SEE OUR HANUKKAH BUSH!

The Schenck family Hanukkah menorah and 

Christmas tree stand ready for the dual holiday!

Your missionary to Washington, DC, Rob Schenck, reporting:

"At that time the Feast of Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon." (John 10:22-23)

Remember there are TWO HOLIDAYS this coming week: Hanukkah, or the Feast of Dedication, and CHRIST-mas--or as some Christians call it, The Feast of the Nativity of Christ. Not only are both recorded in the Bible, but Jesus took part in both celebrations. (He couldn't help being at the latter!)

The Schenck House  has always been a dual-holiday observer: Eight days of Hanukkah and two days of Christmas. (Christmas Eve for us is almost as full as the Day itself.) I write about the lesser known of the two Feasts at my new blog, www.revrobschenck.com. Please check it out.

Note: This is the last post I will make on this blog. With the close of 2008, I segue not just to a new year, but a new place on the web. Hope you'll visit there. (We will keep this one going for a little while with a duplicate post from other site, but be sure to point your browsers and bookmarks to the new site: www.revrobschenck.com)

The Schenck Family and our ministry team at Faith and Action wish you and yours a Happy Hanukkah, Merry CHRIST-mas and a Blessed New Year!

Rob

Rev. Rob Schenck

Faith and Action

www.faithandaction.org

109 2nd St, NE

Washington, DC 20002

202-546-8329

PROPHETIC CHALLENGE TO A PROPHETIC CHALLENGE

Your missionary to Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, Rob Schenck, reporting:

Most of my ministry work engages government officials, but occasionally I have other equally important opportunities. Washington being the city it is, a lot of people who come through here are, to use a Spanish term, influyentes, or "influencers." And many of them land at the nearby National Press Club, which is exactly that, a private club for journalists and others in the media.

My latest encounter was yesterday at a luncheon at the Press Club featuring Katharine Jefferts Schori, the presiding bishop of the embattled Episcopal Church in the United States of America, or ECUSA. (Some still call it PECUSA, retaining the anachronistic adjective "Protestant," before the rest of it.) Anyway, Bishop Schori was in town to give a speech--or lecture--or sermon--to the members of the Fourth Estate. She emphasized the church's "prophetic" challenge to society and government.

Because I am on the opposite side to so much of what the Bishop believes, promulgates and enforces in her churches, I wasn't sure what I was in for. I was there because I was invited by a board member of the club who is a friend and Christian brother, and because I like to get my information firsthand. I'm often asked about what's happening with the Episcopal Church by, among others, the media, so, I thought I should hear it myself.

A lot of what I heard was predictable, but some of it was not. For example, the Bishop spoke of the inherent value of each and every human person, no matter their "size." That was interesting, considering it's one of the prime arguments for the sanctity of all human life and against it's willful termination through abortion. The Episcopal Church, on the other hand, is officially "pro-choice." I'd like to ask her about that. 

For that moment, though, I thought it would be even more revealing to ask her if she is open to being wrong on any of her opinions, especially on moral questions. I got my opportunity immediately after she finished her speech. She was much more congenial than most Press Club "celebrities," and warmly invited my question. It was simple: "Are you open to being wrong, for example, on the morality of homosexual behavior?" 

Her surprising answer, "Yes, of course, yes."

When I asked my follow-up, "Should you discover you are wrong, what might you do about it?" She answered, "I think I should reserve my answer to that for another time." (Or words to that effect.)

The implications to her uncertainty on the paramount moral issue of human sexual behavior, fidelity, standards for the church membership, clergy and leadership (remember, the Episcopal Church was the first to consecrate an openly practicing homosexual bishop), are absolutely astounding. It has huge and far reaching consequences.

If there is any doubt in Ms. Schori's mind, and or heart, over whether homosexual behavior is right or wrong; if she's the least bit open to the claim that it is, in fact, a violation of God's will and Word on human behavior; if she has any reservation at all about whether it comports with the moral model the Church is to be to the world, and especially to young people, you would think she wouldn't be willing to take such an enormous risk.

Then again, we all share the same predictable, daring and sometimes menacing sinfulness about which Bishop Schori spoke yesterday. "We are all sinners," she declared.

Indeed.

For more on my encounter with Bishop Jefferts Schori, visit www.christiannewswire.com.

Back later . . .

Rob

Rev. Rob Schenck

Faith and Action

www.faithandaction.org

109 2nd St, NE

Washington, DC 20002

202-546-8329

ME AND NANCY PELOSI . . .

Your missionary to Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, Rob Schenck, reporting:

I didn't blog on what happened when I attended the recent U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree lighting ceremony, but others did. It was my second interesting exchange with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. The first was last year when she grabbed my hand to escort me to meet the son of Martin Luther King, Jr., who had just addressed a ceremony at the Capitol honoring his father.

This time I had simply leaned over to thank the Speaker for keeping "Christ-mas" at the Capitol. I emphasized "Christ" because I felt she really had honored the meaning of the holiday. In a city where references to any kind of religious faith are sparse, she had not only referenced Christianity, but she permitted a US Air Force band to play Christmas carols. (Among them, Joy to the World.)

At first, Speaker Pelosi simply acknowledged that I had paid her some sort of compliment. Then, she realized the significance of my pronunciation and pursued me to let me know she had paid a price for her fidelity.

"I know, I got mugged for that you know," she pleasantly told me.

The phrase, "got mugged," wasn't familiar at first. Then I remembered politicians using it to refer to being politically assailed when they never saw it coming. In other words, they didn't expect to be criticized for what they had done. Obviously, Mrs. Pelosi hadn't thought a Christmas tree and carols at the Capitol were politically risky.

When it dawned on me what her response meant, I thanked her again.

"No, you really have to know I got mugged for it," she emphasized.

Good for Nancy Pelosi for standing up to such nonsense. Merry CHRIST-mas, Madam Speaker!

Thought you'd be interested reading these related articles:

http://www.catholic.org/politics/story.php?id=30961

http://news.aol.com/political-machine/category/nancy-pelosi/

http://christiannewswire.com/news/153388916.html

Be back later with more on Christmas in Washington . . .

Rob

Rev. Rob Schenck

Faith and Action

www.faithandaction.org

109 2nd St, NE

Washington, DC 20002

202-546-8329

CHRISTIAN DISAPPOINTMENT WITH BUSH

Your missionary to Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, Rob Schenck, reporting:

The news about recent media interviews with President George W. Bush have left many people feeling sad, disappointed, jaded and, perhaps, even angry. Yesterday I got an E-mail from a supporter of Faith and Action who referred to "stunning news that President Bush does NOT know Jesus Christ as his personal Savior." She referred to a comment by him indicating he, "worships the same God that those other 'faiths' worship . . ." 

To begin with, for me the President's comments are not stunning. Early into his first term, I saw that Christians, particularly Evangelicals like me, had jumped to some conclusions about what Mr. Bush believed and how he lives his faith. I had E-mail corresponded with one of his pastors back in Texas, and through it learned that the Bushes lived out a fairly common Methodist, middle-of-the-road Protestant, but never-the-less meaningful Christianity. 

The Bushes have never been  the Sunday-morning-Wednesday-night, Gospel-tract-leaving, Praise-the-Lord-saying, Christian-radio-listening, Bible-bookstore-shopping, born-again-believers that a lot of Christians assumed them to be. 

I also saw a gradual erosion of the President's faith over the time he was in office. My first alarm bells went off when he and the First Lady decided not to continue attending the Lincoln Park United Methodist Church, near our ministry center. Lincoln Park UMC is a predominantly African-American congregation pastored by the very evangelical Reverend Dr. Harold D. Lewis. Pastor Lewis has been with us for a number of ministry events, including our delegation to the White House that presented a Ten Commandments sculpture for display there. Dr. Lewis has also been associated with our good friend of many years and fellow pro-life activist, Dr. Johnny Hunter, of the Life Education and Resource Center, America's largest and fastest growing African-American pro-life and pro-family organization. 

Instead of Lincoln Park UMC, President and Mrs. Bush chose the so-called "Presidents' Church," St. John's Episcopal, just a block from the White House. While the congregation there has a venerable history as one of the oldest continuous churches in Washington, and one that has well-served presidents of the past, it has lately become a theologically moderate to left-leaning liberal church, and, is, of course, affiliated with the Washington Diocese of the Episcopal Church USA. It's been known to sport a rainbow flag outside. I do know there was quite a debate within the parish on the question of same-sex "marriage." I don't know how it was resolved. 

I did admonish the President about his choice of churches, respectfully calling his attention to the potentially deleterious effect that certain types of spiritual company can have on the state of one's soul. He defensively dismissed it, saying it was a Secret Service decision. Odd, because the Secret Service is obligated to protect the president wherever he may decide to go, even to places like Iraq. I would think St. John's would be an easier exercise.

All this to say that we must continue to pray for President Bush--and anyone who occupies this high office; the Bible commands it and our natural impulse should be to do it. Some have suggested Christians are to blame for the President's eroded spiritual condition because we didn't adequately pray for him. Well, I'm just Reformed enough in my theology to think that the President's spiritual state lies securely in the hands of God, not in ours. 

Still, as for all of us, when we're spiritually down, we need more, not less prayer. I'll take these recent revelations, whatever their meaning, to prod me to pray just a little more for George and Laura Bush and their family. I suspect they need it more than ever and will benefit from it.

More later . . .

Rob

Rev. Rob Schenck

Missionary to Capitol Hill

Faith and Action

www.faithandaction.org

109 2nd St, NE

Washington, DC 20002

202-546-8329

CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE AGAIN . . .

Above: A hand-crafted Nativity Scene by artist Amy Hinman, in the garden of the Faith and Action ministry house on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC.

Your missionary to Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, Rob Schenck, reporting:

Christmas is a wonderful and hopeful time of year for us at Faith and Action. Of course, that's what the season is all about:

"Then the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.'"(Luke 2:10)

A lot of people are afraid right now. Some because of the economy, others because of terrorist incidents like the one in India, and still others because of our own political situation. There are plenty of people right here on Capitol Hill, who serve in high offices of government, who are very afraid of what may be come next. 

These people are not unlike the shepherds watching their flocks on that first Christmas. They, too, were in a world that was economically troubled, dangerously insecure and politically tumultuous. Yet, the angel instructed them not to be afraid, but rather to focus on the "good tidings" or "good news." 

This is our message for Capitol Hill, "Do not be afraid." Why? Read on:

"For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:11,12)

As you can see in the photo above, throughout the Christmas season we illustrate this hopeful message by way of our Nativity Scene in the front garden of our ministry center. It's in full view of the Supreme Court, the U.S. Capitol and nearby congressional office buildings. We also recently set up a temporary Nativity Scene in front of the US Supreme Court! (See video here.)

Please pray for those who pause to contemplate this reminder of the marvelously hopeful event of Bethlehem!

Your grateful missionary,

Rob 

PS Another hopeful sign: This year we weren't threatened with a citation for the Nativity Scene, as we've been in times past. they could just be taking a break, or, they're just waiting until closer to Christmas!

Rob Schenck

Faith and Action

www.faithandaction.org

109 2nd St, NE

Washington, DC 20002

202-546-8329

BITTER-SWEET CELEBRATION: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF GEORGE DOCHERTY

Your missionary to Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, Rob Schenck, reporting:

Today I attended the funeral of a remarkable man, the Reverend Dr. George Docherty of "Under God" fame. He was 97 years old, and, as the chaplain who ministered to him for three years said, "He lived well and he died well."

Dr. Docherty was best known for his 1954 sermon, "Under God," preached while he was pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church here in Washington. At the time, a national petition drive was already under way asking Congress to insert a reference to God in our Pledge of Allegiance. 

On the morning of February 7, 1954, "Lincoln Day" at Docherty's church (Honest Abe had attended there), then President Dwight Eisenhower was scheduled to be present and sit in Lincoln's pew. The Scottish preacher seized the opportunity and reprised the sermon he had preached two years earlier. It worked--Eisenhower was moved and put on a full-court press to pass the legislation.

On Flag Day of that year, June 14, 1954, the bill was signed into law and Americans would, for the first time, begin reciting in the Pledge, "one nation, under God." It was an important confession and profession. It would remind generations upon generations of Americans that our country is great because she acknowledges an even greater God, a "Supreme Judge of the World," to quote the Declaration of Independence.

George Docherty made that happen--and he wasn't even a citizen yet. That wouldn't come for another six years.

The story goes on and on. I am blessed to know just a small part of it, but I'm even more blessed to have met the man. He was weak and confined to bed when I visited him for the one and only time earlier this year, yet, he remained a towering figure.

Amazing that one man could contribute so much to a civilization--and that through a single sermon. At his home-going, Dr. Docherty was praised by family, friends and colleagues as a man of deep Christian faith and practice, a Bible-believer who was extraordinarily good at preaching and teaching, but was even better at being a father and a husband. 

Thank you Dr. Docherty for giving us those two critically important words and for reminding every president, every member of Congress, every Supreme Court justice, and every American, that we remain for all time, "under God."

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Happy Thanksgiving to One and All!

Couldn't find anything on the Pilgrim experience better than this. (Though it's only the "Protestant" side of the story. Remember, there was a Catholic side of Thanksgiving going on down south in Florida and Virginia!)

Thanks for the post goes to Karen England at Capitol Resource Institute:

The Desolate Wilderness

Nathaniel Morton describes what he and other Pilgrims saw in 1620.  Here beginneth the chronicle of those memorable circumstances of the year 1620, as recorded by Nathaniel Morton, keeper of the records of Plymouth Colony, based on the account of William Bradford, sometime governor thereof:  So they left that goodly and pleasant city of Leyden, which had been their resting-place for above eleven years, but they knew that they were pilgrims and strangers here below, and looked not much on these things, but lifted up their eyes to Heaven, their dearest country, where God hath prepared for them a city (Heb. XI, 16), and therein quieted their spirits.  When they came to Delfs-Haven they found the ship and all things ready, and such of their friends as could not come with them followed after them, and sundry came from Amsterdam to see them shipt, and to take their leaves of them. One night was spent with little sleep with the most, but with friendly entertainment and Christian discourse, and other real expressions of true Christian love.  The next day they went on board, and their friends with them, where truly doleful was the sight of that sad and mournful parting, to hear what sighs and sobs and prayers did sound amongst them; what tears did gush from every eye, and pithy speeches pierced each other's heart, that sundry of the Dutch strangers that stood on the Key as spectators could not refrain from tears. But the tide (which stays for no man) calling them away, that were thus loath to depart, their Reverend Pastor, falling down on his knees, and they all with him, with watery cheeks commended them with the most fervent prayers unto the Lord and His blessing; and then with mutual embraces and many tears they took their leaves one of another, which proved to be the last leave to many of them.  Being now passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before them in expectations, they had now no friends to welcome them, no inns to entertain or refresh them, no houses, or much less towns, to repair unto to seek for succour; and for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of the country know them to be sharp and violent, subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search unknown coasts.  Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wilde beasts and wilde men? and what multitudes of them there were, they then knew not: for which way soever they turned their eyes (save upward to Heaven) they could have but little solace or content in respect of any outward object; for summer being ended, all things stand in appearance with a weatherbeaten face, and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hew.  If they looked behind them, there was a mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now as a main bar or gulph to separate them from all the civil parts of the world.

To balance out things, here's a great Thanksgiving reflection by my friend, Deacon Keith Fournier, who's affectionately known as "The Catholic Guy" ---

REFLECTION: Becoming Prayer

By Deacon Keith Fournier

Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Through prayer, daily life takes on new meaning. It becomes a classroom of communion. In that classroom we learn the truth about who we are - and who we are becoming - in Jesus.

 

CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) - “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit.” (1 Thess. 5:16-19) 

St. Paul wrote these words to the early Christians in Greece. They did not live lives of ease, in any sense of the word. They had families, occupations, and real struggles, beyond what many of us could imagine. They also suffered greatly for their faith in a hostile culture. 

He instructed them to “Pray without ceasing”. Did he really mean it? I believe that he did. The older I get, the simpler life gets. That does not mean it is “easy”. I speak of spiritual simplicity, the kind of attitude which gets right to the root of what really matters. I believe that Paul meant what he said to the Christians at Thessalonica and that his words are important to those who bear the name Christian today.We need to pray. 

Prayer is an ongoing dialogue of intimate communion with God. God fashioned men and women as the crown of His creation, creating us in “His Image”, for this loving, relational conversation of life with Him. At the heart of understanding what it means to be “in His Image” is to understand the immense gift of human freedom and what has happened to our capacity to choose. Love is never coerced. 

Our relationship with God was broken, separated and wounded through the first sin, the sin of origins or “original sin”. That sin, like all sin since, is at root a misuse of freedom infected by pride and self sufficiency. Our ability to exercise our freedom rightly, to live His Image by directing our capacity for free choice always toward the good, was impeded through the fall. Freedom was fractured. 

The “Good News” is that through Jesus Christ, the way has been opened for an even fuller communion with God, one that is restored through His Incarnation, Saving life, Death and Resurrection. In Jesus Christ we are being re-created, re-fashioned and redeemed. He comes to live in all who make a place for Him within the center of their lives. This “making a place” is the essence of Christian prayer. It is not about doing, but about being. 

The Lord wants us to freely choose to respond to His continual invitations to love. We will only find our fulfillment as human persons by entering into that kind of relationship. This is the meaning and purpose of life itself. As we grow in faith through our participation in the life of grace, lived out in the Church, our capacity to respond to His loving invitation grows as well, through prayer. 

Prayer is about falling in love with God. Isaac of Ninevah was an early eighth century monk, Bishop and theologian. For centuries he was mostly revered in the Eastern Christian Church for his writings on prayer. In the last century the beauty of his insights on prayer are being embraced once again by both lungs, East and West, of the Church. He wrote these words in one of his many treatises on Prayer: 

“When the Spirit dwells in a person, from the moment in which that person has become prayer, he never leaves him. For the Spirit himself never ceases to pray in him. Whether the person is asleep or awake, prayer never from then on departs from his soul. Whether he is eating or drinking or sleeping or whatever else he is doing, even in deepest sleep, the fragrance of prayer rises without effort in hid heart. Prayer never again deserts him. At every moment of his life, even when it appears to stop, it is secretly at work in him continuously, one of the Fathers, the bearers of Christ, says that prayer is the silence of the pure. For their thoughts are divine motions. The movements of the heart and the intellect that have been purified are the voices full of sweetness with which such people never cease to sing in secret to the hidden God.” 

The Christian revelation answers the existential questions that plague every human heart and trouble every generation. Through His Incarnation, Saving Life, Death, and Resurrection, Jesus opens full communion with God for all men and women. He leads us out of the emptiness and despair that is the rotted fruit of narcissism, nihilism and materialism. When we enter into the dialogue of prayer, we can experience a progressive, dynamic and intimate relationship with God and He transforms us from within. We, as Isaac said, can “become prayer” as we empty ourselves in order to be filled with Him. 

Through prayer, daily life takes on new meaning. It becomes a classroom of communion. In that classroom we learn the truth about who we are - and who we are becoming - in Jesus. Through prayer we receive new glasses through which we see the true landscape of life. Through prayer darkness is dispelled and the path of progress is illuminated. Through prayer we begin to understand why this communion seems so elusive at times; as we struggle with our own ...disordered appetites, and live in a manner at odds with the beauty and order of the creation within which we dwell only to find a new beginning whenever we confess our sin and return to our first love. Prayer opens us up to Revelation, expands our capacity to comprehend truth and equips us to change. 

Through prayer we are drawn by Love into a deepening relationship with Jesus whose loving embrace on the hill of Golgotha bridged heaven with earth; His relationship with His Father is opened now to us; the same Spirit that raised Him from the dead begins to give us new life as we are converted, transfigured and made new. Through prayer, heavenly wisdom is planted in the field of our hearts and we experience a deepening communion with the Trinitarian God. We become, in the words of the Apostle Peter “partakers of the divine nature.” (2 Peter 1:4) That participation will only be fully complete when we are with Him in the fullness of His embrace, in Resurrected Bodies in a New Heaven and a New earth, but it begins now, in the grace of this present moment. 

The beloved disciple John became prayer. He writes in the letter he penned in his later years: “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure. Everyone who commits sin commits lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness” 1John 3:1-4 

As we “become prayer” our daily life becomes the field of choice and we are capacitated to choose the “more excellent way” of love of which the great Apostle paul wrote. (1 Cor. 13) Pondering the implications of the exercise of our human freedom becomes a regular part of our life, as we learn to “examine our conscience”, repent of our sin and become joyful penitents. Prayer provides the environment for such recollection as it exposes the darkness and helps us surrender it to the light of Love, the Living God dwelling within us. 

“Becoming prayer” is possible for all Christians, no matter their state in life or vocation, because God holds nothing back from those whom He loves. This relationship of communion is initiated by Him. Our part is to respond. That response should flow from a heart that beats in surrendered love, in the process of being freed from the entanglements that weigh us down. The God who is Love hungers for the communion of sons and daughters - and we hunger for communion with Him - because He made us this way. Nothing else will satisfy. The early Church Father Origen once wrote: “Every spiritual being is, by nature, a temple of God, created to receive into itself the glory of God.” 

We were made in the “image” of God and are now being recreated into His likeness in Jesus Christ. As we “become prayer’, that likeness begins to emerge. We give ourselves fully to the One who gave Himself to us and cry out with Jesus Christ “Abba Father.” No longer alienated, we participate in the inner life of God who now dwells within us. We also dwell in Him through His Spirit. This dwelling is prayer. It is not about doing or getting but about being, becoming, receiving, giving, and loving. 

We will live the way we love and we will love the way we pray. 

A wonderful spiritual writer of our own time, Henri Nouwen, understood the intimacy of prayer and the call to live in God. He wrote these words in his work entitled Lifesigns: 

“Jesus, in whom the fullness of God dwells, has become our home by making his home in us he allows us to make our home in him. By entering into the intimacy of our innermost self he offers us the opportunity to enter into his own intimacy with God. By choosing us as his preferred dwelling place, he invites us to choose him as our preferred dwelling place. This is the mystery of the incarnation. Here we come to see what discipline in the spiritual life means. It means a gradual process of coming home to where we belong and listening there to the voice which desires our attention. Home is the place where that first love dwells and speaks gently to us. Prayer is the most concrete way to make our home in God.” 

Have a Blessed Holiday!

Rob

Rev. Rob Schenck

Faith and Action

www.faithandaction.org

109 2nd St, NE

Washington, DC 20002

202-546-8329