Harder than forgiving another person, is forgiving yourself. We don’t forgive others to the same degree we don’t forgive ourselves (or we forgive others to the same degree we forgive ourselves).
 

Jesus told us on the hillside in Galilee that we are never to judge another person. Why? Because we judge most harshly in others that which is our own greatest weakness. The judgment we silently hold on ourselves is the judgment we project and dump on others. Jesus said we don’t know how to judge, so don’t do it!

Every week of our lives, clergy hear people saying, “I just can’t forgive myself.” I remember when I couldn’t forgive myself for that which I was deeply sad and sorry. I went to a retreat led by a Catholic priest and told him privately of my inability to “forgive myself” for the chaos and heartache caused and received in my divorce.

The priest turned to me and said, “How arrogant you are!” I said, “What?” He repeated it. “How arrogant you are in not forgiving yourself for that which God has long since forgiven you. Your holding onto your guilt is an accusation against God. You are accusing God of not forgiving.” 

Tom Butts reminded me of this true story. Preacher and author Dr. George Buttrick talked with a woman who came to see him about a forgiveness problem. She said she had nagged her husband to go on a vacation. During their seaside vacation he was hit by a motorboat and killed. The woman fell into a deep depression. Finally, she came to see Dr. Buttrick and said to him: “I cannot forgive myself.” Dr. Buttrick said to the woman: “My dear, forgiving yourself is not your business. It is God’s business.” Tom says, “There is a real sense in which we cannot forgive ourselves by ourselves. Unless God becomes operative in the process, we are eaten up by guilt. When God removes our transgressions from us ‘as far as the east is from the west,’ it is a self-inflicted wound to continue wallowing in guilt that is long gone.”

 

Next column I will talk about “Grievance Collecting” which is a relative of not forgiving yourself.  For now,

 

Peace to you,
Dr. Richard A. Wing
Senior Minister

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

                                    I Corinthians 13:1-2, paraphrased in The Message by Eugene Peterson

           

Forty years ago (June 6, 1970), the hands of the church were laid upon me and I was ordained into the Christian ministry.

 

Two things surprised me on that day:  First, the physical weight of 30 people putting their hands on my head and shoulders. The weight of those hands and a prayer, which was too long, made a crick in my neck. Seriously. The second surprise was the text chosen by my professor of Old Testament, Dr. Rolf Knierim.

 

I wanted the predictable text from Isaiah for ordination: “Here am I send me.” But, Dr. Knierim preached a sermon titled The Ultimate Goal of the Christian Ministry. He said the sermon was for me alone and that others could listen if they wanted to. With wide eyes and a pointed finger, he personalized the text from I Corinthians 13: “Richard, if you speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, you are nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.” He gave great emphasis to these words: “You are nothing.” He left the text and kept going: “If you have the largest church in your denomination, but have not love, you are nothing. If you have the knowledge of much learning and don’t have time to listen to a child, you are nothing. If you are adept in psychology and don’t know how to cry instead of advise people with their grief, you are nothing.”  After that service I was totally exhausted.

 

The following morning I began my first day as an Associate Minister at a Community Church and realized in the first hour that I didn’t have the faintest idea what I was doing. The custodian came by and confirmed that with me: “I can see that you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s the same with every minister we have ever had. Just keep showing up and you’ll be fine.” Incidentally, this is the same church where a woman came up to me and said, “Dr. Wing, you have no idea how much your sermons have meant to my husband since he lost his mind.” Affirmations like that keep me going. 

 

Forty years after ordination I have come to realize what a big mistake the church has made in our time. The mistake is best described by UCC minister, Rev. Robin R. Meyers who said, “The idea of faith so narrowly defined (as belief) has probably done more than anything else to drive thoughtful people out of the church. . . . If the church does not succeed in restoring the idea of faith as ‘being’, and not ‘believing,’ then the gospel story of Jesus as the heart of God in the flesh will wither and perish.”

More simply stated, we have made the Christian faith one of verbal creeds instead of loving deeds. When really, God doesn’t care one bit about creeds; God cares totally about deeds of love. What is needed most in the church today is the internalization and imitation of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5, 6, 7).

 

Today I invite you to kneel with me at the altar of ordination, because we are all ministers of the Good News: Protestant, Catholic, seeker, doubter - together let us pledge that we will not forget Matthew 5, 6, 7 and the unmistakable, non-negotiable call to love in the name of the risen Christ. 

 

Before we get off our knees let us hear the rest of the text:

 

1Cor. 13:4       Love never gives up.

                        Love cares more for others than for self.

                        Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.

                        Love doesn’t strut,

                        Doesn’t have a swelled head,

1Cor. 13:5       Doesn’t force itself on others,

                        Isn’t always “me first,”

                        Doesn’t fly off the handle,

                        Doesn’t keep score of wrongs,

1Cor. 13:6       Doesn’t revel when others grovel,

                        (Love) takes pleasure in the

                        flowering of truth,

1Cor. 13:7       Love puts up with A LOT,

                        Trusts God always,

                        Always looks for the best,

                        Never looks back,

                        But keeps going to the end. (Peterson)

 

When the clergy and laity of the Christian faith get this message straight, you had better come to church early if you want to get a seat.

 

Peace to you,
Dr. Richard A. Wing
Senior Minister

Recently in Greece I traveled, by bus and boat, some of the pathways and waterways the Apostle Paul traveled.

 

I find two kinds of people on such a journey: (1) those whose faith is inspired by visiting Biblical places and (2) those who find it interesting but not earthshaking spiritually. I am of the second kind.

 

When I was in seminary, a professor of mine would spend time on “digs” in Israel where they were unearthing pots and coins and tools from ancient Biblical times. I asked him once, “And how does such an experience affect your faith?” He said, “Dick, you don’t find God in rocks and you don’t increase faith by digging in ancient pits.” 

 

My inspiration on the journey was predictably in the people I met.  Then there was a surprising inspiration on the journey. While visiting ancient sites, I also read the Book of Acts, an account, both accurate and exaggerated, about the first moments and movements of the church. I found a common theme.

 

In the Book of Acts, men and women proclaimed that the God who they thought loved their group only, suddenly included all people, following the example of Jesus. The God of Jesus loves everyone equally and eternally, they said, and we are to do the same. These people were marked by two things:  they were insanely happy and they were always in trouble. The trouble came when those “poor in spirit,” previously left out of the reach of God, were adopted into the family of faith.

 

Trouble comes when the economically poor get help. In 1977 a Jamaican pastor told me, “Any time the poor get a fair shake, there is trouble.” 

 

In the early days of the church, and in Jamaica and in the USA right now, trouble is found anytime the poor and the poor in health and the poor in spirit are given a fair shake and are given the gifts all God’s children deserve as Jesus commanded.  

 

And until now, Jesus has not changed his mind about our need to do this.

 

Peace to you,
Dr. Richard A. Wing
Senior Minister

 

Eric Elnes (take wellness and drop the “W” and you pronounce his last name correctly) wrote The Phoenix Affirmations (A New Vision for the Future of Christianity). He brings a scholarly mind and pastoral heart to those things we are to be and do in response to the life of Jesus.

 

My CliffsNotes version of The Phoenix Affirmations is what follows here. Elnes suggests that in response to the life of Jesus we are called to:

 

1.     Walk the Path of Jesus without denying other pathways to God.

2.     Listen to ancient testimony of God’s deeds in Scripture and recognize that God is at work in the present moment.

3.     Respect and enjoy God’s creation as a trustee, not an owner. 

4.     Worship God sincerely, vibrantly, artfully, and prayerfully.

5.     Treat all people with equal love, no matter their race, creed, gender, age, nationality, economic class, or sexual orientation.

6.     Stand by the poor, work for peace, and demand social justice.

7.     Speak prophetically to government while maintaining the necessary division between church and state.

8.     Walk humbly, acknowledge personal shortcomings, seek to find the best in others including those who don’t like you.

9.     Know that all people are loved totally and eternally by God and that we love God to the same degree as those we love the least. 

10.   Bring both head and heart to God knowing that faith and science, doubt and belief serve the pursuit of truth.

11.   Take care of our bodies with a balance of spiritual search, meaningful work, re-creation, and rest. 

12.   Live a life of meaning and purpose by discovering our individual ministry and extending God’s love to all people.

 

As G.K. Chesterton said in essence: Christianity has not so much been tried and failed, as it has never really been tried. 

 

Peace to you,

Dr. Richard A. Wing

Senior Minister

I love Easter. From the morning’s light to fiery timpani, to the afternoon egg toss (often messy), to the evening’s everlasting laughter as the slow reality sinks in that what happened to Jesus will happen to us…whew! It can’t get any bigger or better than Easter.

 

This year is a little different. This year, (how can I say it?) – this year, I need Easter. Dr. Don Reisinger, the man who sought me out in Bible college and brought me to a seminary and promised to see me through and did not default on that pledge – the man I owe so much to, died suddenly at 82 years of age. I spoke at his service of memory.

 

I received a letter last week from Dr. Karl Irvin, Jr., who was my Regional Minister in Northern California. He was the master of affirmation. He read everything and then made notes on what he read and shared them with many. I received his last mailing along with a note from his wife announcing his death. He was a very youthful older person.

 

My first mentor after graduating from seminary lies in a bed in a neighboring state to Ohio and cannot receive my visit because he would not know me, nor does he recognize anyone anymore. I can never live up to the faith that Rev. Roger Lautzenhiser had in me.

 

It’s hard to look up to “the great cloud of witnesses” of the past only to watch them disappear from sight.

 

Beside preaching Easter this year, I am needing Easter.

 

In those moments my soul wanders toward the poet, like the one Donice Wooster introduced me to:

 

            Easter love has burst his tomb and ours.

            Now nothing shelters us from God’s desire –

            not flesh, not sky, not stars, not even sin.

            Now glory waits so he can enter in.

            Now does the dance begin.

                                                    – Elizabeth Rooney

 

Peace to you at Easter,

 

Dr. Richard A. Wing

Senior Minister