What Falls On and In Our Hearts

Anne Lamott recalls in her book, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith (73): There's a lovely Hasidic story of a rabbi who always told his people that if they studied the Torah, it would put Scripture on their hearts. One of them asked, "Why on our hearts, and not in them?" The rabbi answered, "Only God can put Scripture inside. But reading sacred text can put it on your hearts, and then when your hearts break, the holy words will fall inside."

The potluck meal following worship on July 13 was wonderful. Thank you for your many delicious contributions. Shared meals are great occasions for fellowship. They are times to be fed spiritually and physically.

The Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13 was the sermon text for worship that day. There is power in gathering together in God's Word, especially as we get to know one another. The unity we share is in Christ and God's Word even though we are not yet well acquainted personally. Committed time in Scripture can prepare us for whatever may come our way in ministry. That's where Anne Lamott's Hasidic story affects me. Like the seeds scattered by the sower, most do not make it in good soil. They remain on the surface to be lost to birds, weeds or the sun. Likewise, our time in God's Word, whether in worship or personal devotions or small group Bible study, may not seem to bear fruit or result in a harvest. But then God uses some person or circumstance to break down or break through our spiritual soil, and we experience transforming power.

Are you aware of the primary entries on our Wayland UMC Facebook page? Kimberly Wolff, our Office Manager, makes almost daily entries of Scripture passages. I consider them seeds God uses to prepare us for growing opportunities.

Another dimension of the Parable of the Sower is Jesus' description of the harvest producing "a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!" (13:8). Research in Palestinian farming in Jesus' time indicated a yield of seven times what was planted was a reasonable expectation. That yield allowed them to keep farming on the landowner's property but also kept them dependent on the landowner. Jesus' declaration of the amazing yields also had within it the subversive message that God's transforming power could set them free. It could allow them to dream of a new life for their families and communities. Let's not miss the potential of Jesus' message as we gather in God's Word for worship, study and prayer, and go forth with the Good News of God's love for us and the world.

Good Morning, Wayland UMC!

Good morning and God bless you, Wayland UMC. Our shared ministry begins in July and I offer some introductory reflections. First of all, thank you for your welcoming contacts by Facebook and email, and for Lee's photography at Annual Conference that documents our transition. Keith's contacts with Beverly and me regarding the parsonage kept us up to date on their work and the decisions we could make. Time with Pastor Gary and Kimberly was informative and energizing. I look forward to good ministry together. When it comes to a big picture of our life with God, the best thing I can say is GRACE in all the Wesleyan ways we understand it...God loving us before we know it, opening doors by preparing hearts and minds for new relationships; reconciling, forgiving and restoring us to right relationship through Jesus Christ; and giving us a future with hope as we go on toward perfection in love in this life. Grace challenges, confounds and comforts me, and is the orienting power in my life and ministry. Grace was extended to me in the hospitality of Three Oaks UMC, my home church. Grace was at work when I joined my life with Christ the end of my freshman year at River Valley High School. The best people in my life are Beverly (my wife), daughter Lindsey and Callan (her husband), and daughters, Sarah and Amanda. Lindsey and Callan live in Nebraska. Sarah will be a senior at Western Michigan University and Amanda will be a sophomore at DePaul University in Chicago. So, Beverly and I unload boxes into an empty nest. I know that we enter as guests in the Wayland UMC family and I will become your pastor in time. But for now, I praise God and thank you for being the Body of Christ. I change "country" to "church" in this concluding quote from Maya Angelou's "On the Pulse of the Morning": Here on the pulse of this new day You may have the grace to look up and out And into your sister's eyes, And in to your brother's face, Your (church), And say simply Very simply With hope-- Good morning.

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

"Oh, only for so short a while you have loaned us to each other..."

(Praying Our Goodbyes, 69)

"The sure sign of God is that you will be led in ways you did not intend to go"
Local UMC road sign in Evanston, IL in the mid-1980's

I am writing at the end of a five-week period that has included half of Lent, Holy Week and Easter; and the announcements that I will be leaving Hartford UMC to serve Wayland UMC on 7/1/14 and Pastor Rey Mondragon will become the new pastor here after serving as Associate Pastor for 6 years at First United Methodist Church of Ypsilanti.

Our time together has been short, only three years. This ending is bittersweet. We are an engaging, active, passionate, prayerful congregation committed to mission and service in Jesus' name.

I am encouraged in these endings and beginnings by the faith that we belong to God and God has been working in our lives well before we were aware of the possibility of these changes. I also hold the perspective that we are part of the already-in-progress history of God in the Church.

The church is of God, and will be preserved to the end of time, for the conduct of worship and the due administration of God’s Word and Sacraments, the maintenance of Christian fellowship and discipline, the edification of believers, and the conversion of the world. All, of every age and station, stand in need of the means of grace which it alone supplies (The Baptismal Covenant III)

In my Easter sermon I highlighted God as the source of our beginnings and endings, and referred to the Greek letters on the front of our worship table that reflect Revelation 22:13, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." 

As pastor and congregation we are involved in discerning God’s will as an ongoing process and practice of faith. We annually reflect on, and explore the meaning of what we have learned in ministry together. I am asked to be specific about my gifts, graces, skills, limitations, sense of calling to ministry, and family situation.

In this process we cannot know how long an appointment will last. However, we can devote ourselves to God, each other and the mission of the church with the time we have together.

The heart of our church is mission.

We are known as the church who helps people in need and

we respond directly to the effects of poverty in people’s lives.

That’s being Hartford United Methodist Church.

The chronic strain and burdens our people bear in employment, finances, medical bills, aging, housing and homelessness, utilities and transportation have emerged as a primary focus of my time and attention. I did not anticipate the significance or impact of working in this environment. For me there is heartache at such great need and inspiration at the eventual resourcefulness of people. This level of involvement was not apparent as we started life and ministry together. That’s why I have consistently reflected the positive value of social workers in our ministry setting. I have a deeper appreciation for the power of grace in times of despair because of our shared ministry.

From Bishop Donald Ott I learned the value of honoring three covenants in life. He taught that he holds covenants with God, his marriage and family, and the Church. And he holds them in that order. He emphasized that getting those covenant relationships right and keeping them healthy took care of a lot of other complications.

In my discernment about present and future ministry I have been blessed in the ways I experience grace, compassion, peace and love with God. I affirm a long-term commitment to Beverly’s vocational work as a medical Social Worker in Grand Rapids and our support for two daughters in college. And I am deeply grateful for the creative ways I have been able to serve God through the Church. I still feel that serving as a pastor is the best way to respond to God’s grace in my life.

That calling led to an openness to other ministry opportunities and the invitation to serve the Wayland congregation.

I rejoice in the ways that we have loved God and our neighbors and each other in this season of ministry. Thank you for your faithfulness and friendship. Our life together in God and as disciples of Jesus Christ continues even as we part ways at the end of June. I thank God for the mature leaders in our congregation who will sustain and guide Pastor Rey as you have guided me to find strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.

Don't Underestimate Cleaning Your Garage

Following Jesus is hard work. It is a mysterious combination of being and doing; grace and responsibility; stillness and action; surrender and victory. The range of this life is included in the seasons of Lent, beginning Ash Wednesday, March 5; Holy Week, April 13-19, and Easter, April 20.

Following Jesus leads us into uncomfortable circumstances and relationships where we learn how God's grace sustains us. We learn how to hold on and let go of commitments and plans for the sake of knowing and loving God.

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense" (Ralph Waldo Emerson in Ready for Anything, David Allen, 24)

It’s not that I have already reached this goal or have already been perfected, but I pursue it, so that I may grab hold of it because Christ grabbed hold of me for just this purpose. Brothers and sisters, I myself don’t think I've reached it, but I do this one thing: I forget about the things behind me and reach out for the things ahead of me. The goal I pursue is the prize of God’s upward call in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14; Common English Bible)

I continue to be intrigued and inspired by the work of David Allen and the Getting Things Done system. He has brought together the ways our brain works and provided practices for releasing the life-energy within us.

"One of the most effective ways to spark a dynamic vision is to clean your garage. Don't get me wrong. Writing a great strategic plan and creating a clean, well-ordered garage are very different activities. One requires a high-level focus and a willingness to see beyond the conditioning and details of current reality. The other requires an often brutal hand-to-hand combat with those details. Yet there is a strange and wondrous relationship between the two...when people want to get control of their work and life by 'setting priorities'...(m)y choice is always to go for cleaning up the garage of their work, their life, and their head. Then the priorities, the vision, and the plan emerge - grounded, with solid roots" (Ready for Anything, David Allen, 24-25).

The season of Lent is the opportunity to clean our spiritual garages; roll up our sleeves and pay attention to what needs to stay and what needs to leave in our hearts. Lent means attending to the hard work of faith but we don't always recognize it that way. "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work" (Thomas Edison in Ready for Anything, David Allen, 25).

Holy Week and Easter are the opportunities to hear and experience the solid grounding of our faith in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; to know and feel the love of God as the hardest work of overcoming evil, forgiving sins, and restoring right relationships.

I hope we are able to work hard to leave behind the burdens of the past and reach out for the possibilities of the future as we experience God's upward call in Christ Jesus. And I pray that in doing so we may find that our hard work depends entirely on the hardest work God does in Jesus Christ.

A Power Surge on the Road by the Sea

Church was canceled today due to the severe weather. Here is the download link for the sermon I did not preach and the bulletin we did not use.