the greatest of these is love

1/27/10 I was visiting yesterday with a young couple for their premarital counseling. One of the passages that they picked for their wedding service is the classic I Corinthians 13, which ends, "Now faith, hope, love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love." Without breaking any confidences, our time together went well. They laughed, they cried, they talked well about what they meant when they said they loved each other.

The bigger context of love is this. The young man, C., who is getting married, I have known since before he was born. He nearly died in infancy. His parents and I prayed and struggled over him. I baptized him when he was 2 years old. Love in Christ is like that. It is not just a warm fuzzy feeling or sexual. It is tenacious, long-lasting, and fierce. C. has grown up with that kind of love, and I suspect will pass it on in his marriage and in his parenting and in his work. That kind of love is the greatest.

Love,
Lynn

happiness is

1/27/10 Last night we showed the film, Happiness Is, in our sanctuary. I didn't know that anyone would come out on a Tuesday night in the bleak mid-winter, but about 100 people did. Those who did got to see a moving documentary about the nature of happiness. I remember one language scholar remind us that happiness comes from the root word "hap", which has to do with luck or chance, as in happenstance. So in one regard, even though we pursue happiness, its coming to us is somewhat a gift. Another person, a "reverent agnostic," had to admit that persons who practiced their faith, praying and gathering for community, were "happier" than those who didn't. People struggled with the fact that having more stuff or more money did not necessarily mean more happiness. A rabbi said that we had to get ourselves out of the way. Happiness comes from having a reference outside of ourselves, like God. Alan Graham, who started Mobil Loaves and Fishes, had a significant role in the film. He had a great line for those who had a problem with organized religion. He said, "What do you want? Disorganized Religion?" He finds happiness in dealing with the poor and hungry.....kind of like Jesus did.



Love,

Lynn

the Word of the Lord

from my sermon on 1/24/10 from Luke 4:14-21

Have you ever read a story that was so good that you couldn't put it down? My English teacher wife gave me a novel entitled The Book Thief. The protaganist is a little girl named Liesl who becomes an orphan and is taken in by a foster family. The first book that she steals is The Gravedigger's Handbook taken from the funeral for her brother. Another main characther is Max, a Jewish man that the family also takes in and hides in their basement. Oh, you must understand that the setting is Hitler's Germany at the beginning of WW II. Plus the story is told from the viewpoint of the angel of death. Piqued your interest. I finished the 550 pages on Friday night. I couldn't put it down.

I have been gripped by another story that I cannot put down. First heard the story at church when I was a little boy. My grandparents gave me a copy of the story, my very own Bible when I was 7 yrs. old. AS I grew up and went to Texas A & M, I read the story for myself for the first time. I went on to seminary where I learned to read the NT in its original language Greek, and the OT in Hebrew. Now for going on 32 years I have been teaching and preaching from this story. It is so good I just can't put it down.

Jesus too had been steeped in the story. The passage that we find only in Luke says that Jesus normal pattern was to be in worship on the sabbath. It took 10 men to form a synagogue. The order of worship included several readings from the holy book. Anyone of the men might be called upon to read the scripture and then to comment upon it. So Jesus stood to read from Isaiah 61:1-2, a passage about the servant who would become a model for the Messiah. It is about setting people free from prison and blindness and oppression and sin. Then he preaches one of the shortest sermons. "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

I like that Jesus says the story is fulfilled right here and now, not in some pie in the sky in the sweet by and by. It is realized in him, and maybe in us. Have you been gripped by this story that is so good that you cannot put it down?

One in our midst has....Clint Rabb, a pastor who was a member of the SWTX Conf., and high up in the leadership of the United Methodist Committee on Relief. I went to his funeral yesterday. Among the procession of bishops, district superintendents, UMCOR staff, family, and choir, was one man who came into the chancel area with a band aid on his head and hand. He was Jim Gulley, who told about Clint. They were going to supper, walking across the hotel lobby, when the earthquake hit in Haiti. Several of them were trapped by falling concrete. A space of 5' x 8' x 3' had enough air movement that they wouldn't suffocate. Using cell phones for flashlights, they found the extent of their injuries. Sam Dixon, head of UMCOR, and Clint had their legs underneath huge concrete beams. The pain was tremendous. Now here's the part of the story I like best. In that situation they prayed and sang and comforted one another. Clint though trapped helped Sam by moving backpacks and such to make him more comfortable. At one point, Clint said, "When I get out, i am going to line up a string of Zero Cokes, ice cold, and then I am going to drink them slowly one by one." After a little while, he said, "No, Real Coke." For 55 hours they were trapped, until they heard the voices of French firement. The group sang the Doxology. That's the kind of story that I want to be part of.....that sings the Doxology when freed. Clint died of his injuries about 15 hours later in a Florida hospital. Oh, we preachers sang yesterday, O For a 1,000 tongues to sing. We sang like we meant it...like we believed it. The story is so good I just can't put it down. Even in the midst of death we sing about life.

Maybe you have been gripped by this same story. I see you going out on the Mobile Loaves and Fishes trucks and saying to people who live on the street, "What kind of sandwich do you want? PB & J or ham & cheese." We have come to bring good news to the poor. Some of you go to the women's prison in Gatesville where you help the women inmates read Good Night Moon to their children back home. We proclaim release to the captives.

I have inviting this congregation to write a new vision statement. I am here to tell you that it needs to have something to do with this story of people being set free.

I recently came to a new understanding. All of us live our lives oriented around a story. It could be that life is chaos and has no meaning, so do whatever you want. That's a story. It could be do unto others before they do it unto you. That's a story. The one who dies with the most toys at the end wins. That's a story. Around what story do you orient your life?

I have been gripped by this story that says God sets people free and invites us to be part of that process today. It is so good I can't put it down.

You expect a word today. I am a preacher after all. You don't want it to be a Saturday night special or just how I am feeling today. I feel so inadequate...how dare I? ....yet I say The Word of the Lord....thanks be to God.

book thief

1/21/10 My wife is an English teacher, so I get referrals to lots of great books through her. ONe of her students actually referred her to a book that I am reading now. It is called The Book Thief, and I am speeding through the pages. I love a good story, and this one involves an orphan girl (the book thief) and a scared Jewish man who are taken in by a poor family in Hitler's Germany. The teller of the story is the angel of death. I don't want to give a book review, so suffice it to say that I recommend that you find this book.

This Sunday I am going to be preaching about the power of the Word of the Lord, that is rooted in our holy book, the Bible. I wish that we would be so drawn by the love found within it that we would treasure it like the book thief does her small collection of stolen books.

Love,
Lynn

Haiti cont.

1/20/10 On Sunday, I invited our congregation to give to Haiti Relief through the United Methodist Committee on Relief. More than $7205 was given from just this congregation on that one day. The best in us comes out in the worst of times. You can always go to our website where we have a big icon about Haiti Relief.

I am feeling somewhat down because a UM pastor whom I knew and who worked for UMCOR was killed in Haiti in the earthquake. Clint Rabb survived for days before succumbing to his injuries. His funeral will be at University UMC here in Austin on Saturday at noon. I am trying to minister to my grief and feeling of being overwhelmed in this crisis by finding whatever ways we can help that I can.

Besides money, we can always pray. My prayer verse for the day is from Luke 4:17, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor."

Love,
Lynn

what are you expecting

my sermon on 1/17/10 from John 2:1-11 may be found at our website, www.westlake-umc.org, in an audio format, under the worship tab

Haiti

1/14/10 We are just now learning the extent of the devastation to our neighbors in Haiti. Please be in prayer for all those who have suffered loss and for those who are trying to bring healing. I include part of our United Methodist response below.


Thank you for all of your phone calls concerning the earthquake in Haiti. This is the information that we have gotten from UMCOR and South Central Jurisdiction.

Here are the UMCOR relief effort for Haiti. The ADVANCE as issued a number for giving to the effort. This number is 418325 Haiti Emergency relief. Please send your offering money to:
Treasurer, SWTX Conference
United Methodist Church
16400 Huebner Rd.
San Antonio TX 78248

We are also asking for prayers for: Sam Dixon, Clint Rabb and Jim Gulley are in Port au Prince for a meeting with the new head of the Haitian church. They have not been heard from since the earthquake. Please pray that they are safe and pray for their families and friends while we await word of their safety.

Love,
Lynn

avatar

1/13/10 Cathy and I saw the blockbuster movie Avatar last night. Several friends suggested that we see it in IMAX format so we went to the Bob Bullock Museum to get the full screen 3 D effect. It was an experience. I didn't cry or laugh or get emotionally moved by the story or the computer generated images or the acting. But it is really to see.

Here's the challenge to the church: How can we get people to wait in line, pay $15/person, and fill every seat just to have an experience. I am hoping that the living Christ can be even bigger than a blockbuster movie. Christ has joined us in our human experience even more than the avatar joins the humoid creatures on the alien planet.

Love,
Lynn

a letter

1/12/10 Last night we were celebrating Joel, our older son's 28th birthday. We were talking about their elementary school. My wife Cathy who is a teacher, ran across his first grade teacher, who remembered her name. She went to her files and pulled out a thank you letter that Cathy had written 21 years ago. The teacher said that she treasured the letter and that it was things like the letter that kept her going. Is there someone to whom you need to write a letter today?


Love,
Lynn

baptism: beyond guilt and shame

1/11/10 from my sermon on the Baptism of the Lord, from Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

We get a lot of messages about who we are: the grade on the lastest exam, the size of our office or our salary, second string on the sports team, a doctor's diagnosis. Get this message very clearly today, God says, "You are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased." With every breath you take, "you are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased." Even if your mind wanders and you get nothing else out of worship today, "you are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased."

This is the message that Jesus got at his baptism. I think it is intended for us also. You are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased.

I want to slow this scripture passage down. We assume we know what it says, but we sometimes blend the gospel accounts together. Luke tells the story differently. Let's experience afresh.

John the Baptist is doing just what his name implies; he's baptizing. All kinds of folks are coming to him. They are full of expectation, "Are you the ONe?" "No, I am the set-up guy, the one who prepares the way. I baptize with water for repentance. The One will baptize with Holy Spirit and fire for a whole new life."

Jesus is baptized. By whom? We want to say John the Baptist, but in the verses omitted in the reading today, John is placed in prison, so he can't do it. Where is Jesus baptized? In Luke, it is not site specific. Jesus is also the last to be baptized, not the first. In fact, in Greek, his baptism is a dependent clause. It seems in Luke that Jesus is just one of the crowd. And maybe that is the point. He's one of us. In baptism, Jesus joins us in our fraility, in our humanness, in our less than humanness, in our guilt and shame. Jesus is baptized not because he has to but because he wants to. He is baptized into our desire to know what God intends us to be.

Then Jesus is praying. Look in Luke's gospel how many times Jesus is praying. Big hint for us: after our baptism, we are called to pray to seek God's will for us. Then the heavens are opened, and only in Luke does the Spirit come down in bodily form. Luke wants us to know this is not some imagination, but a public event.

Then the voice says, "You are my son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased." When I first read it I thought the whole crowd heard it, like a public address. Then I picked up the commentaries. I wish I hadn't. They seemed to say, that Jesus alone heard the voice. Then I pushed back, "Then how did we come to have this recorded. How did they hear?" I believe Jesus joins us in baptism because he wants us to know this is true for us as well, "you are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased."

This is the message we need to move beyond guilt and shame. I know a lot about guilt and shame....you see because I have been in counseling. I need to offer some definitions at this point. Guilt says, I did bad. Shame says, I am bad. Guilt says, I made a mistake. Shame says, I am a mistake. Guilt is about actions. Shame is about identity.

We get a lot of messages. One of them that I got growing up was that I was never good enough. No matter how hard I worked or how high my grades were, I was never good enough. The problem comes when we start believing that is true about ourselves. It's not just what others say about us; it's what we say about ourselves.

What can cut through that? Only, "you are my child, the beloved one, with you, I am well pleased."

I also know a lot about guilt and shame because I know something about addictive behavior. I think we live i an addictive society. I am not just talking about alcohol and other drugs, but also money, beauty, fame, power. I will illustrate with an example from my teaching human sexuality. ONe exercise I have youth do is take ads from magazine and to cut away the product from the nearly naked person trying to sell. I never even noticed the wristwatch on her body. We worship youth and beauty and success and...

The problem with addictions is that they work...up to a point. You take the alcohol or the money or the fame or food or the whatever and it always delivers an immediate high. You feel better for a little while. The problem is that there is always a corresponding low, and it is lower than you started. So you take more of the drug to get high....but then you dip lower....and so the spiral continues.

What can cut through this? Only "you are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased."

Now I believe in meditation and in medication, in dieting and in exercise and in accountability groups. But I believe in more what God says to us in our baptism, "You are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased." Even when we are fat, when we are fired, when we are a failure, "you are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased."

I am trying to invite this community to discern what is Christ's vision for us. I think we begin in our baptism in remembering who we are as God's beloved children. I think the vision expands for us to share the new with them also about who they are. Alan Graham of Mobile Loaves and Fishes does this so wonderfully well. I have been with him a little bit on the streets. Does he go up to a person on the street and say, "You're drunk...your're homeless?" NO! He says, "Hey brother, how's is going? Do you mind if I sit here?" He calls them family. He asks permission to get close. He says you are a beloved child of God with whom God is well pleased.

Who are you? We know who we are because of what God said at Jesus baptism. We know who we are because of what God said at our baptism. You are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased.

no fear

1/7/10 My breath prayer for the day has come from Isaiah 43:1, "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine." I can let fears get to me--afraid of not pleasing people, afraid of not being good enough, afraid for my family, afraid for lack of security. Probably you know something about fear as well. This passage really comforts me. My God has saved me (and continues to save). My God knows me intimately and will never let me go. Therefore I can go through life with no fear.

Love,
Lynn

precious

1/6/10 I know that there is a powerful movie out right now by this name, "Precious." I like what Isaiah 43:4 says, "You are precious in my sight and honored, and I love you." I hope you can hear the LORD say this to you over and over today and everyday. Because it is true, that you are precious.

Love,
Lynn

baptism

1/5/10 One of the lectionary texts for this week is Psalm 29. My prayer verse for the day is verse 3, "The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over mighty waters." I am preparing my sermon on baptism for this Sunday as we celebrate a day in the church calendar called the Baptism of the Lord. I am remembering my baptism. I would encourage you to remember yours. There is something powerful going on in this sacrament. There is Someone who speaks powerfully to us in baptism.

Love,
Lynn

home by another way

from my epiphany sermon on 1/3/10 from matthew 2:1-12

Where's home for you? Home is such a rich word with so many meanings.

If you are traveling overseas, and someone asks you where you are from, don't say you are from the USA. If you do, you will only be another American. It is much better to say you are from TEXAS. When you do that, people will receive you warmly with "Do you have a horse? Do you have an oil well? Do you have a six shooter?"

Home can mean your home country. The magi, the wise men, were from back East, in what was called Persia in those days. We would say Iraq today. It is interesting to note that Matthew, this most Jewish of Gospels has the first witnesses to the Christ be foreigners, Gentiles, outsiders.

We have hometowns. Mine is Littlefield, Tx. Jesus is born in Bethlehem. O little town of Bethlehem. It is funny that the magi go to Jerusalem, to the Capital City, the seat of government and religion and commerce, and that the Messiah is born 9 miles down the road in the sticks. The religious scholars dust off the old texts to find the passage from Micah 5:2 to find the reference to the rural area.

Of course, Jesus is found in Bethlehem, because he is from the house of David. House can also mean our family, our lineage. David ws the shepherd king. The Messiah is to shepherd his people.

Then we have our actual houses, apartments, condos or dorm rooms. We have a physical address. Note in Matthew that the wise men enter the house, not a stable. Scholars say it may have been up to 2 years after the birth of Jesus that they arrive. There is no dialogue. They enter the house and find they are at home. They bow down, they worship the Christ, they offer their gifts. They are at home. Home is a not a place; it is a person.

I firmly believe that God is working to bring all of God's children home. Here God leads with a star. Later God sends the magi home by another way through a dream. As you read the Bible, read it as God's attempts to find a way to bring us home. Creation, covenant people, exodus, judges, prophets, rulers--all ways God is employing to get us home. In the New Testament, Jesus the Christ is the epitome of God's desire to welcome us home. Jesus eats with the tax collectors and sinners. He tells a story of a prodigal who loses everything he has, and comes to himself, and returns home.

Maybe you are looking for a home today. You are not here on Christmas Eve. You are here on the first Sunday of the year. Maybe you made a New Year's resolution. Maybe you are looking for a church home. Maybe you are looking for the Christ. As much as you are looking for Christ; Christ is looking for you...to come home.

I will sing it for you...."Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me...
Come home...Come home...you who are weary come home....

The good news I have to share today is that God will find a way for you to come home. Come home.