PastorMarthaBlog

A Letter to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

2012-01-19T00:42:00.000-06:00

Dear Dr. King,

Thank you for your dream. Your passionate words helped awhole generation understand what the kingdom of God would be like. Our world is beginning to change and I cansee glimpses of your dream becoming reality; though we still have a long way togo. Thank you for the way in which youlived out your faith and your commitment to the kingdom. You were not perfect;you had your flaws and failures. And that too is a gift, because I am notperfect either and it helps to know that imperfect people can be faithful and effectivepeople. Thank you for fighting hate with love and conflict with peace. You are one of my heroes and inspirations,because you followed Jesus where he led you and I am trying to do thattoo. I look forward to the day when wecan walk together in the new Jerusalem and see that God’s kingdom is asbeautiful and wonderful as you dreamed it would be.

A Question of Thanksgiving

2011-12-06T12:02:00.001-06:00

This post is a little late, but these questions have beenrolling around in my brain for a while.

What exactly does it mean to “give thanks?” Justto “give thanks.” Period. I keep hearing people say (or sing) that theyare thankful for this, that, or the other, but often they don’t say to whom they arethankful. So . . . can you be“generically” thankful? Does “I amthankful for. . .” - whatever – meananything? I mean, can an atheist bethankful? Obviously an atheist or anyoneelse can be thankful to anotherperson, but can they be thankful foranother person? What does it mean to bethankful for food, home, friends, family, etc. if no one actually gave them toyou? Are you thankful to yourself? I watched a video from Skepticon where allthese atheists were expressing thankfulness for things, people, concepts,etc. Only two of them noted that theywere not thankful for anything,because being thankful for impliesthat you are thankful tosomeone. One of them said, quitesensibly, that saying that he was “thankful” would be anthropomorphizing theuniverse. So he just commented on whathe “liked.”

And then there are the Christians who express thanks. We say things like, “I am thankful that Ihave all of this good food to eat.” Butif we are expressing thanks to God, we had better be careful. If we acknowledge that God is the source ofwhat we are thankful for, then we are by default acknowledging that all we haveis a gift. And if that is true then the“blessings” that we have are supposed to be used to bless others. If we are not blessing others, can we trulysay that we are thankful?

If true thanksgiving acknowledges the source of theblessings for which we are giving thanks, then we should be prepared to putsome muscle behind our thankfulness. Otherwise our thankfulness can be as empty and meaningless as that ofthe atheists.

I think that I am going to need to be more careful in thefuture with my words of gratitude; instead of saying, “I am thankful for . . .” generically, I need to say: “I thank myfriends for. . .,” or “I thank my family for. . .,” or “I thank my church for .. .,” or “I thank God for . . .” And mygratitude really should be expressed in giving to others, not simply inindulging myself.

I have come into contact with a lot of people who do nothave enough food, electricity, water, etc. I pray that more and more Godwill turn my giving thanks into sharing blessings.

Sigh. Just when I think I have made a little progress towards being a Jesus-follower, I realize how far I have to go. I am thankful to my family, my friends, my church, and our God for patience with me!

Why I am putting my name in for GC delegate

2011-04-29T04:07:00.003-05:00

I have resisted putting my name on the list of those interested in being a General Conference delegate for a variety of reasons, but since I have now done so, I feel that I need to be clear about what is important to me. On Methodistthinker.com, Steve Wende suggests that we need to look at the beliefs of those going to GC: http://methodistthinker.com/2011/01/28/steve-wende-orthodoxy-deciding-factor-gc-delegates/. The official delegate form for the NTC did not have a place to let people know what doctrinal position one holds. Therefore, I have pointed that form to this blog.

Here is what I think important for a GC delegate:
Committed to the orthodox faith as found in the Apostle’s and Nicene Creed, including the primacy of Christ!
Passionate about making disciples of Jesus Christ.
Passionate about the local church.
Preaches and teaches the orthodox faith and lives explicitly under the reign of God and the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Has a high view of the authority of the bible.
Committed to a life of healthiness and holiness.
Can and does think theologically.
Spirit-filled.

These are the things to which I am committed. There are also certain issues that I think are critically important. I listed some of those on the form, but here is a more complete list:

1. Reduction in the General Boards and Agencies - they are too big and too far removed from the realities of the local church.

2. Guaranteed appointment system - We don't really have a "guarantee" of appointments. The language says that we "shall" be appointed if we are in good standing. Paragraph 334.2 lays out the requirements to remain in good standing. Paragraph 334.3 provides for a process if effectiveness is questioned. Paragraph 334.4 tells what happens if a clergy is found to be ineffective. We do not need new procedures, and we certainly do not need for the Bishops and Cabinet to have even more power - in particular the power to decide without a process that a pastor does not deserve an appointment. We need to follow the procedures that we have, which both protect the pastor from unjust removal and allow the Bishop to remove ineffective pastors.

3. Continued strength of the worldwide church not watered down by a regional system. Many of us look to Africa to provide leadership in the growth of the United Methodist Church. This is an area of the world where the Spirit is moving; putting legislative barriers between the US and other parts of the world is a poor idea.

4. Seminaries and University Senate. At least one of our seminaries (Claremont School of Theology) is now training clergy/leaders in Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. as well as United Methodist Clergy. They are more interested in meeting "the cultural and religious demands of a world in transition" (from their website) than in lifting up the uniqueness and primacy of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

5. Belief in and teaching of the uniqueness and primacy of Christ - This should be required teaching at all approved United Methodist Seminaries and should be required for United Methodist clergy to remain in good standing.

6. Authority of Scripture. Placing ourselves under the authority of Scripture does not mean taking the bible as "inerrant" or "literal." But we need a more thoroughgoing understanding of the authority of scripture for our theology and our life together as a community of faith. (If you wish to hear if I preach what I espouse, then please see my congregation's website: http://fumcleonard.org/820436)

7. A commitment to a life of holiness. Yes, for me that means celibacy in singleness and faithfulness in marriage. The homosexual agenda has not gone away. I have searched and studied the scriptures, listened to those in the LGBT world and prayed deeply about this issue. I believe that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching and thus while we welcome all persons of whatever sexual orientation as members of our community of faith, that we should not either preside over homosexual unions in the church or allow practicing homosexuals to be ordained. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God and it is incumbent upon those of us who hold these views to do so with great humility and the knowledge that this causes pain to our brothers and sisters of different sexual orientation. I am burdened by the pain, but I cannot, with integrity hold a different point of view.

8. The process of Ordination. I too believe that we need younger clergy in the UMC. However, that will be difficult with the torturous path now required for ordination. As one who spent 16 years in the process, I can assure all that the process is not a good one and that we are greatly confused about the meaning of ordination. We need to completely rethink ordination, how we prepare people for ministry and how we maintain effectiveness in ministry.

9. We need a passion for young people. My heart aches for the young adults who are leaving the church in droves and for those of us who are left bereft of their presence. We absolutely must go to them in love and genuine friendship, since they have decided not to come to us. Our focus on mission and ministry with the poor and our concern with global health might help us connect. But we need to think more critically about how our church structures are helping or hindering our engagement with young adults.

Finally, we must recognize that superficial changes in our structures, while perhaps helpful, will not, in the end, save us. Only a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit and a revival of our commitment to Christ will do that. If we are not spending the majority of our time preaching good news to the poor, proclaiming release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, then we are not sharing the kingdom. If we are guided more by "best practices" than by the Holy Spirit, then we will be a well-run - and dying - church.

Being a small time pastor at a small United Methodist church, I do not expect to go to General or Jurisdictional Conference as a member of the delegation. However, I will go, one way or another, because I feel it is important to know what the General church is doing.

There are many fine people and leaders who are seeking your vote. Please engage with them and discover what grounds them in the faith and what will ground their decisions at General Conference. May God have mercy upon us as we enter into this time of coming together as the whole United Methodist Church.

Blessings,
Pastor Martha

On Women Preaching

2011-01-21T20:44:00.002-06:00

Five or six years ago, I had a young man interview me for his paper on women in preaching. I thought some of you might be interested in the topic. Here are his questions and my answers:

1. What schools have you attended, and what types of degrees do you have?
I have a B.A. degree in Molecular Biology from Vanderbilt University. I have a MTS (Master of Theological Studies) from Perkins School of Theology at SMU and a PhD in Hebrew Bible from SMU

2. What led you into the ministry?
I think that I always was led to do ministry. When I was in 6th grade I was on the Missions Committee at church. I helped teach Sunday School and helped out with Vacation Bible School when I was in youth and I was involved in everything the church did.

What led me to enter seminary was Disciple Bible Study. At the end of this study, each member of the class is asked to reflect on what gifts they have for ministry (in the United Methodist Church we believe that everyone has gifts for ministry, though not everyone has gifts for ordained ministry). I wasn’t really sure at the time what my gifts were, but I thought probably teaching. I volunteered to help with the Disciple class the next year and by the end of that year I had felt a call to professional ministry. At first I thought I would go into Christian education, but I finally accepted the fact that God was calling me into ordained ministry, i.e. preaching.

3. What led you to become a pastor?
In the United Methodist Church, we have to go through a long process of discernment to determine just what our call is. At the same time that I entered seminary I also began the Ministry Inquiry process. I did Bible study with a Mentor pastor, interviewed four or five pastors in different kinds of ministries (large churches, small churches, hospital chaplains, etc.). I went before our District committee on ordained ministry and interviewed with them. I went before my home church and they had to vote to recommend me for the process. In other words, a long process.

I didn’t like a lot of the process at the time, but it did help me understand and articulate my call and helped me understand that I am definitely called to pastoral ministry and not to a specialized ministry such as teaching or chaplaincy.

Basically I am a pastor because I feel called to share the Word of God in preaching and teaching. I feel called to administer the Sacraments. (The sacraments have always been very important to me; I memorized the communion service when I was twelve just because I wanted to be able to remember it.) I also feel called to provide leadership for the church.

I tried to ignore my call for a number of years because I was very shy and did not like to speak in front of people, but God was very persistent!

4. How do you feel about the controversy of women in the pulpit?

I understand and respect those who are opposed to women in the pulpit, but I think that they are ignoring important parts of the Bible. For instance in the Old Testament one of the judges of early Israel was Deborah. In fact she is the only judge about whom the Bible says that she actually made judgments for the people (Judges 4:5). Then there was Huldah, a prophetess to whom King Josiah sent the manuscripts found in the temple. She is the one who proclaimed them authentic and warned the King to obey what they said. Since she was called a prophetess, by definition she spoke the word of God. (2 Kings 22:14-20)

In the New Testament, several women around Jesus clearly did preach. For example in the Gospel of John, where Jesus speaks with the Samaritan woman at the well, after the conversation, the woman goes back to the village and witnesses to the villagers who then come to Christ (John 4:28). This seems to me the definition of preaching – sharing the Good news in public so that people come to know Jesus.

Also the first person in the Gospel of John to whom Jesus speaks is Mary Magdalene. Peter and John have been at the tomb, but Jesus chooses to speak to the woman and says to her “Go and tell,” thereby commanding her to preach to the other disciples of his resurrection (John 20:17).

Paul has often been thought to deny women the opportunity to speak and certainly some texts do seem to indicate that, specifically 1 Timothy 2:10-12. However, a number of scholars dispute that this is truly written by Paul (for reasons that are too complex to explain here). Regardless of whether or not Paul wrote this, it is in the scriptures, so has to be taken seriously. I believe that this text is referring to a specific situation in a specific church where women speaking would have offended people in the surrounding culture.

One reason I don’t believe that this was Paul’s general attitude is because in other cases Paul clearly regards women as fellow workers; for instance Phoebe (Romans 16:1-2) and Priscilla (Romans 16:3, see also Acts 18:26 where she helps to instruct Apollos). And certainly Paul never distinguishes between gifts for women and gifts for men in his lists of gifts of the Holy Spirit.

In summary, there is some evidence in the Bible that argues against women being preachers, but I think the weight of evidence is in favor of women being called as well as men.

5. Does any of the controversy directly affect you, and how do you handle it?

Very little of the controversy directly affects me. Occasionally in my early ministry I would encounter folks who were not happy about having a woman pastor (these were very small churches in rural areas), but after hearing me preach for a while and experience my pastoral care, they usually came around. Since my name is on the sign outside the church, most people know when they come to Oak Grove that a woman is the Pastor and if they don’t like that they just don’t visit. I have had a number of people who come to weddings and funerals here say that they were not sure what to expect, but that they realized after they heard me that women can preach about Jesus just like men do! I think that when people realize that I am not a rabid feminist and that I just want to be a faithful and competent pastor, they get over the “woman pastor” thing.

I never try to argue with those who think I shouldn’t be preaching (other than simply laying out my point of view as I have done here). I don’t think such arguments further the cause of the kingdom. I know that I am called and that people are coming to Christ through my ministry and that is all I care about . I cannot control the judgments of others; I answer to God.

I know this is long. I hope that is sufficiently answers your questions. Good luck on your paper.

Blessings,
Pastor Martha

At Noah's Ark

2010-07-21T21:37:00.004-05:00

Tonight we went to the concert at Noah's Ark. It was a great concert. If we could bottle the energy we wouldn't need oil! But what really hit me was the message by the band leader. He was about my age; talked about a writer in the 60's who had so much hope that the youth of our country would make a difference in the world and learn to be servant leaders. That was my generation~the ones who became the "me" generation.

What happened to us? Can we change? Can we somehow help this generation to become better and wiser than we turned out to be? I hope so. I pray so.

The speaker urged the kids to make their lives count. I urge the "me" generation to become the generation that discovers how to change even in the later years of our lives. We too can still make a difference if we keep our eyes on God and our hearts tuned to the kingdom and our wills led by the Spirit.

Musings on Fireworks, Celebrations and Dark Houses

2010-07-04T21:02:00.003-05:00

Today may be July 4th, but at Providence Village the celebration was last Saturday. I went down to the lake with some of my family to watch the fireworks display. I LOVE fireworks. I used to take the girls to the fireworks shows at Fair Park when they were very little and scared to death of the big bangs. I had a great time - they were wondering when we could go home! Now I think we all love fireworks and it is a lot of fun to watch them together.

This morning in my sermon I mentioned how the children sitting behind us at Providence really did enter into the joy and celebration. I talked about how I thought about the first July 4th on the walk home. How I realized that freedom is a choice and has a cost. But there was something else I noticed on that walk home as well. Some of the houses were brightly lit with folks on the front porch or lawn enjoying the evening. Other houses were dark; it looked like no one was at home.

I wondered about those dark houses. Was no one home? Were they unwilling or unable to celebrate? Were they irritated by the loud noises and blocked streets? Were they cynical about the hoopla over freedoms that they feel don't really exist?

OK, I realize that this is a lot of speculation and that a dark house probably isn't really very meaningful, but to me the contrast between the bright and dark houses was a parable. I know that for a lot of people, Christianity seems like a lot of "hoopla" over something that really doesn't exist. In Galatians 5:1 Paul says, "For freedom Christ has set you free." Those houses reminded me of how much my heart aches for those who are unable to celebrate the freedom and joy that Christ offers. I want everyone to be able to join in the party that is the kingdom of God. I want us all to be like the children who reveled in the fun.

I pray that if you are in a dark house at this point in your life, that you will find the joy to celebrate freedom in Christ. As I said this morning, Christ has paid the price, it is up to us to make the choice. What awaits is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control - worth the celebration, I think.

Remembering Dad

2010-06-20T19:22:00.004-05:00

I remember:

Going through the rabbit hole: those long legs would cross and form the rabbit hole.

Sitting in church with Dad stroking my hair or my arm.

Sunday afternoon drives to look at land.

Riding horses together, even though he was too big for the saddle.

Playing tennis – even though he was terrible at tennis.

Going to look at cars: Jaguars, MG’s, etc. before finally settling down to the sensible choice.

How he always changed the belts and hoses on the car before I went back to school.

Many ways in which he made sure that we were taken care of.

His love of his roses: had a whole garden of them out in front of the Windsor Park house.

Even though Dad died last year in February, we only just put his ashes out at the DFW Memorial Cemetery last month. They now rest in one of the Columbaria. On the marker, instead of an endearment, I put a biblical quote: Joel 2:28 Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.

It seemed an appropriate tribute to him, because my dad was a dreamer who looked to the future. A quote: “Most real estate salesmen fail because they cannot see far enough into the future. . . . I would go so far as to say that the job with the greatest unknown future has the greatest possibilities.”

When Dad looked at a piece of land he could see hotels, malls, homes. An example of how he dreamed for the church: He started buying the homes next to University Park UMC 30 years ago so that one day they could expand and just recently they began to see the fulfillment of that dream.

His dreams didn’t always come true, but he appreciated and encouraged them in others.

Dad told me that I should do what I loved, that I should follow my dreams; not what was practical or what was the best paying. I attribute my ability to see the best in people and to dream of what could be instead of always focusing on what is, to my dad’s influence.

I remember that my dad was great with little kids. He didn’t know as well how to deal with older kids, but babies he was great with; he could change diapers, give baths, keep them entertained.

He was completely supportive of my ministry. When I was appointed to my first charge, 90 miles from my house in Mesquite, he insisted on driving with me to Windom every week. When Christopher was born, he took care of the kids while I preached and visited with people.

I know that some people have a dad that is withdrawn or unemotional, and my dad may have seemed that way to others. But Dad was my nurturer. One moment that stands out: I was in my bed late at night, crying over the death of my little sister Nancy. Dad came in and said quietly something I will never forget: “I thought I was the one who would miss her the most.” Then he just stroked my arm and sat with me as we shared pain and healing.

Dad was not himself the last 7-8 years of his life because of a stroke. I miss the dad that I knew before that. But in some ways I feel that I have my real father back. I know that he is healed and whole and that he loves me still.
Happy father’s day, Daddy. I love you.

What a Difference a Day Makes

2010-04-08T20:09:00.001-05:00

A recent survey from the Barna Group says that while 2/3’s of Americans know that Easter is a religious holiday of some sort, only 42% link Easter with the Resurrection of Christ. Only 2% say that they would describe Easter as the most important holiday of their faith.

What is this day all about? It is, in part the end of a season, the end of Lent. You get to eat the chocolate, drink the coke, play the golf again. It is often celebrated around the time of the end of winter. We hope that it is the end of the season of snow and ice!

It is the beginning of Eastertide, really a whole season when the church calendar says we are celebrating Easter. It is the beginning of Spring. New things are blooming and new life arrives in the animal world. We have baby ducks swimming in our lakes in my neighborhood. When I was a child, Easter was the first day that it was all right to wear my white patent leather shoes.

For many of us, this is a day to dress up in new clothes, be with family, come to church, enjoy the special music. But when all is said and done, is this really just another day? Or is it a day that makes a difference. A day that changes things.

I suspect that all of us can point to days in our lives that have been watershed days, days on which everything changed for us. For me my wedding day was one such day. Another was the day I had my first child. Before my wedding day, I was in a relationship that was very important to me, but after my wedding day, I was a wife. I had to figure out how to live with another person and grow into that relationship. After I had my first child, many things in my life were still the same, but a crucial distinction had been made. After that day, I was a mother, and I had to figure out how to live as a mother. I didn’t become expert at it immediately, I daresay I am still not expert at it; but I have learned a few things over the years and I am much more comfortable in my identity as wife and mother now.

Sometimes the days that change our life forever are difficult ones. The day our parents die and we become the elder generation. The day that we are diagnosed with cancer or diabetes or heart disease and the disease threatens to become our defining reality.

There are personal days that change our personal world, but there have also been days in which the world or a large part of it as a whole changed forever. I think that the day the Declaration of Independence was signed was one such day. The first time an atomic bomb was exploded was another. For those of us in the U.S. 911 was a day after which the whole world seemed different. People on both sides of the debate are predicting that the vote on health care reform will turn out to be a watershed moment for our country. The earthquake in Haiti was certainly a moment of drastic change for the people of that country.

The Christian claim is that on that morning almost 2000 years ago, when the women went to the tomb and found it empty, the whole world changed. Before that moment, the world was one way and afterward, it was something very different because something absolutely new had happened. Something that changed everything.

On the Sabbath day just prior to that morning, the disciples were in mourning. They were grieving the loss of their friend, their leader, their Messiah, their Jesus. The hopes that they had cherished of the kingdom of God being made visible and real in this world were dashed. They were confused, scared, scattered, in shock. They had no expectations other than perhaps the fear that they too would be picked up and accused as followers of Jesus. It was safest for the women to go to the grave to prepare the body properly because no one cared about women. It was the men who were in danger.

What happened on that first Easter morning was so new, so unexpected, so radical that we who have heard the story every year for many years can’t quite grasp it. Whether it was several of the women or maybe just Mary Magdalene by herself, going to the tomb expecting to anoint the body of their dead friend and but instead finding it empty. And then Mary met a man she thought was the gardener and turned out to be Jesus. (The Gospel of John loves allusions to the Hebrew Scriptures, and so, I suspect that in that garden setting, we are to see Jesus as both the new Adam who really will care for the garden as it should have been cared for all along and as God the gardener as God is portrayed so many times in the Old Testament, making all things new.) That is what we celebrate today, the resurrection of the crucified Messiah, made known by the combination of the empty tomb and the appearance of the risen Christ.

Why do I say it was unexpected? The Jews, the disciples did believe in Resurrection before this day, but in the general resurrection of the dead at the end of the age. They were not looking for one man to be raised ahead of schedule. So this plan of God came as a surprise even to those who believed that Jesus was the Messiah, even to those who believed in the concept of the resurrection.

Why do I say that this day changed everything? What did it really matter that this one man came back to life after being thoroughly dead? Well two reasons really.

First of all, if Jesus was raised from the dead, then he was vindicated as the Messiah. All that he had taught and done before his ignominious death could now be seen in a new light. These words really were a message from God. These healings and feedings and exorcisms really were a sign that the kingdom of God had come near. Jesus really was the one in whom the image of God was fully realized. God had begun to remake the world and Jesus was the first fruits of this new creation.

Even more importantly than this, Jesus was now seen to be the world’s true Lord. Nothing that the world could throw at him, not betrayal, not denial, not pain, not suffering, no brand of evil, not even death could overcome God’s just and gracious plan for this world. Evil still exists, but after this day it no longer could be seen as the final word. Death is still an enemy, but after this day it is a beaten enemy. We who now live in Christ have died with him, but we will also be raised with him.

That is the difference a day makes. And what difference does it make for you? Will you be dramatically different if you accept the claim of Easter in your life? Will you go out and be a new holy person tomorrow morning? Maybe, but probably not. However, if you accept the claim that Easter has made on your life, if you accept that the risen Christ is Lord of your life, then Colossians hints at what else you can claim:

Paul tells the Colossians that they have been raised with Christ. He doesn’t mean that they already have the resurrection bodies that they will one day have, but that they already possess the new life that Christ offers.

You have been raised with Christ, therefore, first of all: What you do makes a difference! The resurrection tells us that this life, this world matters. I have a shocking statement to make: Jesus was not resurrected to tell us about heaven. Does that seem like heresy? Check the gospels. Jesus didn’t say to his followers, now that I am resurrected, you can all look forward to heaven when you die. That may be true, in fact, I think that we who have died with Christ will be in Paradise with Christ when our physical bodies die. But Jesus was resurrected and appeared to his disciples to give them a job: you have seen how I have come to heal the world, now go out and be a part of my healing work. Feed my sheep! Go make disciples! Forgive! Live as kingdom people. Heaven is the word the bible gives to the divine dimension, the divine rule. Heaven "is not a future destiny, but the other, hidden dimension of our ordinary life, God’s dimension." (Wright, Surprised, 19)

You are not to believe that you can escape this world by going to heaven. Paul tells the Colossians to set their mind on the divine realm, because he wants them to understand that they are now citizens living under God’s rule, just as in the Lord’s prayer we pray “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This world is your home and you need to take seriously your stewardship of this world because one day heaven and earth, the divine realm and the human realm will no longer be separated, will be put back together as God puts everything to rights and comes to live once more among mortals as it says in Revelation (Rev. 21:1-3). Because of that, because of what Paul says explicitly in 1 Corinthians 15:58 --"Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain," -- what you do in the present in this life, in this body, in this world, will not be wasted in God’s future. Right now, because Jesus is Lord of this world, you can be a part of the work of building for the kingdom.

You have been raised with Christ, therefore, a second claim can be made: What you are has changed! Just as I had to grow into my identities as wife, mother, pastor, you will have to grow into your identity as Christ follower. It won’t be easy. You will make mistakes. You won’t change overnight. You will have to work at it and the ways to work at it should not be a surprise: study of scripture, prayer, worship, reaching out in mission whether you feel particularly loving or not. All of those disciplines the church urges you to practice, not because they are rules to follow, but because they will form you into a new type of person. An example: When the choir first started practicing the Brahms’ Requiem, it wasn’t pretty. We didn’t know the notes, we didn’t know the timing, we didn’t understand how the music was put together. But Rusty encouraged us, gave us examples on CD’s of those who already sang it beautifully and over time, with a lot of hard work, we got it. We were formed as musicians. We could sing, still not perfectly, but in a way that enabled others to experience the presence of God through the music. In fact that ability spilled over into our singing of other music. We began singing all of out music better, more gloriously.

That is what you are in for. If you work at it, practice being Christian in this or another imperfect church community, take as your example those who seem better at it than you are, wrestle with the bible, which is the record of the community of faith throughout the centuries, then eventually your life will reflect God’s image as it was meant to. Paul tells us that what is hidden in this life will be revealed when you are a part of that resurrected community. And, just as our reward in learning the Brahms was the enjoyment of being caught up in the joy of the music, your reward is not some divine gold star, but the enjoyment and fulfillment that comes from truly living as you were meant to live.

I know that it may not feel as if this day makes a real difference. But that is what faith is about: believing it until you feel it, until your mind and your heart have grasped the reality.(Wright,Paul for Everyone, The Prison Letters, 175) My hope for you, my prayer is that you will embrace the claim that this day changes everything. I beseech you to claim this day both the future that God has for you in the community of the faithful who will be resurrected to new life, and to claim the present as people whose life is hidden in Christ and who can begin to live as fully and gloriously human people who work in God’s kingdom to reflect God’s powerful, healing, transformative love into the world. (Wright, [I cannot find the source of this quote, when I find it, I will add it).

(This sermon owes much to N. T. Wright and three particular books: Surprised by Hope, After You Believe, and Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters. I cannot say it as well as he does, and I urge you to read these books.)

What a deal!

2009-09-06T19:10:00.002-05:00

Call in the next 10 minutes and get our special deal! They won't last long at this price! Special financing available! Guaranteed to work!

Wow! All the promises I hear on the radio make me want to "pick up the phone and call NOW!!" I could lose weight in 20 different ways, get my eyes fixed by the NUMBER ONE eye surgeon in the Metroplex, solve all my credit problems with one quick fix, learn to invest by ordering a free book and video. It is amazing that I am able to drive at all with all the wonderful offers out there. I should just stay home and stay close to the phone, so that I won't miss any of the numbers to call.

I'm being facetious, of course, but I do have a good deal for those of you in my church. The only promise that I can make is that your life will be changed and that you will grow closer to God and to a group of fellow disciples. You can "try it and see" with no commitment, no cost and no pressure - and no continuing draft on your credit card! What am I talking about? Disciple Bible Study.

I really love this way of studying the Bible because it combines two things that I think are crucial for getting the most out of the Bible: personal engagement with the Bible and group reflection. Not only that, but as the group shares, week after week, we become close and are better able to help one another on our faith journeys.

My own journey into faith and eventually ministry came as the result of Disciple Bible Study. I experienced the power for myself and want so much to be able to share this with others.

You can come next Sunday evening (September 13) at 5:30 and check it out. If you have kids in the Children's choir or youth in the Youth Choir, then you have to come up to church anyway. Why not spend the time in a way that will feed your soul and embrace you in fellowship? Childcare will be provided for children who are not old enough for Children's choir and for the time after Choir. I am teaching the Disciple I course.

Check it out this week. We will have an introduction, get the books, and explain the format. You have nothing to lose and much to gain.

I hope to see you there!

Martha

P.S. Look at the Spring Valley website for other small group offerings! www.svumc.org. There is something for everyone.

A great link to another blog - highly recommended

2009-08-12T17:28:00.004-05:00

I received this link from someone and it is a great example of what I will be talking about in my sermon this Sunday on "From Common Ground to Holy Ground."
The link is: http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2009/08/bait-and-switch-of-contemporary.html

The article talks about the problem with Christians "working on their relationship with God" and somehow thinking that doesn't affect their relationships with others. If we are going to be disciples of Jesus Christ, then we have to love God, love neighbor, and serve the world. Those three things are inseparable. So, while I think that obviously "spiritual" things like prayer, bible study, worship, etc. are necessary ways for "working on our relationship with God," if they don't lead us to loving our neighbor and serving the world, then something is wrong with our prayer, study, worship, etc.

Gay Marriage, Democracy, and the Courts

2009-08-06T11:53:00.004-05:00

This is an argument from the Wall Street Journal that I found quite interesting. (Click on the title to go to the article.) It is grounded in something other than the typical religious point of view. I would be interested to know what others think.

Life on the Edge - Sharing my journey

2009-07-15T10:56:00.007-05:00

As I prepared for my sermon "Life on the Edge" last Sunday (see http://www.svumc.org/sermons.html to listen), I wondered exactly who my audience was. Was I going to be speaking to people who felt like they were at the center or people who felt like they were living on the margins. I must say that the folks at my congregation look pretty together and like they are "center" people, not folks that feel "marginalized," but I know that looks can be deceiving.

Personally, I feel like I have always lived on the edge. As a girl I was too tall, too smart and too quiet to run with the "in" crowd. I was perceived as "snobby," but I really just didn't know how to interact with all the cool people, so I stayed on the sidelines. That was pretty much true at church as well, unfortunately.

When I got to high school, I attended an all-girl school where it was okay to be smart and nerdy (although we didn't have the word "nerdy" yet!). I loved it there and felt at home for the first time in my life. I was still not a part of the group that was wealthy and socially elite, but there were enough of us who just loved to talk about Shakespeare and weird science and history to have a good group.

Church, however, continued to be a place where I was on the margins. I went to a different school from the other kids in youth group. My hobbies were reading and horseback riding; not the usual things. My family was not as wealthy as most of those in the church. My youngest sister died when I was 15, so that set me apart as well. I was persistent enough to just keep coming until I was accepted. And I needed the Christian community even though I didn't always feel at home in it.

As an adult, I have grown to enjoy life on the edge. I now bristle if anyone assumes I am "normal." At seminary all the conservatives thought I was a liberal and the liberals thought I was a conservative. I homeschooled my kids which by definition made me countercultural. I always take a different path toward my goals than the expected one. I also find that I relate to those who are marginalized for whatever reasons better than I relate to those who are in the center of society.

I think this is why Jesus is such a powerful figure for me. Jesus broke the rules and yet fulfilled the spirit of why those rules were created - to form a holy community. Jesus loved those who were unlovable and forgave the unforgivable. In coming to the point where I am better able to center my own life on God and God's kingdom, I can rejoice in who God is forming me to be without so much concern about how others perceive me. I am also a bit wiser in perceiving others; I know now that almost everyone feels on the edge in some aspect of their lives, no matter how "together" they look.

How do you see yourself? Where are you on the edge in this world? Are you able to center yourself on God or does that concept even make sense to you?

Grace and peace,
Martha

Another great quote

2009-06-29T08:57:00.002-05:00

I can't resist posting this one as well: "The command of the gospel is a summons to give the allegiance of body and mind, heart and soul, to Jesus; and its basis is neither more nor less than the event that constituted him in Paul's eyes as Messiah and Lord--namely, his resurrection. And it is in the proclamation of this gospel, and its acceptance in faith, that people begin to glimpse a great curtain being drawn aside and the covenant faithfulness and justice of God displayed to view." (Wright, p. 427)

Yes! That is exactly what I would say about my own experience of God. At some point I realized that I could give my allegiance to God because God was and is absolutely trustworthy. And that continues to be the case. Whenever I start to worry, God enters into my life in a way that reminds me that God is in control.

What Romans is teaching me

2009-06-29T08:14:00.005-05:00

Sometimes I am amazed by what excites me these days. I am working through N. T. Wright's commentary on Romans found in the New Interpreter's Bible, Volume X. I find this incredibly fun and fulfilling. Maybe that shouldn't be surprising for a pastor, but 20 years ago I would not have thought, "Yippee! I get to spend a morning with just the bible, my commentary and my computer!" Especially the letter to the Romans, which, until I discovered N. T. Wright, has always been a bit hard to read. So, since I have this blog going, I think I will post some of my reactions here.

Today I am reading about Romans 1:16-17. This is the quote from Wright (p. 424) that struck me:

"In the gospel, God’s righteousness is unveiled. This revelation happens, not just in the events referred to in the gospel, true though that is, but in the very announcement of the gospel. . . .

The gospel message about Jesus . . . opens people’s eyes to see for the first time that this was what God had been up to all along. It enables Jews to see how the promises they had cherished had been fulfilled, quite otherwise than they had expected. It enables Gentiles to see that there is one true God, the god of Israel, the creator; that this god has purposed to set the world to rights at last; and that this god has now in principle accomplished that purpose. . . . Paul believed that the announcement of the gospel wielded a power that overcame the unseen forces, inside people and around them, that prevented them from responding in obedient belief and allegiance."

What I find interesting about this is that it is the announcement of the gospel that has power. I find myself hoping that Paul is right. Because that is what I do; I announce the gospel. And if it is the announcing that has power, that means that I can relax a little about explaining the gospel. Being who I am, I want to explain things, but I don't always know how to explain the gospel. I didn't come to relationship with Jesus because the benefits were explained to my satisfaction. I came to relationship with Jesus because somehow I met Jesus in the course of my experience with the Christian community. Can't really explain it, just know it happened!

So this word about announcing the gospel both rings true to my own experience and gives me the courage to keep on announcing in my own preaching without the burden of having to explain everything. Of course, this doesn't mean that I shouldn't make sense in what I say or that I shouldn't try to be coherent! But it does mean that I can trust the power of God working through my imperfect words to enable people to respond to God's faithfulness with faith of their own. Hallelujah!

Love in Any Language

2009-06-28T12:47:00.003-05:00

Do you know your love language? Do you know the love language of your spouse/children/friend?
Dr. Gary Chapman helps us understand why we feel loved and how we can be better at loving intentionally. He speaks of the five love languages:
1)Words of Affirmation
2)Quality Time
3)Receiving Gifts
4)Acts of Service
5)Physical Touch

The premise is that we all have a primary and secondary love language, and if we are not loved in those languages we may not feel loved at all!

I have always had trouble figuring out my own love language. When I reread the book this time a statement jumped out at me: If your love tank is either very full or very empty, you may have trouble deciding what your love language might be. I have been blessed to always have felt loved in my family of origin and in my marriage, so I have never paid much attention to my own love language. But this book and its ideas have helped me to become better at loving others.

I would love to hear from some of you in reflecting on this.

Blessings,
Martha

For more information on the five love languages, go to Gary Chapman's website:
http://www.fivelovelanguages.com/

The Good Enough Dad

2009-06-21T21:43:00.003-05:00

It's funny how little things can make us remember those we love. I heard a radio commercial the other day about McDonald's new sweet tea. My first thought was how Dad would have loved that! He always put 6 or 7 teaspoons of sugar in his tea. And he spent many hours in McDonald's drinking cokes and figuring out how to make money on napkins. He never did make the money; he was not a perfect Dad, but he was good enough. He taught me how to love, he taught me how to dream, and he encouraged me to be who I was.

I talked about a less-than-perfect Dad in my sermon today. Abraham--despite the grand sounding name that actually means "father of peoples"--wasn't really much of a father. He sent one child into the wilderness and the other he took up the mountain to sacrifice on an altar. Abraham was caught, as all fathers are caught, between difficult choices. He was caught between God's promise of many children and God's command to sacrifice his only child. He had to learn that God's promises and God's commands could never contradict one another. Abraham may not have been a perfect father, but he was good enough, because, in the end, he learned to trust God. In the end, both of his sons received blessings from God. And that is all a father can really ask for.

Okay, fathers out there, what do you feel caught between? What apparent contradictions make it difficult for you to be the father you want to be? Can you accept that your heavenly father loves and forgives you and can strengthen you for the work of fatherhood? For those of you who do not have biological children, are you aware that you are not off the hook? That you are responsible for fathering the children in your community (here I am talking to those who are Christ followers)?

If you would like to comment on any of this, on my sermon or on your own father, feel free to post.

Blessings and Happy Fathers Day!

Filling the W/hole: Your challenge

2009-06-15T08:26:00.003-05:00

So, I preached a sermon yesterday on "Filling the W/hole." Here are the basic points:
We have an emptiness inside of us that only God can fill.
We try to fill that emptiness with other things: work, family, church, relationships. All of those things have a proper place in our lives, but if we try to fill the place within us that is made for God then eventually our lives will be as distorted as if we were trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. We may no longer feel the emptiness, but neither will our lives be whole and healthy.

Lots of scriptures talk about how we are made for God, but the scriptures that I suggested were these: Psalm 42:1-6; Psalm 84:1-12; Colossians 1:9-23; Ephesians 4:10-32; 1 John 4:1-21. (See http://www.biblegateway.com/ for a searchable online bible if you need one.)

I also used the story about the loaves and fishes from Matthew 14:15-20

15 When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves." 16 Jesus said to them, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat." 17 They replied, "We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish." 18 And he said, "Bring them here to me." 19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20 And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.

My point here was that Jesus filled them not only with bread but with the bread of life, his presence. He first gave it to the disciples and then the disciples shared it with the people. As people who are moving towards more faithful discipleship, we are to receive from Jesus, be filled with his Spirit and then share with the world the life-giving love and forgiveness that we have received. (If you want to hear the sermon, go to www.svumc.org and click on sermons.

I ended the sermon with a challenge: spend an hour this week by yourself, with perhaps only the scriptures above for company. No music, no tv, no computer, no phone. Spend an hour thinking about what you are filling your life with. If you would like to share what insights you have gained, then feel free to post here.

Blessings,
Martha

Musings

2009-06-11T15:00:00.002-05:00

I am reading a book called Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the churches that reach them. I am also working on my sermon, "Filling the W/hole." At the moment those are parallel activities, but I think that by Sunday they will be intertwined.

I am always struggling with how to let my passion for Jesus come through (I LOVE JESUS!!) and thus being authentic in my preaching, without being too overwhelming (and "preachy").

I am also struggling, as a result of reading this book, with thinking about why younger persons seem to find church unnecessary to being Christian. Not because I don't understand intellectually, but because my experience of the church has always been so crucial to my following Jesus. Now I will admit that the formal structures of the organized church haven't always been helpful, but, for me, the church is the people that I journey with as a community of faith. And that community of faith is facilitated by those formal structures, even though I don't always like them or agree with them.

We just had Annual Conference this week, one of those formal structures. The meetings weren't all that fun, and the sitting for hours is difficult for me, but the sense of being together with a large group of people who are trying hard and faithfully to reach the same goal is just a rush. It was particularly strong at the service of ordination and commissioning where the crowd at Custer Road UMC read the prayers, recited the liturgy, and sang the hymns with this huge community voice. I get chills.

I have discovered that what is needed is double vision: the ability to see clearly that this is a very human organization with all the problems that entails, but that somehow it is also the body of Christ and a work of the kingdom of God.

We talked in small (well, relatively small) groups about the need to reach younger people and be authentic (so here I am back to the topic this post began with and that word 'authentic.') I hope that the younger generations can see that we are authentically trying, even though we sometimes fail at being Christlike.

So back to thinking about the sermon. (Yes, this really is a post of "musings") I am thinking about all the things we fill our lives with instead of God. If you have any thoughts on that, let me know.

Common Ground Worship

2009-05-08T22:19:00.002-05:00

After a time of sharing the preaching in both traditional and Common Ground services, my Senior Pastor and I are going to settle! I will be settling in Common Ground. This will enable me to have more of a voice in and an impact on the worship. So I have been thinking about what it means to have "contemporary" or "alternative" worship. I like what it says on our website (www.svumc.org): "We are striving to discern the common ground between ancient and modern forms of worship that will enliven and strengthen us for lives of discipleship."

Here are the thoughts I have had on what I would like to see in our worship in Common Ground.
1) Scriptural: I love to preach sermons that are topical and I love to preach series, but these types of sermons have to be carefully grounded in scripture. Even more than that, I want to find ways to let the ancient texts become the Living Word whether through the sermon, drama, music, or other arts. The ancient church used many different ways to preach the Gospel. We can do the same by being . . .

2) . . . Multisensory: We know that people learn through hearing, but they also absorb through seeing, smelling, touching, etc. Ancient Israelite worship involved all five senses by command of God. Charles Wesley wrote hymns because he knew that sung theology was more likely to be accessible theology than spoken theology. For those of us who are kinesthetic learners, touching or moving while learning is important. We all realize that children need multisensory experiences, but that is true of adults as well. We will be exploring how to involve all of our senses in worship as we both experience and praise God.

3) Interactive: The word "liturgy" has often been understood to refer to boring, repetitive elements of worship that have lost their meaning! However, "liturgy" literally means "work of the people." We need to return to that understanding of liturgy! Whether it is interactive sermons where the congregation participates, singing with fervent voices, praying together and for each other, or other ways in which people are involved, authentic worship is always the "work of the people," not just the work of the worship leaders!

4) Loving: The goal of worship is to actively show our love for God and to experience God's love for us. An integral part of showing our love for God is showing our love for each other. So when we come together as the worshipping community everything we do must reveal our love for God and one another. Part of this ability to love is the ability to trust. I hope we can love and trust one another enough to verbally share during worship our own experiences of God's care for us. If you would feel comfortable doing this (what some call "giving a testimony") let me know!

5) Experiencing and Encountering: In Hebrew, the verb "to know" means not just head knowledge, but also knowledge in the sense of "to experience intimately, to acknowledge." So our worship seeks not simply to relay information about God but to provide an environment in which we can encounter God, or intimately experience God. That will be the goal for me as our team designs worship.

Yes, this makes an acronym: SMILE. :) I love acronyms; they help me remember!

If any Common Grounders read this, I would love for you to provide feedback. What would you like to see in Common Ground worship?

Becoming a wanderer

2009-05-06T00:03:00.002-05:00

Back in seminary I learned that one of the earliest "creeds" of the Israelite people began like this, "A wandering Aramean was my father . . ." (Deuteronomy 26:5 ff). It reminded the people that all they had was a gift from God and that they shouldn't get too comfy or self-righteous because they were a wandering people at heart. Their only stability was in God.

This week I have been a wanderer, a status that seems to be true of me with some regularity these days. My office flooded out on Sunday morning and I had to move everything out to let the carpet dry. Thus, all my books are boxed up and my office is in a state of disrepair. The sense of being a wanderer comes from just having moved into my office and arranging those 1000 books just three months ago. In the past few years I have also wandered from one appointment to another, from one home to another, from one set of relationships to another. So really, this just heightens my identity as wanderer.

But as I wander, I am once again reminded that, like the ancient Israelites, my stability is only in God. It is so easy to fall into the fiction that there is such a thing as "normal" life that we will get to eventually after all these "problems" are past. But reaching for stability or normality in the everyday course of life really is fiction. So when the storms of life are raging (all too literally in this case) I am grateful that God does indeed stand by me. I am blessed to be reminded that wholeness and stability are found in one's approach to challenges, not in the lack of challenges.

I am particularly thankful for the amazing worship that we had last Sunday when we had to rearrange everything at the last minute and the glorious spirit of cooperation that prevailed throughout the church.

My prayer is that when things get back to "normal" we will not forget that God is still standing by us and that our challenges are still opportunities to grow towards wholeness.

Blessings,
A Wandering Methodist

Immersed in Spanish

2009-04-21T22:43:00.004-05:00

This week I am participating in a Spanish Immersion Course sponsored by the North Texas Conference. We have 2 amazing teachers and 4 students. We are having a lot of fun and I think I am actually learning something this time. I took 2 semesters of Spanish in college and have tried for years to learn. I can understand a fair amount of Spanish, but I have never been able to speak it - mainly because of my own perfectionism. I hate to make a mistake; thus I refuse to speak if I am not absolutely certain that I am speaking correctly. This class is helping me to get over that.

The class came about because last year at conference we passed a resolution saying that 20% of the pastors in the conference should be conversational in Spanish by a certain year (2020 maybe?). However, there was no provision in the resolution for helping to meet that goal. Some leaders in the conference heard the problem and decided to help meet the need. They created this course for pastors and church leaders. Evidently it has been difficult for pastors to find the time to do this, but I highly recommend this program. This is the jump-start that I needed.

Tonight we attended a Spanish-language prayer service in Dallas. It was simple, beautiful, and powerful. The faith of those attending and their commitment to serving God and sharing the kingdom was awesome. This is a new Spanish-language congregation and they are seeking God's will and way in all they do. We had the privilege of praying with them and praying for those that had asked for intercession. I didn't understand all the words they used, but I understood the spirit and that was sufficient for now.

Learning enough Spanish to minister to people has been a dream for a long time. I pray that God will enable me to make full use of this opportunity.

The Rivals of Jesus

2009-04-14T00:40:00.000-05:00

This is a show that was made by National Geographic. I found this show particularly funny in some places, mainly because of the contradictions. So here are a few of those contradictions:

• According to the show, a fellow named Apollonius was not successful because he appealed to the upper classes. Evidently the peasants that followed Jesus had better marketing skills than the upper classes. Those peasants really knew how to organize! On the other hand, Christianity was evidently not successful until, you guessed it, Christianity made it to the upper classes with Constantine. OK, guys, can’t have it both ways. Does appealing to the upper classes make you successful or unsuccessful?

• According to the show, Simon Magus is virtually unknown today because he “lost the debate.” Evidently “history is written by the winners.” Well, that may be true, but it could also be true that Simon Magus was simply a guy who had some good magic tricks but didn’t change people’s lives.

• The narrator claims that Jesus’ crucifixion becomes a “rallying point” for his followers. Hmm, I thought that his resurrection became the rallying point!

• Simon bar Kochba is a rival of Jesus? The narrator claims that “like Jesus, [Simon bar Kochba] speaks out against Rome.” I was under the impression that Jesus spoke out against the Jewish leaders, you know, the scribes and the Pharisees! As far as I can tell Jesus never said anything about Rome, except , "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's,” Matthew 22:21. They do finally get to that, in the show, but never do explain what they mean by saying “Jesus speaks out against Rome.”

• It’s not really a contradiction but I love the part where Jonathan Reed says he would have put money on Mithraism becoming the official religion of the Roman empire rather than Christianity. I’m not sure how Mithras slitting the throat of a bull is equivalent to Jesus shedding his own blood.

• The comparison with Isis is pretty funny also. The claim is that the pictures of Isis and Mary show a “stunning” similarity because both show mothers holding a child. Maybe both Isis and Mary are shown as mothers holding their child because they are both mothers with a child. Duh. And though the claim is that Isis worship offered a personal relationship with Isis just as Christianity offered a personal relationship with Jesus, how can this be a significant rival to Jesus when even Carole Fontaine admits that “one scholar has said that people adhere to the Isis cult but they are converted to the religion of Jesus.” She also notes that Isis worship didn’t require a person to change their way of life, whereas Christianity had specific rules about how one should live. Don’t these seem like pretty major differences?

• The biggest ‘rival’ to the “Jesus of the New Testament” is—wait for it—Jesus from the Nag Hamadi texts! In other words, the Gnostic Jesus. And I particularly like the part where they first say that the Gnostic Jesus was “less god-like and more human” and then proceed to relate the story about how Jesus comes out of his body and watches his crucifixion from the sidelines, mocking the Roman soldiers’ attempt to kill the immortal Son of God. How exactly does this portray Jesus’ “humanity” as “more appealing to the common man?”

These are just a few of the things I found odd and funny. Probably the biggest laugh was Peter with a Scottish accent, but I guess that isn’t really any funnier than Peter speaking English in the first place.

Good Friday

2009-04-11T13:43:00.000-05:00

Good Friday is always a moving experience for me. Whether I am the one presenting a service for just a few, or participate in a Tenebrae service of darkness such as we had on Thursday or am part of an incredible experience like the one last night of singing The Seven Last Words by Dubois, I need this time to prepare for Easter. When I celebrate Communion on Maundy Thursday I feel the presence of Jesus as the real host at the table. And I realize how much each of the persons I serve is beloved of God. It helps me to love them too; even the ones I don't really know, even the ones I do know and don't really like!

I need to be reminded that I am a part of the crowd that cries "He is death guilty, Let us crucify him!" But I also need to remember that no matter what I have done, I can come to the point of praising, "Christ we do all adore thee."

These last two days have made the sacrifice of God in Jesus real for me once more. I am looking forward to Easter. We may live in a Good Friday world, as someone has said, but Easter's coming! Praise the Lord!

Bad TV and Good Books

2009-04-07T16:26:00.000-05:00

Every year before Easter on the History Channel we are subjected to a wide variety of programming that focuses around “religious” topics. This year some of the offerings were: Jesus’ Arrest, The Devil’s Bible, a series on the Seven Deadly Sins, Banned from the Bible I and II, Bible Battles, God vs. Satan, The Quest for the Lost Ark, The Exodus Decoded, Crucifixion, and, my personal favorite—UFO’s of the Bible. I will admit to watching these shows; they hold a strange fascination for me. But often I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Does a program like UFO’s of the Bible show that people have an avid interest in all things religious and biblical? Or does it show that people have an easier time believing in alien abductions than in miracles or true experiences of God?

To be fair, some of the shows do present some interesting information and occasionally even accurate information. But I am not sure that I like the attempts, in so many programs, to ‘prove’ various parts of the Bible. One example of this is the Exodus Decoded which tries to show the physical basis for the plagues in Egypt. If you want to read an excellent review of this particular show go to a blog by Professor Christopher Heard at http://www.heardworld.com/higgaion/.

I would love to study the Seven Deadly Sins, the apocryphal books (which were “banned from the Bible), the Exodus, the details of Jesus last days, the miracles and God visitations in the Bible, etc. with folks. So if you are in my congregation, let’s chat. If you aren’t, then we might find a way to chat anyway!

On another topic: if you are looking for a good book try out Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, both by Anne Rice. Yes, the same woman who wrote the Vampire books. She had a conversion and has written these incredible books about Jesus. The first takes place when Jesus is a young child of 6 or 7, the second when he is about to begin his ministry. They are fiction, but they use excellent historical research and take an orthodox view of Jesus as the Christ. They are also very well written; they do not present a boring and pious view of Jesus, but a portrait that is believable and deals with what it would be like to be “fully human” and “fully divine.” And, yes, I have both books if you want to borrow.

Easter eggs, Easter bunnies and Easter crosses.

2009-04-04T20:21:00.000-05:00

We had the Easter egg hunt and festival today at church. You know the drill: plastic eggs stuffed with melting chocolate eggs inside, go-fish games in little vinyl pools of water, ring-toss, face-painting, the space-alien bounce house, and wafting over all of it the smell of freshly popped popcorn and new-spun cotton candy.

As I was watching the kids bouncing and squealing, I realized what picture was presented to those driving by on the main road in front of the church: There was the bounce-house, but in front of it were the three large wooden crosses that we put out for Holy Week. For a moment I had a theological crisis. What does it mean to juxtapose eggs, bunnies, bouncing and crosses? What does it mean to have laughing children in the shadow of the cross?

I will admit that I was a bit uncomfortable. And maybe the conclusion I came to is simply justifying my own discomfort; but I think that the joy of the day in the shadow of the crosses reflects hope. Don't get me wrong: I want those children and their parents to understand what it means to put empty crosses (symbols of Roman execution) in the front yard of the church. I want them to understand how it was that Jesus turned the sign of despair and death into a sign of life and hope. But that understanding will only come if those who attend Easter Egg hunts and play in bounce houses feel for themselves the joy of the family of faith. It will only come if those young (and sometimes not-so-young) parents recognize that they are important to us. They won't know right away that it is obedience to the Lord who died on the cross that drives us to reach out and share joy with them, but they will feel the joy and the love.

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday and we start into Holy Week. The Easter eggs will be put aside and we will turn to the deeper things of God. But even as we contemplate the betrayal, arrest, and execution of Jesus, I pray we remember that it is precisely joy and love that are the deeper things of God.

When Easter Became Real

2009-04-03T11:16:00.000-05:00

I remember Easters from my childhood: gooey candy eggs hiding in the yard, dyeing hard-boiled eggs in the kitchen, shopping for the perfect new Easter dress, putting on the white patent-leather shoes for the first time. I remember church parts too: Easter lilies filling the altar area, glorious music, church full of families and friends. We went home to Easter dinner and a lazy afternoon. I always loved Easter, but one year Easter became more than just a day of beauty and celebration, and became real and powerful.

In 1973, my youngest sister Nancy came down with the chicken pox. She had a condition (unrecognized at the time) that made her unable to fight such infections. The chicken pox progressed to a massive staff infection and she died on April 6 at the age of 5. I was 15 at the time. I had lost another sister 12 years previously from measles and the same condition, but I had not been affected as much when I was a 3-year-old. This time, my sister's death hit hard. We were surrounded by the love and care of our church family, and yet I heard comments like: "God needed another angel." Well, I wasn't impressed by a God who thought he needed my sister more than I did. I was angry and I was sick at heart.

I don't remember much about the next few weeks, except that I was trying to remain strong for my parents, and trying to get through my own grieving process without much help.

What made a difference was Easter Sunday. It came on April 22nd that year and we went to church as usual. If I am remembering correctly, we were actually in San Francisco taking a vacation from the sorrow and the memories in our home. But because it was Easter and because that is just what we did on Easter, we found a church and showed up on Easter morning. I don't remember the service, or the music, or the sermon. What I remember is this: Easter became real that day. I needed the resurrection in a way that I never had. I needed to hear that death and sorrow and suffering had been overcome and that day I knew that the story I had known since my earliest childhood was true. I can't explain how I knew, just that I did; that God revealed Godself to me in a special way on that Easter Sunday.

Easter is my favorite "holiday" because for me it truly is a "Holy day." It isn't just a nice story, but the reality upon which I base my life. One of the prayers in the Service of Death and Resurrection (in the UM Worship Book) says, "Help us to live as those who are prepared to die and when our days here are accomplished, enable us to die as those who go forth to live, so that living or dying, our life may be in you, and that nothing in life or in death will be able to separate us from your great love in Christ Jesus our Lord." Amen. Have a blessed Easter!