from my message on 3/4/12 from psalm 22
It is going to take me a few minutes to get to the good news, because this message is going to mirror this 22nd Psalm, which begins with what is awful. I want you to reflect on something awful. It may have happened to you. It may be something you read about. Go to that awful place. As I was driving around this past week, I reflected over 34 years of ministry and some of the awful places that had taken me. I share just one. It was on the last Sunday before Christmas out in San Saba. The tradition in that church was to go sing Christmas carols on that Sunday evening to those who were homebound or in nursing homes. Some of my ranchers had gotten a flatbed trailer with hay bales on it, pulled behind a pickup truck. We drove through the streets singing Christmas carols. At one stop, a deputy sheriff pulled up, and asked to see one of the moms on the trailer. What he told her caused her face to be crushed. I went up to her to see what had happened. She said, "My son ended his own life today." That is awful. At times like these, we pray, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me?
So I asked you to go to an awful place in your life. It may have been at work, where you walked in and got blind-side by allegations and lies, and in the span of just a few hours, you were fired, let go, terminated. And you are a good person, a faithful person, and you cry out, My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?
Or you are a student at school, and you are too slow, too fat, too short, too gay, and you get picked on. You go to worship and Sunday School. You read your Bible, but others bully you, and you cry out, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?
Or you put your husband through school, through multiple degrees. He now has his Ph.D., and you have your Mrs. But now that he is through school, he is through with you. He decides to trade you in for a newer model, and initiate d.i.v.o.r.c.e. And you are a Christian believer, and you cry out, My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?
What's awful for you may be some big thing or it may be a lot of little things that have added up to something big. Or it may be that your reserve has been depleted. You are tired and have little energy to cope. You pray to the God who seems to have gone AWOL, who is distant and uncaring, who has gone missing. The song of your heart is one of abandonement. You cry, My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?
We have heard these words before. Who says them? Jesus. What is the context? He is on the cross. These are some of the last words that Jesus says before his death by crucifixion. Jesus prays with us, for us. Jesus joins with everyone who feels deserted by God. He joins our scream, our complaint. So today Jesus prays with the people of Homs, Syria, who are surrrounded by the army that is picking them off like ducks on a pond, crying with them, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus prays with the families who have had children killed in school shootings. He joins those parents of the stillborn child.
When things are awful, we Christians claim that God is with us, Emmanuel, because Jesus has joined us in our pain, in our feeling of abandonement. No other God has wounds like ours. The Gospel writers clearly had Ps 22 in mind as they remembered the passion and death of Jesus. We Christians have the hope that Jesus joins us in our prayer when things are awful.
There is another bit of good news that I didn't realize until I read some commentaries this past week. It was the convention of that time that when one began quoting a passage that the first words were a shorthand for identifying the whole passage. So this passage begins with what is awful. There is terror. The animals, bulls and dogs represent terrible people or demonic forces. The broken body parts communicate "I'm as good as dead." Yet the passage has a "yet." In fact more than one as the pray-er remembers that yet you are the God who has saved us in the past and yet you have brought me from my mother's womb. And the passage ends with a glorieus affirmation. The poor shall eat and be satisfied, like at this communion table today. May your hearts live forever can be better translated as "May you always be in good heart." It says that all people shall worship before the Lord who rules over all the nations. Even those who die and future generations shall acknowledge the Lord and proclaim his salvation.
I have a story that captures this going from awful to affirmation. I went to the Bishop's Convocation this past week. One of our speakers was Greg Jones, former dean at Duke Divinity School. He has written extensively about forgiveness and reconciliation. He talked about one of his heroes in the faith, Maggie who founded the House of Peace in Burundi. Maggie is a tutsi who never married, but she adopted 7 children, 4 tutsi and 3 hutu. You may remember that Burundi was a hotbed of warfare and ethnic cleansing between these 2 peoples. Her people the tutsi came to her village and demanded to know which children were hutus so that they could kill them. She refused. "God does not separate the children. They are all his." They made her watch as they killed 72 hutus in front of her. This is awful, about as bad as things get. AS they were leaving, she was desperate to find her 7 children. She prayed to God, she called out their names, and she went looking for them. She found them in the sacristy of the chapel. All 7 were alive. She decided she was going to start a new village. She found all the money she could and went to the tustis and bought, redeemed 25 more children. She began the House of Peace where children could find a safe place to prosper. It became an orphanage, a school where the older children taught the younger ones. There were shops where new skills were learned. She said that life should have fun in it. She built a movie theater. Enemies from the bush would come, "Can we watch a movie?" "Of course, all are welcome here," she replied. She built a swimming pool. ON the very spot where the children were massacred, where their blood soaked the soil, she built a pool of water of refreshment and new beginning like baptism. A man came to kill her. He pointed his AK-47 in her face. It is very hard for things to bother you when you have faced what is most awful in life. She didn't flinch. She said, "You don't want to kill me. Look at you. YOu are hiding in the bush. You don't know where your next meal is coming from or where you are going to sleep at night. Come join us." And he did. Her assassin became her driver! Maggie says, "I know I can never stop the war, but I can stop it in my heart and in the hearts of children." Over 10,000 children have come through the HOuse of Peace since 1993. Her model has been taken to many other countries in the world.
I invite you to keep praying. Especially when things are the most awful. God has a way of bringing an affirmation out of what is most awful. We Christians say that God brings life out of death, resurrection our of crucifixion. That is the good news I have to share on this second Sunday of Advent.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
prayer for guidance
from my message on 2.26/12 from Psalm 25:1-10
All of us get lost sometime. All of us need help to find our way. We may need more than a map or GPS. Today in Ps. 25, we have a prayer for guidance. One commentary I read said it sets an agenda for prayer in a thorough way. The psalm is easy to follow, because it is an acrostic, that is, each verse begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet.....22 letters ...so 22 verses. Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Daleth...Don't worry, I am not going through 22 steps, only 3. This will be as easy as A, B, C.
A is for Ask. We need to ask for help. This is difficult, especially for us men of the male gender! We were patterned not to ask for help. I worked with my dad building hog houses from Yuma, Arizona, to Metter, Georgia. I vividly remember entering a new town, trying to find the lumber yard. My dad would say, "As long as there is some daylight left and a little bit of gas in the tank, we are NOT stopping to ask for directions!"
We find it hard to raise our hand and ask for help. I am going to be making an analogy here about raising our hands, because the text says, "to you, O LORD, I lift up my soul." Lizzie is an associate pastor in Smithville. She is in her first year there, just out of seminary. She has charge of a contemporary worship service which is led by a praise band made up entirely of teenage boys. She had a meeting with her guys to see how worship was going. "Not very good," they said. Is it the message? No, your messages are fine. Well, what about the music? NO, the music is ok. Well, what is it? The problem is that noboby raises their hands during the singing. That's it? Yes, that's it.
A few weeks later, Lizzie and her teenage boy band and several other high schoolers attended a weekend retreat at Mt. Wesley called a Mid-Winter. There was a band in the worship center leading the service. They were rocking out. Youth were raising their hands praising God. The boys in the Lizzie's band looked to their front man. He raised his hands. They raised their hands. Then they looked to Lizzie. Now Lizzie is the daughter of 2 Methodist pastors....who did not raise their hands in worship. She grew up knowing that was right for her as well. She knew that we Methodists might raise 1 hand, about shoulder high, as we sang Here I Am, Lord. But that was pushing it. They all looked to her. She raised her hands in worship.
This is what she found out. When you raise your hands, you make yourself totally vulnerable. You are exposed. YOu can no longer pretend that you are in charge. Your schedule and agenda no longer matter. We can no longer make things better by simply working harder. NO, to you O Lord we lift up our souls. We say we trust you God, not ourselves. We wait on you and your salvation. It is not about us. It is about God, about trusting in God. That's what happens when we raise our hands and ask for help.
And then God can help, when we ask. When we get out of the way and ask. It is like what Jesus says in Matt. 7, Ask and it will be given you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.
The first step to guidance is Ask. The second is Bible. B is for Bible. The Jews call their Bible the Torah. Often translated as Law, a better translation is instruction. In verse 8, it says, he instructs sinners in the way. The word for instruct is the same root as Torah. There are many synonyms for the Torah in this passage: way, path, truth, covenant, decrees. The Bible is given for our instruction.
John Wesley who founded the Methodist movement that became the UMC today said that whenever we want to know what God is like, what we are to believe, how we are to act, or the way forward, we go to the Bible first. We always read it through the lens of tradition; we can learn from the past. We read it through experience; we can use our feelings. We read it through reason; it is ok to be a thinking Christian. We read the whole Bible, not just the parts we like. We don't pick and choose. We don't take passages at random. The old preacher joke is of the struggling businessman who said that he was going to open the Bible and put his finger down and do whatever the Bible said to do. He open the book, and placed his finger down, and the Bible said, "Chapter 11." During this season of Lent, it is a good time to open yourselves to God's leading by reading the Bible. Start soaking yourselves in what God has to say. As I read the whole of the Bible, I find an arc of God's fierce love for us. I find a God who keeps trying to find another way to get us to understand how much He loves us. The last thing in reading the Bible is to read it in community. We all go to the Bible with our blinders on. We need the counsel of other Christians.
This leads to the letter C, which is for Community. We are better together than we are apart. I didn't have a good illustration for this until the confirmation retreat this past weekend. I led the youth in a catacomb worship experience on Friday night. We transformed a den in a lake house into a cave with candles. We met as 1st century Christians who worshiped under threat. We had no hymnals, so all of the music had to come out of our memories. We sang Jesus loves me, among other favorites. We had no Bibles, so we had to quote scriptures and remember stories we knew by heart. Phil. 4:13 was mentioned, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. We had the sacrament of communion, serving each other in a circle. We had prayers for each other. Before I let them go, I asked them to reflect on their experience. One youth said, "This was so much better than watching TV. I needed this. The pressure of studying and sports gets to me. I feel at peace now. It is great just to be with your friends and to pray and you don't have to explain." Wow! Community is powerful.
The next day we did worship planning for a service that the confirmands will lead on May 6. They chose the hymns, the prayers, all of the liturgy for that day. At the end, I asked them to reflect again. One youth said, "this was fun." Community is fun. It is the context in which we pray for guidance. We do it together.
Ask....Bible...Community....God has plans for you that are better than the ones you have for yourself. Have fun seeking guidance.
All of us get lost sometime. All of us need help to find our way. We may need more than a map or GPS. Today in Ps. 25, we have a prayer for guidance. One commentary I read said it sets an agenda for prayer in a thorough way. The psalm is easy to follow, because it is an acrostic, that is, each verse begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet.....22 letters ...so 22 verses. Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Daleth...Don't worry, I am not going through 22 steps, only 3. This will be as easy as A, B, C.
A is for Ask. We need to ask for help. This is difficult, especially for us men of the male gender! We were patterned not to ask for help. I worked with my dad building hog houses from Yuma, Arizona, to Metter, Georgia. I vividly remember entering a new town, trying to find the lumber yard. My dad would say, "As long as there is some daylight left and a little bit of gas in the tank, we are NOT stopping to ask for directions!"
We find it hard to raise our hand and ask for help. I am going to be making an analogy here about raising our hands, because the text says, "to you, O LORD, I lift up my soul." Lizzie is an associate pastor in Smithville. She is in her first year there, just out of seminary. She has charge of a contemporary worship service which is led by a praise band made up entirely of teenage boys. She had a meeting with her guys to see how worship was going. "Not very good," they said. Is it the message? No, your messages are fine. Well, what about the music? NO, the music is ok. Well, what is it? The problem is that noboby raises their hands during the singing. That's it? Yes, that's it.
A few weeks later, Lizzie and her teenage boy band and several other high schoolers attended a weekend retreat at Mt. Wesley called a Mid-Winter. There was a band in the worship center leading the service. They were rocking out. Youth were raising their hands praising God. The boys in the Lizzie's band looked to their front man. He raised his hands. They raised their hands. Then they looked to Lizzie. Now Lizzie is the daughter of 2 Methodist pastors....who did not raise their hands in worship. She grew up knowing that was right for her as well. She knew that we Methodists might raise 1 hand, about shoulder high, as we sang Here I Am, Lord. But that was pushing it. They all looked to her. She raised her hands in worship.
This is what she found out. When you raise your hands, you make yourself totally vulnerable. You are exposed. YOu can no longer pretend that you are in charge. Your schedule and agenda no longer matter. We can no longer make things better by simply working harder. NO, to you O Lord we lift up our souls. We say we trust you God, not ourselves. We wait on you and your salvation. It is not about us. It is about God, about trusting in God. That's what happens when we raise our hands and ask for help.
And then God can help, when we ask. When we get out of the way and ask. It is like what Jesus says in Matt. 7, Ask and it will be given you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.
The first step to guidance is Ask. The second is Bible. B is for Bible. The Jews call their Bible the Torah. Often translated as Law, a better translation is instruction. In verse 8, it says, he instructs sinners in the way. The word for instruct is the same root as Torah. There are many synonyms for the Torah in this passage: way, path, truth, covenant, decrees. The Bible is given for our instruction.
John Wesley who founded the Methodist movement that became the UMC today said that whenever we want to know what God is like, what we are to believe, how we are to act, or the way forward, we go to the Bible first. We always read it through the lens of tradition; we can learn from the past. We read it through experience; we can use our feelings. We read it through reason; it is ok to be a thinking Christian. We read the whole Bible, not just the parts we like. We don't pick and choose. We don't take passages at random. The old preacher joke is of the struggling businessman who said that he was going to open the Bible and put his finger down and do whatever the Bible said to do. He open the book, and placed his finger down, and the Bible said, "Chapter 11." During this season of Lent, it is a good time to open yourselves to God's leading by reading the Bible. Start soaking yourselves in what God has to say. As I read the whole of the Bible, I find an arc of God's fierce love for us. I find a God who keeps trying to find another way to get us to understand how much He loves us. The last thing in reading the Bible is to read it in community. We all go to the Bible with our blinders on. We need the counsel of other Christians.
This leads to the letter C, which is for Community. We are better together than we are apart. I didn't have a good illustration for this until the confirmation retreat this past weekend. I led the youth in a catacomb worship experience on Friday night. We transformed a den in a lake house into a cave with candles. We met as 1st century Christians who worshiped under threat. We had no hymnals, so all of the music had to come out of our memories. We sang Jesus loves me, among other favorites. We had no Bibles, so we had to quote scriptures and remember stories we knew by heart. Phil. 4:13 was mentioned, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. We had the sacrament of communion, serving each other in a circle. We had prayers for each other. Before I let them go, I asked them to reflect on their experience. One youth said, "This was so much better than watching TV. I needed this. The pressure of studying and sports gets to me. I feel at peace now. It is great just to be with your friends and to pray and you don't have to explain." Wow! Community is powerful.
The next day we did worship planning for a service that the confirmands will lead on May 6. They chose the hymns, the prayers, all of the liturgy for that day. At the end, I asked them to reflect again. One youth said, "this was fun." Community is fun. It is the context in which we pray for guidance. We do it together.
Ask....Bible...Community....God has plans for you that are better than the ones you have for yourself. Have fun seeking guidance.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
transformed
a dialogue sermon with Tina Carter from Parker Lane UMC, on Transfiguration of the Lord, from Mark 9:2-9
I'm upset....YOU'RE UPSET, WHY?
I've been reading a book...THE BIBLE?
No, yes, that and another book called Simple Church...READING THIS BOOK HAS GOTTEN YOU UPSET.
See, I am in this cont. ed. course called Healthy Church Initiative. 12 of us pastors get together 1/month to talk after reading these books. We have 2 group leaders who are taking us thr this process of really looking at what is going on in our churches. We also have 3 laypersons from our congregation who are meeting with other laypeople for other churches reading the same bookd & going thru the sam class...THIS DOESN'T SOUND TOO UPSETTING.
I know it is just a book, words on a page. But hese particular wors have rung true to me. I have been telling some of our church leaders that this book has been kicking my theological butt. The authors talk about there being 2 kinds of church: 1 is a program church and the other is one that makes disciples. The program church is busy, it fills the calendar with good events, many that have been going on for years, and it has highly qualified staff who are loved and respected. The 2nd one has a clearly defined path that leads people to fall in love with God, grow their souls in small group relationships, & sends them out to serve others. What has me upset is that we do lots of great programs, but we don't always make lots of followers of Christ. ....OUCH
Ouch is right. We do great programs like last night's That's Amore' Y'all. It was such fun. Jean was taking tickets at the door. I don't know why, but she found found several of us males to be suspect, and insisted on doing a pat down search of us in a dark room. The 3 tenors made another appearance. Many generations came together and had a good time. We do so many programs: we have men's groups, women's groups, youth groups, Sunday School classes, Bible studies, mission projects, music ministries for all ages, and on and on. At staff meetings, we spend a lot of time just trying to fit in 1 more thing on the calendar. Do we have the space? Who will be in charge? We can tire ourselves out just working on the logistics. But what has convicted me is this: are any lives changed? Has anyone grown closer to Christ? Has anyone matured in their faith?.....I SEE YOUR STRUGGLE.
So I shared this concern with my accountability group, 3 pastor friends, this past Monday morning at 7 at Chick Fil-A. They nodded their heads. They too are busy trying to keep up with all of the church programming. They cautioned me though, saying some of the programming does lead to life-changing relationships. I agree. But some doesn't. How do we choose? What might need to be cut in order to get rid of the clutter so that people can see what is the next step in following Christ?....SO WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH THE SCRIPTURE WE READ?
Right. This is the story of the transfiguration of Jesus. We don't use that word everyday...transfiguration. I'll come back to it. So Jesus is on a high mtn, figuratively closer to God, paralleling what Moses did in summit meetings with God in Exodus. Jesus is glorified, surounded by light, so bright, no earthly light comes close. 2 major players, all stars from the Hebrew faith join Jesus. Funny side note: how do we know the identity of these 2? A pastor/scholar that I read wondered if they had their names stenciled on the back of their robes like football players' jerseys: #22 Elijah and #10 Moses. The inner circle of Jesus is with him, Peter, John, James. In the presence of all this holiness, beyond description, Peter tries to tame it with words. he tries to domesticate it with memorial structures. He doesn't know what to say. He is so afraid. My fear is that we avoid encountering the Holy with words as we go to meetings and take minutes, or as we try to hang onto something good from the past by building structures and programs adn don't want to move on. We find it hard to stay in the glory of Jesus & to simply listen to him. It is much easier to crowd our lives & our churches & our calendars with our words & our programs. We especially don't want to go down the mtn to see what happens when we follow Jesus all the way to Jerusalem and to his death....SO WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?
The 1st thing I acknowledge is that I am being changed. This book the Bible and this book Simple Church and this course Healthy Church Initiative are shaking me up. We have a meeting on Tuesday where church leaders are going to be looking at 15 goals for this congregation. All of this and more are God's way of saying, "I am not through with you yet." Sometimes, I can feel old & cynical & tired. Then God comes along with a new revelation of glory. And I am transformed. The 2nd thing is that we have the right vision statement: Following One, Serving All. We need to align what we do here with that statement. We are really robust at the serving all part. But we have lots of challenges where it comes to Following One. I confess this day that we have attracted many guests here, and some have even become members here, but I am not sure we have helped them grow in their relationship with Christ. I am not sure anyone here could even tell me what would be the next step in their spiritual journey. We have not done well at making disciples, followers of Christ. Now I would like to hear about your experience at PLUM.
OUR EXPERIENCE AT PLUM IS A LITTLE DIFFERNT. ALTHOUGH WE ARE LOCATED IN A POOR NEIGBORHOOD, WE ARE A MIXTURE OF GENERATIONALLY POOR MARGIN PEOPLE & MIDDLE CLASS POPEL WHO HAVE BEEN CALLED BY GOD TO TRANSFORMATIONS RELATIONSHIPS. SO WE ARE A MIX OF BLACK, GROWN & WHITE. WE ARE A MIX OF POOR & MIDDLE CLASS. WE ARE A MIX OF EDUCATED & NOT EDUCATED. AND THE PEOPLE AT PLUM IN GENERAL ARE COMMITED TO TEH CONCEPT THAT GOD IS TRANSFORMING US ALL IN WONDERFUL & NON-PREDICTABLE WAYS. AND WE ARE THERE FOR THE LONG HAUL. QUITE FRANKLY EVERYON WHO WAS AT THE CHURCH FOR OTHER REASONS HAS LONG AGO LEFT IN FRUSTRATION. SO WE ARE PEOPLE WHO EXPECT GOD TO CHANGE US RADICALLY THROUGH RELATIONSHIP WITH ONE ANOTHER AND WITH GOD. AND BECAUSE WE COME FROM A VARIETY OF BACKGROUNDS, AND ARE GENERALLY CURIOUS, WE WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT EACH OTHER. WE UNDERSTAND THAT LIFE IS MESSY AND RELATIONSHIP IS MESSY AND SO WE EXPECT CHURCH TO BE A LITTLE MESSY.
ONE STORY MIGHT HELP TO ILLUSTRAT. I WAS RECENTLY WITH 1 OF OUR YOUNGERS. THIS LITTLE 1 WILL PROBABLY IDENTIFY HERSELF IN THE FUTURE AS BI-RACIAL, BUT RIGHT NOW SHE JUST SEES HERSELF AS 9. SHE LIVES IN HER FAMILY WITH HER ADOPTIVE FATHER. SHE HAS BEEN IN FOSTER CARE IN HER LIFETIME AND NOW HAS A FOREVER HOME. SHE ASKED ME, "PASTOR, HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO JAIL?" AND I SAID, "YES, LOTS OF TIMES." HER RESPONSE, "FOR WHAT?' "WELL TO VISIT FOLKS, TO PRAY, TO SUPPORT STAFF WHO WORK IN PRISONS, & EVEN ONCE TO DO A WEDDING." IN HER DISGUSTING LITTLE 9 YR. OLD VOICE SHE SAID, "NO, I MEAN HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO JAIL FOR SOMETHING?" WHEN I RESPONDED IN THE NEGATIVE, SHE SAID, "WHY NOT?" LET THAT SINK IN FOR A MOMENT. HER RESPONSE WAS WHY NOT. SO I SAID, "ACTUALLY, YOU ARE KIND OF SPECIAL BECAUSE YOU KNOW PEOPLE WHO HAVE GONE TO PRISON. MOST PEOPLE DON'T GO TO PRISON. MANY PEOPLE DON'T EVEN KNOW ANYONE WHO HAS GONE TO PRISON." SHE WAS AMAZED. I WASN'T AMAZED. THE TRUTH IS THAT STATISTICALLY SPEAKING THERE SHOULD BE AT LEAST 1 FAMIL HERE WHO HAS PERSON EXPERIENC WITH PRISON OR WHO HAS A LOVED 1 IN PRISON. THERE IS SO MUCH SHAME ASSOCIATED WITH HAVING SOMEONE IN PRISON, THAT WE FIND IT HARD TO EVEN ASK FOR PRAYERS ABOUT IT. BUT IN OUR CONGREGATION IT'S COMMON. AND ACTUALLY IT'S FAR TOO COMMON FOR OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF COLOR. READ THE NEW JIM CROW: MASS INCARCERATION IN THE AGE OF COLORBLINDNESS. IT WILL BREAK YOUR HEART. THAT KIND OF CONVERSATION DOESN'T HAPPEN WITHOUT TRUE RELATIONSHIP. AND THAT KIND OF CONVERSATION IS TRANSFORMATIONAL FOR BOTH PARTIES INVOLVED. MY HEART WAS INDEED BROKEN THAT DAY.
We connect with your story here at WUMC as we have begun a ministry called the Storybook Project where women from here go to the prison in Gatesville to help women in white read bedtime stories on tape so that their children can go to sleep hearing the sound of their voices. I am proud of this church as we go out into the community to serve. I was scared when the Bishop appointed me here at WUMC. I was afraid we would be an isolated island of rich, white folks insulated from the rest of the world. But I have been pleasantly surprised by how engaged we are with the problems of our neighbors. Any Baby Can grew out of this congregation. Mobile Loaves and Fishes are strongly supported by WUMC. Foundation for the Homeless and so many more ministries are backed by us. I just don't want us to be a bunch of do-gooders though, another service club. I want our motivation to be because we are following Jesus.
I think our denomination has the right vision statement: making disciples for the transformation of the world. I pray that we may be transformed. I looked up the Greek word that is translated as transfiguration. It is literally metamorphasis. Our English comes directly from the Greek. I pray that we may not get stuck in our cocoon of comfortableness, of "we've always done it that way." I pray we may become the butterflies God intends us to be. Jesus was transformed on the mountain. I pray we may be also. Amen.
I'm upset....YOU'RE UPSET, WHY?
I've been reading a book...THE BIBLE?
No, yes, that and another book called Simple Church...READING THIS BOOK HAS GOTTEN YOU UPSET.
See, I am in this cont. ed. course called Healthy Church Initiative. 12 of us pastors get together 1/month to talk after reading these books. We have 2 group leaders who are taking us thr this process of really looking at what is going on in our churches. We also have 3 laypersons from our congregation who are meeting with other laypeople for other churches reading the same bookd & going thru the sam class...THIS DOESN'T SOUND TOO UPSETTING.
I know it is just a book, words on a page. But hese particular wors have rung true to me. I have been telling some of our church leaders that this book has been kicking my theological butt. The authors talk about there being 2 kinds of church: 1 is a program church and the other is one that makes disciples. The program church is busy, it fills the calendar with good events, many that have been going on for years, and it has highly qualified staff who are loved and respected. The 2nd one has a clearly defined path that leads people to fall in love with God, grow their souls in small group relationships, & sends them out to serve others. What has me upset is that we do lots of great programs, but we don't always make lots of followers of Christ. ....OUCH
Ouch is right. We do great programs like last night's That's Amore' Y'all. It was such fun. Jean was taking tickets at the door. I don't know why, but she found found several of us males to be suspect, and insisted on doing a pat down search of us in a dark room. The 3 tenors made another appearance. Many generations came together and had a good time. We do so many programs: we have men's groups, women's groups, youth groups, Sunday School classes, Bible studies, mission projects, music ministries for all ages, and on and on. At staff meetings, we spend a lot of time just trying to fit in 1 more thing on the calendar. Do we have the space? Who will be in charge? We can tire ourselves out just working on the logistics. But what has convicted me is this: are any lives changed? Has anyone grown closer to Christ? Has anyone matured in their faith?.....I SEE YOUR STRUGGLE.
So I shared this concern with my accountability group, 3 pastor friends, this past Monday morning at 7 at Chick Fil-A. They nodded their heads. They too are busy trying to keep up with all of the church programming. They cautioned me though, saying some of the programming does lead to life-changing relationships. I agree. But some doesn't. How do we choose? What might need to be cut in order to get rid of the clutter so that people can see what is the next step in following Christ?....SO WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH THE SCRIPTURE WE READ?
Right. This is the story of the transfiguration of Jesus. We don't use that word everyday...transfiguration. I'll come back to it. So Jesus is on a high mtn, figuratively closer to God, paralleling what Moses did in summit meetings with God in Exodus. Jesus is glorified, surounded by light, so bright, no earthly light comes close. 2 major players, all stars from the Hebrew faith join Jesus. Funny side note: how do we know the identity of these 2? A pastor/scholar that I read wondered if they had their names stenciled on the back of their robes like football players' jerseys: #22 Elijah and #10 Moses. The inner circle of Jesus is with him, Peter, John, James. In the presence of all this holiness, beyond description, Peter tries to tame it with words. he tries to domesticate it with memorial structures. He doesn't know what to say. He is so afraid. My fear is that we avoid encountering the Holy with words as we go to meetings and take minutes, or as we try to hang onto something good from the past by building structures and programs adn don't want to move on. We find it hard to stay in the glory of Jesus & to simply listen to him. It is much easier to crowd our lives & our churches & our calendars with our words & our programs. We especially don't want to go down the mtn to see what happens when we follow Jesus all the way to Jerusalem and to his death....SO WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?
The 1st thing I acknowledge is that I am being changed. This book the Bible and this book Simple Church and this course Healthy Church Initiative are shaking me up. We have a meeting on Tuesday where church leaders are going to be looking at 15 goals for this congregation. All of this and more are God's way of saying, "I am not through with you yet." Sometimes, I can feel old & cynical & tired. Then God comes along with a new revelation of glory. And I am transformed. The 2nd thing is that we have the right vision statement: Following One, Serving All. We need to align what we do here with that statement. We are really robust at the serving all part. But we have lots of challenges where it comes to Following One. I confess this day that we have attracted many guests here, and some have even become members here, but I am not sure we have helped them grow in their relationship with Christ. I am not sure anyone here could even tell me what would be the next step in their spiritual journey. We have not done well at making disciples, followers of Christ. Now I would like to hear about your experience at PLUM.
OUR EXPERIENCE AT PLUM IS A LITTLE DIFFERNT. ALTHOUGH WE ARE LOCATED IN A POOR NEIGBORHOOD, WE ARE A MIXTURE OF GENERATIONALLY POOR MARGIN PEOPLE & MIDDLE CLASS POPEL WHO HAVE BEEN CALLED BY GOD TO TRANSFORMATIONS RELATIONSHIPS. SO WE ARE A MIX OF BLACK, GROWN & WHITE. WE ARE A MIX OF POOR & MIDDLE CLASS. WE ARE A MIX OF EDUCATED & NOT EDUCATED. AND THE PEOPLE AT PLUM IN GENERAL ARE COMMITED TO TEH CONCEPT THAT GOD IS TRANSFORMING US ALL IN WONDERFUL & NON-PREDICTABLE WAYS. AND WE ARE THERE FOR THE LONG HAUL. QUITE FRANKLY EVERYON WHO WAS AT THE CHURCH FOR OTHER REASONS HAS LONG AGO LEFT IN FRUSTRATION. SO WE ARE PEOPLE WHO EXPECT GOD TO CHANGE US RADICALLY THROUGH RELATIONSHIP WITH ONE ANOTHER AND WITH GOD. AND BECAUSE WE COME FROM A VARIETY OF BACKGROUNDS, AND ARE GENERALLY CURIOUS, WE WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT EACH OTHER. WE UNDERSTAND THAT LIFE IS MESSY AND RELATIONSHIP IS MESSY AND SO WE EXPECT CHURCH TO BE A LITTLE MESSY.
ONE STORY MIGHT HELP TO ILLUSTRAT. I WAS RECENTLY WITH 1 OF OUR YOUNGERS. THIS LITTLE 1 WILL PROBABLY IDENTIFY HERSELF IN THE FUTURE AS BI-RACIAL, BUT RIGHT NOW SHE JUST SEES HERSELF AS 9. SHE LIVES IN HER FAMILY WITH HER ADOPTIVE FATHER. SHE HAS BEEN IN FOSTER CARE IN HER LIFETIME AND NOW HAS A FOREVER HOME. SHE ASKED ME, "PASTOR, HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO JAIL?" AND I SAID, "YES, LOTS OF TIMES." HER RESPONSE, "FOR WHAT?' "WELL TO VISIT FOLKS, TO PRAY, TO SUPPORT STAFF WHO WORK IN PRISONS, & EVEN ONCE TO DO A WEDDING." IN HER DISGUSTING LITTLE 9 YR. OLD VOICE SHE SAID, "NO, I MEAN HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO JAIL FOR SOMETHING?" WHEN I RESPONDED IN THE NEGATIVE, SHE SAID, "WHY NOT?" LET THAT SINK IN FOR A MOMENT. HER RESPONSE WAS WHY NOT. SO I SAID, "ACTUALLY, YOU ARE KIND OF SPECIAL BECAUSE YOU KNOW PEOPLE WHO HAVE GONE TO PRISON. MOST PEOPLE DON'T GO TO PRISON. MANY PEOPLE DON'T EVEN KNOW ANYONE WHO HAS GONE TO PRISON." SHE WAS AMAZED. I WASN'T AMAZED. THE TRUTH IS THAT STATISTICALLY SPEAKING THERE SHOULD BE AT LEAST 1 FAMIL HERE WHO HAS PERSON EXPERIENC WITH PRISON OR WHO HAS A LOVED 1 IN PRISON. THERE IS SO MUCH SHAME ASSOCIATED WITH HAVING SOMEONE IN PRISON, THAT WE FIND IT HARD TO EVEN ASK FOR PRAYERS ABOUT IT. BUT IN OUR CONGREGATION IT'S COMMON. AND ACTUALLY IT'S FAR TOO COMMON FOR OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF COLOR. READ THE NEW JIM CROW: MASS INCARCERATION IN THE AGE OF COLORBLINDNESS. IT WILL BREAK YOUR HEART. THAT KIND OF CONVERSATION DOESN'T HAPPEN WITHOUT TRUE RELATIONSHIP. AND THAT KIND OF CONVERSATION IS TRANSFORMATIONAL FOR BOTH PARTIES INVOLVED. MY HEART WAS INDEED BROKEN THAT DAY.
We connect with your story here at WUMC as we have begun a ministry called the Storybook Project where women from here go to the prison in Gatesville to help women in white read bedtime stories on tape so that their children can go to sleep hearing the sound of their voices. I am proud of this church as we go out into the community to serve. I was scared when the Bishop appointed me here at WUMC. I was afraid we would be an isolated island of rich, white folks insulated from the rest of the world. But I have been pleasantly surprised by how engaged we are with the problems of our neighbors. Any Baby Can grew out of this congregation. Mobile Loaves and Fishes are strongly supported by WUMC. Foundation for the Homeless and so many more ministries are backed by us. I just don't want us to be a bunch of do-gooders though, another service club. I want our motivation to be because we are following Jesus.
I think our denomination has the right vision statement: making disciples for the transformation of the world. I pray that we may be transformed. I looked up the Greek word that is translated as transfiguration. It is literally metamorphasis. Our English comes directly from the Greek. I pray that we may not get stuck in our cocoon of comfortableness, of "we've always done it that way." I pray we may become the butterflies God intends us to be. Jesus was transformed on the mountain. I pray we may be also. Amen.
Monday, February 13, 2012
filling the bucket to overflowing: commitment
from my sermon on 2/12/12 from Col. 2:6-7
Abounding with thanksgiving...that's what Paul says. Like a bucket that can't hold anymore and spills over with gratitude....that's how we can be. We can do this because we have a God of abundance.
I love what the Psalms say. In 103:8, the LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. In Psalm 5, But I through the abundance of your steadfast love will enter your house, I will bow down toward your holy temple in awe of you. In Psalm 69, as for me my prayer is to you, O LORD, at an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me. And of course, our favorite Psalm, the 23rd, which says my cup runneth over.
We can be overflowing with thanksgiving because of what God has done in Jesus Christ, who lived among, died for us, and was raised again for us. In John 10:10, Jesus says that he came that we might have life and have it abundantly. In the only miracle that is record in all 4 gospels, the feeding of the multitudes, Jesus takes the offering of a few fish and loaves of bread and multiplies them so that huge crowds are fed, and abundant leftovers are taken up, many basketfuls. In Acts, it records that the church increased daily; it grew abundantly.
The word for abundance or overflowing means excessive, more than enough, be extremely rich, be left over, over and above the basic needs or expectations.
My heart is overflowing with thanksgiving today. I always try to live into these passages as I prepare the message each week. I want to tell you 4 stories of overflowing with gratitude. The weekend previous, we held a Created by God workshop here, where 5th and 6th graders get to hear about this gift of human sexuality, that we are made male and female in the image of God. I do an evaluation instrument with the young people asking them how they feel when they first get started. Almost without exception, the response is "scared." I have them draw a picture of their face when they first learned they were coming to this event. Many times it looks like that famous painting of "the scream." In the evaluation, I ask them to write how they feel now that they have finished the course. One male wrote, "I feel like I can be a man who respects his sisters." It doesn't get much better than that.
At that event, Dr. Jim Chudleigh, offered one of the devotionals on Saturday. He talked about how as a physician he had the joy of delivering babies. What happens is that he would receive this life into his hands. He was the first person to hold this new person. After a bit of cleaning up, warming up, and wrapping up, he would hand the child most often to the mother. She would hold the child in her hands. Then she most likely would hand the child off to the father. Then the child would be handed off to grandparents, other relatives, and friends. Are you following the metaphor? All through life, we are being handed off. Preachers, teachers, scout leaders...and on and on. We are always in someone's hands. Jim talked about the death of his father and the image of his children, his father's grandchildren carrying the casket in their hands to the gravesite. There the man was given into the hands of God, from whom he came. Isn't this the gospel? I was so filled with gratitude for Jim and all the small group leaders.
Then Tuesday, we had a district professionals meeting where we preachers and other church professionals in the Austin area get together to talk and eat and best of all worship. Eight of our younger clergy candidates led the worship about how they encountered Christ in other people. One of those was Abby Parker, former youth minister here. She talked about going on a mission trip to Guatemala. She would spend her free time not hanging out with the team that came from the States, but with the locals, the bus drivers and the women. She was so moved by the women who at 13,000 feet altitude would carry huge water jars on their heads, bringing the water that was used to make her weak coffee in the morning. Abby felt such community with these brothers and sisters. I felt so full of gratitude at how God was calling Abby and others into ordained ministry.
Then on Thursday, I was visiting with Pam Cho, she who is going through another round of cancer. Pam was saying how earlier her white cell count had been at 28,000. This past week it had dropped to 8. Not 8,000, or 800, or 80, but 8. Pam has a dedicated, competent healing team in the medical field. Pam is also thankful for our prayers for healing. On a lighter note, Pam gave me permission to say that before this treatment started, she was looking at losing some weight. Through this process, she has lost quite a bit, for which she gives thanks. However, she does not recommend this as a diet plan for others. There are other ways to get your weight down. My heart overflowed with joy at Pam's news.
One more story that involves Igor Petresky. For more than a year and a half, we have been walking with the Petresky family after Igor was greatly paralyzed in a diving accident. The family was given a Suburban by former church members to get to hospitals and such. Igor has made great progress in rehab, to the point that he is attending ACC as a part-time student. He is now able to do a chair to car transfer by himself....but the Suburban is too tall. His parents are straining their backs to get Igor in and out. This past week, another family in this church has offered their car which is just at the right height. My heart is full of thanksgiving.
The passage from Paul to the Colossians says that we are to stick to our faith and to stay in relationship with Jesus. Now in the next part, the verb tenses are important. They are present tense participles, meaning continuing action. In other words, we are to keep on being rooted in Christ, keep on being built up like a house in Him, keep on being established like a contract in Him, and keep on overflowing with thanksgivng. May it be so today and for ever.
Abounding with thanksgiving...that's what Paul says. Like a bucket that can't hold anymore and spills over with gratitude....that's how we can be. We can do this because we have a God of abundance.
I love what the Psalms say. In 103:8, the LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. In Psalm 5, But I through the abundance of your steadfast love will enter your house, I will bow down toward your holy temple in awe of you. In Psalm 69, as for me my prayer is to you, O LORD, at an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me. And of course, our favorite Psalm, the 23rd, which says my cup runneth over.
We can be overflowing with thanksgiving because of what God has done in Jesus Christ, who lived among, died for us, and was raised again for us. In John 10:10, Jesus says that he came that we might have life and have it abundantly. In the only miracle that is record in all 4 gospels, the feeding of the multitudes, Jesus takes the offering of a few fish and loaves of bread and multiplies them so that huge crowds are fed, and abundant leftovers are taken up, many basketfuls. In Acts, it records that the church increased daily; it grew abundantly.
The word for abundance or overflowing means excessive, more than enough, be extremely rich, be left over, over and above the basic needs or expectations.
My heart is overflowing with thanksgiving today. I always try to live into these passages as I prepare the message each week. I want to tell you 4 stories of overflowing with gratitude. The weekend previous, we held a Created by God workshop here, where 5th and 6th graders get to hear about this gift of human sexuality, that we are made male and female in the image of God. I do an evaluation instrument with the young people asking them how they feel when they first get started. Almost without exception, the response is "scared." I have them draw a picture of their face when they first learned they were coming to this event. Many times it looks like that famous painting of "the scream." In the evaluation, I ask them to write how they feel now that they have finished the course. One male wrote, "I feel like I can be a man who respects his sisters." It doesn't get much better than that.
At that event, Dr. Jim Chudleigh, offered one of the devotionals on Saturday. He talked about how as a physician he had the joy of delivering babies. What happens is that he would receive this life into his hands. He was the first person to hold this new person. After a bit of cleaning up, warming up, and wrapping up, he would hand the child most often to the mother. She would hold the child in her hands. Then she most likely would hand the child off to the father. Then the child would be handed off to grandparents, other relatives, and friends. Are you following the metaphor? All through life, we are being handed off. Preachers, teachers, scout leaders...and on and on. We are always in someone's hands. Jim talked about the death of his father and the image of his children, his father's grandchildren carrying the casket in their hands to the gravesite. There the man was given into the hands of God, from whom he came. Isn't this the gospel? I was so filled with gratitude for Jim and all the small group leaders.
Then Tuesday, we had a district professionals meeting where we preachers and other church professionals in the Austin area get together to talk and eat and best of all worship. Eight of our younger clergy candidates led the worship about how they encountered Christ in other people. One of those was Abby Parker, former youth minister here. She talked about going on a mission trip to Guatemala. She would spend her free time not hanging out with the team that came from the States, but with the locals, the bus drivers and the women. She was so moved by the women who at 13,000 feet altitude would carry huge water jars on their heads, bringing the water that was used to make her weak coffee in the morning. Abby felt such community with these brothers and sisters. I felt so full of gratitude at how God was calling Abby and others into ordained ministry.
Then on Thursday, I was visiting with Pam Cho, she who is going through another round of cancer. Pam was saying how earlier her white cell count had been at 28,000. This past week it had dropped to 8. Not 8,000, or 800, or 80, but 8. Pam has a dedicated, competent healing team in the medical field. Pam is also thankful for our prayers for healing. On a lighter note, Pam gave me permission to say that before this treatment started, she was looking at losing some weight. Through this process, she has lost quite a bit, for which she gives thanks. However, she does not recommend this as a diet plan for others. There are other ways to get your weight down. My heart overflowed with joy at Pam's news.
One more story that involves Igor Petresky. For more than a year and a half, we have been walking with the Petresky family after Igor was greatly paralyzed in a diving accident. The family was given a Suburban by former church members to get to hospitals and such. Igor has made great progress in rehab, to the point that he is attending ACC as a part-time student. He is now able to do a chair to car transfer by himself....but the Suburban is too tall. His parents are straining their backs to get Igor in and out. This past week, another family in this church has offered their car which is just at the right height. My heart is full of thanksgiving.
The passage from Paul to the Colossians says that we are to stick to our faith and to stay in relationship with Jesus. Now in the next part, the verb tenses are important. They are present tense participles, meaning continuing action. In other words, we are to keep on being rooted in Christ, keep on being built up like a house in Him, keep on being established like a contract in Him, and keep on overflowing with thanksgivng. May it be so today and for ever.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
wild
2/9/12 Most mornings I walk in this park behind our house. It used to be part of a ranch south of Austin, Tx. Now there are neighborhoods all around the park, but a large area is heavily wooded and Slaughter Creek flows through it. Most mornings I see wildlife: deer, squirrels, all manners of birds in their seasons. This morning, I saw 2 coyotes. I was quite impressed, as 1, then the other appeared out of the tree line, saw me, then disappeared again. We urban dwellers need to remember that we are actually not that far from what is wild.
Love,
Lynn
Love,
Lynn
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
simple
2/8/12 I am reading a book right now that is kicking my theological butt. It is making me very uncomfortable because it is so true to my church situation. The book is Simple Church by Thom S. Rainer & Eric Geiger. It contrasts a program church like mine whose calendar and rooms are full of wonderful busy activities versus a simple church where the goal is to help people follow Christ. I am being convicted that we do lots of good things at the church I serve, but I am not convinced that we are helping all that many people to fall in love with Christ in worship, deepen that relationship in community in a small accounability group, and then go out to serve others. I want to make church simple.
Love,
Lynn
Love,
Lynn
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
witnesses
2/7/12 I have just come from a meeting of the Austin District of the United Methodist Church where we pastors and other church professional gathered for food, conversation, information, and worship. The worship was simply outstanding, mostly because it was led by 8 of our youngest clergy. Two helped with the music. Seven of them offered a testimony. Their individual witnesses were powerful. The whole of their voices added together reminded why I keep answering this call to serve Christ and His church: that Christ is alive, His love changes people, and that is the best news we have to share. So now I am witnessing to you.
Love,
Lynn
Love,
Lynn
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