Michael Airgood wonders if this tradition has worn-out its welcome. But, in the absence of proof, Michael will go ahead anyway.
2011 was a big year for Michael. It was legendary, really.
Michael spent the winter finishing out his year of service as an Individual Volunteer in L'viv, Ukraine. His final months as a volunteer where very full and fulfilling. He worked to help establish a preaching point in Stree, Ukraine that will hopefully become a new congregation soon. The English club he helped teach produced students with greater speaking skills. He was sad to return home, but received good news from the Bishop who promised to ask the United Methodist mission board to hire a new missionary in Ukraine.
Sadly, Michael wasn't able to make it home in time for his close friend Jonathan's funeral. Jon died after a long struggle with cancer, and even a continent apart Michael and Jonathan grew even closer during Jon's final months. Jonathan Pound was an inspiration to all who knew him, and the causes he cared about most continue to blaze in the hearts of all who knew Jon.
Michael worked for his parents in Kane for a few short weeks, but quickly realized that living and working in Kane would not be a long-term solution. He completed licensing school in the North Georgia Annual conference in the spring and became licensed to be a local pastor in the United Methodist church.
In June it appeared that the Mission board would not be able to create a new position. At annual conference Michael agreed to serve a small United Methodist church in Western Pennsylvania. The following week he had his take-in at Robinson Evangelical UMC. By the time he met with the committee, GBGM had unexpectedly approved a new missionary position in Ukraine, and Michael was a strong applicant.
The church in Robinson didn't know how long Michael could be their pastor - and neither did Michael! But, the church was gracious and kind to their new, young pastor and things went exceedingly well. Michael stopped blogging during this time because the town was very small, and no personal story could be shared without offending someone in the town. Even with this limitation, Michael loved every minute he served that small congregation. He participated in the baptism a young woman and her toddler son - a highlight of a lifetime!
That was sadly Michael's final Sunday with the Robinson congregation. Three months into his appointment in Robinson; Michael Airgood was hired by the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries as a standard support missionary working as a church planter and youth ministry developer in Ukraine. This is his dream job, and the answer to his lifelong calling. Michael is ecstatic about the opportunity. He immediately left to begin training before being commissioned.
Michael was arrested five days before the commissioning service. He was one of the 700 protesters arrested on the Brooklyn bridge protesting corporate greed, corporate influence in politics, and extreme wealth inequality. He spent six hours in a holding cell - and he could imagine his good friend Jonathan sitting in the cell with him. At Michael's court date he accepted an ACD - as long as he is not arrested in New York State in the next 6 months, the case will be dismissed and the record will be sealed. Michael is proud of his generation for taking a stand against the systemic issues that allow extreme poverty in America, but is thankful that the long-term repercussions will be mild!
Michael finished out the year preparing for his return to Ukraine by itinerating in over 30 churches across the US and raising support for GBGM. He leaves for his first three year term in Ukraine in a week!
He is grateful for a wonderful year full of adventure and surprise. He certainly didn't expect to get arrested, be hired for his dream job, or have the joy of sharing in the sacrament of baptism: at Christmastime we celebrate all the surprises God has in store for us.
Here's to 2012 being half as full of adventure, joy, and growth!
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Friday, November 25, 2011
A Poem by Wendell Berry
Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.
“Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” from The Country of Marriage, copyright © 1973 by Wendell Berry
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.
“Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” from The Country of Marriage, copyright © 1973 by Wendell Berry
On Communion
On my final Sunday at Robinson Evangelical United Methodist church I was permitted to consecrate the elements and serve communion to the congregation. It was an honor and a joy. It is so good to belong to a church with an open table. While I have had the joy of worshipping and working with a variety of Christian traditions, I always am thankful to end the day belonging to a tradition that readily shares the good news that God's grace is available to all through the symbolic act of allowing all to come and eat. While I am certain that every church has their doctrinal reasons and a proper theology for limiting who may recline at the table with Jesus; I rejoice in the United Methodist churches choice to welcome all.
On that Sunday, a visitor and her children sat near the back. As they came forward for communion, she was in tears. Her children had never experienced communion. They didn't know the ritual or tradition. They had never seen it before. We offered the bread to the small child and gladly proclaimed, "Jesus loves you!". I had been licensed and appointed for one Sunday only. As I left the tiny town with the hearty Methodist church, I had to turn in my certificate granting me permission to serve communion.
It hurt more than I thought it would. I knew that I would serve communion again soon, but I didn't know when or where,
With little feeling left in my thumbs from the pressure of the tightly secured handcuffs, I sat in a holding cell with more than a hundred others who had been arrested for protesting the extreme wealth inequality and level of corporate influence in government policies. We had occupied the Brooklyn Bridge to give voice to our movement and the millions of people who go to bed hungry every night in America. 700 of us had been arrested for our actions.
The boy sitting next to me was visibly terrified. He was slight and young. Like most of us, he had never been arrested before. As the hours passed, the police officers brought us food. The word "prison" is used as an adjective to describe food for a reason. The peanut butter sandwiches were meager at best. The milk was warm. The crust was so hard I wasn't even sure it was bread. I ate my sandwich in peace as I talked with Steven. He was from Florida and came up to New York city for the protests. He had thought that he could make a difference.
I asked him when he had eaten last, and he couldn't remember. Without thinking I opened the bag containing his sandwich and proceeded to pull the crusts off. I handed him the edible part of the sandwich and encouraged him to eat something. I pried open the milk carton and placed it in his hand. In my head I said a small prayer. I thanked God for opportunity to experience what so many Americans know as daily life. I thanked God for the meager provisions, and the way at they would be transformed through the act of thanksgiving and the great miracle of the living banquet. I took a deep breath and explained to Steven that I was a missionary; and that if he needed to talk about anything I was here. As he ate the bread and drank the milk one long tear fell from his face and we began a conversation about life and hope.
In the largest Methodist Church I have ever attended, I was one of many serving communion this Sunday. The pastor had taught me months before that when serving communion to a child, you always crouch down to their level. She makes certain that everyone serving is able and willing to look every child in the eye as they come up to receive communion. It's a simple thing, but one that I had never thought about before, but it makes all the difference. So many children passed through the line that my knees ached with exhaustion for lowering myself to their height.
I hope that communion doesn't lose its mystery and joy for me any time soon. We spent an entire class session during college trying to "figure out" communion. Trying to quantify in which way God works through the elements. In hindsight, this expenditure is laughable. Even if we could understand how God works through this holy mystery, I would ctainly hope that it would take more than a 45 minute class to figure it out!
As I reflect on communion, I am overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of the miracle and the grace that it embodies. It is good to welcome all to this table, in every setting, all in God's grace.
On that Sunday, a visitor and her children sat near the back. As they came forward for communion, she was in tears. Her children had never experienced communion. They didn't know the ritual or tradition. They had never seen it before. We offered the bread to the small child and gladly proclaimed, "Jesus loves you!". I had been licensed and appointed for one Sunday only. As I left the tiny town with the hearty Methodist church, I had to turn in my certificate granting me permission to serve communion.
It hurt more than I thought it would. I knew that I would serve communion again soon, but I didn't know when or where,
With little feeling left in my thumbs from the pressure of the tightly secured handcuffs, I sat in a holding cell with more than a hundred others who had been arrested for protesting the extreme wealth inequality and level of corporate influence in government policies. We had occupied the Brooklyn Bridge to give voice to our movement and the millions of people who go to bed hungry every night in America. 700 of us had been arrested for our actions.
The boy sitting next to me was visibly terrified. He was slight and young. Like most of us, he had never been arrested before. As the hours passed, the police officers brought us food. The word "prison" is used as an adjective to describe food for a reason. The peanut butter sandwiches were meager at best. The milk was warm. The crust was so hard I wasn't even sure it was bread. I ate my sandwich in peace as I talked with Steven. He was from Florida and came up to New York city for the protests. He had thought that he could make a difference.
I asked him when he had eaten last, and he couldn't remember. Without thinking I opened the bag containing his sandwich and proceeded to pull the crusts off. I handed him the edible part of the sandwich and encouraged him to eat something. I pried open the milk carton and placed it in his hand. In my head I said a small prayer. I thanked God for opportunity to experience what so many Americans know as daily life. I thanked God for the meager provisions, and the way at they would be transformed through the act of thanksgiving and the great miracle of the living banquet. I took a deep breath and explained to Steven that I was a missionary; and that if he needed to talk about anything I was here. As he ate the bread and drank the milk one long tear fell from his face and we began a conversation about life and hope.
In the largest Methodist Church I have ever attended, I was one of many serving communion this Sunday. The pastor had taught me months before that when serving communion to a child, you always crouch down to their level. She makes certain that everyone serving is able and willing to look every child in the eye as they come up to receive communion. It's a simple thing, but one that I had never thought about before, but it makes all the difference. So many children passed through the line that my knees ached with exhaustion for lowering myself to their height.
I hope that communion doesn't lose its mystery and joy for me any time soon. We spent an entire class session during college trying to "figure out" communion. Trying to quantify in which way God works through the elements. In hindsight, this expenditure is laughable. Even if we could understand how God works through this holy mystery, I would ctainly hope that it would take more than a 45 minute class to figure it out!
As I reflect on communion, I am overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of the miracle and the grace that it embodies. It is good to welcome all to this table, in every setting, all in God's grace.
Tuesday, November 08, 2011
Stand Up.
I've always felt so powerless concerning the issues of systemic poverty.
I felt that I wasn't doing anything to create the issue of poverty, but I also felt that I wasn't doing anything to fix the issue of poverty. I wanted to do something, but I didn't know what I could do.
On Brooklyn Bridge, with 700 other people who felt the same way, I had the chance to take a stand against an unjust system. While there are many who dismiss our actions, who laugh off the whole movement, or who twist the truth to highlight a few radicalized members; this has the potential to be a major turning point in our democracy. For the first time my generation is beginning to voice a social consciousness.
For many of us, it took leaving the safety of our parents socio-economic status to see and feel the need. Older adults are now 47 times wealthier than their younger counterparts. For decades they were ten times wealthier. Our generation might be the first to have a lower standard of living than that of our parents since the great depression.
Our decisions matter. The things we say and do have a tremendous effect on those around us. Here are a few simple ways that we can fight the systemic issues that lead to tremendous wealth inequality and speak out for those without a voice.
Live on less. Spend far less money than you do right now. When you get your paycheck put half of it in a savings account (through a credit union, local bank, or other option that feels comfortable to you and benefits your community) and don't touch it. You can live comfortably on half as much as you live on now. At the end of the month, after you have proven to yourself that you can live on less, use a large chunk of that money to pay off debt.
Debt is the enemy. Our national, personal, student, and credit card debt is what keeps us from living freely and doing the things that we want to do. Live on war-time rations and accept the hospitality of strangers until you are free from debt. Drive your vehicles to extinction to avoid new debt on a new car. You could live your entire life without ever making a single vehicle payment.
Shop wisely. Buy locally anything that you can. Encourage local small businesses even if it means spending a few extra dollars (after you are debt free, of course) on a few things. The less processed something is, the more likely it is to benefit the local economy with a fair wage job. Foodstuffs that are made overseas are loaded with enough chemicals to preserve them for shipping and shelf life. Our bodies survive better with fewer of these chemicals.
Tithe+. When we give generously of all that God has provided we make a radical statement. We prove that our allegiance is with the almighty Father and not the almighty dollar. When we give our churches are given the resources to grow and flourish and provide the social programs that address the needs of the people. I've read the rest of the book, and God wins - not the corporations or the empires that allow them to rob from the poor- God wins. When we give of all we have, we Act as though we know the ending of the story. It is a powerful message that our hyper-consumerist culture needs to hear. The Bible addresses the issues of systemic injustice some 2000 times. Try to read more than a page of the Bible without stumbling on something that addresses how God feels about the issue.
Speak out. People will think you are crazy or uninformed if you speak out against the wealth inequality. We are taught that our current system is infallible. Words that describe other economic realities are used as jeers and taunts. Speak out anyway. It is inexcusable for people to go to sleep hungry while others slumber with billions in the bank. We must demand that either they in invest that money to create fair wage jobs for our citizens or they expect that we will arrive with pitchforks to take it ourselves. We are not opposed to money, or even to wealth. We are opposed to those who have cheated, stolen, and tricked their way to the top and then refuse to allow others to climb the ladder fairly.
Pray much. Pray for God to intervene on behalf of the poor; and expect that God may ask you to do the same.
We are one community. Although we are divided along many lines, if one of us goes to bed hungry - we all suffer. When we diminish one child's hunger by claiming that his parents are lazy we diminish our claim to be children of God.
As I head back up to New York City to appear before a court, I have little fear in my heart. The worst punishment they could give me is nothing compared to the poverty that millions of Americans face every day. If some punishment is levied against me for marching and speaking out on their behalf, I will gladly accept it. I believe that the eternal punishment for all those who ignore the cry of the needy will be far greater.
"There is a higher justice.".
I felt that I wasn't doing anything to create the issue of poverty, but I also felt that I wasn't doing anything to fix the issue of poverty. I wanted to do something, but I didn't know what I could do.
On Brooklyn Bridge, with 700 other people who felt the same way, I had the chance to take a stand against an unjust system. While there are many who dismiss our actions, who laugh off the whole movement, or who twist the truth to highlight a few radicalized members; this has the potential to be a major turning point in our democracy. For the first time my generation is beginning to voice a social consciousness.
For many of us, it took leaving the safety of our parents socio-economic status to see and feel the need. Older adults are now 47 times wealthier than their younger counterparts. For decades they were ten times wealthier. Our generation might be the first to have a lower standard of living than that of our parents since the great depression.
Our decisions matter. The things we say and do have a tremendous effect on those around us. Here are a few simple ways that we can fight the systemic issues that lead to tremendous wealth inequality and speak out for those without a voice.
Live on less. Spend far less money than you do right now. When you get your paycheck put half of it in a savings account (through a credit union, local bank, or other option that feels comfortable to you and benefits your community) and don't touch it. You can live comfortably on half as much as you live on now. At the end of the month, after you have proven to yourself that you can live on less, use a large chunk of that money to pay off debt.
Debt is the enemy. Our national, personal, student, and credit card debt is what keeps us from living freely and doing the things that we want to do. Live on war-time rations and accept the hospitality of strangers until you are free from debt. Drive your vehicles to extinction to avoid new debt on a new car. You could live your entire life without ever making a single vehicle payment.
Shop wisely. Buy locally anything that you can. Encourage local small businesses even if it means spending a few extra dollars (after you are debt free, of course) on a few things. The less processed something is, the more likely it is to benefit the local economy with a fair wage job. Foodstuffs that are made overseas are loaded with enough chemicals to preserve them for shipping and shelf life. Our bodies survive better with fewer of these chemicals.
Tithe+. When we give generously of all that God has provided we make a radical statement. We prove that our allegiance is with the almighty Father and not the almighty dollar. When we give our churches are given the resources to grow and flourish and provide the social programs that address the needs of the people. I've read the rest of the book, and God wins - not the corporations or the empires that allow them to rob from the poor- God wins. When we give of all we have, we Act as though we know the ending of the story. It is a powerful message that our hyper-consumerist culture needs to hear. The Bible addresses the issues of systemic injustice some 2000 times. Try to read more than a page of the Bible without stumbling on something that addresses how God feels about the issue.
Speak out. People will think you are crazy or uninformed if you speak out against the wealth inequality. We are taught that our current system is infallible. Words that describe other economic realities are used as jeers and taunts. Speak out anyway. It is inexcusable for people to go to sleep hungry while others slumber with billions in the bank. We must demand that either they in invest that money to create fair wage jobs for our citizens or they expect that we will arrive with pitchforks to take it ourselves. We are not opposed to money, or even to wealth. We are opposed to those who have cheated, stolen, and tricked their way to the top and then refuse to allow others to climb the ladder fairly.
Pray much. Pray for God to intervene on behalf of the poor; and expect that God may ask you to do the same.
We are one community. Although we are divided along many lines, if one of us goes to bed hungry - we all suffer. When we diminish one child's hunger by claiming that his parents are lazy we diminish our claim to be children of God.
As I head back up to New York City to appear before a court, I have little fear in my heart. The worst punishment they could give me is nothing compared to the poverty that millions of Americans face every day. If some punishment is levied against me for marching and speaking out on their behalf, I will gladly accept it. I believe that the eternal punishment for all those who ignore the cry of the needy will be far greater.
"There is a higher justice.".
Monday, September 26, 2011
So, I'm heading back to Ukraine
I'm currently in Stonypoint, NY at missionary training.
If you haven't heard, I've been hired by the General Board of Global Ministries as a standard support missionary to L'viv, Ukraine. While no exact date has been set yet, I will be returning to Ukraine in early 2012.
I'm going to spend the next few months raising support. I get to say that I'm raising "support" instead of saying that I'm raising "money" because in the General Board of Global Ministries system all of the missionaries raise money for all of the current and future missionaries.
So, I don't have a set amount of money that I need to raise before I can fly overseas. I could raise $0 between now and my departure date and that wouldn't delay my departure or hurt my work in any way. We raise money so that others can go. While many of my friends serving in other denominations spend months or even years raising financial support before they gather enough to cover their expenses; because we raise funds for the community, I will be able to go after only a very brief time of raising money.
I get to spend the next few months traveling from conference to conference and from church to church teaching and preaching about mission. Mission is the thread that connects your local congregation to God's vision for the world. It's a topic that we don't address nearly enough in our churches, and a theme that I pray will bring renewed vitality to our congregations.
Along the way, I hope to find some covenant churches - churches that wish to have an ongoing mission relationship with me and with the work that will happen in Ukraine.
This is my biography and my advance number is 3021393.
If you're in a spot to do so, you can make a donation - or you can consider forming a personal covenant relationship with me. If you're not quite at that spot - you could help connect me to your church. I'm looking for churches, UMW & UMM units, Sunday Schools, Youth Groups, Bible Study groups, or any other group looking for a speaker. There are many United Methodist congregations who haven't had a missionary come and speak to their church in years if not decades. We are a global church, and this is an opportunity to celebrate that.
Learn about what the United Methodist Church is doing in Ukraine and what God has in store for the churches there in the future. Consider beginning the conversation in your church about supporting a missionary as a long term investment in the Kingdom. But more than that, help your congregation reconnect with God's mission and plan for the world and for their church.
Thank you, Michael Airgood
If you haven't heard, I've been hired by the General Board of Global Ministries as a standard support missionary to L'viv, Ukraine. While no exact date has been set yet, I will be returning to Ukraine in early 2012.
I'm going to spend the next few months raising support. I get to say that I'm raising "support" instead of saying that I'm raising "money" because in the General Board of Global Ministries system all of the missionaries raise money for all of the current and future missionaries.
So, I don't have a set amount of money that I need to raise before I can fly overseas. I could raise $0 between now and my departure date and that wouldn't delay my departure or hurt my work in any way. We raise money so that others can go. While many of my friends serving in other denominations spend months or even years raising financial support before they gather enough to cover their expenses; because we raise funds for the community, I will be able to go after only a very brief time of raising money.
I get to spend the next few months traveling from conference to conference and from church to church teaching and preaching about mission. Mission is the thread that connects your local congregation to God's vision for the world. It's a topic that we don't address nearly enough in our churches, and a theme that I pray will bring renewed vitality to our congregations.
Along the way, I hope to find some covenant churches - churches that wish to have an ongoing mission relationship with me and with the work that will happen in Ukraine.
This is my biography and my advance number is 3021393.
If you're in a spot to do so, you can make a donation - or you can consider forming a personal covenant relationship with me. If you're not quite at that spot - you could help connect me to your church. I'm looking for churches, UMW & UMM units, Sunday Schools, Youth Groups, Bible Study groups, or any other group looking for a speaker. There are many United Methodist congregations who haven't had a missionary come and speak to their church in years if not decades. We are a global church, and this is an opportunity to celebrate that.
Learn about what the United Methodist Church is doing in Ukraine and what God has in store for the churches there in the future. Consider beginning the conversation in your church about supporting a missionary as a long term investment in the Kingdom. But more than that, help your congregation reconnect with God's mission and plan for the world and for their church.
Thank you, Michael Airgood
Monday, July 04, 2011
All who are weary
"But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,
'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.' For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon'; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds."
At that time Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
"Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." - Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
I carried a heavy back pack all through school. Even in Elementary school I filled my backpack with papers and pens and kitchen sinks. My high school, I traveled to school with a backpack that could have traveled across europe. Filled with 7 textbooks and everything else I might need for the day, it weighed more than most of my classmates.
A few decades ago, it was rare for a person under the age of forty to complain of a sore back. In the 80s, doctors began hearing more and more complaints of chronic back pain coming from children. It was a new phenomena. Young adults had perfectly healthy backs, but their children or younger brothers and sisters were complaining of chronic back pain.
An entire generation of children grew up wearing backpacks. At first they were cute and fun - with favorite cartoon characters and bright colors. But, by middle school, children are carrying several pounds pounds more than they should be.
In a novel move for the heavy burdened, the Florida legislature just passed a law last month which will remove textbooks from their schools. Only e-books will be purchased for students. Instead of a backpack weighing almost as much as the students - everyone will be assigned an e-reader weighing less than two pounds.
----------
It's a heavy burden to be a pastor. It's a heavy burden to write the first sermon that your congregation will hear!
Growing up, my home church had the perfect pastor. He led our congregation for 13 years. The church grew. New ministries started. He coached our High School basketball team and led us to state competitions. It was really an idyllic environment to grow up in. I thought that everyone went to church and churches were always full.
The pastor that followed him was an immediate flop. The grumblings began right away. The three pastors that followed him all received the same treatment. The grumblings got louder. He doesn't visit enough. This one doesn't have enough hair. This one doesn't tell enough jokes. This one tells too many jokes.
But, in the background there had always been grumblings - even under our perfect pastor. Miss Nellie May din't like the way he led communion. Great Aunt Josephine didn't much care for the drum set sitting in front of the pulpit. Bob Johnson was upset that the pastor didn't celebrate all the Holy days that our church had once celebrated.
Finally, more than a decade after my childhood pastor made his exit - and after three pastors had been exhausted by the grumblings - I overheard a conversation that stopped me in my tracks.
A woman was sitting near the back of the congregation and she was grumbling about something the pastor had done. An older woman in the congregation turned around and said, "It wouldn't matter if Jesus Christ were standing up there preaching, it wouldn't be good enough for you."
She might have been talking about today's scripture. We find Jesus encountering the grumblings - and He faces them head on.
The people are upset that Jesus is eating and drinking. The same people who had been offended that John the Baptist neither ate nor drank - now they are offended that Jesus is doing both. They feel that Jesus should spend more time with the society people and MUCH less time with drunkards, sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes.
there are two cures for the grumbles.
The first is prayer. Jesus immediately goes to prayer for these people. Prayer is powerful. Please pray for me every day. Please always be in prayer for your pastor. Pray for this congregation; that we can accomplish the will of the Father.
The second cure for the grumbles is Jesus.
Jesus calls out to these people and says, "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
As your new pastor, I would like to go ahead and apologize and ask for your forgiveness. This is a new role for me. I'll be doing things I've never done before. I will make mistakes. I will mess up. I can almost guarantee that I will give you reason to do some grumbling - and I pray that we can go to prayer together and that we can go to Jesus together.
Whew! It feels great to let go of the burden of trying to be the perfect pastor. It feels great to give up the burden of preaching the perfect first sermon! It feels great to let go of my yoke and take Jesus' yoke.
--------
The yoke is the device used to carry heavy things. We most often see it in pictures of third world countries carried by a woman gathering water for her children, or on the shoulders of farm animals.
In the Jewish faith, you would pick a Rabbi - or have one chosen for you - and you would take on their "yoke." You would learn everything they believed about everything and your job would be to accept all of it and to carry it.
Over the centuries, these yokes became more and more oppressive. On top of all the books in the Old Testament, the Rabbi's would have interpretations of every passage. They would have interpretations of the interpretations of other Rabbis. The list of rules became unbearable.
As a diciple, your job would be to pick up the yoke. [at this point I will pick up a board with a bucket on either end] Of course we believe the ten commandments, and the Old and New Testament. And we know not to wear a hat inside the church building. Unless your a woman, in which case maybe you should wear a hat. And of course we believe in Robert's Rule of Procedure. And soon enough, this yoke becomes uneven and just too much to bear. And we need to let it go.
This is where the world and the Jewish faith were when Jesus came on the scene. Jesus came and spoke words that were very different than those the other teachers spoke. He didn't bring more rules, or even different rules. He brought grace.
Jesus promise that his yoke is easy. Jesus is a transformative force in history. There's BC and AD - everything in the world hinges on the birth of that baby in Bethlehem and on his willingness to die on the cross so that we don't have to carry the burdens of this world any longer.
Jesus took the weight of our yoke on his own shoulders. He took the heavy bookbag off our backs and put a small Bible in our hands. Jesus took the cross, so that we wouldn't have to.
Rodney is an 18 year old with Crohnes disease. He missed 21 days of school in his final semester because of the debilitating effects of his disease. In his senior year he managed to bring his cumulative GPA up from near failing to a 3.5! His only poor subject was math. He chose a simple math class, but math has a way of building on itself and even missing one day could destroy your comprehension of an entire unit. Missing 21 days makes most of the problems just scribbles on a page.
He was right on the pass/fail line going into his final. He studied and got extra help. With trembling hands he got back his results. He had failed the course. If he had correctly answered just two more questions, he would have passed the class. His parents called the teacher to ask for a little leaway.
The teacher failed him. He didn't get to walk with his classmates. He'll get his diploma after he does remedial work.
No amount of pleading could get her to changer her mind. He had failed the class by two questions and that was that.
That's a heavy burden. Perhaps some of us are carrying heavy burdens this day.
Dear friends, Jesus our savior calls out to us - to take away our yokes and replace them with his own - the light and gentle yoke of a loving saviour. Our altar will be open during the closing hymn if you are ready to let go of your heavy burdens and find rest.
Dear ones, this world is full of people who are weary and carrying heavy burdens. As the church we don't have anything to add to their yoke. We have Jesus Christ and Him crucified to offer to this hurting world. We have a light and easy yoke to share with them.
Go forth this day and offer the light and easy yoke of Jesus Christ as Savior and living God.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Sermon for Saturday Night Alive service.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.
And you know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.
Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
----
Biltmore estates is the largest privately owned residence. It has 250 rooms and is six stories tall. Much like our Olmstead Manor, there is a bowling alley inside the house. At Biltmore there are also multiple swimming pools, hundreds of acres of pristinely landscaped gardens, and more bathrooms than anyone could ever need. A tour of the house can take several hours, and very few people have ever been in every room. I doubt that any of the owners of the house have ever been in every room.
We hear the promise of a mansion in heaven -a Father’s house with many dwelling places- and our minds probably wander to the Rockefellers or the Roosevelts. I’ve found myself lost in many single-family dwellings while visiting friends. You know those McMansions largely characterized by a lack of character; with more bathrooms than people it seems they always manage to fill up with clutter faster than friends or good memories.
The image of a heavenly mansion awaiting our arrival conjures up notions of wealth and extravagance – but this was not the desired effect of Jesus when he spoke these words or of the writer of this Gospel.
Jesus promises: “I am going to prepare a place for you.”
This is wedding talk. These words held the same meaning for the Jewish people as an engagement ring or a young man getting down on one knee would for us. This would be like saying, “I’ve reserved the church and the banquet hall for a certain Saturday in July.” In Jewish culture, when a couple became engaged the man returned to his father’s house and began constructing an attached dwelling place for his new family to live.
We as the church are the bride of Christ. This is the image used throughout the Bible to describe our corporate relationship with God. As individuals we are friends, brothers, servants, sheep, and any number of analogies to describe our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. As a body - as the Church - it seems that we keep coming back to the same analogy.
The Church is the bride of Christ.
Jesus performs his first miracle at a wedding banquet. Throughout his three years of ministry he references again and again images of a wedding, the wedding party, and married life.
The whole world watched as Kate Middleton became Princess William. We laughed at silly hats, stodgy English clergy, and the trees in the cathedral. The royal family spent millions of dollars on a wedding event for the world to watch. But at the core of all the pomp and circumstance stand two young adults with a tremendous amount of pressure to make things work. After the wedding, those two ordinary people have to go home and talk about the weather for the next fifty years.
Marriage continues beyond the honeymoon. Even as a single person, I can say that good marriages take work. As the bride of Christ, we're no trophy wife. We've got our work cut out for us. As the Bride of Christ it is our responsibility to go into the world and to do all the good we can.
Recently a German Pastor in the United Methodist Church made international headlines. After winning $180,000 on the German version of "Who wants to be a millionair" he gave away $160,000 of it to a family in need.
Rev. Alfred Mignon said, "It is not common for some people to share their belongings, but for Christians, this is a matter of course.”
As Christians we must be known for our generosity.
For many political couples, the wife is the public face. while the husband is the one running for office, her face is the one that charms the hearts of voters. While I won't get into politics - Where would the husbands of Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Kennedy, or Laura Bush be without their graceful wives as their public image? Jesus makes a bizarre promise - "You'll do even greater things." - But in the analogy of the church as the bride of Christ, this makes sense. As we always say, behind every great man, there's a great wife. We have our work cut out for ourselves. If we are the public face of God - we've got to watch what we're doing.
When Chelsea Clinton got married, the wedding was performed by a Jewish Rabbi and a United Methodist pastor. Jon Stewart, a comedian, joked that Methodists were the "University of Phoenix of religions." Just check the box and send a check and you can be a member.
What are we as Methodists known for? What do people say about us? What is our repuations? Is our reputation fitting of the Bride of Christ? In Arsenic and Old Lace, there's this great line where the older ladies see a homeless man. The one says to the other, "He's really quite handsome for a Methodist." As the United Methodist church has aged we have become more middle-class, more mainline, and more acceptable. We have lost our edge, our connection to the poor, and our distinct heritage as Methodists.
"Out of the Foundery in London, Wesley organized a number of ministries to serve the poor. He charged the Methodists not to wait for the poor to come to them, rather they were to seek out the poor. Wesley longed for a church that exhibited "charity in all forms". He led his coworkers to beg for funds for the poor, provide soup kitchens, collect clothing and blankets, gather coal for heating, set up medical clinics, form literacy classes, open lending libraries, visit prisoners and their families, tutor children, organize Sunday schools, set up employment services, provide loan funds and establish homes for orphans, unwed mothers and the aged."
As the Bride of Christ - and as members of the Methodist movement - we are charged to go out and to change the world. Knowing that we can do insurmountable good, and knowing that God will give us all good things if only we ask - I charge the question: What should we be asking for? What ministries will we ask God to provide for? How can we as Christians serve the working poor, the disabled, and the disenfranchised.
In our church calendar, two distinct events are celebrated this weekend. We celebrate "Heritage Sunday" and "Save a Life Sunday." For Heritage Sunday we look to the past and celebrate the good that our church has accomplished, for Save a Life Sunday we look to the future and see the good that our church can still accomplish. We claim our heritage and expand upon it.
Dear friends, it's time for us to reclaim our heritage. It is time for us to stand up and to take our rightful place as part of the bride of Christ. It's time for us to engage in serious ministry with the poor in our community and around the world. Tonight we will take up a special offering for Imagine No Malaria, perhaps this week you will also offer up some time to God to think and pray about ways for you and our congregation to be in ministry to, with, and for the poor in our community.
And you know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.
Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
----
Biltmore estates is the largest privately owned residence. It has 250 rooms and is six stories tall. Much like our Olmstead Manor, there is a bowling alley inside the house. At Biltmore there are also multiple swimming pools, hundreds of acres of pristinely landscaped gardens, and more bathrooms than anyone could ever need. A tour of the house can take several hours, and very few people have ever been in every room. I doubt that any of the owners of the house have ever been in every room.
We hear the promise of a mansion in heaven -a Father’s house with many dwelling places- and our minds probably wander to the Rockefellers or the Roosevelts. I’ve found myself lost in many single-family dwellings while visiting friends. You know those McMansions largely characterized by a lack of character; with more bathrooms than people it seems they always manage to fill up with clutter faster than friends or good memories.
The image of a heavenly mansion awaiting our arrival conjures up notions of wealth and extravagance – but this was not the desired effect of Jesus when he spoke these words or of the writer of this Gospel.
Jesus promises: “I am going to prepare a place for you.”
This is wedding talk. These words held the same meaning for the Jewish people as an engagement ring or a young man getting down on one knee would for us. This would be like saying, “I’ve reserved the church and the banquet hall for a certain Saturday in July.” In Jewish culture, when a couple became engaged the man returned to his father’s house and began constructing an attached dwelling place for his new family to live.
We as the church are the bride of Christ. This is the image used throughout the Bible to describe our corporate relationship with God. As individuals we are friends, brothers, servants, sheep, and any number of analogies to describe our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. As a body - as the Church - it seems that we keep coming back to the same analogy.
The Church is the bride of Christ.
Jesus performs his first miracle at a wedding banquet. Throughout his three years of ministry he references again and again images of a wedding, the wedding party, and married life.
The whole world watched as Kate Middleton became Princess William. We laughed at silly hats, stodgy English clergy, and the trees in the cathedral. The royal family spent millions of dollars on a wedding event for the world to watch. But at the core of all the pomp and circumstance stand two young adults with a tremendous amount of pressure to make things work. After the wedding, those two ordinary people have to go home and talk about the weather for the next fifty years.
Marriage continues beyond the honeymoon. Even as a single person, I can say that good marriages take work. As the bride of Christ, we're no trophy wife. We've got our work cut out for us. As the Bride of Christ it is our responsibility to go into the world and to do all the good we can.
Recently a German Pastor in the United Methodist Church made international headlines. After winning $180,000 on the German version of "Who wants to be a millionair" he gave away $160,000 of it to a family in need.
Rev. Alfred Mignon said, "It is not common for some people to share their belongings, but for Christians, this is a matter of course.”
As Christians we must be known for our generosity.
For many political couples, the wife is the public face. while the husband is the one running for office, her face is the one that charms the hearts of voters. While I won't get into politics - Where would the husbands of Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Kennedy, or Laura Bush be without their graceful wives as their public image? Jesus makes a bizarre promise - "You'll do even greater things." - But in the analogy of the church as the bride of Christ, this makes sense. As we always say, behind every great man, there's a great wife. We have our work cut out for ourselves. If we are the public face of God - we've got to watch what we're doing.
When Chelsea Clinton got married, the wedding was performed by a Jewish Rabbi and a United Methodist pastor. Jon Stewart, a comedian, joked that Methodists were the "University of Phoenix of religions." Just check the box and send a check and you can be a member.
What are we as Methodists known for? What do people say about us? What is our repuations? Is our reputation fitting of the Bride of Christ? In Arsenic and Old Lace, there's this great line where the older ladies see a homeless man. The one says to the other, "He's really quite handsome for a Methodist." As the United Methodist church has aged we have become more middle-class, more mainline, and more acceptable. We have lost our edge, our connection to the poor, and our distinct heritage as Methodists.
"Out of the Foundery in London, Wesley organized a number of ministries to serve the poor. He charged the Methodists not to wait for the poor to come to them, rather they were to seek out the poor. Wesley longed for a church that exhibited "charity in all forms". He led his coworkers to beg for funds for the poor, provide soup kitchens, collect clothing and blankets, gather coal for heating, set up medical clinics, form literacy classes, open lending libraries, visit prisoners and their families, tutor children, organize Sunday schools, set up employment services, provide loan funds and establish homes for orphans, unwed mothers and the aged."
As the Bride of Christ - and as members of the Methodist movement - we are charged to go out and to change the world. Knowing that we can do insurmountable good, and knowing that God will give us all good things if only we ask - I charge the question: What should we be asking for? What ministries will we ask God to provide for? How can we as Christians serve the working poor, the disabled, and the disenfranchised.
In our church calendar, two distinct events are celebrated this weekend. We celebrate "Heritage Sunday" and "Save a Life Sunday." For Heritage Sunday we look to the past and celebrate the good that our church has accomplished, for Save a Life Sunday we look to the future and see the good that our church can still accomplish. We claim our heritage and expand upon it.
Dear friends, it's time for us to reclaim our heritage. It is time for us to stand up and to take our rightful place as part of the bride of Christ. It's time for us to engage in serious ministry with the poor in our community and around the world. Tonight we will take up a special offering for Imagine No Malaria, perhaps this week you will also offer up some time to God to think and pray about ways for you and our congregation to be in ministry to, with, and for the poor in our community.
Saturday, May 07, 2011
I'm not opposed to using business and marketing language when discussing the church. At licensing school we had to learn the mantra that "You have to run the church like a business. But, the church is not a business."
In contemporary circles, many discussions focus on growing our churches. Some people don't believe this is important. I tend not to have too much time for them. The rest of us seem to fall into two groups. One group insists that we just have to pray more. I hope they do.
The other group tends toward changing methods and practices which are ineffective.
Ineffective churches bother me for one reason. It takes just as much time, energy, and resources to run an ineffective church as it does to run an effective one. Usually more. My mentor has often said that if he was in such a position, he would close down half the churches in America: and not necessarily the smallest half!
A common theme has been to focus on improving the product. Church's that focus on this goal tend to work hard to improve their Sunday morning worship services. Something about this paradigm has bothered me for years.
Those who distrust business jargon would contest that Jesus is the product, but - that's not quite right. Jesus isn't a commodity. We don't buy or sell him. We can't focus on making Jesus better.
But, we have been working hard to produce the wrong product. The product that we produce is disciples. As churches we create disciples. While we have worship services, youth ministries, education programs, etc.: these are not the product we create.
The Hershey's corporation has probably spent millions of dollars on the complicated machinery it takes to produce Hershey's kisses. But, other than an occasional tour or 30-minute special, we never see the machinery. On a daily basis, we see the product and not the machinery required to produce the product. What if you had to tour the factory every time you wanted a delicious chocolate kiss?
You probably wouldn't be eating too many chocolate kisses. And yet, week after week, we attempt to expose pre-Christians to the machinery and not the product.
Perhaps it is time to turn that idea upside down. Maybe we need to hide the machinery and show off the product. Maybe we need to stop pushing worship attendance and begin pushing our disciples out into the world. And not to do "ministry." But, just to be out in the world.
What would it take to move our churches toward the goal of producing BETTER disciples. Not more of them, but qualitatively better Christians.
Would we need to scrap the Sunday worship service? Would we need to individualise Christian education? Would our structure need to change to allow for one-on-one discipling instead of weekly lecturing? Would burn-out be as common or as severe?
The mission statement of the United Methodist Church (with just a touch of business jargon) is "to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world." The commission was to make disciples. Church as we know it is almost entirely absent in the Bible.
Our focus must again move toward producing disciples. Not members, not worshippers, not attendees; but disciples. Unless our machinery is creating people willing to go anywhere and do anything in the pursuit of Jesus Christ and the transformation of the world - it is time to replace the machinery.
Looking around ... I'm going to vote that it's time to replace some machinery.
In contemporary circles, many discussions focus on growing our churches. Some people don't believe this is important. I tend not to have too much time for them. The rest of us seem to fall into two groups. One group insists that we just have to pray more. I hope they do.
The other group tends toward changing methods and practices which are ineffective.
Ineffective churches bother me for one reason. It takes just as much time, energy, and resources to run an ineffective church as it does to run an effective one. Usually more. My mentor has often said that if he was in such a position, he would close down half the churches in America: and not necessarily the smallest half!
A common theme has been to focus on improving the product. Church's that focus on this goal tend to work hard to improve their Sunday morning worship services. Something about this paradigm has bothered me for years.
Those who distrust business jargon would contest that Jesus is the product, but - that's not quite right. Jesus isn't a commodity. We don't buy or sell him. We can't focus on making Jesus better.
But, we have been working hard to produce the wrong product. The product that we produce is disciples. As churches we create disciples. While we have worship services, youth ministries, education programs, etc.: these are not the product we create.
The Hershey's corporation has probably spent millions of dollars on the complicated machinery it takes to produce Hershey's kisses. But, other than an occasional tour or 30-minute special, we never see the machinery. On a daily basis, we see the product and not the machinery required to produce the product. What if you had to tour the factory every time you wanted a delicious chocolate kiss?
You probably wouldn't be eating too many chocolate kisses. And yet, week after week, we attempt to expose pre-Christians to the machinery and not the product.
Perhaps it is time to turn that idea upside down. Maybe we need to hide the machinery and show off the product. Maybe we need to stop pushing worship attendance and begin pushing our disciples out into the world. And not to do "ministry." But, just to be out in the world.
What would it take to move our churches toward the goal of producing BETTER disciples. Not more of them, but qualitatively better Christians.
Would we need to scrap the Sunday worship service? Would we need to individualise Christian education? Would our structure need to change to allow for one-on-one discipling instead of weekly lecturing? Would burn-out be as common or as severe?
The mission statement of the United Methodist Church (with just a touch of business jargon) is "to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world." The commission was to make disciples. Church as we know it is almost entirely absent in the Bible.
Our focus must again move toward producing disciples. Not members, not worshippers, not attendees; but disciples. Unless our machinery is creating people willing to go anywhere and do anything in the pursuit of Jesus Christ and the transformation of the world - it is time to replace the machinery.
Looking around ... I'm going to vote that it's time to replace some machinery.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Maundy Thursday
Jesus' disciples were all good and faithful Jewish men. Although they weren't the most highly educated, they came from faithful families. They had almost certainly celebrated a Seder meal every year of their lives. The word "Seder" actually means "order." As in the fact that there is a specific order to the meal. Just like we are known as Methodists, because of our specific methods of organizing.
The disciples entered into the upper room with the knowledge that they knew what was coming next. They knew the routine, the knew the order of the seder meal.
But that night in the Upper Room would be very different. From the very entrance, Jesus changed the formula. In place of the lowly servant to wash their feet, Jesus kneels before them. Jesus used the ritual and tradition that was so very familiar to them, but Jesus infused it with new meaning.
Tonight we will celebrate a traditional Jewish Seder meal, but because of our faith in Jesus as the Messiah; these symbols mean something different to us. The Jewish Seder meal celebrates the past and longs for the future - our meal tonight celebrates the past, the present, and the future.
Let's begin with the past.
Read the account of the passover.
The Jewish people were slaves in Egypt. We remember the stories of Moses' birth. As the Jewish population increased, they began to outnumber the Egyptians, so Pharoah called for all newborn babies to be killed.
Slavery is the backdrop for our meal tonight. Take the horseradish and eat it. It is bitter. This reminds us of the harsh bitterness of slavery endured by the Jews in Egypt. As Christians, we live in the present, and this bitter herb must also remind us that many people still live with the bitterness of slavery. Around the world millions of people are enslaved. Women and children are subjected to unimaginable horror as sex-slaves, women and children are used as cheap labor in banana republics where they are paid pennies for a solid hour of work, and the lost and the hurting often find themselves enslaved to sin. We taste this bitter herb to remind us that slavery is still an all too real part of life for all too many people.
To wash that taste out of your mouth, you may eat some of the Haroset. It's the apple, cinnamon mix. We eat it because it symbolizes the mud used to create bricks. [As moses was fighting for the freedom of his people, God sent plagues. Pharoah punished the Jewish slaves by demanding that they increase the number of bricks they made each day - but he refused to give them any straw. God provided a miracle and the bricks set up.] This Haroset is used to sweeten the bitterness of slavery. Because of our faith in God, we know that we can survive anything - we know that God is with us. As Christians we work toward the future. We believe and fight for a future free from the yoke of slavery. We pray for wisdom and try to remember that our actions and purchases either encourage or stem the tide of unfair practices globally.
On the night of the final Plague, Moses instructed the faithful to take the blood of a lamb and to spread it around the doorframe of their house. Take your green and dip it in salt water. This represents the hyssop branch dipped in the Lamb's blood. When death came through, it would passover the homes with the blood of the lamb on their doorframes. That night death took the firstborn of every house in Egypt. Even Pharoah's youngest was killed. This is the reason for the celebration - death passed over the Jewish homes.
Go ahead and taste the lamb, and remember the sacrifice made for you.
You know, oddly enough, in many languages the word for Passover and Easter are the same word. Dear friends, death is coming - it is on its way - and God asks you to take the blood of the lamb and to put it on the doorframe of your heart. Jesus is our sacrificial lamb. His presence in our lives shows without a doubt that death is not welcome here.
This last year has been an especially difficult one for me. More than a year ago one of my closest friends had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. From the other side of the world I watched as my healthy, active 23 year old friend succumbed to the long slow debilitating effects of the cancer. As Christians, we celebrate the tension of living in this era. Death is not welcome here, but it is yet to be fully vanquished.
One day we will live in a world free of sadness and tears. "The last enemy to be defeated shall be death." This lamb is for us a symbol of the blood of the lamb that protected the Jewish people, the blood of our Lamb who protects us, and the promise of a better future - one in which the lion will lie down with the lamb.
The hard boiled egg represents for us the old covenant. The system of offering burnt offerings to appease God. This should remind us of the new covenant - that Jesus Christ died in our place as our sacrifice.
And we come to our final items. Bread and wine.
The Matzah bread is specific because there wasn't time to make yeast breads which would need time to rise. Although the people had been waiting on God, they weren't acting like it. They weren't acting as though they believed that God would free them from slavery. If they had trusted that God would set them free as God had promised, the people would have had bread already prepared.
Sometimes in our own lives, although we say that we trust God, we fail to plan and act accordingly. My great aunt Mabel was a very strict old-school-religion kind of Christian. Her financial adviser had advised several end-of-life care options. He felt that she should buy life insurance and a burial plot, but Aunt Mabel staunchly refused. One day she was going over her finances with my mother who pressed for a reason why she wouldn't make those logical investments. "Well, I plan on going up in the rapture." After she lived for a decade longer than any of her brothers and sisters - we all started getting a little readier for the rapture.
Nothing is funnier than watching children sing "If you're happy and you know it" while obviously not being happy about the fact. Few things are sadder than watching Christians sing about the joy of the Lord with no trace of joy on their faces. Eating the Matzah reminds us to live each day as though we actually believe the things we say we believe.
We drink the wine to remind us that this is a celebration. When Jesus held up the wine, he was reminding his disciples that even at the end of his life - life is a party. As we move closer to Good Friday and we remember the death of Jesus, it is important for us to remember that this Friday truly is good. This sacrifice saves us from sin, from Hell, from ourselves - this sacrifice saves and redeems the world. This bread and this cup are a symbol for us that truly Jesus Christ is our sacrifice. We share in his body and blood and we are saved by nothing less.
After the choir anthem, we will share in Holy Communion together. Like the disciples gathering for the Seder meal - this is something we have done at least dozens of times. We know the order, the method, the ritual; and that knowledge makes it even easier to miss the significance and the meaning of this sacred order. I urge you to remember in earnest the sacrifice of our Lord as we share in communion together.
The disciples entered into the upper room with the knowledge that they knew what was coming next. They knew the routine, the knew the order of the seder meal.
But that night in the Upper Room would be very different. From the very entrance, Jesus changed the formula. In place of the lowly servant to wash their feet, Jesus kneels before them. Jesus used the ritual and tradition that was so very familiar to them, but Jesus infused it with new meaning.
Tonight we will celebrate a traditional Jewish Seder meal, but because of our faith in Jesus as the Messiah; these symbols mean something different to us. The Jewish Seder meal celebrates the past and longs for the future - our meal tonight celebrates the past, the present, and the future.
Let's begin with the past.
Read the account of the passover.
The Jewish people were slaves in Egypt. We remember the stories of Moses' birth. As the Jewish population increased, they began to outnumber the Egyptians, so Pharoah called for all newborn babies to be killed.
Slavery is the backdrop for our meal tonight. Take the horseradish and eat it. It is bitter. This reminds us of the harsh bitterness of slavery endured by the Jews in Egypt. As Christians, we live in the present, and this bitter herb must also remind us that many people still live with the bitterness of slavery. Around the world millions of people are enslaved. Women and children are subjected to unimaginable horror as sex-slaves, women and children are used as cheap labor in banana republics where they are paid pennies for a solid hour of work, and the lost and the hurting often find themselves enslaved to sin. We taste this bitter herb to remind us that slavery is still an all too real part of life for all too many people.
To wash that taste out of your mouth, you may eat some of the Haroset. It's the apple, cinnamon mix. We eat it because it symbolizes the mud used to create bricks. [As moses was fighting for the freedom of his people, God sent plagues. Pharoah punished the Jewish slaves by demanding that they increase the number of bricks they made each day - but he refused to give them any straw. God provided a miracle and the bricks set up.] This Haroset is used to sweeten the bitterness of slavery. Because of our faith in God, we know that we can survive anything - we know that God is with us. As Christians we work toward the future. We believe and fight for a future free from the yoke of slavery. We pray for wisdom and try to remember that our actions and purchases either encourage or stem the tide of unfair practices globally.
On the night of the final Plague, Moses instructed the faithful to take the blood of a lamb and to spread it around the doorframe of their house. Take your green and dip it in salt water. This represents the hyssop branch dipped in the Lamb's blood. When death came through, it would passover the homes with the blood of the lamb on their doorframes. That night death took the firstborn of every house in Egypt. Even Pharoah's youngest was killed. This is the reason for the celebration - death passed over the Jewish homes.
Go ahead and taste the lamb, and remember the sacrifice made for you.
You know, oddly enough, in many languages the word for Passover and Easter are the same word. Dear friends, death is coming - it is on its way - and God asks you to take the blood of the lamb and to put it on the doorframe of your heart. Jesus is our sacrificial lamb. His presence in our lives shows without a doubt that death is not welcome here.
This last year has been an especially difficult one for me. More than a year ago one of my closest friends had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. From the other side of the world I watched as my healthy, active 23 year old friend succumbed to the long slow debilitating effects of the cancer. As Christians, we celebrate the tension of living in this era. Death is not welcome here, but it is yet to be fully vanquished.
One day we will live in a world free of sadness and tears. "The last enemy to be defeated shall be death." This lamb is for us a symbol of the blood of the lamb that protected the Jewish people, the blood of our Lamb who protects us, and the promise of a better future - one in which the lion will lie down with the lamb.
The hard boiled egg represents for us the old covenant. The system of offering burnt offerings to appease God. This should remind us of the new covenant - that Jesus Christ died in our place as our sacrifice.
And we come to our final items. Bread and wine.
The Matzah bread is specific because there wasn't time to make yeast breads which would need time to rise. Although the people had been waiting on God, they weren't acting like it. They weren't acting as though they believed that God would free them from slavery. If they had trusted that God would set them free as God had promised, the people would have had bread already prepared.
Sometimes in our own lives, although we say that we trust God, we fail to plan and act accordingly. My great aunt Mabel was a very strict old-school-religion kind of Christian. Her financial adviser had advised several end-of-life care options. He felt that she should buy life insurance and a burial plot, but Aunt Mabel staunchly refused. One day she was going over her finances with my mother who pressed for a reason why she wouldn't make those logical investments. "Well, I plan on going up in the rapture." After she lived for a decade longer than any of her brothers and sisters - we all started getting a little readier for the rapture.
Nothing is funnier than watching children sing "If you're happy and you know it" while obviously not being happy about the fact. Few things are sadder than watching Christians sing about the joy of the Lord with no trace of joy on their faces. Eating the Matzah reminds us to live each day as though we actually believe the things we say we believe.
We drink the wine to remind us that this is a celebration. When Jesus held up the wine, he was reminding his disciples that even at the end of his life - life is a party. As we move closer to Good Friday and we remember the death of Jesus, it is important for us to remember that this Friday truly is good. This sacrifice saves us from sin, from Hell, from ourselves - this sacrifice saves and redeems the world. This bread and this cup are a symbol for us that truly Jesus Christ is our sacrifice. We share in his body and blood and we are saved by nothing less.
After the choir anthem, we will share in Holy Communion together. Like the disciples gathering for the Seder meal - this is something we have done at least dozens of times. We know the order, the method, the ritual; and that knowledge makes it even easier to miss the significance and the meaning of this sacred order. I urge you to remember in earnest the sacrifice of our Lord as we share in communion together.
Monday, April 04, 2011
Jesus the partier
"On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
“Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him." - John 2:1-11
Start sermon by bringing out a wine glass.
Wine has been around for thousands of years. In historical settings where water was unsafe to drink, most often people drank wine. Wine is an important part of dozens of cultures. You can't be Italian or French without a nice glass of wine in your hand. Wine doesn't have the same reputation as other alcohols. Vodka and other hard liquors are just used for getting drunk. Beer is often seen as a little low-brow. It's something to drink while sitting on a bench in a park. But wine is different. Wine is used for celebrating. Nothing is as clear a sign of refinement and celebration as uncorking a nice bottle of wine. Wine is a symbol of great wealth. The rich relish in ordering a bottle with a label that clearly shows refinement and taste. University students drink wine out of a box, their parents uncork a bottle with a dog riding a unicycle on the label.
Wine is a symbol of an elegant, delightful party.
[At this point I will bring out a second wine glass and clearly pour grape juice into it for my translator
A TOAST: May you share in the greatest party of your lives. May we find joy together and embrace it with our whole hearts. будьмо!
Today I want to talk about parties and my favorite partier.
It's my last sermon with you - so I can say anything that I want and get away with it. If you have theological questions, feel free to ask David tomorrow.
Jesus was a partier. At least that was the reputation he had. He went to parties thrown by anarchists and attended by prostitutes. When we think of Jesus, many of us think of a quiet reserved man, in a field silently tending sheep as David portrayed him two weeks ago. Someone who would fit in better in a library than a bar. But Jesus' enemies felt quiet differently about him. They lambasted him for his ways. They felt that his lifestyle choices were shameful.
And they weren't so far from the truth. Now we assume that because Jesus was without sin, that Jesus always drank in moderation. We would be wise to do likewise. But whether Jesus drank at all, he was still present and active at some wild parties. His friends were people that you probably wouldn't hang out with. But maybe you should.
...
Life in Christ isn't about following the rules or trying to earn rewards or entrance to heaven. Life in Christ is a party - and you're invited.
This was the third day of the wedding. People had been drunk for three straight days, and Jesus felt it necessary to turn water into wine.
A lot of us were taught the rules of religion when we were growing up. Don’t do this. Don’t do that. Don’t lie, don’t cheat. Throw salt over your left shoulder to knock the devil off. We were taught the rules.
Because it’s a lot easier to teach a toddler not to touch a hot stove, than it is to teach that same toddler how to use that stove to cook the most exquisite meals the world has ever tasted.
When I look at global Christianity, the thing that turns my stomach into knots- the truth that causes great anguish and pain- is that most Christians never move beyond the instruction of rules and regulations of the faith.
Sermon after sermon, book after book, angry grandmother after angry grandmother – they all point to the same thing: we are children and we are going to get burned by the stove.
We are not children anymore. It is time for our faith in Christ to move beyond the gentle instruction reserved for toddlers. We must move into a maturity of faith. We must no longer be afraid of the stove, and instead we must learn to cook delicious meals on it.
Because living in the fullness of Christ is a party. It’s a lavish affair that goes on and on and on. Jesus and his disciples show up while the party is in full swing. It has been going on for several days – and then they run out of wine. Not only does Jesus support the merits of having an occasional glass of wine for your health – he embraces the joy, delight, and merriment of a drunken party lasting well into next week.
Jesus tells the head servant to take a cup and fill it with water and take that cup of water to the man sitting at the head of the table. Now, if you or I were asked this request – we would go to the faucet. But, this was Cana 2000 years ago. They didn’t have faucets – they didn’t have running water. The water wasn’t safe to drink – so they didn’t keep “drinking water" around. They lived in the desert. This head servant dipped his cup into the only water supply in the house – the water that had been used in the ceremonial washing.
As guests arrived over the three day long party, the servants used the whole supply of water to wash the feet of the guests. The wedding party and the most important guests would have washed first – with clean water. Women, children, servants, slaves, and late-comers would have washed with the dirty water that was left over.
It was this dirty water, this used-up source, that was available when Jesus asked the servant to take some water to the head of the household.
Now, these were harsh times for servants and slaves. If the servant brought you a cup of filthy, muddy water – you didn’t laugh it off as a good prank; you had his head cut off for insubordination.
Although this man has never seen Jesus perform a miracle (remember, this was Jesus’ first public miracle), and has maybe never even heard him preach, he has had the privilege of interacting with Jesus. He and his fellow servants have washed the feet of Jesus and the disciples as they entered the party. What about that 20 minute interaction let the head-servant know that he could trust his job – his very life – to the words and actions of this wandering teacher and his twelve disciples? Maybe the servant knew Mary well and trusted her words intimately. We will never know for sure.
But we do know, he trusted Jesus enough to dip his chalice into dirty, used up water and walked to the front of the hall to deliver the most delicious wine ever created to the head of the party.
Jesus is asking the same of you. First, he’s asking you to trust him. You've known Jesus for longer than 20 minutes. Just as Mary says to the servant, I say to you this day, "Do whatever he tells you."
He’s asking you to take a real leap of faith and to really trust him. Jesus wants you to really trust him with not only your job and the respect that people show you, but He wants you to risk even your very life.
Second, he's asking you to dip into the dirty water of the world. Because if we want to see a miracle, we have to work with what we've got.
This world is dirty and filthy. People are mean and cruel. I could read you statistics about how many people are addicted to drugs, how many people get raped, how many children go to bed hungry at night, how many people are beat up in hate crimes because of the color of their skin or because of whom they love, or how many people are killed in violent crimes every year. I could read you these statistics, but I think that deep down you already know them. You know that we live in a fallen world.
So instead, I'll read you the hope and promise that Christ has given us. “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
Jesus Christ is the best wine the world has ever tasted. Jesus wants us to stand up and have the courage to dip into the filthy, dirty world and to know that from that we will pull out the finest wine. When we are ready and willing to get our hands dirty and to engage with the world - at that point we will experience the fullness of Jesus Christ as Savior who can move the mountains.
Trust that the Holy Spirit will guide you. Don't just give a few coins to the old lady holding out a cup - ask her to share her story. Think about where you spend your free time and where people who don't know Jesus spend theirs.
There's this really beautiful miracle that Jesus wants to make happen, but he needs you to take the lead and dip into the dirty water and to risk your life to bring it to the world. I don't know what it is, but I think that you should "Do whatever he tells you."
After 13 beautiful months, today is my final day in L'viv. I refuse to mourn this fact. In Jesus Christ, life is a party. We have celebrated and partied together for 13 months, and as brothers and sisters we will continue to party together for all of eternity. Whether I come back in a few months or a few years or whether we don't get to see each other again until we are with Jesus; the party continues.
This day Jesus is asking us all to trust Him and do as he says. Leaving this place today is part of that trust. While it breaks my heart to say goodbye, I will gladly dip my chalice into this dirty water - because I have the hope and the promise that Jesus Christ saves the best for last. The best is yet to come, and we are part of making that happen.
May you always have the freedom to live in the joy of Christ. May you have the courage to celebrate and party in the face of danger and strife. Amen.
“Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him." - John 2:1-11
Start sermon by bringing out a wine glass.
Wine has been around for thousands of years. In historical settings where water was unsafe to drink, most often people drank wine. Wine is an important part of dozens of cultures. You can't be Italian or French without a nice glass of wine in your hand. Wine doesn't have the same reputation as other alcohols. Vodka and other hard liquors are just used for getting drunk. Beer is often seen as a little low-brow. It's something to drink while sitting on a bench in a park. But wine is different. Wine is used for celebrating. Nothing is as clear a sign of refinement and celebration as uncorking a nice bottle of wine. Wine is a symbol of great wealth. The rich relish in ordering a bottle with a label that clearly shows refinement and taste. University students drink wine out of a box, their parents uncork a bottle with a dog riding a unicycle on the label.
Wine is a symbol of an elegant, delightful party.
[At this point I will bring out a second wine glass and clearly pour grape juice into it for my translator
A TOAST: May you share in the greatest party of your lives. May we find joy together and embrace it with our whole hearts. будьмо!
Today I want to talk about parties and my favorite partier.
It's my last sermon with you - so I can say anything that I want and get away with it. If you have theological questions, feel free to ask David tomorrow.
Jesus was a partier. At least that was the reputation he had. He went to parties thrown by anarchists and attended by prostitutes. When we think of Jesus, many of us think of a quiet reserved man, in a field silently tending sheep as David portrayed him two weeks ago. Someone who would fit in better in a library than a bar. But Jesus' enemies felt quiet differently about him. They lambasted him for his ways. They felt that his lifestyle choices were shameful.
And they weren't so far from the truth. Now we assume that because Jesus was without sin, that Jesus always drank in moderation. We would be wise to do likewise. But whether Jesus drank at all, he was still present and active at some wild parties. His friends were people that you probably wouldn't hang out with. But maybe you should.
...
Life in Christ isn't about following the rules or trying to earn rewards or entrance to heaven. Life in Christ is a party - and you're invited.
This was the third day of the wedding. People had been drunk for three straight days, and Jesus felt it necessary to turn water into wine.
A lot of us were taught the rules of religion when we were growing up. Don’t do this. Don’t do that. Don’t lie, don’t cheat. Throw salt over your left shoulder to knock the devil off. We were taught the rules.
Because it’s a lot easier to teach a toddler not to touch a hot stove, than it is to teach that same toddler how to use that stove to cook the most exquisite meals the world has ever tasted.
When I look at global Christianity, the thing that turns my stomach into knots- the truth that causes great anguish and pain- is that most Christians never move beyond the instruction of rules and regulations of the faith.
Sermon after sermon, book after book, angry grandmother after angry grandmother – they all point to the same thing: we are children and we are going to get burned by the stove.
We are not children anymore. It is time for our faith in Christ to move beyond the gentle instruction reserved for toddlers. We must move into a maturity of faith. We must no longer be afraid of the stove, and instead we must learn to cook delicious meals on it.
Because living in the fullness of Christ is a party. It’s a lavish affair that goes on and on and on. Jesus and his disciples show up while the party is in full swing. It has been going on for several days – and then they run out of wine. Not only does Jesus support the merits of having an occasional glass of wine for your health – he embraces the joy, delight, and merriment of a drunken party lasting well into next week.
Jesus tells the head servant to take a cup and fill it with water and take that cup of water to the man sitting at the head of the table. Now, if you or I were asked this request – we would go to the faucet. But, this was Cana 2000 years ago. They didn’t have faucets – they didn’t have running water. The water wasn’t safe to drink – so they didn’t keep “drinking water" around. They lived in the desert. This head servant dipped his cup into the only water supply in the house – the water that had been used in the ceremonial washing.
As guests arrived over the three day long party, the servants used the whole supply of water to wash the feet of the guests. The wedding party and the most important guests would have washed first – with clean water. Women, children, servants, slaves, and late-comers would have washed with the dirty water that was left over.
It was this dirty water, this used-up source, that was available when Jesus asked the servant to take some water to the head of the household.
Now, these were harsh times for servants and slaves. If the servant brought you a cup of filthy, muddy water – you didn’t laugh it off as a good prank; you had his head cut off for insubordination.
Although this man has never seen Jesus perform a miracle (remember, this was Jesus’ first public miracle), and has maybe never even heard him preach, he has had the privilege of interacting with Jesus. He and his fellow servants have washed the feet of Jesus and the disciples as they entered the party. What about that 20 minute interaction let the head-servant know that he could trust his job – his very life – to the words and actions of this wandering teacher and his twelve disciples? Maybe the servant knew Mary well and trusted her words intimately. We will never know for sure.
But we do know, he trusted Jesus enough to dip his chalice into dirty, used up water and walked to the front of the hall to deliver the most delicious wine ever created to the head of the party.
Jesus is asking the same of you. First, he’s asking you to trust him. You've known Jesus for longer than 20 minutes. Just as Mary says to the servant, I say to you this day, "Do whatever he tells you."
He’s asking you to take a real leap of faith and to really trust him. Jesus wants you to really trust him with not only your job and the respect that people show you, but He wants you to risk even your very life.
Second, he's asking you to dip into the dirty water of the world. Because if we want to see a miracle, we have to work with what we've got.
This world is dirty and filthy. People are mean and cruel. I could read you statistics about how many people are addicted to drugs, how many people get raped, how many children go to bed hungry at night, how many people are beat up in hate crimes because of the color of their skin or because of whom they love, or how many people are killed in violent crimes every year. I could read you these statistics, but I think that deep down you already know them. You know that we live in a fallen world.
So instead, I'll read you the hope and promise that Christ has given us. “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
Jesus Christ is the best wine the world has ever tasted. Jesus wants us to stand up and have the courage to dip into the filthy, dirty world and to know that from that we will pull out the finest wine. When we are ready and willing to get our hands dirty and to engage with the world - at that point we will experience the fullness of Jesus Christ as Savior who can move the mountains.
Trust that the Holy Spirit will guide you. Don't just give a few coins to the old lady holding out a cup - ask her to share her story. Think about where you spend your free time and where people who don't know Jesus spend theirs.
There's this really beautiful miracle that Jesus wants to make happen, but he needs you to take the lead and dip into the dirty water and to risk your life to bring it to the world. I don't know what it is, but I think that you should "Do whatever he tells you."
After 13 beautiful months, today is my final day in L'viv. I refuse to mourn this fact. In Jesus Christ, life is a party. We have celebrated and partied together for 13 months, and as brothers and sisters we will continue to party together for all of eternity. Whether I come back in a few months or a few years or whether we don't get to see each other again until we are with Jesus; the party continues.
This day Jesus is asking us all to trust Him and do as he says. Leaving this place today is part of that trust. While it breaks my heart to say goodbye, I will gladly dip my chalice into this dirty water - because I have the hope and the promise that Jesus Christ saves the best for last. The best is yet to come, and we are part of making that happen.
May you always have the freedom to live in the joy of Christ. May you have the courage to celebrate and party in the face of danger and strife. Amen.
Saturday, April 02, 2011
My final sermon at L'viv UMC.
A parable:
I once knew a couple who were farmers, and we used to go often to visit their farm. At one point in my childhood, finances got tight and they had to close down the farm for a few years. They sold all of the livestock and didn't plant any new crops. The barns stood empty and the fields were bare. But, for these two farmers, their lives revolved around the farming community. Their calendar had been filled with farming, farming conferences, cattle auctions, and shows.
So, with or without the farm, they continued with their farming lifestyle. They attended farming conferences. They listened to lectures about the latest farming technologies. They discussed which seed varieties worked best in their region. They learned about which tractors and combines were most effective to plow and to harvest.
And then they went home. They didn't farm. They talked about how helpful the farming conference had been and they both agreed that it had made them better farmers.
They went to cattle auctions and watched as other people bid on cows. Then they went home. They looked out at the empty barn and shrugged their shoulders. They didn't plant and they didn't harvest for another year.
The next year they eagerly signed up again for the regional farming conference. They were so excited to learn how to be better farmers, and to be taught how to grow and harvest more effectively. They were really ready for this conference to make them even better farmers than the conference the year before.
----
After I became a Christian I wasted several years. I didn't share my faith with anyone for a long time because I was afraid. I assumed that I didn't have the right words, or that I couldn't answer their questions. I was afraid that people would reject me. I read books on the subject, and listened to sermons about it, but I never took that first step of sharing my faith.
I love the simplicity of the witness of the man in today's story. He sees that the Pharisees are stuck on some complex theological issue and he states simply that he doesn't know the answer. But he continues, "One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"
It's this simple answer that the divided world is looking for. While professors and lawyers argue over great theological questions - the rest of us are left to give the simple answer. We can only share what we know. "I was blind but now I see!" I hated everything about myself and now I love myself. I was an angry drunk and now I love my family. I was a sinner and now I'm forgiven.
I want you to watch this video.
[I'm not sure if we'll watch the whole video in church ... maybe just a few minutes. I really wrestled with the idea of performing this, or making this interactive somehow. I'm not done wrestling yet!]
I want you to think about your own life. Could you explain what Jesus has done on one piece of paper? Could you then stand up on a stage and show that paper to everyone else? Could you say those two phrases to someone that you really love?
These last few weeks we've been preaching about sharing our faith. We hope that we have helped you become more confident and motivated to share your faith. As Christians, we believe that our collective testimony is powerful and world-changing. I want to share three stories with you all today that highlight this fact:
Almost 300 years ago the Methodist movement began. It grew out of frustration with the established church. It was a time in church history when the church was dead. The wealthy and the powerful went to church to be seen. The poor and the powerless were simply not welcome.
John and Charles Wesley came from an odd family life. Their father had been a priest, but he left his congregation to move to the city. His wife, Susanna, felt that it was important that her children have instruction - so she began teaching them on Sunday mornings. Well, soon enough, the other mothers found out about the Bible classes and asked if their children could also attend. And soon the mothers also began attending. And then the fathers began attending.
Susanna Wesley soon had a thriving congregation on her hands - and, unintentionally, she was their priest. So the Wesley children grew up with the knowledge that God worked in strange and wonderful ways - and that God worked through all kinds of people.
When the Wesley brothers were old enough they became priests as well, but the sensed that the church was dying - if not already dead! People with great wealth went to church on Sunday morning to be seen by others. The poor were no longer welcome in the church. The job of "priest" had become a profitable career choice. The Wesley brothers wanted to see their church come alive again. They became part of a home group - and during this time their hearts were strangely warmed. They began to see the problems that had been slowly eating away at the church.
They began preaching to all people. If the poor weren't welcomed into the church - then neither was Jesus and neither were the Wesley brothers. They would go and preach somewhere else. They preached the good news that Jesus Christ died for sinners and that all may be made right with God through Jesus - and they preached it everywhere. They preached in marketplaces and they stood on tombstones and preached it in cemeteries. Crowds gathered to hear this radical idea - and this idea is still radical today! - and the Wesley brothers formed these men and women into home groups.
75 years ago Elaine Neale was growing up in a poor immigrant family. Her father was a mean drunk and it wasn't uncommon for the children to have bruises. One of her neighbors attended the Methodist church in her little town, and came over one day to ask if she could bring Elaine and her sisters to Sunday School with her own children. Each Sunday she would walk with her sisters to the local United Methodist church.
They went to the United Methodist church because they were welcome there. People loved them there. To the people at that little United Methodist congregation; it didn't matter how poor those little girls were, it didn't matter how much of a drunk their daddy was, and it didn't matter that they didn't know anything about the Bible or how good people behaved. What mattered was that Jesus loved them, and so did the people of that little church.
I am standing here today because that woman had the courage to invite my grandmother to church and because that little church loved her and her sister's unconditionally.
In Mongolia I met several people with the name Nergyui. Now, in Mongolia people attribute great importance to names. I assumed that Nergyui must be a particularly beautiful and meaningful name. I asked one of the boys named Nergyui what his name meant and his eyes looked toward the floor. "My name means, 'no name'" he said.
In Mongolia, if a child dies, his or her name is no longer considered beautiful. So, if parents think that a child will die they choose not to waste a good name on them. I met many such people. Ter bish - not this. no one. nothing.
All of their lives, the world had told them that they were nothing - but in the church they found that they were so precious that God was willing to give Jesus to be nothing in their place. The United Methodist church in Mongolia is filled with such people. These people find the meaning and purpose that their lives had always been missing.
I share these examples to show the church in three very different locations and time periods working at its best. These were churches that looked beyond what the world saw and in turn they were able to transform the world.
In the past I have been afraid to share my faith because I felt like I was doing it simply for myself. I was trying to make myself feel better, or I was trying to be a better Christian because witnessing was what I was "supposed to do." When we share our faith with the world, we move in the direction of transformation.
If that neighbor lady hadn't invited my grandmother to church, I wouldn't be here today. For three generations we have worked for the cause of the gospel. We have shared our faith and we have fought for social change. I am very, very thankful that that woman worked up the courage to ask if she could bring my grandmother and her sisters to church. I owe a lot of my life and my ministry to her.
When we share our faith in big and small ways, we receive a blessing. But the fried that we share with also receives a blessing. Whether he or she accepts or rejects your words, the blessing is in part simply knowing that you care enough to share. If that friend accepts, his or her life will be blessed immeasurably by God. The world will be blessed by the new life that person has in God. The people they share with will be blessed.
When Jesus spat in the mud and placed it in the eyes of the blind man, he opened his eyes to a whole new world. The man had never seen anything before. He and his family had been shunned by the community because of his blindness - and now he could see. His life had been transformed by Jesus Christ and he was ready to tell the whole world.
You know, there are a lot of people who will tell you that it's wrong to share your faith. The pharisees were angry and upset that Jesus had performed this miracle. As though there was something sinful about opening someone's eyes to a whole new world. If people felt this way about Jesus, you can bet the farm that they'll feel the same way when you do it. People will be upset when you help to open people's hearts to God.
But, do you know who wasn't upset or angry? The blind man. He was thrilled to have his sight back. He was so overjoyed that he was ready to share his faith even with the powerful and important men who were clearly angry at this Jesus who "sinned" by healing on the Sabbath. No matter how you go about it, any person whose life is changed by Jesus Christ will be glad that you shared with them.
Go forth this day, armed with nothing but your simple story, and transform this world for Jesus Christ.
I once knew a couple who were farmers, and we used to go often to visit their farm. At one point in my childhood, finances got tight and they had to close down the farm for a few years. They sold all of the livestock and didn't plant any new crops. The barns stood empty and the fields were bare. But, for these two farmers, their lives revolved around the farming community. Their calendar had been filled with farming, farming conferences, cattle auctions, and shows.
So, with or without the farm, they continued with their farming lifestyle. They attended farming conferences. They listened to lectures about the latest farming technologies. They discussed which seed varieties worked best in their region. They learned about which tractors and combines were most effective to plow and to harvest.
And then they went home. They didn't farm. They talked about how helpful the farming conference had been and they both agreed that it had made them better farmers.
They went to cattle auctions and watched as other people bid on cows. Then they went home. They looked out at the empty barn and shrugged their shoulders. They didn't plant and they didn't harvest for another year.
The next year they eagerly signed up again for the regional farming conference. They were so excited to learn how to be better farmers, and to be taught how to grow and harvest more effectively. They were really ready for this conference to make them even better farmers than the conference the year before.
----
After I became a Christian I wasted several years. I didn't share my faith with anyone for a long time because I was afraid. I assumed that I didn't have the right words, or that I couldn't answer their questions. I was afraid that people would reject me. I read books on the subject, and listened to sermons about it, but I never took that first step of sharing my faith.
I love the simplicity of the witness of the man in today's story. He sees that the Pharisees are stuck on some complex theological issue and he states simply that he doesn't know the answer. But he continues, "One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"
It's this simple answer that the divided world is looking for. While professors and lawyers argue over great theological questions - the rest of us are left to give the simple answer. We can only share what we know. "I was blind but now I see!" I hated everything about myself and now I love myself. I was an angry drunk and now I love my family. I was a sinner and now I'm forgiven.
I want you to watch this video.
[I'm not sure if we'll watch the whole video in church ... maybe just a few minutes. I really wrestled with the idea of performing this, or making this interactive somehow. I'm not done wrestling yet!]
I want you to think about your own life. Could you explain what Jesus has done on one piece of paper? Could you then stand up on a stage and show that paper to everyone else? Could you say those two phrases to someone that you really love?
These last few weeks we've been preaching about sharing our faith. We hope that we have helped you become more confident and motivated to share your faith. As Christians, we believe that our collective testimony is powerful and world-changing. I want to share three stories with you all today that highlight this fact:
Almost 300 years ago the Methodist movement began. It grew out of frustration with the established church. It was a time in church history when the church was dead. The wealthy and the powerful went to church to be seen. The poor and the powerless were simply not welcome.
John and Charles Wesley came from an odd family life. Their father had been a priest, but he left his congregation to move to the city. His wife, Susanna, felt that it was important that her children have instruction - so she began teaching them on Sunday mornings. Well, soon enough, the other mothers found out about the Bible classes and asked if their children could also attend. And soon the mothers also began attending. And then the fathers began attending.
Susanna Wesley soon had a thriving congregation on her hands - and, unintentionally, she was their priest. So the Wesley children grew up with the knowledge that God worked in strange and wonderful ways - and that God worked through all kinds of people.
When the Wesley brothers were old enough they became priests as well, but the sensed that the church was dying - if not already dead! People with great wealth went to church on Sunday morning to be seen by others. The poor were no longer welcome in the church. The job of "priest" had become a profitable career choice. The Wesley brothers wanted to see their church come alive again. They became part of a home group - and during this time their hearts were strangely warmed. They began to see the problems that had been slowly eating away at the church.
They began preaching to all people. If the poor weren't welcomed into the church - then neither was Jesus and neither were the Wesley brothers. They would go and preach somewhere else. They preached the good news that Jesus Christ died for sinners and that all may be made right with God through Jesus - and they preached it everywhere. They preached in marketplaces and they stood on tombstones and preached it in cemeteries. Crowds gathered to hear this radical idea - and this idea is still radical today! - and the Wesley brothers formed these men and women into home groups.
75 years ago Elaine Neale was growing up in a poor immigrant family. Her father was a mean drunk and it wasn't uncommon for the children to have bruises. One of her neighbors attended the Methodist church in her little town, and came over one day to ask if she could bring Elaine and her sisters to Sunday School with her own children. Each Sunday she would walk with her sisters to the local United Methodist church.
They went to the United Methodist church because they were welcome there. People loved them there. To the people at that little United Methodist congregation; it didn't matter how poor those little girls were, it didn't matter how much of a drunk their daddy was, and it didn't matter that they didn't know anything about the Bible or how good people behaved. What mattered was that Jesus loved them, and so did the people of that little church.
I am standing here today because that woman had the courage to invite my grandmother to church and because that little church loved her and her sister's unconditionally.
In Mongolia I met several people with the name Nergyui. Now, in Mongolia people attribute great importance to names. I assumed that Nergyui must be a particularly beautiful and meaningful name. I asked one of the boys named Nergyui what his name meant and his eyes looked toward the floor. "My name means, 'no name'" he said.
In Mongolia, if a child dies, his or her name is no longer considered beautiful. So, if parents think that a child will die they choose not to waste a good name on them. I met many such people. Ter bish - not this. no one. nothing.
All of their lives, the world had told them that they were nothing - but in the church they found that they were so precious that God was willing to give Jesus to be nothing in their place. The United Methodist church in Mongolia is filled with such people. These people find the meaning and purpose that their lives had always been missing.
I share these examples to show the church in three very different locations and time periods working at its best. These were churches that looked beyond what the world saw and in turn they were able to transform the world.
In the past I have been afraid to share my faith because I felt like I was doing it simply for myself. I was trying to make myself feel better, or I was trying to be a better Christian because witnessing was what I was "supposed to do." When we share our faith with the world, we move in the direction of transformation.
If that neighbor lady hadn't invited my grandmother to church, I wouldn't be here today. For three generations we have worked for the cause of the gospel. We have shared our faith and we have fought for social change. I am very, very thankful that that woman worked up the courage to ask if she could bring my grandmother and her sisters to church. I owe a lot of my life and my ministry to her.
When we share our faith in big and small ways, we receive a blessing. But the fried that we share with also receives a blessing. Whether he or she accepts or rejects your words, the blessing is in part simply knowing that you care enough to share. If that friend accepts, his or her life will be blessed immeasurably by God. The world will be blessed by the new life that person has in God. The people they share with will be blessed.
When Jesus spat in the mud and placed it in the eyes of the blind man, he opened his eyes to a whole new world. The man had never seen anything before. He and his family had been shunned by the community because of his blindness - and now he could see. His life had been transformed by Jesus Christ and he was ready to tell the whole world.
You know, there are a lot of people who will tell you that it's wrong to share your faith. The pharisees were angry and upset that Jesus had performed this miracle. As though there was something sinful about opening someone's eyes to a whole new world. If people felt this way about Jesus, you can bet the farm that they'll feel the same way when you do it. People will be upset when you help to open people's hearts to God.
But, do you know who wasn't upset or angry? The blind man. He was thrilled to have his sight back. He was so overjoyed that he was ready to share his faith even with the powerful and important men who were clearly angry at this Jesus who "sinned" by healing on the Sabbath. No matter how you go about it, any person whose life is changed by Jesus Christ will be glad that you shared with them.
Go forth this day, armed with nothing but your simple story, and transform this world for Jesus Christ.
Monday, March 14, 2011
I celebrated Christmas today. It was one of those random moments that I'm slightly notorious for. There remains a slight perception that in my family people either end up eccentric or crazy - and I have few qualms about embracing eccentricity.
Truth be told, the need to celebrate Christmas had something to do with losing Jonathan. There was some hint of grief and indwelling sadness, a hint that might remain for some time. I couldn't quite make the connection. It's like the lochness monster, I'm still convinced that it's there - I just couldn't find it.
I cooked a traditional Christmas dinner, invited a friend over, and watched some Christmas specials. It was perfect like the morning after the last Pancake and Pajama night. The one with Rebecca still in Georgia. A group had spent the night and studied for a math exam. I was more than ready, and managed to sleep at least 6 hours while everyone else crammed. I was the only one to pass the exam. In the morning, Rebecca made us all pancakes before she went into work. She made a Mickey mouse pancake for Jonathan. It was perfect like Christmas dinner in March.
It feels a little bit as though so many things are broken in my life. I banter around the phrase "in my broken Ukrainian" to describe all of my conversations; this as though at one point I had spoken Ukrainian quiet lovely and fluently and then one day a neighborhood kid hit a baseball through it and suddenly it was broken.
We need a better word:
Flailing?
Stuttered?
Slovenly?
Because it's not that things are broken. It's that things are flailing about in a slovenly fashion. I stutter over the remains of self confidence and stop-gap at memories.
I can't mention baseball without remembering the time that Jonathan was staying at my house and the tree branch fell on my neighbor's roof. It made a tremendous noise, and sounded like someone had broken down the door. By the time I sat up and reached under my bed for the baseball bat, Jonathan was already out on the porch in - with my baseball bat in hand, in nothing but his underwear. It was another of those eccentric moments that made my gossipy neighbors overjoyed.
It will take a while to deal with this grief. It will help to go to his graveside, to visit with his family, to talk with our friends about him. But, this too shall pass. I'll move past mandating holidays and word-association games. Eventually I'll get to the point were things are back to normal. I'll forgive easily and I'll love easily, again.
It might take a few more random holidays. Who's up for Halloween in two weeks? Really.
Truth be told, the need to celebrate Christmas had something to do with losing Jonathan. There was some hint of grief and indwelling sadness, a hint that might remain for some time. I couldn't quite make the connection. It's like the lochness monster, I'm still convinced that it's there - I just couldn't find it.
I cooked a traditional Christmas dinner, invited a friend over, and watched some Christmas specials. It was perfect like the morning after the last Pancake and Pajama night. The one with Rebecca still in Georgia. A group had spent the night and studied for a math exam. I was more than ready, and managed to sleep at least 6 hours while everyone else crammed. I was the only one to pass the exam. In the morning, Rebecca made us all pancakes before she went into work. She made a Mickey mouse pancake for Jonathan. It was perfect like Christmas dinner in March.
It feels a little bit as though so many things are broken in my life. I banter around the phrase "in my broken Ukrainian" to describe all of my conversations; this as though at one point I had spoken Ukrainian quiet lovely and fluently and then one day a neighborhood kid hit a baseball through it and suddenly it was broken.
We need a better word:
Flailing?
Stuttered?
Slovenly?
Because it's not that things are broken. It's that things are flailing about in a slovenly fashion. I stutter over the remains of self confidence and stop-gap at memories.
I can't mention baseball without remembering the time that Jonathan was staying at my house and the tree branch fell on my neighbor's roof. It made a tremendous noise, and sounded like someone had broken down the door. By the time I sat up and reached under my bed for the baseball bat, Jonathan was already out on the porch in - with my baseball bat in hand, in nothing but his underwear. It was another of those eccentric moments that made my gossipy neighbors overjoyed.
It will take a while to deal with this grief. It will help to go to his graveside, to visit with his family, to talk with our friends about him. But, this too shall pass. I'll move past mandating holidays and word-association games. Eventually I'll get to the point were things are back to normal. I'll forgive easily and I'll love easily, again.
It might take a few more random holidays. Who's up for Halloween in two weeks? Really.
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
In memoriam...
Jonathan and I became friends when he decided to write a love letter to my friend, Rachel. I had met him before and didn't like him. He seemed too cocky, to self-assured. We sat on an old pipe that crossed the river and had a strict discussion. A few days later I went to his room to confront him about an action that I found inappropriate. I thought he would blow me off - but soon he started showing up at my house to talk.
Jonathan and I would go on long drives together, he would offer to buy me a beverage every time we stopped at a gas station. I had never paid gas-station-prices for anything, and felt that I was being treated to a real luxury. Sometimes we would steal away to a secret spot to smoke a clove cigarette. This fact embarrasses me now beyond belief - but I haven't smoked in ages and it didn't embarrass Jon; so maybe it shouldn't. We wanted to be rebellious and as middle-class white males we really didn't have much else going in our favor in that department - so smoking would suffice.
With passion oozing out of every orifice, he would explain the latest injustice. Some days we felt like we could change the world - other days felt more hopeless than a quicksand swimming pool.
Now that this long battle is over; I begin to wonder, "What's next?" With whom will I crusade? How am I suppose to change the world without J.G. Pound at my side? Sometimes the weight is oppresive - that I might have to carry out our vision without him. Other days I laugh with joy and hope - Jonathan has led like a true visionary and there are hundreds who will take up the cross to go where Jon has been heading.
Who among our friends will leave behind their vision of a comfy desk job to staff an orphanage in India? Which fellow student will begin working with troubled teens to show them God's love? Who will plant churches? Who will challenge "good Christians" to think a little harder about the theological pills they're swallowing? Who will fight the administration when it tries to screw over students to gain more of the almighty dollar? Who will love people that others find detestable?
You. You who knew and loved our dear friend. You who have loved and prayed and fought to the very end. You will crusade with us. You will live out the vision that Jonathan has boldly proclaimed in the name of Christ.
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
Sick.
I've been sick this last week. It was just a little virus with no major complications ... but it sure did knock me out for a while. I felt a little ill on Monday night law week, but tried to push through it. I managed to get everything done for English Club last Tuesday, but I had to go home sick in the afternoon - and I was in bed sick for the next five days! I managed to make it through the whole day on Sunday, but I have been taking it easy since then. I'm still at about 50% energy!
Sorry for not blogging at all these last few weeks.
Sorry for not blogging at all these last few weeks.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Do not worry
When my mother went to University, her parents bought her a calculator. She had to leave it plugged in overnight, and it could hold it's charge for only a class or two. It calculated so slowly, that she just did most of the math work in her head to save time. She took a computer course - on the only computer at the university - in which she cut holes out of a sheet of cardboard and then fed it into the monster-sized computer to see if it would run a program.
As a child I remember my whole family sitting around our brand new PC or personal computer. I remember using the internet over our phone line and watching as pictures showed up one line at a time - just downloading at lightning speed for the time.
I'm sometimes amazed at how fast we have come so far. In less than 40 years we have moved from slow calculators the size of ovens to super-fast computers that fit in the palm of our hands.
I wonder sometimes how far away could we possibly be from flying cars and robot friends.
Todays scripture is so poignant because it reminds us how very little we have moved in the last 2000 years.
We could almost imagine if any of the 12 disciples were to show up in our modern times - we could see the cartoon-y blooper wheel as he attempts to understand our modern life and its conveniences. He would surely be out of place in our busy city, with our fast cars, and our degrees. But, any of the twelve would fit right in with our people. While they wouldn't understand the microwave, they would certainly understand our greed, lust, envy and pride. They might be confused by such simple convenience as our electric kettle, but there would be no confusion regarding our worry.
It seems that as the modern era has moved forward we have begun to worry more and more. While we work fewer hours than most generations before us, live in larger houses, accomplish more with our time, and have a greater understanding of what financial security really means - we worry just as much as we ever have.
Jesus lays out a simple plan for his followers - do not worry - and yet by and large we ignore the advice.
Now I would think that if my friend went to the doctor to complain of a serious problem - and the doctor said that he would be cured if he eats a spoon full of sugar each day - that my friend would comply with that simple advice. But instead we find so many of our friends get sicker and sicker and refuse the simple advice of the doctor.
I had friends who graduated university with 40,000 dollars in debt and immediately decided that they needed to buy a six bedroom house in a nice neighborhood. And yet they couldn't understand why they had so much stress and why they worried so much.
Jesus tells us not to worry. Jesus, the homeless carpenter/teacher, tells the gathered crowd that they shouldn't worry. Now, clearly this is a little hard to take ... because, a little worry is good. The world tells us that we should be worried about finding a place to sleep, and food to fill our stomachs. We need to earn an income and pay bills in order to be a part of normal society.
But Jesus uses the most simple and beautiful illustrations.
Take the flowers of the field for an example. All flowers are beautiful. Even the ones that sprout up as weeds are actually quite pleasant to look at. Even though they are here one day and gone the next, God gives each flower a beautiful design.
For many of us, tomorrow is a scary concept. We don't know how we're going to make it to the end of the month, we don't know how we're going to finish building our house, we don't know how many more days we can survive just eating gretchka. We don't know how we could afford to live if our parents stopped paying for things - or we don't know how our parents could afford to live if we weren't paying for things.
We simply don't know what tomorrow holds.
But we know who holds tomorrow.
As Christians we believe that God is in control. Our lives should reflect that.
Here's an example. I believe in gravity. I think that gravity is real, and I believe that it affects my life. So, if I hold this object out and drop it - and then I want to find the object again - I should look on the floor for it. I shouldn't be surprised that it has fallen, and I shouldn't live as though I expected it to ignore gravity.
When we worry, we show strong evidence of our beliefs. Worry shows that we think we are in control - or that we don't trust God who is clearly in charge.
When we trust, we show strong evidence of our beliefs. We trust that God loved us enough to send Jesus to die on a cross for the forgiveness of our sins. If God loved us that much, why wouldn't God love us enough to take care of everything else? We trust in God for our eternal salvation, why wouldn't we trust God to also handle our finances? Our daily bread? Our interactions with others?
This is such a strong part of our testimony. In this postmodern world, we will rarely win people to the gospel of Jesus Christ by proving the logical facts of the Christian religion. We will only persuade people by the actions of our lives. We must show them that something in our lives is desirable.
The freedom to trust God and remove worry from our daily lives is a radical statement of faith.
I'll tell you this right now, if you leave this place and you genuinely live out the command "do not worry" you'll have people lining up behind you following you to church next week.
Take for example the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet our heavenly Father feeds them. ... but deep down, don't we all want to be a little more like them. Don't we all just want to spread our wings and fly? Don't we all wish we had the freedom to fly?
There is freedom, a tremendous freedom, in the good words of our savior this day. This week, Jesus is challenging us to set our worry aside, to trust fully in the God of heaven and earth, and to spread our wings and fly.
As a child I remember my whole family sitting around our brand new PC or personal computer. I remember using the internet over our phone line and watching as pictures showed up one line at a time - just downloading at lightning speed for the time.
I'm sometimes amazed at how fast we have come so far. In less than 40 years we have moved from slow calculators the size of ovens to super-fast computers that fit in the palm of our hands.
I wonder sometimes how far away could we possibly be from flying cars and robot friends.
Todays scripture is so poignant because it reminds us how very little we have moved in the last 2000 years.
We could almost imagine if any of the 12 disciples were to show up in our modern times - we could see the cartoon-y blooper wheel as he attempts to understand our modern life and its conveniences. He would surely be out of place in our busy city, with our fast cars, and our degrees. But, any of the twelve would fit right in with our people. While they wouldn't understand the microwave, they would certainly understand our greed, lust, envy and pride. They might be confused by such simple convenience as our electric kettle, but there would be no confusion regarding our worry.
It seems that as the modern era has moved forward we have begun to worry more and more. While we work fewer hours than most generations before us, live in larger houses, accomplish more with our time, and have a greater understanding of what financial security really means - we worry just as much as we ever have.
Jesus lays out a simple plan for his followers - do not worry - and yet by and large we ignore the advice.
Now I would think that if my friend went to the doctor to complain of a serious problem - and the doctor said that he would be cured if he eats a spoon full of sugar each day - that my friend would comply with that simple advice. But instead we find so many of our friends get sicker and sicker and refuse the simple advice of the doctor.
I had friends who graduated university with 40,000 dollars in debt and immediately decided that they needed to buy a six bedroom house in a nice neighborhood. And yet they couldn't understand why they had so much stress and why they worried so much.
Jesus tells us not to worry. Jesus, the homeless carpenter/teacher, tells the gathered crowd that they shouldn't worry. Now, clearly this is a little hard to take ... because, a little worry is good. The world tells us that we should be worried about finding a place to sleep, and food to fill our stomachs. We need to earn an income and pay bills in order to be a part of normal society.
But Jesus uses the most simple and beautiful illustrations.
Take the flowers of the field for an example. All flowers are beautiful. Even the ones that sprout up as weeds are actually quite pleasant to look at. Even though they are here one day and gone the next, God gives each flower a beautiful design.
For many of us, tomorrow is a scary concept. We don't know how we're going to make it to the end of the month, we don't know how we're going to finish building our house, we don't know how many more days we can survive just eating gretchka. We don't know how we could afford to live if our parents stopped paying for things - or we don't know how our parents could afford to live if we weren't paying for things.
We simply don't know what tomorrow holds.
But we know who holds tomorrow.
As Christians we believe that God is in control. Our lives should reflect that.
Here's an example. I believe in gravity. I think that gravity is real, and I believe that it affects my life. So, if I hold this object out and drop it - and then I want to find the object again - I should look on the floor for it. I shouldn't be surprised that it has fallen, and I shouldn't live as though I expected it to ignore gravity.
When we worry, we show strong evidence of our beliefs. Worry shows that we think we are in control - or that we don't trust God who is clearly in charge.
When we trust, we show strong evidence of our beliefs. We trust that God loved us enough to send Jesus to die on a cross for the forgiveness of our sins. If God loved us that much, why wouldn't God love us enough to take care of everything else? We trust in God for our eternal salvation, why wouldn't we trust God to also handle our finances? Our daily bread? Our interactions with others?
This is such a strong part of our testimony. In this postmodern world, we will rarely win people to the gospel of Jesus Christ by proving the logical facts of the Christian religion. We will only persuade people by the actions of our lives. We must show them that something in our lives is desirable.
The freedom to trust God and remove worry from our daily lives is a radical statement of faith.
I'll tell you this right now, if you leave this place and you genuinely live out the command "do not worry" you'll have people lining up behind you following you to church next week.
Take for example the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet our heavenly Father feeds them. ... but deep down, don't we all want to be a little more like them. Don't we all just want to spread our wings and fly? Don't we all wish we had the freedom to fly?
There is freedom, a tremendous freedom, in the good words of our savior this day. This week, Jesus is challenging us to set our worry aside, to trust fully in the God of heaven and earth, and to spread our wings and fly.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
On the road again...
What does grace mean to you?
When we think of the idea of grace, it might be a little challenging. In Ukrainian it’s difficult to translate a sermon on grace, because there are lots of words to use – but maybe there isn’t an exact word.
It’s difficult in English as well. We primarily use the word “grace” in a church setting. We talk about dancers being “graceful” but that really loses the meaning of the word.
Because, really, when we look outside of the Christian religion we don’t see much grace. Grace is what separates Christianity from all the other world religions. While we might share a lot of the same Holy Scriptures, and even have similar ideas and stories about God – in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we experience grace. We didn’t do anything to earn it; it is entirely a God-thing.
And in the Christian life, we experience grace a lot. We experience grace daily as we try to live out our faith, but we have also experienced grace before we ever realized it.
If you're a Pilgrim, grace should be meaningful to you. You should think of the ways that God has shown grace to you. You should be able to remember times when you have shown grace to others.
We titled this sermon series, "On the road again..." because we believe that as Pilgrims we are on a faith journey. We are going to focus on three stories of grace in the Bible. It just so happens that all of these people were on the road to somewhere when they experienced grace. David will preach about Saul on the road to Damascus, and Jesus on the road to the cross, but tonight I will talk about Jesus and the others on the road to Emmaus.
Please read this scripture with me.
Luke 24:13-35
When I was in Thailand I was visiting a museum near the hotel I was staying at. A young couple were having some photographs taken, and I was struck by how beautiful the young woman looked in her traditional Thai dress. I spoke a little bit with the couple and asked the woman if I could take a picture of her. I thought it was a little strange that she didn't seem embarrassed that some stranger would want her picture.
We talked a little more about the museum and about the weather, and I moved on with my vacation. The next morning I was reading the local paper and on the front page were several pictures of the royal family. Front and center I saw the young couple and the beautiful princess in the traditional wedding dress she had been wearing the day before at the museum.
I had accidentally met the princess of Thailand before the Thai people. I had talked with her about the weather without knowing who she was.
In the scripture story we see Jesus interacting with people long before they realize who He is. Jesus teaches these two men while they are on their journey. He explains the scripture and helps them to understand what it means.
God does this in our own lives as well.
So imagine that we are going on a long journey together. You don't know the destination, but you're ready to go anyway. You go to pack you bags, and you find that they are already packed. You think, "Oh, I'm sure I'll need toothpaste!" and you find that it's been packed. In fact, everything you think you will need is in your suitcase - as well as several items that you're sure you will never need.
So, let's take a sit before we go on our journey and just relax a little bit.
Here: I'll get us going with some stories:
I grew up in a Christian family and went to church every Sunday. I was a pretty bad little kid. I was so bad that one of my Sunday School teachers asked my parents not to bring me back. I hated going to church, and my parents forced me to go every week. I hated church, but I still knew that there was a hole in my heart. When I was 11 I went to a summer camp - during that week away I realized that I needed to turn my life over to God. I asked forgiveness for my sins and I tried to live differently.
Now, some would say that at this moment I experienced the grace of God. But, I believe it goes much further and much deeper than that. I believe that I experienced the grace of God long before I ever acknowledged God.
God was present in my life from before I was born. In Jeremiah it is written, "For I knew you before you were formed in your mother's womb." God had a plan and a vision for my life before my parents did.
John Wesley called this idea Prevenient Grace: literally, "the grace that comes before." He had an idea of how God had been active in his life from an early age. When he was five he was rescued from a house fire. He sat at his mother's feet as she led his father's congregation while he was away on business. He learned that his life mattered and that he better do something good with it. He learned that anyone could lead and that God called all people, regardless of wealth or class, to follow Jesus.
When John Wesley grew up he became a priest - but he felt that the church he loved so much didn't show or offer grace to people. Only the wealthy were welcome inside the church. So, John and his brother Charles began a crusade to change that. They began preaching outside of the church - wherever people would listen to them. They shared with others the goodness of God, and they told people that God offered them grace.
In their small groups they offered everyone the chance to experience and express the grace of God in their own life.
In the Bible story today what is the specific thing Jesus does when the men realize who they have been speaking with? Jesus breaks the bread. When he does this, their minds flash back to the last supper where Jesus broke the bread. He had told his disciples to remember him every time they broke bread. We experience grace every time we take communion. Maybe in your own faith journey you had your first communion long before God was an important part of your life. Maybe you just didn’t care about him, but week after week God showed you grace through communion.
---
I want you to think about the ways that God has come before and led the way in your life. I want you to think about how God showed grace before you even thought about God.
---
When I look at the path my life has led, I can see God's grace working long before I acknowledged God.
Just to give one example: When I was five or six my mother had a piano student named Maxine. Maxine was an older woman and her family had come to America from Slovenia. She spoke Slovene, and enjoyed teaching me words and phrases. Some weekends my mother and I would meet her at the local nursing home where many old people spoke Slovene. I would listen as they spoke and she would show off her little student to the other Slovene speakers. Well, fast forward to the present and (ena, dve, tri, schtiri, pet) sounds a lot like the numbers in Ukrainian. Now, not many young children in America grew up hearing and learning Slavic languages. Long before I was a Christian, God was preparing me for this period of my life - right here, right now, that I get to share with you.
And God is just as active in everyone's life. God slowly but surely presses people towards faith. He graciously guides them on the path of life.
1. I want you to share the ways that God led the way in your lives with the people around you. Take a few minutes to share a few stories or examples.
2. How did Jesus show grace to you on the path of life before you ever recognized him?
3. How have you showed the grace of God to others?
If someone in your group had a really good story, I want you to bring them up here and help them tell it.
-----
God is present in everyone's life. When I look at my path I see people who have showed me the grace of God.
Sometimes it's really hard to show grace to others. It's easier to judge - and, consequently, we judge a lot more than we show grace.
God wants to use us as a way to show grace to those who do not yet believe. We must always be looking for ways to reach out to others, to show them the grace and forgiveness of God, so that we may help God to build the road for them.
Dear friends, as Pilgrims we are on a journey. Long before we knew we would take the journey; God packed our bags, God set a direction, and God prepared our fellow Pilgrims to go with us.
We are on the road again ...
[[David Goran and I are co-preaching a 3 week sermon series. We are going to try to sing the Willy Nelson song, "On the Road Again" and I plan on working up a special music number with some of the musicians to go along with the theme. David will preach on Sanctifying and Perfecting grace.]]
When we think of the idea of grace, it might be a little challenging. In Ukrainian it’s difficult to translate a sermon on grace, because there are lots of words to use – but maybe there isn’t an exact word.
It’s difficult in English as well. We primarily use the word “grace” in a church setting. We talk about dancers being “graceful” but that really loses the meaning of the word.
Because, really, when we look outside of the Christian religion we don’t see much grace. Grace is what separates Christianity from all the other world religions. While we might share a lot of the same Holy Scriptures, and even have similar ideas and stories about God – in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we experience grace. We didn’t do anything to earn it; it is entirely a God-thing.
And in the Christian life, we experience grace a lot. We experience grace daily as we try to live out our faith, but we have also experienced grace before we ever realized it.
If you're a Pilgrim, grace should be meaningful to you. You should think of the ways that God has shown grace to you. You should be able to remember times when you have shown grace to others.
We titled this sermon series, "On the road again..." because we believe that as Pilgrims we are on a faith journey. We are going to focus on three stories of grace in the Bible. It just so happens that all of these people were on the road to somewhere when they experienced grace. David will preach about Saul on the road to Damascus, and Jesus on the road to the cross, but tonight I will talk about Jesus and the others on the road to Emmaus.
Please read this scripture with me.
Luke 24:13-35
When I was in Thailand I was visiting a museum near the hotel I was staying at. A young couple were having some photographs taken, and I was struck by how beautiful the young woman looked in her traditional Thai dress. I spoke a little bit with the couple and asked the woman if I could take a picture of her. I thought it was a little strange that she didn't seem embarrassed that some stranger would want her picture.
We talked a little more about the museum and about the weather, and I moved on with my vacation. The next morning I was reading the local paper and on the front page were several pictures of the royal family. Front and center I saw the young couple and the beautiful princess in the traditional wedding dress she had been wearing the day before at the museum.
I had accidentally met the princess of Thailand before the Thai people. I had talked with her about the weather without knowing who she was.
In the scripture story we see Jesus interacting with people long before they realize who He is. Jesus teaches these two men while they are on their journey. He explains the scripture and helps them to understand what it means.
God does this in our own lives as well.
So imagine that we are going on a long journey together. You don't know the destination, but you're ready to go anyway. You go to pack you bags, and you find that they are already packed. You think, "Oh, I'm sure I'll need toothpaste!" and you find that it's been packed. In fact, everything you think you will need is in your suitcase - as well as several items that you're sure you will never need.
So, let's take a sit before we go on our journey and just relax a little bit.
Here: I'll get us going with some stories:
I grew up in a Christian family and went to church every Sunday. I was a pretty bad little kid. I was so bad that one of my Sunday School teachers asked my parents not to bring me back. I hated going to church, and my parents forced me to go every week. I hated church, but I still knew that there was a hole in my heart. When I was 11 I went to a summer camp - during that week away I realized that I needed to turn my life over to God. I asked forgiveness for my sins and I tried to live differently.
Now, some would say that at this moment I experienced the grace of God. But, I believe it goes much further and much deeper than that. I believe that I experienced the grace of God long before I ever acknowledged God.
God was present in my life from before I was born. In Jeremiah it is written, "For I knew you before you were formed in your mother's womb." God had a plan and a vision for my life before my parents did.
John Wesley called this idea Prevenient Grace: literally, "the grace that comes before." He had an idea of how God had been active in his life from an early age. When he was five he was rescued from a house fire. He sat at his mother's feet as she led his father's congregation while he was away on business. He learned that his life mattered and that he better do something good with it. He learned that anyone could lead and that God called all people, regardless of wealth or class, to follow Jesus.
When John Wesley grew up he became a priest - but he felt that the church he loved so much didn't show or offer grace to people. Only the wealthy were welcome inside the church. So, John and his brother Charles began a crusade to change that. They began preaching outside of the church - wherever people would listen to them. They shared with others the goodness of God, and they told people that God offered them grace.
In their small groups they offered everyone the chance to experience and express the grace of God in their own life.
In the Bible story today what is the specific thing Jesus does when the men realize who they have been speaking with? Jesus breaks the bread. When he does this, their minds flash back to the last supper where Jesus broke the bread. He had told his disciples to remember him every time they broke bread. We experience grace every time we take communion. Maybe in your own faith journey you had your first communion long before God was an important part of your life. Maybe you just didn’t care about him, but week after week God showed you grace through communion.
---
I want you to think about the ways that God has come before and led the way in your life. I want you to think about how God showed grace before you even thought about God.
---
When I look at the path my life has led, I can see God's grace working long before I acknowledged God.
Just to give one example: When I was five or six my mother had a piano student named Maxine. Maxine was an older woman and her family had come to America from Slovenia. She spoke Slovene, and enjoyed teaching me words and phrases. Some weekends my mother and I would meet her at the local nursing home where many old people spoke Slovene. I would listen as they spoke and she would show off her little student to the other Slovene speakers. Well, fast forward to the present and (ena, dve, tri, schtiri, pet) sounds a lot like the numbers in Ukrainian. Now, not many young children in America grew up hearing and learning Slavic languages. Long before I was a Christian, God was preparing me for this period of my life - right here, right now, that I get to share with you.
And God is just as active in everyone's life. God slowly but surely presses people towards faith. He graciously guides them on the path of life.
1. I want you to share the ways that God led the way in your lives with the people around you. Take a few minutes to share a few stories or examples.
2. How did Jesus show grace to you on the path of life before you ever recognized him?
3. How have you showed the grace of God to others?
If someone in your group had a really good story, I want you to bring them up here and help them tell it.
-----
God is present in everyone's life. When I look at my path I see people who have showed me the grace of God.
Sometimes it's really hard to show grace to others. It's easier to judge - and, consequently, we judge a lot more than we show grace.
God wants to use us as a way to show grace to those who do not yet believe. We must always be looking for ways to reach out to others, to show them the grace and forgiveness of God, so that we may help God to build the road for them.
Dear friends, as Pilgrims we are on a journey. Long before we knew we would take the journey; God packed our bags, God set a direction, and God prepared our fellow Pilgrims to go with us.
We are on the road again ...
[[David Goran and I are co-preaching a 3 week sermon series. We are going to try to sing the Willy Nelson song, "On the Road Again" and I plan on working up a special music number with some of the musicians to go along with the theme. David will preach on Sanctifying and Perfecting grace.]]
Friday, February 04, 2011
What do these stones mean to you?
Joshua 4:1-9
As a child I really looked up to my grandparents. They lived far away and we rarely saw them. I'm told that I was always an inquisitive child. I always asked a lot of questions - and worse - I always remembered the answers I was given. I remember asking my grandparents a lot of questions about religion - because they were old, and surely they had been around back when Jesus was alive. Certainly they were around back when the church first started. So, surely they should know the answers to my questions.
Our scripture starts from the idea of inquisitive children and grandchildren. Joshua places the stones so that one day, their grandchildren will ask, "What do these stones mean to you?" "Why are they here?"
And the story that they would tell their grandchildren goes something like this:
They came to the river and they had a pretty good understanding of what would happen next. They had heard the stories that their own grandparents had told them. They rejoiced over the fact that when their ancestors had been trapped against the Red Sea and Moses raised his arms the water parted and the people crossed.
But these stones are at a different river, and they celebrate a different time that the people crossed a river.
If you've heard of the story of Joshua crossing the Jordan river, you probably have a mental picture of some guys crossing a stream. But, this was flood season. The river was much wider than normal, and the river was rushing wildly.
They came to the river and this time everything was different. Moses wasn't present. Joshua was leading and he didn't raise his staff. Joshua sent the priests and the Ark of the Covenant first - into the wild rapids. He didn't tell them to wait for the water to part - he just told them to cross. But after the priests' feet were wet, the water stopped flowing and the Jordan river dried up past where the priests were standing.
So Joshua sets up these stones to remind the people of what God had accomplished.
---
I was on the phone with my grandfather a few nights ago and he had some questions for me about our church, "Now Michael, is the church there growing? It should be." I more than gladly gave him an honest answer.
[Bring up faithfulness report slides to show the congregation.]
One year ago we worshiped in the single digits. For months we worshiped without any children. This year we begin worship with very different numbers. The sounds of lots of children echo through our space. Last week we celebrated the fact that God has brought us a long way.
But, these stones also help us to look to the future. Today, we will celebrate where God will take us next.
What does God have in store for this community? Where will God take us?
Because I'm certain that God isn't done with us, yet. I'm sure that God has even bigger plans for us.
I believe that God will use the history we share of planting this church to help us plant other new churches. God is doing just that in Stree. God will do that in other cities as well.
God will use the history we share of starting the Sunday School to help us start similar programs for children in other areas or for other age groups.
God will challenge us to dig deep and to be faithful in our giving so that our church can survive without outside support - and more than that, our church will be able to readily expand ministry to those outside of our community.
God will use our shared history of beginning home groups to help us begin a movement of home groups. We will invite others into our groups and when we get too big to fit in our homes we will divide those groups up and multiply God's blessing.
And when we look at the pile of stones in front of us, and our children ask us why they are there, we can answer honestly - they are here because we chose to be faithful to the vision God had for us. We got our feet wet and God showed up in a powerful way.
----
One of my professors tells this story of his first year on the mission field. He was in the Philippines and it was monsoon season. He and his wife had spent almost the whole year in language classes. They struggled with the language, but were really beginning to become comfortable with it. His family was on an island with an active volcano and it began to erupt. They and another family started to drive to the relative safety of another island - but all of the bridges had been washed out by the rains and the rivers. So, as the flood waters were rising, and a volcano was exploding, they put a long plank across the river, and as the waters swept at their feet they placed their children on their shoulders and tight-rope-walked across the wet plank of wood. They watched as their car and their remaining possessions were swept away with the river and they continued to climb to safer ground.
But even after this miracle of their lives and safety, they were still incredibly frustrated. They hadn't seen any fruit from their ministry. They had worked so hard at learning the language - and now they were in a city where the people spoke an entirely different language and they couldn't go back to their village for at least a month. Staying at a guest house in the city, they really didn't have anything to do.
An older man came to the gate of the guest house - and in the language that my professor had learned he said, "You're the man." You're the one from my dream. These are the symbols."
Amid a confusing conversation it came out that the old man was the leader of a tribe high in the mountains on yet another island. He had a dream with the four symbols of the guest house sign and of the young man sitting on the porch. In the dream, the voice of God had told the older man to go and find this man and to listen to him. The old man said, "God told me to come and listen. Whatever you tell me, I and all of my village will repent and follow." My professor brought the man in and told him the good news of Jesus Christ. He accompanied the old man back to the village and together they shared the good news. The whole tribe rejoiced in the good news and became followers of Jesus Christ. They immediately began making plans to go and share the good news with the other tribes on the other mountains. They set aside the wars they had been waging for generations in order to share the good news.
We as a congregation have faced some hard challenges this year. It would be easy for us to ignore the miracle that we have survived this first year in one piece. It would be easy for us to be discouraged. But somewhere in this city is a man or a woman who is waiting to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ from you.
And when their children ask them - "What do these stones mean to you?" They will also have an answer.
Those stones mean everything to us. Those stones are here because God has led the way in our past and God will build for us a future.
As a child I really looked up to my grandparents. They lived far away and we rarely saw them. I'm told that I was always an inquisitive child. I always asked a lot of questions - and worse - I always remembered the answers I was given. I remember asking my grandparents a lot of questions about religion - because they were old, and surely they had been around back when Jesus was alive. Certainly they were around back when the church first started. So, surely they should know the answers to my questions.
Our scripture starts from the idea of inquisitive children and grandchildren. Joshua places the stones so that one day, their grandchildren will ask, "What do these stones mean to you?" "Why are they here?"
And the story that they would tell their grandchildren goes something like this:
They came to the river and they had a pretty good understanding of what would happen next. They had heard the stories that their own grandparents had told them. They rejoiced over the fact that when their ancestors had been trapped against the Red Sea and Moses raised his arms the water parted and the people crossed.
But these stones are at a different river, and they celebrate a different time that the people crossed a river.
If you've heard of the story of Joshua crossing the Jordan river, you probably have a mental picture of some guys crossing a stream. But, this was flood season. The river was much wider than normal, and the river was rushing wildly.
They came to the river and this time everything was different. Moses wasn't present. Joshua was leading and he didn't raise his staff. Joshua sent the priests and the Ark of the Covenant first - into the wild rapids. He didn't tell them to wait for the water to part - he just told them to cross. But after the priests' feet were wet, the water stopped flowing and the Jordan river dried up past where the priests were standing.
So Joshua sets up these stones to remind the people of what God had accomplished.
---
I was on the phone with my grandfather a few nights ago and he had some questions for me about our church, "Now Michael, is the church there growing? It should be." I more than gladly gave him an honest answer.
[Bring up faithfulness report slides to show the congregation.]
One year ago we worshiped in the single digits. For months we worshiped without any children. This year we begin worship with very different numbers. The sounds of lots of children echo through our space. Last week we celebrated the fact that God has brought us a long way.
But, these stones also help us to look to the future. Today, we will celebrate where God will take us next.
What does God have in store for this community? Where will God take us?
Because I'm certain that God isn't done with us, yet. I'm sure that God has even bigger plans for us.
I believe that God will use the history we share of planting this church to help us plant other new churches. God is doing just that in Stree. God will do that in other cities as well.
God will use the history we share of starting the Sunday School to help us start similar programs for children in other areas or for other age groups.
God will challenge us to dig deep and to be faithful in our giving so that our church can survive without outside support - and more than that, our church will be able to readily expand ministry to those outside of our community.
God will use our shared history of beginning home groups to help us begin a movement of home groups. We will invite others into our groups and when we get too big to fit in our homes we will divide those groups up and multiply God's blessing.
And when we look at the pile of stones in front of us, and our children ask us why they are there, we can answer honestly - they are here because we chose to be faithful to the vision God had for us. We got our feet wet and God showed up in a powerful way.
----
One of my professors tells this story of his first year on the mission field. He was in the Philippines and it was monsoon season. He and his wife had spent almost the whole year in language classes. They struggled with the language, but were really beginning to become comfortable with it. His family was on an island with an active volcano and it began to erupt. They and another family started to drive to the relative safety of another island - but all of the bridges had been washed out by the rains and the rivers. So, as the flood waters were rising, and a volcano was exploding, they put a long plank across the river, and as the waters swept at their feet they placed their children on their shoulders and tight-rope-walked across the wet plank of wood. They watched as their car and their remaining possessions were swept away with the river and they continued to climb to safer ground.
But even after this miracle of their lives and safety, they were still incredibly frustrated. They hadn't seen any fruit from their ministry. They had worked so hard at learning the language - and now they were in a city where the people spoke an entirely different language and they couldn't go back to their village for at least a month. Staying at a guest house in the city, they really didn't have anything to do.
An older man came to the gate of the guest house - and in the language that my professor had learned he said, "You're the man." You're the one from my dream. These are the symbols."
Amid a confusing conversation it came out that the old man was the leader of a tribe high in the mountains on yet another island. He had a dream with the four symbols of the guest house sign and of the young man sitting on the porch. In the dream, the voice of God had told the older man to go and find this man and to listen to him. The old man said, "God told me to come and listen. Whatever you tell me, I and all of my village will repent and follow." My professor brought the man in and told him the good news of Jesus Christ. He accompanied the old man back to the village and together they shared the good news. The whole tribe rejoiced in the good news and became followers of Jesus Christ. They immediately began making plans to go and share the good news with the other tribes on the other mountains. They set aside the wars they had been waging for generations in order to share the good news.
We as a congregation have faced some hard challenges this year. It would be easy for us to ignore the miracle that we have survived this first year in one piece. It would be easy for us to be discouraged. But somewhere in this city is a man or a woman who is waiting to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ from you.
And when their children ask them - "What do these stones mean to you?" They will also have an answer.
Those stones mean everything to us. Those stones are here because God has led the way in our past and God will build for us a future.
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