Shelter – Blessings on the Journey

Mike and I got turned on to the band The City Harmonic because they had their song “Mountaintop” on one of the CD’s that he gets in Worship Leader Magazine. We immediately were fans. I don’t know if you know this about me yet, but if I’m blasting my iTunes on the computer in my office, I’m being productive. I’m in the groove. I love music. Music is one of the ways I tap into God’s voice. Music has a way of moving you out of your own way so that you can see the kernel of truth. We hear music. We sing along. We think about the words. It taps into the deep well of our souls in a way nothing can and it can come to us in our times of need. I remember bits of hymns or praise songs or scriptures when I’m at my most vulnerable and raw.

This morning a song from The City Harmonic came on my iTunes. It’s called “Love, Heal Me” and it has a powerful story behind it. One that I knew about, but I didn’t discover the youtube video until today. As a congregation, many have been battling cancer and everyone has been touched in some way by cancer. I know this for sure and for certain that God doesn’t cause cancer or any other disease. God doesn’t want any of God’s children to suffer. “Everything happens for a reason” is no where in scripture, but God working all things for good (Romans 8:28) is definitely there. The Psalms are full of people crying out to God in grief, in anger, in desperation….and God was with each of them then and God is with each of us now, no matter what battle we face.

Eric describes his bandmates, their families and the fans coming alongside him as he journeyed through cancer. He says, “I kept saying I can’t write this right now. I can’t say these things right now. I believe them, but I can’t say them right now. He said (talking about lead singer Elias) I think you need to write it. I think we just need to do it. And in that, in and of itself, him as a brother forcing me to deal with what I was processing at the time. That’s what we’re hoping to do with our music to the larger body because the truth is, I was in a really vulnerable and raw place and it really helped to get the songs out and to state what I knew I believed and what I knew to be true even if I couldn’t feel it at the time.”

My desire is that for the Church to come alongside people, to not give cliched answers, but instead to listen, embodying love and grace for all. I want the church to be vulnerable and raw and for that to be okay. Jesus doesn’t call the perfect. He calls the messy people that don’t have it all together. Don’t worry….that’s each and every of us. As Roberta Porter writes in her poem Transforming Love, “God wants our lives — not Sunday morning shiny, but all the fragments of our failures, shards of struggle and sin we’ve gathered, hidden, on our way. And in Jesus’ transforming love, his willing brokenness, sacrifice, rising, our sorrow and pain become gifts to be used for others, our weakness the dwelling place for the Spirit’s strength, our broken-open lives bearers of God’s grace.” Even those who have been turned off by the church. Even those who are angry at God. Even those that feel like God has forgotten them and is not listening. The world doesn’t need all of the “right” answers, the world needs a Church that is authentically caring about each of us, loving each of us exactly where we are, taking the time to build relationships with each of us. As we sit at the feet of the Rabbi, as we learn to be true disciples that walk the way that leads to life, may we take off our masks. May we let the scales of stress and expectation fall away.

Most of all, let us never forget GOD IS WITH US. Every step of the way. Through good times and bad. Sometimes we need our Christian community to remind us of who we are and Whose we are, for them to help us sing when we can’t make a sound, for them to lift us up when we fall. There’s an old Irish proverb that I think exemplifies what I believe the image of Christian community to be. “It is in the shelter of each other that people live.” It is in the shelter of each other that people live. My prayer is that as we continue to battle whatever adversity life throws at us, we draw closer to one another and to the One whose mercies are new every day, even when it’s hard for us to believe that.

“Love, Heal Me”

I’m broken down
I’m on my knees
I’m crying out in my disease
I’m so worn down
So won’t You speak
and tell me how
You care for me?
’cause You are God
You heal all things
Your name is Love
So Love, heal me
I’m broken now
Won’t always be
Yes, I’ve seen pain
I’ve seen grief
But how it fades
When I sing
These songs of love:
They help me see that
You are God
You heal all things
Your name is Love
So Love heal me
And I’ll hold on
‘Cause You heal all things
Your name is Love
So Love, heal me
I’m falling down
I’m on my knees
I’m singin’ out: You’re what I need
I’m singin’ out: You’re what I need
I’m seeing now You’re here with me

“Praise The Lord”

Praise the Lord when it comes out easy
Praise the Lord on top of the world
Praise the Lord ‘cause in every moment Jesus Christ is Lord
Even in the middle of the joys of life
There is always grace enough today to
Praise the Lord
Praise the Lord
Praise the Lord
Won’t you praise the Lord?
Praise the Lord with the world on your shoulders
Praise the Lord when it seems too hard
Praise the Lord ‘cause in every moment Jesus Christ is Lord
Even in the middle of the long, dark night
There is always grace enough today to
Praise the Lord
Praise the Lord
Praise the Lord
Won’t you praise the Lord?
Praise the Lord if you can sing it at the top of your lungs
Praise the Lord like every moment is a song to be sung
Praise the Lord: though it might take blood, sweat and tears in your eyes
There is grace for today so praise the Lord
There is grace for today so praise the Lord
Praise the Lord
Praise the Lord
Praise the Lord
Won’t you praise the Lord?
There is grace for today so praise the Lord

Colossians 3:12-17

“As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Our scripture today is one that I give couples to select for a scripture reading for their wedding. It was also used as the middle scripture on Gator Wesley’s Spring Tour this week. I hoped it would resonate with the students as they dealt with one another in the love of Christ in the midst with all of the challenges of tour. One of my favorite lines of this scripture, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” We love each other like family here at Gator Wesley. We fight like brothers and sisters, but we know at the end of the day that we need to bear with one another and forgive each other just as Christ has forgiven us.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer asks the questions, “Has fellowship served to make the individual free, strong, and mature, or has it made him weak and dependent? Has it taken him by the hand for a while in order that he may learn again to walk by himself, or has it made him uneasy and unsure?”

I say yes for the community at Gator Wesley. We don’t seek to wave magic wands to solve all of life’s problems, but we seek to come alongside and journey with you wherever you go with the love and grace of Christ that leads us.

I love the poems in the Alive Now devotionals by Roberta Porter. This one is called simply “Gift.”

It is no small gift to be a faith community,
to worship, to witness,
to walk the way of love
in the name and strength of Jesus.
And in community,
When brokenness and sorrow come,
those in need are surrounded
with prayer and compassion.
Our caring goes beyond ourselves,
and the stranger, in many places,
Is touched
by the healing love and grace of God.

In our failures, in our busy forgetting,
we are forgiven, renewed
to continue to be the hands and feet of Christ –
no small task,
no small gift.

I say yes for myself in the community of Gator Wesley that has lifted me up in powerful ways that has allowed me to walk this journey of recovery. That you let me be your leader in the midst was a true gift of grace. I may not have often felt adequate or enough these past few months or past year, but God’s grace has been more than sufficient. These were the verses in The Upper Room Devotional for yesterday the anniversary of my second brain surgery, but I didn’t read it until today, taking a sort of fast from social media because we celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary yesterday. Lamentations 3:22-26, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.” Amen and amen.

Another poem called “Beyond Ourselves” by Roberta Porter.
We are created for Christ
and for community –
to pray, to care
to show and receive compassion
to witness to all
the wonder of God’s grace.

May we faithfully act in love –
forgiving, restoring,
renewing, serving,
and living
beyond ourselves
in the power of the Sprirt
and to the glory of God.

This is the gift from me to you, to thank you for journeying with me this past year. The song “Brother” by needtobreathe really resonated with me as I traveled on tour this past week. I highly encourage you to get the entire CD because it’s awesome. Because this CD is so recent, this is the only recording of this song on youtube besides the one with just the album cover. This is obviously the acoustic version.

Brother Lyrics
Ramblers in the wilderness we can’t find what we need
Get a little restless from the searching
Get a little worn down in between
Like a bull chasing the matador is the man left to his own schemes
Everybody needs someone beside em’ shining like a lighthouse from the sea

Brother let me be your shelter
I’ll never leave you all alone
I can be the one you call
When you’re low
Brother let me be your fortress
When the night winds are driving on
Be the one to light the way
Bring you home

Face down in the desert now there’s a cage locked around my heart
I found a way to drop the keys where my failures were
Now my hands can’t reach that far
I ain’t made for a rivalry I could never take this world alone
I know that in my weakness I am stronger
It’s your love that brings me home