9/30/10 The apostles say in Luke 17:5, "Increase our faith!" That is my prayer today. I believe on one hand it is an admission of need, that is, we realize we cannot do things in our own power. On the other hand, I believe it is an appeal for God to grow our souls, our knowledge, our gifts, our abilities, etc., so that we may become the people God intends for us to be.
Love,
Lynn
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
depression
9/29/10 I was driving back from a meeting in San Antonio, listening to NPR, about 4 p.m. yesterday when I heard the news. A young man, only 19 years old, a math major at the University of Texas, had taken an assault rifle, an AK-47, onto the campus where he fired a few rounds before going into the library where he took his own life. How tragic! We try to understand. We try to fill in the blanks. Why does someone do something like this? For the person, their suicide seems to answer all their questions. For the rest of us, we only have more questions.
Unfortunately over my 32 plus years of ministry, I have been the pastor who has officiated the funerals of those who have taken their own lives. I don't pretend to understand depression. At these funerals, I say if Christ came for the most vulnerable, then He certainly came for those who dwell in such deep sadness. If Christ came for the least, the last, and the lost, then He certainly came for one who suffers from depression.
Love,
Lynn
Unfortunately over my 32 plus years of ministry, I have been the pastor who has officiated the funerals of those who have taken their own lives. I don't pretend to understand depression. At these funerals, I say if Christ came for the most vulnerable, then He certainly came for those who dwell in such deep sadness. If Christ came for the least, the last, and the lost, then He certainly came for one who suffers from depression.
Love,
Lynn
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
the fall
9/28/10 There is a concept in theology called "The Fall," that recognizes that human beings are not all that God has called us to be, that we have rebelled against God, and that we have fallen away from God has intended. However, today, I am celebrating the fall that has descended finally upon Austin. This morning on my walk/prayer time the temperature was in the low 50's and the humidity was low. It is energizing. It feels like a new start. It ministers against our propensity to sin and fall from what God wants. It feels like forgiveness, blessing, new creation.
Love,
Lynn
Love,
Lynn
Monday, September 27, 2010
rich man, poor man
from my sermon on Sept. 26, 2010, from Luke 16:19-31
I enjoy being rich, don't you? Last Sunday evening, after a pretty full day at church ( I tend to work every Sunday), Cathy and I went to a concert given by Don McClean. You may remember this song from 1971, "The 3 men that I admire the most, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; they caught the last train for the coast, the day the music died. And we were singing, Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie, drove my Chevy to the Levee, but the levee was dry...." We won't sing the rest of that phrase! Cathy and I had tickets right on the front row. Not front and center mind you, in fact, they were on the very outside, but still the front row, not 15 feet from Don McClean. And it was so easy. We just went on the internet to One World Theater, picked our seats, put in our credit card info, and we were in.
It's good to be rich, isn't it? This past summer Cathy and I took off 4 weeks for renewal leave, going to Australia and New Zealand. Several of you said that this trip would be your dream vacation. We saved up for a couple of years, but it was easy for us to do. Some of you asked about a favorite memory. One is toward the end of our trip at the north end of the northern island of New Zealand along Cormandale penisula. There is a lot of geothermal activity there. So there is a beach right along the Pacific ocean where hot water bubbles up. You know what they call it? Hot water beach! So at low tide, you take a shovel, and you dig your own hot tub, not too close, not too far away, but just right. You lie in the hot water on the beach with the Pacific ocean waves right there, with blue sky and sea gulls above. It is pretty wonderful. It is good to be rich.
I pick up the commentaries on this passage, and they say it is okay to be rich, but it is not okay to miss those who are poor right at your door. Remember that Jesus here in Luke's gospel is on a long journey to Jerusalem. Most of the time he is instructing his disciples or talking with the crowds, but here he is dealing with the Pharisees. Now I am not going to beat up on the Pharisees any more than I am going to beat up on you. Lord, send me some Pharisees. They kept the holy law. They prayed, they fasted twice a week. They tithed! Lord, send me some Pharisees. But here they are portrayed as lovers of money. More than that, they seem to have adopted a theology that said, If you are rich, then you must be blessed by God. If you are poor, they you must be cursed by God. In fact, to help the poor might even be going against God.
So Jesus tells a story. There is a rich man. You can tell he is rich by his fine clothes. Purple cloth was made by getting dye from crushing special shells. Only the very rich could afford them. There was a poor man, and the contrast couldn't have been greater. He is thrown at the gate of the rich man. He is so hungry, he would eat the crumbs from the table if he could. And this is the yuckiest part, dogs lick his open sores. Upon death, the poor man goes to paradise, that is what Abraham's bosom means. People back then would eat lying down on one's left arm with their head towards the table and the feet sticking away. So the poor man was lying right at Abraham chest at the heavenly banquet! And the rich man goes to hell, a place of fire and torment. Now, we probably have our most descriptive language about hell found here, but I want to say this: hell is not so much a place as it is a perspective. Hell is not being able to see the needs of people right at your front door.
Even in hell, the rich man cannot see. He still treats the poor man as his servant. "Abraham, tell Lazarus to bring some water to cool my tongue, for I am in agony here." Back in the segregation era, Clarence Jordan created Koininia Farms where people from all races and classes could live in community together...in Georgia. He did his own translation of the New Testament set in Georgia called the Cottonpatch Gospels. He puts Abraham's response back to the rich man this way, "Lazarus ain't gonna run no mo yo errands, rich man."
The chasm, the big divide, doesn't just exist between heaven and hell. It begins with the divide right at the rich man's front door, not being able to see the poor man. The chasm begins right at the rich man's doorway to his heart.
So what if we are the rich man in this story? Then for me it is a cautionary tale.
Some of you will see yourselves as the poor man in the story. I know is still tough for you. Your job has been outsourced, or downsized, or right sized, or furloughed. The result is that you are making less. You may be underwater in your house, owing more than it is worth. Nearly every week I am talking with someone who needs money for rent, for utilities, for food. I know that many people are desperate, and I do not want to minimize your exerperience.
However, I want us to keep things in perspective. I did an internet seach. Don't you just love Google? I typed in the richest zip codes in the US. 78730, just north of the river here, some of you live there, was about 66th. 78746, right here where the church is, came in about 83rd. I did another seach: What if the world were 100 people? You will find that if you have internet, you are rich. Compared to the rest of the world, if you have clean drinking water, food, and shelter, you are rich.
We need to keep perspective. In the last downturn of the economy, I was pastor at St. John' here in Austin. There was a couple who struggled. The guy was laid off from his office job at a lumber yard. They lived on the wife's meagre salary. They almost lost their home. He got retrained and came back to work as a teacher. When they got back on their feet, they said to me, "We want to be the co-chairs of the CROP Walk for Hunger." They got a new perspective.
As I lived with this passage this past week, I started seeing things differently. I started to notice all of the people on the street corners with their signs asking for help: "Out of work," "Veteran," "Anything helps." I got a new perspective. Here is what I do; you may be called to do something different. I never give money. I have many times made up gallon ziplock bags with water and energy bars and peanut butter crackers inside to hand out for immediate relief. Sometimes I hand our HEB gift cards that can only be used for food.
After reading this passage, there is one more thing I do. I ask the person his or her name. In the story, what is the rich man's name? It is not given! What is the poor man's name? Lazarus. You know what Lazarus means? God helps. God does indeed help. The poor are not objects or numbers at our gate, but persons of worth.
So reading this passage this week, I pick up our conference newspaper the Southwest Texas Witness. Of course, the lead article is about providing food for the hungry. The church in Palacios starts a food pantry. The churches in Mason and San Angelo realize that the schools don't provide meals during the summer, so they start their own free lunch programs. It is not just individuals but also communities that need to keep perspective.
Why do this? It is not about a stewardship campaign. I don't have any pledge cards for you to fill out. It is not about getting money for the budget. It is not even to help the needy as important as that is. This is what I came to at last: it as about keeping us from going to hell.
You hear me say over and over that we are saved by grace, God's unmerited love towards us. There is nothing we can do to earn it. But seeing the needy at our door and serving them is a way that we live into our salvation. Missing seeing them is a way to hell.
So today, I would love for you to go to our Mission Fair and choose to do at least one thing....and to see that as way of keeping out of hell. We have many ways for you to avoid hell: you can help with Mobile Loaves and Fishes that feed the homeless from their trucks. You can help with Feed my People that cooks breakfast for the homeless on Tuesday mornings at First UMC. You can bring food next week for Granite Shoals Grace UMC food pantry. Bring over the counter drugs for Haiti as Tom is going on a mission trip in a week and a half. You can get involved with our sister church on the other side of I-35 Parker Lane UMC. It is a way of staying out of hell, of seeing the needy right at our door.
At the end of the story, the rich man seems to be finally getting it. He asks that Abrahan send someone back to his brothers so that they may avoid his fate. Abraham says that they have all the witness they need in Moses and the prophets. What does the law of Moses say? Don't harvest to the very edge of your field, but leave it for gleaning for the widow, orphan and sojourner in the land. What does the prophet Isaiah say? The fast that the LORD requires is to feed the hungry, take the poor into your house, and clothe the naked.
Maybe we are not the rich man or the poor man in the story, but the brothers. We have the witness of the Old Testament to God's desire for us to see the needs close by. Better than that, we have the witness of one who has come back from the grave, Jesus Christ. After His resurrection, in Luke's Gospel, he reveals himself in the breaking of the bread. May it be so not just at this table but wherever we share bread with others in need, especially right at our door.
I enjoy being rich, don't you? Last Sunday evening, after a pretty full day at church ( I tend to work every Sunday), Cathy and I went to a concert given by Don McClean. You may remember this song from 1971, "The 3 men that I admire the most, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; they caught the last train for the coast, the day the music died. And we were singing, Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie, drove my Chevy to the Levee, but the levee was dry...." We won't sing the rest of that phrase! Cathy and I had tickets right on the front row. Not front and center mind you, in fact, they were on the very outside, but still the front row, not 15 feet from Don McClean. And it was so easy. We just went on the internet to One World Theater, picked our seats, put in our credit card info, and we were in.
It's good to be rich, isn't it? This past summer Cathy and I took off 4 weeks for renewal leave, going to Australia and New Zealand. Several of you said that this trip would be your dream vacation. We saved up for a couple of years, but it was easy for us to do. Some of you asked about a favorite memory. One is toward the end of our trip at the north end of the northern island of New Zealand along Cormandale penisula. There is a lot of geothermal activity there. So there is a beach right along the Pacific ocean where hot water bubbles up. You know what they call it? Hot water beach! So at low tide, you take a shovel, and you dig your own hot tub, not too close, not too far away, but just right. You lie in the hot water on the beach with the Pacific ocean waves right there, with blue sky and sea gulls above. It is pretty wonderful. It is good to be rich.
I pick up the commentaries on this passage, and they say it is okay to be rich, but it is not okay to miss those who are poor right at your door. Remember that Jesus here in Luke's gospel is on a long journey to Jerusalem. Most of the time he is instructing his disciples or talking with the crowds, but here he is dealing with the Pharisees. Now I am not going to beat up on the Pharisees any more than I am going to beat up on you. Lord, send me some Pharisees. They kept the holy law. They prayed, they fasted twice a week. They tithed! Lord, send me some Pharisees. But here they are portrayed as lovers of money. More than that, they seem to have adopted a theology that said, If you are rich, then you must be blessed by God. If you are poor, they you must be cursed by God. In fact, to help the poor might even be going against God.
So Jesus tells a story. There is a rich man. You can tell he is rich by his fine clothes. Purple cloth was made by getting dye from crushing special shells. Only the very rich could afford them. There was a poor man, and the contrast couldn't have been greater. He is thrown at the gate of the rich man. He is so hungry, he would eat the crumbs from the table if he could. And this is the yuckiest part, dogs lick his open sores. Upon death, the poor man goes to paradise, that is what Abraham's bosom means. People back then would eat lying down on one's left arm with their head towards the table and the feet sticking away. So the poor man was lying right at Abraham chest at the heavenly banquet! And the rich man goes to hell, a place of fire and torment. Now, we probably have our most descriptive language about hell found here, but I want to say this: hell is not so much a place as it is a perspective. Hell is not being able to see the needs of people right at your front door.
Even in hell, the rich man cannot see. He still treats the poor man as his servant. "Abraham, tell Lazarus to bring some water to cool my tongue, for I am in agony here." Back in the segregation era, Clarence Jordan created Koininia Farms where people from all races and classes could live in community together...in Georgia. He did his own translation of the New Testament set in Georgia called the Cottonpatch Gospels. He puts Abraham's response back to the rich man this way, "Lazarus ain't gonna run no mo yo errands, rich man."
The chasm, the big divide, doesn't just exist between heaven and hell. It begins with the divide right at the rich man's front door, not being able to see the poor man. The chasm begins right at the rich man's doorway to his heart.
So what if we are the rich man in this story? Then for me it is a cautionary tale.
Some of you will see yourselves as the poor man in the story. I know is still tough for you. Your job has been outsourced, or downsized, or right sized, or furloughed. The result is that you are making less. You may be underwater in your house, owing more than it is worth. Nearly every week I am talking with someone who needs money for rent, for utilities, for food. I know that many people are desperate, and I do not want to minimize your exerperience.
However, I want us to keep things in perspective. I did an internet seach. Don't you just love Google? I typed in the richest zip codes in the US. 78730, just north of the river here, some of you live there, was about 66th. 78746, right here where the church is, came in about 83rd. I did another seach: What if the world were 100 people? You will find that if you have internet, you are rich. Compared to the rest of the world, if you have clean drinking water, food, and shelter, you are rich.
We need to keep perspective. In the last downturn of the economy, I was pastor at St. John' here in Austin. There was a couple who struggled. The guy was laid off from his office job at a lumber yard. They lived on the wife's meagre salary. They almost lost their home. He got retrained and came back to work as a teacher. When they got back on their feet, they said to me, "We want to be the co-chairs of the CROP Walk for Hunger." They got a new perspective.
As I lived with this passage this past week, I started seeing things differently. I started to notice all of the people on the street corners with their signs asking for help: "Out of work," "Veteran," "Anything helps." I got a new perspective. Here is what I do; you may be called to do something different. I never give money. I have many times made up gallon ziplock bags with water and energy bars and peanut butter crackers inside to hand out for immediate relief. Sometimes I hand our HEB gift cards that can only be used for food.
After reading this passage, there is one more thing I do. I ask the person his or her name. In the story, what is the rich man's name? It is not given! What is the poor man's name? Lazarus. You know what Lazarus means? God helps. God does indeed help. The poor are not objects or numbers at our gate, but persons of worth.
So reading this passage this week, I pick up our conference newspaper the Southwest Texas Witness. Of course, the lead article is about providing food for the hungry. The church in Palacios starts a food pantry. The churches in Mason and San Angelo realize that the schools don't provide meals during the summer, so they start their own free lunch programs. It is not just individuals but also communities that need to keep perspective.
Why do this? It is not about a stewardship campaign. I don't have any pledge cards for you to fill out. It is not about getting money for the budget. It is not even to help the needy as important as that is. This is what I came to at last: it as about keeping us from going to hell.
You hear me say over and over that we are saved by grace, God's unmerited love towards us. There is nothing we can do to earn it. But seeing the needy at our door and serving them is a way that we live into our salvation. Missing seeing them is a way to hell.
So today, I would love for you to go to our Mission Fair and choose to do at least one thing....and to see that as way of keeping out of hell. We have many ways for you to avoid hell: you can help with Mobile Loaves and Fishes that feed the homeless from their trucks. You can help with Feed my People that cooks breakfast for the homeless on Tuesday mornings at First UMC. You can bring food next week for Granite Shoals Grace UMC food pantry. Bring over the counter drugs for Haiti as Tom is going on a mission trip in a week and a half. You can get involved with our sister church on the other side of I-35 Parker Lane UMC. It is a way of staying out of hell, of seeing the needy right at our door.
At the end of the story, the rich man seems to be finally getting it. He asks that Abrahan send someone back to his brothers so that they may avoid his fate. Abraham says that they have all the witness they need in Moses and the prophets. What does the law of Moses say? Don't harvest to the very edge of your field, but leave it for gleaning for the widow, orphan and sojourner in the land. What does the prophet Isaiah say? The fast that the LORD requires is to feed the hungry, take the poor into your house, and clothe the naked.
Maybe we are not the rich man or the poor man in the story, but the brothers. We have the witness of the Old Testament to God's desire for us to see the needs close by. Better than that, we have the witness of one who has come back from the grave, Jesus Christ. After His resurrection, in Luke's Gospel, he reveals himself in the breaking of the bread. May it be so not just at this table but wherever we share bread with others in need, especially right at our door.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
psalm 91
9/23/10 The common lectionary has Psalm 91 has one of the readings for this Sunday. I would encourage you to read the entire psalm. It is the perfect text if you are in the military or know someone in the military. The passage talks about God's protection: God is a refuge and fortress, a deliverer, a mother bird that shelters chicks under her wings. My breath prayer for the day is "I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them."
Love,
Lynn
Love,
Lynn
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
delete
9/21/10 I woke up in the middle of the night at 2:30 a.m., exactly 12 hours after I was supposed to have participated in a conference call. It wasn't that I was overwhelmed at 2:30 that afternoon. I simply deleted the call. It was written on my pocket calendar. I had noted the call that morning. But when the time came, I forgot to participate.
I do tend to overfunction and because of that to omit details. It is incidents like this that make me realize how much I depend upon grace and forgiveness. I trust that God has not deleted me from His plan of salvation.
Love,
Lynn
I do tend to overfunction and because of that to omit details. It is incidents like this that make me realize how much I depend upon grace and forgiveness. I trust that God has not deleted me from His plan of salvation.
Love,
Lynn
Monday, September 20, 2010
the other brother
from my sermon from Luke 15:11-32 on 9/19/10
The prodigal son! The prodigal son! I am sick and tired of hearing about the prodigal son! I am the elder son, the other brother. I demand equal time. I want to tell you my story.
That particular day, I had been out plowing in the fields all day. Now, you may think driving a bid John Deere tractor is a cushy job with a/c and power steering, but I am here to tell you that tractors break down and get stuck and planters get clogged. There are plenty of things to worry about: the price of fuel and the commodity markets. At the end of that long day, I parked the tractor at the shed at the back of the house. I took one more look at the sky to see what the weather might bring. I walked in the back door of the house where the wash room was. I took off my work boots, not wanting to mess up the floors in the rest of the house. I hung up my "gimme" hat on the hook there inside the door. I stood at that deep sink where the Lava soap was and began scrubbing my hands. It was then I noticed that something was different. Weren't there a lot of cars parked around the house? Was that music coming from beyond the louvered doors that separated the wash room from the kitchen? Did I hear lively conversation? Did I smell barbecue? Just at that time, I noticed one of our hired hands crossing the back yard. I opened the back door and yelled, "Earl, what's going on?" He came over, "You don't know?" "Know what?" "Your brother, the one called the prodigal, has come back, and your father is throwing him a party. Isn't that great?" And I said "Snigglefritz, Shibboleth,*&%$#@, or whatever you favorite curse word is." I stood there inside the wash room, just inside the louvered doors, clenching my fists, my jaws tight, and said, "I don't get it. I just don't get it."
(walking to the other side of the chancel) Of course he doesn't get it. He doesn't know what it is like to be the second born, the younger brother. He doesn't know what it is like to compete with Mr. Perfect, Mr. Straight A's, Mr. Polite. He doesn't know what it is like to set down in class and have the teacher say, "Now, Lynn, will you answer number10 please?" And for the one thousandth time, saying, "My name is not Lynn, that is my older brother. My name is David." And the teacher saying, "Oh, Lynn did so well; I am sure you will also." I found a way to get my own attention. I found I had great hand to mouth coordination (mime drinking a beer). I found out that if you were buying you were very popular. I wanted to be as different from him (pointing at the older brother) as possible. I had to get out of there, so as soon as I could, I said, "I want what is mine." And I got out. Of course, he doesn't understand. He doesn't get it.
(walking back to the side representing the older brother) I don't get it. My old dad came out to get me. He said, "Won't you come in and join the party?" I said, "It' s not fair! All of my life I have worked hard for you, I have never disobeyed you, and you have never even cooked for me and my friends cabrito. But when this son of yours who has blown the family fortune on sex and drugs and rock and roll comes home, you throw him a party! It's not fair."
I grew up with a script that life was supposed to be fair. You work hard, you fly straight, you are polite, and you get rewarded. I acted this way, and life had been good to me. My senior year in high school was going to be the best because of this. I had been elected student council president. My good grades had set me in place to graduate as valedictorian of my class at Littlefield High School. But the most important thing of all (putting on my high school letter jacket) was that I was captain of the football team. You see that star on my jacket? That stands for captain. I was the starting quarterback on offense and the cornerback on defense. You know the national religion of the state of Texas is football. Friday night lights and all that.
Now, as you can see, I am not very big, nor particularly fast, nor strong. So how did I get to be captain? The other guys were not that good. I remember Floyd, a lineman, in the huddle, asking, "Now, which side are we on?" "We are the maroon and white, Floyd! Block those other guys!!" And my linemen who perform a "look out block." That is when the ball was hiked back to me, they would lie down on the grass, and yell, "Look out!"
My senior year was supposed to be great. We had moved down from AAA to AA, so people said we were going places. Now, we had lost all of our games as 8th graders, 9th graders, and Junior Varsity, so I didn't see it, but expectations were high. The first day of 2 a day practices ( I still get sick to my stomach in late August when I small fresh mown grass of the practice field) in a warm up drill in the first 5 minutes, I sprained my ankle. Instantly I go from first string to third string. By the time we go through scrimmages and the start of the season, I work my way back up.
The first game of the year, we are winning. But on a routine sweep around the left side, one of my linemen rolls over my ankle and it is sprained again right before halftime. We are still winning. There is time for only 1 more play. The other team is on their own 20 yard line. They throw an 80 yard touchdown pass over the guy who took my place on defense. We lose the game. That weekend, our head coach has a heart attack. He lives, but the team is thrown into chaos, as an assistant coach takes over as acting head coach.
We lose ball game after ball game. One time we are driving down the field, and coach calls a timeout. I go over to get instructions. Coach says, "Go out there Lynn and run our offense." I was kinda hoping for a little more specific instructions. We keep losing. Towards the end of the season, coach calls me out of history class into the principal's office. He asks me, "Do you know why we are losing all of these games, Lynn?" "Doh....why coach?" He said, "It's because of you." As a 17 year old, I didn't take that real well. AS you can see 40 year later, I don't have any remaining issues at all. (laughter) I said to myself, "It's not fair. It's not fair."
(stepping to the middle position, the omniscent point of view) It isn't fair. Is life fair? You may have heard that life isn't fair. You know what life is? It is full of grace, not fairness. There is grace, God's unmerited love, for a son who runs away and makes a mess of his life. There is grace for the dutiful one who is super-responsible, but not compassionate.
We call this the parable of the prodigal son, but it is not. Do you know what prodigal means? It means extravagant, lavish, overgenerous. This story is the parable of the prodigal father, who lavishes his love on 2 sons. Before the younger one can even choke out his confession, the father has run out to him and embraced him, and forgiven him. And the father goes out to the older son, the other brother to let him know how important he is to him, and to beg him to let go of his self-righteousness and simply celebrate the fact that his brother was dead and is now alive, was lost and is now found.
I want you to know as the older son, the other brother, I accepted grace. That senior year in high school when everything was so bad, my girlfriend, Mary Gail, took me to a revival, held at the school auditorium. Before it even began, she showed me a verse that has defined me, Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace, you have been saved through faith. It is the gift of God, not because of works, lest anyone should boast." All of my life I had been trying to earn God's favor, to prove that God should love me. I now have only 1 sermon that I just dress up a little differently each week: that we cannot save ourselves, only God can do that, and it is a gift. Now the lifetime super-responsible script as the older son is still deep inside of me. If you are to wake me up at 3 a.m. and ask me what are you most afraid of? I would say, "that I am not good enough." That is the burden that the older children bear.
Who is further from home? The younger one had to nothing to lose. When you are a Jewish person out feeding the pigs, you have hit bottom. I think he had everything to gain by going home. Ah, the older son, the other brother, how hard it is for him to give up his supposed perfectionism. He knows all about rules and regulations, but does he know about loving relationships? He lives in the house, but does he know it as his home, where he is accepted?
I like the way Luke remembers Jesus telling this story? It is not resolved. Does the elder son, the other brother, go in and join the party? I don't know. What would you do?
The prodigal son! The prodigal son! I am sick and tired of hearing about the prodigal son! I am the elder son, the other brother. I demand equal time. I want to tell you my story.
That particular day, I had been out plowing in the fields all day. Now, you may think driving a bid John Deere tractor is a cushy job with a/c and power steering, but I am here to tell you that tractors break down and get stuck and planters get clogged. There are plenty of things to worry about: the price of fuel and the commodity markets. At the end of that long day, I parked the tractor at the shed at the back of the house. I took one more look at the sky to see what the weather might bring. I walked in the back door of the house where the wash room was. I took off my work boots, not wanting to mess up the floors in the rest of the house. I hung up my "gimme" hat on the hook there inside the door. I stood at that deep sink where the Lava soap was and began scrubbing my hands. It was then I noticed that something was different. Weren't there a lot of cars parked around the house? Was that music coming from beyond the louvered doors that separated the wash room from the kitchen? Did I hear lively conversation? Did I smell barbecue? Just at that time, I noticed one of our hired hands crossing the back yard. I opened the back door and yelled, "Earl, what's going on?" He came over, "You don't know?" "Know what?" "Your brother, the one called the prodigal, has come back, and your father is throwing him a party. Isn't that great?" And I said "Snigglefritz, Shibboleth,*&%$#@, or whatever you favorite curse word is." I stood there inside the wash room, just inside the louvered doors, clenching my fists, my jaws tight, and said, "I don't get it. I just don't get it."
(walking to the other side of the chancel) Of course he doesn't get it. He doesn't know what it is like to be the second born, the younger brother. He doesn't know what it is like to compete with Mr. Perfect, Mr. Straight A's, Mr. Polite. He doesn't know what it is like to set down in class and have the teacher say, "Now, Lynn, will you answer number10 please?" And for the one thousandth time, saying, "My name is not Lynn, that is my older brother. My name is David." And the teacher saying, "Oh, Lynn did so well; I am sure you will also." I found a way to get my own attention. I found I had great hand to mouth coordination (mime drinking a beer). I found out that if you were buying you were very popular. I wanted to be as different from him (pointing at the older brother) as possible. I had to get out of there, so as soon as I could, I said, "I want what is mine." And I got out. Of course, he doesn't understand. He doesn't get it.
(walking back to the side representing the older brother) I don't get it. My old dad came out to get me. He said, "Won't you come in and join the party?" I said, "It' s not fair! All of my life I have worked hard for you, I have never disobeyed you, and you have never even cooked for me and my friends cabrito. But when this son of yours who has blown the family fortune on sex and drugs and rock and roll comes home, you throw him a party! It's not fair."
I grew up with a script that life was supposed to be fair. You work hard, you fly straight, you are polite, and you get rewarded. I acted this way, and life had been good to me. My senior year in high school was going to be the best because of this. I had been elected student council president. My good grades had set me in place to graduate as valedictorian of my class at Littlefield High School. But the most important thing of all (putting on my high school letter jacket) was that I was captain of the football team. You see that star on my jacket? That stands for captain. I was the starting quarterback on offense and the cornerback on defense. You know the national religion of the state of Texas is football. Friday night lights and all that.
Now, as you can see, I am not very big, nor particularly fast, nor strong. So how did I get to be captain? The other guys were not that good. I remember Floyd, a lineman, in the huddle, asking, "Now, which side are we on?" "We are the maroon and white, Floyd! Block those other guys!!" And my linemen who perform a "look out block." That is when the ball was hiked back to me, they would lie down on the grass, and yell, "Look out!"
My senior year was supposed to be great. We had moved down from AAA to AA, so people said we were going places. Now, we had lost all of our games as 8th graders, 9th graders, and Junior Varsity, so I didn't see it, but expectations were high. The first day of 2 a day practices ( I still get sick to my stomach in late August when I small fresh mown grass of the practice field) in a warm up drill in the first 5 minutes, I sprained my ankle. Instantly I go from first string to third string. By the time we go through scrimmages and the start of the season, I work my way back up.
The first game of the year, we are winning. But on a routine sweep around the left side, one of my linemen rolls over my ankle and it is sprained again right before halftime. We are still winning. There is time for only 1 more play. The other team is on their own 20 yard line. They throw an 80 yard touchdown pass over the guy who took my place on defense. We lose the game. That weekend, our head coach has a heart attack. He lives, but the team is thrown into chaos, as an assistant coach takes over as acting head coach.
We lose ball game after ball game. One time we are driving down the field, and coach calls a timeout. I go over to get instructions. Coach says, "Go out there Lynn and run our offense." I was kinda hoping for a little more specific instructions. We keep losing. Towards the end of the season, coach calls me out of history class into the principal's office. He asks me, "Do you know why we are losing all of these games, Lynn?" "Doh....why coach?" He said, "It's because of you." As a 17 year old, I didn't take that real well. AS you can see 40 year later, I don't have any remaining issues at all. (laughter) I said to myself, "It's not fair. It's not fair."
(stepping to the middle position, the omniscent point of view) It isn't fair. Is life fair? You may have heard that life isn't fair. You know what life is? It is full of grace, not fairness. There is grace, God's unmerited love, for a son who runs away and makes a mess of his life. There is grace for the dutiful one who is super-responsible, but not compassionate.
We call this the parable of the prodigal son, but it is not. Do you know what prodigal means? It means extravagant, lavish, overgenerous. This story is the parable of the prodigal father, who lavishes his love on 2 sons. Before the younger one can even choke out his confession, the father has run out to him and embraced him, and forgiven him. And the father goes out to the older son, the other brother to let him know how important he is to him, and to beg him to let go of his self-righteousness and simply celebrate the fact that his brother was dead and is now alive, was lost and is now found.
I want you to know as the older son, the other brother, I accepted grace. That senior year in high school when everything was so bad, my girlfriend, Mary Gail, took me to a revival, held at the school auditorium. Before it even began, she showed me a verse that has defined me, Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace, you have been saved through faith. It is the gift of God, not because of works, lest anyone should boast." All of my life I had been trying to earn God's favor, to prove that God should love me. I now have only 1 sermon that I just dress up a little differently each week: that we cannot save ourselves, only God can do that, and it is a gift. Now the lifetime super-responsible script as the older son is still deep inside of me. If you are to wake me up at 3 a.m. and ask me what are you most afraid of? I would say, "that I am not good enough." That is the burden that the older children bear.
Who is further from home? The younger one had to nothing to lose. When you are a Jewish person out feeding the pigs, you have hit bottom. I think he had everything to gain by going home. Ah, the older son, the other brother, how hard it is for him to give up his supposed perfectionism. He knows all about rules and regulations, but does he know about loving relationships? He lives in the house, but does he know it as his home, where he is accepted?
I like the way Luke remembers Jesus telling this story? It is not resolved. Does the elder son, the other brother, go in and join the party? I don't know. What would you do?
Thursday, September 16, 2010
mediator
9/16/10 My breath prayer today comes from I Timothy 2:5, "For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all." I am pretty good at conflict management and resolution. I have been sent to some churches to do exactly this task. However, I fully realize who the real Mediator is, the Lord Jesus Christ. This morning as I walked and prayed, I lifted up families and situations that need reconciliation that I knew were beyond my power to heal. Especially dynamics played out on the world stage like between Israel and Palestine, within Iraq and Afghanistan, I turn over to the Lord Jesus. Thank God, that God is not far off and distant, but has sent His own Mediator, in the One who is God and Human, who intercedes for us.
Love,
Lynn
Love,
Lynn
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
sleep
9/15/10 I didn't sleep so well last night. It was a long day, as I didn't leave for home until 9:30 p.m. after a church council meeting that started at 6:30 p.m. I was still going over that meeting in my mind as I lay down. It doesn't help that I left my favorite pillow--an ancient, thin, flattened thing--at a motel in Corpus Christi over the weekend, so it was hard for me to get comfortable.
So it was with delight that I found my breath prayer for the day from Psalm 4:8, "I will both lie down and sleep in peace; for you alone, O LORD, make me lie down in safety." May it be so today.....and tonight.
Love,
Lynn
So it was with delight that I found my breath prayer for the day from Psalm 4:8, "I will both lie down and sleep in peace; for you alone, O LORD, make me lie down in safety." May it be so today.....and tonight.
Love,
Lynn
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
forgive and forget
9/14/10 My breath prayer today comes from Psalm 79:8, "Do not remember agains us the iniquities of our ancestors; let yur compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low." As I walked and prayed this morning, I was glad that God's compassion is not simply in forgiving our sin, but also in forgetting it. I am very good at holding onto evidence against myself. I am relieved that God in amazing grace can't find it.
Love,
Lynn
Love,
Lynn
Sunday, September 12, 2010
lost and found department
from my sermon on 9/12/10 from Luke 15:1-10
This 15th chapter of Luke is the lost and found department of the Bible. Jesus tells 3 stories of being lost and being found. Today I will cover the first 2 and get to the 3rd next week. Since Jesus tells stories, I will too.
When my grandfather Johnson died, his wife, my grandmother, gave me his silver pocket watch. I wore it proudly because it kept good time, it looked good, but mostly because it had belonged to my grandfather. I wore it to class, keeping it in that little pocket on the right hand side of blue jeans. In the summer working, I wore it in that little slit that is in the front of overalls, next to one's heart.
This particular summer, I was helping with the construction of hog houses way up in the Panhandle of Texas in Sunray. One morning, I started the day by putting together some sewer pipe, big 6" blue PVC tubes, down in a ditch. Next, we worked on putting together some bulk feed tanks, lots of work with nuts and bolts and socket wrenches, tying the big rings together. Mid-morning we made a pour of concrete. My job was to run one end of the screed board, a straight 2x4 that we sawed back and forth over the concrete. We ran along steel pipes that had been set to grade bringing the concrete to its proper depth. In the hot summer sun, I got down right among the concrete, moving the board back and forth. Later, we tamped the concrete down, getting out any honey-combing, used a bull float to smooth it, and finally trowels to give it a finish.
At lunch time, I sat in the a/c of the office and started to eat my baloney and cheese sandwich. I reached for my pocketwatch, feeling my chest.....there was nothing there. The watch was gone. I had lost my grandfather's pocket watch. I was no longer hungry. I was sick to my stomach. I recreated the day. I ran to the ditch, dug in the dark earth. No watch. I ran to the bulk tanks, their silver matching the silver of the watch, but it wasn't there. And then I thought, "Oh, no. It's in the concrete......years from now I could archeaologists digging up this farm and saying, 'I didn't know pigs could tell time.'"
For days, I spent every spare moment at lunch and at break times walking over the job site looking for the lost watch. My hopes were fading with each passing day. It was gone for ever. As sick as I was about losing it, I was more upset over having to tell my grandmother about it. What would I say? "That precious treasure you gave me, the watch....I lost it."
Some days later, I was the "mud man", mixing up mortar to set concrete tiles in place. You may have seen those hollow cement blocks about 16" x 6" x 6". I would put a bead of mortar on them. Someone more skilled than I would come along and set the blocks in place according to a string line and a level. It was just before noon. The sun was high in the sky, nearly directly overhead. I put the bead of mortar down, and looked inside the first course. Something shiny was inside. I reached inside and pulled out my grandfather's pocket watch! There 2" from the pour of concrete was the watch!
Was I happy! Did I rejoice! Did I give thanks! Do you know how God feels when one sinner repents! There are lots of images for God in our Bible, but I really resonnate with this: a God who doesn't stop looking for us and rejoices when we are found.
And the God revealed in Jesus rejoices over one. Now, I am all about community and the importance of relationships within the body of Christ, but still each and every one of us is important to Christ.
Let me illustrate. JD, our youth director, took several mission trips this summer. One of the largest ones was to North Carolina, to rebuild houses, in a mission called Project Recreate. JD, how many youth did you take on that trip? Twenty-one. So imagine on that evening as JD is driving the church bus up into our parking lot, all the parents and sibling waiting there. The youth get off the bus, and JD says, "I have some good news for you. We brought back 20 of the kids........wait, that is more that 95% of the ones I started with. I only lost one." But what if you are the parent of that one?
The God of our Bible, revealed in Jesus Christ, will look for even one, will look for every one. One is important.
How does God do this? I will tell you about the time I used to be the dean of a jr. hi. bike camp for our SWTx Conf. Every year, a group of youth would gather at our Methodist Camp, Mt. Wesley, in Kerrville, TX, for a week of riding their bikes, swimming, and having devotionals.
One year, I got a letter several weeks before the camped started. It read, "Dear Rev. Barton, Hi! How are you? I am fine. I am Glenn from Odem, Tx. I am signed up for the bike camp. I am excited. I just got a new bike, and I can't wait. Your friend, Glenn." I thought "that's nice."
A couple of weeks pass, and late one afternoon, the secretary intercoms me, "There is a long distance call from some youth." "Hi, this is Lynn Barton." "Hi, this is Glenn from Odem, Tx, I am calling you to say I can't wait till the bike camp starts. I have been practicing riding my bike on the roads around our farm. I am so excited." "OK, Glenn, we will see you in a few weeks."
Two weeks late, it is annual conference in San Antonio, at La Villita convention center. Lay and clergy delegates from all over the SWTX Conf. have gathered for our annual business session. There on the floor of the center one day, a guy who is about a wide as he is tall comes up to me and says, "Hi, I am Glenn from Odem, Tx. I am so excited to go to bike camp. I got new clothes, I have a new flashlight. I just can't wait." I am thinking to myself, "Please stay on your medications."
So shortly afterwards, the camp starts on a Monday afternoon. Seventeen jr. hi. kids bring their multi-speed bikes for us to look at. We check their brakes, their gear changers, their tires. We do first warm-up ride, just 2 miles down the hill to Mr. Gatti's pizza for supper, and then 2 miles back up. I am at the top of the hill, waiting for the kids to come in. I am counting 1,2,3, 4......14, 14, 16.....We are missing one. Can you guess who it is? Glenn from Odem, Tx. He is pushing his bike up the hill with 2 flat tires.
I am thinking to myself, "I hope this is not a sign of things to come," but it was. It was awful for Glenn. We would put him at the front of the pack as we began the day's ride but very quickly, he would be bringing up the rear. I would get in front of him and say, "Glenn, you can draft on me, I will cut through the wind." But it didn't last long. Sometimes, Glenn would give up and ride in the pickup that followed our line.
But that is not the worst part. Those kids were as cruel to Glenn as only jr. hi. kids can be. Some of you know what I am talking about. He ate meals by himself. If there was a joke, he was the butt of the joke. I was looking forward to the end of the week.
Each night we had a worship service, so that Friday night, the last night of the bike camp, we went up to the top of Mt. Wesley, to the foot of that big lighted cross. How appropriate. I was going to have a closing communion service with them. We sang some songs, we read some scriptures, and then I took a chance. I asked the kids to talk about their week and what they remembered. One by one they said, "I liked the bike ride to Comfort....I enjoyed swimming in the hot tubs on the Guadelupe River." One brave boy said, "I like Jackie." Every one spoke exept....Glenn from Odem, Tx, and frankly I was relieved.
I was just starting the communion liturgy when I say movement, a hand raised. It was Glenn. He wanted to say something. I dreaded what he was going to say. Glenn said, "I had the best week of my entire life!".........What! How could this be? We were so mean to him, so cruel. Only later did it come to me that God works not only in us and through us, but also in spite of us.
This God revealed in Jesus will work in spite of 9/11....in spite of a pastor wanting to burn the Koran in reaction to 9/11...in spite of clergy sexual abuse....in spite of our pettiness, our meaness, our lack of forgiveness. This God is getting up early, staying up late, finding ways to find us. Talk about amazing grace.
The God revealed in our Bible, in Jesus Christ rejoices over every one who is found and will not stop looking until all of God's children come home. That is the good news I have to share.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
rain
9/8/10 Last night our church council chair and I did something highly unusual: we postponed a meeting because of rain. It is usually so dry and so hot, especially here at the the end of summer, but tropical storm Hermine changed all of that yesterday. We had localized flooding, traffic problems, and dangerous conditions. On this morning's news, there were reports of some cars getting swept away when people foolishly tried to cross streams. Having grown up on a farm in the Panhandle of Texas, I never turn down rain, and the land around here sure needed it, but we have gotten plenty for a day.
Love,
Lynn
Love,
Lynn
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
cost estimates
from my sermon on 9.5.10 from Luke 14:25-33
It hurts my heart to hear Jesus talk this way to us, "You cannot be my disciple." The Greek literally says, "You are not able." I want to push back and say, "We are not like those crowds back then. We know that to follow you it is more than a parade, more than a protest march. We know what it costs. We are able."
I can hear the song playing in my head, maybe you know it:
Are ye able said the Master, to be crucified with me?
Yea, the sturdy dreamers anwered, to the death we follow thee.
Lord, we are able, our spirits are thine, remold them, make us, like thee, divine.
Thy guiding radiance, above us shall be, a beacon to God, to love and loyalty.
So, when Jesus says, you must hate your family members or you are not able to be my disciple, we are ready with our reply. We have read the commentaries, we know that "hate" doesn't mean abhor. It is a semitic expression meaning to turn away from, to detach. We have strong ties to families. We even talk in glowing terms about family values. Does Jesus really mean that we are to put Him above our families? Does it cost that much? Are we able to do that?
And Jesus says, we cannot be his disciples unless we take up our cross. Literally, the text says each one of us must take up his or her own cross. We say, "We wear the cross as jewelry. We put a cross in the front of the sanctuary." We know that it is more than the old phrase, "I guess that is just my cross to bear" when talking about an illness, or situation. It may mean surrending our wills, our need to get our way. Does it really cost that much? Are we able to do that?
And then if we haven't gotten it, Jesus tells 2 parables. One is about starting to build a tower but not being able to finish it. This was probably a tower that a farmer would build in his fields in order to keep thieves and varmint out. He didn't calculate the cost and so only had a foundation built, nothing more. Let me say that every church building project I have ever been a part of has come in over budget.....except for Bldg. M. I am so grateful to our Trustees for watching over this project and for getting us back into the building today. But the point is, how many things in the faith have we started and not be able to finish because we did not count the cost?
The other parable is about a king going into battle against another king whose army is twice as large. How many times have we tried to face enemies larger than us and been humbled because we did not count the cost?
Finally, Jesus says we are not able to be His disciples if we do not renounce all our possessions. the way Luke remembers Jesus is that He is very concerned with this world, concrete things like money. We respond by saying that we are learning to be generous. I as your pastor have challenged you to be a 50/50 church where we spend 50 percent of our offerings our our local church ministries and 50% on others. You have not thrown me out. I am not sure that we are tithing. I know we get more concerned with meeting the budget than seeing how much more we can give. Does it really cost this much? Are we able to give this much?
Many years ago I attended a Good Friday service at Bethany UMC in Austin. You remember what happens on Good Friday, when Jesus goes to the cross? The piano was playing that hymn "Are Ye Able?" We would sing the verses and the piano would play the refrain by itself. The second verse talks about when a repentant thief dies can you see that his soul is bound for paradise. The third verse talks about being laid in death in the sod and being commended unto God. It got darker and darker as we sang.
Then we sang the 4th verse:
Are ye able still the Master whispers down eternity,
And heroic spirits answer, now as then in Galilee....
And the piano tune started to crumble and go into dissonance and finally die with no resolution. It was an awful sound. We were left in the dark to consider......we are exactly the same people now as then in Galilee.
There is nothing we can do to save ourselves. We throw ourselves into the arms of mercy, into the outstretched arms of the crucified Christ. He alone has counted the cost.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer has written the classic, The Cost of Disipleship. In it he says that grace is free, but it is never cheap.
I must leave you with some good news that sometimes we get it, we understand what it costs. This past Thursday evening, I was here in the front of the sanctuary to bless the parents and teachers of our preschool. It is something I do every year at the start of their school year. A man from the Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN) came to me and asked if he could talk to me. Now you know that we convert 4 our our Sunday School rooms into bedrooms where homeless people live for a week while they get on their feet. This man was one of our residents. He said, "Pastor, I am a member of a church, but it is a long way off. I know what it says in Malachi about bringing your tithes and offerings into the storehouse of God. I was wondering if I could give mine to this church." He put a $50 bill into my hand. Are you getting this? This homeless man living at our church is so grateful that he gives $50 to Christ and His Church. I put it in an envelop and placed in the office. Sometimes, when everything is stripped away, and we realize we live by grace alone, we know what it costs, and we are able to follow Christ.
It hurts my heart to hear Jesus talk this way to us, "You cannot be my disciple." The Greek literally says, "You are not able." I want to push back and say, "We are not like those crowds back then. We know that to follow you it is more than a parade, more than a protest march. We know what it costs. We are able."
I can hear the song playing in my head, maybe you know it:
Are ye able said the Master, to be crucified with me?
Yea, the sturdy dreamers anwered, to the death we follow thee.
Lord, we are able, our spirits are thine, remold them, make us, like thee, divine.
Thy guiding radiance, above us shall be, a beacon to God, to love and loyalty.
So, when Jesus says, you must hate your family members or you are not able to be my disciple, we are ready with our reply. We have read the commentaries, we know that "hate" doesn't mean abhor. It is a semitic expression meaning to turn away from, to detach. We have strong ties to families. We even talk in glowing terms about family values. Does Jesus really mean that we are to put Him above our families? Does it cost that much? Are we able to do that?
And Jesus says, we cannot be his disciples unless we take up our cross. Literally, the text says each one of us must take up his or her own cross. We say, "We wear the cross as jewelry. We put a cross in the front of the sanctuary." We know that it is more than the old phrase, "I guess that is just my cross to bear" when talking about an illness, or situation. It may mean surrending our wills, our need to get our way. Does it really cost that much? Are we able to do that?
And then if we haven't gotten it, Jesus tells 2 parables. One is about starting to build a tower but not being able to finish it. This was probably a tower that a farmer would build in his fields in order to keep thieves and varmint out. He didn't calculate the cost and so only had a foundation built, nothing more. Let me say that every church building project I have ever been a part of has come in over budget.....except for Bldg. M. I am so grateful to our Trustees for watching over this project and for getting us back into the building today. But the point is, how many things in the faith have we started and not be able to finish because we did not count the cost?
The other parable is about a king going into battle against another king whose army is twice as large. How many times have we tried to face enemies larger than us and been humbled because we did not count the cost?
Finally, Jesus says we are not able to be His disciples if we do not renounce all our possessions. the way Luke remembers Jesus is that He is very concerned with this world, concrete things like money. We respond by saying that we are learning to be generous. I as your pastor have challenged you to be a 50/50 church where we spend 50 percent of our offerings our our local church ministries and 50% on others. You have not thrown me out. I am not sure that we are tithing. I know we get more concerned with meeting the budget than seeing how much more we can give. Does it really cost this much? Are we able to give this much?
Many years ago I attended a Good Friday service at Bethany UMC in Austin. You remember what happens on Good Friday, when Jesus goes to the cross? The piano was playing that hymn "Are Ye Able?" We would sing the verses and the piano would play the refrain by itself. The second verse talks about when a repentant thief dies can you see that his soul is bound for paradise. The third verse talks about being laid in death in the sod and being commended unto God. It got darker and darker as we sang.
Then we sang the 4th verse:
Are ye able still the Master whispers down eternity,
And heroic spirits answer, now as then in Galilee....
And the piano tune started to crumble and go into dissonance and finally die with no resolution. It was an awful sound. We were left in the dark to consider......we are exactly the same people now as then in Galilee.
There is nothing we can do to save ourselves. We throw ourselves into the arms of mercy, into the outstretched arms of the crucified Christ. He alone has counted the cost.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer has written the classic, The Cost of Disipleship. In it he says that grace is free, but it is never cheap.
I must leave you with some good news that sometimes we get it, we understand what it costs. This past Thursday evening, I was here in the front of the sanctuary to bless the parents and teachers of our preschool. It is something I do every year at the start of their school year. A man from the Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN) came to me and asked if he could talk to me. Now you know that we convert 4 our our Sunday School rooms into bedrooms where homeless people live for a week while they get on their feet. This man was one of our residents. He said, "Pastor, I am a member of a church, but it is a long way off. I know what it says in Malachi about bringing your tithes and offerings into the storehouse of God. I was wondering if I could give mine to this church." He put a $50 bill into my hand. Are you getting this? This homeless man living at our church is so grateful that he gives $50 to Christ and His Church. I put it in an envelop and placed in the office. Sometimes, when everything is stripped away, and we realize we live by grace alone, we know what it costs, and we are able to follow Christ.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
taking initiative
9/2/10 Over the past 2 days, I have spent some time talking with our District Superintendent and with the Conference Director of Church Growth and with our Associate Pastor about moving towards starting a satellite site for our congregation or doing a mother/daughter new church start. I have signed up for a cont. ed. event at our Methodist camp in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The event is called New Church Leadership Initiative. I am not sitting still. I am taking initiative.
Love,
Lynn
Love,
Lynn
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)