Monthly Archives

October 2019

NAVIGATING THE TIMES

JOY AND JUSTICE

October has been a tumultuous month. The political landscape at home and abroad grows increasingly unstable. The environment groans beneath the imposition of personal carelessness and corporate callousness. California is on fire. In our hometown, untenable working conditions have pushed Chicago teachers out of the classroom and onto the picket lines. We’re allegedly experiencing one of the greatest economic booms in our history. Still, there doesn’t seem to be enough to go around.

News flash: there will never be enough. Why? There will always be people whose lust for wealth, power, and privilege emboldens them to grab more than their share. Until we get over our greed, neglect and poverty will always be with us. Even Jesus admits this in Mark 14:7: “The poor you will always have with you,” he says, adding, “you can help them whenever you want.”

Help them whenever you want—which means if folks aren’t helped, it’s because we don’t want to. That last bit needs stressing. At present, in capitalist white America, a strain of “conservative” and “prosperity” gospelers try to twist Jesus’s words to justify toadying up to power while ignoring its abuse of the poor, marginalized, and homeless. They forget two of Christianity’s basic premises: welcome and care for the other and resisting the injustices of Empire.

Simply because poverty is constant doesn’t mean it’s acceptable. Because everyone goes through hardship doesn’t mean we have to surrender to forces that cause it. Because some don’t know how to control their tongues doesn’t mean we’re not obliged to watch our words. And because someone comes into our community with a fat bank account, big house, and fancy car doesn’t entitle them to more admiration or trust than the individual who has little to nothing. These are the teachings in the Letter of James, bounded in the wisdom that, despite all the injustice and suffering we experience and witness, we hold on to joy… We reach for joy.

At Gather, we’re spending this autumn looking at those two sides of life: joy and justice. This Thursday we wrap our study of James. Next month we’ll pair our Sunday worship experience (November 10)—gratitude and grace—with a look at Ruth, Esther, and Judith, whose passion for justice rewarded them as the only women with biblical books bearing their names. Then we’ll spend December with Franciscan friar and author Richard Rohr, whose lovely devotional, Preparing for Christmas, will guide us through Advent. We will find joy in all these places and with that we’ll find strength to navigate the times. Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of Gather’s family!

Join us this Thursday at 7:30p as we conclude our series “Words & Music”—a look at worship from the Early Church to today. We meet in person at Pilgrim Congregational Church, 460 Lake Street, in Oak Park. Or you can join online via FB Live.

We need your help!

As we think about the future of Gather, please let us know what gifts you bring and would like to share with the community. There are many roles that have to come together to make Gather happen every week. This includes setup, technical support, worship, managing handouts and information, coordinating drinks, and teardown. We need your help. Please let us know what type of service you’d be interested in!

Watch God Work,
Tim & Shea

As we prepare to become a vibrant worshipping community, we invite you to enjoy a Spotify playlist that captures the kind of worship we hope to embrace. Give it a spin while you’re driving. Make it your workout jam. Add it to your devotional time. Most of all, feel yourself becoming part of a sacred village of believers who love their God and one another!
Check out the Gather Worship Playlist here.

SCANDALOUS!

A Letter from James

Martin Luther famously couldn’t decide whether or not the Epistle of James deserved space in the Holy Bible. On one hand, he was concerned because the letter has very little to do with Jesus. In fact, Jesus only gets two mentions, one in connection with the author, and a second time as part of a challenge to Christians who claim to believe in “our glorious Lord Jesus Christ” while showing favoritism to rich people in their community.

And it’s that second reference—James’s discomfort with wealthy people—that may be at the root of the problem for Luther. (It’s unmistakably one of the reasons others have argued against James’s inclusion in the biblical canon.) Elsa Tamez, the Latinx liberation theologian, hits the nail on the head when she titles her commentary on this short letter buried near the end of the New Testament The Scandalous Message of James. James is scandalous because its author makes no effort to hide his (or her) contempt for privilege that inevitably affixes itself to wealth.

Luther, like most of his Reformation contemporaries, was very conscious of the power of wealth, because it also carried political power, which he and his fellow Reformers needed. Without the backing of rich and powerful people, the changes they sought to effect on Western Christianity didn’t stand a chance. So Luther tempered his fondness for scripture (which was epic) with a pragmatic view that his biggest patrons might not take kindly to hearing James preached fervently, which was how Luther and his pals typically approached their sermonizing.

James doesn’t mince words. “Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?” (James 2:5-7) The rich are blasphemers, James says. It would take a mighty deft preacher to dance around that!

So, for many years in many places, the strategy has been simple: ignore James. Pull a favorite bit from here or there—because James’s writer is an excellent wordsmith—but don’t dig into the guts of this powerful letter aimed at shaping the community life of the Early Church.

Yet James refuses to be ignored. And he’s never been more relevant than in our time, when the wealthiest one-tenth of one percent own a frighteningly disproportionate slice of American wealth while, in many rural and blighted urban communities, children don’t have shoes or glasses or know where breakfast is coming from. We need to listen to James, both as a corrective for our own warped sense of success and security, but also for guidance on how to do life together.

That’s what we’re focusing on this month in our Bible study series: “The Scandalous Message of James: Faith, Works, and Doing Life Together.” Don’t miss one week in this blended series, with some lessons taught in person and others online

Join us this Thursday at 7:30p as we conclude our series “Words & Music”—a look at worship from the Early Church to today. We meet in person at Pilgrim Congregational Church, 460 Lake Street, in Oak Park. Or you can join online via FB Live.

We need your help!

As we think about the future of Gather, please let us know what gifts you bring and would like to share with the community. There are many roles that have to come together to make Gather happen every week. This includes setup, technical support, worship, managing handouts and information, coordinating drinks, and teardown. We need your help. Please let us know what type of service you’d be interested in!

Watch God Work,
Tim & Shea

As we prepare to become a vibrant worshipping community, we invite you to enjoy a Spotify playlist that captures the kind of worship we hope to embrace. Give it a spin while you’re driving. Make it your workout jam. Add it to your devotional time. Most of all, feel yourself becoming part of a sacred village of believers who love their God and one another!
Check out the Gather Worship Playlist here.