Here’s a paragraph about worship which will grab your attention:

“If praise is the heart of worship, then making worship “useful” destroys it, because it introduces an alternative motive for praise. The Living God is reduced to the Great Enabler.  This now completely benign deity may still evoke a sense of wonder, but little awe and less mystery.  It is little wonder that one can depart a mainline Protestant worship service that has become “useful” with the feel that one has attended a public meeting or rally with religious trappings.  As a result, God has become an amiable bore, and worship is nothing more than a memorial service to a fire gone out.”

 It comes from Leander Keck’s book “The Church Confident”,  It was written in 1993 during the early days of “contemporary worship” and all the attempts to make worship more relevant, or in his terms, useful, but obviously his critique is aimed at all forms of worship, traditional or alternative.  If worship is always measured by whether or not I “get something out of it”, we have lost the real purpose of worship, the praise of the Living God. The chorus we often sing at Sunday Night Alive refocuses our attention:  “I’m getting back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about you, Lord, it’s all about you, Jesus.”

I really do hope you get something out of every worship service.  I do hope that you find the preaching useful in your Christian walk.  I hope that something of God’s spirit does enable your life of discipleship and service in the world.  But the heart of worship is not about what it does for me, it’s about our praise God through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior...and that is never boring.

See you in worship this week,

Jack Harnish

Separating Church and State…Connecting Faith and Politics

I believe in both. And I don’t think that’s a contradiction.  In fact, I think it is the Christian way and the American way.  This weekend a small group of clergy made the news by declaring their support for their favorite candidate for president from their pulpits.  It was a way of challenging the long-held restriction on tax-exempt churches endorsing political candidates. Who knows if it will amount to anything, but I have to say, I disagree. 

First, I believe in the separation of church and state.  Our founding fathers and mothers came to this land to free themselves from the European traditions of “established churches” where the church and the state were bound together. We have always celebrated the freedom of religion—the church free from the control of the state and the state free from the control of the church.  And it has proven to be healthy for both. However, that has never meant that the church could not speak to the state, or that faith did not influence our national life. Therefore…

Second, I believe in the connection between faith and politics.  Our values, faith, and understanding of our moral traditions should always influence our politics.  The church is called to be a witness within the society and to critique our national life through the light of our understanding of scripture. I believe the church is at its best when it does not align itself with any one political candidate or party, but rather is able to be a voice of conscience, speaking to the issues of our day and free to critique every party or candidate in the light of our faith.  The best example is recent memory is, of course, the struggle for civil rights. Were it not for the church, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the prophetic voices of that generation would not have been heard.  Never forget that first and foremost, King was a Christian preacher and his work was shaped by that faith. But lifting up the values of the Kingdom of God in the midst of society is different from endorsing political candidates from the pulpit.

One of the ways the church can carry out its witness is by comparing the commitments of the church to the positions of the parties. Our General Board of Church and Society has done just that.  They have created a chart which compares the official statements of the United Methodist General Conference with the positions of the two major parties.  You can find that information at www.umc-gbcs.org.  I encourage you to check it out. 

In the end, every United Methodist citizen (including this preacher) has the freedom and the right to make their own decision, support their own candidate and to speak their mind. United Methodism has always been a microcosm of American life and has never demanded strict allegiance to denominational position statements. But at least, we should ask what our denomination has to say about the issues of our day.  It’s the United Methodist way of connecting faith and politics.

May God bless you in your personal consideration of this political season in the light of faith.

Jack Harnish

 At the end of the worship service on Sunday morning, one of our members came up to me and said, “This is John.  Today is his first Sunday.”  I greeted them and encouraged them to go to the Welcome Center.  Out of the corner of my eye I watch and yes, in fact, he took the visitor to the Welcome Center and introduced him to the hostess.  But the story doesn’t end there. A little later I walked into the Fellowship Hall and there they were, standing in a small circle with other folks talking and visiting.  I have no idea how long they stayed or how many folks the visitor met.  All I know is at 5:00pm he was back again for Sunday Night Alive. That’s how it works.

We want First Church to be a place of “radical hospitality”.  We want this church to be “sticky”—a place where new-comers find a warm welcome and more.

Another story…following a funeral, I was talking to one of our members in the fellowship hall.  She introduced me to a friend and said, “He doesn’t go to church, but if he ever did, he said this is the church he would come to.”  I thought, “That’s great!”  We want this to be the kind of place where people who don’t go to church—if they ever went to church—would want to come.

That’s what it means to “gather”.  That’s how it works.

I hope you will do your part in making this a place of radical hospitality, a place where unchurched folks would want to come, a sticky place, where visitors feel at home. 

See you on Sunday,

Jack Harnish

"Twittering from the Cradle"--That’s the title of an article in the New York Times by Camille Sweeney, Sept. 11, 2008.  She describes the current practice of parents creating blogs for their new-borns on websites like “Totspot”, “Lil’Grams” and “Kidmondo”  where they report every detail of early life.  Often the entries are written in the first person, as if the little bundles of joy were actually speaking for themselves.  You can decide for yourself whether you think this is something you want to take on a parent, or whether it’s a good idea to create an online record of baby’s every move, but the closing line of the article was the one that caught my attention. Mother of a 6 month old, Karen Kavanaugh says:

            “After all, I am not raising a baby, I am raising a woman.  I want to do that with dignity and respect and not put things online that she may later wish I never had.”

I’m not raising a baby, I’m raising a women.  That gives you a sense of perspective doesn’t it?  In all that we do to love and nurture our children, at home, at church, at school, it’s good to keep the long view in sight—we’re not raising babies, we’re raising men and women. 

I am so grateful for the technology available to distant grandparents like us.  Judy and I love to talk to Ethan on “Skype”, to be able to see him and for him to see us.  It’s wonderful.  I hope we can use it all to raise a man who will be a blessing to the world.  And honestly…it happens all too quickly and all too soon. 

This Sunday we will be looking at another of John’s letter, “Notes in the Backpack”.  After the morning worship services the Staff Parish Relations Committee will host a reception for Rev. Lynn Hasley.  On her last Sunday, Sept. 28, she will preach in all four services. Come share your appreciation of Lynn’s ministry as she moves to her new appointment.

Jack Harnish

Small-scale Individuals

Colin Morris was one of the great British preachers in a day when Britain produced great preachers. He helped shape the hearts and minds of a generation of Methodists around the world.  Here is a quote from a 1970’s sermon which probably could have been written today:

“The greatest enemy of hope in our time is the small-scale individual.  Never in the history of the world has such a wealth of technological skill and human ingenuity been dedicated to such paltry ends.  Language has thinned out to the point where we shall soon be reliving prehistory and communicating with each other by means of grunts.  Non-news is now screamed at us daily.  Public affairs has become a matter of the bland leading the bland into every ditch in sight.  It is little wonder that the majority have been rendered dumb.  When the brain is starved and the imagination stunted, the withering away of the tongue inevitably follows.  For small-scale individuals, life itself becomes a spectator sport.”        (Colin Morris, “The Hammer of the Lord”, page 58)

Ok, perhaps a bit exaggerated, but preachers do that, and at the core I believe he is right.  All you have to do is watch TV “personalities” shouting at each other, interrupting each other, and screaming non-news at us daily to know he is right. It was refreshing to watch Jim Lehrer and company on PBS during the two conventions.  At least it holds out hope that hope that civil conversation in the media is not entirely dead. In a day of difficult, complex issues, “small-scale thinking” by small-scale individuals simply will not do. 

As the church, we are always called to “think large”, to see life in the light of eternity, to measure all of life in by the values of the Kingdom of God.  Small-scale thinking by small-scale Christians simple will not do.

Thinking large,

Jack Harnish