Jesus and Me: The Lost Years

There's a (very) long stretch of Christ's life that is not recorded in the gospels. Depending on which gospel you read, you might be led to believe Jesus emerges, sui generis and ex nihilo, around his thirtieth birthday, conducted his public ministry, and died three years later (Mark). Or you get some birth narratives, and small tantalizing teases about his early childhood--refugee in Egypt, left behind in Jerusalem studying Scripture with the rabbis--in some other gospels (Matthew and Luke).

These lost years of Jesus came to mind today as I was contemplating, late on this Thursday afternoon, how much I didn't do and how much time I wasted this week.

This isn't to say I did nothing all week. I taught a bible study, led and preached at Lenten worship, spent time in some counseling sessions, finished some projects, conducted a couple of interviews. In fact on some of those measures it was a busy week.

But I'm talking about time in the office. It is even hard for me to summarize what I did while in the office much of this week. I fumbled around, shuffled papers, looked at books on the shelf, sat in the chair, stood and prayed. Looking back, some of those hours are simply lost hours. I could have been more productive, but I wasn't.

Returning to the lost years of Jesus, some authors (like the Gnostics, or Anne Rice, or Mel Gibson) have had to invent things for Jesus to be doing during his teen and early adult years. The Gnostics had him doing fun magic tricks. Anne Rice gives us Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt: A Novel, and Mel Gibson in his bloody Jesus movie has Jesus inventing modern day tables and chairs (really!).

But what if the middle years of Jesus' life were honestly and truly like my lost hours at work this week?  What if there is nothing to report because there is nothing to report? Is it possible that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, could be illustrating his "self-emptying" (like the Christ hymn in Philippians 2:5-11) even in the very life he lives from his birth to his public ministry?

I don't know. I have typically resisted interpreting this lacunae in the gospel testimony precisely because it is so clearly an intentional lacunae. The gospels are very intentional in their construction. If Christ's life from approximately twelve to twenty-nine years old is not recorded in the gospels, there is a reason.

But I think we can give at least a little space to interpreting the absence. Reading between the lines, interpreting the white space--these are appropriate interpretive moves whether you are a postmodernist or a Rabbinic scholar.

Some things can only be born after long gestation. Just because nothing is happening doesn't mean nothing is happening. I am convinced my spinning wheels were, in this week, essential to some major work I have coming up, including Holy Week preaching and a presentation I will give at the ELCA in early April. My heart and mind need the space.

I guess there are better and worse ways to spend lost hours and weeks and years. My better hours "spinning my wheels" were spent away from social networks, and with less clutter on the desk. Once I was just sitting and contemplating, once I was in the sauna with nothing but the heat, the lostness was even more lost.

Sometimes in order to be found we have to be lost for a while. Perhaps for Christ to be Christ for us of necessity he had to be nobody, nowhere for no-one first.

Read These First, Then Write Your Book

I'm not a best-selling author, but I know a few people who have proven their ability to sell lots of copies of their work, while simultaneously offering sage advice.

Below are three recent posts from writers I respect. Read Rich Melheim first, to get inspired for the long haul. Read Michael Hyatt second for a best-seller launch platform. Finally, read David Carnoy for the nitty-gritty on self-publishing.

Rich Melheim: http://www.richmelheim.com/2013/02/your-best-sellers-in-2014-2015-2016.html

Michael Hyatt: http://michaelhyatt.com/bestseller-launch-formula.html

David Carnoy: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-18438_7-10119891-82/self-publishing-a-book-25-things-you-need-to-know/

Then, post in the comments and add to the wisdom. What's your project, how will you sell it, and what are your best self-publishing tricks?

The Elegant Way We Grow Our Church

Elegance is notoriously difficult to define. The right dress on the wrong person is inelegant. An odd dress on the right person might in fact be elegant. Similarly, each year companies march out new products (think of cars) all with essentially the same features, and yet each year some of those products shine with an elegance and beauty lacking in the others.

Life in the church parallels this pattern. Almost every church conducts life together in a way similar to other churches. Most churches eat together sometimes. Most organize bible studies. All gather for worship. Many provide sponsor or mentor relationships for those new to the faith. Almost all baptize, and provide some orientation on the life of faith that accompanies baptism.

However, the manner in which these various components of Christian life are assembled really does matter. It is an art rather than a science, bringing the ancient practices of the church into play with the culture and sensibilities of a particular place. Bible study can be done poorly. New member orientation can be ill-timed.

This past year, our congregation has experimented with the ancient (though new for us) rites of Christian initiation for adults, sometimes called the catechumenate. Our journey with this pattern for Christian initiation began with a lot of study and reading on my part. I have spent time the past few years reading descriptions of the catechumenate in other contexts, and interviewed congregations and pastoral leaders who use the model for adult faith formation.

Then, this past summer, I piloted the model with a leadership team. We gathered each week for a meal, then broke open the gospel lesson from the preceding Sunday worship as our common Scripture lesson. While modeling this weekly devotional time, we also read a little book by a colleague and mentor, Paul Hoffman's Faith Forming Faith: Bringing New Christians to Baptism and Beyond. We have undergirded all of this study and practice with prayer, hearts open to the new people in our midst.

By the end of the summer, as nervous as we were to try such an intense and beautiful pattern in our church life, we were ready. We began inviting our new visitors, and many inquirers to the Christian faith, to periodic inquiry sessions on Sunday evenings. Throughout the fall, we hosted a Sunday evening supper and bible study. The fall inquiry sessions had a very big front door and big back door. "All are welcome, come check this out, no commitment necessary, if this isn't for you, we understand."

The catechumenate goes in stages, and matches our church calendar. After Christmas, at the beginning of Epiphany, all the inquirers are welcomed during Sunday worship at a Rite of Welcome. This is where the current congregation really gets to start meeting the inquirers formally and up close. Worship leaders give the inquirers a bible for their journey. Each inquirer is matched with a sponsor from the congregation, and that sponsor blesses the inquirer in their journey, making the sign of the cross over their eyes, ears, forehead, mouth, shoulders, heart, hands, and feet.

At this point, the elegance of the catechumenate is on full display. It is well timed (the beginning of the year), and the richness of the formation process means many are attracted to it. We have over forty adults in our catechumenate this year. This is a large number of new people for a congregation our size. Add the sponsors to the group, and this means a lot of people engaged in intentional faith formation from Christmas to Easter.

Now the pattern deepens. The group meets every single week for a supper and bible study, interspersed with brief lessons on the catechism and Christian faith and life. Sponsors attend small group bible study with the catechumens. The model for bible study is very open. It is a space for questions, for exploration. As a Christian community, we do not believe Christianity is about an authority handing down the "right way to believe" to us in sound bites. Instead, we believe the Spirit is at work in the conversation among the group gathered around Scripture. I as pastor do not even attend the small groups. I do the dishes after the meal, so each group really has to rely on themselves for the interpretation of the text. There are no so-called authorities. The authority is in the space itself, their lives, and this text, coming together in fruitful ways.

At the beginning of Lent (a deeply faithful liturgical pattern observed by our and many Christian denominations as a way of journeying in our worship life towards the cross and Jerusalem) all adults who will be baptized at the Easter Vigil (Saturday night before Easter Day) write their names in the baptismal register and are enrolled. They kneel for a blessing, and commit themselves to their preparations for baptism.

During Lent, the group attends Sunday worship faithfully, hearing gospel lessons especially selected for deep faith formation. Each Sunday evening, they continue the simple pattern: meal, lesson, small group study and conversation. The Sunday immediately prior to Easter, the whole group rehearses the Easter Vigil liturgy, which includes the lighting of the new fire, many readings from the Old and New Testament, affirmation of baptism for those returning to the church or re-committing themselves to life in Christian community, and baptism for the adults and many children who will be baptized that day. It is the way the church keeps vigil as it anticipates celebrating once again the resurrection of its Lord.

There is nothing radically new about this pattern. Each component, as I have mentioned, is present in almost every Christian community I've visited or been a part of. But there are more or less elegant ways to put all the pieces together, and I have been learning, over time, that this ancient pattern, these rites of Christian initiation for adults, have that kind of beauty. They're beautiful because they are ancient, yes, and there is much truth in them. But they are even more beautiful because I see on the faces of those who participate in them life, and grace, and joy. This way of being initiated into the Christian story means something to them, to us, to me.

We have been so surprised, though perhaps we should not have been, at the overwhelming response we've gotten in our congregation to this pattern of faith formation for adults. I Clearly this process and its timing were right. Our members, old and new, were craving this. It may very well be that this, or something like it, is a desire of people in your places of worship as well.

AMOK