Pastor Lynn

sin

2012-02-01T13:24:00.000-08:00

2/1/12 Reading in Weavings magazine while sitting in the sun with my shirt off a few minutes ago (I try to fight the winter blues with a little dose of vitamin D from natural sunlight), I found a couple of quotes on sin that really resonnated with me: Sin is not a law; it is the violation of a law. Sin is not the rule; it is the exception. Jesus was never expecting to find sin in human heart; he was always looking for something good.

Love,
Lynn

abundance: pennies in the fountain

2012-01-30T09:42:00.000-08:00

from my sermon on 1/29/12 from II Cor. 9:6-15

God loves a cheerful giver. My prayer is this: God send me a church full of cheerful givers. This is the 4th wk of a 6 week series on the Treasures of the Transformed Life. We are going over the vows we United Methodists make: prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. Today it is on gifts, being generous, tossing pennies in the fountain to do Christ's work upon this earth. I hope you laugh a lot. I hope you are cheerful.

Do you know the Greek word for cheerful here? I know that you love it when I become Mr. Language Person, and that it has been several weeks since I have inflicted language on you, so here goes. The Greek word for cheerful is hilaros. Do you get it...we get our English word hilarious straight from the Greek. Our children's ministry director is named, Hilary. She is literally cheerful. This is only the first of 3 Greek words you are going to get today. Isn't this fun?

I have a hilarious story about giving for you that comes from former speaker of the house Tip O'neill. Henry Ford was visiting a Catholic hospital in Ireland. Three priests cornered him and invited him to support the work of healing. Henry Ford said that he would give 2,000 pounds (this was a number of years ago when that was a lot of money). The next day the newspaper came out with a headline that read, Henry Ford pledges to give 20,000 pounds to local hospital. Henry went to the priests and said, "there's been a mistake. I was going to give 2,000 pounds." "We're sorry," said the priests, "we will print a retraction, saying you are now only going to give 2,000." (pause for gasps) "No, no, no, I'll give 20,000, but on one condition, and that is you put an inscription above one of the doors to the hospital." Tip O'Neill says that above one of the doors is the following: I was a stranger, and you took me in. (laughter)

You may have felt this way about the church and giving....mislead, used, manipulated. So let me be clear, upfront, honest with you: in 2 weeks on Feb. 12, we will have a commitment Sunday, at which time you get to make a pledge to continue Christ's work through this congregation. If you can't be there then, we will have a second chance on Feb. 19. (laughter)

Paul says that God loves a cheerful giver. We don't give reluctantly or under compulsion. The motivation for our giving is the important thing. It is a heart matter.

You may find it hilarious that we are talking about giving at the first of the year. For the past 3 years, we have been trying something different in this church to teach about stewardship.
Instead of making it about giving money.....we are trying to make a spiritual exercise
instead of making it about only giving....we are trying to make it about prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness
instead of making it about the budget....we are trying to make it about a relationship with Christ
instead of making it about what the church needs....we are trying to make it about our need to give
instead of making it a "have-to"....we are trying to make it about a "get-to"
instead of making it about law....we are trying to make it about love
It's funny how things change when you change the motivation. Paul says that each of you much decide in your own mind what you are going to give.

Paul is in his first stewardship campaign. Read all of the 8th & 9th chapters here to get the full impact. Paul is inviting Gentile Christians in Corinth to support Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. If you are getting this, he is saying that the offering is for others.

Four plus years ago, I challenged this church to become a 50/50 church, that is, we would spend 50% on ministries here and 50% on ministries outside of us. It has never been adopted as official policy. No vote has ever been taken. But it has become part of the vocabulary of this church. At meetings from time to time someone will ask, How does this fit in with 50/50. Before I came, we had a missions committee, but no missions budget. It has grown tremendously. Our service committee which does local missions has doubled and tripled its budget items. I am so proud of you for the ways you have embraced giving for others. Even when we bought Bldg M some 3 years ago, 50/50 came into play. We have rented space to 2 non-profits there at less than 1/2 of the going rental rate. One of those is Mobile Loaves & Fishes which feed the homeless who live on the streets. Hear an email from Bruk who had successful knee surgery last week. "Working for ML &F is perfect for me because I strongly feel that I need to give something back. Being homeless myself fof a period of time, I ate from the food trucks as matter of necessity, and it was there that I got the only dignity I knew at the time. I want to freely give the gifts of food, clothing, shelter, and most importantly the promotion of dignity to our brothers and sisters in need. I feel that the most effective, efficient way to do this is by bringing my gifts to the table as a staff member at ML & F." We are a part of that ministry in our giving.

All of this generosity, sharing of abundance is in the language of Paul, the rendering of our service. Now comes the 2nd Greek word. I know you have been waiting for it. The word service is the Greek word liturgy. It is what we do in worship, the work of the people, honoring God, praising God. Our motivation for giving does not come simply from doing good; it comes from connecting with God. We find our motivation by praying, reading the Bible, singing, hearing good news in worship.

What's that worth to you? I hope you find this a bit funny. How much is your baptism worth? $100, $1000, maybe $100,000? Can we buy baptism? Can we buy our identity in Christ? How about prayer? What's that worth, to be able to talk with God, anytime, anywhere, about anything? How about Christian friends, what's that worth? When you go to the hospital and there's someone to visit you, pray with you, encourage you? Or when you have a birthday or an anniversary, someone with which to celebrate? How about the ability to earn money, did you manufacture that or is it a God-given gift?

How about doing good in the world, being a part of God's eternal purposes? I have a hilarious story to tell you. Thursday evening, Cathy and I are debriefing the day, walking in the park behind our house. It is beautiful winter's day, bright sunshine, pleasant temperature. I asked Cathy about her day. She said, "I had this one girl in my English class that was going, 'ewww'. We were doing an exercise on what our names meant or where they came from, and this girl kept going, 'ewww." I went over to her and said, 'what's the matter.' 'I don't like my name,'she said, 'it means ewww.' Cathy looked over her shoulder at the computer screen. The girl's name is Rachel. The website said her name means 'ewe.' Your name means 'ewe,' a female sheep." Isn't this the holy work we have been given, to help people find that their real name doesn't mean 'ewww", but that they are a sheep in the fold of God their shepherd.

What is salvation worth? You know you can't buy your way into heaven. But how much is forgiveness of sins, or having peace in your heart, or being able to sleep at night, or having the assurance of faith that you can live abundant life starting right now?

We now come to the 3rd Greek term. I will keep you in suspense no longer. Paul says to sow bountifully so that you may reap bountifully. It can be translated as to sow for a blessing so you may reap for a blessing. The Greek word is literally eulogy. It means good word. It is what is hopefully said at your funeral, a good word. It is funny how we try to hang onto money and possessions, and we wont be able to take any of it with us. What do we take? All the love you've shown, all the generosity you've shown, all that you have given away cheerfully. This life of giving is practice for eternity. May you hear God say a good word about you.

The good news I have to share is that God loves cheerful givers.

thunder & lightning

2012-01-25T09:25:00.000-08:00

1/25/12 Last night we had a major storm move through the Austin area. I was awake, or sleeping fitfully for 2 hours or more. Some of the lightning strikes seemed so close that they could have been in the back yard. The thunder was booming louder than African drums. The wind howled. This morning we looked in the rain guage, and it was full....5 inches. We haven't had that much in a long time. I walked down to Slaughter Creek, and it was a raging river, with debris floating down the middle.

My breath prayer for the day is from Psalm 111:10, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever." As Cathy and I prayed this morning she remarked that it is storms like this that help us remember that we are not in control. We "fear" the Lord, that is, we worship God, we humble ourselves before God, we reverence God. We remember that we are not God....that is the beginning of wisdom.

Love,
Lynn

jumping in with both feet: Christian community

2012-01-23T09:06:00.001-08:00

from my sermon on 1/22/12 from Romans 12:4-8

S'more's....you know what I am talking about? You can find a recipe for them on a box of Graham crackers ( I read all of the world's great literature). You take a graham cracker. You put a Hershey's chocolate bar on that (I don't know why it has to be a Hershey's bar but that's the recipe). You melt a marshmellow over a campfire ( if you don't have a campfire, a microwave will work). You put that on the chocolate bar and finish it off with another graham cracker on top. You smush that all together, and it is a s'more. Now I like graham crackers all by themselves. I like Hershey's chocolate bars all by themselves. I like marshmellows all by themselves. But they are really good when put together. They are each good individually, but they are better together. So are we! There's s'more to us when we get all put together.

The passage from Romans says, so we though we are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. The phrase one another or each other is used 50 times in the New Testament to talk about Christian community. YOu think it is a pretty important topic? Yes. Join with me in litany. Each time I point to you, say "one another." Here are a few:

Confess your sins to ONE ANOTHER
Do not grumble against ONE ANOTHER
Live in harmony with ONE ANOTHER
Don't be puffed up against ONE ANOTHER
Admonish ONE ANOTHER
Pray for ONE ANOTHER
Love ONE ANOTHER
Fellowship with ONE ANOTHER
Accept ONE ANOTHER
Fellowship with ONE ANOTHER
Accept ONE ANOTHER
Depend on ONE ANOTHER

We are in the 3 week of a 6 week sermon series on the Treasures of the Transformed Life. Today the focus is on Christian community: Jumping in with both feet. Didn't the youth do a great job with the skit. We sometimes are afraid to invite someone to join us in the pool. We sometimes are afraid to respond to an invitation. We think that we are just making a commitment to Christ, but really He is making a commitment to us, to show up in our midst, when we gather in His name, looking out for ONE ANOTHER. Christ meets us wherever 2 or 3 gather in His name.

Which leads me to my haircut. Did you notice? Did you even know I have hair? So we had some neighbors move in across the street. We will call them Julio and Holly, not their real names. We did the friendly neighbor thing, taking over a lemon pie and our business cards with telephone numbers on them. Now my card says pastor of Westlake UMC on it. But you need to know that I am real reluctant to push my faith on other people, especially neighbors. I am afraid that I will turn someone against the Christian faith. I am overly sensitive in this area. I know I am the only who feels this way! So in meeting our neighbors, Julio mentions he works as a respiratory therapist, and Holly cuts hair from home. So what happens next is that the Disciple Bible Study lesson last week challenges us to go beyond our comfort zone to reach out to persons and situations where we feel uncomfortable. I made the commitment to get to know my neighbors. So sure enough, on Wednesday, Julio and I find ourselves at the mail box at the same time. I asked him about his wife cutting my hair. We got it set up for Friday at 10 a.m. So there is a point to this story. On Friday, I sit in their dining room looking at a wall of crosses. This is not going to be that hard, I say to myself. As Holly gets out her equipment, she immediately starts to talk about her faith. She told me about growing up in Bertram, TX, and being part of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. I know that church, I say, because my grandmother used to be a member there. And here's the point: she said when I went back there for Christmas Eve service, it took me 10 minutes to sit down. One by one, these older men and women came up to me and hugged me. Not once did they use that accusing voice, "Where have you been?" Each one of them said, "Remember me, I taught you in 3rd grade Sunday School." They asked how I was doing. They said, it is good to see you.

This is what we are thirsty for: Christian community, to be known, to be loved, to be prayed for. We live in a culture of rugged individualism, of self-made people.....but also tremendous loneliness. This is not God's intent for us. The gift is that we were made for One Another, for Christian community.

I have 2 confessions to make now. The first is I have often offered less to people than true Christian community. I will illustrate. Are you a member of a club? Service club like Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis, Optimists? Are you a member of AAA, or AARP? Are you a member of a fitness club or a country club? Sometimes, I have offered people only being a member of the church, like it was simply another club, maybe one with even less expectations that these other ones. In my reading this past week the following struck me: not once in the New Testament does it ever use the words "church member." We have another metaphor: being a member of the body of Christ. This is what people really are thirsty for, not just a congregation or a denomination, but a relationship with Christ. They want to be a part of a larger purpose, something lasting, life-changing.

Which leads to what happened last Sunday. We have a new movement in this congregation called the Point. Sometimes they gather on Sunday night for worship called Point Praise. Sometimes they go out to serve called Point in the World. Last Sunday while we were in here, they were sorting clothes in our clothes closet. In the afternoon, they distributed some 500 - 600 articles of clothing to the homeless at Church under the Bridge. Here's the punch line 20 of the 29 persons who passed out the clothing had had no prior association with our congregation. Pastor Jim and Tonya Creamer had posted on an internet site our movement, and 20 people, families with children said that they wanted to be part of something like that. People want to belong to something that matters in the world. They want to use their spiritual gifts, remember that list from Romans, about giving, serving, teaching, healing.....they want to use them for the betterment of the world. I remind you that when the Bible says "Body of Christ," it is code language for the life, passion, death, and resurrection of Christ. We enact, we carrying on his ministry. We love, we live, we sacrifice, we bring hope, we offer holiness like He did.

I have a 2nd confession. The body of Christ is much larger than this congregation, or this denomination. Sometimes I have not acted this way. We join with members of St. John Neuman across the street, St. Michael's Episcopal, Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran, Westlake Pres., Austin Ridge, Lake Hills, Promiseland West, and many more to become the Body of Christ. I confess our divisions and competitiveness. Even United Methodists aren't United. In my book on American Christianity, there are more than 20 denominations that have Methodist or Wesleyan in their names. I live out this fragmentation sometimes when I am typing, and instead of United Methodist it comes out Untied Methodist.

Sometimes we get it right, about Christian community. Fred Craddock tells the story of his hardest convert, his dad. His father had a drinking problem, which means he had an anger problem, which means he had a problem keeping a job. In country talk, it was a hard scrabble life. His mother kept the family together. Going to church was a part of the coping. Fred loved it, the stories, the fellowship, the caring. His dad didn't go. When Fred would ask him why, his dad would say, "all those church people care about is getting your name on the roll and getting your money." Fred went on to become a pastor in the Disciples of Christ Church, and a seminary professor. He continued to invite his dad to life of faith. You know his father's response: all those church people care about is getting your name on the roll and getting your money. At the end of his father's life, Fred went to see him, all 73 lbs. in a VA hospital. His dad couldn't talk because of mouth/throat cancer. All he could do is write his responses. The room was full of cards and flowers. His dad wrote that church people had come by. They would visit. They would sit quietly. They brought food. They brought prayers. They brought hope. They brought no judgment. When Fred asked his dad about the church, his dad wrote, "Tell people I was wrong!"

We were made for community, for one another.

Prayer: drawing water

2012-01-19T06:10:00.000-08:00

from my message on 1/15/12 from Matthew 6:5-15

Prayer...it's really very simple. It's like this story (most of the stories are from Richard Foster's book, Prayer). Father was going through the mall with his 2 year old son. The boy was being a typical 2 year old, acting out, rebelluous, fussy. The dad grew exasperated...what to do? So he began to make up a song....it didn't rhyme, the dad sang off-key...it was silly. As they went from store to store, the dad took his son in his arms and sang, "I am so glad that you are my son, I love your curly hair, I like the way you put pureed carrots in your hair, it's great that you learned to poop, you are so good with the dog..." On and on the dad sang, from store to store, without rhyme and off key. The little boy grew quiet. He was fascinated by this song. As the dad was buckling his son into the car seat, the little boy said, "Sing it over again to me, Daddy, sing it again!"

This is prayer, our desire to hear our Daddy sing a love song to us. We want to be wrapped in the arms of our God and hear how much we are loved. In the model prayer, Jesus gives us, he addresses God as Daddy, Abba. I read a quote this past week from an imminent Jewish scholar who said that in all of Jewish literature, not once is God addressed as Daddy. Now we know that God is neither male nor female, that God is beyond gender, but to call God Daddy is know that God is personal and intimate.

We are in our second week of 6 week study on the Treasures of the Transformed Life. We make our commitment to pray. God makes a commitment to meet us in prayer. We have been using water imagery for this study. A quote I came across this past week captures prayer well by saying, God thirsts to be thirsted after.

I got these quotes from a book called Prayer by Richard Foster, a Quaker pastor. He talks about a social worker who kept pestering him to come to her city to lead a workshop on healing prayer. He kept putting her off, saying he didn't have time, there were plenty of resource people in her city, etc. She kept after him. Finally, he said, let's make it a matter of prayer, and if 6 people came to her asking for such a workshop in the next week, unsolicited, then he would know that it supposed to be. Frankly, he said, he was not trying to be spiritual. He was merely trying to get her to go away. Four days later, she called to say that 12 people had asked for such a workshop. So Richard Foster went very unwillingly to lead a weekend workshop for some 15 social workers on healing prayer at this woman's house. The first meeting on Friday evening, one man said, "I am not one of you." Which is to say, that he was not a Christian, he was not a follower of Jesus as Lord and Savior. The group assured him that it was ok. The Holy Spirit fell gently on the gathering for the whole weekend, opening layers of healing. Finally, on Sunday afternoon, the man who had confessed that he was not a Christian, said, "I want to know Jesus the way you know Jesus." Richard didn't know what to do...he was surprised. One young man filled in the gap. He came and laid hands on the seeking man. Richard Foster said it was a holy moment, as the young man prayed the Nestea commercial! He said, "Dear God, let your child fall back into your loving embrace like it says on the Nestea commercial and go 'Ahhhh.'" The seeking man wept at all the love washing over him. He said he felt a connection with his baptism as a child and that he was being healed. All we want is to have our Daddy pick us up and sing us a love song.

This book I mention by Richard Foster, I found on my shelf this past week, because I was teaching another class, for Stephen Ministry. I thought that I had finished it, but I hadn't. When I looked to where I had left off, guess what the chapter was? It was on the Lord's Prayer. I was reminded that it really is the Disciple's Prayer, the Lord's gift to us. When we don't have the words, there are words waiting for us. I was reminded that it is a prayer of simplicity. Basically, we are going to our Daddy and expressing our needs. Now I know what Jesus says, that the Father knows what we need before we ask. But you parents know that we still like to have our children ask for what they need. It deepens the bond, strengthens the relationship.

One more water imagery from Foster's book, a quote from an old saint in the Church. He says, in prayer it is better to be a reservoir than a canal. A canal simply has water flowing through it. A reservoir waits until it is filled to overflowing, receives until it has a superabundance from which to draw. May it be so for us. May you fill up on your Daddy telling you how much you are loved. Amen.

Invitation to prayer. Once upon a time, I attended a prayer lunch in another city hosted by another denomination, which shall remain nameless. We ate a lot. We talked a lot around the tables, but we prayed very little. It was an afterthought, as we were about to leave.

Today, I want us to pray. We will take time in worship to pray, not just talk about prayer. You may stay right where you are in the pew. You may be silent. You may pray out loud. You can use the blue prayer insert. You can pray from your heart. You can sing. You can dance. You can go to one of the prayer stations around the worship center and write a prayer to place on the wall. If you are a child or a child at heart, you can come down front here and draw a picture of your prayer. You can touch the water of baptism and be thankful. You can come here to the altar rail to kneel and pray and perhaps be anointed with oil. Youth may want to form a prayer huddle around the sound board and pray with our new assistant, Diane. There are many right ways to pray. Let's take time to do that now.

speak

2012-01-12T06:57:00.000-08:00

1/12/12 My breath prayer for the day has particular significance for me. Nine years ago, I was writing an application to enroll in a program for spiritual direction at Boston College and to take a sabbatical summer there. I was 50 years old, had been a pastor for 25 of those years, and I was tired. This verse from I Samuel 3:9c summed up the hunger in my soul, "Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening." The context is this: the boy Samuel had been sleeping the house of the LORD, when the LORD came to him in a voice. Three times, the LORD came to Samuel, and 3 times Samuel went to his mentor Eli, thinking that it was Eli who had called. Finally, Eli gives Samuel the correct response. The next time you hear the voice, say, "Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening." Nine years ago, I started listening in a whole new way, as I deepened my life in prayer through the practice of spiritual direction. Today, I still hunger for that voice, as I walk and pray in the mornings. The good news is that God is still speaking. Will we take the initiative and say, "Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening?"

Love,
Lynn

sum

2012-01-11T07:13:00.001-08:00

1/11/12 My breath prayer for the day comes from Psalm 139:11, "How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!" My undergraduate degree is in mathematics...a B.S. degree, not a B.A., in math from Texas A & M. I am quick to point out that it is pure math, not business math, or applied math, or computer math....simply pure math. I was drawn to the mathematical word in the text today....sum. To consider the sum of God's thoughts is overwhelming. Mathematicians have a symbol for infinity; it looks like the number 8 laid on its side. That's the sum of God's thoughts. I am humbled.

Love,
Lynn

found

2012-01-10T08:02:00.000-08:00

1/10/12 My breath prayer for the day comes from John 1:45b, where Philip says to Nathaniel, "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth." I remember when I was attending college that the Southern Baptists had a huge evangelistic campaign, running ads in all the media channels, that said, "I found it." "It" could mean salvation. "It" could mean Jesus. I had problems with the phrasing. I didn't like the impersonal pronoun "it", especially if "it" meant Jesus. I didn't like the campaign for a second reason, namely, that it seemed to emphasize our effort. Isn't it true in our faith journey when we think that we have found the Savior that He has actually found us?

Love,
Lynn

the water always wins

2012-01-09T07:02:00.000-08:00

from my sermon on 1/8/12 from Mark 1:4-11

Sometimes life is hard, as hard as a rock (hold up a large stone). You know the stone cold loneliness of depression, being cut off from everyone. You know the stone cold loneliness of divorce as you reach across to the empty side of the bed. You know the stone cold loneliness of grief as you have lost someone you loved. You know the stone cold loneliness of addiction where your only companions are guilt and shame. Sometimes life gets hard. We have a saying, I'm between a rock...and a hard place.

The water seems so soft (pour water into baptismal font). But I am here to tell you incredible good news: The Water Always Wins. Watch this video (drop of water falls from an icicle that goes into creek, into stream, into river, into mighty river, which ends in the Grand Canyon!). I know that life can get hard, hard as a rock, but the water always wins.

Today, we start a 6 week series, a church wide study on the Treasures of the Transformed Life. The study has a major metaphor of water. Here's the 1st treasure, The Water Always Wins. Today, in the scripture we have Jesus getting baptized. We have only 2 stories of Jesus' birth in Matthew and Luke. How many stories do we have of Jesus baptism? Six! In all 4 gospels, Mt, Mk, Lk, and Jn, plus Acts and Romans. Do you think the baptism of Jesus is at least as important as his birth? We are baptized because Jesus was baptized and asked us to continue this practice. We are baptized because Jesus continues to show up in this sacrament in the power of the Holy Spirit and changes lives. This is our sacrament of identity and belonging. The Water Always Wins.

Our Hebrew forebearers in the faith had a healthy respect for water. They were not a great seafaring people like their Phoenician neighbors. Therefore, our Bible begins in Genesis 1:2 with the Spirit of God brooding over the face of the chaotic waters (pour some water into baptismal font). In Genesis 6 when the creation is in the process of, to quote an AMC series, Breaking Bad, God wipes out all evil by a flood (pour more water). Later when the Hebrew people are leaving captivity in Egypt, they find the way to liberation through the parted waters (pour more water). In the wilderness the LORD provides for his children water from a rock (pour more water). When they enter the promised land, it is through the water of the Jordan River (pour more water). So water has an awesome power that overcomes evil, leads to liberation, sustains life, and opens to a promised land. The water overcomes the hardness of life. The water always wins.

I want to tell a story that I think I have told you before, but maybe you weren't here that Sunday or maybe you have forgotten. I had a friend in seminary named Dave Mosser. We played soccer together. I was a midfielder; he was a stricker, one who scored goals. Dave was a risk taker. I did my internship in ministry in Mason, Texas. He did his in Liberia, on the west coast of Africa. He liked pushing the boundaries. At the close of his year in Liberia, he decided to take a day off at the beach. He wanted to do some body surfing, letting his body become a surf board, sliding down the face of the waves. Now these were not Corpus Chrisit waves. They were huge waves. But Dave is a risk taker, and was having a great time. The really big waves you learn to dive under the crest so it doesn't overwhelm you. Dave did this, and found himself really far from shore. No problem. He is a superb athlete and strong swimmer. He starts to swim to shore.....only to find himself further from shore. He swims all out....and is still further from shore...Can you say riptide? He is getting tired. All of his effort results in him being swept further out to sea. He rolls over on his back to catch his breath. He is floating there looking up at the blue sky and the seabirds. He thinks, Now this is just great. I spend a year in Liberia where I don't catch some fatal disease, or drink bad water or eat harmful food or get caught in political strife because I am a pastor....and what happens is that I die as a tourist while body surfing. After a few minutes, Dave hears the sounds of waves crashing on the shore. He looks up and in just a minute more of relaxing, the waves deposit him on the beach. The water always wins. Now you can fight against the tide of God's movement in your life. You can even drown and die trying to go your own way, but the flow of God's love is always to deliver you safely home. God only wants to save. Can you go with the flow? The water always wins.

Water has the power to create community. All the people were coming to John the Baptist to confess their sins, to repent and be forgiven. Jesus came too to join in that movement. But more, Jesus was baptized to create a new community. People need more than just forgiveness; they need relationship with God and with one another. Water has a wonderful way of connecting us.

There was a woman you may have heard of. Her name was Helen Keller, born in Alabama. She had a normal childhood until about 19 months of age when she was struck with probably scarlet fever. She lost her hearing and her eyesight. She became a wild child. Unruly. Unmanagable. The family got a teacher for her, a Miss Sullivan. But no breakthroughs until this scene from the film, The Miracle Worker, with Ann Bancroft as Teacher, and Patty Duke as Helen. (video clip of Helen finally understanding the word "water" as Teacher pumps the hand pump on the well. This starts an amazing connection as Helen realizes the ground, pump, tree, mommy, daddy). The water always wins.

As you see baptism is not something we do for ourselves, by ourselves, to ourselves. It is a gift...from God...from the community. It is our sacrament of identity. We know that we belong to God and God's people. Have you ever wondered why Jesus was baptized? He had no sin. Maybe he was baptized because he needed to remember who he was from time to time. When things got hard, as hard as a rock, he could remember what the Father said to him, You are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased.

Jesus may have needed to hear these words, because in the very next scene in Mark's gospel, he is driven into the wilderness to be tempted/tested by Satan. Now, I know you are educated, sophisticated people. You may believe in a Satan. You may think evil is simply a philosophical concept. I know the power of evil. It...and I choose that impersonal pronound intentionally is subtle, conniving, uncaring, driving us apart.

I tell you a story about evil. I was in a meeting recently with a pastor friend named Don. At the close of the meeting, we were telling preacher stories. Don said, I had a woman come to me who was going through a divorce. She asked me if I would baptize her 9 month old son. Now we pastors have been trained to teach, interpret, and protect the sacraments, to do them decently and in order. My funny line is that we don't do drive through baptisms. But this woman seems anxious, desperate to have her son baptized. Don asks the standard question we have been trained to ask, Has this child been baptized before? The woman replies, Kinda. Don't you love that Texas word, Kinda. Don says, What do you mean kinda baptized? The woman says, The man I am divorcing had our son when he was 4 months old baptized in the church of Satan. Don said, Absolutely we will have your child baptized in our church. He formed a prayer team to surround the woman and her son. He had the whole church in prayer on the day of his baptism. And Don performed the baptism in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. We need to hear God say, This is MY CHILD, the beloved one, with whom I am well pleased.

The good news I have to share with you today is that The Water Always Wins.

new & improved

2012-01-06T09:36:00.000-08:00

from my sermon on Jan 1, 2012 from Rev. 21:1-6a

I had a good message going...until yesterday. I had the message all done before I took all of this week off, picking it yesterday evening. I wanted to talk to you about New & Improved. Where have you heard that phrase before? Only in every single advertisment for every new product! We have used New & Improved so much that it has become OLD & STALE. I wanted to talk to you about New Year's Resolutions.....I know, I know, you are going to lose weight, you are going to diet and going to exercise more...or you are going to attend worship more or read the Bible this year. I applaud you who make these resolutions; it is a noble and worthy endeavor for you to take responsibility for your lives, for you to become more personally accountable. It is like you are becomig a New & Improved YOu.

It was a good message, but I have a God message for you today. God's message to you on this first day of the new year is "I am making all things new." Hear this: Our God is making all things new. Say it in your soul: Our God is making all things new. Say it our loud with me: Our God is making all things new.

You see, it is not just your making some New Year's resolutions, it is God making a resolution to show how much God loves you. I am asking you to be open to what God desires for you....what is God's heart for you. Listen to what the scripture says, God's resolution is for you to have no more tears, no more death, no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain. That is God's ultimate desire for you. I know at this time of year, your pain may be intensified. People say Merry Christmas to you, and you don't feel so merry. People say, Happy New Year, and you don't feel so happy. The days are the shortest, and the nights are the longest. Please know that sadness and grief and depression are not God's ultimate desire for you. You may need to come to the altar rail today and kneel with your hands upraised so that one of us pastors may pray with you and anoint you with oil. You may need to come here in order to hear God's heart for you. You may need to hear God say to you, I am making all things new.

In the church, God is making all things new too. God's intent is for our healing. In one week we will be launching Stephen Ministry training where some 10 laypeople will get 50+ hours of training in listening and caring for persons who are hurting. Caring ministry is not just for clergy. Our Point service is catching on. The first family to become members of our congregation joined two weeks ago through that service. Other folks are catching the vision of kingdom work through the Point. We found a social network site that lets people volunteer for projects. The Point is on there, advertising their going to distribute clothes to folks who live on the street and go to Church under the Bridge. We have already had some 5 families of 13 people sign up. These are people who have not come to worship but have caught the vision of service to others. Our Long Range Planning Group is helping us to get focus in fulfilling our vision statement of Serving All. We know that we have to discern and prioritize those we need to reach first. Our God is making all things new.

God is working in the wider world too, making all things new. The scripture talks about a new heaven and a new earth. Who would have ever guessed we would have had an Arab Spring? Tunisa...Tunisa of all places on the earth started off questioning the dictatorship...then Egypt...Libya....Yemen...now Syria..Who saw this coming? The passage talks about a new Jerusalem. We remember that the word Jerusalem means "city of peace." We pray it may be so. We pray that God is making all things new.

The Rev. to John is a book about hope....not fear. It was written to 1st Century Christians undergoing persecution. The message is one of enduring, being patient, looking for the inbreaking of God's rule. It is not just about last things, but about things that last, ultimate things. It is about keeping the faith, doing justice, especially when it is hard to do it.

New & Improved comes not by our effort, or our effort alone. It is God's desire to transform you, the church, the whole creation.

This may be scary to you, to be made new means change. What is even scarier....that God is not able to do this...that God doesn't make all things new. That God is distant, uncaring, impotent. Then we would be stuck. I pray that God is the one who camps out with us, literally tabernacles with us, goes the journey with us, makes all things new.

camping with God

2012-01-03T12:47:00.001-08:00

my message on Christmas Day came from John 1:1-14

We had an informal worship setting in our gym, with folks eating brunch around tables. Children came in their pj's. I asked the people to tell stories of camping experiences.

I grew up in Littlefield, Texas, not too far from the mountains of New Mexico. We could be at campgrounds near Tres Ritos in about half a day's drive. It was inexpensive, close, fun, beautiful. Sometimes our family pulled a little trailer, or we put a camper shell on the back of the pickup, or we borrowed tents from the scout troup.

I loved camping. All of the senses were more alive. The smell of wood smoke today still effects me deeply. Food tastes better when cooked outdoors. Ah, the taste of S'mores. You can hear further. The air smells cleaner, fresher.

I loved being with family, having time apart. We often camped with other families, and we enjoyed playing board games, and going fishing and hiking.

What I loved most about camping was the telling of stories around the campfire. My dad would say something like this:

You remember old Bill. He used to be a sure enough cowboy. He rode the rodeo circuit. Tried to stay on the backs of those bucking broncs. One day he was thrown from a bull. Hurt him bad. Got him in his back. Old Bill lived, but the stay in the hospital was long. The injury was severe. Bill would never be able to stand straight up again. He would always be bent over forever. He couldn't be a cowboy anymore.

Well, little towns take care of their own. When Bill came back to Littlefield, the good folks got him a job with the school. Bill would no longer be riding a horse; he would be pushing a broom. Bill became the school janitor. Bill did his job well. He was on time. He took care to clean up well. Most of all he was kind...to everyone....the staff, the teachers, and especially the children. Everybody loved Bill. He did his job faithfully for years.

Finally, Bill died. Now the funeral director had a problem when he put Bill in the casket. If he put Bill chest down, the legs stuck up. If he put the legs down the chest stuck up. What to do? The funeral director came up with the answer. He put a strap across Bill's chest and thighs so that Bill's body could lie flat in the casket.

Now Bill belonged to a Pentecostal church...Hallelujah, praise the Lord, thank you Jesus. On the day of the funeral, the church was filled to capacity, standing room only. Everybody loved Bill. The preacher started out quietly enough. He talked of Bill's good qualities, his overcoming his accident, his hard work, his faithfulness, and most of all his love of all people. Lots of amen's and that's right were heard. Then the preacher really went to preaching. He asked, "Do you believe in the resurrection of the dead?" Yes, the people said. The preacher got down out of the pulpit and stood behind the casket. "Do you believe that we will rise again?" Yes, the people said. The preacher started to pound on the casket, "DO you believe that Bill will be raised from the dead?" As he pounded on the casket, the chest strap broke, and Bill's head and chest popped up.

The church emptied out so fast!

We kids would then ask, "Daddy, did that really happen?" And dad would say, "Well, it could have."

You are wondering how I am going to make a connection to the scripture. We have a story in the church that says that God loves us so much that God came to live among us as one of us. The
Church celebrates the birth of this one known as Jesus on this day. Our story goes that Jesus even died for us while we were yet sinners. And even more amazing, he rose again from the dead. Now we believe that he is with us forever and that he brings all things to their fulfillment.
Daddy, did that really happen? Well, it could have. We pray as Christians that it did. This is our story, unique in all the world. No other religion has a God like this.

The connection to camping? Well that word in John 1:14, where it says the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, the word dwelt or lived is literally, tented or tabernacled or camped out. You remember when the Hebrew children were wandering across the wilderness after leaving the bondage of Egypt? You remember how God desired to go with his people where ever they went, so God told them to build a portable sanctuary or tabernacle? That is the word used here. God wants to go with us wherever we go. God won't be tamed or domesticated or located. God will camp out with us.

Is there anyplace you can go that God can't go? Sickness, depression, chemical dependency, divorce, grief....even hell. Our scriptures say that Jesus descended into hell. Is there anyplace you can go where Jesus won't go? The good news I have to share with you on this Christmas day is that our God revealed in Jesus Christ camps out with us.

messenger

2011-12-22T14:01:00.000-08:00

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

Love,
Lynn

light

2011-12-21T07:42:00.000-08:00

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

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

Love,
Lynn

spoken

2011-12-20T08:13:00.000-08:00

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

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

Love,
Lynn

sing a new song

2011-12-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

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

Love,
Lynn

generation to generation

2011-12-15T07:28:00.000-08:00

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

Love,
Lynn

magnify

2011-12-14T08:08:00.000-08:00

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

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

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

Love,
Lynn

rest

2011-12-13T08:16:00.000-08:00

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

Love,
Lynn

forever time

2011-12-12T06:38:00.000-08:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How will you spend your time?

time

2011-12-08T07:33:00.000-08:00

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

Love,
Lynn

marking time

2011-12-06T07:05:00.000-08:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

what a combo

2011-12-01T06:17:00.000-08:00

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

Love,

Lynn

past tense

2011-11-30T07:04:00.000-08:00

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

Love,
Lynn

stand

2011-11-29T06:53:00.000-08:00

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

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

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

Love,
Lynn

wake up time

2011-11-28T06:53:00.000-08:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hindsight

2011-11-22T07:48:00.000-08:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

when did we see you

2011-11-17T07:46:00.000-08:00

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

Love,
Lynn

it's personal

2011-11-16T08:21:00.001-08:00

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

Love,
Lynn

enter

2011-11-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

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

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

Love,
Lynn

does anybody know what time it is?

2011-11-14T07:22:00.000-08:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

contempt

2011-11-10T05:07:00.000-08:00

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

Love,
Lynn

look

2011-11-09T05:47:00.000-08:00

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

Love,
Lynn

encourage one another

2011-11-07T08:18:00.000-08:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

mercy me

2011-11-03T06:54:00.001-07:00

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

Love,
Lynn

ham pie

2011-11-02T07:23:00.000-07:00

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

Love,
Lynn

all saints day

2011-11-01T07:31:00.000-07:00

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

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

Love,
Lynn

The Great Emergence or Clearing out the Attic

2011-10-31T06:59:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

reading list

2011-10-27T05:57:00.000-07:00

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

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

Direct Hit by Paul Borden

Shaped by God's Heart by Milfred Minatrea

Simple Church by Thom Rainer & Eric Geiger

The Externally Focused Church by Rick Rusaw & Eric Swanson

Communicating for a Change by Andy Stanley & Lane Jones

Unbinding the Gospel by Martha Grace Reese

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

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

Love,
Lynn

the times they are a'changing

2011-10-26T06:22:00.001-07:00

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

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

The times they are a'changing.

Love,
Lynn

accountability

2011-10-24T06:17:00.000-07:00

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

Love,
Lynn

TLC

2011-10-23T12:17:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

satisfied

2011-10-20T06:40:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

Love,
Lynn

dwelling place

2011-10-19T06:25:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

Love,
Lynn

wisdom

2011-10-18T06:11:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

Love,
Lynn

imitation Christians

2011-10-17T07:55:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

glory

2011-10-12T07:26:00.000-07:00

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

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

Show me your glory, I pray.

Love,
Lynn

favor

2011-10-11T05:45:00.000-07:00

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

whatever

2011-10-10T06:34:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

wilderness

2011-10-06T07:25:00.000-07:00

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

Love,
Lynn

mighty doings

2011-10-05T07:51:00.000-07:00

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

Love,
Lynn

changed mind

2011-10-04T06:12:00.000-07:00

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

Love,
Lynn

40th high school reunion

2011-10-03T07:11:00.000-07:00

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

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

Love,
Lynn

family

2011-09-28T05:59:00.001-07:00

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

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

Love,
Lynn

freedom

2011-09-27T07:16:00.000-07:00

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

Love,
Lynn

our favorite hymn

2011-09-26T11:30:00.001-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sing with me:

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

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

Music is powerful...keeping singing and playing.

change leads to conflict

2011-09-22T09:24:00.000-07:00

9/22/11 I wish I could tell you that it was easy, being the senior pastor of a healthy progam-sized church, but it's not. We had a meeting yesterday with our District Superindent. We were sharing with her the exciting news of the launching of a new worship service here (this Sunday!)with its small groups, mission component, feedback sessions, etc. She made the very astute comment that some of the family members (staff, long time members of the church, etc.) might be feeling a bit neglected...what with all of the effort, time, commitment, energy being shown this new child. As wonderful as it is to try this new venture, it is not without cost in terms of money, time, and especially emotion.

Love,
Lynn

ears

2011-09-21T07:34:00.000-07:00

9/21/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from Psalm 78:1, "Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth." Today in my early morning walk/prayer time, I tried to listen to everything around me, to God. Instead of filling the time with my words or petitions or names of people on my heart, I tried to hear. I used my ears more than my mouth today.

As I walked, I heard the chorus of birds, many different parts and melodies, but coming together in a beautiful harmony. I heard the crunch of dry leaves under my shoes....God knows we need rain. I could hear the traffic, cars rushing to work, to school, to play....I prayed for my neighbors. I heard the wail of a siren...I prayed for fire, police, EMS workers. I heard the beep.beep.beep. of heavy machinery backing up.....I prayed for those who labor in the heat and the recovery of the economy.

Today, I am going to listen to people when they talk, really pay attention. I am going to use my ears in prayer today.

Love,
Lynn

a tell all book

2011-09-20T11:37:00.000-07:00

From my sermon on 9/18/11 from Psalm 105:1-11

There is a song I learned in church growing up…sing with me..

Oh the B I B L E, oh, that’s the book for me…
I stand alone on the Word of God, the B I B L E.

What a wonderful book. We give it to 3rd graders today. The Psalmist gives thanks for the book, saying call on his name, make know his deeds, remember his works and the judgments he uttered.

I want you to remember your first Bible…or your first memory of a Bible story….who gave it to you…who told you the story…I want you to turn to a partner and share your memory.

This year marks the 400th year since the King James Version was published. That event made the Bible accessible to English speakers. Today, there are so many translations of the Bible, and paraphrases and Bibles directed to special groups. You may even have a Bible app on your smartphone. But I want to know do you read the Bible today?

I was trying to think of a way to get the 3rd graders and in fact all of you to read the Bible. I came across a quote from Ted Wardlaw , the president of the Austin Seminary, that might help. He had a seminary professor who said in class one day, “The Bible is the most dangerous book ever written.”

Can you believe that we give this book to 3rd graders? Annie Dillard in her book An American Childhood talks about growing up in an upscale suburb of Pittsburgh. She wonders about the sanity of those who gave her the Bible, “if they had read it, they would have hidden it. Didn’t they recognize the vivid danger, that we would, through repeated exposure catch a case of wild opposition to their world?”

The Bible is a tell all book. Have you read tell all books where a movie star or sports hero or rock idol will expose everything? Or if they don’t their maid, or driver, or body guard will.

The Bible tells us all about God…who God is, what God does, what God says. We read the Bible to remember this God so that we can be saved from spiritual amnesia. That’s why the Psalmist says we read this book.

But don’t read this book! It’s dangerous. This God favors the vulnerable, the widow , the orphan, the sojourner in the land. OUCH! God opposes the proud, the rich, the powerful. This God welcomes all kinds of people we would never welcome. This God wants Abraham and Sarah and us to be blessed to be a blessing to others. This God wants Jonah and us to preach good news to our enemies. This God wants us to be a light to the nations so that all will be drawn to worship.

Don’t read this book! It’s dangerous. God calls the most unlikely ones. Abraham and Sarah are in their 70’s when God says they are going to have a child and that that child will be the start of a whole new people of God. Joseph is part of a blended family, one of the youngsters. His brothers want to kill him, but settle for selling him into slavery in Egypt. He becomes the #2 man in the land and saves his people. There is Esther who wins a beauty contest in Persia. She uses her natural abilities to save her people. There is a boy who shares his lunch with those who have come to hear Jesus. His generosity sets in motion a miracle by which 5,000 are fed. There is a woman, a foreigner, a Gentile, who pleads for her sick daughter to be healed. Jesus hears her prayer and heals the daughter.

Don’t read this book because it will not only tell all about God, but also all about you. One the second page of the Bible, one man kills his brother over whom God likes best. I know you never fight over toys or over getting attention in your families. Don’t read this book because you will find that we are prone to lyin’, cheatin’, stealin’, and foolin’ around.

Don’t take the class I start next week during Sunday School time on the Bible from Scratch, the New Testament for Beginners. You will only find out all about yourself.

For goodness sake, please don’t underline in your Bible, write notes in it, or highlight it. If you do, then when I come to do your funeral, I will know what was important to you and how the Bible impacted you.

You know I am kidding, right? I really want you to read the Bible. More than that I want the Bible to read you, who you are. A writer from 1734, J. A. Bengel, said, “Apply thyself wholly to the scripture text, then apply that text wholly to thyself!”

Don’t read this tell all book, because if you do, you just might find that

Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him belong, they are weak, but He is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.

singing

2011-09-15T05:19:00.000-07:00

9/15/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from Psalm 105:45, "So he brought his people out with joy, his chosen ones with singing." I have a lot going on right now. Nothing strange about that--it is the start of a new school year which translates to people being back at church and the start of programming at church. We are also trying to launch a new worship service and a new caring/listening corps called Stephen Ministry. I have responsibilities beyond the local church with my work as the chair of the order of elders which also puts me on the board of ordained ministry. There is routine stuff like preparing for worship services, responding to emails, connecting with various church committees. So I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately. This morning on my walk, my prayer was mostly singing. I found myself not singing the old hymns of the faith, but the new ones from contemporary Christian radio stations. "I will walk by faith...even though I cannot see."

Love,
Lynn

miracles

2011-09-14T06:36:00.000-07:00

9/14/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from Psalm 105:5, "Remember the wonderful works he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered." Yesterday evening I was talking on the cellphone with a young man who was about to have another surgery to remove a tumor on his brain. Several years ago, he had had a benign tumor removed from the very same spot. The surgery had been invasive, leaving his face and one eye askew. The recovery was long and painful. A new benign tumor had reappeared on his brain recently, so another surgery was called for. In the interim years, a new technique was devised that called for entering through the nasal passage. It is much less invasive and involves much less pain and recovery time. Last night as I was visiting on the phone with Jeff who is having surgery this morning, he said, "It is a miracle."

Love,
Lynn

moon

2011-09-13T06:05:00.000-07:00

9/13/11 The past two mornings my early walks have been illuminated by the full moon, the so called "harvest moon." In my prayers, I have reflected on how we Christians are like the moon, reflecting the light of the sun/Son. As John the Baptist says, we are not the light (Christ is!), but we are called to witness to the Light.

Love,
Lynn

we are the Lord's

2011-09-12T07:23:00.000-07:00

From the worship service on 9/11 from Romans 14:7-9

Welcome to this worship service on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. In worship we hold ourselves before God who holds us.

I want to address the children first. Boys and girls, something happened 10 years ago that made some of us very sad, and mad, and fearful. You have no memory of it at all. You may have heard of 9/11 and how many lives were lost that day. Today, I am asking you to pray for those of us who do remember. You may use words, you may pray silently, you may use touch, you may cry. One way of praying is to use that sheet of paper we gave you. I want you to write the word God in the center of that paper. Then around the word God write or draw a picture of others you may pray for—parents, firemen, police, EMS, neighbors, friends. No matter what else happens, I want you to remember that God is in the center of everything.

Now you adults, I bet you can remember how you first heard about the tragedies of 9/11. I invite you to hold those memories before God in worship today. I will tell you about my day to prime your memory pumps.

It was a Tuesday morning. I was awakened very early in the morning by a phone call. One of my leading church members in Portland had died. W. C. Andrews had been the superintendent of schools for 25 years. He was now retired, but still very active in the community and in his mind. He was a pillar of the church, Mr. Credibility. When we did our capital campaign to relocate the church, I asked W. C. to stand up before the church and say, “It’s going to be OK. We need to do this.” He did that for me, and it was OK. After visiting and praying with the family, I went back home to shower and to shave. A little later I was in my office when the secretary came in and said, “You not going to believe it, but a plane has just hit one of the twin towers in NYC.” We turned on the TV and another plane had hit the other tower. It was no accident; this was intentional. I was driving over to the Andrews house to make the funeral plans, listening to the radio of a plane hitting the Pentagon, and then another plane crashing in Pennsylvania. There are no words to describe the horror. What are your memories?

(silence)

I stumbled through the day. I was supposed to lead a workshop that evening on “Futuring for the Church” for the Corpus Christi District for some 25 leaders. The program director for the district called me and asked, “Do you want to cancel?” “Absolutely not! If we ever needed to work on the future of the church , it is today! I will not let terrorists determine what I do or who I am! I will not operate out of fear but faith!”

My associate pastor led a prayer service at the local church. I did the presentation for the district. I did this because I believe God is at the center –not just of that piece of paper, or this message, but of our world. Boys and girls, hear me. God did not want this tragedy to happen and God did not cause it to happen, but God was right in the middle of it trying to bring healing out of it.

The scripture we read says, that whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. We belong to God. We can see the presence of God everywhere.

Where did we see the presence of God after 9/11? On that Sunday, the churches were full. People needed something…Someone bigger than themselves to believe in. The Church has been doing this a long time, finding hope in the midst of hurt. All down through the millennia we can see God right in the midst of tragedy. For some of you, you remember Dec. 7, 1941. My generation may remember also the assassination of John F. Kennedy on Nov. 23, 1963.

At these times, we ask where are you God? I saw God after 9/11 in the many folks who responded in faith by donating blood. Many gave generously to help those affected by the deaths. Some volunteered to serve in the military. Some Christians made a point to stand by Muslims and go to mosques to say that 19 terrorists don’t define a world religion or a great people. Many helped at ground zero in NYC. I will address the sacrifice of the first responders in just moment.

I know that after 9/11 I will never be the same, our world will never be the same. Today, as you go to board an airplane, you take off your shoes, you show your laptop, you have no more than 3 oz. in fluid containers, you may go through a body scan. We bear it as a small sacrifice to pay for the good of the whole.

On that 9/11, a plane flew into the Pentagon. One plane headed for the Capitol building was taken back from the hijackers and plowed into the ground in Pennsylvania. At the World Trade Center…I want to emphasize that word “World,” people from more than 70 countries lost their lives. Every major world religion was represented in those losses. This was not just something that happened to Americans or Christians; it was a world event. Some 2,977 lives were lost in these terrorist acts.

On that 9/11 many first responders rushed to the scene. As people were running out of the Twin Towers, they were running in. On that day 411 first responders died. They made Ground Zero into Ground Hero. Today we are recognizing first responders here in worship and at a reception afterwards. Few can be here today, because so many are still out on the front lines of fighting wildfires in our area.

I see the presence of God in their heroic actions.

God is right in the middle of all our lives, even in the wildfires. I got an email from Danika, one of our moms caught in the fires of last week. I share it with you now.

I must share with you a story of this weekend and let you know kids do listen and learn during Sunday School.

This Labor Day Weekend with the brush fires in our neighborhood and mandatory evacuation was very scary and intense. All we could do was pray. At one point the fires were getting very close to our house and I can’t even begin to tell you what that felt like. We knew this because from time to time we would get reports of where the fire was heading and how far away it was from certain sections in the neighborhood. The kids were scared but we did our best to keep them calm. (We were worried sick because our dog was in the house. We were not at home when they made everyone leave and our neighbors couldn’t get him out.)

Once we got into a hotel, we found some paper and crayons for the kids. Dawson told Kaylen about the Prayer Paper he learned in Sunday School. Explaining you put GOD in the middle and then write words, names, etc. of those you are thinking about. Examples of things they wrote around GOD, family members names, firefighters, friends, teachers, rain, pets, safety, protection, schools, TEXAS, BASTROP, homes, etc. They had been praying but to have a physical piece of paper to hold and look at really helped!

Just wanted to share to make sure you know that teachers and Sunday School programs do make a difference. Even though it was scary, we never felt alone.

Thanks for all you do,
Danika

God is right in the middle. We belong to God. Whether we live or whether we did, we are the Lord’s. Did Christ live? YES. Did Christ die? YES. Did Christ rise again? YES. So Christ is the Lord over life and death and eternal life. He is the ultimate judge of all. He is our hope. We have no fear. We are the Lord’s.

my wife has a date with another man

2011-09-08T06:37:00.000-07:00

9/8/11 Tonight, my wife is going to go to a high school football game with another man. In fact, he is going to escort her out onto the playing field before the game starts. Here's how it came about. Yesterday, Cathy had one of her male students from 2 years ago approach her. This young man is very shy and barely spoke above a whisper. He asked Cathy if she was going to attend the football game. Cathy said that she hadn't planned to do so. He then asked if she would go with him, as the senior football players were going to be recognized before the start of the game. Cathy asked him if he had any other teacher that he would rather be with him, especially since it had been 2 years since she had him in class. "There is no one else I would rather have than you. You have been my favorite teacher."

So tonight, my wife has a date with another man. I will pick her up after the pre-game festivities and take her home.

Love,
Lynn

water from a stone

2011-09-07T07:04:00.000-07:00

9/7/11 My breath prayer yesterday came from Psalm 114:8 which says that the God of Jacob "turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water." Around here it has been dry...really dry for a long time. Phrases like "historic drought" and "extreme drought" are tossed about. We have gone without rain for months. The lake levels and aquifer levels are dropping fast. Mandatory water limits are being instituted.

This past weekend we had all of the elements of a perfect storm for wildfires when the winds from tropical storm Lee blew hard and dry out of the northeast. A spark from a highline wire or a cigarette butt or bottle becoming a magnifying glass or from kids playing caused fires all around the Austin area. The local fire departments are stretched to the breaking point with many wildfires still burning out of control. We want to recognized first responders in our community in the worship services this Sunday, but I fear that they may all be out on the front lines of fires.

The psalmist talks about how God can bring water from a rock. God did it for the Hebrew children wandering in the wilderness after the Exodus. I pray that God can do it again since the skies around here seem as hard as iron.

Love,
Lynn

all you need is love

2011-09-06T05:56:00.000-07:00

from my sermon on Sept. 4, 2011, from Romans 13:8-10

I quote from Paul, not St. Paul, who wrote this letter to the church at Rome, but Sir Paul, McCartney, of Great Britain, of the Beatles, of Wings, and lots of solo work:

( I sing ) Love, Love, Love....Love, Love, Love....Love, Love, Love, Love,,,
All you need is love.....all you need is love.....all you need is love, love, love is all you need.

It is so simple isn't it? Love is all you need. That's what St. Paul was saying too. The whole law is summed up, brought to a head, in one word, love. He quotes Jesus, who quotes Lev. 19:18 in the first testament, "Love your neighbor as yourself."

It is so simple to say, to understand, but so hard to practice. Love your neighbor? It is hard enough to love your spouse. I know we stand before God's altar, we make vows in a marriage covenant for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish. We just don't know all the fine print in that marriage contract.

I want to tell you about our 17th wedding anniversary. Please know that I got Cathy's permission to tell you this story. You know what the 25th anniversary is....silver. You know what the 50th anniversary is....golden. But do you know what the 17th anniversary is? It's the toilet!

On Dec. 30 that year, the city of San Antonio, where we were living was having a toilet rebate program. Trade in your old high volume flush toilet and get money to replace it with a low volume flush toilet. I had done some plumbing in my past. I want to take care of the environment. I had the time to do it. I go out to HOme Depot and buy 2 toilets that qualified for the rebate. I came home, turned off the water, pulled the old toilets, put down the wax rings, set the toilets and the tanks, and hooked up the water. Cathy stayed out of my way. At the end she came in, and said, "I am so proud of you. Thank you for a good job." Then she turned on the lights in the coming of evening and said, "They're beige." "So," I replied. "The sink and tub are white...not beige." "You mean?" I said. "Yes," she replied, "you need to replace them."

So I gritted my teeth, turned off the water, pulled the beige toilets, put them back in the boxes, went back to Home Depot, got 2 new toilets, White ones, came back home and put them in. That was our 17th wedding anniversary, the toilet anniversary.

Love is hard. In fact, if you want to know what is the loving thing to do, choose the hard path, not the easy one.

We love our children. We grow in anticipation as they grow in the womb. We are in awe when they pop into this world and we become co-creators with God. We wonder that God would trust us with such precious ones. Along with the wonder comes feeding at 3 a.m., and it's hard. There comes the time when stuff is blowing out both ends at a high rate of speed and the temperature is 105 and you are rushing to the hospital, and it's hard. Love is hard.

Loving others is hard. I had a poster on my wall growing up. It was Snoopy on his doghouse. Snoopy said, "I love humankind. It is people I can't stand." Love is specific, not generic.

Loving your neighbor is hard. I got an email this past week that was forwarded from one of my distant family members who seemed to agree with it. I can erase it from my computer files, but it is harder to erase from my memory. The gist of the message was that the world's problems can be blamed upon accepting Muslims into society. I couldn't believe it. 9/11 is coming up, and we are looking for someone to blame. Who will we pick on? Gays, different races?

It is hard to love. Some would say impossible. Maybe so. Maybe not if we consider that love is not a feeling; it is an action. It is not a noun; it is a verb. I am so glad that familiar verse that we have memorized, John 3:16, doesn't say, "God so loved the world that he.....cried....or felt bad." Probably God does cry and feel bad for us, but God does more, "for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life."

There are lots of words for love in the Greek language, and the word here is agape. It is the kind of love that we see in Jesus, in his living with us, in his dying for us, and his being raised from the dead for us. It is love that looks like cross and resurrection.

Love is hard, and the only way we can love others, is to know that we have been loved. We have been loved by God in Jesus Christ. I know this, but sometimes I don't practice it. I went to my prayer/accountability group this past Monday. We pastors talk about our souls, about our families,and about our ministries. One of my peers said to me this past week, "How long has it been since you last let Jesus love you?" Well, it had been too long. The remark cut me to my deepest being. I started practicing it in my morning walks, simply being in Jesus' presence, and letting him love me.

Let's practice that now. I know it is hard. You have so many excuses for not allowing Jesus to do this, but we have just confessed our sins and been forgiven in the liturgy. Let's lay anything on this table that would keep us from accepting Jesus' love. Take a minute and simply let Jesus love you.

(silence)

To paraphrase Sir Paul again, "He loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, He loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, He loves you yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah."

The only way we can love one another as ourselves is to let Jesus love us first. We become a conduit, a pipeline of His love to others. The good news I have to share is that all you need is love.

without blemish

2011-08-30T07:37:00.000-07:00

8/30/11 The Old Testament lesson for this week comes from Exodus 12, which has the background of and the instructions for keeping the Passover. Each family is to take an unblemished lamb, cook it, and eat it, not leaving a single scrap left over. As I reflected on this passage, I realize that I have plenty of blemishes, some obvious and some hidden. Upon further reflection, I realized that Jesus the Lamb of God also was blemished. His body was whipped, pierced, broken, full of blemishes. Yet by his wounds, we are healed, made whole. In fact, by this sacrificial Lamb, we find ourselves forgiven and without blemish.

Love,
Lynn

turning the tables

2011-08-29T09:09:00.000-07:00

From my sermon on 8/28/11 from Romans 12:9-21

“If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat.” Is there a table like that? Where things get turned around, get turned right?

The first part of this passage has to do with being an “insider”, a Christian. Some of the hardest people to deal with are fellow Christians. Sometimes folks come to church hoping to escape fighting. They want Shang-ri-la, Eden. Remember my first year with you as pastor, I spent preaching about conflict from I Corinthians. The early church fought over lots of things, just like we do today. The trick is to learn how to fight fairly.

Is there a table where we can get things turned around? John Savage is a UM pastor, psychologist and consultant. In his early years, he served a local church in upstate New York. A member of that congregation owned a restaurant with a table reserved for members of the church. Anyone who had a gripe, an issue, a problem could meet John there. John promised not to bring his “gospel gun,” you know how we pastors can shoot people down with our jargon, our authority, our degrees. John would stay there until he and the person could reconcile. No bill was ever presented at that table.

The passage from Romans seems to have lots of verbs in the imperative tense, lots of “oughts” and “shoulds.” But I looked at the text in the Greek, because I know that y’all love for me to do that. Most of the verbs are participles, “ing” words. It is as if Paul is saying, “This is an ongoing project. You will always be working on this. You will never finish.” The verbs are all plural too. It is as if Paul is saying, “Don’t try to do this by yourself. This work is best done in community.”

We start working on reconciling within the community of faith and then we slowly move out. You notice in the passage how we move from saints (insiders) to strangers to enemies. Is there a table where we get things turned around with the world?

I want you to google this concept, “pay what you can” cafes. I read about One World Café in Salt Lake City and So All May Eat in Denver. There are published, suggested prices, but everyone pays whatever they can. Some pay 2, 3, 4 times the price. Some leave just a few cents. Some pay in goods or services. “I have a car I can donate. I will do the tile work in the bathroom. I notice you need new flatware, and I have some.”

A few are poachers. They try to pay nothing. Denise Cerreta of the Denver café watched a group of poachers pay nothing several times. She finally confronted them at the table. She said, “When you pay nothing, it feels like you are stealing from me.” They paid up.

It leads to that passage, the quote from Proverbs 25, “if you enemy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirst, give him something to drink, for by so doing, you heap burning coals upon his head.” At the table one must face reality of one’s actions. One must reflect on the relationship. When Denise told the poachers what it felt like, she got them to see what they were doing to her personally. Their shame felt like burning coals.

Most are grateful. One man left a $100 bill by his empty bowl of soup. He was homeless. He said, “I was blessed today, so I wanted to pass the blessing on.”

Is there a table like that where enemies get fed? I pray to God that there is. We live in culture of revenge. I read a lot of action-adventure novels, books by W.E.B. Griffin about the military, and spies, and cops. I am reading Tom Clancy’s latest best seller right now, Against All Enemies, with its drug cartels, and the Taliban. The driving force in these books is revenge, getting back, getting even.

In this world we need a table where things get turned around, get turned right. I remember how after WW II, we didn’t punish our enemies. We helped Japan and Germany to rebuild. Now we are partners with them. Maybe there is a table like that.

I need a table like that. I like to be liked, but sometimes I upset people, yes church people. I have had a family with a young woman with an unplanned pregnancy go into high anxiety mode and try to push a wedding through without counseling or forethought. I hated to confront them. They didn’t like much for telling them the truth. Then God has such a sense of humor. The very next Sunday after the shotgun wedding that I didn’t perform was communion Sunday. Which serving station did they come to? Mine! I held out the bread to them, “The Body of Christ broken for you, this is a sign of God’s love for you in the body of Christ.”

Is there a table like that in this world? It goes all the way back to Psalm 23, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.” It goes all the way back to that meal we call the Last Supper that Jesus ate with one who would betray him, one who would deny him, and others who would desert him. To these at the table, he said, “This is my body given for you.”

Is there a table like that? The good news I have to share with you today is that there is. It is right here. We keep coming here until we get it right.

prayer in 3 acts

2011-08-25T11:10:00.000-07:00

8/25/11 My breath prayer is Psalm 105:1, "O give thanks to the LORD, call on his name, make known his deeds among the peoples." Act 1 is to give thanks. As I walked this morning, I gave thanks that I could walk, that my body still works so well, that I could see the deer, and hear the birds sing. Act 2 is to call on his name. As I walked, I did my usual routine of holding various people and situations before God, seeking what blessing God has for them. Act 3 is to witness. I have more open today to openings that God provides for me to make known his deeds among the peoples. In particular, we have had a lot of families visiting our preschool classrooms today. I am saying "hi" and greeting them.

Love,
Lynn

strength

2011-08-24T06:12:00.000-07:00

8/24/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from Ps. 105:4, "Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually." My strength is not what it once was. I am 58, and I still walk, lift weights, swim, etc. I can still put in the hours at work. But it is nothing like it used to be. I bump up against my limits more quickly.

I really need to hear this passage today, as I have spent the last 2 days at the Bd. of Ordained Ministry retreat where I learned all of the time, and energy, and courage it is going to take to help the church go through the next paradigm shift. I don't have that kind of strength, but the LORD God does. It is a good exercise for me to humble myself and let God be my strength, the strength of His Church, the strength of all creation.

Love,
Lynn

not the same old thing

2011-08-23T05:01:00.000-07:00

8/24/11 This Bd of Ordained Ministry retreat is really pushing me. Gil Rendle, our consultant, challenging us with moving from the old paradigm of taking care of the institution, the local churches and the pastors to the new paradigm of taking care of God's mission of making new disciples of Jesus Christ. There will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth as many small churches will be dying, many old rules will be broken, and many new changes enacted. It will take courage, patience, and trust to get through this time. I pray for myself that I will have the energy and drive to be part of this process and not part of the problem. I pray for our denomination, this church that I have known since my birth and have been serving in the ordained capacity for the past 33 years.

Love,
Lynn

in order to go forward, retreat

2011-08-22T14:46:00.000-07:00

8/22/11 Our Bd. of Ordained Ministry is having its first ever retreat. We have lots of meetings, business sessions, interviews, etc., but never before have we had a retreat. What makes it even better is that the Bishop and the District Superintendents and the chairs of District Committees on Ordained Ministry are present as well. We are at the Oblate Center in San Antonio for 2 days.

Our chairperson asked me to give the opening devotional. So I had everyone stand in a circle and sing the Hokey Pokey. I asked everyone to bring their whole self to the retreat. Our act of confession was to name before another person what is keeping us from bringing our whole self here: start of school, fall programming at church, hospital calls, etc. After a word of pardon and assurance, I asked the group to help me remember all of the times that Jesus went on retreat. In a book by Len Sweet, he had a chapter called, "come apart, so you don't come apart." My language for it was "in order to go forward, retreat." Jesus would go away with his disciples, or spend all night in prayer, or go into the wilderness for 40 days at the start of his ministry, or go the Garden just before his crucifixion. I then had the folks to own what was the word for them, what they hoped would happen on this retreat. Our sending forth was singing, "Go now in peace" and sharing the peace of Christ.

At the end of this first day, I can say that it has been worthwhile. I have been challenged to ask the right questions that lead to transformation of the church.

Love,
Lynn

a whole new way of thinking

2011-08-21T13:56:00.000-07:00

From my sermon on 8/21/11 from Romans 12:1-8

So on the first day of school, the kindergarten teacher was trying to help the children feel at ease through playing a game with animal sounds. “Amy, what sound does a cow make?” Moooo. “Johnny, what sound does a pig make?” Oink…. Tracy what sound does a cat make. Meow. Phil, what sound does a dog make? Bark, bark. Julie, what sound does a mouse make? She said, “Click.”

We have a whole new way of thinking today, don’t we? I never knew in High School that the most important class that I would take would be typewriting. Now they call it keyboarding. How many hours, how many tasks do I do on the computer every day!

Paul talks in the passage about renewing your mind so that you may discern the will of God, the good and perfect and acceptable will. I have some practical, biblical ways of thinking to offer you today. The first is humor. Did you feel the lightness of being at the opening story with its laughter. Humor frees us up.

The passage warns against thinking more highly of yourself than you ought. Paul is doing a word play on the word think. It literally in the Greek, don’t hyper-think. Now, none of you suffers from over-thinking, do you? Paul says to think with sober judgment. The word is to think with a sound mind, sensibly. Humor is a great way to keep us from taking our selves too seriously.

So, here’s the way most of us learned the alphabet…..the alphabet song….a b c d e f g h i j k l m m o p q r s t u v w x y and z, now I know my abc’s , next time won’t you sing with me. Let me sing modern version, a b c d e f g h i j k l m m o p q r s t u v www.alphabet.com. It is whole new way of thinking.

Paul also says to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. We think not just with our brains but with our whole beings. The Jewish faith and the Christian faith did not see humans as a conglomeration of parts, but as wholeness. Body, mind, spirit….are all interrelated, inseparable. We are to think with our bodies. I understand from the world of medicine that this is true. We have not just the brain, but the central nervous system, and in fact chemical and electrical signals at the cellular level. We think with the whole body.

We live out an example right now. How many right handed folks? Interesting, you raise your right hands. Take a pen or pencil in your right hand. Lefties take a pen or pencil in your left hand. Now I want you to think about a problem or an issue or concern. Got it? Now shift the pen or pencil to the other hand. Reflect, do you get some new insight? We I get stumped with a crossword puzzle or even bigger issues in life, sometimes I simply switch to my non-dominant hand, and an answer comes. Where does that come from? We are using our wholeness.

This whole new way of thinking could look like this: if you are a quiet, contemplative person, you might need to take a walk or swim to get a fresh perspective. If you are active, you might need to pause and pray and be still. If you are a wordy person like I am, you might need to focus on an icon.

A week and a half ago, I had our staff go on a retreat. We went to an art gallery run by Hilary’s sister, called Eye of the Dog. We did our linear planning, but we also had an hour and a half for an art project. We were to create a collage using found objects, ephemera. We were to let ourselves be drawn to objects. Was I excited about this? No! I was scared. But I created something on this 4” x 4” square. I was attracted to music, butterflies, a key, the word faith, the phrase “it is ok to be assertive.” Where did all of this come from? I had a whole new way of thinking.

Paul also says to think as the body of Christ. We are not just individuals; we are members of one another. We are community. We think better together. It is not “group think” ala George Orwell’s 1984. We realize we need different points of view. I tend to be a visionary, big picture, future tense sort of guy. I love to throw out ideas. But I need people around me in the body of Christ with their gifts who ask: how much will it cost? How does that fit with this other thing on the calendar? Have you prayed about it? How will it affect the least among us? We think better as the whole body.

As a Christian community, we think not just of ourselves, but of others. As the church, we are one of the few groups that exists for those not here. We are thinking of 5th graders in this church with a new program called FISH that helps these tweens navigate the middle school years. We have incoming high school freshmen buddying up with upper classmen to lessen the fear of that transition.

As United Methodists, we have a new motto: Rethink Church. We have lived into this motto the last 2 years by calling off morning worship and going out into the community to be the church, doing service projects and meeting people where they are. Now we are going a step further.

Have you missed Pastor Jim? Some of you have wondered if I shut him up in a dungeon. Jim has been doing field research for us on Sunday mornings. He has been visiting other churches to see best practices and also what needs are being missed. He has been going to Starbuck’s to visit those of the church of the brunch. He has been talking to the cyclists who pass by our church on Sunday morning by the thousands. All of this in preparation for a new worship service called the Point. It is for those who aren’t here yet. It will be on Sunday evenings, starting just 5 weeks from now, on Sept 25. There will be small groups that feed into the Point. One is Celebrate Recovery for those working the 12 step programs. One is for business people called Taking the Talk of Sunday into the Walk of Monday. Bible Studies and youth groups and others will be on Sunday evenings to lead into the point. Jim says the mission of the Point is to “wake up, connect, change the world.” It is a whole new way of thinking about church.

This renewing of our minds transforms us. I believe our selves become re-wired, new neural pathways are created. This life of worship, prayer, Bible Study, service…this following Christ changes the way we think. I heard on NPR that if you spend 10,000 hours doing something, you become an expert at it. You can check off another hour here.

I believe that following Christ gives us a whole new way of thinking. I witnessed it this past Thursday. Kim was going in for her 2nd surgery in 9 days’ time. It was tricky, spinal cord surgery. Thursday morning, we stood around her bed---her family and I. We adults prayed some out loud. Evan, 7 yr old son of Kim and Phil prayed too. He said, “God, we love you. Jesus, we love you. Heal my mom. Bring her home quickly.” For a moment there, I believed all of this stuff that I have been telling you.

This following Christ gives us a whole new way of thinking.

urgency

2011-08-18T07:09:00.000-07:00

8/18/11 I used to operate in a hyper mode, running from one crisis to the next, loving the adrenaline rush, needing to be needed, the more urgent the better. As I have gotten older, I have realized that is a pretty unhealthy way for me to live. Maybe emergency room personnel need to operate this way, along with 1st responders like fire, police, EMS, etc. But most of life is not lived in urgent mode.

I felt a twinge of my old calling for urgency just a few minutes ago. I had just come from an early hospital visit to see a woman and her family off into surgery. I got back to church because I had 2 appointments lined up in my office. But as I arrived, I learned that a charter member of the church was dying. I wanted to go immediately to be with him and his family, but I had a conflict with 2 standing appointments. I called my associate pastor who was able to go.

One of the appointments was with the Stephen Ministry Leaders. We are putting together a team of caring laypersons who will do a ministry of listening and healing. It is exactly so that we won't always be in an urgent mode.

JC died this morning. I got to sit with his wife for an hour and a half as she waited for the medical school to come pick up his body. There was no sense of urgency.

Love,
Lynn

prey

2011-08-17T06:56:00.000-07:00

8/17/11 Usually I will talk about the word, "pray." But in Psalm 124:6, the word is "prey." My breath prayer for the day is "Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us as prey to their teeth." I don't like to consider myself as prey, as one is hunted by a predator out to eat me. I don't like to think of myself as on the run, scared, always looking over my shoulder. Thank God that the Psalmist sees the LORD as the one who rescues us out of this dynamic. We are snatched away from our enemies. We are not prey.

Love,
Lynn

eating for a good cause

2011-08-16T06:30:00.000-07:00

8/16/11 I have figured out that the congregation that I get to serve as pastor likes to have a good time. Last night, our Endowment Committee had a deal with Mimi's restaurant, that any person or group with a coupon from our church would get 15% of their bill directed to the Fund. Cathy and I got there first. It was her first day back at work, coming from a day of teacher in-service. I was hoping that we could have a good meal and that she wouldn't have to cook. The meal was excellent. More than that, the atmosphere was exciting. Our church came out in great numbers. By the time we left at 6:20, I had already counted 45 people with the coupons. There was laughter. There were smiles. I got to meet new people who came as guests of our church. A young family who has been visiting our congregation shared a prayer concern with me. We paused and prayed right there in the restaurant. A family of 5 with 3 children came out. Another couple brought the mom in her 80's. We raised some money for the Endowment Fund. We raised some awareness about the Endowment Fund. More than that, we had fun, eating for a good cause.

Love,
Lynn

the message

2011-08-15T07:08:00.000-07:00

From my sermon on 8/14/11 from Romans 10:5-15

When I was growing up and going to worship, there was a time when the pastor stood up and gave a speech. We called it ….the sermon. In fact, for most of my years of preaching this Sunday speech has been called …the sermon. In the last few years though, it has come to be called by a different name…..the Message. How did that happen? I think that it may have something to do with our desire to connect with people, to make the Word of God come near where people live.

I have doing this for more than 33 years now, and I have always tried to make this speech relevant. You may wonder where I get these speeches each week. I know I wonder! One of the things I have learned to do is to pray as I prepare. Yes, I do the work of translating the passage of scripture, I read the commentaries, I interpret what is going on in the culture, but the most important thing I do is to pray, “God, what do you want your people hear today?”

So here’s the message that most often comes to me from God: Tell the people that I love them. That’s what the cross and resurrection of Christ are about. I have come near my people in Jesus. I know what they are going through. Jesus is broken for them and with them. I have raised Jesus from the dead to offer hope.

There is a new translation of the Bible, called the Message, really a paraphrase by Eugene Peterson. Part of this Romans passage he interprets this way:

It's the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—"Jesus is my Master"—embracing, body and soul, God's work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That's it. You're not "doing" anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That's salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: "God has set everything right between him and me!"

I am going to ask you to do an in class assignment that will continue as a homework assignment. I want you to write down the message God has for you. What is the good news you have to share? Who is Jesus to you and the world? Writing this down is a teaching tool: it is a way to reinforce this lesson.

I know you may be intimidated by doing this. But consider this true story. One of the world’s greatest theologians was Karl Barth. He wrote a 13 volume series called Church Dogmatics, one of the most thorough explanations of the Christian faith. He was Swiss, but wrote a confession of faith that was used by the confessing church in Germany to stand against Hitler. He made only one trip the USA in 1962. After one of his lectures, he was asked, “Dr. Barth, can you summarize what you believe?” He answered, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” You don’t have to write 13 volumes. All I am asking you to do is to take this sticky note and write what you believe about Jesus. What is the message?
You may want to hang it on one of the bright ribbons in the narthex. You may want to put it on your refrigerator door or your bathroom mirror. Most importantly, you may want to share with God’s people out in the world.

Still I know you are hesitant and insecure about doing this. You want to quote St. Francis of Assisi to me, “Preach the gospel at all times; if necessary, use words.” I want to praise you as a congregation. You are terrific at proclaiming the gospel through your actions. Your witness is clear through your good works. Two weeks ago, 11 of you went out on a Sunday Morning to the Church Under the Bridge. Earlier in the summer, we had taken a collection of clothing for our neighbors who live on the streets. Two weeks ago, we gave away more than 180 pairs of shoes, 5 tables full of pants and shirts and socks and women’s underwear, the very things our brothers and sisters had asked for. What a message!

But sometimes we need words. Yesterday, I went to the Austin District United Methodist Men’s breakfast. About 24 guys were there. When I first came in, I was greeted with the question, “Lynn, what’s with your Aggies going to the SEC?” You are not going to believe this, but nobody consulted me. The president didn’t call, and the AD didn’t ask my opinion. Here’s the thing about words: sometimes you have to start with small talk before you get to the big talk. Sometimes with guys you need to talk about football before you talk about his affair. Sometimes you need to talk about the horrible heat outside before you talk about heaven and hell. Our little talk can lead to the big talk.

As part of the program the United Methodist Men talked about the clothes closet they run for homeless men that is downtown and part of the ARCH, the community outreach to the homeless. I didn’t even know they did this ministry. After the program, I was visiting with one of the men who works in this clothing ministry 3 Mondays a month. He said, “We try to form relationships with these men. We call them by name. We look them in the eye. We shake their hands. Last Monday, I shook the guy’s hand. I was trying to let go, but he continued to hold onto my hand. He said, ‘Pray for me.’ So I took him out of the way. I kept holding his hand. I put my other hand on his shoulder. Then I listened…to God…to what was going on in this man. All I felt about him was anger. I prayed, ‘Dear God, you know your child, you know how angry he is, you know what is behind this…’ The guy was crying. I prayed for his healing. At the end of the prayer, I took him to the pastor because I knew he needed even more talk and healing.

We establish relationship. We listen…to God and to the person. We pray. We take the message out of this 2 dimensions into the God dimension. People need to hear a word from God. We have that good news.

Sometimes, people have gotten an MRI or an EKG, but they want to hear from JC. Sometimes, people measure themselves by the size of their stock portfolio. This past week they went up and down like a yo-yo. They need to hear the message of their worth as a child of God.

Who needs to hear the message that God has placed upon your heart? Who is in your sphere of influence? Is there a co-worker, a neighbor, a family member who need needs good news? You might write their name on that sticky note. You have a message and an address now.

Paul certainly did this. He met people where they were with the message of God’s love in Jesus Christ. In chapters 9-11 here in Romans, he is arguing that this love is for everyone. He did by going to synagogues and to marketplaces. He would witness when he was brought to trial in the courtroom. He walked and took boats to take the gospel to new places. He wrote letters to encourage the spread of the good news.

In this passage are so many words about the message: lips, proclaim, preach, confess, good news. Now it is our turn to share the message. That is the good news I have to share with you today.

a crumby God

2011-08-11T05:14:00.000-07:00

8/11/11 My breath prayer today comes Matthew 15:27, :She said, 'Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.'" Jesus is outside the boundaries of Israel in the region of Tyre and Sidon. A woman from way outside the boundaries of the Jewish faith, a Canaanite woman, approaches Jesus. She begs, and pleads, and intercedes on behalf of her daughter who is demon-possessed. Jesus is reluctant to act...until the woman pulls the punch line of even dogs get to eat the crumbs from their masters' tables. Even a little bit from Jesus is more than enough. I would rather have a crumb from God's table than all of the riches of this world. Just a little bit of bread and juice at the communion table become the mystery of the presence of Christ. Just a little bit of fellowship and prayer with some other believers is more than enough to sustain me for the journey. All I need is a crumby God.

Love,
Lynn

collage

2011-08-10T06:01:00.000-07:00

8/10/11 Yesterday, we had our annual staff retreat. We try to spend some time away from our usual routines to look back at what went well and what could have gone better. We look ahead and put some programs and ministries on the calendar. We address some problem areas and anticipate conflicts in launching new programs.

Every year, I try to have some surprise or enrichment to get us to look at things differently. In other years, we have had a drum circle or instruction in Xi Gong. Yesterday we met at Eye of the Dog Art Studio. Beverly was our resource person. She also happens to be the sister of Hilary our children's minister.

Beverly had us do a collage. We could choose a canvas mounted on a box. We could paint it, add pictures or words to it. Beverly had a huge collection of ephemera (fancy word for left-overs, like magazines, wrapping paper, sheet music, coins, buttons, etc.). We were to create a piece of art, using both sides of our brains. I was very task-oriented and finished before anyone else. I saw where the staff members were crowded around one area, so I would go to another area and let whatever I found there speak to me.

My collage was on the smallest canvas. I wanted to take the pressure off myself of trying to fill a large space. I painted the background a navy blue, my favorite color. I put the word "faith" in the center. I had butterflies as symbols of the resurrection. I have a piece of sheet music to illustrate my love of music. I had the word "Yes" in raised wooden letters (tiles from scrabble). I had a phrase, "it is ok to be assertive," as that is something I am integrating more into my life now. I had another phrase, "seeing thing differently" upside down. I had a key to show openness to God. I had a coin to show concerns over retirement. I had a dice to show that our choices matter, but I had the number 3 showing face up on it to illustrate that God, the Triune God, is Sovereign.

This is not an exercise that I would have chosen for myself, which is exactly why I wanted to do it. Our staff all shared their collages with the whole group. They seemed to have gotten a new insight into themselves and into one another.

Love,
Lynn

nothing can separate us from the love of God

2011-08-08T06:35:00.001-07:00

from my sermon on 8/7/11 from Romans 8:31-39

We often read this passage at funerals. At funerals we may be asking the question, "Can death separate us from the love of God?" I don't want to make light of death. Grief can hurt. Wen we lose someone, there can be shock, numbness, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and just pure exhaustion. We wonder if we have been left all alone.

We who believe in the God revealed in Jesus Christ have a particular answer to the question, can death separate from the love of God. In Jesus, we have a God, who has lived our life with all of its thoughts and feelings, who has died our death, and lives again so that we might live also. We follow Christ in life, in death, in life beyond death. So can death separate us from the love of God? We say, "No!" Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul is so sure that of this that he lists some 17 things that could threaten to cut us off from God's love: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, angels, rulers, powers...
What's on your list? My suspicion is that you have a list of things that you think might keep God's love from you. Maybe it's who's on your list? What person threatens you.

Your list might contain the loss of your job. We have many euphemisms: laid off, made redundant, reduction in force, etc. It may be that you have retired. I know of us males it is particularly hard. So much of our identity is tied up in what we do. Can the loss of your job separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus? No.

Maybe it's cancer, such a dread disease. Yesterday, a longtime friend of ours was buried. Kelli was a teacher, a worker at NASA, a wife, a mother. She was a seeker. When we first came to know her, she was not a believer. We invited her to Bible study. She came with her questions. When she got cancer, her questions got clarified. I don't mean that God caused her cancer. I mean that Kelli started asking about the meaning of her life. She came to believe in Jesus Christ and to testify to his goodness. Can cancer separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus? No.

Can the start of school? It won't be long now, but the answer is still no. Can this awful Texas heat?...well, the answer is still no.

How about something you did a long time ago, something you still hold against yourself. You know right where the evidence is kept. You keep it carefully filed away. No. Paul says, nothing in all creation. We are God's creatures. Not even ourselves, our worst enemies, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Our greatest fear is the fear of being alone. Paul affirms that nothing can separate us from the love of God. We are never alone.

There is one part of the passage I would like to omit, the part of being sheep being led to the slaughter. I don't like that imagery. I went back and read Psalm 44 from whence the quote comes. It is an affirmation of faith in the Lord God who has worked our salvation all down through the ages. It says though that faithfulness to God does not equal success and big rewards. In fact, sometimes faithfulness to God engenders persecution and hardship. Still, we remain loyal to God, in spite of the outward circumstances.

That leads me to my closing, a film clip, which I rarely do. It comes from Places in the Heart, a movie set in Waxahachie, Texas, during the dust bowl, during the Depression. In the opening scene, a young black man accidentally shoots the sheriff and kills him. A lynching follows. The widow, played by Sally Fields, who wins an Oscar by the way, is struggling with 2 small children. The bank officer places a blind relative as a boarder with her. She gets a black man to help her farm. They must produce a crop to keep the bank from foreclosing on the farm. There is a drought, a tornado, and all kinds of trials. They make it through. In this final scene, they are in a church service. The critics pan this scene, but I think it is so powerful. See them pass the elements of the sacrament of communion along the pews--the bread and the tray with the little cups. There are ordinary citizens in the town. Now watch closely, the black man who helped them farm is sitting in the pews with the racist white folks. He serves the blind man boarder next to him. He serves the 2 little children. They serve their mom. She serves her dead husband, who serves the young black man who shot him. The young black man says ever so softly, "Peace of God."

That is what is happening today in this sacrament of communion. As we gather at the table, we claim that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

what are you seeking

2011-08-04T05:52:00.000-07:00

8/4/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from Genesis 37:14b-15, "He came to Shechem, and a man found him wandering in the fields; the man asked him, 'What are you seeking?'" I wonder if you ever feel like this, wandering in the fields. You are not outstanding in your field; you are out standing in your field, not knowing where to go, what to do. The question the man asked is a good one: What are you seeking?

In the church we have "seeker services." We believe that it is not simply "what" but "whom" are you seeking.

St. Augustine said it well long ago, "our hearts are restless, till they find their rest in thee."

What are you seeking?

Love,
Lynn

2 degrees

2011-08-03T06:09:00.000-07:00

8/3/11 It has been hot here lately....unholy hot...hot enough to try one's soul...hot enough to cause an electric power alert. The past few days as I have driven home, listening to NPR on KUT radio, the alarm has gone out: conserve electricity, especially between 3 and 7 p.m. I cannot save the world, but I can do my little part. I have turned our A/C temperature setting up 2 degrees to 79 degrees.

We can blame big corporations, but everyone of us has a responsibility for God's creation. Some of the biggest polluters, users of energy, and causes of global warming are the billions of us who drive our cars, use all kinds of electrical devices, and turn our A/C's down. I propose turning our A/C's up 2 degrees in order to keep our planet from heating up another 2 degrees.

Love,
Lynn

feet

2011-08-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

8/2/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from Romans 10:15, "And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? Asit is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'" A book of devotions called the Daily Disciplines had as its focus this passage today. The author remarked about his feet that he did didn't think of them as very beautiful. When I look at my feet, I see a large scar on my left foot. When I was a preschooler, I was playing on a swingset in my grandparents' back yard in Marble Falls, Texas. A piece of metal scraped the top of my left foot off. I can remember it vividly, rolling around in the grass in the dark, squeezing my foot. When my parents got me to the back porch light, they were shocked to find a bloody mess. I remember getting 13 stitches at the emergency room at the hospital. It took a long time to heal in my memory. And getting the stitches out is still seared into my mind.

I have had other trouble with my feet, especially rashes. I am prone to skin irritation, and sweaty, non-aerated places like inside shoes only help.

But these feet have been called to proclaim the gospel. Week by week I stand before the gathered community and try to string together some words of hope and healing. Some of my colleagues preach bare-footed, emulating Moses' example of realizing he was standing on holy ground. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!

Love,
Lynn

temporary relief

2011-08-01T06:08:00.000-07:00

8/1/11 I woke up this morning to the news that our nation's governmental leaders are striking a deal that will avert a default on our paying our bills. I am relieved...temporarily. My breath prayer for the day comes from Romans 10:9, "If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." When I read this verse, I wish it meant just a one-time-walking-up-front-at-the-end-of-the-service-profession-of-faith. I have come to believe that following Jesus is an all day, every day joy and discipline. It is not just a temporary relief, one time acts. I know our nation has many more steps to take and issues to resolve. I am happy for the temporary relief, but I am also longing for the longterm relief.

Love,
Lynn

all things work together for good

2011-07-31T13:06:00.000-07:00

from my sermon on 7/31 from Romans 8:28-30

The most important thing is how you look at things, your frame of reference. Christians have unique way of looking at things. Therefore, we can say with Paul, "We know that all things work together for good with those who love God who are called according to his purpose."

Now this sounds a bit crazy.....all things? Really? I am sure that the church in Rome didn't have it easy. They were trying to move beyond being just a minor sect of Judaism and establish their own identity. They could be accused of being atheists by the other citizens who worshiped the emperor. Finally, they were trying to make community out of disparate groups, men and women, slave and free, all classes of society. All things work together for good?

It's not easy today. Something is happening here in the USA in 2 days....oh yeah, our government is going to be in default mode. You can pick up any media and pick the crisis du jour...this week, how about the famine in Somalia. We can't bear to see the images of the little children with bloated bellies. Can you see how all things work together for good?

It's not easy in your personal lives. I have a friend who is going through a divorce. How hard that is! I know someone else struggling with depression. Lest we make light of depression, at our Stephen Ministry training, I heard a story of a woman who had had cancer and then depression. When asked to pick which she would rather have had, she said the cancer was easier than the depression. How can we see that all things work together for good?

I have good news for you today. It is more than pablum. It is more than pollyanna optimism. You need more than trite phrases, "If life gives you lemons....make lemonade. Behind every cloud is a .....silver lining." As Christians, we have more than simplistic answers.

Part of the way we look at things is that we take the long view. Here I need to tell you the story of the lucky farmer from the book, Zen Shorts, by Jon J Muth.

There once was an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day, his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. Such bad luck, they said sympathetically. Maybe, said the farmer. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it 2 other wild horses. Such good luck, the neighbors exclaimed. Maybe, replied the farmer. The following day, his son tried to ride 1 of the untamed horses, was thrown off, and broke his leg. Again, the neighbors came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. Such bad luck, they said. Maybe, answered the farmer. The day after that, the military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army to fight in a war. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. Such good luck, cried the neighbors. Maybe, said the farmer.

Maybe, we Christians say. Who we are, what we feel, what we are to do is not determined by the latest crisis or victory. We see that governments come and go, wars come and go, crises come and go. We take the long view. We see that the God of Creation is at work in all things, and is drawing all things to God's culmination as it says in Revelation to a point where there are n more tears or pain or crying anymore. We Christians see God as Sovereign. We may act for good or bad, but God is always acting for our good. As we said in the creed this morning, "his will is ever directed to his children's good."

I know that the NRSV says all things work together for good. But I would like to reframe the verse. It can also be better translated, We know that in all things, God works together for good with those who love him who are called according to his purpose. God is the subject, not all things. God is the actor who can make all things work together for our good.

I have an illustration. Each week our worship team gets together to plan what happens for this hour together. Frank, who leads the 9 a.m. contemporary service is a part of this team. He has 2 little children, Sophie and Jamison. This past Tuesday, Frank was late to our morning meeting, because he was trying to get them dressed and out the door. On the way over, big sister Sophie was trying to explain to Jamison where they were going. Now Frank teaches English and film at Keeling Middle School, so Sophie said, "We are going to church. We are going to see Pastor Lynn. Now remember Pastor Lynn? He's a main character."

And so I am a main character...and you are too. But really the most main character is the Lord God of the Universe. Now this leads into how we are predestined. We are not Presbyterians. by predestined, I take it to mean that God is fulfilling God's plan for us in spite of us. We are still free to pursue our little scripts, but God will ultimately bring the drama to unfold in God's own way and time. We are not pre-determined, but God is determined to invite us into his plan of redemption for all creation. That is the big picture.

The more precise picture is that God is drawing us into the image of his son; he is conforming us to his icon, literally. We are being shaped into the image of Christ. We...not a solo effort...the whole Christian community is being transformed. We are taking on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus in our community. That is God's desire, destiny for us.

Therefore, we can see God working in all things for our good. Even the debt crisis. As Christians, we are being called to take up the banner for the most vulnerable. Our solutions should not be upon the backs of the poor. As we talked last week, God has a preferential bias for the poor, the widow, the orphan, the sojourner in the land.

The famine and hunger crisis in Somalia has galvanized the world's attention. We as believers can work together across denominational lines. Hungry people don't care what denominational label is on the bag of food. We can even work across interfaith lines. It doesn't matter if it is a cross or a crescent or a Star of David on the bag of food. Even secular governments can work together for good.

God can work together for good in all things. Can you see this? Tom Bridges could. He was the District Attorney in San Patricio county where I formerly served. He served in the military, got out and got his law degree, met his wife Mary. They never had any kids...biologically. But he often served as mentor for confirmands and helped in children's Sunday School. He was a member of my church and trusted friend. When I had a problem or issue, I would go to Tom for advice. You would think he might become cold and heartless, but he was a genuine, loving man. He often was in Bible study with me. His favorite verse was this one, We know that in all things God works together for good with those who love him who are called according to his purpose. It is a good way for you to memorize and orient you life around too.

I was wondering why this passage was so important to me this week. For one, God is the great Reframer. God takes the cross which the world looks upon as a sign of persecution and makes it a symbol of empathy for our pain, takes the cross which the world looks upon as a sign of defeat and makes it a symbold of victory, and takes the cross which the world looks upon as a sign of death and makes it a symbol for life.

This passage is important to me because I see that following Jesus is better than not following Him, that being part of Christian community is better than not, and that God's purposes are for our good, not our harm. That's the good news I have today.

work for good

2011-07-28T05:30:00.000-07:00

7/28/11 One of my favorite memory verses that I have long treasured is Romans 8:28, "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose." Right now, our country is struggling with a debt debate. The fear in people is palpable. Those on Social Security are worried that the August check won't be there. People are afraid that their investments may plummet.

Others are struggling with the heat. Farmers and ranchers are looking at dried up crops and selling livestock. If the drought is bad here, then it is terrible in Somalia, where millions are on the brink of starvation.

We are still reeling from the shooting of the children in Norway by a man who purports to be a Christian, likening himself to a knight fighting against Islam.

I bring these things up to show how difficult it is to see how they could possibly work for good. I believe the only way we can see any good come out of them is by believing.....by believing in the God whose will is ever directed to his children's good. God is sovereign. God's will will be done. God is always on the side of healing, of hope, of wholeness. God invites us to look beyond the immediate hurt to see how we could be part of God's eternal purposes. The God revealed in Jesus Christ is always working for good.

Love,
Lynn

cured their sick

2011-07-27T05:33:00.001-07:00

7/27/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from Matthew 14:14, "When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick." I am just back from vacation, so these last few days have found trying to get in the flow again. Part of that is catching up with people in vulnerable situations, some who have cancer, some who have experience grief, some who are wheel-chair bound, some with depression, etc. I have been making phone calls and sending emails. I want to let these people know that they are not alone and that they are being prayed for by me and by many.

I am just back from Stephen Ministry training where I was reminded that we are the care-givers, only Christ is the cure-giver. We can listen and love, but only Christ can bring the healing. I like how the passage includes Jesus' compassion for all people, especially the most vulnerable. I pray that Jesus may continue to be our Great Physician, curing the sick.

Love,
Lynn

with sighs too deep for words

2011-07-26T05:41:00.000-07:00

from my sermon on July 24 from Romans 8:26-27

Let's do a quick opinion poll. By a show of hands, how many here consider yourselves to experts at praying?......not a single one. Okay, how many here would like to become better at praying? ....almost everyone Well, you have come to the right place. That's exactly what God wants for you, with sighs too deep for words.

The passage says that we don't know how to pray as we ought, but that the Spirit helps us in our praying, interceding for us, with sighs too deep for words. The Holy Spirit, that may be a hard concept for us to grasp, but the Holy Spirit is the presence of God in every present moment. That Spirit is here to help us learn how to pray better.

Some of us are fortunate because that Spirit was working in the family where we grew up. Praying was modeled for us. You may have been prayed for ever since you were in utero. You may have grown up with prayers at suppertime. They may have been very serious prayers. They may have been, "Rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub, Yeah, God!" They may have been sung like the Johnny Appleseed song or the Doxology to the tune of "Fernando's Hideaway." You may have learned bedtime prayers....God bless mommy and daddy and the pets and brother and sister... You may have learned rote prayers like "Our Father, who art in heaven..." Then came the day when you were trusted to find your own voice and pray for yourself. Does this script ring true for some of you?

You may have been taken to worship where you learned to pray in community. Today, you find yourself in worship. It is the right place to learn how to pray with sighs too deep for words.

I long thought that this phrase, "with sighs too deep for words," meant that the sighs were ours. They were things that we couldn't put into words, couldn't express, yet the Spirit heard them better than we could say them, and carried them to the ear of God. But a theologial I admire, Walter Wink, gave me a whole new understanding. He said that it is the Spirit of God who is sighing. We are the ones called to hear and put into words and actions what God is saying. I know that this may a new concept to most of you so take some time to let this roll around your soul. It means we move beyond presenting our grocery list of prayers to God to listening for God's grace list of prayers for us that we then give voice to. The more we learn how to pray, the less it becomes about our speaking, and the more it becomes about our listening to the Spirit's sighs.

I will give you an example. Several years ago when I first became acquainted with this concept of prayer, you are not going to believe this next part, but some nations were forcing children to become soldiers. I will never forget the picture of this young boy in Africa, maybe 12 years old, squatting down, with an assault rifle in his hands, and get this, a teddy bear backpack on his back. Can you hear the Spirit sighing? I heard the Spirit sighing, "This is not right. This is not what I intend for my children. Stop doing this!"

I know that that is a very serious example. The sighs are not always so sobering and sad. I have another more positive example for you. We read the Bible to soak ourselves in the Spirit's sighing. From the very beginning of Creation, the Spirit was there, hovering over the face of the waters, bringing order out of chaos. God's Spirit filled humankind's lungs and we became living beings. God through the Spirit has declared creation good and humankind as very good. Three weeks ago, on Sunday morning, I got up to take a hike in Angel Fire, New Mexico. I left our little condo, walked down the mountain at 8500 feet, across the road, and started up the Bear trail on the other mountain. It is very early as I am still on Texas time, just at first light. Along the trail in the meadow, I spot 2 elk. I get to the top of the trail and go on the connecting trail called Coyote trail. Just where it meets the Elk trail, I heard and saw movement off to my left. Coming down off the mountain crossing some 50 yards in front of me was a black bear. Then I looked more closely and saw a small cub following close behind. I stood still...absolutely still...not a sound. You don't get between a mama bear and its cub. I listened and heard the Spirit sighing. The Spirit said, "All creation is for you to enjoy. Celebrate its goodness, your goodness. Take care of it. Don't use it up. Don't abuse it. Don't use it as your toilet, spoiling the earth, sky, or water." The mama and cub wandered on up another hill.

Another example, since you know I am just back from summer vacation. If you are in Taos, New Mexico, you must eat at Michael's Kitchen. Order the Southwestern omelette with 3 eggs and all of those spices. Get the hash browns. I know that they are not on your diet, but you walk them off later. When the waitress asks what kind of hot sauce do you want: red, green,...or Christmas...get it? red and green mixed, just smile. I heard the Spirit sighing, "It is good to rest....to still be in love with your wife...to enjoy tasty food."

We read the Bible to get perspective, to get in the flow of the Spirit's sighing. We read of all those prophets who said, "the Spirit of the Lord came upon me..." They heard the Spirit sighing over and over again that God's favor was upon "the widow, the orphan, the sojourner in the land." The Spirit sighs for the most vulnerable. The rich and the powerful will take care of themselves. God has a preferential favor for the poor. Mary Lou Batlan and I are just back from Stephen Ministry training. This ministry is so that lay persons may be equipped to listen to other persons in pain. Not to try to fix them or diagnose them, but simply to love them by listening to them. We hear the Spirit's sighs too deep for words as we hear people's pain.

Let's practice listening for the Spirit's sighing now. I am going to mention a topic. I want you to pause and be still. That's why we have come to worship: to unhook from our schedules, our screens, our ear buds, our noise....so that we can listen for the Spirit's sighs.

The budget crisis in the United States........

The massacre of innocent children in Norway.......It grieves me that this disturbed individual saw himself as a Christian trying to strike a blow against Islam. When I pray about this, I hear the Spirit sighing, "I am tired of people killing other people in my name."

Can you hear the Spirit sighing? I hope you can, so that you will not become overwhelmed. It is like what I do when I go out walking and praying in the mornings. I pick up trash. I pick up at least one piece of trash that I didn't generate, but I don't try to pick up all of the trash. I pick up only what my 2 hands can carry. Listening for the Spirit's sighs helps us keep perspective. We can do some things, but we don't have to do all things. We can do our part and then rest secure in God's providence.

Walter Wink says that social action without prayer is "do-goodism" that can lead to exhaustion, frustration. It can be soulless. And prayer without action lacks integrity.

Listening for the Spirit's intereceding with sighs too deep for words helps us to see God's possibilities and to respond with hope. Walter Wink says the future belongs to the intercessors who learn how to pray listening for the sighs too deep for words.

whatever became of sin

2011-06-26T08:54:00.001-07:00

From my sermon on 6/26/11 from Romans 6:12-23

The Gospel according to Mayberry…yes, there is a Sunday School curriculum based on the popular TV show where Andy Griffith is the sheriff of Mayberry. He is a single dad raising his son Opie with Aunt Bea’s help. In one episode, Opie falls asleep in church, or is not paying attention, so Andy is quizzing him after the service. “What was the sermon about?” “It was about sin.” “Well, what did the preacher say about it?” “He said that he was ‘against’ it.”

Whatever became of sin? Do we still talk about it? Still deal with it?

I once preached a series of 7 sermons on sin and salvation. Try saying that fast 3 times, “series of 7 sermons on sin and salvation.” People actually came and appreciated it. I didn’t just talk about sin as breaking a law, but more about breaking God’s heart. Sin felt like being far from home, being dirty, feeling defeated. I told the truth about who we are—sinners…who are forgiven, restored by God’s love.

We don’t want to deal with sin. Those in politics use the passive voice, “Mistakes were made.” We are not just people who make mistakes, fudge answers, tell little white lies. We are rebellious, selfish, vindictive, petty persons and communities—less than who God intends for us to be. We can dodge responsibility. When I was growing up, there was a comedian on TV named Flip Wilson. He played a church lady character who would sin from time to time. The excuse was always…”The Devil made me do it.” The story is as old as the garden of Eden where the man blames the woman for eating the forbidden fruit, and the woman blames the snake for its smooth talk. We are prone to point the finger at someone else, not realizing that 3 fingers are pointing back at us.

Paul doesn’t dodge sin. In this short passage the word is mentioned 10 times. Each time the word in Greek is hamartia. It literally means missing the mark, like an arrow that is off, nowhere near the bull’s eye on the target. I know a United Methodist pastor who was on the women’s Olympic archery team. She said this meaning really resonates with her. She said, “Think about it. If you are off just a little when the arrow leaves the bow, how much it will be off when it reaches the target!” Is that what you feel? That you are off just a little bit from what God intends.

Your name is King David, and it is springtime when armies go off to fight, but you are old, and so you stay home. Bored in the palace, you look across the way to the nearby roof top where a beautiful lady is taking a bath. Now you may be old, but you are not dead. You invite her over. How she can say no, you are the king after all. Soon, she is in your arms, and then pregnant. You have to deal with her husband, so you set him up in the front lines of battle where he gets killed. And you see how you can be just a little bit off at the start, and you can totally miss the target.

You see that you can make a lot of money by doing home loans. What if you bundle the loans together, and then come up with a new product, derivatives, and sell them. What if you then make riskier loans, because the more you get on the books, the more money you make. What if you hedge your bets and even take out insurance if they fail. And by the way, you are too big to fail. You will get bailed out. And you can see how you can be a little bit off at the start and you can totally miss the target.

You understand that sin is individual and corporate.

What does it hurt to take just one bite of the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden? You can miss the target, harmatia.

That leads us to another major metaphor for sin in this passage, that of being enslaved. Now that language might not fit our modern context so well. In Paul’s time, it has been estimated that up to 2/3 of the people in Rome would serve as slaves at some time in their lives. People became slaves after being captured in battle. Others would find themselves in debt or be born as a slave. Slaves were in all levels of society and professions, a servant class owing allegiance to their master/patron.

Maybe better language for us today would be feeling trapped or addicted. We get trapped in our overfunctioning, our speed, our pressure.

How dangerous it is to believe that one is free from all rules, all constraints. Paul says the only freedom we have is to choose to what do we want to be enslaved. By what God has done for us in Jesus Christ is it possible for us to be free.

Paul says it is the free gift of God. The word is charisma in Greek. Within charisma is the word for grace, charis. God’s fierce love for, unearned, freely given is the only way out of being trapped in sin.

Even after we are baptized and confirm our faith, we sin. Can I get an amen? An older pastor was telling some of us younger ones about his baptism story. He was 12 or 13 years old. His mom had gotten him a new suit. Many family members made a special effort to come to the worship service. The church family gathered round as he was baptized and professed his faith in Jesus Christ. There was a big dinner at his parents’ house after the worship service. He changed out of his new suit, went outside, and did something he had never done before. He kicked his dog. His friend, his companion, his pet, who had never done anything against him. He kicked his dog. Where did that come from? He thought to himself, “This following Christ thing is harder than it looks.”

It is a lifetime process. It’s like being in AA. When you walk in the door, everybody knows what you are. Hello, my name is Lynn, and I am an alcoholic. Here at church, it is the same way. Hello, my name is Lynn, and I am a sinner. We need to admit we are powerless over sin, and that only Jesus Chris can set us free.

I believe that the life we have in Christ is the only way to sanity. It is why we keep coming back here week after week, to work the steps to wholeness. It is why we read the Bible, pray, worship, find ourselves in accountability groups—to become the people God intends us to be. It is the only way to freedom, by being enslaved to Christ.

Maybe why we have such a problem talking about sin is that we have a problem really believing in the free gift of God’s love. We pastors are the worst. We say that we believe in God’s grace, but they we act like functioning atheists, by thinking if we only work harder or longer, then we can fix the situation. This is sin, thinking we don’t really need God.

The only way to freedom from sin is to be in bondage to Christ, to follow him. The question is: Can we accept this free gift?

leaning into vacation

2011-06-23T07:06:00.000-07:00

6/23/11 This will be last or next to last blog for awhile. I will be leaving on vacation right after morning worship on Sunday. I have been telling people not to stand in my way after I say "amen" about 12:15 p.m. on June 26. Cathy and I will be heading to Angel Fire, New Mexico, where the elevation is about 8500 feet, and it is cool in the summer. We will see my mom who lives in Lubbock on the way coming and going.

So these last few days have been full of trying to think ahead--get the worship bulletin done for 4 weeks from now, get articles into the newsletter, make appointments for when I get back, finish up last details on various matters.

I am still here, but I am already anticipating hiking in the mountains, smelling the pine trees, and enjoying wearing a light jacket. I am leaning into vacation.

Love,
Lynn

how long

2011-06-22T07:12:00.000-07:00

6/22/11 It rained last night...1 1/2 inches at our house. How long had we gone without rain? How long has the temperature been at 100 degrees and higher? How long will we stay in Afghanistan? The President is supposed to tell us tonight. How long will this economic downturn last? How long will the tension between Israel and Palestine go on? How long will cancer, addictions, depression, abuse, ect., continue to stalk us?

My breath prayer for the day is from Psalm 13:1, "How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?" We join our voices with all of those faithful ones down through the ages whose trust in God was so great that they would dare to confront the Almighty with the question, "How long?"

The wonderful thing is that the LORD God does not reject us or our question.

Love,
Lynn

the LORD will provide

2011-06-21T06:11:00.000-07:00

6/21/11, my breath prayer for yesterday came from Gen. 22:14, "So Abraham called that place 'The LORD will provide'; as it is said to this day, 'On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.'" The story is that of the near sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. At the last possible moment before Isaac is to be offered up on the altar, a ram is produced, caught in a thicket.

Right now, I have an issue, really it is tiny one, but one where I am praying that the LORD will provide. I have pushed on it, waited on it, tried delegating it.....all to no resolution. Maybe that is the sacrifice, letting go of the control, and trusting God completely.

Love,
Lynn

go with the flow

2011-06-20T06:31:00.000-07:00

from my sermon on 6/19/11 from Genesis 1-2:4a

Imagine that you are an exile in Babylon, more than 500 years before the birth of Christ. All that you counted on has been taken away from you: Jerusalem has been destroyed, the Temple razed, your home levelled. You have been marched 100's of miles away from your home by foreign armies. Once you were a shopkeeper, but here you are forced to be a farmer, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

It is Friday night, the start of the sabbath. You go to worship service next to the Chebar river. How can you worship? What can possibly capture how you are feeling. You sing... you sing Psalm 137:1

By the waters, the waters of Babylon,
We laid down and wept, and wept, for thee Zion,
We remember thee, remember thee, remember thee Zion.

You had your tears to the water of the river. What can the priests do, the rabbis say, the scholars write to minister to your situation. They take the old stories of the creation, and they re-work them, they re-edit them.

To a world that seeem to be without form and void, they say, "God created everything that is, the heavens and the earth." To the disorder you are experiencing they say, "There was evening and morning, Day 1, Day 2, Day 3,..." To the voices that call you slave, Jew, and all kind of names, they say, "God created you in God's own image, and God called you very good."

This is exactly the context in which this first creation story was written down in the form that we have it. The priests, the rabbis, and the scholars did not write a history, they offered hope. They did not offer science, but salvation. They did not present a paper, they offered pastoral care. They did not say how, but who. In the midst of the chaos, they said that God willfully, intentionally created the whole universe and is therefore much bigger than any government or current event.

Can you get into that flow today? That God has created and is still creating? That God is still speaking and creating new possibilities for us?

Today is Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when word finally reached Texas that the Civil War was over and that slavery had come to an end. How much sweat and tears had been produced! That is a part of God's flow toward salvation. It flowed through the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's, sometimes through blood. It continues today wherever people are fighting for their rights.

Today is Father's Day. I remember 27 years ago, Cathy and I were standing on a bridge in Lampasas, Texas, over the Lampasas River. Our older son Joel was 2 1/2 years old. We asked him what he wanted, because you see Cathy was great with child. Joel tossed his penny into the river and asked for a baby brother. Two weeks later on July 10, Matthew (gift of God is what his name means), came into this world. Tears of joy are part of this flow. I ask you dads out there to give thanks for your children. And for all of you to remember your fathers--both biological and theological.

Today, we celebrate Zvonko's 50th birthday. His son Igor dove into the swimming pool here in Austin just over a year ago and injured his spine. Although we wish this never happened, and God didn't intend for it to happen, I would not give up the relationships that have been formed over this past year as we have gone this journey together. I reflected on all this on Wednesday as I visited Igor in the hospital and watched the IV tube drip antibiotic into his vein. This is a part of the flow.

Our baptism is part of the flow. We are caught up in the water of creation, of God saving Noah and those on the ark, of the people crossing the Red Sea, of them entering the promised land through the Jordan, and of Jesus being baptized. All of those saving events are a part of going with the flow.

You will be happy to know that I have good results from my blood work and annual physical. I am in excellent shape. As a part of this review, I had my "wellness conversation," a session with a counselor. It is way to measure how crazy one must be to be a pastor. I have known Sara for years, and as I poured out my story, she said, "As an eldest son, you are super-responsible. You think you are supposed to take care of everything, to be able to fix anything. What you are dealing with as you age is the fact of your limits, that you will not be able to resolve all of the issues." It felt like the truth to me.

That's what I love about this banner that we dedicate today. It depicts the river of life. I am but one little piece of blue cloth from a tie I donated. I am caught up in a community of faith that has gone before me and will continue after me. I am not God. God has partnered with us. I am going with that flow.

I love it that the banner is for ordinary time. When is ordinary time in the church? It is after Pentecost and before Advent, in other words, most of the year. Thank God that God comes in ordinary time! Most of life is spent in ordinary time, getting by, coping, maintaining. We are caught up in this flow, in the river of life.

Therefore we can rest. We can let go. We can worship. This is the most important hour we spend each week, remembering that if God who created everything that is rested, then we can rest also. We go with the flow of God's rhythms of work and rest. We won't resolve everything. We let God be God.

I love how our Christian Bible ends. In the very last chapter of our Bible, Revelation 22:1, it says, "An angel showed me the river of life bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God." From the first words of the Bible to the last, there is a flow of God's creative presence.

The good news I have to share with you today is go with the flow.

benediction

2011-06-16T12:31:00.000-07:00

6/16/11 My breath prayer for the day is very familiar to some of us who attend worship services as it is often used as the last words in the service, the benediction, from II Corinthians 13:14, The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

Love,
Lynn

sovereign Lord

2011-06-15T08:29:00.000-07:00

6/15/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from Psalm 8:1, O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. I like to pretend that I am in control. I don't think I am unique in this feeling. We go through life, setting appointments, making plans, creating schedules, as if we were in the driver's seat. But we are not.

Cathy and I have a little condo in Corpus Christi that we have been remodeling. It has endured 6 years of renting by college students. As we began the remodeling project, we have been blessed to find workmen right next door that could do the flooring...and then the replacement of the bathroom vanities....and then the plumbing. Sometimes not being in control feels like God is watching out for you before you even know it. Not being in control also feels the opposite, like yesterday, when after a lot of hard work and we thought the unit was ready to go again, we got a call that we had a leak, and that our downstairs neighbors condo had water damage. OUch! Cathy made a quick trip to Corpus to take care of it.

Only God is Sovereign. The psalmist realizes this in the majesty of creation....that he has no control over. That's one of the reasons I walk in the early morning in the midst of trees, and creek, and a pair of foxes yesterday morning, and rising sun, and scurrying clouds...to remember that God is sovereign Lord.

Love,
Lynn

rested

2011-06-14T06:32:00.000-07:00

6/14/11 My breath prayer for the day comes from Genesis 2:3, So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation. I am not very good at resting. My earliest memories are of getting up early in the morning and running after my daddy trying to keep up with him as we worked on the farm. That imprinting has been reinforced by being the eldest son and feeling responsible. Further I grew up in the church hearing the stories of how we are to take care of the vulnerable ones around us. So, I became a help-aholic. To paraphrase Will Rogers, I never met a need I didn't like. And we live in a world of infinite need. I have gotten lots of affirmation for doing nice things for other people. But I also grew weary. When I hit age 50, and 25 years of ordained ministry, I took a sabbatical summer, 9 weeks off. I found that I could rest....and that the world kept spinning...other people could fill needs....I didn't have to work all of the time. Today, I can still lean to the over-functioning side of the equation, but I have learned also how to rest. If God can do it, surely I can too. May you also be rested.

Love,
Lynn

that pesky God

2011-06-13T08:15:00.001-07:00

That pesky God! This is my current metaphor for God. The word “pesky” was first used in the NE USA in 1775. My research shows that it is based on the word “pest” to which was added a “y”, and then the “t” became a “k”. Pesky means to irritating, bothersome, frustrating. This is my impression of God: always getting in my way, because God has a better way for me.

That pesky God showed up at Vacation Bible School. All week long the kids have been in the Bethlehem Marketplace celebrating the birth of Jesus, and today is Pentecost! How am I supposed to go from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, from the manger to the upper room , from Christmas to Pentecost, from the birth of Jesus to the birth of the Church in a few minutes. The only way is through that pesky God in the form of the Holy Spirit. I looked at the birth story of Jesus and his early ministry in Luke and found the Holy Spirit to be heavily involved. In Luke’s second volume on the life of the Church, called Acts, that same Holy Spirit is involved.

Hear the first scripture:

Luke Chapter 1:15for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink; even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Zechariah was just going to work, pulling his shift at the Temple, when that pesky God, showed up, and told him that he would have a son who would be the forerunner to the Messiah. Imagine that! God showing up in worship! Sometimes we go to worship just to check off the box. This past week we had annual conference in Corpus Christi, where we 1300 delegates had many business sessions, but also lots of worship services. One of our delegates brought her teen age son, Jake, with her. One worship service lasted 2 hours! Jake asked if that could count for 2 worship services back home!

That pesky God sometimes shows up in worship….maybe even today…for you.

Luke 1:35The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.

That pesky God comes to a girl, an unmarried teenager, and says, “Tag, you’re it. You are going to give birth to the Messiah.” Wow, what a surprise! God works God’s salvation through a youth.

This past week Audrey led our singing. On Wednesday, she had her appendix out. As she was going into surgery, she asked, “Will I be able to go back to VBS and lead singing?” She was back on Friday! You have heard her today, and she has done great.

Luke 1:41When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit

Elizabeth was an old woman, past the child bearing years. I know many of you women of a certain age would just love for that pesky God to come to you and say, “You are going to have a child!” The point is that God uses people of all ages. You may retire from your career, but you never retire from your calling.

Luke 1:67Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy:

So Zechariah and Elizabeth have a son, John the Baptist. Zechariah is able to speak after being mute. He prophesies. Prophecy is not simply telling the future; it is telling the truth. I need to tell you the truth. This past week a young boy got his let stuck between 2 logs in the casita in the playground. Probably some of you parents will never let your child come to VBS ever again! What to do? The let is wedged in there tightly. One of the 7th grade girl helpers takes 2 sheets of card stock and slips them between the let and the logs. Out the leg comes easily. That pesky God showed up again.

chapter 2:25Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. 26It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law,

Simeon had spent his whole life waiting on the coming of the Messiah. I know that we live in an age of instant messaging, streaming video, texting. We want it and we want it now! Sometimes that pesky God says, “Wait.” We operate on God’s timing, kairos time. That pesky God builds in a holy pause.

Chapter 3:16 John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

John the Baptist baptizes with water. The Messiah will baptize with water and fire. We sometimes make baptism a sweet, sentimental act. But there’s fire with the pesky God who wants to burn away all that is not of God.

Luke 3:22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

Jesus is baptized, and the Holy Spirit comes upon him. He hears God say, You are my child, I love you, I am pleased. We can’t hear this too much. I can get to feeling old and cynical, but when I heard the children sing, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, I could hear God calling me to be His child again too. That pesky God wants us to claim our true identity as beloved children.

Chapter 4:1,Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness,

Jesus at the start of his ministry is driven out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, where he will fast and be tempted. That pesky God takes us to places of ministry that are not always pleasant or easy. We are sending out 2 mission teams today: one to Uganda and one to North Carolina. You may encounter hardship, bugs in your bed, bugs in your water, as you go with this pesky God.

Luke 4:14 Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country.

That pesky God has us do ministry where and how and when God chooses. Jay Dolfuss has had several business careers. He was in transition when he came to visit me in my office. He said, “I have had lots of experiences, and I still have energy. I want to make the rest of my life count.” We talked about getting involved with Mobile Loaves and Fishes. Jay came up with a list of businesses that would offer huge discounts on products and services that would be advertised on a website. If you take advantage of that business’s deal on that day, the business would donate a portion of their profit to Mobile Loaves and Fishes. You can get on their list too.

Acts 2When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

We have experienced tornadoes lately. We are afraid of the rush of violent winds. We know about wildfires, like the massive one in Arizona right now. We are scared of fire. This past week at Annual Conference, at the opening service, the candles were lighted on the table in front of the Bishop. The he said, “The fire marshal has said we must extinguish the candles.” Don’t you find that a bit odd? I was trying to redeem this image when that pesky God came to me and said, “You believers must carry the flame out into the world.”

May that pesky God enflame you.

rivers of living water

2011-06-07T07:54:00.000-07:00

6/7//11 My breath prayer today comes from John 7:38, "Let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water." It is really dry around our part of Texas just now. We have already had 5 days where the temperature has hit 100 degrees. You can almost watch the grass turn brown in front of your eyes. Slaughter Creek that runs through the park behind our house is not running, or even trickling. It is painful to see.

I long...we all long for streams of living water. Creation cries out for showers of mercy.

Jesus says that those who believe in him shall have rivers of living water out of them, out of their hearts. As I was praying this passage, it came to me, that I would first need to get the water of life flowing into me, before it would start flowing out of me.

I am being refreshed by being part of Vacation Bible School this week. Just a few minutes ago, we sang with the children, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength." They were attentive, reverent, engaged. It touched my soul. It filled my soul. Rivers of living water began to flow into me. I pray that they may flow out of me into lives of others.

Love,
Lynn

renewed

2011-06-06T08:29:00.000-07:00

6/6/11 My breath prayer today is from Psalm 104:30, When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.

There is a spiritual retreat, a short course in Christianity called the Walk to Emmaus. There is a prayer that is said before each of the 15 talks on the walk. One line from the prayer comes from Psalm 104:30 directly. We are renewed by the Spirit of God. All of creation is renewed by the Spirit of God. God's spirit/wind/breath was blowing over the chaotic waters in the first creation story of Genesis. In the second story, God's breath/wind/spirit fills the lump of clay, and it becomes a human being. God through the Spirit makes us renewed.

Love,
Lynn

lift off

2011-06-05T11:41:00.000-07:00

from my sermon of 6/5/11 from Luke 24:44-53

Ascension Sunday...this is another one of those church holidays that I have not paid attention to. How about you? How many of you were excited because today was Ascension Sunday? One of the reasons I have blown right by this day is that because as a Christian, I feel just a little embarrassed by it. I'll explain with a story. On my first trip to the Holy Land, we were on the Mount of Olives. So here's Jerusalem right here across the Kidron Valley. We are not too far away from the Garden of Gethsemane. The guide takes us to the "traditional" spot were Jesus is said to have ascended from. Here's the rock. I don't want him to say this next part. Can you see his footprints where he lifted off?

Now I am a math major. My minor was in physics. I know that we don't live in a 3 tiered universe with heaven above us and hell beneath us. In an infinite universe, which way is up? What does ascend mean?

So why is this important for Luke to record? In fact he ends his gospel with this event. And his second volume, Acts, begins with Jesus ascending. The Christian tradition has kept this piece of theology going for 2 millenia, why?

So I had to do some research. The Bible records stories of faithful people being taken directly up to heaven. The first is Enoch in Genesis 524. One of the most famous is Elijah in II Kings, where he is lifted up on a chariot, and Elisha gets to see him. Traditions says that Moses, Ezra, and Baruch may have directly ascended too. So Jesus as Messiah, stands in a long line of faith heroes who have ascended.

One of the key verses is Psalm 110:1, where it says that Messiah will sit at the right hand of God. This is the position of honor and intimacy. You may be ho hum about this, but this is very important. For Jesus to ascend and sit at God's right hand means that he is Lord over everything.

Let me make this concrete. Jesus is Lord over Vacation Bible School that is about to start. No matter how much effort or worry we put in, he will still be Lord of it. The new worship service we are trying to launch, he is Lord of that. Jesus is sovereign. Nothing and no one is above him. Not the drug cartels in Mexico. Not the Taliban or Alqueda. Not depression or addiction or even death. No nation or situation or person is about Jesus as Messiah.

So when Jesus ascends, the Disciples are not sad and grieving. They rejoice. They go to the temple to worship. They know that Jesus rules over everything.

And because Jesus has risen above every power and authority, we can too. He calls us to join him, to rise above our baser instincts, and to become the people he intends us to be. He wants to lift us up to be with him.

Sometimes we rise above our self-destruction and desire to destroy others. I lift weights on M-W-F up in my bedroom while listening to NPR on KUT 90.5 FM. This past Monday was Memorial day so they had lots of reports on war and loss. One interview was with Anna Badkhen. She has written a book called Peace Meals about war and feasting. She has been embedded with troops all over the world. She said she finds it amazing how at the end of the day, how grateful they are to share supper together. Quickly they will start talking about other meals. When I get home, I am going to IHOP for breakfast. When I get home, I am going to the corner pizza shop and get a pie.

The interviewer asked her what was the best meal she ever had. Now she has eaten in palaces and in 4 star restaurants. Without hesitating she said, That's easy for me to say. It was in 2001, in NE Afghanistan. I was coming into a small village that had been 4 years into a drought. Now we know in Texas a little about going without rain. There was a shop, more of a lean-to at the edge of the village where a man was selling matches, soap, and cooking oil. Winter was coming. No one had any food. He was closing up his shop because no one needed any of the things he had. When he saw me, he immediately identified me a stranger, and so therefore, he immediately assumed the role of the host. But I could see the look on his face...what did he have to share? He reached inside the folds of his robe and pulled out a handful of gnarled, green raisins, and handed them to me. I didn't know if he had more hidden inside, or if this was all he had. I didn't know if this would have been his supper. What little he had, he gave to me. That was the most lavish meal I have ever had.

Sometimes, we respond to God's grace, and we rise above our pettiness, and lack of forgiveness, and we become the people God intends us to be.

Today at this table, I don't have much to offer you. It is just a little piece of bread and some grape juice. I trust that it is enough. I pray it may be a lavish meal. I hope it lifts you up so that you my become the people God intends you to be.

an unusual wedding

2011-06-02T06:32:00.000-07:00

6/2/11 Last week I traveled to College Station to perform the marriage of a young woman who was a little girl when I first met her. I was her pastor when she was in grade school through high school. She and her husband are Aggies, so it was fitting to go to the heart of Maroon and White, College Station.

The rehearsal went well. The temperature was only in the high 80's with low humidity, so it felt pretty good. The next day, the day of the wedding it was hot and humid and very windy. As I drove out to the picturesque wedding site, the thermometer in my car read 100 degrees. The groom's party still dressed in their tuxedos. I may be an Aggie, but I am not stupid. I dressed in a white guayabera short sleeve shirt. It was so windy that the flower petals that lined the walkway and bridge over which we walked all blew into the water we crossed. The best man, the groom's brother, drove a radio controlled car with the rings on it across the bridge. The maid of honor, the bride's sister, drove a radio controlled dump truck with flower petals in it across the bridge. Did I tell you that the groom was into computer science and robot design and the bride into aerospace engineering?

The bridesmaids entered on the Beach Boys's "Wouldn't It Be Nice." The processional song to which the bride entered was the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love".

With the wind blowing so hard, I had to use my preacher voice to be heard in the great outdoors. The parents of the bride gave her away. The parents of the groom gave him away. I like the equality of that.

After the declaration of marriage, the couple didn't have a unity candle. That was forethought since the wind would never have let any candle stay burning. The moms came forward with blue and green colored legos and handed them to their respective children. Then the bride and groom poured their legos into a glass cylinder, mixing them together.

The pictures didn't take long to take. The feast was at the same venue as the wedding. Wildlife behind fences was outside the picture windows. It was terrific. It was unique. It was an unusual wedding.

Love,
Lynn