messenger

12/22/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from the prophet Isaiah 52:7, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'" Week by week, sometimes day by day, I get to be a messenger of good news. As a preacher, it comes with the job title. Especially at Christmas, people come to worship hungry...desperate for good news. On Christmas Eve, I am going to adopt the character of the angel who announces to the shepherds (to us...to the world) that a Savior is born. The title of my monologue is Tidings. Today I bring you good tidings of great joy, for unto us is born this day in the city of David, a savior, who is Christ the Lord. Might we become messengers too?

Love,
Lynn

light

12/21/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from John 1:5-6, "In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it." I like it that the light comes at the darkest time of the year. Today is the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere, the shortest day of the year, the longest night of the year, the day with the most darkness. Some people suffer from SAD, seasonal affect disorder. They don't get enough light hitting their eyes, and they grow depressed. For some this is the time of year when the grief from losing a spouse or child or friend or job is felt more intensely. It is a dark time.

In Christ, we have the light of the world. He doesn't make the darkness go away, but he overcomes it. He shines in its midst. The contrast is sharp. The hope is real. May Christ be our life and light.

Love,
Lynn

spoken

12/20/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from Hebrews 1:1=2, "Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son." We all have different primary channels in communicating. Some folks are visual. They need to see it to get it. Some are tactile. They need to feel it in order for it to be real. Some are auditory. They need to hear it to understand it.

In this passage, we have a "wordy" God. God speaks. God has spoken down through the ages through the prophets. In this season we claim that God has spoken through a Son. As John's gospel says, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us."

Love,
Lynn

sing a new song

12/19/11 Yesterday, we had our annual service of Lessons and Carols. This means that we read a lot of scripture that had to do with the coming of Jesus Christ, starting with Old Testament prophecies through the birth stories and adoration by the Magi. In between the readings, we sang. This service is one of most highly attended of any all year. We love to sing. We were made to sing. Singing gets us right with God, close to God. I always end the service with a benediction from John 1:1-14, a passage that usually says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Greek word logos could also be translated as follows: In the beginning was the Song, and the Song was with God, and the Song was God. My prayer verse for the day is Psalm 98:1, "O sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have gotten him victory." Keep singing. Sing to the Lord a new song.

Love,
Lynn

generation to generation

12/15/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from Mary's song after she learns she will be giving birth to the Messiah, Luke 1:50, "His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation." A book that has had a tremendous impact upon me has as its title "Generation to Generation." It was written by rabbi/psychotherapist Edwin Friedman, who applied the family systems theory of Murray Bowen to the religious communities. He notes the power of foremothers and fathers to shape our lives as we are all connected in relational/emotional systems. To connect with what Mary is saying in Luke, I hope that we can see the God of the Universe, the God who loves us so much that God comes in the flesh in Jesus the Christ, as working all down through history and into the future, from generation to generation.

Love,
Lynn

magnify

12/14/11 My breath prayer today comes from the song that Mary sings when she learns from an angel that she will give birth to the Savior. It is traditionally called the "Magnificat," based upon the word "Magnify." Luke 1:46b-47, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior."

I thought of a magnifying glass....how it can make something look larger. But a magnifying glass can also focus the rays of the sun into a single point, so that it can cause a fire to start. Is the coming of Christ like this? Does Christ help us to see things better, in larger perspective, with more clarity? Does Christ, the Son/Sun, get so focused that He can cause people to became aflame with passion for the Gospel? Can He change the hearts of groups, congregations, denominations, nations....to warm up to love, reconciliation, hope, forgiveness?

Can we be part of the magnification process? How will we magnify the Lord?

Love,
Lynn

rest

12/13/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from II Samuel 7:11b where the LORD speaks to David these words, "I will give you rest from all your enemies." Most of my enemies are internal, not external. I have inner demons, compulsions, brokenness. My primary one is trying to save myself by my own goodness, which leads to working too hard, overfunctioning, and tiring out. I need rest....rest that comes from outside me...rest from all my enemies. The word for today is rest.

Love,
Lynn

forever time

from my sermon on 12/11/12 from I Thes. 5:16-24

How do you spend your time? I find it interesting that we treat time like money....we spend it...we waste it...in jail we "do time"....can you lend me a few minutes of your time?....I'd like to borrow an hour of your time...Do you have enough time?.....if I do this now, I can buy myself some time.

I am in a series of sermons on time. I am finding that time is our most valuable commodity. What's your time worth? In counseling, you pay $50-200/hr for really 50 minutes. You lawyers out there, you bill by the hour, actually by the tenth of an hour. Imagine every 6 minutes, you are accounting for your time.

In our culture around here, time may be more valuable than money. Graham Nash, of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young (really dating myself by this music group), broke both of his legs. Being laid up gave him a new perspective. "Time is our only currency. Even Bill Gates, as rich as he is can't buy a single second. We have to use our time wisely."

Our scripture for the day has some counsel, Rejoice ALWAYS, pray WITHOUT CEASING, give thanks IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES, which could be translated as AT ALL TIMES. I call this forever time.

And now you say, who can possibly do this, forever be rejoicing, praying, giving thanks...especially when you read the news of 24 children being slain in the civil war in Syria or the remains of 274 servicemen and women being cast into a landfill after giving their lives for our country. Harry Emerson Fosdick wrote a book, A Faith for Tough Times, in which he recounts a woman's struggle with the diagnosis of a painful arthritis. A friend visiting her said, This illness will certainly change the color of your life. To which the woman responded, And I propose to choose the color.

It is our choice how we respond to anything in life. We can choose to rejoice, pray, give thanks or not. For us followers of Christ, it because part of our spiritual discipline. Signs of our maturing in Christ, growing our souls, are being able to be rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks more and more. It is a process. I believe that as we go on with God, we are able to take on more of the world's pain, with greater intensity, for longer periods of time. Our box of coping skills grows. We may even get to the point where we wake up not saying, Good God, morning, to saying Good morning, God. At the early service, one man told me, he reverses the order, beginning in thanksgiving, which leads him to prayer, and finally to rejoicing. Whatever order works for you. I believe that learning to rejoice always, pray constantly, and give thanks at all times leads to the only life of sanity there is.

How do you spend your time? Annie Dillard writes, How we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives. It is a moment by moment, day by day, process. How do you spend your time? I heard a talk that said, if you show me your checkbook and your calendar, I will show you your priorities in life. Eric Hoffer, that longshoreman/philosopher wrote that our busyness was not from having purpose in our lives but rather worrying that our lives were being wasted. We get crazy busy because we don't feel we real count for something.

Now you ask, Pastor Lynn, is there any good news here? Yes, first all of the verb tenses and pronouns are second person plural. There all say "you all" or as we say in Texas "y'all." It is a community exercise. "Y'all rejoice always, y'all pray constantly, y'all give thanks at all times." We do this together. Our bishop in the SWTx Conf., Jim Dorff, experienced this in Africa. He was there to see those mosquito nets we have been purchasing for Imagine No Malaria. There was supposed to be a meeting. He kept looking at his watch, folding his arms, sighing. Finally, his African host, said, "In America, you keep time. In Africa, we make time." Bishop Dorff relaxed. The meeting would begin when everyone got there. In community we learn.

Another example of forever time is from the senior pastor I began ministry with, Mal Hierholzer. One day, he was visiting one of our unwillingly absent members, a woman facing the limits of her life. She despaired that she was of no use, homebound, without purpose. Mal said to here, Here's something you can do, you can pray for me. And she did. In fact, she became a prayer warrior, getting the prayer concerns called into her. We live this rejoicing, praying, giving thanks together.

The other part of the good news is that this is God's work in us. It is not our simply gutting it out. God's desire is simply for our deepest happiness. I love what the passage says, "May the God of peace sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and your soul and your body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and He will do this."

God came from beyond time, to enter time as one of us, in Jesus Christ. In fact, we mark our time by his coming into B.C. and A.D. We live in Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord. Christ has joined us and continues to work in us his will, confronting us and comforting us. God wants us to be persons rejoicing always, praying constantly, and giving thanks forever.

So that this worship time is actually rehearsal time for eternity. Think about it....what will you be doing in eternity? How will you spend your time? What appointments will you need to keep? Look at your calendar and what entries do you find there? We are practicing here what we will be doing for eternity, rejoicing, praying, giving thanks.

A closing story, a man was in hospice care in London. He asked his nurse, Am I dying? His male nurse took his blood pressure, his pulse, his respiration. Yes sir, you are actively dying. Will you help me do this? Yes sir, I will be right here for you. No, will you help me do this? The nurse took his hand, I am right here sir. No, will you get in bed with me? I think if you help me do this, I can do it well. The nurse got up in the bed and held the man....and the man did it well.

How will you spend your time?

time

12/8/11 It's funny that I am preaching about time this season of Advent. It's funny because right now I don't have enough time. We had church conference on Monday night, Finance meeting last night, and I have a weekend retreat with Dr. Hax from MIT on Fri- Sat, then all day literally busy on Sunday, with no breaks until the next weekend. I am taking off right after Christmas for that week until New Year's. But right now I haven't spent enough time in study or catching up on people. The one saving grace is I have spent time in prayer and exercise every day. How are you spending your time?

Love,
Lynn

marking time

from my sermon on 12/4/11 from 2 Peter 3:8-15a

God's view of things and ours are different. May I tell you a story? There was a man who grew close to God. One day, in his praying, he became so bold as to ask God, "What's a 1,000 years like to you, God?" A thousand years is like a second to me, answered God. "Well, God, what's a million dollars like to you?" A million dollars is like a penny to me. The man got even bolder and after a pause, asked, "God, can I have one of your pennies?" Sure, said God, in a second.

The text says that with God one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. God's view of time is different from ours. I am doing a sermon series on time. I am finding that time is our most valuable commodity, even more valuable than money. Today, I want you to listen for 2 things about marking time.

One, for us, time can slow down and speed up. You remember from your study of physics that as we approach the speed of light that time will slow down. Scientists have actually proved this with extremely accuarte atomic clocks. You know this from personal experience. You are driving on these slick streets like we have right now. Everything is ordinary (have a metronome going back and forth at a reasonable pace). Then, all of a sudden, this flatbed truck is turning right in front of you, blocking both lanes. Time slows down (make the metronome go slower). You see everything with perfect clarity. You understand that you will not have time to stop. You will hit the truck. You notice the name of the lumber company on the door of the truck. You see that it is a Ford R-450. If you are a parent, even if your kid is not in the car with you, you will throw out your right arm, trying to defy the laws of physics, in order to stop the child hurtling forward. You see that the steel bed of the truck is right about where your neck is in your car. By the grace of God, you don't hit the steel bed, but the read wheels of the truck, and you live. It only took a few seconds, but for you it took a lifetime.

Time can speed up...especially as you get older. My doctor friend describes it like this: when you are a baby and you have lived one day, that is all the time that you know...just one light period and one dark period, a few feeding times. What happens when you are 80 years old...well that is 29,220 days. For you, a day is a tiny fraction of all the time that you know. How many light periods and dark periods have you experienced? How many meals, baths, traffic signals?

What does this have to do with the scripture passage? In the early church there was an issue around the delay of the coming of Christ. They expected him to return quickly. From the way they marked time, Christ seemed to be slow. Peter is saying from God's perspective, the way God marks time, is that this so-called delay is actually a gift from God. It is a time to repent, a time to respond to God's mercy, a time to experience God's purifying fire. We take time now ...in silence...there may something you want to repent of....we have a prayer of confession coming soon...there may be something you need to give over to God's mercy....there may be something you have been holding onto more tightly than God's desire to hold onto you. We take time now to repent.

The second thing I want you to remember about marking time is this: some said that Christ's delay in coming back meant that they could do whatever they wanted. It was a license to licentiousness. Others thought that it meant that they didn't have to do anything. It was an invitation to idleness. Friends, this is not the problem most of us have today. We overfunction. We are crazy-busy. We don't see time as God's time, but as ours solely, and we fill it up, every minute of it. We must be doing something all the time, and then we complain that we don't have enough time.

The second thing I invite you to do this Advent is to allow for "gap time." This means to not be so busy as to not leave time for God to break in. As a pastor friend of mine says, to allow for God's unscheduled appointments. Peter in this letter says, it is to lead lives of holiness and godliness, where righteousness is at home.

It was right at this moment in writing this sermon that God broke in. A man we will call Tom came to see me. Months ago, I had helped him out. He had been visiting in worship here. He had told me that his family needed food. I told him about all the different agencies through which we worked and that I didn't hand out money. He told me his child was hungry. And I never do this, but I took him over to HEB and bought him groceries with my own credit card. Then his car was low on gas, so I filled it with gas on my credit card. I wouldn't miss the money. But then I didn't see Tom again. He was gone. Ah, I thought, lesson learned again. I got taken again. Then he shows up right when I am talking about gap time. He said that he had gotten work up in the Dallas area after a hail storm. He was bidding on roofing jobs. Now he was in desperate straits again. We went through all of the options. None of them would help. I told him I didn't have any money to give him and I didn't know what to do. He said, "You could pray for me." Ah....I understood...what he really needed was for me to listen to him and to pray for him. That was gap time.

Then on Friday morning I am working on Habitat for Humanity. I love that time. I get to work with guys with power tools. Kevin and I are hanging doors. Gerard, our project manager comes in with a couple. I ask if they are the homeowners. They say yes. They apologize, saying that they won't be able to come back on Saturday to work on their house. Why, I ask. Maggie says that her sister, carried a baby to 7 1/2 months, but lost it, and she is now in ICU. I ask if it is OK to pray (I never assume it is). Yes, Maggie replies. There in the front room of their new house we pray all together in a circle of love. That is gap time.

I am asking you this Advent to mark time by allowing for gap time. We can get so busy in a worship service, we may miss God. I get anxious when there is silence in worship, but maybe that is the time that God speaks. (silence) We need gap time here today. We can get so busy in the church calendar we can squeeze God out. Maybe we need to have fewer meetings so God can show up in gap time. For you as a student in school, you ask someone how they are doing, and she responds "fine," but her voice drops to let you know she is anything but fine. So you pause and you listen. That's gap time. You receive a call from a wrong number, but there is something in person's voice to let you know it is not a wrong number for you. You listen. That's gap time. You remember that in music the rests are just as important as the notes. We need gap time.

This Advent, we are marking time, not just sitting around being idle, but making time count, looking for ways to practice holiness and godliness, where righteousness is at home. The good news is this: We know that God has made time for us.

what a combo

12/1/11 My breath prayer for the day is one of my favorite verses and comes from Psalm 85:10, "Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other." Steadfast love in Hebrew is chesed, which is covenant love, God's fierce love for us. Faithfulness is God's trustworthiness. Righteousness is right relationships, not merely keeping the law. Peace in Hebrew is shalom, not just the abscence of war, but a sense of wholeness, completeness, centeredness, no matter the outward circumstances. Imagining all of these coming together, meeting, kissing. What a combination! Maybe this is what happens in the coming of Christ.





Love,


Lynn

past tense

11/30/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from Psalm 85:2, "You forgave the iniquity of your people; you pardoned all their sin." I really need to hear these words. I carry the burden of guilt around. I feel my incompleteness, my failure, my lack, my sin. I love what these words say, that God has already forgiven, already pardoned. It is done. It is over. It is in the past.

Love,
Lynn

stand

11/29/11 My breath prayer today comes from Isaiah 40:8, "The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever." In this time of drought, I have seen the dry grass, the fading flowers. Even trees are dying. It is more than the usual fall slowing down of plant life. Many plants are giving up. The lack of water has finally done them in.

However, there are some plants left standing. The mighty oaks trees, some hundreds of years old in the park behind our house have withstood such challenges before. They continue to thrive.

We realized how fragile life is...how fragile each one of us and all of humanity is...how fragile our ecosystem is. We wither and fade, but God's word will stand forever. May we stand secure in that hope.

Love,
Lynn

wake up time

from my sermon on 11/27/11 from Mark 13:24-37

It's Wake up Time! In a couple of moments, we are going to sound our alarms, so I give you permission to get out your smart phones. I will give you some time to go to that alarm sound, or ring tone, while I talk.

Happy New Year! Yes, it is the beginning of a new church year. It's the first Sunday of Advent. Advent means coming. We celebrate the coming of Christ in the flesh some 2,000 years ago in Jesus of Nazareth. We anticipate the coming of Christ at the end of time, when he brings all things to completion. We live in the "in-between" time. This Advent, I am preaching a sermon series on time.

You still have another moment to find that sound while I tell a little story. I have been listening to 102.7 FM, all comedy, all the time, radio. I am not suggesting that you do, because some of the comics are quite raunchy, having a potty mouth. However, they have some of the classics on like Bill Cosby and Joan Rivers. It's great when you are stuck in traffic to hear a stand up comedian do his spiel. So two weeks ago I was listening to this comedian. He said, I travel all the time, working the clubs, making the rounds, staying in a different motel every night. I checked into this one motel and asked them to give me a courtesy call at 10 a.m. to get me up in the morning. At 6 a.m. the phone rang and I said, Hello?! The woman on the phone said, You have wasted the last 15 years of your life.....Now that was a real wake-up call!

Let's hear what gets you up in the morning...sound those alarms and ring tones now.

In this passage, Jesus sounds the alarm. He gives a wake up call. You know that the gospel was not written until some 40 years after Jesus died and was raised again. The temple in Jerusalem is probably being destroyed. People were remembering what Jesus said...that the destruction of the temple did not mean it was the end of time. This whole 13th chapter of Mark is known as the "little apocalypse," where Jesus talks about signs of the end.

It is a hard chapter to understand. I need to do some explaining. That line about this generation will not pass away until all of these things have taken place is difficult. How long is a generation? 20 years, 40 years? The first Christians expected the imminent return of Jesus. It didn't happen. My understanding of generation is this: the life span of the entire human race.

When will the end come? I like what Jesus says about the angels not knowing, not even Son knowing, but only the Father. When it comes to predicting the end, a little humility is in order. This year there have been 2 end times already predicted. Next year 2012, we have already gotten worked up about the Mayan calendar saying it is the end. Too many times in my brief life, I have heard such misguided predictions. At A & M, I got scared reading the Late, Great Planet Earth. It didn't happen according to that author's plan. In the last years, we have had the Left Behind Series. A little humility please when it comes to the end times.

There are signs that can be misleading. My first roommate at A & M was Danny, a good Catholic boy who attended Catholic schools. One of the nuns, his teachers was overly concerned about the end times. That fall was a false spring like this one. Have you noticed that after our drought, we have had a little rain and warm temperatures, and some of the trees are budding out in the fall? That fall, a fig tree started budding out, and the nun took it as a sign that the end was near. Please lower your anxiety about the end times.

We don't know when. Instead of being so concerned about the nearness of the end times, I would have us be more concerned with the nearness of the Christ. Christ comes, quickly, unexpectedly. Holiness comes suddenly into our lives. Jesus words are Be alert, Beware, Keep Awake.

I have an example from A Streetcar Named Desire. There are a lot of great lines from that play...Stella....but the one I quote comes in scene six, an exchange between Blanche and Mitch. They have just come back from a date. They are awkward with each other. Mitch is sweating profusely, but keeps his coat on to hide his perspiration. Blanche is fixing a drink. Slowly, they start peeling back the layers of their lives, sharing more, revealing who they are. Blanche finally tells about how her young husband took his own life. Mitch hugs her. He says, You need somebody. I need somebody too. They kiss. Blanche says, "Sometimes--there's God--so quickly." Christ comes so suddenly.

Your name is Isaiah. It is your turn to work in the temple. You are not expecting anything. It's just your job, your shift to fill, punch in at the time clock and get on with it. But suddenly the temple is filled with smoke and angels singing. Holiness comes near. You hear a voice, Whom shall I send and Who will go for us? You reply, Here I am send me. It is your wake up call.

You come to worship here. There are the announcements, the scripture reading, the sermom, the songs, but wait...all of a sudden a line from a song hits you....Here I am, Lord, is it I Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go Lord, if you lead me...I will hold your people in my heart. It is your wake up call.

Your name is Mary. You a good girl, but you are just a girl. You go to synagogue. You do your chores. But one day an angel comes to you...an angel! The angels says, You are blessed...you are going to have a child... this child will be the Messiah...the Savior of the world! You say, Let it be....I am the handmaiden of the Lord. All of sudden, the Lord comes near you. It is your wake up call.

You are a girl who goes to school at Columbine High School. It is just another class day...except this day, two misguided young men go crazy and start shooting people. One of them holds a gun to your head, and asks if you are a Christian...and you say yes. You witness to the nearness of Christ with your last breath.

I was out walking early this morning when I heard a rooster crow. It took back to one of those closest to Jesus...yes, Peter. He was there in the courtyard that last night of Jesus' life. Others would come up to him...... I know you are one of his followers.....you must be, you speak with a Galilean accent....you are one of his disciples....and 3 times you say, I don't know him. You deny him. And the cock crows. And you realize that was your wake up call.

Your closest friend invites you over. In the living room are family members and other close friends. One by one, they say something like, I love you very much, but I am concerned about your behavior as it relates to alcohol. I remember that time, you came home drunk, slurring your speech. You tried to hit me. I was so scared. I care about you. After everyone has spoken, you realize that this is an intervention, and that you have been living in denial. This is your wake up call.

Several of you have been asking about Pastor Jim. What did you do with him? I have set Jim free to pursue this new ministry here called the Point. Jim is starting a worship gathering on Sunday evenings where people come to then be sent into the world to serve. On most Sunday mornings, Jim has been at the local Starbucks, drinking coffee, doodling on the computer, reading, jouraling. Two weeks ago, Jim was there, and a woman came up to him. She said, I notice your name badge, Jim Austin, Rethink Church. What does that mean? she asked. Jim explained that he was a pastor exploring this new vision for church called the Point. The woman nodded and started to walk away. As she go to the door, she turned back, and approached Jim. You said you are a pastor...would you pray for my 2 children? Christ comes just that suddenly. There are many people outside of these walls who need a blessing, who need our prayers.

Let me be candid. It is hard to stay awake. In the very next chapter of Mark, Jesus takes his inner circle, Peter, James, and John, up to a garden on the Mt. of Olives to pray with him. It is his last night upon earth. He asks them to remain here and keep awake. It is the very same word in our passage. Three times he comes to them to find them asleep. Could you not stay awake 1 hour and pray with me? he asks. They cannot. We cannot. The amazing, incredible good news is that we are the very people that Christ came for. This Advent we need to wake up to the fact that we need a Savior.

It is too easy to fall asleep in our culture. The message of Christ gets buried in the advertising, the crowds, the crazy busyness, the rushing of this season. How will you stay awake? Cathy and I are trying to simplify, to cut back on buying, on scheduling, on overfunctioning. How will you stay awake this Advent. Christ comes so quickly.

Hindsight

from my sermon on Nov. 20, 2011 from Matthew 25:31-40

They say that hindsight is....20/20. In other words, in looking back, we see better, we can say, "Ah, that's how it really was."

In this passage, those who honored the Christ didn't see him until they looked back. It was in how they treated the most vulnerable....giving food to the hungry, water to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, taking care of the sick, visiting those in prison. They didn't do it to get credit, or earn salvation, or even to to see Jesus. They did it because it was the right thing to do. It was only in looking back, in hindsight, that they saw Jesus.

Looking back, we may see Jesus as well. I want us to look back over our recent past. Twp years ago, our church began to participate in Imagine No Malaria. To date, we have given over $35,000 to this cause. The Austin District was the pilot program for the whole denomination and has given almost $1 million. The UMC as a denomination has given more than 588,000 bed nets, trained more than 35,000 health care workers, and resourced more than 15 health clinics. We have the boldness to say that we want to rid the continent of Africa of the disease of malaria by 2015. Can you see Jesus here?

in this past year, Our congregation sent mission teams to Haiti, Uganda, Honduras on the international front. We sent youth and adults to North Carolina to ReCre, to do home repair. We sent a team to do home repair in New Orleans area. How long ago did Katrina hit? We are still there serving people. Now we are going to Bastrop after the wildfires. I know that I am leaving out many other missions, but these give you some idea of how we have been serving in the wider world and closer to home.

We are a 5 star mission church. That means we pay all of our apportionments or "a portion meant" for others. This current year that means out of our $1 million budget, we are giving $119,689 for others. We also give to many internation, national, and local missions. I have a certificate here that thanks us for being a 5 star mission church.

Westlake UMC has a tradition of Christmas in October. Already you have given $7,630 plus many blankets, coats, scarves, clothes, etc. Others have taken care of pets or given coffee to troops.

Westlake participates in Any Baby Can, Brackenridge Sewing room, Capital Area Food Bank, Caritas, Family Eldercare, Foundation for the Homeless ( recognize Robert and Peggy Davis for their service), Grace Food Pantry, Habitat for Humanity, Meals on Wheels & More, Mobile Loaves and Fishes, Montopolis Center, New Life Institute, Safe Place, Women's Storybook Project...and many more. Can you see Christ here?

If you come around this church, you will be encouraged to join us in our vision statement of "Following One, Serving All."

There is a danger in not seeing. I tell a parable that I got from Clinebell's Basic Types of Pastoral Counseling, a story that was written in 1953. Let's see if it still fits.

On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur there was once a crude little lifesaving station. the building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, buththe few devoted members kept a constatn watchover the sea, and with no though for themselves went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost. Many lives were saved by this wonderful little station, so that it became famous. Some of those who were saved, adn various others in the surrounding area, wanted to become associated with the station and give of their time and money and effort for teh support of its work. New boats were bought and new crews trained. The little lifesaving station grew.

Some of the members of the lifesaving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be porvided as the first refuge of thsoe saved from the sea. So they replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building. Now the lifesaving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they decorated it beautifully adn furnished it exquisitely, because they used it as sort of a club. Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on lifesaving mision, so they hired lifeboat crews to do this work. The lifesaving motif still prevailed in this club's decoration, adn there was a liturgical lifeboat in the room where the club initiations were held. About this time a large ship was wrecked off teh coast, and the hired crews brought in boatloads of cold, wet, and half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick, and some of them had black skin and some had yellow skin. The beautiful new clud was in chaos. So the property comittee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where victims of shipwreck could be cleaned up before coming inside.

At the next meeting, there was a split in the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club's lifesaving activities as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. Some members insisted upon lifesaving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a lifesaving station. But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save the lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own lifesaving station down the coast. They did.

As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old. It evolved into a club, and yet another lifesaving station was founded. History continued to repeat itself, adn if you visit that sea coast today, you will find a number of exclusive clubs along that shore. Shipwrecks are frequent in those, waters, but most of the people drown!

God save us from ever becoming a club! May we always see ourselves as a lifesaving station!

I challenge you: Where do you see yourself in mission? Where do you see Christ? I have shared with you many ways for you to get in mission through this church. The worship bulletin and the website have many other ways every week. But I want you to see yourself in mission in your business place, your neighborhood, your school, your family. Don't wait for me to call you; Christ has already called you. The point for each of us is this: me in mission. Everyone of us in mission.

There are some folks practicing this in our midst. Karen was talking to me. She said, "I want to hold babies." We thought and we prayed and we looked. It turns out that St. David's Neo-natal ICU needs people to hold babies...to feed them...to talk to them...to hold them. Karen found her place in mission. There is a man in our midst who has a passion for the soldiers returning home. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are winding down. Many troops are coming home. Some have a difficult adjustment. You know the unemployment rate among these troops is higher than the general population. This man is working with the Red Cross to help these soldiers. There is another man who sees the high unemployment in the Texas Valley. He is creating a non-profit to provide training for the Latino population. The fifth graders get it. Two Sunday ago at their Fifth in Service to Him they collected some 173 lbs. of food for the food bank. Our youth get it. Last Sunday at the youth council, one of the young women said, "I come to worship and Sunday School and Bible Study. I get it about God and the Bible, all the teaching. What would get me here for UMYF (United Methodist Youth Fellowship) is not games and sugar or more teaching. What would get me here is mission. I want to make a difference in the world.

I am going to allow for some silence. I want you to look back over your life. Where have you seeen Jesus? That may be God nudging you into that particular ministry. Might this be your calling? Then look ahead. How will you be in mission? Where you see the Christ?

when did we see you

11/17/11 I am preaching this week from Matthew 25:31-40, where Jesus tells a parable of judgment, as the Son of Man separates the sheep from the goats. The sheep, those at the right hand of the throne, the blessed ones, the righteous, are amazed at their good fortune. They ask over and over again, "When did we see you, Lord?" Of course the answer is that we see Jesus in the most vulverable--the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, the lonely, those in prison. How well do you see? Whom do you see? When did we see you, Lord?

Love,
Lynn

it's personal

11/16/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from Ezekiel 34:11, "For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out." We know the familiar words of the 23rd Psalm, "The Lord is my shepherd." Similiar imagery is found here in the prophet Isaiah. We have a God who doesn't want a single one of his sheep to go missing, to be lost. We have a God who is not far off, uninvolved, unconcerned, but one who is near, invested, and concerned. For this God, they are "my" sheep. For this God, "I myself" will look for them. With this God, it's personal.

Love,
Lynn

enter

11/15/11 My breath prayer today is Psalm 100. It is one of those passages that I have memorized through Disciple Bible Study and through Christian songs....make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye, all ye lands....and...I will enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart...I will enter his courts with praise....I will say this is the day the Lord has made...I will rejoice for he has made me glad.

It is about to rain outside. It is such a rare event. I am about to enter into a time of praise for this miracle. On my walk this morning, I have been singing the Christian songs from Psalm 100, entering into a time of praise.

Love,
Lynn

does anybody know what time it is?

from my sermon on Nov. 13 from I Thes. 5:1-11

Do you know what time it is? Time is a funny thing. Last Sunday, we went from Daylight Savings Time to Central Standard Time....and we gained an extra hour...how cool is that? We could use an extra hour every week or every day, couldn't we?

Last year Cathy and I went to Australia and New Zealand. We left LAX late at night on a Tuesday. We got on our Qantas flight and journeyed for some 12 hours. We woke up and arrived in Brisbane, Australia, and it was Thursday morning. Where did Wednesday go? That pesky International Date Line just took away a whole day. Here's the amazing thing: flying back from Aukland, NZ, to LAX, we actually arrived before we took off!

There's time and then there's timing. One of my favorite jokes: do you know what the most important thing in comedy is-timing.

Paul uses two words for time and timing in this passage. I know you love it when I become Mr. Language Person so the word translated as "times" in English is the word "chronos" in Greek, from which we get chronology and chonometer. It is clock time, seconds, minutes, hours, days, etc. It might sound like this (Westminster chimes). The other word translated into English as "seasons" is the word "kairos" in Greek. It is the fullness of time, the right time, God's time, the proper time. It might sound like this ( sing "To every thing, turn, turn, turn, there is a season, turn, turn, turn, and a time to every purpose under heaven").

So what time is it? The clock on the wall says about 9:30 a.m. But the liturgical calendar from Godly Play says it is the second to last Sunday of the church year. Children, help me. In two weeks, we get into these 4 purple Sunday, a season of preparation we call....Advent. There's Christmas in white. Then comes these Sundays of green...epiphany...a time of revealing who Jesus is. Then comes these Sundays of purple and preparation again....Lent. This white is Easter. If we didn't have this holy day, we wouldn't have any of these other days. After Easter, there is this red Sunday....Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit. Then these Sundays of green, Ordinary time, which is really extraordinary time, because of the coming of Christ. We Christians tell time differently from the rest of the world. We tell time by the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.

What time is it? There are some other time metaphors in this passage. One is the day of the Lord. It is a day anticipated by such prophets as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, and Zephaniah. It would be the time when the Lord would come and set everything right. It would be a day of judgment, of reckoning, when the righeous would be rewarded and the evil would be punished. Paul says the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. He picks up on language that Jesus used about the coming of the Lord. Do you know when the thief comes? NO. That's the point. It's unpredictable. Paul also says it is like labor pains. Any women here have give birth? You are given a due date. But does the child come on the due date? Sometimes. Sometimes sooner. Sometimes later. You are not in control. You need to be ready. You have the hospital bag packed. You have the neighbors on speed dial so they can come in and take care of the pets. You don't know when, so you live in a prepared state.

Time and timing are important. Chronos can become kairos. John Wesley started the Methdodist reform movement that grew out of his control and became the denomination that we know today as the United Methodist Church. He practiced and preached the value of time. He kept a journal of what he did....every 15 minutes of the day. He was just a tiny bit obsessive-compulsive. He said things like, "The meeting shall begin on time....never spend time idly."

There was a time on April 24, 1738, where as he writes in his journal, "I went very unwillingly to a meeting on Aldersgate street where someone was reading from Luther's preface to the letter to the Romans." It sounds like pretty dry stuff, doesn't it? But Wesley's heart was strangely warmed. He had a conversion experience. Chronos became kairos. He still struggled in his faith, but a year later, on May 2, 1739, he went out to a coal field, dressed in his vestments, and preached to the coal miners as they came out of the ground. He preached about salvation in Jesus Christ as a gift. They believed him. A reform movement became a spiritual revolution. Chronos became kairos.

In truth, Paul uses the terms almost interchangeably. We know that clock time can become God's time. This past week, I attended a meeting of the Austin District professionals, pastors, educators, youth workers, musicians, etc. We heard testimonies from our Phoenix pastors, those who have come through the wildfires. Andy Smith, the pastor at Bastrop, reminded us of the timeline. The wildfire event itself took 2 weeks time. The relief period is 10 times as long, therefore 20 weeks in duration, of which we are only 1/2 through. The recovery period is 100 times longer, or almost 4 years. We live in a rescue society, where we focus on the immediate fix. I am here to tell you that we will be with the Phoenix pastors and churches for the duration. We will make these years into God's time.

Cynthia Engstrom is the associate in Bastrop. She told us that some 30 families in that congregation alone lost everything. There were many more families that didn't know the status of their homes. The neighborhoods were closed off by police. Some were given only 10 minutes to return to see if they still had a home or not. Those who did still have a home and that short time used it to grab what linens and food they could....not for themselves but to give to others. Chronos became kaipos.

There is a prison ministry, that usually begins on a Thursday evening and goes through Sunday afternoon. It mirrors passion and death and resurrection of Jesus of Holy Week and Easter Sunday. Talks about the Christian faith are given. Communion is celebrated once a day. The prison is inundated with cookies, thousands of cookies. Some of you have baked cookies for these weekends. You know what this prison ministry is called? Kairos...God's time.

I don't often do this...get so personal, but I want to tell you what happened on this past Father's day, the third Sunday of June. We went out to lunch with our older son Joel. He has been pushing off against us....as an almost 30 year old is wont to do. We were eating at Jason's Deli. I was having my 1/4 muffeleta with vegetarian vegetable soup. It was pleasant. Joel gave me the obligatory Father's Day card. It was some Peanuts cartoon, Charlie Brown and Snoopy theme, totally forgettable. At the bottom of the card, Joel wrote, "Dad, I want to spend more time with you." All of a sudden, the meal became the sacrament of communion. The prodigal son was returning home. Chronos became kairos.

I have so much to say about time that I can't fit it all into this message. But Advent is coming, and I will take the time to do a sermon series as follows:

Nov. 27 Mark 13:24-37 Wake Up Time
Dec. 4 II Peter 3:8-15a Marking Time
Dec. 11 I Thes. 5:16-24 Forever Time
Dec. 18 is Lessons and Carols or Carol Time
Dec. 24 is Christmas Eve or Celebration Time

Do you know what time it is? Hear this good news: the Lord God holds all of our times and seasons in his hands.

contempt

11/10/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from Ps. 123:3, "Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt." I know many places in the world where Christians face persecution, harrassment, even death. They know the bite of "contempt." When I was doing my work on my Doctor of Ministry degree, one of my professors, Ralph Underwood, said that we Christians in the USA may face a more subtle form of contempt, that is, to be ignored. We may be counted as irrelevant....one might say beneath contempt. I pray for God's mercy not only for us who believe but also for those who hold us in contempt.

Love,
Lynn

look

11/9/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from Psalm 123:3b, "So our eyes look to the LORD our God, until he has mercy upon us." The world can be an unforgiving place, making sure every debt is paid, every crime punished, every wrong revealed. I can be very unforgiving towards myself, holding myself in harsh prison cells for slight faults. I look to the Lord until his mercy comes. Looking upon His presence is enough until I experience His mercy. What do you see today? How do things look?

Love,
Lynn

encourage one another

from my sermon on All Saints' Sunday from I Thes. 4:13-18

Encourage one another with these words, Paul says. Therefore, we shouldn't shorten one of the opening verses to "do not grieve." Christians grieve. Faithful, believing persons grieve. When someone dies, we feel the loss and we grieve. When I was going to seminary, a new book had just come out by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross called On Death and Dying. She broke the taboo. She actually talke to people who were dying and asked them what they were feeling and thinking. You remember the stages of grief that she discovered. Denial....this can't be happening to me, I don't believe it. Bargaining....God, I promise I'll be a better person if you will just make this go away. Anger....this is so unfair. Depression....I just want to crawl into a hole and not talk to anyone. And finally Acceptance. In my early ministry, I tried to push people through the stages. That didn't work so well. I quickly learned this: everyone grieves uniquely. Some will omit a stage. Some skip around, back and forth through the stages. Some get stuck in one stage. Sometimes the best a person can do is to die angry. What I have learned is to stay with the person and accept them right where they are in the grieving process.

Paul says Do not grieve as those who have no hope. I can't make anybody do anything, but in the dying process, I do offer hope. The main thing I try to do, if people are willing, is to help them come to peace....at peace with their past, at peace with their relationships, at peace with God, and at peace with themselves. We have the hope that with God's help, we can find this peace.

Paul is a pastor trying to help people deal with their grief. He offers the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. Here's what is unique about the Christian faith: we have a God who has taken on our flesh and know all that we go through, this God dies like we do, and this God is raised again from the dead. Our hope is in Him, Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

Paul offers hope through an analogy. It is not clear in the NRSV, but 3 times when the word "dead" is used, the language is actually "those who have fallen asleep." It is not a great analogy, but Paul is saying those who have fallen asleep have the potential of waking up again.

Paul is a pastor, and he is trying to comfort people. He is not just trying to do a theological treatise; he is trying to meet people's real concerns. In the early church, there was the expectation that Christ would come back again very quickly. When that didn't happen and some of the first believers started to die, the community had questions. So Paul says that those who died first would be raised first. I ask you, Does that really matter to you, the priority of who gets raised first? It doesn't to me. Paul says that the coming of the Lord will be evident. There will be a shout from the Lord, a cry from an archangel, and a trumpet blast. Any these signs all that important to you? They aren't to me. What is important is what paul says...we will be with the Lord forever! Encourage one another with these words.

I want to offer encouragement around 4 saints from this church who died this past year. Barbara Dare was granted a sweet release after a long illness. I remember at her funeral, Tim Bushong sang the contemporary Christian song, "I Can Only Imagine." It has that wonderful line about when we are in the presence of the Lord, we won't know what to do--whether to dance or in awe to be still. Thelma Fisher was a "rounder." She love to party. There was nothing better to have a bunch of family in, sleeping on pallets all over the house. She loved playing cards and having a good time. She couldn't hear worth a lick, but she loved to be in worship. "I just love being in my church home with all of my friends around," she said. John Musgrove loved his family, and it was shone in 2 ways. One, he loved Italian sports cars, Ferraris and Porsches. Just the year before he died, his family was named Porsche family of the year. Two, his family has a loving dog named Bonnie. I have blessed that dog 5 times at the annual Blessing of the Animals service. The night before John died, I was in his house, gathered in the bedroom with his family. John just wanted to be released. We stood in a circle around him as he lay in bed with Bonnie. As I prayed, Bonnie came and gave me a kiss on the lips, a big wet dog smack. J.C. Thomas was a trainer of acolytes. At his service, I said that was his job, to help bring the light of Christ into worship and then to take the light of Christ out into the world. He was an usher and a greeter. He never knew a stranger. He was the most welcoming kind of guy. As a lawyer, he was also a defender of the poor, taking many cases pro bono. He was a charter member of this congregation. We are built on a good foundatin. We give thanks for their witness this All Saints' Sunday. Encourage one another with these words.

I close with a story. I serve as the chair of the Order of Elders. One of the persons on my Advisory Board is a black pastor. Before a recent meeting, I asked if Jack could make it. He replied, "I'll be there as long as I can be back at my church by 4 p.m. I have an appointment to meet with a family to prepare a homegoing service." I said that I didn't know that term "homegoing." He said, "You folks in the white church have funerals and memorial services, but we in the black church have a homegoing." Encourage one another with these words.

mercy me

11/3/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from Matthew 5:7, Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy. It is really hard for me to admit, but I can be hard/demanding/unforgiving of other people and ....especially of myself. In my walking/prayer time this morning, the prayer of my heart was "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." In driving to work, it came to me that I would be given opportunities to show mercy to others....let that car into the traffic flow. It came to me to be aware that others would show mercy to me....I am sorry that I hurt you, please forgive me. May it be so.

Love,
Lynn

ham pie

11/2/11 Don't expect anything deep or moving from today's entry....just a little something to tickle your funny bone. Yesterday I had lunch with some of my pastor friends as we talked about Reconciling Ministries within our congregations. The lunch was provided by the office assistant at First UMC downtown. She asked if everyone was okay with eating quiche. She said that her husband wouldn't eat quiche...along the lines of the famous quote, "Real men don't eat quiche." So the next time she fixed quiche, and her husband asked what was for supper, she said, "It's ham pie." He had some. He liked it. He asked for a second helping of "ham pie." It is all a matter of labeling, isn't it?

Love,
Lynn

all saints day

11/1/11 Last night was Halloween, All Hallow's Eve. Cathy and I did the escape route. We went to see a light-hearted movie, Puss in Boots. Then we went out to eat. We avoided the doorbell, the candy, the crowds.

Today is All Saints' Day. I am about to lead a staff meeting. Then I am going to meet some pastor friends for lunch as we talk about Reconciling Ministries Network. With both groups I am going to lead a song in our hymnal, #712, I Sing a Song of the Saints of God. The last line of each verse really gets me. It says, "I want to be one too."

Love,
Lynn

The Great Emergence or Clearing out the Attic

from my sermon on Oct. 30, 2011, from I Thes. 2:9-13

Tomorrow is .....Halloween. For us in the church it is All Hallow's Eve, the day before All Saints's Day. For much of the culture it is a day about ghosts, goblins, and witches. It is a scary day. Can I tell you something even scarier than Halloween? The Church is being transformed. Can I tell you something even more exciting? The Church is being transformed.

Today is Reformation Sunday. When I told the worship team that I was thinking about preaching on the Great Reformation, they said....yawn...boring... wake me up when you are finished. But stick with me just a minute. About 500 years ago, on October 31, 1517, on Halloween, a priest in the Roman Catholic Church named Martin Luther nailed 95 theses on the door of the church in Witttenburg, Germany. It is easy to mark the Great Reformation to that exact date. However, a process had been going on for some time before including: Gutenburg's invention of the printing press in 1440 that made the Bible available to the masses in their native languages, Columbus who sailed the ocean blue in 1492 thereby reshaping all of the maps of the world, and Copernicus who in 1514 proved that the earth revolved around the sun no longer making the Earth the center of the universe.

I read a book recently entitled the Great Emergence by Phyllis Tickle who says "about every 500 years the Church feels compelled to hold a giant rummage sale." In order for God to do God's new thing some old things have to be cleared out of the way.

Stay with me. Five hundred years before the Great Reformation was the Great Schism. In 1054, the Greek/Eastern Church based in Constantinople split from the Roman/Western Church based in Rome. They fought over such things as leavened bread versus unleavened bread and whether the Spirit come from the Father only or from the Father and the Son.

Five hundred years before that was a pope named Gregory the Great who gave rise to the monastic movement. After the fall of Rome and the beginning of the dark ages, culture, scholarship, worship, Bible study, literacy, etc., was carried on through the monastaries.

Five hundred years before that was the birth of Jesus the Christ. We Christians say that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Phyllis Tickle says that today, 500 years after the Great Reformation, we are in the midst of the Great Emergence. Let me illustrate. I have a niece named Beth. She grew up in a strong UM family. Both of her parents are active in their local church in Abilene. Her grandfather was a UM pastor, even serving as an assistant to the Bishop in the North Texas Conference. I performed Beth's marriage to Alex. They are not a part of any denomination or any local congregation. They are however, very active in a home church. Wherever they have lived, they have started a worshiping fellowship in their apartment complex or block. They read the Bible, pray, sing, look out for one another. When one is sick, they take care of the kids. They bring meals. They play together. It sounds a lot like the first century of Christianity. They have plenty of problems, issues, and conflicts in their house church just like the institutional church, but they continue to follow Jesus in their own way.

A second example is from United Methodist Youth Fellowship, which meets on Sunday evenings. The whole time I have been here this program has struggled. It seems like the youth around here are over-committed, tired, wanting to rest or do homework on Sunday evening. However, the Bible studies are thriving. Monday night the Sr. Hi's meet in people's homes. Wednesday night the Middle Schoolers meet at Starbuck's. On Thursday morning, the Sr Hi's meet before school at Tx Honey Baked Ham. It seems like the youth want to meet Jesus in the Bible. The mission trips thrive. In the summer, there are trips to North Carolina or to the Tx coast or around Austin. The youth have gone to Central America and to Uganda. It seems like they want to meet Jesus in the touching of other people in service.

A third illustration is from something I have called "Rethink Church." Each of the last 2 years I have called off morning worship, and we have gone out to "be" the church in the world. Some of you have asked if we could do this every Sunday. And the answer is "yes." In fact, the new movement within this congregation called the "Point" is doing exactly that. Each week this group gathers to worship and scatters to serve. The start of each worship service involves some mission outreach: making flood buckets, or fire relief kits, or bags of grace to hand to those who live on the street.

Let me tell how I feel about this Great Emergence. I don't like it. It is messy. It is challenging. It is hard. And I love it. Look at this stack of books. Don't they make a lovely flower arrangement!? Here is some of what I am reading: Recreating the Church, Journey in the Wilderness, Direct Hit, Shaped by God's Heart, Simple Church, the Externally Focused Church, Communicating for a Change, Unbinding the Gospel, Leadership without Easy Answers. Are you geting this? A Great Emergence is happening. It is messy like cleaning out the inside of that pumpkin for Halloween in order to make room for the light inside. It is happening with us and sometimes in spite of us. You know our typical UM way of doing things? Let form a committee to study this and report back in 4 years! This is much messier and challenging. I don't like and I love it. The native Americans have a phrase for it: stumbling is moving ahead faster! That's what I am doing, stumbling forward.

I have 3 pieces of good news from the Great Emergence. Phyllis Tickle says: 1. a new, more vital form of Christianity does emerge, 2. the organized expression of Christianity is reconstituted into a more pure and less bound expression of its former self, 3. the faith has spread dramatically into new geographic and demographic areas. When the attic gets cleaned out, the Spirit has room to revitalize the Church.

I could have come up with a lot of scripture tie-ins, but I am glad to find this line in this morning's reading, I Thes. 2:12, " urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory." Get the emphasis, God's own kingdom and glory. We have a role to play, but God is doing this sometimes in spite of us.

What does this look like? This past Tuesday, we had a Bd of Ordained Ministry meeting. We had so much to do that we spent 2 hours in prayer, listening, discerning, and worshiping. We asked more questions than we came to answers. We committed to fasting. God is doing something new in our midst.

Our worship leader was John Elford, now the pastor at University UMC here in Austin. I knew John down on the coast where I was at Portland and he was at St. John's in Corpus Christi. He told us about a time there when a young man came to him and said, "Say pastor, me and my band were wondering if we could practice at the church. It's Christian music." John wanting to be encouraging said, "Sure, just don't play between noon and 2 p.m. because that's when the preschool kids have their nap time." The band respected the time limits. They were given a key to a room, and they practiced. John said, "they were loud." After some time, the young man came to John, "Say, pastor, we would like to have a worship service for some other young people. Would that be OK?" John wanting to be encouraging said, "Sure." He worked with them. At the worship service, he came prepared, wearing ear plugs. The music was loud. Not just heavy metal, but shredding metal. During one song he leaned over to his wife Linda and asked, "What do you think about this?" She replied, "What? What did you say?"

John said, "contrast that with what we do." (I put a cloth over my arm). Hello, my name is Lynn and I will be your server today. Would you care for a spot of worship? We have our traditional fare at 11:15. If you like something a bit edgier, you might like to try our 9 contemporary service.

Back at the shred metal service, the young ones were engaged with their whole being. They were dancing, shouting, head banging, sweating, singing, laughing. It reminds of the first great commandment: You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and soul and mind and strength. They were living it. They were totally involved with worshiping God.

The good news is that there is a Great Emergence happening in our midst.

reading list

10/27/11 There is a corner of my desk that always has a stack of books on it that I would like to read. Because I have just started a cont. ed. course called Healthy Church Initiative, I will now actually pick up the books and read them. I thought I would give you my reading list in case you would like to read along.





ReCreating the Church--Leadership for the Postmodern Age by Richard Hamm


Direct Hit by Paul Borden


Shaped by God's Heart by Milfred Minatrea


Simple Church by Thom Rainer & Eric Geiger


The Externally Focused Church by Rick Rusaw & Eric Swanson


Communicating for a Change by Andy Stanley & Lane Jones


Unbinding the Gospel by Martha Grace Reese





In addition, I have just finished The Great Emergence by Phyllis Tickle and Journey in the Wilderness by Gil Rendle.





If you get the drift of these titles, the church is being transformed by the mighty power of God so that the gospel my reach a new generation.

Love,
Lynn

the times they are a'changing

10/26/11 I had an all day meeting of the Bd. of Ordained Ministry yesterday. We had so much to do that we spent probably 2 hours in prayer, listening, discerning, holy conferencing, and worshiping. We are changing the way we do things. We spent a lot of time on "adaptive" work, i.e., issues where the problem is not clear, the solutions are unclear, and the response is that everyone must learn something. We generated more questions than answers. It might seem to be frustrating, but it is actually liberating and empowering. "What if? How can we? Where is Christ in all this?" we ask.

We have gotten so radical that we are taking our prayers to the next level. We are actually going to be fasting along side our praying. We are going to slow down, we are going to get hungry...not just for food, but for God's will.

The times they are a'changing.

Love,
Lynn

accountability

10/24/11 I have just come from my twice a month accountability group meeting with a couple of other pastors. Without revealing too much, let me say that we are honest with each other, telling each other what is going on in our lives, in our churches, in our families, and in our souls. We pray for one another out loud, while holding hands.....in our quiet corner of Chick Fil-A. I know that is very important for me to be there at 7 a.m. on a Monday to see my fellow pilgrims on this journey. John Wesley said that we are to watch over one another in love. So our group does...by holding each other accountable.

Love,
Lynn

TLC

from my sermon on 10/23/11 from I Thes. 2:1-8





"But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children." Nurse...what do imagine when I say that word? I bet it is a female. There are a lot of male nurses, but still today in the USA, some 93% of nurses are female. Now, some people say that Paul doesn't respect women, but look at the image here. He says that he, Timothy, and Silvanus have come to be with the Thessalonians like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. Paul, a male, uses a feminine image to describe the nurturing relationship he has with this congregation. We know it is a feminine image because the word literally means a "wet nurse," a woman who is lactating, who breast feeds another person's child. How glad she is when she gets to tend her own child!





Our impressions of nurses as female come from some of our examples of nurses. A famous nurse in Great Britain was Florence Nightingale. I "goolged" her this past week. She came from a privileged background. She took care of soldiers in the Crimean War. She was called "the Lady with the Lamp."





Another example is especially dear to me because we share the same last name...Clara Barton. She followed Florence Nightingale by several years and here in the States. She began a school that grew quickly. When it came time to hire a principal for the school, the board hired a male at twice the pay they were giving Clara. Clara left and became the first woman to work for the US Patent Office. Later when the Civil War began, Clara became a nurse. She worked at 16 battlefield sites. She improved standards for care and was elevated to the head of all nurses for the Union side. She was called the "Angel of the Battlefield." After the war, she started a service to connect missing service men with their families against strong opposition, because it revealed the severity of the problem. Later, she went to Europe to find out more about the Red Cross. She pushed for it to include non-war situations. Due to her efforts, the Red Cross began addressing any disaster where life and property losses were great. She got the Red Cross started in the USA and became its first president, serving in that role for 22 years.





Today, lets pause and affirm nurses in our midst. Please stand where you are so we can recognize you. I looked up some quotes about nurses this past week. An anonymous author said, " Nurses may not be angels, but they are the next best thing." Thank you nurses.





How many of you like to do crossword puzzles like I do? If you ever see a clue that says, "name a 5 letter word for TLC," write the word "nurse." Nurses are the epitome of Tender Loving Care. A nurse writes, "bound by paperwork, short on hands, sleep, and energy, nurses are rarely short on caring."





Nurses combine TLC and professionalism. I once knew a charge nurse named Alice. She was in charge of a hospital floor, some 30 rooms, during the graveyard shift. When she first started, it was maddening. The call button was going off all the time. There was never time to do all of the paperwork. She prayed about the situation. It came to her to change the dynamic. What she started to do was this: at the beginning of each shift, she would visit every patient's room. She would say, "I am Alice. I am your charge nurse. If you need anything tonight, you just hit that call button. I want you to know that I and my staff are here for you." It would take some 2 hours to make a personal connection with each of her patients, but after a while, the calls went to practically nothing. Most people simply wanted to know that someone cared for them.





What does all of this have to do with the Confirmation Class that starts today? We are called to be their nurses, tenderly caring for them.





One of my heroes in the faith is Will Spong. For years he taught at the Episcopal Seminary here. I took a year long CPE, Clinical Pastoral Education course with him, when I first started out in ministry. Many of you have taken his courses or gone to him for counseling. One day he told us the role that he was called to fulfill as a Christian. He said, "My image is that of being a midwife." We asked, "What does that mean?" He said, "A midwife is highly trained, highly skilled, has lots of experience. She is with people in an intense period for a brief time where new life has the potential for breaking in, and she realizes she is not in control." This is a pretty good image for us as we help some young people for a short time come to potentially "new life."





One more nursing image...these confirmands need more than just their parents and mentors. They need us. Last Sunday we celebrated Children's Sabbath. Last Sunday we performed 2 baptisms of children to whom we made promises of bringing them up in the Christian faith.





One of my other heroes in the faith is Jim Wallis, who started the Sojourners ministry in Washingon, D. C., that work with the most vulnerable people there. He was listening to NPR and heard the following story:

A reporter was covering the conflict in the middle of Sarajevo in the 1990's. He saw a little girl shot by a sniper. The reporter threw down his pad and pencil, and stopped being a reporter, and became a human being. He rused to the man who was holding the child. and helped them into his car. As the reporter stepped on the accelerator, racing to the hospital, the man holding the bleeding child said, "Hurry, my friend, my child is still alive." Two minutes later, "Hurry, my friend, my child is still breathing." Then, "Hurry, my friend, my child is still warm." Finally, "Hurry. Oh, God, my child is getting cold." When they got to the hospital, the little girl was dead. As the 2 men were in the lavatory, washing the blood off, the man turned to the reporter and said, "this is a terrible task for me. Now I must go and tell her father that his child is dead. He will be heartbroken." The reporter was amazed. He looked at the grieving man, "I thought she was your child." The man looked back and said, "no, but aren't they all our children."

Aren't they all our children? Paul says that he was gentle among them, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. We are called to be nurses, to practice tender, loving care. That is the good news I have to share today.

satisfied

10/20/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from Psalm 90:14, "Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days." What does it take to be satisfied? A song from my growing up years from the Rolling Stones had a line, "I can't get no satisfaction." Is it money, sex, power, fame?

The psalmist says what satisfies is the steadfast love, that is, the covenant love of God. That is what lasts, what fills, what brings deep joy, what satisfies.

I like to begin my day in prayer and in walking and breathing that prayer. I find that if I don't start this way, it is hard to ever make it up. I like to begin my day being satisfied by being in the presence of God and God's love.

I like it that the psalmist has the plural pronouns...satisfy us....that we may rejoice. My prayers include other people that I hold before God's love. We become community in prayer.

I like it that the psalmist ends the verse in rejoicing. With that feeling, I can go through the day satisfied.

Love,
Lynn

dwelling place

10/19/11 Last evening Cathy and I were walking down the center path of the park behind our house. The sun was going down in the west. I looked through the brush and saw what looked like a tarp, it was in camo, very hard to distinguish from the surrounding greenery. I paused. It was someone's home.

We have had issues with several people living in our park. We have cleaned up their camps before. It is not safe. It is not sanitary.

Back at our house, I called the police. They heard my story. They tried to find the camp on their own in the dark. At 9 p.m., I tried to help them to find it in the dark. No luck.

This morning, I walked the path again. In the daylight, I found it, well hidden. I called the police again. I waited for them. At last, they came. I led them to the person's home, the tent in the woods.

My breath for the day is appropriately Psalm 90:1, "Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations." I have been pondering what it means to have a home, or to be homeless. Home is a place, but it is more than a place; it is a person. I hope the homeless man or woman in our park knows that he/she has a home in God at least. I hope that the system will help him or her also find a home that is warm, safe, and structured here on earth, a dwelling place.

Love,
Lynn

wisdom

10/18/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from Exodus 34:9, "Joshua son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid hands on him." I pray for wisdom. I know that is more than a simple matter of some leader laying hands on me. I am an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church; hands have been laid on me. A bishop in the church said "Take thou authority." I know that that one physical act in one worship service did not impart to me wisdom.

I like the phrasing from Exodus, "the spirit of wisdom." That's what I am praying for, a growing sense of wisdom, a gradual filling up of wisdom, an ongoing relationship that makes me wise.

Today a cold front blew in, as I was taking my morning walk. I felt the tremendous power of the wind. Maybe that's the beginning of wisdom, to be humble before God and God's majesty, to be blown by God's wisdom.

Love,
Lynn

imitation Christians

from my sermon on Children's Sabbath from I Thessalonians 1:1-10

Boys and girls, there once was a man named Paul. You may have heard of him. He started a lot of new churches when the church first started. One of those that he started was in Thessalonika (show map). As you can see, it was on the sea, and it was on a major highway that ran east and west. It was a major city back 2,000 years ago, and still is today (show picture of modern Thessalonika in the background with ancient ruins in the foreground). You may say, "Well that's a long way off." But Thessalonika is next to Macedonia. Whom do we know from Macedonia? (show picture of the Petreski family) We know Igor and his parents, Sonja and Zvonko. They are from Macedonia and have become part of our church family.

Paul cared about the people in the churches he started, but he couldn't always be with them, so he would write them letters. In fact, this letter we have is the first one he wrote. In fact, it is the earliest writing of anything in the New Testament.

In the letter, he says that he is thankful for the Thessalonians. He is most thankful that they imitated him and the Lord Jesus. Boys and girls, how do we learn best? By imitating. The teacher writes the ABC's on the board, you learn to copy the shapes by imitating him or her. The teacher writes the 123's on the board, and you imitate him or her. You learn the Lord's prayer by imitating your parents and your teachers around you. We are imitation Christians, not fake Christians, but ones who learn what it is to be a Christian by imitating Him and other believers.

I have a great story about learning to imitate, "One" by Kathryn Otoshi. (show the book pages on the screen) (it is how the color Blue and other colors are bullied by the color Red, until the number 1 comes along and stands up to Red. Then the other colors learn to stand up to Red also. Even Blue does. They all become numbers. They all count! Even Red wants to count and is invited in.) Who is the ONE we follow? We imitate Jesus. Around here we say, "Following One, Serving All."

We are imitation Christians, learning to be Christlike, little Christs, by following Him. Then others see our example and want to become Christlike too. Little Sami sure has learned. Sami is 7 years old. I heard from Sami's mom that Sami saw one of the teachers on the playground standing all by herself. Sami went over to her and asked, "Are you lonely?" "I'm OK, "said the teacher. Sami said, "If you are ever lonely, you can always pray to God, then you are not alone." "Well," said the teacher, "thanks for that. Where did you learn that?" Sami replied, "At Westlake United Methodist Church."

There are some people who may feel lonely today. Who will stand with them, for them? I heard that if a child doesn't learn to read by the 4th grade, they have a slim chance of making it in life. I had a member in my former church named Ron. He worked at an oil refinery. One afternoon a week though he worked at a school, helping children learn to read. That's an example to follow. Who will stand with these children?

I was reading an article by a Methodist bishop named Will Willimon. He had one of his pastors invite him to a thriving church in north Alabama. The pastor knew that bishops can sometimes get down. Bishop Willimon was surprised to see the front 4 pews of the once dying church filled with children and youth. "Where did all of these children come from?" he asked. The pastor said, "Only 4 of them are related to people at this church." "Whose children are they?" the Bishop inquired. "They belong to Jesus. He has loaned them to us for a little while," the pastor responded. The church was in the middle of people who had problems with drug abuse. Many times the police would come and take parents away. The church learned of this situation and had 6 families get certified to become foster families. They established trust with the police and child protective services. The authorities knew that they could call these families by night or by day, and someone would take care of the children. I am glad that Sulinda is in worship today. She has taken some 12 children into her home over the years, and in fact, just got a new child last night. That's a good example to follow. Who will stand with these children?

I am proud to be a Texan, but I am not proud of one fact. Out of the 50 states, where does Texas stand when it comes to uninsured children? Dead last. 50th out of 50. Over 1 million children, maybe 1.3 million children without health insurance. Who will stand with these children?

I am asking you to imitate Christ. I am asking you to stand with children.

glory

10/12/11 My breath prayer comes from Exodus 33:18, where Moses makes a bold request of the LORD, "Moses said, 'Show me your glory, I pray." The LORD grants this request in a backhanded way. The LORD hides Moses in the cleft of a rock, covered by the LORD's hand, and passes by, and shows Moses his backside. I am reminded of that military courtroom scene where Jack Nicholson says to the younger officer who demands the truth, "You want the truth. You can't handle the truth!" We too can't handle the glory of the LORD. It would overwhelm us, terrify us.

I saw the backside of the LORD's glory this morning. On my walk, as I was nearing our house, a coyote crossed in front of me. As I was walking to put my yogurt in the refrigerator at church, one of the pre-school teachers saw me and just opened up with something going on in her life. I simply listened.

Show me your glory, I pray.

Love,
Lynn

favor

10/11/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from Exodus 33:17, The LORD said to Moses, "I will do the very thing that you have asked; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name." Moses asks the LORD to demonstrate his favor by going with the people as they travel across the wilderness. The LORD agrees to do this. Is there any greater favor the LORD could show us than by going with us?

whatever

from my sermon on 10/9/11 from Philippians 4:1-9

Whatever.....say it with me, but you have to drop your voice as you say it...whatever. This the word of resignation, of giving up, of saying "It doesn't matter." Whatever. It reminds me of that bumper sticker, "Apathy may be our problem, but who cares?" Or the other one, "Indecision may or may not be our problem." Whatever.

The church can be good at saying "Whatever." We can be good at not facing our problems. We have had many years of loss of membership or worse, loss of discipleship. Whatever. We have a gap in relevance to the culture. Whatever. We have had a loss of trust with clergy sexual abuse and televangelist money schemes. Whatever.

Paul doesn't say, "Whatever." He says, "Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is anything of excellence, anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

You are not going to believe this but the church in Philippi was experiencing conflict. Paul loved this congregation. He had visited them at least 3 times, and they had sent him gifts while he was in prison. The conflict was between 2 church leaders, 2 women. Some may think of Paul as putting women down, but read the text carefully. He calls Euodia and Syntyche "co-workers" and ones who "struggled beside me in the work of the gospel." Paul often affirms women as leaders in the early church. Guess what? Church leaders have problems too! Does Paul run from it? NO! He sends the church a letter to be read out loud in a worship service that names names. How would you like that?

We have a conflict going on right now: our relationship with Parker Lane UMC. Did you know that there are Christians on the other side of I-35. They may of a different demographic from people around here. For the past 2 years we have explored an experiment, working with Parker Lane. We have done Vacation Bible School together. We have given backpacks to Linder Elementary which is served by Parker Lane. We have done a Children's Craft fair together. Our youth have met for youth fellowship on Sunday evenings together and done missions together. This relationship between the youth groups is now entering a cooling off period. There have been some conversations and emails about the relationship. I have a meeting on Wednesday with Tina Carter the pastor at Parker Lane. She has been invited to talk to the Fellowship Sunday school class. Our youth director, J.D., has been asked to preach at Parker Lane. I don't know how it will all work out. I do know that we are trying to focus on whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, anything of excellence, anything worthy of praise.

Then there is a second thing Paul addresses. (skit of Wee Hour Worry with married couple in bed, waking up at 3:30 a.m. worrying over sounds in the night, daughter in AP English class, braces for her.)

Alfred E. Neuman of Mad magazine asks, "What? Me, worry?" We do worry. What keeps you up at night? What do you chew on like a dog with a bone?

Last weekend I attended my 40th high school reunion. I know I don't look that old. Did you miss me? I left the church in good hands with pastor Judy, Laura Lincoln, and Diana--strong women leaders. I had not been back in a long time. I attended my 10th reunion, and nothing in between. My little town had really hurt me in my senior year when I was quarterback and captain of my football team, and they blamed me for the losing season. In my own mind it was huge, something that I had agonized over for 40 years. When I went back to the reunion, it was a non-event to my classmates. Not one mentioned it. They all talked about marriages and children and work and where they lived. What was so huge in me was so small to others. I was released from this burden.

Paul says, "Don't worry." He is in prison when he writes this. How can he say, "Don't worry" ? His focus is somewhere else. He says, "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice." I read somewhere that the church will die from terminal seriousness! Paul looks beyond his current situation to see God at work and gives praise....like today for the rain. He says the Lord is near. He means near in time. The Lord is coming soon. Everything will pass away. It doesn't last forever. But the word "near" comes from the root word for crook of the elbow. The Lord is holding us close, in an embrace, hugging us.

That's why Paul can say, "Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." It's not that we simply stop worrying; we replace the worry with prayer. I actually practice this. Sometimes I wake up at 3 in the morning. I bring the worry into my consciousness, then I take it before God, and then I let it go. I also start quoting memory verses, "cast all your anxiety upon him, for he cares about you," and "the LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want."

And the peace of God stands like a sentry, a guard upon you. You replace worry with whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable. We thing about...that is, take into account, consider, these things. We replace worry with these virtues. And we keep on doing them as Paul suggests. It is a spiritual discipline.

This list of virtues...Paul didn't just make up. He got them from the Greek culture around him. He met the culture where they were. How could we do that today? How could we find good, find God in the culture? Right now we have Occupy Wall Street, and to a lesser degree, Occupy Austin going on. What can we get from this protest against greed? Someone very important died this past week....yes, Steve Jobs. What an impact he has had.....imac, iphone, ipod, ipad..What can we get from this desire for connectivity?

I know our new Point movement is trying to do this...meet people where they are. The church gathers for worship and scatters for service. Today till it rained, they were going to go down on the hike and bike trail to get funds for wildfire relief.

Whatever. The word can be translated, "all that is." All that is true, all that is honorable, all that is just, all that is pure, all that is pleasing, all that is commendable.

God is doing whatever God can, all that God can to meet us where we are, and to hold us in God's embrace.

wilderness

10/6/11 I have been reading a book by Gil Rendle entitled Journey in the Wilderness: New Life for Mainline Churches. I don't like much of what he says because it means I will need to keep changing, growing, stretching, trusting.....and that involves risk and pain. In fact, Gil says at every new birth, there must be 2 factors: pain and possibility. The Church is undergoing great upheaval. We don't know how everything will come out. I pray that this time may be like that time long ago when the LORD led his people across the wilderness toward a Promised Land. The people had to trust that there would be "daily bread," supplied by the LORD, just enough for that day. I know that later scholars, priests, theologians, etc., looked back on the time in the wilderness as a honeymoon with God. There was an intimacy, a trusting relationship, that was like no other time. May it be so for our time as well.

Love,
Lynn

mighty doings

10/5/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from Psalm 106:2, "Who can utter the mighty doings of the LORD, or declare his praise?" If we could drop the "g" to make doings to doin's, it would be a perfect saying (or sayin') for Texas. As I walked this morning, I tried not to fill up all of the time with words as I wondered at the marvel of God's creation, as I considered how God has moved in my life in the past, and as I give thanks for how God is blessing me today. Who has the words....who can utter the mighty doin's of the LORD?

Love,
Lynn

changed mind

10/4/11 My prayer verse for the day comes from Exodus 32:14, "And the LORD changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people." This is the NRSV translation. The older RSV translation says, The LORD repented of the evil that he planned to bring on his people. I am glad that God can change his mind. I am glad that God can "repent." We think that repentence is something that only humans need to do, but it seems that is something that God needs to do from time to time. Moses has interceded before God on behalf of the people and gets God to change his mind. Do our prayers matter? Can we get God to change his mind?

Love,
Lynn

40th high school reunion

10/3/11 Over the past weekend, I attended my 40th high school reunion in Littlefield, Texas. I had last attended one of these 30 years ago at the 10th reunion. I had let my little town wound me. I have held onto these hurts for a long time. When I was with the group of 30 to 40 people that drifted in and out over Friday night and Saturday evening, I found that the things that had grown so large in my memory were not even on others' radar. No one mentioned the losing football season of my senior year and the town's blaming me for all of the losses. We mostly talked about our families and our current work. We recalled some memories, but they were about stuff that I had not really counted as important. One woman said I gave her a blue ceramic pony when we were in first grade together. I had no recollectin of it at all. I attended thte football game on Friday night, which Littelfield won over Childress. The stands were only moderately full. Not many were paying attention to what was happening on the field. Most were chatting with their neighbors, watching their kids eat popcorn, etc. Mistakes were made on the field--fumbles, penalties, interceptions, blown calls by the refs---and life went on.

Overall the 40th reunion was a healing event. I enjoyed reconnecting with my classmates. I tried to be a good listener. Some seemed interested in hearing what was going on with me. I am glad I went to my 40th. The 40 years of the Hebrews children wandering in the desert was good for them too.

Love,
Lynn

family

9/28/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from Exodus 20:12, "Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you." I will be seeing my mom in 2 days time. I am going back to my hometown of Littlefield, Texas, for my 40th high school reunion. On the way I am going to re-connect with my family. I will spend Thursday night in Abilene with Cathy's sister and brother-in-law, Betsy and David. While in Abilene, I will have supper on Thursday night with my sister and brother-in-law, Cathy and Allen. Then I will spend 2 nights with my mom who lives in Lubbock, driving the 36 miles over to Littlefield and back on Friday and Saturday.

The commandment to honor parents I am expanding to include honoring my family. Each of us is part of a family system. We do not exist without relationship. Honoring family leads to a promise: long life in the land that God gives. Thank God for my family.

Love,
Lynn

freedom

9/27/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from Ex. 20:2, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." Before God gives the 10 commandments to Moses and the Hebrew children and to us, God identifies what kind of God he is. This God is the one who sets his people free. May it be so in your life today....from worry...from guilt ....from shame....from destructive behavior....from bitterness...from sin...from the power of sin....from addiction. God who brought the Hebrews out of the hosue of slavery wants to bring you out of whatever keeps you from enjoying his freedom.

Love,
Lynn

our favorite hymn

From my sermon on Sept. 25, 2011 from Philippians 2:1-13

Music is powerful. Especially when it comes to expressing love and relationships, there is no better way to go than music. I ask you couples to remember “your song”…..the one that you fell in love to…it’s powerful.

In the Bible, we have God’s love song for us, and there are times when we are so overcome with God’s presence, that all we can do is sing. The Hebrew children are rescued out of bondage in Egypt, they cross the Red Sea on dry land, the pursuing army is drowned in the returning waters, and what do they do? They sing. In the 15th chapter of Exodus, we find some of the old Hebrew language, as Moses sings, “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously, horse and rider, he has thrown into the sea.” To grant equal time, Miriam later in the chapter sings the same verse.

In the book of Psalms, we have 150 songs that cover the gamut of emotions from praise of God like in Ps. 100
(sing) Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye, all ye lands,….
to lament like in Ps. 137 (sing) By the waters, the waters of Babylon…

In the New Testament, we have the opening words of John’s gospel, that are usually translated as, “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” When we read this text at the service of lessons and carols, I do another translation allowed by the Greek, “In the beginning was the Song, and the Song was with God, and the Song was God.” Isn’t it wonderful to consider all of creation as being sung into existence?

In the ministry of Jesus, we have in Mark 14:26 that after Jesus and his closest friends celebrated the Passover feast, “when they had sung the hymn,” they went out into the night. Jesus enters his passion of betrayal, denial, trial, crucifixion.

So what does this have to do with the passage from Philippians? You are not going to believe this, but the church was in conflict! They had….wait for it…discord. They were not in harmony. So what does Paul do? He gives them a moral lecture…No. He gives them a theological treatise….No. He gives them quotes from scripture…No. What he does is quote from their hymnal. Verses 6-11 are actually one of the earliest hymns from the Christian Church. In the midst of discord, Paul tries to get them to sing together by referencing their favorite hymn.

Watch my directions: (hand up) have this mind amongst yourselves that was in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God as a thing to be grasped but (hand down) emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, humbling himself, being found in human likeness, he freely accepted death, even death on a cross. (hand up) Therefore God has highly exalted him placing his name above every name on earth or in heaven that at the name of Jesus (hand down) every knee should bow and every tongue confess that (hand up) that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.

Paul is acting like a choir director, giving them the tune, the beat of their favorite hymn. Music is powerful in bringing people together, in re-directing them from me-ism to serving others.

I want to tell you about our favorite hymn today. See if you can guess it. The author was born July 24, 1725, in London, England. He was the son of a shipmaster and went to sea at age 11. He was captured and put to work aboard a man-o-war. From there he espcaped onto a slave trader. He worked his way up to become the shipmaster of the slave trader. At port in Liverpool, he fell under the preacher of those early Methodists, like John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield. He had a conversion experience and gave up slave trading. He studied Greek and Hebrew and prepared for the ministry, becoming ordained at age 41. He became an ardent abolitionist. He wrote his own epitaph: John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slavers in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy.”

Our favorite hymn today is….Amazing Grace (sing it).

Music is powerful. It gets to our deepest core. Our friends in Bastrop need music. Cathy and I did a scouting trip out there on Saturday. Have you seen the aftermath of the wildfires? What got me was the line of dump trucks, flat bed trucks, and trailers lined up at the scrap yard with all of the burned out vehicles. The going price is $200 per vehicle. Cathy and I mostly listened to the stories. Some who lost everything. Some whose homes miraculously were spared. At lunch at the Methodist Church were church members and men living on the streets. There were clean up crews from the Methodist in Frisco, Tx, and a Spanish-speaking only family. We are going to be in partnership with First UMC, Bastrop, for the foreseeable future. They need a lot of hope. Tonya Creamer was out there a week ago, to do a benefit concert for those people. It was not to reaise money; it was to raise hope. It was for the benefit of the people, to lift their spirits. One of the songs she sang was:

And love will hold us together, make us a shelter to weather the storm,
And I’ll be my brother’s keeper, so the whole world will know that we’re not alone.

Music is powerful. That’s why as much as 40% of any worship service will be music. This music stays with us, speaking to the deepest core of our being.

Sing with me:

He’s got the whole world in His hands, He’s got the whole wide world in His hands,
He’s got the whole world in His hands, He’s got the whole world in His hands.

(show the video clip from Memory Bridge of the woman with Alzheimer’s who starts singing along with the volunteer who connects with her by singing “He’s got the whole world in His hands)

Music is powerful...keeping singing and playing.