Friday, July 29, 2011
A Couple of Good Things to Keep in Mind
My late father-in-law was a good, avid golfer. He felt that with a couple more rounds each week he could elevate his game, but he was playing at an enjoyable level and chose not to devote the extra time and money to such an effort. He told me that a quality golf swing includes more than 30 things you need to do correctly and that he could only be mindful of about 3-4 of them at any one time. I get that.
Last month my article was about the multiple dimensions and big picture of our life with God and the Church. This month I offer a couple things I am mindful of in my life and ministry as a disciple of Jesus Christ and your pastor. First, hospitality. I came to faith in Jesus Christ in high school through the hospitality of Three Oaks United Methodist Church. My family and I were welcomed into the fellowship of the Church. I was given opportunities to explore leadership through worship, administration and being one of the church custodians. Out of those experiences and the gift of a social consciousness for my faith through the Wesley Foundation at Central Michigan University I came to discern a call to ordained ministry. The late Henri Nouwen is one of my favorite authors. He wrote that hospitality is not meant to change people but to offer them space where change can take place (Reaching Out). Such space and change have profoundly shaped my ministry.
Second, compassion. I believe the current and long-established practice of demeaning and condemning persons who hold different beliefs, or who significantly question traditional beliefs, does great harm to our spirits. Such interaction shuts down faithful inquiry and rightful confrontation of exclusionary practices. With compassion we recognize the God-given value of the other person, and establish a connection that allows for real conversation and the possibility of healing and wholeness.
Third, generosity. As I mentioned at the closing of worship on Sunday, 7/24, my friend had encouraged me, "Don't be so stingy with the blessing, use both hands!" That statement characterizes an abundance mentality and reminds me that in God's economy we get grace which we don't deserve and cannot earn. We are asked to share a portion of what we have received for God's greater work of salvation in the world through Jesus Christ. In being generous we become more like God, in whose image we are created. I am grateful for the generous ways I see in our congregation and encourage us to keep going!
What kinds of things help you return to the center of your faith? What do you need to keep in mind when you enter or are faced with a season of change? May we be blessed with ongoing conversations and interactions that reveal the best that God has for us.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
More Than One Section at Once
Before and during my seminary education I worked in accounting. It was my major at Central Michigan University. My first job in a regional public accounting firm came with the expectation that I would soon pass the CPA exam which consisted of four sections. Several of my co-workers had a review class as part of their university/college curriculum and passed the entire exam on their first attempt. I did not have such a class, nor did I pass the exam the first or second time I tried it. On the third time I passed two sections. And on my fourth and fifth attempts I passed one section each to finally complete the exam.
You see, to get any initial credit at all you had to pass at least two sections. This approach prevented you from focusing on only one section at a time. You had to have a multidimensional understanding of accounting from the very beginning of the process. Looking back I am glad that was the approach. While we are not equally skilled in all areas, having a broad view of our profession gives us a stronger foundation and an orientation for facing the challenges that come our way.
The writer of Ephesians encourages us toward a multidimensional approach to faith and our relationship with God: "I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:18-19). Another version goes this way, that "you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God" (The Message).
In every major change in my life God has shown me new dimensions of faith, extended the boundaries of wonder and knowledge, and brought me in to new relationships. I trust that God has been working out such plans for all of us in this transition. May we celebrate the wideness of God's mercy and love, the power of grace and the joy of service, not separately but all together.
You see, to get any initial credit at all you had to pass at least two sections. This approach prevented you from focusing on only one section at a time. You had to have a multidimensional understanding of accounting from the very beginning of the process. Looking back I am glad that was the approach. While we are not equally skilled in all areas, having a broad view of our profession gives us a stronger foundation and an orientation for facing the challenges that come our way.
The writer of Ephesians encourages us toward a multidimensional approach to faith and our relationship with God: "I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:18-19). Another version goes this way, that "you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God" (The Message).
In every major change in my life God has shown me new dimensions of faith, extended the boundaries of wonder and knowledge, and brought me in to new relationships. I trust that God has been working out such plans for all of us in this transition. May we celebrate the wideness of God's mercy and love, the power of grace and the joy of service, not separately but all together.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
A Living Part of Something Bigger Than Us
Present yourselves as building stones for the construction of a sanctuary vibrant with life (1 Peter 2:5a; The Message)
The Grundtvig National Church in Denmark was started in 1921 and completed in 1941 by seven handpicked masons. The masons, in turn, rejected all bricks that were not perfect. There is an entire community surrounding the church built from the bricks which the masons rejected (Henry N. Huxhold, Access to High Hope). While we can appreciate the value of using quality materials for our physical structures, I am more interested in the people living around the church because I believe that we are their neighbors; people whose lives are built with broken spirits, ideas that don't fit or beliefs that are judged unacceptable. Thankfully the Good News is that in such a life we can get acquainted with and be welcomed by another neighbor, Jesus Christ, who the writer of 1 Peter describes using Psalm 118:22-23, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes."
I am leaving White Pines and Courtland-Oakfield United Methodist Churches to begin serving at Hartford United Methodist Church on July 1. Our life here since 2002 has been full, challenging, blessed, burdened and beautiful. We have built up and worn down each other on the journey. The energy and potential of White Pines partnering with the Wolverine World Wide Family YMCA is exhilarating; and the country, traditional Courtland-Oakfield faith family truly offers "Hope on the Hill" along Myers Lake Avenue.
The heart of faith is accepting God's grace and love with a willingness to be built in to something bigger than us, a sanctuary vibrant with life. Building and restoring churches and communities calls for great investment, commitment and resources. Thankfully God has already provided a sure foundation for us in Jesus Christ, "a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame" (1 Peter 2:6). God bless you and may you find joy in giving yourself to a purpose that inspires and outlives you.
The Grundtvig National Church in Denmark was started in 1921 and completed in 1941 by seven handpicked masons. The masons, in turn, rejected all bricks that were not perfect. There is an entire community surrounding the church built from the bricks which the masons rejected (Henry N. Huxhold, Access to High Hope). While we can appreciate the value of using quality materials for our physical structures, I am more interested in the people living around the church because I believe that we are their neighbors; people whose lives are built with broken spirits, ideas that don't fit or beliefs that are judged unacceptable. Thankfully the Good News is that in such a life we can get acquainted with and be welcomed by another neighbor, Jesus Christ, who the writer of 1 Peter describes using Psalm 118:22-23, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes."
I am leaving White Pines and Courtland-Oakfield United Methodist Churches to begin serving at Hartford United Methodist Church on July 1. Our life here since 2002 has been full, challenging, blessed, burdened and beautiful. We have built up and worn down each other on the journey. The energy and potential of White Pines partnering with the Wolverine World Wide Family YMCA is exhilarating; and the country, traditional Courtland-Oakfield faith family truly offers "Hope on the Hill" along Myers Lake Avenue.
The heart of faith is accepting God's grace and love with a willingness to be built in to something bigger than us, a sanctuary vibrant with life. Building and restoring churches and communities calls for great investment, commitment and resources. Thankfully God has already provided a sure foundation for us in Jesus Christ, "a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame" (1 Peter 2:6). God bless you and may you find joy in giving yourself to a purpose that inspires and outlives you.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Winter Leaves While Spring Arrives
With the ice still glistening on the evergreens, prairie grass, bare branches and power lines, Spring has not exactly burst upon the scene. There is no clean break it seems between the seasons. Spring Breaks are alluring where we can make the change, usually to warmer weather, within a day. But the return home reminds us of the slower changes that are underway within us. In our human time and relationships we don't just turn our backs on the past and only move ahead.
Expecting something new (job, home, relationship) can come with some pretty intense pressure. "Out with the old and in with the new" sets us up for disappointment if we expect a sudden revolution and get instead a slower reformation. Author and educator, Parker Palmer, has observed that we act our way into new ways of believing. That's why I like the spiritual practices of the church like worship, baptism, open communion, prayer, funerals, fasting, service, reflection and Sabbath. They are reliable practices, in my United Methodist tradition we call them "means of grace", that shape our expectations and relieve our spirit-mind-body existence of unhealthy anxiety.
I like the wise affirmation Renita Weems, author and pastor, makes in her book, Listening for God: "I learned to trust the winter months of faith, when it's difficult to remember why one ever bothered to believe. I stopped being so hard on myself and demanding that, as a wife, scholar, and writer, I should always feel excited about what I was doing, or that I should, as a mother and a minister, always sparkle with alertness and insight. This was hard to accept in a culture where, at the first sign of dullness or tedium or monotony, it's all right to give up, walk away, or try something new in hopes of finding new meaning, new thrills, new satisfaction."
May God bless and transform all your seasons and changes with grace.
Expecting something new (job, home, relationship) can come with some pretty intense pressure. "Out with the old and in with the new" sets us up for disappointment if we expect a sudden revolution and get instead a slower reformation. Author and educator, Parker Palmer, has observed that we act our way into new ways of believing. That's why I like the spiritual practices of the church like worship, baptism, open communion, prayer, funerals, fasting, service, reflection and Sabbath. They are reliable practices, in my United Methodist tradition we call them "means of grace", that shape our expectations and relieve our spirit-mind-body existence of unhealthy anxiety.
I like the wise affirmation Renita Weems, author and pastor, makes in her book, Listening for God: "I learned to trust the winter months of faith, when it's difficult to remember why one ever bothered to believe. I stopped being so hard on myself and demanding that, as a wife, scholar, and writer, I should always feel excited about what I was doing, or that I should, as a mother and a minister, always sparkle with alertness and insight. This was hard to accept in a culture where, at the first sign of dullness or tedium or monotony, it's all right to give up, walk away, or try something new in hopes of finding new meaning, new thrills, new satisfaction."
May God bless and transform all your seasons and changes with grace.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Keep Standing...Still Standing
So, how's it going with your New Year's Resolutions? Do you still stand by them? With the help of some wise advisers to consider a life of movement or training, rather than simple exercise, I am trying to work out three times a week at the YMCA. I achieved that goal the first two weeks and worked out two days last week. The odds are not good that we will keep our resolutions, whether they are tied to the new year or some other reference point. However, two positive factors involved in keeping resolutions are 1) having small, measurable goals and 2) going public with them to seek the support of friends. Pursuing general goals in isolation (get in shape, lose weight, improve finances) does not help us stand up to the pressure of daily demands on our time and attention.
Standing is a sign and act of perseverance. Years ago I attended the funeral for the child of a former member. The pastor led us in an encouraging two-part act of faith that still resounds within me. Early in the service as we entered the fullness of grief for the loss of this child, he asked us to turn to the person next to us and say, "Keep standing." Later in the service as we entered into the comfort of Scripture, song and prayer, he asked us to turn again and say to one another, "Still standing." The blend of encouraging one another and affirming our ability to stand was remarkable. It was a modern day reference to Saint Paul's affirmation, "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God" (Romans 5:1-2).
May you be resolved to stand in grace together with others in 2011. God bless you.
Standing is a sign and act of perseverance. Years ago I attended the funeral for the child of a former member. The pastor led us in an encouraging two-part act of faith that still resounds within me. Early in the service as we entered the fullness of grief for the loss of this child, he asked us to turn to the person next to us and say, "Keep standing." Later in the service as we entered into the comfort of Scripture, song and prayer, he asked us to turn again and say to one another, "Still standing." The blend of encouraging one another and affirming our ability to stand was remarkable. It was a modern day reference to Saint Paul's affirmation, "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God" (Romans 5:1-2).
May you be resolved to stand in grace together with others in 2011. God bless you.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Move with Your Fire
In the early days of the Tennessee Valley Project (TVA), a dilapidated log homestead had to be abandoned to make room for a lake behind the dam. A new home on the hillside had already been built for the cabin's family, but they refused to move. The day of the flooding arrived and as the bulldozers were brought in, the family brought out their shotguns. A social worker was called in as a last-ditch effort to talk with the family. After hearing them repeat their refusal to move, the social worker pleaded with them, "Help me to explain to the authorities why you won't move in to your beautiful new home."
"See that fire over there?" the man asked, pointing to a blazing fire in the primitive hearth of the log cottage. "My grandpa built that fire over a hundred years ago," the man explained. "He never let it go out, for he had no matches and it was a long way to a neighbor's. Then my pa tended the fire, and since he died, I've tended it. None of us ever let it die, and I ain't a-goin' to move away now and let grandpa's fire go out!" This gave the social worker an idea and she arranged for a large apple butter kettle to be delivered. She explained that the family could scoop up the live coals and carry them to the new home, pour them out, and add fresh kindling. With that possibility the family agreed to move. But they wouldn't budge--until they could take with them the fire of their ancestors (Leonard Sweet, A Cup of Coffee at the SoulCafe).
We get attached to places. And when we further attach relationships and activities with those places, they become even more important and we feel even more threatened by potential moves. When change is proposed or chosen by someone else, we can't imagine leaving our current location. How will we function in a new place? What a graceful, creative invitation to think that we can take what is most important with us! The ability to move our fire and add fresh kindling in a new location means we can respond to new opportunities with less fear. We don't leave the fire behind or let it go out. By faith we not only take it with us, but we find it's inside us. The apostle Paul might not qualify as the most sensitive social worker, but he does offer the graceful, creative affirmation that "God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). May you feel free to move with your fire to the next place, and there find hope and glory.
"See that fire over there?" the man asked, pointing to a blazing fire in the primitive hearth of the log cottage. "My grandpa built that fire over a hundred years ago," the man explained. "He never let it go out, for he had no matches and it was a long way to a neighbor's. Then my pa tended the fire, and since he died, I've tended it. None of us ever let it die, and I ain't a-goin' to move away now and let grandpa's fire go out!" This gave the social worker an idea and she arranged for a large apple butter kettle to be delivered. She explained that the family could scoop up the live coals and carry them to the new home, pour them out, and add fresh kindling. With that possibility the family agreed to move. But they wouldn't budge--until they could take with them the fire of their ancestors (Leonard Sweet, A Cup of Coffee at the SoulCafe).
We get attached to places. And when we further attach relationships and activities with those places, they become even more important and we feel even more threatened by potential moves. When change is proposed or chosen by someone else, we can't imagine leaving our current location. How will we function in a new place? What a graceful, creative invitation to think that we can take what is most important with us! The ability to move our fire and add fresh kindling in a new location means we can respond to new opportunities with less fear. We don't leave the fire behind or let it go out. By faith we not only take it with us, but we find it's inside us. The apostle Paul might not qualify as the most sensitive social worker, but he does offer the graceful, creative affirmation that "God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). May you feel free to move with your fire to the next place, and there find hope and glory.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Tell It More Than Once
At an Amish quilt auction many years ago I noticed a curious practice. The bidding for a quilt would be going at a fast pace. The auctioneer would declare it sold, in usual fashion. Then the winner of the sale would wave his hand in a circle and shout, "Sell it again!" The same quilt would then reenter the bidding process and the people would bid on it with no less vigor than the first time around.
I'm used to buying something once and taking it home with me. In only a few cases do I like re-reading books or watching movies more than once. I certainly enjoy them the first time around, but am not that motivated to return to them. I realize that I miss a lot by not re-entering the worlds they create. And stories do create worlds of thought, imagination and even healing.
Martin Buber, an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher, reveals the power in telling a story: "A story must be told in such a way that it constitutes help in itself. My grandfather was lame. Once they asked him to tell a story about his teacher. And he related how his teacher used to hop and dance while he prayed. My grandfather rose as he spoke, and he was so swept away by his story that he began to hop and dance to show how the master had done. From that hour he was cured of his lameness. That's how to tell a story" (quoted in Parker Palmer, The Active Life, 36).
Telling our stories accesses and releases energy that can heal or harm. The stories we choose to tell and remember can have a dramatic effect on us. The Christian faith is filled with stories that we keep telling again. They are about God's mighty acts of creation, liberation and salvation in Jesus Christ; stories that involve us and challenge us to change. In Vacation Bible Schools and Music & Drama Camp we participate in the great tradition of telling the stories of Jesus again. We do so in hope that we will be helped in telling the story, again. There is of course the chance that nothing will happen. But we won't know until we try.
Choosing to act with the power in our stories is the challenge from the great theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in this comment on prayer: "Has prayer transported (you) for a few short moments into spiritual ecstasy that vanishes when everyday life returns, or has it lodged the Word of God so soberly and so deeply in (your) heart that it holds and strengthens (you) all day, impelling (you) to active love, to obedience, to good works? Only the day will tell." May your summer be full of life-giving stories that you are willing to hear and tell again.
I'm used to buying something once and taking it home with me. In only a few cases do I like re-reading books or watching movies more than once. I certainly enjoy them the first time around, but am not that motivated to return to them. I realize that I miss a lot by not re-entering the worlds they create. And stories do create worlds of thought, imagination and even healing.
Martin Buber, an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher, reveals the power in telling a story: "A story must be told in such a way that it constitutes help in itself. My grandfather was lame. Once they asked him to tell a story about his teacher. And he related how his teacher used to hop and dance while he prayed. My grandfather rose as he spoke, and he was so swept away by his story that he began to hop and dance to show how the master had done. From that hour he was cured of his lameness. That's how to tell a story" (quoted in Parker Palmer, The Active Life, 36).
Telling our stories accesses and releases energy that can heal or harm. The stories we choose to tell and remember can have a dramatic effect on us. The Christian faith is filled with stories that we keep telling again. They are about God's mighty acts of creation, liberation and salvation in Jesus Christ; stories that involve us and challenge us to change. In Vacation Bible Schools and Music & Drama Camp we participate in the great tradition of telling the stories of Jesus again. We do so in hope that we will be helped in telling the story, again. There is of course the chance that nothing will happen. But we won't know until we try.
Choosing to act with the power in our stories is the challenge from the great theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in this comment on prayer: "Has prayer transported (you) for a few short moments into spiritual ecstasy that vanishes when everyday life returns, or has it lodged the Word of God so soberly and so deeply in (your) heart that it holds and strengthens (you) all day, impelling (you) to active love, to obedience, to good works? Only the day will tell." May your summer be full of life-giving stories that you are willing to hear and tell again.
Friday, July 02, 2010
Catch and Keep
A turning point in the friendship of Denver Moore and Ron Hall, recounted in Same Kind of Different as Me, came when Denver commented on the style of fishing called "catch and release". He said it really bothered him because "we eat what we catch...in other words we use it to sustain us." He continued, "So, Mr. Ron, it occurred to me: If you is fishin for a friend you just gon' catch and release, then I ain't got no desire to be your friend." Ron felt like the world halted in midstride and fell silent like a freeze-frame scene on TV. Suddenly Denver's eyes gentled and he spoke softly: "But if you is looking for a real friend, then I'll be one. Forever."
In many ways we are disappointed by the failed commitments others make to us and the commitments that we fail to keep. We catch and release friends along the way. Sometimes we transfer that disappointment and lack of dependability to God. The ancient writer, Teresa of Avila, observed that our difficulties in prayer come from "Praying as if God were absent. Many of our difficulties in daily life are probably the result of living as if God were absent" (The Tree of Life, 212). Doubting God's commitment and presence with us may mean that we hesitate to move ahead in prayer, service or deeper friendship with God and others. It's at this point that we can be reminded by God's grace that a primary name for Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. That means God's got our back, front, and middle; past, present, and future because we are caught and kept in friendship by the Holy Spirit. And in this embrace we are sustained and set free to love. May God bless you and keep you in real friendships this summer and forever.
In many ways we are disappointed by the failed commitments others make to us and the commitments that we fail to keep. We catch and release friends along the way. Sometimes we transfer that disappointment and lack of dependability to God. The ancient writer, Teresa of Avila, observed that our difficulties in prayer come from "Praying as if God were absent. Many of our difficulties in daily life are probably the result of living as if God were absent" (The Tree of Life, 212). Doubting God's commitment and presence with us may mean that we hesitate to move ahead in prayer, service or deeper friendship with God and others. It's at this point that we can be reminded by God's grace that a primary name for Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. That means God's got our back, front, and middle; past, present, and future because we are caught and kept in friendship by the Holy Spirit. And in this embrace we are sustained and set free to love. May God bless you and keep you in real friendships this summer and forever.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
A Window Lets the Light Shine Through
One of my favorite classic Far Side cartoons has a young man looking down, book in hand, leaning against a door at the Midvale School for the Gifted. He is pushing on the door and the sign just above his hand reads PULL. Sometimes doors can be quite formidable for us. They may represent barriers or boundaries that we struggle to open or understand, let alone pass through.
The writer of Colossians asks directly for help finding a door to share good news: "Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. At the same time pray for us as well that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ, for which I am in prison" (Colossians 4:2-3). Making assumptions about doors and how they do or do not open, we sometimes forget the obvious opportunity to pray for God to open a door for the Word--that is, prepare the way by providing "windows of opportunity" for the gospel (New Interpreter's Bible). Sometimes opening a door starts with a window.
The Wolverine World Wide Family YMCA in Belmont has a small, lovely chapel. Many people are surprised that there is such a room in the facility. Offering a reminder that the organization's mission is to put Christian principles into practice helps a little. Until Good Friday, April 2, the chapel was separated from the nautilus machines, drinking fountains, and long hallway leading to the locker rooms by a solid wooden door. People hesitated to open the door for fear of interrupting people who might be inside; you also could not tell if anyone was in there. So, we decided to start the process of opening up the chapel by putting in a window with the YMCA logo. At the dedication we recognized that the chapel window now would reveal the light and people on both sides of the door, seeking spiritual, mental and physical strength. Now we could see each other getting better. An invitation was made to devote time on both sides of the door.
If doors are frustrating your spiritual journey, consider putting in a window first to let the light shine through. You also may find people on the other side who are on a similar journey. God bless you in finding and sharing light for your path, and when you enter the YMCA Chapel, PUSH the door open.
The writer of Colossians asks directly for help finding a door to share good news: "Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. At the same time pray for us as well that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ, for which I am in prison" (Colossians 4:2-3). Making assumptions about doors and how they do or do not open, we sometimes forget the obvious opportunity to pray for God to open a door for the Word--that is, prepare the way by providing "windows of opportunity" for the gospel (New Interpreter's Bible). Sometimes opening a door starts with a window.
The Wolverine World Wide Family YMCA in Belmont has a small, lovely chapel. Many people are surprised that there is such a room in the facility. Offering a reminder that the organization's mission is to put Christian principles into practice helps a little. Until Good Friday, April 2, the chapel was separated from the nautilus machines, drinking fountains, and long hallway leading to the locker rooms by a solid wooden door. People hesitated to open the door for fear of interrupting people who might be inside; you also could not tell if anyone was in there. So, we decided to start the process of opening up the chapel by putting in a window with the YMCA logo. At the dedication we recognized that the chapel window now would reveal the light and people on both sides of the door, seeking spiritual, mental and physical strength. Now we could see each other getting better. An invitation was made to devote time on both sides of the door.
If doors are frustrating your spiritual journey, consider putting in a window first to let the light shine through. You also may find people on the other side who are on a similar journey. God bless you in finding and sharing light for your path, and when you enter the YMCA Chapel, PUSH the door open.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Behold the Life of Jesus, Then Believe
The Christian season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday (February 17) and ends on the Saturday before Easter (April 3). It is a 40-day period (Sundays don't count in the 40) of reflection and action based on our relationships with God, each other and ourselves. The last week of Lent is called Holy Week where the drama and conflict in Jesus' life reach an ultimate point. Holy Week is often the time when theological controversies about Jesus' life, death and resurrection surface as well.
Barbara Brown Taylor, author, preacher and former Episcopal priest, reflects on the effects of conflict in the congregation she served: Once I had begun crying on a regular basis, I realized just how little interest I had in defending Christian beliefs. The parts of the Christian story that had drawn me into the Church were not the believing parts but the beholding parts.
"Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy..."
"Behold the Lamb of God..."
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock..."
Christian faith seemed to depend on beholding things that were clearly beyond belief, including Jesus' own teaching that acts of mercy toward perfect strangers were acts of mercy toward him. While I understood both why and how the early church had decided to wrap those mysteries in protective layers of orthodox belief, the beliefs never seized my heart the way the mysteries did (Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church, 109-110).
In conflict we may retreat to beliefs or standards outside us so that we are less vulnerable to others. That is not the approach of Jesus. Holy Week begins with Palm/Passion Sunday. It is a day that recognizes Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey; and his betrayal, arrest, trial, conviction, abuse and death on the cross.
During Holy Week we see that Jesus does not hide behind anything to protect himself in the conflict because of his deep, abiding sense of God's presence, and commitment to love. The story leads us to another beholding part while Jesus is on the cross, a day we call Good Friday,
"Now when the centurion who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, 'Truly this man was God's Son!'" (Mark 15:39)
Holy Week is full of divine-human drama. We experience a profoundly moving story that invites us to personally enter Jesus' final earthly days, and behold love's redeeming work in his death and resurrection. Logical explorations and explanations only go so far to describe God's love for us in Jesus Christ. We are then left to wonder at the amazing grace and mercy of God.
Barbara Brown Taylor, author, preacher and former Episcopal priest, reflects on the effects of conflict in the congregation she served: Once I had begun crying on a regular basis, I realized just how little interest I had in defending Christian beliefs. The parts of the Christian story that had drawn me into the Church were not the believing parts but the beholding parts.
"Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy..."
"Behold the Lamb of God..."
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock..."
Christian faith seemed to depend on beholding things that were clearly beyond belief, including Jesus' own teaching that acts of mercy toward perfect strangers were acts of mercy toward him. While I understood both why and how the early church had decided to wrap those mysteries in protective layers of orthodox belief, the beliefs never seized my heart the way the mysteries did (Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church, 109-110).
In conflict we may retreat to beliefs or standards outside us so that we are less vulnerable to others. That is not the approach of Jesus. Holy Week begins with Palm/Passion Sunday. It is a day that recognizes Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey; and his betrayal, arrest, trial, conviction, abuse and death on the cross.
During Holy Week we see that Jesus does not hide behind anything to protect himself in the conflict because of his deep, abiding sense of God's presence, and commitment to love. The story leads us to another beholding part while Jesus is on the cross, a day we call Good Friday,
"Now when the centurion who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, 'Truly this man was God's Son!'" (Mark 15:39)
Holy Week is full of divine-human drama. We experience a profoundly moving story that invites us to personally enter Jesus' final earthly days, and behold love's redeeming work in his death and resurrection. Logical explorations and explanations only go so far to describe God's love for us in Jesus Christ. We are then left to wonder at the amazing grace and mercy of God.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Throwing Snow Into Spring
Robert Falcon Scott, a British explorer, made two expeditions to the South Pole in 1901-04 and 1911-1912. On one occasion the weather conditions were such that a white haze blended with the unbroken whiteness of the snow and no horizon was visible. Wherever they looked there was simply one unbroken whiteness. There was no point on which they could direct their course as they drove their sledges forward. Before long they were coming upon their own tracks. Thinking that they were going forward, they were in fact only going around in a great circle. To solve the problem they began throwing snowballs ahead of them in the direction of true south so that they had something to fix their eyes on.
Without some vision of the future, how is it possible to direct one's course in a rational way? In practice we do what Scott did; we have projects, literally things we throw forward, long-or short-term projects, and we measure our progress by the degree of success we have in reaching our self-set targets. But where do these projects lead in the end? Scott had a compass to tell him in which direction to throw the snowballs. Without a compass, how do we know whether our success in reaching our targets is in fact progress or regress? (Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society).
In the northern hemisphere Easter is celebrated in the Spring, and in Michigan it is a time of unmistakable change from the snow of winter. The winter view is broken by sunshine, melting snow, puddles, mud, returning birds, new buds and a greening of the landscape. We are refreshed by the change of weather.
The struggle of Scott's expedition was against an unchanging landscape, and loss of depth perception and direction. Thankfully God blesses us and the world with a sense of the future. Prophets are the ones called on to announce such a vision: For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope (Jeremiah 29:11). As Christians we are entering the final stage of Lent, a time of reflection on the direction of our lives and God's call to return (repent) to God's way of life in Jesus Christ.
I find Scott's tactic of throwing snowballs and following them ingenious for the harsh circumstances they faced. While the external circumstances in our lives may appear to be an unbroken haze with no horizon, we may together follow "God's gift from highest heaven", Jesus Christ, "the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2). May we be blessed this spring with a new or renewed sense of the future, and the gift of Jesus Christ going before us.
Without some vision of the future, how is it possible to direct one's course in a rational way? In practice we do what Scott did; we have projects, literally things we throw forward, long-or short-term projects, and we measure our progress by the degree of success we have in reaching our self-set targets. But where do these projects lead in the end? Scott had a compass to tell him in which direction to throw the snowballs. Without a compass, how do we know whether our success in reaching our targets is in fact progress or regress? (Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society).
In the northern hemisphere Easter is celebrated in the Spring, and in Michigan it is a time of unmistakable change from the snow of winter. The winter view is broken by sunshine, melting snow, puddles, mud, returning birds, new buds and a greening of the landscape. We are refreshed by the change of weather.
The struggle of Scott's expedition was against an unchanging landscape, and loss of depth perception and direction. Thankfully God blesses us and the world with a sense of the future. Prophets are the ones called on to announce such a vision: For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope (Jeremiah 29:11). As Christians we are entering the final stage of Lent, a time of reflection on the direction of our lives and God's call to return (repent) to God's way of life in Jesus Christ.
I find Scott's tactic of throwing snowballs and following them ingenious for the harsh circumstances they faced. While the external circumstances in our lives may appear to be an unbroken haze with no horizon, we may together follow "God's gift from highest heaven", Jesus Christ, "the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2). May we be blessed this spring with a new or renewed sense of the future, and the gift of Jesus Christ going before us.
Saturday, January 09, 2010
First Be Interested
Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and the Social Sectors: Why Business Thinking Is Not the Answer, includes this reflection in his author's notes:
As one pastor serving two churches and actively volunteering at the Wolverine World Wide Family YMCA, I learned first hand this week about divorce, job loss, likely foreclosure on a home, death and the family tensions it reveals, a wedding request, life-threatening consequences of surgery, what a family wants to give and receive from a church, the renewal of church leadership, the search for a common statement on ministry directions, the openness to integrating prayer in swimming lessons, and the joyful possibilities of ecumenical worship.
During my first year on the Stanford faculty in 1988, I sought out professor John Gardner for guidance on how I might become a better teacher. Gardner, former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, founder of Common Cause, and author of the classic text Self-Renewal, stung me with a comment that changed my life. "It occurs to me, Jim, that you spend too much time trying to be interesting," he said. "Why don't you invest more time being interested."
The ability to take an interest in each other and especially strangers is a great spiritual gift. With God's heart, Jesus responded to the people he met with compassion, understanding, interest, and God's perspective of love and justice. He demonstrated the relational, saving power of God's love for people in his life, death and resurrection. It is foundational for Christians to be interested in the well being of others. The new church start pastor known as the apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 6:2, Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Elaine H. Pagels, author and theologian, observed that two sources of success for early Christianity were their theological understanding that people are created in the image of God, not just the emperors; and the concrete care they offered each other.
How many times are we too concerned with what we have to give, what we want to say, and how interesting we think our message is instead of being interested in the people we come to know in the course of our daily lives? A helpful corrective for me is attributed to Plato: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." How much can we learn about God and ourselves by being interested in each other? Offering a listening ear before speaking may be a life-saving gift to someone in need. Receiving such care gives us the hope we can then offer to others. I know that is how God helps me.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Where is Easter at the Easter Egg Hunt?
On Saturday, April 11, we gathered the largest crowd for a single event in the history of our new church ministry. We estimated 350 people participated in the first Easter Egg Hunt at the Wolverine World Wide Family YMCA. We moved ahead with it with a couple of uncertainties: it was still Spring Break for the area schools; it was a first-time event with no prior experience; and several other churches were also doing Egg Hunts that same morning. Who would come?
That question was answered with the stream of children and families coming into the Community Room for face painting (this is simply always popular; high five to the corp of face painters), coloring pages, refreshments, and hugs and pictures with the Easter Bunny. We then moved to the gym to be a crowd and receive guidance on how the three age groups would proceed to their respective areas for staggered start times.
It was a special experience for me to welcome and address the crowd, obviously excited and ready to go outside with baskets or bags to find eggs. And there were a few moments to talk with them about the first word of the event, EASTER. These were my prepared remarks:
Good morning and God bless you. Welcome to the first Easter Egg Hunt at the Wolverine World Wide Family YMCA!
Are you excited to be here? We are excited to host you. You are among friends. I am Pastor Jeff Williams and I get to serve with the White Pines United Methodist Church. I am thankful for the friends I have and we have as White Pines United Methodist Church. The YMCA and White Pines UMC are friends. We do fun things together and this Easter Egg Hunt is the newest and one of the most exciting things we share.
Another exciting thing we do together is the summer Music & Drama Camp. We have registration forms in the Community Room.
I want to introduce you to a friend and the Executive Director of this YMCA, Bev Thiel…(Bev offered words of welcome and instruction)
Today’s Easter Egg Hunt is about finding eggs and feeling excitement. It is fun to look for them, find them, gather them together in a basket or bag, open them and find more good stuff. There are plenty of eggs for everyone. Everybody gets good stuff today.
The first word in today’s event is Easter. And that means we look to the special stories in the Bible about Jesus, who is God’s Son. The stories are about finding, but they are also about losing.
Jesus’ friends are sad because two days before the first Easter they lost Jesus when he died. He died because people killed him on a cross. They could not talk with, learn from, eat with, or go places with him anymore. And they were sad. They did not want to lose such a good friend who taught them so much about God.
On Easter morning some women friends go to his grave to take care of his dead body. And they don’t find him! The grave is empty and they are still sad, but now they are scared. What happened? They can’t find Jesus. One special friend, Mary, is crying. And you know what happens next? JESUS FINDS HER. She knows it is Jesus because he calls her by name, he says, Mary. SAY YOUR NAMES ON 3
Jesus finds his friends on Easter morning and helps them figure out what to do next.
That’s really exciting for Jesus’ friends. Not that they find something, but that they are found.
The excitement you feel right now getting ready to find Easter Eggs is like the excitement Jesus’ friends felt when Jesus, God’s Son, found them.
It is like the excitement God feels about finding us and loving us.
Have a great time this morning. Searching for and finding Easter Eggs. And remember how much God searches for you with love, how Jesus finds you and calls you by name.
Are you ready? Now I read in the program that another friend was supposed to be here to help us, someone called the Easter Bunny. Has anyone seen the Easter Bunny?
That question was answered with the stream of children and families coming into the Community Room for face painting (this is simply always popular; high five to the corp of face painters), coloring pages, refreshments, and hugs and pictures with the Easter Bunny. We then moved to the gym to be a crowd and receive guidance on how the three age groups would proceed to their respective areas for staggered start times.
It was a special experience for me to welcome and address the crowd, obviously excited and ready to go outside with baskets or bags to find eggs. And there were a few moments to talk with them about the first word of the event, EASTER. These were my prepared remarks:
Good morning and God bless you. Welcome to the first Easter Egg Hunt at the Wolverine World Wide Family YMCA!
Are you excited to be here? We are excited to host you. You are among friends. I am Pastor Jeff Williams and I get to serve with the White Pines United Methodist Church. I am thankful for the friends I have and we have as White Pines United Methodist Church. The YMCA and White Pines UMC are friends. We do fun things together and this Easter Egg Hunt is the newest and one of the most exciting things we share.
Another exciting thing we do together is the summer Music & Drama Camp. We have registration forms in the Community Room.
I want to introduce you to a friend and the Executive Director of this YMCA, Bev Thiel…(Bev offered words of welcome and instruction)
Today’s Easter Egg Hunt is about finding eggs and feeling excitement. It is fun to look for them, find them, gather them together in a basket or bag, open them and find more good stuff. There are plenty of eggs for everyone. Everybody gets good stuff today.
The first word in today’s event is Easter. And that means we look to the special stories in the Bible about Jesus, who is God’s Son. The stories are about finding, but they are also about losing.
Jesus’ friends are sad because two days before the first Easter they lost Jesus when he died. He died because people killed him on a cross. They could not talk with, learn from, eat with, or go places with him anymore. And they were sad. They did not want to lose such a good friend who taught them so much about God.
On Easter morning some women friends go to his grave to take care of his dead body. And they don’t find him! The grave is empty and they are still sad, but now they are scared. What happened? They can’t find Jesus. One special friend, Mary, is crying. And you know what happens next? JESUS FINDS HER. She knows it is Jesus because he calls her by name, he says, Mary. SAY YOUR NAMES ON 3
Jesus finds his friends on Easter morning and helps them figure out what to do next.
That’s really exciting for Jesus’ friends. Not that they find something, but that they are found.
The excitement you feel right now getting ready to find Easter Eggs is like the excitement Jesus’ friends felt when Jesus, God’s Son, found them.
It is like the excitement God feels about finding us and loving us.
Have a great time this morning. Searching for and finding Easter Eggs. And remember how much God searches for you with love, how Jesus finds you and calls you by name.
Are you ready? Now I read in the program that another friend was supposed to be here to help us, someone called the Easter Bunny. Has anyone seen the Easter Bunny?
Friday, April 17, 2009
"Traces of the Trade" 3/26/09 Screening
I attended the "Traces of the Trade" reception, film screening and discussion on March 26 as part of the WGVU Campaign for Love and Forgiveness and posted this:
Great thanks to Steve Chappell and all involved in offering such a personal and powerful venue for walking further into the reality of racism and the hope of being changed. The prophetic and compassionate spirits expressed differently by Katrina and Paul helped us see the breadth of possible responses.
Coupled with my preaching on forgiveness during Lent using the Love and Forgiveness resources from the Fetzer Institute; the annual Bridges diversity event and dinner in Rockford; the recent Partners for a Racism-Free Community annual event; and an Institute for Healing Racism in December 2007, the daily benefits of white privilege and daily degradation of racism are more evident to me. What is also more evident is the incredible value of seeking community to confront them. I found the question and answer time energetic and chaotic which is what happens when we are deeply affected by a common experience. I agree with the suggestion of having people submit written questions. Hand out the cards as we enter the event so we can write throughout the presentation.
One significant insight I received was in Katrina's sermon at her home church in the movie when she witnessed to the grief that is a foundational part of her journey with her family and the film. Grief and sadness are often covered over by anger which seems to be a more socially acceptable emotion. Yet, I have found when grief is acknowledged, we find more honest energy to confront problems.
I look forward to organizing some kind of next step in the fall in northern Kent County related to "Traces of the Trade" and/or Fetzer's Campaign for Love and Forgiveness. I am grateful for recently meeting both Steve and Rick Wilson, and the opportunities I have had to already work with them.
Great thanks to Steve Chappell and all involved in offering such a personal and powerful venue for walking further into the reality of racism and the hope of being changed. The prophetic and compassionate spirits expressed differently by Katrina and Paul helped us see the breadth of possible responses.
Coupled with my preaching on forgiveness during Lent using the Love and Forgiveness resources from the Fetzer Institute; the annual Bridges diversity event and dinner in Rockford; the recent Partners for a Racism-Free Community annual event; and an Institute for Healing Racism in December 2007, the daily benefits of white privilege and daily degradation of racism are more evident to me. What is also more evident is the incredible value of seeking community to confront them. I found the question and answer time energetic and chaotic which is what happens when we are deeply affected by a common experience. I agree with the suggestion of having people submit written questions. Hand out the cards as we enter the event so we can write throughout the presentation.
One significant insight I received was in Katrina's sermon at her home church in the movie when she witnessed to the grief that is a foundational part of her journey with her family and the film. Grief and sadness are often covered over by anger which seems to be a more socially acceptable emotion. Yet, I have found when grief is acknowledged, we find more honest energy to confront problems.
I look forward to organizing some kind of next step in the fall in northern Kent County related to "Traces of the Trade" and/or Fetzer's Campaign for Love and Forgiveness. I am grateful for recently meeting both Steve and Rick Wilson, and the opportunities I have had to already work with them.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Pray For Unfinished Business
As a creative act of teenage rebellion one young man in a highly musical family would return home late at night and play the first seven notes of a scale on the family's piano. As the last note hung in the air, he would wait for one of his parents or siblings to come out of their bedroom and finish the scale. Someone always did. His family had trouble coping with unfinished business (Melander and Eppley, The Spiritual Leader's Guide to Self-Care, 55)Unfinished business can consume a lot of our energy, OK a lot of my energy. Leaving matters open-ended or unresolved means they are still potentially volatile. Like not tightening the bolts on a swing set and hopping on the narrow plastic (blue on our home model) seat for a ride, further movement or activity threatens the whole structure which could easily collapse. Unfinished business is unreliable since it is subject to change in the next moment or by the next meeting.
But what do we assume about things that are finished or completed? Aren't they subject to being reconsidered or reopened based on new information or changes in relationships? The nature of daily life seems far more fluid than fixed for me. What if there were a creative way to take care of unfinished business, as unfinished business, without finishing it? Melander's and Eppley's book referenced above offers this suggestion:
"As you leave your workspace say this prayer: O God, into your hand I commend those tasks that I have not yet completed. Until I can return to them, I entrust these tasks and all whom they affect into your never-failing care."What works for you in living creatively with unfinished business?
Peace, Pastor Jeff
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Marked, Not Masked--Beginning the Lenten Journey
Worship has always been among the most satisfying and inspiring aspects of ministry for me. The sense of being in God's presence with others praying, preaching or singing has reliably sustained me through the years. The latest inspiring moment came at the end of the Ash Wednesday service at Rockford United Methodist Church this week. We all had oil-and-ash crosses on our hands or foreheads, placed there with the blessing, "Remember, you are a child of God and to God you shall return." I was facing the congregation to give the closing blessing.
I had preached about "Living Out From the Inside" using Jesus' Sermon on the Mount warnings in Matthew 6 about doing good deeds, praying and fasting for public admiration; and storing up treasures on earth. Jesus clearly contrasts public, visible expressions of these worthy actions with the greater reward of basing them on our secret, inner life with God; and storing treasures in heaven. Jesus criticizes the "stage actors" (the meaning of the Greek word for hypocrites) or mask wearers for seeking only the reward of public admiration. He warns against the earthly decay that comes from neglecting eternal life with God by ending our desire with material possessions.
I used the image of an iceberg to illustrate the vast difference between what is above and below the water, what is visible and invisible (or secret) in our lives. The potential lesson is that most of who we are is not visible, therefore only attending to what is above ground or showing above the surface, then making judgments, determining value or seeking recognition based only on that is misleading, inaccurate and dangerous.
It is helpful to think of Jesus' teaching about the public outer and secret inner life with God this way. Jesus wants us to take care of most of who we are and to live out from the inside of a strong foundation in God's love.
Standing before the congregation I gave a closing blessing that felt inspired, and upon further reflection I would say it this way now, "What we bear is a mark to identify us, not a mask to hide who we are. Similar to the waters of baptism, the oil-and-ash cross symbolizes the union of our life with Christ. (Pointing to the iceberg picture) This mark covers the big part of us and the small part too, our whole life. On this Lenten journey of discovery, when we may very well find anguish, anxiety and astonishment, be assured that God has got it covered in Christ. And now may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord smile upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord look upon you with favor and grant you peace, both now and forevermore. And together all God's people say, Amen."
Peace, Pastor Jeff
I had preached about "Living Out From the Inside" using Jesus' Sermon on the Mount warnings in Matthew 6 about doing good deeds, praying and fasting for public admiration; and storing up treasures on earth. Jesus clearly contrasts public, visible expressions of these worthy actions with the greater reward of basing them on our secret, inner life with God; and storing treasures in heaven. Jesus criticizes the "stage actors" (the meaning of the Greek word for hypocrites) or mask wearers for seeking only the reward of public admiration. He warns against the earthly decay that comes from neglecting eternal life with God by ending our desire with material possessions.
I used the image of an iceberg to illustrate the vast difference between what is above and below the water, what is visible and invisible (or secret) in our lives. The potential lesson is that most of who we are is not visible, therefore only attending to what is above ground or showing above the surface, then making judgments, determining value or seeking recognition based only on that is misleading, inaccurate and dangerous.
It is helpful to think of Jesus' teaching about the public outer and secret inner life with God this way. Jesus wants us to take care of most of who we are and to live out from the inside of a strong foundation in God's love.
Standing before the congregation I gave a closing blessing that felt inspired, and upon further reflection I would say it this way now, "What we bear is a mark to identify us, not a mask to hide who we are. Similar to the waters of baptism, the oil-and-ash cross symbolizes the union of our life with Christ. (Pointing to the iceberg picture) This mark covers the big part of us and the small part too, our whole life. On this Lenten journey of discovery, when we may very well find anguish, anxiety and astonishment, be assured that God has got it covered in Christ. And now may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord smile upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord look upon you with favor and grant you peace, both now and forevermore. And together all God's people say, Amen."
Peace, Pastor Jeff
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Sewing Up Life in 2009
You are thirty minutes late to the doctor's office because you were twenty minutes late getting out of the bank because you were ten minutes late dropping the kids off at school because the car ran out of gas two blocks from the gas station--and you forgot your wallet. That is a picture of marginless life by Richard Swenson in his book, Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives.
We are a culture overrun with commitments, options, plans, choices and genuine needs. Coupled with our struggle to maintain healthy boundaries, to be able to say a positive NO based on a primary YES, it takes great intention to receive and be at peace with God, our neighbor and ourselves. The wisdom to navigate and advance our efforts in daily life is seriously at risk and seemingly challenged at every turn. There are no uncontested commitments or choices we make in the course of our days.
"We must have room to breathe. We need freedom to think and permission to heal. Our relationships are being starved to death by velocity. No one has the time to listen, let alone love...Doesn't (God) lead people beside the still waters any more?" (Swenson, Margin, 27).
The gift of Sabbath grounds us in a healthy, helpful and faithful way and allows us to "push back" a culture and pace of life that deny rest and renewal. It is the fourth of the Ten Commandments. Two reasons are given for observing the Sabbath depending on which version of the Ten Commandments you read:
For in six days the LORD made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; then he rested on the seventh day. That is why the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy (Exodus 20:8-11).
Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out with amazing power and mighty deeds. That is why the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day (Deuteronomy 5:12-15).
Sabbath is a reminder of God's acts of creation and liberation, and forms the basis for our rest and renewal. I hold two images for Sabbath, a warning track and a seam.
Yankee Stadium’s opening in 1923 introduced a new element into baseball: the warning track. Although designed as a quarter-mile track around the field, the barrier soon took on its more common usage and spread to parks around the league. A warning track's width varies from field to field. It is generally designed to give about three steps of warning to the highest level players using the field.
A warning track allows you to know where you are on the field. It is a source of orientation. If we only live at our outer limits, on the edge with no margin, we lose our sense of location. We cannot get a perspective on anything and become reactionary, not able to initiate any action on our own.
The second image of a seam comes from my mother-in-law who is a professional quilter, author and business owner. She says a 5/8" seam is standard in home sewing. A seam allows the garment to be adjusted for gains and losses in the one who wears it. It thus gives the garment flexibility. A seam allows for expected deterioration of the fabric. The garment will fray on the ends but they are folded under in the seam. If you really want a strong seam use a French seam where no edges are exposed. It is double stitched so that even the outer edge is folded under. A seam protects the garment in washing and makes it last longer.
If we are going to hold up under the pressure of our culture, we need Sabbath Seams in our individual and community lives. We can then more deeply appreciate the invitation of Jesus:
"Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light" (Matthew 11:28-30)
Walter Brueggemann, an insightful and formative theologian for me, writes "Jesus issues an invitation to an alternative existence, away from deeds of power, away from brick quotas, away from 'things too great,' away from control and domination and success. Away from the way the world wants us to be...into the life of well-being with Jesus who is one with the Father" (Brueggemann, Mandate to Difference, 42).
Garments have seams and God's people have Sabbaths, margins of rest and protection. Sabbath serves as a spiritual warning track that allows us to adjust the rate and direction of our movement for the sake of longer life and prevention of injury from crashing into boundaries.
We can only go so long without decent rest; no living creature just keeps working without interruption. In Sabbath we recover the healthy purpose and divine meaning of our life together with God and each other. In 2009 may we observe Sabbath in ways that honor God's design and freedom for us as we Grow, Love and Serve Together.
Peace, Pastor Jeff
We are a culture overrun with commitments, options, plans, choices and genuine needs. Coupled with our struggle to maintain healthy boundaries, to be able to say a positive NO based on a primary YES, it takes great intention to receive and be at peace with God, our neighbor and ourselves. The wisdom to navigate and advance our efforts in daily life is seriously at risk and seemingly challenged at every turn. There are no uncontested commitments or choices we make in the course of our days.
"We must have room to breathe. We need freedom to think and permission to heal. Our relationships are being starved to death by velocity. No one has the time to listen, let alone love...Doesn't (God) lead people beside the still waters any more?" (Swenson, Margin, 27).
The gift of Sabbath grounds us in a healthy, helpful and faithful way and allows us to "push back" a culture and pace of life that deny rest and renewal. It is the fourth of the Ten Commandments. Two reasons are given for observing the Sabbath depending on which version of the Ten Commandments you read:
For in six days the LORD made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; then he rested on the seventh day. That is why the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy (Exodus 20:8-11).
Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out with amazing power and mighty deeds. That is why the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day (Deuteronomy 5:12-15).
Sabbath is a reminder of God's acts of creation and liberation, and forms the basis for our rest and renewal. I hold two images for Sabbath, a warning track and a seam.
Yankee Stadium’s opening in 1923 introduced a new element into baseball: the warning track. Although designed as a quarter-mile track around the field, the barrier soon took on its more common usage and spread to parks around the league. A warning track's width varies from field to field. It is generally designed to give about three steps of warning to the highest level players using the field.
A warning track allows you to know where you are on the field. It is a source of orientation. If we only live at our outer limits, on the edge with no margin, we lose our sense of location. We cannot get a perspective on anything and become reactionary, not able to initiate any action on our own.
The second image of a seam comes from my mother-in-law who is a professional quilter, author and business owner. She says a 5/8" seam is standard in home sewing. A seam allows the garment to be adjusted for gains and losses in the one who wears it. It thus gives the garment flexibility. A seam allows for expected deterioration of the fabric. The garment will fray on the ends but they are folded under in the seam. If you really want a strong seam use a French seam where no edges are exposed. It is double stitched so that even the outer edge is folded under. A seam protects the garment in washing and makes it last longer.
If we are going to hold up under the pressure of our culture, we need Sabbath Seams in our individual and community lives. We can then more deeply appreciate the invitation of Jesus:
"Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light" (Matthew 11:28-30)
Walter Brueggemann, an insightful and formative theologian for me, writes "Jesus issues an invitation to an alternative existence, away from deeds of power, away from brick quotas, away from 'things too great,' away from control and domination and success. Away from the way the world wants us to be...into the life of well-being with Jesus who is one with the Father" (Brueggemann, Mandate to Difference, 42).
Garments have seams and God's people have Sabbaths, margins of rest and protection. Sabbath serves as a spiritual warning track that allows us to adjust the rate and direction of our movement for the sake of longer life and prevention of injury from crashing into boundaries.
We can only go so long without decent rest; no living creature just keeps working without interruption. In Sabbath we recover the healthy purpose and divine meaning of our life together with God and each other. In 2009 may we observe Sabbath in ways that honor God's design and freedom for us as we Grow, Love and Serve Together.
Peace, Pastor Jeff
Belonging to God at a New Address
Then the Lord told Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you" (Genesis 12:1)
When Beverly, my wife, and I moved from Goshen College to Evanston, IL in the summer of 1985 (just in time for the Chicago Bears Super Bowl season) for graduate school I felt a familiar anxiety. Growing up I was a new student in a new school and community in 4th, 5th, 7th and 9th grades. Each move was at first scary and then became a blessing. Even knowing this after college and two years of work in public accounting did not lessen the anxiety. What I did was wait to tell my then current employer I was leaving until I had signed the housing agreement with the seminary. I needed to know the next place (address) we would be living before making the next move.
Addresses are important. They give us a sense of security. Addresses represent places we can be reliably known. We can be reached or found there. They are places of identity, and places to rest and be renewed. Even our computers have Media Access Control (MAC) addresses which are used for connecting to a network. There also are famous addresses: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC; Michigan and Trumbull in Detroit (Tiger Stadium) or Clark and Addison in Chicago (Wrigley Field).
Biblical addresses and place names are a little different though. They are more relational than geographical. In Genesis 26 there is a story about Isaac (Abraham and Sarah's son) and his people digging three wells. They named the wells for the interactions and experiences that happened there: Argument, Opposition and Room Enough. Jesus went to Simon and Andrew's home and healed Simon's mother-in-law. No street address is mentioned in Mark's Gospel.
When I did the Children's message on this theme, I asked the kids if they knew the street address of their grandparents. No one did. But they knew where their grandparents lived. They knew the house and its rooms and yard because of their loving relationship with the people who live there.
The call of Abram and Sarai in Genesis 12 (re-named in Genesis 17 in relation to becoming the parents of many nations) marks the beginning of historical faithfulness for Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It is the beginning of people trusting in God's guidance and going to new places...without knowing the next address:
"It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith--for he was like a foreigner, living in a tent" (Hebrews 11:8-9a)
John Wesley reflected that "We have here the call by which Abram was removed out of the land of his nativity into the land of promise, which was designed both to try his faith and obedience, and also to set him apart for God." Abram and Sarai represent God's people who are willing to move to places of promise that may not, and probably don't, have definite physical addresses, at least at the beginning.
With the emphasis on their relationship with God and God's call or claim upon their lives, every place they moved was a place where they belonged to God.
White Pines UMC has had different addresses since our beginning in July 2004. We moved from 159 Maple Street in Rockford, the address of our parent church, Rockford United Methodist. Our first office was at 5359 Plainfield Avenue in a former gun shop and tanning salon, and we worshiped at 6895 Samrick Aveune Private, better known as Chandler Woods Charter Academy. Our next move for office space in December 2005 was to 2350 Belmont Center Drive, Suite 300; three doors down from BC Pizza. And as of Sunday, September 7, 2008, our new worship home address is 6555 Jupiter Avenue in Belmont, better known as the Wolverine World Wide Family YMCA.
The move and expansion to two services has grown out of prayer, conversation, developing relationships, servant evangelism, and shared ministry over the last two and a half years. We now enjoy the benefits of the YMCA's strong commitment to healthy children, families and communities with a thoroughly equipped facility for child care, worship and fellowship.
We are at the Wolverine World Wide Family YMCA because out of our relationship with God and involvement in ministry we began meeting some wonderful people there, sharing ministry programs, and then actively wondering and planning for an expanded relationship. And what has come from all of this is our new address for worship.
We are in our next place of promise, a new place for us to belong to God and invite others belong to God there as well. I am even more deeply committed and want to be more faithful in this invitation:
If you are seeking a home for your faith and family, I want to be your pastor and invite you to let White Pines United Methodist Church be the next place where you belong to God.
Peace, Pastor Jeff
When Beverly, my wife, and I moved from Goshen College to Evanston, IL in the summer of 1985 (just in time for the Chicago Bears Super Bowl season) for graduate school I felt a familiar anxiety. Growing up I was a new student in a new school and community in 4th, 5th, 7th and 9th grades. Each move was at first scary and then became a blessing. Even knowing this after college and two years of work in public accounting did not lessen the anxiety. What I did was wait to tell my then current employer I was leaving until I had signed the housing agreement with the seminary. I needed to know the next place (address) we would be living before making the next move.
Addresses are important. They give us a sense of security. Addresses represent places we can be reliably known. We can be reached or found there. They are places of identity, and places to rest and be renewed. Even our computers have Media Access Control (MAC) addresses which are used for connecting to a network. There also are famous addresses: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC; Michigan and Trumbull in Detroit (Tiger Stadium) or Clark and Addison in Chicago (Wrigley Field).
Biblical addresses and place names are a little different though. They are more relational than geographical. In Genesis 26 there is a story about Isaac (Abraham and Sarah's son) and his people digging three wells. They named the wells for the interactions and experiences that happened there: Argument, Opposition and Room Enough. Jesus went to Simon and Andrew's home and healed Simon's mother-in-law. No street address is mentioned in Mark's Gospel.
When I did the Children's message on this theme, I asked the kids if they knew the street address of their grandparents. No one did. But they knew where their grandparents lived. They knew the house and its rooms and yard because of their loving relationship with the people who live there.
The call of Abram and Sarai in Genesis 12 (re-named in Genesis 17 in relation to becoming the parents of many nations) marks the beginning of historical faithfulness for Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It is the beginning of people trusting in God's guidance and going to new places...without knowing the next address:
"It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith--for he was like a foreigner, living in a tent" (Hebrews 11:8-9a)
John Wesley reflected that "We have here the call by which Abram was removed out of the land of his nativity into the land of promise, which was designed both to try his faith and obedience, and also to set him apart for God." Abram and Sarai represent God's people who are willing to move to places of promise that may not, and probably don't, have definite physical addresses, at least at the beginning.
With the emphasis on their relationship with God and God's call or claim upon their lives, every place they moved was a place where they belonged to God.
White Pines UMC has had different addresses since our beginning in July 2004. We moved from 159 Maple Street in Rockford, the address of our parent church, Rockford United Methodist. Our first office was at 5359 Plainfield Avenue in a former gun shop and tanning salon, and we worshiped at 6895 Samrick Aveune Private, better known as Chandler Woods Charter Academy. Our next move for office space in December 2005 was to 2350 Belmont Center Drive, Suite 300; three doors down from BC Pizza. And as of Sunday, September 7, 2008, our new worship home address is 6555 Jupiter Avenue in Belmont, better known as the Wolverine World Wide Family YMCA.
The move and expansion to two services has grown out of prayer, conversation, developing relationships, servant evangelism, and shared ministry over the last two and a half years. We now enjoy the benefits of the YMCA's strong commitment to healthy children, families and communities with a thoroughly equipped facility for child care, worship and fellowship.
We are at the Wolverine World Wide Family YMCA because out of our relationship with God and involvement in ministry we began meeting some wonderful people there, sharing ministry programs, and then actively wondering and planning for an expanded relationship. And what has come from all of this is our new address for worship.
We are in our next place of promise, a new place for us to belong to God and invite others belong to God there as well. I am even more deeply committed and want to be more faithful in this invitation:
If you are seeking a home for your faith and family, I want to be your pastor and invite you to let White Pines United Methodist Church be the next place where you belong to God.
Peace, Pastor Jeff
Pray to Look Like the Wise Men
In my 1/6/08 sermon "Finding Other Ways Home" I shared that radical change would happen for us in 2008. This change is due to the loss of a source of funding that allowed us to finish 2007 financially even. In facing this challenge I invited us to a month of prayer to listen for God's will and desire for the future of White Pines United Methodist Church.
To frame this month of prayer we look in the story of the magi (wise men) visiting Jesus in Matthew 2:1-12. We see at least three different ways they looked to get there and then home by another way. We are in the position of needing to find other ways home; other ways of being the Body of Christ as we seek to be self-sufficient.
The wise men looked UP, WITHIN and AHEAD in their risky journey to and from Jesus, and through King Herod's threatening and disingenous realm. When they looked UP, they found a star. When they looked WITHIN, they found purpose. When they looked AHEAD, they found another way home.
The star gave them guidance; guidance above all the distractions and worries that come with only seeing what is immediately in front of us; guidance that shines in the darkness. We have to lift our heads and hearts in order to see the star. Our Great Thanksgiving prayer during open communion includes the call to "Lift up your hearts."
The purpose of their journey was to find Jesus and worship him. Other motivations for risking such a journey or making a commitment to a new church will not provide the needed spiritual, physical, psychological and social energy to see the process all the way through. The misson of the whole Christian Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. We interpret that mission locally to be that we are called to GROW, LOVE and SERVE together. Our vision for what life looks like when that mission is being accomplished is that we are becoming God's people in Christ who love with purpose, depth and passion; and practice faith as a welcoming spiritual community.
Looking ahead to find another way home came to the wise men through a dream. God uses dreams and visions to reach us when we struggle to overcome barriers or despair at the current conditions we face. In teaching about the motivation for starting new churches, and White Pines in particular, I use the experience of Paul and Silas recorded in Acts 16:9-10, "That night Paul had a vision. He saw a man from Macedonia in northern Greece, pleading with him, 'Come over here and help us.' So we decided to leave for Macedonia at once, for we could only conclude that God was calling us to preach the Good News there."
Finding and developing new and other ways of being the Body of Christ are our responses to God's gift of insight and creativity. Who knows what the coming month of prayer will hold for us? We have faced and come through other challenges in our history. May we approach this current situation with a confidence in God's power to guide us, give us purpose and show us multiple ways to go into the future.
I like the Acts passage for another reason as well. The language changes from a third person account of the development of the young Christian church to a first person plural account, "we decided..." I am grateful for all of you who have decided this is our journey and we are in it together. We answer the challenge to grow with our personal commitment and resources. In so doing we are witnesses that White Pines UMC is a real spiritual home where seeking people find help, hope and health. I praise God for us and the difference we make right now.
Peace, Pastor Jeff
The Word: Eternal
Steven Colbert of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" has a standard feature each show called "The Word." During this segment he elaborates wildly about "The Word" which can range from a single word to a phrase. He goes all over the place during his comments but always returns to "The Word" at the end.
In contrast to wild, satirical ruminating between introducing the word and concluding with the word, we have the ancient spiritual practice called Centering Prayer. It was one of our "Paths of Prayer" in September. It is recommended that we take 20 minutes twice daily for Centering Prayer. In this practice, led by Erica McIlroy, we were encouraged to choose a word or let a word be revealed to us during an extended period of silence. That word would then be brought to mind when we felt we were drifting in our stillness. As much as I am comforted and confounded by Grace in my life, I thought that would be the word. But instead another one came to me: Eternal. I say it came to me because I did not choose it. I have lived with Eternal as a centering word since that time and have come to really like it.
Eternal calls to mind a dimension of time and enduring strength beyond the stress of any particular situation or time. To describe eternity I sing the last verse of "Amazing Grace" (in The United Methodist Hymnal):
"When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise than when we'd first begun"
Ann Spangler in her book, Praying the Names of God, writes that "Olam" is a Hebrew word that occurs more than four hundred times in the Hebrew Scriptures. It is translated as "eternal," "everlasting," "forever," "lasting," "ever," or "ancient." It refers to the fulllness of the experience of time or space. "El Olam" is the Hebrew name for the God who has no beginning and no end, the God for whom a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. His plans stand firm forever, plans to give you a future full of hope. When you pray to the Everlasting God, you are praying to the God whose Son is called the Alpha and the Omega. He is the God whose love endures forever.
Eternal also helps me relate to beliefs that are expressed in terms like "absolute" and "unchanging". I don't have positive associations with beliefs that are expressed with these words because most often they are used to support repressive and demeaning judgments against people who are different. My experience is that references to God's truth as absolute and unchanging are asserted during times of fear and change, not to enable people to consider and reflect on new ideas, but instead to shut down dialogue and halt interaction and even refuse community to people who hold different beliefs.
Absolute and unchanging are strong words to associate with beliefs and with the character of God. They express the power of God's truth and love. I accept Eternal, "The Word" that chose me, to declare that power in life-giving and life-changing ways. What's your word?
Peace, Pastor Jeff
In contrast to wild, satirical ruminating between introducing the word and concluding with the word, we have the ancient spiritual practice called Centering Prayer. It was one of our "Paths of Prayer" in September. It is recommended that we take 20 minutes twice daily for Centering Prayer. In this practice, led by Erica McIlroy, we were encouraged to choose a word or let a word be revealed to us during an extended period of silence. That word would then be brought to mind when we felt we were drifting in our stillness. As much as I am comforted and confounded by Grace in my life, I thought that would be the word. But instead another one came to me: Eternal. I say it came to me because I did not choose it. I have lived with Eternal as a centering word since that time and have come to really like it.
Eternal calls to mind a dimension of time and enduring strength beyond the stress of any particular situation or time. To describe eternity I sing the last verse of "Amazing Grace" (in The United Methodist Hymnal):
"When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise than when we'd first begun"
Ann Spangler in her book, Praying the Names of God, writes that "Olam" is a Hebrew word that occurs more than four hundred times in the Hebrew Scriptures. It is translated as "eternal," "everlasting," "forever," "lasting," "ever," or "ancient." It refers to the fulllness of the experience of time or space. "El Olam" is the Hebrew name for the God who has no beginning and no end, the God for whom a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. His plans stand firm forever, plans to give you a future full of hope. When you pray to the Everlasting God, you are praying to the God whose Son is called the Alpha and the Omega. He is the God whose love endures forever.
Eternal also helps me relate to beliefs that are expressed in terms like "absolute" and "unchanging". I don't have positive associations with beliefs that are expressed with these words because most often they are used to support repressive and demeaning judgments against people who are different. My experience is that references to God's truth as absolute and unchanging are asserted during times of fear and change, not to enable people to consider and reflect on new ideas, but instead to shut down dialogue and halt interaction and even refuse community to people who hold different beliefs.
Absolute and unchanging are strong words to associate with beliefs and with the character of God. They express the power of God's truth and love. I accept Eternal, "The Word" that chose me, to declare that power in life-giving and life-changing ways. What's your word?
Peace, Pastor Jeff
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