THE LAST RIVER MILE

Thoughts near the take-out.

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GEOFF POSEGATE

Retired United Methodist pastor and leadership coach.

  • HE FIRST SAID, “FOLLOW ME.”

    In these days when what it means to be “Christian” seems to be up for grabs in North America, many divergent people claim to be doing what the one known as Jesus wants people to do. They can’t all be right, because some actions, behaviors, and proclamations are polar opposites of one another. So what did/does Jesus actually ask of us?

    Apparently he did not say, “Believe these particular doctrines,” even though those of us who follow Jesus act as if doctrinal accuracy is the begin-all and end-all. He did not say, “Do these particular religious things.” That kind of negates twenty centuries of battles of when and how to baptize, how to do Holy Communion/The Eucharist/The Lord’s Supper, what kind of worship music is “right”, etc. There’s nothing wrong and everything right with committing portions of the Bible to memory, but Jesus said nothing about scriptural expertise being the main thing. And Jesus didn’t pitch himself as the heaven-ticket in his invitation.

    To those he approached and called, Jesus asked something very specific – “Follow me.” (Mark 2:14, for example.) The original Greek is a form of the word akolouthei, which literally means to walk along or behind someone, accompanying that person in a specific direction. In describing a teacher/disciple relationship it meant aligning with a specific leader and becoming like that person.

    So, Jesus wants us to follow him by becoming like him. That means SO much. Above all, it means love; not love as a feeling or sentiment, but love as a chosen action. It is a sacrificing love, penultimately demonstrated in Jesus’ submission to the killing cross. It is loving others in the same way God made known in Jesus loves us.

    Grounded in this other-focused love, becoming like Jesus means being on the move. It’s about going to where people are, rather than waiting for them to come to us. It’s about being with the people whom cultures decide are worthless (Matthew 9:10-17), sinful (John 7:53-8:11), inferior (John 4:1-42), dangerous (Mark 5:1-20), dirty (Luke 8:43-48), or foreign and suspect (Luke 7:1-10). And it’s about treating all of them as if they are God’s most beloved. It’s on this foundation that grace, salvation, and transformation happen.

    Jesus just asks us to follow him and to be like him in this way. Love God and love others as he did/does. That has lots of implications for me. It means I can’t just slap the label “Christian” on myself and expect a hurting, skeptical world to buy it. Among other things, it means I can’t claim Jesus as Savior and Lord and default to a demeaning, racist remark into the same microphone. (I’m not judging this incident; I’m just observing. I’m guilty of plenty of inconsistencies in my own words as well.) Following Jesus is not always easy. Sometimes we will face fierce opposition. Sometimes we will be in the difficult position of speaking grace and truth to great secular power. Sometimes we will be crushingly alone.

    But in fact we will never be alone. The One we follow promised to be with us, always…no matter what.

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • “BIBLES AGAIN” !

    When I walk in the morning I spend time praying. Leading up to praying, I typically listen to faith-based music. I’m a fan of so-called “contemporary” worship music. I’m a little wary each time I log on to Spotify, though. While most of contemporary music is solid, some reflects really bad theology and practice. (The same is true of old hymnody, by the way.) This morning, for whatever reason, I started out skeptical.

    And then I heard one that was new to me. And, just like that, the Holy Spirit turned skepticism into a dance of praise. I’ll let the lyrics speak for themselves:

    BIBLES AGAIN (Brent Morgan)

    “I opened up my old Bible again. Blew off the dust from my childhood friend. I thumbed through a page, not sure where to begin. But opened up my old Bible again.

    I see people on stage and leaders of men use scripture like teeth, leaving marks on our skin. Something ’bout saving a world full of sin. Well, I hope they open their Bibles again.

    “Cause I don’t think Jesus was sent here to teach us to fight until one of us wins.

    We pick and choose verses to build bigger churches. If only we’d open our Bibles again.

    I opened up my old Bible again. I tore through the pages to find where it said to hate my own neighbor and curse my own friend. So I opened up my old Bible again.

    I was taught to fear God. Now we’re taught to fear men, and misrepresent what our Savior has said. So listen up close to the letters in red, if you ever open your Bible again.

    ‘Cause I don’t think Jesus was sent here to teach us to fight until one of us wins.

    We pick and choose verses to build bigger churches. If only we’d open our Bibles again. Yeah, I hope we open our Bibles again.”

    As Richard Rohr has said, it’s less about us reading the Bible, and more about letting the Bible read us. Would that all of us who reduce Jesus to an obedient, benign mascot for our particular ideology would really open our Bibles again.

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • IS IT FASCISM, AUTHORITARIANISM, OR PATRIARCHY?

    What are we looking at in our country right now?

    Many of those who resist the present administration throw around the term fascism. That’s a strong, volatile term. It means extreme nationalism and aggressive militarism. Fascism presumes the need for completely unchecked dictatorial power vested in one individual or an elite few. It is build on a presumed social/political/ethnic hierarchy, with the favored nation or people at the top of the pyramid. Governmental controlled is unfettered, opposition is disallowed and eliminated, and social mores are fiercely regimented. The needs of the nation completely override the freedom of individuals. In my limited view, while the United States may be leaning this way, we’re not there. Though it may be clinging by its fingertips, the Constitution is holding, so far. And confessing that I am one who has used the word fascism sometimes, it’s a trigger word that just entrenches divisions that are already hard to overcome.

    A better concept to describe where our nation is might be authoritarianism. Authoritarianism has similarities to fascism: power concentrated in a strongman leader or an elite few, suppression of dissent, control of information, motivation by fear of “the other,” etc. Chat GPT identifies fascism as an ideology and authoritarianism as more of a functional operating system. Authoritarianism can be used to buttress any ideology, right or left. Fascism is most definitely a right wing ideology. (All fascist government are authoritarian, but not all authoritarian governments are fascist.)

    Beyond all this, I feel there is a greater question. It’s less about WHAT is happening than it is about WHY it is happening. In a previous post I noted underlying fear of a demographic shift in our country that is inevitable. (See “The Killing of Alex Pretti and the Fear of 2045” – 01.26.26.) Authoritarian leadership in general and fascist leadership specifically depend on and feed on such fear. So what is it that so many Americans fear losing? I think there is a visceral fear the loss of a world defined by patriarchy; specifically the patriarchy of Caucasian men. Patriarchy presumes that life is determined by and directed by men alone. Men are the ones who should hold political leadership, moral authority, social privilege, and wealth control. Carefully constructed ideologies, philosophies, and theologies have been built to buttress this world view. Whether consciously recognized or not, this is what is endangered, and this is what necessitates authoritarian leadership to protect it in the minds of many.

    Signs of desperate protection of patriarchy are everywhere…The pseudo-testosterone driven need for UFC fights on the White House lawn…The Southern Baptist Convention undergirding their opposition to women in pulpits…The firing of top ranking female (and non-white) military leaders…Sparing no expense to protect wealthy, powerful male sexual predators. (The Department of Justice is still in contempt of Congress for not releasing the full Epstein files as mandated. Our congressional leaders do not seem to care.) White patriarchy is in full circle-the-wagons mode.

    The effort to enlist Jesus (a non-white male) as a patriarchy champion is worse than bogus. Search biblical characters such as Hagar, Deborah, and Lydia. Note that God’s promise was to pour out the Spirit on all flesh. (Joel 2:28, Acts 2:17.) The morning on which Jesus’ resurrection was discovered, the men were scared, hiding, and useless. Women were the first to see and to proclaim it. (Yes, those of you who oppose female pastors; the first to preach Jesus risen were women.) Simply and bluntly put, to stand for patriarchy is to stand against the risen Lord.

    And, for the record, I am an old white man. I have been the beneficiary of a patriarchal mindset. I have been complicit in a view of reality that does not reflect my faith or the true core values of a nation. Patriarchy needs to die. It’s time to withdraw life-support for it.

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • WHAT IF WE PRACTICED EXPECTANCY?

    In these troubled days, it seems to me that we’re losing many things I thought we were to value and protect: civility, statesmanship, collaboration, trust, compassion, respect, and hope, just to name a few. Maybe I’m over-reacting, but maybe not. I do think, though, that we’ve lost our grip on positive expectancy. How much do I think that my day today will be substantively and surprising different than the previous day? Or do I assume the same basic elements and events will be in place just like they were yesterday? Do I click on the news believing something positive and hopeful is taking place, or do I assume the same left/right finger-pointing and blaming will continue from the day before? If I am a Jesus-follower, how did I approach worship yesterday? Did I expect something out of the ordinary to take place? Or did I assume the songs, the prayers, the sacrament, and the message would all be done in the same order and in the same way as the Sunday before? Is my life characterized by expectancy, or by the presumption of the same old same old every day?

    The earliest days of the Jesus-following movement were marked by uncommon signs and wonders. (See Acts 5:12-16, for example.) This was not showy, televangelist, raise-money-for-jets kind of stuff. By all account these were powerful, humbling indicators of a welcoming, loving God, made known in Jesus the crucified and risen. Early followers of Jesus seemed to live with a daily expectancy that a risen Jesus would do something big, uncontrollable, and inexplicably wonderful.

    We were once a part of a church in which the leaders made a bold, prayer-fueled decision to practice what they called expectant worship. Rather than just doing things in the same order and in the same ways each Sunday, they chose to envision and plan weekly worship as if it was fifty-two stand alone events every year. They wanted all who worshipped each Sunday, whether long time church members or people new to faith, to come saying, “I wonder what God’s going to do in worship today?” It was far from a perfect process, and things didn’t change overnight. But in the end lives changed, people encountered Jesus, strangers were welcomed into the Body of Christ, and new hands-on serving ministries were born. Many factors played into this, but the core atmosphere was expectancy.

    I don’t believe signs and wonders aren’t happening. It’s that we aren’t conditioned to see them. We see what we choose to see. How would it be different if I chose to believe that God is at work and I chose to expect to see God at work? What if I approached my day with expectancy?

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • IS ANYBODY LISTENING?

    Elaine (my wife) and I volunteer once a week at a thrift store in our community which is operated by an international not-for-profit organization. The store provides a great benefit for many wonderful people in our area. A good number of people who shop at the store could not buy the items they purchase any other way, because of the continually rising cost of living. It’s humbling and beneficial to us to connect with people who have to find a way to exist near the margins of our society. We have been blessed with friends we would not have met any other way.

    While we were working there the other day, an older gentleman (about my age!) passed by me, commenting on the trouble he was having with his vision. So I asked him what was going on with his eyes. Well, I didn’t get any work done for about the next half hour. He want from talking about his eyes, to his age, to his family, to his background, to his work experience, to places he’d been, to people he had met….To to be honest, it kind of became a meandering stream of consciousness, and I pretty much lost track of the trajectory. But it was clear that he just really wanted to talk. Or, more accurately, he just needed someone to listen to him. I got the sense that he doesn’t get that very often.

    Really, how often does someone listen – really listen to any of us? In the so-called information age, when we are bombarded by data 24/7, who or what ever contacts us and just wants to listen to us? In this time when we are talking at each other, talking past each other, and shouting at each other, less and less listening is going on. For many, such as the guy in the thrift store the other day, that’s very painful. Not listening to someone essentially says to him/her/them, “You don’t matter.” You may be one of those persons who experiences that horrible pronouncement.

    We who claim to follow Jesus have to send a different message. (See Romans 12:9-16.) What would it be like if, in the next conversation I have with someone. I make fewer statements and ask more questions? And then, when I ask the questions, what would it be like if I listened; really, deeply listened?

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • WHAT DOES IT REALLY MEAN TO BE “SAVED”?

    The Jesus-following movement in the United States is at a point of crisis/opportunity. What it means to be “Christian” appears to be up for grabs, and extremely different theological and political viewpoints are doing the grabbing. For the sake of our primary tasks (Matthew 22:36-40 and Matthew 28:19) we need clarity. In that spirit, if Jesus-followers are “saved” and are seeking to “save” others, what does that really mean?

    Much church history in North America has been built around what essentially is a reward/punishment theology. Heaven is the reward, and hell is the punishment. All of us deserve hell, and there’s nothing we can do of our own effort to avoid it. However, Jesus has taken upon himself the punishment due us. Say the “sinner’s prayer” and say yes to Jesus, and we get the reward instead of the punishment. Surely this is a dimension of what it means to follow Jesus. However, it is far from the totality of it.

    English speaking people translate two words as “hell” in the New Testament of the Bible, primarily. Gehenna literally refers to the perpetually burning place of refuse placed far outside of the city of Jerusalem. Hades is a Greek concept, having nothing to do with Jewish cosmology. It simply means the underworld, or the place of the dead. The primary combined meaning is separation and lifelessness. Punishment can be inferred, but it’s mostly about being apart from life and without life.

    Couple this with the two words used most often to express being “saved.” They are forms of the Greek words soter and sozo. They are words which are more about health than about reward and punishment. For example, Simon Peter uses the latter in describing the Body of Christ’s mission. (See Acts 4:12.) Sozo literally means to be made whole, to be healed, and/or to be protected from danger. It’s not dominated by a sense of avoiding punishment. It’s more about rescue from a present circumstance than about avoiding a future one.

    Finally, there’s the concept of ransom in describing who and what Jesus is and what Jesus does. (See Matthew 20:28, Mark 10:45, and I Timothy 2:6. Ransom had particular meaning in relation to bond-slavery, and refers to the price of release from bonding. It’s more about liberation than about avoiding punishment.

    None of this negates the reality of eternity. Nor does it eliminate seeking heaven and avoiding hell as real dimensions of the Jesus experience. But reducing being saved to the ticket to heaven/get out of hell card thing is to hamstring the full power of what a crucified and risen Jesus means. Salvation is more relational than situational. (In addition, keeping it about reward/punishment can be used more as a tool to control people than as an opportunity to love them with Christ-like love. But that’s a topic for another post…)

    What would it be like if Jesus followed a heart-felt urgency to bring the healing, wholeness, and liberation of Jesus to lost, lonely, marginalized people, rather than just dangling reward and punishment in front of them?

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • LEARN SOMEONE’S BACK-STORY

    On Memorial Day I happened to be talking with someone who is a friend and neighbor. I’ve known him over six years, but I discovered something new that day. His father was killed in action near the end of the Second World War. Our friend’s dad had sent his family a letter saying that he was looking forward to being home by Christmas, 1944. He didn’t make it, dying in battle in early December of that year. Our neighbor was maybe nine or ten years old when this happened. In addition to unspeakable grief, his father’s death meant financial hardship to his mother and all the family.

    Our friend carries a good bit of this pain to this day. I could see it and sense it. I felt acutely the fact that my dad came home from war (Korean Conflict) but his did not. Just meant to be a casual Memorial Day conversation, it turned into a kind of sacred moment. I learned something valuable and painful about him, and I experienced it as a humbling gift

    Though we never talk about it, it’s safe to say that our neighbor and I are at significantly different points politically, theologically, philosophically, and probably many other ways. Yet I was reminded in that moment that even and especially in these intensely polarizing times, everyone – everyone – has a back-story. This includes the ones with whom we disagree most intensely and whom we are most tempted to vilify and demonize. Someone rejoices when that person was born. That person’s death will leave a hole in someone’s heart.

    Maybe it’s not about all of us being in total agreement. Maybe it’s more about discovery and caring enough to learn someone’s back-story. This takes more effort than simply dismissing someone as one of “those” people. It requires more listening and more open-ended questions than proclamations and arguments.

    For Jesus-followers, the bottom line is this: You and I will never – never – encounter someone who has not been declared worthy of the life, death, resurrection, and promised return of the Son of the living God. Every person has a back-story, and every person and back-story matters to God.

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • PRACTICING FAITH IN A HOSTILE, AUTHORITARIAN AGE

    Following Jesus does not always take us on an easy path. It can be especially challenging when the culture (mission field) in which we’ve been placed is detrimental or even hostile to the life we have chosen to live. Obviously, we are in such a situation now in many ways. Hostility toward one another becomes more frighteningly normal every day. Things I was raised to value – statesmanship, diplomacy, compassion, kindness, empathy, etc. – are regarded as marks of weakness by many. Division between human beings seems to be a given, if not a macabre kind of necessity. Power is the god worshipped, even when thinly draped in a “Jesus” veneer. How does a Jesus-follower survive, much less thrive in such a toxic daily immersion?

    There’s no one answer to this, nor does the perfect “to-do” list exist for it. Disciples would do well to share best practices with one another in order to encourage each other. Spending time with God daily is a given, I would think. In addition to that, here a few things to remember or to do that help me stay focused:

    1. GRACE COMES FIRST. Grace is a gift that is unearned, unanticipated, undeserved, and yet freely given. Creation itself is an act of God’s grace. God calling a people through whom all the world would be blessed is grace in action. The crucified Jesus rising in victory over all that separates us from God and each other is the supreme act of grace. I am someone whom God loves supremely and to whom God offers uncommon grace. Grace is where God starts with me. That’s where I must start with others, across the board.
    2. SEEK THE HEART OF GOD. I must see others and see myself as God sees us all. I need to spend time in the Bible every day, not just to learn information, to memorize verses, or to catalogue “the letter of the law.” I should invite the Holy Spirit to push my heart beyond the words to that to which the words point – the very nature and heart of God. God is love, period. (I John 4:8.) Rather than just let my heart rate accelerate because of today’s news feed or the latest infuriating social media post, I need to allow my heart to beat with God’s heart.
    3. PRACTICE PHILIPPIANS 2:3. (“…in humility value others above yourselves.”) As exasperating and even threatening as they can be to us, people are not the enemy. People can be unspeakably cruel and create unbelievable damage. We all face accountability for our actions. Yet there’s not a human being alive whom God sees as unworthy of the life, death, resurrection, and promised return of Jesus the Christ. My fiercest theological or political opponents deserve grace from me, and not judgement. I must allow Paul’s words in Philippians 2:3 to haunt me in every reaction or encounter of mine.
    4. MEASURE EVERYTHING BY THE GREAT COMMANDMENT AND THE GREAT COMMISSION. My goal is not just to keep myself intact. As a follower of Jesus, I am under clear marching orders. Jesus said the central commandment which governs and interprets all other commandments is to love God and to love others as God loves us. (Mark 12:28ff.) And Jesus commissioned all who claim him as Lord to go and make disciples – i.e., those who become like Jesus and who follow him. (Matthew 28:19.) Nothing changes these mandates nor gives me an excuse to neglect them, regardless of the type of era in which I am living.
    5. FIND AND JOIN THE HELPERS. Fred Rogers’ wise advice for times of crisis still holds. Even while all else is a sea of chaos, harm, and hatred, wherever people are loving and helping others, that’s where God is at work. Find them and join them. This is not without risk. Sometimes it will mean speaking up and speaking out, in both love and clarity, when it would seem much safer to stay silent and uninvolved. It may also mean acting up; again with love and clarity. (Think John Lewis’ admonition of getting into “good trouble.”) Security is not the goal. Love is.

    We would all do we to learn all we can about the disciples of the first century. While their age was different than ours in multiple ways, it was also a time of authoritarian rule, division, and violence. Yet the movement thrived and grew like wildfire. History, fully embraced, can teach us much.

    There’s nothing exhaustive about the above, and it’s certainly not a “one size fits all.” It’s just what seems to help me at this point. If you are a follower of Jesus, what’s working for you in these days?

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • IT’S NOT JUST A PERSONAL TICKET TO HEAVEN

    For most of my life I’ve heard people talk about “a personal relationship with Jesus.” I’ve used this phrase in my own preaching, teaching, and faith-sharing. To me, a personal relationship with Jesus has meaning if it refers to actually knowing him, growing in relationship with him, and loving others with the same love with which he loves me. However, the impact of the phrase breaks down it it means possessing Jesus like a prize. It seems to me that many people reduce a personal relationship with Jesus to securing an individual eternal guarantee. This results in a privatized faith, which is nothing more than a collection of personally satisfied individuals. Nothing could be further from biblical faith, no matter how many people buy this bill of goods currently.

    God’s spokesperson Amos made clear that individual practice and proficiency in being “religious” means nothing apart from corporate responsibility. (See Amos 5:21-24.) Jesus, God made known as a human being stung the religious leaders of the day for individually obeying the letter of the law, but failing to lead the collective mercy and justice demanded by the heart of God. (See Matthew 23: 23-24.) The earliest followers of the risen Jesus were characterized more by group life and commitment than by individual spiritual benefits. (See Acts 2:42-47.) Following Jesus is more about what happens collectively than personally.

    At its worst, privatized religion can become a smokescreen for corporate sin. For example – I’ve said the sinner’s prayer, so it doesn’t matter that I (and you) own clothing that’s kept cheap for me because it is off-shore, sweatshop labor created. I claim Jesus as Lord of my life, so it doesn’t matter that people are dying in the Middle East, while my biggest concern is that I’m paying $4.19 a gallon for gasoline. Father Richard Rohr expresses the dark side of privatized religion this way, particularly as it is manifest in the United states:

    “Killing is wrong, but war is good. Greed is wrong, but luxury and capitalism are ideals to be sought after. Pride is bad, but nationalism and patriotism are admirable (never in the Bible, however). Lust is wrong, but flirting and seduction are attractive. Envy is a capital sin, but advertising is our way of life. Anger at our neighbor is wrong, but angry people get their way. Sloth is a sin, but wealthy people can take it easy. Murder is wrong, but easy access to guns is a right and a duty.”

    Rohr goes on to say, “The church gas been trying for centuries to save individuals while ignoring the corrupt system in which those individuals operate.” The Lordship of Jesus doesn’t just challenge our individual sin; it calls out our collective, systemic sin as well. As the now cliche image goes, it’s not about pulling drowning babies out of the river. It’s about going upriver to stop whoever/whatever is putting babies in the river in the first place.

    The good news of a crucified and risen Jesus is way beyond my individual ticket to heaven. WAY beyond…

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

    (Recommended reading: THE TEARS OF THINGS: PROPHETIC WISDOM FOR AN AGE OF OUTRAGE by Father Richard Rohr.)

  • A TOUGH 250TH TO CELEBRATE

    Our great nation is 250 years old this year. I’ve been struggling with exactly how to celebrate this. It’s sounds mundane, but I’ve even been stuck on what to wear on July 4th.

    I love this country, and I’m thankful beyond words for the gift of being a citizen here. Founders built this republic on the values of freedom and justice, equally available for all. We’ve had rough chapters in our history since 1776, but I believe we exist to continue living into those values.

    However, there is considerable evidence that we are slipping backward on this important journey. For example voting rights for non-white citizens once again are in danger, with court backing for this backward step. Authoritarian leadership seems determined to carry the day; the very thing our country’s founders fought to eliminate. Too many of our leaders are fueling xenophobia, when we are by definition a melting pot nation. (An old meme says, “Unless your ancestors could field dress a buffalo, you came from immigrants; documented or not.”) Persons in authority increasingly do not want us to face and learn from the dark chapters in our history. (Very few of you learned of the sanctioned destruction of Tulsa’s “Black Wall Street” in your schooling.) There are those who want to mandate a very narrowly defined “Christian” nationalism, in the very country established on the principle of freedom of religion. (Legislated faith is no faith at all.)

    To make matters worse, these things about which I am concerned are regarded as “patriotic” in the belief of many. How do I celebrate two and half centuries of the United States of America without signaling any kind of support for much of this direction in which our country is headed currently?

    Then I found it…A T-shirt with a poem across a background of the Statue of Liberty and the American Flag. Here is the poem:

    “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” (Emma Lazarus.)

    That’s it. That’s who we are. I am here because of what is valued in those words. Most of us are. This is the real American dream. This is what we should celebrate. This is the heartbeat of our nation, still beating in spite of it all.

    That’s what I’ll be wearing on July 4th. Happy 250th, U.S.A.!

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.