butt in to a better parking place or to exit faster.

People watch. People know. They know you not by saying you’re a Christian, but by whether you act like one.

On the other hand, we do know that you can change your manner of thinking by how you act. You have choices. You can choose how to act.

In the words of that old Christian folk song, “They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love; they will know we are Christians by our love.”

We have the entire Advent season to change how we act so that our actions may be congruent with our words.

“We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.” – John Dewey

“Whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.” — Peter and John before the religious leaders recorded in Acts 4

You have to appreciate Peter and John. They had just been hauled before the very group that had ordered their Teacher killed. They should have been shaking in their sandals. They should have been answering “No, sir” and “Yes, sir” to the group.

But they stood firm and first challenged the leaders (should we listen to you or God) and then told them that the leaders could not stop them from talking about their experiences.

John Dewey was an American philosopher who was instrumental in the public schools movement. He was exactly correct in his observation that just having experiences doesn’t help us that much. It is the process of reflecting upon our experiences where we find growth.

When you step back and look at the New Testament, isn’t most of it this very thing–reflecting upon the experiences of the people who met, lived with, and experienced Jesus. Including Paul’s experience with the risen Jesus.

I just heard the story of a woman who is probably in her early 30s and a worship leader. At 14 her parents divorced. She spiraled into alcohol, drugs, prostitution (five abortions). By age 19 she was suicidal and ready to give up. She “happened” to meet someone who took her to a recovery group. She’s been sober every day since. Then she found a church that would accept her. It nurtured her, gave her opportunities.

Most powerful were the questions she asked–of herself and others. That is the act of reflection. “What if…?” And “How can we…?”

I bet most of us are reflecting on our Christmases Past during this time of year. I hope they are better than Scrooge’s Christmas Past. But we all have some stories of dysfunction. But also stories of grace and growth.

I can’t believe that Christmas is almost here. Where did December go? Time to take a deep breath, relax, and experience the joy of the season.

“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized them as companions of Jesus.”

Imagine if I were to find myself in Rome outside St. Peter’s. Imagine further that I, with my meager credentials of almost an MA in political philosophy, began teaching the Gospel boldly. Around me are seekers. But also around me are people who are set apart, who have arrays of advanced degrees in theology and ministry. Imagine further that people listened to my teaching because it had the power of Jesus, whom I am following. And the M.Div.’s and D.D.’s and Ph.D.’s–what are they thinking?

There were Peter and John shortly after Jesus’s ascension. They never went to Rabbi school. They had no degrees. No resume. But they had spent their lives studying the Scriptures for signs of the Messiah. More important, they had devoted three years to studying under a Rabbi–an acceptable practice then just as now.

During my first trip to Jerusalem, I saw men wearing overcoats and fur hats. “Their Rabbi is from Poland. They dress and act just like their Rabbi.”

What was notable about the religious leaders’ description of Peter and John? “They…recognized them as companions of Jesus.”

On the spiritual side of Christmas, we celebrate Jesus entering the world as a human. The personal side of Christmas is to celebrate Jesus entering our lives.

The challenge is–do people see it in us?

A friend from many years ago often told the story of his pastor. Every message the man preached eventually got around to the evils of sex. Then one day the pastor packed up and left suddenly–with the wife of the chairman of the board of Deacons.

Sometimes we betray ourselves with our speech.

When we start reading the inevitable “year in review” articles journalists love, 2017 events will read more like Zombies than Love Story. Especially weather and natural events have been devastating for many.

Reflecting on my months of reading in the gospel of John and his theme of light, I’m thinking of all the sordid things that have been brought out from the shadows this year. Perhaps the #MeToo movement may have enough critical mass that will cause men to grow up in relationships and women to speak up notwithstanding real fear of losing their careers. This is not just adultery that rips apart families, but systematic abuse of power in a hurtful physical/emotional way.

I think I’m like many men who reflect back over long careers and wonder if there was ever a time…

But the things coming to light were seldom isolated events. They reflected character–or lack thereof.

John begins and ends with the light. He also begins with how Jesus has the power to make us children of God and ends with Jesus praying that we have eternal life–that is, knowledge of God in the deepest sense.

This Advent we pray for the Light to infuse the world and the spreading of Peace. And for our own courage to take part in that spreading.

This week is the first week of Advent. I have been looking at this as a time of rising awareness of the meaning of the celebration of Jesus’ coming.

We talked of having our eyes open.

I’m reading in the gospel of John. In chapter 20 he describes the events immediately following the crucifixion. Jesus was killed on the day before the Sabbath. Then there was the Sabbath. Then there was the day after, when the Jews could move around again.

Mary goes to the tomb. It’s empty. She runs to Peter and John. They run to the tomb. John looks in. Peter goes in. Then John also goes in.

The words and story change from John’s first looking from the outside to when he goes in and observes.

It is at this point that understanding of the “big picture” begins to sink in.

“Looking, they do not see.” That happens to us all the time. We’ve seen it a hundred times. Or, worse, our mind is diverted. Images come into our eyes but they are not comprehended by our minds and our souls.

This Advent, let us be watchful so that seeing, we believe.