Presbytery of Lake Erie

Reflection: Anticipating Holy Week

March, 2018

And So The Church Draws Close to Holy Week:

Lent is a time of deep reflection and yearning for the power and presence of God.  The prayer below was prayed by Walter Brueggemann at Allegheny College, August 16, 1989.  It is a prayer of yearning in our own age as well:

With the energy we have,
we begin the day,
waiting and watching and hoping.

We wait,
not clear about our waiting.
But filled with a restlessness,
daring to imagine
that you are not finished yet-
so we wait,
patiently, impatiently,
restless, confidently,
quaking and fearful,
boldly and daring.

Your sovereign decree stands clear
and we do not doubt.
We wait for you to dissolve in tender tears.
Your impervious rule takes no prisoners,
we wait for you to ache and hurt and care over us
and with us
and beyond us.
Cry with us the brutality
grieve with us the misery
tremble with us the poverty and hurt.
Attend to us – by attending in power and in mercy,
remake this alien world into our proper home.

We pray in the name of the utterly homeless one,
even Jesus.

Amen.

Reflection: Community Engagement

 

Engagement in a World That Seems Upside Down

‘Some (people) have perhaps become hermits with the thought that sanctity could only be attained by escape from others.  But the only justification for a life of deliberate solitude is the conviction that it will help you to love not only God but also others.  If you go into the desert merely to get away from people you dislike, you will find neither peace nor solitude; you will only isolate yourself with a tribe of devils.’
  -Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, page 52

 

There are moments when it is tempting to withdraw from the world.  Merton suggests otherwise.  What do you think?  How does your thinking influence your theology and your practice?

Dr. David Oyler

Reflections: The Sovereignty of God

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD IN A CHAOTIC WORLD

John Calvin and Calvinism get a great deal of bad press over the concept of predestination.  (A concept that is, honestly, not very well understood by many.)  However, the theology which Calvin lived may have something important to say to our current culture.  When the world seemed to be falling apart, when disease and early death had seen an increase across Europe, he lifted up a different theme.  The kingdom in this world belongs to God alone.  The larger picture pointed to God as their help and hope, even as they were mired in some miserable circumstances.  And Calvin ‘resolutely refused to give up any part of human life as beyond hope of redemption.  Not economics, nor politics, nor church, nor the physical life…[all were in] need of restoration to the harmony of God’s kingdom.’ (Niebuhr, The Kingdom of God in America, p. 39).  As a new year dawns, regardless of what it might hold, Calvin may have something to teach us.  What do you think?                                                                                                                                                                                      -David Oyler

Reflections: A Second Look at “The Kingdom of God” by H. Richard Niebuhr

 

Recent days have found me re-reading the classic book ‘The Kingdom of God in America’ by H. Richard Niebuhr.  The substance of the book was provided in lecture form by Niebuhr more than 80 years ago.  At the same time it is fresh and relevant early in the 21st century.  Throughout the book he addresses the intermingling of faith and culture – and the implications it has for the church.  Included is this quote: ‘As a religious movement the Reformation was characterized above all by its fresh insistence on the present sovereignty and initiative of God.’  From there on he assumes that theological principle as he examines the culture in which he lived and continues to inform us to this day.  He speaks of God’s direct rule in a world where we sometimes think of terms of human sovereignty over medicine, politics, economics, etc.  Check it out!  There is something to be learned by revisiting the old classics!

Dr. David Oyler

 

Reflections: Reclaiming

In ‘Transforming Congregational Culture’ Anthony Robinson continues to raise other uncomfortable issues about the changing environment in which we live.  Across the last two generations Robinson would suggest that ‘the problems people faced and sensed were deeper and darker than those that could be addressed by a civic faith that was strong on obligation and good works.’  The events of the last 50 years (civil rights, Vietnam, assassinations, 9/11, rise of drug usage, etc.) have created an atmosphere in which a stronger foundation of faith is crucial yet it is severely lacking.

So what does it mean to ‘re-claim’ faith in a time when people are increasingly tugged in different directions?  What is the role of the faith community in re-examining the assumptions and underpinnings of Christian faith formation?                                                                                                                                -David Oyler

Reflections: Thoughts on Transformation

Antony Robinson, ‘Transforming Congregational Culture’ offers these words:  ‘As a religious establishment, mainline churches tended to rely on a sense of obligation as a powerful motivator for their membership and constituency…[In a] generation of seekers motivation replaced obligation.  If people were motivated, if they found some meaning and value in an experience for them, they would be involved.  If it was only a matter of fulfilling societal obligation, the church was losing its hold on people.  Another – more theological – way to put this is to note that, in many mainline congregations, a religion of good works and achievement seemed to have supplanted a religion of grace.’  (p. 4)

Are we churches of obligation?  Or of motivation?  Are we about good works?  Or grace?

Ouch!  Those are difficult (but important!!) themes to pursue.                  

-Dr. David Oyler/General Presbyter

Reflections: “Seek Good Not Evil”

‘Seek good and not evil,

that you may live;

and so the Lord, the God of hosts,

will be with you,

 just as you have said.

Hate evil and love good,

and establish justice in the gate;

it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,

will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.’

So what does ‘establish(ing) justice in the gate’ look like?

And what does God’s graciousness look like as you establish justice in your community?

                                                                                         -David Oyler, General Presbyter

Reflections: 21st Century Church

‘We are dealing with a deep change in the culture – religious and otherwise – of North American society.  An era of de facto American Christendom in which the Protestant mainline churches had been the religious establishment of the culture [is] ending.  Furthermore, modernity and its hallmark values – reason, self-sufficiency, progress, and optimism – [are] losing their sense of inevitability and their taken-for-granted status.’ –Anthony B. Robinson.

I believe this significant change has a great deal to say to the early 21st century church.  What do you think?  If you would like to engage this topic further why don’t you consider joining the teaching and ruling elder missional conversations.  Check with the presbytery office for more details on this intriguing opportunity!

-Dr. David Oyler – General Presbyter/Presbytery of Lake Erie