If you haven’t read the stories of Peter and Paul in the New Testament, you’ve missed some great adventures. Of all the apostles, in fact, of all the evangelists, missionaries and preachers that have ever lived, there are none greater than Peter and Paul. It has been said that Peter, among the first of Jesus’ disciples, and Paul, who wrote more than half of the New Testament, are more responsible for the existence of the Christian Church than anyone except Jesus! Inspired and empowered by the Holy Spirit, had not they taken the message of Christianity to the Gentile or non-Jewish world, it is possible that the Christian Church as we know it today would not exist. I do not have the space in this blog to consider the entire span of their ministries. If you want to read more about Peter and Paul, however, the Book of Acts in the New Testament is the place to start.

Because both apostles were martyred on the same date, though in different years, the Christian Church has traditionally commemorated the anniversaries of their deaths on the same day, as we did at Trinity Church on Sunday, June 29.  As I said then, given the importance of Peter and Paul to the life and ministry of the Christian Church, it seems only appropriate, however briefly, to pay them tribute and to learn from the example of their lives.  Among that which can be said of them is this, they were devoted to Jesus, bold in witness, humble in spirit and faithful to the end.

Devoted to Jesus
When we first meet Peter in the New Testament, his name is Simon. Like other disciples of Jesus, he was a fisherman by trade, but we also know that he was a disciple of John the Baptist. He had a brother named Andrew and a wife who often joined him on his missionary journeys. It was Andrew who introduced him to Jesus, who immediately, according to the Gospel of John, renamed him “Cephas or Peter”, which means “rock” in Hebrew and Greek. The name was to shape his character and destiny. It was the example of his faith, his great devotion to Jesus, which became “ the rock” upon which the church was built.

As for Paul, he was an apostle who, unlike the others, had not met Jesus personally. Jesus appeared to him, he testified, in a vision. Named Saul at the time, a persecutor of Christianity, he was commissioned by Christ, under the new name of Paul, “to be an instrument whom God had chosen to bring the name of Christ before the Gentiles. "I myself,” said the Lord, “will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” (Acts 9:15-16).

Unlike Peter, who became a personal friend of Jesus, who was a spokesperson for the Twelve, who was among the inner circle of the disciples, who was with Jesus when he raised Jairus’ daughter from death, who witnessed the Transfiguration of Jesus, and who went with Jesus to the Mount of Olives on the last day of his life, Paul was a convert to the faith. He was an example of those, to quote the Gospel of John, “who believed even though he had not seen.”

Yet both were sincerely devoted to Jesus. At the end of John’s Gospel, even after denying Jesus three times, three times Peter declares his love for Jesus, “Lord, you know that I love you.” He may have expected Jesus to reject him for his betrayal, but instead Jesus commissioned him, “Peter,” he commanded, “feed my sheep.” And as for Paul, near the end of his life, sitting in prison, uncertain of his fate, he declares, “for me, Christ is life!” Christ was everything to him. Both Peter and Paul were devoted to Jesus. It was Jesus who changed their lives.

Bold in Witness
Whoever would have thought that a fisherman, a common workingman, would become one of the greatest Christian evangelists? Peter himself must have been astonished. Just a few days after the Ascension, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, he rose to address the people of Jerusalem with a message so powerful that 3,000 people were converted. After a second sermon, the religious authorities who had been so eager to hasten Jesus’ death, became so worried about Peter’s claim that Jesus had been raised form the dead, that they threw him in prison to shut him up.

“There is salvation in no one else,” Peter, preached “for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:13). The text continues, “Now when they (the religious authorities) saw the boldness of Peter and realized that he was an uneducated and ordinary man, they were amazed and recognized him as a companion of Jesus.”

And who would have thought that Paul, a persecutor of Christianity, a man hated, despised and feared by the Christian community, would become the very agent God would use to carry the Christian message into the Gentile world?

It was not an easy life. Of his experiences Paul writes: “Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, I was in danger form rivers, bandits, my own people and from Gentiles; I was in danger in the city, in the wilderness, at sea, and in danger from false brothers and sisters; in toil and hardship, through may a sleepless night, I was hungry and thirsty, often without food; I was cold and naked. And besides others things, I am under daily pressure” he concluded, “because of my anxiety for all the churches.”  (2 Cor. 11:24 ff).

Peter, no doubt, could have complied a similar list. Both men suffered much for the sake of their faith; both were bold in witness. Nothing, save death itself, could stop their testimony.  

Humble in Spirit
Despite their remarkable accomplishments both men were well aware of their deficits as persons and as followers of Jesus. In many ways they felt inadequate and unqualified for the task. Scripture tells us, for example, that Peter was impulsive, a characteristic that often got him into trouble. Although he was gifted with spiritual insight, he was slow to comprehend the truth of Jesus’ teachings. Though courageous in witness and the first to confess Jesus as the Christ, he was guilty of a most cowardly denial. While eager to see and worship the Lord after the Resurrection, he was hesitant, and with good reason, to hear what the Lord had to say. 

Paul also had issues. His famous “thorn in the flesh”, whatever it was, was a constant irritant and personal burden. His history as a persecutor of Christians hindered his relationship with the church and its leadership at Jerusalem. His forceful personality and penchant for speaking his mind resulted in countless arguments and misunderstandings. He was a persuasive, but not, apparently, a handsome or winsome preacher. An ancient source described him as short in stature and partly bald. He had crocked legs, poor eyesight and a nose somewhat hocked.

Both men were humbled, astounded and deeply moved that Jesus had chosen them, despite their weaknesses and troublesome pasts, to be his ambassadors in the world.

Faithful to the End
Peter, according to tradition, died as a martyr in Rome probably during the reign of Emperor Nero. Like Jesus, he was crucified – but not exactly like Jesus. It is said that he asked his executioners to hang him on the cross upside down, explaining that he was not worthy to be crucified in the same position as his Savior.

Paul also died in Rome. Rome had long been a desired destination for both evangelists who were eager to give witness to Christ the King in the very the center of the imperial city. There Paul was beheaded, most likely in the Coliseum, perhaps in the presence of the Emperor himself -- a final testimony to the true and only King, Jesus, Christ the Lord. Like Peter, he was faithful to the end.

Inspired by the examples of Peter and Paul, two great heroes of the Christian faith, we strive to be like them: devoted to Jesus, bold in witness, humble in spirit and faithful to the end.

The disciples of Jesus were slow to accept the resurrection. The notion that God could raise someone from the dead was as difficult for them to believe as it is for us.

The gospel writers are honest about this. In Mark’s gospel, for example, we are told that the women who witnessed the empty tomb were so confused and afraid, that they said nothing to anyone.

In Luke, when the women reported to the disciples what they had experienced and who they had encountered at the grave site, we are told that the disciples refused to believe them. Later when Jesus suddenly appeared in their presence, they cowered back thinking they were seeing a ghost. “Why are you frightened,” Jesus said, “and why do doubts arise in your hearts”.

In the Gospel of John, even after the disciples had had a personal encounter with the resurrected Jesus, they still had a difficult time believing, so much so that they decided to go back to their old way of life! “I’m going fishing,” Peter said, and the others agreed to go with him.

Matthew’s Gospel tells us quite plainly that some believed, but others doubted.

N.T. Wright, the New Testament scholar, contends that the notion that an individual could be raised from the dead was not a concept familiar to Judaism.  The disciples, he writes, would never have expected their fellow Jews to believe that Jesus rose from the dead.  They, themselves, couldn’t have imagined it . . . yet this is what they came to believe. It was a belief that transformed their lives. In fact, they gave their lives in witness to it.  

In the April 16, 2014 edition of The Christian Century Magazine, John Buchannan, the magazine’s editor, diverted his readers from contemplating the science of the resurrection to its mystery and meaning. “People come to church on Easter,” he writes, “because there is serious business on the agenda. They are not there to hear an explanation of how a dead body got up and walked out of the tomb. The four biblical accounts are lean: each tells the story slightly differently and none provides a detailed account of the resurrection itself. It is almost as if they are telling us, like someone who warns us not to look too directly at the bright sun, that we should not try to look too directly, that we should perceive this event in a different, deeper way – more heart than mind, more wonder than analysis.” “Some things,” he concludes, “are bigger than our ability to say them”.

  For years God has been expanding the ministry of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church and always seems to be out in front of us -- encouraging us, challenging us, and commissioning us to do new things.
  We started as a Sunday school mission of a neighboring church and quickly grew into a worshiping community. Within a few years we were incorporated as a congregation, built a parsonage and called our first full-time pastor, trusting we could raise enough money to pay his salary.
  When we out grew our small, traditional, wood framed building on Jefferson Street, we built “the fish church”, a magnificent, award winning, stunningly contemporary sanctuary on Route 25a. A few years later, seeking to meet the needs of our growing Sunday school and other programs, a parish hall was built. The extra space provided a home for our newly established Nursery School, for a food pantry, a hot meal program and for countless meetings, bible studies, fellowship opportunities and community events. When even more space was needed, a beautiful office, meeting and fellowship facility was constructed, our sanctuary was remodeled to provide more seating and the parking lot was expanded.
  Through it all, our members have continually told others about our faith community, telling so many, in fact, that we have once again been summoned by God to do something new -- to restore, rebuild and renew!
  Restoring, Rebuilding, Renewing, the theme of our Capital Appeal, invites us to once again respond to God’s ever expanding vision for our congregation. It’s an exciting and challenging vision, a vision which will not only enhance our current ministry, but better prepare us for ministry in the future.
  When my colleague Pastor Bruce Kaifler and I envision the project, and it truly is a project of restoring, rebuilding and renewing, we do not primarily think of a larger, nicer, building, but rather of the ministry that will take place inside of it. We see children learning the Christian faith. We see adults meeting to plan events. We see people in prayer groups, support groups, and bible studies. We see an expanded food pantry and hot meal program. We see teenagers gathered in a safe and healthy environment. We see civic organizations coming together to make our community a better place. We see more and more people becoming connected to one another and to Christ.
  The expansion and renovation of our parish hall represents for us a movement of faith that has been characteristic of our congregation from the very beginning. For years we have been inviting people to be a part of our wonderful church. Now God invites us to embark on the next phase of the journey.  
  As with every worthy endeavor, we trust that God will guide and bless our work. We are encouraged and strengthened by a promise of scripture first spoken to a community considering a restoring, rebuilding, renewing project much greater than ours -- the reconstruction of Jerusalem!  “Do not fear,” wrote the prophet Zephaniah, “The Lord, your God, is in your midst . . . he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love.”  (Zep. 3:17)

  Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and see in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Philippians 4:8-9

How does one measure success in ministry? I wrestle with this question each time I write an annual report. To be sure, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church had its share of successes in 2013. Our average worship attendance remained strong compared to other area Lutheran congregations. We reached our financial goals. Our many programs, activities and missions continued. We voted to proceed with a long-planned parish hall expansion project and authorized a capital stewardship drive to fund it. New members were added to our rolls and hundreds of prayers, volunteer hours and acts of kindness were extended. We can be proud of these accomplishments. In a time of financial uncertainty and societal change, we remain a strong congregation; a community of faith which seeks to be faithful to God, intentional in witness, spiritually centered and hospitable to all.

This is not to suggest, however, that the congregation was challenge free in 2013. Given the size of the church, our worship attendance should have been much higher than it was and in fact has declined in recent years. Our financial stewardship has kept up with our needs, yet far too many of our congregants give only on a “pay as you go” basis. Although a large number of children enroll in our Sunday school classes each fall, average weekly attendance is increasingly sporadic. Our confirmation classes remain large and our high school ministry grew, yet so many of our youth continue to distance themselves from their faith community as soon as their confirmation obligations are completed. Adjustments to our membership rolls remind us of the number of individuals and families who have lapsed into inactivity or moved to other places.

So how does one measure success in ministry? An honest assessment reminds us that God’s work is always a mixture of successes and challenges, strengths and weakness, hopes and disappointments. As the people of God who are Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, we seek to be a congregation that is faithful to our calling, accountable for our work and hopeful for our future. The meaning of our ministry is found in the work of ministry itself -- in the witness we offer, the service we extend, and, in the words of the Apostle Paul, in the practice of things true, honorable, just, pure, lovely and commendable.

Many, including myself, speak with appreciation for the Hospice programs that provide care, comfort and ministry to those who are dying and their families.  The programs, often conducted in the homes of the dying, serve as an alternative to the hospitalization of death with dignified care, holistic medicine and spiritual support.

Although the hospice movement is popular among those who identify themselves as white, African Americans, writes Amy Frykholm in the August 5th issue of The Christian Century Magazine, often resist hospice care. The general lack of equality in access to medical care and an embedded distrust of the medical establishment are primary reasons. Yet, for many blacks there are religious reasons as well. Prayers for and belief in healing, for example, play a significant role in African American churches. Because hospice care is based on the assumption that death is immanent, some in the African American faith community view hospice care as an expression of faithlessness – a lack of faith in God’s ability to heal.

Still another reason why the hospice movement has been slow to catch on in African American communities and in black churches in particular, writes Frykholm, is the cultural belief that death is a communal rather than an individualistic process.
Because hospice programs are staffed by a team of strangers, including chaplains, who are specifically trained to serve patients with a variety of needs, the kind of professionalized care the team provides can be alienating to patients and families used to the prayers and support of pastors, relatives and friends they know and love.  When death is experienced as a communal event, as it is in the African American community, hospice programs, as well meaning as they are, are not viewed as especially helpful.  

All of the above is a prelude to a passage I found especially meaningful in Frykholm’s article, The Black Church and Hospice Care, Dying in Community. Among those interviewed for the article was The Reverend Otis Moss, Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, who spoke not so much about the process of dying as of the communal experience of death.  Deeply rooted in the African American church, he said, is the notion that funerals are “homecoming celebrations”. Here’s the quote:

    We celebrate the life and the gathering of the community, lifting
    up the life and legacy of an individual. They are now home with
    others who have gone before them. You have tears, shouts, laughter,
    fellowship, food, more food. It eases the grief when someone has
    prepared the greatest sweet potato pie anyone has ever tasted as they
    tell the story of how Grandma used to grow tomatoes. The food, the
    stories, the sharing of people’s favorite songs—that helps people
    remember that this is not the end of the story. This is just the beginning
    of the story. It changes how you experience death because it is not final
    for you. In the African tradition, your ancestors speak to you and are with
    you all of the time. The people who go before you make a way for those
    who are living and for those who are not yet born.

We are encouraged in Scripture to ask God to meet our concerns. Indeed we are invited by Jesus to cast our burdens upon him. Too often, however, we pray with the idea of “my will be done”. Caught in the urgency of our needs, we forget that when Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he used a different phrase, “Thy will be done.” These were the same words he used while he prayed in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.

“We need to remember,” writes Tom S. Sampson (Cultivating the Presence: A Spiritual Guide for a Journey Toward the Presence of God), “that we are part of a larger fabric of life. Instead of praying for relief from an affliction, it may be more important to pray for strength to accept and overcome the trouble.”

But this is a hard lesson to learn.  Like so many of us, St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226), the Italian Catholic friar and preacher, struggled with the self-centeredness of his prayers and with the notion that God did not answer his petitions. Eventually, learning to pray as Jesus prayed, he grew in faith and insight and wrote this memorable poem.

    I asked God for strength, that I might achieve,
    I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey;
    I asked for health, that I might do greater things,
    I was given infirmity, that I might do better things;

    I asked for riches, that I might be happy,
    I was given poverty, that I might be wise;
    I asked for power, that I might have the praise of man,
    I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God;

    I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life,
    I was given life, that I might enjoy things;
    I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I had hoped for.
    Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered,
    I am among all men, most richly blessed.

  From its’ title, one might get the impression that Eric Larson’s best selling book, The Devil in the White City, is about religion. Yet other than a reference to the Sabbatarian Movement, which opposed all commerce on Sunday, a five thousand voice choir, which sang Handel’s “Hallelujah” chorus at a dedication ceremony, and a few scattered references to influential clergy, religion is hardly mentioned. The devil in the book is not Satan, but a mass murderer, and the White City is not heaven, but the spectacular, all-white buildings that housed the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

   Reading Larson’s book is like going through a museum packed with American cultural icons. Devices, products and concepts first introduced at the fair have become so much a part of our lives, that it is difficult to imagine they were once considered new. In a chapter entitled, “Night Is the Magician”, Larson provides a brief summary of the wonders encountered by those lucky enough to attend what became known as “the fair of all fairs.”

    They heard live music played by an orchestra in New York and transmitted
    to the fair by long-distance telephone.  They saw the first moving pictures
    on Edison’s Kinetoscope, and they watched, stunned, as lightning chattered
    from Mikola Tesla’s body. They saw even more ungodly things—the first
    zipper; the first-ever all electric kitchen, which included an automatic                 dishwasher; and a box purporting to contain everything a cook would need
    to make pancakes, under the brand name Aunt Jemima’s. They sampled a
    new, oddly flavored gum called Juicy Fruit, and caramel-coated popcorn
    called Cracker Jack. A new cereal, Shredded Wheat, seemed unlikely to
    succeed—“shredded doormat,” some called it—but a new beer did well,
    winning the exposition’s top beer award. Forever afterward, its brewer
    called it Pabst Blue Ribbon. Visitors also encountered the latest and
    arguably most important invention of the century, the vertical file,
    created by Melvil Dewey, inventor of the Dewey Decimal system
    (pp. 247-248).

  At the dedication ceremony, writes Larson, Francis J. Bellamy, an editor of Youth’s Companion, thought it would be a fine thing if the schoolchildren of America, in unison, offered something to their nation. “He composed a pledge that the Bureau of Education mailed to virtually every school. As originally worded, it began, “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands . . .”
(p. 181)

  Larson’s book is both a time capsule of American history and a tribute to those creative individuals, largely unknown to us today, whose vision, talent and influence – focused on a venue that lasted fewer than 200 days  -- changed the world’s perception of America and America’s perception of what was possible.

 According to a recent article in the New York Times, “weekly church attendance is good for your health” (April 21, 2013). The reasons for this discovery are not entirely clear, writes the article’s author, T.M. Luhrmann, a Professor of Anthropology at Stanford University, but evidence suggests that  “religious attendance – at least religiosity – boasts the immune system and decreases blood pressure. It may add as much as two to three years to your life.”

  Based upon observations of Christian Evangelical churches he has studied, Luhrmann offers three possible explanations.

Larger social networks:   Frequent churchgoers have larger social networks, with more contact with, more affection for, and more kinds of social support from those they know than their unchurched counterparts. “People in churches”, Luhrmann observes, “really do seem to look out for one another”.  Many churchgoers, for example, belong to small groups (bible studies, choirs, fellowship groups, mission teams) that meet frequently and provide opportunities for people to talk about their faith and lives.  “We know that social support,” Professor Luhrmann writes, “is directly tied to better health.”

Healthier behavior: Studies indicate that although many churchgoers struggle with behaviors they’d like to change, on average, regular church attendees drink less, smoke less, use fewer recreational drugs and are less sexually promiscuous than others. Churchgoers who have stepped away from risky behaviors find the support and encouragement of their faith and faith community to be crucial to their success.

Sense of transcendence: Churchgoers experience the world as more than what is material and observable. Because God is immaterial, believers must use their imaginations to represent God. This does not mean that God is imaginary, but rather that the experience of God is dependent upon one’s capacity to imagine what God is like, a capacity that can be taught, learned and improved with practice. “What I saw in church as an anthropological observer”, writes Luhrmann, “was that people were encouraged to listen to God in their minds, but only to pay attention to mental experiences that were in accord with what they took to be God’s character, which they took to be good. I saw that people were able to learn to experience God in this way, and that those who were able to experience a loving God vividly were healthier – at least, as judged by a standardized psychiatric scale.  Increasingly, other studies bear out this observation that the capacity to imagine a loving God vividly leads to better health.”

   So there you have it. Evidence suggests that weekly church attendance is good for your health! Although Christians don’t generally pursue the religious life for reasons of health per se, experience has taught us – now affirmed by anthropological study -- that the faithful practice of religion, combined with intentional participation in the community of faith, can lead not only to a greater awareness of the presence of God, but to an increased sense of wellbeing, hopefulness and purpose. 

Snow today!  Again!

Many of our conversations this winter have been about snow. The blizzard of February 8-9, when 31 inches of the heavy white stuff immobilized much of Long Island, reminded us how troublesome and dangerous life can be. Even though weather forecasters offered persistent warnings that a “big one” was on the way, few, including the Brookhaven Town Highway Department, took the warnings seriously. Caught by surprise, motorists were stranded on roadways. Trains and buses stopped running. Emergency workers were unable get to work.

The day after the storm the sky was clear; yet most roadways and sidewalks remained blocked. For several days almost all community activities, including school and church meetings, were cancelled. With muscles sore from shoveling, residents waited impatiently for electricity to be restored, streets to be plowed and life to return to normal. There were a few tragic deaths and some injuries attributed to the storm, but considering the population of Long Island, the blizzard, which was named, “Nemo”, was for the majority of us more of an inconvenience than a disaster.

Without doubt, the Blizzard of 2013 will long be remembered. Yet compared to other great storms of history, it pales in significance. Growing up on the Great Plains, for instance, I often heard accounts and saw old photographs of the blizzard of 1888. David Laskin in his book, The Children’s Blizzard, provides a dramatic account of the storm in which more than a hundred school children died. Exact records were not kept, but it is estimated that up to 500 individuals and thousands of cows, horses and other farmyard animals were killed. Of the innumerable hardships faced by those flatland pioneers, Laskin writes: “A thousand storms of dust and ice and poverty and despair have come and gone since then, but this is the one they remember. After that day, the sky never looked the same.”