Gospel Purée, Newtown, Little Kids, and Grace …

My last name is Wiseman. And I have two sisters. We grew up in the church as the three Wiseman sisters. So you can guess which kids were always picked to play the “Three Wisemen” in the annual Christmas Nativity play at church. It drove me insane. All I wanted was to be a shepherd and wear a bathrobe with a towel wrapped around my head – but the directors of all of these plays thought it was adorable to let the 3 Wiseman girls play the 3 wisemen since it would be “so cute.”

As I grew up and went into ministry I got a bit bothered by the purée of Gospel that is the typical church nativity play. We take some shepherds being visited by an Angel from Luke, add some magi and a star leading them to the baby from Matthew, and the inn keeper from out of thin air. And we get a Nativity created out of Gospel purée. It is familiar to most of us – and at the same time it is not quite accurate to the story.

This week, I went to a Christmas Program and nativity play at my son’s parochial school and he played one of the wisemen – once again because the director thought it would be “so cute” for him to play the role. We had an angel visit the Shepherds, Magi visiting from the east (three of course, even though there is no evidence that there were actually three), and an innkeeper who allowed Mary and Joseph to stay in a stable out back for the birth of Jesus because no rooms were available in the inn. And I survived. As a biblically trained minister and scholar of practical theology – I survived.

One reason I survived – with little to no reaction – was that I had just experienced something so moving it made me weep. The little kids had sung a song about peace. They were Kindergarten and First Graders – all dressed up in red, green, and white with their hair (for the most part) just right and their smiles so big they lit up the room. And as they sang, I thought about the 20 little kids who were killed last week in Newtown, CT. The similarities were eerie. There were a few little boys with mussed up hair and little girls with bows and hairclips. There were missing front teeth and fidgety bodies. There were beaming parents with handheld video cameras catching every moment of their song – a song about peace. It was almost too much to bear.

But I heard the words and saw the smiles of the kids and parents and knew we were experiencing a moment of amazing grace. Many of these parents had hugged their little ones more tightly over the last week and prayed for those who couldn’t do that anymore. Many of those kids had asked if they were safe at school and their parents and teachers did all they could to reassure them.

Many of them were unaware why the audience seemed to react more to them than to any other group singing that night – but we all “got it.” We saw the little faces of “our” kids but were symbolically seeing the little ones from Newtown. When the crowd applauded louder than normal – the kids took an extra bow. And we knew why we were so touched. I doubt they did but it was profoundly powerful.

The entire show was full of big smiles, cute kids, one or two out of tune singers, a few forgotten words to songs, parents beaming and catching every second on digital memory cards. And it was a sign that we can continue to live fully – even in the midst of the mess of death and horror – and that God is with us in the midst of our grief.

We prayed for those families and lit a candle in remembrance. But we did not need that to bring the irony of these adorable little kids in front of us to remember but what a gift to witness their spirit and delight.

And at the same time to be reminded that we have to be better … we have to end this horror.

Preaching in the Midst of Evil

This past weekend, we experienced yet another mass shooting of innocents. We saw the pictures on TV of the theater in Aurora, CO and were once again dismayed and bewildered by the horror we inflict upon each other in this world.

One man - a mentally ill person, a modern day terrorist, a bad man, or just a mixed up guy - used the guns he had acquired to rain terror on a group of innocents at a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises. It was evil and violent. It was tragic and horrific.

So what happened on Sunday in worship services around the country?

Some preachers discussed the shooting only in their prayer time, some had a moment of silence for the families involved, some addressed it fully in their sermons, and some avoided it because they did not know how to address the evil from the pulpit.

The truth is - we as preachers of the Gospel - must address the evil around us. We must name the bad stuff and acknowledge that these acts are not God's will for our world. We have to be willing to speak the truth. We have to be willing to preach a Word of grace and love in the midst of violence.

We have to state clearly that God does not punish people with hurricanes and earthquakes. We have to be firm in our conviction that God does not want us to inflict harm on one another. We have to speak the truth that violence is not the way we are to live.

Sometimes there is serendipity in the chosen text for the day. Sometimes the text speaks a word we need to hear, as the lectionary did the week after September 11, 2001. Sometimes, though, the text for the day does not speak to the events happening around us. When this is the case, we need to consider changing the text of the day to find a word of grace more appropriate to the events and emotions to which we need to minister.

Speaking truth in these circumstances means acknowledging that God does not wish evil for us, but God is certainly present with us in the midst of evil - holding us, calling us, challenging us, and leading us out of the dark.

So let’s preach the Gospel of grace, love and hope to the people in our pews, folding chairs, park benches, couches, and everywhere else we encounter folks who need to hear the Word.

Preach it, people. Preach it.

Preaching Joy

Recently I was asked by a former student how to adequately express joy in a sermon without sounding “slap-happy.”  The preacher had been told by several members of her congregation that she sounded a bit sappy when she talked about the joy we can all find in our faith.  They just didn’t “buy” her joy when she preached.

I am not even going to go into the fact that there is a significant possibility that the comment was sexist – since it possibly was.  And I am not going to touch the fact that preaching without joy seems oxymoronic in most circumstances (however I admit there are times when abundant joy is not appropriate – like Good Friday and other more solemn occasions).

So here’s the deal.  Preaching with joy is important.  The people in our churches and communities of faith are often in search for a good word, a spark of hope, and a sense that God is present.  Going into the pulpit prepared to speak a word of grace, hope and joy is important.  Doing so is imperative in today’s climate.

But it also must be done with sincerity and authenticity.  Perhaps my former student’s presentation of the Gospel’s joy was not in character with her normal pulpit presence or was in contrast to her physical presentation.  Maybe she was exhibiting a joy that was not related to the text of her sermon.  Perhaps she had not prepared her people to receive a message of joy.  Maybe – just maybe – she was out of touch with her people and did not realize they were not in a place of hearing joy.

There is more to preaching than exegeting (doing research, study, interpretation, and analysis on) the text and writing a sermon manuscript or outline.  One of the most important pieces of preaching involves exegeting the community.  We have to know our people in order for our words to better reach them.  We have to know what is going on in their lives, in our community, and in their faith journey.

Taking the time to really get to know our people puts us in the position to be able to relate what we are doing from the pulpit in ways that connect the text to their lived lives.

Being authentic and showing who we are in ways that communicate the Gospel’s joy and its passion is imperative. Many in and outside of the church today feel a disconnect between their lives and the Gospel message preached in our pulpits. They need to feel God’s presence, to hear a word of grace and hope, and to experience moments of awe and joy.  

And they also need to feel the passion of Christ’s suffering and death, the feelings of “lostness” in the parables of Jesus, and to learn to experience the transformation of lives brought about by the life and death of Jesus.

We are called to share this – all of this story with our people.  We are called to share this message as authentically and connectively as possible. We are called to be honest and “real” in our preaching. We are called to know our people so that all of this is possible.

So get to know your people … spend time with them, learn what is important to them, study and play with them, and let them get to know you. If you do this … they can hear the joy, the hope, the passion and the amazing grace you are called to preach to and with them.

Preach away folks.

Baseball and Preaching … Perfection or Not?

Picture by Jaime Gage-Chavez

I love baseball.  I don’t mean I lightly love it … I am a bona fide, died in the wool, Baseball Hall of Fame card carrying, countdown to Spring Training, love ‘em even when they are losing kind of fan.  From April to October my computer and cell phone help me check scores and standings on a daily basis for my team – the New York Yankees.  I watch as many games as I can.  I JUST LOVE BASEBALL!!  I think it’s a perfect game.   It has amazing history – including Lou Gehrig’s historic speech, Babe Ruth’s called shot, Willie May’s over the shoulder catch, Bucky Dent’s amazing homer over the Green Monster, Jackie Robinson’s entry into the big league, Cal Ripken Jr.’s 2,632 consecutive games played, and so many others.

 

It has stats like no other sport around.  You can find out how one pitcher throws to left handed hitters in the month of April or how many hits Derek Jeter has to left field over his career after two strikes.  And it has perfection – not just the perfectly manicured lawns, stately stadiums, and glorious nights under the lights.  Baseball has something, however, that no other sport really has – in baseball a pitcher can throw a perfect game.  That means 27 hitters come up to bat and 27 batters are retired.  It means not one batter reaches first base in an entire game.  Only 20 pitchers have thrown perfect games in MLB history.  It is a rare and amazing feat.  Only one perfect game has been thrown in a World Series game (by Don Larson of the NY Yankees).  Perfection.

 

But perfection is hard to come by.   And in most other professions perfection is nearly – if not totally – impossible.  I am a preacher and I can say without a doubt that I have never preached a “perfect” sermon.  I don’t even know what that would look like.  In baseball if you get a hit a third of the time you come to bat you are a hitting hero – hitting 3 of 10 times at bat.  Babe Ruth hit 714 homeruns over his career, but he also struck out 1330 times.  He said once, "I hit big or I miss big.  I like to live as big as I can."

Nowhere near perfection but these types of hitters are revered as the best of the best.   So maybe in preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ I should look for three good sermons out of ten.  However, I do not think the congregations we preach to would be ok with that.  Preaching the story of Jesus and God’s interaction with humans over the course of history is a powerful calling, but those who preach also are human.  Sometimes we strikeout, sometimes we hit it over the wall, sometimes we hit a little dribbler right back to the pitcher, and sometimes we never make it to first base despite all our efforts.  But God does something with our words anyway.

Preaching is an act of faith, a discipline of study, a creative endeavor, a Spirit-led process, and a powerful experience of community.  Preaching takes all our efforts to analyze a text, to relate that text to the lived lives of our people, and then to deliver it with passion, conviction and enthusiasm.  It takes practice to gain the confidence to move into the “batter’s box” and take a swing.  But God calls us to swing away.  We may never preach the perfect sermon.  We may not hit one over the wall on a regular basis.  We may even strikeout a few times even when we thought we were prepared.  What preaching takes is the courage and commitment to practice, get prepared, and to take a swing.  

What preaching takes is knowing we are not in the batter’s box alone – that’s our advantage – as we are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit to speak the Word.  What preaching takes is going up to hit – knowing you might strike out a few times, but trusting the Holy Spirit to use even those sermons to touch the lives of those who hear our words.  I LOVE baseball … but I LOVE preaching even more.  I’m not perfect in either one.  And that’s ok.

Preach the Gospel … use words if you have to.  But preach the Gospel in all you do.  That's perfection!!