Summer Camp is an Alternate Universe

I recently served as chaplain to the 8th and 9th grade camp session at my diocesan camp. I volunteered myself for a question and answer session with the kids about matters of faith. They asked some great questions. I readily admitted that I didn't have all the answers. Faith is about trust, and trust is a matter of relationship. In relationships we don't have all the answers.

One child asked about translation issues surrounding Genesis 1:1. (I know! 8th and 9th graders!) The typical translation "In the beginning" can also be translated "In a beginning." (You could also support leaving out the article, thus "In beginning.) So this kid wonders if "a" could indicate that there were/are numerous beginnings and therefore many parallel creations. Well, that could happen. We just don't know.

For me, being at camp was another universe. The beauty of creation, and the easy going pace were refreshing. Many people assume that I must have been exhausted after spending time with these adolescents. That was not the case at all. Instead, I have come back to this plane of existence renewed. The probing questions of the youth were a major part of that renewal. Being able to admit that I didn't have the all answers reminded me that God doesn't require us to be right. God, through grace, makes us righteous people doing God's work in the world (and possibly in alternate realities.)

I got witnessed to!

On a recent Sunday afternoon I joined some friends and family at her restaurant for lunch. There was a long wait for tables and we decided to wait outside. Being Sunday we had just come to church, and I was stressed out in my clericals. A woman approached me and asked what church I was from. I told her St. James on Broadway, an Episcopal church. She says that she is always curious about what different churches believe. "what does your church believe about salvation?" I gave my standard short answer, that the church, and I also believe that salvation is up to God. We believe that it is God's grace that saves us. She nodded and asked how it is that one is saved. Well, we accept Christ. At some point I mentioned baptism, at which point she interrupts, "So you have to do something?" From that point on, the conversation was hers. She told me how she raised Roman Catholic, and never been taught that salvation was by God's grace. She told me that she'd asked a priest once how she could be forgiven and lamented that the priest did not show her in Scripture that it is God who can forgive and take away her sins. She went on to tell me that she had been living a wealthy life, but had been terribly unhappy. One day, a born-again woman (her description) told her of God's saving grace that it is through faith and that we are saved not by works. She responded and received Christ. She related that a year later her husband to have committed his life to Christ and that now they were preparing to go to a reservation to be missionaries. She gave me a couple of tracts detailing the way to salvation.

I nodded, smiled, and thanked her. My sense was that we both agreed that it is by God's grace we are saved. It was also my sense that she would not agree that we were in agreement. Some of those with me were disturbed. The prevailing complaint was that it seemed to them that the woman felt so sure that she was right that I was wrong. I wasn't really frustrated by the encounter. She was being authentic to who she was. I can definitely say that I've been mulling over this business of grace, works, and salvation. She got me thinking.

It is quite confusing thing, and it's not a new argument. For the first several hundred years of Christianity most of the arguments were about the nature of Christ. The battles regarding the nature of salvation came later. Rightfully, they came in resistance to corrupt systems in which the institution of the church controlled, who was in and who was out. I am personally familiar with this debate as I grew up believing that those Roman Catholics were going to hell because they believed that we were saved by being good people. I was taught a "grace, but" theology. We are saved by God's grace, but we had better believe certain things if we are truly saved.

These days I cling to belief that God is truly in charge of salvation. The sacraments, good works, and even saying a prayer to receive Christ are works that do not accomplish salvation. They are tools that open us to trusting that transforming grace of God. I know that I have to throw myself on these means of grace because these are things that remind me of that grace.

Maybe I will continue some discussion of grace and salvation. For now, I will say that I am believing that it is God's unmerited favor towards us that brings us healing. Even if I am wrong about that, I believe that God can forgive my error. Grace is just that powerful.

I am thankful that I got witnessed to, and I pray that this woman too can cling to the grace God has given us. I hope that she might have some realization that a long-haired guy in a clerical collar also holds to that grace, trusting completely in God to save us all.

National Day of Prayer Hooplah!

More than one of my Facebook friends posted the following:

President Obama has decided that there will no longer be a "National Day of Prayer" held in May. He doesn't want to offend anybody. Where was his concern about offending Christians last January when he allowed the Muslims to hold a day of prayer on the capitol grounds. As a Christian American "I am offended." If you agree copy and paste no matter what religion you are, this country was built on Freedom!!!

I responded immediately with some thinly veiled snarkyness that I think that this is a good idea, and that our faithful president is standing against the idolatry of civil religion. It turns out that the National Day of Prayer has not been cancelled, but that there will not be a ceremony to observe the day held at the White House. Check it out-

Snopes.com

I usually never respond to the "re-post this if you have a heart, love God, and don't kick puppies" kind of posts. I try to refrain from engaging in much discussion at all on Facebook, especially if that discussion could get heated. So, I have a blog that I can vent on and a few folks might read.

I do have a few things to say about the hype over the "cancellation" of the National Day of Prayer and other such public religious movements. I think a national day of prayer is great. The recognition of the day by our president doesn't move me. The suggestion that our president is leading our country into godlessness by not holding an observance of the day has my blood boiling.

As a Christian, I am offended by the amount of energy put into fighting over public nativity scenes, monuments to the ten commandments, and prayer in schools. I would like to say that I am sure that people leading these fights are well intentioned. My problem with these struggles is that they deal with things that do little to promote the faith, and might even present the faith in a distorted way.

Take the drive to have public monuments displaying the 10 Commandments. I perceive that many folks believe that having the 10 Commandments in classrooms and court houses will reduce crime and improve classroom behavior. Even if people don't believe that, the emphasis on the public display opens the opportunity for that. That, my friends, is some messed up magical thinking, and idolatry that I don't want my government to engage in. Leave the idolatry to religion.

We leave ourselves open to make an idol of any religious practice or symbol. The cross, the bible, the eucharist, and a host of other things can be imbued with superstition. We must wrestle with that in our own religious practice. Prayer is not magic, and God won't love you more if you give more money to your church. Our symbols and practices are helpful tools in our relationship with God. No nation can take away that relationship.

I appreciate keeping some distance between the empire and faith. The intermingling of faith and the state has too often turned evil. In more insidious ways the religious establishment has promoted the notion that being a good Christian means being a good citizen, polite, and successfully capitalist. Hmm, Jesus (and many before him) promoted some prophetic justice making (with mercy thrown into the mix.)

Many people fighting to erect the idols of public religion claim that our nation is going down. I agree with that. The United States of America will one day crumble into oblivion. I don't want to see that, but it will happen. The faith of millions of God-loving saints will endure through the demise of all nations. God's love will not be cancelled, taken, or established by any state.

Hey, man- this is just like, my opinion.

Peace.