Sunny's Musings on Ministry

Hope Sermon

2011-11-28T13:53:00.003-06:00

Hope Sermon
Isaiah 64: 1-9
November 27, 2011

Monty was a poor 16-year-old student growing up in the rural agricultural region of Salinas, California. When asked to write a "dreams" essay in high school about his life after graduation, he wrote about running a huge ranch and raising thoroughbred horses. A few days later, his teacher returned the graded essays. To his shock, Monty received an F. He asked his teacher, "How can I get an F on my dreams?" The teacher replied, "Because I asked you to be practical, and you were not practical." Monty stared in disbelief. The teacher, realizing his emotional state, added, "However, if you'd like to rewrite the paper and make your dreams more practical, I'll let you do that so you can raise your grade." Monty collected himself and looked the teacher in the eye. "Miss, you can keep your F; I'll keep my dreams." And, in the end, Monty did reach his dreams. He owns a large thoroughbred ranch, has trained horses for the Queen of England, has written five bestselling books, and was the subject of a major motion picture. Monty Roberts is the original "horse whisperer."

Monty grew up in generational poverty; all he had were his hopes and dreams. Hope is incredibly important for all of us. Hope is the force that can carry someone through an unthinkably terrible experience. Hope carries the cancer patient through another treatment. Hope helps the unemployed person prepare for one more job interview. Hope is what allows me to put on my Kansas City Chiefs jersey each Sunday (David to put on his Vols jersey each Saturday) and think- “today is the day for a win!”

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. For four weeks we will anticipate and we will wait for the Christ- Child to be born. However, each week we get to share together in one of the gifts this child brings into the world and today’s gift is hope. Hope is different than a dream or a wish- hope is a fundamental belief that things will be different than what they are. As a people of faith, we know that God is the source of our hope. We know that even though we can look around at the world as it is and say, “things are not exactly as they should be,” we have a hope that things can be different because of our faith in God. Jesus Christ is God’s gift to the world and that gift came to bring hope. That gift announced to the world, “the kingdom of God is here.” In other words, “hope is here!”

If you find yourself looking at your personal life or at the world in general and thinking, “this is not the way God intended things to be,” then you are in good company. In the 64th chapter of the book of Isaiah, the prophet looks around at his situation and knows that God can do better.

For most of the book of Isaiah, the Israelites, God’s people, have been in exile. The Babylonians seized control of their homeland and sent them to live in a foreign land. We think that about the time chapter 64 was written, they had actually returned home. Cyrus the Persian king had conquered the Babylonians and allowed the Israelites to return to their original land. This was what they had been waiting for for many years. This was their deepest desire. This was their hope! But when they returned- they found things not as they hoped they would be. Then land was not as they had left it- and there were others living there. It wasn’t easy to return home again.
Into this profound sense that “things are not as they should be”- the prophet cries out for God. Isaiah says:

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains would tremble before you!
2 As when fire sets twigs ablaze
and causes water to boil,
come down to make your name known to your enemies
and cause the nations to quake before you!
3 For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,
you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.
4 Since ancient times no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
5 You come to the help of those who gladly do right,
who remember your ways.
But when we continued to sin against them,
you were angry.
How then can we be saved?

Isaiah is calling out on behalf of his people. He is saying- “God, things are not as they should be. We know you have intervened before- with earthquakes and trembling mountains. We know that we have messed up but please come to us again! Break into the world once again and set things right!”

Break into the world and set things right. This is a hope that God’s people have expressed throughout history and continue to express. Just before the birth of Christ- I have no doubt that God’s people were feeling the same way. They were asking God to break into the world again and set things right. I have to wonder if they were expecting earthquakes and trembling mountains. I know for sure they were expecting a conquering military power. I don’t think they were expecting a baby: a child who would grow to be a teacher, a prophet, a leader, a Messiah. But God knew exactly how to enter the world, and how to provide the hope that the people longed for. God knew to send a child, to a manager, to poor, unmarried parents. Hope can come in many unexpected ways.

Thanks to this congregation, hope came for some in the form of a basket full of Thanksgiving food. We will never fully know the impact of those baskets- who they were passed on to- who they were shared with- how many people they fed and the hope that they generated. Friday night on the square, hope was given in the form of a warm coat. For any who wanted one. Not credit check, no qualification- just a gift of love, freely given for anyone who wanted to receive. God has given us the power to give hope to others, and I pray that we would continue to spread hope as we move through this advent season.

Although you won’t find the word Advent in the Bible; Advent is a season of time in the church year that helps us prepare our hearts for one of our most sacred days. In this season we acknowledge that all is not as it should be in the world and we wait for Christ to enter into our world. If we take some time to prepare during this season, our hearts will be more ready to receive the Christ-child.

We will prepare together each week as we light a different Advent candle and celebrate the gifts of hope, joy, peace and love. We can prepare our hearts by reading scripture and maybe even one of the Advent devotional books. We can listen to music that points us toward the Christ-Child. We can attend the Children’s Christmas program and hear more about the story of God sending Jesus into the world. There are many ways in which we will prepare together as a church family.

John the Baptist tried to prepare people to receive Jesus as the Messiah. He called people to come and be baptized- a baptism that was expressly for the purpose of confessing sins. Confessing sin and clearing out all the junk that weighs on our hearts and minds is another way we can prepare for Christmas to come.

When Isaiah called out to God to be saved- he admitted on behalf of his community that they had sinned. They had turned from God and “become unclean,” in fact he says, “our sins sweep us away like the wind.” Even as he is asking God to come- he is repenting for his community’s wrongdoing. What is weighing on us as we enter this Advent season? What sins to we carry that keep us from fully experiencing God’s gift of Hope.

Yesterday I cleared a spot for my Christmas tree. I had to move some furniture, I had to sweep the spot where the tree will go- it had gotten dirty and cluttered. In the same way, if I want the God’s gift of Christ to shine in my life, it is time to prepare my heart for that gift to come. It is time to clear the dirt and clutter from my life- and to ask God to come and make things right again.

Isaiah called out to God:
8 Yet you, LORD, are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
9 Do not be angry beyond measure, LORD;
do not remember our sins forever.
Oh, look on us, we pray,
for we are all your people.

On this first Sunday of Advent, may we do the same as the Israelites. May we cry out to God, confess our sins and be ready for what God will bring into the world. May the next four weeks be a time of active waiting; a time of holy anticipation; a time of deep yearning for a Christ we love so deeply. Amen.

Maya Angelou Reflection- Newsletter Article

2011-10-27T10:07:00.001-05:00

Recently I got to join my sister-in-law at Belmont University to hear Dr. Maya Angelou speak. Dr. Angelou is one of my heroes, she is a celebrated poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. Her poems have captivated me since I was in high school and I am currently reading her memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Dr. Angelou inspired the entire room that evening at Belmont. She talked about hope- especially in the midst of chaos and challenges. She reworked one of her favorite quotes from another author that says, “Just when you think the rain will never stop, God sends a rainbow.” She added an important piece and shared with us, “Just when you think the rain will never stop, God sends a rainbow through the clouds.” God can show up in all kinds of different ways in our lives, even peeking through and giving us hope during the darkest periods of our lives.

That evening I delighted in being in Dr. Angelou’s presence, she is an elderly woman who had to be helped on stage and into a chair, but you never doubted her strength for a second. Her voice exuded wisdom, passion and compassion and she told of a life well lived despite many trying circumstances.

Dr. Angelou also spoke a powerful word to me about the Christian life that night. She said that she is often leery when someone comes up to her and boldly pronounces, “I am a Christian!” She says that she thinks to herself, “already?” Being a Christian is a lifelong journey Angelou says. Instead of saying she has arrived at being Christian, Dr. Angelou often tells people she is “working at being a Christian.”

I think working at being a Christian is an accurate description of what we are all trying to do as we seek to follow Christ in this world. I am grateful for voices like Maya Angelou’s and other great authors who inspire us on the journey. May we continue to work together at become Christians. Amen and Amen.

World Communion Sunday Sermon- October- Table Manners

2011-10-27T10:03:00.002-05:00

I Corinthians 11: 23-26
World Communion Sunday
October 2, 2011

Don’t put your elbows on the table while you’re eating. Wait until everyone is served before you begin. Make sure you have a napkin in your lap. Don’t slurp your soup! Am I starting to sound like your mom? Or your grandma? Or whoever it was that taught you good table manners? What were some of the rules at your dinner table growing up? Did you have to be in your seat at 6:00 sharp, clean and dressed for dinner? Were you expected to set the table for your family meal? Were you expected to wait until everyone was finished eating before you left the table?

My mom had request that there be no singing at the dinner table, which I thought was strange, but I can see now that was all part of having a calm, quiet meal with the family. How is your Sunday dinner or your Thanksgiving dinner different that a regular weekday meal? Do you sit at the table? Dress a little nicer? Say please and thank you more frequently? Table manners make a big difference in your dining experience. I’ve also noticed that nothing can make you feel more out of place than if everyone around you is adhering to a certain set of table manners and you are not quite sure what to do.

Like any concerned mother or grandmother who is trying to teach her offspring good table manners, Paul has a few things to say to the church in Corinth about their table manners. Paul is not happy with the abuses he has seen at the Lord ’s Table. The Corinthian believers have taken this communal meal, in which the vitally important remembrance of Jesus’ last supper takes place and royally messed it up. Paul is so disturbed about the reports he has heard that he does not beat around the bush. He uses a harsh reprimand. Paul says, “So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!”

For the 1st Century Christian, observing the Lord’s Supper was quite different than the way we experience it today. Remember that they were most likely meeting in homes, not in established church buildings. So, they were probably gathering in a home large enough to host an entire community of believers in Christ. Many scholars believe that the ritual observance of the Lord’s Supper included a full meal. The observance of the communion meal started with breaking bread together, remembering the way Christ broke bread with the disciples. Next, they would eat a full meal, and after the meal they would share in the ritual of the cup (drinking from it as Christ’s disciples did). Eating together was an important way to form a community, especially since Jews and Gentiles were both believers in Christ together. Harsh adherence to dietary laws had been loosened in the name of table fellowship and relationship with one another.

In an ideal world this “bread, meal, cup” way of being together was a beautiful way to observe and remember the meal that Christ shared with his beloved followers. However, the Corinthians had made a real mess of it. It seems that some were coming early to the meal- maybe those that were in the more elite classes who had the luxury to come and go as they pleased, and some were coming later. By the time the latecomers got there, there was no food left. The early birds were stuffed and drunk. Not exactly what a meal in the Kingdom of God should look like. Eating was vitally important to Jesus. He taught and he showed in his dining with others that all people should have a place at the table. Jesus even reserved a special place at the table, a place of honor for those who did not regularly receive it. Jesus gave priority seating to the poor and the disabled- those who were not ideal dinner guests in the world.

The Corinthians were forgetful like we are. They had an ambassador of Christ, named Paul, who helped them understand Christ’s teachings and how to live them out and as soon as he left town, they messed it up. We are so like them. We can hear a message about how to treat each other in God’s Kingdom and then go right out into the world and do the opposite. How we act on our faith is vitally important.

Table manners in the Kingdom of God are of utmost importance. God’s table manners don’t just prove that you’ve been raised right, or that someone cared enough about you to teach you how to act at the dinner table, God’s table manners are about honoring Christ himself, God’s most precious gift.

Gathering at the Lord’s Table is the central most important thing we do together as a people of God. The table is the place where we become the body of Christ. Everything in our worship service builds to the moment when we receive the elements that represent Christ’s body and blood. Part of the meaning of the Table is a remembering. When we gather with Christ at the Table like his followers did in the Upper Room we become a part of the story of his life. We remember that Christ gave us his body and blood.

Remembering is not just about thinking back to an event there is more to remembering than that. I want you to think about the word remember. Break it down into two parts and it is “re-member”. The word literally means to “put together again”. When we gather to share the Lord’s Supper we put back together the Body of Christ. We become that body in our sharing of the meal. When we realize that we are Christ’s body as we partake in the feast together, it is no wonder that Paul was so upset with the Corinthians for their appalling table manners.

Paul reminds the Corinthians what the meal is about when he shares with them what we have come to know as “the words of institution”. He reminds them that this is the same meal that Jesus shared, and in sharing with one another not only to we enter into a covenant with God but we also proclaim that Christ’s coming is our future. Sharing communion together is not a ritual that we participate in just for the sake of ritual, it is deeply meaningful, intimate time with Christ each week.

Many find that participating in the Lord’s Supper gives them an opportunity to recommit to Christ. Many reflect on the blessings they have been given, realizing that this meal is the greatest “Thanksgiving” of all times. I don’t know what you are thinking as you are taking Communion- that is between you and God, but this Sunday especially I want to encourage you to participate in this meal of love with purpose and intentionality. Don’t make it an empty ritual. Ask Christ to enter into your heart and help you to be a part of the body of Christ. Remember the actions of Jesus’ life and all the amazing things that he did on your behalf.

This morning I want to ask you, how are our table manners? Do we go through the motions at the communion table and not let its power transform us? Is there anyone we are keeping from experiencing this meal by not inviting them to be a part of what God is doing in the world? Paul warns against participating in the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner- are we acting like jerks in the world and Christians at the Communion table? How are our table manners? Is there anyone we are keeping from the Table?

On this day, Christians all over the world are participating in this sacred meal. Someone will participate in this meal today who never has before in their life. For them, the Table has meaning. Someone is receiving the Lord’s Supper today in a part of the world where it isn’t entirely safe to be a Christian, and I can guarantee you he is not just going through the motions. How about us? How are our table manners? How will we put back together the body of Christ?

I pray today that each of us would examine our hearts and find that we are a beloved child of God. We are so valued and beloved that Christ gave up his life to secure us a place at God’s Table. May we treat this table as if what we do here might just save the world; because it can- and it will through the power of Christ- if our table manners are right. Amen and amen

Catching up on sermon postings- September's Psalm 40 sermon

2011-10-27T10:00:00.000-05:00

Psalm 40
September 4, 2011

You Give Me a New Song
I went through a poetry phase in high school. I wrote quite a few of them. Not just the ones required for English class but I remember really getting into poetry writing and along with a couple of friends, submitting some for publication in our school’s literary magazine. My poems seem silly to me now- they are mostly about how in looooooove I was with my boyfriend. I remember showing my dad the magazine when it came out and having him read a few my friend’s poems and saying something like, “aren’t these the most amazing poems you’ve ever read?” He didn’t say no, but there was a look in his eyes that I understand more now. A look that said, “There is more to life than the emotions of a bunch of suburban teenagers.”

I agree with him. There is so much more to my life than the life of a high school boyfriend, or trying very hard not to care what my peers thought of me but still caring. I couldn’t see that at the time. At that time poetry was a really wonderful outlet for the hormones and angst we were all feeling. The title of our Magazine was, “Mirrors of the Soul.” What an appropriate title. If you want understand what it was like to be a teenager in the early ‘90’s you could read a sociology book. However if you really want to experience the feelings and emotions of kids in a Kansas City suburb, you should dust off my copy of “Mirrors of the Soul,” and give that a read.

When you read and study the Bible you know that there are all different types of writings contained there. Last month we studied the book of Joshua. Joshua is a history book. The book contains the story of Joshua as leader of the Israelites and their entering Jericho. If you read this book you will hear the specifics of territories and battles, you will read numbers of how many fought and you will read about those that were killed. However what you won’t get in a history book like Joshua, is the emotions people felt. We have to wonder how Joshua felt when he took over for Moses. We have to wonder how the people felt about the fact that people were already living in the land promised to them. Most especially I wonder how the people originally living in Jericho felt about the utter slaughter and destruction brought by the Israelites that was ordained by their God.
Turn to the book of Psalms and you will not wonder what people are feeling. In fact I think the book of Psalms could be subtitled: “Mirrors of the Soul.” Of course the souls in question are those of the ancient Israelites and not teenagers in the ‘90’s but the concept is the same. Want to know what a group of people are really thinking and feeling? Read their poetry.

In the Psalms you will find the entire depth of human emotion. You will find mountain-top type joy and you will find the very pit of despair. You will find the Psalmist singing praises to God and you will find terrible things wished upon enemies (like dashing babies heads against rocks). Nothing is held back in the Psalms, they are honest cries out to God. Some things we know about the Psalms are that many of them were used for worship in the life of the church, and still are today of course. They were sung, memorized, repeated as prayers and liturgies.

73 of the Psalms are attributed to King David and give us a chance to see his inner life- things you don’t read about in the history books about him. About 40% of the Psalms are of petition or lament; these are the gut-wrenching ones where the author sometimes wonder aloud if God has abandoned them. The Psalms were meant to be read aloud- whether in worship or in personal prayer time. If you are referring to an individual Psalm- leave off the “S” (like Psalm 23, or Psalm 40)- if you are talking about more than one or the whole book use the plural Psalms.

This month’s homework challenge as we study the Psalms together is to read some Psalms- there are 150 so there are plenty to choose from. Find one you really like and read it aloud, copy it down in your own handwriting, pray it as a prayer. Get to know one Psalm this month.

This morning we are going to get to know Psalm 40. Psalm 40 reminds us of what is like to wait on God. Humans are not good at waiting. We can communicate with people instantly through cell phones, email and text messaging. We can video chat with our loved ones in other parts of the world. We don’t have to wait much anymore on a letter from a far country. David and I are terrible at waiting. Especially when it comes to giving each other gifts. I can’t remember the last time we have opened a gift from each other on the actual birthday, or anniversary or other gift-giving occasion. We do not like to wait.
We don’t much like to wait in our spiritual lives either. We feel like once we’ve prayed about something that God should respond immediately. At least I’m hoping I’m not the only one who feels this way. Sometimes our patience is forced. When we don’t hear from God in just the way we think we should and in the time frame we think we should we are reminded that God’s timing is different than ours. I have to wonder if the Psalmist was really waiting patiently for God or it just seemed to him that he had been waiting patiently.
To wait patiently for God means to remember that God’s timing is different from ours. Waiting patiently means that sometimes unanswered prayers are as big a blessing as answered ones. To wait patiently means to have our ears open for the voice of God. To wait patiently means recognizing that deliverance might come in a way we didn’t expect. To wait patiently is to praise God even when you are in the bottom of the slimy, miry pit. “I waited patiently for the Lord,” the Psalm says, “he turned to me and heard my cry.”

When we wait patiently, God takes notice and responds to our cries. The Psalmist says, “He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.”

Can anyone identify with being in the slimy pit? Other translations call it the “miry bog”. I am guessing that at one time or another we have all spent time in the pit. It is not easy to wait patiently in the pit. But one thing is certain: when we are in the pit, God knows we are in the pit. And God cares that we are in the pit. And eventually, eventually- God will take us out of the pit and set our feet on firmer, sturdier ground.
When we are in the pit- we are in good company. When Joseph’s brothers were jealous of the attention their father gave him- they threw him in a pit. When Jeremiah’s prophecies displeased the people, he was also thrown into a pit. God’s people are no strangers to pit-dwelling. And in the Psalms we can see that it is ok to cry out from the pit. We also see that God rescues.

Only I notice something else in this psalm. The author doesn’t leave the pit only to live a perfect life with no worries. In fact it seems that soon after his deliverance, the Psalmist cries out again,
“ Do not withhold your mercy from me, LORD;
may your love and faithfulness always protect me.
For troubles without number surround me;
my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see.
They are more than the hairs of my head,
and my heart fails within me.
Be pleased to save me, LORD;
come quickly, LORD, to help me.”

And the good news is- God will deliver us again and again. God will make all things new. God will give us a new song to sing. In fact, I believe God has given us the gift of 150 songs in the book of Psalms. What a blessing this book is. Psalms is the place where we get to see behind the curtain and directly into the lives of ancient Israel. When I read the book of Psalms I feel like others have felt the depth of emotion and love of God that I feel in my life.

This morning I encourage you to fall in love with the Psalms. You won’t love every one of them. Some are violent and strange, but I truly believe that this is some of the most beautiful language in the Bible. Discover what the Psalms have to offer for your devotional life, read one out loud as a prayer- offer it to God. Or write your own Psalm. Praise God and cry out for deliverance. Tell God about the pit you are dwelling in and then wait, patiently for deliverance. Deliverance will come through the boundless love of our God. Amen and Amen.

Joshua Sermon- "This Land is Your Land"

2011-08-17T12:00:00.003-05:00

“This Land Is Your Land”
Joshua 1:1-8
August 7, 2011

The torch has to be passed. New leadership has to take over for the seasoned leader. The son takes over the family business from his father. The daughter extends hospitality to the entire family at Christmas, relieving her aging mother of those duties. Drew Carey takes over for Bob Barker on “The Price is Right.” No matter much we love and admire a certain leader, at some point a new leader will emerge. Such is the case at the opening of the book of Joshua. At the end of the book of Deuteronomy we read a sad story. Moses, the admired and beloved leader who has been faithful to God, who led his people out of slavery in Egypt, who paraded them around the desert in accordance with God’s will for 40 years has come to the end of life. When I read this story I find it downright tragic that Moses has been such a faithful leader to his people and he doesn’t get to accompany them into the Promised Land. Moses fought so hard for his people, even when they built the golden calf, and grumbled for lack of food, water and shelter, even when he had to wander for 40 long years. At the end of Moses’ life God shows him the Promised Land. God says to Moses, “this land is your land.” Actually God’s words were, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants’; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.”

Look but don’t touch? You will not cross over there? If I were Moses I would have asked God, “Are you kidding me? I don’t get to go in?” Thank God I am not called to be Moses. Instead of protesting, Moses did what he was destined to do, he passed the leadership of his people to Joshua and he died. Moses was BELOVED, he was everyone’s favorite leader. This is the brief eulogy written about him in the book of Deuteronomy, “Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. He was unequaled for all the signs and wonders that the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants and his entire land, and for all the mighty deeds and all the terrifying displays of power that Moses performed in the sight of Israel.”

I have heard it said that a person can leave three things behind when they die. They can leave behind a debt for someone else to pay; they can leave behind an inheritance, which is a one-time blessing to the next generation; or they can leave a legacy. A legacy is a set of values and ideals that last from generation to generation. Moses left a legacy.
And then there was Joshua; the new leader. Some may have called him the new Moses. One thing is for sure, he has some awfully big shoes to fill. Joshua doesn’t know it yet but his job is going to be a difficult one. Not only because he has an incredible legacy to uphold, but because this Promised Land that God has given to his people, there is a problem with it, people already live there.

Joshua and his people are not going to waltz into an uninhabited land flowing with milk and honey. Instead they would have to fight for the land God had promised them as their own. They would face many obstacles, more would join the ranks of Moses, those who would never get to set foot in the land of promise.

Joshua was appointed by God to lead his people. Joshua was also blessed by his beloved predecessor. The scripture says, “Joshua, son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands on him; and the Israelites obeyed him, doing as the lord had commanded Moses.” Joshua was the new leader, and God’s people would follow him through the difficult times ahead.

The good news for Joshua and for us is that when God appoints you to a task, you are never alone in accomplishing it. God makes that clear to Joshua when God tells him exactly all the land that will be his, he is given the specifics of the territory from deserts to rivers to seas- this land is for him and his people. It’s almost as if God says, “This land is your land- now go claim it!” God also assures Joshua of his constant and abiding presence. God says, “As I stood with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave or forsake you. Be strong and very courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them.”

With God’s blessing, and Moses’ anointing Joshua was ready to lead his people into their land, no matter the outcome. What I notice about Joshua’s story is that claiming what God has planned for you takes some work! God’s promises and blessings don’t always just fall into our laps. In fact sometimes to claim what God has in mind for us we have to work very hard, we have to struggle, we have to face challenges that seem like they will be the end of us. And all the while God is whispering in our ears if we will just listen, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

When we feel blessed by God, courageous and ready- how do we claim the blessings God has for us? How do we live fully into the life God intends us to live? Well I love the advice the God gives to Joshua. Joshua is told to cling to the laws that were given to Moses. God has established guidelines for the way his people are supposed to live. These rules were designed so that they could live their best life together as a community. These boundaries that God established are designed to bring blessings to the people.
In order to achieve leading his people into the Promised Land, Joshua is told not to let the laws of Moses depart from his mouth. He and the people are to meditate on them day and not. They should not turn to the right or to the left, but they should put on blinders and focus in on living the life God created them for. Any other way of living would be a distraction from their goal, and might cause them to miss out on the Promised Land.
Meditating on God’s word is an important part of our lives as well. The reason we ready and study the Bible is so that we can be reminded of the promises it contains, and the boundaries that were designed so we might enjoy a life lived in God’s loving presence. As Christians, we also have the wonderful blessing of guiding our lives by the example Jesus provided.

Jesus taught us to love our neighbor, love ourselves and love God. In my opinion we should put on blinders and focus on those three things that Jesus agreed were the most important of everything the law and the prophets taught. We should not turn to the right or the left but we should focus on loving God, our neighbor, and ourselves. Living in accordance with those three things will allow us to claim the promise God has for us. So meditate on them day and night, hide them in your heart, and carry them with you as you move courageously toward what God has planned for you.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the journey to the God’s Promised Land didn’t exactly happen the way the Israelite’s picture that it might. I have a feeling Moses may have thought that he might actually get to enter the land after leading faithfully and according to God’s will for most of his life. I have a feeling that the people didn’t know they would be wandering in the desert for 40 years before they got to enter the land. Do you remember that they actually asked themselves if it might not be better to go back to slavery in Egypt than to wander in the desert? I also have a feeling that when the people reached the land that was to be theirs they might have expected that no one would already be living in it. Having to fight to claim that land that God had given them might have been an unexpected challenge.

I want to ask us some difficult questions this morning. Is it possible that even though you are facing challenges that God is preparing you to come into your own promised land? In fact, is it possible that if your life is not at the present moment exactly as you picture it would be- could that actually be a sign that you are on the right track? How would you react if you were to discover like Moses that you would never actually reach the promised land you had been working for, but that you have been paving the way for others to enter that land?

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told his followers in a speech, “God has allowed me to go up to the mountain and I’ve looked over and I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

There are many rich lessons contained in the book of Joshua and over the next few Sundays Dee will bless our ears with some of those lessons. As we go forward this morning, may we focus in on claiming the Promised Land that God has given us, knowing that God’s abiding presence remains with us every step of the way. Amen and amen.

Sermon on the Great Commission

2011-06-20T09:25:00.002-05:00

Matthew 28:16-20
Trinity Sunday/ Father’s Day
June 19, 2011

There are some unforgettable things about the day I was baptized. Etched in memory are the fishing waders my minister, Don, wore underneath his robe. Don was a jokester and told me that he had just chipped the ice off the baptistery that morning, so it shouldn’t be too cold. I remember that one of my grandmothers and an Elder named Bill presided that day and signed my baptism certificate. Believe it or not I remember that the actual date was October 23, 1988. I also remember that on that day I was baptized into a community of believers and I was baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. I was baptized into faith in this one God with these three different aspects, I was baptized in the name of the Trinity.

I read the story of another pastor’s baptism this week. She was in a church, one that practices infant baptism and her pastor asked them to ask their families about the details of their baptism day. Upon investigating, she found out she had never been baptized. She began preparations for a baptism on the evening before Easter and asked if she could have a pitcher of water poured over her rather than just being sprinkled.
“My pastor honored my request. He carried his children’s one-foot-deep kiddie pool into the sanctuary. I had purchased a velvety blanket in the same shade of burgundy as the carpet, and I brought it to church and draped it over the pool. When it was time for the baptism, I came to the pool and knelt down. I was baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with a liturgy that wrapped around the words and expanded our representation of God. Jesus called God “Father.” God the creator called Jesus “Son.” The Holy Spirit is God who nourishes us and sustains us.

Then came one splash for the Creator. The water poured around my ears and trickled down my face. Then came a splash for the beloved Son. The water’s warmth began to seep into my clothing. There was still a lot of water left in the pitcher, and the one splash for the Holy Spirit became a long pouring of water. It kept coming and coming, gushing over my face, into my mouth, flattening my hair and running over my shoulder and down my body.”*
For Nanette Sawyer, and for us the act of baptism is overwhelming. Even if we are not shocked by the water’s coldness or the sheer amount of it, we could never anticipate what it is like to be covered by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We cannot anticipate how becoming a part of the Christian community will change us, or what new and interesting (or scary) directions our lives will take us.

Our baptism is entrance into a new community. We die to sin and rise to life in Christ. After the resurrection the disciples were wondering, “Now what?” We may wonder the same thing after our baptism- what are we to do as a part of this new community? In Matthew 28, Jesus commissions us as people of faith. He gives us a purpose in two simple action words. Jesus says, “go and make.” These two words make up the heart of what we call the great commission.

Jesus spoke this great commission to the disciples when they met him on the mountain in Galilee after his resurrection. The scripture says that when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. Notice that it doesn’t say “some worshipped,” and “some doubted.” No, it says they all worshipped, and some doubted. As if the two are not mutually exclusive. In the face of the greatest miracle of all time, some still had trouble believing as they worshipped. This should be a comfort to any of us who have ever worshipped and doubted at the same time.

Jesus’ instructions are to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Hold those words in your mind as you listen to our First Christian mission statement. Our mission statement is: “We celebrate Christ’s unconditional love by welcoming, loving, serving and teaching all.” Those sound pretty similar, don’t they? I think that means we are on the right track here at First Christian.
I have to admit that whenever I read Jesus’ words to us in the Great Commission, I feel a little bit guilty. The commission is a lofty goal- go and make disciples of all nations. “All” is a whole lot of nations. “All” is a whole lot of people. I feel pretty awesome when one of our youth comes before the church and makes a profession of faith. When that happens I feel like I have had a small part in making a disciple- but that is one person! Am I really supposed to be making disciples of all nations? What about people in other nations other than our own? I am so grateful that some in our congregation have had the opportunity to travel to other nations- but not all of us can do that.

I am comforted by the fact that the Great Commission was given to all of us- and not just to me, or just to you, or just to our church. Jesus’ commission was to “all ya’ll,” as we say here in the south. Just because it belongs to all of us doesn’t mean that the commission to, “go and make disciples of all nations,” isn’t a difficult one.
How do we make disciples? I think making disciples starts with something we learned back in elementary school- show and tell. We’ve got to share the love of Christ both with our words and our actions. In the Chimes on May 19th Dee talked about how important it is to share our faith stories with one another. In fact, the theme of the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disicples of Christ) is “Tell It!” Our General Minister and President says that, “To this day we reorient as we recall the core of who we are in relationship to a loving God; when we remember the stories of God’s faithfulness to our children and to our children’s children. We reorient when we remember who we are: Disciples of Christ, a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world.”

“Telling it,” is an important way to make disciples. We need to share the stories of faith found in the bible as well as our own personal stories of the impact our faith in God has had in our lives. That information needs to be shared in our homes, in our communities and throughout the world- whenever we have the opportunity to share it. However, our stories should go hand-in-hand with our actions.

On the mission trips I have been on, I have experienced and observed that it is a whole lot easier to start a faith conversation with someone when you have labored with them or for them. It is during the sweaty water breaks, after you have been putting up insulation underneath a house, when you can really begin to talk about what matters most. Maybe you have found this to be true in a non-mission trip setting. Talking about faith with someone is easier if they have seen it lived out in your life. We need to “show and tell.” We need to “go” and “make.” Now is the time for us to take Jesus’ commission seriously as we “go and make disciples of all nations.”

The Great Commission is a huge responsibility- how can we handle that task on our own? We can’t handle it on our own. Fortunately, Jesus says at the end of his speech to the disciples, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Jesus says he will be with us always; not until next Tuesday, not until you make a bad decision, not until you travel to another country- but ALWAYS. Jesus promises to be with us through everything, until the very end of the age. I’m not sure if the disciples understood that his physical presence would not always be with them. We know that Jesus ascended into heaven, but before he did, he promised a part of himself that would always be within us, and that is the Holy Spirit. We celebrated the Holy Spirit’s coming on the day of Pentecost and we continue to celebrate this week with the red in our sanctuary.
Apart from God we can do very little. But with the Triune God- the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, into whose name we were baptized, we can do anything. We can even go and make disciples of all nations. We can tell our stories and we can show God’s love in action, and with God’s help we can baptize others into this wonderful community of faith- in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen and amen.

*From, “The Christian Century,” page 20, June 14, 2011 issue

Palm Sunday Sermon

2011-04-18T13:58:00.003-05:00

Two sisters experienced the tragic loss of their brother. They had called for help but it didn’t arrive soon enough. Lazarus was not ill any longer, he was not sleeping; he was dead. Jesus had every intention of going to be with them, but he delayed his journey by two days and in that time Lazarus passed on and was laid to rest. When Jesus finally arrives on the scene, these two sisters with their two distinct personalities say the exact same thing to Jesus. Out of her hurt and sorrow Martha says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” Realizing exactly what she needed at the time to be comforted, Jesus talks theology with her. For Martha to have comfort and hope she needs to acknowledge what she knows, that Jesus is the Messiah- and he alone is the source of hope for the world. When this discussion ends, Jesus seeks out the other sister. Mary is at the tomb, weeping. Again the words ring out, “My Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” This time Jesus speaks no words, he simply joins Mary in crying. He weeps with her. No explanations, no excuses, no theological talk- only the simply act of coming along side Mary in her state of sorrow to mourn.
We started our Lenten journey with this story. We noted how powerful Jesus’ tears were for Mary. His compassion and sympathy, his genuine grief over his friend Lazarus- all this was exactly what Mary needed at the time. My challenge for us for this forty days was to try to see the world through the tears of Christ. I had no idea what that would mean for our community when I spoke that challenge. As we have grieved together over the last week and a half we have had ample opportunity to see the world through the tears of Christ.*

On my Lenten journey I’ve seen the world through the tears of Christ, but I’ve also seen the love of Christ expressed through teenagers. I have seen the power of one friend holding another friend as they cry. I have seen how appropriate to let the hug and the “I love you,” do the talking rather than opening your mouth to try to explain the unexplainable. Throughout our community- and even around the world as we watched the devastation of natural disaster in Japan, we have indeed been able to see the world through the tears of Christ.

This morning we take a short break from tears so we can celebrate a triumph. Everyone needs a break from grief and tragedy. One reason that the 40 days of Lent does not include Sundays is because Sundays are to be “Little Easter” celebrations. Each Sunday when we worship together, our worship should be a celebration of the risen Christ. So I do indeed want you to celebrate today. Do something special with your family today, take a break from mourning and do some laughing- play a game, watch a movie, get outside and dance in the rain if you have to. If you gave up something you enjoy for Lent like dessert, or sweet tea or whatever it is- have it today. I promise it isn’t cheating.

Today is a celebration of Palm Sunday. This day we remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Jesus’ last days would be lived out in Jerusalem, the religious center of the Jewish world. As he enters into the city for a final time, he finally begins to get the respect of which we know he is worthy. As he enters the city, a parade of respect and recognition begins. The disciples find a donkey and her colt for Jesus to ride, to fulfill what the prophet Zechariah said about the king of Zion riding on the foal of a lowly donkey. Jesus is the king, and to recognize this dignitary, people took branches from trees and laid them on the road in front of him. It was the procession of a king. Not a warrior king, riding in on a chariot, draped in gold, but spiritual king.

We know Jesus is our King. Each Sunday when we worship, Christ is lifted up, however during Lenten worship we drape our sanctuary in purple. Purple is the color of royalty and it can be found all over. The beautiful new worship banners are a stunning addition to our adoration of Jesus as King. Purple is a color of celebration. In the ancient world purple was an expensive color, only the wealthy could possess it because of the amount of color it took to dye a cloth purple. The purple in our sanctuary is an acknowledgement that Jesus, our King, deserves our very best.
The thing I like best about Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem is that finally a group of people recognize who Jesus is. Many people in the gospel stories have recognized Jesus as king, or savior, or messiah but usually it is after an individual encounter. Nicodemus questions Jesus and realizes he is the Christ. After an encounter at the well- the Samaritan woman proclaims Jesus as Messiah and rushes to tell. A blind beggar sees the Savior face to face, literally seeing for the first time. These individuals have recognized Jesus as King. The disciples, bless their hearts, they kind of get it, but most of the time they really don’t understand what Jesus is trying to teach them. They are faithful, they would do anything he told them to do, they are committed to serving him, and in so doing, serving God. There have been crowds on hillsides who heard his teachings, but today’s crowd is different. The crowd gathered for his entry into Jerusalem recognizes Jesus as their king.

“Hosanna!” The crowd proclaims. The word hosanna is both a word of praise and a cry for help. Hosanna literally means, “save us.” I believe the crowd knows Jesus is the one to call on if you are in need of saving. The crowd recognizes him as part of the line of King David. This is the branch of the family tree that the Messiah is supposed to come from. The crowd knows the Jesus comes in the name of the Lord- that he is the one sent from God. They are also able to share this recognition with other onlookers who come to see what the procession is all about.
On this day, Palm Sunday, many recognize the Messiah. Toward the end of the week there won’t be such a crowd following Jesus. They may acknowledge him, they know he is the Messiah, but none are strong enough to accompany him through the events of the last week of Jesus’ life.

I would like to revise my Ash Wednesday challenge for us this week. At the beginning of our Lenten journey I asked you to see the world through the tears of Christ. I want to slightly shift our gaze this week. I want to invite you to see the events of Holy Week through your own tears. Together, let’s make the shift from seeing the world through Christ’s tears to allow our eyes to fill with tears for Christ. Today we celebrate, but this week we will mourn.

And there is no immediate comfort for our grieving during what we call “Holy Week”. If you allow the events of this week to sit on your heart you will feel a grief that cannot be immediately lifted. I am asking you to sit with that grief, to allow it to be present and not try to rush it away or fix it. Carry it with you as you journey with Jesus. Feel his righteous anger as he casts out the corrupt in the temple in Jerusalem. Feel the tension rise between Jesus and the religious establishment- they are asking him hard questions and he is not giving the answers they want to hear. You can sense they are looking for a reason to arrest him. Stop for a moment and observe the woman who anoints Jesus with costly oil at the home of Simon the leper. Maybe you can sense the sorrow even in this act of love- she is preparing him for his impending burial.

Sit with the feeling of love between friends as Jesus’ disciples prepare the Passover meal for their celebration together. This tone in the room is weighty- not everyone present understands what will happen but Jesus begins to prepare them for his death. Then it is on to the garden. Go ahead and try to stay awake as Jesus challenges you too. You will probably betray him with sleep like James, John and Peter. Let’s hope you would not betray him with a kiss like Judas.

Feel the fury of the arrest of Jesus in the garden- things are happening so fast. He is tried and sentenced to death- feel the hope drain out of you. Feel the sadness and dreadful anticipation as Jesus climbs the hill to his own execution spot. Feel the miracle of forgiveness as he asks God to forgive not only the thief on the cross- but also those who are killing him. Then the grief of an agonizing three-hour death, Jesus breathes until he cannot breathe any longer because of the position of his body and the fluids that fill his lungs. It is finished. Feel the weight of his death.
This holy week is not a happy one, and yet it is fundamental to our faith that we sit with our grief at the events of this week. Aren’t we outraged that the man who we have just recently celebrated as King, as the Son of God, was put to death with a common criminals punishment? We should be outraged, hurt, angry and sad this week.

My experience as a grief counselor has had an unfortunate boost in the last week and half. I often feel completely helpless to comfort someone like I wish I could. I talked to someone this week who had reached the anger stage of grief. He told me, “I’m so angry.” He clinched his teeth- his eyes pleaded with me to do something about it. I can’t of course, so I tried to offer as few words as possible to think about his anger. If I have learned anything from Job’s friends in the book of Job, it is to keep your mouth shut as long as possible when someone is grieving. However, I did offer a few thoughts. I said, “It’s ok to be angry. Even at God. God is big enough to handle your anger.” “But what am I supposed to do with my anger?”- and he even offered a few unhealthy suggestions that I know he would never actually do. “Sit with it.” I told my friend to sit with his anger. Needless to say, I don’t think that’s the answer he wanted (that’s why I try to keep my mouth shut most of the time).

I truly believe that sometimes we have to sit with our anger. We have to sit with our grief. These are not fun emotions to sit with- but I think in this last week of Jesus’ life I think we need to sit with our hurt and anger. We will do that in different ways. Some of us may actually weep. Some of us will show up to the mid-day Holy Week services and listen to the words of the preachers. Some of us will open up our bibles and reread the scriptures that tell us of Jesus’ last week. Some of us will even sign up for a prayer vigil time for the wee hours of the morning- and we will try our best to stay awake.

No matter where this week takes us and how we experience it, we will get to the other side of this grief next week. Next week we will have a party! We will put on our finest (and we will look good) and we will celebrate. But this week, just for this week we will sit with the tragic events of the last week of Jesus’ life and be present to our Lord and Savior. May this time of waiting be sacred and holy. Amen.

*This wonderful observation about Mary and Martha and the death of Lazarus came from a painter named Makoto Fujimura. Check him out here: http://www.makotofujimura.com/

Come and See!

2011-03-28T13:16:00.004-05:00

John 4:5-30, 39-42

March 27, 2011

“Come and See!”

Some people are very easy to see, we notice them easily. We notice those whose appearances are appealing or appalling to us. Have you ever done any people watching? The absolute best place to do this I think is in the airport. I love to watch people coming and going, or reuniting with loved ones just getting off the plane. I admit that I tend to notice people more whose dress more fashionably as I wish I did. I will notice the girl with the interesting hat on, the man with tattoos all the way up his arms. I also notice emotion in people- my eye will be drawn to the man waiting expectantly with flowers in his hand for his love to pass through the security so they can embrace for the first time in months. I will be drawn to notice the child who is on her first plane ride- who is excited as her mom patiently explains which plane she’ll be riding and when they will get to board.

I’m guessing for every person I notice, there are another 50 that I don’t see or notice. Our minds simply cannot pay attention to everything that is going on around us- when our attention is divided we get confused and we have trouble concentrating. An important part of being human and being fully accepted by others is being noticed by them. We will go to great lengths to get others to notice us, sometimes by doing something positive like volunteering or making the honor roll. If that doesn’t work we might even try throwing a temper tantrum or showing off by driving our car too fast. We all want to be seen. Some of us are more shy than others but we all have a basic need to be noticed by others. If you don’t believe me- go to a swimming pool in the summer and watch the child whose mother has brought him to the pool. She is ready to relax- she is spread out on the side- soaking in the sun maybe she even has a book to read. She won’t get 5 pages in before she hears, “Mom- look what I can do!, Mom- watch me dive. Mom- I can do a backflip!” We need to be noticed and affirmed.

Jesus sits at a well at midday. The disciples have gone to buy food- Jesus sits alone resting from his travels. He has chosen to take a route that leads him through Samaria. The Jews and Samaritan people have been feuding for a long time. This is like a Hatfield resting midday in the middle of McCoy territory. While he is there a woman comes to draw water at the well. If he paid any attention to social convention, Jesus would have every reason in the world not to talk to her. It would be appropriate for him even perhaps to pretend that he did not see her. First of all, he is a Jewish man and she an unknown woman- he shouldn’t be talking to her. Second, he is a Jewish teacher and if wants to strictly to adhere to the purity laws, he would not talk to a woman who is unaccompanied by a man. Third, he is a Jew and she is a Samaritan. These groups of people have been arguing for a long while about where God should be worshipped. There is bad blood between the two side. Jesus isn’t concerned with social convention and so he breaks the rules right away and asks her for a drink. He notices her and engages her in conversation.

Like the Samaritan woman, we are noticed by Jesus. I wonder if the woman went to the well in the middle of the day when no one else is around because she didn’t want to be noticed? I imagine she got the surprise of her life when Jesus not only notices her and engages her in conversation but then proceeds to tell her just exactly home much he knows about her.

In Psalm 139, the psalmist reminds about just how well God knows us. 1 You have searched me, LORD,

and you know me.

2 You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3 You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue

you, LORD, know it completely.

5 You hem me in behind and before,

and you lay your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too lofty for me to attain.”

Jesus demonstrates this deep level of knowing the Samaritan woman when he tells her about her life. While talking with the woman about living water Jesus invites the woman to go and get her husband. When she responds that she has no husband Jesus tells her that she is right, she has indeed had five husbands and the man she lives with now is not her husband. Jesus knows this woman fully. She has nothing to hide from him. She recognizes him immediately as a prophet- she senses that she is known deeply by him.

When we hear five husbands we rush to judgment. Our eyebrows would raise even today if we heard that someone had had five husbands. Jesus doesn’t tell her of her past in a condescending way. The fact is we don’t know the circumstances that led to her multiple marriages. She may have been widowed, abandoned, or being taken care of by a relative of a dead husband in a tradition called Leverite marriage. We don’t know her. Jesus knows her fully- and yet he is not judging her, we don’t hear him tell her to repent from sin. Instead, he is offering her the same gift that he came to bring to everyone, regardless of circumstance, and that gift is eternal life.

Because Jesus sees the woman fully, she also sees him for who he is. Jesus offers the woman living water, and just like Nicodemus when he is told he must be born again, the woman takes Jesus too literally. She thinks only of her immediate need for water. She envisions never having to make these noon day trips to the well again. However, as she talks with Jesus she begins to understand more deeply. As they move from literal talk of water to the metaphorical talk of living water- something shifts in the woman. And all of a sudden not only does Jesus know her, but she knows Jesus. She claims it- “you must be a prophet.”

It is interesting to note that in most of the teaching Jesus does he uses metaphor. People often walk away confused after coming to Jesus with a question. Jesus doesn’t give easy answers, he challenges us to use our minds to think deeply about God-issues, and he challenges us to use our hearts to fully connect with God and others. As we develop in our Christian journey I think that we will stop looking for easy answers to tough questions and instead seek to fully know God through being in relationship with Christ. As we come to see and know God more fully we will also take the time to truly see others. Certainly in our hectic-paced world it is a challenge to form relationships that allow us to truly see one another. Seeing means knowing a person’s story- what they are passionate about, what they love most. Seeing someone fully is about looking them in the eye and making a connection (remember when Dee made us look at each other for 10 seconds- awkward!).

As the woman seeks to know Jesus more fully they get involved in some incredibly important conversations. They talk about worship and Jesus tells her that eventually people will stop fighting about where and how to worship and they will worship in spirit and in truth. Gradually, it dawns on her who this person might be. She tells Jesus that she knows that the Messiah is coming and finally she knows Jesus at the deepest level when he tells her, “I- the one speaking to you, I am he.” Now the woman can fully know Jesus, she has met the Messiah.

This conversation with Jesus changes the woman profoundly. She thought she was simply coming to draw water from the well, but instead she came to know and to be known fully. She is at the beginning of a wonderful relationship with a Savior.

I love what happens next- the woman leaves her water jar behind and goes to share this experience with others. She leaves behind the task at hand to present an invitation. She leaves behind the temporary for the eternal. Do you know what the Samaritan woman teaches me? She teaches me a new way of sharing faith.

I want you to think about which evangelism approach is more attractive to you. Option one is statements you have heard others say, “Have you heard the Good News? If you died today where would you spend eternity?” Option two is Samaritan-Woman evangelism. She invites you to “come and see” this man who has told me everything I have ever done. Come and meet a savior who knows me fully and offers me a life beyond what I have ever imagined. I don’t know about you- but I’m going to get busy practicing “come and see” evangelism. Come and see this relationship I have with Christ. In this relationship I am seeking to know Jesus fully- and to be fully known by him. Being fully known can be life-changing. I may never be thirsty again- come and see!

My challenge to you this morning is to go and seek to more fully know others. Pay attention to them, find out what makes them tick. You might find out the cab driver getting you from here to there has 9-year old twins he is really proud of. Seek to more fully know that cashier at the grocery store- you might find out she is facing a health crisis. Seek to know people on a deeper level than you currently know them. And maybe, just maybe you could even go out on a limb and ask them to “come and see” about this Jesus who makes such a difference in your life.

A female mentor of mine says that, “everyone has an invisible sign around their neck that says, ‘Make me feel important!” This is exactly what Jesus did in his encounter with the woman at the well. He took the time to see her. May we seek to know others more deeply. May we allow ourselves to be fully known by Christ- flaws and all. And most of all may we have the courage to offer others a drink of the living water that flows from God in abundance so that they too may have eternal life. May we truly see others and allow ourselves to be seen and fully known. Amen.

Love vs. Fear

2011-02-16T16:26:00.004-06:00

February 13, 2011
1 John 4: 17-21

It was date night and David and I sat in the movie theater with the lights dimmed, expecting to be scared. We like a good scary movie and had picked that particular genre for this evenings date movie. What I didn’t expect was to be more scared by one of the previews for a children’s movie than by the horror movie we came to see!
Fear is a funny thing. On one hand it can be really helpful to us- our fight or flight response protects us from danger. On the other hand fear can be paralyzing. Fear can keep us from receiving love, and from having new experiences. On an individual level fear can hold us back from achieving our goals and living our dreams. Fear is ugliest when is expressed by entire groups of people. This is when fear leads to hate, and hate often leads to violence and chaos.

Theologian William Sloane Coffin accurately summed up the relationship between love and fear when he said, “The opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is fear.” 1 John 4 reminds us that God’s love casts out fear. Fear blocks us from experiencing God’s perfect love. Perhaps it is appropriate on this Valentine’s weekend- when the culture around us is focusing on romantic love, for us to remind ourselves about God’s love and how it works to dispel the fear in the world.
By the way, the preview for the children’s movie that terrified me to my core was this ridiculous movie called, “Gnomeo and Juliet”. You see, I have one of those external, irrational fears and it happens to be that I am terrified of garden gnomes. This is the first movie that I have ever avoided seeing because of this fear. In general the only thing this fear keeps me from doing is walking down the garden aisle at the store. My friends and loved ones think this fear is hilarious- so they often surprise me with gnomes- gnome postcards- gnome dolls etc. It is hard for me to believe they have made a movie for children with the thing in life that scares me most!

I don’t know what you were taught about God as a child, but I am grateful for my growing up in that I was taught from an early age that “God is love.” We learned about God’s love at Vacation Bible School, we sang about it at church camp. It seems that I have always known that God is love and that love is for me- whether I felt worthy of it or not. Our scripture this morning reminds us that God is love and that love is for each one of us.

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
Do you hear in these words of scripture the relationship between God and love? God is love- God loves us and love is the way we experience God. God showed ultimate love when he gave us the gift of Jesus who came and walked among us. God loves you because God is the source and actuality of love. If you don’t hear anything else this morning hear that you are loved by God.

The next most important thing that you hear this morning is that perfect love, God’s perfect love casts out fear. In the face of love, fear can’t hang around! It doesn’t know what to do- fear waves the white flag of surrender and goes home! This is powerful stuff. This is one of those scriptures I carry around with me. We all have that Bible that we carry around with us in our heart. Those scriptures that mean the world to us, that comfort us when we are alone and afraid- this is one of my most favorite.

By the way, don’t let that word “perfect” get you down. The scripture says “perfect love drives out fear.” The reality is- God’s love is perfect. The love we have is a little less perfect. We are not expected to be perfect. A commentary I read this week by David Bartlett said this, “Perfect love casts our fear in human relationships and even imperfect love diminishes fear perceptibly.”
God is love and God loves us. Because God loves us, we are able to love each other. We have that capacity because of God’s love. When fear arises, when it threatens us we have a very powerful weapon at our disposal and that is love. Love sends fear running for cover.

Love in response to fear is something we have to work at. In general the world does not respond in love when afraid. In fact in our biology we are programmed for that “fight or flight” response when presented with fear. When I’m afraid I often have the tendency to lash out. I feel like a cat in a corner- hissing and scratching at anyone that comes near- my only job is to protect myself from harm. Lashing out- my fight response only breads more fear. The only way to stop fear in its tracks is to channel some of that love from inside myself that God put there. Perfect love casts our fear.

*In 1955 a young black boy from Chicago went to visit family near Money, Mississippi. Emmett Till went with his cousins to a store called Bryant’s and made the mistake of whistling at the white female store owner.

Three days later in the middle of the night some white men showed up at Emmett’s uncle’s house and demanded to see the boy from the store. The uncle pleaded with the men to whip the boy- to give him a break because he was from the North and didn’t know any better. But the men took the boy- beat him badly and killed him. Emmett was found by a young boy fishing three days later floating in the Tallahatchee River- he had a heavy piece of equipment from a cotton gin tied around his neck.
Emmett’s mother Mamie Till made a powerful decision when his body was returned to her in Chicago. She wanted people to see what had happened to her boy. “What was happening in America at the time was symbolized by what happened to this 14 year old boy,” said one journalist. 50,000 people came by to see Till’s body and the magazine Jett ran pictures of his body. Although Emmett Till isn’t as well-known as Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King, Jr. it can be said that he sparked the civil rights movement.
The further tragedy of the story is that the two men who took Emmett in the middle of the night, after only five days of trial, were found not guilty.

“When asked if she harbored resentment toward the two white men or whites generally, for the brutal murder of her son in 1955. This is what Emmett’s mother said: It certainly would be unnatural not to hate them, yet I’d have to say I’m unnatural… The Lord gave me a shield, I don’t know how to describe it myself… I did not wish them dead. I did not wish them in jail. If I had to, I could take their four little children- they each had two – and I could raise those children as if they were my own and I could have loved them…I believe that Lord meant what he said, and I try to live according to the way I’ve been taught.”

I believe the only way a grieving mother could love like that is through the strength of God’s own love. We can love because God loved us and came to show us how to love one another.

If we say we love God, but don’t love each other- we are liars the scripture says. The only appropriate response to the powerful and perfect love of God is for us to love each other. I saw a powerful picture in the news recently that speaks to the power of love. In Egypt protestors have been calling for change. Specifically they have been calling for an end to the 30 year reign of Hosni Mubarak (who did step down recently). As military forces were sent to the streets, protesters did not respond with violence, but in an image I won’t soon forget a woman stepped from the crowd to kiss one of the riot policeman.

In that simple act she humanized him. She acknowledged that he was a person and that it wasn’t just a faceless regime that was her opponent. Don’t you think a kiss can be more disarming than a bomb? Acknowledging another person’s humanity is one way to express the love of God. When we do not let our own fear change someone into a non-human monster, then we can truly say that we love God and mean it.

It is my prayer for us this day that we would not let fear dominate our lives. Fear can consume us, turn us into people we don’t wish to be and make it easier for us to hate others. As the world celebrates Valentine’s Day tomorrow, let us celebrate the source and actuality of love. God’s love for us, expressed most fully in the person of Jesus Christ, has the power to dispel all the fear in the world. It is up to each one of us to grab a hold of that love, and express it to others- not allowing fear to overtake us. God’s perfect love casts out fear. May we live in that love now and always. Amen.

*I gathered my information on Emmett Till from the New Interpreter's Bible commentary on the scripture referenced above and also from a wonderful PBS documentary called, "American Experience: The Murder of Emmett Till." I highly recommend it!

Baptism Sermon

2011-01-13T14:05:00.003-06:00

Matthew 3: 13-17
January 9, 2011

There is a series of three photos that hang in a single frame in my office. These are pictures of three baptisms. The top picture is of the first baptism I ever performed. I remember distinctly wading down into the waters of our baptistery with Cheyenne Williams. Cheyenne wanted a smaller baptism so we planned it for a Sunday evening. Many of you were there. Friends from church, Elders of the church, her parents and grandparents, her basketball coach- so many were gathered that day to hear her make her commitment to follow Christ. The friends gathered up in the choir loft so they could see her well. They watched her go under the water and come up a new woman. Cheyenne and I were equally excited that day- and it is a moment I will never forget.

The bottom photo is of Jake Huitt’s baptism. Another day I will never, ever forget. This was the first baptism I ever participated in at the lake. Before moving to Livingston I had never seen a baptism that wasn’t held in a church baptistery. However, the lakes and rivers are so important to this community and so beautiful that I have come to truly treasure a lake or river baptism. None of us that were there will ever forget that day for a number of reasons. Two brothers and a cousin were set to be baptized and we weren’t sure if the weather would hold. It looked stormy, rain seemed imminent. Somehow (and I think we actually know how) the torrential rain held off long enough for Josh, Jake and Major to experience the changing waters of baptism. Of course another reason I will never forget that day is that I fell in the lake. Dee and I held hands and waded into the water. We’d been warned, “there’s a drop off there.” But somehow I missed it. I dropped right off that ledge and had to dog paddle back to ground where I could stand. It’s a wonderful thing that God’s grace is sufficient to cover all our human mess-ups. There is no way I could have ruined that day. I do remember that as we finished the baptisms and headed to shore it did start to rain; a reminder to each of us of the waters of our own baptism.

The middle picture of the three is one my grandmother allowed me to make a copy of. She proudly showed it to me a few years ago when we were talking about ministry and some of the exciting things I would get to do. The picture shows a tiny baptistery at the Baptist Church where my family attend in Springfield, Missouri. The preacher is round-faced and smiling, with his eyes closed and his hand raised over the boy he is about to baptize. That boy is my uncle Charlie. He looks like a cherub in that picture- which my dad will tell you was not a typical look for him. My uncle died of cancer when he was 55. That was one of the hardest times in my grandmother’s life. But this tiny picture, taken so long ago was and incredible comfort to her after Charlie died.

My grandmother asked if she could give me a piece of advice for my ministry. She’s the smartest person I know so I agreed, of course. She said, “Always take a picture when you baptize someone.” I have thought a lot about that, and tried to honor her advice. I have also thought a lot about why that picture of my uncle’s baptism is so comforting to her after his death. In rereading the story of Jesus’ baptism this week, I think I have a few ideas.

In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus’ baptism is the first time we see Jesus as an adult. His first public act before he does any teaching or healing is to seek out John the Baptist, so that he can enter into the waters of God’s love.
Baptism has several different meanings. In our tradition we practice a believer’s baptism. This means that the person getting baptized is mature enough to make the decision on their own that they are ready to be baptized. Being baptized is the natural follow up to making a profession of faith. After sharing with others, “I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God and I accept him as my Lord and Savior,” the next step is to do as Jesus did and to enter into the waters of baptism. As the Christian tradition developed it was understood that being baptized is a symbol of being in solidarity with Christ, becoming a part of his body. Just as Jesus would die and rise again, we submit to being submerged under the water and rising up again. In this way, we symbolically die and rise with him. It has been said that in baptism we die to sin and rise to Christ.

When we come up out of the water we try to make good on our promise of living a more Christ-like life. That doesn’t mean we can actually attain Christ-likeness and we’re not expected to. We are human, we can only attempt to follow Jesus the best way we know how and accept God’s love and forgiveness when we mess up, as we inevitably will.

So why in the world did Jesus need a baptism? This is a topic debated for centuries by scholars much wiser than me but here a few reasons why I think Jesus’ public ministry began with baptism.

One thing Jesus’ baptism accomplished was showing his commitment to the will of God. Jesus’ baptism was the beginning of something. This ritual performed by John was the first thing Jesus did that we read about in the gospels. He was baptized before he called disciples, before he traveled around announcing the kingdom of God. Before he preached, before he healed, Jesus came to be baptized in the Jordan River. For us, baptism is also the beginning of something. That’s why it is sometime said that you are “born again” after you have been baptized. Baptism is a new start- the beginning of your journey with God. The scene reminds is of other biblical beginnings as well. Who can forget the dove that Noah sent out after the floods to make sure it was safe to go ashore and start over? That same bird is present at this scene and we are aware that something new is going to be built here.

My favorite part of this account of Jesus’ baptism is the disagreement between John and Jesus. John is not a stranger to baptism. He has been baptizing all kinds of people. He has been asking them to turn away from their sin, to repent, for the Kingdom of God is drawing near. The “kingdom drawing near” is exactly what is happening as Jesus is begins his public ministry. Even though it was John’s job to prepare people for Jesus’ coming, he realizes that he is not the one that should be doing the baptizing. He proclaims that he is the one that needs to be baptized by Jesus. But Jesus’ insists that it must be John who baptizes him and he says the reason is, “to fulfill all righteousness.”

I often struggle with that word righteousness and one of the authors I read this week had this simple definition: “Righteousness means doing the will of God.” In order to fulfill all that God had planned, John needed to baptize Jesus in the Jordan that day. In that moment, John became a partner with Jesus in acting out God’s saving plans for the world. By allowing John to administer the act of baptism, Jesus shows us what kind of leader he will be. He is not a power-hungry messiah who must do everything himself, but he is a humble servant who empowers others to do God’s will along with him.

Another reason Jesus is baptized at the beginning of his public ministry is so God can name him and claim him. At his baptism the heavens open and a voice says, “this is my son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased.” There were others gathered on the shore that day and they got to hear what was said about Jesus from heaven. What was claimed that day about Jesus is declared to us as well at our baptisms. When we are baptized into Christ we know that these three things are also true about us:

1. “You are my son” God said of Jesus. While none of us was divinely conceived, we do know that we are children of God. In Paul’s writings we read that Christ was our older brother, and we are all a part of God’s family. At our own baptisms we were claimed as God’s children. Even if you didn’t hear a voice from heaven- know the truth in your heart now, you are God’s son, God’s daughter. You are a child of God.

2. “Whom I love,” that was the next part of the heavenly statement. Not only was Jesus God’s child, but a beloved child. I don’t know about you but there are moments and there are days when I wonder how anyone could love me. Especially after I make a mistake, I use words that hurt others, I make bad decisions. Regardless of how I have messed up I am a beloved child of God. You’ve heard me say this before but hear it again this morning- because of God’s great love we know that, “God loves you, and there is nothing you can do about it.” God’s love is assured to us at the moment of our baptism.

3. “In whom I am well pleased.” God was pleased with Jesus at that moment of his baptism. This may be hard for us to hear or comprehend but God is pleased with us as well. Some of us were taught in childhood to fear the wrath of an angry and vengeful God. The truth is, there is nothing so bad that we’ve done that we can outdo God’s love for us. God is pleased with you, you are his beloved child. I can’t think of any better news than that.

I can’t wait for the next baptisms I got to be involved in. Getting to hold someone as they make that ultimate commitment to God’s will is one of my favorite parts of being a minister. I have often told people that getting to baptize someone makes all those hours of studying in seminary worth it. Even though some are nervous before they go under the water, everyone I have baptized comes out of the water with a smile and a look of peace that passes my understanding. I think it’s because they have been named and claimed by God. What in the world could make you feel better than the knowledge that God says of you, “you are my child, whom I love, and I am well pleased with you?”.

I look forward to stepping into those waters with Harley Dodson and Kolin Webb soon (good thing Jesus didn’t have to wait for the Jordan River to warm up). I will love getting to see their faces as they come up out of that water- but I love to see the faces of those who witness the baptism as well.
I think I understand why my grandmother is so comforted by the picture of my uncle’s baptism. She can’t see or talk to Charlie every day, but she can hold that picture in her hands and understand that Charlie is God’s child, beloved with whom God is well pleased. She knows that he now resides in God’s eternal love and care. That knowledge comforts me, and I know it comforts her.

We all need to be reminded that we are God’s beloved children and that God is pleased with us. Jesus led the way in this important tradition by seeking out John for his baptism, and it is because of him that we have the assurance of eternal life. What an amazing gift to remember that we have as we start this new year together as God’s beloved children. Amen.

Danny William's Memorial

2011-01-13T13:47:00.002-06:00

I know you don't know Danny Williams most likely but let me tell you just a little bit about why he was special to me. First of all he was a church member and all of them are special to me but Danny and I had a family like bond. We shared in common the fact that neither of us had family close by.

A year or so ago Danny (who wasn't in great health anyway after a stroke and cancer in his eye causing him to have to have it removed) had what in our small town can only be described as an "episode" at Hardee's (his regular hang out). He ended up at the VA hospital in Nashville. I went to see him regularly (as did a few others from church). Danny was a man of few words, but he always got emotional when I came see him. He would tear up even if he couldn't say much. He was sweet and funny and I loved visiting him.

From the start Danny wanted to come HOME. He never made it back to his house but he did live out his final months at the nursing home here in town. This summer I took teenagers with me to see him and the others in the nursing home once a week. Danny was kind to them, looked them in the eye and was genuinely interested in what they had to say. I really appreciated with that- not everyone gives teenagers that respect.

Somehow Danny and I made a connection enough that he listed me as one of his contacts. So each time he had a major health issue, or they wanted to take him to the county fair or a ballgame, they called me. I saw him on and off (not as much as I would like to have), and I really felt like a daughter or a granddaughter to him. In fact a roommate at the VA hospital told him he had a really pretty daughter once when I visited (we both blushed and smiled).

As I heard a minister say once, Danny "moved his membership to the church eternal" shortly before Christmas. A week ago, I led his memorial service here at the church. It was well attended by friends, and even some family members. Here is what I said about Danny. I am grateful to his good friend Tim Stephens who filled me in on the details of his life before I knew him. This is not the whole service, just my "homily". I also sang "In Christ Alone" at the end of the service.

Thank you all for your remembrances of Danny I want to add to them my own memories of Danny Williams and some of the things I have learned about him over the past few weeks. Danny was a friend of mine. I knew him of course through this church and when he came through the door, no matter how slow he was walking, especially after his stroke, he came through with a smile on his face and his nice blazer on for church. I loved seeing him on Sundays and getting a hug after church. Danny was a loyal friend to those at church. He was a loyal friend to those with whom he solved the problems of the world around a table at Hardee’s. Recently, he was a friend even at the nursing home. Danny was a good friend- never wanted to trouble you for anything- even if you wanted to try to help him with something. I love that Danny was a sensitive guy. He was often overwhelmed with emotion when I visited him and tears would well up in his eyes.

Livingston was Danny’s home. He had lived other places in his life, including New Jersey before his parents moved him down here to get to small town and a more serene way of life. They moved to Livingston when Danny was in about the 5th grade and his father set up a grocery store on the square. Danny grew up on the square. He grew up in an old colonial home near the square where the boys would gather and play football in the front yard. Danny was in the Boy Scout troop led by Lowell Stephens, where he no doubt learned about serving his community and his country. I know he loved the camp trips led by Lowell and the pastor here at First Christian, Brother Tommy Kearns. Danny was involved in this church- this was his place. He enjoyed being in the youth group and attended Sunday School taught first by Mrs. Betty Stephens and then by Mr. Billy Gaw who read our scripture for us today. I’m sure he fervently hoped these teachers would let him out of class a little early so he could race the other students to be the first one to ring the bell indicating that it was time for Sunday School to be over. Then they would all race up to the drugstore for a cherry coke before church started.

Livingston was Danny’s home. He played football for Livingston Academy and he never lost interest in what was going on there. I would often see him sporting his local team apparel when I went to visit him in the nursing home. When I took teenagers with me, Danny was always kind to them- asking what they were interested in and if they played any sports for the school team. He was a Wildcat fan. Not only our Livingston Wildcats, but he kept his eye on the University of Kentucky Wildcats as well. We can’t be too hard on him about that- he did make his home in Lexington for a while as well. He also loved Vanderbilt and the University of Tennessee- so there was always a local team to cheer for.

Danny would leave Livingston for a while. He journey to the Navy where he worked on an aircraft carrier called the USS Antietam. He served as the ship guarded the east coast of our country, and across to New Orleans and even Corpus Christi. His grocery store experience came in handy on the ship and Danny was put in charge of the supply area for the entire ship. He did all the ordering and organizing of supplies for all those on the Antietam.

When he left the military he made his home in Lexington- although he still snuck down to Dale Hollow for his lake time as Fenton mentioned. In Lexington Danny worked for General Electric Supply, a job he was fiercely proud of. He once shared with Tim that as a salesman for General Electric he had sold the University light bulbs for the UK Stadium. Later he moved to Barea Kentucky he continued in the grocery store business running a store next to a hotel. During his years in Kentucky he had a family and his son Mike was born.

The grocery business was a calling for Danny. Eventually he came back here to Overton County and ran a grocery store in Cookeville on Spring Street called the “Get and Go” and one in Allons, TN called Knuckles that David Hunter owned. He made friends in those communities, particularly with the kids who would come into the store. Danny always made sure they got the piece of candy they came into the store looking for from him.

I think you’ve gotten the point that even though Danny traveled from this place in his life, this community was his home. Livingston was his home. This church was his home. Hardee’s was his home. And he made his home here for as long as he could. In the end the Overton County Nursing Home was his home, and he made you all there smile just like he did us. Danny had a home here, he had roots here, but today we can rejoice in the fact that he has a new home.

Shortly before Christmas Danny decided to go on and move himself to his eternal home. When his disciples were grieving in advance of his death, Jesus spoke these comforting words, “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” He said. He reminded them that he was going to his Father’s house where there are many rooms, and he was going to prepare a place for them. I believe Danny knew that his place was being prepared for him. Even though the last time I spoke to him he was very weak, he would not that admit that to me. When I asked him if he felt weak he said, “no.” He didn’t want me to worry, he didn’t want me to be troubled. He knew what the future held. The future held a home for him, a new home in the Kingdom of God and he has gone on there to his eternal rest.

Danny does not have to inhabit the body that had failed him anymore. He doesn’t have to drink any more of those terrible Ensure shakes they were always trying to get him to drink at the nursing home. His trials are over, he is troubled no more. He now has a peace that passes all understanding. Not the peace that the world gives, but the kind only God can give.

It is my prayer for us today that we can celebrate with Danny his new home. While it is natural to grieve him and to miss him, we can’t forget to rejoice that this child of God has finally gone to his true home, his home in Christ Jesus. It is my hope that we can feel just a portion of the peace that has been given to Danny. Danny would want us to experience Christ’s peace for ourselves and for us to remember that it is in Christ alone that we have our hope.

Love Sunday Sermon- Greatest Hits of Love

2011-01-13T13:41:00.004-06:00

I'm a little behind on updating my blog but here is my sermon from the "Love" Sunday of Advent!
4th Sunday in Advent
Luke 2: 8-14
December 19, 2010

Each day we are nearing closer and closer to the manger. Our Advent journey will culminate this week as we worship together, bleary-eyed in the candle light’s glow on Christmas Eve. Before we reach the Christ-Child we have one more stop to make on our journey. We have been asked to prepare our hearts and our minds to received God’s gift at Christmas and I daresay there is no way we can do that without talking about love.

Each year when Dee and I decide who gets to preach on “love” Sunday we fight over it. Who will get to preach this year over the best topic in all the world- love. Well, this year I won and I want us to have a little fun with topic of ultimate importance. I’m not sure if you know what the ultimate expression of love is- at least romantic love anyway. You might think it is diamonds, or pearls or a family bible, or a naming a star after someone. If you think the ultimate expression of romantic love is any of those things- you’d be wrong. The ultimate expression of love is a mix tape. I’m not sure how people expressed their love before music could be recorded- maybe in a concert of favorite songs, but I can tell you in my growing up days the ultimate romantic gift to receive from someone you were smitten with was a tape (yes, a tape not a CD or an itunes gift card) with just the perfect mix of songs to express how you felt about that person. If you have ever made a mix tape for someone you were smitten with you know the work that goes into it- sweating over just the right mix of songs- you don’t want to seem crazy, just romantic. I still love a good mix tape. Of course now I make them on CD’s and I give them to friends for all sorts of occasions and I enjoy getting them from friends as well. But I will never forget the first mix tape given to me by a boy. I almost married that one.

So for our last Advent Sunday I want to give you a sort of mix tape of what I consider to be the top ten love scriptures in the Bible. For me it was nearly impossible to take a book which I believe could be summed up in one word as “love” and to try to pull out one scripture for today’s sermon. And so without further ado, I present to you Sunny’s Ultimate Love Mix from the Bible- my top ten favorite love verses from God’s word. Receive this as a sign that I really do love you and care for you deeply- I put this mix together just for you.
The first of my favorite love scriptures comes from the book of Deuteronomy 6:5. Scripture says, “You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” These words were so important to God’s people in the community of Israel that they were to write them on the doorposts of their homes. They were instructed to teach this most important commandment to their children and to recite these words “at home and away, when you lie down and when you rise up”. Put them on your forehead if that is what it takes to remember- Deuteronomy says. Loving God with all our heart, soul, might is a wonderful way to prepare our hearts for the birth of Christ. Do your children know that you love God with all that you are and all that you have? If not, tell them! Love God with all that you are- that is one of my favorite love scriptures in the Bible.

The next track on our mix tape is a track from the book of Psalms. The Psalms are filled with declarations of God’s unfailing love. However, nowhere is God’s love praised more repetitively than in Psalm 136. “O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever,” the psalm begins. Each line thereafter ends with the phrase, “for his steadfast love endures forever.” Line after line lists things God has done for us and then repeats, “his steadfast love endures forever.” This is an incredibly important thing to know about God, especially when times are tough. God’s love is not only something you have received in the past, or something you will receive in the future when you have earned it. God’s love is given freely and will always be there today, tomorrow and forever. God’s love endures forever and that makes Psalm 136 one of my favorite love scriptures of all time.

Track 3 on our mix tape comes to us from one of God’s prophets, Jeremiah. This scripture reminds me that God loves us a parent loves us. God loves us always, even when we mess up. A great deal of the book of Jeremiah is spent with God speaking through the prophet to a people who feel like God has abandoned them. The people are in foreign exile- away from their homes and land and they feel like they are being punished. But just like a loving parent, God’s ultimate concern is restoring relationship with the people. Jeremiah speaks God’s words and says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Again I will build you, and you shall be built.” God loves Israel and promises to restore and rebuild for them, that they might find a home again. When we feel at our most desperate, when we feel we have been punished and abandoned by God, God is there with an everlasting love. Everlasting love never quits on us. Everlasting love is ready to restore and rebuild and be in loving relationship once again. A reminder of God’s everlasting love is a great addition to our mix.

The fourth track on our mix tape is actually a remake of a previous track. In the Gospel according to Mark, Jesus is asked which is the greatest commandment by one of the scribes. Jesus quotes the beloved passage from Deuteronomy that any good Jewish kid should be able to recite when he says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.” Jesus is quick to add to this beloved favorite commandment that “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” “There is no greater commandment than these,” he tells those gathered. In other words, if you couldn’t remember anything else about any of God’s teachings, Jesus says that love of God, neighbor and self is the most important thing. The Greatest commandment is essential to our love mix.

Matthew 5:43-44 is perhaps the most challenging track to listen to on our mix of love scriptures. In Matthew Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven;” The challenge of loving as God wants us to love is realizing that love is something we are supposed to give to all people. Love is not a gift we are to give only to those who love us back, or those that treat us kindly, or those we are close to. Jesus tells us that to truly love as God loves, we must love our enemies. To me that makes this challenge from the Gospel of Matthew a track I’d like to skip over sometimes.

That brings us to the most popular track on our mix tape. This is the track a lot of people know the words to, so recite John 3:16 with me if you’d like (I’m going King James on this one): “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
This verse is seen held up on signs at football games, and quoted from the lips of young children. This is a beloved verse. You hear this scripture all year long but I really think this is a Christmas scripture. Christmas is all about God’s gift to the world in Jesus Christ. Yes, this track is a Christmas track.

Our next track is another extremely popular one. This verse shines during many weddings, including my own. The thirteenth chapter of Corinthians is all about love. It describes of course, perfect love, not human love. This verse is something to be striving for, but never quite achieved in reality. This verse describes the way God loves us when it says, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” What an excellent track- that one might be my favorite- may we all seek to love like that.

Our next track is one about the Holy Spirit. How can you tell if the Holy Spirit is dwelling in you- if you are letting God’s spirit live and work in you? Paul says you can see fruits of the Spirit in your life. In Galatians 5 we are told that the fruits of the Spirit are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. Did you notice love was at the top of the list?
This next track is a relatively new one for me, but it is quickly becoming a favorite. This short verse has become almost a mantra for me- one I carry with me and repeat when I am feeling scared or anxious. 1 John 4:18 says that “perfect love casts out fear.” Perfect love comes from God and flows through us to others. So much of the violence and hatred in the world is based in fear. Only one source has the power to dispel the fear in the world and cast it out- and that is God. I strive daily to open myself to God’s perfect love and to cast out the fear in my own life and in the lives of others.

The final and most important track on our “love mix” cd is Luke 2: 8-14. Who can forget the precious moment the Charlie Brown Christmas movie when Charlie Brown exclaims in exasperation: “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?!?” In response, Linus recites Luke 2:14. This is the angel’s announcement to the shepherds about the birth of Christ. “For unto you this day in the city of David is born a savior which is Christ the Lord.” The shepherds are reassured, “do not be afraid.” Perfect love casts out fear. God’s love is for all people- the angels tell that the birth of Christ is for all.
God’s most amazing act of love in the entire Bibical narrative is the incarnation. God’s love is made manifest in a tiny baby, given specifically to a young engaged couple- but given for all of us. This is the gift of Emmanuel, or God with us. God’s steadfast love does indeed endure forever and we are grateful for the human expression of that love. We are grateful that Mary and Joseph named him Jesus as the angel commanded because he would save the people. This Christmas we celebrate God’s most loving act, sending a child into the world to be with us. This child would grow to show us what love really looks like as he loved without boundaries or respect for human rules. God’s greatest expression of love was the gift of Christ, lover of our souls. May we receive that gift with love in our hearts and share it with others. Amen and amen.

Peace Sunday Sermon

2010-12-19T19:37:00.005-06:00

This sermon was exciting! I got a call at 5:00am that my dear friend and Senior Minister was sick and could not preach. So I got ready, went to church- did a little research and writing and was ready to go by 7:15! Big time thanks goes to my close friend Emily Nourse for her Advent devotion that I quoted verbatim.

Peace Sunday
Isaiah 11:1-10
December 5, 2010

My good friend Emily works for the Department of Human Services in Nashville. We were both trained at Vanderbilt and prepared for a life of ministry. Mine is here in a church congregation. Her congregation looks a little different. Each day she ministers to the poor and hurting in Nashville. She has a special passion for working with women. These women are often impoverished, victims of violence and mothers who are trying to provide for their families. To say the least, where Emily works is often chaotic. Emily is actively involved in her congregation at Eastwood Christian Church in East Nashville. Together they wrote an Advent devotion book this year and

Emily had this to say about peace:
“Peace…It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.”
This quotation hangs on the wall of my cubicle at the Department of Human Services. The Department of Human Services can be chaotic, loud, frustrating and disruptive. There can be babies crying, people in distress, children running around and laughing, and, above all, people in desperate need of help. I hung this quote on my wall because it reminds me each day that most things about this world are not quiet and are not easy. Many things within this world are loud and challenging and painful. This quote reminds me that the things worth doing are not easy, painless or effortless; the things worth doing are those things that involve grappling with the messiness and chaos of this world.

Part of the mystery of the Christmas narrative is that Jesus was born in a stable, a place of chaos, a place that was messy, probably loud and disruptive. As we prepare ourselves with expectancy and anticipation for Christmas joy let us remember that true peace comes not from the outside world but from within each one of us. When we can find a calming peace within ourselves we are able to anticipate with expectancy not only the Christ child but each person that comes to us in their messiness and need of comfort and hope.”

Emily’s devotion was a helpful reminder to me that I have a role in the peace of the world, by being a peaceful person within my own heart and life. Finding peace for myself allows me to share hope and comfort with others.

The beautiful words of the prophet Isaiah picture a world of peace for us. This image of what has been called the peaceable kingdom is a favorite for some of us. In the Message bible, Eugene Peterson calls this section of scripture “A Living Knowledge of God”
He says it this way,
“6-9The wolf will romp with the lamb,
the leopard sleep with the kid.
Calf and lion will eat from the same trough,
and a little child will tend them.
Cow and bear will graze the same pasture,
their calves and cubs grow up together,
and the lion eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child will crawl over rattlesnake dens,
the toddler stick his hand down the hole of a serpent.
Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill
on my holy mountain.
The whole earth will be brimming with knowing God-Alive,
a living knowledge of God ocean-deep, ocean-wide.”

What a peaceable vision this gives us! Peace Sunday is the second stop on our advent journey. This week we pause for this time of worship to remind ourselves what we are waiting for, longing for and hoping for when we anticipate the birth of Christ. The Israelites of Jeremiah’s time were waiting on an earthly ruler- they were waiting for a King David type figure to come in and do God’s work in the world. We are waiting once again to be reminded that our Savior has come into the world. Our Savior is Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.

When the baby is born, peace comes with him. He is not bringing with him a magic pill or a magic key that will cure the world of war, and anger and ugliness between friends and family. He brings to us simply the reign of God. The reign of God includes a peace that has already been given to us; a peace that many of us still struggle to accept within our own hearts and lives. What we are waiting for then is for “the whole earth to be brimming with knowing God-Alive, a living knowledge of God ocean-deep and ocean-wide.”

Perhaps instead of waiting we need to be creating peace within our own hearts, minds and lives. The reality is until God’s realm is realized- life is not going to get any less chaotic messy. Most of us will have to work hard at creating a peace in our hearts in the midst of our ever-hectic lives. We have to find and nurture those things that bring us peace. For my own heart to be at peace, I have to spend time with God. I have to be in worship, I need to sit in my chair in the morning before the whole household is up and read my Bible and my devotion book and pray. Then I usually text my prayer partner and check in with her. I can skip these things in the morning. Most likely my day will still be chaotic, messy and noisy. But when I take time to create a space of peace in my own heart I am more able to provide comfort and hope to others and I am more likely to feel it myself.

I’m not sure what it is for you that makes you feel most peaceful but I encourage you to think about that, discover it and practice it. December is not typically the most peaceful month on our calendars. And yet in our spiritual life it is a time when we are called to draw closer to the ultimate source of peace. God is breaking into the world once again, and bringing the peaceable kingdom. Will our own hearts be at peace enough to allow God’s peace in? I pray that each of us would experience God’s peace this Advent season. Amen.

Some wisdom from my Grandfather

2010-10-20T15:29:00.005-05:00

My grandparents snuck into town to visit us briefly this week. My grandmother is the talker and my grandpa is pretty quiet. Grandpa doesn't waste any words and chooses them carefully. From him I have learned what it is to be a really good and helpful church member. He lives his faith, in stewardship and in action. He hugs everyone at church on Sunday morning and they miss him when he's not there. He is also a visitor- he will visit any one who needs a visit be it home, hospital or wherever.

I was excited to share our new house with Grandma and Grandpa. Before we went in I told them that it wasn't perfectly clean but we had picked up a little for their visit. Grandpa said, "You know, I've done a lot of home visits and I would much rather be in a home where you have to step over a child or a toy to get to your seat than one that is perfectly clean."

His words stuck with me. Life is about priorities. Sometimes I look around my house and think, "a better person would have a cleaner house." And sometimes I am able to see the beauty in a dog toy on the floor, an unwrapped birthday present for a two-year old friend, the dish the held the homemade meal the night before. All of these are signs of a life well lived. I'm with grandpa, I'd rather trip over a toy than feel uncomfortable in a home that is almost too clean. It's pretty amazing when someone allows you to enter their home even when its not perfectly clean.

I really love my grandpa and I can't wait for the next little bit of profound wisdom he will share with me.

Making a Home in Exile Sermon

2010-10-10T18:28:00.002-05:00

Jeremiah 29:1-7
October 10, 2010

My life has been pretty wonderful lately. Saying that sounds strange to my own ears, because there has been a tremendous amount of stress with David’s heart trouble. To be brutally honest when I vowed 3 years ago to love him in sickness and in health I had not pictured three months of him living with an irregular heartbeat, undergoing 7 different “cardioversions” to try and shock his heart back to regular rhythm, and scary conversations in the doctor’s office about his increased risk for “Sudden Cardiac Death.” I know those of you who have had loved ones with illnesses know how scary it is to hear words come out of a doctor’s mouth and wonder if your loved one is going to live or die.

Forgive me if what I’m sharing seems too personal, my preaching teacher would be so disappointed in me. But I want to let you in on a big preacher secret. I don’t know if it is universal secret but it is unequivocally truly for Dee and me. Whenever we preach, we are preaching more to ourselves than we are to you.
On any given Sunday you may feel like the words of the sermon are aimed directly at you- like we’ve been looking into your life for our material, but in reality, the mistakes from our own lives are quite enough fodder to preach a lifetime of sermons about.

This Sunday I am preaching on a scripture that other preachers in other churches may be speaking on as well, but to me it feels like God wrote me a personal letter when I read the words of Jeremiah 29. The scripture itself is a letter, and of course it was not written to you or to me but to all those in exile during the prophet Jeremiah’s time. The letter came through Jeremiah, but he makes it clear that it is God’s message he brings and not his own. Around the year 579, before the Common Era, the Israelites were taken over by the Babylonians and sent away from Jerusalem and into exile.

The Israelites were true exiles, having been forced to leave the land they had always known as home. Some of you have lived in Livingston your entire lives- can you imagine being forced to leave by a political power that came in and conquered your homeland? The Israelites were forced to leave the place where they had grown up and raised their children. If you want to know exactly how terrible it is to live in exile read Psalm 137. The Psalmist describes captors that taunt those they have captured as they ask them to sing happy songs of their homeland and mock them. Can you imagine being driven from your home and then mocked? Might you even be so filled with anger you would ask God to destroy the children of your enemies as Psalm 137 suggests? Exile is not good. Exile is the unexpected, the unplanned. Exile is where you find yourself when you look at your life and say, “things aren’t supposed to be like this.”

Fortunately for us, we will have never and will never (except for Mrs. Agnes!) be deported from our homes and sent to live in exile. If you are anything like me, you may have experienced a moment when your life doesn’t match with your expectations. You may have a moment where you realize that your reality doesn’t met up with your dreams of the way your life might be. And in our worst moments like this, we may get a small glimpse of what it might be like to live in exile.

Directly into the jarring awareness that all is not right, the prophet Jeremiah speaks a word. In fact, Jeremiah speaks God’s word into the lives of those in exile. To the Israelites under Babylonian captivity God said, “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.”

God is saying, make a home in exile. Stop waiting for your life to be something different than it is. Stop waiting to be able to return home before you start living. Make a life here. Marry, have children, let your children marry. I’m not sure whether these words would have been comforting to me in exile or not. If my instructions are to make a life in exile, to marry and have children and see my children married, that means I’m not going home for a while. In fact, the Israelites didn’t go home for a while. They were in exile for 70 years. According to the life expectancy of the time, this would have been just what Jeremiah is describing, two generations. While in exile, some would die, some would be born, some would marry, and all would grow older. The Israelites could not put their lives on hold until God brought them back to their home. They had to make a home, even if it was in exile.

The instruction God gives to make a home in exile speaks volumes to me. As I said before, while I might not go so far as to call it exile, my life today looks a little different than my original plan. For instance, I’m 34 and I drive a mini-van but I don’t have any children. Exile? No. Exactly what I expected from my life? Not exactly that either. In the last month it has begun to dawn on me slowly how serious my husband’s health situation is. At age 41 he is living with chronic atrial fibrillation that is causing a weakening of his heart. We have cancelled visits from out of town relatives, lunches with friends, trips to friends’ weddings, and other life appointments so that we could be ready at the drop of a hat to do what needed to be done for David’s health. Exile? Not really, but some days it has seemed that way to me. When I read Jeremiah’s words to the Israelites it was as if God was speaking directly to me. Want to know what God was saying? “Yes, you’re in exile- welcome! Make a home here.” My life may not be exactly as I planned it to be but this is my life. This reality is where I am supposed to live, and love. This reality- not some perfect dream that never gets actualized is the reality God had in mind for me.

You may remember that I said my life has been wonderful lately. I want to get back to the part about the beauty of exile. The beauty of living in exile is that God is present there with you. God was there among the Israelites, living under Babylonian rule. God even promised blessings to them as they were in exile. God promised fertility and growth. God promised that they would have children; that their gardens would grow and that even if their lives were not exactly what they had planned, that they were home.

Is your life right now not exactly what you had in mind? Do you feel some days like you are living in exile? WELCOME HOME. God is saying to you: “Make a home here.” God has given us the most beautiful blessing and it is called the present moment. The moment you are in right here and now.

My present reality, my seeming exile, has brought so many gifts for David and I. We have grown closer as a couple as our priorities have been shifted. I have been reminded of why I fell in love with him in the first place, his sense of humor and his kindness. We have seen movies together, enjoyed more meals together. We have talked about things that really matter. We have joined hands and faced scary news together, and we have rejoiced and thanked God when things have gone well. If this is exile, we’re going to plant a garden and stay awhile.

God asked the Israelites to do one more thing besides building a home in exile. God asked the people to bless the land. God said, “but seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare, you will find your welfare.” Bless the land God says, whose welfare is tied up in your own. Throughout the Bible, this difficult word comes to us that we should pray for and love our enemies. In this phrase about praying for the land while the Israelites in exile, we understand that the welfare of our enemies is tied up with our own welfare. These words echo Christ’s words to “pray for those who persecute you.”

Perhaps the real challenge is to thank God for the exile. It seems to me that if we could remember to thank God for the situation even when we feel like we are in the midst of exile, we might be able to see more clearly God’s blessing for us in this very present moment.

I want to challenge us this morning to live fully into the present that God has for us. Even if your present feels more like exile than what you had planned for your life, God’s blessing is here, with you, in the present. We have been challenged to make a home in the present. We’ve been challenged to plant gardens of contentment and watch them grow. We’ve been challenge to share the joy of living fully into the present with future generations.

There is a wonderful quote I would like to end with this morning. “Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today? Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present.” (Babatunde Olatunji). May we live fully into the present moment that God has given us. May we make a home, even in exile. Amen.

Still Small Voice - First Christian Church, Livingston, TN feat. Sunny R...

2010-08-17T12:56:00.000-05:00

Still Small Voice Sermon

2010-08-17T12:47:00.002-05:00

1 Kings 19:1-15
August 15, 2010

Before everyone had refrigerators in their homes, people used ice houses to preserve their food. Ice houses had thick walls, no windows, and a tightly fitted door. In the winter, when streams and lakes were frozen, large blocks of ice were cut, hauled to the icehouses and covered with sawdust. Often the ice would last well into the summer.

One man lost a valuable watch while working in the icehouse. He searched diligently for it, carefully raking through the sawdust, but did not find it. His fellow workers also carefully looked, but their efforts too proved futile.
A small boy who heard about the fruitless search slipped into the icehouse during the noon hour and soon emerged with the watch. Amazed, the men asked how he found it. “I closed the door,” the boy replied, “laid down in the sawdust, and kept very still. Soon I heard the watch ticking.”

Often in our faith lives the question is not whether God is speaking, but whether we are being still enough, and quiet enough to hear. I believe God comes to us in many ways, and Elijah’s story reminds us that one of the most powerful ways that God comes to us is with a still, small voice. Some translations even say it was with “the sound of sheer silence” that God chose to come to Elijah. Let’s us tune our hearts and mind to listen for the voice of God in Elijah’s story this morning.

Sometimes being a servant of God will wear you out! Elijah reminds us that the things we are called on to do on God’s behalf are not always easy. As our scripture reading begins, Elijah has just come off of a tremendous victory for God against the prophets of the god Baal. Elijah called down fire that God provided- proving that his God was superior to theirs. Then he led the prophets down near the water and killed them. This angered the Queen Jezebel who has now warned Elijah that she intends to kill him.

This is more than Elijah can handle. He comes off of a big victory and immediately someone is looking to kill him. Working for God is not always easy. Doing what God calls you to do will not always win you friends. In fact, you will most likely run into other people’s attitudes that may make you want to run and hide. Hopefully no one will ever threaten to kill you because of what God has asked you to do, but there are times when you will want to throw in the towel.

Elijah has gone from celebrating to running. He simply cannot handle the fact that Jezebel wants him dead. He’s gone from feeling on top of the world, to the lowest of the low. Elijah runs for his life into the desert- a wilderness where it is not easy to survive on your own. He takes shelter in the shade of a broom tree and there he prayed to die. He asks God to take his life. This prophet is worn out- he has served all he can- he feels like he has nothing more to give to God. Then he falls asleep.

When we are at our lowest low, worn out from serving, fed up with God’s call, often we receive nourishment for what God has in store for us. After Elijah makes his desire to die known, God sends him nourishment. Elijah is nourished by the most basic of human needs, an angel provides him fresh bread and a jar of water. After another quick rest, the angel comes back with more nourishment for Elijah. Taking care of his most basic needs helped prepare Elijah for God’s next call, a forty day journey to mount Horeb.

When we are worn out from serving, rest nourishes us as well. Perhaps nourishment also comes in a kind and unexpected word of encouragement from a friend. Perhaps nourishment comes from a sermon that deeply connects with us, or a song that lifts our spirits and speaks to our souls. I truly believe if we stick around long enough, God will provide nourishment for us when we are worn out from serving. We need to be open to receiving the nourishment God has for us.
Last week Dee decided that nourishment for her journey might take the form of a trip down the Hiawassee River and she invited me and our friend Kara to join her. Being in nature is what nourishes Dee’s soul- brings her back to the source of all creation and puts her in touch with God. I have not always been an outdoor adventure girl myself. In fact, I only besides church camp the only outdoorsy things I have ever much done have been since I moved to Livingston. When I turned 30 I decided to start doing things that scared me- including camping outside without indoor plumbing, white water rafting, and last week- floating down the ice cold river in an inner tube.

More about that adventure later, let’s get back to Elijah’s adventure in the desert. After being nourished by God, Elijah began preparing himself for God’s next call on his life. He journeyed 40 days to Mt. Horeb- a famous mountain also known as Mt. Sinai. It was on this mountain that Moses also had an encounter with God and received the Ten Commandments. This mountain is where God will speak to Elijah directly. Elijah finds a cave in which to rest from his travels. After a night of rest God asks Elijah, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” A fair question I think, not accusatory but simply a statement of direction that could mean so many things like, “Why are you running,” and “What is your plan now?”

After Elijah shares his fears, disappointments and brokenness with God, God invites him to stand outside and wait for the powerful, divine presence to pass by. Now I don’t know how Elijah was expecting the presence of God to appear. Perhaps knowing the story of Moses’ encounter with God- he thought he might have to hide his face. As Elijah waits for God to pass by there comes a powerful wind that tore apart mountains and shattered rocks- that must be the presence of a powerful, almighty God, right? But God was not in the earthquake. Next there was a great earthquake. But God was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a roaring fire, but God was not in the fire either.

After the fire something interesting came next. Our translation this morning says that there was a gentle whisper. Some translate the Hebrew as, “the sound sheer silence” and the King James version says, “a still, small voice” came bringing the presence of God. It was this silence after wind, and earthquake and fire that brought the presence of God to Elijah. Again God asked Elijah, “What are you doing here Elijah?” Elijah tries to explain himself once again. What he receives from God are step-by-step instructions on what to do next. He is to appoint a new king and a prophetic successor.

God’s voice came to Elijah as still and small. The still small voice was a quiet sound in profound contrast to the roaring of the mighty wind, earth and fire. I’m sure there has never been a quieter moment in the history of the world as just before God spoke to Elijah. Well, maybe not a quieter moment until later in the history of our faith- the moment just after Jesus breathed his last breath on the cross. I believe God was speaking in that silence as well.

God’s voice can resound from the mountain tops and shake the foundations of the earth. God’s presence can come to us as a burning bush or many other natural phenomenons. But God’s voice can also be made known to us in a moment of silence. Do we ever create spaces of silence for God to speak? Do we nourish our own spirits so that on occasion there is quiet time- a time when there are no other sounds for God to enter in and speak to us? If we are making noise all the time- how will we hear God’s still, small voice?

I want to take you back to me floating down the river with my two friends last week. We were driven 6 miles away from the outfitter’s station, plopped into a river where the temperature was 54 degrees and sent off in an inner tube. We didn’t start out close enough to one another- so I hopped out of my tube and swam toward the girls so we could hold on to each other- getting back on the tube was my first challenge of the day. When I was safely back on my tube, I began to notice how the trip down the river was a metaphor for our faith lives. Sometimes, you travel your journey with friends- holding on to each other for dear life. Then, the first major rapid comes- and one friend ventures out on her own (that was Dee- she’s an introvert). Sometimes you can help each other to navigate the tough places- and sometimes you are still going to hit your shin against a rock. Then there are times when you can’t hold on to any other person and you will travel alone for a time (there was a time I didn’t see another human for 15 minutes on the river).

There are some times when you will feel the warmth of God’s love on your face like the sunshine- and there are times when you will wonder if anyone is still with you including God. I found myself in the middle of a grove of trees and then shot over a rapid that flipped me upside down with the tube on top of my head. I felt a little like a fed-up Elijah at that moment. But I got back on my tube- and even though we had taken different paths, we three friends still finished in the same spot at about the same time. God’s voice was speaking to us when we were laughing hysterically as I tried to get back on my tube, and God’s voice was speaking to us when all was quiet and we were able to lay back and just float.

Sometimes I think God is going to come to us in an earthquake. I think if you asked any of the missionaries from Tennessee that survived the Haiti earthquake earlier this year; they would tell you that God was in the earthquake (or at least in the aftermath of the earthquake). Sometimes God will come to us as a raging wind or a burning fire. But sometimes, God comes to us in the sound of sheer silence. Will we be there listening for God’s instruction for us in the silence?

I want to leave you with some words I read this week in a journal called, Direction. “The story (of Elijah) suggests a way forward- eat and drink of God’s life-giving sustenance, return to the bedrock of faith, listen for God’s still small voice. That may be the way to find new energy, new vision and a sense of purpose.”
I pray for each of us a new energy, new vision and new sense of purpose. May God’s still small voice renew us when we are feeling most burnt out and fed up. Amen.

A sermon I owe you!

2010-08-17T12:36:00.002-05:00

Ooops- I forgot to post the last sermon I preached on Mary and Martha! Here you go dear readers:

July 18, 2010
Luke 10:38-42

Have you ever stopped to look around in the middle of a family dinner? You know, the big kind of dinner, where the table is full- the leaf is put in and everyone is there? Maybe it’s Thanksgiving or maybe in your family it is simply a Sunday afternoon meal. If you stop and look around for a minute, you will probably notice that there is someone who is attending to all the details. There is that one person who cannot rest until everyone has what they need, until everything is put out on the table, and until everything is just right. I hate to gender stereotype too much, but this person is probably your mom or grandma. Or maybe as I’m describing it, you’ve realized this person is you.

This person is the Martha Stewart of the family- the one who likes to make sure not only that everyone has what they need, but that everything looks beautiful. This is the person who makes sure we have chocolate pies because Sally likes them, and pumpkin because Timmy likes them. In my family this person is my grandma- I actually have four grandmas and this is all of them! They are “salt of the earth” women; they put everyone else’s needs before their own. Someone eventually has to say to them, “Mom,” or “Grandma, come, sit down and eat.” Otherwise they won’t- they usually sit on the little chair at the corner of the table too- they don’t take the fancy “head of the table” chair, that’s for Grandpa. If Jesus was going to tell a story about two people, this sort of person would definitely be the hero, right? I mean, the meal wouldn’t happen without them. Family gatherings would be boring and everyone would be hungry without this person.

Actually, truth be told, I’m not sure I’d want Jesus as a dinner guest. I know that sounds terrible, but Jesus is not always a gracious guest in that he is often times critical of the host of the party. Jesus’ only concern is teaching people about God’s love and what God’s community is supposed to look like. Sometimes, that means not minding his polite manners. Especially in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus eats with a whole lot of people. Meals are where some of his best teaching moments happen.
In this case, as a guest in the home of Mary and Martha, Jesus enjoys their hospitality and takes an opportunity to do some talking with his disciples and the others gathered there. Martha’s main concern is hospitality. This is a dignified guest she’s attending to in her home. She has probably gone to all kinds of trouble to make sure the meal is exquisite and the best of everything has been used. As a preparer of meals, she is serving in the same capacity as the deacons in the early church would have- she makes sure everyone is fed and taken care of. With company this important you can see why she might want her sister’s help. When she notices that Mary in not helping her, but instead sitting and listen at Jesus’ feet, she turns to him for help. Jesus answers “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Jesus’ words almost sound like a reprimand here. His response is troubling to us, we’re kind of on Martha’s side- I mean we wouldn’t reprimand our mothers and grandmothers for being good hostesses. Of course I don’t think Jesus was really discouraging her from hospitality. Instead, I think he was using this as an example to all the believers about what in the world this “better” thing is that Mary chose and that we ought to choose. I see Jesus challenging Martha about what she is ultimately concerned with rather than criticizing her hospitality.

While her sister is attending to all the details of preparation for Jesus’ visit to their home, Mary is focused only on one thing. Mary sits at the feet of Jesus and listens. Her solitary focus is on her devotion to Jesus and her attention to the words that he brings. I admire that kind of focus. Most of the time I’m on of those that is easily distracted. I can be standing in front of my closet or refrigerator wondering what in the world I am doing there. Sometimes as I’m in the middle of one of the tasks on my “to do” list- I can’t help but think of five others that need to be done. There are those times of connection though when all distractions fall away, when you lose track of time because you are so focused on the task at hand. A psychologist named Csíkszentmihály, called this state of being is called, “Flow”. “Flow is completely focused motivation It is a single-minded immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning... The hallmark of flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, even rapture, while performing a task.” (summary from Wikipedia page)

To be of singular focus so much so that you are experience joy or rapture. I think Mary was having that kind of flow experience while listening to Jesus, so much so that she became completely unconcerned the details of what needed to be done around the house. She was so focused that she probably didn’t even notice how agitated her sister was with her!
What Csikszentmihaly describes as a psychological experience I can say that I have experienced as the presence of God making a connection with me. I have felt this way in heart to heart conversations with teenagers, or at hospital bedsides. I have felt this flow while co-creating sermon with help from the Holy Spirit. I have felt this way in worship, or when I’m in a group of other Christians at camp or at a retreat. I have felt a sort of God-flow many times.

Mary’s attention is focused on hearing straight from Jesus’ mouth the “good news” that he comes to bring. When Jesus praises her for attending to what is better we are reminded that be a disciple of Christ has more than one component. Before he told the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus is asked by a lawyer what he must do to gain eternal life. Jesus asks the man what the most important laws are and the man says, “Love God with all your heart, and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus agrees that these are the most important things and proceeds to explain to the man who his neighbor is through the story of the Good Samaritan. The fact that the story of Jesus’ visit to Mary and Martha’s home comes next in the Gospel of Luke is no accident. While the story of the Good Samaritan teaches us how to love a neighbor, Mary’s devotion reminds us how to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

We all need to find a way love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
Whatever it is that allows you to get into the “flow” of complete attention and focus on God then make a way for that to happen. For some it comes through hands on mission work, conversations with friends, music, reading your bible or another favorite devotion book. Some people need to get out into nature to experience full devotion to God, and I know for many of you this is the place where that God-connection happens. Worship should always be that time when we lay down our distractions and focus only on loving God and feeling God’s love for us in return. One pastor’s words I read this week said, “this story is really an invitation to get caught up in God’s presence.” (David Loose)

That is my great hope for each of us this morning- that in addition to the good works for our neighbor we are called on to do, that we would also spend time, free of distraction, in God’s presence. If the heart of the Gospel is loving God and loving neighbor- then turning our attention to those things is the “better way” of which Jesus speaks. May all of us experience that flow- a time when all else in the world melts away except for God and us. Amen and Amen.

Things I never expected...

2010-08-03T18:46:00.002-05:00

A little over six years ago when I left the halls of Vanderbilt Divinity School I never could have known all the things that ministry would hold for me. Sometimes the unexpected things make me want to pull my hair out, but more often than that they make me smile and fill my emotional and spiritual cup to overflowing. Here are a few of those things.

6 years ago I never expected:
1. I would find a best friend in the pastor I work with everyday.
2. I would survive in a small town more than 18 months (remember, I had never lived in a town of less than 50,000). I have been here 6 years and two months now. I love it and I have no plans to leave.
3. I would preach a Sunday morning worship service at Regional Assembly (October 2008).
4. That people would let me in their lives in such profound ways- at the moments of their greatest joy and sadness. I have officiated 12 weddings, assisted with many funerals, and I still tear up each time I hold a newborn baby for the first time (and sometimes I get to be among the first to hold them!).
5. I never thought I would earn the trust of teenagers and children in such profound ways. They bless me with the deepest desires of their hearts. They share their secrets with me. The pray with me and for me. The call or text me when they need me. This amazes me.
6. I never thought I would sit around the table with four other women ministers who all serve in this area (within 30 minutes of each other). They face the same challenges I do. They share the same joys. They seem to be balancing work life, family life and their own relationships with God in a way that works. And to think, I met the convener of the group (a retired Presbyterian minister) when she came to a funeral Dee and I were officiating. God works in wonderful ways and I am profoundly grateful.

10 year beach wedding vow renewal

2010-06-15T14:57:00.003-05:00

Some days you get to do really cool stuff as a minister. This last weekend I got to go to the beach in Emerald Isle, North Carolina and renew the wedding vows of two of my best friends in the world while their friends, kids and mothers watched. This was my first barefoot ceremony, my first vow renewal and my first ceremony where my notes where on my ipod- so cool!

Opening: Good evening God’s beloved! How wonderful it is for us to be on the beach tonight with our dear friends Eric and Jessa. In fact, there is no place else on earth we would possibly be then here with our toes in the sand and our eyes on the sunset.

We are far from figuring God out. God is a mystery- in fact such a mystery that Eric has been studying theology for most of his adult life. Although I can say very little about God with absolute certainly- one thing I know for sure and that is that God is love.

One of the ways I have seen the love of God expressed in my own life is through other people and I think you might join me in acknowledging that through Eric and Jessa we have seen the kind of love that comes from God. Many strive for and do not find the kind of love that Eric and Jessa have found in one another. They haven’t selfishly hidden this love, but they have shared it with us- and their relationship has enriched our own understanding of what it means to love.

So tonight, it is fitting that we gather together on this lovely beach- this place of renewal, rest, laughter, puzzles and fun and surround them with our love as we celebrate 10 amazing years, and we witness them recommit and renew their love to one another.

Prayer: Would you pray with me? Loving God, Eric and Jessa stepped into the circle of your love and grace as husband and wife 10 years ago. In the following years, they have experienced the deep meaning of love that is possible between two loving partners. They know the thrill of love, but they also understand the responsibilities of love. Today, they more fully understand the meaning and the depth of the covenant they now renew. Grant to them the heights of joy, the depths of peace, and the breadth of love in the coming years of their married life. Give them gladness as they recall the memories of the past; give them vision and courage as they look to the promise of the future. Continue to be for us all the source of everlasting love. Amen.*

Words of Memory and Celebration:
A lot has changed since the year of your original wedding. Gas was $1.26 a gallon, a postage stamp was 33 cents and there was no Amos and Eli in the world. On that beautiful day in May you gathered with dear friends and family (Sadly I wasn’t there because we hadn’t met yet). You excitedly exchanged vows and rings- you laughed together as a frog jumped into the fountain you made your promises in front of. There were friends and family all around but it still seemed like you two were the only ones in the world.

The journey together really began that night- after all the celebrating was over and you realized you didn’t get any food and you to vegetarians shared fries and peanuts at a steakhouse which was the only thing open.

Jessa 10 years ago you were crafty- we can count on that today. In three to six months you will picking up some new craft that amazes us all. You are full of wonder, love and nurture just as you were ten years ago- but you’re different as well. Eric says you are more confident and self actualized now. Also you cook on occasion which is pretty sweet.

Eric you are still the emotionally steady- solid rock you were 10 years ago. You have more school under your belt and your scholarly nerdiness is a constant. Today however, you are a dad and Jessa has marveled about how this has brought out a silly, loving and sentimental side in you.

Time continues to move us along our life’s journey. In the words of Ferris Bueller, “life moves pretty fast- if you don’t stop and look around once an awhile, you might miss something.” It is fitting that we pause tonight to celebrate this milestone. To remember the good ways that we are the same and different than we all were 10 years ago.

Tonight we lift you up in celebration because we love you. We admit that you inspire us with your relationship. We celebrate with exceeding joy the presence of Amos and Eli and the wonder and whimsy they bring to your family.

Renewal of Original Vows:
10 years ago you made some outstanding promises to each other. There is no way you could have known fully what you were getting into when you looked in to each other’s eyes and vowed these things. The past 10 years have held mostly joy, and a few challenges along the way. These vows have served you well as you have walked down the road together.

Today you are a little older, and a lot wiser- however you still cannot know what the next 10 years will bring. These vows are the promises of love and commitment that you will strive toward as you continue to make a life together with Eli and Amos. Will you renew these promises to each other this day by repeating after me?

Eric: Jessa, You are my dearest friend and deepest love,
and I am so happy that on this day I continue to l call you my wife.

From this moment on I promise to love you.
I promise to treat you with honor and respect.
I promise to embrace you each day with kindness.
I vow to be devoted to our love with honesty and vigor.

I will take great joy in you.
You are my greatest bliss, a source of my strength,
and an instrument of my growth and happiness.

I thank our God eternally for you and with God’s grace,
give myself completely unto you , from this day forward.

Jessa: Eric, You are my dearest friend and deepest love,
and I am so happy that on this day I continue to l call you my husband.

From this moment on I promise to love you.
I promise to treat you with honor and respect.
I promise to embrace you each day with kindness.
I vow to be devoted to our love with honesty and vigor.

I will take great joy in you.
You are my greatest bliss, a source of my strength,
and an instrument of my growth and happiness.

I thank our God eternally for you and with God’s grace,
give myself completely unto you , from this day forward.

Affirmation of Marriage: Jessa and Eric, you have expressed a desire to renew the covenant of marriage made between the two of you on May 27th, 2000. Because you have reaffirmed your commitment to each other as wife and husband through your vows, We likewise reaffirm the covenant of your marriage, and affirm both of you husband and wife in a marriage marked by love, companionship, respect and honesty.* Jessa, you may now kiss your groom!

Words of Affirmation and Blessing by Friends: Let’s face it- we are here today because we are Eric and Jessa’s favorite and most beloved friends and family! I want to give each of you and opportunity to share a memory with them or to say anything you want to say during this sacred time.

Words of Blessing to the Children and Community of Friends: Anything the couple wants to say?

* These bits of the ceremony were taken from a book on Weddings

Ordinary Time, Extraordinary God Sermon

2010-06-06T12:03:00.001-05:00

June 6, 2010
Genesis 2:1-4
Psalm 8

Ordinary Time, Extraordinary God

Summer time has arrived in Tennessee. We may not have hit the June 21 official start date but I can tell it is summer because the air is so thick with humidity that I get sweaty walking across my backyard to church. I can tell its summer because the mosquitoes of the world have already helped themselves to a feast on my flesh. Mostly, I can tell its summer because most of you seem a bit more relaxed. The children and youth of the church are out of school for the year and I am hounding them to sign up for church camp. Vacation Bible School will be here before we know it. Some of you will leave church today and go to the lake and some will head out this week for vacation. Personally, I love the sunshine mixed with summer thunderstorms. I love the smell of rain as I sit on my new porch.

In the world around us it is summer time- a change we can see and feel because we live in a climate that experiences all four seasons. Did you know the church year has seasons as well? Church time is a little different than the world’s time but it is marked by seasons just the same. We call the seasons of the church year “liturgical seasons”. Liturgical is one of those million dollar churchy words that simply means “pertaining to worship.” There is a rhythm to our worship, there are seasons that we observe here together as a church. No one forces us to participate in these seasons. No pope or bishop tells us that we must. No, we are a Free Church tradition, which means that we choose how we will worship. In this church we have chosen to acknowledge that one of the ways God moves in us as a body of Christ is through different seasons of the church year. For us, observing the liturgical seasons enhances our understating of how God moves through time. Celebrating the seasons gives a rhythm to our worship life.

The church “new year” actually begins back in November or December when we prepare to celebrate Christ’s birth at Christmas. For us, the birth of Christ is the start of the church year. After the season of Christ’s birth we quickly move toward the season of Lent and Easter- which is a very important season where we commemorate the death celebrate the resurrection of Christ. A few weeks ago we dressed our sanctuary and ourselves up in red and we celebrated the movement of the Holy Sprit in the lives of believers on the day of Pentecost.

We are now entering into a new season of the church year. This is actually the longest stretch of churchy-time, the time where we spend most of our lives. You know Christmas, you know Easter, I would like to introduce you to a new season of church time called “Ordinary Time.” Clever name, right? Ordinary time. This season’s favorite color is green. You will notice green in our sanctuary today. Green is the color of growth, of creation, of nature. Green is the color we see when we look outside into God’s world this time of year.
Ordinary time isn’t as obvious as Christmas or Easter- there are no special gifts to give, or outfits to buy or heavily marketed candy available at the store. Ordinary time is about us and God. Ordinary time takes a little more effort for us to observe. I might just venture to say that ordinary time is my favorite time of the church year. During ordinary time we focus our hearts and minds on seeking God in the every day-ness of our lives. We seek God in the ordinary.

Ordinary time reminds me of the seventh day of creation. In Genesis we read about God creating the world. For six days God worked at a frantic pace. God created light, and waters, and land, and sky, and plants, and seasons, and days, and years. God made stars, the sun the moon, birds, sea animals, animals that creep and animals that swarm, and every kind of animal you can think of and some you can’t. Then God created humans. After all that, on the seventh day the Bible says, “God finished the work that he had done.” God finished creation by resting. There is a rhythm to God’s time- it involves hard work and then rest. Our Extraordinary God took a bit of time at the end of all that creating to do a very ordinary thing: rest. Resting is part of creation. Ordinary Time is part of the church year. And while Ordinary Time does not always equate to restful time, Ordinary Time is a time to take a step back from all our celebrating and working and do some growing and learning.

Even though we have four accounts of Jesus’ life in our four Gospels there seems to have been some ordinary time in Jesus’ extraordinary life as well. While we know about Jesus’ birth- and we do have an account of him as an almost-teenager in the temple, we don’t know much about his in-between life. If he started his public ministry at around age 30 there is a whole lot of ordinary time in the life of Christ that we don’t know anything about. We can only assume that in this “ordinary” part of Jesus’ life- at least ordinary enough that none of the Gospel writers mention it, that Jesus did a lot of learning and growing. One Gospel account says only this about that part of his life, “he increased in years, and in wisdom and in divine and human favor.” What a great way to spend your ordinary time- learning, growing and developing a good relationship with God and other people. That is the heart of what we are supposed to do with our ordinary time. We are to increase in years and wisdom, and to have good relationship with God and other people.

We know for sure that our God is not ordinary. In Psalm eight the Psalmist talks about how majestic God is in all the earth. “When I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?” Our God absolutely cannot be described as ordinary. If you doubt this then I challenge you to spend some time outside in God’s created world. Look around at all the green that you see, the rolling hills, the lush trees. Or stand outside in the evening and look at the stars and declare, “God, you made all this and yet you care about me? You are anything but ordinary.”

If we know that our God is extraordinary, but our time of the church year is now Ordinary- how do we celebrate? Celebrating Ordinary time is about finding God in the every day. Looking for and noticing God in the ordinary places our lives take us is what this time is all about. If we want to connect to God everyday, and not simply when we walk into the church on Sunday morning, then I think it is up to us to start noticing God’s presence in our daily lives.

Psalm eight is about noticing. The Psalmist notices the wisdom and truthfulness of children and the power they have to silence enemies. The Psalmist notices the moon and the stars. All these things are attributed to the majesty of God. Have you been noticing anything lately that makes you take note of how extraordinary God is? How about that amazing full moon last week? How about the sunsets we’ve been having lately where the sky turns fantastic shades of pink and purple?

Here are some of the things that I have observed lately that might seem ordinary but make me think of how majestic and extraordinary God is. Last Saturday I went to an outdoor party with David and at this party there was a man playing music. He was good- he was an entertainer and the crowd loved him. That seems like a pretty ordinary thing- someone playing music at a party. The extraordinary part is that this man is blind and autistic. Despite those limitations, God put a powerful gift of music within him. God also blessed him with Grandparents who care for him enough to come and set up his guitar and microphones for him to play. They love him and are his biggest supporters. How extraordinary is our God.

I noticed the presence of our extraordinary God a couple of other times this week. I noticed God’s presence as the ministers of this county took 30 minutes to pray together at our monthly meeting on Wednesday. Our beliefs and practices are not the same- but our love of our extraordinary God is a common tie among us.
This week we started a new summer youth activity. Members of the youth group are going to go with me once a week to visit our members of our church family who live in the nursing home. I think there is something pretty extraordinary about a teenager who will give up some of her summer time to go and visit in the nursing home. Stormy Nigro was the first to go with me this week and I have several others lined up. It is an extraordinary God that can bring together a teenager and a senior adult living in a nursing home and put a smile on both of their faces.

Where are you noticing the extraordinary presence of God? I challenge you this week to look around, to pay attention and focus in on the extraordinary God who has been revealed to us so closely in Jesus Christ. I can assure you that this time will be far from ordinary if you do choose to pay attention and notice God. Thanks be to God for Ordinary Time. Amen!

The LOST finale

2010-05-24T09:20:00.004-05:00

Last night I was given special permission to leave the Elder's meeting early so that I could get to a "very important youth meeting." That meeting was watching the LOST series finale with two of my church youth. One of these "losties" has been away at college for his freshman year and I forgot just how much I missed talking with him about what in the world was happening on the island.

Due to the magic of the DVR, we watched the show without commercial interruption (except when we happened upon the hilarious Target commercial for smoke detectors featuring the Smoke Monster). As we went along we delighted in guessing what would come next, and in seeing old friends reunited. The finale left us scratching our heads- what exactly happened? What "true meaning" are we to draw from the final scenes?

In my opinion, any good story is told that way. The answers are not there in black and white- you must think for yourself, talk it over with friends and make sense of it together. That's what Jesus did with the parables. Can't you just imagine that after he told one of those doosies of a parable people were left sitting in stunned silence like we were on the couch last night saying, "I still don't get it?" And then they talked about it, they debated, they brought their own life experience and what they knew about God to their intepretation. That's what the three of us did in my living room last night.

I'm not sure if I speak for Jesse and Josh- but here are some things I got from the finale that I am better able to articulate after a good night's sleep.

1. The Losties all died in the original crash of Oceanic flight 815

2. Before they could move on to what I will claim boldly as heaven (because I'm a Christian that's how I make sense of the afterlife) there were some things they had to work out. This story was mostly about Jack I believe- we were really seeing what he needed to work out in particular.

3. While Jack was willing to "lay down his life for his friends" quite literally to save the island, I really appreciated that in the end it was Hurley who was the island's protector (as one of my facebook friends predicted a few weeks ago). Hurley was the only character that I never had to ask myself this question about: "is he good or is he bad?"

4. I appreciated that LOST made me ask, "is he good or is he bad" about each character- because the truth is we are all more complicated than a "good" or "bad" label. However, I think Hurley was the most child-like character on the show and therefore closer to the kingdom of God.

5. I love that Jack finally made the transition to "man of faith" by the end of the show. I think he had a really great balance in the end between "man of reason" and "man of faith". The debates between he and Locke about faith and reason were deeply relevant to the balance I strive for in my own life.

6. Ok, but really- is Ben Linus good or bad?

7. The "lesson" I took from the show overall is that we can't do it alone. Jack could NOT have been redeemed and able to move on if it had not been for all the other people on the island. They waited for him, they went into heaven together. Being a beloved child of God is something I believe we are meant to do in community and not be ourselves. We are meant to struggle everyday to figure out what is "good" and "bad" in ourselves and to strive for the good with a community of people trying to do the same. At its best, that is church. The beloved community of God is something we strive for and achieve together and I think I caught a little glimpse of it in my living room last night over a LOST finale and a slice of pizza. Thank you God.

Singing in Prison Sermon

2010-05-17T13:52:00.000-05:00

Acts 16:16-35
May 16, 2010

Singing is kind of my thing. I love to sing. I sing in the shower, in the office, in my car, basically wherever I am. Much to my husband’s chagrin- I LOVE karaoke. In my opinion- what could be better than singing loud and proud even if you can’t really sing? I entertained myself for five hours in the car this week with singing. I’m still trying to figure out what exactly to do with one of the weirdest talents God has blessed me with. I memorize song lyrics really easily. I can listen to a song once or twice and know the chorus- give me four times and I know all the words. What exactly am I supposed to do with that? I don’t memorize other things easily- just songs.

I guess this will come in handy if I ever go to prison. Jail seems like a very unlikely place to be singing, and yet this is Paul and Silas’ response to their imprisonment. Prison is not where Paul and Silas planned on sharing the Gospel with others, but their worship within the jail walls became a very important part of their mission.

Paul’s mission was very clear to him. After his conversion to Christ-follower on the road to Damascus, he understood his role in life as an evangelist. His role was to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with the world. He would tell everyone he could, regardless of their background. Paul says in Galatians that we are all one. In Christ, he says, “there is no Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female.” The message of Christ is for all.

In Acts we read that this mission took him to the city of Philippi. Philippi had a small Jewish population that worshipped by the river. There he met Lydia, a seller of purple who received the message Paul and his companion Silas had for her and she became a follower of Christ. From there they left Lydia and went into the city, hoping to continue their mission.

Sometimes on our way to our mission we encounter distractions. You know what this is like. I got on a mission to do a load of laundry the other day and on my way to the washer I got distracted. I paid a few bills, I loaded the dishwasher, I realized 30 minutes later that my original mission of starting a load of laundry was still not accomplished; the laundry was sitting on my bed- still dirty. Sometimes we get distracted from our mission.

On the way to what they see as their true mission, Paul and Silas got distracted by a slave girl. This was a girl who made a lot of money for her owners by seeing into the future. She was a fortune teller. She saw something in Paul and Silas and proclaimed for several days, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” Paul and Silas are on a mission, they don’t need the distraction of this possessed woman as they work around the city. However, sometimes the distraction is our mission. Sometimes, the distraction is an important part of our journey. Paul finally stops to cast the spirit out of this woman in the name of Jesus Christ. The spirit leaves her and the woman is healed. There is some debate about whether or not Paul did this because he was annoyed with the distraction of because he had compassion for her. Whether he was annoyed or compassionate, Paul ultimately realized that ministering to this woman was part of his mission and not a distraction from it.

A month or so ago a woman came in my office seeking some help. To be honest, some days this seems like a distraction from my mission. If I spend 15 minutes helping someone- that puts me 15 minutes away from away from crossing another item off my to-do list. As horrible as it sounds, this woman was a distraction to me. But through our conversation I saw in her a deep and genuine spiritual need that matched her physical one. She wasn’t just asking for help, she was asking for prayer in the midst of her difficult situation. I prayed with her and gave her a very small amount of help from the Elder’s fund. Two days later the woman returned to my office with a sincere thank-you and some snacks that she had purchased with her food stamps for the youth group. Even though she seemed at first like a distraction, this woman was my mission. Sometimes the distraction IS the mission. I hope that God continues to put distractions in my path that remind me of my true mission. Ask yourself this morning, “What ‘suffering slave girl’ may annoy you on your way and yet draw you back to the heart of God’s call?” (Huey)

On the way to their mission, Paul and Silas encountered another distraction. Their healing of the slave girl did not make her owners very happy. Their source of revenue was now gone, so they trumped up some charges against Paul and Silas. The pair are beaten and thrown into prison. In the midst of this unexpected setback, in a seemingly hopeless situation, Paul and Silas start to sing. I don’t know about you, but usually when I’m singing it is because I’m happy. I don’t often find myself singing when I am stressed out or frightened. Paul and Silas’ reaction was different from mine. Again, their mission was to spread the gospel and they wouldn’t let a little jail time stop them. With their feet in the stocks, in the middle of the night Paul and Silas are singing and praying. This makes me think of the song “Blessed Be The Name of the Lord,” when it says, “blessed be your name on the road marked with suffering, when there’s pain in the offering, blessed be your name.”
As followers of Christ we have no guarantee that every day will be easy. In fact, difficult times are inevitable as part of being human. Our response to challenges and trials is the interesting part. Preacher Martin Copenhaver talks about Paul and Silas’ reaction to their imprisonment. Copenhaver says, “But how do they react to this experience- the damp stone, the chains, the bruised limbs, the rejection, the defeat of their plans? They hold choir practice. They sing. Their voices echo off the stone walls, fill the jail and runneth over into the street outside. Would you do that? Would you sing under those circumstances? Paul and Silas can sing because they live by a story that can be set to music.”

Do we live by a story that can be set to music? The story of God’s abundant love and blessing in the midst of all circumstances? Are we able to praise God even when things seem bleak and scary? We have a choice to make in the face of difficult times and trials- we can choose to let them overwhelm us or we can choose to sing- which will we choose?

Of course to be able to sing when times are difficult you’ve got to know some songs. If you were ever to find yourself in a circumstance where you didn’t have access to your hymnal, or your favorite CD’s, or even your Bible- how would you worship? What would you sing? Paul and Silas knew the story by heart. They knew Christ’s story well because they had told it over and over again. Which of God’s stories do you know well? Which ones do you need to know better? For years I have been working on memorizing the 23rd Psalm word for word. I want to know this Psalm by heart because it comforts me. When I am in distress, I want the words of the Psalmist to pop in to my head instead of the words of fear and doubt that might want to creep in. Some things we know by heart. Dee and I went to the nursing home to do some visiting this week. We went in to visit Ms. Clarice Qualls. Ms. Clarice doesn’t communicate much. She doesn’t speak to you when you speak to her, and yet when we said the Lord’s Prayer- she said it right along with us. Some things you know by heart. What do you know by heart? What do you need to work on knowing by heart?

Something miraculous happened when they were singing. As Paul and Silas sang, the earth began to quake and the jail became a place that could no longer hold them. The earth had shaken so hard that the doors to the jail were now opened and everyone’s chains were loose. Clearly this was a sign from God that they should run and be free- right? Running for freedom is not the path they choose. When you choose to follow Christ- your life becomes not just about you anymore. Paul and Silas were not only concerned for themselves, but they had concern for others. They had concern in this case particularly for the jailer. If they had run for their freedom- the jailer might have been put to death for letting all the prisoners escape. The jailer wasn’t even going to wait for that punishment- he was getting ready to take his own life when Paul made it clear that no one had escaped.

Paul and Silas took time to share the story of Jesus with the jailer. Again, he wasn’t a distraction from their mission, he was their mission. He was their mission as much as the slave girl or Lydia, the seller of purple they had met by the river. Rather than serving their own interests and running for freedom, they chose to take time to form a relationship with the jailer. Eventually, he and his entire household became followers of Christ.

Christianity is not about the self but about others. I have seen this in a dramatic way in the stories from the Nashville flood recently. Last week I sat with my sister-in-law Christy and she told me the story of how she was evacuated by boat from her condo in Bellevue. She got in a boat to go to a clubhouse, and was then taken by boat to a clubhouse on higher ground. Eventually she was bussed to the Jewish Community Center where a Red Cross shelter had been set up. She told me that at each step of the way it was not a professional rescue worker that helped her- but it was a neighbor with a boat, a neighbor who had access to a bus- it was neighbor helping neighbor in the face of horrible circumstances. That’s what I see in the recovery effort as well. While money from the federal government may eventually come, what you see right now is people helping each other- being a community and proclaiming together, “We are Nashville!” Don’t you think that’s just a little glimpse of what the kingdom of God is supposed to look like? I sure do.

So I leave you with some questions this morning. What is going on in your life right now that seems like a distraction but might actually be part of the mission to which God has called you? What stories will you tell and what songs will you sing when times get tough? And most importantly, have you realized yet that being a follower of Christ is not all about you but about others? I pray that God would open our hearts to receive the answers to these questions, as we seek together to be the kingdom of God on Earth. Amen.

Joy Video

2010-04-28T13:45:00.003-05:00

This video was the introduction to my sermon this past Sunday! Thanks to my husband for filming and producing it!

Joy Sermon

2010-04-26T11:18:00.002-05:00

Luke 24:36-49
Psalm 65
April 25, 2010
Joy!

The world is full of things that bring us joy. This week I stood in the hospital room of newborn baby Clay and felt the joy of the parents, grandparents and friends flowing all throughout the room. There was joy in another room as one was getting released from the hospital and feeling better. There was joy for me in playing with my 18 month old friend Lizzy, even if she is not, as of yet, joyful about having a new brother. I loved hearing about what brings you joy as David interviewed you for our joy video. If you stop and look around your life, even when things seem the bleakest, there is always something that brings us joy.

There is a lot of joy in springtime, especially when we had a winter as cold as the one we had. Even through our allergy sniffles, we are brought joy by the returning of flowers and green yards to our lives. We have left behind the solemness of the season of Lent and traded it for the joy of the season of Eastertide- where we feel a renewed joy about the resurrection of our Christ Jesus. Joy is something different than happiness Dee reminded us a few weeks ago. Joy seems to me to be more of an underlying state of the soul, rather than a temporary feeling like happiness.

Believe it or not, joy actually has something to do with our spiritual lives. In the book of Corinthians when Paul talks about the fruits of the spirit he names joy as one of those eight fruits. In other words, one way that you can tell if a person is filled with God’s Holy Spirit is if you can see evidence of joy in her life.
Joy is talked about in many scriptures. In 1 Samuel, David experiences joy after his defeat of Goliath and victory on behalf of God. The prophet Nehemiah speaks God’s word to his people and says, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” As Jeremiah speaks God’s prophetic word he tells the people that God will turn their mourning into joy. If you really want to know about joy, turn to the Psalms, where joy is mentioned 32 times. Psalm 65 in particular is one of my favorites. This psalm talks about how even the non-human things that God has created cry out for joy to God. The psalmist describes the whole creation as joyful when he says, “The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing.” Joy seems to be the natural response of any creation our God has given life. Just as we find joy in creation, and creation finds joy in God, God also finds joy in creation. You might remember the creation story in Genesis, as God creates each thing in the world, God declares it good. The earth brings God joy. We, as part of that creation bring God joy.

After Jesus’ death the disciples were having a hard time feeling joy. They were mourning the loss of their leader and that grief clouded their ability to recognize the resurrection right away. They began to hear rumors that the tomb was empty, but they couldn’t be sure exactly what that meant. Sometimes our doubt gets in the way of our joy. Sometimes we allow situations to block our experience of the joy God intends for our lives. Friends I want us to take a hard look at what is blocking us from experiencing joy in our lives. Is poor time management hampering your experience of joy? Is an unhealthy relationship blocking you from experiencing joy? Is an addiction blocking you from experiencing joy? Is an overwhelming experience of depression blocking your joy?

I want to challenge us this morning to unblock ourselves so that nothing will stand in the way of experiencing God’s joy as a community and in our personal lives. If your joy is blocked by anything you can control I urge you to get unblocked. Get professional help for your addiction, or depression, or with your relationship. Seek help in managing your time better or becoming healthier. The youth group urged us to be set free last week. I urge you to free yourself from anything that is holding you back from experiencing God’s joy.

There are things of course, that block our joy sometimes that are beyond our control. Those situations we can handle with prayer and petition to God for Divine help. However, if we have the power to make a change to unblock and set free the joy in our lives, then we should take the steps we know to take to be free. If we don’t know where to start to unblock our joy, it might be time to ask for help.

Jesus came and stood in the middle of the disciples. He knew they were unbelieving, that their joy was blocked by grief and fear so he volunteered a look at his hands and feet. He offered for them to touch him and to know that the resurrection was a reality. As the ancient theologian Ignatius paraphrased, Jesus says: “See that I am not a bodiless ghost!” This was not some manifestation of Jesus, some vision or mirage, this was really him. The same Jesus that hung on the cross was standing among them as the risen Christ. The scripture says they were joyful even in their disbelief. The disciples were having one of those “this is too good to be true moments,” they were joyful, and yet skeptical.

This reaction on the part of the disciples, disbelief and yet joy, says something important to me about our faith. We don’t have to know all the answers to our faith questions to experience God’s joy. We can have joy in Christ even though we have doubts, and fears, and anxieties, and questions. If we are truly on a journey of faith and we realize that during our earthly time we will never be finished with questions- we too can have joy even in our doubt and disbelief. Is that comforting to anyone else? This means I don’t have to wait until I have it all figured out to experience the joy of God. I can be confused, and question like the disciples and still know the joy of loving a resurrected Christ.

Then, Jesus asks for something to eat! This is my favorite part of this story! God’s people are gathered, something incredible has happened and we’re not all sure what to make of it- what should we do? Eat, of course. Jesus makes it very clear that his is a bodily resurrection, not just a spiritual one when he asks them, “Have you anything to eat?” Immediately he is given a piece of broiled fish and begins to eat. Bodies are important to God. God choose to send a human child into the world to be with us- he sent us a body, a life, a human in Jesus. And after his death- it was important that the disciples see his body again. This was a resurrected human body- one that needed food to fuel it. We should never take our own bodies for granted. There is nothing like an ache or pain you experience to make you understand how much you depend on your muscles and bones (just ask the girl who strained her back moving stuff to her new house).

Celebrating these bodies God has given us can bring us joy. We celebrate that God chose to give us the gift of Jesus in a human body. There are other ways of getting in touch with God’s joy as well. Spending time with the scriptures is one way to experience God’s joy. After the resurrection, Jesus opened the disciple’s minds to a new understanding of scripture. If you haven’t read the Psalms in awhile I recommend that book as a place to start reading. In the pages of the Psalms you will read about the height and depth of human emotion, including joy in all of God’s blessings.
Sometimes it just takes a bit of paying attention to look around and notice that there are small things all around us that bring us joy. A baby smiling at us from the church pew in front of us, a really good cup of coffee with a friend, a beautiful day and the chance to get outside in the yard, or a driving rain that nourishes the ground. Our friends and family fill our lives with joy, our church family can be a source of joy. God is continually putting experiences and people in our lives to help us know joy, are we paying attention?

Joy is present in our lives if we take a close look. We can make a choice to free ourselves from the things that block our joy as we choose to let God’s joy into our lives. When we experience God’s joy we are in good company with the ancestors of faith we read about in the scriptures. Like them, we do not have to have all the answers to our God-questions to have joy. I pray that we would leave this place ready to embrace the joy that is all around us. I pray that we would not let anything get in the way of the joy God has given us. And may we take the joy that we’ve been given and share it with the world, that others who are hurting might experience God’s joy as well. AMEN.

Serving Sermon- A shout-out to Midnight Truffle Blizzards

2010-03-16T15:18:00.004-05:00

Mark 10: 35-45
March 14, 2010

Sometimes we ask for too much. Let me tell you about Wednesdays in my world. Although I love them, Wednesdays are my longest day of the week. Often times I am at church from the time I arrive in the morning through the day, through Wednesday Night Live dinner, and fellowship. I teach the second and third graders and then I finish up with choir practice around 8:30. By that time of night I’m exhausted! This week, when I had reached that point I got a text message from David before I left church. The message said, “It sure would be nice if I had a Midnight Truffle Blizzard from Dairy Queen…” Sometimes we ask for too much. I know you have felt burdened by a request like this from a well-meaning loved one. Maybe you have had the world’s most exhausting day and your best friend calls and needs a favor- it almost feels like he is asking too much. I read the status of a friend on facebook this week- it was a classic story. Her child had waited until about an hour before they went to bed to tell her she needed to bring three dozen cupcakes to school the next day. Sometimes we ask for too much.

James and John asked for too much. They waited until they could confront Jesus alone, without the other disciples and they said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” In my opinion that’s a little bold. I would have probably gone with a, “Hey, Jesus, if it’s not too much trouble we’d like to ask you for a favor.” But the sons of Zebedee lay it on the line, they go for gold, they ask too much. They want to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand when the kingdom comes. Their request is too much to ask, they want the most honored places in the kingdom.
If Jesus was anything like me this is where he’d start beating his head against the wall. He has already had a discussion with the disciples about the argument they had on the way to Capernaum. They were arguing about which one of them was the greatest. Jesus told them then, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, the servant of all.” And then he called a child to stand among them and told the disciples that they needed to become like little children. And yet, here are James and John- trying to jockey for position in the kingdom; they want the two best spots. And of course Jesus responds with infinitely more patience than I would in this situation. He says to them, “You do not know what you are asking.” Sometimes we ask for too much.

Often times we agree to something and we have no idea what we are getting into. Jesus asks James and John if they are willing to drink the cup that he will drink and to be baptized with the baptism that he is baptized with. “Yeah, sure, Jesus- we’ll do whatever, just give us what we ask for.” James and John agreed, having no idea what they were getting themselves into. Of course, you and I think we know what we are getting into, and frequently we have no idea! I have heard people talk about having children in this way. I have seen couples make a conscious decision that they are ready to have kids. They think they are prepared, they think they know what there are getting into. People who have children will try to point the way, they will say to the couple who thinks they are ready, “having kids will change your life.” And then children are born and the lives of the parents are changed in ways they could never imagine.

Even if you don’t have children, I know you have had this experience. Maybe you’ve signed on to help with some project at school, or agreed to chair a ministry team at church, or been a part of a non-for-profit organization. You think you know what you are getting into- but you could never know all the details that your commitment comes with. Sometimes, if you had known up front all the details, you would have never committed in the first place.

David and I are in the process of buying a house. We have said to ourselves, “yes, we can buy a house- we know what we are getting into.” We’ve gone over our budget, talked to the bank, looked at the house, had David’s dad look at the house and I have had trouble sleeping this week because I am so excited. We think we know what we are getting into. However, I’ve never owned a home before and I have been a renter a long time. When something breaks at our new house I will not be picking up the phone to call the landlord. The landlord is me! Right now it feels like we are prepared, but I know that in reality, we have no idea what we are getting into.

Jesus has been trying to tell the disciples what they are getting into. He keeps hinting around that he won’t always be around, that the end of this time is coming, that painful things are on the horizon. The disciples have signed on to follow him anywhere- and they truly believe they will be able to do that. But honestly, they have no idea what is coming. James and John have no idea that drinking from the same cup as Jesus, and being baptized with his same baptism will mean suffering with him. Following Jesus will lead to condemnation, torture and death. They think they are willing to follow him anywhere- but really, they have no idea what they are getting into.

Being a follower of Jesus means being a servant. James and John quickly figure out that they have asked the wrong question. They have asked for the places of honor in the kingdom and in so doing they have upset the other disciples who are wondering, “Why should they get the glory over us?” Jesus steps in to this argument with some teaching about what it truly means to be a disciple of Christ. He explains that in the world, people who have places of honor tend to lord over those who do not have power, they become tryants. In the kingdom of God, things are different. “But it is not so among you;” Jesus says, “but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be the first among you must be the slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Greatness in the kingdom of God is determined by how willing you are to be a servant. Jesus wasn’t just speaking to the twelve disciples that were gathered with him that day, he was speaking to us. We, as a people of this denomination, have claimed the name “Disciples of Christ,” for ourselves. When we signed on for that name did we have any idea what we were getting into? We thought we did. The teachings of Jesus remind us that they way of discipleship is the way of a servant.

To follow the ways of Jesus, to truly be a disciple means turning our back on the status and power that the world might seek to bestow upon us. Being a true disciple means being a servant, doing the job that no one else wants to do and not expecting any recognition for doing it. We are being asked to move beyond the human demand for honor, power and status. This is not easy business. I’m not sure when we took that baptism vow that we knew exactly what we were getting into.

Preacher William Willamon says, “This is the message that contemporary followers of Jesus have been reluctant to proclaim to the world, perhaps because we’re reluctant to hear this message ourselves! Jesus is not a technique for getting what we want out of God; Jesus is God’s way of getting what God wants out of us. God wants a world, a world redeemed, restored to God. And the way God gets that is ordinary people like us who are willing to walk like Jesus, talk like Jesus, yes, and even if need be to suffer like Jesus.”

Jesus is God’s way of getting what God wants out of us, not a technique for getting what we want out of God. God wants us to be servants, not to seek power and recognition and to walk all over other people to do it. We are called to be servants, to be humble and to attend to the needs of others. We are to deny power and status whenever we can. The word disciple can be exchanged for the word servant.

It is my hope that we can live our lives so that we could just as easily be called “Servants of Christ” as “Disciples of Christ. Even though we might have not known exactly what we were getting into when we first signed on to be a disciple, we now have a little better understanding that being a disciple means being a servant. Sometimes we will forget, and lose our way, and ask for too much from Jesus. Sometimes we will seek the world’s honor and praise, but when we refocus our lives on Christ we will remember that we are called to be partners with each other in service to the world in the name of Christ. May God give us the grace to serve one another. Amen.

Ash Wednesday at Home

2010-02-17T10:47:00.000-06:00

Friends, I’m so sorry the weather is keeping us from being together for Ash Wednesday service but here a short devotion you can do at home:

• Read Joel 2:12-15
• Lent is a 40 day journey (not including Sundays) that takes us from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. During this time we pray, do good works for others, and ask for forgiveness for our sins. Some people give up something they enjoy and use the time, money or energy they would have spent on that thing to spend more time with God. Are you giving anything up this year? Are you adding any practices to your spiritual life?
• Read Psalm 23
• Do you need to ask God for forgiveness for anything in your life? Take a few minutes to think about or write on a piece of paper anything that you would like to turn over to God. Ask forgiveness knowing that God will grant it.
• Pray this prayer: Almighty and Everlasting God, You hate nothing that you have made and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent. Create and make in us new and contrite hears, that, lamenting our sins and acknowledging our weakness, We may receive from you, the God of all mercy, perfect forgiveness and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
• Read Matthew 6:1-6
• Gather some bread and juice and have a short communion service with your family. Remember these words from 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, “23For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." 25In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." 26For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.”

A couple of other reminders:
1. The Henri Nouwen “From Fear to Love” devotion book starts today. If you haven’t picked up a copy there are a few left at the church.
2. Don’t forget to pray with your prayer partner(s) for the 2 or 3 challenge. If you need a prayer guide- call the church or email Sunny at: sunnybeth@gmail.com

Turning Toward God Sermon

2010-02-11T10:45:00.001-06:00

Joel 2:12-14
Luke 15:17-24

There is nothing in the world better than the feeling of coming home. You come home at the end of a long week at church camp and you can’t wait to take a hot shower, eat a meal your mom cooked, and sleep in your own bed. You come home from college for the weekend and a wave of comfort hits you when you walk in the door- you’ll get to do your laundry without putting quarters in the machine and most likely Dad will make pancakes in the morning (at least my dad did anytime I came three and a half hours home for the weekend).

Now that David and I invested our Christmas money in a memory foam mattress topper I can hardly stand to be away from my own bed. Coming home and falling into that comfort is a wonderful feeling. If you live away from home, there is always a piece of your original home with you in your heart. This week I walked into my friend Audrey’s office and noticed a tiny quilted wall hanging in the shape of Ohio. Even though Audrey and I have lived in Tennessee for almost nine years- there is nothing like going home to Ohio or Missouri or wherever home is.

I can’t even begin to imagine what it felt like for my friend Mark to come home from Haiti a few weeks ago. He’ll be here on Wednesday to tell us about that journey. I’m sure when he was sleeping out under the stars in the midst of the chaos of the earthquake he was thinking about how nice it would be to be home with his wife and his dog and cat. When I hit the Overton County line after I’ve been away, something in my body relaxes because I am home. There is no feeling in the world like coming home. In the immortal words of a famous girl from Kansas, “there’s no place like home.”

Beginning February 17th, we are being invited to come home. The season of Lent begins with our Ash Wednesday service on the 17th and continues for forty days plus Sundays as we journey to Easter Sunday. For Christians, the resurrection of Christ is our heart’s true home. The resurrection that we joyfully experience and participate in reminds us that darkness, death and sadness never have the final say over light, life and the power of God.

Before we reach the joy of the resurrection, there is a season of preparation during which we focus our hearts and minds on the life of Jesus. During this season we call Lent, we remember the life and teachings of Jesus as well as his death and resurrection. Lent is a time when we are reminded of our own morality, where we take intentional time to examine our lives through the lens of the life of Jesus. During this season we focus on prayer, particularly asking forgiveness for the things that distance us from God. This season extends to us an invitation to come home, to the comforts of a life lived in God’s loving presence.

If the resurrection is our true home and we know our celebration of Easter is coming up in less than two months, how do we get there? How do we get to our heart’s true home? One of the ways we get there is through repentance. Repentance, there’s a churchy word for you- what in the world does that mean? For our answer let’s turn to the words of the prophet Joel. The Hebrew prophet Joel speaks to his people about a coming day of the Lord- a high holy day when God’s presence will be especially close. In his prophecy he is helping them understand how to prepare themselves for God’s immanent presence, even in the midst of tough times. Joel talks about the trials his people have faced as a plague of locusts- and scholars tend to wonder if that was a literal plague of locusts or some code language for the Persian Army whose rule the Israelites were under. Within Joel’s prophecy we hear words of repentance. “Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13rend your hearts and not your clothing.”

What is repentance according to Joel? How do we prepare for God? We return to God with all our heart. The word “heart” here is a Hebrew idiom that symbolized what the brain symbolizes in language today. The heart was understood as the center of will and intellect. In other words, God is saying, “return to me with all that you are.” Come home. Turn toward me in this season of repentance.

To repent we have to turn away from something to turn toward God. Lent is the season when we focus on turning away from things that distract us from God. Many people fast as the words of Joel talk about. While they may not literally skip a meal, they may fast from certain foods they enjoy. Some people fast from other distractions like computers or television. For others there are behaviors, thoughts or attitudes that we literally need to turn away from so that we can turn our hearts toward God. God is beckoning us to come home, to the full joy of the resurrection. What behaviors do we need to ask forgiveness for and change? What do we need to fast from so that we can fully turn toward God? What will it take for us to find our true home in God this Lenten season? To repent literally means to turn around and go in the opposite direction. We need to turn around from whatever is distracting us and head toward God as we prepare for Easter.

One of the greatest homecoming stories of all time is the story of the prodigal son. You know this story, it’s the one Jesus tells about a father that has two sons. The younger one asks him for his inheritance early. Understand that inheritance is given to male children at the time of death so in essence the son says, “Dad, you’re as good as dead to me- I’m ready for my inheritance.” His father gives it to him and he ventures out into the world. We don’t really know what he did with the money, but sooner rather than later, he runs out, ends up destitute and realizes what bad shape he is in.

When he has hit bottom the scripture says that the son finally returns to his senses. He realizes that he is hungry and he decides to return to his father in hopes of working as a slave for him. The son is truly repentant as he turns toward home. He has his speech all planned out, “Father I have sinned against heaven and before you, I
am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired hands.” I think the son truly believes this words of repentance that he speaks and expects to be treated like a hired hand.

It’s not always easy to go home. The prodigal son had to swallow his pride, bury his shame about what he had done with his father’s money and prepare to face the worst. I’m sure some of us have had to go home under the same circumstances: humiliated, embarrassed, at the end of our rope. Turning from the situation we’ve gotten ourselves into takes courage and a willingness to admit that we were wrong. “Father, I’ve sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your child.” Repentance isn’t the easiest part of our job as Christians. Returning to our home in God takes a bit of pride swallowing sometimes. In fact, we may wonder sometimes why we should repent. Why should we turn around and go back toward God?

The good news is that we have a God who waits patiently for our return. The father ran down the road to meet the prodigal son. He threw his arms around him and kissed him. The father killed the fatted calf and threw a party to welcome home is returning son. In the same way our God celebrates with exceeding joy when we turn back home.

Joel’s prophecy tells us about the nature of a God who calls us to come home. He reminds us that God is gracious. We talked about grace last week as undeserved favor. Our God loves us as a favorite child, even when our actions and behavior don’t warrant that love. Joel reminds us that God is merciful, that God has the kind of love for us that a mother has for her child. God is slow to anger says Joel. Many of us were taught growing up that the reason to repent is fear; fear of God’s wrath if one doesn’t repent. Joel reminds us that God is slow to anger- God waits patiently for our repentance and our turning toward our heart’s true home. Finally, Joel reminds us that God’s love is steadfast. This means God is always waiting for us as the father waits for the prodigal son. The love of God isn’t fleeting- it will be there today, tomorrow and always.

I hope for us that in the upcoming season of Lent that we will take an opportunity to turn toward God. I pray that we wouldn’t wait until we have hit rock bottom before we turn away from those things that distance us from God. Instead, I envision that with each other’s help we can turn toward our heart’s true home inside the love of God. If we are able to do this during this Lenten season we will be able to participate fully in the unparalleled joy of the resurrection on Easter morning. Amen and amen.

2 or 3

2010-01-13T10:29:00.002-06:00

Matthew 18:18-20
January 10, 2010

I was an only child until my brother was born when I was sixteen. Needless to say, growing up I was very good at entertaining myself. I could play in my room for hours by myself with my Strawberry Shortcake or Cabbage Patch dolls- especially if I got sent to my room for some offense. Even though I was a creative only child, I’m not sure if you’ve notice but I am an extrovert. I love and gain energy from being around people. So nothing thrilled me more than when my two best friends, the twin boys from up the street would come and ask me to play. My dad would open the door and call for me when he saw them coming- “Sunny, your friends are here!”
My world opened up when I played with Chad and Brad. We held concerts in their basement, we played Masters of the Universe (I mean, they owned Castle Greyskull, it was awesome!), we rode bicycles and big wheels, and we traded baseball cards. They once gave me a Pete Rose card for free just because it was a K-Mart brand card and not a Topps- I was in heaven! We once created a haunted house in their basement that scared the neighbor girl pretty badly My point is when it comes to playtime as a kid- one is nice, but two or three are so much more fun! Two or three are just better sometimes.

Two or three are better when it comes to prayer as well, at least according to the Gospel of Matthew. At the end of chapter 18, after all the information about how to settle a disagreement with a brother or sister who sins against you is this section on praying together in groups of two or three. Sometimes we are so focused on the settling disagreements part of this chapter we miss this section at the end. Hear these verses again, this time from the Message paraphrase version. "Take this most seriously: A yes on earth is yes in heaven; a no on earth is no in heaven. What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this. When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I'll be there."

How can we be assured that the presence of Christ is in our midst? Get together in groups of two or three and pray! Now I am a person that believes that we are never away from the presence of Christ- or the love of God. We have assurance in Romans 8 that nothing can separate us from the love of God through Christ. And yet there is something compelling about the way Christ comes to us in small groups that this passage in Matthew draws our attention to. I had never thought before about how Christ is present to us in small prayer circles.

Most of us are believers in the power of prayer. We have seen the results of individual prayer in our own lives. We treasure being prayed for by others. One of the things we do each time we gather for worship is to share the joys and concerns of our hearts so that we can pray together in worship. We believe as James 5:16 states, “the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.” Have you ever prayed with one or two other people? Have you ever formed a small prayer group? According to our scripture in Matthew prayer seems to be one way to heal a relationship. After you have had a disagreement with someone, what is the first thing you should do together? Gather together and pray. “For where two or three are gathered,” there is the presence of Christ.

I was talking about this scripture with a dear friend and mentor pastor the other day. He said, “that’s the scripture that talks about two people agreeing on something, right?” Indeed, our scripture says, “if two or more of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.” Don continued, “I think that’s one of the most challenging passages in the Bible! I have a prayer and accountability partner and we’ve been praying together for 30 years and we still don’t agree.” He said it has been their prayer for 30 years to agree on something they were both deeply passionate about. Agreeing is hard. Anyone who has ever been married knows that without me going into any detail. What a challenging part of this scripture.

We definitely can’t wait until we agree with someone on everything to start praying with them. Praying with one or two other people will help us know each other better. When you pray with someone you lift up to God the deepest desires of your hearts. If you know someone’s deep desire, you know that person more closely.

What if we were to begin praying in groups of two or three? A friend who pastors another church in our county told me this week that he was going to challenge his congregation to a “two or three challenge” based on these words from Matthew. He is asking his church members to find one or two other people and pray together. What an awesome challenge- and what a hard thing to do! Some of us are scared to death of prayer. We’re ok if someone offers a prayer for us, but saying a prayer ourselves, or praying with one or two other people- that might send us right over the edge! We’re not used to praying like that.

You probably saw this coming but Dee and I are going to challenge you to the two or three challenge. The good news is- you don’t have to start today. You are more than welcome to start today; in fact some of you already pray in small groups- we’ll need you as our encouragers and our guides. I want you to start thinking about this challenge and about who you could pray with if you were to pray once a week with one or two other people. Dee and I are going to ask you to do this during the season of Lent. Lent is that 40 day preparation time when we get our hearts and minds ready for Easter. And it doesn’t even begin for about a month. This year Lent begins with our Ash Wednesday service on February 17.

During Lent we are going to ask you to pray with one or two other people at least once a week. We’d like to know who you are going to pray with, and in return- we will give you a sheet each week with an idea of what to do in your prayer time with your group. We’ll give you step-by-step instructions that you can use if you’d like or you can do your own thing with your group. If you have no idea who you can pray with- Dee and I would love to find a prayer partner or two for you. For the next month though, I want you to think about this and to prepare your heart and mind to pray with one or two other people.

What do you have to loose by praying with one or two others? I’d like to say that there is absolutely nothing to loose in this challenge, but like with anything worth doing, you might have to give up something good to gain something better. You might have to give up some time. It will take time to meet with your prayer partners either in person, or over the phone, or by email (you can get creative here). If you’ve never prayed in a small group before then it will take a change in your established spiritual routine. You might give up a bit of privacy as you share your joys and concerns with others and they begin to know you in a deeper way.

What do you have to gain from praying with one or two others? Our scripture says the presence of Christ will be with you. In addition, you will get to know one or two others in a deeper way. Maybe your Lenten journey will be more meaningful this year. Maybe God will do something new and wonderful in your life. Maybe you’ll get to know yourself better. Maybe you will feel uplifted, upheld and cared for in ways you never imagined.

I don’t know what will happen for you in this two or three challenge. I deeply believe its worth accepting and trying. In her book called Unbinding the Gospel, Martha Grace Reese says this about prayer:
“Prayer is more about receiving from God than it is about asking God for things or working hard at intercession. Prayer involves effort, habit and focus; but it results in lightness, energy and excitement.” Could anyone use lightness, energy and excitement in their life? Can you step up to the two or three challenge? Today I’m just asking you to think about it, and to make your heart and your life ready to pray with others beginning next month.

I know how much my twin friends enhanced my life growing up, is it possible that praying with one or two others might enhance our spiritual lives in the same way? I pray for each of us a boldness and a willingness to try this kind of praying. I hope for us the presence of Christ, known and felt deeply in all kinds of ways but particularly in groups of two or three. Amen!

Epiphany Sermon 2010

2010-01-06T14:26:00.002-06:00

January 3, 2010
Isaiah 60:1-6, Matthew 2:1-12
Epiphany Sunday

Did you ever watch cartoons when you were growing up? Particularly this morning I am remembering a cartoon I love called Tom and Jerry. You’ve probably seen this one- it’s a classic and perpetual chase, an epic battle between cat and mouse. One interesting thing about Tom and Jerry that makes it unlike its more modern counterparts is that there is no dialog in any of their cartoons. Tom, the cat is always trying to get ahead of his tiny counterpart Jerry, but the mouse seems usually to be a touch smarter than his feline friend. I love the moment in a cartoon like Tom and Jerry when one of the characters gets a great idea. You know a cartoon character has a brilliant idea when you see something appear over there head- do you know what it is? A light bulb! When a light bulb appears over your head- you have clarity about something that was previously unclear, you have inside knowledge and understanding, you have wisdom, you might even say you’ve had an epiphany.

An epiphany is a sudden insight into the essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple occurrence or experience. (dictionary.com). We think of an epiphany as the “ah ha!” moment in a story; the moment when everything becomes clear. When you have an epiphany- the light bulb is switched on over your head. I mentioned during communion a few weeks ago one of my favorite literary epiphanies is the moment where the cruel and miserly Ebenezer Scrooge realizes after looking at his life through the lens three ghostly visits that he is not the kind of person he wants to be. He awakes with joy on Christmas morning and realizes that it is not too late to change (it never is). Charles Dickens writes of his character at the end of the story, “He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as the good old City knew, or any other good old city, town or borough in the good old world.” Epiphanies happen, people change and it makes for an incredibly good story.

The primary meaning of the word epiphany has to do with our not-quite-yet-finished Christmas story. The church celebrates Epiphany each January sixth. As efficient as we like to be about taking down our Christmas decorations, Christmas in the church is a season. January sixth is the twelfth day after Christmas and on that day we celebrate the arrival of the wise men with the Christ-child. We celebrate these mysterious, gentile seekers who came to see Jesus after following a star that guided them to Bethlehem. Actually the wise men were lead to Jerusalem because as scholar Walter Bruggeman says “Like Matthew, the wise men know about Isaiah 60.” Isaiah’s prophecy is about the restoration of Israel, of Jerusalem herself, of light coming to God’s people and camels coming from all over bringing gifts of gold and frankincense. Only God’s gift isn’t actually in the holy city of Jerusalem, but in the humble town of Bethlehem, about nine miles off the mark.

This Epiphany, we glory in the way God chose to send the light of the world to us. This Epiphany Sunday the light bulb goes on over our heads as the Christmas story all seems to fit together into one great “ah ha!” moment. We have been sent the light of God, and that light is Jesus Christ. The light has come to us in a human life. We have God who comes to us in the flesh to walk around in the world and show us the way life is supposed to work and how we are supposed to treat other people. How will we respond to the fact that we have received God’s light? Isaiah says, “arise, shine for your light has come!” Now is the time for us to arise, and shine in response to the light of God that has been sent to us. How will we do it- how will we shine?

The wise men came bringing important and expensive gifts for the baby Jesus; this is how they celebrated the light. These gifts were not, as any good mother could see, really for the baby himself, but they were the kind of gifts you would give religious royalty. They are actually the kind of gifts you give for ceremonies- frankincense to burn in the temple, myrrh to prepare a body for burial (could the wise men possibly have anticipating the end of Jesus’ life as soon as it began?), and gold, a gift of worth and beauty. These gifts are gifts of preparation- preparing for worship, preparing for death, preparing for something important and beautiful.

How can we prepare the sanctuary of our hearts to receive the gift of Christ that God has given us? Are there thoughts and attitudes and actions that need to be swept away so we can receive the gift of God’s light? Are there steps we need to take; devotions and scriptures we need to read; prayers we need to pray so that our hearts a sanctuary for God’s light to reside? If there is preparation to be done, let’s do it now at this time of newness both in the church year and in the world so that we may enter into 2010 filled with God’s light.

God didn’t just put the light inside the Christ-child you know, the light came to each one of us. God scattered the light to all of creation when the gift of Christ was given. God’s light now dwells in each one of us and God is calling to us this day, to “arise, and shine” for our light has come.

Personally, I love it that we are reminded of the light and warmth of God in the dead of winter, because it is COLD- and we need a little light. We called to take the light of God’s love and shine it to others so that their darkness might be illuminated. However, I think rising and shining is really hard to do when it is 16 degrees outside and all we want to do is stay home when it is dark and cold outside. I bet some of you found it really challenging to get out of your warm bed and get ready to come to church this morning, In fact, I’m sure there are some who just couldn’t face the cold and darkness to get out and join us here this morning. I feel sorry for them though because I am about to tell you some really good news. The days are getting longer. The darkest day of the year, the day with the least minutes of sunlight happens on December 21st. We’ve passed that hurdle, we celebrated the birth of Jesus and with him he brought a little more light to our part of the world. “Arise, shine for your light has come!” The darkness never wins you know, as dark as things may seem we know that darkness will never prevail because God has sent the light to dwell within each of us.

On this Epiphany Sunday we acknowledge that God is the bringer, the giver, the source of the light that is within us. Preacher Dianne Bergant says that the Gospel of reminds us “that God, not the social or political structures of the day, is the source of our light…The light has come, and we are invited to live in it. How have we responded to the invitation?”

The invitation is ours- live in the light God beckons. “Your heart shall thrill and rejoice” at the coming of the light Isaiah says. We make a choice how we respond to the coming of God’s light in Jesus Christ. Do we allow the circumstances around us to consume us in darkness, or do we look around and find the signs of God’s light all around? Do we thrill and rejoice at the sheer amazing awesomeness of what God has done, or do we ignore it?

This Sunday I wish for you an Epiphany. I pray for you that “light bulb going on over your head” feeling as you open up your heart to receive the light of God. That light is love, shown to each one of us by a God who loves us without judgment and proved it by giving his beloved Son as a gift to the world.
Finally I want to share some lyrics from a favorite song of mine. James Taylor sings about asking God to “Shed a Little Light”. Let this be our prayer this morning.

“Let us turn our thoughts today
To Martin Luther King
And recognize that there are ties between us
All men and women
Living on the earth
Ties of hope and love
Sister and brotherhood
That we are bound together
In our desire to see the world become
A place in which our children
Can grow free and strong
We are bound together
By the task that stands before us
And the road that lies ahead
We are bound and we are bound

There is a feeling like the clenching of a fist
There is a hunger in the center of the chest
There is a passage through the darkness and the mist
And though the body sleeps the heart will never rest

Can't get no light from the dollar bill
Don't give me no light from a tv screen
When I open my eyes
I wanna drink my fill
From the well on the hill

Shed a little light, oh lord
So that we can see
Just a little light, oh lord
Shed a little light, oh lord”

A cool compliment

2009-12-08T09:36:00.003-06:00

I had a very big ministry compliment over the weekend when I received this email:

Hello Sunny,

My name is Catherine (leaving her last name out) and I am a college student in Memphis Tennessee. I am currently writing a paper for my Early Christian Literature class and I have decided to compare a sermon from early Christianity on Lazarus and the rich man to a contemporary sermon on the same topic. I came across your sermon on this topic on the internet and I was planning on using it in my paper. First I wanted to make sure I have your permission to do that. Secondly, I wanted to get the name of the church that you are a minister at and/or what denomination you are so that I can use that information in my paper to characterize the sermon I am writing about.

Sincerely,
Catherine

Awesome! That was a really neat compliment to me. I remember writing this sermon in part while I was on retreat at Bethany Fellows. It was in the midst of my senior minister's sabbatical when I was preaching almost every week. That had a nice rhythm to it and made it easier in some ways. Click here to go to that sermon.

And by the way I think it is really cool that if you google "rich man and lazarus sermon" my blog comes up on the first page.

I must run- there are newsletter articles to be written! Thanks for making me feel famous Catherine!

1st Sunday of Advent Sermon

2009-11-29T20:29:00.002-06:00

Jeremiah 33:14-16
Luke 21:21-25
November 29, 2009
1st Sunday of Advent: Hope

“The days are surely coming”…says our scripture this morning. The prophet Jeremiah speaks God’s words of hope to his people. He speaks of God fulfilling promises to Israel, of a righteous branch coming from the line of King David, and of justice and righteousness in the land. The prophet speaks of safety. “The days are surely coming…” he says. I love it that my study Bible uses the word “surely” I don’t know about you but “surely” is a word I use when I’m exasperated, when I’m at my wits end- surely relief is coming, surely, something is about to change.
And surely the people of Israel during the time of Jeremiah needed change. God’s people were conquered by the Babylonians, living in exile- away from the comforts of home and the rule of God-appointed kings. Their worship centers had been destroyed and so they were waiting, and hoping, and praying that God would restore them. Their world was broken and hurting and devastated, so surely, surely, it was time for God to move into the world again and restore them. “The days are surely coming…”
Have you ever looked around your life and thought- surely? Surely the days are coming when I won’t hurt this much. Surely, the days are coming when I won’t be this broke all the time. Surely, the days are coming when there won’t be this much unrest in the world. Surely, it is time for God to show up in the world. If you have ever asked these questions then you know what it is like to long for the Messiah.

Indeed, waiting and longing is what Advent is all about, waiting for God to show up in the world again. Advent is not about waiting for a good sale, or waiting until it time to open presents (although we love that kind of waiting!), Advent is a different waiting, a holy waiting, a sense is that it is time for God to break into the world again and bring justice and hope for those who have all but run out.
Jesus describes another time of waiting and longing in our second scripture this morning. He talks about unrest, confusion, fear and foreboding. In the midst of this confusion, fear and turmoil, Jesus talks about a time when we can stand up and raise our hands because our redemption is drawing near! Surely, the days are coming, surely, our redemption is drawing near. Surely, God is just about to break into the world again and restore a sense of hope. Surely!

Into times when all we can do is cry out “surely”, times when we see so much unrest and injustice that we have to think our redemption must be drawing near; it is into such times as these that God enters the scene. If we are vigilant and prayerful this Advent season, if we pay attention during this time of waiting we will see the signs of God all around us. If we tune out the noise of all that is happening around us and tune in to God we might just notice a Messiah, a Savior being born into the world. I wonder what kind of messiah we are expecting? What kind of messiah is coming?

Waiting for something you already know has happened is tricky business. If I were better at waiting for Christ to be born- my nativity scene at home would not have the baby Jesus in it yet but the manger would be empty in anticipation of the birth. We have a lot of expectations of what God will do in the Christmas season. I wonder if we have so many expectations that we can no longer be surprised and awed by the miracle of God coming into the world? I hope not, for surely our redemption is drawing near- we don’t want to miss it because we think it’s a rerun! God can and will do miraculous things in such a time as this.

The Israelites had certain expectations of what God would do in the world when a messiah was sent. They had certain expectations of a savior. When Israel had a Jewish king, one anointed by God (that’s what messiah means by the way, anointed one), they were doing pretty well. Things changed when the Babylonians came along and overthrew Judea and there was no longer a Jewish king for God’s people. We can hear their aching in the words of Jeremiah- they were longing for restoration. They were longing for a political leader, a ruler to take the throne once again. Biblical scholar Bart Ehrman talks about how these expectations of a messiah changed over time. “By the time of the New Testament, different Jews had different understandings of what this future ruler would be like. Some expected a warrior-king like David, others a more supernatural cosmic judge of earth, and still others a priestly ruler…” There were many different expectations about the kind of messiah God would send into the world.

The funny thing about expectations though is that sometimes, they are wrong. I talked to a friend this week who is expecting a child after three years of waiting and hoping. She and her husband expected that for them, getting pregnant would be the hardest part. However, now they’ve been told there is an increased risk for Down’s syndrome with her pregnancy. That’s not what they expected. A daughter expects her dad to be at her soccer game, and is disappointed when he can’t be there because of work. A couple vows to love each other for better for worse, in sickness and in health, but they mostly expect better and health, they are disappointed when sickness becomes the norm- when worse becomes the reality.

And then there is the opposite of course, with expectations. You might expect a call from a doctor to bring bad news and instead the outlook is better than you could have imagined. You might expect that a family member will let you down again, only to be astounded by their commitment and love. You might be surprised by a new relationship in your life that you never thought possible. Surprised or disappointed, our expectations are not always met in the way we think they will be.

What kind of Messiah was it that God sent into the world to be with us? Well, he wasn’t a king- the only crown Jesus got to wear was one of thorns as they mocked him. Was he a supernatural power? A cosmic judge? A political leader? The Messiah that I see in the pages of scripture did not meet any of those expectations. The Messiah the world received was a servant, one who valued the life of each person he met. The Messiah we got was one who put himself last and encouraged us to do the same. The Messiah God sent ate with sinners, visited prisoners, touched people even when he wasn’t supposed to. This Messiah stood up for what he believed was right. This Messiah didn’t use the power he was given to cause anyone harm but instead used it to try to illuminate the way to God a little more brightly. The kind of Messiah we got used his power just enough to get into trouble with the world and be killed. How many kings willingly give up their power for others? How many kings would humble themselves as servant? The answer, of course, is only one.

As we enter into this Advent season today, we decorate our tree with Christian symbols, we light our Advent wreath, we read scriptures of expectation, we sing songs of hope and God’s coming but I wonder- what kind of Messiah are we expecting? What kind of savior do we think God is sending us? What kind of Christ will be born to us anew on Christmas day?

Are we expecting a messiah who claims power and takes over so we don’t have to think anymore, or one who guides us in the paths of righteousness by his teachings and his actions? Are we expecting a messiah who will give us black and white answers to all of life’s questions or one who invites us to struggle with him to figure out how to love people and love God better? Do we expect a messiah who takes over politically? A supernatural force? A cosmic judge? What kind of messiah are we expecting?

Maybe we could leave all our expectations behind this year and see what happens. Maybe we could open our hearts to find out exactly what kind of Messiah Jesus is when he comes again to us as a soft and vulnerable child. Maybe we could wipe away everything we think we know about the Christmas story and instead humbly wait for God’s amazing entrance into the world. For surely, surely, in such a time as this, we need God to break into the world and bring us the Messiah. Maybe not the messiah we expect, but the Messiah we need. For surely in these days our redemption is drawing near.

The way God comes to us...

2009-11-25T10:09:00.002-06:00

Even though tomorrow is Thanksgiving (and I have much to be thankful for), my mind is on Advent as I work on a sermon today. A friend shared a song with me last week that I want to share with you today. What a gift she gave to me when she shared it! This is my new Advent Anthem. As we wait for God to come into the world again (that's what Advent is- waiting) my ears are blessed by this song and how it reminds me that God comes into the world in all kinds of ways, but in the gift of a small baby savior, God came into the world like a winter snow- quiet, and soft, and slow.

Repsonsive Readings and Baby Dedications

2009-10-27T13:29:00.003-05:00

Here's what I've been writing lately. Not sermons, but responsive readings for worship. I've mostly taken the scripture for the week and incorporated it into a responsive call to worship. It started with the one I wrote in September for our church's 100th Anniversary and I'm including here one I wrote for our second service last week.

For the Centennial Celebration of First Christian Church:

Leader: We have come to celebrate the work of God in this place today.

People: Thanks be to God!

Leader: O God for the church as is stands today, and for the church throughout the last 100 years we are truly grateful.

People: We give thanks to the God of our history, our present and our future.

Leader: Most of all, Gracious God we are thankful for the people. Those who dreamed a dream, planned and worked toward a vision called First Christian Church.

People: We lift up the great saints who have gone before us.

Leader: This day with thank you for all the lives that have been touched by this place.

People: We thank you for baptisms, weddings, funerals and all the celebrations this church has seen.

Leader: But most of all God we are deeply indebted to you for the gift of your son Jesus Christ.

People: In Christ we live and move and have our being.

Leader: It is Christ who calls us together as a church, beckons us beyond our divisions and reminds us that we are one.

People: In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek,

Leader: Slave nor free

People: Male nor female

Leader: For we are all one in Christ Jesus

People: Let us worship together for we all belong to Christ!

Call to Worship for October 25
based on Hebrews 10:19-24

L: Oh God, we come to worship you this day
P: In Spirit and in truth!
L: Let us approach you with a true heart
P: In full assurance of faith
L: May we come to this worship service loving you
P: And loving each other
L: For we know we have a great priest over the house of God
P: And his name is Jesus Christ!
L: Let us worship God through Jesus Christ in this sacred hour together. Amen.

And finally for a special treat I present to you a few photos from one of my favorite parts of my job- a baby dedication!! This was the dedication of Quinn Samuel, the son of my dear friends Lance and Jori.

Called to Serve Sermon

2009-10-12T11:57:00.004-05:00

Philippians 2:1-11
October 11, 2009

Called to Serve

Last week, after my first full week of work after sabbatical, I got to go to one of my favorite places in Tennessee, Bethany Hills Camp. In the fall and the spring our regional youth leadership team made up of high- schooler’s across the state plans a retreat for their peers. This year’s theme was “called to serve”. They picked an excellent topic. After a Bible Study on the topic, the campers rotated to three “service stations” to learn about three different organizations that serve people around the world. Called to serve is an amazing theme for a weekend of a Christian retreat- can you believe they came up with that even without me present for the planning retreat? Yeah, I can too, teenagers can be very wise! The reason called to serve is such a great theme is because it gets to the heart of the gospel, it forces us to take a look at the very nature of our beloved Jesus Christ.

Let me take you to an earlier seen in my life, before I went to seminary I was attending Community Christian Church in Kansas City where I was ordained. I was an exhausted, fragile elementary teacher and I often slipped into the Wednesday evening service at Community because I liked the small crowd, the less formal setting and the interesting topics that were covered. One Wednesday during Lent I slipped into the chapel and found out that we were going to be doing a foot washing. Some of you who did this with me in Vacation Bible School this year are already laughing or groaning! As a young adult with a call to ministry I was trying to run from, I was eager to soak up new spiritual experiences, but this was one that made me very nervous. There weren’t many of us there- so when we stood to get in line I quickly tried to calculate whose feet I’d be washing. Well, I ended up on my knees, with my hands in a bowl of warm water, washing the feet of the senior minister! This person who I consider to a mentor in ministry, this person who preaches some of the best sermons I have ever heard- I was washing his feet! It was intimidating! But guess what, he was washing feet too. And all of a sudden the scripture from the Gospel of John became a little more real to me.

According to John, before Jesus shared his last meal with his disciples, he took off his outer robe, bent down and washed each of their feet. Foot washing was very much a custom, as people traveled from home to home in the ancient world, they traveled on dirt roads, and they wore sandals. Feet were filthy from travel and as a traveler entered a home, a servant or slave of the house would wash the traveler’s feet so they might feel refreshed. But this night it was important that Jesus be the one to wash their feet. Jesus was teaching a lesson in service, Peter tried to resist saying that he was the one who should be doing the washing, but Jesus insisted. After Jesus served his disciples by washing their feet he told them this, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” (John 13: 14-17)

What kind of savior bends down and washes the feet of his followers? What kind of messiah humbles himself to the role of a servant? In a little over a month we will begin our journey of Advent, that time of waiting before Christmas. At that time, we remember what it is like to long for a savior, and to await his birth. Before Jesus came into the world the people of God were longing for release from the oppression they had long faced. But what kind of savior were they expecting? If we look at the words of the prophets it seems as though they were expecting a king, or a powerful warrior, or someone to take over as a political power so that God’s people would be on top, in charge and in power.

Jesus Christ was not exactly the savior they were expecting. Jesus is a different kind of savior, the kind Paul describes so beautifully in the book of Philippians. Paul loves the believers at Philippi and wishes for them to be unified as the body of Christ. One way they can be unified and “make Paul’s joy complete” is by tuning their minds to the mind that was in Jesus himself. Paul describes the nature of the messiah the world got when he says, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. 9Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2: 6-11- NRSV)

The savior the world got was not a king or a ruler in earthly terms, but he was a servant. One who got in trouble by walking humbly, challenging authority and speaking the truth to power. Jesus served by talking with those the rest of society wouldn’t talk to, by eating with sinner, by washing the feet of his own followers. Jesus was servant, obedient to the will of God, willing to humble himself to be human and willing to take that obedience even to the cross. What did this servant-savior ask of us? Only that we serve God and serve one another.

We seem to have taken Jesus’ call to serve pretty seriously here at First Christian. In our mission statement, the statement that guides all we do here, service is a big part. Our mission statement reads, “We celebrate Christ’s unconditional love by welcoming, loving, serving and teaching all.” So, we have the words down- do we follow through?

There are the big ways that we serve- right now we have a group on a mission trip in New Orleans. And there are many of us here who wish we were with them. Circumstances don’t always allow us to take a week away to go and rebuild houses, or counsel church camp or work with kids with disabilities or some of the other things that we would love to do that exemplify service. Whenever I am able to serve in a huge capacity like this I always come away feeling like I’ve been on a spiritual high- like I’ve done the work of God and that it can’t get much better than that. And next week we’ll hear from the mission trip group and I know they will feel the same way. But, I want to let you in on a little secret- and DO NOT TELL THE MISSION TRIP GROUP! It would burst their bubble, it would break their hearts- so promise me you won’t tell them! The secret is this: you do not have to go on a mission trip to change the world! You do not have to drop everything and go to New Orleans to be a servant with the same servant-mind as Christ!

There is plenty of servant work to be done here at church. Visit the sick, call someone you haven’t seen at church in awhile. Welcome a visitor- make sure they get a meal on Wednesday night- or they can find a Sunday School class on Sunday morning. Say yes when someone sees a gift in you and asks you to volunteer with a ministry. Pray for our amazing youth group. Make contact with one of the young adults who isn’t here. Take out the trash, drive the church bus to pick someone up, visit a shut in. You could name a hundred more things. Think of the thing no one else wants to do and do it! That’s how Jesus served.

But don’t stop at the church- look around your family- how can you be a servant there? Wash the dishes, do something the first time you are asked, or better yet before your mom or your spouse has a chance to ask. Be sneaky and leave some flowers or a homemade treat for your neighbor. Help your brother with his homework, pack your sister’s lunch for school. Look around your house at the job no one else wants to do and then do it! That’s what being a servant is all about- washing feet- no one wants to do that!

I promise you that if you try a few of these things that you will start to experience just a little of what Christ was trying to model for us about the kingdom of God. I cannot promise all of these things will be fun, but I can promise that being a servant will earn you a place of honor in the kingdom. Jesus said that we should strive to be last of all and servant of all, humbly putting the needs of others before our own needs.

So I challenge you to be an everyday servant. Do a little mission work of your own this week by serving others at home, at school, at work and at church. Don’t do it because it makes you feel good- but because it’s the right thing to do. Serve others because Jesus did- and that’s what Jesus expects of us.
And don’t you dare tell the mission trip group next week that we have all done Christ’s servant work around here while they’ve been gone. Just smile and nod when they talk about how great it is to serve Christ- just pretend like you are SO jealous that you didn’t get to go. And it will be our secret- that we spent the week in service too! I leave you with these words from Paul about what it means to be a servant,

“If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5Let the same mind be in you that was* in Christ Jesus,
6who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
7but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
8 he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.

9Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
10so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Amen and Amen!

First Sermon Back from Sabbatical! Taste and See!

2009-10-08T10:46:00.003-05:00

Luke 24:13-35
October 4, 2009

Taste and See that God is Good!

I’m not sure if anyone knows exactly what a sabbatical is, until she gets right into the heart of it. “We make the road by walking,” is a saying that my pastor from home loves to share. Well, my sabbatical wasn’t so much about walking as it was eating. My sabbatical theme might sound a little bit more like, “we make the road by eating!”

Let me just tell you about a few of the culinary adventures I got to take part in during my sabbatical. I ate some incredible fish tacos as I sat in the mountains of North Carolina with two friends Hope and Kennedy as we talked about our love for camp. Next, the road of eating took me to Denver, CO, with my 8 months-pregnant friend Jessa and her son Eli- we shared savory Mexican food and birthday cake as we celebrated her 31st birthday. At General Assembly I sat around many tables, with many friends from all different aspects of my life- my home church, my Disciple’s college, my seminary and my Bethany Fellows friends. I ate foods like pad thai, fresh bagels and cream cheese, and baked salmon. I worshiped with 6,000 Disciples and as we gathered around the communion table it was easy to taste and see that God is good!

Next my adventures took me on the trip of a lifetime. Three generations of women headed to the Big Apple. Let me tell you something, if you have never been to New York City- you must go if only for the food! The bagels are like none other I have ever experienced- my mom says it’s the NYC tap water that makes them so good. My mom, grandma and I ate pizza so good it would make your eyes tear up a little- my favorite had great hunks of ricotta cheese. Taste and see!
Next, my stomach led me to Kansas City, my hometown. While I was there I got to spend deep, quality time with my family that was not rushed. Can you guess what we ate? That’s right a Kansas City original- BBQ. David was with me on that trip and he and I both love Zarda’s BBQ burnt end platter- oh it makes your mouth water! Taste and See! Next, I took a side trip to my college town of Springfield, MO. There I sat around a table with three dear college friends, one was my college roommate that I hadn’t seen in 11 years. We laughed together and teared up at the hard times in one another’s lives and sat there for three hours as time stood still for our friendship. Taste and see that God is good!

David and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary while I was on sabbatical and so we traveled to Longboat Key, FL to celebrate. This was the same place we honeymooned and we enjoyed so much seafood while we were there. We ate grouper, shrimp, conch fritters and I can tell you that David put a hurtin’ on some all-you-can-eat crab legs. We had time to taste and see and to remember what made us fall in love with each other in the first place. At last my travels took me to my last Bethany Fellows retreat where I ate some incredibly delicious fresh, healthy food in San Francisco. This was the last time I would gather with 30 other young pastors in their first five years of ministry. We prayed together for our lives, for our ministries and for our churches. It was bitter sweet to walk away on that last day since these retreats twice a year have truly been a lifeline to me in ministry. However, I know the practices I learned and the people I met will help sustain me for the next five years of my ministry and beyond.

I ate A LOT of amazing food on sabbatical and I probably have an extra 10 pounds to prove it. Remembering these adventures reminds me of several things about myself: 1. I love food. 2. I love traveling. 3. I deeply needed this time away- not just so I could eat great food, but so I could sit and look into the eyes of my loved ones, and hear their stories and share mine. We needed to meet each other around a table so that we could see the presence of God in one another. We needed to eat together so that I could realize that for me a sabbatical is all about nurturing the relationships in my life because it is in these relationships that God is most fully known to me. We all needed to eat together so that we could taste and see that God is good!

I am so grateful that on my first Sunday back I got to eat with almost 400 people! What a celebration we had last Sunday and what a meal. I think we could all taste and see that God is good, and God has been good to us for 100 years, and God will be good for 100 more. I encourage you that if you haven’t been around a table with those you love lately, you need to get there, and break bread together. You need to look deeply into their eyes and see just how good God is.

God has always been especially present as we humans share meals together. If you don’t believe that- take a look at how many meals Jesus ate in the Gospel accounts of his life. Jesus ate with people not just because he loved food, but because he knew that eating around a table with people was one of the best ways for his dinner companions to understand the Kingdom of God. Christ is always present when we share a meal together.

A funny thing happened after Jesus’ resurrection. His followers had a hard time recognizing him. Their eyes were clouded with grief as they mourned the loss of a man that had become so special to them. They had heard rumors that the tomb was empty but they didn’t know what it meant- they thought someone had stolen his body. On the road to Emmaus, Cleopas and another follower of Jesus were walking along when the risen Christ joined them and engaged them in conversation. They were shocked that this stranger hasn’t heard the news of what happened to Jesus (because of course they don’t recognize that it is him). They told him of all the recent events and how Jesus was killed. The unknown Jesus then begins to interpret the scriptures for them and let them known that these events had been foretold. But they still didn’t recognize that it Jesus who traveled with them

The followers offered hospitality, which Jesus tried at first to decline, according to the tradition of the time, but Jesus finally agreed to join them for a meal. Do you know how they finally recognized him? During the meal, this stranger all of the sudden becomes the host as he took bread, blessed it and broke it. All of a sudden the light bulb goes off in the minds of his followers- “this is the risen Christ! This is Jesus himself and we know that because we can see who he truly is as he takes, blesses and breaks bread with us.”

The church today shares this same shocking revelation, as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper each week, we take a tiny piece of bread, and a tiny glass of juice. When we hold these elements to our lips and partake we suddenly feel the same as those early Christians- “oh yes, Christ is present here! We can taste and see that God is good!” God is good and Christ is present each time we share in a meal that remembers Christ’s actions of taking, blessing and breaking bread. Christ is known to us in the breaking of bread and we are fully known to each other when we sit around a table, look each other in the eye and share the intimate act of eating. When we break bread we can easily see that God is good.

Today happens to be World Communion Sunday. This means that Christians all over the world will taste and see that God is good today. They will take, bless and break bread together knowing that Christ is present among them. When we are fed at Christ’s table today we realize that this meal allows the entire kingdom of God to taste and see that God is good.

Even as we participate though, we must be mindful of those who do not have physical bread to eat. Jesus came to earth as a full human being, he needed bread to sustain him. After the resurrection he broke bread with his followers, and then went on to eat fish with other disciples on the seashore- Jesus had been resurrected in body, not just in spirit and he needed nourishment for that body. Today we acknowledge that there are bodies in need that will not get the food they need to live. Some will have to break bread together only symbolically, because there is no real bread for them to eat. It is harder to taste and see that God is good when there is nothing to taste. So even as we feast with Christ this day, we remember that the simple blessing of having food on our table is not a blessing everyone is able to enjoy.

May we be mindful of our brothers and sisters who are hungry. Let us love those fellow humans not just by remembering them, but by donating food when we can, by working in a feeding program or raising hunger awareness. Let us remember the hungry by helping to create policies and practices that spread the bounty of food that God has provided and makes sure that all God’s children get something to eat. If we need to eat less so others can have some (I’m working on this part), may we make a way for that to happen.

On this day when we gather around tables to taste and see and know the presence of God, we eagerly await the day in the kingdom when all of God’s children are fed, and no one goes to bed hungry. May it be so on the earth that all of God’s people can taste and see that God is good! Amen and Amen.

Writing a bit

2009-08-31T12:55:00.004-05:00

My sister-in-law gave me a couple of great books for my birthday. One of them is called, "Writing to Change the World" by Mary Pipher.

Here's my first one from the chapter on knowing yourself. This is "Where I'm From"...

I am from Luanne and Doug.
From a little suburb that is now a big one, Blue Springs, Missouri;
from neighborhoods and the end of cul-de-sac.

I am from storytelling grandparents who love rich and deep.
From church on Sunday morning, giving your tithe, visiting the sick and loving your neighbor.
I am from Disciples of Christ with a little recovering Baptist thrown in for good measure.

I am from laughter, and family game night, and trips to the theater.
From eat a whole package of cookies on a weekend evening after “being good” all week.

I am from divorce, and remarriage. From many people who are technically labeled “step” and “half” but feel entirely “whole” to me.

I am from the safety and love of family. From seeing the value of staying close, and then being brave enough to venture out into the world on my own.

I am from a flat and landlocked area of the country and that is why I stand with mouth wide open when I see mountains and beaches.

I am from riding my big wheel down the street, trading baseball cards with the boys, taking matchbox cars in my purse to my first day of Kindergarten.

I am from the oblivious nerdiness of high school when I was so sure of myself that I didn’t even know that I was a nerd. I am from band, and theater, and Students Against Drunk Driving, and church choir.

I am from every person is worthy of love, no matter their difference from me.

I am from strong women, and sensitive, supportive men.

And lately I am from the South. From hospitality and beautiful rolling hills. From church potluck dinners and everyone is family. I am from a slower pace of life and church league softball and “I love you’s” said frequently. I am from take care of one another.

This is what I’m from.

New Phase of Sabbatical?

2009-08-03T11:45:00.003-05:00

I think perhaps I've entered a new phase of my sabbatical. I think the first part of my sabbatical was about deprogramming from my normal routine, not showing up at the church everyday. The first part was about being in worship and not leading worship (which I will continue to do in this next phase). Phase one was about not obsessively checking my phone for who was calling from church who might need me, it was about detaching from the daily details of church life in my congregation.

So, I think I entered phase two as I stood in the first worship service of the 2009 General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Indianapolis and wept. I wept as we sang because I love to sing about my faith with others and singing with 6,000 was pretty overwhelming in a positive way. I cried because I realize there has been a dryness in my relationship with God lately. I've felt like I've been in a bit of a spiritual desert where I've been going through the motions (or sometimes not even going through the motions) but not allowing God to touch my soul deeply. Well God came flooding back into my heart and soul big time at GA. I was able to experience God's presence in worship and be reminded about what I love about my church (big church- general church). I love that we respect all persons, that we value diversity- ethnic, cultural, theological, sexual orientation, gender, etc. and that all persons have a place at the table. Youth and children were also well valued and well represented at the assembly. I got to have deep conversations with friends I haven't seen in a long time. I got to catch up on other Disciple's institutions I love- like my college, Drury University and my seminary, Disciple's Divinity House at Vanderbilt University.

Phase two is about being in love with God and spending deep time in prayer. Phase two is about making time to be with friends and family deeply (as was phase one), and seeing that as God's blessing and presence with me. Phase two is about more prayer, more reading, more writing, more crying when I'm touched by God's powerful countenance in my life.

I am savoring a book. You've heard me talk about it before but I have been reading Barbara Brown Taylor's book "An Altar in the World" for months. I didn't want to breeze through it, I wanted to savor it and that I have been doing. The chapter I am reading today is about "The practice of Living with Purpose." Living with purpose could be the job you do, or it could be found within the job you do, or maybe it could even be about something outside work that is your vocation and passion like coaching a soccer team.

I truly believe for me, being a minister is how I live with purpose. I feel like I am fulfilling my purpose when I am creating a sermon (with God's help) and preaching it. My purpose is fulfilled when I sit at someone's beside in the hospital. The light of my purpose shines brightly at camp when I am leading kids in bible study, or when I am talking with a teenager about something that matters deeply in her life. So while I've been on sabbatical its been a little bit harder to see my purpose in action. I know my purpose is present when I talk with friends who have needed me to listen, when I spend time nurturing my own marriage, or when I spend time in prayer or reading a great book. My purpose is to be in relationship with God and to help others along their journey with God by sharing my life with them.

It feels good to have a purpose and I know that one can be in ministry and not feel that same sense of purpose. I overheard a conversation at the Assembly where a chaplain was talking about her true purpose being in hospital chaplaincy. She was telling someone else that for her chaplain work gave her life purpose because it was serving others. She went on to say that she couldn't find her purpose in the church because as she experienced it, the church was self-serving and did not reach beyond itself enough.

I didn't agree with her on the church being self-serving- maybe when the church is scared, or at a loss for direction the church looses its on purpose and becomes self serving. However, a church with vision, direction and purpose is not all about itself. A church who is living its own vocation is about serving others and making God's purposes known in the world. I will hear her words as a challenge when I go back to my congregation.

Welcome phase two. I am not afraid to cry, not afraid to let the power of God overwhelm me and choke me up. I will not run from deep encounters with the holy, in whatever form they arise. I embrace phase two.

Eli time and my Rockwood Church Visit

2009-07-14T13:54:00.005-05:00

I think I have finally hit true relaxation today. Last week when I was home by myself I had sort of an identity crisis that made it hard to relax. I kept thinking what do I do if I'm not doing church work? Who am I if I'm not a minister? I had to work through some of that- and I'm still working on it. This week it is easier to relax perhaps because I am not at my own house- so no housework is staring me in the face. I'm not wondering what should I be doing? It's clear that my task this week is to be a friend and enjoy the company of my dear friends Jessa and Eli (and later in the week, Eric).

We're in Denver and yesterday was Jessa's birthday. We had pedicures, shopping and On the Border for lunch- delightful! Then Jessa was off to a pregnancy class so Eli and I played together in the evening. It is delightful to be in the company of a not quite two year old. Life slows down, you walk slower, you observe more- you spend 40 minutes swinging, you notice the sound a bird makes, you find a rock and think its the best toy ever- its quite a life. We laughed for a good 30 minutes about the word "toot" and then it was time for mom to get home, just in time for birthday cake. One of the precious gifts of this sabbatical is time- time to spend with friends and not feel rushed. I am noticing the presence of God in relationships big time.

I have yet to tell you about my second church visit which was actually over a week ago. David and I spent the 4th of July weekend with our friends in Rockwood. My friend Kara is the minister in Rockwood, she is a solo pastor and does an amazing job. It was a blast to be able to fill an entire pew row at her church with a cheering section just for her (it was her husband Mark, Emily, Heather and David and I). I particularly enjoyed the music at Rockwood, it was exceptional and helped me to connect with God while I was there. I also did something I used to do before I was a minister- I went through the bulletin to see what songs we would be singing and if I knew them. We got to sing several of my favorites! Tears filled my eyes as we sang the opening hymn- music and kids often make me cry in church.

I loved hearing Kara preach. I went to Divinity School with some of the most amazing people on the planet and Kara is one of them. I remember thinking while we were in school that my friends were going to make the most amazing ministers- and its true. I don't get to see them in action as much as I'd like. Getting to see my friends in their ministerial roles is another great gift of sabbatical. Kara preached a great sermon- it made us laugh and challenged us. While she preached I was totally overwhelmed by how immensely proud her mother would be of her. Her mom was a phenomenal minister who encouraged each of us along the way. She and Kara were close and respected and loved each other deeply. Kara's mom passed away a couple of years ago from cancer and I cannot hear the song, "Be Thou My Vision," without thinking of her singing it at Kara's ordination. She was amazing and her spirit lives on in her gifted daughter.

I also loved seeing camp friends at Rockwood. I saw lots of people that I know either from Bethany Hills or from the two times I had a chance to preach at Rockwood during their Lenten services. I was deeply blessed by this church visit.

This past Sunday I enjoyed the presence of God in the form of Jessa and Eli as we all played hookie from church! This coming Sunday we'll be attending Plymouth Congregational Church in Denver where Eric and Jessa both work!

What does a sabbatical look like?

2009-07-06T11:22:00.004-05:00

What does a sabbatical look like? Well, I'm not really sure, I've never done this before! However, I thought you might like to see some pictures above from my first week! Here are a few glimpses of what sabbatical looks like:

1. Sabbatical looks like a cool float in the wave pool at Wave Country! On Monday we went to Wave Country in Nashville with several of the campers and counselors who usually participate in Muscular Dystrophy Camp. This year, camps were canceled nationwide because of the swine flu (boo!). So on the Monday we should have been at camp (for David's 26th year!) we went to Wave Country. I guess you can see that it was a blast. I even went down the really scary huge water slides. I did this because I decided when I turned 30 that I would do more things that scare me. I'm so glad I did it was totally fun.

2. Sabbatical looks like a trip to Christmount with a good friend. If you've never been, you must make a trip to Christmount Christian Assembly in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Christmount is a ministry of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and it is WONDERFUL!! It was so beautiful in the mountains and so very cool. We spent time by the pool each day, ate great food and visited our favorite coffee shop. We also had a pretty "green" trip. We took our own cups for soda at gas stations, our travel mugs for coffee shop runs, and our own napkins. It was great fun! I had a fantastic time with my friend Hope- we are almost always working on camp when we are together and it was great to have time together with few responsibilities. We got a chance to surprise our other good friend, Kennnedy who works on staff at Christmount for the summer- she was SO surprised! We got her good!

3. Sabbatical looks like spontaneity! Hope decided that she would only take the clothes on her back on our trip (plus underwear and a swimsuit). The rest we would find for her at the BEST Goodwill store you have ever been to in Asheville- it was awesome! She found all she needed and more for our trip. Kennedy found great stuff and I did too! It was as if we walked into a boutique made just for us- and it was cheap! Some of the things I bought were brand new from Target. I also got 5 books for 75 cents each. I LOVE Goodwill!!

4. Sabbatical looks like time spent with your dearest friends. On Friday Hope dropped me off in Rockwood where I got to spend time with my husband and some of my closest girl friends from seminary. Kara and Mark hosted 5 humans and 4 dogs for the weekend! It was so much fun. We ate great food, saw the beautfiul sights of East, Tennessee, watched movies (while the boys launched bottle rockets) and most of all just enjoyed one another's company. Quality time with dear friends is so important and this was delightful. I also got to visit Kara's church- more about that later!

5. Sabbatical also looks like home. I am so glad to be home and to get to do things around the house that need to be done like cleaning and even (yes, get ready for it...) cooking. I am sleeping better, I feel good and I even got to go on a long walk with my best friend Dee this morning (who I miss a lot not seeing her at church everyday). I am even letting go of waking up in the morning and trying to find something to worry about, I'm not a slave to my cell phone- I am truly starting to relax. And it is a beautiful thing. I hope everyone can experience this feeling at some point in their lives!

On visitng a church and being a non anxious presence

2009-07-01T18:48:00.002-05:00

Being originally from the Midwest I am a true appreciator of Southern culture. I had a truly authentic experience on Sunday for my first church visit of the sabbatical. I went to Miller's Chapel Christian Church in Alpine, Tennessee.

Prior to my arrival there- it felt like the weirdest Sunday morning ever. I mean, I slept until eight am and I am usually up at least by six. My husband was already scurrying around to leave for our first service. So I slept in, had coffee and breakfast (that NEVER happens on Sunday morning), had some God time (read a devotion, journaled and read part of a book I love). Then I got ready for church.

I drove slowly the 20 minutes through winding country roads. I enjoyed with new eyes the amazing green covered rolling hills. I said good morning to horses and cows and smelled that smell that you smell when you pass a spot where they are drilling for oil.

Then I arrived at Miller's Chapel. It wasn't my first time there- I have actually preached there before. When I arrived I walked around the yard and took some pictures. The church is made of stone and amazingly beautiful. The minister and his wife are good friends of mine- even second family. They are my senior minister's parents. I know many of their members as well so it felt familiar and comfortable. I made a quick use of the indoor plumbing they are so proud to have recently acquired and it was time to grab a seat. They were happy to see me. Not just because they know me and I'm a friend- but because two major families that make up the bulk of the church were gone and I would prove to be a warm body and a head to be counted (my presence will boost the number they will post at the front of the church next week for last week's attendance).

We began the service singing "Victory in Jesus" from our hymnals with shaped notes (its a good thing I don't read music or that would be really confusing). The service continued to make me smile as the community shared its life together through prayer concerns, we took communion, we gave our offering, and we took time to greet one another. By greet one another I mean every person spoke to every other person there- which was less than 20 of us. I felt so at peace there among the community- even though it is not exactly my own- I'd say they're more like church cousins.

Then it was time for the sermon. "Lessons learned from watching gardens grow." Not only did I love the sermon, it seemed totally identifiable to the lives of the people gathered there. The thing I loved most about this church visit was the lack of anxiety I felt there. Part of it was my own attitude- I'm on sabbatical! Another part was David (the pastor's) ability to be a completely non-anxious presence as a pastor- both in the pulpit and out. This is what I am striving to be as a minister- a lot of times I do a good job. Sometimes I'm totally rattled.

A non-anxious presence (to steal a phrase from Dick Hamm) speaks volumes. In not so many words it says, "I love God, and God loves me and there is nothing we can't handle together." Or it says, "This church loves God, and God loves this church and so there is nothing we need to be anxious about." Sometimes we let the fear take over and we forget that we love God and each other deeply. The church at its best is a place where the people who love God back (to steal a phrase from Anne Lamott) can be together and never forget to dwell in that love. We act and make decisions not because we're scared but because we're in love. What a great goal- to actually be the Beloved Community of God. As a minister I want to be anxious and fearful less and love more. Sounds easy, right? Maybe during sabbatical I will discover deeper ways and new ways to do that.

All that said my report from my first church visit is: I love church and it was delightful to visit a small, mountian church and to feel the non-anxious presence of God and others there.

Rhythm of rest

2009-06-27T19:07:00.003-05:00

What exactly is the rhythm of rest? I'm trying to figure that out- especially coming from a month of break-neck summer pace with directing camp, leading a conference, then Vacation Bible School. I'm not sure if I've achieved rest yet, but I'm getting closer. I know I'm getting closer because the permanent knot in my guts is starting to unwind a bit, I'm smiling more, I'm nicer to my husband. I hadn't had a true day off at all in June until Friday. Sometimes the pace of life is so busy you forget how to rest. But I'm remembering- little by little. Tomorrow I predict will be the first day that I will really feel like I am on sabbatical. Because I will not set the alarm for six am before I go to bed tonight, I will not wake up sleepy but full of church excitement tomorrow. Instead I will get up around "normal" time for me and my husband will probably already be getting ready to go to church and do his deacon duties. I will be getting ready to be a visitor, a worshipper, a person who sits in the pew- how strange...

The rhythm of rest is the rhythm of noticing God. If that is true then I am seeing glimpses of rest and God all over the place. I see God in meals shared with friends, in laughter at a silly movie with my husband, in a baby shower for a friend who once considered herself to be infertile (talk about a miracle- way to go God!), in the kindness of my in-laws, and in plans for my own future. God is present all over the place, all the time. If we let our lives zoom by us and fill every second we forget how to look- how to really notice God in the ordinary and mundane. I reclaim noticing throughout this sabbatical. I vow to notice God, and friends, and family, and myself.

And maybe after a few more days I will notice that I am comfortable in the rhythm of rest...

Wierd and wonderful

2009-06-25T14:05:00.003-05:00

Last night I had butterflies in my stomach. Nervous excitement mixed with some worry- I couldn't keep it from bubbling up. You see, something scary and totally wonderful is about to happen to me. In about an hour I am going to walk out of the church building and be on sabbatical. This is weird and wonderful.

Why weird you ask? Well, because what in the world am I going to do for three months? I mean I have a number of plans- in fact, too many. I'll probably learn from this sabbatical not to over program the next one- but that's what I do- I program, I'm good at it. Weird because I'm not going to walk in the door to First Christian Church, Livingston for three months (or at least not on a regular basis). Wierd because I am a minister. That's not all I am- but its a HUGE part of who I am. It's not that I will cease to be one for three months, but just that will not be my primary role. What is my primary role? Child of God I would say. My job is to remember who I am and whose I am and to come back more connected with my source of life when I return.

Why wonderful you ask? Because I get to play for three months. I get to visit friends and family that have missed seeing me and whom I have missed while I have served these last five years. I get to reconnect with my husband, I get to read a stack of books I have been meaning to get to. I get to think, and write, and pray, and worship in other people's churches. Most of all I get to just hang out with God. What a precious gift. Thank you in advance to my church.

But right now, this hour- my emotions are mixed. My office is too clean. It doesn't look lived in. I've been cleaning it all week so as to de-clutter a bit in preparation for being gone. And there are still those butterflies... they tell me this is important stuff I'm about to embark on.

One of my church members referred to a beloved Thom Schuyler song we sing at Graduation celebrations around here called, "Take a Little With You When You Go," and that's what I plan to do. The song says,

"Pack your Bible in your suitcase.
Jesus loves you this I know.
Break the bread and fill the cup,
we're never gonna use it up-
so take a little with you when you go."

Great quote from a great author

2009-06-24T13:48:00.002-05:00

"Anyway, the force from somewhere in space which commands you to write in the first place gives you no choice. You take up the pen when you are told, and write what is commanded. There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you." -Zora Neale Hurston

Breaking all the rules...

2009-06-23T13:42:00.003-05:00

I wanted to make a couple of notes on the sermon I posted yesterday:
1. Most of the ideas came from my dad's brain. My dad and I had a long conversation last week because I wanted to talk about fear and faith and I knew that my dad has done a lot of thinking about fear and love in relation to the work he does at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. My dad is one of the Vice-Chancellors and he is an all around University problem solver. He's worked in Counseling and Placement, Human Resources, and now he kind of goes wherever he's needed at throughout the whole University system. He's done a lot of talking with managers of employees about how not to operate out of fear and be reactive all the time but how to manage employees from a more loved based approach (that's a really crude summary of what he does). He's also a really smart guy. So all the basic ideas in the sermon are his- thanks dad!

I wanted to mention a source he told me about that I didn't include in the sermon but hope to read more about myself. He told me about Maxi Maltsby, a cognitive behavioral therapist who wrote a book called: "Help Yourself to Happiness."that was published in 1975. He's the one that talks a lot about reframing your thinking along with other ideas that could help people who maybe couldn't afford psychotherapy.

2. I broke a lot of rules in this sermon. I didn't follow the natural progression of the Biblical text. I didn't even delve into a whole lot of exegesis, or explanation of the scripture. This was a different sermon for me, a topical one. Another rule I broke was that this sermon was intended to be a "feel good," sermon. If you left feeling better than when you came in, good, that was my intent. I also mentioned a movie by title. Many of these things I learned not to do in my preaching class. Most of the time I follow the rules, and I think the things I learned help me to be a better preacher. And if you didn't already know this, then know that I like to follow the rules. But sometimes, you have to break the rules. And that's what I did Sunday, and I have no regrets.

That's all for now- more soon. Plan on seeing a lot more of me on this blog after I start my sabbatical on Thursday afternoon!

Fear and Faith Sermon

2009-06-22T10:26:00.002-05:00

Isaiah 41:8-10, 1 John 4:16-19
June 21, 2009
Last Sunday before Sabbatical!

Fear and Faith
If you were a fly on the wall at First Christian Church this week you would have seen some amazing things. You would have seen a sea of orange t-shirts as 55 kids came through these walls for Vacation Bible School. You would have heard them sing like they did this morning. You would have seen an amazing group of adult volunteers teaching and leading them. And you would have even seen an adult class of “snapping turtles,” learning throughout the week as well.

A fly on the wall would have seen us take a Trek through the Bible each day. Our first Trek took us to the Promised Land with Joshua. Our next trek took us to Bethlehem to meet the new king, baby Jesus. Then we took a trek to the Pharisees house, the Upper Room (as we washed each other’s feet) and finally to Galilee to learn of the resurrection of Jesus. This is an incredibly important Children’s Ministry event that we do each year. All along the way there were truths about God learned, like God loves us and guides us; and there were also scriptures that we memorized each day. The first day our memory verse was Isaiah 41:10, “Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God.”

“Do not be afraid, for I am your God.” I believe this is a timeless word from a God who loves and cares about the people of God. This word is as much for the Israelites as they were captive in a foreign land, or as they were about to step into the Jordan River to pass through to the Promised Land as it is for our children at Vacation Bible School this week and even as it is for we who sit in these pews this morning. “Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid for I am your God.”

Do not be afraid: easy for God to say!! The reality of our world is that we have a lot to be afraid of. If truth be told, we are all afraid. We are afraid of what the bad economy will mean for us. We may be afraid of losing our job, or not having enough saved to help send our children to college. We may be afraid of failing at a goal we’ve set for ourselves. We may be afraid for our own safety- which the whole nation has felt to some extent since the events of September 11, 2001.

The little fears we each have are actually more paralyzing and hard on us than the big fears we have. Think about it this way, if you are diagnosed with cancer (which is a big, scary thing), suddenly you are surrounded by an army of support. People rally around you, acknowledging, “You have every right to be scared.” You will have people cooking for you, and driving you to treatment, and praying for you and generally acknowledging, “We know you’re scared and that’s ok.” It’s the little fears each day that leave us feeling alone. It is the fears of being inadequate, of not doing enough, or having enough or being enough that really get to us. Those little fears are the ones that cause the stress reaction in our bodies; that make us feel a little sick to our stomach. The little fears are the ones that keep us up and night. The little fears are the ones that make us feel isolated because we don’t share them with anyone- we try to bear them by ourselves. What I want you to know this morning is that we are all afraid.

Have you ever seen a movie where there is a nerd that gets picked on for the duration of the film? There is also usually a character that everyone views as cool and somewhere along the line there is a shift in thinking and action and the cool character admits, “I’m really a nerd too!” If each of us were to be truthful this morning we could stand up in the middle of the sanctuary and say, “I’m afraid too!”
By the way, if you are thinking, “I’m really not afraid of anything,” I would challenge you to look at what makes you angry. If you spend a lot of time feeling angry, then you are afraid of something because what psychologists have discovered is that fear and anger are almost the same thing. Anger is one reaction to fear. Some people express their fears as anger. And so if you find yourself angry a lot, you might want to think about what fears are driving that anger. If you’re angry, you can also join us in saying, “I’m afraid too!”

Ok, so we’re all afraid, now what do we do about that? We can be less fearful by loving ourselves more and cutting ourselves a little slack. We know that God created the world and that world is good. Part of the good creation God made is you and I, each one created in God’s image. God created each one of us to love and be loved and we have a hard time doing that when we are blocked by fear and anger.
As humans God gave us the good gifts to emotions and intellect. We cannot simply will an emotion like fear or anger to go away, but we can talk to ourselves about the situation. We can talk to ourselves and reframe our own thinking when we are in a fearful or angry situation. Someone just pulled out in front of you in traffic- how you react to it is up to you. Will you get so angry that you will be sick to your stomach for the next hour? Will you allow it to raise your blood pressure? Or will you acknowledge that the person is a jerk and move on?

Reframing our thinking can help us in fearful situations as well. If I am afraid to speak to someone I love about something that is bothering me about our relationship- what I am I really afraid of? Am I worried that I am not worthy of their love? Don’t I think my opinion is important enough to be heard? When we are afraid we need to remind ourselves that we are beloved children of God, worthy of love from other people and worthy of our own love. Sometimes we are better at the loving our neighbor part of what Jesus asked us to do than the part about loving ourselves.

Another part of feeling less fearful is acknowledging that we are not alone. Other people share the same fears that we have. Talking about your fears with a friend can help to alleviate or dissipate them. And maybe your friend will even confide in you, “I’m scared too!” Sharing our fears with others is another way we can feel less fearful.

When we’re fearful- we are not our best selves. When we act out of fear we are defensive, angry and not at all who were are at our very best selves. Fear is a distortion of reality, love is the reality. If God is love, and Jesus came to show us what that love looks like, then we should try to operate out of love in the world if at all possible. We are worthy of love because we are children of God. We are not alone when we are fearful. The less fearful we are, the more capable we are of loving others and loving ourselves deeply.

Sometimes we need to cut ourselves some slack. As Christians we have heard all of our lives that we are supposed to be Christ-like. The standard of being Christ is one we cannot possibly live up to. We are not God. If we put unrealistic standards on ourselves, we will have stress and fear when we cannot attain those standards. So while it is important to have Christ’s guidance for our lives, and to try to be followers of Christ who live his teachings, we are not Christ and we can cut ourselves some slack when we fall short of perfect. We can be ok with our shortcomings, because what we know is that God created us and loves us exactly as we are. We do not have to be paralyzed with fear that we are not good enough- we are good enough just as we are.

Fear is the enemy of love. Preacher William Sloane Coffin puts it like this, “Fear destroys intimacy. It distances us from each other; or makes us cling to each other, which is the death of freedom. Fear has so many ways to destroy life. Love alone can hold onto and recreate life. Only love can create intimacy, and freedom too, for when all hearts are one, nothing else has to be one- neither clothes nor age; neither sex or sexual preference; race nor mind set.”

The book of 1 John says that, “perfect love casts out fear.” I love the language of that, perfect love casts our fear. Oops, I wasn’t supposed to talk about perfect. But we know that the only perfect love is the love of Christ, a love that has the potential to drive all the fear from our hearts.

What I’m asking of us is to have pretty good love. Pretty good love that at its best looks a lot like perfect love. Pretty good love is the kind of love that starts with loving the self and remembers that you are a beloved child of God. Pretty good love is the kind of love that can diffuse an angry situation by reframing the thoughts in your mind and the messages you send yourself. Pretty good love values other people and cheers for their success and isn’t threatened by it.
Pretty good love is us at our best self, our true self not our distorted, fearful self. Pretty good love is being kind and decent and making the right choices over and over again. We all love a story about a person simply being a good person and making the right choices. This week my dad reminded me of such a movie, with just such a character, which is based on a true story. The movie is called, It Could Happen to You.

Charlie Lang is a cop in Queens in New York City. He loves his job and his neighborhood even though he is married to a difficult woman who just wants to be rich. He picks up a lottery ticket and goes to a diner and not having enough to tip the waitress he promises to split the winning with her or bring her a tip the next day. Of course he hits it big, and decides to make good on his promise. He has every opportunity to be unkind to his rude, money-loving wife, but time after time he proves to be a decent, kind and caring man. When asked about why he gave the money to a waitress he says, “I made a promise and I kept it.” This is a classic story of someone being their best self. We love a story where the characters are decent and kind human beings because that is what we are all striving to be. If we are more decent, we are less fearful.

Friends, I pray that we will be strengthened to leave here this morning and remember that we do not have to be afraid for God is our God. We will feel afraid of course, but we are not alone in our fear. May we strive to be more loving and less fearful, by treating ourselves with kindness and cutting ourselves some slack. May we also treat others with decency and kindness as we strive to be our best selves and have pretty good love for one another. And may we trust in God’s perfect love through Christ, and know that it is given to us freely and unconditional. May we live feeling loved, and act out of that love as we live in the world. Amen and Amen.

Blind Bartimaeus Sermon

2009-06-10T12:33:00.002-05:00

Mark 10:46-52
June 7, 2009
The healing of blind Bartimaeus

I am thrilled to be back in worship with you this morning. While you were hearing wonderful music in a church filled with red on Pentecost last week, I was making last minute preparations at Bethany Hills for 62 sixth and seventh graders to arrive. I stand before you renewed in spirit but still tired in body!
If you have never been a part of church camp, it is something to behold. The campers and counselors came from all over the state of Tennessee, including five from Livingston. Some had been there many times before and for some it was their first visit to Bethany Hills. God can do some amazing things with just a week at camp. God can transform strangers into friends. God can take a teenager who feels largely ignored at home and give them a chance to shine. God can provide a table where all are welcome and where a community is formed so quickly, bonded over hot sleeping conditions, silly songs and even square dances. God was at work with us last week as we studied our theme for the week, Breakthrough. Over the week we studied four stories of how Jesus broke through into people’s lives. We learned how Jesus broke through barriers set up by the world. Jesus broke through to touch, heal and transform the lives of people in need. One of those stories of transformation is the story of the healing of blind Bartimaeus and I would like to share with you just a little of his story, and a few little bits of our story, what Jacye, Sydney, Jacob, Kristen and I learned at camp this week.

When we have a deep need, it is perfectly acceptable to call out to Jesus. Bartimaeus uses his voice to call out to Jesus as he leaves Jericho. Bartimaeus sits on the edge of his city; as a blind man he is not allowed to enter fully into the life of his community. He has not been able to be educated, and he has no career options other than begging, which is his full time job. With no knowledge of how illness affects the body or even of germs, it is assumed that Bartimaeus’ family or even Bartimaeus himself has done something to cause the blindness he suffers from. As a result he is misunderstood and labeled “unclean,” his only option is to beg at the edge of the city. It really isn’t much of a life, and so somehow he senses the presence of Jesus. He knows exactly who Jesus is and calls out to him with in full recognition, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.”

Baritmaeus doesn’t need eyesight to see deeply into the core of who Jesus is. Not only does he know that Jesus can heal (even though Jesus asks most his healing recipients to “tell no one”); but Baritmaeus knows that Jesus comes from the royal line of King David. Bartimaeus has the ability to see Jesus for who he is even though he does not yet have sight. Another reason blind people were not allowed into the community is that they were also feared. When one sense is not present, other senses are often heightened. The special abilities of disabled persons were misunderstood and feared. Bartimaeus calls out to Jesus and has the ability to know Jesus fully even though he cannot see him.

We often underestimate the abilities of people around us. You might even underestimate the faith life of 12-14 year olds, but you wouldn’t if you had been with us at camp last week. I heard these young people call out to Jesus when they were willing to pray in front of their small group, or share an experience that was personal to them during a discussion of the day’s theme. We need to call out to Jesus when we are deeply needy, when things in our lives feel out of control, when we’re 12 and when we’re 72. We need to call out to Jesus whenever we want to be heard.

There is an entire prayer practice that comes from this scripture. We had a chance to talk about it in my adult Bible Study this spring. The prayer is called the Jesus prayer. It is a short prayer that can be repeated over and over again whenever you need to call out to God. You simply repeat, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me,” just as Bartimaeus did. You breathe in as you say, “Jesus, Son of God,” and out as you say, “have mercy on me.” This is a prayer that can be called out when you awaken in the night and can’t fall asleep, when you are in pain, when you are angry because you are stuck in traffic or waiting in an impossible line at the DMV. The Jesus prayer is an any-time, any-where prayer that can help us live into the Biblical mandate to “pray without ceasing.” Whether it is the Jesus prayer, or another simple prayer like, “help me, help me, help me!” we know that is ok to call on God anytime we are in need.

Sometimes we will raise our voices to cry out to God and someone will try to stop us. The crowd around Jesus really thought he didn’t need to be bothered by a homeless, blind beggar the edge of town. They tried to get Baritmaeus to be quiet, but he continued to cry out to Jesus until he was heard.

I haven’t always been as persistent in my own faith walk, have you? Sometimes we are silenced by the crowd around us. Sometimes we are seduced by other things that pull our attention away from Jesus, like the lure of popularity, our desperate need to fit in, to be cool, or spend money and have things. In our rush to be what the world wants us to be, we loose sight of our focus on calling out to Jesus. I think this was so powerfully illustrated on Youth Sunday when our youth performed the “Everything” Skit. The girls starts off in the beginning so happy to be with Jesus but then faces the realities and pressures of the world, a boyfriend, money, alcohol, cutting, eating disorders, and finally thoughts of suicide. The whole time Jesus is calling to her- waiting for her return. Finally, she prays and Jesus holds back all the voices of the world that were trying to silence her. When we call out to Jesus, sometimes others will try to silence us. We need to remember that we belong to God and continue to call out, above the noise of the crowds around us.

When we call out to Jesus, Jesus listens to us and transforms our lives. Jesus heard Bartimaeus’ call to him. He tells the crowd to let Bartimaeus come. This is not the first time that Jesus has healed someone without sight, but this time Jesus doesn’t have to put a hand on the blind man. There is no muddy white compound for the man’s eyes, instead Jesus says that it is persistent faith that has made Bartimaeus well. Jesus heard Bartimaeus’ call and transformed his life because of the boldness of his faith.

At our camp this week there was a young man with a disability. Actually there were several kids with health and behavioral concerns but in particular I want to tell you about Steven. Steven has a severe learning disability and his IQ puts him in that category that referred to as developmentally delayed or mildly retarded. Steven came to camp this week and found his community. Steven’s older brother was his cabin counselor, and Steven’s mom camp to camp as a counselor to provide leadership in his small group. Steven was set up for success. Although I’m sure that mom and brother helped him feel comfortable during the week, Steven didn’t need them- he had a community of friends who loved God and loved him.

At our counselor meeting on Monday morning of camp we asked if anyone had any moments they would like to share from camp so far. Steven’s mom spoke up. She told us that at their church, Steven doesn’t feel comfortable taking communion. She had been so touched when on Sunday night after introductions, dinner and our first small group meeting we had worship and Steven walked forward to take communion with his new friends. Steven’s life had been transformed by the love he felt at church camp and the welcome that was extended to him to come to God’s table. Jesus hears us when we call out. He has mercy on us, and transforms our lives.

After our lives have been transformed by an encounter with Christ, we can’t help but respond by following. Bartimaeus’ life was transformed, he was able to see again and Jesus asked for nothing in return. However, Bartimaeus decided to follow Jesus, even as the next steps he would take to be toward the cross. Jesus invites each one of us into new life with him, and how we respond is up to us.

This week at camp one of the most touching moments for me came during our Thursday evening worship. Our theme that day was “Jesus invites”. We were all invited to participate in communion, and they way the youth invited us to worship was by calling each one of us by name. I watched as Steven was called forward by name. I watched as Jayce, Sydney, Kristen and Jacob were each called by name to receive communion. And then my name was called and I went forward. What a powerful reminder that Jesus knows each one of us, and loves us enough to call us into relationship with him by name.

We are each invited by name into life with Jesus. He is there ready to listen anytime we call out to him. When we are in need, we need to remember to call out to Jesus, knowing that he will hear us even if the world tries to silence us. Jesus listens, Jesus has mercy on us and Jesus can transform our lives. Our only job is to call out to Jesus and to seek a relationship with him. May we continue to call out, knowing that Christ will hear each one of us as he calls us by name to be his friends. Amen!

Graduation Sunday Sermon

2009-05-19T10:49:00.002-05:00

May 17, 2009
Graduation Sunday
John 15: 9-17

Graduates- if you haven’t already figured it out- this church is proud of you! We love you and we want all the best for you. We give thanks for what God has already done in your life, and for all that God has planned for you in the future. Congregation, if you didn’t already know this I wanted to point out to you something that will make most of us in this room feel old: these graduates were born in the 90’s. That’s right- these high school grads have only been on the planet with us since 1990 or 1991.

If you are a child of the 90’s then you have grown up with computers in your home and at your school. I have known you all since you were in 7th grade and many of you had a cell phone at that time or got one shortly thereafter. You watched Power Rangers on TV and collected Pokemon cards. You might have had a Giga Pet somewhere along the line, or collected a much sought after Beanie Baby. And what about the characters of your childhood like the Rugrats, or Keenan and Kel, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or maybe even the kids from Saved By the Bell? From these shows you learned about life, and humor, maybe a martial arts move or two, and probably you even learned a little about friendship.

Maybe you even learned about friendship from some of the classics like Ernie and Bert from Sesame Street who taught us that you can have very different personalities and still be best friends. Or maybe you even read about or watched on TV one of my favorite pairs of friends, Winnie the Pooh and Piglet. In one scene the two friends are walking along together and Piglet hurries to catch up with Pooh. “Pooh?,” Piglet calls out. “Yes Piglet.” “Oh nothing,” Piglet says, “I just wanted to be sure of you.” It does feel good to be sure a friend is by your side, ready to help you take on whatever life might bring your way.

Friendship was so important to Jesus that he spends some time talking to the disciples about friendship in the Gospel of John. Jesus is speaking to his friends about abiding in his love, about being beloved by God, and about keeping the great commandment so that their joy might be complete.

These are the very same things this congregation wishes for you today, graduates. We hope that you will always abide in the love of Christ, knowing that you are a beloved child of God. We hope that you will always strive to keep Jesus’ commandment about loving God and loving neighbor. And we certainly wish for you that you would have joy, and that your joy would be complete. So how can you go about doing and having all these things? Jesus says its matter of being a friend. Being a good friend is one of the simplest ways that we can do what Jesus commands, which is to love one another. Friendship is the vehicle for great love. By being a good friend we are following what Jesus taught us about loving one another, and we are able to abide in his presence.

This week I watched a hilarious clip from the movie Thunderpants. The movie is the story of Patrick, a little boy with a big gas problem. As Patrick starts going to school, most of the children are repulsed by the sound and odor that frequently escapes from his trousers, but he meets a best friend, Allen, a young boy without a sense of smell. The friendship between the two boys is a match made in heaven. I wonder if that is all it takes to be a good friend- a compliment of gifts?
What does Jesus say about friendship? Friendship, according Jesus is about loving one another. In fact the word that is translated here as “friend” comes from the Greek verb, “to love.” So a friend is literally, “one who loves.” As the disciples listen to Jesus telling them about friendship they may already think that Jesus is a good friend; but they have no idea just how far his friendship will go for them.
Jesus goes on to say this about friendship, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down ones’ life for one’s friends.” Jesus was not the only person in the ancient world to talk about the concept of sacrificing one’s life for a friend. Both Plato and Aristotle talked about this kind of sacrificial love for friends. The big difference between Jesus and these other ancient writers is that Jesus actually practiced this ethic! Jesus quite literally laid down his life on behalf of the people he called friends. By being obedient to the will of God, and by being a good friend to the people of the world, particularly those considered to be, “the least of these,” Jesus threatened the powers that be and was killed. He laid down his life for his friends.

Few of us will ever have the opportunity to literally put our lives on the line for our friends. There are heroes among us who do on occasion lose a life protecting friends, or fellow troops, or protecting a child, but most of us will never act on Jesus’ words about laying down our lives in the physical sense. Deep, true friendship is still about laying down one’s life. Have you ever had to drop everything so you could go and stand beside a friend who needed you?
In the past few years of my life I have had some friends who needed me to drop everything and be by their side. I know the same is true of you, one day you get a phone call and on the other end there is an unimaginable diagnosis being shared with you, and so you literally drop everything in your life that is going on to go and be with your friend. A friend has a parent that dies, and you ask off work or school, you reschedule meetings you arrange a babysitter or dogsitter- you drop everything, you lay down your life to be a friend. Laying down your life for a friend may not be easy, but it is what we do for each other when we are needed. When that call comes in that a spouse is leaving, we drop everything to go and be with a friend who needs help, who needs our presence, who needs us to drop everything in our lives to be involved in hers. We are to love our friends, and to lay down our lives for them when necessary. Jesus calls us to love our friends deeply enough to be willing to sacrifice for them.

Jesus also tells the disciples about friendship with him. “You are my friends if you do what I command you,” Jesus tells them. In this instruction I believe that Jesus is referring specifically to what Christians consider the “great commandment”- the one that Jesus says is most important of all the law and the writings of the prophets; to love God will all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. To be a friend to God, to be a friend of Christ, we must follow this one simple and yet all-important commandment.
Although it is our duty as a friend to carry out the great commandment, I hope that you won’t hear me saying that we have to earn Jesus’ friendship. That simply isn’t true, Jesus says to the disciples just as he says to us, “I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.” We are friends of Christ, because he has held nothing back from us about God. We are friends of God because all has been revealed to us through Christ. We are no longer to be called servants, although we are certainly called to serve, but instead we are friends.

There is one other component of being a friend of Christ that is worth noting here. It is clear to me from reading the Gospel that being a friend of Jesus means not only loving and caring for our friends or loving Jesus himself. Being a true friend of Christ involves one other step. Being a friend of Jesus pushes us to take friendship one step further. To be a true friend of Christ, a deep friend, we must love the stranger and even the enemy. When Jesus asked us to love our neighbor as ourselves, I don’t think he was talking just about the person that lives next door to us. Neighbors are the strangers we interact with on a daily basis. The word “neighbors” includes the people we don’t get along with. Laying down our lives for a beloved friend is a task we might be able to get on board with- but what about laying down your life for a stranger? What about laying down your life for an enemy? This is the heart of the Gospel, and the most challenging part as far as I’m concerned. Jesus was willing to lay down his life for the sake of the world. This included thousands of people he never even met, and probably thousands he had offended or who hated him. For Jesus, “neighbor” and “friend” were not necessarily synonymous with “people who like me.”

How do we treat people who don’t like us, or whom we don’t like? How do we treat the strangers we encounter on a daily basis? These are the people we are called to love in addition to our friends and family. The measure of a true friend of Jesus is how we treat others around us. When we treat people with love and respect, we treat them as Jesus would.

Graduates, I know you’ve heard a lot of advice this weekend. As your church family gathers to celebrate you this day, please know we wish the best for you in all things. As you leave this place for awhile to go on to college, the military or other training we ask you to remember that we love you and we’ll always be a part of your life. We ask you to take a little of this love we have for you into the world with you as you go. And if we can throw in one piece of advice, it would be to be a good friend to the world. Love those close to you in deep and real ways. Drop everything for a friend who needs you. And if you can, do your best to love strangers and enemies as well. We’ll try to do the same to make you proud of us, and together we will all be worthy of being called a friend of Christ. Amen and Amen.

Thank you God

2009-05-09T21:28:00.002-05:00

Thank you God for...
-Healing that is happening in my body post-tonsillectomy (even if I get impatient at the recovery)
-Friends and family who love and care about me enough to check in with me while I am sick, fly across the country to take care of me (thanks mom), make me homemade potato soup (thanks Amy), take my mom to the airport (thanks Sam), and just love me enough to spend time with me even though my breath is so bad! (David, Jori, Dee and Matt)
-Time to simply be in the presence of God- all day today with good radio on my satellite (Sirius' Coffee House is my favorite!), good books: An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor, and Middle Placeby Kelly Corrigan.
-For a sweet little walk with my dog in the sunshine- even after a ton of rain today
-A wonderful church to look forward to going back to after nine days off for surgery

For all these things I say- THANKS BE TO GOD!

Palm Sunday Sermon

2009-04-05T14:27:00.003-05:00

Palm Sunday
Mark 11:1-11
April 5, 2009

There’s been a little tension in our house lately. As relative newlyweds, David and I are still learning the delicate art of disagreeing with one another in love. I am truly grateful for our differences, because if he and I were just alike I think that would make for a pretty boring life. One of the things that David is extremely passionate about is politics. He watches the news channels, listens to talk radio, and reads political blogs on the internet- he follows it all. While I’m not as into following the daily ins and outs of what’s happening in the political realm, I do stay informed of what is happening in the world. So what’s the tension? We tend to have opposite political beliefs. I truly believe that at the core it is the same values that inform our beliefs- but how those values find they expression is quite different.

Sometimes this difference between us causes tension. I’m talking about almost as much tension as there is when Vanderbilt plays UT, or the kind of tension there is in our house when it is time for the Kansas City Chiefs to play that Titans- now that’s tense! David and I experience tension because we are different, but we are able to love each other deeply and treat each other with respect in the process. Behind the tension lies passion for both of us- things we care deeply about. I know many of you are also deeply passionate about politics and sports- maybe there is even some tension in your house around these kinds of subjects.

I can tell you there is some tension and some passion happening in what is happening on Palm Sunday. When you see Jesus enter Jerusalem on a donkey you see a very passionate crowd. Finally, there is an understanding in the crowd of who Jesus is and his significance as the son of God as he enters the holy city. People lay their cloaks on the road for him and cut palm leaves that they spread on the ground before him. They stand and cheer, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” You can hear this same kind of passion in our singing this morning, and you can be reminded of the passion behind the palm waving as our children process in with the palms. Palm Sunday is a day of recognition and of celebration with passion. The crowd knows that Jesus is the divine one, who comes from the line of their ancestor David and who comes to bring a new kind of kingdom- and that is something to get passionate about!

But there is also tension in this celebration, for at the same time that Jesus is humbly entering Jerusalem, there is another procession happening. Pontius Pilate, the Roman leader who rules Jerusalem and the surrounding areas is entering the city in quite a different way. Pilate lives on the coast, but travels to the city of the Jews on all the high festival days to make his presence known. His presence is a military presence- there to subdue the Jewish people if needed. The Jews are about to celebrate the Passover, a feast commemorating their freedom from slavery in Egypt. Pilate is not going to let them get any ideas about being freedom from Roman occupation.

In a book called, The Last Week, written by two biblical scholars- John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg, Pilate’s entrance into the city is described. “Imagine the imperial procession’s arrival in the city. A visual panoply of imperial power: cavalry on horses, foot soldiers, leather armor, helmets, weapons, banners, golden eagles mounted on poles, sun glinting on metal and gold. Sounds: the marching of feet, the creaking of leather, the clinking of bridles, the beating of drums. The swirling of dust. The eyes of silent onlookers, some curious, some awed, some resentful.” Pilate’s entrance is in sharp contrast to the other procession that was happening that day.

One of the reasons this Palm Sunday event is so remarkable is that the people shouting “Hosanna!” seem to finally understand- even if just for this moment, Jesus and his message. He is so totally different that the kind of Messiah the people of God have been waiting on that for much of the Gospel people do not recognize who he is. If they happen to catch a glimpse because he has healed them they are asked not to tell anyone. In Mark’s Gospel every time someone understands and recognizes who Jesus is prior to Palm Sunday he asks them not to tell anyone. Somewhere along the way someone recognized the Messiah and told others about him. The word has spread and now there is a crowd on Palm Sunday.

The crowd is passionate about welcoming this new kind of king into Jerusalem. He is not a military power- riding in on a horse flanked by the cavalry. He is a servant-leader who humbles himself and rides in on a donkey. He doesn’t command respect by using violence or force, he earns respect by treating everyone he comes into contact with in a loving way.

The people expected that the king to rise up from the line of David would be a little more like royalty, instead of being from a humble family. They expected that he would conquer political forces like Rome, and overthrow them so that the Jewish people could once again be free. They were not expecting him to arrive into an imperfect world and proclaim, “The kingdom of God is here!” “Here?” They would have asked. “Here where Pilate rides in with his forces to make sure our religious festivals don’t get out of hand. Here, where only the wealthiest among us have any kind of a decent life? Here, where we live each day under Roman oppression?”
Jesus is still proclaiming that the kingdom of God is here. Only now, for those of us who have never lived in a kingdom Jesus declares that the “democracy of God” is now here. “Here?” we ask. “Here, where we’re in an economic recession? Here were we still have troops fighting in Iraq? Here where the unemployment rate is over 10%? Here, in a time when so many of us are filled with fear and uncertainty about the future?”

We rejoice today, because the kingdom of God is here. We’ve seen it- little bits at a time. We have seen fiercely loving acts in our lifetime. We have seen times when love triumphs over fear. We have seen how good and kind and loving our neighbors can be. And so we have seen the community of God. And yet we have seen the opposite as well- we have seen what happens when fear (which is the opposite of love) overtakes. So we know the God’s kingdom has a future element to it as well; we know that it has not yet come in its fullness.

The fact that we know God’s kingdom is here, and at the same time we know that there is much sorrow, suffering, and fear in the world- that causes us some tension. Parker Palmer talks about this “gap between what is and what could and should be.” He calls it the tragic gap. Our job is to live creatively in the tension of this gap between the already and the not yet. Palmer says if you cannot hold the tension creatively, you fall into one of two categories- either corrosive cynicism or irrelevant idealism.

We see a lot happening in the world, in our community and maybe even in our own families that is full of pain and sorrow. We are about to enter into what we call Holy Week, a week where we remember the awful and tragic events of the last week of Jesus’ life. If we are true to our faith we will not skip from one celebration to another. We will not go from shouting “Hosanna!” to shouting, “He is Risen!” without remembering to walk the painful, sorrowful road that lies ahead. As painful as it is, we must allow our hearts to break this week. Transforming suffering and heartbreak is central to what God is all about.

If we shut down when there is sorrow or suffering in our own lives or around us- then we are not able to live in the tension between what is now and what could and should be. But if we allow our hearts to break open wide then there becomes more room to experience the world’s joy and sorrow. Palmer says, “In Christian tradition, the broken-open heart is virtually indistinguishable from the image of the cross. It was on the cross that God’s heart was broken for the sake of humankind, broken open into a love that Christ’s followers are called to emulate.”
If we truly want to experience this week as “holy” we will be vulnerable enough to allow our hearts to break open. We will not let them break to the point where it paralyzes us and we are destroyed- but we will let them break open as we feel deeply the pain of the world not being as it should be. Our hearts will break as God’s did as we remember the death of Christ this week- and if we let them break open- then we will see that more love will also flow in with the sorrow and perhaps we will find on Easter morning a love and joy that we didn’t even know our hearts could experience.

Tension isn’t always a bad thing. As Christians I believe we are being called to live in the tension. We live within the tension of our differences as humans, and strive to love each other anyway. We live in the tension of knowing that God’s beloved community is here and now and the Jesus who was praised on Palm Sunday came to bring it. We also know at the same time that God’s community has not yet come in it fullness. That is a tension that can stretch us, and challenge us and on occasion break our hearts wide open.

If we can creatively live within the tension of what is and what should be, and if we can allow our hearts to break wide open with pain and sorrow I truly believe that we will also receive more love and joy into our hearts than we could have ever imagined.

Which procession do you want to be a part of this Palm Sunday? The one that operates out of fear- or the one that operates out of a love so deep your heart might break? It is up to you to decide. This week your challenge is to truly walk with Jesus through the last week of his life and as you do- let your heart break wide open with the sorrow, so that it might be filled with the joy of the resurrection next Sunday. Amen and Amen.

References: The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Final Days in Jerusalem, by Marcus J. Borg & John Dominic Crossan.

“The Broken Open Heart: Living with Faith and Hope in the Tragic Gap,” by Parker J. Palmer, Weavings, vol. 24, March 2009

Parker Palmer

2009-04-04T09:21:00.002-05:00

I've been a fan of Parker Palmer for years. In a conversation with a dear friend yesterday, he shared with me an article that Palmer wrote in "Weavings" magazine. Palmer writes about the tragic gap between what is and what could be- and deals with how to creatively live in the tension. Really, really good stuff- here's a video where he deals with some of these ideas.

Don't Forget the Salt

2009-03-23T07:21:00.004-05:00

The other day I happened upon a website called, “Chowhound: A forum for those who love to eat.” A woman had come to the forum with a question and her post read like this, “I made some regular white sandwich bread yesterday and only realized this morning when I had my first piece of toast that I forgot to add salt. You can imagine that it's not very tasty - even slathering it with salted butter and honey didn't do much to fix the problem. Any ideas for what to do with 2 loaves of unsalted bread?”

She forgot the salt. I sympathized with her- this sounds exactly like something I would do. Those of you who bake- have you ever forgotten the salt? It seems like a minor omission to forget the salt- but even if you forget the pinch that the recipe calls for your creation just tastes off somehow. The woman on Chowhound couldn’t even compensate for her salt oversight by adding salted butter. There is a quality to salt that cannot be ignored- it seasons; it adds flavor.

The use of salt, as well as the use of light is a universal human experience. Even if you exist on a simple diet, and even if you only ever see the light of the sun- you know the experience of being without salt or light. The commonality of this experience with salt and light is what makes this such a powerful metaphor to use as Jesus teaches those gathered on the side of the mountain that day. I have to make a confession here- I said that Jesus was using a set of metaphors- do you realize what that means? This means in a sermon series of parables- I have cheated and slipped in a metaphor instead. What is the difference? As I understand it, parables usually have a story to them, not a factual story- but a story with characters, and plot and action. Today what we have is a metaphor- Jesus comparing his audience to something else.

Let’s talk a little bit about that audience. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is really addressing his disciples, those twelve followers that he is trying to educate in the short time he has on the earth. However, as with everything Jesus did, he drew a crowd when he started preaching. Jesus is addressing his disciples, but as the action in the Gospel story progresses, this becomes an increasingly larger and larger number of people. Jesus has just shared with the crowd the Beatitudes, those statements about what kind of people are blessed. He has lifted up the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers and those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. With these words Jesus is forming a community. He is giving his followers instructions on how to live by telling them what kind of people are blessed in the Kingdom of God.

Next, Jesus goes on to tell them what kind of people they already are. I want you to hear these words this morning and realize that they are just as much for you as they were for the audience on the hillside. When Jesus says “you are…” he means- you! You, sitting there in your pew this morning. You, who hopped out of bed, excited to come to church this morning, and you who wouldn’t have come if a family member didn’t drag you here. These words are for YOU. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. If you hear nothing else I say this morning then hear that YOU are God’s beloved and you have already earned your status as salt and light to the world. As my pastor from home is so fond of saying, “God loves you, and there is nothing you can do about it.”

However, Jesus wasn’t just talking to you as an individual, he was talking to you all (yes, that’s right, Jesus was talking to ya’ll). Jesus is speaking to his followers in a communal sense. You all are the light of the world; you all are the salt of the earth; you all are a city on a hill. Let me explain the difference between you and ya’ll. On our first choir rehearsal together, Matt reminded us about singing together as a choir. He told us that singing, as a choir is different than a bunch of people singing together at the same time. Singing as a choir means we are working together to produce the sound that is written in the music. This means there are times when we sing softly together and times when we sing loudly together. We all have to start at the same time and rest at the same time and end at the same time if we are singing as a choir. Otherwise- we’re just a group of people holding the same music, singing the same notes, but singing as individuals. When we sing as a choir, you shouldn’t be able to pick out one person’s voice above another’s.

Jesus is speaking to a group of followers. We are not all the same, but we mix together to become the beloved community of God. Collectively, we are the salt that adds seasoning to the world. Together, we are a beacon of light in a dark and hurting world. As a group, we are a city on a hill. Jesus is saying that we already are all these things. We don’t have to earn them, or become them- we are salt and light. We are an example to the world.

If we study Jesus’ teachings at all- we know how to be salt and light. We catch glimpses in his sermons and his stories. We become salt when we love others- even if we are not supposed to love them according to the world’s standards. We become light when we make peace with our neighbors, when we act in humility and when we love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. We, First Christian Church, are a city on a hill when we live up to our mission statement that says, “We celebrate Christ’s unconditional love by welcoming, loving, serving and teaching all.”

The next part of Jesus’ preaching is a warning. This is not simply a feel-good sermon. Jesus’ point was not for his followers to leave feeling puffed up and proud. There are some warnings that go with being salt to earth and light to the world. Salt, Jesus says can loose its saltiness. Light, when covered by a bowl or a basket can be hidden from those who need it. When you have to take the ethics that Jesus taught and apply them in an imperfect world, there is a danger of loosing the very essence of who you are. There is a risk of losing your saltiness, and your light. We live in a world of achievement, where it is not easy to be humble and meek. We live in a world where justice often times means vengeance and punishment instead of peacemaking. We live in a world where it is easier to welcome into our lives those who are just like us, rather than those whose culture, or skin tone or religion we don’t understand. Do you see how easy it is to live in the world and let the light of Christ dim inside you? Do you see how easy it to loose your saltiness and not taste quite right? Jesus is issuing a warning! He is saying, “I have told you how to live, how to be a city on a hill, how to be the kingdom of God, but it won’t be easy! You’re going to get out there in the world and forget! Don’t forget the salt!”

The world needs to experience the love of God. The world needs us to leave here today and not forget what we have been taught by our great teacher, Jesus- the light of the world. The world needs us to be a city on a hill- with all the humility and love we can muster. Jesus needs us not to forget the salt.
On occasion it becomes essential that the Christian community not fail to be salt and light for the world. There was a preacher in Nazi Germany around 1936 who preached a sermon on this very topic. About two weeks before his incarceration in a concentration camp, Martin Niemoller spoke to his congregation about the importance of speaking out against the injustice they saw all around them.
He told his congregation about how crucial it is that they actually become the salt of the earth. He said, “Our responsibility is not how we shall pass on the salt, but we are to see that the salt really is and continues to be salt, so that the Lord Jesus Christ- who is, as one might say, the cook in charge of this great brew- can utilize it for His purposes.”

Niemoller spoke to his congregation about the importance of being salt and light in the face of the imprisonments and killings that were going on around them because he feared he might not be able to do it the next Sunday. At great personal risk, Niemoller did not let the salt loose its saltiness- he spoke out even when he knew it would result in persecution by the Third Reich. What is it that we are risking by being afraid to be salt and light in our world? Who needs us to speak for them? Who needs us to love them, and show God’s love to them?
One of Niemoller's most famous quotes goes something like this, “In Germany, they first came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a protestant. Then they came for me- but by that time there was not one left to speak up.”

Who do you need to speak up for? Who do you need to speak a kind word to? Is there someone in your life you can go out of your way to share the light of God’s love with? That is your challenge this week: find someone who is hurting, broken or who simply cannot speak for themselves and share the light of God with them. Listen to them and allow them to tell you their story as well. Take the time to let someone else know that they are they light of the world, and the salt of the earth. Tell them, “God loves you and there is nothing you can do about it!”
Friends, it is so true- God loves each and everyone one of us so much that Jesus was sent to remind us that we are already the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Our job is to go out into the world and make sure others can see in our attitudes and our actions that we not about to let the salt loose its saltiness. There is no way that we will forget the salt! Amen and Amen.

Some Days, You Gotta Dance.

2009-03-17T16:31:00.002-05:00

Ok, so as of late, I've been a Lenten slacker on updating my blog. I won't make excuses, but I will say that I have NOT been slacking in the youth ministry side of my job, and that has been good. I have been to a retreat, a concert, and had ice-cream and conversation with one youth while on spring break. So, blame it on the kids if you've missed me.

Well, we are over halfway through Lent, and in my part of the country we have had many dreary days that have put myself and others in a somewhat appropriate Lenten funk (you know solemn darkness and all). But today, TODAY, my friends, the sun is shining big time- and I am previewing spring and the blissful feeling of the resurrection. Yes, I'm early, I'm supposed to still be preparing- but its a long wait. So today I celebrate the sunshine and I remind myself that as the Dixie Chicks say, "Some days- you gotta dance. Live it up while you get the chance. When the world doesn't make no sense and you're feelin' just a little too tense, gotta loosen up those chains and dance."

About a month ago on a Sunday after church, David and I went to a restaurant to eat wings. At this restaurant in our town they also have a jukebox. When we got there, we saw a man in his 60's cutting a serious rug to some tunes on the jukebox. It was out of place, it was funny- he was dancing alone. Our waiter told us he does this every once in a while, he's got a playlist of songs- he punches them up and goes to town. He does it for exercise. But I bet its more than that- I bet he does it because some days you have to dance. On one of my favorite shows, "Grey's Anatomy," when one of the main characters has a bad day, sometimes she has to "dance it out," with her best friend.

I believe in dancing it out. I believe there is a time when we have to stop our mourning and start dancing. Some times we have to shake a tail feather, bust a move, and let our bodies dance to the beat. Sometimes, we have to celebrate- no matter how dark what we are going through is, sometimes you have to dance it out.

I leave you with this thought (Psalm 30:11):
"You turned my wailing into dancing;
you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,"

I think sometimes God helps us dance it out.

Great Video

2009-03-06T09:37:00.002-06:00

A friend of mine co-author's a great youth ministry blog called, Rethinking Youth Ministry- you should check it out. There are some wonderful ideas for Lent with youth. I found this wonderful video on their blog and would like to share it with you here.
About the video: "A video version of UK artist Simon Smith's depiction of Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness. Very cool and very accessible for young people (and the depiction of Satan is a nice surprise!) You can download the individual images here."

You won't hear from me for the next couple of days because I will be at church camp for the high school "Spring Fling" retreat! Have a wonderful weekend!

Tonsils?

2009-03-05T17:35:00.006-06:00

Well, I have been trying to post some theological thought each day but today I have been preoccupied by the fact that I was going to the ENT to see about my tonsils. What my GP suspected is true- I need them out. Or as the specialist said, "I think it would really benefit you." Do you know what the recovery time is for a 32 year old who has to have her tonsils out? 10 days! I thought he was kidding when he said it would take 10 days for me to recover. I guess that is the reason 5 year-olds do this and not middle-aged women. Great, now I'm middle-aged.

The only God- thing I see in all this is that people are praying for me. It feels so good to me when someone tells me they've been praying for me. I love it. When someone tells me that I usually say, "I treasure your prayers." And I do, prayers are something to be treasured. This week in my sermon I challenged people to pray for someone else each day- how cool that I got to be the recipient- God is good! I love it when my congregation nurtures me- how awesome.

Noticing God

2009-03-04T14:03:00.003-06:00

Tonight during our Wednesday Night Bible study I will be leading my folks through the Awareness Examen. This is a an ancient prayer practice that I learned about while at one of Randy Kuss' God @ Center Retreats. It is described in the book I am using for the class called, Creating a Life with God: The Call of Ancient Prayer Practices.

The practice, created by St. Ignatious of Loyola, is about noticing God in your everyday life. Particularly you are noticing what things bring you toward God and what things pull you away from God. I have found this to be a wonderful practice in my spiritual life and one of the things I "added" (or actually reclaimed) this Lent was to do this practice each day. Each morning I reflect on the day before answering these three questions: What happened yesterday that I am most grateful for? What happened that I am least grateful for? And where did I see the presence of God?

I turns out my questions are a condensed version- here are some that Daniel Wolpert suggests in his book I mentioned above:
• What am I most/ least grateful for during that time?
• When did I feel a sense of love, peace, joy, life (the gifts of the Spirit)?
• When did I feel exhausted, dead, drained, angry, mean?
• What specific events, thoughts, or experiences draw my attention?
• What aspects of that time repel me?
• What moments from that time speak to me of my deepest desires?
• What things feel out of place, uninteresting?

I think God may chuckles a bit that we have to invent entire practices just to notice the Divine presence- but such is the nature of being human! As Ferris Bueller says, "Life moves pretty fast, and if you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you might miss something."

Let's not miss out on noticing God!

Newsletter Article this week

2009-03-03T13:44:00.003-06:00

Lent is here. Last Wednesday we gathered in the sanctuary to have ashen crosses placed on our foreheads. This is a yearly reminder of our humility and our dependence on God. We know that Lent is a time to confess our sins, and to turn toward God. Some of us will give something up- we will deny ourselves something we normally enjoy like dessert or potatoes or facebook (computer time).
You may have noticed some signs up around the church as well. The signs indicate that this Lent we have chosen to embark on a “40 day Journey of Love.” On this journey we will be exploring the heart of the Gospels as revealed in the teachings of Jesus, specifically his parables. Dee and I are issuing a challenge each week, something active to do along the way. The first week’s challenge was: write a note to someone who has made a difference in your life, letting them know what they mean to you. This week’s challenge is: to pray for someone other than yourself each day. Stay tuned for more challenges as we engage together in an ACTIVE Lenten journey.
Last Wednesday night we each got a small compass to keep with us during Lent to remind us that we are on a journey. What we get out of Lent, and out of our Easter morning is directly proportional to what we put into it. If we go around bragging about how we haven’t had any Diet Coke in two weeks, and have neglected to spend any time with God in prayer during those two weeks- then are we getting the most out of Lent? When you feel the pain of whatever you have chosen to give up for Lent, I hope that you will be reminded to draw close to God in prayer, being thankful for all the sacrifices God has made on your behalf.
In my Bible Study on Wednesday nights, I gave the class a worksheet to fill out about what they will do this Lent- maybe this will be helpful to you as well. I asked the following questions for reflection:
1. During this Lenten Season I hope to journey toward… (what are you focusing on this Lent- a closer relationship with Christ, knowing God more deeply?)
2. This Lent I will commit to… (what things will you actively do this Lent- pray, read your devotion book, write in your journal?)
3. This Lent I will give up… (are you giving up anything that will help remind you of Christ’s sacrifice on your behalf?):
4. The tools that will accompany me on the journey… (Bible, devotion book, online devotion?)
5. The companions that will share the journey… (who will hold you accountable, who will encourage you when the journey gets tough?)
6. On Easter Sunday I want to feel and experience…

Sometimes we're all talk

2009-03-02T21:37:00.004-06:00

Sometimes in our spiritual journey we are all talk. Tonight I came across a small labyrinth that I bought last time I was in Asheville, NC. I was pretty convinced I would use it everyday, and there it lays, still in the bag.

I have found labyrinths, especially the kind you prayerfully walk outdoors, a very useful spiritual tool. Walking the pattern toward the center slowly and carefully can help your mind focus on your journey with God.

Once I went to a workshop about walking labyrinths. It was hosted by a church that has a beautiful outdoor labyrinth, and part of why I signed up was so that I would make sure I had time to walk it. The facilitator of the group talked for an hour and 15 minutes and we never did get to walk it! All talk- no action!

I feel like sometimes we are like that about the journey of Lent. Sometimes we like to complain about how much we miss whatever we have given up, but it really has no purpose. We don't spend time in prayer, we don't tell God we're sorry for when we fall short, we just whine about how much we miss sugar, or soda, or potatoes, or facebook (I decided AGAINST giving that up this year).

I hope that for each of us, the spiritual life isn't all talk. I hope there is some action in our lives with God. Whether its prayer on our own behalf or someone else's, reading the Bible or a devotion book, prayerfully walking a labyrinth, or spending time in silence. May we "do" more than we "talk" this Lent.

Dog funnies

2009-03-01T17:24:00.004-06:00

This post is just for fun- and to make up for the fact that I didn't post yesterday (I'm trying to each day during Lent). On Friday I got a hilarious email from my friend Audrey. Audrey is my dear friend and a dog lover. In fact, she rescued our dog while she and Kara and their dogs were on a hike together. Dolly followed them for four miles, so they cleaned her up and Audrey took her to the vet, and then she found the perfect home for her (with us!).

Around Christmas time, Audrey came over to visit and brought her dog Maddie. Maddie is an awesome dog, but like all adopted dogs, she has issues. About five minutes into her visit with Dolly- they got to play/fighting and Maddie bit Dolly's ear making it bleed and putting four tiny holes in it. Dolly was fine, but it made for a traumatic event at the time.

Here is the email I received on Friday from Maddie (via Audrey's address):
dolly,

i am very sorry that i have such a short fuse. i really enjoyed the time with you and your family in livingston over christmas. i liked your house and the yard was fun to play in. i really wanted to have a good time with you but i am afraid that my own insecurities got the better of me. i am sorry about your ear and i want you to know how much i enjoy being around you even though i ended up making you think i was scary.

as my mom and i enter into the lenten season, i am ever aware of my own limitations as a dog. i am aware of my own sinful nature and i just wanted to apologize to you for any pain and suffering - especially the loss of all that blood. boy was that gross.

after thinking it over, i decided to make you konw how much i do appreciate you as a friend and feel sorry for my actions, you should be expecting a package in the mail. it is just a little something i thought was cool that i hoped you would enjoy.

by the way - don't tell my mom about it because i ordered it when she was at work. she has no idea i am computer savvy and if she finds out that i am, she might start expecting me to pull my own weight around here, so don't tell her!

alright, have a good day and lick your parents for me!

love

Maddie

Here is Dolly's response:
Maddie-

I'm so glad you came to visit me over Christmas- things got a little hectic, a little crazy- but all in all friends are what the Christmas season is all about.

My mom sometimes preaches me her sermon and sometimes she preaches about forgiveness. I want you to know that just as God forgives all of us, I forgive you. In fact, I've already forgiven you seven times seventy (which is really only like one times ten since we're dogs).

I am forever indebted to you and your mom for talking that walk one day in the woods. She's really my Savior, although I'm fond of Jesus as well.

I love presents! Thanks for thinking of me. I won't tell about your computer aptitude if you won't tell about mine- I sometimes do blog posts on my mom and dad's blogs when they're not looking- ha!

You are welcome at our house anytime. Grace abounds (but not that mean cat kind of Grace that you live with).

Much love,
Dolly

I love when dogs send emails!

This is Audrey and Dolly!

Lenten Prayer Sermon

2009-03-01T17:08:00.000-06:00

Luke 11:1-13
Lenten Parable Series- One
March 1, 2009

On Wednesday night there were five people in line at Subway with smeared, ashy black marks in the shape of a cross on their foreheads. People in the restaurant looked at us with questions in their eyes- “what in the world?”
This past Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, the first day of our 40 day journey to Easter. In the church we call this season Lent, and it is a time for us to humbly remember that we belong to God. Lent is a time for us to be solemn, reflective and prayerful. Lent is a time for us to practice discipline in our spiritual life, whether it is making a special effort to spend more time with God, or denying ourselves something we normally enjoy. Most of all it is a time for us to journey with Jesus, a time for us to know him more deeply, and walk with him on the last few steps of his earthly journey- leading us ultimately to the empty tomb.
This Lent, Dee and I have a special kind of journey in mind for you. This is a journey that we are calling a “40 day journey of love.” For the 40 days of Lent we want to focus on the teachings of Jesus. Reflected within those teachings is the heart of the gospel, and as Jesus said himself the heart of life with God is love. When asked what the greatest commandments were Jesus talked about loving God and loving others. That will be our focus this Lent- on how we can love God and love others. The tools that accompany us on the journey are the parables of Jesus.
Jesus taught in parables not to give easy answers but to reveal the kingdom of God to us in little bits and pieces. In the gospel of Matthew Jesus says, “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.” Hidden knowledge! If we explore the parables deeply, hopefully we will gain a little more insight into what the realm of God is really like, and what we are supposed to be doing to help bring it about in the here and now. This will not be an easy journey, anything worth doing is rarely easy, but with the help of God we will grow together in our understanding. Studying the parables is one way that we can journey with Jesus through Lent, so that we might be more fully ready to share the joy of the resurrection on Easter morning.
It is possible of course to let time pass between now and April 12 and not do anything at all active during Lent, but I don’t think our Easter experience will mean as much unless we do the hard work that the season requires to get there. The authors of our Lenten devotion book had a great illustration about the challenges of Lent in their introduction. The Piatt family talks about their son Mattias, and how easy it has been for them to buy shoes with Velcro for him instead of teaching him to tie laces. However, they say, “Just because an easier way appears doesn’t mean it’s the only option, or even the best one. What if he gets married someday and his wife buys him a nice pair of lace-up shoes? Sure, a person can get by in life these days without knowing how to tie shoes, but who are we to limit Mattias’s choices, simply because it’s easier on us right now?”
In the same way if we skip the hard work of Lent we might limit our experience. Who are we to limit what God has in mind for us by skipping the hard work it takes? I’m convinced God has big plans for our time during Lent- who are we to limit what can happen by choosing not to dive more deeply into Jesus’ parables?

This first parable we’ve chosen to study is about prayer and persistence. Jesus talks about a friend in a desperate situation. One man has run out of bread and needs this essential meal ingredient because guests have come to his door and he needs to be able to offer them bread. He goes to his friend’s door and pounds. The friend is all snug in bed. He tells the man to go away; he and his family are in bed. But the man keeps knocking, and eventually, Jesus says, he will get what he as asked for.
On a first reading it may seem to ask that this friend that asks for bread in the middle of the night is a special brand of annoying. Not only to wake someone up from sleep by asking for bread, but to do so in the middle of the night and to keep asking with urgency after a no? We might consider that more annoying or downright rude, than seeing the man’s persistence as something to be admired.
However, we might be forgetting about hospitality in the ancient world. We might be forgetting that the ancients had even southern hospitality beat. In the ancient world it was a social mandate to entertain, feed and house any guest that came to your door. The thought was that you never know when the stranger at your door might be a representative of God, or God himself come to your door- and so hospitality was a must. And bread was the center of any meal- the essence of a hospitable meal. For the man not to have any bread to offer put him a desperate situation- he needed help. And so he asked for help, and he got a no, and so he asked again, until the answer was yes.
In the same way, out of our desperation and utter dependence on God, Jesus says we should approach God in prayer. He tells us that we should ask, and seek and knock on God’s door with the deepest desires of our hearts. For in the conversation, and I truly believe prayer is a conversation, we come to know ourselves more fully and we know God more fully. Prayer is essential to the life of faith- it is the language with which we communicate with God. This does not mean our every whim will be indulged, our every wish granted by God. Prayer doesn’t work like that- it is the act of prayer itself that is so critically important, even more so than the result. Remember the movie, “A Christmas Story,” where the little boy wished for a red rider bb gun every day before Christmas? Everyone kept telling him he’d shoot his eye out? Then on Christmas morning he got his wish and immediately went outside, shot the gun and broke his glasses, in essence shooting his eye out?
Not every desire, every wish that we have even should be granted, and many requests we make in prayer will not turn out the way we intended. But the benefit of spending time in prayer with God is the same benefit of spending time with a dear friend, a growing love between the two parties. Prayer is about love, and showing up, and being willing to open yourself up- even to the dark and scary parts of your life. God knows what we need before we ask- so part of our prayers can even be lifted up in silence.
It is said that the two famous writers, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Thoreau were great friends. “One evening Thoreau came over to Emerson’s house and, for a couple of hours, they both sat in front of the fire saying nothing. At the end of the time, Thoreau got up to leave, thanked Emerson for the evening, Emerson thanked him for coming, and that was their time together. Being silent together is one beautiful expression of the relationship between good friends or lovers.”
Jesus urges us to come to God in prayer- and it doesn’t matter how we do it. Whether we come desperate, sad, joyful, silent or shouting the key is to come before God. Jesus says, “ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened unto you.” Pray often: ask, seek and knock on God’s door for what you need- even if it is in the middle of the night.

Sometimes we make a mistake when we interpret parables. We look quickly to locate ourselves in a parable and then we try to see what character God plays. It would be a mistake to look at this parable today and say that God is the annoyed friend. Instead of a direct comparison between God and the man who eventually gives bread to the friend in need, what we have is an “if….then” situation. If this human friend would be willing to get out of bed to honor a request, how much more will a loving God grant us if we ask? The key phrase is “how much more”. Think of the kindest most loving human action you have ever been a part of- then realize that God is capable of love and generosity beyond all human imagining.
If a human parent would never dream of giving a child who asked for an egg a scorpion, or a child who asked for a fish a snake instead, then how much more does our heavenly father love us? God is waiting to love us, and to hear our prayers. God stands on the other side of the door and waits for us to knock, so that our lives can be filled with blessing beyond what we can even imagine for ourselves.

This week I want to issue a new challenge. I want you to pray for someone who needs it this week. Think about the feeling that you get when you are told by someone, “I’ve been praying for you.” It’s wonderful- isn’t it? I want us to practice loving God and loving our neighbors by praying for someone else this week. Maybe someone you know needs prayer each day of this week. Or maybe you know seven people who need to be prayed for. Whatever the case, your challenge this week is to pray each day for someone other than yourself who you know needs prayer.
Jesus says prayer is as simple as knocking on a door. When we approach God in prayer and we will be given what we need. This week on our 40 day journey of love, go to the door and knock on behalf of someone else. You might even find it appropriate to let the person know, “I’ve been praying for you.” I pray for each one of us a week filled with prayer and the knowledge that God loves us and wants to be in relationship with us. Amen and Amen.

Sermon writing

2009-02-27T12:00:00.000-06:00

It isn't easy to write a sermon. I love it- but it isn't easy. The hardest thing for me is the focus, I may have done research all week, read the scripture everyday, prayed and thought about it, and yet when I come before my blank computer screen- I get nervous-excited once again.

Today I will have to drown out the thoughts of all the other things I need to do: help David clean, get ready for my first big Mary Kay party tomorrow, my voice lesson this afternoon, the still nagging pain in my hip/ hind quarters. I have to lay all of this down temporarily and invite the Holy Spirit to join me.

My prayer usually goes something like this:
God, I know you have a word to speak. This week I will humbly step into the pulpit to preach on prayer- guide me each step of the way. Speak a word through me that someone, maybe not everyone, but someone (including myself) needs to hear. Send your Holy Spirit to infuse me with creativity as we create this together. Thank you for your abundant love. Amen!

Is it Easter Yet?

2009-02-26T21:55:00.002-06:00

Last week I hurt myself when I was moving heavy canned goods for our local food bank. I didn't even know I was hurt right away, but now the steady, nagging, burning pain in my hip reminds me all the time. It really kicked up on Monday. I am fortunate to have a friend in our church who is a physical therapist who has been helping me the last few days at his office. He gives me exercises to do, has his assistant put a laser on my hurting hip, and ices down the area. What will ultimately heal it? Time. He says I most likely have a pinched nerve and that it will feel better in a couple of weeks. What to do until then? Exercise, bend as little as possible, avoid picking up heavy things, but mostly wait.

Ash Wednesday was last night. With an ashy, gritty reminder of my humility and humanity I went to choir practice and we practiced a song called, "He Died for Me." The piece was haunting- beautiful, but not at all upbeat and happy- a perfect piece for Lent. Today, I had lunch at a buffet with some clergy colleagues as we met together. That banana pudding at the end really looked good, but I gave up dessert for Lent. I am already asking the question, "is it Easter yet?" And yet I have 39 more days to journey before we get there.

I am used to instant gratification, to getting what I want most of the time. But Lent is a journey, a solemn journey of penitence, discipline, prayer and reflection. If Easter were to come tomorrow I would not be ready. I have prayers left to pray, devotions to ponder, discernment to participate in, and darkness to explore. What I need is time, and patience, and will power. May God grant each of us the same.

Lent

2009-02-25T08:12:00.003-06:00

Today is the beginning of our 40 day journey (not including Sundays which are "little Easters") toward the empty tomb, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Today will be a day to burn the palm leaves from last years Palm Sunday, they always have a pungent odor. Perhaps they give us a taste of the bitterness to come. This is a bitter sweet season, because we prepare ourselves to be solemn and serious as we remember the final days of Jesus' life, but as Christians we cannot help but anticipate the resounding "Yes!" of the resurrection. Like the spring, Easter reminds us that death, darkness, depression, hopelessness- they never have the last word. God is in the background of our lives waiting with joy, happiness, community and a resounding "yes!".

In our church, we plan to make it a 40 day journey of love. We plan to learn with one another more of what Jesus taught and to treat each other with kindness and love during this time of solemnness and penitence.

So, tonight we will confess our sins and commit ourselves to new disciplines and practices. We don't do this because Christianity is harsh and about beating ourselves up for our wrongs, we do it because we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are forgiven before we ask for it. We gather and commit because we want to know God more fully, and part of that means journeying with Jesus- even through the dark times.

For myself, I commit to write some theological thoughts here each day during Lent. I have to admit I stole the idea from my husband, you can find his thoughts here: davidthedisciple.tumblr.com

I also am committing to writing in my journal each night- I plan to do the prayer of Examen and ask myself these three questions:
What am I most grateful for today?
What am I least grateful for today?
Where did I see God today?
This will help me notice God in my everyday life- God is always around us, but sometimes we fail to notice the holy presence.

I also plan to spend a little less time on facebook- and more time in prayer!
What will you commit to from now until Easter???