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Schism: Good or Bad, Don't Believe the Hype by Shane Raynor
If you follow religion blogs and news sites, it’s likely you’ve heard buzz about the possibility of schism in the United Methodist Church. The controversies surrounding homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and how the denomination should discipline pastors who defy church law have many wondering if it wouldn’t be better for conservatives and liberals to just go their separate ways. Others feel strongly that there should be only one United Methodist Church, no matter what.The truth is, splitting the denomination would be neither a panacea nor the end of the world.
You see, the unity and connectionalism we talk about so much in the UMC exists more in theory than in practice. In many ways, we’re already two or more churches. United Methodists on the left tend to run in the same circles with folks from the Episcopal Church, PCUSA, and the UCC. The right side of the UMC is more likely to keep company with groups that are more evangelical. Birds of the same theological or political feather tend to flock together. No one’s telling tales out of school here.
Schism gets a lot of bad PR because some think of it as analogous to divorce. But even if one accepts the accuracy of the analogy, he’d be hard pressed to see the current situation in the UMC as anything other than a marriage of convenience. We’re arguably staying together largely for financial reasons. No one wants to lose their buildings or mess up everybody’s pensions. There’s also the whole nostalgia thing. Splitting up an organization with our history isn't something to be taken lightly.
But practically speaking, there are some compelling arguments for schism.
The United Methodist Church has little brand consistency. We technically don’t allow United Methodist congregations to align themselves with caucus groups or unofficial movements in their branding (although many local churches openly violate this rule). So, like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates, when you walk into a random UMC, you never know what you’re going to get. That’s a big problem.
When you visit a United Methodist church, will you hear a message that’s more evangelical or one that’s heavier on social gospel? Or something somewhere in the middle? Does the congregation affirm same-sex relationships or declare them off-limits? Are people mostly in agreement on theology and social issues, or is there a divide? Right now, it’s hard to tell before you walk through the front door.
Schism wouldn’t completely solve the consistency problem in the UMC, but it would significantly decrease the chances of entering a United Methodist Church on a Sunday morning and hearing theology that’s 180 degrees away from what you expected.
A church split would also take the sexuality debate off the front burner and give the new denominations an opportunity to focus on more important things. In the business world, when corporations decide they’ve spread themselves too thin and need to narrow their focus or get “back to the basics” they create a completely new company with a separate management structure. This is known as a spin-off—the opposite of a merger. In most cases, this is viewed as a positive development. The main question a company has to answer before spinning off a company or merging with another company is this: Will the company be a better company operating as one entity or two? A church should ask itself the same question. A split doesn't have to be a tragic event.
But if you think schism would solve all the big problems of the UMC, think again. Even if the denomination could be neatly divided into conservative and liberal groups (it can’t), there would still be disagreement on various issues within these groups. No one really discusses those issues much now, but if the biggest point of contention were to disappear, everything else would begin to seem bigger. Nature abhors a vacuum.
If you watched James Cameron’s “Titanic,” you probably remember that the ship broke into two parts just before the whole thing wound up underwater. I’m certainly not a pessimist, but I don’t believe schism is the ecclesiastical elixir so many are making it out to be.
Dividing the the denomination wouldn’t be a walk in the park, anyway. After what happened in 2012, can you even imagine General Conference pulling off a church split?
So with regard to schism, all things considered, I can take it or leave it. I see some clear benefits of a split, but what I don’t see as clearly are the trade-offs and unintended consequences that would be an inevitable part of such an event.
The question is whether those consequences would be better or worse than the chaos that will likely result if we stay on the road we’re on right now.
Shane Raynor is an editor at Ministry Matters and editor of the Converge Bible Studies series from Abingdon Press. Connect with Shane on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook. Sign up to receive Shane's posts free via email.
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4 Types of Anonymous Critics by Ron Edmondson
I’ve received my share of criticism. It comes with leadership. If you aren’t receiving criticism, you probably aren’t leading. I’ve also received my share of anonymous criticism. I’ve been a church planter and church revitalizer — so perhaps more than my share. :)I’m one of those rare leaders who doesn’t automatically dismiss criticism because someone doesn’t sign their name. Mostly because I try to consider if something in my personality or approach caused this person to feel the need to remain anonymous. (My StrengthsFinder indicates I can tend to be controlling — something I have to continually guard against.) I have had people go to the trouble of making up a name and an email address. I can tell because the details in the criticism are often accurate, but none of the information matches anyone in our database.
I figure in times like this that the criticism is from someone who feels the need to remain anonymous. I would always prefer to talk with the person, but I try to reconcile his or her reasoning for withholding a name.
The reality is I believe there are at least four different motivations for a person offering anonymous criticism. While I still don’t believe this is the right option to take in giving criticism, and it doesn’t fit well with my straightfoward personality, I realize everyone is not like me.
Here are 4 types of anonymous critics:
Fearful – This is the anonymous critic who is simply afraid of conflict. It’s not that the person doesn’t like you or the organization or that he or she doesn’t have good suggestions for improvement. This anonymous critic simply can’t bring him or herself to reveal his or her identity, because of individual fear. (Controlling leadership often develops this type of anonymous criticism.)
Pleaser – This is the anonymous critic who wants everyone to get along, so doesn’t want to create any problems or tension. He or she thinks you need to know something, but would rather not be the one to tell you. They aren’t afraid of conflict as much as afraid you won’t like them if they tell you what’s on their heart or mind.
Troublemaker – This is the anonymous critic who is trying to stir up trouble and knows that throwing the anonymous criticism in the loop causes confusion and concern. These people are disrupters and critics I’d rather avoid reading if I could always discern this was the critic’s intent. (They are my least favorite kind.)
Passive – This is the anonymous critic who has low interest in the organization and would prefer not to be bothered any further. It could be the one who feels intimidated by you or the position. (Controlling leadership also develops this type of anonymous criticism.) This anonymous critic doesn’t want to be in the middle of the conflict, but thinks you need to know what he or she has to share.
Obviously, you can’t always know which of these you’re dealing with, but it does help me think through my approach to anonymous criticism.
You can read a previous post here on how I process anonymous criticism.
If you had to choose one, which of these would you prefer to listen to?
This post was originally published at RonEdmondson.com.
Does Membership Matter Anymore? by Joseph Yoo
Recently I 've been struggling with the idea of becoming a member of a church.Don't get me wrong, if someone wants to join my church, I'm honored and have them sign up for a new members class. But those moments don't happen much in our community. And those who do want to become members are usually longtime churchgoers who are transferring their membership. (They still have to go through our new members class.)
I know that as a pastor I probably shouldn't have thoughts like this, but I can't help but think: Is membership to a church still an important part of one's faith journey today?
A lot of younger folks I've worked with and ministered to have no interest in “joining” a church. They feel that they still are a vital part of the community and give their talents, time and gifts to the community the best they know how. And they feel that they can do this without receiving a certificate that “officially” acknowledges them as a member.
My thoughts on membership could be based on the fact that I moved around so much as a kid. I don't really have a hometown, because we never stayed in a place more than six years. Since getting married, my wife and I have not stayed longer than 2 1/2 years at a church. It also may have to do with how little some churches “value” membership. As Pastor Mike Slaughter once preached, “We've lowered the bar of discipleship for the sake of membership.”
Some churches have no requirements for joining. They are so eager to pad their membership rolls that if anyone feigns the slightest interest, *boom* they're members. Some churches have little to no expectations of their members. In fact, they don't like to use the word “expectations” as it makes us uncomfortable to think that God would have expectations from us and from our church (Micah 6:8, anyone?)
In some cases, membership only seems to benefit the ego of the collective local church. Talking to folks from other churches, the question “How big is your church” is bound to come up in the conversation. With my United Methodist colleagues, the answer is always, always, this: Membership number first, then actual attendance, and usually the two numbers differ vastly. “We have 700 members, and 150 in worship on Sundays.”
I stopped saying, “So, your church is [attendance number].” Because the response is usually defensive, “No, we have [number] members.”
I already have a hard time networking and making connections, I don't need to be a jerk on top of that.
So how important is it to be a member of a church?
Does it benefit the church more, or does it benefit the member?
Should I even be using the word “benefit” when it comes to membership?
Do nondenominational churches value church membership as much as local churches of the UMC do? Does becoming a member prevent people from becoming chronic church shoppers?
Is membership vital to one's faith journey or is it simply overrated?
Joseph Yoo is a Ministry Matters contributor and pastor of St. Mark United Methodist Church in Santa Barbara, CA. He is the author of Practical Prayer and Encountering Grace from the Converge Bible Studies series. He blogs at JosephYoo.com.
What's Happening to the Middle Class? by Mike Poteet
Making Ends MeetBritish comedian Ronnie Barker once told a joke about the out-of-work contortionist who could no longer make ends meet. Unfortunately, for an increasing number of Americans, making ends meet is no laughing matter.
According to a Pew Research Center/USA Today survey released in January, “The share of Americans who identify with the middle class has never been lower.” In 2008, during the initial months of the global financial crisis—the “Great Recession”—53 percent of Americans self-identified as middle class. Today, 44 percent do so. Simultaneously, “the share of the public who says they are in the lower or lower-middle classes rose . . . from 25% in 2008 to 40% today.”
The slim four percentage points separating those who see themselves in the middle class from those who see themselves below it appear to reflect a growing perception of widening income inequality in the United States. Former US president Jimmy Carter, for example, told the Associated Press last fall that “members of the middle class [today] resemble the Americans who lived in poverty when [I] occupied the White House” in the late 1970’s. According to another Pew survey, majorities of both major political parties—68 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of Republicans—“believe the gap between the rich and everyone else has increased in the last 10 years.”
Defining ‘Middle Class’
No single, settled definition of the middle class exists. In a speech last summer, President Obama outlined what he described as “the cornerstone of what it means to be middle class in America. A good job with good wages. A good education. A home to call your own. Affordable health care that’s there for you when you get sick. A secure retirement even if you’re not rich. More chances for folks to earn their way into the middle class as long as they’re willing to work for it. And, most importantly, the chance to pass on a better future for our kids.” Pew Research confirms most Americans do consider these things traits of a middle-class lifestyle, especially secure employment (86 percent).
In recent years, notes USA Today, middle-class income “has been described as between $32,900 and $64,000 a year (a Pew Charitable Trusts study), between $50,800 and $122,000 (a U.S. Department of Commerce study), and between $20,600 and $102,000 (the U.S. Census Bureau’s middle 60% of incomes).” Even the Census Bureau does not officially define the phrase. It does report that in 2012, the median US household income was $51,017. That figure represents an eight percent decrease from December 2007; it’s equal to the median income in 1995. As Timothy Smeeding, an economics professor at the University of Madison-Wisconsin, says, “Middle- and lower-income families are getting a smaller slice of a smaller economic pie.”
Former secretary of labor Robert Reich contrasts the current situation with the “shared prosperity” of President Eisenhower’s post-war era: “During those years, the economy doubled in size and everybody’s income doubled. Even if you were in the bottom fifth of the income earners you did actually better. . . . [But] something happened . . . to change the historic relationship between economic growth and the growth in productivity on the one hand and wages. Beginning in the late ’70s and really to a greater and greater degree over the last three decades, . . . most of the new wealth in society went right to the top.” Research by economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez documents that 95 percent of income gains after the Great Recession have gone to the richest one percent of American families.
Middle-Class Anxiety
Gene Beaupre, political scientist at Xavier University, points out that “middle class” is defined not only by income but also by attitude: “It defies numbers. It’s a mind-set that says, ‘I’m part of the working fabric of American culture.’ ” But more and more, numbers are at least challenging that mindset. “It’s not unusual,” says Reich, “that many average people who are working harder than ever, worried about their jobs, worried about paying their . . . bills, living from paycheck to paycheck, are . . . beginning to say to themselves, ‘There is something fundamentally wrong here.’ ”
Reich’s litany of middle-class concerns corresponds to some objective indicators. Why, for example, are people worried about jobs? Because 8.7 million jobs disappeared during the Great Recession, half of those from the traditionally middle-class construction and manufacturing sectors. And the fact that a record 48 million Americans use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly called “food stamps”) is evidence those bills Reich mentions are worth worrying about. With wage-earners’ average pay having slipped one percent and factory workers’ pay having fallen by three percent since 2009, many middle-class paychecks don’t stretch as far as they once did. “If you look at how much [food and gas] prices are going up,” says one Mississippi mother of four, “you get in the hole really quick. It’s a constant squeeze.”
Middle-class Americans face longer-term worries, too. A Wells Fargo survey last year found that “nearly half of middle-class workers said they are not confident that they will be able to save enough to retire comfortably,” and 37 percent plan to work until they are too sick or die. Middle-class belief in college education as a path to success persists, but public universities’ tuition and fees have risen nearly 130 percent over the last two decades—in 2008, the amount was about $6,500 per year—leading to more middle-class student debt. In a recent Rutgers University study, only 19 percent of respondents agreed that “job, career and employment opportunities will be better for the next generation.”
“The middle class was always synonymous with economic security and stability,” says public policy researcher Tamara Draut. “Now it’s synonymous with economic anxiety.”
How Much Inequality Is Too Much?
The concerns of today’s middle class have implications for the entire, consumer-driven American economy. Research by economists Steven Fazzari and Barry Cynamon demonstrates that only the top five percent of earners are truly powering the recovery, sluggish though it is, from the Great Recession. Fazzari argues this disparity is likely unsustainable: “It’s going to be hard to maintain strong economic growth with such a large proportion of the population falling behind. We might be able to muddle along—but can we really recover?”
Economic inequality may also exacerbate already sharp political divisions in 21st-century America. Writing in The Wall Street Journal, professor William Galston worries that economic inequality will foster civic fragmentation: “Members of the rising professional/managerial class share fewer and fewer experiences with middle-class Americans—let alone the working class and the poor. . . . The simultaneous rise of economic and political polarization is more than a coincidence. Politicians cannot come together if society is coming apart, and America cannot advance if its middle class is in retreat.”
Again, majorities of Republicans and Democrats do agree economic inequality is on the rise. And 93 percent of Democrats, 83 percent of independents, and 64 percent of Republicans agree some government action is needed to address that gap. But agreement breaks down over policy prescriptions: “Three-quarters of Democrats favor raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations to expand programs for the poor. . . . Republicans, by about two-to-one (59% to 29%), believe the government could do more . . . by lowering taxes on the wealthy and corporations in order to encourage more investment and economic growth.”
Although Robert Reich’s recent documentary film about the income gap is titled “Inequality for All,” he allows that “some inequality is necessary if we’re going to have a capitalist system that creates incentives for people to work hard and to invent. . . . The question is, . . . When do you reach a point where inequality is simply too much?”
Possible Christian Perspectives
Christians can join the conversation about complex economic questions with perspectives and priorities shaped by the gospel. Jesus declared he came so people “could live life to the fullest” (John 10:10). While he was concerned about people’s spiritual well-being, his teachings and miracles of feeding and healing demonstrate he was also concerned about their material well-being.
At the same time, Jesus emphasized God’s special concern for those who are poor (Luke 4:18-19; 6:20-21), an emphasis the early church shared (James 2:5; 1 John 3:16-17). Whatever remedies Christians advocate for the middle class must seek the welfare of all people, especially, as Jesus said, “the least of these brothers and sisters of mine” (Matthew 25:40).
Christ commands his followers to pray, not for comfortable prosperity while others have none, but for daily bread, enough resources to meet basic needs. And God gives wealth as a tool for doing the “good works . . . prepared beforehand to be our way of life” (Ephesians 2:10, NRSV)—including the work of making sure no one’s basic needs go unmet.
Be sure to check out FaithLink, a weekly downloadable discussion guide for classes and small groups. FaithLink motivates Christians to consider their personal views on important contemporary issues, and it also encourages them to act on their beliefs.
Interview: Judy Fentress-Williams
Rev. Dr. Judy Fentress-Williams is Professor of Old Testament at Virginia Theological Seminary and Senior Assistant to the Pastor for Teaching and Preaching at Alfred Street Baptist Church. She is the author of the book of Ruth in the Abingdon Old Testament Commentary series and a contributor to Covenant Bible Study.When did you feel called to ministry?
I think the first distinct call to ministry came when I heard Prathia Hall Wynn preach. I was in college, and I had never seen or heard a woman preach. She spoke with such power and I thought back on that moment many times. The next time came a few years later when I spoke for a chapel service at the high school where I was teaching. Something amazing happened in that moment and even though I didn't have the language for what was going on at the time, in retrospect these were the earliest stirrings that God was calling me to ministry. As is the case for many women, I was in no hurry to acknowledge that call. I was able to acknowledge a call to teaching and to lay leadership. For many years the only time ordination came up was when someone wanted me to officiate at a wedding or funeral, or baptize/bless their baby.
Years later, when our family joined our current congregation, I began to feel the stir of God's call on my life. After years of making excuses and ignoring that still, small voice, I finally surrendered. I was ordained in July of 2012.
Who was your greatest supporter and encourager as you explored your call? Was there ever a time when you questioned God’s call in your life?
As you can tell from the first answer, I questioned God's call on my life for years. I had a number of supporters and I have to say my husband consistently supported me. Outside of my family, I could name a few people. My friends James, Donna and Bernard, and all the ministers listened to me patiently, prayed with me and encouraged me. In addition to that my friend Bernard challenged me to step out on faith into the path God set before me even though I didn't know where it was going.
You are a wife, mom, Professor of Old Testament, and a pastor, how do you balance time for family and ministry?
I am still working on this. It helps considerably that my youngest child is a freshman in high school (my oldest is a freshman in college). His schedule, with sports, allows me to work a full day. I try my best not to be away in the evenings more than once a week, even though sometimes I have to be away twice a week. I am committed to us having meals together. With my husband's work schedule that means we have dinner together three times during the week, breakfast on Saturday and lunch and dinner on Sunday.
Weekends, as you can imagine are crazy. We have a Saturday night service and two services on Sunday. My biggest challenge these days is to re-establish date night with my husband. I miss that!
What spiritual discipline do you practice that nourishes your soul?
Prayer and Spiritual Direction. I also have a thing for old devotionals. I am reading Streams in the Desert this year. Last year it was My Utmost for His Highest.
You are a contributor to the new Covenant Bible Study how was that experience for you? What excites you about this new study?
Working on the Covenant Bible Study was an exhilarating experience. I discovered things about the Song of Songs that surprised me. I loved the opportunity to make the videos as well.
I am excited that congregations will have an opportunity to engage the Bible with this study. It is our responsibility as teachers and preachers to give folks the opportunity to know the Bible for themselves, and to encourage them to wrestle with the text so that they, like Jacob can be transformed.
TV Book Sighting
‘Blood Moon’ Sets Off Apocalyptic Debate Among Some Christians by Sarah Pulliam Bailey
RNS) Could Tuesday’s “blood moon” event be connected to Jesus’ return? Some Christians think so.
Around 2 a.m. EST on Tuesday (April 15), the moon will slide into Earth’s shadow, casting a reddish hue on the moon. There are about two lunar eclipses per year, according to NASA, but what’s unusual this time around is that there will be four blood moons within 18 months — astronomers call that a tetrad — and all of them occur during Jewish holidays.
A string of books have been published surrounding the event, with authors referring to a Bible passage that refers to the moon turning into blood. “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord,” Joel 2:31 says.In the New Testament, Acts 2:20 echoes the same doom: “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord.”
Recent books capitalizing on the event include “Blood Moons: Decoding the Imminent Heavenly Signs” by Washington state author Mark Biltz; “Blood Moons Rising: Bible Prophecy, Israel, and the Four Blood Moons” by Oklahoma pastor Mark Hitchcock; and ”Four Blood Moons: Something Is About to Change” by Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee.
Hagee’s book is drawing the most attention, with his book now No. 4 on The New York Times best-seller list in the advice/how to section, and No. 80 on USA Today’s best-seller list. The book by the controversial 74-year-old founder of San Antonio’s Cornerstone Church has also spent 152 days in Amazon’s top 100 books.
In his book, Hagee says something will happen to the nation of Israel due to the tetrad. The four eclipses occur on April 15 and Oct. 8, 2014, and April 4 and Sept. 28 next year. The ones in April occur during Passover, and the ones in October occur during the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles.
Jewish holy days revolve around a lunar calendar with Passover beginning on the first full moon after the beginning of spring, and the Feast of Tabernacles occurring on the first full moon after the beginning of fall. Hagee writes that every time a tetrad occurs on Jewish feast days, something traumatic and “world-changing” happens to Israel.
In 1492, the Jews were expelled from Spain and Christopher Columbus discovered America, giving the Jews a place to go. In 1948, the modern state of Israel was born, and in 1967, Israel won the Six-Day War and recaptured Jerusalem.
This time, Hagee suggests that a Rapture will occur where Christians will be taken to heaven, Israel will go to war in a great battle called Armageddon, and Jesus will return to earth. Hagee has planned a special televised event on Tuesday (April 15) on the Global Evangelism Television channel.
But NASA does not consider tetrads as especially rare, saying in a statement that there are eight sets of tetrads before the year 2100. The most unique thing about the upcoming tetrad is that they are visible from all or parts of the United States, NASA stated.
During the 300-year interval from 1600 to 1900, there were no tetrads at all, according to NASA eclipse expert Fred Espenak.
A publicist for Hagee said the pastor was not available for an interview before Religion News Service’s deadline.
“When you see these signs, the Bible says, lift up your head and rejoice, your redemption draweth nigh,” Hagee said in a sermon, according to the San Antonio Express-News. “I believe that the Heavens are God’s billboard, that He has been sending signals to Planet Earth but we just have not been picking them up.”
Greg Boyd, a pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minn., called the predictions a waste of time, maybe even bordering on astrology.
“You have an entire population buying into this stuff so no congregation is immune to this,” Boyd said. “It can strike fear into people, which is so unnecessary and wrong.”
The Jewish holy days carry less theological significance since Jesus’ resurrection for many Christians, said Sam Storms, a pastor of Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma City. Any connection between the two events should carry less weight, he said.
“We need to stop giving into some of these sensationalist speculations,” he said. “Maybe Christians are more gullible. One has to twist the data to make it appear as if these are the fulfillment of some biblical prophecy.”
Copyright © 2014 Religion News Service LLC
Easter Perspective by Chris Andrews
1 Peter 1:17-23
One of the blessings of medicine is good eye care. When our vision becomes compromised by age or disease, we are fortunate to be able to go to the ophthalmologist or optometrist and take care of the problem. Often the doctor prescribes eyeglasses or contact lenses, which correct our vision so we can see clearly. Good vision gives us the right perspective and enables us to function well. However, when we first try out a new prescription, we may find that it takes awhile to get used to the corrected vision. At first things can seem a little strange, as though we are not seeing clearly. Gradually, our eyes adjust to the correction of the new lenses and we are able to see well.The Easter season is a time of adjusting to a new vision. God has done an incredible work. The tomb has been emptied. Death has been defeated. On the Sunday of the resurrection, our hearts fill with joy and our voices soar with the hymns of new life. A new world has been born, a new vision has been given, and a new way of living has been prescribed. The church is invited to wear its Easter lenses as it looks out upon the world and responds to the challenge of living in light of the resurrection.
We live from the perspective of Easter. Perspective is important. The right perspective can bring joy and happiness; the wrong perspective can lead to disaster. A little boy and a little girl, brother and sister, were shopping with their mother in a large department store. The mother needed to have some time for her shopping so she took the children to the soda fountain, bought them ice cream cones, and told them to stay there till she came back. Well, the children were fascinated by the elevator and could not resist the temptation to ride it one more time. So, with ice cream cones in hand, they jumped off their stools and went to ride the elevator.
They were enjoying their up-and-down ride, but the little boy’s ice cream was melting faster than he could eat it. Finally it was dripping down the cone and onto his hand despite his best attempts to eat the delicious treat before it melted. At one floor the elevator stopped and an elegantly dressed woman in a full-length fur coat got on. She stood in front of the children waiting to be taken to her floor. The little boy was desperately trying to deal with his melting ice cream. Seeing the back of the lady’s fur coat, he gently began to wipe the sticky, melting ice cream on her coat. His sister said, “Be careful, Billy, or you will get fur in your ice cream.” Now that illustrates perspective. What is a solution to one is to another a way to damage an expensive garment. It’s all in the perspective.
Easter people live with the perspective of the resurrection. God has won the victory over death. The worst that can happen to us has been overcome by God taking Jesus from the tomb. That is our perspective. This vision challenges us to live boldly and daringly. “You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God” (1 Peter 1:23). In other words, you have a new perspective. Live from this perspective. Dare to “love one another deeply from the heart” (v. 22).
The early church had to get used to its Easter lenses. It must have seemed strange to live from the perspective of love in a world that was used to living in alienation. It must have been disorienting to include the outcast and the marginalized in the fellowship of the church. But this is what the Easter community did, and its witness was powerful. The world stood in awe as it watched a community of love live its life with redemptive acts of service and inclusion. Such a community was a new reality that embraced a way of living that others had never imagined.
The story continues as Easter people put on their new lenses and dare to live the way of love in a world of alienation and hurt. We are people of new perspective. We have seen what God has done in Jesus Christ. We no longer live in fear; rather, with radical love we go forth to practice the perspective of love as we follow the way and example of our risen Lord.
The church has to put on its Easter glasses and see life from the perspective of the resurrection. We are the people who dare to live the hope that other people believe can never be realized. From the Easter perspective, we live the “as if” principle. That is, we live “as if” the world has more love than it does, “as if” there is more hope than people are willing to embrace, “as if” the kingdom of God can reign on the earth today.
Our Easter glasses also give us the holy boldness to ask “What if?” What if every child had a warm, safe place to sleep? What if there was enough food for every person on this earth? What if we all lived from a sense of abundance rather than scarcity? What if today all the killing of all the wars stopped?
It all starts with vision, with perspective. Have the right perspective and you live the right life. Our perspective is Easter. “Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God” (1 Peter 1:21). We are the people of Easter whose vision has been forever corrected by what God has done in Jesus Christ our Lord.
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