From Ephesus to Tucson

by Bob Setzer, Jr.
The book of Acts is dotted with riots caused by Paul. Then as now, Paul had a finely-honed knack for annoying people.

In Acts chapter 19, Paul and his helpers, Gaius and Aristarchus,  incite another riot. Paul’s preaching is causing a dip in sales of silver idols of the local goddess, Artemis. Some enraged silversmiths drag Gaius and Aristarchus into a 25,000 seat amphitheater. The theater is soon packed with a raging mob that shrieks, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” Things are about to get ugly for Gaius and Aristarchus. Paul is restrained by friends from entering the theater, lest he inflame the situation even further.

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Why Does Change Have To Be So Hard?

by Bob Setzer, Jr.

One week into the New Year, much January 1 resolve is flagging fast. What seemed so easy when greeting the new year has now turned into the daily grind of fighting temptation. The reservoirs of will power are draining at an alarming rate. It won’t be long before the thin, svelte new You--so clear in the mind’s eye--will perish in the greedy grab for another donut. Or the heartfelt promise to rise early and knock out 30 minutes on the treadmill will be squashed with one thump of the alarm’s snooze button.

Some people have wised up and learned to “win” the game of New Year’s resolutions by never making any. At least they don’t have to face the looming spectacle of failure. And a few people succeed in making needed changes: they go cold turkey and quit smoking or drinking, or begin a diet/exercise regimen that keeps the pounds off for good. But in early January, most of us find ourselves stranded in the netherworld of dreams: we can imagine a new, improved Self but seem powerless to create one. Why does this have to be so hard?

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Christmas Deep Inside

by Bob Setzer, Jr.

Here’s a dirty little secret about Christmas: amid all the gala and festivities, the parties and the laughter, the back-slapping and the smiles, a lot of people are sad. Most strive to hide their heaviness of heart, not wishing to impose their grief on others. But deep inside, where only a few dear friends and God can see, such bereaved souls are nursing a broken heart. And at Christmas, especially, they wonder if that broken place inside will ever heal.

The first Christmas after the death of a loved one is the hardest. All the familiar rituals are upset by the looming absence: the empty seat at the Christmas table, the missing hug, the once familiar aroma of a loved one’s aftershave or perfume, now gone, the poignant realization there is one less gift to give or receive. And the worst part is all this happens when gaiety is at a premium and the culture declares a moratorium on grief.

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The Extra Point

by Bob Setzer, Jr.
As virtually everyone in Georgia knows, this year’s epic contest between the Bulldogs and the Yellow Jackets came down to a missed extra point.

It had been a back-and-forth game with neither team playing their best. Still, Georgia appeared likely to cinch its next win in this storied rivalry. Tech was trailing as the fourth quarter ground to a close.

Then Tech mounted an impressive drive and scored a touchdown with 4:57 remaining. Once the extra point was made, the game would be tied. With the momentum in the game seeming to shift,  ever hopeful Yellow Jackets believed they were poised to eke out a victory.

But then Scott Blair, the place kicker, missed the extra point. After hitting 77 straight extra points, he chose that moment to miss. The ball wobbled wide of the uprights as Tech fans looked on in disbelief and Georgia fans erupted in wild jubilation. There was a last gasp effort on Tech’s part to come back and win, but after that missed extra point, the game was essentially over.

Extra points are the gimme putts of football. No college or pro kicker is supposed to miss an extra point, ever. But to miss that extra point at the end of a hard fought contest between two bitter rivals, is unthinkable. Sadly, that mishap is likely to be the defining event of Scott Blair’s football career, if not his life.

As our church approaches the end of the year, financially speaking, we are trailing in the game of income and expenses. As December began, our checkbook was in arrears about $23,000. That is not surprising given a floundering economy and the tough financial year many in our church have faced. And fortunately, we have the reserves to keep a one-year shortfall from being catastrophic.

Still, I hate to see us lose a game we have it within our power to win. And I don’t want our history of balancing the  church family checkbook by strong year-end giving to lull us into complacency. This year, more than most, we need very strong December giving.

So here’s what needs to happen if we’re to avoid flubbing the game-winning extra point:

• Don’t assume someone else is going to ante up. This is a team effort and we need everyone doing his or her part if we’re to meet our goal.
• Curb your Christmas gift-giving, if necessary, to make sure Christ and his kingdom gets its fair-share of your hard-earned dollars.
• If you are in a position to give over-and-beyond what you pledged or intended, this would be a great time for some  Jesus-style, grace-intoxicated excess.

The defining kick of Scott Blair’s life is over and I’m sure he’d give anything to have that one back. For us, the game is still within our grasp.

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Advent Conspiracy

by Bob Setzer, Jr.
According to one recent study, the fastest growing religion in America is not Islam or Christianity. The symbol of this rising faith is not the star or the crescent or the cross. No, the symbol of this burgeoning movement is a dollar sign, for the religion that is swallowing Christianity whole is rampant unrestrained consumerism.

So argue the authors of a provocative new book entitled The Advent Conspiracy and a companion website, www.adventconspiracy.org. The pastors and congregations at the helm of this movement believe the celebration of Christ's birth has been shanghaied by compulsive spending that returns less and less, at least as measured by the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control the New Testament suggests are the litmus tests for the truly spiritual life (Gal. 5:22-23).

Of course, an anti-capitalist crusade of the "Ain't it awful" variety is pretty standard fare at Christmas. But The Advent Conspiracy is different. It is not driven by joyless, wincing Christmas stooges but by serious Christians asking what a Christmas with Christ at the center might look like in twenty-first century America. The Advent Conspiracy is about saying "No" to Christmas excess so we can say "Yes" to the things that really matter: like giving very personal gifts to the people we love while sharing our bounty with those in need.

The four movements of The Advent Conspiracy will provide our focus for the four Sundays of Advent:

• Spend Less
• Americans spend nearly half-a-trillion dollars each Christmas. That's enough money to provide clean drinking water to every person on the planet, many times over. Are we buying what's on Jesus' Christmas wish list, or just our own?
• Give More
• The point of spending less Christmas is to stay out of debt and give more to Kingdom causes. But "giving more" isn't just about giving money. It's about giving yourself. When God gave the best God had that first Christmas, God didn't give more stuff, even good stuff. God gave God's Son, God's Self.
• Worship Fully
• Advent and Christmas are sacred times to gather and sing our hearts out to the newborn king. On Sunday, December 12, the third Sunday of Advent, our choir will present "A Service of Lessons and Carols." Not to be missed!
• Love All

Jesus' first act of solidarity with the poor and needy was to be born among them. What does that tell us about the radical, reckless love of God?

The Advent Conspiracy is a plan for treating Christmas like the birthday party for Jesus it was always meant to be. I'm going to give it a try. Care to join me?

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Living a Lie

by Bob Setzer, Jr.
Last night, I saw a story on the evening news that saddened and disturbed me. Several times before cutting to a commercial, the news announcer offered a teaser about an upcoming story of ministers “living a lie.” I feared the worst.

And in some ways, this really was the worst: not local church pastors neck-deep in some moral scandal, the usual fare of such exposes, but ministers who are self-avowed atheists. Yet these ministers have not confessed their loss of faith. Instead, they bear it as a shameful secret while pretending to believe.

One of the two ministers featured in the story calls himself an "atheistic agnostic" “I don't think we can prove that there is not a God or that there is a God," he says, (but) "I live out my life as if there is no God." So why does he and his fellow doubting Thomas stay in the ministry? Because they need a job and feel poorly qualified to do anything else.

As with all shameful secrets, part of what consigns these ministers to a hell of misery and self-hatred is not confessing their dilemma. Granted, if one or both of them announced this Sunday morning they are atheists, they would likely be looking for a job on Monday morning. But what if they had come clean with their troubling questions long before healthy doubt congealed into the hardened amber of cynicism and despair? That’s what the Bible does.

Writhing in agony, the Psalmist confesses, “My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, ‘Where is your God?" (Psalm 42:3). Jesus cries from his cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?!” (Mark 15:34). Even Paul, the cockiest of Pharisees, admits with refreshing candor, “We see in a mirror dimly” and “know only in part” (1 Cor. 13:12).

A religion without any capacity for critical self-reflection is a cult in-the-making. By contrast, a healthy faith is one that is always growing, always stretching, always in process. And doubt--honest to God doubt--is an essential part of an ever deepening apprehension of the Divine Mystery at the heart of all things.

The difference in the original Doubting Thomas (John chapter 20) and the two agnostic wannabees in the news story is that the first went to church and confessed his doubt while the other two did not. They didn’t trust God or their fellow believers enough to confess, “I’m hurting. I’m bewildered. And I’m so afraid.”

By contrast, the original Doubting Thomas came clean with his struggle within the community of faith and as a result, found the strength to believe and hope again.

I’m grateful to belong to a church where being honest and real is not seen as the abandonment of faith but as the epicenter of where a real and living faith begins.

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A Rare Breed

by Bob Setzer, Jr. 
Our church is one of an increasingly rare breed: a congregation that is multi-generational in makeup. More and more congregations are focused on a particular group: twenty-somethings, baby boomers, young professionals on the rise, and so on. It has long been recognized that in churches, as elsewhere, “birds of a feather fly together.”

Problem is, that’s not what the Kingdom of God is supposed to look like. According to Jesus, the Kingdom of God is like a tiny seed that grows into a tree with strong, welcoming branches where all the birds of the air make their nests (Luke 13:19).

So I celebrate the diversity of ages and stations in life represented in our church. I love the spontaneity of the children, the vitality of the youth, the social conscience of the young adults, the moral earnestness of the mid-lifers, and the wisdom of the mature. I like seeing races and nationalities different from my own in worship. I like being in a church where thoughtful Democrats and Republicans can move beyond the predicable ideological posturing to ask, “What does that have to do with the Gospel?” I like being in a church where people are defined not so much by how they are alike, but how they are different and yet bound together by the Christ who forms the heart of our fellowship.

Well, okay, to be honest, most of the time I like those things, because diversity does bring with it certain tensions. People of varying generations and traditions have differing values, preferences, and expectations.

Take this Sunday’s Processional of Commitment. For the past half-century or so on the first Sunday in November--All Saints’ Sunday--members of our congregation have marched forward, one-by-one, to place a commitment card in the little church on the altar. Most older, long-time members of our church deeply value this time of celebration and commitment. It’s a special time each year when First Baptist folk leave the safety of the pew to joyously process down the aisles and publically proclaim their love for Jesus and the church!

But to some newer members of the congregation--and younger people in general--the Processional of Commitment feels a bit showy, even pretentious. This newer generation didn’t have a hand in creating this tradition and doesn’t always understand or appreciate it. Some of these folk choose to skip Processional Sunday altogether.

So let me offer a challenge: if the Processional of Commitment doesn’t appeal to you, show up anyway and sit in prayerful contemplation as others march to the regal music. And if you love the pageantry and joy of the Processional, don’t raise an eyebrow toward those who are of a more private bent. Thankfully, there is room enough for all of us at the top of Poplar for we belong to a Kingdom so much bigger than ourselves. And we serve a Lord who delights in making us One without making us all the same.

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