the intersection of life and grace

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

I love the seasons of life in the church, marked by times of preparation and celebration designed to keep us looking both back at God’s faithfulness to His people, and forward to Christ’s return to bring the eternal final chapter in the divine love story.

Advent is so much more than a countdown to Christmas!  Marking the start of a new liturgical year, the Church recalls her heritage and hope.  God’s people are invited to see afresh what God has done, is doing,  and will do.  In Advent we prepare to celebrate the humble manifestation of God in a form with which humanity could identify.  It follows, then,  to intentionally pause to look at who we are as followers of Jesus in the world.  Much like Lent, the season of introspection and amendment of life that precedes Easter, Advent appropriately calls us to look at our lives, our families, our relationships, even our ministries.  We can take pause here to ask of these ‘how are you doing, really?’ and, in light of God’s mercy and grace, to make course corrections.

The special consideration of this first week of Advent is hope.  I’m taking time to consider how I’m doing at:

• placing my hope in that which has eternal value, in what will last.
• dispensing grace.
• remembering who God is, and what God has done.
• seeking God, and being in awe of Him where I find Him.
• communicating the one, true hope that is found in Jesus Christ.

From Psalm 25:

¹ To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul;

² in you I trust, O my God.
Do not let me be put to shame,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.

³ No one whose hope is in you
will ever be put to shame,
but they will be put to shame
who are treacherous without excuse.

⁴ Show me your ways, O LORD,
teach me your paths;

⁵ guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.

I don’t get Black Friday mania.  I understand taking advantage of money-saving opportunities.  I understand businesses offering discounts to attract shoppers.  I don’t understand the ever-earlier opening times, the bait and switch offers or super-limited quantities.  It’s become almost cultish.  It’s become deadly.

NEW YORK (AP) — Police say a Wal-Mart worker has died after being trampled by a throng of unruly shoppers shortly after the Long Island store opened Friday.

Nassau County police say the 34-year-old worker was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead at about 6 a.m., an hour after the store opened. The cause of death was not immediately known.

A police statement says a throng of shoppers “physically broke down the doors, knocking him to the ground.” Police also say a 28-year-old pregnant woman was taken to a hospital for observation.

Years ago I worked at Wal-Mart, and though I worked in the back office, on Black Friday I worked at a register.  The last year I worked there I was assigned to the “10 items or less” lane for opening, which that year was set for 5 am.  By 5:30 am my register contained more than $10,000.  Those people, for the most part, got what they came for – they survived intact and got their bargain.

That was the very last time I was out on a Black Friday.  Up to then I’d pretty much considered it harmless fun for those who loved bargain hunting.  I saw something different that day.  There was no joy in the experience for the people I was seeing go past me.  The day is marked by greed, excess, deceit, and idolatry.  People are deceived indeed if they think they’re celebrating Christmas at all by participating in that madness – and in one Long Island store today, they collectively participated in murder as they trampled someone to death to get to what they came for.

There’s nothing about Christmas in that.

Thanks to an email reply from The Coalition for the Homeless, an advocacy organization, I’ve been able to find some official documentation of the existence of the “5-or-0 rule” in a City of New York concept paper.  There are 2 concept papers related to the Bloomberg administration’s plan to aid the city’s 35,000+ chronically homeless individuals. (See the NYC DHS homepage for the daily census of known homeless receiving services.)

• Respite Bed Program Concept Paper [pdf]
• Drop-in Centers Concept Paper [pdf]

The paper describing the reorganization of the DHS Drop-in Center program describes what DHS contracted vendors (coordinators of shelters, essentially) must require of those who would provide shelter, to include that they must be open 5 nights per week.  Neither document provides the rationale for this rule. A phone call to DHS to inquire found a helpful person on the other end who said she didn’t know, but would try to find out and reply to me by email (NYC phones can’t call outside the metropolitan area codes).

The Coalition for the Homeless, in response to the DHS concept papers released last week, yesterday released their analysis of the impact of the plan.  You can read that here.

I share all this with you for your action.  I don’t even live in New York City, but I am outraged by several aspects of this plan.

First, that the government is exerting control over caring for the chronic homeless, and then making it more difficult for them to actually get help.

Second, that the 5-or-0 nights rule appears to mainly impact faith-based shelters.

Third, church, we’ve given the government responsibility and control over how we serve the least of these!

Do you want to be known for closing your doors to the homeless? Really? Because that’s what the people you formerly sheltered will see – “that church doesn’t help us anymore.”  Or do you want to be known for passionately and creatively serving the poor?  Beloved, God commanded us to care for our neighbor, not the government.

With regard to my strong belief that Christians ought not expect the government to handle the mercy and justice aspects of the Church’s mission, I need to vent.  I came across a news item today providing information that just astounds me in it’s abject stupidity.

Churches forced to boot homeless
As temperatures fall and the economy crashes, 22 city churches have been told to stop providing beds for the homeless, advocates for the poor charged Friday.

“We will see hundreds of people who will not have a place to sleep. It’s antithetical to what the mayor talks about,” said Arnold Cohen, president of the Partnership for the Homeless, a nonprofit that serves as the middleman between the city and faith-based shelters.

The city recently began enforcing an often-overlooked rule that requires faith-based shelters to open five days a week, said Cohen who told a score of churches last month they no longer qualify to house the homeless.

The city Department of Homeless Services said these shelters – many that have been open three nights a week for decades – should never have been allowed to operate under terms of a contract with the Partnership.

Help me understand…please… why these volunteer-staffed, faith-based organization sponsored shelters that aren’t open 5 nights per week, but have been open 3 nights per week for years, they have to be closed?  When it’s below freezing outside? When they meet all reasonable heath and safety standards? When homelessness in New York City is climbing at a record rate?

If there is a bona fide reason for this, I’d love to hear it.  I searched for quite a while and couldn’t find documentation of this rule even actually existing.

My real question is, however, NY City Church… what are you going to do about it?  Are you going to let the arbitrary rule keep you from serving your neighbors in need?

Customer service.

The macbook pro notebook computer I use all day, every day, isn’t the one I originally purchased.  I was a free replacement under the terms of my applecare warranty, bestowed upon me when the part for my 2-year-old powerbook G4 notebook was taking too long to come in.  I blogged about that here – in June 2006.

It probably doesn’t surprise the folks who know me that some of the keys on this computer were looking a little worn.  Recently, a few of them needed to be pressed harder to produce their assigned character.  This week, one of them (the L key) decided it wasn’t going to work at all so I made an appointment for my local apple store’s genius bar.

Carl, the genius helping me, looked at my keyboard, he said “you’re a writer or something, aren’t you?” See, he is a genius after all.  Carl told me that my keyboard would be replaced, and that the technician could fix it within the hour if I wanted to wait.

The best part?  The computer is still under the terms of my applecare warranty.  Because it was a customer service replacement, it was eligible to finish out the 10 months of extended care left on the powerbook’s contract.  And, it was eligible to have a new applecare agreement take effect from that point, which takes the warranty on it to June 2009.  The warranty replacement of 2 batteries, a power adapter and the keyboard more than cover the price of the applecare agreement.

And, that kind of customer service – after not even being able to get help from Dell or Microsoft when their products were defective and still under warranty – is why I love Apple.

Late this afternoon I received the following list email:

To all my Beaver Cross friends and family,

Currently the Diocese and Christ the King Center are having to make some tough choices and changes. One of those changes concerns the staffing of the summer camp and youth ministry programs. In order to help make those programs more sustainable on a long-term basis, the decision has been made restructure the Director of Camp and Youth Ministry position. The Director of Camp will become a seasonal position and the Youth Ministry needs are still being evaluated.

With this new structure I will no longer be employed as the Director of Camp and Youth Ministry, but will instead pursue other options. This has been a tough choice for all involved and does not come at an easy time, especially with the approaching holidays.

I ask your prayers for my family as we work through this difficult transition, and ask especially for prayers in regards to us finding new housing. Our family has set down roots in Greenwich, and we would like to provide our children with some stability by being able to remain in the Greenwich school system. But housing is limited in the area, and rental property is in short supply. So please keep us in your prayers.

I want to thank all of you who have supported me in this ministry. This diocese is home to many wonderful people, and I have been blessed and honored to know and work with you over the past seven years. This is a unique diocese with unique challenges, but the fact that there are so many people committed to seeing it thrive makes it a special place.

To the campers, students and summer camp staff, I want to say a special thanks to all of you. My life is a richer for having spent time with you, and I pray that if you have learned nothing else over the years, that you have heard loud and clear that you are fearfully and wonderfully created by an amazingly creative God. He’s a God who has shown over and over that He desires to have a deep, personal relationship with you as He stands at the door of your life desiring to be invited in. If you haven’t already done so, please take the step to invite Him in. You’ll have a life fuller than anything the world can offer on its own. I promise you won’t regret it.

To the staff of Christ the King, I wish to thank you for the hard work you have all put forth in helping create a special camp experience for so many kids. Summer camp is truly a team concept. At times it involves long hours and great dedication, but you strive to do it with grace and style. Thank you for your efforts over the years.

If you wish to correspond with me directly, my personal email address is [edited]. I would enjoy hearing from you, especially if you have any special memories or stories from our time together. Thank you again, and have a blessed Christmas season.

Peace,
Chris Copeland

No other information has come at this juncture about the changes, raising a lot of questions – is Christ the King in financial trouble?  What will be done to minister to the students of the Diocese of Albany?  Will the calendar of scheduled youth events & trips go on?  What about the full time assistant director?  All questions some of those students have wondered about in conversation with me since the email’s arrival.

I am praying for Chris and his family as they make this transition.  I am also hoping that the open questions will be addressed quickly and with clarity to assure the students of the Diocese of Albany that their growth in the faith remains a priority at the diocesan level.

I had an important reminder today – being kind is powerful.

I received a medical bill today, something I knew should have been covered by our insurance – something expensive.  I admit, I was annoyed because this isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened and it often takes several calls to the provider and/or the insurance company to get things resolved. Not fun.

I decided to start with the insurance company this time around, placing the call and keying in all the pertinent account numbers and birth dates.  It always takes me to the same person, so I asked her how she was doing, and stated that I had a mystery I hoped she could help me solve.  We talked while she found the right claim in the system, explained she could see that it had been billed with the wrong diagnosis code but that she couldn’t tell me what that was.  I could have gotten upset (it is silly that she could see the error but not explain it to me), but I shared the details of that visit and asked her, “What do I do? You’re the one who can point me in the right direction.” She put me on hold, for a little while actually, and came back to say that she’d reprocessed the claim and it was going to be paid in full.  Then, remarkably, the thanked me for not yelling at her.

“Most people who call here are quite unkind,” she shared.

“I can imagine,” I said, “because they only call when there’s something wrong, and there’s often the potential of a lot of money involved. I bet it’s very rarely because of anything you personally did, but you’re the only person they can talk to.”

So, I don’t think she did anything for me that was “above and beyond” her job, but I thought the reminder of the impression kindness can make on a person whose job it is to handle problems all day was an important one.  Something I’m going to try to keep in mind as the holiday shopping season arrives – with it’s increased traffic and lines and general frenzy.

Chris drew my attention to a YPulse update pointing to this news story because of my post “We don’t have to live like this”.

SWEDESBORO, N.J. (CBS) — A South Jersey church is taking an unusual approach to get more people to come worship. They are hoping a simple “We’re Sorry” will go a long way.

“We’re Sorry” reads on a highway billboards in neighborhood around the church. A “We’re Sorry” sign also hangs outside pastor Mark Barnish’s home.

“We’re sorry for being judgmental, we’re sorry for being too political, we’re sorry for being anti-homosexual, we’re sorry for being boring,” Lloyd said.

It’s a campaign pastor Barnish started at his church to get 16 to 30 year-olds to come worship.

Take a moment to go to the news story and watch the video.  Crossbridge Community Church has established a website – weresorry.net – to explain the series.

What do you think?

I’m not sure what to call it, really.  Discontent doesn’t seem strong enough. Anger seems too strong.  Either, or neither, could be correct.

On the heels of my previous post, my time in church today was agony.  It may have been just me, it may have been all of us.  Mostly, it made me cry and wonder why I feel so disconnected from a community of people in which I, my family, have been so heavily invested for so long.  But rarely, oh so rarely, does God give me answers to the why questions.

It could be a lot of things that would be unfair to say.  Or, it could be a lot of something else I don’t have a clue about.  I just know that I long to feel, and really be, tangibly connected and to have that be a mutual thing that happens out of love and caring… not what I, or anyone else, can do… but who we are.  Not just on Sunday, but for real in an every day kind of way… us to them, them to us, all of us God-word together.  Emphasis on the together part.

I know what it’s not.  This isn’t a doubt or crisis of faith thing.  In the midst of all of the it-that-has-no-label I have known my God richly.  Something is broken in this situation, but it is not God.

I don’t know what to do with it, how to speak about it beyond this point, or where it goes from here.  It makes me restless, and I’m not sure what to call it.  What about you? Have you ever visited this not-sure-what-to-call-it place? Have insight? Wisdom? Encouragement?

I do know that this passage from chapter 5 of the first letter to the Thessalonians resonated from the readings today, and I long to be a part of a community life like this:

¹²Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. ¹³Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. ¹⁴And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. ¹⁵Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

¹⁶Be joyful always; ¹⁷pray continually; ¹⁸give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

¹⁹Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; ²⁰do not treat prophecies with contempt. ²¹Test everything. Hold on to the good. ²²Avoid every kind of evil.

²³May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

It makes me deeply sad, broken-hearted even, to see how the church in all it’s various constituent parts, treats people in and outside it’s ranks.  In my devotional time, I’m presently reading in Jeremiah, which, I’m certain, is influencing my present deep sadness over the state of God’s people.  To be certain, there is much good being done by some of Christ’s followers, but we will all look like hypocrites to those yet outside the body while we in the church still

• treat some sins differently than others, and none of them with grace, mercy and hope (I mean, seriously, what if we treated gluttony in the same way as homosexuality? I bet churches would be empty).
• treat each other poorly by failing to be present for each other in times of need, even when that’s uncomfortable.
• judge a person’s salvation based on their politics or stance on issues, as though God isn’t sovereign and our temporal choices will change His eternal victory.
• subvert the clear mandate of God’s message to us – to love one another as He loves us, and go share that news with others – in order to advance any other agenda or set of behavioral rules.
• value the material things of this world, personally and in our congregations, while other human beings go without the most basic of needs.
• outwardly display no difference in our lives from those who don’t know Christ (and I don’t mean music, clothing and entertainment!).
• neglect to see the whole message of God’s Word, choosing instead to obsess over small bits and use them as weapons to fight among ourselves.
• expect the institutions of government to do our mission for us while we fight over rules, carpet, buildings, and more… how are we citizens of another Kingdom if we do that?

The stirrings of a broken-heart, longing for God’s Kingdom to come, for His will to be done here among us.  As broken as we are, there is good news!  We don’t have to live like this! Grace, mercy and forgiveness are ever available; His strength and truth ever available to mend us and lift us out of the muck.  We can change the world for the better!