1/13/10 Cathy and I saw the blockbuster movie Avatar last night. Several friends suggested that we see it in IMAX format so we went to the Bob Bullock Museum to get the full screen 3 D effect. It was an experience. I didn't cry or laugh or get emotionally moved by the story or the computer generated images or the acting. But it is really to see.
Here's the challenge to the church: How can we get people to wait in line, pay $15/person, and fill every seat just to have an experience. I am hoping that the living Christ can be even bigger than a blockbuster movie. Christ has joined us in our human experience even more than the avatar joins the humoid creatures on the alien planet.
Love,
Lynn
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
a letter
1/12/10 Last night we were celebrating Joel, our older son's 28th birthday. We were talking about their elementary school. My wife Cathy who is a teacher, ran across his first grade teacher, who remembered her name. She went to her files and pulled out a thank you letter that Cathy had written 21 years ago. The teacher said that she treasured the letter and that it was things like the letter that kept her going. Is there someone to whom you need to write a letter today?
Love,
Lynn
Love,
Lynn
Monday, January 11, 2010
baptism: beyond guilt and shame
1/11/10 from my sermon on the Baptism of the Lord, from Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
We get a lot of messages about who we are: the grade on the lastest exam, the size of our office or our salary, second string on the sports team, a doctor's diagnosis. Get this message very clearly today, God says, "You are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased." With every breath you take, "you are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased." Even if your mind wanders and you get nothing else out of worship today, "you are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased."
This is the message that Jesus got at his baptism. I think it is intended for us also. You are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased.
I want to slow this scripture passage down. We assume we know what it says, but we sometimes blend the gospel accounts together. Luke tells the story differently. Let's experience afresh.
John the Baptist is doing just what his name implies; he's baptizing. All kinds of folks are coming to him. They are full of expectation, "Are you the ONe?" "No, I am the set-up guy, the one who prepares the way. I baptize with water for repentance. The One will baptize with Holy Spirit and fire for a whole new life."
Jesus is baptized. By whom? We want to say John the Baptist, but in the verses omitted in the reading today, John is placed in prison, so he can't do it. Where is Jesus baptized? In Luke, it is not site specific. Jesus is also the last to be baptized, not the first. In fact, in Greek, his baptism is a dependent clause. It seems in Luke that Jesus is just one of the crowd. And maybe that is the point. He's one of us. In baptism, Jesus joins us in our fraility, in our humanness, in our less than humanness, in our guilt and shame. Jesus is baptized not because he has to but because he wants to. He is baptized into our desire to know what God intends us to be.
Then Jesus is praying. Look in Luke's gospel how many times Jesus is praying. Big hint for us: after our baptism, we are called to pray to seek God's will for us. Then the heavens are opened, and only in Luke does the Spirit come down in bodily form. Luke wants us to know this is not some imagination, but a public event.
Then the voice says, "You are my son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased." When I first read it I thought the whole crowd heard it, like a public address. Then I picked up the commentaries. I wish I hadn't. They seemed to say, that Jesus alone heard the voice. Then I pushed back, "Then how did we come to have this recorded. How did they hear?" I believe Jesus joins us in baptism because he wants us to know this is true for us as well, "you are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased."
This is the message we need to move beyond guilt and shame. I know a lot about guilt and shame....you see because I have been in counseling. I need to offer some definitions at this point. Guilt says, I did bad. Shame says, I am bad. Guilt says, I made a mistake. Shame says, I am a mistake. Guilt is about actions. Shame is about identity.
We get a lot of messages. One of them that I got growing up was that I was never good enough. No matter how hard I worked or how high my grades were, I was never good enough. The problem comes when we start believing that is true about ourselves. It's not just what others say about us; it's what we say about ourselves.
What can cut through that? Only, "you are my child, the beloved one, with you, I am well pleased."
I also know a lot about guilt and shame because I know something about addictive behavior. I think we live i an addictive society. I am not just talking about alcohol and other drugs, but also money, beauty, fame, power. I will illustrate with an example from my teaching human sexuality. ONe exercise I have youth do is take ads from magazine and to cut away the product from the nearly naked person trying to sell. I never even noticed the wristwatch on her body. We worship youth and beauty and success and...
The problem with addictions is that they work...up to a point. You take the alcohol or the money or the fame or food or the whatever and it always delivers an immediate high. You feel better for a little while. The problem is that there is always a corresponding low, and it is lower than you started. So you take more of the drug to get high....but then you dip lower....and so the spiral continues.
What can cut through this? Only "you are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased."
Now I believe in meditation and in medication, in dieting and in exercise and in accountability groups. But I believe in more what God says to us in our baptism, "You are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased." Even when we are fat, when we are fired, when we are a failure, "you are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased."
I am trying to invite this community to discern what is Christ's vision for us. I think we begin in our baptism in remembering who we are as God's beloved children. I think the vision expands for us to share the new with them also about who they are. Alan Graham of Mobile Loaves and Fishes does this so wonderfully well. I have been with him a little bit on the streets. Does he go up to a person on the street and say, "You're drunk...your're homeless?" NO! He says, "Hey brother, how's is going? Do you mind if I sit here?" He calls them family. He asks permission to get close. He says you are a beloved child of God with whom God is well pleased.
Who are you? We know who we are because of what God said at Jesus baptism. We know who we are because of what God said at our baptism. You are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased.
We get a lot of messages about who we are: the grade on the lastest exam, the size of our office or our salary, second string on the sports team, a doctor's diagnosis. Get this message very clearly today, God says, "You are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased." With every breath you take, "you are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased." Even if your mind wanders and you get nothing else out of worship today, "you are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased."
This is the message that Jesus got at his baptism. I think it is intended for us also. You are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased.
I want to slow this scripture passage down. We assume we know what it says, but we sometimes blend the gospel accounts together. Luke tells the story differently. Let's experience afresh.
John the Baptist is doing just what his name implies; he's baptizing. All kinds of folks are coming to him. They are full of expectation, "Are you the ONe?" "No, I am the set-up guy, the one who prepares the way. I baptize with water for repentance. The One will baptize with Holy Spirit and fire for a whole new life."
Jesus is baptized. By whom? We want to say John the Baptist, but in the verses omitted in the reading today, John is placed in prison, so he can't do it. Where is Jesus baptized? In Luke, it is not site specific. Jesus is also the last to be baptized, not the first. In fact, in Greek, his baptism is a dependent clause. It seems in Luke that Jesus is just one of the crowd. And maybe that is the point. He's one of us. In baptism, Jesus joins us in our fraility, in our humanness, in our less than humanness, in our guilt and shame. Jesus is baptized not because he has to but because he wants to. He is baptized into our desire to know what God intends us to be.
Then Jesus is praying. Look in Luke's gospel how many times Jesus is praying. Big hint for us: after our baptism, we are called to pray to seek God's will for us. Then the heavens are opened, and only in Luke does the Spirit come down in bodily form. Luke wants us to know this is not some imagination, but a public event.
Then the voice says, "You are my son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased." When I first read it I thought the whole crowd heard it, like a public address. Then I picked up the commentaries. I wish I hadn't. They seemed to say, that Jesus alone heard the voice. Then I pushed back, "Then how did we come to have this recorded. How did they hear?" I believe Jesus joins us in baptism because he wants us to know this is true for us as well, "you are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased."
This is the message we need to move beyond guilt and shame. I know a lot about guilt and shame....you see because I have been in counseling. I need to offer some definitions at this point. Guilt says, I did bad. Shame says, I am bad. Guilt says, I made a mistake. Shame says, I am a mistake. Guilt is about actions. Shame is about identity.
We get a lot of messages. One of them that I got growing up was that I was never good enough. No matter how hard I worked or how high my grades were, I was never good enough. The problem comes when we start believing that is true about ourselves. It's not just what others say about us; it's what we say about ourselves.
What can cut through that? Only, "you are my child, the beloved one, with you, I am well pleased."
I also know a lot about guilt and shame because I know something about addictive behavior. I think we live i an addictive society. I am not just talking about alcohol and other drugs, but also money, beauty, fame, power. I will illustrate with an example from my teaching human sexuality. ONe exercise I have youth do is take ads from magazine and to cut away the product from the nearly naked person trying to sell. I never even noticed the wristwatch on her body. We worship youth and beauty and success and...
The problem with addictions is that they work...up to a point. You take the alcohol or the money or the fame or food or the whatever and it always delivers an immediate high. You feel better for a little while. The problem is that there is always a corresponding low, and it is lower than you started. So you take more of the drug to get high....but then you dip lower....and so the spiral continues.
What can cut through this? Only "you are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased."
Now I believe in meditation and in medication, in dieting and in exercise and in accountability groups. But I believe in more what God says to us in our baptism, "You are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased." Even when we are fat, when we are fired, when we are a failure, "you are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased."
I am trying to invite this community to discern what is Christ's vision for us. I think we begin in our baptism in remembering who we are as God's beloved children. I think the vision expands for us to share the new with them also about who they are. Alan Graham of Mobile Loaves and Fishes does this so wonderfully well. I have been with him a little bit on the streets. Does he go up to a person on the street and say, "You're drunk...your're homeless?" NO! He says, "Hey brother, how's is going? Do you mind if I sit here?" He calls them family. He asks permission to get close. He says you are a beloved child of God with whom God is well pleased.
Who are you? We know who we are because of what God said at Jesus baptism. We know who we are because of what God said at our baptism. You are my child, the beloved one, with you I am well pleased.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
no fear
1/7/10 My breath prayer for the day has come from Isaiah 43:1, "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine." I can let fears get to me--afraid of not pleasing people, afraid of not being good enough, afraid for my family, afraid for lack of security. Probably you know something about fear as well. This passage really comforts me. My God has saved me (and continues to save). My God knows me intimately and will never let me go. Therefore I can go through life with no fear.
Love,
Lynn
Love,
Lynn
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
precious
1/6/10 I know that there is a powerful movie out right now by this name, "Precious." I like what Isaiah 43:4 says, "You are precious in my sight and honored, and I love you." I hope you can hear the LORD say this to you over and over today and everyday. Because it is true, that you are precious.
Love,
Lynn
Love,
Lynn
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
baptism
1/5/10 One of the lectionary texts for this week is Psalm 29. My prayer verse for the day is verse 3, "The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over mighty waters." I am preparing my sermon on baptism for this Sunday as we celebrate a day in the church calendar called the Baptism of the Lord. I am remembering my baptism. I would encourage you to remember yours. There is something powerful going on in this sacrament. There is Someone who speaks powerfully to us in baptism.
Love,
Lynn
Love,
Lynn
Monday, January 4, 2010
home by another way
from my epiphany sermon on 1/3/10 from matthew 2:1-12
Where's home for you? Home is such a rich word with so many meanings.
If you are traveling overseas, and someone asks you where you are from, don't say you are from the USA. If you do, you will only be another American. It is much better to say you are from TEXAS. When you do that, people will receive you warmly with "Do you have a horse? Do you have an oil well? Do you have a six shooter?"
Home can mean your home country. The magi, the wise men, were from back East, in what was called Persia in those days. We would say Iraq today. It is interesting to note that Matthew, this most Jewish of Gospels has the first witnesses to the Christ be foreigners, Gentiles, outsiders.
We have hometowns. Mine is Littlefield, Tx. Jesus is born in Bethlehem. O little town of Bethlehem. It is funny that the magi go to Jerusalem, to the Capital City, the seat of government and religion and commerce, and that the Messiah is born 9 miles down the road in the sticks. The religious scholars dust off the old texts to find the passage from Micah 5:2 to find the reference to the rural area.
Of course, Jesus is found in Bethlehem, because he is from the house of David. House can also mean our family, our lineage. David ws the shepherd king. The Messiah is to shepherd his people.
Then we have our actual houses, apartments, condos or dorm rooms. We have a physical address. Note in Matthew that the wise men enter the house, not a stable. Scholars say it may have been up to 2 years after the birth of Jesus that they arrive. There is no dialogue. They enter the house and find they are at home. They bow down, they worship the Christ, they offer their gifts. They are at home. Home is a not a place; it is a person.
I firmly believe that God is working to bring all of God's children home. Here God leads with a star. Later God sends the magi home by another way through a dream. As you read the Bible, read it as God's attempts to find a way to bring us home. Creation, covenant people, exodus, judges, prophets, rulers--all ways God is employing to get us home. In the New Testament, Jesus the Christ is the epitome of God's desire to welcome us home. Jesus eats with the tax collectors and sinners. He tells a story of a prodigal who loses everything he has, and comes to himself, and returns home.
Maybe you are looking for a home today. You are not here on Christmas Eve. You are here on the first Sunday of the year. Maybe you made a New Year's resolution. Maybe you are looking for a church home. Maybe you are looking for the Christ. As much as you are looking for Christ; Christ is looking for you...to come home.
I will sing it for you...."Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me...
Come home...Come home...you who are weary come home....
The good news I have to share today is that God will find a way for you to come home. Come home.
Where's home for you? Home is such a rich word with so many meanings.
If you are traveling overseas, and someone asks you where you are from, don't say you are from the USA. If you do, you will only be another American. It is much better to say you are from TEXAS. When you do that, people will receive you warmly with "Do you have a horse? Do you have an oil well? Do you have a six shooter?"
Home can mean your home country. The magi, the wise men, were from back East, in what was called Persia in those days. We would say Iraq today. It is interesting to note that Matthew, this most Jewish of Gospels has the first witnesses to the Christ be foreigners, Gentiles, outsiders.
We have hometowns. Mine is Littlefield, Tx. Jesus is born in Bethlehem. O little town of Bethlehem. It is funny that the magi go to Jerusalem, to the Capital City, the seat of government and religion and commerce, and that the Messiah is born 9 miles down the road in the sticks. The religious scholars dust off the old texts to find the passage from Micah 5:2 to find the reference to the rural area.
Of course, Jesus is found in Bethlehem, because he is from the house of David. House can also mean our family, our lineage. David ws the shepherd king. The Messiah is to shepherd his people.
Then we have our actual houses, apartments, condos or dorm rooms. We have a physical address. Note in Matthew that the wise men enter the house, not a stable. Scholars say it may have been up to 2 years after the birth of Jesus that they arrive. There is no dialogue. They enter the house and find they are at home. They bow down, they worship the Christ, they offer their gifts. They are at home. Home is a not a place; it is a person.
I firmly believe that God is working to bring all of God's children home. Here God leads with a star. Later God sends the magi home by another way through a dream. As you read the Bible, read it as God's attempts to find a way to bring us home. Creation, covenant people, exodus, judges, prophets, rulers--all ways God is employing to get us home. In the New Testament, Jesus the Christ is the epitome of God's desire to welcome us home. Jesus eats with the tax collectors and sinners. He tells a story of a prodigal who loses everything he has, and comes to himself, and returns home.
Maybe you are looking for a home today. You are not here on Christmas Eve. You are here on the first Sunday of the year. Maybe you made a New Year's resolution. Maybe you are looking for a church home. Maybe you are looking for the Christ. As much as you are looking for Christ; Christ is looking for you...to come home.
I will sing it for you...."Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me...
Come home...Come home...you who are weary come home....
The good news I have to share today is that God will find a way for you to come home. Come home.
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