Tuesday, May 25, 2010

When Dreams Change


By Rev. William Dohle

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. To give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29

The song has been sung. The stage has been walked. The food has been eaten. The presents enjoyed.

This past weekend a large senior class walked across the stage, received their high school diploma, and graduated into the next phase of their life.

The ceremony was everything you could imagine. Four student speakers graced us with their words. A former elementary school teacher of theirs spoke. And the voice of an angel sang out with grace : “To Dream the Impossible Dream!” It was everything you would want in a high school graduation, for both participants and attenders.

Still, in the midst of graduation, as each of the kids were walking across stage and posing for pictures, I had to wonder where God would take them. As they leave or stay here in Columbus, what are God’s plans for their lives? What does God see in their future? What does God have in store?

I’m sure that was the question on the minds of the Israelites in today’s reading from Jeremiah. The Israelites, captured and exiled in Babylon, wondered what God would do. Where will God lead us now? Some said that God would come in a flood and wipe out their oppressors. Some said that redemption would come right away. Some of them dreamt no doubt of great things and massive rebellions against Babylon, their oppressors.

But Jeremiah comes along to crush those dreams. “That’s not what God wants,” he says. God doesn’t want rebellion, he wants peace! God wants you to, “Build houses and settle down, plant gardens and eat...Marry and have sons and daughters...seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile...”

Then...when your own dreams have fallen away...after seventy years are completed, THEN I will come and fulfil my gracious promise. THEN the plans I have for you will come true. THEN you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. When your plans and dreams are shattered...then I will step in.

I think the same thing will happen for each of these high school students today. They all, each of them, have a different dream for their lives. I know some of them myself. One woman wants to work in a mortuary. Another one wants to be a teacher. And still another wishes to be a counselor. There are lawyers in that group I’m sure and engineers. There are manual laborers and scholars. There is a whole host of different professionals there.

But what happens when that dream is fulfilled?? When the career is achieved and you’re looking now at a steady, nine-to-five job? What happens when you have the job? And the only thing you’re looking forward to now is summer vacation? Or what happens when it all comes tumbling down around your ears? When the job you hoped to have isn’t there?? When you’re left living in a house too small for your ever growing family? Or when the sweetheart you hoped to marry isn’t all that sweet anymore?

That’s when God steps in! You see, God has bigger dreams and bigger plans and bigger goals than we can possibly imagine. We look at this year and possibly the next few. God looks at the whole picture. And God’s goal is simple. He desires relationship. “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you...”(Jer. 29:12-14)

God waits, it seems, until our dreams are dust before he steps in. When we are full of ourselves and our own plans for our lives, we have little room for God’s plans. But when things haven’t gone our way. When tragedy has struck our family and our friends. When we feel abandoned and lost and helpless. When our first marriage has come down around us and we’re stuck raising a couple kids all by ourselves, that’s when God’s plans step in. ‘Cause God never abandons us. Never walks out on us. And no matter how much of a failure we think we may be, God still thinks the world of us.

So, print this devotion out for your high schooler. Give it to them when their direction is faltering and their dreams are waning. Give it to them to remind them of the God who loves them and cares for them and watches out for them, even in the middle of their nightmares. Amen.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The Horror of Endings!


When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God. Luke 23:50-53

By Rev. William Dohle

I hate endings, I am discovering. As things come to a close, I have the hardest time letting go. Confirmation. Graduation. You name it. I love when its happening, but when it gets down to celebrating the end, I get a little depressed. I hate endings.

Here's an example. For the last year I’ve been on a “Journey of Wellness” set up by our Board of Pensions. It began at a retreat last May and has included such things as cool mailings, great DVD’s, coaching calls with a real Life Coach, encouraging emails, and visits with my Spiritual friend. It has been AWESOME and a life changing experience for me.

But just this last week, at what they called our “last retreat” one of the presenters told us something really quite depressing. She said: “Don’t ask us what we will do. Ask yourself what YOU will do.” Suddenly it occurred to me that the Journey of Wellness that I had undertaken was almost at an end. And as I received my certificate of completion, I wanted to cry. “It’s over! What am I going to do now to stay well?”

I think the disciples must have felt the same way as they watched Jesus ascend into heaven. In the Gospel of Luke, ascension takes place THE SAME DAY as Jesus is raised from the dead. Jesus is raised that morning, has dinner with his disciples, and then ascends up to heaven that evening! Talk about a short trip! That’s a shorter time than even my parents spend out with us when they come to visit! One day? Are you kidding??

And, even though Luke ends with the disciples worshiping in the temple and praising God, that elation doesn’t last. For a month or so later, the disciples are back in the upper room, afraid of what is going to happen. I wonder if they ever asked themselves: “Why did he leave so fast?” Or “I really wish Jesus was here. Remember how great THAT was?” I wonder if they looked fondly back at the days when they were walking and talking with Jesus, when they could see and sense His presence.

Little did they know, though, that the ending only led to a greater beginning. For on Pentecost Day the disciples eyes are opened, the Holy Spirit is poured out upon them, and they realize that Jesus ascension wasn’t the end, but merely a new beginning. God was making all things new and they were a part of that new creation! And though their physical journey with Jesus might end, the journey they had together as apostles and witnesses of the resurrection was just beginning.

Perhaps we should look at endings that way too. All endings. The endings we will celebrate as friends and family graduate from college or high school. The endings we experience when a job ends. Or even the endings we encounter when faced with divorce, disease, and death. What is God doing new here? What is dying so that something new can be born? Where is the sunrise in this sunset?

That revelation doesn’t come on our own, we need help. We need the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to the new possibilities that are in store for us. We need Pentecost to awaken us from the slumber and depression of endings and send us out to share the good news of our experience. We need help if we are to accomplish anything and continue any journey of renewal or otherwise.

I haven’t experienced that Holy Spirit in my Journey of Renewal yet. I’m still mourning over the ending. But I’m sure the Holy Spirit will come. For even now the Holy Spirit has inspired new action and new possibilities and new directions in my own Journey of Renewal and Wellness.

In your endings, may the Holy Spirit open your eyes to the new beginnings on the horizon and may he strengthen and empower you to face that new dawn, confident in God’s power and grace. Amen.

Monday, May 10, 2010

A Foray Into Forgiveness: Seeing Your Sin



By Rev. William Dohle

“...he who has been forgiven little loves little.” Luke 7:47b

In the April Issue of Vanity Fair, Mr. John Heilpern interviews one of the most public faces of Christianity today. A pastor known the world around through his books and television broadcast. The inventor of what is now called the “Prosperity Gospel”, a man by the name of Joel Osteen.

In his article, Heilpern asks quite some tough questions of Mr. Osteen, including “Do you drink?”, “How is God helping you succeed in life?”, and “Were you called to follow in your father’s footsteps?” Heilbern does, in my opinion, a very good job interviewing Osteen in the space provided by the magazine. You can read the article here.

Osteen gives the typical variety of answers to them, showing that he is good at public relations as well as making millions of dollars.

But there was one question Heilpern asked that seemed to make Osteen flinch. He asked him: “Have you ever sinned?”

Here’s what the article said:
“‘Oh sure,’ [Joel Osteen] answered surprisingly. ‘I’m sure I have. I mean, I think we’ve all sinned, so I can’t say that I’ve never...’ He looked suddenly bashful. ‘I’ve never done anything you’d call ‘terrible.’ I haven’t done drugs. Victoria’s the only girl I’ve ever dated.’ Victoria, his glamorous wife of 22 years, is also a pastor. ‘I’m probably squeaky clean–I don’t have to say it,’ Mr. Osteen added.”

Squeaky clean? Really? Really Mr. Osteen?

Are you not captive to sin? Can you really free yourself? Are you familiar with the verse from 1 John that says: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make God out to be a liar, and his Word has no place in our lives.” (1 John 1:8-10)

So... squeaky clean? Is that a good answer to the question: “Have you sinned?”

I know what my answer would be. “You bet I have! Right when I woke up this morning and forgot to thank God for the beautiful morning. I sinned as I stared out the window and compared myself with my neighbor next door. I sinned as I drove to work and that certain driver cut me off. I sinned when I didn’t keep praying all day but instead forgot about God for a time. Maybe the better question to ask would be...when have I NOT sinned?”

I know I am NOT squeaky clean. Not at all! Even my good deeds are dirty rags to God. I have sinned against God in word and deed, by what I have done and what I have not done! I need God’s forgiveness more than anything! I need His grace! I don’t need him to tell me how clean I already am, I need him to wash me clean himself! I need Christ! And I need him every day.

In his life on earth, Jesus encountered many people. Among them was a sinful woman who, while Jesus was sitting at dinner with the Pharisees, came and poured perfume on Jesus feet and wiped them with her hair. The disciples were appauled, but Jesus said:

“Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman from the time I netered has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven, for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”(Luke 7:44-47)

May we be like the woman at Jesus feet, understanding how deeply tainted with sin we truly are, but knowing that Jesus loves us enough to forgive us for anything and wipe us clean through his blood. May Christ make us, not squeaky clean, but perfectly clean through his death and resurrection. Amen.

Monday, May 3, 2010

A Foray Into Forgiveness: Living Repentance



By Rev. William Dohle

“For God has bound all people to disobedience so that He may have mercy on them all.” Romans 11:32

Some things never seem to go away.

For the Roman Catholic Church, that thing is the pedophilia scandal. For the last few years it has been all the media has focused on. From one country to another, victims have come forth one by one to raise their voices against the priests who have abused them.

The Roman Catholic Church has taken a schizophrenic attitude toward them. On the one hand, Pope Benedict raises his voice against them. During his visit to the U.S. in 2008, Pope Benedict seemed, according to one commentator, “...genuinely pained and angered by the scandal. He repeatedly apologized and said he was ‘deeply ashamed’ of the abusive priests who had ‘betrayed’ their ministry.”(E.J. Dionne).

And yet, the scandal doesn’t go away. It only grows. Now the pope himself is said to have been involved in covering up the scandal in the years before he took office. And the scandal continues.

The only thing that can move the world past this is repentance. True, honest repentance. It needs to be repent of its own hierarchy, of the need to justify itself. It needs to repent of its every action, of the fact that, even when it tries to do good, it is marred by sin and death. It needs to ... As Dionne rightly says: “...show it understands the flaws of its own internal culture by examining its own conscience its own practices its own reflexives when faced with challenge. As the church rightly teaches, acknowledging the true nature of our sin is the one and only path to redemption and forgiveness.”

“God has bound all people to disobedience...” It’s kinda a hard thing to wrap your heart around. All people... does that include the Pope? The priest? The Bishop? Does that include the pastor I love? My own family? Who is included in that all people?

Quite simply... ALL PEOPLE! All includes all which includes the people at church as well as ourselves. As Jesus says: “No one is good – except God alone!”(Mark 10:18). Not the pope nor the priests nor anyone else, religious or otherwise, is good. Only God alone is Good! And there is a reason for this, for God sent Jesus to save us and to save our churches and our pastors as well. Christ died to forgive sins, and those include the sins of our religious leadership and our religious institution itself.

I know my church is in need of repentance. I’m a Lutheran and in serve a broken church. We are broken by scandals ourselves, the latest is the split between those who agree with the decisions to ordain practicing homosexuals and those who do not. Our congregations are breaking away from each other like little lone rangers on their quest for a religion that scratches their backs in all the right places. We are in love with being “right” and we worship our rightness in thought, word, and deed. We fail to serve our neighbor aright or join together with fellow Christians in serving them. We have made ourselves and our own agendas into a golden calf and are even now falling down to worship.

We need repentance! We need help! We are a church broken into a million pieces. And we need Christ!

And that is right where Christ takes us. Broken, shattered, confused, frustrated, lost, abandoned, and hopeless, Christ comes to us! Christ takes us and breathes new life into us. And each and every Sunday that we leave church we leave a forgiven church, strengthened to fulfill Christ’s mission in the world.

Christ made peace through his blood and Christ loves us. We needn’t do all this ourselves. We needn’t try to be perfect! Christ has redeemed us. And we are ALL, priests and bishops, popes and paupers, His children!

So, the next time as you go to your church, don’t expect it to be perfect! Don’t expect your leaders to be anything more than human beings, struggling themselves with sin and temptation. Don’t think that your church doesn’t need repentance and forgiveness because it DOES! Don’t see your pastors and priests as better than you, because they’re not. They, you, and all of us need the goodness and grace and forgiveness of God made alive in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen!