Faith Lessons from Donald Sterling

             NBA Owner Donald Sterling and the United Methodist Church. The connection between these two things is something I never thought I would reflect on in a blog. However, the flow of the world brought these elements together in my mind this past week. Thus, I thought I would expound upon it. It’s ironic really. We just started a sermon series at Wellington on “When Christians Get it Wrong,” and in our first message we looked at hypocrites and Christians who are too judgmental in their faith. Afterwards, I challenged our people to see this trend at work in the world, so we might counteract it with Christ’s message of unconditional love. And lo and behold, the world produces Donald Sterling, the perfect example for us to learn from. For those of you not following this story (which is hard to do in this media saturated world), Donald Sterling owns the Los Angeles Clippers franchise of the National Basketball Association. Last week, he was recorded making racist comments against African-Americans, which is horrible in itself but even more so considering the majority of his players, the people who he makes money off of, are black. His words set the media world aflame and rightly so, but it was hardly news for many NBA insiders. Apparently, Mr. Sterling has made unpublicized comments like this for years and was recently sued for discriminating against the minority tenants of his housing projects.  Yet, the majority of people did not know this due to how Mr. Sterling covered up his true opinions with donations to the NAACP and tickets to inner city kids. It must have been quite a shock therefore for these people to find out his true beliefs and realize how “two-faced” he really is.   

Like we discussed on in the sermon, many outsiders and young people encounter this sort of mindset in the church. They come to worship and find Christians who claim to be holy, yet have scary skeletons bumping around their closets.  And when these skeletons come out; when people backbite and gossip about each other; when the pastor is found to be having an affair (which is just an example by the way); or when people say they want to help others but ignore those in need on their doorstep, it turns these potential believers off. It is too easy to pin this tendency on others and ignore our role in it. Or as the Matthew 7:2-5 says, and I am paraphrasing here, “we see the speck in other people’s eyes while ignoring the log in our own.” In other words, we are all hypocrites from time to time. We are all blinded by our own prideful mindsets and don’t see what we are really doing to others.

Seeing this, if we really want to represent an open and inviting quality, we need to recognize our own hypocrisy.  We need to be accepting of the fact that we are not perfect, just like the people who we want to come into our church are not perfect. Realizing this commonality opens doors. For if we can see people as human beings no matter what and treat them lovingly, we will have a wonderful base from which to build up the church.

Part of this process entails the internal work of making others feel at home. But the other part requires action. It will be interesting to see what Donald Sterling does in this regard. He has done something heinously bad, but haven’t we all? So like any of us, redemption is possible for the things Mr. Sterling has done. Granted, it will be a very large hole to dig out from. He can’t continue to make empty gestures of reconciliation because the money and tickets he sent in the past just won’t work! So it is with us here at Wellington. Our passive approaches of working in the background, sending food to the Food Bank and such, will not be enough anymore. These are still good things mind you, and we will continue doing them. However, if we want to show our community our changed hearts, we need to act! We need to make a huge splash with something, some new ministry, some new way of showing how Christ is transforming our lives.

It is likely this way with many churches out there, so what will your new thing be? Now that our visioning process is winding down here, our Leadership Team will be pondering this question in the near future. But it should not be restricted to this group or this church. Instead, I want all of us to begin to look out into the world to see its needs. Where can we be at work? It could be that something will pop up just like this Sterling situations. We may go out and see a glaring issue right in front of us! So let us take this month to ponder this so we might begin showing how Christians can get it right.  I do hope that month is a good one!

Reflecting on My First Lenten Fast

       

  

 This Lenten season has been unlike anything I have ever experienced. It is technically my first as the “solo pastor” of the Wellington Campus Congregation, and I am quickly discovering it exhausting work. Most pastors and lay leaders reading this are probably shaking their heads in agreement right now. Lent is a time when the already hectic life of a church gets "kicked up a notch" as Emril Legasse would say. There are special services to plan, Lenten studies to lead, and a lot of spiritual prep that needs to occur to be ready to guide the flock into Easter.  This last element is something I am especially learning about this year. My normal regime of self care has definitely not been enough, so I chose to engage a new spiritual practices this year by fasting from beer for lent.

I can guess what some of you are thinking: He is fasting? How mundane! Doesn’t every Christian (especially a pastor!) do this sort of thing during Lent? And beer? He fasts from beer??? Good God! Is beer that large a part of his life? This guy must be an alcoholic! So please let me clarify. I chose beer because it is something I enjoy. There is nothing better than having a good ale with a nice meal, or sitting down to enjoy  nice weather with friends over a craft brew. For me, it is a way to both increase my enjoyment of things (in a very moderate and responsible manner of course!) and to occasionally come down after a stressful day or meeting. So to lose this for 40 days was disconcerting, as I will address  here in a minute.

As for the fast itself, it is true that Christians traditionally engage in this practice during Lent. But I was never one of them. Lenten fasts are not a requirement for Methodists. So I never chose to partake in them growing up. Moreover, I never took on any other  seasonal practice. I never read the scriptures more than usual, never prayed if I didn’t have to, never attended a special study, etc. In my mind, there was no need to do this. Jesus was going to come on Easter regardless of what I did. The message would be the same, just as it was year after year. So, I chose to skate through Lent just like I would any other time of the year. Until this year in all honesty.

Last year, my first in full time Pastoral Ministry, I discovered that it is not enough just to know that the new life of resurrection is coming. The blanket message of Easter is not enough when you are exposed to it in the same way time after time. Therefore, if you want it to feel unique and revitalizing in your life, you need to find the ways it specifically applies to you in this place and time. This is what spiritual practices help us with. They help people reflect on their areas of brokenness and show us what God could address and bring forth new life in if we chose to open up.  Additionally, they can urge us physically us to seek out new ways to feel the Divine life at work around us. I feel I am generally pretty good with the former practices involving self-examination (introverts unite!), so I decided a tangible thing like a fast was the best way to go. 

Fasting has certainly been a challenge for me. Without beer I lost a minor coping mechanism, and a nice method of increasing my enjoyment in social situations.  In turn, I sought to fill this newly empty space in my life with God, which was difficult at first. That’s right folks, even pastor’s struggle with this sort of thing, but it improved when I finally figured out to the right approach. Eventually I learned to pray every time I would feel tempted to have a beer (which was near unbearable on some nights, especially after church council). It wouldn't be a long prayer, maybe 30 seconds or so, and I would ask God to take whatever stress was ailing me or to help me fully engage in a social situation.  If the urge for suds was strong, I sometimes prayed multiple times. Or I would have to withdraw from the immediate vicinity of the fridge to avoid temptation. It was hard, but after the initial wave subsided, I would feel an odd, peaceful satisfaction unlike anything I have ever felt before.  The “peace that passes understanding” as the Apostle Paul would put it. In this, I knew God was at work and in future instances, that feeling provided me strength to draw from. After 36 days, it has become strong source of inner satisfaction. And although I am looking forward to having a nice beer with Easter Dinner, I know I have found a much deeper way of coping or accentuating my joy. 

This was the goal of fasting all along, to allow God to have a foothold within me that God has never had before. And through Easter, it has become a way to promote new, life giving connections between myself and the Divine. This has certainly happened for me during Lent,  and I hope it has happened for those of you who have engaged in other practices. The trick now is to make this last the next 8 months, the next year, the next decade and so on. We can’t give up the inroads that God has made if we want to continue along the road to Christian Perfection. We are Methodists after all and on the Wesleyan Road to Sanctification, right?.

So, what rules and disciplines can you instill to make your Lenten changes permanent?  Or maybe you can start to think of what you will do next year? For me, my first move will not always be to beer cooler, but to instead rely on God in prayer. So what will yours be? Let us ponder this over the next few days as the new life of resurrection comes to us once again. And may the Risen Christ bless all of us during this most sacred of times.

-Bryson