Piety
Presented at National Lutheran Secretariat meeting of Via de Cristo, 1995, Augustana
College, Rock Island, IL
Rev. Richard J. Beckmen
Vi Christiansen
Rev. Richard J. Beckmen
I am here tonight to share some thoughts on Piety. I want to take a look at some
thoughts that might generate some discussion for us as we look at the role of Piety in
the Via De Cristo movement.
I grew up in Chicago, and when I was in high school, the congregation I
belonged to was a Norwegian pietistic church that came out of the Hauge tradition.
Hauge was a pietistic pastor in Norway, and all those thoughts came flooding back into
me of growing up in that church which had taken on some of those negative
characteristics that he had talked about this afternoon. It was legalism--you don't dance,
you don't play cards, and lots of things like that. I used to frustrate the pastor because I
played in a dance band in high school, but I was always at the Wednesday night prayer
meeting, and he couldn't put those two together. I have experienced some of that
legalism growing up and I have moved beyond that pietistic movement. But I have
always stayed in touch with the central role of prayer in the life of the Christian.
I mentioned going to prayer meetings in high school. I was the only high school
student there. Most everybody else were much older. I'm not sure why I kept going--the testimonies were always the same story week after week--what God had done in my
life 25 years ago. It was the prayer time that I wanted. We gathered in silence. There
would be these long moments when it was absolutely quiet. There we were, all of us
focused on Christ. And something strange happened to me whenever we gathered for
that prayer. It was hard to explain and I never did tell anybody about it, because would
think I was weird or strange. Somehow the room would expand and it was filled with
the sense of presence. It was so powerful but so loving. So week after week I was
drawn to go back and go into that prayer meeting and that experience. It really
generated a hunger in my heart as a high school student. Being pious has a lot of
negative connotations in a lot of places in this world. My wife Solveig and I belonged
to a group back in the seventies before we got involved in Cursillo; four couples got
together, and we called ourselves the Pious Society. We didn't tell a lot of people the
name of that group. But it was a wonderful experience being together in a small group.
It was intimate, we could share, we could feel the presence of Christ coming together
in that small group. There was power in that group to sustain, encourage, and nurture
the life of Christ within and through the Holy Spirit. We were, of course, also very
aware of the negative things that could happen to little groups like that--the legalism
that could creep in--so occasionally we would go out for supper, eat together and have
a bottle of wine, and then we'd go dancing. That seemed to keep it balanced.
I have a friend who is an Episcopal priest out in Rhode Island, and we were
teaching together two weeks ago in Boston at a School of Pastoral Care. He got up and
opened his lecture by saying, the only prayer any of us really have is "Help!" and that's
pretty close to it. Most of the time when we talk about prayer and our relationship with
Christ, we're really coming out of that situation in which we struggle. We're coming
out of that situation in which life is too much for us or we're too much for ourselves or
somebody else is too much for us. And that basic prayer emerges in those moments
when we know we are not in charge, when life is too much. The basic answer to that
prayer is found in a little story. It's about a man who has fallen off the cliff, but he's
grabbed a tree branch that's 2000 feet down. He calls out, "God, Help me!"
A voice comes back to him from deep in the canyon, "Just let go." "Who
is that?" asks the man.
"It's God, just let go!"
"Is there anybody else down there?"
That's God's answer. When we say, Help, God says, Let go.
Prayer is offering up in our life in what ever we're experiencing--pain sorrow,
or joy. Give it up to God. Surrender all of it and give it in gratitude, understanding that
it is out of God's grace in Christ that all has come to us. As we make our way through
life, the issue of piety has to do with this process of surrender. Again and again, the
issue is how do I turn all over to God? How do I give it all up? How do I find the joy
of God's presence in every occasion and how do I give thanks in everything? That's
hard. There's a lot that happens to us in life that can tend to separate us from God and
from God's grace. Through circumstances we can be tempted to believe that God does
not love us, that we do not belong, that we're not worth anything. There's a lot of pain
that touches our life. Some of it is carried with us for a long time. There's a lot of hurt
that people do to us. Paul says, "In everything give thanks." That's hard to do, but if
you look back in your life, look at all of it, and if there's some place there yet where
you cannot give thanks, then we know that we are in need of healing. The healing
power of grace seeks to touch all of life that you may be redeemed in that grace which
is freely given in response to that grace you will be empowered to give thanks. To me
that's a big part of Piety, being in that wonderful dialogue with God, grace and
gratitude. It's like a great dance movement in which we are involved with God. God's
grace comes to us with abundance and surrounds us and God moves through our life
with grace-filled motion. And we respond with a dance of gratitude. We know that in
all things God works for good to those who love him. In everything give thanks. The
movement begins and the dance goes on. That's life in Christ, in the fullness of his
grace. We are caught up in this wonderful dance of God's grace and our gratitude.
Many people who go through the Via de Christo weekend experience that wonderful
dance for the first time. What you do in palanca and of the giving of yourself to those
who come for the weekend is an act of God's grace. You are that dance of grace in
their midst. Sometimes I've sat in the back of the room at the leader's table and
watched the movement of the table leader, giving rollos, and those who are serving and
it's a wonderful movement. It's grace-filled movement. And then I watch the response
as hearts begin to move and people begin to surrender to grace and give themselves to
it. They begin to dance. It's just marvelous. That's a real experience of piety.
There are two passages in Galatians that inform me about Piety. One is
Galatians 2:20. "It is no longer I who live (and the word there is ego, the conscious I)
but Christ who lives in me, and the life that I now live, I live by faith in the son of
God." It is no longer I who live. Piety, that's how much of the I is really in charge.
The more that Christ is in you and you are in Christ, abide in the vine as a branch,
being nourished and fed for the life that flows through Christ in you that you bear the
fruit that you are called to bear as a part of the body, so your life grows in Christ as
Christ grows in you.
The other wonderful part of Galatians for me is the fifth chapter which has a lot
to do with Piety, because there the Apostle Paul talks about the struggle of
sanctification as a growing in holiness. He talks about the fruit of the Spirit and works
of the flesh and the incredible struggle that goes on in our life.
Shall I be in charge or the Spirit of God? In Christ we are set free to let the
spirit of God create a new us, in us. A transforming work is going on, and as the Spirit
is allowed to work in us, we are set free to choose. We are set free to read the
Scriptures rather than the Ladies Home Journal or Playboy, or whatever kind of
magazine somehow attracts us and draws us. We are led to take time to talk to God in
prayer, free to choose to take a half hour for reflective meditation on scriptures instead
of watching television. In the spirit we become free to have the courage to go to
Christian friends, to seek guidance and wisdom. We are set free in Christ in his grace
to discipline our life, and that's the wonderful gift of that freedom that comes to us.
Called into this relationship that we have in grace, we are called to live continuously in
that grace and trust in that faith that Christ will strengthen us to make those choices.
I'd like to call on a friend of mine now to have her share a little bit from her
own life, Vi Christianson who's also a member at Central Lutheran Church in
Minneapolis. Vi has served on various committees at Central. She's on the church
council and sings in the choir. Her cursillo experience began 1982. She's worked on
six teams, she's a director of Via de Christo 89, she's on the Minnesota council, and
assistant convener in charge of allocations, and a wonderful person. Vi, I'd like to have
you come and share.
Vi Christiansen
My name is Vi Christiansen from Edina, Minnesota. My place of worship is
Central Lutheran Church, Minneapolis. I made Lutheran Cursillo number 16 in July of
1982, at Central Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
Do you remember when you gave your life to Christ? When you placed your
heart in his hands and asked him to direct your life? To be your savior? For some of
you it may have been as a child, a teenager, young adult, adult, or for some of you it
may have been very recent. Each of you had a special experience, special to you alone,
and different from everyone else because we don't know when Christ will choose to
reveal himself to us and knock on the door of our heart.
As for me, I gave my life to Christ when I was a young girl and asked him to
be my savior, my redeemer. I will always be grateful to God for the joy and privilege
of being raised in a Christian home. My parents were committed Christians who knew
the Lord, personally. They shared the love of Christ with my brother and me and
brought us to Christ. As a family we prayed together, studied God's word, sang
together, shared attended worship as a family, and supported each other in our
Christian walk. You might say they were my first renewal group. Through my parents'
example, I came to know Christ in a personal way and I wanted to live by their
example, to share Christ personally with all the people with whom I came in contact.
I reaffirmed my commitment to the Lord at my confirmation. But that wasn't
the end of my commitment. As I grew in my relationship with Christ, I knew how
important it was for me to renew that relationship daily, to ask the Lord for
forgiveness, to give me peace, and to place my trust in him for guidance and direction.
It is a continuing process. As you all know, it isn't a piece of cake to remain faithful to
the Lord. It seems that when you feel close to God, Satan works all the harder to draw
you away. You don't have to go to church today. After all, you sang in the choir for
two services last Sunday, you've already been to two rehearsals this week, and didn't
you go to an ultreya last night? You've already heard the text and the sermon for
today, anyway. Besides, aren't you working on a team? Think of all the time you're
giving. Now really, how religious do you have to get? Does that sound familiar? How
easily we could opt for missing church. It's so easy to just miss this once. God will
understand. But will you miss God? He will certainly miss you. What does your heart
tell you? What does that little voice ask you? Do you love me? Were you serious when
you gave your heart to me, Vi? it is part of my commitment to Christ to worship and
commune with him in his house, to receive forgiveness of my sins, and to receive his
life-giving body and blood.
Do you have times when you feel especially close to God? One very special
time for me was the first time I served a fellow believer communion. This took place
when I was involved with a single young adult group called Koinonians a number of
years ago. We were attending a Fall retreat and as part of our worship and sacraments,
the pastor asked us to serve each other the body and the blood of Christ. This was a
very humbling experience for me, to realized that I was personally offering Christ's
body and blood to another person. This gave the sacrament a deeper meaning to me.
Since that time I have had many opportunities to serve a fellow believer Christ's body
and blood. Each time I feel closer to my savior and am reminded of the supreme
sacrifice that he made for me.
Prayer is a very important part of my renewal and my commitment to Christ--Praying whenever possible, not just at my specified prayer time each day. Sometimes
the Lord will touch my heart to pray for something and I just can't seem to find the
words. That is when I rely on the Spirit to intercede for me. For the past ten years I
have been involved in an intercessory prayer group with three other Christian women.
We meet every other week to offer up prayers for others, our families, friends, our
church, the world, and for each other. Sometimes it may be in times of sadness and
pain, or in times of joy, praising God for his answers to prayer. There are times when
we may never know the answers to these prayer requests, but God knows, and we pray
for his will to be done. We receive calls from people who know that we have an
intercessory prayer group, and will give us prayer requests for themselves, friends, or
family. It is very important to each of us to respect these prayer requests and it is very
important to keep them confidential. Our mission is to lift up the prayer requests to the
glory of God and for his good and perfect will.
To me, a commitment to Christ also means a commitment to others, family and
friends, in times of joy and in times of sorrow--being there to support or comfort them.
It also means being true to my word when I have made a promise to follow through so
that others know they can count on me. Being faithful to others is being faithful to
Christ, to be his helping hand and his arms of love when they are in need, whether it is
helping someone move, paint a house, or providing a place to stay. Recently a friend of
mine had surgery and needed a place to stay where she wouldn't have to climb stairs.
Since I live in a condo with an elevator and no stairs, I had the perfect place for her to
stay, to recuperate until she had regained strength and was able to return to her own
home.
I know that I cannot keep my commitment to Christ on my own. I rely on my
prayer partners and my renewal group to support me and pray for me, and most of all,
I rely on the Spirit who is in me. I continue to be encouraged by the message in
Ephesians 1:13-14: And because of what Christ did, all you who have heard the good
news about how to be saved, and trusted Christ, were marked as belonging to Christ by
the Holy Spirit, who long ago had been promised to all of us Christians. His presence
within us is God's guarantee that he really will give us all that he promised; and the
spirit's seal upon us means that God has already purchased us and that he guarantees to
bring us to himself. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious God. God
loves you and so do I.
Rev. Richard Beckmen
Thank you for sharing Vi. You stressed how important it is that piety be rooted
in a relationship with Christ. It's that relationship that we seek to nurture and keep
alive through our piety . That relationship is one that is rooted and grounded in faith.
There is a point about faith that we need to clarify in relation to the Cursillo
experience. Because the weekend is such a mountain top experience through heightened
feelings as well as a Christ encounter in the community of faith gathered, confusion
can sometimes result concerning the relationship of faith and feelings. Faith is more
than a feeling, although feelings accompany faith. We are all aware that our feelings
can fluctuate depending on how we are responding to circumstances around us. When
God seems absent and our prayer feels flat and without life, we can begin to doubt if
we have faith, if our faith is equated with how we feel. Faith can exist independently of
feelings, although we know what faith feels like.
Faith is nurtured by the disciplines of our piety. Having surrendered all to God
in Christ, we give ourselves to the disciplines of faith, even if we don't "feel like it".
These disciplines include regular worship, study of the Scriptures, prayer, experiencing
confession and forgiveness, Holy Communion, and Christian fellowship. These
disciplines nurture faith as a virtue and not as a feeling.
Because faith is a virtue it can wait on the Lord, rise up in confident trust in
adversity, and continue to cry out to God even when God seems distant and silent.
Because faith is a virtue it will reach out in love to forgive the enemy, walk the
second mile, offer thanksgiving in all circumstances.
Piety. Such a beautiful word!
Piety. Such a beautiful life!
God loves you and so do I.
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