Apology to our soldiers

I am a pastor of a church in New York. I ask for your forgiveness for this kind of behavior on behalf of Christians worldwide. I thank you, soldiers, for your willingness to put your lives on the line in order to protect me, my family, my church, my faith and the faiths of others. I thank you for your sacrifices and I ask that you would not hold this behavior against us who are believers and followers of Jesus Christ. We love you and pray for your protection, guidance, safe return and healing from whatever wounds, emotional or physical, that you may have met with during your time in service of this country. Please know that the attitude displayed by the one congregation is not the attitude of us all. I am not thankful that any should have to die to protect me. I pray for the day to come when war will cease and this world will know true peace. Until that day, you will remain in our prayers.

Pastor Frank Lockwood

True worship

I spent the morning at the convent with the nuns. Matins began at 6:30a followed by Eucharist at 7a. When living up in this area, it was a regular Saturday event to come down for Matins followed by Eucharist and then hit the local diner with my mentor for reflection, discussion and feedback.

This morning reminded me about how it is truly about having a genuine relationship with God, not about form and certainly not about formula. In John 4, when Jesus is speaking about worship and God seeking those who will worship in spirit and truth, I have little doubt if any that this falls into that category. As I have studied the scriptures in attempting to gain deeper understanding of worship from God's own perspective, I had been brought to a variety of different passages each one reflective of a certain expression of relationship with God in that particular moment which collectively are referred to as worship.

For example; David goes from dancing like a madman unashamed of his love for the Lord to fasting, prostrate and throwing all of his sorrow and shame at God's feet seeking forgiveness. Both, given their circumstances, are equal expressions of worship. What makes them worshipful is that they are an expression in truth and an outpouring of the spirit at that moment in David's life. Jesus himself sang, shared meals, and spent alone time with his Father. Again, all are equal expressions of worship in the moments they were occurring.

I believe that the point of the statement by Jesus in John 4 is to direct us away from following manmade rules in the moment and to instead engage in genuine relationship with God. The more genuine our relationship with Him, the more genuine our worship becomes because it flows out of that relationship. The word "worship" really means adoration, to look up with awe, to be overwhelmed by. Jesus said that the Father is seeking individuals who will allow their self to be awestruck in a genuine fashion through the spirit and then allow that to be expressed in the form that the worship takes.

This is not to exclude nor promote one style of worship over another. The Sisters of St. Mary that I spent the morning with have the most genuine relationship with our Lord. They truly love Him and express that love in the way they feel called to express it. The slow meter of their prayer of the psalms expresses an incredible beauty as you can spiritually savor each word. No movement is wasted, each moment is given to reflection in order to put all elements of chronological time in subjection to Christ. There is a softness that fills up with Holy Love in the midst of the sanctuary. It is a moment in which two lovers are resting in each other's arms on a hillside enjoying a warm yet crisp breeze savoring every butterfly, tweet of a bird and each cloud as it dances across the sky making a lunch time last a lifetime. It is worship in spirit and truth.

My spirit is one of intensity. I on a regular basis I express my worship with loud modern worship power anthems speaking out boldly about God's love and His desire to restore us into right relationship. I am not a fan of hymns. They often move too slowly for me and I have not wrestled with the flesh of my mind successfully enough yet to be able to focus my worship during most him singing. The slower the tempo the more time my mind has to begin to bring in extraneous thoughts. Does that make them un-worshipful? No, not necessarily. But it does require me to make more of an effort to dive deep into my relationship with Jesus to draw out and maintain the adoration without the flesh getting in the way. Mayhap in some ways that is a great thing as disciplining the body/mind is what we are called to do in order to bring them into the kingdom.

Whoa Frankie! Almost got caught in that slippery slope which begins to discuss worship as one type of music verses another……that is no place I really wish to go with this.

I am in a denomination that uses a Liturgy for much of its worship time. Liturgies, taken as a whole, are designed to be a structured form of worship in order to promote a focus in the direction of God. There are liturgies that have been written which reflect adoration of God's Majesty, others reflect His Love, others reflect His desire for intimacy with us, and others are designed to bring a centering solely on scripture as a means by which to begin to discipline the mind. There is beauty in each, especially when they are done in spirit and truth, absent of judgment for those who don't follow them and singularly focused on giving God the glory and drawing people's attention to Him.

Me? I am in favor of all of it. No, this is not a time when I am refusing to make a decision. It is actually quite the opposite. I am more and more convinced that God is blessed by all of it. To throw out one in favor of another based upon personal preference runs dangerously in the idolatry range. How? Simple, if you are focusing on what you prefer as worship and discounting any other of the types of worship as invalid because you don't care for them, who are you really using your worship to honor?

Please consider that for a moment.

I have been in worship services where each person was allowed to move in the spirit as they were led provided it didn't interfere with others being able to move as they were led. Upon first glance, it looks really messy. One person is over there on their knees rocking back and forth, another is up dancing like something out of the sixties, another is sitting with scripture open on their lap, another sketching, others in various positions singing. Some have their arms raised, others have their hands folded, others have their faces down and others have these super silly grins plastered across their face (which when you are in a miserable mood is very disconcerting and exceptionally uncomfortable to behold—which is actually Holy Spirit convicting the spirit of miserable on you). Yet, given a chance to see from heaven's perspective (John 3), one begins to see this incredible colorful patchwork quilt that in its complexity houses a beauty that goes beyond description.

That is the Bride.

So, take a chance. Attend a matins, noontime, vespers, evensong or compline at a convent, monastery or cathedral, especially if that is not "for you". Please don't get caught up in being fearful of getting trapped by a spirit of religion. If you are there in truth, you have nothing to fear. Then, maybe even later in the same week, find the messiest praise service you can.

And always, whatever you do in worship, do so in Spirit and Truth, for such the Father seeks to worship Him.

Spiritual wiring

So, I'm on my way to work and having a conversation with someone which then prompts me into meditating on some things that have been spoken of before. I pastor a church as well as work a job as an addictions counselor with brain injury survivors. I have worked with the disabled for over 19 years year (March 7^th marks my 20^th anniversary of the day I started trainings). I love seeing people move ahead in life, get through trauma, healed, restored relationships, etc. Each time I describe my work to people, they look a bit cross-eyed at me and make some comment to the effect of "better you than me." So, Why?

Seriously, that was a question, Why is it better me than someone else? Why doesn't everyone do this? Why don't more people go on mission trips? Shouldn't that be part of the qualifier to prove you are born again, that you have spent time in another country (or at least another neighborhood) bringing the love of Jesus?

Yet, if I believe we are called to a purpose, which I do, then it makes only perfect sense as to why me and not someone else. Sit down, before you continue your rant, I am by no means saying that I am better than. I am simply different than. As you are different than me and that other person over there as they are different than both of us. We are each wired a little differently according to the purposes we are called to. This actually makes total and perfect sense. If we were all wired the same, then there would be a lot of something that couldn't get done. Paul uses the 'body' when speaking about the church. That the hands aren't part of the body because they aren't the feet and the eye isn't part of the body because it is not an ear……the ear serves the purpose of hearing, the eye of sight, the hand of work and the foot of going, etc.

The next time you are having a conversation with someone, especially a non-follower of Jesus Christ, think about it. The fact that they don't have patience for dealing with the "little brat in the back row screaming his head off" makes perfect sense if you keep in mind that first we are all wired for our purpose/destiny and secondly that the great equalizer in wiring, the fruit of the spirit (Galatians chapter 5), only comes as a fruit of the Holy Spirit whom comes at the point of being born again. If someone is not born again and they weren't called to a purpose that would require, let's say six or seven extra helpings of patience, tolerance and long suffering, it makes all the sense in the world for them to respond with a short fuse and a not so friendly opinion. They are merely doing what they are wired to do. (I used a less flattering comparison earlier to a dog peeing on the rug—it's their nature, not like you can really get mad at them given a lack of doggie DNA which directs them to use a toilet.)

If we could get this, imagine the difference it would bring in being able to meet out mercy, grace, forgiveness and love? As you look at the face of the man who gets mad at his teenage son for continuously returning to the addiction, you, the born again baptized in the Holy Spirit follower of Jesus Christ who has the fruit of the spirit within you can step in, forgive the man, forgive the son, love on them both and pray for them both. What a blessing! You being able to see where they aren't wired right now, where the wires have crossed, shorted out or been corroded, you working hand in hand with Holy Spirit can become the spiritual electrician that would be able to offer them peace in the situation.

The young man who does not seem to possess the stomach to visit his elderly grandparent in a nursing home….what if he is simply responding out of the way he has been wired? Wouldn't now be the time to set aside judgment and condemnation for him not "loving his father/mother/grandma or whomever enough to visit them? Wouldn't now be the time to be the blessing to, yes, I said you be the blessings to him?

We are called to love people where they are at. That is what Jesus does. He meets us where we are at. (Like him, however, I am sticking to my guns that we are expected to stay there.)

Just imagine the difference it can make in the lives of our churches(families) if we were able to come to this understanding. Imagine sitting there and rather than judging the "jerk" who is bad mouthing ________, you instead accept that right now they are wired differently and merely acting out of their own wiring, which may be very "fleshly," as some of my Pentecostal brothers would put it. In that moment, you begin to pray for them. You begin to allow God to flow into the situation. You turn the cursing into blessing, the condemnation into mercy and allow God's grace to flow.

Sounds to me like it would move a lot of hearts and souls and would certainly show forth exactly what the love of Christ looks like.

Blessings and peace brothers and sisters.