Guest Post - Loving Your Neighbor

Loving Your Neighborby Pastor John Lund

 

Kudos to the Darby library for going forward with the March 9 talk on Islam by UM scholar Samir Bitar. The rampant rhetoric of fear regarding Muslims immigrants is out of line with our core American value of granting life and liberty to all people. What has made us great is our willingness to give everyone a chance regardless of race, ethnicity, social class, or beliefs. Certainly, we need to denounce and fight ISIS, and we need protection from their attacks. It is reasonable to be concerned about screening immigrants from a war-torn nation. But to judge all Muslims because of ISIS is unfair. The claim that Islam is at war with Christianity or with the US and that all Muslims are out to get us is plain wrong.

For those of us who are Christian, we would do well to look first at the log in our own eye. We have to acknowledge that many Christians justified the killing of native peoples by calling them "heathens" and "savages." Later, Christians sent Native children to boarding schools so they could be "Christianized" and re-cultured. Christians also justified slavery, and many later fought against civil rights for Blacks and all people of color. European Christians perpetuated stereotypes and discrimination against Jews, which allowed the rise of Nazi hatred and the Holocaust. Many Christians fought against the right of women to vote, and some still believe that women should be subject to men and silent outside their homes. Even today, Christians fight the hardest against civil rights for people in the LGBTQ community. If the atrocities of some Christians were used to judge all of us, we'd be lucky to have any neighbors at all.

The truth is that there are an estimated 3.3 million Muslims in this country, and many have been here for decades. Most work hard as teachers, business owners, laborers, doctors, and in other professions, and are integrated into American culture and life. They wage peace through daily prayer, compassion, care for their neighbor, and devotion to the same God that Christians and Jews worship. They honor Moses and Jesus as Major Prophets and have great respect for the Bible. I have known many Muslims in my lifetime and feel fortunate to have some as friends. They are among the most genuine, gracious, giving and humorous people I know. In all of our major cities, Imams and Muslim leaders work with Christian, Jewish and other faith leaders to foster relationships, peace and unity among the world religions. Time after time, when Christians actually meet Muslims and get to know them and share a meal and conversation, relationships are formed, attitudes and perceptions are changed, and the whole community is enriched for the better. Thank God we have different languages, music, food, skin colors, traditions and beliefs! Because of that we learn and grow and become fuller human beings when we are together.

Yes, there are horrible things being done by some Muslims who manipulate Islam and the Quran to justify their own ideology of terror and control. Yes, some Muslims believe that women should obey their husbands and have fewer rights than men. Yes, some Muslims are fundamentalist and practice horrific forms of violent retribution. And this is true for some Christians as well. We see evidence of this today in KKK rallies, mass shootings and vandalism of Black churches and abortion clinics, and the high rate of domestic violence against women. The greater truth is that the huge majority of the estimated 1.7 billion Muslims and 2.4 billion Christians in the world are people who love God and neighbor, care for those in need, and seek peace in our world.

As Christians, we are called not only to love the neighbors who are similar to us, but to also love those who are different and even our enemies. Our world is already filled with fear, lies, hatred, and violence. We can do much better by waging peace, forming relationships, listening to each other, sharing life, and expecting the best from each other. That is exactly what a Galilean Jew did 2000 years ago amid times of great fear, much like today. Perhaps we can follow his lead.

      -Pastor John Lund is Campus Pastor at the University of Montana

Emmaus Campus Ministry at the University of Montana

Three Things You Need to Know About the 2015 Spending Plan - Guest Post by Ian Anderson

By: Ian Anderson, CtK Council President

I’m really proud of our congregation for the excitement and support put forth during the past month towards our plans for ministry and congregational care in 2015. The most tangible outcome is that we’ve proposed, debated and accepted a spending plan for 2015 that is ambitious, a 28% increase from 2014.

Even if you’ve been following along the whole time, here are three things you need to know about the spending plan.

But before we jump in, I ask you to literally pray about this. Whether it upsets you some to be asked for more money or whether you are so excited that you are ready to cut a check for $5,000 each month (and if you are, please let me know!)… please pray for yourself and your role, pray for the church and what we’re doing.

1) The Idea Behind the Increases
These increases are about two simple ideas that we feel strongly about.

IDEA #1: Christ the King is here by the will and the grace of God and we are called upon to be a bright spot and share the love of Christ we've received, with God, with each other and with the world.

I realize this is a big, sort of ambiguous, sentence. But think about some of the specifics: we come together to worship and we’re blessed with bright, smiling faces and beautiful music… we meet in small groups to develop our understanding of the profound, day-to-day meaning in the teachings of Christ… we try to be good neighbors and help out around town like through the Community Cafe or donations to the Food Bank. These are ALL very well and good!

BUT (perhaps you noticed that’s a big but), we’ve also been praying and listening and as a community, we are being led to continue our growth as Christians and, specifically, to hold each other as well as our neighbors and visitors up in the light of God.

We have specific ideas about this, including: strengthening our fabric of support and spiritual growth at CtK for ALL AGES, literally age 0-99+, through learning, education and activities… learning about ourselves and sharing our stories just in case we find ourselves positioned to do a little - wait for it - evangelizing… reaching out to the neighborhoods immediately around us as well as to an elder-care community, just to be good people!

But all of these things don’t happen on their own and we are well aware of the struggles in recent years to do our best with what we had. Now, we have the opportunity to invest a little more in doing a little more and we have discerned the call and response to do so. The spending plan increase will help further us in this cause.

IDEA #2: Our choices reflect our beliefs and core values.

It’s been a little lost in the discussion but the spending plan proposes an almost DOUBLING in our benevolence, back to the neighborhood of 10%, which accounts for over $16,000. It had been cut back towards 5% for a few years in order to make sure we could pay our staff and meet our obligations. But the intent was never to skimp on giving. Now we are back in a position to share our gifts with others. We believe in honoring God and being thankful for our gifts in this manner.

2) It’s Not About The Money, It’s All About The Money
Do a little jig if you know what I’m talking about!

First, it is important to understand that the idea of continuing and evolving our current ministries and care hinges as much on our intent and actual participation as it does on our funding.

We all believe that our works will not buy our way into heaven. Similarly, our money won’t buy us works!

Our hearts, minds and bodies are as important in this as anything.

With that in mind, the money isn’t important in and of itself. However, as we ask people to go above and beyond in helping us coordinate our activities and develop infrastructure to assist us in reaching towards our dreams, it is right to compensate them! In other words, we need our pastors’ help and we need to pay them!

3) There is a Plan
Compared to business-as-usual in the church setting, things have been moving at a breakneck speed the last few months! Wrapping our minds around all of the implications, trying to reach out to as many invested parties as possible and doing all of the groundwork necessary to present this to the congregation has been quite challenging.

But there is a plan. Right now, that plan is a neat little one page table that shows exactly what we (the congregation, the council, the co-pastors and lay leaders) need to do in each of the seasons of Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost to move our plans and ideas forward.

This plan will be discussed and finalized this Thursday by council. Here is a short version:

Congregation: Pray Now, Participate and Support as called forth!
Council: Pray, Implement, Provide Oversight and Communicate!
Co-Pastors: Pray, Develop Infrastructure, Train and Support!
Lay Leaders: Pray, Train, Facilitate and Develop Ministry!

So as long as we do all of that, we’ll be moving on up George Jefferson style!

One last word. Please understand that nobody wants you to do something that isn’t right for you, but, simultaneously, we want you to pray and want you to do what makes sense to you. What comes forth will be the will of God as guided by the Holy Spirit. This is what we believe and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

CtK's Fall Adult Forum: TED Talks, 9/28

This past Sunday, the Adult Forum watched a compelling TED Talk by Zak Ebrahim. It was interesting to hear it alongside the First Lesson for last week, from Ezekiel 18, and the prophet's insistence on individual responsibility and an open future.





Some of the questions we considered included:
In what ways do we strive to be like our parents and/or grandparents?
In what ways do we strive to different from our parents/grandparents?
What have been our experiences of stereotyping? And breaking down of stereotypes?
Are there people/causes we'd be willing to die for? To kill for?

Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments!

Zak has written a book, called The Terrorist's Son: A Story of Choice. You can learn more about it here:

Fruits of the Spirit

This afternoon during the Tuesday noon bible study our group talked about gifts of the spirit, as listed in Galatians 5:22-love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self- control.

We also discussed how we saw these gifts reflected in the life of our community here at Christ the King Lutheran Church.

We saw members display self-control during our annual meeting times, allowing everyone to speak their mind at an important community forum.

We saw members practice patience with folks who had more “challenging personalities” in our midst, covering them with God’s grace when it would have been so easy to write them off.

We saw members carry out acts of generosity in time, talent, and treasure for the sake of God’s mission in this place.

We also saw love, joy, and peace in the lives of our members genuinely touched by God’s life giving love.

Where do you see the gifts of the spirit reflected in the lives of those who call Christ the King their community of faith?