Providing Christian resources from the YMCA past and present to nourish inclusive, equitable work in our diverse and global neighborhoods that build up healthy spirit, mind and body for all.
Three amazing experiences I had while at the YMCA in Bethlehem:
* visit Basilica of the Nativity and kneel at the place believed where Jesus was born
* visit YMCA Field of the Shepherds where its believed angels announced the birth of the Christ-child
* and feast on falafels, believed by me to be the best in the world.
On February 14, 2020 the YMCA OnPrinciple team spent the day in Bethlehem.
Today is Christmas Eve, and I’m reflecting on life in February and how our world has changed since then; of my time in Bethlehem and how the world has changed from that first Christmas Eve, and how the YMCA as a global movement still strives to embody the good news in fields and little towns, crowded cities and refugee camps.
With all the shopping and wrapping, hurry and stress of the season, along with the many crises of 2020, it is almost impossible to sense the presence of Christ. What can we do to remember and live as if Jesus is King of our Christmas?
Advent is that season of the church which precedes Christmas.
It’s a time to remember when Christ was nowhere.
We are the Christmas people though, believing and giving witness to the world that Christ is now here.
But there was a time in the world when Christ was not.
And that is how it still feels for too many people.
It can feel that way in the church too.
Often it feels like Christ is nowhere, but we choose to remember and believe that Christ is now here.
There is a word that describes this Advent experience.
Prolepsis.
Prolepsis is not a word used much around my house. Never, actually.
For those in speech or debate class, you may be familiar with prolepsis. It’s the anticipation and answering of a possible objection to a point you are making in your presentation.
For those that are story-tellers, we use phrases that tap into prolepsis.
When we use a phrase like: “he was a dead man walking” – he’s not really a dead man yet, but he will be, and he is seen as a dead man now, though he is not yet.
A few years ago I was in jail, thinking about prolepsis.
Following my sermon study, I made a visit to the county jail. While waiting for the inmate to be brought out for our visit, I stood leaning against the cement wall pondering how to explain prolepsis.
I got to thinking of all the inmates I have visited in jail.
There are some inmates who are truly imprisoned.
For them, the past, present, and future are wrapped up in being imprisoned now. They feel trapped, they don’t know how to avoid being jailed, and though they don’t want to stay in prison, they don’t know what to do different to stay out of prison once they get out.
But there are the prisoners I visit with who are already free.
They may be on the other side of the glass, but they are with me in spirit. When we talk, we talk about what will be different, and what is already different. They are ready to do the work now that will both lead to freedom and keep them free.
They are not just living in the future, they are doing now what they will need to do in the future to be and stay free.
Though they are not as free as they want to be, they are as free as they can be. They are so certain of becoming an staying future, that they live and act now as if they are free.
That is prolepsis. The future present now, but not yet. The present that is yet to be. The future unfolding in the now.
Prolepsis in Scripture is scripted by promises.
Prolepsis helps us see the Christmas story anew, because Christmas is about promises made and promises kept.
Christmas is about the present that is yet to be, about a future that is unfolding in the now.
Christmas is about Jesus as king now, but not yet.
You can see this so clearly in Mary the mother of Jesus, as written down in the Gospel according to Luke.
The messenger of God proclaims good news to Mary:
you shall bear a son who will save his people from their sins; You will name him Jesus, and he will lead his people out of exile; Jesus will become king of Israel, he will sit upon the throne of his ancestor King David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; His kingdom shall come and it will never end.
What does Mary do? A few things.
First she wonders why the angel is even there.
Then she wonders how all this will happen.
But then, in wonder and delight, she responds with faith and faithfulness:
“May it be to me as you have promised.”
Mary, Theotokos – mother of God
Soon after she hurries off to hang out with her cousin Elizabeth, who had a similar encounter with a messenger of God.
While there, Mary bursts into song, and it’s full of prolepsis.
Mary’s song envisions a world where what God has promised has already come to pass.
Mary’s Song of Protest, Gospel via Luke, chapter 2
All the angel did was announce the birth of a king, and Mary is singing about the downfall of the proud.
Mary believes a savior will be born, and now she is lauding the Lord for having lifted up the poor and humiliated.
She’s not even pregnant yet, and Mary acts as if the promises to Abraham and David have already been fulfilled.
That is prolepsis.
Believing a promise so strongly you behave as if it is fully true now.
King David had a promise-making moment with the Lord, one that is very relevant to Mary’s song and our proleptic examples.
He finally had rest from warring against his enemies. David sat firm and secure on his throne. But as he looked out from his palace, he realized that God dwelled in a tent. Whereas David sat in royal splendor, God’s house was a stitched together of animal skins.
Maybe David felt guilty? Maybe David felt bad for God? Whatever the reason, God wasn’t impressed. He didn’t need a new house, didn’t want a new house, and didn’t ask David to build anything for him.
Actually God put David in his place: who are you to decide what kind of house is good enough for God?
But then God followed up with a string of promises to David: God will build a house for David that lasts forever. The God of Israel who established David’s kingdom will cause it to never end.
It’s an extraordinary promise to David, who is completely humbled by this turn of events.
David breaks into song and prayer, praising the Lord for making this promise to his house, to Israel. But David sings as if the promise is already fulfilled, he prays as if the kingdom is an eternal one already.
It’s like when a bride and groom pledge to uphold their vows to one another, promising fidelity forever.
In that moment, they are caught up in savoring an eternal promise. Right there and then they experience the feeling of a promise of forever fidelity.
For sports fans out there, everyone knows that elite athletes practice prolepsis. The basketball shooter at the free throw line can see himself putting the ball through the hoop before he actually does it. The future point is already present in the now, but not yet.
The quarterback can already see his wide receiver making the catch in the end zone before the throw has been made. The sprinter has already crossed the finish line in first place before he is out of the starting blocks.
In their minds they are victors before the contest has begun. They practice in prolepsis, seeing themselves holding the trophy while they prepare for it as if it had already come to pass, but not yet.
This is what the church does when we share in Eucharist together.
The bread and the cup of communion is a present experience of a future reality, the Great Banquet with the King. We eat and drink now as if the Great Banquet has already started.
We believe we are having a communion with the Lord now as if he had already set the table.
Or take baptism: we go under the water and are brought up from it as if we were dying and being resurrected from the dead.
Baptism is death and resurrection now, but not yet. It is believing the promise so strongly, we live now as if we have already died and been raised bodily from the grave.
Prolepsis is powerful and transformative; it is the name we give to the experience of believing the promises made to us, and living in the light of them.
Advent is a proleptic event: it reminds the church that we are a proleptic people.
If you:
have been baptized, you are living in prolepsis
partake of Eucharist, you are doing prolepsis
believe the promises God made to Israel were fulfilled in Jesus and are given now to you,
then you are doing prolepsis.
Christmas is prolepsis; the First Christmas being prolepsis of the Last Christmas.
Jesus coming to Israel as their king was a now AND a not-yet reality.
He is God reigning over the world in Jesus of Nazareth, king of Israel and lord of all nations, but not yet.
The crucified, resurrected, ascended Lord Jesus Christ was, is, and shall rule in truth and grace forever; he does so now through the church, but not yet fulfilled.
He has promised to rescue us from sin and death, we experience it now, but not-yet.
We are so confident in Jesus keeping his promise to save us, that we act as if it has already happened; the future present now.
Our trust in the Lord is so strong that we live now as if our forgiveness on Judgment Day has already occurred; the present that is yet to be.
The faith we have in God is so vibrant, we believe that his reign has already begun on the earth; Christmas is about promises made and promises kept.
Christmas is about prolepsis. Will you believe it?
For those with searching eyes and yearning hearts, it too often feels like Christ is nowhere.
That’s what it felt like to the inmate I visited in jail, as she poured her heart out to me. How does God feel so far away? Why doesn’t he feel close?
But to those who have heard the promise and believe it, Christ is now here.
A reflection upon the arc of YMCA Christian Emphasis in 1998 by Paul M. Limbert, aged 101, having served the Lord and the Y movement for almost 80 years. He died 20 days later after giving this address to YMCA professionals at Blue Ridge Assembly.
Paul M. Limbert was an ordained Christian minister and renowned leader within the YMCA movement. His work with the Y includes Springfield College as an educator and President; the CEO of the World Alliance of YMCAs in Geneva, Switzerland; CEO of YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly in Black Mountain, North Carolina. After retirement Paul mentored, led, taught, served men and women around the world for over thirty years; his influence continues on in the YMCA still today.
For more on Paul M. Limbert, you can purchase a copy of his autobiography: Reliving A Century.
Reliving A Century, by Paul M. Limbert, given to me by Steve Tarver
This talk “Interpreting The Christian Mission of the YMCA” was given on December 4th, 1998 for a YMCA Professional Group gathered at Blue Ridge Assembly YMCA by Paul M. Limbert, aged 101, 20 days before he passed away.
The typed/photocopied version I received was given to me in November 2020 by Steve Tarver, CEO of the Greater Louisville YMCA, who was mentored by Limbert. I’m publishing it here on my blog to make it more accessible to the wider Y movement.
INTERPRETING THE CHRISTIAN MISSION OF THE YMCA – 12/4/1998
It is not only a pleasure but an honor to be asked to speak to this important group of YMCA professional leaders from the South Field. At my age, it is a pleasant surprise to be asked to speak anywhere! People would expect me to be in a wheelchair, dimly aware of what is going on, doting on memories from the past.
I have been quite puzzled how to approach this subject of Christian purpose or Christian mission today. It might seem like “old stuff” to some of you. I have been dealing with this subject for more than 40 years. Is this still a timely topic? I am tempted to pause and ask you whether this is still a live question in the circles where you move. And if so, whose concern? The staff? The members? The public? And to what extent is this an important question to you personally? Where do you stand as a Christian? What questions do you have, either theological or practical? I am not stopping, but I’ll be glad for your comments on these questions later.
Let me take a few minutes to review my concern with this question. In the early 1940s, before I was President of Springfield College, I was involved as chairman of a Commission on Religious Emphasis and YMCA-Church Relations under the State Committee of the YMCA’s of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Those were days when relations with the Catholic Church was a live issue, and there were many Roman Catholics in Massachusetts and in the YMCA. Much of this pamphlet seems surprisingly relevant to today’s situation. I quote only one sentence:
“No participant in the YMCA is required to accept the Christian faith or join a Christian church, but he ought to be aware that he is joining a Christian organization which recognizes the importance of religion and makes resources available for the deepening of Christian faith.“
2. A few years later I was stationed in New York City as secretary, among other things, for the National Committee on Christian Emphasis. Part of my time was given to writing a book entitled Christian Emphasis in the YMCA. This was based in part on a survey of what YMCAs were actually doing. For many, this became a kind of “bible” of both philosophy and practice.
3. Twenty years later I was in Geneva as executive of the World Council of YMCAs and had first-hand contact with Catholics (two members of our staff), Orthodox (a World Council meeting in Greece), and any number of Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists within the YMCA membership. I attended many quadrennial World Council Meetings, including the one in Kampala (1973) where we wrestled with whether to change the Paris Basis. And of course there was the “top” experience of the 1955 World Centennial Conference in Paris in 1955. The report of that series of conferences, And Now-Tomorrow, is still worth reading.
4. Then followed 30 years in “retirement”, when I was privileged to maintain close contact with the YMCA’s across the country and around the world. In my autobiography you will find several pages entitled “Reviewing the Christian Mission of the YMCA: An Elusive Goal” (pp. 351-354), with a page of a few of the many articles I have written on this subject (p. 354).
I take this time for this historical review not to brag but to bear witness to a central concern for Christian mission through the years in our Movement. But how about today? Is this still a live issue? I do not live near the seats of power in the YMCA, but I cite several illustrations of lively interest.
1) The Executive Committee of NAFYR met in Orlando in November. On the docket was a proposed mission statement for NAFYR and resolutions from two chapters relating to the “C” in the YMCA. I will not take time to quote the new NAFYR mission statement, and I do not have details about the resolution from the chapters. But apparently for my retired colleagues this is still a lively question.
2) Our National Council had a Task Force which attempted to formulate a revised statement of Christian purpose. This ran into difficulties about two years ago and the proposal to leave “Christ” out of the statement aroused a flurry of protest. The Task Force gave up the idea of a change and instead is concentrating on mission. On the letterhead of our National Council correspondence is a more or less official statement that is widely copied locally:
YMCA mission: to put Christian principles inot practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all.
3) I have written a critique of this statement, but can not go into detail now. My brief comment is made in a publication which is another indication of current interest in Christian mission: a quarterly publication by the Charlotte YMCA called Dunamis, described as “A Newsletter to Encourage YMCA Leaders in the Christian Faith.” Are there publications of this kind in the South Field?
4) My last illustration: Some weeks ago Jay Lippy asked me to confer with him at this center. He is on the staff of the Tampa Metropolitan YMCA as Spiritual Emphasis Director. This is the first appointment of its kind that has come to my attention for many years: adding to the staff a person whose central concern is the Christian emphasis of the YMCA. Whether this is a trend I do not know. I am not even sure that I recommend this type of appointment. It may raise an old question about departmentalization. But at least it is another reflection of current concern. We would like to know more about how he is approaching this new assignment.
At this point you may expect me to launch into an analysis of what we mean by “Christian Mission” and how to express it. Instead, I want to make a “functional” approach. Let us look at the various groups with whom we are dealing in the interpretation of the Christian basis or mission of the YMCA.
1. The Public (statements in print). Every Association has its brochure, its printed statements about what the YMCA has to offer. Sometimes these are confined to schedules and events. But usually they include some statement of what the YMCA is and how it seeks to serve individuals and the community. This bulletin or brochure is important for our concern today. How do we interpret the YMCA to the public and our constituency? If I were a chief executive officer, this would be one of my important concerns: to put into print what the YMCA stands for. I would want to make clear that the YMCA is open to persons of all churches, all faiths, or none. Yet I would want to make clear that the YMCA has a Christian heritage and basis and seeks to put into practice the basic convictions of this movement centered around the teachings of Jesus and his outlook on life.
Some years ago the World Council of YMCAs published a little booklet entitled Christian – But Open. many YMCAs in the USA might prefer Open – But Christian. Take your choice! But some catchy title of this kind would be useful. How can we interpret to the public and to our adult members the basic Christian orientation and dynamic of our movement?
2) The Members. My impression is that most YMCAs are sadly lacking in their interpretation of the Christian basis of the YMCA to our own members. If I am wrong, correct me. But my impression is that the recruiting of members is primarily a matter of numbers and fees. To what extent do we try to explain to new members their responsibilities and our expectations? The process of interpretation would have to be carefully adapted to varying age groups. And it dare not be a dull, routine performance. Questions would be encouraged. There would be stress not only on bad language and not getting in fights, but on friendly relations and concern for others.
In my judgment, the current emphasis on values and responsibilities tends to be too abstract. Illustrations and stories are more effective. And at least an elementary understanding of how Jesus dealt with people is essential. Stories will be far more effective than slogans. Very few YMCAs will organize Bible studies, but a skillful teacher will find ways of using the Bible for illustrations. The stress will be on the right kind of relationships. And a realistic understanding of the way God deals with people is essential.
The job of a Membership Secretary – if there are any such – will take on new meaning.
There is of course also the broader interpretation of the YMCA historically and worldwide, which will be an important part of the education of members. But more about this later.
3) The Staff. In this process of interpretation the leadership is of cetnral importance. I think of both the professional staff and the volunteers. And the maintenance, non-professional staff dare not be overlooked. But I am thinking primarily of the full-time professional leaders.
Many staff meetings are routine affairs, with emphasis on jobs to do and events to come. Seldom can these be turned into educational experiences. Probably provision must be made for a series of sessions dealing with serious study and discussion. We have our curriculum for leaders in the early stage of their experience. Why not a continuing program, in spite of other pressures? It is this kind of continuing staff study that lends itself to a lively discussion of the Christian basis and purpose of the YMCA.
High on the list of topics would be a fresh study of the life and teachings of Jesus. Many of our leaders have had little opportunity for serious Bible study. Many are not ready to take on a study of the “C” in the YMCA with members because their own understanding is so shaky. I am ill at ease in leading a discussion in a field where I I am poorly informed. If a staff member is clear about the basic Christian purpose of the YMCA, he will find ways of communicating his point of view to members.
I would be glad to confer with any of you about suitable books for study in a staff session of this kind. In the field of the life of Jesus and his teaching, I have often recommended a book by a German Catholic professor, Hans Kung. It is a ponderous volume of about 700 pages. but it has basic insights that I have not found elsewhere. A year ago someone borrowed my copy and did not return it. But here is another book in my library that I recommend highly: The Historical Figure of Jesus by E.P. Sanders (Penguin Press, 1993).
Some of you are aware that during the last ten years there has been a fresh study of the Biblical records, particularly the four Gospels, sometimes referred to as the Jesus Seminar. To what extent are these records historically reliable? Did Jesus really say what he is reported to have said? E.P. Sanders takes these studies into account. His approach is truly scholarly, but positive. I assume that you would be interested in a scholarly approach of this kind rather than a writer who avoids critical examination of Biblical writings. The South Field could set a pattern for the national movement if you were to develop a program of continuing staff study related to the Christian basis of the YMCA.
4) I conclude by dealing with an aspect of our question that relates to all three areas: the public., the members, the staff. I am thinking of the broader picture of our YMCA Movement. Our tendency is to think of the YMCA in local terms: its membership, its program, its constituency. The average YMCA member has no idea of the breadth of this movement: its history, its spread to all corners of the globe, its reality as a world organization. I have one of those long photographs taken at the World Council Meeting in England in 1994. There is an amazing array of different colors, costumes, nationalities. There are about 1000 persons from over 100 countries. If only our “average” members could get the thrill of belonging to a world movement like ours! Ordinarily we shy away from pride. But you will forgive me if I am proud of belonging to a movement of this kind. And one of the thrills of my long lifetime was being in Westminster Abbey for the observance of the 150th Anniversary of the founding of the Young Men’s Christian Association.
Some of you heard me speak of the quarterly magazine published by the World Alliance, YMCA World. I will not elaborate, but I remind you that here is a publication that goes beyond our World Service program, great as that is. The World Alliance includes national movements never mentioned by World Service. This quarterly would be an eye-opener for many Associations – and even for many professional leaders. Recently I have been in correspondence with Bart Shaha, General Secretary of the Asia Alliance of YMCAs. In his newsletter he tells about a recent visit to Nepal, where there are now 11 small YMCAs. I did not know that the YMCA exists in Nepal. There is news here of YMCAs in other countries of Southeast Asia little known in this country.
Only a few of us have had the privilege of first-hand contact with YMCAs in other parts of the world, but each one can have a part in interpreting the wider dimensions of the YMCA. As we read of fires and floods and famine, we can remember that the YMCA is one of many organizations helping to restore these broken communities – and doing this as part of our service as Christians.
I have only touched on the challenge to renew a vital Christian spirit in our far-flung YMCA. You are the ones in the field who must carry through over and beyond my limited understanding and capacity. You are the ones who must translate these few suggestions into reality!
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