I want to thank all of the volunteers that worked at Point Hope’s Vacation Bible School this past week. I want to thank each of the parents and children. It was a blessing to Mike and me because it was the first full VBS our kids have experienced and they LOVED it! Evy was hesitant to to go to school in the summer until she and Enoch experienced all the fun of Cave Quest and the characters that taught them about Jesus. We celebrated our Cave Quest VBS singing Light of the World and This Little Light of Mine this past Sunday. In the middle we had our children’s sermon, in the mystery box, the little girl who was visiting her grandmother who had been one of the helpers at VBS, put in a rock crystal and a flashlight. I talked about how we all look like ordinary rocks until you look on the inside and one of the children piped up and said we “sparkle.” The love of Jesus makes us sparkle and we need to share it with others. The flashlight can be used to see our sparkle when we forget Whose we are and we can let others know that they have sparkle inside them too. I encouraged them if we all shine our lights together then the whole world will sparkle.
During the choir’s beautiful anthem, I started thinking about the kids and how they’re going to grow up in a different world than any of us. Are they prepared? Are they prepared with the full armor of God as they go out every day? Even in our homes are we protecting them from seeing the horrors of the news and if we let them see bits and pieces are we answering their questions resting in God to give us the answers? Answers that bring more peace and love into the world. It’s not only scary “out there,” but it’s scary “in here” as we try to answer questions that have hard answers or don’t have any. And yet, they give me hope each week. The child-like faith. We need to have it. I believe in the South Carolina motto “Dum Spiro Spero” or in English “While I breathe, I hope.” I’m hopeful that if we DO shine our lights for ALL the world to see and resist hiding it under a bushel and we DO the hard work of putting into PRACTICE the big and small ways of what makes for peace. As Jesus thought to himself on the way to the cross in Luke 19:42, “42 saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.” It comes out not only when we talk about politics, but it comes in the entire fullness of life. In our conversations with THAT co-worker or THAT family member, in our interactions with gas station clerks or the cashiers at the grocery store, in our day-to-day lives 24*7*365. I know it’s a struggle with all of the chaos swirling around us. That’s why I’m careful of what influences and shapes my world view.
My mom and I were going to Isle of Palms and there is a big American flag on the top of the bridge. I commented the flag has been at half mast a lot lately. Our world is hurting and grieving and mourning; or their apathetic and over it because they can’t handle anymore heartache. Jesus promises to be there with us in the mountaintops and the valleys and I think he calls us to do the same. I’ll leave you what I was led to read this morning.
Matthew 5:1-12
5When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
3 ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
May we live the light of Christ. May we shine the light of Christ showing the world they have God’s sparkle inside of them. May we do the things that make for peace whether it be prayer, responding in love, or being careful in what influences us. May we get through this TOGETHER because we’re stronger, wiser, and more attuned to the Shepherd’s voice when we are living in Christ-centered community.
Holy and Gracious God,
As we gather here in the harbour of your safety
We thank you for fellowship and family.
We ask that you will strengthen us, restore us and inspire us with your love.
Lord, would you fill us with your peace
So that as we journey onwards
We would pour out your love and grace to others.
We ask that our souls would catch the wind of your spirit
so that we would take your promises to all the earth.
Amen.
18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. 19And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ 20Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. 22Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.
Have you ever heard of “call stories?” They are the stories of ordinary people that are used by God for a purpose. Each of you has a story, multiple stories, that can be used by God for the redemption of not only you, but of the world around you. The first scripture is one of the most famous call stories in all of the Bible because Jesus took uneducated fishermen and called them to fish for people. Just like in our children’s sermon last week.
They left everything, nets and all. They left family and friends. They left everything that was familiar to them: from their day to day routines to their favorite corner store.
My brothers and I grew up as United Methodist preacher’s kids as you know. How many of you were born in 1992? Most of you. Some of you may have heard Steven Curtis Chapman song For the Sake of the Call? My mom would play it any time we were about to move so we knew anytime that song was playing, change was a’coming! That and Michael W. Smith’s song, Friends are Friends Forever. Here’s some lines from For the Sake of the Call and you can see why whenever I read this scripture, I think of the song.
Nobody stood and applauded them
So they knew from the start
This road would not lead to fame
All they really knew for sure
Was Jesus had called to them
He said “come follow Me” and they came
With reckless abandon, they came
Empty nets lying there at the water’s edge
Told a story that few could believe
And none could explain
How some crazy fishermen agreed to go where Jesus lead
With no thought to what they would gain
For Jesus had called them by name
And they answered…
Drawn like the rivers are drawn to the sea
There’s no turning back, for the water cannot help but flow
Once we hear the Savior’s call, we’ll follow wherever He leads
Because of the love He has shown
And because He has called us to go
We will answer…
Not for the sake of a creed or a cause
Not for a dream or a promise
Simply because it is Jesus who called
And if we believe we’ll obey
We will abandon it all for the sake of the call
No other reason at all but the sake of the call
Wholly devoted to live and to die
If you obey Jesus when he calls, life is going to be an adventure. Has anyone ever seen Running Wild with Bear Grylls? Bear Grylls is a Brittish adventurer best known for his Man vs. Wild tv show. He’s a military man, one of the youngest Brits to climb Everest and he often talks about his faith. The show was born after he had Will Ferrell join him on Man vs. Wild.
In the new show, celebrities go on adventures with him and he teaches them survival lessons along the way. It’s always a journey from point A to point B. The celebrities don’t know the path and they balk when there’s heights or they have to eat something to survive like grubs or crickets or squirrel or there’s only a small space between rocks and they’re claustrophobic. They follow on wherever Bear leads. Sure they pitch fits along the way, sure they threaten to not go on…but in their fears is where I most see their humanity. They’re real people at those moments and they obviously don’t care about what the camera is making them look like as the rubber meets the road and their souls stripped bare. We’ve seen insights into some of the why’s and how’s of their fears and when they conquer them, it is a beautiful thing. I used to think of the disciples much like Bear Grylls, rugged, with an adventurous, live on the edge spirit, and I still think of John the Baptist like that. John the Baptist was wisened, ate locusts, was already very much a prophetic voice. But these were fishermen and a tax collector; they weren’t like that at the beginning of their trek with Jesus. They didn’t have all of the answers. They were probably very much like these celebrities, unsure of themselves but willing to follow. Albeit the celebrities have the right kind of gear. Does God equip us with the right kind of gear for the road?
Did the two fishermen that Jesus called take their fishing nets with them? Nope! They didn’t know where the journey would take them. They couldn’t carry luggage loaded onto a baggage cart. As we talked about last week, we each have figurative baggage. Most of us carry “stuff” and sometimes it’s like a security blanket. That we hold onto. We carry it with us wherever we go and we’re afraid to lay it down because it’s ours – the familiar and the comfortable. Some of us like the prodigal have gotten so used to the pigs and the mud that we are stuck there and even those that are closest to us don’t know the full extent of our hurts. The words that were used against us in school that we’ve never told anyone. The awkwardness of not feeling comfortable even in your own skin. The voices in our heads of who society says we should be or who our “friends” pressure us to be or what facebook wants us to be…I hate that the world is so judgmental now. That we can hide behind our screens and we don’t have to look people in the eyes, when we say you’re too fat, you’re too skinny, you’re not smart/pretty/kind/ enough and we even go so far as to say, I hate you. Jesus doesn’t want us drinking the haterade. Jesus wants us to find what makes for peace. Jesus is asking you to go on a great adventure and we all have to lay down our baggage, sometimes daily. Guilt. Shame. Pride. Doubt. Fear. Self-Loathing. Superhuman expectations. The pressure we put on ourselves to measure up to this person or that person. Lay it all down. Take it off your shoulders. Stop rolling that luggage around and repent. Repent that you looked to people, to show you your worth. Ask for forgiveness. Let it all go. If you pick it back up, repeat and ask the Holy Spirit to block you or your behavior from picking it back up. Use a breath prayer. Every time something comes into your mind or you revert into old familiar patterns of behavior, say “Lord Jesus take this from me” or “Lord in your mercy” or “My help is in You alone Lord” or “Not my will, but Yours.”
When he was in kindergarten, my son Enoch, got a color for every day for his behavior. The colors were blue for an exceptional day, green for a good day, yellow for a one warning day, orange for a two warning day, and red if he had to go to the principal’s office. He would stress out and worry over his color every day knowing that we expected mostly green days, but Enoch was and still is a rambunctious and inquisitive child. To be honest, we were happy with the yellow days, because Enoch is who he is, we don’t want him to stop being a Curious George. We want him to learn a lot and not drive his teacher or his classmates crazy, but he always would get stressed out and upset with the behavior chart. If the teacher moved his color, that would affect his behavior and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. He was in this cycle because he didn’t want to disappoint us. I still explain to him that every day is a brand new day. I would often quote the line in Anne of Green Gables, “Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?” Leave the mistakes of today and don’t carry them with you to tomorrow. I will go farther still. Leave the mistakes of all the yesterdays in the past. Ask for forgiveness and then do 180 degree turn. That’s what repentance is. I saw a bumper sticker a long time ago that said, “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.” Let there be no doubt in your mind that Jesus scatters your sins and my sins from the east to the west and we are free. Romans 8:14-16 says, “14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba!Father!” 16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” Let the mean thing that someone said about you go. Let all of the expectations that the world has placed on you go. Let all of the hatred and demonizing the other go. You don’t have time for that. You have a world to love. If you let it, hate will blacken your heart. As Yoda of Star Wars says, “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” If you grasp hold of hate than you can’t grab onto the beautiful ways that God will use you to be an instrument of love, peace, and the fruit of the Spirit we read about in Galatians. “By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
Our second scripture for today, John 15, is all about abiding in Christ and loving one another as we abide in Christ. Abide or meno in Greek means to stay, remain, accept, obey and heed. Have you heard of the resting state on an MRI? Resting state is a method of functional brain imaging that can be used to evaluate regional interactions that occur when a subject is not performing an explicit task. In other words resting in the love and grace of God should be how we go through life. If we rest in God’s love, it’s easier to show others God’s love. John 15:16-18 says, “16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. 18 “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you.”
We did not choose God, but God chose us that we may bear fruit in the world. God forgives us. God seeks to be in right relationship with all of God’s children. God’s prevenient grace, that grace that goes before we even realize it, is offered to everyone. If we abide in God’s mercy in our resting state then it will be that much simpler to live into the full matrix of human life. God says it won’t be easy, the world will hate us, just like it did him, but that’s all right. If you speak the truth in love, some people won’t like that. A word of caution here, if you are a truth teller, make sure you’re abiding in Christ, make sure you’re resting in the love of God, because you don’t want to do harm for harm’s sake because that’s not what Christ would do. You better be abiding in the love and grace of God if you’re talking to or about one of God’s beloved children. You see the enemy wants to only steal, kill, and destroy, and he will use you to attack. He doesn’t like when we tune into the Shepherd’s voice, when we listen to the voice of truth, our Savior’s voice. That voice that tells us we’re somebody. I was listening to Francesca Battistelli, Ellie Holcomb, and Lauren Daigle, on my way back from the UMC’s South Eastern Jurisdictional Conference at Lake Junaluska on Thursday night feeling a bit discouraged and everything that I was listening to was perfectly timed and perfectly worded so that my tired and weary soul could take it in. This one in particular hit me. It’s Francesca Battistelli’s He Knows My Name.
Spent today in a conversation
In the mirror face to face with
somebody less than perfect
I wouldn’t choose me first if
I was looking for a champion
In fact I’d understand if
You picked everyone before me
But that’s just not my story
True to who You are
You saw my heart
and made
Something out of nothing
I’m not meant to just stay quiet
I’m meant to be a lion
I’ll roar beyond a song
With every moment that I’ve got
True to who You are
You saw my heart
and made
Something out of nothing
I don’t need my name in lights
I’m famous in my Father’s eyes
Make no mistake
He knows my name
I’m not living for applause
I’m already so adored
It’s all His stage
He knows my name
He calls me chosen, free forgiven, wanted, child of the King,
His forever, held in treasure…
I am loved
God knows what we need and when we need it if we rest in God. God chooses us as we are not what we aspire to be or who we pretend to be on social media. God chooses us as we are with all of our fears and mistakes, all of the distractions and things rolling around in our heads and calls us Sons and Daughters of the Most High King. Remember my earlier rhetorical question about God equipping us for the road ahead? God does and God will. If you follow God’s heart and leading, God will give you everything you need. You may be thinking that’s impossible, God doesn’t work like that. I’ll quote Muhammad Ali who said, “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” What does scripture say about that? With God all things are possible. With God all things ARE possible. Amen?
“A seminary professor was vacationing with his wife in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. One morning they were eating breakfast in a little restaurant, hoping to enjoy a quiet, family meal. While waiting for their food, they noticed a distinguished looking, white-haired man moving from table to table, visiting with the guests. The professor leaned over and whispered to his wife, “I hope he doesn’t come over here.”
But sure enough, the man came over to their table. “Where are you folks from?” he asked in a friendly voice. “Oklahoma,” they answered. “Great to have you here in Tennessee,” the stranger said. “What do you do for a living?” “I teach at a seminary,” he replied. “Oh, so you teach preachers how to preach, do you? Well, I’ve got a really good story for you.” And with that, the gentleman pulled up a chair and sat down. The professor groaned and thought to himself, “Great. Just what I need — another preacher story!”
The man started, “See that mountain over there?” He pointed out the restaurant window. “Not far from the base of that mountain, there was a boy born to an unwed mother. He had a hard time growing up because every place he went, he was always asked the same question: “Who’s your father?’ The whole town looked for a family resemblance, whether he was at school, in the grocery store or the drug store, people would ask the same question: “Who do you belong to?” He would hide at recess and lunch time from other students. He would avoid going into stores because that question hurt him. When he was about 12 years old, a new preacher came to his church. He would always go in late and slip out early to avoid hearing the question. But one day, the new preacher said the benediction so fast, he got caught and had to walk out with the crowd. Just about the time he got to the back door, the new preacher, not knowing anything about him, put his hand on his shoulder and asked him, ‘Son, who’s your dad?’ The whole church got deathly quiet. He could feel every eye in the church looking at him. Now everyone would finally know the answer to the question of who his father was. The new preacher, though, sensed the situation around him and using discernment that only the Holy Spirit could give, said the following to the scared and nervous boy: ‘Wait a minute! I know who you are. I see the family resemblance now. You are a child of God.’ With that, he patted the boy on his shoulder and said, ‘Boy, you’ve got a great inheritance — go and claim it.’ With that, the boy smiled for the first time in a long time and walked out the door a changed person. He was never the same again. Whenever anybody asked him who his father was, he’d just tell them, ‘I’m a child of God.’
The distinguished gentleman got up from the table and said, “Isn’t that a great story?” The professor responded that it really was a great story. As the man turned to leave, he said, “You know, if that new preacher hadn’t told me that I was one of God’s children, I probably would never have amounted to anything!” And he walked away.
The seminary professor and his wife were stunned. He called the waitress over and asked, “Do you know that man who was just sitting at our table?” The waitress grinned and said, “Of course. Everybody here knows him. That’s Ben Hooper. He’s the former governor of Tennessee!”
It’s a true story. Lo and behold, right across from a Cracker Barrel in Tennessee was a marker to Ben Hooper. God actively pursues us. God reaches for us. God chooses us. All we have to do is lay down our fears, baggage, and mistakes and trust in God’s abundant grace. That’s what the world is crying out for. Something that’s real, and solid as a rock. Something that could make fishermen leave their nets and go fish for people. Something that neither moth nor rust will destroy. “38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
6 My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves. 4 All must test their own work; then that work, rather than their neighbor’s work, will become a cause for pride. 5 For all must carry their own loads.
6 Those who are taught the word must share in all good things with their teacher.
7 Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. 8 If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. 9 So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. 10 So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.
Growing up, my two younger brothers would have cavity after cavity, and though I ate the most candy, I never had one. We got Evy’s “Vacation Fun” book, where she writes a whole story about seeing candy, the scent of candy being in the air, so much so she could almost taste it. She’s a child after my own heart.
Though Josh and Caleb didn’t eat near the amount of sugar I did, my senior year of high school we moved and it all changed. Dr. Anderson, our new dentist, got a lot of money from my parents. I had 7 cavities that year. It had all caught up to me and my brothers said after all of those years skirting by after they received filling after filling, I deserved it.
Out of the verses in this passage,you reap what you sow is probably the most famous and one of the most commonly used Biblical passages in the vernacular. Even Urban Dictionary has a definition for it. It begins by saying it’s the basic nature of God’s justice. It gives us these definitions: 1. Everything that you do has repercussions. It comes back to you in one way or another. 2. You cannot escape the consequences of your actions. 3. You will see the long-term effects of your actions. 4. What goes around comes around. Terrence Trezvant ends his post this way, “Sow a thought you reap an act. Sow an act, you reap a habit. Sow a habit, you reap a character. Sow a character, you reap a consequence.”
I always want to know the context for a verse. Both what the writer of the letter is trying to say and where it is in the passage. Paul was writing a letter to the Christian communities in Galatia. He was battling the controversy of Gentiles not adhering to Mosaic law, such as circumcision. You see, the Galatians were converted directly from Paganism and some of them became Judaizers, which means they followed all the laws, living like Jews. Paul’s arguing against this in many of his letters. It’s a constanttheme in his epistles that you put your faith in Christ alone or the law of the Messiah, which requires living life in community. Love God and love neighbor. So you see in verse 6:2, “2 Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” and this you do in care and compassion as verse 1 makes priority. Be gentle with one another, but be firm in convictions so as not to be tempted, however, this not leads to lack of personal responsibility.
The college students that I’ve worked with didn’t have very many universal feelings, but they all detested group projects and they would come to me from time to time to gripe and commiserate with one another about how their group was the worst. It’s true for group projects, you have to bear one another up but it’s not an excuse to let one group member do the work, and not take personal responsibility, not put forth your best effort, or not to do your fair share. It’s grace and accountability. You’ve got to give people grace, but you also have to hold them accountable. It’s a balancing act. Verses 4 and 5 says each person must answer to God individually, testing and taking pride in their own work. Isn’t that a relief? We don’t have to judge others, we are only responsible for what we put in the world. I’m reminded of Trezvant’s words, “Sow a thought you reap an act. Sow an act, you reap a habit. Sow a habit, you reap a character. Sow a character, you reap a consequence.”
How are we to sow to the Spirit and what are we to sow? Simple things like smiling at someone. Angela Johnson is a Deacon of the South Carolina Annual Conference serving in Atlanta at Action Ministries and she wrote on facebook the other day, “Be still my heart.” Daily, I encounter individuals and families who are homeless. While I cannot immediately change their circumstances, I know that I play a role in helping people obtain housing. A gentleman told me today that “my smile encouraged him and gave him a sense of hope.” I do not share this to brag about myself, but want to encourage you that small things can make or possibly change someone’s life/situation/or circumstance. Be the light…so others may see Christ in you.” Galatians itself gives us the answers in chapter 5 verses 22-23 talking about the fruit of the Spirit. “22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.” If we plant these fruits of the Spirit as little seeds, and cultivate, nurture, water and tend them then they will burst forth from us.
My mom had this tape that she bought us when we were little by the Bill Gaither trio. It had a song called “Input Output.” I actually looked up the lines. I warn you that they’re really cheesy and outdated but the concept is still the same. Input output that is what it’s all about
Chorus 1
Input output what goes
In is what comes out
Input output that is what
It’s all about
Input output your mind is a computer
Whose input output
Daily you must choose
Verse 1
Let the Bible be your primary feed
It’s got all the data you need
Talk to Jesus all the time
That’s the way that
You can stay on line
Verse 2
If your printout reads to lie or cheat
There’s some data you should delete
Debug your mind of sinful bytes
Then you will operate all right
It’s a simple concept. What you put into your life is what comes out. You can either sow seeds of peace, joy, and kindness or sow seeds of duplicity, malice, and destruction. We have to be connected to the true vine, Jesus, to get our daily nourishment through prayer, reading the Bible, worship, walking through God’s creation, meditating on a scripture while you exercise. God nourishes us in many various ways, but we have to stay connected. John 15:1-6, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. 2He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3You have already been cleansed–by the word that I have spoken to you. 4Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.” That’s the key to this whole thing, we can’t do it on our own. No one is “good” enough. No one has a corner on the kingdom. There’s not a giant sticker chart in the sky that you are able to earn gold stars for and get into heaven. The only way to finish the race is by the grace of God. Psalm 51:10-12 says, “10Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.11Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.12Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.”
It’s a God action, not a human action,but because of the grace God has given us, comes great responsibility and that leads us to our last two verses, “9 So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. 10 So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.” You will hear the phrase “do not grow weary in doing what is right” echo in the Bible. Don’t be weary in spending time in God’s word and seeking to live it out. Don’t be weary in planting seeds of the fruit of the Spirit. Don’t be weary of praying for your family, friends, community, and country. Don’t be weary in serving God with all that you have. As John Wesley says, “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”
We can support each other on the journey to sow seeds of light. We don’t have to do it alone, remember we bear with one another. Archbishop Desmond Tutu says, “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” Together we can shine a brighter light. Together we will reap a great harvest. You have to choose to sow the seeds that produce good things and it’s sometimes hard. As Dumbledore says in the Harry Potter series, “It is not our abilities that show what we truly are. It is our choices.”
Let me close with a couple stories that I think illustrate this passage. This is an example of how a single choice of whether to sow good or not can greatly impact others. STORY NUMBER ONE Many years ago, Al Capone virtually owned Chicago. Capone wasn’t famous for anything heroic. He was notorious for enmeshing the windy city in everything from bootlegged booze and prostitution to murder. Capone had a lawyer nicknamed “Easy Eddie.” He was his lawyer for a good reason… Eddie was very good! In fact, Eddie’s skill at legal maneuvering kept Big Al out of jail for a long time. To show his appreciation, Capone paid him very well.
Not only was the money big, but Eddie got special dividends. For instance, he and his family occupied a fenced-in mansion with live-in help and all of the conveniences of the day. The estate was so large that it filled an entire Chicago City block. Eddie lived the high life of the Chicago mob and gave little consideration to the atrocity that went on around him. Eddie did have one soft spot, however. He had a son that he loved dearly. Eddie saw to it that his young son had the best of everything: clothes, cars and a good education. Nothing was withheld. Price was no object. And, despite his involvement with organized crime, Eddie even tried to teach him right from wrong. Eddie wanted his son to be a better man than he was.
Yet, with all his wealth and influence, there were two things he couldn’t give his son; that he couldn’t pass on a good name and a good example. One day, Easy Eddie reached a difficult decision. Easy Eddie wanted to rectify wrongs he had done. He decided he would go to the authorities and tell the truth about Al “Scar face” Capone, clean up his tarnished name and offer his son some semblance of integrity. To do this, he would have to testify against The Mob, and he knew that the cost would be great. So, he testified. Within the year, Easy Eddie’s life ended in a blaze of gunfire on a lonely Chicago Street. But in his eyes, he had given his son the greatest gift he had to offer, at the greatest price he would ever pay.
STORY NUMBER TWO
World War II produced many heroes. One such man was Lieutenant Commander Butch O’Hare. He was a fighter pilot assigned to the aircraft carrier Lexington in the South Pacific. One day his entire squadron was sent on a mission. After he was airborne, he looked at his fuel gauge and realized that someone had forgotten to top off his fuel tank. He would not have enough fuel to complete his mission and get back to his ship. His flight leader told him to return to the carrier. Reluctantly, he dropped out of formation and headed back to the fleet. As he was returning to the mother ship he saw something that turned his blood cold. A squadron of Japanese aircraft was speeding their way toward the American fleet. The American fighters were gone on a sortie, and the fleet was all but defenseless. He couldn’t reach his squadron and bring them back in time to save the fleet. Nor could he warn the fleet of the approaching danger. There was only one thing to do. He must somehow divert them from the fleet. Laying aside all thoughts of personal safety, he dove into the formation of Japanese planes. Wing-mounted 50 caliber’s blazed as he charged in, attacking one surprised enemy plane and then another. Butch wove in and out of the now broken formation and fired at as many planes as possible until all his ammunition was finally spent. Undaunted, he continued the assault. He dove at the planes, trying to clip a wing or tail in hopes of damaging as many enemy planes as possible and rendering them unfit to fly. Finally, the exasperated Japanese squadron took off in another direction. Deeply relieved, Butch O’Hare and his tattered fighter limped back to the carrier.
Upon arrival he reported in and related the event surrounding his return. The film from the gun-camera mounted on his plane told the tale. It showed the extent of Butch’s daring attempt to protect his fleet. He had in fact destroyed five enemy aircraft. This took place on February 20, 1942, and for that action Butch became the Navy’s first Ace of W.W.II, and the first Naval Aviator to win the Congressional Medal of Honor. A year later Butch was killed in aerial combat at the age of 29. His home town would not allow the memory of this WW II hero to fade, and today, O’Hare Airport in Chicago is named in tribute to the courage of this great man. So the next time you find yourself at O’Hare International, give some thought to visiting Butch’s memorial displaying his statue and his Medal of Honor. It’s located between Terminals 1 and 2.
SO WHAT DO THESE TWO STORIES HAVE TO DO WITH EACH OTHER?
I preached this at Point Hope UMC this morning. They were very gracious to me and we had a delicious lunch after church that Mike and the kids have raved about all afternoon. Thanks for being with me on this crazy journey called life. I want you to share your stories with me too! ‘Cause we’re not meant to do this life alone. Amen?
Psalm 77
1I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, that he may hear me.
2In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted.
3I think of God, and I moan; I meditate, and my spirit faints. Selah
4You keep my eyelids from closing; I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
5I consider the days of old, and remember the years of long ago.
6I commune with my heart in the night; I meditate and search my spirit:
7“Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable?
8Has his steadfast love ceased forever? Are his promises at an end for all time?
9Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?”
10And I say, “It is my grief that the right hand of the Most High has changed.”
11I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord; I will remember your wonders of old.
12I will meditate on all your work, and muse on your mighty deeds.
13Your way, O God, is holy. What god is so great as our God?
14You are the God who works wonders; you have displayed your might among the peoples.
15With your strong arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Selah
16When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid; the very deep trembled.
17The clouds poured out water; the skies thundered; your arrows flashed on every side.
18The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind; your lightnings lit up the world; the earth trembled and shook.
19Your way was through the sea, your path, through the mighty waters; yet your footprints were unseen.
20You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Some of you may be wondering what on earth is this preacher doing using a Psalm as her text on her first Sunday. The Psalms get to the heart speak. They get down deep, to the nitty gritty. They’re full of real people celebrating their Good Shepherd and crying out desperately to God. Both the mountaintops and valleys, the fullness of the human experience, is captured in the Psalms.
Let me tell you a story. In my previous appointment I went to Costa Rica for a Spring Break mission trip in 2013 with Pura Vida Ministries. Listen to their mission statement: “We exist to transform lives by providing Christ-centered, life-changing mission adventures. We believe that following Jesus is Not an Event, but a Life!” Not an event, but a life. Not an event, but a life. I believe that. You will hear in my messages and hopefully see in my life a fervent desire to live our faith out loud, no matter the storms or challenges. They had different merchandise you could buy with “Not an event, but a life” so I brought back a mousepad for my office, not knowing then that I would have my second brain surgery later that May.
At a conference in Winchester, VA I had my first seizure. It was 2010 and I was 30 at the time. I was diagnosed with a brain tumor that they removed most of two weeks later. My tumor has a Harry Potter spell-like pronunciation to it – an oligodendroglioma. I had no complications or deficits after surgery. I mean I had a tube coming out of my head with a blood bulb that I would put in the pocket of my hospital gown when I went to the bathroom but you go through what you have to. I had the surgery on Friday and I was out on Sunday. My son Enoch had just turned 3 and Evy was 1;
so I recuperated at my brother Josh’s house. I was back home and at work the next Thursday, less than a week later, easy, peasy, lemon squeezy.
I remember writing on the prayer request card from Pura Vida at the end of the trip that I would have an MRI the following Monday. The MRI unfortunately showed the tumor had grown and so I began sharing with people that I would have a second surgery. I thought it would be like the first surgery, so I agreed to do a wedding 3 weeks later and was set to do a workshop in Chicago that June and set to preach at camp for a week in July. Unlike the first surgery where I had no complications, when I woke up I could understand everything the nurses, doctors, and my family were saying but I had lost my ability to speak. The doctors and speech therapists call it apraxia. Apraxia is the inability to execute learned purposeful movements, despite having the desire and the physical capacity to perform the movements. Oh, I had the desire in spades. In other words, the words were still there but the ability to form sentences was broken, non-existent.
The tumor is on the motor cortex, that’s why they didn’t get it all the first time, so I had no feeling in my right arm or hand, and I’m right-handed. I texted these words to my husband, Mike, with my left hand over two weeks later, “The quickness with which I speak comes back?” It took me 45 minutes to text that. I did 30 radiation treatments, 6 months of chemo, physical, occupational, and speech therapy over that year and then I went to the Ukraine to speak at a conference, but that is another sermon.
I’ve learned to rely on God because I HAVE to. I am an independent, non-conformist person mixed with a perfectionistic people pleaser and I ALWAYS relied heavily on my communication skills. I didn’t know how much until I couldn’t rattle off a prayer or answer a theological question or explain simple things to my kids or preach without a manuscript, or even the little things. I used to carry around a small calendar in my purse to jot stuff down in, I used to type x number of words a minute, I used to love to send handwritten notes to people. The ease and what came naturally to me before was lost and I still sometimes grieve that loss. It’s okay to grieve. God is with us when we mourn. God promises to bring joy in the morning, so I went back to preaching in June. I could read things and I reused every sermon that I had full manuscripts for that summer. My oncologist, who I met with more frequently that first year and now at least every 3-4 months, was an older man who was all business and had a wry sense of humor. Dr. Stahl always asked me if I was still preaching every week and I would always say yes. He doesn’t know, by him asking me that question every time that I’m just stubborn, bull-headed and tenacious enough to see that as a challenge and with God’s strength, to make it happen! He wrote this to me when he found out as I was moving, “It has been a privilege and a pleasure to have you as a patient-You have remarkable courage and determination-both of which have you served you well.”
We at the time had services every Sunday at 11 and every Wednesday night at 8:30 and shared in communion each time and it was a challenge to say the least. A number of things helped me get through that time great students and other church members, Gator Wesley had been a local church and our older members sent me cards of encouragement almost every day, my speech therapist being patient and pushing me and saying your brain will rewire itself, songs like “Lord I Need You,” movies like “Rise of the Guardians” talking about what is your center and having faith even when you cannot see and “The Legend of Bagger Vance” talking about each of us has one, true, authentic swing, when I didn’t feel confident in my own voice, and y’all’s prayers, cards, and prayer shawls from around the United Methodist connection. When I didn’t have the strength or the words or even the desire, on the dark nights of the soul, God was faithful. When my primary care doctor said to me that September, I don’t think this brain tumor’s going to kill you, let’s get you healthy and strong, God was working through her to give me the hope that I needed to keep putting one foot in front of the other. God can and does use us to be lights in a world full of darkness. I knew then and I know now that God is with me every step of the way, continuing to strengthen me for the journey. How do I know? God gives us proof. The little reassurances along the way – the person that says something and God’s speaking to me through their voice, the song that happens to come on the radio or the itunes shuffle at just the right time, the passage of scripture I happen to read that morning…it doesn’t just “happen.” It’s a God thing. Claim it. Know it. Trust it. Be the person that Mother Teresa emulated as she said, “I’m a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world.”
God is ever present reminding me I am enough even when I don’t have the words. I am worthy even when I don’t have the answers. I can claim my inheritance by simply resting in the surety that I am a child of God. We all can. We are all worthy and enough. If I have learned anything over the past 6 years is it’s not enough to just merely have these quick fix Jesus highs, these Psalms of praise alone – no matter how great they are – because they won’t sustain you when the ship hits the sand or when the rubber hits the road and you’re left bereft. Developing a real, in depth relationship with Jesus will. Developing a faith that lasts and is rooted and grounded in scripture will. A verse, a song lyric, a prayer….When the storms of life are raging, I know where my hope is and that is in Christ alone. We sang the hymn, “In Christ Alone” at Annual Conference in 2011, one year after the first surgery, and we sang it just now before the sermon. It’s a song that means very much to me, especially the last verse.
No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath.
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.
At a retreat a year after the second surgery, the facilitator asked us to write questions on 3 cards. They were to be questions where we needed the Holy Spirit to intercede, questions that were rolling around our heads but we had never articulated. Then we were to paint and cut out pictures from magazines for each card without seeing what questions were on the back. So I went to a place by myself and I invited the Holy Spirit to come by lighting a candle and I wrote these questions:
1. What do I need more of in my life?
What do I need to embrace?
2. What obstacles of the joy God wants for me do I consciously or subconsciously allow to hinder me from experiencing that joy?
3. What do I need to let go? Why am I so afraid to share my story?
I went through the cards and picked colors and themes as I felt the Spirit leading me to. Despite my skepticism, this activity ended being one of the most powerful practices that I have ever experienced. I had gotten so caught up in my designs and cutting anything out that struck me that I had completely forgotten the original questions.
The answer to the first question was this: written in pencil “In Christ Alone, cancer, and colors. I needed to embrace my cancer. I was a cancer survivor. And I need to place my trust “in Christ alone.” Even the part about the skin was pointing to me embracing myself. I had the dot tattoo so they could line me up to do my radiation and I had the scars from both the surgeries, but in the back of my mind I was still hiding.
We had been singing “In Christ Alone” during this retreat and when I shared that piece of my story later when all of us were sharing, we sang that as a closing song, which brought me to healing, relieving tears, like I let go of a burden. The second question was this picture. I look at this picture, I feel peace and beauty, and I needed more of that in my life after the year I had so I made a commitment to make room for beauty and positive and calming messages, so that’s why my office and home are decorated in such ways.
The last question of “What do I need to let go?” was the safe question. God was leading me to ask what I really needed. And the Holy Spirit was so loud in me, that I scribbled down the last question. It was surprising to me because I try to be real and authentic in all aspects of my life. That’s why I created the blog in 2010. I didn’t want to actually talk about my blog or anything that I wrote. And it was self-preservation and a bit of laziness to be sure because it was a way to share with my family, friends, students and the communities that raised me and fed me and are praying with me something I couldn’t say out loud. It was to share authentically with the world what was going on with me. It was a way to update everyone at once with what was going on inside my head. I rarely re-read and edit. So this question was surprising to me. But Proverbs 3:5-6 says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” It struck me as I was writing this sermon that I use “afraid.” And I think that is telling. I admit now I was afraid and I am afraid of being misunderstood, of losing my words, of not being in control…but as 1 Timothy 1:7 says God does not give us a spirit of fear, but rather a spirit of power and love. God doesn’t call us to be silent, God calls to be bold and step out in faith and God will give us the words to speak.
Everything. I needed to let go of everything. And I felt safe in the arms of Mike in it all, but more than that I felt like God had and is protecting me from the storm. God was creating the perfect shelter, an eye in the hurricane. God was also giving me a clear message with these cards. I needed to share my story, integrating the cancer, no matter how hard, personal, and vulnerable.
I’ve claimed the words of Isaiah 41:8-10 (NRSV) “8 But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; 9 you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off”; 10 do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.”
Bob Goff in his book Love Does says, “I once heard somebody say that God had closed a door on an opportunity that they hoped for. But I’ve always wondered if, when we want to do something that we know is right and good, God places that desire deep in our hearts because He wants it for us and it honors Him. Maybe there are times when we think a door has been closed and, instead of misinterpreting the circumstances, God wants us to kick it down. Or perhaps just sit outside of it long enough until somebody tells us we can come in.”
God wants us to dream large God-sized dreams. God wants us to sometimes kick doors down. God wants to give us a future with hope. As Jeremiah 29:11-14 says, “11 For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. 12 Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. 13 When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, 14 I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.” Or as it is in 1 Corinthians 2:9, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.” Or as it is in Ephesians 3:20,“Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.”
We’re not meant to walk this road alone. I want to walk with you and hear your stories so that in the mountain tops and the valleys, we can share with one another, come alongside one another, praying for each other, being church with one another. It’s a crazy cool relay race in the United Methodist Church’s system of itineracy. Joe passed Walter the torch. Walter passed me the torch and I am ever grateful for that torch and the care in which he handed it off. In 1 Corinthians 3:6, “Paul wrote, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” The earth is fertile here at Point Hope and God is indeed in your midst making things grow and making all things new. I trust God to rock our socks off! That’s the beautiful and crazy gift of having life in Christ. You follow where God has called you, no matter that you’re too old to have kids, like Abraham, no matter if you’re a prostitute, like Rahab, no matter the speech impediment like Moses, no matter if you don’t want to, like Jonah, no matter if you’re left in a foreign land with your mother in law, like Ruth…and that’s just the Old Testament. The Bible is chock full of stories about God doing extraordinary things with ordinary people. God didn’t stop writing stories two thousand years ago. I’m reminded of the Big Daddy Weave song that weaves in the hymn “This is my story, this is my song.” The lines are
If I told you my story
You would hear hope that wouldn’t let go
If I told you my story
You would hear love that never gave up
If I told you my story
You would hear life but it wasn’t mine
If I should speak then let it be
Of the grace that is greater than all my sin
Of when justice was served and where mercy wins
Of the kindness of Jesus that draws me in
To tell you my story is to tell of Him
We all have a story and when we take a moment in our busy lives to catch our breath and let the God that came and dwelt among us have room in our lives, we create room for God to share with us. If you’re thinking you don’t have a story, ask God and God will reveal your story. Or if the problem is not you not knowing, but getting it out or just not telling it, than Marianne Williamson says it this way, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be. You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” Let your light shine that the world may see and know. If we all share our lights together – we will – with God’s strength – rock their socks off!
I had no idea before the age of 30 that my story would include a brain tumor, but I know I have life, indeed abundant life in Christ. Not just surviving but thriving. Too often I hear that we’ve just got to get through high school or college or grad school or we have to get our first job or get married or have children or retire to figure out what in the heck to do with our lives, but God doesn’t want us to let life pass us by so that we’re only barely surviving. God wants us to thrive. Jesus didn’t come so we could have a complacent life. He came for us to have abundant life.
I want each of us to be a part of God’s larger. Broader story, in our own particular way, with our own spiritual gifts, strengths or weaknesses that God works for good. Look under your chair, some of you might have peeked already, and that’s perfectly okay. This is to basically sum up my sermon and it was made by one of my favorite artists Suzanne Vinson. Here’s the full quote from Frederich Buechner.
“The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It’s for you I created the universe. I love you. There’s only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you’ll reach out and take it. Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.”
I would like you to take this with you. Keep it in your wallet or in your dashboard or on your bathroom mirror. Let it be a reminder that nothing can separate you from the love of God and God’s abundant grace, and though beautiful and terrible things will inevitably happen, we are not to fear, because we know the One who spoke things into existence, who is our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. Amen. Let us pray.
* Music that I was listening to while I wrote this sermon. TobyMac “Move” Hawk Nelson “Drops in the Ocean” “Lord I Need You” Lauren Daigle “Trust In You” Sidewalk Prophets “Prodigal” Ryan Stevenson “The Eye of the Storm” Aaron Shust“Ever Be” Hollyn “Alone”
Enoch and I watched Zootopia earlier this past week. This quote by Judy Hopps, the rabbit and main character stuck out to me in light of recent events and in life, “I thought this city would be a perfect place where everyone got along and anyone could be anything. Turns out, life’s a little bit more complicated than a slogan on a bumper sticker. Real life is messy. We all have limitations. We all make mistakes. Which means, hey, glass half full, we all have a lot in common. And the more we try to understand one another, the more exceptional each of us will be. But we have to try. So no matter what kind of person you are, I implore you: Try. Try to make the world a better place. Look inside yourself and recognize that change starts with you.”
Change starts with you. Change starts with us. I often use the sermon illustration of each of us as drops of water that can fill up a bucket. We’re more powerful together, but we don’t lose our autonomy, our individuality, our free will to choose to BE the change. I hear the hymn in my head of “Pass it On” as I’m reminded of the words, “It only takes a spark to get a fire going.” I used to love when we would sing/shout the words, “to shout it from the mountaintop,” because we were shouting in church “Praise God!” We’re called to be the change and to shout it by our words and actions – individually and collectively – and all of that honor and glory goes directly to God.
We watched another movie, “A Far Off Place” with a young Reese Witherspoon circa 1993, Josh, Caleb and I had watched when we were kids. It’s the story of 2 young people and their African guide who trek across the Kalahari desert 2,000 kilometers to get away from the poachers who killed their parents. Xhabbo says that if the wind could do it, we can and Nonnie echos him. The three main characters are Nonnie, a girl who has been born and raised in Africa, Harry, a boy who is visiting from New York City on vacation and doesn’t want to be there, and Xhabbo, the African bushman who helps them on their journey. At the beginning of the movie, Nonnie wants to go with Colonel Theron, the grandfather figure, to hunt the poachers, and her dad refuses to let her go.
Nonnie Parker: Dad, wasn’t it you who told me people need to stand up for what they believe in, or nothing’s ever gonna change.
Paul Parker: People need to sit down and talk, otherwise *people* won’t change.
Nonnie Parker: I’ve seen a lot of sitting and talking around here, not much changing. If you were George Washington’s father, we’d still be British colonists.
Many of us are weary from what is happening in our world and in our church… And people talking past each other. We need to really hear each other. We need to form the relationships that it takes to be honest about our positions and have real dialogue without threat of being demonized, painted into corners, or called names. No matter what, we need to sit down and talk and be open to God’s leading and actually be the change, be the love, this world needs. Can we do that?
I was recently listening to Lauren Daigle “Oh, Lord” and it has this chorus in it.
Your strength is found
At the end of my road
Your grace it reaches to the hurting
Still through the tears and the questioning why
I will stand my ground where hope can be found
I personally am still reeling from General Conference, moving in the midst, Annual Conference, the Orlando shooting, and the many atrocities that go on in our world every day. I cling to our Wesleyan theology in times like these because it gives a framework for life. God is with us. John Wesley is said to have those words at his death. At the end of his life, summoning all his remaining strength, he cried out, “The best of all is, God is with us,” lifted his arms and raised his feeble voice again, repeating the words, “The best of all is, God is with us.” We take comfort that God is with us giving us comfort, love, direction, and all that we need in times of trouble and times of celebration. We are all in need of God’s sanctifying grace to be made further into disciples that look, speak, and act like Jesus. We should all stand our ground in hope humbly seeking God’s will. We should resist being stuck in the past, dredging up the same tired arguments. We as Christians are trained to see all things made new and resurrection dust as pollen everywhere. When Harry and Nonnie arrive at the crest of a mountain and only see more dunes, Harry looks back. Xhabbo says, “Harry must not look back. This is Harry’s future.” This is our future. God’s got this.
Philippians 3:12-16 says, “12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. 16 Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.”
Let us go forward, pressing towards the goal of making disciples, not for our glory, not to receive any accolades because that’s what God calls us to do – to love as God loves and bring kingdom to earth. How do we do that? Micah 6:8 says do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. In Wesleyan language that means personal piety and social holiness. We need to take time to be spiritually fed ourselves so that we can be Christ in the world. I picked this card up in Portland.
I think we all should follow the advice of Clive Staples. “There are far better things ahead than any we may leave behind.” This is our future. I’m not calling General Conference a desert, but we have to keep on swimming, as Dory says, keep putting one foot in front of the other. I’m hopeful that if we prayerfully and humbly seek the will of God than God WILL move and as it says in Ephesians 3:20, “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.” I will trust in the promise that we who are called Methodists have a future with hope and we who seek to follow Jesus with our whole heart, mind, and strength will see God’s kingdom come to Earth.
This post was originally written for the South Carolina Delegation Meeting on Saturday, June 18th.
One of the students this morning said I looked exhausted and asked if I was okay. I thought I was covering it up by not wearing a t-shirt and yoga pants, by wearing real adult clothes – slacks, a cardigan, a statement necklace. Apparently, it didn’t work. Yesterday was Senior Sunday and also a celebration for Ryan and I. It was perfect. I read the scrapbook the students and staff made me yesterday afternoon. My eyes were red and puffy from happy tears and memories. I announced yesterday evening where we’ll be going. We are excited to let the world know, I was appointed to Point Hope UMC in Mt. Pleasant. Since HOPE is such a large part of my story, I was thrilled it had it in the name! We are thrilled to be in ministry with the people there. We’ll be living and the kids will go to school in the same neighborhood the church is in. Fingers crossed about the house. I awoke this morning to several things we had to get together for our loan documents. After I got those together, I turned on my iTunes and this song by Chris Rice came on. Stirring my soul to holiness.
I hear a sound and turn to see
A new direction on that rusty weather vane
Suddenly the dead brown leaves are stirred
To scratch their circle dances down the lane
And now the sturdy oaks start clappin
With the last few stubborn leaves that wont let go
I can hear Old Glory snappin
And her tattered rope now clangin against the pole
And my breath is snatched away
And a chill runs up my spine
Feels like somethins on the way
So I look up to the sky, I look up to the sky
And from the corners of creation
Comes the Fathers holy breath
Ridin on a storm with tender fierceness
Stirring my soul to holiness, stirring my soul to holiness
I see the lifeless dust now resurrected
Swirling up against my window pane
And carried cross the distance
Come the long awaited fragrances of earth and rain
And out across the amber field
The slender grasses bend and bow and kiss the ground
And in them I see the beauty of the souls
Who let the spirit lay them down
And it takes my breath away
And a tear comes to my eye
Feels like somethins on the way
So I look up to the sky, I look up to the sky
And from the corners of creation
Comes the Fathers holy breath
Ridin on a storm with tender fierceness
Stirring my soul to holiness, stirring my soul to ho-holiness
And like a mighty wind blows with a force I cannot see
I will open wide my wings, I will open wide my wings
I will open wide my wings and let the spirit carry me, yeah, yeah
From the corners of creation
Comes the Fathers holy breath
Ridin on a storm with tender fierceness
Stirring my soul to holiness, stirring my soul to holiness
Stirring my soul to ho-holiness
I hear a sound and turn to see
A new direction on that rusty weather vane
Psalm 96
O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.
Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples.
For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be revered above all gods.
For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.
Honor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts.
Worship the Lord in holy splendor; tremble before him, all the earth.
Say among the nations, “The Lord is king! The world is firmly established; it shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity.”
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
let the field exult, and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
before the Lord; for he is coming, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his truth.
Amen. Let it be that God stirs all of our souls to holiness and may we see God’s tangible reminders that we REST in HOPE.
I picked two scriptures from the lectionary today, we will explore one first and then the next. The first one is Psalm 23.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff—
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
my whole life long.
It was one of the scriptures my mother made us memorize when we were little and it is a familiar refrain in the Bible. Ryan talked about it last week, we, as sheep, tuning in to Jesus, our good shepherds, voice, tuning into our Master and Lord’s voice. In this particular passage, “He restores my soul,” is actually a statement of conclusion. In other words, green pastures and still waters are the way God restores our souls. And if we stop long enough to let God speak to us, we’ll discover that our souls need restoring. Especially at the end of the semester with the last three of days of class.
“He restores my soul” literally means He causes my life to return. The word restore means replenish, to return to its original state. Restoring my soul means God keeps me going and gives the enjoyment of life back to me. Notice it’s not some general or physical restoration—“He restores my soul.” I would always get sick at the end of the semester, whether it was over Christmas break or if it were May. My mom would say that I was running on adrenaline all during the semester, and if I didn’t take little moments to recharge then I would eventually burn out.
Those who really know God, also know God “makes” us lie down sometimes. We’re not smart enough or willing enough to do many things for our own good. But our Shepherd will do what the Shepherd needs to do to get us where we need to be—in green pastures—so God can restore our souls.
Soul is a very important word in the Bible. The Hebrew term nephesh can be translated soul, life, heart, or mind. Nephesh is the word used in Genesis 2:7 to describe what happened when God breathed into the clay figure He had made: “The man became a living creature [or soul].” Soul refers to the immaterial part of you that will survive beyond this life. The central thing that is most you about you is your soul. Your soul relates and responds to God.
So, if God continually “restores my soul,” how does God do it? First, “He makes me lie down in green pastures.” In Hebrew, “green pastures” literally means the tender grass. In sheep terms, it’s rich, lush feeding places from which the flock need never move to be satisfied. What do we do to get fed? What do we do to get our God fix?
Psalm 63 verses 1-4 talks about it this way, “O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name.”
“He leads me beside still waters.” God says, What are you doing over there? C’mon over here. This is where the water is quiet. This is where you can be refreshed. My living water is deep and plentiful. And it restores your soul. Sheep are scared by troubled waters, and so are we. God provides the still waters of God’s thirst-quenching presence. God can satisfy your deepest longings every time we turn to God.
A bit of poetry from Wisdom Path by Jan Richardson,
God of the waters,
help me to know
that there will be wilderness,
but the wilderness
will turn to green land;
that there will be desert,
but in the desert a spring;
that in the heart
of the rock
of my life
will begin to flow
a river
washing through the chasm of my soul;
and that I will walk
wet with memory
when again I touch
dry land.
Don’t you love that imagery. Through the chasm of my soul… I have the memory ot water even when I’m on dry land. In the original text, notice the word beside. This isn’t some down-to-the-river-and-out-again experience. Beside the still waters is where you can live your life. It isn’t a monthly or a weekly thing; it’s a daily, continuous replenishing. The psalmist of Psalm 121 wrote, “I lift up my eyes to the mountains — where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.” You’re walking with Christ beside still waters, walking in his ways, letting him lead and guide you as the good Shepherd he is. You’re alone with God, not thinking about the time. It’s quiet . . . and God’s restoring you. God actively seeks to restore your soul.
After my grandfather died, my gandaddy because I was the first grandchild and I couldn’t say my r’s when I was little, we gathered in his hospital room, all of his extended family. He had a heart attack and because it was so sudden we were all in shock. He was one of six boys and they were all farmers at one time or another. He went to Clemson when it was a military college and he was stationed at White Plains in El Paso where they were doing nuclear testing. He was a long-time educator in Williamsburg County, one of the counties off of the I-95 corridor, first as a math teacher and then as a principal. He loved Clint Eastwood movies and he challenged me to not use empty words like “cool.” He was our rock. Our constant. He lived #blacklivesmatter before it became a thing to stand for. For that matter, he stood for #alllivesmatter. And when we all crowded in the hospital room, we all joined together in saying Psalm 23. I’m so glad my mother made us memorize it as children. It comes in handy. When I don’t know what to pray. When I don’t know what end is up. When I just need some Jesus in my life. I pray it. I encourage each of you to write it on your hearts because when the rubber hits the road, it will come back to you. Lyrics to a song…Scripture passages you’ve memorized…the Holy Spirit will give you a nudge or a loud clanging cymbal about where you should go and who you are. Not only that, but whose you are.
Our other lectionary text for today is from Revelation 7:15-17 talking about those who come out of the great ordeal.
“15 For this reason they are before the throne of God,
and worship him day and night within his temple,
and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. 16 They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
the sun will not strike them,
nor any scorching heat; 17 for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Tune in to the Shepherd’s voice even when things seem insurmountable and the entire deck is stacked against you. Even when you barely hear the Shepherd’s voice, even when the shepherd’s voice is silent. Keep reading scripture, keep listening, keep doing all you can to connect to the Source of life – God. My prayer for all of you and for me is that God will give us the courage and strength to stand firm in the midst of every adversity, that Christ be our shelter and shield and he wield his sword of truth, and that the Holy Spirit blow over this place igniting anew and afresh our hopes, our dreams, our deepest longings.
You have below your seat a button and a card. The buttons say things like “Praise God,” “You are Loved,” “Joy,” “Be You,” “Shine Your Light,” and “Be Love.” I encourage you to “Be Love” because you are precious and Beloved. The card is a great quote of Frederick Buechner, “Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things happen. Don’t be afraid.” The Bible, nor Jesus, nor I – don’t promise the road is going to be easy, but God promises to always restore your soul and Jesus promises to never leave you nor forsake you.
This benediction was used at Old St. Paul’s Church in Baltimore, Maryland in 1692. It still rings true today. “Go placidly among the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms will all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant, they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you will become vain and bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither, be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of the spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gently with yourself.
You are a child of the universe, no less than the tress and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore, be at peace with God for he is greater than we can ever comprehend. Whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy.”
Choose joy. Be joy. Choose love. Be love. Choose hope. Be hope. Amen.
*The classic Dr. Seuss book “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” will be read for the graduating seniors.
The image above is from the movie Oliver Twist and he draws the long string…
“The other thing that comes to mind about compelling content is that….. it leaves me thirsting for more. There’s something about compelling content that drives me to subscribe, join or bookmark because I’ve had a taste of something I’d like a second helping of.”
I know this reaction for myself.
When I read a book from a new author that I enjoy I immediately look for more information on the author to see what else they’ve written. I got all of Ellin Hildebrand’s, Sophia Kinsella and Madeline Wickham’s book, and I realized that Sophia and Madeline were the same person, she just wrote under these pseudonyms.
When I see someone tweet something that grabs my attention or makes me think – I check out their other tweets or when a news source like huffpost religion or the New York Times post an article I usually read it
When I watch a TV show that entertains me, makes me laugh or gives me something to think about – I put it on our “list”
When I read a blog post that informs me, teaches me or stretches my mind – like Bishop Ken Carter’s blog that’s currently doing a 6 part series on Fresh Expressions – I bookmark it, to check back to read next week’s installment.
What is the definition of compelling? com·pel·ling kəmˈpeliNG/
adjective
evoking interest, attention, or admiration in a powerfully irresistible way.
What gives someone a compelling faith story that leaves you wanting more?
Is it the integrity of the story teller? Is it the way that the storyteller tells the story? Building up anticipation?
I would wager it has more to do with nonverbal – the sincerity, the vulnerability, the body language, the raw emotion, the honesty. I would also guess that you have to trust this person. It doesn’t mean you have to know the person, it just means you have to buy what they’re selling.
As we were giving out free cake today at Santa Fe College, I went into the coffee shop to buy an iced drink as I do. Two of the co-workers had just gotten our free cake and they were trying to talk their other co-worker into getting a piece. He said, “I don’t trust free cake.” They said that we were a church. He answered, “I don’t trust free cake, especially from a church.” As he was taking my order and I didn’t tell him I was the pastor of the sketchy church giving out free cake.
Some synonyms for “compelling” are convincing, persuasive, irresistible, strong, credible, valid…I bet if he works that same shift every week and if he sees us and gets to know us and we share stories for a period of time, he will find us more “credible.”
I know I highlight this multiple times a week, but when we share stories, lives together, then that’s when the real change happens.
I know some of you know all about my second brain surgery in 2013 that left me without the ability to speak for three weeks. I typed a text to Mike a few weeks after the surgery, “The quickness with which I speak comes back?” and it took me 20 minutes to even type that. Thankfully, my speech has returned for the most part. When I’m tired, y’all have been great about doing charades to understand what I mean. I still don’t have the fine motor skills in my right hand, but I can deal with that! I have to go back to get an MRI and meet with my oncologist every 3 months. I’m due for that next Wednesday. Mike and I know the rhythm so well, that we start getting tense when it comes close. I was diagnosed with a oligodendroglioma when I was 30. Enoch turned 3 in the two weeks when I first was diagnosed and the first surgery. Evy was 1. They don’t remember me not having this diagnosis. I’ve been brutally honest on my blog that I don’t write very much on any more. I created the blog so that I could update everyone about the medical aspects and what my head space was at the time, so I didn’t have to repeat it all the time, and also so I can LIVE my life. The fullness of it. I claim the end of John 10:10 “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” and I claim the last verses the song “In Christ Alone.”
No guilt in life, no fear in death—
This is the pow’r of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow’r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home—
Here in the pow’r of Christ I’ll stand.
You don’t have to have had brain surgery to have a compelling story of faith. Trust me.
The best stories are from the heart, when you peel back the layers and are vulnerable. Being real with people is the highest compliment you can pay, because no one likes to be bs-ed. No one likes to be made a fool of, but when you drop the masks and you KNOW and RECOGNIZE that you don’t have any control of the situation that’s where God’s love steps in and makes a way. That’s where the trust comes and the faith. It’s okay to yell at God. And it’s okay to cry out. May scriptures come to you in the midst. May songs come to you in the midst. May a friend lift you up in the midst. May you have the courage to be vulnerable and may people’s responses be more than enough…may they lift you up with the grace and mercy of God.
You see, you’ve been invited into the greatest story ever told. You have your own story of redemption. You have your own story of the mountaintops and valleys. You just have to tell it. God will give you a story. God will give you the boldness, the tenacity, and the courage to speak it. Don’t be afraid. If you’re not a great speaker. Many people in the Bible and throughout time have had that same problem! God will give you the words. God will guide and lead you in all that you do and say. Tell the story. Last Easter, we painted the 34th Street Wall with the words of the last song Jake is going to sing tonight. #BecauseHeLives Tell the story. You will have a compelling one, indeed. The world is hungry for a life-giving, life-tranforming story.
2 When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2 So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. 3 Then some people[a] came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay.5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 8 At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’? 10 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— 11 “I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.” 12 And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
This morning we’re going to look at people who went the extra mile or went the distance, like the song from Hercules, to help or intercede for their friend. These are the kinds of friends that you want to surround yourself with while you’re in college and grad school. You’ve met a lot of people so far. You’re still feeling each other out. You’re still finding your groove. May God give you the wisdom and discernment to know and cultivate relationships whether it be late night sessions hanging out in someone’s room in a residence hall or whether it is late night runs to taco bell.
I lived in a small town during my high school years. The nearest movie theater was an hour away. I hate to admit it, but when I was in high school the first DVD’s came out. So we were starving for cultural references in rural South Carolina. On many a road trip to the movies we would pack up to 15 people in my mom’s minivan.
I visualize that image when I read this passage. The crowd that was gathered was packed in like a concert with One Direction or The Who or if the Spice Girls finally do a reunion concert. It was beyond claustrophobic. Saying it was hard to get in, may be an understatement. Seeing Jesus was like an ancient day rock star. The word was already out. It started with the leper. Mark says it this way in Mark 1:40-45, “A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ 45But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.” It reminds me of Acts 4:20 that says, “We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
He couldn’t help but spread the good news! He didn’t even have to say it; the people could see he was made clean. Matthew says it this way in chapter 11, “The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.”
If you had been in their place, what would you have done if you had arrived at the house and seen all those people crowded and overflowing out into the street? Would you sit back and wait for the crowd to leave? Would you think – let’s just go home. We’ll never get in. We’ll try again the next time he’s in town. You know that feeling that you get in your gut where you’re about to give up…when the road is getting all kinds of hard, and no one would blame you if you gave up.
As Albus Dumbledore says to Harry in the Chamber of Secrets, “It is our choices that show what we truly are far more than our abilities.” It is the choices we make, the determination and the commitment when it gets hard, when the mountain is steep and the valley low that really determines your character and what you’re made of.
I was watching the Today Show when they were celebrating the summer Olympics being a year away. They were interviewing athletes that have been training daily just to prepare for the trials. They don’t even know yet if they’ll make the Olympic team. What kind of perseverance and determination and motivation, it would take someone to get up early in the morning every day and push themselves harder and faster…wow. You’ve got to have something within you AND around you that spurs you on. The four friends had that determination. The thing that spurred them on and gave them the strength to keep going was their faith.
So where is this located in Jesus ministry? It’s still pretty early. He’s been preaching for about a year. Luke 4 tells us that when Jesus went back to Nazareth, after his baptism and temptation in the wilderness, he was so thoroughly rejected by the people with whom he grew up that he left Nazareth and made Capernaum, which was a fishing village on the Sea of Galilee, his home base for the three years of his public ministry.
Okay, so now we know where he was and how he got there, and we know why the word had spread. Let’s talk more about the crowd. Another section only in Mark, “So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them.” The people were, whether they knew it or not, there to worship God and hear God, in the person of Jesus, “speak the word.” Maybe they were curious about the crowd or what all the fuss was about, much like the crowd in Life of Brian listening to Jesus preach the sermon on the mount. Maybe they had heard about his healing of the leper and they wanted to see this Jesus, this healer. Maybe they just wanted to see a spectacle, a magic show. Maybe they saw a crowd and like students drawn to a fight in school or to a speech, they were curious.
While the crowd struggled to get closer to Jesus, these four men came bringing a paralyzed man on a stretcher. A friend recently visited Capernaum, he said that his group included a couple of people in wheelchairs and he noticed that even today, Capernaum is not an easy place in which to maneuver if you are disabled. The roads are not paved smoothly, stairs and vertical rises make it difficult to get around, and you really have to rely on your friends to help you travel there if you can’t walk.
This wasn’t an easy task. It’s not like they thought – oh, cool a crowd – let’s jump up on the roof, lower him through and call it a day. They had to go the distance to carry him into the house. In Palestine, the roofs were flat. They would be used for rest and quiet, for drying clothes and storing things. In 1 Kings 17, we read about Elijah living on the roof. In Acts 10, Peter is up on the roof praying. So generally there were stairs going up along an outside wall. Although they were determined, and possibly had outside stairs, they weren’t the Avengers. This wasn’t easy.
They actually had to tear up the roof to let him down. To me, there’s something really powerful about them having to actually dig through and get dirty to help make this miracle happen. According to some scholars, the roof was usually made of beams about 3 feet apart. These beams would be filled with twigs, then packed with clay and covered with dirt.
If you have ever worked with drywall or insulation, particularly taking it down, you know that there’s small particles and dust everywhere. A big mess. So as you can probably imagine, as these four are pulling away chunks of clay, bits of dirt, and dried leaves are falling all over those below.
And the people who stood in the room, who most likely had some small rubble or debris dropped on their heads were doubtfully very thrilled and the men had to know this when they concocted their plan. They risked a lot because they had faith in who Jesus is and what a tremendous impact he could have on the life of their friend.
I wonder what Jesus was doing during this creation of a skylight in his home? Does he stop speaking the word or does he just continue going just like the preacher tries to do when a baby starts crying during church? Does he stop and watch maybe with an amused look on his face, or does he began to shake his head and chuckle to himself at the enthusiasm or boldness of these guys?
How would you feel if you were in the crowd? You’re sitting there during a leisurely but exhilarating afternoon listening to Jesus, when all of a sudden some crazy guys start tearing open the roof over your head and get you all dirty. You waited and maneuvered a while to get your spot in the house, and here these people are skipping all the steps to get to the front or to the top I should say. It reminds of the story of the prodigal son. You go into it focusing on the prodigal, but the elder brother as just as distant from the father. At Gator Wesley, we don’t want insiders or outsiders. All of us are prodigals and older brothers. All of us are at times, crowd, friends, and paralytic and that’s only natural. Some of us don’t want to rock the boat, to rock the happy equilibrium. Some of us are in need of healing. We need a community to surround us to lead us back to Jesus the Great Physician, to the one who gave it all.
These four men weren’t thinking of themselves. They did not need a miracle for themselves, but they had a friend who did. They went to a whole lot of trouble to get him the help that he needed. Because he was important to them and they cared about him.
Friends are determined to work for the others’ good. At our Leadership Retreat this past week we looked at Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 13. Erin Wagner spoke up and said when she was on staff at Branches this summer, they encouraged them to say their name instead of love, so I will do that and the words will be on the screen.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
If we all lived like that the campuses we serve would be transformed. The whole world would change. To actually put into practice what we proclaim…
I think sometimes we see the obstacles and how much it will cost us or offend other people, and we go ahead and decide what’s not going to work and who’s not going to respond and what and why something can’t be done. And we’re defeated or excused out before we even start. Before we even get off the ground. Or get up the steps carrying our friend. We decide that we know best and it totally won’t work.
I’m not saying that God doesn’t want us to use our brains or that we should not reason out the situation first, but I am saying, that sometimes the impossible is made possible. God does work miracles. Bring the dead to life. Give sight to the blind. Heal the leper. So in continuation of that, God calls us to also envision the possibilities to see the dusting of miracles around our community and world. God’s work is done by people who believe in the power of God, who do what they can, relying on God to supply the rest.
And you know, this really boils down to faith. And faith is so important to this story, both as the motivation of these men that empowered their determination and as the starter for Jesus’ healing of the paralytic. Four short words in verse 5, “Jesus saw their faith.” Most people would say, “You can’t ‘see’ faith. Faith isn’t in the physical, visible realm.” But it is. And Jesus saw the faith of these four men. There faith was evident. It shone through their actions.
These four friends had the faith to believe that Jesus would welcome them and that Jesus could change their friend’s life. What a gamble. They took a bold step of faith to make sure their friend had a chance for healing.
Their friend couldn’t walk – so they carried him.
The crowd blocked their path and access to Jesus – they went around or by passed them.
The roof was in the way – they ripped a hole in it.
They are people on a mission. They were determined. Spiritually and physically they were determined.
Verse 5 says, “when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” They had faith, Jesus saw it, and did the miracle/worked the healing that they had faith would take place.
Do we have that kind of spiritual determination? We all have people we know, friends, neighbors, co-workers, family members who are in need of healing. What are we doing to be present with that? Sometimes we need to intercede, whether by prayer, through encouragement, or by our actions.
Are we determined? Willing to go that extra mile? Endure the climb when it burns and our lungs are about to explode?
Jesus commends the man’s friends for their faith. It was their faith that brought the man to a place of forgiveness. I wonder, if the salvation of the people around me depended on my faith and my direct actions, how much more seriously and intentionally I would take my time with God and the Christian community and to what extent would I live out my faith?
Sometimes it means doing what one writer calls, “getting your hands dirty in other people’s lives.”
James said, “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if a person claims to have faith but has no deeds?…Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?” (James 2:14-16).
God loves us so much that God took extreme measures to provide an opportunity for healing for each one of us. God loves us so much that God came and dwelt among us showing us and providing us with that healing. God loves us so much that God draws us to God’s self, guiding us and leading us.
As the body of Christ today, we’ve got to be people who are spiritually determined, who truly care, who show God’s love to the world. In Romans 12:15, Paul wrote, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with them that weep.” In other words, we are to care for one another. To love one another. To truly empathize and connect with the other. This connection means that we move outside of the box of our own concerns and problems and become open and present to the needs of the other, the community around us.
I’ll leave you with these words from Lawrence Kushner writes, “We understand that ordinary people are messengers of the Most High. They go about their tasks in holy anonymity. Often, even unknown to themselves. Yet, if they had not been there, if they had no said what they said or did what they did, it would not be the way it is now. We would not be the way we are now. Never forget that you too yourself may be a messenger.”
PS – I’ve been listening to an Ellie Holcomb CD on my drive to South Carolina and some of the songs totally fit with wins I was trying to get across in the sermon.
12 As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 13Bear 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.14Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.
Philippians 4:8-9
8Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
I’ve preached on these two texts from weddings to Love Campaign to almost anything because I think they are THAT important. I wish I could blow them up big and put them on the walls here where we worship or in the college room, where we do much of our life together. In fact, I may put them on the wall in the kitchen in the Upper Room, our residential hospitality staff. I want us to be evermindful of all of the words we use – whether to build up or tear down; our actions – whether they are loving and full of the grace and love of God or if they’re from the darkness of the world with its jealousies and deceit; lastly our meditations of the heart – what we input into our bodies whether that’s good, nourishing, and sustaining things or it’s candy that when you eat it, you may get a momentary high, but you are sure to crash eventually.
I’m preaching on these scriptures because we’re continuing our Animate series and this week’s lesson is Doug Paggit talking about Community: An Unexpected Family.
What are some of the communities to which you belong?
Developing real, authentic, hard, and messy community is definitely NOT a spectator sport.
Community changes YOU. I’ve often quoted my campus minister, Risher Brabham, at his retirement lunch saying, “The only way I could have lived this life is through community.” I truly believe that.
Stanley Hauerwas writes these words, “Saints cannot exist without a community, as they require like all of us, nurturing by a people who, while often unfaithful, preserve the habits necessary to the learn the story of God.” The story of God. What are the habits of God? If you are a runner and your running partner is faster than you, won’t you work that much harder? Or if you’re in a big race like the Imagine No Malaria run at this year’s Florida Annual Conference, I watched Ryan practice and push himself harder because of the trash talking, yes, because he was with people that pushed him harder. Won’t you push yourself more to develop holy habits if you surround yourself with a faithful community? As Hebrews 10:24-25 says,
24And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, 25not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Community surrounds us and pushes us harder for the Gospel, to live our lives as the hands and feet of Christ.
Louise Erdrich writes these pull no punches words, “Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on this earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up.” We’re here to protect your heart as much as we can protect it.
You do not have to walk this road alone. You don’t have to be an island. As the Tenth Avenue North song says, “No man is an island, we can be found // No man is an island, let your guard down // You don’t have to fight me, I am for you // We’re not meant to live this life alone” You don’t have to do it all on your own. We can be fellow sojourners.
Kurt Vonnegut says it’s a different way but it’s the same theme verse, “What should young people do with their lives today? Many things obviously, but the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.”
It has to be intentional. You don’t just stumble upon community, no matter what the people in charge may lead you to believe. Community is created and nurtured and watered and pruned and…..Community is not easy. It takes work. It gets messy. It gets realer than any Real World or reality tv show. It takes practice and it takes trust. And yes, it takes sometimes being uncomfortable when someone calls you out in love and accountability.
It doesn’t have to be cookie cutter people either. We’re not looking for Stepford Wives clones. The beauty of community is that we’re all DIFFERENT but we’re all UNITED with one goal in mind. I love this quote by Frida Kahlo, you know the lady with the eyebrows, “I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feel bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do….Well, I hope that you are out there and read this and know that yes, it’s true I’m here, and I’m just as strange as you.”
I have on my wall at my house this picture that says, “Family is like chocolate with a few nuts sprinkled in.” We’re a cast of characters. I’m leaving after church, to spend until Friday morning with my family. Pray that we don’t stress each other out and we don’t yell or spew forth stuff that we would only say to a family member because we know that they will love us anyway. You see, in community like a family, we have to be aware of our words of venom wound sometimes. It’s hard to unhear something. We must be aware of our words and our actions, when we hang up on someone, how does that make the person feel? We have to be intentionally loving in both word and deed. So may God button my lip when I speak a bad word about someone. May God put lead in my feet when I want to walk across the room to give someone a piece of my mind. You see, in community we’re not all in the valley’s or the mountaintop’s at the same time. It’s a hodge podge always. That’s the point of being a family, a community, a body.
What do you bring with you to the community? Do you bring the gift of hospitality and welcoming people? Do you bring the gift of conversation and an even-keel spirit? Do you bring the gift of exhortation and teaching? Do you bring the heart for justice, longing to bring the community to bear witness in the suffering of this world?
Romans 12:5-8 (NRSV)
5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 6 We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7 ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8 the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
We’re going to go on this journey together as a community of faith. We need each other. We can’t do this alone. We lift up joys and concerns, we support each other. More than that, we need the community to share the love of Christ. You see we can use each of our gifts to make our Gospel message stronger. Our collective strengths, cover our collective weaknesses, like the web of the finger, if you cover them with the strength of your fingers….We are STRONGER TOGEHER. I’ll close with this quote from Jean Vanier, “One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn’t as individuals. When we pool our strength and share the work and responsibility, we can welcome many people, even those in deep distress, and perhaps help them find self-confidence and inner healing.”
I think we all should follow the advice of Clive Staples. “There are far better things ahead than any we may leave behind.” This is our future. I’m not calling General Conference a desert, but we have to keep on swimming, as Dory says, keep putting one foot in front of the other. I’m hopeful that if we prayerfully and humbly seek the will of God than God WILL move and as it says in Ephesians 3:20, “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.” I will trust in the promise that we who are called Methodists have a future with hope and we who seek to follow Jesus with our whole heart, mind, and strength will see God’s kingdom come to Earth.
Blessings on the Journey 