The mouthpiece of God

Since right around the age of 15, I have known that I am the Mouthpiece of God.
Each time I sit to write, stand to speak or tremble to sing, my entire relationship with Him gives rise to what comes out of me. The words flow with surety and strength, because they come from God. His values, His teachings, His insights and principles. I have been steeped in them for 60 years. They are part and parcel of my fiber and being. I am the repository of God’s Grace and Judgment and the winner of many religious Trivial Pursuit games, to boot.

I was invited to be His child, and I accepted. I was commanded to be His disciple and I eagerly took Peter and Paul’s chairs. They are a comfortable fit for me, and I have the capacity to carry on the work they started. It is clear to me that this is my calling.

Yet my bride flushes an angry crimson when I say it. And goes out of her way to contravene the will of God when I elucidate it. She denies my status as the Lord’s mouthpiece in this world, and thinks it a sacrilegious claim. She gapes in bewilderment at the erudite pronouncements I make, and has the effrontery to challenge the wisdom and irrefutable logic I bring to bear.

She states outright that none of us can claim to be the Mouthpiece of God. But I know this to be untrue, because I plainly see that I am not alone. God has also seen fit to anoint several others as His interpreters for this globe we inhabit. Rush Limbaugh is an obvious one, as is Glenn Beck … at least they believe so. I see the signs in Alan Grayson and Barack Obama as well. And though he’s a tad young for the title, I see Pastor Nathan laying a claim to the title each time he uses Grace as a hammer and answer for all life’s ills, as though God himself felt the same way.

But I am the mouthpiece of God. So who are these pretenders to stand against me?
And how can you judge the wheat from the chaff and thereby know which one to attend, so that you might live your life aright? It is false doctrine and an insult to common sense to say that we are all correct and on target. Touchy feely, all-inclusive and accommodating to the max, but wrong headed and ultimately useless for spiritual food and practical guidance. So you have to decide. God commands you to decide. It’s in the commentaries on dealing with false prophets. You can look it up.

Luther said the same: you better be a discerning listener, or you will be led like sheep to the slaughter. And he suggested several ways to discern such a thing. You will know that I am, in fact, the Mouthpiece of God, when what I say agrees with scripture.
• Not just with a single verse pulled out of context, but
• With numerous references and stories. And
• Not just with specific texts but with the overarching message of scriptures.

Further, what I say has to hold together with the kind of logic that can stand up to logical counter-argument.

So, obviously, I AM the Mouthpiece of God --- but only when I speak His gospel, not my own. The same is true of Rush and Glenn and Alan and Barack and even Nathan. But they are NOT the mouth piece of God when they just make stuff up. At that point they speak sacrilege, or pure garbage, or at best it’s just personal opinion. And so do I. I wish it weren’t true, but sometimes it is.

So if God’s dominant message for us is Grace, but I - or Rush – speak with a decided lack of it … then as much as we hate to admit it, neither of us is speaking on behalf of, or with the backing of God. I have a tough time with that because I keep discovering “Yeh-but” circumstances.

“Yeh-but, that guy is Satan’s spawn and as sure as Hell is in the basement, his policies will drag us all down the stairs. It is my obligation to negate him, regardless of what it takes.”

I don’t think God gives me that out. I sure wish he did, ‘cause, Boy, are there a lot of folks that ought to be negated. Maybe Rush and Alan don’t have the same problem. I just know it is a struggle for me.

So here’s my final assessment; I am a mouthpiece of God, but only when I share the message that comes from Him. The problem is that YOU have to make the judgment of when I’m speaking for Him and when it’s just plain old Joe who’s spouting off, because I don’t always know, myself. In good conscience, I always think I am an accurate and honorable mouthpiece, but in hindsight, I know that wasn’t the case, at least a couple of times, maybe a dozen. Could a been more. Whatever the number, I need you to be a discerning listener, or reader. So do Rush and Alan, I imagine.

So do you, I’d hazard a guess. So why don’t we all be careful what we say, and how we say it? Even at election time. I could be wrong. But then again, you know … I am a mouthpiece of God. By: Joe Anderson

The Church’s Extreme Makeover
October 2010

I’m not ashamed to admit it. For the longest time one of our favorite shows was the reality television series, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, hosted by Ty Pennington. I confess that I have a soft heart and love for underdog stories. For all of the drama on talk radio and the evening news, our world is full of really good deserving people who sacrifice for others…who in the midst of dire circumstances are able to keep their eyes on the prize--human relationships and caring for them and demonstrating love and service to others. Most of the time these things go unnoticed by others, and these people simply do right because it’s just what they are designed to do.

Which is where the show comes in. These people are working and struggling themselves ragged for others, and the show pulls on our warm fuzzies because it does for these people and their families what they can’t do for themselves. Who doesn’t recognize the phrase, “Bus driver, move that bus!” and the hope, surprise and overwhelming gratitude that is always resting just a yard away?

I know that there are criticisms of the show and its over-the-top homes that while beautiful and gracious, leave the recipients of the show with higher taxes and overwhelming upkeep on now supersized properties.

But then, maybe that’s the point. Grace is overwhelming. And when we’ve received it, it often leaves us with a reality that we’re ill-prepared to believe in or handle.

If we’re lucky, we’ll get a makeover or two or three at sometime in our lifetime. Maybe it’s a new haircut/hairdo, a new closet full of clothes, new glasses, new teeth…well, let me just stop there. But it will leave us changed somehow, even in a small way and will change how we relate with the world.

The Church, the one that began at Pentecost with the outpouring of the Spirit of the Resurrected Jesus, and ends with us today, has gone through several extreme makeovers…each of which ended up being more than just skin deep. Phyllis Tickle, founding editor of the Religion Department of Publishers Weekly, maintains that they’ve occurred about every 500 years or so. The first was the Great Collapse (around 500 AD) with the fall of the Roman Empire and the pristinization of Christianity in the monastic cultures that emerged through the collapsing Roman Empire. The second was the Great Schism (around 1000 AD) when the Church of Rome split off of the unified Christian Church of the day, forming a distinctly Western Christian tradition. The third was the Great Reformation (around 1500 AD), and is the Extreme Makeover that we Lutherans are known for. It was our namesake, an Augustinian monk and Bible scholar named Martin Luther, who initiated this makeover with the simple assertion that God’s grace through Jesus is real and isn’t for sale. More importantly, it’s free and it’s unilateral. (In other words, God doesn’t consult us on whether or not we should be recipients of it. God simply decides to give it to everyone. Period.) Lutherans celebrate this makeover every year on Reformation Sunday!

Tickle maintains that in the Western world which includes us here in the United States, we are now in a 4th Extreme Makeover, one she calls The Great Emergence. We are for the first time in almost 2000 years rediscovering Jesus and his mission, on Jesus’ own terms and without the Greek, Roman, and Enlightenment philosophies that have hidden Jesus and his heart for so very long.

So what? What’s this mean for you? Well, chances are if you’re reading this, you’re a Lutheran follower of Christ. And that means that you are a part of a Christian tribe that causes change in the world. It’s just a part of our DNA. We’re upstarts and rabble rousers…good ones…pointing out to people that the free and unmitigated love of God for this world is as real today as it was 500 or even 2000 years ago. But like those who went before us, we’ll have to discover for ourselves just how to tell a world that looks very different from Jesus’ world or Martin Luther’s world this incredibly Good News.

So here’s to our constant Reformation, and struggle as God’s people to live Jesus and communicate his free gifts to this world.

Happy Reformation Day! God loves you, and I do too!


Pastor Nathan

It’s hard work and requires us to love our neighbor.

I like kids. I believe that God intends for us to care for and nurture them, to support and educate them, to help them become independent, fulfilled and caring adults. I believe that “love thy neighbor” means loving both our children and the children who are not of our birth, and working to provide all that the bounty of this earth and the resources of our intellect can offer.

There’s a new movie that has just been released, a documentary called, Waiting for Superman. No, it’s not about the comic book superhero; it’s about how our “school system” has failed. While I’ve not seen the movie, I have heard the filmmaker interviewed and have read reviews and blogs about the content – all of which have led me to dig deeper into my beliefs about what children deserve and how schools could serve them more fully. Hopefully, this will stimulate some of our thinking together.

Talk about a “school system” failure in the U.S., I think, underscores the public ignorance of public schooling. We don’t have a school system; what we really have are thousands of school systems, entrusted to the local community – whether it is a town, township, county or other political subdivision. Some of those systems are thriving and helping kids to blossom, learn and grow – others are failing miserably. Let’s think about the reasons. Right now in most states in the U. S., the caliber of a school is based on the socio-economic conditions of the community in which it is located. In a country that prides itself on opportunity for all – many children have the opportunity that is remains only after those who attend private schools, charter schools and home-schools have left for presumably greener pastures.

We all want the best for our own children; however, if we consider what is best for everybody’s children, it might just lead to excellent public schools. When the “cream of the crop” stay in public schools, parents have real power to advocate. What once might have been a “pain-in-the-neck” parent, advocating for something special, the group now has the opportunity to lead and demand (in only the best way) excellence for all.

I believe there is no superman for schools. Just like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, we already have it in our power to make decisions that can lead to excellence for all. It’s hard work and requires us to love our neighbor. By: Diane Bechtold