Ah, I can smell Halloween in the air! I love this time of year, the leaves are falling like heavy feathers from the trees. The crisp cool breeze rustling the leaves on the streets; the hollow rattling sound the trees make as they brace themselves for another wintry slumber. The smell of burning wood beginning to emanate from rooftops wafts to the noses of little ghouls and goblins as they dress up in their costumes and masks, getting ready for a night of being on the prowl for the world’s cheapest, and yet greatest, sugary delights. Yes, I love Halloween.

One of the things I always loved about Halloween was dressing up! I have been many things for the holiday over the years. I have been a hobo, Cousin It, Moses, Dracula, the wolf-man, Jack Skellington, a zombie and many, many other things. I always looked forward to being able to dress up and be whoever it was I had decided to be. Halloween was the one night, all year-long, where I didn’t have to be me…it was the one night, all year-long, that I could be whatever I wanted to be and not worry what others thought about it.

As a pastor, and previously a youth pastor, who has served in ministry over the past several years, I have come to recognize that the ritual of mask wearing extends far beyond the annual holiday of fun and goodies. Most people, if not all of them, put on masks every morning and don’t take them off until late at night as they are slumped over from another day in a year full of not being themselves. The kind of mask I am talking about is not one made of latex, or face paint, or any other kind of removable synthetic substance; rather, this mask is a metaphor that represents the reality that most hide who they really are and only display what they believe people want to see.

Perhaps you are wearing a mask. Perhaps every day you wake up and paint a smile on your face. Perhaps you dress your best and head off to work like you are at the top of the world, when deep in side you feel like a child who’s been lost in the darkness of the forest for hours. Perhaps you find yourself constantly seeking to please others, constantly trying to live up to the expectations that bosses, colleagues, friends and family members are placing on you. Perhaps, you are trying live up to the image that you think others have of you, and each day you wake up and put that mask on you feel further and further from who you really are.

If this is you, if you are a bearer of masks, if you wear a thousand fake faces in order to hide the real you, know that there is hope. There is a God who knows you. There is a God who loves you. There is a God who sees through your mask and accepts you for who you are regardless of what you have or have not done. There is a God who is calling you to remove your mask and enjoy the beauty of God’s handiwork. There is a God who has forgiven whatever it is you feel you might have done. There is a God who LOVES you unconditionally. There is a God who continues to give up everything just to be with you. And there is a community of God’s people that God is calling you to be a part of, a community of people that God is calling to be a part of you. Regardless of where you find yourself, know that God is calling you to be nothing more than who you are, and that you are already loved and accepted!

Read Romans 3

Many people in America, and even around the world, have been paying close attention to the U.S. presidential campaigns.  All one has to do is turn on the T.V. and you will see news coverage, campaign ads, and even political satire of the two campaigns. The other night, I was watching the second debate between President Obama and his opponent, Mitt Romney. Though the forum was set up as a town hall meeting, the two candidates were very aggressive toward each other. There were multiple moments where both candidates were in each other’s faces, pointing their fingers at each other, and accusing the other as not telling the truth.

In all of the debates so far, and this would be true for all election-year debates, the candidates try to point out each other’s records, and where they failed to live up to the American people’s expectations. Mitt Romney is trying to show how President Obama failed to live up to the promises he made in his 2008 campaign. Conversely, President Obama is trying to show that Mitt Romney’s record points to an overly rich guy who has a long-founded interest in helping the wealthy get wealthier at the cost of the middle-class and the poor. He is trying to show that Mitt Romney will not live up to the expectations of the American people.

Now, the point of this devotional is not to get political in any way; however, this current presidential campaign, and really all such campaigns, is saying something about us as an American culture. It is saying that merit means a lot to us as Americans.  If you are successful and worth your weight in salt, we will vote for you. If you are perceived as a failure, we will not.  And this is not true for just politics. It is true in our jobs, in our sports, and in just about every other aspect of our lives. We very much participate in what is called a meritocracy, and for politics, business, sports and other performance driven things, it is understandable why merit is valued.

What is sad, however, is that meritocracy has also become a part of the Christian church! Even in the church we look toward success and merit. We hold people “accountable” (even though Paul went through lengths to state that love takes no account), we keep record of people’s success and failures, and we judge people based off of their performance in ministry and other aspects of the church.  Now that is not to say that we should not correct people when they are wrong, or walk along side of people with the hope of guiding them toward successful ministry; however, there is a fine line between that and becoming an institution of merit.

What should be clear to us, as evidenced in Scripture, is that in the Kingdom of Heaven there is no meritocracy. If God were to demand of us to show our merit, according to God’s standard, we would all fail that test.  None of us are going to be seeking to “show God our merit” on that final day; rather, we are going to be asking God to show us his grace and mercy. If that is the case, then shouldn’t we be ditching a system of meritocracy for one of mercy and grace? Shouldn’t we be accepting all people, not on the basis of merit, but on the basis of God’s love them? God’s challenging us to tear down the walls of merit that the world has instilled in us from birth, and allow God to lay down the foundation of mercy, grace, and unconditional love for all people. This is God’s message for us today.

Read Mark 10:17-27

What does it mean to be rich? Does it mean having all of the possessions in the world? Does it mean having all of the success in the world? Is being rich in conflict with being a Christian? Did Jesus have something against the wealthy? There are people who interpret the words of Jesus as being an indictment of the rich. But is that truly the case, or is that missing the point as much as the rich man in the story missed the point? I believe the latter to be true.

The problem with the rich man in the reading for today was not that he was rich. The problem was that he was solely dependant on himself for everything. After all, HE was the one who had followed the Torah since he was a boy. HE was the one who earned his way to his wealth. HE was the one who followed Jesus to this point, and HE was the one who was going to find the SECRET to eternal life. It wasn’t enough that he was rich; rather, he knew there was more to life than money. Otherwise, he would not have sought Jesus out in the first place. With that said, he, was certainly missing the point on what eternal life really is and that, unlike his wealth, it is not attainable by “earning” it.

Jesus tells the man that in order for him to inherit eternal life, he must sell everything he has, give the money to the poor and follow him.  The man, unfortunately, turns away thinking that he can never inherit the kingdom of God (to be understood as synonymous with eternal life). Selling everything is too great a cost for him to pay, even for eternal life.

But to Jesus, the Kingdom of God was not something that was to be attained later, nor was it something that was “pie in the sky” and/or out there for one to “earn”. Rather, Jesus always spoke of the Kingdom of God as being near and, in fact, at hand. The trick was to realize that in order to “inherit” the Kingdom of God, you only had to be willing to let God usher it in through you. But you cannot do that so long as you love anything more than you love God. If you put God first, and deem everything else as rubbish in comparison (to quote Paul), then God will usher it in through you, and you WILL inherit the Kingdom of God.

What is this Kingdom of God that Jesus is referring to? It is the willingness to give all of yourself for the sake of others. It is the act of loving your neighbors (including your enemies) as yourself. It is becoming the servant of all and caring for the “least of these”.  And by doing all of those things, one is loving God with all of one’s soul, heart and strength. But if this is true, who in the world can be saved? Jesus gave his disciples this answer, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God,” (Mark 10:27, NLT).

So, there it is. If we are to “inherit” the Kingdom of God, then we are to open ourselves to the change that God brings in us, through us and, certainly, in spite of us. That change will lead us to live out the two greatest commandments (AKA the Kingdom of God) in our lives, meaning that we will be living out the Kingdom of God in the lives of others!  It is then that you will be truly rich!

Read Ephesians 1

It is hard to keep up with who’s who when it comes to Christianity. There are so many denominations, each one claiming that their understanding of Scripture is the correct understanding. There are fundamentalist Christians who believe in a literal seven-day Creation, who argue against evolution, who believe women should have their heads covered and remain silent in church, who believe that women shouldn’t be allowed to be ordained, who look at tattoos and piercings as sinful, who believe that anything that isn’t Christian (or their understanding of Christian) is Satanic, and so on and so forth.

Then on the flip side, there are super liberal Christians who believe that all roads lead to God, that all speech should be inclusive (unless it goes against what they consider to be “inclusive”…which means that they don’t really believe in inclusive speech), who believe that Paul was a misogynist, who believe that the word Christian means social activist, and who believe that we are a world defined by its “isms” (i.e. racism, classism, abelism, sexism, heterosexism, misogynism, etc.).

And of course, most Christians fall somewhere between the two extremes. Most people attempt to understand, respect and follow the traditions of their faith, but recognize that we’ve come far, by the grace of God, in our understanding of how the world works, in scientific discovery, in social justice, in regard to inclusiveness and other such things. Most people would not find themselves in either extreme, but somewhere in the middle agreeing with some stuff on the one side, and agreeing with some stuff on the other side.

But what do we make of all of this? Is one side more right than the other? Are some groups more Christian than the other? Do some groups have a better understanding of Christ than the others do? The answer to these questions is no. Both sides share in the fate of humanity, which is the inability to have the full picture. I believe that both sides of the extreme would both claim to KNOW that Grace plays a central part in Christianity; however, both sides would also fall under the category of HUMAN when it comes to their understanding and application of that Grace.

But the truth be told that both sides cherry pick their way through the Bible to come to the “truths” that match up to what they believe. And the truth also be told that it is nearly impossible not to. The Bible is a complex, living tradition, that was written over a thousand years ago or more. It encompasses tons of generations, tons of different understandings of God, and tons of understandings of the human-divine relationship. The beauty of the Hebrew Bible is that those who compiled it chose NOT to cherry pick what to put in and what to leave out. Rather they included everything into it, leaving its reader with a rich and diverse and, perhaps, a fuller understanding of who God is.

In the Bible we see a God who is angry and a God who is peaceful. In the Bible we see a God who is chaotic and a God who brings out order and assurance in the midst of chaos. We see a God who is holier than thou and a God who is not afraid to get down and dirty with his Creation. We see all of these conflicting images of God harmonized together in the compilation we call the Bible. We even find, in what we call the New Testament, early Christian commentary on the Hebrew Scriptures and how they divinely relate to the one we know as the Son of God, the Messiah, the Word made flesh.

Let all of this be a challenge to you that wherever you find yourself as a Christian, to be open to the fact that there are others who do not find themselves where you are in your faith but are equally committed to God and Christ in theirs. There is room for all under the cross. God’s grace, if it is to be anything worthwhile and salvific, must be more encompassing than our own understanding of it. If God’s grace is sufficient, then it must be bigger than our limited minds allow for it to be. While we may not be able to help cherry picking around laws that don’t make sense to us, let us not cherry pick who we extend the Grace of God to. Surely, God would wish us to extend God’s grace to all, not just some. Let us be agents of Grace and let God take care of the rest.

Lord, I recognize that no one is perfect and that none of us can perfectly hold righteousness in our hands, but by the Grace you have given us through Christ our savior. Please guide me to extend to others the grace that you have given to me. Amen.

Read Romans 12

One of the most rewarding things I have ever done has been to work on digitally recording some of Beethoven’s works, including Piano Trio’s Number 5 and 6. In order to do this, I had to learn how to read and interpret really complex sheet music. It was a daunting task at first, but the more and more I worked at it and researched it, the more and more I began to have an understanding of not just the sheet music but of music theory itself.

One of the most amazing things to me was recording the movements of the trios, part by part. First I would record the piano parts. Then I would record the violin followed by the cello parts. During the recording of each part I could hear the beauty, the heart and soul, that was poured into it during its composition. Each part is uniquely beautiful and breathtaking; each part could be a song unto itself.

Then there came the point in the recording where it was time to piece the parts together, followed by the first time listening to all the parts play together. What can be said about it? There are no words in the English language, or any other language for that matter, that would adequately describe the feeling of hearing the harmony of three unique parts blending together to make the full measure of a movement of music! What more, there came the time where I completed all of the movements in the piano Trio, followed by my listening for the first time to all of the movements in the trio! WOW! My goodness, what genius does it take to compose such divinely beautiful music?

It is natural for us, as Christians, to get caught up in what we are doing. And often what we are doing coincides with what our local church communities are doing; therefore, it is often that we as Christians find ourselves working together in the larger context of our local churches and our local communities. But it is also safe to say that by getting caught up in what we are doing we often miss the beauty of the whole movement that God is composing and orchestrating.

We tend to lose sight that God’s scope is much larger and broader than ours. We lose sight of the fact that God has many parts playing, each of them unique, beautiful and equally valuable; however, we also lose fact that no individual part, no matter how great or small, ever exceeds the beauty of the whole movement that God is composing and conducting. What’s more, there is no “whole movement” without all of the individual parts! A trio is not a trio as a duo or a solo. It takes all of the parts to make the whole.

God is not only calling us, on an individual basis, to serve Christ by serving others in the unique and important ways that we do; rather, God is also calling us to accept that others are playing their parts in ways that are just as important as the ways we are serving. God is calling us to recognize that though some of those ways look foreign, perhaps threatening to our ways of thinking, and even seem to contradict our understandings of things, it is God who has the full picture…not us. It is God who is composing and conducting the movement, not us. The challenge for us is to not see ourselves as the best part of God’s movement, or the part that leads God’s movement in the right direction. The challenge for us is to trust that God is in control of the orchestra, that God is the conductor and that God is at work in, through and in spite of all of the parts, composing the greatest masterpiece of all time!

Read John 14; Colossians 2:6-10

Who is God? What relationship is Jesus to God? Is Jesus of the same essence as God? In other words, has Jesus and God been one for all eternity, or was God alone in the beginning before God made the Word who was to become flesh in the world?  Is Jesus God eternal or begotten of God before Creation? These questions and more have been asked throughout the centuries and, depending on which group of Christians one asks one might receive a different set of answers.

This debate came to a head in the early fourth century C.E. between Alexander of Alexandria in Egypt and Arius, who was a presbyter in Alexandria.  Arius believed that people were putting too much emphasis on the Jesus’ divinity that they were forgetting his humanity. After all, does it not say in John 3:16 that Jesus was God’s only begotten son, explicitly stating that Jesus was brought into existence by the Father?  Yet, Alexander felt that to emphasize Christ’s humanity was to strip Christ of his divinity and to make him less than fully divine.  After all, didn’t that same Gospel of John quote Jesus as saying, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works” (John 14:10, NRSV). Doesn’t Jesus imply here that him and the Father are of the same essence, making Jesus GOD ETERNAL?

So, as can be found so often throughout Christian history, two parties disagree on each other’s theology so much that they feel they have to battle it out.  The matter was debated back and forth at the first Council of Nicaea.  In the end, the emperor Constantine, who was presiding over the council, pushed for a happy medium that would hopefully tie the two sides together, with the larger hope of establishing a Christian religion that would tie his empire together.  Thus the Nicene Creed was established and the compromise reached, “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father [the only-begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God], Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father” (Nicene Creed, 325 C.E.).

Alexander’s side was appeased and Arius’ concern seemingly addressed, Jesus was both God and the only-begotten son of God. The two were of the same essence. In reality, nothing was solved and the debate carried on throughout the years. As for Arius, he was exiled following the council’s decision, where he remained for many years; however, Constantine finally allowed him and his followers to return to their homes once Arius muted the points found most objectionable by his critics.

While the debate between Arius and Alexander is long over and the vast majority of Christians accept the Nicene Creed as being the creed all Christians have believed from the beginning, there is an important lesson to be learned from this.  Many Christians get caught up in theological debates over this or that.  This stuff is deeply personal to people and anything that goes against what one believes is often taken as a “personal attack” against “their faith.”  Yet, the question is does God care as much as we do? Are we, who are human and fallible, ever going to get our theologies 100% right on the money? Are we ever going to KNOW God perfectly? Is that what God is calling us to do?

Jesus answers this question in, yet again, the Gospel of John: “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves” (John 14:11, NRSV).  For Jesus, it was less about the intellect and much more about the heart. If we believe in Jesus, regardless of what we believe or how we believe it, we will follow him. If we truly believe in the works that Christ did, we will find ourselves doing those works! Faith leads us to action. Theology IS important as it helps us to grasp at the mystery of the relationship between God and humanity; however, faith in Christ and/or Christ’s works (regardless of how that plays out) is what will lead us to where Christ wants us to be.

Read Matthew 23

What is the aim of Christianity? A common answer for this question is that “the aim of Christianity is to bring people to Christ.” But what does that mean? When one digs deep enough, one usually finds that to “bring people to Christ” usually translates to “converting” them to Christianity. When John Wesley was sent to the colony of Georgia, he had the goal of converting the natives to Christianity. On his way over, his confidence was shaken by a series of storms that nearly costed him his life. During the storms he realized that he was still afraid to die, which made him question how much he truly believed in Christ.

Still, he moved forward and entered Georgia with a renewed confidence that he could “convert” the natives. But, as everyone knows, nothing works out as planned.  He was never able to convince the natives that Christianity was anything worth “converting” to. During his stay in Georgia, he managed to fall in love with a woman, who happened to be the chief magistrate’s daughter, only to fumble the relationship with her, angering her prominent family in the process. Eventually he ended up leaving Georgia and returned back to England with even more doubt clouding his mind.

On his way back, John had much to reflect on. He couldn’t help but see his entire venture in Georgia as a failure. His initial goal of converting the natives was a complete failure and, to top things off, he had botched his entire ministry over a love affair gone bad.  Wesley went on to write, “I went to America, to convert the Indians; but oh! who shall convert me? [Who] is he that will deliver me from this evil heart of mischief?”

Of course, John Wesley did go on to find faith, and the Holy Spirit, in his life. The rest is history. He went on to lead one of the most influential Christian movements of his day, a movement that sought to not only preach the Gospel, but to live it out.  For John Wesley, following Christ was no longer about “converting” people to Christianity, but about connecting people to the grace of God.

Jesus, himself, clearly had something against placing the focus on religion.  Everything Jesus did pointed to God, not to his “religion”. Jesus harshly criticized those who forgot their identity in God, all the while over-emphasizing their identity in their religion. For Jesus, the focus should be on God, and on the character of God.  Those who centered their faith on God would bear the fruit of such a faith. Those who did not would bear the fruit contrary to the character of God.

While Christianity has often claimed to know “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), it has often failed to bear the fruit of that.  Let us not cross land and sea to make converts to Christianity, only to turn the converts into children of hell; rather, let us be reminded of Jesus’ harsh words and strive toward something more. Let us, by the grace of God, strive to bring hope, healing and wholeness into the lives of those who need it. Rather than reflecting our religion, let us be reflectors of God’s unconditional grace, the very grace that has been given freely to us. That is what we are called to do.