Is All Really Calm and Bright for the Church?

As we get ready for tomorrow's Christmas Eve liturgies, it seems a good idea to take a look at "A Tough Season for Believer" by Ross Douthat, a column in the New York Times on Monday, December 20. This is not a feel good Christmas column, but it is something that Christians (especially clergy and lay leaders of congregations) need to read. Douthat articulate well, I believe, the place of the church in 21st century American culture.

I encourage you to read the entire column, but here's what he writes at the end:

"This month's ubiquitous carols and crèches notwithstanding, believing Christians are no longer what they once were—an overwhelming majority in a self-consciously Christian nation. The question is whether they can become a creative and attractive minority in a different sort of culture, where they're competing not only with rival faiths but with a host of pseudo-Christian spiritualities, and where the idea of a single religious truth seems increasingly passé.

"Or to put it another way, Christians need to find a new way to thrive in a society that looks less and less like any sort of Christendom – and more and more like the diverse and complicated Roman Empire were their religion had its beginning, 2,000 years ago this week."

With a full church on Christmas Eve, it's easy to think that "all is calm, all is bright," which is to say it's easy to think that all is OK and we can just keep on doing the same old thing. But I suspect the popularity of Christmas these days has more to do with Santa than Jesus.

This is, in my opinion, an exciting time to be a Christian. But for that to be true, we need to find "a new way to thrive." Christmas may be a good place to start.

46 Years Later: An Advent Message We Still Need to Hear

On this date, December 10, in 1964, Martin Luther King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The United States has come a long way in 46 years, but we still live in a nation and world filled with too much injustice, oppression, poverty, and violence. King's words in his Nobel acceptance speech—which resonate from his deep Christian faith—are a good reminder of the need to live with an active hope and faith so that Christ can be known in the world.

Here are a few of his words from 1964:

"I accept this award with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the 'isness' of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal 'oughtness' that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsom in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. . . .

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today's mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the land. 'And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.' I still believe that We Shall overcome!"

Now that is an Advent message!

Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly! In the meantime, empower us to proclaim and bear witness to the coming of your kingdom today and always.

Questioning the Place of the Institutional Church

Did you know we have a "marriage gap" in the United States? (And no, I am not talking about gay marriage.) What the heck is a marriage gap? I'm glad you asked.

Ross Douthat, in his recent column in the New York Times ("The Changing Culture War") defines it this way: "college graduates divorce infrequently and bear few children out of wedlock, while in the rest of the country unwed parenthood and family breakdown are becoming a new normal."

Without going through his entire column, Douthat is essentially sharing more data (in this case based on education levels) that tell us something we already know if we are paying attention: societal definitions of marriage and of family are changing . . . rapidly! For more reasons than I can name here, we're witnessing a huge shift in what it means to be a family. This is not insignificant as the family has been a core institution in our society (and I should add here that I believe this broader definition of family is a good thing).

What really caught my interest in the column is this paragraph:

"But as religious conservatives have climbed the educational ladder, American churches seem to be having trouble reaching the people left behind. This is bad news for both Christianity and the country. The reinforcing bonds of strong families and strong religious communities have been crucial to working-class prosperity in America. Yet today, no religious body seems equipped to play the kind of stabilizing role in the lives of the 'moderately educated middle' (let alone among high school dropouts) that the early-20th-century Catholic Church played among the ethnic working class."

I'm not sure if I agree with Douthat here, but I believe while sharing his thoughts on the institution of marriage he is saying something significant about the institution of the church and its place in American society. From his view, the institutional church is no longer strong enough or equipped enough to play a stabilizing role in a society in which fear and anxiety are prevalent and deep.

Is he correct? I hope not. I'd like to think that--at least on the local, congregational level--the church still manages to be a place of stability in people's lives.

But I have no doubt that--correct or not--he reflects an increasingly common view of the place and value of religious communities in American society. We are not in the center any longer.

So, what are we going to do about it?

A Prayer for World AIDS Day

December 1^st is World AIDS Day. With all the problems in the world, I don't hear much of anything about HIV/AIDS. Here are a few very good reasons to pay attention to this epidemic.

• 30.8 million adults and 2.5 million children. That is the estimated number of people throughout the world who were living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2009.
  
• Over 67% of those living with HIV/AIDS live in Sub-Saharan Africa. That's 22.5 million people.
  
• Last year, an estimated 1.8 million people died from AIDS and the total number of children orphaned by AIDS (ages 0-17) by the end of 2009 was 16.6 million.
  
• An estimated 2.6 million people became infected with HIV in 2009.
  

To learn more, go to Avert.org.

In light of all of this, I thought I'd share a prayer today. I found this one on the Huffington Post, along with 14 other prayers and poems.

God who blessed our ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel, be with all of those who struggle with AIDS, whose health is impaired by this illness and whose lives have been placed in jeopardy. Give them courage and strength to face their illness and hope for a cure that will embrace them in life.

May your healing presence remain with those who have contracted HIV. Through your caring and the wisdom You have imparted to human healers they have been enabled to succeed in their struggle with their disease. Keep them on the path of health and life.

Be with those who care for people with AIDS and attend to their needs. Bless them with strength and compassion as they labor to ease the lives of those who look to them for comfort and well-being. Let them know the value of their labors, and assist them in the noble work.

Share your wisdom with those searching for an ultimate cure for this disease. Bestow your healing knowledge upon them and reward their efforts with fulfillment.

Bless all of us with compassion and understanding that we may see all those afflicted as You see them: not as recipients of some sort of retribution, but as worthy objects of our concern and love.

May the day come speedily when this scourge too, like so many before it, will not afflict Your children and all of us are liberated from the shadow of its terror.

Amen.

(by Mark Israel and Dan Polish)