A Prayer for the Upcoming Election

Lord, you taught us to pray for those in authority over us, to pray for leaders and for your blessing to rest upon every land you would send us. We have been blessed to live in a good land, a nation that lets us worship and offer witness to our faith freely. We are blessed to live in abundance and freedom. We thank you for a land without dictators, a land governed by its own people, a land in which we have a say in our leadership at every level of government. 

We confess that many of us have allowed our nation’s election to fill us with anxiety, especially in this year. Many of us have participated in the demonizing of our opponents and have often overlooked and excused the failings of those we support. We have held uncharitable thoughts and shared uncharitable words about those whose views are different than our own.  

In just a few days, this election will be over, and no matter who wins, our nation will need to find healing. So, Lord, may your people, followers, become healers of the breach. Make us people who speak the truth in love, who refuse to slander our opponents, who seek common ground, who serve and listen and love our enemies. We pray that you would guide this election this week. We pray also that you would guide us as we begin the work of healing in our nation afterwards.

Pastoral Prayer for September 11, 2016 (inspired by the Parable of the Lost Sheep and Remembrance of 9/11/01)

Holy God:

Once again, we come before you in humility and joy, offering our hearts, our lives, our prayer to you.

We thank you for the love we have found in your son Jesus Christ, who took flesh and died, who rose from the grave on the third day, because, as he said, he came to seek and to save the lost.  We have been lost—we have known what it means to be completely unable to save ourselves, completely without direction, trying to make our way in the world and making everything worse through out own efforts.  We have known what it means to take our lives apart with our own hands, to hurt the ones who love us the most.

And we know what it means to feel the grip of your grace grabbing ahold of us, drawing us to your side, turning us back to truth, to wholeness, to sanity, to love, to joy.  We who claim your name have experienced the tremendous joy of being found.

The hymn writer confessed as we confess to you, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” We, too, have been prone to wander once again.  So we ask you to find us through your grace today. draw us to yourself.  may we feel the joy we found at the first.  

If anyone here today has yet to taste of the joy of your grace, we ask that you would reach out to that one this morning.  We ask, Lord, that no one would leave this service without having been born anew through a gift of your grace.

Today, Father, this nation and the nations of the world remember a dark and tragic day fifteen years ago in which the human family was torn asunder by an evil act. Ever since, we have, as a global community, wandered from you in many ways. None of us could have imagined on that day the rage, the violence, the killing and misunderstanding that would come.  we are still trying to figure out how to put things back together.  We don’t know how to stabilize the world, to return to a world without hatred and fear between nations, regions, religions, and political opinions. One evil act seems to have spawned one outpouring of hate after another, a cycle of recrimination and untruth.  Our efforts to fix it have failed. And so, Lord, we cry out for mercy. Bring peace to our world. Heal the wounds of our world.  May we be ready to allow you to be our shepherd.

Amen.

Pastoral Prayer for September 4, 2016

Holy God:

We thank you for the love of Jesus Christ.  We praise you today because we have found life in him.  He has made us new people.  He has made us family with each other .  He has given hope to our world.  In sending Jesus to the cross, you put to death death itself, and all that is lifeless and broken.  In raising him to new life, you opened up the beginning of all things being made new, everything in heaven and on earth being restored.

We openly admit to you, Lord, that living in this world is often difficult.  We have come today believing in our heads that what Christ has done is true and real.  And yet, all that we face causes us to struggle to have a mind and heart to live as people who trust what Christ’s work has done.  We believe that he has conquered sin and death, and yet we are weighed down by the effects of sin and death.  We struggle to live as free people.  We struggle to overcome despair.  We struggle to overcome discouragement.  We forget who we are.

And so, our living is often halfhearted.  We live with one foot in heaven and one foot in the ways of the world.  We try to live Christ’s way, but we are so used to the old way that we find ourselves constantly compromising, equivocating.

Today, we ask that you would give us new life.  Give us fresh vision.  Overwhelm us with your spirit.  Renew us. Restore us.

We give our lives entirely to you.  Have us as your own. Every choice, every dime, every moment, every relationship.  body, mind, soul, spirit.  The good, the bad the ugly.  Our businesses, our children, our marriages.  Our thoughts, our dreams.  Our hurts and sorrows.  Our gifts and our shame.  Have us entirely.  Make us entirely a people whose heart and life is entirely dedicated, entirely consumed, entirely shaped by Jesus.

Amen.

Pastoral Prayer (August 28, 2016)

Holy God:

We praise you for you are worthy of praise.  You are great, greater than all we can ever know.  You are all wisdom, all knowledge, all power, all goodness.  Everything belongs to you, and all things and all people have been made to praise you.  

And so, we have gathered in your house and with your people to offer the sacrifice of praise.  We join our voices in song, we join our hearts and prayer, we approach you with open hearts and open ears, waiting upon a word from you.  

We open our lives to you. May the words from your holy book, the words from your beloved son, reshape the way we see ourselves and our world.  May we, each and every one, leave different than we arrived.  Today, make us a little more joyful, a little more holy, a little more like Jesus. Free us from our ways, our thinking. Free us from what we’ve been taught, what we’ve always done.  

Make us into a people who serve you.  Make us into true followers of your Son Jesus Christ.  we yield to his ways, even though we don’t always understand them.  Sometimes they seem so foreign to us, sometimes Jesus teachings seem so impractical to us.  We are born selfish creatures, and he has taught us to yield our lives in humble service and joyful abandon.  We have come to the end of our ways—what we have always done is no longer working for us. So, holy God, teach us your ways today.  Grace us to live in your way.

Our hearts break for those who have been affected by recent floods in Louisiana.  Lord, be merciful to the victims of this disaster, and to all who are affected by natural disasters around the world.  Turn our hearts to compassion to ease the sufferings of others.  May our faith be of action and never of words alone.

Amen.    

Thoughts on Young People's Ministry

I've been very blessed in my new appointment to get actively involved in ministries with children and youth, and so I've had opportunity to think through and share my thoughts on these ministries.  After I shared my thoughts to a group discussing children's ministry, one of the participants asked me to share them more broadly.  So here we go.

Why are ministries with young people important, and who should be involved in ministries to young people?

Psalm 78 recites the story of God's redemptive work throughout Hebrew history.  Before the story is told, the psalmist says, "We will not hide them from their children; we will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done (Psalm 78:4)."

I have a Jewish uncle.  He almost completely abandoned practice of Judaism after his Bar Mitzvah. But when he had children, he was absolutely insistent that they go to Hebrew school, prepare for Bat Mitzvah, celebrate holidays, etc. When I asked him why, he said, "I'm part of a people who have had this faith for thousands of years. I don't have the right to take it away from my children."

We live in a time when many children, including children who are raised in homes that consider themselves "Christian," no longer know the basics of the faith. They have never sung "Amazing Grace" or "Jesus Loves Me This I Know." They don't know John 3:16. The don't know who Jesus was, or that he died on a cross, or that Easter is about his resurrection, or even that Christmas is about the celebration of his birth. They've never heard of the Ten Commandments and certainly have no idea what they are. It's hard for those of us who grew up in Christian culture to comprehend, but please trust me that this is true.

These things are precious to us and they were offered to us as a gift from others.  We have no right to hide them from our children.  And all children are God's children. Young people's ministry is EVERYONE'S responsibility.

We take this responsibility upon ourselves every time a child is baptized in our gathering.  We promise to "surround this child with a community of love and forgiveness, that s/he may grow in his/her service to others. We will pray for him/her that s/he may be a true disciple who walk in the way that leads to life."  This is a promise for the whole community. Young people's ministry is not the work of a staff person, a children's council, a few ladies, or the parents of the children alone.  Ministries with young people are a central task of the entire community of faith, every single person. Not everyone is suited to lead a children's moment or lead a small group. But everyone can do something (even if it's taking out the garbage during VBS) to strengthen ministries with young people and insure that the congregation keeps its promise.

I firmly believe that it is wrong for clergy to absolve themselves of responsibility for young people's ministry by shuffling off the work of children's ministry or youth ministry to a children's ministry or youth ministry staff person.  These staff people are necessary and important and churches must employ them in order to allow clergy to do the many things that they must do.  But a pastor is called to be a pastor to all the people.

In our United Methodist ordination charge, we are asked, "Will you diligently instruct the children in every place?"  We say that we will.  In part, the keeping of this promise means that we will organize the congregation to make sure that children are being nurtured in faith in Jesus Christ.  But it also means that children and teenagers know their pastor, that even in the largest church, we take the time to be present in young people's ministries and develop relationships with kids.  I think it's important for pastors to teach confirmation, to show up for football games, to stick their heads into children's Sunday school classes, to play on the church lawn.  Our tradition has determined for us that these ministries are a priority for us.

Whose job is young people's ministry?  Who is supposed to work in children's ministry and youth ministry?  EVERYONE.  We all have a part.  We all have a responsibility. We all have the gift to offer the love of Christ and pass on the gift of the Gospel to emerging generations.

Pastoral Prayer for August 21, 2016 (based on Luke 13:10-17)

O holy God:

We thank you for the great love you have shown us in Jesus Christ.

You could have chosen to punish us.  You could have chosen to destroy us for the ways we have failed to acknowledge you.  You could have responded in so many ways.  And you would have been justified.

Instead, you looked upon each and every human life and were moved with compassion.  You are more aware of the ways we can be unlovable, and yet you have loved us more than anyone.  You responded to our fallen ways be taking flesh, joining your life to our lives, getting your hands dirty, becoming weak like us, suffering and dying for us.

So Father, open our hearts today.  Help us to be real before you.  Help us to lay our lives open before you, with all that makes us strong and beautiful and with all our broken and shameful place, too.  Heal us, change us, remake us, restore us.  Fill our lives with joy as we enter into a life-long relationship of being made strong in your strength, being made whole in your holiness.

Give us a heart like yours, free from condemnation, full of compassion, full of grace.  Give us a heart to put people first, to reach out with love and goodness and to offer healing to hurting lives.

O God, may you blessing rest upon the land in which we have been graced to live, upon the leaders who have authority over us, upon your Church proclaiming your Gospel throughout the world. Bring healing and hope to those who are sick and grieving.  Use us to bring win the lost of our community to new life in your Son Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray saying…

On Condemnation

"Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death."  ~Romans 8:1

"'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?' She said, 'No one, sir.' And Jesus said, 'Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.'" ~John 8:10-11

"Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."  ~John 3:17


I have often spoken with people broken down by the condemnation of others. Sometimes it comes from the preacher.  Sometimes it comes from religious culture. It's not always the uptight religious folks who condemn either. Sometimes it comes from free-thinking, free-spirited people who have all kinds of ideas about how others ought to live and not live. Some people reserve their condemnation for fundamentalists and meat-eaters, while others reserve it for homosexuals and drug addicts.

We condemn others because it is central to our human nature to do so. We condemn others because we think that our condemnation might make them straighten up.  We think that our condemnation might make others see and be afraid and avoid the behaviors of those we condemn. We condemn because we fear that society will throw off all restraint if we stop wagging our fingers.

Above all, we condemn because we are desperately trying to deflect attention from the painful reality that our own hearts condemn us. If we can shine the spotlight on someone else, then the spotlight will no longer be on us. We do this in all kinds of ways: "My candidate isn't perfect, but your candidate does the same thing a hundred times worse." "Maybe I shouldn't have lost my temper, but you say ugly things all the time."

Even as we are trying to give ourselves cover for our own misdeeds, we convince ourselves we are doing God a favor by keeping the rest of the world properly categorized and their behavior properly regulated.

But God does not condemn.

God does not condemn because God is perfect. And so, God has no nagging insecurity to deflect.

God does not condemn because God takes responsibility. God has never sinned, and yet he took on the responsibility for all of our failings voluntarily.  God has not argued with us about who is right and who is wrong. He leaves the argument, takes flesh, and dies on a cross to obliterate the wrong. That's what love does.

If you are hurting because someone has condemned you, please know that the condemnation you feel has not come from God. It probably has much more to do with the person who condemns you than it does you.

If you have done wrong, you don't have to feel condemned about it, nor do you have to make excuses for it. God does not condemn you. So you can own up to your wrong and know that it does not define you. You can be healed and you can start over.

You do not have to wallow in a sense of condemnation in order to make up for the wrong you did. There is no penance period. People do this to each other--make each other grovel around for awhile. God is not in the business of rubbing peoples' faces in anything. And feeling bad about yourself will not make you do better anyway. So move on.

And for heaven's sake, let's try our very best to stop condemning others. If God refuses to condemn, we should learn from him that condemnation is a tactic that does not work.  If you condemn someone, you will not control their behavior.  You will only make them resent you and cause them to go looking for something about you to condemn in return.  Even if you succeed in making them feel shame, their sense of shame will never free them to behave differently.  God attended to the sin of the world by offering forgiveness, not by making us ashamed of ourselves so that we would quit.  It doesn't work that way.

Pastoral Prayer for August 7, 2016 (based on Luke 12:32-40)

Holy God our Father:

How grateful are that you have taught us to call upon you by the name of Father. You have made us, given us life and breath. We have turned from you, born in sin and trespasses.  Yet through the sacrifice of your son, Jesus, you have adopted us into your family.  You have loved us with an everlasting love. You have given us a new name, a new life, a new heart, a new beginning.

We say these things because you have taught us that they are true. And we believe that they are true.  At the same time, we confess before you that our doubts, our behavior, our fears, our shame all testify to our hearts that our trust in your love and good will for us is incomplete.  We know in our heads that you have told us you love us.  But we know ourselves.  And we are only beginning to know you.  And so, when the chips are down, we’re not so sure.

We have protected so many parts of our lives from you.  We have lived our own way.  We have tried so see what we can get away with.  And all the while, all you want from us is a heart that returns your love.  All you ask from us is the broken pieces of the lives we have messed up so that you can put the pieces back together and make something beautiful of us.’

Give us eyes to see the face of Jesus, to see the beauty of what his cross shows us about your heart for us.  give us a new understanding of your heart for us. And so, may we know the fullness of joy.  May we give our lives to you in reckless abandon, trusting that you love us more than we love ourselves, trusting that you will find joy in giving us a life of joy.

Amen.

Bitterness vs. Intercession

Psalm 106 offers a helpful commentary on one of the best known biblical characters, Moses, and one of the least known, Phineas. Oddly, Moses comes out the worse for the comparison, and the reason why offers some very helpful direction for leaders in the community of faith.

In the Book of Numbers, the people are notoriously difficult, given to complaining, on the verge of open rebellion to God and leadership, and constantly tempting God to destroy them. Moses occasionally gets so frustrated with them that he asks God to kill him so that he might be relieved of his duty. Anyone who has put in more than a few years in religious leadership has probably prayed the same prayer at some point or another.

Psalm 106 refers to two incidents of the Hebrews unfaithfulness and contrasts the leadership offered by Phineas and Moses. In one instance, the Hebrews sinned against God by intermarrying with Gentiles and God sent a plaque to kill them off. Phineas prayed and interceded before God, and in a particularly gruesome biblical scene, impaled a couple with a spear. In the other instance, the people complained about having clean, fresh water to drink. When they came to a place called Meribah, Moses made them drink bitter water. God condemned Moses for it.

Weird stories, both of them. What's interesting is Psalm 106's commentary. Psalm 106 says that Moses that the story about the bitter water ("Meribah" means "bitter") is about Moses allowing his heart to get bitter. The story says that he spoke rash words to the people.

Phineas, in contrast, met the unfaithfulness of the people with intercession. He held back the plague.

We are sinners, all of us. We are a band of grumbling, complaining, reluctant, unfaithful, beloved disciples. All disciples are inclined to look around at the rest of the crew of to get frustrated with the others. All of us are inclined from time to time to mentally separate ourselves from the others and to condemn the others. This was Moses's sin--he put himself in God's category and put the sinful people in another category. He let himself get bitter toward the people. He allowed his bitterness to erupt into rash words. he spread his bitterness of soul and voice to the people.

Phineas met the unfaithfulness of the people with an understanding that he, too, was part of a sinful people and that he, too needed God's mercy lest he be destroyed. He stood between God and the people and took a stand for the right. The violent way in which he did it is something we might condemn. But the position he takes (as Psalm 106 describes it) is something we should emulate. He stands with the people and between them and God's judgment in repentance and integrity seeking God's mercy.

When we meet with unfaithfulness in the community, we can easily condemn the others, allow our heart to become bitter and our words to become rash. This ends badly for us and for the people. Or we can take the role of the intercessor, recognizing that we, too are likewise unfaithful and stand condemned and in need of mercy. Those who become bitter become the conduit of their bitterness poisoning the community. Those who choose intercession become the conduit of the mercy and grace of God redeeming the community.

Reflection on Psalm 119:78--The Games People Play

"Let the arrogant be put to shame, because they have subverted me with guile; as for me, I will meditate on your precepts."
The world is full of people trying constantly to play each other for suckers. My 4-year-old already knows how to manipulate situations to her advantage. Every marriage has spoken and unspoken power struggles, every church has ways the people vie for control. Pity the preacher who doesn't understand that the real decisions are made under the oak tree before or after the official meeting!
These games are exhausting. Many of us don't want to play them, but we feel compelled to because we have been victimized when we didn't play close enough attention. Life can turn into a chess game.
We are all more impressed with our own ability to play these games than we are actually capable of winning them. "Let the arrogant be put to shame, because they have subverted me with guile." It is because we are arrogant--we think we can win--that we engage the subverting games we play against each other. We fail to realize that, as Rosy Perez told Woody Harrelson in 'White Men Can't Jump,' "Sometime when you win, you really lose; and sometimes when you lose, you really win." Even when we win the head games and power games we play with each other, we lose ourselves and lose the ability to be whole people who are connected to God, ourselves, and each other. We are "put to shame."
So how do we live in a world full of subverting, arrogant games without becoming part of the game or being victimized by those who play games with us? The Psalmist prays, "I will meditate on your precepts." The Psalmist does not have time or attention for the games, the subversion, the undermining, the power struggle. He's too busy tending to his own stuff. He's too busy letting God call him out, straighten him out, show him a new way to think, to live, to be. He doesn't have room in his head or his calendar for God's project of conforming his soul to God's ways while simultaneously struggling with everyone else for control of things. So, he has to hand over control to God. He has to leave the struggles and games for God to take care of. He puts the "arrogant" in God's hands--"You deal with them; I'm too busy dealing with YOU and with ME."
Now there's a choice we can make that can lead us to a path of sanity in the midst of a crazy world. And, when we refuse to play the game with others, oftentimes they will give up the game themselves. Give it a try. It can't work out any worse than the way we've been doing it so far.

Thought for the Day from BCP Daily Reading

"Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes." ~Psalms 119:23

Imagine how much it would feel like you were in crisis if a prince were making a plot against you! And yet, the Psalmist refuses to be sucked into a crisis. He keeps focused on his life's central program--learning and training to think and live as God's person. God has a lifelong program for each of us that requires daily reprogramming, daily attention to His Spirit, daily reorientation through scripture. 

It's easy when a crisis comes to become reactive and set aside the process of become disciples and saints--"I'll do that when I get through this mess this week!" When we live like that, our lives end up going from crisis to crisis. The Psalmist determines that no matter what's going on around him, he's going to put God's training regimen for his soul first. When we seek his righteousness first, it allows us to navigate even times of crisis without being sucked into crisis and becoming reactive people.  

Today, meditate on his statutes. The whirling storm will be waiting for you when you return to it, and you will have a better head to deal with whatever life throws at you.

My Joy and Crown: Getting People to Do What you Tell Them to Do

Philippians 4:1-9 contains many exhortations--Paul advising, directing, coaching a young congregation in how they should act. He speaks to the group, and he addresses individuals: He implores Euodia, implores Syntyche. He urges a "true companion" to help the women. He tells the the receivers of the letter to stand firm, to rejoice, to live lives marked by gentleness, to be anxious for nothing, to pray, meditate on the just, true, praiseworthy, etc.

Most people are regularly in a position to speak in the hortatory voice. Parents, children, spouses, pastors, coaches, employers, teachers, community leaders, even pet owners find it necessary to instruct, advise, and even command others. Few of us are good at it. Many of us find that our admonition has a reverse effect--people do exactly the opposite of what we advise. Sometimes we employ "reverse psychology"--advising or commanding the exact opposite of the behavior we seek because we anticipate a counter-reaction to our advice.

How was Paul effective in offering direction to the Philippians? Maybe there's a clue in his address. Paul refers to the people as "my joy and crown," and "beloved."  Perhaps Paul earned the right to be heard by the good people of Philippi because they knew that he not only loved them but that he found great joy in them, he treasured them and spoke effusively and openly about his affection for them.

Perhaps many of us are ineffective in guiding the behavior of those whose behavior we must guide because we fail to treasure people enough. People can tell when those who are admonishing them are annoyed or frustrated, if they are contemptuous of them when they fail to tow the line. How many times has a father made his children afraid, a pastor made a congregation feel unspiritual, a spouse made a mate feel stupid, a child made a parent feel disrespected, all because of a well-intentioned attempt to get the other to do something for his or her own good?

When we treat people like projects, we easily become annoyed when they fail to line up to our expectations. And our failure to treasure them hardens them to our agenda for them. This is natural and it is a good defense mechanism. It's foolish to allow someone who doesn't care about you to shape your life.

God has the power to redeem us because he loves us, treasures us, values us, calls us the beloved just as we are. That acceptance frees us to be transformed. That unconditional love allows us to trust him enough to obey him.

How more effective might we be in guiding others if they knew that we treasured them infinitely more than the response we attempt to evoke in them?

The Gospel According to Mister Rogers

My four-year-old just discovered Mister Rogers Neighborhood.  I haven't watched Mr. Rogers since I was a child, but watching with her has allowed me to remember his gentle spirit, his kindness, his practical wisdom.  Watching Mister Rogers was a happy part of my childhood, but I've never before had the opportunity to revisit his work or his life from the standpoint of an adult.

I've taken some time to read up on Mister Rogers.  I had already known that he was an ordained Presbyterian clergyperson.  Because he and my sister both studied music at Rollins College near Orlando and he made massive contributions to the music program there, I'd also known that he began his studies as a musician (I hadn't before known that he composed all the music for the show).  What I hadn't known was that he had small children and was already working full-time in television while he went to seminary in Pittsburgh.  My own travails as a clergyperson working through seminary made me appreciate the kind of work ethic and giftedness his humble demeanor belied.

Mister Rogers was so nice and kind that it's hard to notice how courageous and fearless he was.  Early in his career, he was appalled at the tenor of content of children's programming and television content in general.  Rather than rail against the culture, he chose to invest his life in creating an alternative.

He had a simple and fundamental theological conviction.  He believed that life is precious, that every human being is precious, and that all of us are called to treat others with dignity and respect as beloved children of God.  He refused to allow circumstance to pressure him into conforming to the ethos of a media culture that uses people (including children) as commodities manipulated for ratings and commercial advertising influence.

Two events in Mister Rogers later life illustrate his quiet but strong practice of this conviction.  I once saw Mister Rogers (or, more accurately, Reverend Rogers) being interviewed about how to calm children who have been upset by overhearing the news as the Iraq War was breaking out.  After answering questions from the interviewer, he mentioned that even newspeople can become upset by the scary news they report.  He took the opportunity to offer care and comfort to the newsperson (who clearly didn't know how to respond to being treated like an actual human being).

The other remarkable event that showed Mister Rogers ability to turn any situation into a ministry opportunity was his acceptance speech for a lifetime achievement award at the Emmys.  He asked the entire crowd to take ten seconds of silence to think about someone who had impacted them for good.  He said, "I'll watch the time."  He looked at his watch as the crowd experienced what seemed like an interminable silence.  Many in the crowd were visibly moved.  He challenged them to make television that brought out the best in people and refused to demean people.  It was a prophetic moment fitting to his life's work.  He turned a community of some of the world's most shallow people into a group of children listening to his gentle wisdom.

Mister Rogers was also authentic.  His TV persona was himself.  He said that he believed that children could spot a phony right away.  He intentionally created a children's program with a slower tempo because of his deep concern for the anxiety children face through all they experience in contemporary society.  He referred to the noise of most children's programming as "bombardment."  Everything about his show, his life, his approach to interaction with others sprang from a pastoral concern.

How different could our society be if those called to minister the Gospel could take some cues from our childhood friend?  We are so much quicker to condemn all that's wrong in our culture than to figure out how to creatively construct attractive alternatives based on our theological convictions.  Mister Rogers didn't talk openly about the love of Jesus Christ, because an open proclamation of the name of Jesus would have been inappropriate to his context.  But his demonstration of the love he had experienced in Jesus and the application of his giftedness in such a remarkably unique, creative manner should fire our imaginations for other ways we could constructively impact our culture through the application of the love of Jesus Christ.