SOUNDINGS

So, What Do You Believe?


This guy meets me over coffee. Been listening in church. He wants to know what I believe. "About what?" I say. And he pushes a list across the table. The questions were succinct.

What do you believe about Easter?

I believe that on Easter morning something spooky happened. Those disciples who went fishing and the women who came with the last rites were not sophisticated or learned enough to sit down and devise a hoax. Faking for the sake of starting a new religion was not within their capabilities. Whatever spooky thing happened, it revealed to the friends of Jesus that death is not a barrier but a bridge to new life. They had lived with the question of Job: "If a person dies, will they live again?" The Easter experience allowed them to answer for the first time: "Yup. You’ll live again - for sure."

If you really want to experience resurrection rather than endlessly speculate about it, build an 11 by 22 ft. house for the poor in Tijuana and take a family living in cardboard and put them in that house. You will experience resurrection rather than forever argue about it. "Here on earth, God's work must truly be our own" (John F. Kennedy). Want to experience resurrection? Put on your Nikes and run toward the poor and serve them at the place of their greatest need. You will have practiced resurrection which beats talking about it any day.

What do you believe about justice?

Like Martin Luther King, Jr., I believe that the "arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." And the work of justice is never done.

What do you believe about change?

Change comes only after you become sick and tired of being sick and tired. Fannie Lou Hamer, the American civil rights leader, was right.

What do you believe about the sacred?

Rabbi Heschel was right: "The road to the sacred leads through the secular." If you can’t find God in the face of those in need, you won’t find God in a padded pew. Period.

Marcus Borg reminded us that up until 300 years ago, Christianity did not consist in what one believed. Christian faith was only attested to by the way one lived his life. Something got goofed up after that. People mistook belief statements for faith. Faith is always in the walk, not the talk. Faith is lived, not spoken. Humans love talking about what they believe. God only cares about where our feet take us.

Peace to your Easter path,

Dr. Richard A. Wing
Senior Minister

Care and Spirit


Humility and Faith

Saturday, July 07, 2007

"What has been called "fundamentalism" is a phenomenon of the modern world. The term itself comes from an earlier expression of Christianity, which identified certain "fundamentals" of the Christian faith, but it has been applied to forms of almost all of the world's major religions. It is not readily defined, but it involves a rigid, dogmatic form of faith that is extremely intolerant, even to the point of violence. Often it is used as an epithet to characterize other expressions of faith. However, in the words of Justice Potter Stewart on pornography, we may not know how to define it, but we know it when we see it.

Paul Cartledge is a Cambridge University scholar and expert on Ancient Greece. His recent book, Thermopylae: The Battle That Changed the World, describes the famous battle between the invading Persians under Xerxes and 300 Spartans under Leonidas, who along with their Greek allies, were massacred, but were able to gain time for the rest of Greece to recover and later defeat the invasion.

Cartledge relies on the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. He argues that Herodotus has much to teach us about fundamentalism in a post-9/11 world. Of course, Herodotus wrote in the pre-Christian era, and both the Persians and Greeks were polytheists. However, they took their religions seriously. Despite being a Greek in sympathy, Herodotus recognized that both the Persian and Greek religious beliefs were sincerely and legitimately held.

Deepak Chopra has combined western scientific knowledge and eastern spiritual wisdom. He recently wrote a novel on Buddha, whose life and ministry began in Chopra's native India. Chopra has not become a Buddhist because in his view it too has become schismatic and rigid. In an interview, he distinguished between spirituality and religion:

"I think spirituality is a domain of awareness where we all experience our universality and where we experience universal truth. It has very little to do with religious dogma, ideology, or even self-righteous morality."

This is not a surface spirituality, but requires commitment and humility. As Christians, we follow the way of Jesus, but we are called to go deeper in our faith in a humble and open way. The path of humility is the path of true faith.

Peace and blessings,

James M. Long
Minister of Pastoral Care"

Cut Flowers

Saturday, July 28, 2007

" Excuses are pervasive in our culture. When I think of my childhood, I remember the litany of excuses in order to get out of everything I did not want to do.

But, when our childhood litany is dragged into adulthood, there is trouble.

I remember seeing a list of real excuses employees gave their supervisors for missing work. Here are some dandies:

"I forgot to come back after lunch."

"I hurt myself bowling."

"A hit man was looking for me."

"The police arrested me as a result of mistaken identity."

"I eloped."

"A skunk sprayed me."

"I had to be there for my husband's grand jury."

Excuses will never work when it comes to the life of the spirit. The theologian D. Elton Trueblood said, "We are living in a cut-flower civilization. Beautiful as cut flowers are, they eventually wither and die. We have been cut off from our spiritual roots."

In our culture I have noticed that when we are cut off from our spiritual roots, we tend to move faster. Speeding up the pace of life is what we do reflexively in response to the loss of spiritual grounding.

The Latin word for religion literally means "to reconnect that which has been pulled apart." Classic studies in spirituality tell us that the first step toward reconnecting to our spiritual roots is to slow down. And, this step begins with silence...

Peace to you,

Dr. Richard A. Wing

Senior Minister"

- www. fcchurch.com

Who You Are

Saturday, July 28, 2007

"Tommy, you've been having a lot of success. You have been playing really well, and I am proud of you. But I want you to remember this: You are what you are, not what you do."

"And If You Play Golf, You're My Friend"
- Harvey Penick with Bud Shrake

Harvey Penick was a beloved coach and teacher of golf at Austin Country Club in Austin, Texas. One of his great moments was when his pupil, Tom Kite, won the U.S. Open. However, "Tommy" Kite remembers the impact of the words of "Mr. Penick" on him when he was a boy of fifteen or sixteen years and was beginning to have some success in junior golf. He admits he was getting a little full of himself. His coach's words about the importance of character brought him a new perspective and stayed with him throughout his career.

We live in a world that values achievement in all human endeavors. Thus, it is easy to confuse who we are with what we do. It is important that parents, coaches, teachers, and mentors remind us that what matters most is who we are. This is why our youth program affirms young people for themselves and not just for what they have achieved. Indeed, we need reminding of this throughout our lives.

This begins with the knowledge that we are beloved children of God, made in God's own image. This is true no matter what "ups and downs" occur in life. It tells us "who we are" as well as "whose we are." This prepares us to deal with whatever life brings, knowing that God is with us and loves us no matter what happens. And that makes all the difference.

Peace and blessings,

James M. Long
Minister of Pastoral Care


- from a blog at http://www.fcchurch.com

How to Respond to the New Atheist Movement

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Have you seen the five recent book titles that talk about atheism? In my entire ministry, I have not seen so many at one time.

Martin Marty, the foremost authority on religion in America, reminds us that this is nothing new at all. He recalls how he wrote a book in response to atheism in the 1950s. So, he almost yawns and says, "Here we go again."

Martin gives very good advice as to how we in the faith community should respond to this phenomenon:

1. Be Cool - America has seen this cycle before. There is nothing new here.

2. Send Cards of Thanks - People who make atheistic conclusions often bring up important things to talk about.

3. Don’t Sound Superior by smugly saying, "We belong to the 97% who believe." That only suggests that religious people are exactly the jerks these books say we are.

4. Converse, Don’t Argue - No one changes his or her mind in an argument; not one! Think about it.

5. Agree with the Authors that in the name of religion horrible things have been done and are being done, but point out that that’s not the whole story of religion. Our task is to point out the difference between good faith and bad religion.

6. Show Regret that often religious communities have been ineffective at presenting positive rationales, thus leaving people hungry for clarification as well as gullible in the face of misinterpretations.

7. Hold Up a Mirror - Ask whether anything anyone in religion is saying or doing gives legitimate grounds for anti-religion to voice itself and creates a market for books like these.

And finally, remember the words of Marcus Borg who reminds us that the Christian faith has never been about belief, but has always been a witness to a way of being and seeing in the world fashioned after the life of Jesus.

Peace to you,

Dr. Richard A. Wing

Senior Minister

- from a blog at http://www.fcchurch.com

So, What Do You Know?

Monday, October 08, 2007

Alan Alda's latest book is 'Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself.'

He lifts up the fact that the opposite of faith is not doubt. Often the opposite of faith is believing anything that comes down the pike.

Some people find it easier to believe something - anything - than not to know.

Alda says, "We don't like uncertainty - so we gravitate back to the last comfortable solution we had - no matter how cockeyed it is."


Alan Alda played the role of Richard Feynman in a play. He noted that Feynman as a scientist enjoyed what people of faith should be comfortable with, and that is not knowing. Feynman enjoyed not knowing.

Listen to Alda: "Feynman would proceed for a while with an idea as if he believed it was the answer. But that was only a temporary belief in order to allow himself to follow it wherever it led. Then, a little while later, he would vigorously attack the idea to see if it could stand up to every test he could think of. If it couldn't stand up, then he simply decided he just didn't know. 'Not knowing,' he would say, 'is much more interesting than believing an answer which might be wrong.'"


Faith communities need a healthy dose of what Feynman said. Faith communities need a healthy dose of agnosticism (not knowing). Every faith should have a little box marked "I don’t know" where we can place all of the things we can't get our arms and minds and hearts around.

And then we can get on to the things we do know. Remember Mark Twain (as I have quoted twice lately) said, "It is not the things I don't understand in the Bible that bother me, but the things I do understand."

What scares me today are not faith communities that "don't know," but faith communities with such easy certainty that they are willing to abandon all sacred practice to get their way.

Faith at its best, acts on the little and big things it knows, and then puts into the "I don't know" box all that cannot be solved. Then faith does whatever needs to be done next in the name of love. In that way, you can't go wrong.

Peace to you,

Dr. Richard A. Wing

Senior Minister

- from a blog at http://www.fcchurch.com

Stephen Unwin and the God Debate

Friday, October 19, 2007

Dr. Stephen Unwin worshipped among us along with his family until their move to the great Northwest about a year ago.

Stephen once walked through the line on Sunday morning and handed me his book whose title is The Probability of God.

Recently I wrote about the new atheism as talked about in several new books.

Well, Stephen is referred to in Richard Dawkins' book, The God Delusion. Here in part is what our own Stephen had to say in response to Dawkins book:

"It is clear that on the question of God's existence, Dawkins comes down firmly on the side of certainty.

"This is hardly shocking, as certainty is the position of almost all participants in the God debate. What perplexes me about Dawkins' particular affirmation of this almost universal position is that Bertrand Russell's observation - that the fundamental cause of problems in the world is that the intelligent are full of doubt while the stupid are cocksure - is clearly inapplicable here.

"Bakewell points out that here in the early 21st century, religions seem to have 'the secular world running scared.' I agree. However, I would be as loath to put this down to religion itself as I would be to attribute the many secular atrocities of the 20th century to atheism.

"Respect for uncertainty has been central to both my faith and my career in science."

Stephen says that this last statement is unpopular today among both faith groups and atheists.

Perhaps that could be the starting point for both faith and atheist groups: admitting that they do not know everything and that in some things they could be wrong.

Unfortunately, that is a lot to ask of people with extreme positions.

Do you want to chat with Stephen? Do so at contact@stephenunwin.com

Peace to you,

Dr. Richard A. Wing

Senior Minister

- from a blog at http://www.fcchurch.com

Grace Is Not a Blue-Eyed Blonde

Friday, October 26, 2007

I didn't listen much in church when I was a kid, but knew I was loved. Good people were all around me. Never can I afford to forget their gift of grace.

Grace is the first word that got through to me in my high school years and set me on a mini-theological journey. Our minister and later my mentor said, "Grace is what you need, but don't deserve." I suddenly perked up and listened for a moment. The life of that preacher turned out to be among the greatest gifts of grace in my life, far more than the words he gave me.

In seminary, it was Paul Tillich, the great theologian, who captured the best definition of grace in his now famous sermon You Are Accepted. Hear him:

"And in the light of grace we perceive the power of grace in our relation to ourselves. We experience moments in which we accept ourselves, because we feel that we have been accepted by that which is greater than we. If only more such moments were given to us! For it is such moments that make us love our life, that make us accept ourselves, not in our goodness and self-complacency, but in our certainty of the eternal meaning of our life. We cannot force ourselves to accept ourselves. We cannot compel anyone to accept himself. But sometimes it happens that we receive the power to say "yes" to ourselves, that peace enters into us and makes us whole, that self-hate and self-contempt disappear, and that our self is reunited with itself. Then we can say that grace has come upon us."

We gather as a community of faith regularly, waiting together with bated breath, until that grace moment when we find these words to be wonderfully true. Grace comes not at our command, but in God's time. That involves waiting, which we are not too good at.

And when you finally get it (like a good joke) that you are accepted as you are, not as you ought to be - then grace will no more be longed for, but will be powerfully alive within you. And then we will have to wear sunglasses as we witness your bright light shining in a dark world.

Peace to you,

Dr. Richard A. Wing
Senior Minister

- from a blog at http://www.fcchurch.com

Intentionality, Practice, Vitality

In my home town of Modesto, California, there is a sign as you enter the town which reads: "Water, wealth, contentment, health." There was and is plenty of water, and time has taught me that wealth, contentment and health are largely matters that are up to us.

Life consists in knowing what can be received, and what must be sought.

Recently Diana Butler Bass blessed us by sharing her thorough research on church life in America. She concluded, "Congregations that intentionally engage Christian practices are congregations that experience new vitality." The three main words are intentionality, practice and vitality.

Every church in America has been exposed to the work of Willow Creek Church outside of Chicago. Often the methods and ways of that congregation have been imitated by other churches with the hope that their church will have the same phenomenal growth of Willow Creek.

Before moving into action, you need to hear this. Bill Hybels, the Senior Minister of Willow Creek says, "We have made a mistake." They have concluded that "participation in programs did not inculcate Christian discipleship and that they had spent millions of dollars on programs thinking that they would help people grow - only to find that there was no real increase in parishioners' love for God or their neighbor."


Hybels again: "We should have told people to take responsibility to become 'self-feeders.' We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their Bible and how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own."


Like in my home town, we at First Community will need to discern the difference between what can be given us, and what is up to us to get on our own through intentional spiritual disciplines.

I can't wait to see where that search will take us!

Peace to you,

Dr. Richard A. Wing
Senior Minister

- from a blog at http://www.fcchurch.com