Made from the Dust of the Earth

This is another excerpt from my weekly devotions:
In my previous reflection I talked a lot about how we are made in God’s image. Now, some may ask, “If we were each made in God’s image, then how did we become so messed up?” A sensible question, certainly. If God is perfect, would not those made in His Image also be perfect? Let me answer that by pointing back top the first passage I read today (Genesis 2:7). Notice it is from the second chapter of Genesis. The first passage I quoted last week was from the first chapter. This chapter adds something that the first chapter left out. It says we were made from the “dust of the earth.” God made each of us in His Image out of the lowest material on earth: dust. Does this strike anyone else as a bit odd? We were made to be the highest of all creation, yet we were made from the most filthy stuff imaginable. How does that work? I think we get an idea from the second passage I read (2Cor. 12:7). According to Paul, God’s power is made most manifest in our weakness. He shines the most when we are at our least.
And if you look all through scripture, you can see a similar theme: From God choosing Israel, the smallest of all nations, to be His Promised People, to God choosing David, a little shepherd boy, to topple Goliath and become Israel’s king. Even Jesus death on the cross was evidence of this. To die on the cross was the most shameful of all deaths, yet through His death, Christ won for us the victory over sin. It appears God likes rooting for the little guy. He enjoys cheering on the underdog. I don’t know about you, but I find that pretty encouraging when I think about the mess my life has been at times. The truth of the matter is when we are at our utter lowest is the time we finally realize how really messed up we are and how much we need God. We grow to depend on Him more and more and that’s what the Christian life is all about.
So, hear this and be heartened on. God loves cleaning up and working with you through your mess-ups. It doesn’t matter to Him that this is the first or the tenth time you’ve been through rehab. It doesn’t matter to Him whether you’re on your deathbed or adjusting to life with part of you now missing. Whatever your ailment, whatever your disease, come to God and know you are loved and accepted. Truly there is nothing that can separate you from the love of God. Absolutely nothing!! God loves you and longs for you to know and love Him. Won’t you come this day? Really, what is stopping you?

Communion: What's it mean?

Part of my function as a chaplain is to perform commuion when a patient would like it as well as part of those Sunday Worship services I lead. At first I would not have thought this would lead to any trouble. My friends and I have shared communion with each other a number of times without thinking more about it than we thought necessary. Yet an issue did arise when my giving out communion was thought of. It turns out that all of the present chaplains of the VA are of more liturgical and high church denominations (a catholic priest and two Lutherans ministers) yet here I was fresh out of a Baptist seminary with only an M.Div. to my name. The question was how to consecrate the elements when I was officiating and how to dispose of them once I was done. At the core of this is the Catholic and Lutheran belief that when the priest says the prayer, the bread and wine somehow actually become the body and blod of Christ. This is called transubstatiation or consubstatiation depending on the tradition. Hence the consectation is when this takes place and the authority of the one doing the consecrating is a crucial question. In most protestant denominations the bread and wine symbolize the body and blood of Christ in communion, but they do not become them. Hence, my ability to share communion with my friends was unencombered by my lack of ordination.

What struck me throughout this, in addition to the different understanding of what was happening at communion and the amount of necessary ceremony around it, I was also struck by an interesting paradox. Many Lutheran and Catholic churches I have been in practice Open Table or allow any one to come and take communion who wishes. Though this is certainly more the case with Lutherans and other high church protestant denominations. In many Baptist and free churces, the Table is much more closed. Some churches only allow those who have membership to have communion while others offer it only to all those who have recieved Jesus into thier hearts. Do you see the paradox yet? Baptists and other free churches beleive the bread and wine are only symbols of Christ's body and blood yet restrict who should take it. Lutherans and Catholics bielieve the blood and wine actually become Christ's body and blood at the moment of consectration yet allow anyone who wishes to take and eat it. I know I'm probably way over generalizing, but do you see my point?

Please understand I'm not trying to say that one is any better or any less true than the other. To me, whether the bread and wine in some mysitcal way become the body and blood of Christ or they just act as symbols does not make a difference. What really matters is that Christ is present to the beleiver when they take communion. Commnets? Questions? Queries? Ask away!

Weekly Devotions with Mike

Part of my new job as a Resident Chaplain at the V.A. in St. Cloud is to offer devotions once a week. Here's an excerpt from my last one:

Why are we so important to God that He would send His only Son to die for our sakes? It’s often a question I’ve pondered. And I don’t think I’m the only one or even the first. The psalmist once wrote, “What is man, that You care for him?” Yet care God does. But still why? I wish to explore that question a bit in today’s devotion and following. To answer it fully would take more time than I have here and now, so let me just give it a start and maybe wet your appetites to come back for more. I have come to see that God’s care for us began all the way back in the garden when He first created us. According to Genesis 1, we are each made in the image of God. To me this means that every person I come across here at the V.A and in the world is created in the image of God. Therefore when I get to know that person at their deepest level I’m am also getting to know God. When I care for that person, I am caring for God. When I sit and listen to that person go on and on about all their problems, I’m listening to God. When I touch another person, I am touching God. I could go on. Get it yet? In our day to day interactions with each other, we are not only rubbing shoulders with each other, we are also bumping up against God Himself. Truly a sobering thought, and yet also an encouraging one. God has lived in our flesh, He has seen us at our worst, and yet, still He bestows His love upon us. Let us return that love in our daily lives with each other.

Grief: I expected it, but not like this . . .

It was the middle of my first week at my new job as a chaplain resident at the V.A. Center here in St. Cloud, when one of the head chaplains gave a presentation on grief to myself, the other chaplain resident and about a dozen or so recovering chemical dependants. I had expected to hear some stuff of relevance, given that I had just been to my grandmother's funeral that past weekend, yet there was more here than I ever would have expected. The chaplain started explaining how grief happens not only when we lose someone close to us, like Nana Willard, but anytime we lose something we've had a signifigant relationship with or attatchment to. Sometimes something as miner as a change in location or job can also trigger feelings of greif. Over the past two or three weeks, my life had gone through some signifigant changes: I had lost a grandmother, moved to a new city, changed jobs, gotten in a car accident (not my fault), not having as much free time due to the job change, having to change churches due to the location change and the distance between my firnds and I getting geographically bigger. All that came out to a Mike Willard who wasn't feeling his absolute best. Sitting in that classroom, I felt a release of sorts. I was going through a lot. It's okay to feel a bit out of it at times like this. It was like the Holy Spirit was speaking to me from inside my heart saying those often quoted words by Brennan Manning, "It's okay. I'm here. I love you and I'm for you." It was really good to hear that in such an unexpected place and time.