from my message on Christmas Eve, 2013, from John 1:1-14
(I start by lighting a candle and singing "This little of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. Let it shine, Let it shine, let it shine.)
(as the song ends, a spotlight goes on and shines on the rock wall behind me)
Oh, hello. Are you the light? (spotlight nods up and down for YES)
Did you hear us singing about you? YES
I'm glad you came here tonight. Are you glad that you came here? YES
Say, I was wondering, are the same light that was from the very beginning, when God said, "Let there be light? YES.
And nothing can put you out? (spotlight shakes side to side for NO)
Not even sin? NO
Not even when we hurt each other? NO
Not even when we hurt you? NO
Not even when lie or cheat or steal or love things more than people or for You? (light shakes faster and faster for NO)
So, it really is true that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it? YES
Are you the light that shone around the angels when they they told the shepherds about Jesus' birth? YES
Are you the light of the star that led the wise men to Bethlehem? YES
Are you the light of Christ? (slow and big) YES
So you are the light of Jesus healing and teaching and feeding the crowds and raising the dead? (light nods faster and faster) YES
You didn't go out when your closest friends denied you, betrayed you and deserted You? (big and slow) NO
You didn't go out even when you died? NO
(light moves to the cross while expanding....pause)
You rose again...for us.....to give us hope? (slow and big) YES
You really are the light that shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it? YES
Thank you Lord Jesus for being our Light. May we carry your light into your world.
(start singing, "Hide it under a bushel? No, I'm gonna let it shine. Hide it under a bushel? No, I'm gonna let it shine. Hide it under a bushel? No, I'm gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.)
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Monday, December 23, 2013
The Day is Dawning
from my message on Dec. 22, 2013, from Romans 13:11-14
Do you know what today is? Yes, December 22. It is also the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, the longest night. It is also the fourth Sunday of Advent. You nearly forgot that it is only 2 shopping days until Christmas. Then there is the classic poster, Today is the first day of the...rest of your life. For the Apostle Paul, today is also one day closer to the second coming of Christ.
I know we United Methodists don't spend a lot of energy during this season on the second Advent of Christ. We tend to focus on the sweet baby Jesus, the first coming of Christ. But Paul believed that Christ was coming again, and coming soon. The night is far gone, the day is near, he says.
I go to a Catholic retreat house, a house of quiet and prayer, called Lebh Shomea. Father Rocky (I am not making this name up) wrote in his newsletter that Advent is the season when we live each day as if Christ was coming that day. I know we don't have that same sense of immediacy and urgency, but I do believe that we believe that Christ is coming again. We believe that the God of creation is also the God of completion. We believe that the days are not just a series of random events but are actually leading to a conclusion.
I want to tell you some stories to back up this claim. There was a man who lived some time ago. I won't share his name or time just yet, because he seems to be quite contemporary. He was a spoiled child. I know we don't have any spoiled children around here today. He had lots of advantages. It allowed him to dabble in all of the esoteric mysteries of his day. He tried out all of the philosophies and mystery religions of his time. He was attracted to Christianity. A preacher named Ambrose had a special appeal as did the liturgy. Yet he was also drawn to sex and drugs and rock and roll. If there was something to stimulate his senses, he tried it. He would go to the church, and then go back to his wasting of life. He was really torn between the darkness and the light. One day, in a time of stress, when this conflict was raging inside him, he retreated to the backyard, to the garden of the house. There he heard a child singing. He could tell if it was a boy or a girl. He couldn't tell if the voice was across the fence or inside him. The child was singing, "take up and read. Take up and read." His friend had the letters of Paul in a bound book, which he handed to him. This torn man resolved to do whatever he placed his hand upon in the Bible. I do not recommend this method of Bible study to you. It could lead you to some dangerous places. Anyhow, he opened the book to Paul's letter to the church of Rome, to the 13 chapter, the 13 verse. "Let us live honorable as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy."
The light shone brightly in his life. Christ came in a powerful way. It was exactly the word that he needed to hear. He was never the same person again. He was immediately baptized. His name was Augustine. We call him Saint Augustine. He became a bishop in Hippo. He wrote extensively and shaped the life of the early church. He was the one who wrote, "our hearts are restless till they find their rest in thee."
Did you notice that the next verse after the one that got to Augustine said to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ?" This is baptismal language. We put on the light of Christ. In Godly play, the lesson on baptism involves giving each child a candle. Light is taken from the one Christ candle and is used to light each child's candle. The point is made that the light of Christ is not diminished even as it is shared. In fact, it only grows and grows. So it is with us and Augustine. We take on the light of Christ and grow into his likeness.
We believe that the fullness of the light of Christ will shine one day in hope. We believe in the second coming of Christ. I know we do, or else, why would we do some of the things that we do?
I will share some stories with no name mentioned but based upon actual events as they say in the movies.
You are an attractive female in your 50's. Your first husband has died, but you still have lots of life left. You meet another man, a widower. You fall in love and marry. Life is terrific, until after only a couple of years, he starts to forget things. Where are the keys? What did I just say? You go to all of the doctors. There cannot be a definitive diagnosis, but they say, "It appears to be Alzheirmer's." You cry......but you don't give up on the marriage. You said, "For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health." You hold up your light.
You are a man at a business conference. You are at the table with several persons from around the country. She's there at your side during the day, at your table. There's joking....brushes of the hand...it feels like flirting. At the end of the day at this convention center, she mentions that she has no dinner plans. It is innocent enough; you go to dinner together. She asks you to walk her to her room. You are a gentleman and do so. There at the door she has a line that means more than the mere words. She asks, "Would you like to come in?" And you have a wedding ring on, and here you draw the line, and you politely decline, "I need to get back to my room." And you hold up your light.
You are parents of grown children. You have brought them up well. You have brought them up in the Christian faith. These adult children have drifted away from that faith. In fact, they don't want to talk about that subject. When you bring it up, they get quite exercised in reaction to it. "We don't want to go there." You love them. You pray for them, by day and by night. You wait for them. You make every possible invitation to relationship. You hold up your light.
You are a student a school, middle school. And there's the kid the others like to pick on. You know the one. And most of the kids are pretty good, most of the time, but sometimes they can be mean, can be cruel. So this one day, when they are picking on the kid, you know the one, you stand beside the one being picked on and say, "Enough. He's my friend. Stop it." And you hold up your light.
You are here today. It's not Christmas eve; it's the fourth Sunday of Advent. School's out and you're here. It's cold outside and you're here. The Austin allergies are raging, and you're here. And you hold up your light.
Christ is coming. The day, His day is dawning. We are one day closer to the second coming. Life is not a series of random events, but moving towards His light.
The verse underlying this whole Advent series has been from the first chapter of John, talking about Jesus, "the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."
Keep holding up your light until the light of Christ fully comes.
Do you know what today is? Yes, December 22. It is also the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, the longest night. It is also the fourth Sunday of Advent. You nearly forgot that it is only 2 shopping days until Christmas. Then there is the classic poster, Today is the first day of the...rest of your life. For the Apostle Paul, today is also one day closer to the second coming of Christ.
I know we United Methodists don't spend a lot of energy during this season on the second Advent of Christ. We tend to focus on the sweet baby Jesus, the first coming of Christ. But Paul believed that Christ was coming again, and coming soon. The night is far gone, the day is near, he says.
I go to a Catholic retreat house, a house of quiet and prayer, called Lebh Shomea. Father Rocky (I am not making this name up) wrote in his newsletter that Advent is the season when we live each day as if Christ was coming that day. I know we don't have that same sense of immediacy and urgency, but I do believe that we believe that Christ is coming again. We believe that the God of creation is also the God of completion. We believe that the days are not just a series of random events but are actually leading to a conclusion.
I want to tell you some stories to back up this claim. There was a man who lived some time ago. I won't share his name or time just yet, because he seems to be quite contemporary. He was a spoiled child. I know we don't have any spoiled children around here today. He had lots of advantages. It allowed him to dabble in all of the esoteric mysteries of his day. He tried out all of the philosophies and mystery religions of his time. He was attracted to Christianity. A preacher named Ambrose had a special appeal as did the liturgy. Yet he was also drawn to sex and drugs and rock and roll. If there was something to stimulate his senses, he tried it. He would go to the church, and then go back to his wasting of life. He was really torn between the darkness and the light. One day, in a time of stress, when this conflict was raging inside him, he retreated to the backyard, to the garden of the house. There he heard a child singing. He could tell if it was a boy or a girl. He couldn't tell if the voice was across the fence or inside him. The child was singing, "take up and read. Take up and read." His friend had the letters of Paul in a bound book, which he handed to him. This torn man resolved to do whatever he placed his hand upon in the Bible. I do not recommend this method of Bible study to you. It could lead you to some dangerous places. Anyhow, he opened the book to Paul's letter to the church of Rome, to the 13 chapter, the 13 verse. "Let us live honorable as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy."
The light shone brightly in his life. Christ came in a powerful way. It was exactly the word that he needed to hear. He was never the same person again. He was immediately baptized. His name was Augustine. We call him Saint Augustine. He became a bishop in Hippo. He wrote extensively and shaped the life of the early church. He was the one who wrote, "our hearts are restless till they find their rest in thee."
Did you notice that the next verse after the one that got to Augustine said to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ?" This is baptismal language. We put on the light of Christ. In Godly play, the lesson on baptism involves giving each child a candle. Light is taken from the one Christ candle and is used to light each child's candle. The point is made that the light of Christ is not diminished even as it is shared. In fact, it only grows and grows. So it is with us and Augustine. We take on the light of Christ and grow into his likeness.
We believe that the fullness of the light of Christ will shine one day in hope. We believe in the second coming of Christ. I know we do, or else, why would we do some of the things that we do?
I will share some stories with no name mentioned but based upon actual events as they say in the movies.
You are an attractive female in your 50's. Your first husband has died, but you still have lots of life left. You meet another man, a widower. You fall in love and marry. Life is terrific, until after only a couple of years, he starts to forget things. Where are the keys? What did I just say? You go to all of the doctors. There cannot be a definitive diagnosis, but they say, "It appears to be Alzheirmer's." You cry......but you don't give up on the marriage. You said, "For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health." You hold up your light.
You are a man at a business conference. You are at the table with several persons from around the country. She's there at your side during the day, at your table. There's joking....brushes of the hand...it feels like flirting. At the end of the day at this convention center, she mentions that she has no dinner plans. It is innocent enough; you go to dinner together. She asks you to walk her to her room. You are a gentleman and do so. There at the door she has a line that means more than the mere words. She asks, "Would you like to come in?" And you have a wedding ring on, and here you draw the line, and you politely decline, "I need to get back to my room." And you hold up your light.
You are parents of grown children. You have brought them up well. You have brought them up in the Christian faith. These adult children have drifted away from that faith. In fact, they don't want to talk about that subject. When you bring it up, they get quite exercised in reaction to it. "We don't want to go there." You love them. You pray for them, by day and by night. You wait for them. You make every possible invitation to relationship. You hold up your light.
You are a student a school, middle school. And there's the kid the others like to pick on. You know the one. And most of the kids are pretty good, most of the time, but sometimes they can be mean, can be cruel. So this one day, when they are picking on the kid, you know the one, you stand beside the one being picked on and say, "Enough. He's my friend. Stop it." And you hold up your light.
You are here today. It's not Christmas eve; it's the fourth Sunday of Advent. School's out and you're here. It's cold outside and you're here. The Austin allergies are raging, and you're here. And you hold up your light.
Christ is coming. The day, His day is dawning. We are one day closer to the second coming. Life is not a series of random events, but moving towards His light.
The verse underlying this whole Advent series has been from the first chapter of John, talking about Jesus, "the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."
Keep holding up your light until the light of Christ fully comes.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Let there be light
from my message on Dec. 8, 2nd Sunday of Advent, from Gen. 1:3-5 and Eph. 5:8-14
(sanctuary is dark) Let there be light! (lights come on with laughter) I have always wanted to do that. What joy God must have felt in creating light. Our Hebrew ancestors in telling the story of creation made sure that the very first thing God said, the very first thing God created was light. Even before there was sun or moon or stars, there was light. And God said it was good.
Light is good. I bet you have been camping, way out away from civilization. You spread your sleeping bag out. When the sun goes down, it gets really dark. Imagine all of those thousands of years of human beings living without artificial light. No electric light, no kerosene lanterns, no candles, no olive oil lamps, no campfire. When the sun went down, it was dark. What a gift sunrise was. What a gift light was.
Light is good. You don't step on that child's toy on the den floor in your bare feet. You can go to bed and read a book by that bedside lamp. Light to explore the Marianas Trench, some 7 miles deep below the Pacific Ocean. Light to explore a blockage or tumor in your body.
Light is good. Yet light is not always welcome. I have been listening to a series on National Public Radio on sleep. Before the invention of the electric light, we used to average 9 hours of sleep a night. After the invention of the electric light, do you think the average went up or down? Down! We now average 7 1/2 hours per night. I want that extra 1 1/2 hours back! Some of you have trouble with florescent lighting. It causes you to have migraine headaches. And what if you stay out in the sun too long without protection? You get sunburned. Light is not always welcome.
In Hebrew thought, light is good. Light was a symbol of life, blessing, peace, knowledge, understanding. The scriptures were called in Psalm 119, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." The light of God enlightened us.
Light is good. In the New Testament, Jesus says in John's Gospel, "I am the light." In Matthew's Gospel, he says about us, "y'all are the light of the world." In today's scripture from Ephesians, we Christians are called no longer darkness, but "you are light." Not just "in" the light or "of" the light, but light. We are called to live as children of the light.
Light is good, but not always welcome. We have blind spots. They are unintentional. Our staff and church leaders went through a Partners in Ministry workshop recently that taught about communication, conflict resolution, visioning, and trust building. One exercise showed how we all have a part of us that is know to ourselves and others, a part that others see that we cannot see, a part that is know only to ourselves, and a part that is not known by ourselves or others, but only know by God. That part that others see that we cannot see is our blind spot. I know that when some at the workshop pointed out to me some of my blind spots, my first reaction was "ouch, that hurts." Only later, as I came to understand the depth of trust that took for those persons to share with me did I come to say, "Thank you." That takes a lot of love to shine a light like that. Light is good, but not always welcome.
We as a church may have had some blind spots pointed out to us in the Healthy Church Initiative. A group of consultants visited us 6 weeks ago and offered us 5 prescriptions to become a healthier church. Our first reaction may have been "ouch." Who are these people to tell us these things? Why are they so abrasive? I am hoping now we can say, "thank you. That took a lot of courage for you to tell us those things." Light is good, not always welcome.
Some of our hiddenness is intentional. We want it to remain in the dark, not bring it to light. I saw on the front page of our newspaper this morning, where the story of our D. A. driving under the influence of alcohol was there for all to see. This is not the kind of thing you want brought to the light. The next column over on the front page was of the city official in Jonestown caught in fiscal malfeasance, skimming money off a wind turbine project there. You don't want that brought out into the light.
Light is good, but not always welcome. However, there is no healing without the light.
For 16 years, I served on our board of ordained ministry. We were the group that qualified candidates for ministry. We read papers, we interviewed, we supervised. We also dealt with problems with ministers. For 8 of those 16 years, I served as the one responsible for clergy sexual ethics. This is an office that no one wanted. I was to insure that our clergy got training to keep them from acting out inappropriately. We had to intervene a couple of times. I remember one workshop I attended to get my guidance. A bishop in our church kept going back to this passage in Ephesians when it came to how to deal with incidences of clergy misconduct. We have to bring things to the light. Evil cannot exist in the light. Light cleanses and heals. Light is good, but not always welcome.
I need to gently bring some things to light for this congregation. We are too busy. We are trying to do too much. Instead of witnessing to the culture that we are saved by grace and not by our works, we look like the culture by being overfunctioning. I confess to you, I fall easily into this trap. On the scale from depression to mania, I lean on the manic side. I never met a need I didn't like! We need to slow down, we need to pare down. We need to focus on worship and doing a few things well.
Our Jewish friends may help us with the coming of light. Jewish sabbath begins 18 minutes before sundown on Friday evening with the lighting of candles by the woman of the house. It is time to slow down, to rest, to remember who God is. Being busy all the time is not the way to salvation. We need to welcome the light of sabbath.
Our Jewish friends just finished celebrating the holiday of Hannakuh, the festival of lights. The story goes that over 2,000 years ago, the Greek Syrians oppressed the Jewish people. They went so far to profane the Jewish religion that they sacrificed a pig on the altar of the Temple in Jerusalem. The Maccabean rebellion was born to overthrow the oppressors. When they reclaimed the Temple, they found a cruse of oil for the lamp, with only enough oil for 1 day. A miracle happened in that the oil lasted 8 days. Hence, the menorah has 8 candles around the one central candle. We need to remember that God still does miracles through light today.
My hunch is that all of us have blind spots where the light of Christ needs to shine. My hunch is that all of us have darkness that we intentionally hide that needs the light of Christ. I believe that you were not made for darkness, but for light. I believe the light of Christ can overcome any darkness. A key verse for this Advent season comes from John's Gospel, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."
Where does the light of Christ need to shine in your life bringing hope and healing. We may not always welcome it, but the light is good.
You may not have gotten anything out of the message to this point, so I want to share with you a song. It was written in 1948, by a man of the name of Hank Williams, Sr. You may have heard of him. The song was I Saw the Light. It was not a commercial success when it came out. Hank often closed his concerts singing this song. He suffered from alcohol problems. He was a follower of Christ. This is our situation too, I bet. We all have struggles with darkness. We all try to live in the light of Christ. Sing with me now.
I wandered so aimless, life filled with sin,
I wouldn't let my dear Savior in.
Then Jesus came like a stranger in the night,
Praise the Lord, I saw the light.
I saw the light, I saw the light.
No more darkness, no more night.
Now I'm so happy, no sorrow in sight.
Praise the Lord, I saw the light.
Just like a blind man I wandered alone.
Worries and fears I claimed for my own.
Then like the blind man that God gave back his sight,
Praise the Lord, I saw the light.
I was a fool to wander and stray.
Straight is gate and narrow the way.
Now I have traded the wrong for the right.
Praise the Lord I saw the light.
Light is good. May you welcome it this Advent.
(sanctuary is dark) Let there be light! (lights come on with laughter) I have always wanted to do that. What joy God must have felt in creating light. Our Hebrew ancestors in telling the story of creation made sure that the very first thing God said, the very first thing God created was light. Even before there was sun or moon or stars, there was light. And God said it was good.
Light is good. I bet you have been camping, way out away from civilization. You spread your sleeping bag out. When the sun goes down, it gets really dark. Imagine all of those thousands of years of human beings living without artificial light. No electric light, no kerosene lanterns, no candles, no olive oil lamps, no campfire. When the sun went down, it was dark. What a gift sunrise was. What a gift light was.
Light is good. You don't step on that child's toy on the den floor in your bare feet. You can go to bed and read a book by that bedside lamp. Light to explore the Marianas Trench, some 7 miles deep below the Pacific Ocean. Light to explore a blockage or tumor in your body.
Light is good. Yet light is not always welcome. I have been listening to a series on National Public Radio on sleep. Before the invention of the electric light, we used to average 9 hours of sleep a night. After the invention of the electric light, do you think the average went up or down? Down! We now average 7 1/2 hours per night. I want that extra 1 1/2 hours back! Some of you have trouble with florescent lighting. It causes you to have migraine headaches. And what if you stay out in the sun too long without protection? You get sunburned. Light is not always welcome.
In Hebrew thought, light is good. Light was a symbol of life, blessing, peace, knowledge, understanding. The scriptures were called in Psalm 119, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." The light of God enlightened us.
Light is good. In the New Testament, Jesus says in John's Gospel, "I am the light." In Matthew's Gospel, he says about us, "y'all are the light of the world." In today's scripture from Ephesians, we Christians are called no longer darkness, but "you are light." Not just "in" the light or "of" the light, but light. We are called to live as children of the light.
Light is good, but not always welcome. We have blind spots. They are unintentional. Our staff and church leaders went through a Partners in Ministry workshop recently that taught about communication, conflict resolution, visioning, and trust building. One exercise showed how we all have a part of us that is know to ourselves and others, a part that others see that we cannot see, a part that is know only to ourselves, and a part that is not known by ourselves or others, but only know by God. That part that others see that we cannot see is our blind spot. I know that when some at the workshop pointed out to me some of my blind spots, my first reaction was "ouch, that hurts." Only later, as I came to understand the depth of trust that took for those persons to share with me did I come to say, "Thank you." That takes a lot of love to shine a light like that. Light is good, but not always welcome.
We as a church may have had some blind spots pointed out to us in the Healthy Church Initiative. A group of consultants visited us 6 weeks ago and offered us 5 prescriptions to become a healthier church. Our first reaction may have been "ouch." Who are these people to tell us these things? Why are they so abrasive? I am hoping now we can say, "thank you. That took a lot of courage for you to tell us those things." Light is good, not always welcome.
Some of our hiddenness is intentional. We want it to remain in the dark, not bring it to light. I saw on the front page of our newspaper this morning, where the story of our D. A. driving under the influence of alcohol was there for all to see. This is not the kind of thing you want brought to the light. The next column over on the front page was of the city official in Jonestown caught in fiscal malfeasance, skimming money off a wind turbine project there. You don't want that brought out into the light.
Light is good, but not always welcome. However, there is no healing without the light.
For 16 years, I served on our board of ordained ministry. We were the group that qualified candidates for ministry. We read papers, we interviewed, we supervised. We also dealt with problems with ministers. For 8 of those 16 years, I served as the one responsible for clergy sexual ethics. This is an office that no one wanted. I was to insure that our clergy got training to keep them from acting out inappropriately. We had to intervene a couple of times. I remember one workshop I attended to get my guidance. A bishop in our church kept going back to this passage in Ephesians when it came to how to deal with incidences of clergy misconduct. We have to bring things to the light. Evil cannot exist in the light. Light cleanses and heals. Light is good, but not always welcome.
I need to gently bring some things to light for this congregation. We are too busy. We are trying to do too much. Instead of witnessing to the culture that we are saved by grace and not by our works, we look like the culture by being overfunctioning. I confess to you, I fall easily into this trap. On the scale from depression to mania, I lean on the manic side. I never met a need I didn't like! We need to slow down, we need to pare down. We need to focus on worship and doing a few things well.
Our Jewish friends may help us with the coming of light. Jewish sabbath begins 18 minutes before sundown on Friday evening with the lighting of candles by the woman of the house. It is time to slow down, to rest, to remember who God is. Being busy all the time is not the way to salvation. We need to welcome the light of sabbath.
Our Jewish friends just finished celebrating the holiday of Hannakuh, the festival of lights. The story goes that over 2,000 years ago, the Greek Syrians oppressed the Jewish people. They went so far to profane the Jewish religion that they sacrificed a pig on the altar of the Temple in Jerusalem. The Maccabean rebellion was born to overthrow the oppressors. When they reclaimed the Temple, they found a cruse of oil for the lamp, with only enough oil for 1 day. A miracle happened in that the oil lasted 8 days. Hence, the menorah has 8 candles around the one central candle. We need to remember that God still does miracles through light today.
My hunch is that all of us have blind spots where the light of Christ needs to shine. My hunch is that all of us have darkness that we intentionally hide that needs the light of Christ. I believe that you were not made for darkness, but for light. I believe the light of Christ can overcome any darkness. A key verse for this Advent season comes from John's Gospel, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."
Where does the light of Christ need to shine in your life bringing hope and healing. We may not always welcome it, but the light is good.
You may not have gotten anything out of the message to this point, so I want to share with you a song. It was written in 1948, by a man of the name of Hank Williams, Sr. You may have heard of him. The song was I Saw the Light. It was not a commercial success when it came out. Hank often closed his concerts singing this song. He suffered from alcohol problems. He was a follower of Christ. This is our situation too, I bet. We all have struggles with darkness. We all try to live in the light of Christ. Sing with me now.
I wandered so aimless, life filled with sin,
I wouldn't let my dear Savior in.
Then Jesus came like a stranger in the night,
Praise the Lord, I saw the light.
I saw the light, I saw the light.
No more darkness, no more night.
Now I'm so happy, no sorrow in sight.
Praise the Lord, I saw the light.
Just like a blind man I wandered alone.
Worries and fears I claimed for my own.
Then like the blind man that God gave back his sight,
Praise the Lord, I saw the light.
I was a fool to wander and stray.
Straight is gate and narrow the way.
Now I have traded the wrong for the right.
Praise the Lord I saw the light.
Light is good. May you welcome it this Advent.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Unto Us, A Light has been born
from my message on the first Sunday of Advent, Dec. 1, 2013, from Isaiah 9:2-7
Darkness. The season of Advent begins in darkness. Maybe you know something about darkness. In Hebrew thought darkness stood for chaos, ignorance, sin, suffering. Is this where we get the term Black Friday? I am just asking.
Maybe you know something about darkness that goes beyond shopping. You may be here in worship today with the darkness of loneliness, or loss, you suffer from depression, or you are going through a divorce, or you have a terminal illness.
You may want to know the context of the scripture passage from the prophet Isaiah. Darkness here meant the government. I am not making this up. The king had been a great disappointment. We know something about the government disappointing us. Let's not beat up on those in government. We have people, members of this congregation, who have served and continue to serve at the national, state, and local level. God bless them for putting themselves on the line. But we know about the darkness of disappointment in government.
You may remember from our Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, our story. The people begged the prophet Samuel to give them a king. He said, You don't know what you are asking. You better think this through. No, we want a king like other nations have, the people say. If you get a king, yes, you can fight with more unity against your enemies, but you may turn your back on the LORD God. You will be oppressed by your rulers. You will be disappointed. No, the people cry, give us a king.
And down through Israel's history, they had some good kings and some bad ones. At this point, some 700 years before the birth of Christ, the people were dwelling in darkness, in the failure of their king. At this point, the prophet Isaiah says that "the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness on them light has shined." What was the source of hope, what was the new light? It was the birth of a new ruler.
Remember this summer, what happened over in England? Now, we are Americans. We colonies broke away from England many years ago, but we still got all gaga over the birth of a baby. Kate and Prince William had a baby this July. We were wondering what gender the child would be. We were betting on the name of the child. Prince George came along. The third in line to the throne. We get so excited, so hopeful over the birth of any child, especially a royal child.
You can understand how the writers of the New Testament would pick up on this passage to connect it to the birth of Jesus, the one we call the Christ, our savior. In the midst of darkness, a light has been born to us.
How can we keep from falling into darkness? It is easy to blame the government, to blame others. But each of us must own the light and darkness within ourselves. How can we remove our blinders and look for the light of justice and righteousness?
I know what I am being called to do this Advent. I will be looking for light in the midst of darkness. I pick up my Austin American-Statesman this morning. There it is on the front page, the annual Christmas appeal to help 12 families. The article headline is "Light in midst of need." Thank you God for showing up in the newspaper. I go out walking early this morning, 5:30 a.m. It's dark. But overhead are tiny pinpricks of lights. Stars, like the star of Bethlehem, leading the wise men to Jesus' birth. Driving here, I got caught at a traffic light. Rats, I couldn't sail on through. Then I thought, the light can call me to prayer. Breathe, pray. You may see the brake lights of 2 miles of cars backed up on Loop 360, and instead of getting frustrated, use it as a call to prayer.
When we see Christmas tree lights, or houses with their Christmas lights, or reading light, or warning lights, may we pause and pray, and see the light of Christ.
More than that, may we carry the light of Christ into the world. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. But Jesus also said, Y'all are the light of the world. We bear the light of Christ. If we don't carry it, who will? We are to be on the side of justice and righteousness. How will you live that out this Advent? For whom will you advocate? What holy work will you do? How will you lift up the oppressed, those who live in darkness? How will you make the world a little lighter?
If you do these things for these days of Advent, they may become part of who you are. If you do something for 21 days in a row, it becomes imprinted upon your being.
You may be saying, it's too hard. The darkness is too big. Yet this is how God comes into the world, in Jesus, a tiny, vulnerable baby, to join us. That's how we do this ministry, in small hopeful ways.I am challenging you to look for the light this Advent. I am challenging you to carry the light to others. We are encouraged by the opening words of John's Gospel which talks about Jesus this way, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it." May it be so for us this Advent.
Darkness. The season of Advent begins in darkness. Maybe you know something about darkness. In Hebrew thought darkness stood for chaos, ignorance, sin, suffering. Is this where we get the term Black Friday? I am just asking.
Maybe you know something about darkness that goes beyond shopping. You may be here in worship today with the darkness of loneliness, or loss, you suffer from depression, or you are going through a divorce, or you have a terminal illness.
You may want to know the context of the scripture passage from the prophet Isaiah. Darkness here meant the government. I am not making this up. The king had been a great disappointment. We know something about the government disappointing us. Let's not beat up on those in government. We have people, members of this congregation, who have served and continue to serve at the national, state, and local level. God bless them for putting themselves on the line. But we know about the darkness of disappointment in government.
You may remember from our Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, our story. The people begged the prophet Samuel to give them a king. He said, You don't know what you are asking. You better think this through. No, we want a king like other nations have, the people say. If you get a king, yes, you can fight with more unity against your enemies, but you may turn your back on the LORD God. You will be oppressed by your rulers. You will be disappointed. No, the people cry, give us a king.
And down through Israel's history, they had some good kings and some bad ones. At this point, some 700 years before the birth of Christ, the people were dwelling in darkness, in the failure of their king. At this point, the prophet Isaiah says that "the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness on them light has shined." What was the source of hope, what was the new light? It was the birth of a new ruler.
Remember this summer, what happened over in England? Now, we are Americans. We colonies broke away from England many years ago, but we still got all gaga over the birth of a baby. Kate and Prince William had a baby this July. We were wondering what gender the child would be. We were betting on the name of the child. Prince George came along. The third in line to the throne. We get so excited, so hopeful over the birth of any child, especially a royal child.
You can understand how the writers of the New Testament would pick up on this passage to connect it to the birth of Jesus, the one we call the Christ, our savior. In the midst of darkness, a light has been born to us.
How can we keep from falling into darkness? It is easy to blame the government, to blame others. But each of us must own the light and darkness within ourselves. How can we remove our blinders and look for the light of justice and righteousness?
I know what I am being called to do this Advent. I will be looking for light in the midst of darkness. I pick up my Austin American-Statesman this morning. There it is on the front page, the annual Christmas appeal to help 12 families. The article headline is "Light in midst of need." Thank you God for showing up in the newspaper. I go out walking early this morning, 5:30 a.m. It's dark. But overhead are tiny pinpricks of lights. Stars, like the star of Bethlehem, leading the wise men to Jesus' birth. Driving here, I got caught at a traffic light. Rats, I couldn't sail on through. Then I thought, the light can call me to prayer. Breathe, pray. You may see the brake lights of 2 miles of cars backed up on Loop 360, and instead of getting frustrated, use it as a call to prayer.
When we see Christmas tree lights, or houses with their Christmas lights, or reading light, or warning lights, may we pause and pray, and see the light of Christ.
More than that, may we carry the light of Christ into the world. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. But Jesus also said, Y'all are the light of the world. We bear the light of Christ. If we don't carry it, who will? We are to be on the side of justice and righteousness. How will you live that out this Advent? For whom will you advocate? What holy work will you do? How will you lift up the oppressed, those who live in darkness? How will you make the world a little lighter?
If you do these things for these days of Advent, they may become part of who you are. If you do something for 21 days in a row, it becomes imprinted upon your being.
You may be saying, it's too hard. The darkness is too big. Yet this is how God comes into the world, in Jesus, a tiny, vulnerable baby, to join us. That's how we do this ministry, in small hopeful ways.I am challenging you to look for the light this Advent. I am challenging you to carry the light to others. We are encouraged by the opening words of John's Gospel which talks about Jesus this way, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it." May it be so for us this Advent.
Monday, November 25, 2013
A Disciple's Path: Walking in Witness
from my message on Nov. 24, 2013, from John 1:35-45
Brace yourselves. I am about to share a very scary word with you. Are you ready to hear it? Ok, here goes. Witnessing!
We have seen too many bad examples. TV evangelists with hair that could preach Jesus. Pushy people knocking on our doors, just wanting to share some literature with us.
We're Methodists. We're uncomfortable with witnessing. I can prove it by our Book of Discipline. We used to have only 4 vows, only 4 ways that we said we would be following Jesus: prayers, presence, gifts, and service. It took us until the year 2008 to add the vow of witnessing!
And we're Westlake Methodists. I mean isn't faith a personal, even private matter. We don't talk about our faith. And we inclusive, accepting. We get along with people of other faiths or no faith. We're afraid of offending others.
Today, we are finishing up this series on a Disciple's Path, the 5 ways we United Methodists say that we follow Jesus. Today, it is witnessing. I want to lower your anxiety about witnessing. We will not be using any cliches. You will not be asked to make cold calls on strangers.
In 1 word, witnessing is about relationships. You will be asked to talk to people you already know. I will give you 3 practical ways to witness.
The first is to connect our service, our missions projects with witnessing. I told you last week we would revisit this topic today. It is very simple. We already do a great job of witnessing to our faith with our works. I am asking you to join words to the works. Let me give you some examples.
We give out bottles of water or bags of grace to people on the street. What if we added a message with them, a written message. You don't even have to speak. It might say, "This is a free gift to you, just like God's love for you. This brings you refreshment, just like God's love. We want to invite you to experience more of God's love by coming to worship with us at Westlake UMC, 1460 Redbud Trail, at 9 or 11:15 a.m. on Sundays." That's not so hard.
Or it could be inviting someone to join you in a mission project. A young woman has been visiting us here. She has a hard time getting her husband to come to worship with her. However, when she invited him to join here for a Saturday at Habitat for Humanity, he jumped at it. At the end of the day, he said, "That was so much fun. When can we do that again?" People may not always join us for worship or Sunday School. Their first step in faith may be joining us at a work project. That's not hard.
In fact, I have been thinking about tweaking ReThink Church Day. We have done this now 3 or 4 years, a time when we call off worship here and go out into the world to do mission projects. What if this year, we invited someone to join us in that project? They might help us feed the hungry or pick up trash or go singing or take care of the service animals. It's not so hard.
I would like for you to pray right now. Who is that person on your heart? Who would be the one that you could invite to join you in a mission project? That's relationships. That's witnessing.
The second way we focus on relational witnessing has to do with the scripture lesson today. John the Baptist already has some disciples, but when Jesus walks by, John names Jesus as the one to follow. Two disciples do. Andrew then finds his brother Simon, and tells him he has found the Messiah, and brings him to Jesus. Philip does the same routine with Nathaniel, and brings him to Jesus. So there is a chain reaction of people telling other people, people they know, about Jesus.
Watch this video of Hector Ruiz, as he talks about those who told him about Jesus.
None of us got to know Jesus by ourselves. Someone told us. Who have they been in your life? For Hector, it was his father and that Methodist Missionary, who became his spiritual mentor. Who has witnessed the faith to you? I know Thanksgiving is coming up in a few days. Pause know and give thanks to God for those witnesses to faith in your life. Then this becomes part of your witness to others.
Let me share part of my story. I was baptized as an infant in the Methodist Church, confirmed at age 12. I was always part of the faith community. But I had my doubts. When I was a junior in high school, there was a girl name Sharon, the first girl I ever kissed, a Church of Christ girl (yes, God works outside the Methodists). I told I wasn't sure about going to heaven. She said I could be sure. That planted something in my. The next year I dated a Baptist girl (yes, not a Methodist). She showed me a verse in the Bible that led me to an emotional conversion. It was Ephesians 2:8-9, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God--not by works, lest anyone should boast. I had always try to earn God's favor, to prove that I was good enough for God to love me. I was set free. Salvation was a gift.
Later at A & M, I found a home at the Wesley Foundation, the Methodist Student ministry. The campus minister there saw gifts in me, gave me a leadership role as we Aggies would go out and roof a little country church on a Saturday. He asked me to consider ordained ministry. Later, a seminary, my Hebrew professor let me see the layers of meanings behind the words of the Bible, an intellectual conversion.
Those persons who led you to faith become part of your witness to others. You didn't get here by yourself. Others don't either. It's about relationships.
The third way of relational witnessing is listening, about meeting people where they. So each week on this disciple's path, I have been telling you a story from our 10 weeks of renewal leave this summer, from the Appalachian Trail, or climbing mountains in New Mexico. The story this week is off the trail, what we did when we weren't hiking. Cathy and I got hooked on the West Wing on Netflix, streaming video. We did binge watching. There are 7 seasons of the West Wing, 22 episodes a season, for a total of 154 episodes. That's a lot of intrigue and political maneuvering in the White House over a summer.
The chief of staff is Leo Magarity, a recovering alcoholic. He joins one of his staff members in their pain and tells a story. There once was a man who fell into a hole. Help, help, he cried. A priest was walking by. Help me, Father. The priest wrote out a prayer and tossed it into the hole. The man cried, Help, somebody, help me. A doctor walked by, heard the man, wrote him out a prescription and tossed it into the hole. His friend, Joe, was walking by. Joe, help me, I've fallen into this hole. Joe, jumps down into the hole with him. Why did you do that? Now, we both in the hole. Joe responds, Yes, but I've been in this hole before, and I know the way out.
We listen to people in their need, their pain. We meet them where they are. And we help to show them a way out. That's witnessing.
Each week, I have been focusing on some shoes for walking this path. Today, I am wearing my most comfortable shoes. These are Rockports, probably 20 years or more old. I polish them, replace the shoe strings, get them resoled. They fit me.
That's how we do witnessing, in the way we are most comfortable. It has to fit us. We have to be genuine, authentic, credible. Our witness has to fit like these shoes.
I have given you 3 ways to witness. There's a world in need of good news out there. Amen.
Brace yourselves. I am about to share a very scary word with you. Are you ready to hear it? Ok, here goes. Witnessing!
We have seen too many bad examples. TV evangelists with hair that could preach Jesus. Pushy people knocking on our doors, just wanting to share some literature with us.
We're Methodists. We're uncomfortable with witnessing. I can prove it by our Book of Discipline. We used to have only 4 vows, only 4 ways that we said we would be following Jesus: prayers, presence, gifts, and service. It took us until the year 2008 to add the vow of witnessing!
And we're Westlake Methodists. I mean isn't faith a personal, even private matter. We don't talk about our faith. And we inclusive, accepting. We get along with people of other faiths or no faith. We're afraid of offending others.
Today, we are finishing up this series on a Disciple's Path, the 5 ways we United Methodists say that we follow Jesus. Today, it is witnessing. I want to lower your anxiety about witnessing. We will not be using any cliches. You will not be asked to make cold calls on strangers.
In 1 word, witnessing is about relationships. You will be asked to talk to people you already know. I will give you 3 practical ways to witness.
The first is to connect our service, our missions projects with witnessing. I told you last week we would revisit this topic today. It is very simple. We already do a great job of witnessing to our faith with our works. I am asking you to join words to the works. Let me give you some examples.
We give out bottles of water or bags of grace to people on the street. What if we added a message with them, a written message. You don't even have to speak. It might say, "This is a free gift to you, just like God's love for you. This brings you refreshment, just like God's love. We want to invite you to experience more of God's love by coming to worship with us at Westlake UMC, 1460 Redbud Trail, at 9 or 11:15 a.m. on Sundays." That's not so hard.
Or it could be inviting someone to join you in a mission project. A young woman has been visiting us here. She has a hard time getting her husband to come to worship with her. However, when she invited him to join here for a Saturday at Habitat for Humanity, he jumped at it. At the end of the day, he said, "That was so much fun. When can we do that again?" People may not always join us for worship or Sunday School. Their first step in faith may be joining us at a work project. That's not hard.
In fact, I have been thinking about tweaking ReThink Church Day. We have done this now 3 or 4 years, a time when we call off worship here and go out into the world to do mission projects. What if this year, we invited someone to join us in that project? They might help us feed the hungry or pick up trash or go singing or take care of the service animals. It's not so hard.
I would like for you to pray right now. Who is that person on your heart? Who would be the one that you could invite to join you in a mission project? That's relationships. That's witnessing.
The second way we focus on relational witnessing has to do with the scripture lesson today. John the Baptist already has some disciples, but when Jesus walks by, John names Jesus as the one to follow. Two disciples do. Andrew then finds his brother Simon, and tells him he has found the Messiah, and brings him to Jesus. Philip does the same routine with Nathaniel, and brings him to Jesus. So there is a chain reaction of people telling other people, people they know, about Jesus.
Watch this video of Hector Ruiz, as he talks about those who told him about Jesus.
None of us got to know Jesus by ourselves. Someone told us. Who have they been in your life? For Hector, it was his father and that Methodist Missionary, who became his spiritual mentor. Who has witnessed the faith to you? I know Thanksgiving is coming up in a few days. Pause know and give thanks to God for those witnesses to faith in your life. Then this becomes part of your witness to others.
Let me share part of my story. I was baptized as an infant in the Methodist Church, confirmed at age 12. I was always part of the faith community. But I had my doubts. When I was a junior in high school, there was a girl name Sharon, the first girl I ever kissed, a Church of Christ girl (yes, God works outside the Methodists). I told I wasn't sure about going to heaven. She said I could be sure. That planted something in my. The next year I dated a Baptist girl (yes, not a Methodist). She showed me a verse in the Bible that led me to an emotional conversion. It was Ephesians 2:8-9, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God--not by works, lest anyone should boast. I had always try to earn God's favor, to prove that I was good enough for God to love me. I was set free. Salvation was a gift.
Later at A & M, I found a home at the Wesley Foundation, the Methodist Student ministry. The campus minister there saw gifts in me, gave me a leadership role as we Aggies would go out and roof a little country church on a Saturday. He asked me to consider ordained ministry. Later, a seminary, my Hebrew professor let me see the layers of meanings behind the words of the Bible, an intellectual conversion.
Those persons who led you to faith become part of your witness to others. You didn't get here by yourself. Others don't either. It's about relationships.
The third way of relational witnessing is listening, about meeting people where they. So each week on this disciple's path, I have been telling you a story from our 10 weeks of renewal leave this summer, from the Appalachian Trail, or climbing mountains in New Mexico. The story this week is off the trail, what we did when we weren't hiking. Cathy and I got hooked on the West Wing on Netflix, streaming video. We did binge watching. There are 7 seasons of the West Wing, 22 episodes a season, for a total of 154 episodes. That's a lot of intrigue and political maneuvering in the White House over a summer.
The chief of staff is Leo Magarity, a recovering alcoholic. He joins one of his staff members in their pain and tells a story. There once was a man who fell into a hole. Help, help, he cried. A priest was walking by. Help me, Father. The priest wrote out a prayer and tossed it into the hole. The man cried, Help, somebody, help me. A doctor walked by, heard the man, wrote him out a prescription and tossed it into the hole. His friend, Joe, was walking by. Joe, help me, I've fallen into this hole. Joe, jumps down into the hole with him. Why did you do that? Now, we both in the hole. Joe responds, Yes, but I've been in this hole before, and I know the way out.
We listen to people in their need, their pain. We meet them where they are. And we help to show them a way out. That's witnessing.
Each week, I have been focusing on some shoes for walking this path. Today, I am wearing my most comfortable shoes. These are Rockports, probably 20 years or more old. I polish them, replace the shoe strings, get them resoled. They fit me.
That's how we do witnessing, in the way we are most comfortable. It has to fit us. We have to be genuine, authentic, credible. Our witness has to fit like these shoes.
I have given you 3 ways to witness. There's a world in need of good news out there. Amen.
Monday, November 18, 2013
A Disciple's Path: Walk for Others
from my message on Nov. 17, 2013, from Romans 12:1-8
I know the title of this message says walk for others, but towards the end of the week, it became also walk with others. But you will see that in a few minutes.
I want to start by bragging on you. You do service really well. We are in a series of messages based around the 5 ways we United Methodists follow Christ, by our prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness. We are on a Disciples' Path. Today, it is the fourth way, the way of service. This is probably this church's number one strength.
We just finished Christmas in October, where we get ahead of the culture's emphasis on consumerism. You got involved in some 18 different ways of walking for and with others from helping with coats for kids to giving coffee to troops to volunteering to go caroling at a retirement center. We need to serve in this way as a counterweight to the "buy more" trend around us. I am amazed at how Black Friday is not the day after Thanksgiving any more. More and more stores are opening on Thanksgiving, first at midnight, then 8 p.m., then 5 p.m., and now 4 p.m. I think Black Friday has begun to be the day after Halloween!
You get involved at all ages. We have the F.I.S.H., the Fifth In Service for Him, who go on mission projects. Children. Then we have youth who go to do home repair in North Carolina at ReCre. Adults do home repair after tornadoes in Joplin, Missouri, and medical missions in Central America. All ages and stages walking for others and with others.
I have a drawer full of t-shirts for walk: CROP walk for hunger, NAMI walk for mental illness, Alzheimer Walk, etc. We walk a lot for others.
I went to a meeting this past Tuesday with some leaders of the Hispanic-Latino community. We United Methodists pastors were meeting with some folks who were not necessarily church folks. I felt a little intimidated. They had been on the front lines for decades organizing farm laborers, getting people registered to vote, and fighting racism One man Gilbert, who admitted he had not been to church in 40 years, asked us what the term "ministries" meant. We UM pastors tried to explain that for us faith meant not just sitting in the pew but getting to real human needs in the world. We didn't just have good words, but also healing actions.
The leader of the group asked me to brag on Westlake UMC. I got to tell how we house the offices of Mobile Loaves and Fishes which feed the homeless living on the streets. I got to tell how SCORE helps people write a business plan and get a small business loan. I told how our congregation got Any Baby Can started. I shared about our involvement with Foundation for the Homeless, Habitat for Humanity, and others.
I want to brag on you. You are walking for and with others. Give yourselves a hand.
Now, we are going through this Healthy Church Initiative process, where some consultants have offered 5 prescriptions for us. One of those is to do an audit of all of missions, our service projects. Some of you may have felt threatened by this prescription. "THEY are going to take MY special mission away." I need to lower you anxiety. There is no THEY. It is only US. WE will decide if some service projects need to be trimmed. We get to choose.
For us, our service projects could also be seen as one of the primary ways that we witness to our faith. It is often one of the first ways people get on the path of discipleship. They may first come to a worship service, but join us as we go into the world to make a difference in a hands-on mission. I think we could tweak this service component just a tiny bit to make it an even more effective witness, but that is next week's message. This is my teaser to get you to come back and hear more about witnessing next week.
I do know that we have some issues in this church when it comes to serving that we need to look at. We do so many things that projects compete for time and resources. Just yesterday our mission day to do home repair in Bastrop after the fires there didn't make, because we had only 2 people sign up. We get stretched pretty thin sometimes. Leaders get stretched thin, sometimes ending up exhausted. Guests to our church get confused about our central mission or how to get started in serving others. In others words, our message gets diluted. We don't have focus.
What does the Bible have to say to this? We read from Romans 12. After all, we are the church. We are not just another service club. God bless the Rotarians, and Kiwanis, and Lions, and ...so forth. But our motivation is different. We act out of a relationship with Christ. We come from a place of grace. Paul says to the church at Rome and to us, Therefore by the mercies of God. We act in response to God's love and forgiveness, a free gift to us. We serve others because God has shown love to us in Christ's living and dying and being raised again.
And we act in community. The imagery is that of the Body of Christ. We need all of the spiritual gifts in order to be a whole body. The list is not meant to be exhaustive. You can read I Cor. 12 and Eph. 4 to find other gifts. The point is that we need each other in order to walk for others and with others. We act in community, not just for those already a part of the church but for the wider world. We walk for and with others, the world community.
Now, I need to bring this home with a story about walking. Many of you know that Cathy and I got 10 weeks renewal leave this summer. I walked about 10 miles a day. One of my big hikes was to climb the highest point in New Mexico, Wheeler Peak, 13,161 feet. I called the leader of the hike to see if I could joint the group leaving from Angel Fire, NM. The person vetted me, "What kind of shape are you in?" "Well, I just spent the last 2 1/2 weeks walking about 150 miles of the Appalachian Trail. I have spent the last week and a half getting acclimated to the altitude here." They let me go on the hike. It was challenging. It was only 4 mile up, but it was a 4,000 foot climb over those 4 miles, starting at about 9,000 feet, thin air. Here's a picture of me standing at the top of Wheeler Peak. Do you see those storms clouds in the background? We had just gotten to the top when it became time to come down. Thunder and lightning. I am only afraid of 2 things: snake and lightning. The leaders said, "We have to leave now." They took off. One woman in our group said, "If I don't eat something, I will be sick. I suffer from vertigo." I stayed with her. We walked down in a hail storm with lightning. Watch the video of us slow stepping down the slippery rocks. This poor woman had blisters, vertigo, and more. She shuffled down the mountain like Tim Conway. I could have gone a lot faster by myself. But I put my agenda and timeline to the side. I was not going to leave her behind. We walk with others. It took us longer to come down than to climb up. I did all of my Stephen Ministry listening skills. I got her to tell me her story. She was a recovering alcoholic, sober for some 18 months. On the one year anniversary of her sobriety, her dad died. Her brother took his own life not long after. We had a lot of time to talk, to get down the mountain. We do not leave people behind. We are community. We walk with others.
Today, I have these work boots, I am going to give for others. We have the Methodist Free Store at 1717 E. 12th street. See their website. We Methodists let people shop for free, anything they want. But the point is that the servants at the free store establish a relationship with the shoppers. "What do you need? How can we be in prayer with you? How are things going in your life?" It is not just offering stuff, but a relationship....a relationship with another person, with Christ. Here's the amazing thing: many of the shoppers have now become servants, helping others shop. We walk for and with others. I am taking this boots to the free store.
The good news is that we were made to walk for other and with others. Amen.
I know the title of this message says walk for others, but towards the end of the week, it became also walk with others. But you will see that in a few minutes.
I want to start by bragging on you. You do service really well. We are in a series of messages based around the 5 ways we United Methodists follow Christ, by our prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness. We are on a Disciples' Path. Today, it is the fourth way, the way of service. This is probably this church's number one strength.
We just finished Christmas in October, where we get ahead of the culture's emphasis on consumerism. You got involved in some 18 different ways of walking for and with others from helping with coats for kids to giving coffee to troops to volunteering to go caroling at a retirement center. We need to serve in this way as a counterweight to the "buy more" trend around us. I am amazed at how Black Friday is not the day after Thanksgiving any more. More and more stores are opening on Thanksgiving, first at midnight, then 8 p.m., then 5 p.m., and now 4 p.m. I think Black Friday has begun to be the day after Halloween!
You get involved at all ages. We have the F.I.S.H., the Fifth In Service for Him, who go on mission projects. Children. Then we have youth who go to do home repair in North Carolina at ReCre. Adults do home repair after tornadoes in Joplin, Missouri, and medical missions in Central America. All ages and stages walking for others and with others.
I have a drawer full of t-shirts for walk: CROP walk for hunger, NAMI walk for mental illness, Alzheimer Walk, etc. We walk a lot for others.
I went to a meeting this past Tuesday with some leaders of the Hispanic-Latino community. We United Methodists pastors were meeting with some folks who were not necessarily church folks. I felt a little intimidated. They had been on the front lines for decades organizing farm laborers, getting people registered to vote, and fighting racism One man Gilbert, who admitted he had not been to church in 40 years, asked us what the term "ministries" meant. We UM pastors tried to explain that for us faith meant not just sitting in the pew but getting to real human needs in the world. We didn't just have good words, but also healing actions.
The leader of the group asked me to brag on Westlake UMC. I got to tell how we house the offices of Mobile Loaves and Fishes which feed the homeless living on the streets. I got to tell how SCORE helps people write a business plan and get a small business loan. I told how our congregation got Any Baby Can started. I shared about our involvement with Foundation for the Homeless, Habitat for Humanity, and others.
I want to brag on you. You are walking for and with others. Give yourselves a hand.
Now, we are going through this Healthy Church Initiative process, where some consultants have offered 5 prescriptions for us. One of those is to do an audit of all of missions, our service projects. Some of you may have felt threatened by this prescription. "THEY are going to take MY special mission away." I need to lower you anxiety. There is no THEY. It is only US. WE will decide if some service projects need to be trimmed. We get to choose.
For us, our service projects could also be seen as one of the primary ways that we witness to our faith. It is often one of the first ways people get on the path of discipleship. They may first come to a worship service, but join us as we go into the world to make a difference in a hands-on mission. I think we could tweak this service component just a tiny bit to make it an even more effective witness, but that is next week's message. This is my teaser to get you to come back and hear more about witnessing next week.
I do know that we have some issues in this church when it comes to serving that we need to look at. We do so many things that projects compete for time and resources. Just yesterday our mission day to do home repair in Bastrop after the fires there didn't make, because we had only 2 people sign up. We get stretched pretty thin sometimes. Leaders get stretched thin, sometimes ending up exhausted. Guests to our church get confused about our central mission or how to get started in serving others. In others words, our message gets diluted. We don't have focus.
What does the Bible have to say to this? We read from Romans 12. After all, we are the church. We are not just another service club. God bless the Rotarians, and Kiwanis, and Lions, and ...so forth. But our motivation is different. We act out of a relationship with Christ. We come from a place of grace. Paul says to the church at Rome and to us, Therefore by the mercies of God. We act in response to God's love and forgiveness, a free gift to us. We serve others because God has shown love to us in Christ's living and dying and being raised again.
And we act in community. The imagery is that of the Body of Christ. We need all of the spiritual gifts in order to be a whole body. The list is not meant to be exhaustive. You can read I Cor. 12 and Eph. 4 to find other gifts. The point is that we need each other in order to walk for others and with others. We act in community, not just for those already a part of the church but for the wider world. We walk for and with others, the world community.
Now, I need to bring this home with a story about walking. Many of you know that Cathy and I got 10 weeks renewal leave this summer. I walked about 10 miles a day. One of my big hikes was to climb the highest point in New Mexico, Wheeler Peak, 13,161 feet. I called the leader of the hike to see if I could joint the group leaving from Angel Fire, NM. The person vetted me, "What kind of shape are you in?" "Well, I just spent the last 2 1/2 weeks walking about 150 miles of the Appalachian Trail. I have spent the last week and a half getting acclimated to the altitude here." They let me go on the hike. It was challenging. It was only 4 mile up, but it was a 4,000 foot climb over those 4 miles, starting at about 9,000 feet, thin air. Here's a picture of me standing at the top of Wheeler Peak. Do you see those storms clouds in the background? We had just gotten to the top when it became time to come down. Thunder and lightning. I am only afraid of 2 things: snake and lightning. The leaders said, "We have to leave now." They took off. One woman in our group said, "If I don't eat something, I will be sick. I suffer from vertigo." I stayed with her. We walked down in a hail storm with lightning. Watch the video of us slow stepping down the slippery rocks. This poor woman had blisters, vertigo, and more. She shuffled down the mountain like Tim Conway. I could have gone a lot faster by myself. But I put my agenda and timeline to the side. I was not going to leave her behind. We walk with others. It took us longer to come down than to climb up. I did all of my Stephen Ministry listening skills. I got her to tell me her story. She was a recovering alcoholic, sober for some 18 months. On the one year anniversary of her sobriety, her dad died. Her brother took his own life not long after. We had a lot of time to talk, to get down the mountain. We do not leave people behind. We are community. We walk with others.
Today, I have these work boots, I am going to give for others. We have the Methodist Free Store at 1717 E. 12th street. See their website. We Methodists let people shop for free, anything they want. But the point is that the servants at the free store establish a relationship with the shoppers. "What do you need? How can we be in prayer with you? How are things going in your life?" It is not just offering stuff, but a relationship....a relationship with another person, with Christ. Here's the amazing thing: many of the shoppers have now become servants, helping others shop. We walk for and with others. I am taking this boots to the free store.
The good news is that we were made to walk for other and with others. Amen.
Monday, November 11, 2013
A Disciple's Path: Walking in Gratitude
from my message on Nov. 10, 2013, from Psalm 24:1-2 and II Cor. 9:6-15
Paul says, The Point is this, the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
Pop Gunn, that's what he was called. His given name was Curtis C. Gunn, but everybody called him Pop, Pop Gunn. He was a member of the church I served in San Antonio, Laurel Heights. Maybe you have been to San Antonio and seen the Gunn auto dealerships? Pop started in the 1950's with one Oldsmobile dealership, but as you can see from the website, it grew to include Chevy, GMC, Honda, Nissan, etc. Pop was quite rich. Can you be rich and still be a Christian? I think so. Pop had a heart for Jesus. He sowed bountifully. Pop was one of the visionaries that started the Methodist Hospital in San Antonio. That has now grow to some 9 centers around San Antonio.
Pop was also very involved in the Permanent Endowment Fund at Laurel Heights UMC. He invited many of his church members and friends to support the fund. He sowed bountifully. When I got there as pastor, the fund had something like $1.3 million in it. Our Permanent Endowment Fund at Westlake UMC has a little under $40,000. Of course, Laurel Heights has been in existence a lot longer.
One day, Pop had me visit one of our church members who had an apartment in an assisted living facility. Mr. A. D. Larson was his name. He had been married, but his wife had died years before. They never had any children. He had never had a high office in any corporation. He had been a bookkeeper and an accountant. He had lived very modestly. Over the years he had made wise investments. When he died, he left a portion of his estate to the Laurel Heights UMC Endowment Fund. He left $1.3 million!!!! He doubled the fund with his one gift! Talk about sowing bountifully and reaping bountifully.
Not all of you can do. Not all of you are called to do this. My job is to preach the good news today and to offer some practical advice and then to tell you one story.
The good news is this: God owns everything. I know we pretend that we own stuff. We put our names on pieces of paper that say this house is ours, or this parcel of land, or this car, or this stock portfolio, but really we own nothing. The Psalmist says, The earth is the Lord's and everything in it. We are just borrowing the stuff for a little while. We are sharecroppers. What are you going to take into the next life after you die? Nothing. We sow and reap, but we are sharecroppers.
Really I find this to be quite liberating. We are freed from worrying about taking care of ourselves. We are freed to seeing how we can glorify God for this short time we are on earth. The stuff is his. How do we recognize that in our decisions?
This creates in us gratitude. We have been given so much. How do we say "thank you" to God? We sow in gratitude. We reap in gratitude.
And we do this harvesting with cheerfulness. Paul says that we are not to give out of guilt or compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver. My prayer is God send me a church of cheerful givers. And it feels good to give. You know this. I went last night to a banquet for Foundation for the Homeless where many members of this church hold leadership positions. Oh, and people were laughing. They were giving away thousands of dollars and smiling! They were cheerful. It felt good to make a difference with our generosity. It is our thank you note to God.
Now the practical. Preparing for this message, I knew I had to be a person of integrity, so I got out my will. How many of you have a will? I know the last time we made an emphasis on the Permanent Endowment Fund, we found some folks who didn't have one. They were smart people, but they didn't have a will. If you don't have a will, the great State of Texas has one for you. Unfortunately, it just doesn't fit anyone who ever died. My brother David died without a will. It was a mess. The first practical thing I have to share is get a will. Especially as you have children, include guardians for them and trustees for the estate. Some of you will need to choose someone with durable power of attorney who can act on your behalf if you are incapacitated.
In your will, you could include the Permanent Endowment Fund. Again, as a person of integrity, I looked closely at my will. I have set aside 10% of my estate to the church. Not this church. I am giving to 3 places that shape my faith. The First UMC of Littlefield, Tx, that nurtured me as a child and youth. The Wesley Foundation at Texas A & M where I received my call to ordained ministry. The Perkins School of Theology where I did my seminary work. Maybe you can remember Westlake UMC in your will. It could be an insurance policy, or a stock, or a bond, or a piece of land.
Now as a person of integrity, I am giving to the Westlake UMC fund. I did it this morning as a cash gift. I went to our church website and charged it to my credit card....and got airline miles too! It only took a few seconds. Maybe some of you can give that way.
I am asking you today to walk in gratitude and to give a gift that has a long-lasting impact. Like Pop Gunn, we sow bountifully today, expecting a bountiful harvest that we may never see ourselves. We have future perspective. It is like supporting the Healthy Church Initatives. It is preparing for a future. It is making a way for those who aren't here yet. It is like being a veteran of the military. I know that tomorrow is Veteran's Day. You serve not thinking of yourself but others. Not just thinking about today, but about the future.
Now the story. Each week on this path of discipleship, I have telling you a story from this past summer's renewal leave and hiking part of the Appalachian Trail. Here's that picture of Cathy and me again. Look closely at the blue bucket at the base of the sign. It is filled with iced down Gatorade. That is called Trail Magic. Any gift along the path, that someone else freely gave, with no strings attached is Trail Magic. It might be watermelon slices. It could be a hamburger cookout. It might be candy bars. How wonderful it is be come upon Trail Magic when you are hot and tired and hungry!
Remember last week when I told about losing Cathy's expensive Canon camera and someone returned it? That's Trail Magic. Cathy and I got to practice Trail Magic. The next day after getting the camera back, we got to our car to find a young German couple who asked us for a ride into town. We helped them find a youth hostel. That was Trail Magic. Another day we passed out cookies. We met another German couple whose trail names were Hansel and Gretel. German television had shown a documentary on the Appalachian Trail, so we met a lot of Germans. We took Hansel and Gretel to Walmart to shop.
I am asking you to practice some Trail Magic. To give away for those you may not even know, without strings, for the future. I am asking you to do this with gratitude, cheerfully.
I am asking you to sow bountifully, knowing that God will reap bountifully.
Paul says, The Point is this, the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
Pop Gunn, that's what he was called. His given name was Curtis C. Gunn, but everybody called him Pop, Pop Gunn. He was a member of the church I served in San Antonio, Laurel Heights. Maybe you have been to San Antonio and seen the Gunn auto dealerships? Pop started in the 1950's with one Oldsmobile dealership, but as you can see from the website, it grew to include Chevy, GMC, Honda, Nissan, etc. Pop was quite rich. Can you be rich and still be a Christian? I think so. Pop had a heart for Jesus. He sowed bountifully. Pop was one of the visionaries that started the Methodist Hospital in San Antonio. That has now grow to some 9 centers around San Antonio.
Pop was also very involved in the Permanent Endowment Fund at Laurel Heights UMC. He invited many of his church members and friends to support the fund. He sowed bountifully. When I got there as pastor, the fund had something like $1.3 million in it. Our Permanent Endowment Fund at Westlake UMC has a little under $40,000. Of course, Laurel Heights has been in existence a lot longer.
One day, Pop had me visit one of our church members who had an apartment in an assisted living facility. Mr. A. D. Larson was his name. He had been married, but his wife had died years before. They never had any children. He had never had a high office in any corporation. He had been a bookkeeper and an accountant. He had lived very modestly. Over the years he had made wise investments. When he died, he left a portion of his estate to the Laurel Heights UMC Endowment Fund. He left $1.3 million!!!! He doubled the fund with his one gift! Talk about sowing bountifully and reaping bountifully.
Not all of you can do. Not all of you are called to do this. My job is to preach the good news today and to offer some practical advice and then to tell you one story.
The good news is this: God owns everything. I know we pretend that we own stuff. We put our names on pieces of paper that say this house is ours, or this parcel of land, or this car, or this stock portfolio, but really we own nothing. The Psalmist says, The earth is the Lord's and everything in it. We are just borrowing the stuff for a little while. We are sharecroppers. What are you going to take into the next life after you die? Nothing. We sow and reap, but we are sharecroppers.
Really I find this to be quite liberating. We are freed from worrying about taking care of ourselves. We are freed to seeing how we can glorify God for this short time we are on earth. The stuff is his. How do we recognize that in our decisions?
This creates in us gratitude. We have been given so much. How do we say "thank you" to God? We sow in gratitude. We reap in gratitude.
And we do this harvesting with cheerfulness. Paul says that we are not to give out of guilt or compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver. My prayer is God send me a church of cheerful givers. And it feels good to give. You know this. I went last night to a banquet for Foundation for the Homeless where many members of this church hold leadership positions. Oh, and people were laughing. They were giving away thousands of dollars and smiling! They were cheerful. It felt good to make a difference with our generosity. It is our thank you note to God.
Now the practical. Preparing for this message, I knew I had to be a person of integrity, so I got out my will. How many of you have a will? I know the last time we made an emphasis on the Permanent Endowment Fund, we found some folks who didn't have one. They were smart people, but they didn't have a will. If you don't have a will, the great State of Texas has one for you. Unfortunately, it just doesn't fit anyone who ever died. My brother David died without a will. It was a mess. The first practical thing I have to share is get a will. Especially as you have children, include guardians for them and trustees for the estate. Some of you will need to choose someone with durable power of attorney who can act on your behalf if you are incapacitated.
In your will, you could include the Permanent Endowment Fund. Again, as a person of integrity, I looked closely at my will. I have set aside 10% of my estate to the church. Not this church. I am giving to 3 places that shape my faith. The First UMC of Littlefield, Tx, that nurtured me as a child and youth. The Wesley Foundation at Texas A & M where I received my call to ordained ministry. The Perkins School of Theology where I did my seminary work. Maybe you can remember Westlake UMC in your will. It could be an insurance policy, or a stock, or a bond, or a piece of land.
Now as a person of integrity, I am giving to the Westlake UMC fund. I did it this morning as a cash gift. I went to our church website and charged it to my credit card....and got airline miles too! It only took a few seconds. Maybe some of you can give that way.
I am asking you today to walk in gratitude and to give a gift that has a long-lasting impact. Like Pop Gunn, we sow bountifully today, expecting a bountiful harvest that we may never see ourselves. We have future perspective. It is like supporting the Healthy Church Initatives. It is preparing for a future. It is making a way for those who aren't here yet. It is like being a veteran of the military. I know that tomorrow is Veteran's Day. You serve not thinking of yourself but others. Not just thinking about today, but about the future.
Now the story. Each week on this path of discipleship, I have telling you a story from this past summer's renewal leave and hiking part of the Appalachian Trail. Here's that picture of Cathy and me again. Look closely at the blue bucket at the base of the sign. It is filled with iced down Gatorade. That is called Trail Magic. Any gift along the path, that someone else freely gave, with no strings attached is Trail Magic. It might be watermelon slices. It could be a hamburger cookout. It might be candy bars. How wonderful it is be come upon Trail Magic when you are hot and tired and hungry!
Remember last week when I told about losing Cathy's expensive Canon camera and someone returned it? That's Trail Magic. Cathy and I got to practice Trail Magic. The next day after getting the camera back, we got to our car to find a young German couple who asked us for a ride into town. We helped them find a youth hostel. That was Trail Magic. Another day we passed out cookies. We met another German couple whose trail names were Hansel and Gretel. German television had shown a documentary on the Appalachian Trail, so we met a lot of Germans. We took Hansel and Gretel to Walmart to shop.
I am asking you to practice some Trail Magic. To give away for those you may not even know, without strings, for the future. I am asking you to do this with gratitude, cheerfully.
I am asking you to sow bountifully, knowing that God will reap bountifully.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
A Disciple's Path: Walk Together
from my message on Nov. 3, All Saints' Sunday, from I Cor. 11:23-26
Loneliness. I think loneliness is the number disease in America. I once went to a workshop where the presenter said that some incredible number of people who come into the emergency room, way over 50%, maybe 80%, come with the root cause of loneliness.
He reaches over to her side of the bed. She is not there. His wife of 46 years has died. He says, "I am no good without her." He stops eating right. Stops exercising. Stops going out. Stops living.
She is standing there with the papers in her hands. The divorce papers. She feels that she has been traded in for a younger model, a trophy wife. She feels rejected. Used. Discarded. Discounted. She stops taking care of herself.
Around here, we try to fill up on many things. How many people did I greet this morning with "how's it going" and they replied, "Busy" ? Busy is our symptom of loneliness. We try to do too much. We don't know how to say, "No."
If it is not busyness, it is alcohol, or pornography, or work. We are never satisfied. Underneath it all is our loneliness.
I have good news for you. You were not meant for loneliness. You were meant for relationship with God and one another.
We are in this series, A Disciple's Path. Today, we are walking together. We acknowledge that we can't do it alone. We don't have to do alone. Thank goodness, Thank God, we don't have to do it alone.
I need to pause and put on my hiking shoes. You may remember that Cathy and I had 10 weeks of renewal leave this summer, where we did a lot of hiking. The first 3 weeks I did some 150 of the Appalachian Trail from the James River to Front Royal in Virginia.
The first hike we did was from Punchbowl Mountain to the James River, about 11 miles. It was hard. Uphill at first. We were carrying too much stuff. Cathy was struggling with the binoculars and the camera. I volunteered to carry her very nice, expensive Canon camera in my backpack. When she wanted to take a picture, I would simply turn around so she could reach in and grab the camera. About noon at the peak of the climb, we stopped for lunch (graham crackers with peanut butter, bananas, granola bars, apples). I went to get out the lunch. No camera! Where did it fall out? How long ago? Cathy said, "I am not going back down that mountain." We were resolved to have lost it. We were heartsick.
We meet some hikers going north while we were traveling south. We would say, "If you find a Canon camera, we are the Barton's, we are staying at the Dutch Haus B & B in Montebello." We thought it was gone forever, but it didn't hurt to ask.
We finished our hike about 3 p.m. in 93 degree heat. Depressed. Down. It was so bad that Cathy drove. That's a bad sign. I usually drive. We pulled into the B & B. A woman named Sandy came out. "Are you the Barton's?" "Yes." "Zach has your camera. He'll meet you at the Rte. 60 wayside at 9 tomorrow morning."
We were at the wayside at 8:45. Hikers came through. No Zach. They kept saying, "there were lots of people at the shelter last night. I think I heard about some camera." Nine came and went. Nine thirty. We began to think that Zach had done a runner, made car payment with our camera. But we started hiking down to where Zach was supposed to be coming from. After about 20 minutes, 2 guys were walking together. "Are you Zach?" "Yes. Here's your camera." We gave him a breakfast plate I had been carrying and $20. It was a small price to pay for keeping my marriage!
Here's the point. There are people looking out for you. People you might not even be aware of. Saints. Yes, we can call them saints. Pause and give thanks for the saints around you. People who have been looking out for you. You can't do this path by yourself. You don't have to do it by yourself. You were not made for loneliness.
The Appalachian Trail is a community. We in the church are too. We gather for communion today. We come to this table, realizing it is a very large table. So many have walked the path ahead of us, looking out for us, taking care of us. This is not a private meal today. It is a crowded table.
Then flip it around. For whom are you walking? Who are the ones you are looking out for? Could you see yourself as a saint?
There is a young woman who visited this church 2 weeks ago. She had been praying to find a church community. She wanted it not just for herself , but for others. God had placed it upon her heart to reach out to young moms, to try to connect them. She knew that sometimes young moms felt if not trapped, at least limited. Loss of sleep. Maybe loss of contact with others. She wants to connect them, so they will know they don't have to do this path alone.
I have a story from last year, from our District Superintendent in the Valley. A D. S. is like a regional manager in the church. She was conducting a charge conference, a church business meeting. As Laura, the D. S., was leaving the church, she met a woman who wanted to tell her how much her church meant to her. This woman had found herself recently divorced, living in a broken down trailer, with broken windows, cold and depressed. Some Methodists came by, snowbirds, retired. They fixed up her trailer, new windows, carpet, everything. She was not alone. This woman started attending the local Methodist church because of their help. She wanted to give back. She offered to be the church janitor, no pay. The pastor gave her a key, and more than that trust. She liked to sweep the sidewalk, because Jesus might be coming that way.
We don't have to do it alone. In fact, the only way we can do this path is to walk together.
We are all walking, and when we can look beyond our loneliness to see others walking too, we find that we are all walking together, towards home.
That's the good news I have to share today.
Loneliness. I think loneliness is the number disease in America. I once went to a workshop where the presenter said that some incredible number of people who come into the emergency room, way over 50%, maybe 80%, come with the root cause of loneliness.
He reaches over to her side of the bed. She is not there. His wife of 46 years has died. He says, "I am no good without her." He stops eating right. Stops exercising. Stops going out. Stops living.
She is standing there with the papers in her hands. The divorce papers. She feels that she has been traded in for a younger model, a trophy wife. She feels rejected. Used. Discarded. Discounted. She stops taking care of herself.
Around here, we try to fill up on many things. How many people did I greet this morning with "how's it going" and they replied, "Busy" ? Busy is our symptom of loneliness. We try to do too much. We don't know how to say, "No."
If it is not busyness, it is alcohol, or pornography, or work. We are never satisfied. Underneath it all is our loneliness.
I have good news for you. You were not meant for loneliness. You were meant for relationship with God and one another.
We are in this series, A Disciple's Path. Today, we are walking together. We acknowledge that we can't do it alone. We don't have to do alone. Thank goodness, Thank God, we don't have to do it alone.
I need to pause and put on my hiking shoes. You may remember that Cathy and I had 10 weeks of renewal leave this summer, where we did a lot of hiking. The first 3 weeks I did some 150 of the Appalachian Trail from the James River to Front Royal in Virginia.
The first hike we did was from Punchbowl Mountain to the James River, about 11 miles. It was hard. Uphill at first. We were carrying too much stuff. Cathy was struggling with the binoculars and the camera. I volunteered to carry her very nice, expensive Canon camera in my backpack. When she wanted to take a picture, I would simply turn around so she could reach in and grab the camera. About noon at the peak of the climb, we stopped for lunch (graham crackers with peanut butter, bananas, granola bars, apples). I went to get out the lunch. No camera! Where did it fall out? How long ago? Cathy said, "I am not going back down that mountain." We were resolved to have lost it. We were heartsick.
We meet some hikers going north while we were traveling south. We would say, "If you find a Canon camera, we are the Barton's, we are staying at the Dutch Haus B & B in Montebello." We thought it was gone forever, but it didn't hurt to ask.
We finished our hike about 3 p.m. in 93 degree heat. Depressed. Down. It was so bad that Cathy drove. That's a bad sign. I usually drive. We pulled into the B & B. A woman named Sandy came out. "Are you the Barton's?" "Yes." "Zach has your camera. He'll meet you at the Rte. 60 wayside at 9 tomorrow morning."
We were at the wayside at 8:45. Hikers came through. No Zach. They kept saying, "there were lots of people at the shelter last night. I think I heard about some camera." Nine came and went. Nine thirty. We began to think that Zach had done a runner, made car payment with our camera. But we started hiking down to where Zach was supposed to be coming from. After about 20 minutes, 2 guys were walking together. "Are you Zach?" "Yes. Here's your camera." We gave him a breakfast plate I had been carrying and $20. It was a small price to pay for keeping my marriage!
Here's the point. There are people looking out for you. People you might not even be aware of. Saints. Yes, we can call them saints. Pause and give thanks for the saints around you. People who have been looking out for you. You can't do this path by yourself. You don't have to do it by yourself. You were not made for loneliness.
The Appalachian Trail is a community. We in the church are too. We gather for communion today. We come to this table, realizing it is a very large table. So many have walked the path ahead of us, looking out for us, taking care of us. This is not a private meal today. It is a crowded table.
Then flip it around. For whom are you walking? Who are the ones you are looking out for? Could you see yourself as a saint?
There is a young woman who visited this church 2 weeks ago. She had been praying to find a church community. She wanted it not just for herself , but for others. God had placed it upon her heart to reach out to young moms, to try to connect them. She knew that sometimes young moms felt if not trapped, at least limited. Loss of sleep. Maybe loss of contact with others. She wants to connect them, so they will know they don't have to do this path alone.
I have a story from last year, from our District Superintendent in the Valley. A D. S. is like a regional manager in the church. She was conducting a charge conference, a church business meeting. As Laura, the D. S., was leaving the church, she met a woman who wanted to tell her how much her church meant to her. This woman had found herself recently divorced, living in a broken down trailer, with broken windows, cold and depressed. Some Methodists came by, snowbirds, retired. They fixed up her trailer, new windows, carpet, everything. She was not alone. This woman started attending the local Methodist church because of their help. She wanted to give back. She offered to be the church janitor, no pay. The pastor gave her a key, and more than that trust. She liked to sweep the sidewalk, because Jesus might be coming that way.
We don't have to do it alone. In fact, the only way we can do this path is to walk together.
We are all walking, and when we can look beyond our loneliness to see others walking too, we find that we are all walking together, towards home.
That's the good news I have to share today.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Walk in Humility
from my message on Oct. 13, 2013, from Gen. 3:7-8, Matt. 4:18-22, start of A Disciple's Path series
Cathy and I hiked part of the Appalachian Trail this past summer. I did 150 miles from the James River to Front Royal, Virginia. Cathy did 90 miles. We were slack packers, day hikers. We stayed in B & B's and motels at night. We were not through hikers, who would start in Georgia and go to Mt. Katadin, Maine, carrying all of their gear with them, 2,180 miles. On the night before we took our first hike, we stayed at the Dutch Haus B & B in Montebello, VA. There over supper, we met Slow and Steady. I don't know what her real name is, but her trail name was Slow and Steady. She was older than I was, in great shape, and a through hiker. At supper, she shared some wisdom with us that I would like for you to take to heart. She said, "It's not how far you walk. It's not how fast you walk. It's not how much you're carrying. It's putting your feet on the trail." That's how she was doing it, Slow and Steady.
Pastor Jim leads our worship service on Sunday nights, called the Point. Every week, he starts the service saying this, "Everyone of us is on a spiritual journey, whether we acknowledge it or not." Today, we start this 6 weeks series, A Disciple's Path. You can get a workbook. You can join a Sunday School class. You can come to these worship services. All I am asking you is to put your feet upon the trail.
I looked it up in my Bible dictionary. "Path" in the Bible is the typical metaphor for our relationship with God. Where are you on the path today? What's your pace? What are you carrying? Are you growing closer to Christ? To others?
We begin in humility on the path. Most of the time we read the story in Genesis 3 as the story of the Fall of humankind. The story of original sin. We may think it has nothing to do with us today. But I ask you, how many of you know something about overreaching. Do you book 2 or 3 things on your calendar at the same time? I have. Are you overcommitted, overfunctioning? We still listen to the snake, who says, "You can do it. There are no limits on you." We have such a hard time saying no...to anything. We overreach just like the first humans did. Then we find out our vulnerability, that we are naked. We have to play Hide and Seek with God.
What if the story was not just about original sin, but original blessing. Look closely at the story. In the beginning, there was such intimacy with God, we were naked and not afraid. No facade. No mask. No hiddenness. There was intimacy that the usual pattern was for God to go walking in the garden in the cool of the day....with us...as partners.
When we overreach, when we recognize our vulnerability, we hide. When God comes looking for us, God doesn't cry out an accusation, "Where are you?" God cries out a "I've missed you. I long for you. I want to be with you again. I am lonely without you." God's original and enduring desire is to walk with us.
God wants to restore this original blessing. We begin in humility. Humility comes from the same root word as humus (not hummus the food!), but the rich soil, the good earth. Human comes from the same root word. We begin in humility. We begin by getting grounded, by getting down to earth.
I have a book from 1983 in my library by Matthew Fox, entitled Original Blessing. He says, Humility is the opposite of arrogance, of saying we don't need God, that we can do it by ourselves. He says, Humility begins not with sin, but with God's creativity. Humility is not about despising oneself, but befriending our earthiness. Humility is not about seeing ourselves as sinners, but as royal persons, created in the image of God with the ability to choose to create or to destroy. Humility is not ego-logical, but eco-logical.
We take our shoe off, like Moses did in the presence of the burning bush, in the presence of holiness. We get grounded, like I have today, by preaching barefoot. You may know some of our younger pastors who do this, like JD, Abby, Pastor Tina. Preaching with humility.
In humility today, we acknowledge that we all choose crooked paths and wander off the path of righteousness. We go our own way. We think we know better than God.
What happens to us when we do this? God gives up on us? God destroys us? NO! NO!
How many of you have a GPS in your car? Yes, and does it talk to you? Yes, it says things like, "In 200 yards, make a right turn on S. 1st Street." What happens when you past S. 1st Street without turning? It will say a word to you. It will say, "Recalculating."
That's what God says to us when we go the wrong way, Recalculating. God is upset at humankind's wickedness and sends a flood, but starts over with Noah and the ark. Recalculating. God calls Abram and Sarai to become a blessing to all of humankind. Recalculating. God leads the people out of bondage in Egypt across the wilderness to a Promised Land. Recalculating. God sends judges, and prophets, and kings and queens. Recalculating. We Methodists call this grace. God's unmerited love. Pure gift. In humility, we accept it.
God sends Jesus, the very presence of God in human flesh. Recalculating. Jesus walks along the Sea of Galilee. He sees some people fishing. He says, "Follow me." Jesus is on a journey. He wants us to walk with him. Immediately, they do. They leave nets and boats and family and follow him.
What do you need to leave behind in order to walk in humility with Jesus? Slow and Steady said, "The trail very quickly teaches you what you need to carry and what you need to leave behind."
The first hike Cathy and I took was from Punchbowl Mountain to the James River, some 11 miles. That first day we carried too much stuff, extra clothes, bug spray, sun screen. I even took not 1 but 2 journals thinking I would have time to write on the trail. By the end of our hiking, I would spray up at the beginning and leave the can behind. Put on sunscreen at the beginning and leave the tube behind. I carried water, food, my phone, knife, lighter, rain gear. Not much else.
What do you need to leave behind to walk in humility? Some of you have been carrying old hurts. You have given them more power than the healing presence of Christ. Some of you are carrying the weight of shame, feeling like you will never measure up. Some of you are carrying guilt, yes, you have sinned, but you can't accept forgiveness. On the trail, I left behind worry and anxiety. What do you need to leave behind?
21 times in the 4 Gospels of the New Testament, Jesus says, "Follow me." He always calls for decisive action. The destination of every disciple is a life completely centered in loving God and loving others. Where are you on the path? In humility, may you say, "It's not how fast or how far or how much I carry. It's about putting my feet on the trail."
Amen.
Cathy and I hiked part of the Appalachian Trail this past summer. I did 150 miles from the James River to Front Royal, Virginia. Cathy did 90 miles. We were slack packers, day hikers. We stayed in B & B's and motels at night. We were not through hikers, who would start in Georgia and go to Mt. Katadin, Maine, carrying all of their gear with them, 2,180 miles. On the night before we took our first hike, we stayed at the Dutch Haus B & B in Montebello, VA. There over supper, we met Slow and Steady. I don't know what her real name is, but her trail name was Slow and Steady. She was older than I was, in great shape, and a through hiker. At supper, she shared some wisdom with us that I would like for you to take to heart. She said, "It's not how far you walk. It's not how fast you walk. It's not how much you're carrying. It's putting your feet on the trail." That's how she was doing it, Slow and Steady.
Pastor Jim leads our worship service on Sunday nights, called the Point. Every week, he starts the service saying this, "Everyone of us is on a spiritual journey, whether we acknowledge it or not." Today, we start this 6 weeks series, A Disciple's Path. You can get a workbook. You can join a Sunday School class. You can come to these worship services. All I am asking you is to put your feet upon the trail.
I looked it up in my Bible dictionary. "Path" in the Bible is the typical metaphor for our relationship with God. Where are you on the path today? What's your pace? What are you carrying? Are you growing closer to Christ? To others?
We begin in humility on the path. Most of the time we read the story in Genesis 3 as the story of the Fall of humankind. The story of original sin. We may think it has nothing to do with us today. But I ask you, how many of you know something about overreaching. Do you book 2 or 3 things on your calendar at the same time? I have. Are you overcommitted, overfunctioning? We still listen to the snake, who says, "You can do it. There are no limits on you." We have such a hard time saying no...to anything. We overreach just like the first humans did. Then we find out our vulnerability, that we are naked. We have to play Hide and Seek with God.
What if the story was not just about original sin, but original blessing. Look closely at the story. In the beginning, there was such intimacy with God, we were naked and not afraid. No facade. No mask. No hiddenness. There was intimacy that the usual pattern was for God to go walking in the garden in the cool of the day....with us...as partners.
When we overreach, when we recognize our vulnerability, we hide. When God comes looking for us, God doesn't cry out an accusation, "Where are you?" God cries out a "I've missed you. I long for you. I want to be with you again. I am lonely without you." God's original and enduring desire is to walk with us.
God wants to restore this original blessing. We begin in humility. Humility comes from the same root word as humus (not hummus the food!), but the rich soil, the good earth. Human comes from the same root word. We begin in humility. We begin by getting grounded, by getting down to earth.
I have a book from 1983 in my library by Matthew Fox, entitled Original Blessing. He says, Humility is the opposite of arrogance, of saying we don't need God, that we can do it by ourselves. He says, Humility begins not with sin, but with God's creativity. Humility is not about despising oneself, but befriending our earthiness. Humility is not about seeing ourselves as sinners, but as royal persons, created in the image of God with the ability to choose to create or to destroy. Humility is not ego-logical, but eco-logical.
We take our shoe off, like Moses did in the presence of the burning bush, in the presence of holiness. We get grounded, like I have today, by preaching barefoot. You may know some of our younger pastors who do this, like JD, Abby, Pastor Tina. Preaching with humility.
In humility today, we acknowledge that we all choose crooked paths and wander off the path of righteousness. We go our own way. We think we know better than God.
What happens to us when we do this? God gives up on us? God destroys us? NO! NO!
How many of you have a GPS in your car? Yes, and does it talk to you? Yes, it says things like, "In 200 yards, make a right turn on S. 1st Street." What happens when you past S. 1st Street without turning? It will say a word to you. It will say, "Recalculating."
That's what God says to us when we go the wrong way, Recalculating. God is upset at humankind's wickedness and sends a flood, but starts over with Noah and the ark. Recalculating. God calls Abram and Sarai to become a blessing to all of humankind. Recalculating. God leads the people out of bondage in Egypt across the wilderness to a Promised Land. Recalculating. God sends judges, and prophets, and kings and queens. Recalculating. We Methodists call this grace. God's unmerited love. Pure gift. In humility, we accept it.
God sends Jesus, the very presence of God in human flesh. Recalculating. Jesus walks along the Sea of Galilee. He sees some people fishing. He says, "Follow me." Jesus is on a journey. He wants us to walk with him. Immediately, they do. They leave nets and boats and family and follow him.
What do you need to leave behind in order to walk in humility with Jesus? Slow and Steady said, "The trail very quickly teaches you what you need to carry and what you need to leave behind."
The first hike Cathy and I took was from Punchbowl Mountain to the James River, some 11 miles. That first day we carried too much stuff, extra clothes, bug spray, sun screen. I even took not 1 but 2 journals thinking I would have time to write on the trail. By the end of our hiking, I would spray up at the beginning and leave the can behind. Put on sunscreen at the beginning and leave the tube behind. I carried water, food, my phone, knife, lighter, rain gear. Not much else.
What do you need to leave behind to walk in humility? Some of you have been carrying old hurts. You have given them more power than the healing presence of Christ. Some of you are carrying the weight of shame, feeling like you will never measure up. Some of you are carrying guilt, yes, you have sinned, but you can't accept forgiveness. On the trail, I left behind worry and anxiety. What do you need to leave behind?
21 times in the 4 Gospels of the New Testament, Jesus says, "Follow me." He always calls for decisive action. The destination of every disciple is a life completely centered in loving God and loving others. Where are you on the path? In humility, may you say, "It's not how fast or how far or how much I carry. It's about putting my feet on the trail."
Amen.
Monday, October 14, 2013
Life Coach: Encourager
From my message on Oct. 13, from John 14:15-19, 25-27
Encouragement. Could you use some encouragement today? A word of hope? You may have had enough of entrenchment, and encroachment, and entrapment, and entitlement. You may need encouragement today.
That's what Jesus promises us in the coming of the Holy Spirit. I know we have a hard time grasping the Holy Spirit. God as Father, we get it. God coming as Son in Jesus, we understand. But Holy Spirit is difficult for us to grasp. Today I want to claim the Holy Spirit as the Encourager.
This is the last in our series on Life Coach, where we have been placing ourselves under the God revealed in our holy book, the Bible. Today our Life Coach is the Holy Spirit, the Encourager.
There is a special Greek word used for the Holy Spirit here in John's Gospel. That word is Paraclete. It is hard for us to translate this work into English, so our Bibles will have the following words for Paraclete: Counselor, Comforter, Consoler, Advocate, Intercessor, Teacher, Guide. Paraclete literally means, "one called to the side of." I want to claim the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, today as the Encourager.
In this video from Coach Jennifer White, we hear her talk about the Holy Spirit as "the One who takes me to a place I cannot go by myself." That is a good definition for the Encourager.
In this section of John's Gospel, Jesus is giving his farewell speech. His disciples are sad. How will they carry on without him? They are afraid of being left alone. Jesus promises that his absence will make possible the coming of the Paraclete, He will not leave them alone. He will be with them. He will be in them, in the Holy Spirit, the Encourager.
There once was a pastor trying to talk to the children about the Holy Spirit, about how God was in each of them. He asked them to feel their hearts, to feel the presence of God inside each one. One boy David, put his hand inside his shirt. The pastor asked, "How does God feel?" David replied, "Damp, very damp."
The Holy Spirit is inside each of us encouraging us. Jesus said that he would not leave his disciples orphaned. You may think that this means without a parent. But when a rabbi would die, his students were said to be orphaned. Jesus is saying that he will not leave his followers without a teacher, the Encourager.
This past week, I was at Mt. Wesley, where I was called to be the spiritual director for 12 persons who are on track to be ordained as elders in the United Methodist Church in June. I had them divide up into groups of 3. One person would spend a few minutes sharing a situation around which they desired prayer. Then the 3 would spend 9 minutes in silence, listening for what God was praying. They would be seeking an image or a scripture or a word or a song. They they would spend several minutes sharing what came to them out of the silence. We are so good at telling God stuff. We have a lot to learn about listening to God. At the end of the time, several of these candidates for ministry said, "Where did that come from, those words, those images?" I said, "It's just prayer." They said, "No one ever taught us this in seminary. It was amazing. It was so simple. To reverse praying. To pause and listen for what God is already praying for this situation."
It was encouraging to me and to them, to know that we continue to learn, to be taught how to pray. The Encourager takes us to a place we cannot go by ourselves in prayer.
The Encourager is also called the Spirit of Truth. Sometimes, we need to hear the truth about ourselves. On Thursday this past week, I was part of a Partners in Ministry workshop where we as a staff and church leaders were learning about communication, conflict resolution, trust building, and visioning together. Something was said in my table group that was so truthful it laid me open. Donna said, "I once heard a preacher say how we treat our closest families so differently, often worse than we treat our business associates or clients. With our business contacts, it's 'how may I help you, how can I serve you, it was good to visit with you.' With our spouse or children, it's '#$%&*."
Ouch. I remember the time early in our marriage when Cathy refused to come to worship one Sunday morning. When I got home, I asked her about it. She said, "I just couldn't stand to see you up front there dressed in your white robe, talking about love and forgiveness, when at home, I knew it wasn't true!" Ouch. Sometimes the Encourager takes us to a place, a painful place, a place of truth, that we cannot go by ourselves.
Jesus says this Encourager will teach you all things. It's not just more content, taking on more information. It's going deeper, into the true meaning of Jesus' words. As a Church, a world religion, we still have a lot to learn. I look back over our history as a faith community and confess we have not realized Jesus' words. We have practiced schisms, we've gone on crusades against other faiths, and we've discriminated against people because of their gender, or race, or sexual orientation. I pray that the Encourager is not through with us yet. We still have much to learn. We can't go there by ourselves.
This congregation is still leaning about Jesus' words. We have an opportunity to go deeper in 2 weeks' time. We will be having a consultation weekend where some consultants are coming to visit us, to pray with us, and to offer us 5 prescriptions for further health. It is not that there is anything particularly wrong with us. It is just that we have more to learn. The Encourager is teaching us all things, taking us to a place we cannot go by ourselves.
Lastly Jesus offers us peace. What encouragement! A pastor friend of mine has been dealing his mother's declining health. He is an only child. He would get the calls from the bank in the little town in which he grew up, those calls wondering if his mom was making good decisions. It is one of the most difficult transitions to make, to deal with aging parents and finding them proper care. My friend after months of conversations finally got his mom to move out of her home of more than 60 years to a place near the church where he serves. He was going through his old home, separating out what they would keep, what they would sell, and what they would give away. Up in the attic, he came upon a box of letters and cards. They were all about him, about the time when he was a youth and had a near fatal heart condition. The cards and letters were full of prayers for him and his family. He began crying at the outpouring of love from more than 50 years ago. He realized he had not gotten to the ministry, to the place in life he was today by himself. He was encouraged.
This Holy Spirit, this Encourager is in you, in us today. That is the good news I have to share.
Encouragement. Could you use some encouragement today? A word of hope? You may have had enough of entrenchment, and encroachment, and entrapment, and entitlement. You may need encouragement today.
That's what Jesus promises us in the coming of the Holy Spirit. I know we have a hard time grasping the Holy Spirit. God as Father, we get it. God coming as Son in Jesus, we understand. But Holy Spirit is difficult for us to grasp. Today I want to claim the Holy Spirit as the Encourager.
This is the last in our series on Life Coach, where we have been placing ourselves under the God revealed in our holy book, the Bible. Today our Life Coach is the Holy Spirit, the Encourager.
There is a special Greek word used for the Holy Spirit here in John's Gospel. That word is Paraclete. It is hard for us to translate this work into English, so our Bibles will have the following words for Paraclete: Counselor, Comforter, Consoler, Advocate, Intercessor, Teacher, Guide. Paraclete literally means, "one called to the side of." I want to claim the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, today as the Encourager.
In this video from Coach Jennifer White, we hear her talk about the Holy Spirit as "the One who takes me to a place I cannot go by myself." That is a good definition for the Encourager.
In this section of John's Gospel, Jesus is giving his farewell speech. His disciples are sad. How will they carry on without him? They are afraid of being left alone. Jesus promises that his absence will make possible the coming of the Paraclete, He will not leave them alone. He will be with them. He will be in them, in the Holy Spirit, the Encourager.
There once was a pastor trying to talk to the children about the Holy Spirit, about how God was in each of them. He asked them to feel their hearts, to feel the presence of God inside each one. One boy David, put his hand inside his shirt. The pastor asked, "How does God feel?" David replied, "Damp, very damp."
The Holy Spirit is inside each of us encouraging us. Jesus said that he would not leave his disciples orphaned. You may think that this means without a parent. But when a rabbi would die, his students were said to be orphaned. Jesus is saying that he will not leave his followers without a teacher, the Encourager.
This past week, I was at Mt. Wesley, where I was called to be the spiritual director for 12 persons who are on track to be ordained as elders in the United Methodist Church in June. I had them divide up into groups of 3. One person would spend a few minutes sharing a situation around which they desired prayer. Then the 3 would spend 9 minutes in silence, listening for what God was praying. They would be seeking an image or a scripture or a word or a song. They they would spend several minutes sharing what came to them out of the silence. We are so good at telling God stuff. We have a lot to learn about listening to God. At the end of the time, several of these candidates for ministry said, "Where did that come from, those words, those images?" I said, "It's just prayer." They said, "No one ever taught us this in seminary. It was amazing. It was so simple. To reverse praying. To pause and listen for what God is already praying for this situation."
It was encouraging to me and to them, to know that we continue to learn, to be taught how to pray. The Encourager takes us to a place we cannot go by ourselves in prayer.
The Encourager is also called the Spirit of Truth. Sometimes, we need to hear the truth about ourselves. On Thursday this past week, I was part of a Partners in Ministry workshop where we as a staff and church leaders were learning about communication, conflict resolution, trust building, and visioning together. Something was said in my table group that was so truthful it laid me open. Donna said, "I once heard a preacher say how we treat our closest families so differently, often worse than we treat our business associates or clients. With our business contacts, it's 'how may I help you, how can I serve you, it was good to visit with you.' With our spouse or children, it's '#$%&*."
Ouch. I remember the time early in our marriage when Cathy refused to come to worship one Sunday morning. When I got home, I asked her about it. She said, "I just couldn't stand to see you up front there dressed in your white robe, talking about love and forgiveness, when at home, I knew it wasn't true!" Ouch. Sometimes the Encourager takes us to a place, a painful place, a place of truth, that we cannot go by ourselves.
Jesus says this Encourager will teach you all things. It's not just more content, taking on more information. It's going deeper, into the true meaning of Jesus' words. As a Church, a world religion, we still have a lot to learn. I look back over our history as a faith community and confess we have not realized Jesus' words. We have practiced schisms, we've gone on crusades against other faiths, and we've discriminated against people because of their gender, or race, or sexual orientation. I pray that the Encourager is not through with us yet. We still have much to learn. We can't go there by ourselves.
This congregation is still leaning about Jesus' words. We have an opportunity to go deeper in 2 weeks' time. We will be having a consultation weekend where some consultants are coming to visit us, to pray with us, and to offer us 5 prescriptions for further health. It is not that there is anything particularly wrong with us. It is just that we have more to learn. The Encourager is teaching us all things, taking us to a place we cannot go by ourselves.
Lastly Jesus offers us peace. What encouragement! A pastor friend of mine has been dealing his mother's declining health. He is an only child. He would get the calls from the bank in the little town in which he grew up, those calls wondering if his mom was making good decisions. It is one of the most difficult transitions to make, to deal with aging parents and finding them proper care. My friend after months of conversations finally got his mom to move out of her home of more than 60 years to a place near the church where he serves. He was going through his old home, separating out what they would keep, what they would sell, and what they would give away. Up in the attic, he came upon a box of letters and cards. They were all about him, about the time when he was a youth and had a near fatal heart condition. The cards and letters were full of prayers for him and his family. He began crying at the outpouring of love from more than 50 years ago. He realized he had not gotten to the ministry, to the place in life he was today by himself. He was encouraged.
This Holy Spirit, this Encourager is in you, in us today. That is the good news I have to share.
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Life Coach: Family Matters
from my message on Oct. 6, 2013, from II Tim. 1:1-7
How many of you have blue eyes? How many of you have brown eyes? How many are lucky enough like me to have green eyes? Did you ask for your color of eyes? No. They are just given to you. Your mom and dad, their genetics determine what color your eyes are. Can we pass the faith on the same way? No. There is no such thing as a Christian gene.
Maybe faith can be passed down by rote. If you memorize the 10 Commandments, and the Beattitudes, and the Lord's Prayer, then you would be a Christian, right? No.
Faith is not passed down through genetics or rote. In fact, studies have been done around this topic of passing on the Christian faith. The most effective way the faith was continued was through families...not the church or the school, but families.
Here in this letter to Timothy, a young protoge' of the apostle Paul, we find that in the first century, Timothy is already a 3rd generation Christian. His grandmother and his mother have shaped his beliefs. How does that happen.
Hilary our director of children's ministries and I teach a class on baptism and faith development. Hilary shares 3 ways that families can pass on the faith.
First, talk about faith in every day life. I was visiting with a young mom this past week. She said her son like rocks. He gathers rocks. He stacks rocks. He throws rocks. He washes rocks. She could say to him while he is doing his rocking, "Thank God for rocks!" In hard times, we can say with our children, "We really need to turn to God now." We use whatever is going on in our lives as a reference to bring God in.
Second, we can participate in family devotions, prayers, Bible reading, and worship. I bet many of you have grace over meals and prayers at bedtimes. You may have a children's Bible that is mostly pictures. You can participate in our Advent workshop coming up and make an Advent wreath or calendar to mark the season of preparation before Christmas. You can come to the blessing of the animals service this afternoon. One little girl coming into worship this morning said, "Do you know what pastor Lynn? This afternoon, our dogs are going to get baptized!" I love it. Family worship times.
Third, families can do service projects together. You can be ushers at church. You can help on ReThink Church day by making manna bags together or caroling. You can make meals together for Mobile Loaves and Fishes.
It is about this point in the message that I got a bit sad. What if you did everything right, and still your child didn't get it. Or wandered away from the faith. This is what Cathy and I are feeling. You have modeled the faith, and your child doesn't follow the path. Here the scripture helps me. Paul says that he remembers Timothy constantly in his prayers. And so do I remember our boys in my prayers. Almost every morning Cathy and I are praying there in the kitchen before I head off to church. This is my prayer almost daily, "God bless Joel and Matt, and may they come home to you."
Here is the most powerful and effective way the faith is passed down. God's grace. God's unmerited love for us. I love our sons so much. I can only imagine how much more God loves them. It is a mystery the way grace seeks us out. God is staying up late, getting up early, looking for all of us. God doesn't want to lose a single one of his children. I believe this.
Sometimes, our children get it. John Michael got it. I know his grandparents. I know his mom really well. John Micheal allowed me to use his story. He shared this past Sunday night at the Youth Stockholder dinner. The youth were telling about their mission trips this summer to those of us who invested in them. There were funny stories. One boy pretended that he got hit in the head. When he awoke, he could only speak German. Sarah thought it was true for the longest time. It was hilarious. They were digging ditches for a sewer line. Not once, or twice, but three times before they got it right.
John Michael went to ReCre, a youth mission that does home repair in North Carolina. He went not just for 1 week of work, but 3 weeks as a counselor. He got up early and stayed up late to resource the other youth coming in to work. John Michael said, "It wasn't just that Christ was affecting my life. Christ was affecting other lives through me. I'd wake up so excited in the mornings, to see how Christ would be using me, working through me to help others."
The faith is passed down. It is always a gift. That's the good news I have to share.
How many of you have blue eyes? How many of you have brown eyes? How many are lucky enough like me to have green eyes? Did you ask for your color of eyes? No. They are just given to you. Your mom and dad, their genetics determine what color your eyes are. Can we pass the faith on the same way? No. There is no such thing as a Christian gene.
Maybe faith can be passed down by rote. If you memorize the 10 Commandments, and the Beattitudes, and the Lord's Prayer, then you would be a Christian, right? No.
Faith is not passed down through genetics or rote. In fact, studies have been done around this topic of passing on the Christian faith. The most effective way the faith was continued was through families...not the church or the school, but families.
Here in this letter to Timothy, a young protoge' of the apostle Paul, we find that in the first century, Timothy is already a 3rd generation Christian. His grandmother and his mother have shaped his beliefs. How does that happen.
Hilary our director of children's ministries and I teach a class on baptism and faith development. Hilary shares 3 ways that families can pass on the faith.
First, talk about faith in every day life. I was visiting with a young mom this past week. She said her son like rocks. He gathers rocks. He stacks rocks. He throws rocks. He washes rocks. She could say to him while he is doing his rocking, "Thank God for rocks!" In hard times, we can say with our children, "We really need to turn to God now." We use whatever is going on in our lives as a reference to bring God in.
Second, we can participate in family devotions, prayers, Bible reading, and worship. I bet many of you have grace over meals and prayers at bedtimes. You may have a children's Bible that is mostly pictures. You can participate in our Advent workshop coming up and make an Advent wreath or calendar to mark the season of preparation before Christmas. You can come to the blessing of the animals service this afternoon. One little girl coming into worship this morning said, "Do you know what pastor Lynn? This afternoon, our dogs are going to get baptized!" I love it. Family worship times.
Third, families can do service projects together. You can be ushers at church. You can help on ReThink Church day by making manna bags together or caroling. You can make meals together for Mobile Loaves and Fishes.
It is about this point in the message that I got a bit sad. What if you did everything right, and still your child didn't get it. Or wandered away from the faith. This is what Cathy and I are feeling. You have modeled the faith, and your child doesn't follow the path. Here the scripture helps me. Paul says that he remembers Timothy constantly in his prayers. And so do I remember our boys in my prayers. Almost every morning Cathy and I are praying there in the kitchen before I head off to church. This is my prayer almost daily, "God bless Joel and Matt, and may they come home to you."
Here is the most powerful and effective way the faith is passed down. God's grace. God's unmerited love for us. I love our sons so much. I can only imagine how much more God loves them. It is a mystery the way grace seeks us out. God is staying up late, getting up early, looking for all of us. God doesn't want to lose a single one of his children. I believe this.
Sometimes, our children get it. John Michael got it. I know his grandparents. I know his mom really well. John Micheal allowed me to use his story. He shared this past Sunday night at the Youth Stockholder dinner. The youth were telling about their mission trips this summer to those of us who invested in them. There were funny stories. One boy pretended that he got hit in the head. When he awoke, he could only speak German. Sarah thought it was true for the longest time. It was hilarious. They were digging ditches for a sewer line. Not once, or twice, but three times before they got it right.
John Michael went to ReCre, a youth mission that does home repair in North Carolina. He went not just for 1 week of work, but 3 weeks as a counselor. He got up early and stayed up late to resource the other youth coming in to work. John Michael said, "It wasn't just that Christ was affecting my life. Christ was affecting other lives through me. I'd wake up so excited in the mornings, to see how Christ would be using me, working through me to help others."
The faith is passed down. It is always a gift. That's the good news I have to share.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Jesus and the 12
from my message on Sept. 29, 2013, from Matthew 9:35-10:4
Life is difficult. Life in Christ may be especially difficult. I have seen this article floating around for years, called the Lesson.
Then Jesus too his disciples up to the mountain and gathering them around him, he taught them, saying:
Blessed are the meek.
Blessed are they that mourn.
Blessed are the merciful.
Blessed are they who thirst for justice.
Blessed are you when persecuted.
Blessed are you when you suffer.
Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is great in heaven.
Then Simon Peter said, Do we have to write this down?
Andrew said, Are we supposed to know this?
And James said, Will we have a test on this?
And Bartholomew said, Do we have to turn this in?
And John said, The other disciples didn't have to learn this!
And Matthew said, When do we get out of here?
And Judas said, What does this have to do with real life?
Then one of the Pharisees present asked to see Jesus' lesson plans and inquired of Jesus his terminal objectives in the cognitive domain.
And Jesus wept.
Life is difficult. Those 3 words are how M. Scott Peck began his book, The Road Less Traveled. He was a psychiatrist dealing with all kinds of difficult people. He converted to Christianity as an adult. I heard him speak twice here in Austin years ago. He said that he became a follower of Christ, out of all the great world religions, because of the Jesus presented in the Gospels. If any other Jesus would have been presented, he wouldn't have believed, but the Jesus found there was often frustrated and was misunderstood even by his closest friends. Scott Peck could relate to that. It rang true. Life is Difficult.
Today, we continue our Life Coach series, where we place ourselves under God's guidance, where we gain wisdom from our holy book, the Bible, where we find the best way to live. Today, it is Jesus and the 12.
Jesus instructs as he goes along the road. He doesn't just play Houston and Dallas, but all the little towns, like Kyle and Buda. He is teaching in the synagogues; he is present in worship. He is preaching good news, not bad news, about the Kingdom of God. He is healing diseases. He has compassion like a shepherd does for his sheep.
Then he calls his disciples by name. Disciples are followers, students. He also calls them here apostles. Apostles are ones sent on a mission, emissaries for the one who sends. There is nothing extraordinary about them. They are only know by their family relations. Two are given not very favorable ascriptions, Matthew the tax collector and Judas who betrayed Jesus. They are people like us. They are us.
Jesus gives them, gives us, authority over evil spirits, the power to heal, the call to continue his ministry. We are sent on a mission. And it is sometimes difficult. J
Jesus taught best by his stories. I like to tell stories too. This past Tuesday and Wednesday, I did some continuing ed. with our Hispanic brothers and sisters here in Austin. YOu may not know it, but our English speaking Southwest Texas Conference of the UMC is uniting with the Spanish-speaking Rio Grande Conference. So this past week I was learning from my Hispanic colleagues about all kinds of wonderful ministries going on in our midst I had no idea about. Some of them talked about how sometimes the Latinos thought of themselves in terms of less than, as victims, as limited. The workshop was trying to focus on assets of being Hispanic, not deficits. One gentleman published a newspaper called La Voz. I picked it up and read a story in it. I told him I would have come to the workshop for the story alone.
The Touch of a Teacher
Juan's letter came today and now that I have read it, i will place it in my cedar chest with the other things that are important in my life. The letter started with I want you to be the first to know.
I smiled as I read the words he had written and my heart swelled with a pride I have no right to feel. I have not seen Juan Garza since he was a student in my class some 17 years ago. It was early in my teaching career. I had only been teaching 2 years bur form the first day he stepped into my classroom, I disliked Juan.
Teachers are not supposed to have favorites in a class, but most especially they are not to show a dislike for a particular child. I thought I was quie capable of handling my personal feelings along that line until Juan walked into my class.
I'm sorry to say it, but Juan Garza was 1 student I disliked. First of all he was dirty. Not just occasionally, but all of the time. Second, he smelled. he smelled like the crops he and his family were picking. His hair hung low over his ears and he actually had to hold it out of his eyes as he worked on assignments in class.
By the end of the first week of school, I knew he was hopelessly behind all the others. And not only was he behind, but he was also just plain slow. As each day passed, I began to withdraw from him. While I didn't actually ridicule the boy, my attitude was obviously apparent to the rest of the class for he quickly became the class goat, the outcast, the unloveable, the unloved.
He knew I didn't like him but he didn't know why. He also knew that other teachers in the school didn't like him either. As the days rolled on we made it through the fall festival, Halloween and Thanksgiving. By the time the Christmas season arrived I knew Juan was going to have to repeat the entire school year.
To justify holding him back I went to his cumulative folder from time to time. He had very low grades for the first 4 years but no grade failures. How he made it...I do not know. i closed my mind to the personal remarks written by other teachers over the years. Remarks like:
1st grade--Juan shows promise but has a poor situation at home.
2nd grade--Juan could do better, but his mother is terminally ill. He receives little help at home.
3rd grade--Juan is a pleasant boy, but misses too many days of school. Mother passed away at the end of the school year.
4th grade--Very slow but well behaved. Shows some talent for art. Father absent often. Believed to be working in California.
Well they passed him 4 times, but he will certainly repeat the 5th grade. "Do him good," I said to myself. The day before the holidays arrived we had a school Christmas party. Teachers always get gifts, fut for some reason this party seemed bigger and more elaborate than ever. There wasn't a student who hadn't brought me a gift. And each unwrapping brought squeals of delight as the students tried to guess who it was from.
Juan's gift wasn't the last one I picked up. In fact, it was somewhere in the middle of the pile. It's wrapping was accomplished with a brown paper bag. For decorations he had colored Christmas trees and bells all around it and used masking tape to hold it together. The tag said: For Miss Johnson from Juan.
The class was completely silent as I began to unwrap Juan's gift. As I removed the last bit of masking tape, 2 items fell out and onto my lap. One was a gaudy rhinestone bracelet with several stones missing. The second item was a bottle of dime store cologne that was half empty. I could hear the snickering and whispers of the other children. At first I was embarrassed. Then I thought, no...there is no reason for me to be embarrassed.
I looked at Juan and said, "Isn't this lovely?" I placed the bracelet on my wrist and asked him to help me fasten the clasp. There were a few oohs and aah's as I dabbed the cologne behind my ears. I continued to open gifts until I reached the bottom of the pile. we drank our refreshments and played games until the bell rang signaling the end of school for the holidays. Everyone gathered their belongings and filed out of the room with shouts of Merry Christmas. Everyone except Juan. He stayed behind.
With just us in the room, Juan walked toward my desk clutching his books. "You smell just like my mom," he said softly. "Her bracelet looks real pretty on you too. I'm glad you like it." Then he quickly left the room. I was in shock!
I locked the door to my classroom, and sat down at my desk. A million thoughts raced through my mind as I began to weep quietly. When the tears stopped I looked out the window for a long time. I reflected on the kind of teacher I was or had become. Then I realized what I needed to do if I dared to call myself a teacher. I resolved to make up for the way in which I had been treating Juan. For months I had deliberately deprived him of a teacher who truly cared.
Beginning in January, I stayed after school every afternoon with Juan. We did extra problems in math. We did extra work in reading and spelling. Slowly but surely, he started to improve. By April, he was really moving along. Even the other students noticed that something was very different about Juan. Only once did I panic when he missed several days of school. It turned out that he had to go work in the fields.
When the school year ended Juan had one of the highest averages in the class. Even though I knewhe would be leaving for California to work in the strawberry fields, I believed taht he had found a new confidence and outlook on what he could be.
I continued to teach and never again heard from Juan...until 7 years later. He wrote me from Watsonville California:
Dear Miss Johnson,
I wanted you to be the first to know, I will be graduating from high school next month, second in my class.
Very truly yours,
Juan Garza
What a surprise! I sent him a card of congratulations and a small pen and pencil set. Juan Garza, I wondered what he would do after graduation?
Four years later, Juan's second letter came. It had a postmark from Ann Arbor, Michigan:
Dear Miss Johnson,
I wanted you to be the first to know that I was informed I'll be graduating first in my class. The university has not been easy. Although I received a small scholarship from the farmworkers union, I had to work part-time al four years to help cover the costs. But I loved every minute of it.
Very truly yours,
Juan P. Garza
Juan is graduating form college? I thought back for a moment at how quickly the years had passed and the fact that he still remembered me. I also recalled that Christmas party. I decided to send him a nice pair of sterling silver monogram cuff links and a card. I was so very proud of him. The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor is one of the best schools in the world. He was doing good, very good!
Today, I received Juan's 3rd letter with a postmark for the Boston area. Like his other letters he started it with:
Dear Miss Johnson,
I wanted you to be the first to know, that as of this writing, I am now Juan P. Garza, M.D. How about that! Harvard was hard but I have no regrets. I will be returning to California to do residency at UCLA and work on pesticide issues as they effect farmworkers. And I am going to be married in July....the 27 to be exact. I wanted to ask you if you could come and sit where Mom would sit if she were here. I'll have no family present as Dad died last year. It would mean a lot to me. I can send you tickets.
Very truly yours,
Juan
I'm not sure what kind of gift one sends to a doctor upon completion of medical school. I'll have to think about it for a moment. But my note cannot wait:
Dear Juan,
Congratulations! You did it by yourself in spite of those like me, and not because of me. This day has come for you. God bless you. I'll be at that wedding with great joy.
Very truly yours,
Miss Johnson
Life may be difficult. It may be frustrating to follow Jesus. You may be misunderstood. We live in a world of overwhelming needs. But you can make a world of difference in you world of influence. That is the good news I have to share today.
Life is difficult. Life in Christ may be especially difficult. I have seen this article floating around for years, called the Lesson.
Then Jesus too his disciples up to the mountain and gathering them around him, he taught them, saying:
Blessed are the meek.
Blessed are they that mourn.
Blessed are the merciful.
Blessed are they who thirst for justice.
Blessed are you when persecuted.
Blessed are you when you suffer.
Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is great in heaven.
Then Simon Peter said, Do we have to write this down?
Andrew said, Are we supposed to know this?
And James said, Will we have a test on this?
And Bartholomew said, Do we have to turn this in?
And John said, The other disciples didn't have to learn this!
And Matthew said, When do we get out of here?
And Judas said, What does this have to do with real life?
Then one of the Pharisees present asked to see Jesus' lesson plans and inquired of Jesus his terminal objectives in the cognitive domain.
And Jesus wept.
Life is difficult. Those 3 words are how M. Scott Peck began his book, The Road Less Traveled. He was a psychiatrist dealing with all kinds of difficult people. He converted to Christianity as an adult. I heard him speak twice here in Austin years ago. He said that he became a follower of Christ, out of all the great world religions, because of the Jesus presented in the Gospels. If any other Jesus would have been presented, he wouldn't have believed, but the Jesus found there was often frustrated and was misunderstood even by his closest friends. Scott Peck could relate to that. It rang true. Life is Difficult.
Today, we continue our Life Coach series, where we place ourselves under God's guidance, where we gain wisdom from our holy book, the Bible, where we find the best way to live. Today, it is Jesus and the 12.
Jesus instructs as he goes along the road. He doesn't just play Houston and Dallas, but all the little towns, like Kyle and Buda. He is teaching in the synagogues; he is present in worship. He is preaching good news, not bad news, about the Kingdom of God. He is healing diseases. He has compassion like a shepherd does for his sheep.
Then he calls his disciples by name. Disciples are followers, students. He also calls them here apostles. Apostles are ones sent on a mission, emissaries for the one who sends. There is nothing extraordinary about them. They are only know by their family relations. Two are given not very favorable ascriptions, Matthew the tax collector and Judas who betrayed Jesus. They are people like us. They are us.
Jesus gives them, gives us, authority over evil spirits, the power to heal, the call to continue his ministry. We are sent on a mission. And it is sometimes difficult. J
Jesus taught best by his stories. I like to tell stories too. This past Tuesday and Wednesday, I did some continuing ed. with our Hispanic brothers and sisters here in Austin. YOu may not know it, but our English speaking Southwest Texas Conference of the UMC is uniting with the Spanish-speaking Rio Grande Conference. So this past week I was learning from my Hispanic colleagues about all kinds of wonderful ministries going on in our midst I had no idea about. Some of them talked about how sometimes the Latinos thought of themselves in terms of less than, as victims, as limited. The workshop was trying to focus on assets of being Hispanic, not deficits. One gentleman published a newspaper called La Voz. I picked it up and read a story in it. I told him I would have come to the workshop for the story alone.
The Touch of a Teacher
Juan's letter came today and now that I have read it, i will place it in my cedar chest with the other things that are important in my life. The letter started with I want you to be the first to know.
I smiled as I read the words he had written and my heart swelled with a pride I have no right to feel. I have not seen Juan Garza since he was a student in my class some 17 years ago. It was early in my teaching career. I had only been teaching 2 years bur form the first day he stepped into my classroom, I disliked Juan.
Teachers are not supposed to have favorites in a class, but most especially they are not to show a dislike for a particular child. I thought I was quie capable of handling my personal feelings along that line until Juan walked into my class.
I'm sorry to say it, but Juan Garza was 1 student I disliked. First of all he was dirty. Not just occasionally, but all of the time. Second, he smelled. he smelled like the crops he and his family were picking. His hair hung low over his ears and he actually had to hold it out of his eyes as he worked on assignments in class.
By the end of the first week of school, I knew he was hopelessly behind all the others. And not only was he behind, but he was also just plain slow. As each day passed, I began to withdraw from him. While I didn't actually ridicule the boy, my attitude was obviously apparent to the rest of the class for he quickly became the class goat, the outcast, the unloveable, the unloved.
He knew I didn't like him but he didn't know why. He also knew that other teachers in the school didn't like him either. As the days rolled on we made it through the fall festival, Halloween and Thanksgiving. By the time the Christmas season arrived I knew Juan was going to have to repeat the entire school year.
To justify holding him back I went to his cumulative folder from time to time. He had very low grades for the first 4 years but no grade failures. How he made it...I do not know. i closed my mind to the personal remarks written by other teachers over the years. Remarks like:
1st grade--Juan shows promise but has a poor situation at home.
2nd grade--Juan could do better, but his mother is terminally ill. He receives little help at home.
3rd grade--Juan is a pleasant boy, but misses too many days of school. Mother passed away at the end of the school year.
4th grade--Very slow but well behaved. Shows some talent for art. Father absent often. Believed to be working in California.
Well they passed him 4 times, but he will certainly repeat the 5th grade. "Do him good," I said to myself. The day before the holidays arrived we had a school Christmas party. Teachers always get gifts, fut for some reason this party seemed bigger and more elaborate than ever. There wasn't a student who hadn't brought me a gift. And each unwrapping brought squeals of delight as the students tried to guess who it was from.
Juan's gift wasn't the last one I picked up. In fact, it was somewhere in the middle of the pile. It's wrapping was accomplished with a brown paper bag. For decorations he had colored Christmas trees and bells all around it and used masking tape to hold it together. The tag said: For Miss Johnson from Juan.
The class was completely silent as I began to unwrap Juan's gift. As I removed the last bit of masking tape, 2 items fell out and onto my lap. One was a gaudy rhinestone bracelet with several stones missing. The second item was a bottle of dime store cologne that was half empty. I could hear the snickering and whispers of the other children. At first I was embarrassed. Then I thought, no...there is no reason for me to be embarrassed.
I looked at Juan and said, "Isn't this lovely?" I placed the bracelet on my wrist and asked him to help me fasten the clasp. There were a few oohs and aah's as I dabbed the cologne behind my ears. I continued to open gifts until I reached the bottom of the pile. we drank our refreshments and played games until the bell rang signaling the end of school for the holidays. Everyone gathered their belongings and filed out of the room with shouts of Merry Christmas. Everyone except Juan. He stayed behind.
With just us in the room, Juan walked toward my desk clutching his books. "You smell just like my mom," he said softly. "Her bracelet looks real pretty on you too. I'm glad you like it." Then he quickly left the room. I was in shock!
I locked the door to my classroom, and sat down at my desk. A million thoughts raced through my mind as I began to weep quietly. When the tears stopped I looked out the window for a long time. I reflected on the kind of teacher I was or had become. Then I realized what I needed to do if I dared to call myself a teacher. I resolved to make up for the way in which I had been treating Juan. For months I had deliberately deprived him of a teacher who truly cared.
Beginning in January, I stayed after school every afternoon with Juan. We did extra problems in math. We did extra work in reading and spelling. Slowly but surely, he started to improve. By April, he was really moving along. Even the other students noticed that something was very different about Juan. Only once did I panic when he missed several days of school. It turned out that he had to go work in the fields.
When the school year ended Juan had one of the highest averages in the class. Even though I knewhe would be leaving for California to work in the strawberry fields, I believed taht he had found a new confidence and outlook on what he could be.
I continued to teach and never again heard from Juan...until 7 years later. He wrote me from Watsonville California:
Dear Miss Johnson,
I wanted you to be the first to know, I will be graduating from high school next month, second in my class.
Very truly yours,
Juan Garza
What a surprise! I sent him a card of congratulations and a small pen and pencil set. Juan Garza, I wondered what he would do after graduation?
Four years later, Juan's second letter came. It had a postmark from Ann Arbor, Michigan:
Dear Miss Johnson,
I wanted you to be the first to know that I was informed I'll be graduating first in my class. The university has not been easy. Although I received a small scholarship from the farmworkers union, I had to work part-time al four years to help cover the costs. But I loved every minute of it.
Very truly yours,
Juan P. Garza
Juan is graduating form college? I thought back for a moment at how quickly the years had passed and the fact that he still remembered me. I also recalled that Christmas party. I decided to send him a nice pair of sterling silver monogram cuff links and a card. I was so very proud of him. The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor is one of the best schools in the world. He was doing good, very good!
Today, I received Juan's 3rd letter with a postmark for the Boston area. Like his other letters he started it with:
Dear Miss Johnson,
I wanted you to be the first to know, that as of this writing, I am now Juan P. Garza, M.D. How about that! Harvard was hard but I have no regrets. I will be returning to California to do residency at UCLA and work on pesticide issues as they effect farmworkers. And I am going to be married in July....the 27 to be exact. I wanted to ask you if you could come and sit where Mom would sit if she were here. I'll have no family present as Dad died last year. It would mean a lot to me. I can send you tickets.
Very truly yours,
Juan
I'm not sure what kind of gift one sends to a doctor upon completion of medical school. I'll have to think about it for a moment. But my note cannot wait:
Dear Juan,
Congratulations! You did it by yourself in spite of those like me, and not because of me. This day has come for you. God bless you. I'll be at that wedding with great joy.
Very truly yours,
Miss Johnson
Life may be difficult. It may be frustrating to follow Jesus. You may be misunderstood. We live in a world of overwhelming needs. But you can make a world of difference in you world of influence. That is the good news I have to share today.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Mordecai and Esther: In Crisis
from my message on Sept. 22, 2013, from the book of Esther
I have a preacher friend who has a daughter named Caty. When Caty was small, her parents would say to her, "Caty, we need to get ready to go to church." Caty would ask, "What kind of church? Is it sit down and behave church or stand up and have fun church?"
Today, we have what I hope is stand up and have fun church, as we have the 5th in my series on Life Coach, where we learn from God and the Holy Bible the best way to live. Today we have the story of Mordecaia and Esthers. Our Jewish friends tell this tale at a holiday called Purim, usually in Feb. or March. It is told as a melodrama, with cheering for the good guys and booing for the bad guy.
Once upon a time, there was a king in Persia, name Ahasuerus. Since I can't pronounce this name, we will call him King. He threw a huge party, lasting not days or weeks but 6 months. He then commanded his queen Vashti to appear before his guests wearing her crown....with the implied message wearing only her crown. She refused, women-libber that she was. The king was mad. His counselors said he had to get rid of her as queen, and so he did. After the king cooled off, the counselors said that a good way to find a replacement queen was to hold a beauty contest. So letters were sent out to all 127 provinces to send the most beautiful candidates.
Now there was Mordecai, who had adopted his cousin, Esther, to be his daughter living in the land. He encouraged her to enter the beauty pagent, but to keep her identity a secret, because you see, they were Jewish. Guess who wins the contest? Esther! "Here she is ....Miss Persia."
About this time, Mordecai is at the city gate, where he overhears 2 guys plotting to assasinate the king. He tells Esther, who tells the king. The king has the criminals hanged. The king is saved. He is thankful, but promptly forgets who did this favor. It is written in the history book, but forgotten.
Every story need an antagonist, a bad guy. Ours is Haman (boo, hiss). The king makes him the #2 man in the whole kingdom, second only to the king. Haman (boo, hiss) likes to throw his weight around. He expects everyone to bow to him. Everyone does...except Mordecai, because he is Jewish. Haman (boo, hiss) decides to destroy Mordecai, and not only that, upon finding out he is Jewish, decides to destroy all the Jewish people in the land.
Haman (boo, hiss) gets the king to issue an edict to destroy all the Jews. He even pays money to see it happen. The timing of the massacre is determined by the rolling of dice, the casting of lots, called Pur. The day is set. Letters are sent out to all the provinces that this is going to happen.
Mordecai rends his garments. Hegoes to Esther to get her help. She says it is risky. One cannot just appear before the king uninvited. The king summons. If you go in, and he doesn't like you, you can be killed on the spot. Mordecai says it is a desperate time. Esther cannot be protected even if she is the queen. He says that if she cannot do anything, perhaps help for the Jews will come from another quarter. But who knows? Perhaps Esther has come for such a time as this. Esther asks all of the Jews to fast 3 days.
Esther approaches the king uninvited. The king holds out his scepter to her and welcomes her. He says, "I'll do anything for you, even give you up to half of my kingdom." Esther only asks that the king and Haman (boo, hiss) come to a feast she has prepared. At the feast, Esther asks that they come back the next day for another feast.
Haman (boo, hiss) is so delighted. He goes home bragging about the feast he had and the one to come. He still can't stand Mordecai and has gallows built upon which to hang him.
That night the king can't sleep. "Who was the one who saved my life from the assasins? Look it up in the history book." It is Mordecai. "Did I ever thank him?" No. The king sees Haman (boo, hiss) walking by. The king asks him, "What does a king do to show favor to someone?" Haman (boo, hiss), thinking the king is talking about him, says, "Why give him one of your royal robes, and crowns and horses. Then have someone walk before him announcing these tributes." The king says to Haman (boo, hiss), "Right then, you do these things for Mordecai!" (Laughter)
Haman (boo, hiss) and the king go to the feast with Esther. The king asks, "What can I do for you Esther? I will give you anything, up to 1/2 of my kingdom." Esther says, "Save me and my people from destruction. For there is one who wishes us harm?" "Who would do such a thing?" "Haman" (boo, hiss). The king is so angry he goes out to the garden. Haman (boo, hiss) throws himself upon Esther to beg for mercy. When the king comes in, it looks like Haman (boo, hiss) is assaulting Esther. The king has Haman (boo, hiss) hanged from the very gallows that Haman (boo, hiss) had built for Mordecai.
Esther approaches the king again. He can't reverse the earlier edict he issued. The Jews are still under threat. She gets the king to write another edict allowing the Jews to defend themselves. I wish that that was the end of the story.
What lessons can we learn in this Life Coach series? One, Mordecai and Esther showed courage and creativity in the midst of crisis. They used everything at their disposal--beauty, honesty, risk-taking.
Two, this is a story of hope for any oppressed group. Certainly our Jewish friends have claimed it down through the centuries, and most recently during the Holocaust. But it is a universal story of the longing for justice, for setting things right. The Tutsis oppressed by the Hutus, the people of Darfur oppressed by the Sudanese, the Armenians oppressed by the Turks, gay people oppressed by bullies.
Three, God is never mentioned in the story. It nearly didn't make it into the canon of scripture because of that. Maybe God is behind every scene in the story. Is that the way life is? We have to make God known by our words and actions.
Four, or is it that God wanted nothing to do with this story. You see if you read the rest of the story, the Jews kill 75,000 Persians. Frederick Buechner says that God doesn't want anything to do with the slaughter and so stays out of it.
Fifth, what is a Christian response to oppression? Can we break the cycle of violence begetting violence? What does a cross-shaped response look like? That is our challenge in life. Amen.
I have a preacher friend who has a daughter named Caty. When Caty was small, her parents would say to her, "Caty, we need to get ready to go to church." Caty would ask, "What kind of church? Is it sit down and behave church or stand up and have fun church?"
Today, we have what I hope is stand up and have fun church, as we have the 5th in my series on Life Coach, where we learn from God and the Holy Bible the best way to live. Today we have the story of Mordecaia and Esthers. Our Jewish friends tell this tale at a holiday called Purim, usually in Feb. or March. It is told as a melodrama, with cheering for the good guys and booing for the bad guy.
Once upon a time, there was a king in Persia, name Ahasuerus. Since I can't pronounce this name, we will call him King. He threw a huge party, lasting not days or weeks but 6 months. He then commanded his queen Vashti to appear before his guests wearing her crown....with the implied message wearing only her crown. She refused, women-libber that she was. The king was mad. His counselors said he had to get rid of her as queen, and so he did. After the king cooled off, the counselors said that a good way to find a replacement queen was to hold a beauty contest. So letters were sent out to all 127 provinces to send the most beautiful candidates.
Now there was Mordecai, who had adopted his cousin, Esther, to be his daughter living in the land. He encouraged her to enter the beauty pagent, but to keep her identity a secret, because you see, they were Jewish. Guess who wins the contest? Esther! "Here she is ....Miss Persia."
About this time, Mordecai is at the city gate, where he overhears 2 guys plotting to assasinate the king. He tells Esther, who tells the king. The king has the criminals hanged. The king is saved. He is thankful, but promptly forgets who did this favor. It is written in the history book, but forgotten.
Every story need an antagonist, a bad guy. Ours is Haman (boo, hiss). The king makes him the #2 man in the whole kingdom, second only to the king. Haman (boo, hiss) likes to throw his weight around. He expects everyone to bow to him. Everyone does...except Mordecai, because he is Jewish. Haman (boo, hiss) decides to destroy Mordecai, and not only that, upon finding out he is Jewish, decides to destroy all the Jewish people in the land.
Haman (boo, hiss) gets the king to issue an edict to destroy all the Jews. He even pays money to see it happen. The timing of the massacre is determined by the rolling of dice, the casting of lots, called Pur. The day is set. Letters are sent out to all the provinces that this is going to happen.
Mordecai rends his garments. Hegoes to Esther to get her help. She says it is risky. One cannot just appear before the king uninvited. The king summons. If you go in, and he doesn't like you, you can be killed on the spot. Mordecai says it is a desperate time. Esther cannot be protected even if she is the queen. He says that if she cannot do anything, perhaps help for the Jews will come from another quarter. But who knows? Perhaps Esther has come for such a time as this. Esther asks all of the Jews to fast 3 days.
Esther approaches the king uninvited. The king holds out his scepter to her and welcomes her. He says, "I'll do anything for you, even give you up to half of my kingdom." Esther only asks that the king and Haman (boo, hiss) come to a feast she has prepared. At the feast, Esther asks that they come back the next day for another feast.
Haman (boo, hiss) is so delighted. He goes home bragging about the feast he had and the one to come. He still can't stand Mordecai and has gallows built upon which to hang him.
That night the king can't sleep. "Who was the one who saved my life from the assasins? Look it up in the history book." It is Mordecai. "Did I ever thank him?" No. The king sees Haman (boo, hiss) walking by. The king asks him, "What does a king do to show favor to someone?" Haman (boo, hiss), thinking the king is talking about him, says, "Why give him one of your royal robes, and crowns and horses. Then have someone walk before him announcing these tributes." The king says to Haman (boo, hiss), "Right then, you do these things for Mordecai!" (Laughter)
Haman (boo, hiss) and the king go to the feast with Esther. The king asks, "What can I do for you Esther? I will give you anything, up to 1/2 of my kingdom." Esther says, "Save me and my people from destruction. For there is one who wishes us harm?" "Who would do such a thing?" "Haman" (boo, hiss). The king is so angry he goes out to the garden. Haman (boo, hiss) throws himself upon Esther to beg for mercy. When the king comes in, it looks like Haman (boo, hiss) is assaulting Esther. The king has Haman (boo, hiss) hanged from the very gallows that Haman (boo, hiss) had built for Mordecai.
Esther approaches the king again. He can't reverse the earlier edict he issued. The Jews are still under threat. She gets the king to write another edict allowing the Jews to defend themselves. I wish that that was the end of the story.
What lessons can we learn in this Life Coach series? One, Mordecai and Esther showed courage and creativity in the midst of crisis. They used everything at their disposal--beauty, honesty, risk-taking.
Two, this is a story of hope for any oppressed group. Certainly our Jewish friends have claimed it down through the centuries, and most recently during the Holocaust. But it is a universal story of the longing for justice, for setting things right. The Tutsis oppressed by the Hutus, the people of Darfur oppressed by the Sudanese, the Armenians oppressed by the Turks, gay people oppressed by bullies.
Three, God is never mentioned in the story. It nearly didn't make it into the canon of scripture because of that. Maybe God is behind every scene in the story. Is that the way life is? We have to make God known by our words and actions.
Four, or is it that God wanted nothing to do with this story. You see if you read the rest of the story, the Jews kill 75,000 Persians. Frederick Buechner says that God doesn't want anything to do with the slaughter and so stays out of it.
Fifth, what is a Christian response to oppression? Can we break the cycle of violence begetting violence? What does a cross-shaped response look like? That is our challenge in life. Amen.
Monday, September 16, 2013
Naomi and Ruth: Reverse Mentoring
from my message on 9/15/13 from Ruth 1:15-22
We all need a little help sometimes. Especially those of us who are of a certain age need some help with technology. Consider this cartoon "Zits" from this past week where the prents are confused over how to use the remote controls for the TV, DVD, satellite, whether they are even the right controls....and their teenage son in the background chewing his arm off in frustration.
I went to our Breakfast Crew this past Thursday morning with some 8 youth before they headed off to high school. I asked them if they had ever helped their parents or other adults. There were lots of technology examples: on the computer, showing them how to find files or to undo work with Crl + C; on smart phones, how to load apps, or turn off the alarm, or to send pictures. There was an example of a daughter teaching her mom the cup song (you will see it in a few weeks). Finally, one daughter offered fashion advice, "Yellow is not the new cool color."
This is reverse mentoring. It was championed by Jack Welch of General Electric. He found a younger person in the company to teach him how to use the computer and how to surf the internet. This person gave candid feedback and a fresh persective on things in the company. Reverse mentoring is not top down, not older to the younger, not more experienced to the less experienced, but exactly the opposite.
Today we find an example of reverse mentoring with Naomi and Ruth. This is the fourth in my series on Life Coach, where we go to the Bible to find examples of how best to live with God and others.
There are only 2 books in the Bible named after women. Today we have Ruth, written in simple Hebrew. A short book, only 4 chapters, only 74 verses. A Jewish scholar wrote it is like reading an afternoon soap opera. He went on to say that Naomi is like a female Job.
Here's the story. Naomi and her husband live in Bethlehem. What irony, for Bethlehem means "house of bread," and yet there is a famine in the land. Naomi's husband does not consult her, but simply uproots the family. They go to Edom, on the east side of the Dead Sea, the wrong side of the lake. The Edomites were considered cursed by the Hebrews. When the Hebrews were trying to enter the Promised Land, the Edomites showed them no hospitality. In fact, in the Hebrew scriptures it says that Edomites would be kept from the fellowship of the LORD unto 10 generations. In Edom, Naomi's sons marry Edomite women, but no children are born to these unions. Then her husband dies and 2 sons die. You can see why Naomi whose name means "pleasant" wants to be known as Mara, "bitter." NOw there are 3 widows in Edom. I am sorry, but it was a partriarchal society. Women had no standing outside of a male: a father, a husband, or some other kinsman. Therefore, Naomi wants to shed these 2 other vulnerable females, her daughters-in-law. She begs them to stay in Edom while she returns to Bethlehem. One daughter-in-law heeds her word. One doesn't. Ruth makes a vow, affirms her faith. Say these words with me:
Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die--there will I be buried. May the LORD do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!
This is an example of reverse mentoring. The younger shows the way for the older. The less powerful to the more powerful. The foreigner to the Hebrew. The Moabitess Ruth mentors the Hebrew Naomi.
You want to know the rest of the story. Naomi and Ruth return to Bethlehem. They eke out a living getting gleanings from fields. However, there is a kinsman, named Boaz, whose name means "man of strength." Naomi encourages Ruth to go to the threshing floor at night where Boaz is asleep and get this...."uncover his feet." Now maybe that's all that happened, but Boaz soon marries Ruth. They have a son named Obed, who has a son named Jesse, who has a son named David. We know him as king David.
We sometimes learn the most about God through reverse mentoring. The teacher from the pupil, the parent from the child, the older from the younger. This is the way it is with our God.
King David is an example of reverse mentoring. He is not Samuel's first choice to be king. There are 6 older brothers who are passed over. David is the youngest, the runt of the litter. He is God's choice to be king.
Amos doesn't want to be a prophet, yet he goes at the LORD's leading to the other kingdom, and proclaims a word. When confronted, Amos says, I am not a prophet or the son of a prophet, only a herdsman and dresser of sycamore trees. Reverse mentoring.
Jesus comes along, not being born into wealth or power, but as a son of a carpenter in a backwater village in an out of the way country. Jesus practices reverse mentoring in his ministry. Crowds are hungry on a hillside, and it is a child who shares his lunch who initiates a miracle of feeding the thousands. Jesus tells a story of a man getting beat up and left for dead by robbers. A priest (ouch!) and a Levite walk on by, and who stops to help? A distasteful Samaritan. We have come to call him the "good" Samaritan. Reverse mentoring is maybe the best way we learn about God's ways.
I have a story of reverse mentoring that comes from the church I formerly served, Portland UMC down on the coast, near Corpus Christi. In the month of October, we ran a pumpkin patch. A big truck would unload a bunch of orange pumpkins on our lawn. People would come by to purchase them. Families would come by to get pictures of their children with the pumpkins. One night, 4 youth came by, and emulated a musical group called "Smashing Pumpkins." They got caught by the police. Our church was nearly all white. These 4 were of a different race. I was at their hearing. We came up with community service for their restitution. They were assigned to help us in a program called Surving the Night. Once a month, our church prepared meals for the homeless in Corpus Christi, much like Mobile Loaves and Fishes here. For months, these youth worked alongside of our church members. One month, the people from our church who came to do Surviving the Night were all first-timers, all "newbies." They didn't know what to do. The 4 youth said, "Here's how you make the sandwiches, fix the soup, prepare the drinks." They went on the trucks and said, "Here's where you stop. Here's how much you give each person." The criminals, the youth became our mentors.
At the 9 a.m. service, Guy told a story, totally spontaneously of how his son got started at our church in the confirmation class. About that time the tragedy of 9/11 hit. The youth led a worship service sometime later. Guy's son, Will, stood up and prayed for reconciliation between Christians and Muslims. Guy thought, "I need to get my act together." He started coming to worship here. Now he plays bass guitar in the Foundation band.
At the 11:15 service, again spontaneously, Eddie told the story of his daughter Ruby, who agreed as a senior to watch over some incoming freshman girls from our church. The "big" was supposed to take care of the "littles." But Ruby has not been active in church. Her littles invited her to Breakfast Crew. Ruby attended this past Thursday. The "littles" showed the way for the "big."
Sometimes we learn best about God from reverse mentoring. Today we have the example of Ruth doing that for Naomi. Our God is like a Moabitess widow clinging to her mother-in-law, sharing her faith, showing her the way.
We all need a little help sometimes. Especially those of us who are of a certain age need some help with technology. Consider this cartoon "Zits" from this past week where the prents are confused over how to use the remote controls for the TV, DVD, satellite, whether they are even the right controls....and their teenage son in the background chewing his arm off in frustration.
I went to our Breakfast Crew this past Thursday morning with some 8 youth before they headed off to high school. I asked them if they had ever helped their parents or other adults. There were lots of technology examples: on the computer, showing them how to find files or to undo work with Crl + C; on smart phones, how to load apps, or turn off the alarm, or to send pictures. There was an example of a daughter teaching her mom the cup song (you will see it in a few weeks). Finally, one daughter offered fashion advice, "Yellow is not the new cool color."
This is reverse mentoring. It was championed by Jack Welch of General Electric. He found a younger person in the company to teach him how to use the computer and how to surf the internet. This person gave candid feedback and a fresh persective on things in the company. Reverse mentoring is not top down, not older to the younger, not more experienced to the less experienced, but exactly the opposite.
Today we find an example of reverse mentoring with Naomi and Ruth. This is the fourth in my series on Life Coach, where we go to the Bible to find examples of how best to live with God and others.
There are only 2 books in the Bible named after women. Today we have Ruth, written in simple Hebrew. A short book, only 4 chapters, only 74 verses. A Jewish scholar wrote it is like reading an afternoon soap opera. He went on to say that Naomi is like a female Job.
Here's the story. Naomi and her husband live in Bethlehem. What irony, for Bethlehem means "house of bread," and yet there is a famine in the land. Naomi's husband does not consult her, but simply uproots the family. They go to Edom, on the east side of the Dead Sea, the wrong side of the lake. The Edomites were considered cursed by the Hebrews. When the Hebrews were trying to enter the Promised Land, the Edomites showed them no hospitality. In fact, in the Hebrew scriptures it says that Edomites would be kept from the fellowship of the LORD unto 10 generations. In Edom, Naomi's sons marry Edomite women, but no children are born to these unions. Then her husband dies and 2 sons die. You can see why Naomi whose name means "pleasant" wants to be known as Mara, "bitter." NOw there are 3 widows in Edom. I am sorry, but it was a partriarchal society. Women had no standing outside of a male: a father, a husband, or some other kinsman. Therefore, Naomi wants to shed these 2 other vulnerable females, her daughters-in-law. She begs them to stay in Edom while she returns to Bethlehem. One daughter-in-law heeds her word. One doesn't. Ruth makes a vow, affirms her faith. Say these words with me:
Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die--there will I be buried. May the LORD do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!
This is an example of reverse mentoring. The younger shows the way for the older. The less powerful to the more powerful. The foreigner to the Hebrew. The Moabitess Ruth mentors the Hebrew Naomi.
You want to know the rest of the story. Naomi and Ruth return to Bethlehem. They eke out a living getting gleanings from fields. However, there is a kinsman, named Boaz, whose name means "man of strength." Naomi encourages Ruth to go to the threshing floor at night where Boaz is asleep and get this...."uncover his feet." Now maybe that's all that happened, but Boaz soon marries Ruth. They have a son named Obed, who has a son named Jesse, who has a son named David. We know him as king David.
We sometimes learn the most about God through reverse mentoring. The teacher from the pupil, the parent from the child, the older from the younger. This is the way it is with our God.
King David is an example of reverse mentoring. He is not Samuel's first choice to be king. There are 6 older brothers who are passed over. David is the youngest, the runt of the litter. He is God's choice to be king.
Amos doesn't want to be a prophet, yet he goes at the LORD's leading to the other kingdom, and proclaims a word. When confronted, Amos says, I am not a prophet or the son of a prophet, only a herdsman and dresser of sycamore trees. Reverse mentoring.
Jesus comes along, not being born into wealth or power, but as a son of a carpenter in a backwater village in an out of the way country. Jesus practices reverse mentoring in his ministry. Crowds are hungry on a hillside, and it is a child who shares his lunch who initiates a miracle of feeding the thousands. Jesus tells a story of a man getting beat up and left for dead by robbers. A priest (ouch!) and a Levite walk on by, and who stops to help? A distasteful Samaritan. We have come to call him the "good" Samaritan. Reverse mentoring is maybe the best way we learn about God's ways.
I have a story of reverse mentoring that comes from the church I formerly served, Portland UMC down on the coast, near Corpus Christi. In the month of October, we ran a pumpkin patch. A big truck would unload a bunch of orange pumpkins on our lawn. People would come by to purchase them. Families would come by to get pictures of their children with the pumpkins. One night, 4 youth came by, and emulated a musical group called "Smashing Pumpkins." They got caught by the police. Our church was nearly all white. These 4 were of a different race. I was at their hearing. We came up with community service for their restitution. They were assigned to help us in a program called Surving the Night. Once a month, our church prepared meals for the homeless in Corpus Christi, much like Mobile Loaves and Fishes here. For months, these youth worked alongside of our church members. One month, the people from our church who came to do Surviving the Night were all first-timers, all "newbies." They didn't know what to do. The 4 youth said, "Here's how you make the sandwiches, fix the soup, prepare the drinks." They went on the trucks and said, "Here's where you stop. Here's how much you give each person." The criminals, the youth became our mentors.
At the 9 a.m. service, Guy told a story, totally spontaneously of how his son got started at our church in the confirmation class. About that time the tragedy of 9/11 hit. The youth led a worship service sometime later. Guy's son, Will, stood up and prayed for reconciliation between Christians and Muslims. Guy thought, "I need to get my act together." He started coming to worship here. Now he plays bass guitar in the Foundation band.
At the 11:15 service, again spontaneously, Eddie told the story of his daughter Ruby, who agreed as a senior to watch over some incoming freshman girls from our church. The "big" was supposed to take care of the "littles." But Ruby has not been active in church. Her littles invited her to Breakfast Crew. Ruby attended this past Thursday. The "littles" showed the way for the "big."
Sometimes we learn best about God from reverse mentoring. Today we have the example of Ruth doing that for Naomi. Our God is like a Moabitess widow clinging to her mother-in-law, sharing her faith, showing her the way.
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