Tag: campus ministry

Posted in All Saints Day, Campus Ministry, Lazarus, Lydia, Ministry with*, Mother Teresa, poor, Rich, Sermon

Lydia and Lazarus – Are you a better giver or receiver???

Posted on by narciejeter

We’re going to be looking at the Biblical characters of Lydia and Lazarus, but as we prepare our hearts and feet to be in action for National Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week, that Gator Wesley will be hosting, I thought I would begin with this video that shows the ever-widening divide between rich and poor.

These are some pretty eye-opening statistics.  But I invite you to not let the research/fact part of your brain take over urging you to gloss over the information downloaded.  As an African proverb says, “Statistics are numbers without tears.”  In other words, we can tune out or trick our brain into thinking that these are not real people.  Real struggle.  Real challenge.  Real hunger.

The actual title of this chapter is “Who Are Your VIPs?  You Need a Lydia and Lazarus, Rich and Poor.”  So the author of the book, Len Sweet, is setting up a dichotomy between Lydia, who represents the rich and Lazarus, who represents the poor.  I will read the passage where we meet Lydia for the first time.  It’s in the book of Acts, when the early church is first forming.

 

Acts 16:11-15

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

The Conversion of Lydia

11 We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. 13 On the Sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. 14 A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. 15 When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.” And she prevailed upon us.

Lydia is found in the Bible only in two places both of which are in Acts.  When it says that she was a dealer in purple cloth that was a signal to readers that she was wealthy because purple cloth was expensive so it was a sign of nobility or royalty.  Her husband is not mentioned anywhere in the passage, but it says she and her household were baptized, which most likely would have included her children and servants.  She offered hospitality in her home to Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke.

Let’s flip to Lazarus.  First off, it’s not THAT Lazarus.  It’s the only parable that Jesus ever told where he gives the main character a name.  Lazarus is Hebrew for “God helps.”  He gives all of the characters names except for the rich man.

Luke 16:19-31

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

The Rich Man and Lazarus

19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. 24 He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. 26 Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ 27 He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ 29 Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ 30 He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

These texts have been playing in my head all week as I’ve prepared for this sermon and this is my main take away.  We often receive from people we would think or assume have nothing to offer us.  We often receive from people we would think or assume have nothing to offer us.  Is it easier for you to be the giver (like Lydia and her patronage providing for the ministry of the early church) or the receiver (like Lazarus who depended on the alms of passersby and who only had dogs to lick his wounds)?  We’ve all heard the saying that it is more blessed to give than to receive.  But, and I’m speaking for myself here, it is much more difficult for ME to receive.  I love giving gifts and being generous with my friends and family.  My default position is to be a giver and I rarely can wait for Christmas or a birthday to give gifts to those that I love.  Mike and the kids get Christmas or birthday presents all year long.  My love language is gift giving.  But something about receiving gifts makes me uncomfortable.  I know it sounds silly, but I care so much getting right the appropriate reaction to show my appreciation to the giver, that I often wait and open the gift or the card in private.  And that’s not fair to the giver.  I’m robbing them of the joy of giving by hiding out so they can’t see my actual receiving.  Have you ever noticed that when you take the love languages quiz that it only asks how you SHOW your love language?  But it doesn’t take into account how you want to BE loved?  Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, Physical Touch.  What’s your love language?  Is it easier for you to give than receive?

Jesus was a good receiver.  Have you noticed that he was never in the role of host and he was comfortable in that?  He was always the guest.  That convicts me.  Because it so hard to be placed on the side of invitee rather than the one doing the inviting.  It gives up a certain amount of control and makes you vulnerable.  In Atlanta this past week, we had the opportunity to hear Barbara Brown Taylor, one of the most respected preachers of her generation, on the virtues that shape her preaching life.  She told us that research has shown the believability factor is central to you being considered a “good” preacher.  That was broken down to the visual factor, the vocal factor and the content.  The statistics may surprise you.  It did me.  The visual factor made up 55% of the votes, the vocal factor 38%, and the content of what you’re actually saying only made up 7%.  She posited that it had less to do with what the preacher says but how a preacher lives.  How the things match up, the authenticity, the integrity.  She gave us her three virtues:  reverence, courage, and self-forgetfulness.  She then challenged us to come up with our own virtues.  Mine was vulnerability.  And that surprised me.  That was the first thing that came to mind in this season of life.  I’m challenged to be vulnerable each Sunday and Wednesday as I preach, lead the communion liturgy, pray out loud, and give the benediction, because I don’t know if the words are going to come out or not and that has shaped who I am.  For those that don’t know I had brain surgery in May and I lost my ability to speak but it’s slowly coming back.  I’ve appreciated SO much the grace in which y’all’ve walked this journey with me.  I know if you asked me a year ago what my virtue would have been I would NOT have answered vulnerability.  Sometimes we need to be brought down low, to fully trust in and rely on God and the community around us.  Sometimes the “rich” need to get the fuller picture of what God has to offer them instead of relying on their own strength, their own wealth, or their own power.

We must remember the words of Mother Teresa in A Simple Path, “The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty — it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”  In many ways, the rich are spiritually more vulnerable than the poor because they’ve not HAD to rely on God.

Have you ever been on a mission trip where you thought you were going to serve “the poor people,” and you realized at the end of the trip that God had given you abundantly more through the people you were supposedly “serving” than you gave in return?  I’ve had countless experiences like that.  Through Salkehatchie, a work camp that we have back in South Caroling, on mission trips, in the summers I spent working at the Cooperative Ministry, a one-stop service center for the homeless that provided clothes, food, counseling, and cars to the needy.  I’m sure many of you can think of a similar time in your own faith journey.  If not, I would encourage you to go on our domestic spring break option or our international option.  It has the potential to be life changing.

But, the disparity in our world should not just be a thing that we do on a mission trip.  It’s building relationships that cross socio-economic barriers ALL THE TIME.  Sweet writes, “It’s one thing to have a heart for the poor.  It is another to use their bathroom.”  Let me repeat that.  “It’s one thing to have a heart for the poor.  It is another to use their bathroom.”   I couldn’t be blunter than that.   We should be in ministry WITH the poor.

We all come at the Communion table as one.  “In the early church, the agape feast followed by Communion (the Eucharist) was a “family reunion” where the rich and the poor shared food and fellowship together without regard to class distinctions and social status.”  And on this All Saints Sunday we remember those that have gone before, the communion of the saints, and gather with them at the table as well.  Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day – all are examples of saints who have gone on before but those whose lives we should emulate.  May we live out our faith in word and deed, may we be in ministry with not in ministry to, may we humble ourselves and in our vulnerability may God teach us and mold us and shape us to fully rely on God.

 

Posted in Campus Ministry, Communion, God's love, Jesus, Revelation, Sermons, Song, Zacchaeus

Zacchaeus – You Need a Reject but we’re ALL Rejects

Posted on by narciejeter

Today, we’re talking about Zacchaeus and this particular chapter of Len Sweet’s 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without, our sermon series this Fall, asks the question – “Who’s Your Zacchaeus?  You Need a Reject.”

Did you ever climb trees as a kid?  We had a magnolia tree in a neighbor’s backyard that was perfect for climbing.  If you know anything about magnolia trees, their branches are close together, which makes it an easy tree to climb. We spent many afternoon of my childhood climbing trees.  That’s why the story of Zacchaeus has always fascinated me.

Not to mention the song we learned in Sunday school, “Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he.  He climbed up in a sycamore tree, for the Lord he wanted to see.   Jesus said, “You come down for I’m coming to your house today, for I’m going to your house today.”    I can’t believe after all these years I still remember that.  Which leads us to our scripture reading for today…

Luke 19:1-10

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Jesus and Zacchaeus

19 He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2 A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 7 All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” 8 Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” 9 Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

Sweet says, “One of the oddest people Jesus ever befriended was a short, wealthy, self-made entrepreneur named Zacchaeus.  He was the chief tax collector which made him one of the most hated people.  Have you ever heard people say nice things about the IRS?  And Biblical tax collectors were even worse.  If there were pictures with definitions of words, he would be the one with the caption “ostracized.”    Are you surprised that Jesus decided to go over to his place for lunch?  Not at all.  Jesus was at home with social outcasts, lepers, women of ill repute, AND the chief tax collector.  Jesus didn’t care much for the hyper religious or the wealthy.  So this was not out of the norm for Jesus.  But have you noticed that it always disturbs/upsets the crowd.  They are surprised every time.  What company do we keep?  Would the crowd be surprised with whom we hang out?

Most of the characters within the series have something to give us – Jethro – the butt kicker, Jonathan – the true friend, Deborah – the back coverer.  But Zacchaeus is different than these.  It all begins with fully seeing Zacchaeus for what he is, and inviting him down from the tree.  If we let them, the Zacchaeus’ of our lives help to illuminate our own need for grace.  Because we’re all in fact a little bit messed up.  Not one of us is perfect.  Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  All of us are walking and talking “steaming cauldrons of moral failures and ambiguities.”

Zacchaeus doesn’t need to be told he’s a sinner.  Society’s already made that clear.  He doesn’t need people to tell him he’s an outcast.  He already feels it.  Most people know that the Inuit have a hundred words for snow.  The English word sin is used to translate at least six Hebrew and seven Greek words.  Soren Kierkegaard defined sin this way.  “Sin is the steadfast refusal to be your one true self.”  That is a very different understanding than the typical definition of sin.  Evigras of Pontus’ understanding of sin is that sin is a “forgetfulness of God’s goodness.”  Hmmm…Jesus actively sought out sinners and made room at the table for them, maybe he was searching them out reminding them of God’s love specifically for them.

Jesus didn’t seem to mind that he was getting a “reputation” for hanging out with tax collectors and prostitutes.  Everyone that he encountered, he saw as a person in need of God’s love.

There are no outsiders because no one is out of the reach of the love of God.  Nothing can separate us from it, actually.  Romans 8:38-39 says, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 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.”

Jesus taught us to see others not as “others” but as “one of us” as “oneanothers.”  So y’all don’t know about my LOST obsession.  Scores of students were subjected to this madness as sermon illustrations poured forth each week for years and years.  They had the ability to weave their way into my sermons.  Josh alluded to it on our Fall Retreat but you’re about to see a clip of Jack’s live together, die alone speech.

I imagine Jesus would have given a similar speech and he would be befriending con man Sawyer and criminal Kate.  What made LOST special was that it delved into the messy-ness of the survivors lives.  It showed in real and tangible ways the flaws of each one.  Characters were never pure evil or purely good.  But they were REAL.  And you pulled for their redemption.

This episode ended the first season.  And it was here that a motley crew of people triumphed.  A community.  Michael and his son Walt, and their complicated relationship of abandonment and reunion.  Jin and his wife Sun – their evolution as characters from Jin working for Sun’s father to their estrangement and to their eventual homecoming.  The reason that LOST worked so well for those who watched it and dare I say were obsessed with it, was because you bought into the characters’ stories, and you saw a little bit of yourself in each of them.  It helped to have a full orchestra that performed each score – conveying emotions!

We have quite a few “characters” in our lives.  People that are either larger than life or a bit peculiar or a bit “off” or those that march to the beat of a different drummer.  What “characters” do we have at Gator Wesley?

Often we have to find the Zacchaeus’ of our lives.  Sweet writes, “We have tried to “live in” rather than “live out” the gospel.  It is time for Christians to “Get out more,” to try alfresco forms of faith and community.  The Christian church is too “in here” and not enough “out there.”  Late fourth century philosopher Caius Marius Victorinus was afraid to show up in church with his pagan friends and said this about the church, “Do walls make Christians?”  That’s the reason for Wesley lunches on Tuesday and Friday, Love Campaign, and leadership team discussing whether to do Evensong on the Plaza of the Americas once a month – TO GET OUT OF THE BUILDING!  This outward focus is a natural part of the Christian faith.  We are to be the church in the world.  SO WHY ARE WE NOT OUT THERE?

In essence, moving from inward to outward is central to the revelation of Christ by the church to the world.  John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, called the sacraments of baptism and Holy Communion an “outward sign of inward grace, and a means whereby we receive the same.”

Thus leading us to an obvious segue to Communion that we celebrate each week.  But I want to make sure you get something.  It bears repeating.  Zacchaeus’ are obviously “out there” – the social misfits, the anarchists, the people on the fringes or outside society’s norms, BUT there’s a bit of Zacchaeus in all of us.  We’re all Zacchaeus.  Jesus would have come into the world for any one of us.  Like the parable of the good shepherd who leaves the 99 to find the one lost sheep.  All for one.  So this scene from the Rise of the Guardians is a turning point.  You see Pitch, the villain in the movie, has wiped out the whole world’s belief in the Guardians (Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, the Sand Man, and a new guardian Jack Frost) and only one boy is left that believes.

All for one.

I’m not saying all of those things are real, even though Enoch and Evy believe them to be, and I find it problematic that as parents were supposed to enlighten our children one day that they’re not real, however saying at the same time that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit also that they can’t tangibly see – are real?  I’ll let you know how that conversation goes down.  However, I know what I will say, that God will give you the evidence you need to help you believe.  Like in Luke 9:24, when the man of the child that Jesus is healing says to Jesus, “I believe, help my unbelief.”  Just ask.  Jesus desires a personal relationship with each one of us.  That’s why before we even have understanding of it, God searches us out and draws us to God’s self in God’s prevenient grace.  We recognize we’re in need of God’s grace – that that grace is for us – in justifying grace.  God doesn’t leave us where we are in the mire and the muck.  In God’s sanctifying grace, God helps us to grow and mature as Christians.  Growing in grace and growing the depth of our faith that the world may see and know that our God reigns and God’s grace is available to them.  Tax Collectors.  Prostitutes.  You and Me.  Amen.

Posted in Back Coverer, Campus Ministry, Deborah, Grey's Anatomy, I've got your back, Sermons

Deborah – Who’s got your back?

Posted on by narciejeter

Who’s got your back?  That’s your Deborah.   Urban dictionary defines the words “got your back” these two ways.  The first way, is an expression assuring someone that you are watching out for them. It comes from making sure you are safe by watching what’s behind you, when you’re busy looking ahead. Example:  I don’t know about this.  Don’t trip, son.  I GOT YOUR BACK. The second way is when your friend, colleague, cheerleader, or someone of a close affinity is by your side (either figuratively or literally) making sure that you make it through the troublesome, difficult, or tedious times or predicaments you are currently in.  Urban dictionary used Craig and Arianna of Saturday Night Live fame, in their example.  Craig says, “Oh, Arianna, are you ok?”  Arianna answers back, “I just can’t get this cheer down. I don’t think I’ll be able to do the perfect cheer.”  Craig responds, “You can do it! I know you can! I got your back.” 

Urban dictionary is quick to note that it can be converted to a threat, “Watch your back,” from the possibility someone might injure or kill you from behind when you aren’t looking.  They protect you from getting stabbed in the back.

Have you ever called someone your guardian angel?  They seem to protect you from outside forces – like a friend’s betrayal.  Or missing that student loan payment.  Or if you don’t know when you will get your next meal, and you’ve eaten your last left-over and everything else in the cabinet, a Deborah’s already got you covered.  Or if it’s something internally you’re struggling with, for example, who you are after x, y, z situation (break up, loss of job, change of major, maybe you’re struggling with even staying in school, a death in the family, grief at life).  Maybe you’re questioning your faith, how much of a difference you’re making, or you’re experiencing a dry season in your relationship with God.  Maybe you need to get back on track spiritually and you need someone to ask you the hard questions and not let you off the hook until you answer them.  That’s your Deborah.

Author of the book we’re studying this semester, 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without, Len Sweet says, “Everyone who has made a dent or a difference for God in history has had ‘protectors’ – people who have said to them, “I’ve got your back!” 

I would take it a step further.  Everyone – all people – need protectors.  You need someone to have your back if you are going to realize your dreams and push forward when those that seek to tear you down are increasing in number.  Likewise you need someone to protect you when the doubts pile up inside your head. 

So who was Deborah and what did she do that was so special?

Judges 4:4-10

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

4 At that time Deborah, a prophetess, wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel. 5 She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the Israelites came up to her for judgment.6 She sent and summoned Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you, ‘Go, take position at Mount Tabor, bringing ten thousand from the tribe of Naphtali and the tribe of Zebulun. 7 I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the Wadi Kishon with his chariots and his troops; and I will give him into your hand.’” 8 Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” 9 And she said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10 Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; and ten thousand warriors went up behind him; and Deborah went up with him.

So what do we know about Deborah?  She was a prophetess our text says.  She was the fourth Judge of pre-monarchic Israel and she was the only female judge.  The Bible tells us nothing of her family except who her husband was. In the history of Israel, only three people combined the offices of prophet, judge and military leader:  Moses, Samuel, and Deborah.  Deborah was one of the early judges of Israel.  The judges were charismatic leaders who by their wisdom oversaw the simple and rather disorganized government of Israel during the first couple of centuries of its existence.  One of the greatest contributions of the early judges was their ability to stir up a sense of national unity and great loyalty to the rule of Yahweh among a fiercely independent and generally ignorant people, who had not long before been Egyptian slaves.

What exactly is happening in the scripture passage that I just read?  Deborah summons the general Barak to give him an oracle from God ie. a message from God.  She tells him to bring 10,ooo men from two tribes of Israel, and she will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army.  Barak answers her that he’ll only go if she goes with him – if she’ll cover his back.

Barak’s request of the presence of Deborah has given interpreters and commentators headaches for years.  Some see Barak here as cowardly, afraid, and distrusting of God.  Other interpreters see Barak’s request as a gracious and insistent invitation to Deborah as God’s prophet to join him so that she might bless the military expedition and share in the glory of the Lord’s victory over the Canaanites. It’s ambiguous.  Either way Deborah delivered.  Not a single man of Sisera’s army survived, except Sisera himself (and another strong, gutsy woman took care of Sisera, Jael drove a tent peg into his head, killing him).  The narrative of what happened is told in Judges chapter 4 and the “Song of Deborah” is told in Judges chapter 5, one of the earliest examples of Hebrew poetry.

Bottom line, Barak would NOT go without Deborah. 

It is certainly not true that “behind every good man is an even better woman.”  That’s sexist garbage.  It is true that behind anyone who has had any “success” whether personal or professional, you need someone who has your back.  Or a whole community of people.  That’s why in any Oscar speech people thank the one’s that got them there.  Who’s in your corner.  TV shows abound with this.  Scandal, the workers of Olivia Pope and Associates, willing to take a fall if any of the team get hit.  Once Upon a Time’s unlikely alliance busy finding Henry and begrudgingly covering each other’s backs along the way. Grey’s Anatomy – this season as the interns realized they didn’t know each other and if they were to “fall/collapse/die” they would be left alone to face it because they had not reached out and realized they didn’t know each other. If you watched it in the olden days with the original 5 – Alex, Meredith, Izzie, George, and Christina – they invented delving into drama and gossip with who was hooking up with who and they pushed people like my brother Josh away with their shenanigans but made me love them all the more because they cared about each other.  It may not have been from the moment they met, but they became each other’s family, each other’s “person” as seen in this clip. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9bFnrSp998

Your family can offer good protection.  Your adopted family can offer good protection.  Your friends that become like family offer good protection.  Who’s got your back, is not someone who in an argument or dispute automatically sides with you.  It’s much more than that.  Deborah was a judge.  She was fair.  Your Deborah can help you see things about yourself that no one else sees.  They can point out your blind spots.  The areas where you’re not exercising your best judgment.  They can handle your vulnerability.  Your laughter.  Your tears.  And they can give you a good kick in the pants.  And you’ll accept it, because you know they have your best interest at heart.  But be discerning, don’t let just anybody give you a kick in the pants.  Because people will line up for that job.  People offer criticism freely.  But guarding your heart and being a back coverer, it will be a shorter line. 

I posted this on the “Encouragement Board” a facebook group that seeks to offer encouragement, birthdays, and prayer requests of Gator Wesley.  William Arthur Ward writes, “A true friend knows your weaknesses but shows your strengths; feels your fears but fortifies your faith; sees your anxieties but frees your spirit; recognizes your disabilities but emphasizes your possibilities.”  Read those words again. 

Sweet writes, “The world is full of people who like nothing better than to kill—your reputation, your spirit, your mission.”  Have you ever heard of being attacked on all sides?  Have you ever felt like your world is falling down all around you?  If you are a right-handed quarterback – one of your most trusted allies is the left tackle on the offensive line.  This is your blind side, and the best defensive linemen are put here to intimidate you and make you mess up – your success depends on your left tackle. 

Deborah didn’t fight next to Barack – but she covered his back with the fire of her words, her spirit, and her courage – she was always close enough to catch Barak’s eye.  Some people have a holy spirit, and the presence of that Holy Spirit in your life is enough to be a Deborah.  Sometimes Deborahs fight alongside you on the front lines or they’re actively covering you in prayer from a distance.  My mom is a prayer warrior.  She’s on the front lines in battle over our lives every day.  Mom’s not a pansy or a shrinking violet.  She covers it well with her southern charm, manners, and proper etiquette – she writes thank you notes.  Which is a big deal to me who never writes thank you notes.  I would say she epitomizes a Deborah.  She would be a really good judge.  Always fair.  But with a deep and abiding strength about her.  Centuries ago it was the function of knights to be back-coverers for the weak and wounded.  Especially in the age of chivalry, knights were the protectors of the marginalized and unarmed – the priests, the peasants, the poor, and the child in a violent world.  My mom is a modern day knight of sorts.  In her work as an elementary school guidance counselor she comes into contact with all sorts of things and she’s a Deborah to each of her students.  And she’s a Deborah in each of her children’s lives.

Your Deborahs should point you back to God.  My mom is certainly quick to ask, “Have you prayed about this?”  Because she knows God is our ULTIMATE back coverer.  God’s got your back 24:7:365. David wrote this Psalm after escaping from Saul. Psalm 18:1-3 “I love you, O Lord, my strength.2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 3 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, so I shall be saved from my enemies.”

Thank you God for ALWAYS having our backs.

***The Gator Wesley worship band picked these songs to do after the sermon during communion and as our closing song, “Not for a Moment” by Meredith Andrews and “Taste of Eternity” by Bellarive, and I thought they were both pretty powerful.

Not For A Moment – Meredith Andrews

Taste of Eternity – Bellarive

Posted in Campus Ministry, paul, peter, relationships, Sermons, yoda

Yoda – Who’s Your Peter/Paul?

Posted on by narciejeter

Maybe I built this up too much in my mind, but I really, really, really was looking forward to the Yoda chapter in Len Sweet’s book 11 indispensable relationships you can’t live without.  To say I was disappointed when Sweet only talked about Yoda for a paragraph is an understatement.  Yoda ihe says is a mentor, a guru, a coach, a spiritual teacher/director.  I was discussing this in the College Room and Carly mentioned she had no idea who Yoda is so I should not assume that everyone has watched Star Wars even once, forget watching it incessantly.  Enoch, my 6 year old, got both trilogies for Christmas, so I’ve watched them REPEATEDLY.  He even watches the offshoots from Lego Star Wars to the Yoda Chronicles. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_QcRPNfUuE

I love that clip.  Because Yoda doesn’t let Luke get away with anything.  And yet he clearly cares about him.  R2D2 is clearly the encourager from last week’s chapter.  The Master is showing the Apprentice how it’s done.  Seeing is believing.  Yoda says, “Always two there are, no less:  a master and an apprentice.”  A master pushes us to help us navigate the way that seems unattainable.  A master can help us move to new levels of perception and experience.  A master KNOWS us.  Our limits.  Our strengths.  A trusted master knows when to push or prod or ask the right question.

Disney movies have rich and meaningful mentor characters.  The emperor from Mulan, Phil from Hercules, Grandmother Willow from Pocahontas, Sebastian from The Little Mermaid, Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio, Merida’s mom in Brave.  They clearly provide the morale compass of the story or the wise sage.  Their all over pop culture as well.  Morpheus to Neo in The Matrix, Mr. Miagi in the Karate Kid, Mother Superior in The Sound of Music….

Mentors often can give a reluctant protagonist a necessary push to get the plot rolling.  Mentors also often personify the moral of the story in the protagonist’s story.  They offer the inspiration to the protagonist to keep going when they would rather give up.  They’re often the voice inside your head urging you on.  Urging you forward.

Sweet actually titles this chapter, “Who’s Your Peter/Paul? You Need a Yoda.”  So I’m going to read to you snapshots of each.  Peter was the one that constantly stuck his foot in his mouth.  He was a fisherman.  He was with Jesus at the Transfiguration, the glow in the dark Jesus, where Jesus’ divinity is on full display.  He was the one that walked on water with Jesus (before sinking).  He was the one who denied Jesus three times.  He’s the one Jesus said he would build his church upon, because Peter means rock.  He was also the one who tore it up in Acts, proving that he was a changed man, preaching at Pentecost. 

Acts 3:1-10

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Peter Heals a Crippled Beggar

3 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon. 2 And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. 4 Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” 5 And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” 7 And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. 8 Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9 All the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 and they recognized him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Let that simmer for a second before we launch into Paul.

Paul was the one who persecuted Christians.  He was the chief persecutor of Christians.  And he had an experience on Damascus Road with the Living God.  He then presented himself to the early Christians and thinking he was going to violently persecute them, they fled.  14 of the 27 books of the New Testament are attributed to him so to say he was a prolific writer is an understatement. 

Acts 16:25-34

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.26 Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. 27 When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted in a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” 29 The jailer[a] called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them outside and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 They answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 They spoke the word of the Lord[b] to him and to all who were in his house. 33 At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. 34 He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.

Acts was nuts!  There were all sorts of things going on.  That’s why you hear people model their churches on Acts.  I don’t entirely agree with Sweet’s simplified explanation of the difference between Peter and Paul.  He says Peter was intellectually and culturally slow, but interpersonally was quick and rich, he was a hands on person when it came to relationships, it took him a while to realize the gospel was for everyone, he had a relational point of view.  In contrast he says Paul was intellectually and culturally quick but interpersonally slow, he was hands off, not relational, Paul understood early on that the gospel was for all, he argumentative point of view.

I would like the opportunity to be mentored by either one!  They were obviously men of God who had much to teach, and they had obviously experienced a conversion experience.  Neither Peter nor Paul was afraid of a fight – but a mentor can tell you which battles are worth fighting and which ones aren’t – a lesson that both Peter and Paul had to learn.

You will be mentored by lots and lots of people in your life.  I hope you will be.  I pray that you will be.  Because one having a mentor, means that we do not have it all figured out.  You remember when Luke says to Yoda “he can’t do it” and Yoda shows him he can if he just believes….You can’t be cynical or jaded for long around a Yoda.

Sir Isaac Newton said, “IF I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

  • Whose shoulders are you standing on? 
  • Who do you see and say, “I want to be like them someday!”
  • Who sets standards to which you aspire?
  • What person are you seeking out to help you find your voice and be true to your own voice?
  • From whom are you learning when to suppress and when to express yourself?
  • Whose blessing do you seek?

 

Those are all good questions as we find our Yodas.

 

We must choose our Yodas carefully.  Sweet writes, “There are as many kinds of ‘Yodas’ as there are heads, minds, and hearts! – don’t hitch your wagon to any single star or listen to any voice that seems to attract a following.”  So be discerning in who you choose.  Do you see Christ in him or her?  Mentors come in all different shapes and sizes, some for only a season and some for a lifetime.  We may not even know our spiritual mentors.  Do you have a favorite author who’s dramatically shaped your life?  Whose books you pick up at just the right time and they challenge you long after you finish reading them.  Rob Bell.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Teresa of Avila.  Brennan Manning.  Donald Miller.  Elisabeth Elliott.  Hannah Hurdard.  Bob Goff.  And countless others.  It’s like a continued conversation when you find an author that engages you.

 

Sweet says we must choose our Yodas based on these three things:  Humility, Honesty and Honor. 

 

Humility.  Peter objects to Jesus’ washing the disciples of feet.  In John 13:7 Jesus challenges Peter back, “You do not realize now what I’m doing, but later you will understand.”  The Great God of the universe humbled himself because he wanted to get in the disciples heads and make clear to his followers that you must serve.  The Master wants to study WITH you, not demand you to study UNDER them.  A true Yoda sees themselves as constantly learning.  As Sweet says “An ideal Yoda is a One-who-knows … but a One-who-knows he/she doesn’t know it all.”

 

Honesty.  The best Yodas will be honest enough to share their secrets with you.  But they will be honest enough to tell you the truth, even to rebuke you, especially when you settle for easy answers.  The best mentors let you see behind the curtain to the man underneath – a la the Wizard of Oz.  They let you see through to their vulnerability.  Their weakness.  It’s not a façade.  I appreciate people who are “real,” “authentic,” and don’t have it all figured out.  Even the Yodas second guess themselves.  But they push you out of that same second guessing….towards the light.  Because that’s innately who they are.

 

Honor.  To be blessed by and to bless a mentor are two of life’s richest blessings.  A Yoda wants to mentor people who will honor them by demonstrating both a love of originality and a love of conformity.  So you being you, is all the thanks they need.  That they had influence on your life is all the thanks they need.  That they see their legacy in YOU is all the thanks they need.  Yodas love questions.  I’m reminded of a seminary professor, Dr. Thomas Thangaraj, who asked all the right questions.  He was from India so he even sounded very much like Yoda.  I had the pleasure of being in his Contextual Education class and taking his Images of Christ class.  And I had the nerves-inducing opportunity to preach in front of him in Chapel upon several occasions because he attended University Worship at Emory.  He would find the one question we hadn’t thought of or engaged in.  He was not afraid to answer our questions either.  Like Yoda, he often answered a question by asking another question.  He modeled the give and take between Master and Apprentice unlike any other.

 

Throughout this chapter I was writing in the margins the names of my mentors.  My parents.  Bridgette.  Susan.  Risher.  Sara.  Ms. Rhodes.  A mentor’s function, according to Sweet, “is to guide and guard us into a living, dynamic relationship with God, to help us grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to help us live in a daily relationship with the divine.”  With that definition, who are your mentors, your Yodas, your guides? Have you thanked them for shaping you in big and small ways?  I encourage you during this week to thank your Yodas.  Also, to whom are you a yoda, mentor, or guide?  To whom are you going to pass the baton?  Or leave your legacy?

Posted in Campus Ministry, Dust, Glee, Kinky Boots, mentors, Rob Bell, Sermon, Timothy

Timothy

Posted on by narciejeter

Sweet starts this chapter with these words, “We are all treading in someone else’s footsteps.”  We all work within the framework of someone else’s legacy and to those that have gone before in the great cloud of witnesses.

2 Timothy 3:10-11 says, “Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness,my persecutions, and my suffering the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.”

A Timothy is a protégé, an heir, and an apprentice.  A Timothy knows your mind better than anyone else.  They can anticipate your every move even before you make it.  A Timothy is not an Andy and a Paul is not a Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada, where she will have to gopher all of Miranda’s every whims at all hours of the day or night.  But, they would have spent an awfully lot of time together.

Who is Timothy?  Of all the early Christian workers on behalf of the Gospel, Timothy was the closest to Paul.  It’s often the case, that Paul pushes Timothy to the beginning of his letters to a particular church.  For example, 2 Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians, all start this way.  Paul looks on Timothy as a son in Philippians 2:22.  He was from Lystra in Asia Minor.  He was born of a Greek father and a Jewish Christian mother.  Timothy was young when he first joined Paul and Silas, but his co-workers in Lystra and Iconium spoke so highly of him that Paul decided that he could handle this journey.  Although Timothy’s mother was Jewish, he had not been circumcised.  Paul was concerned that this would impede his authority among the Jews to whom he would be preaching, who knew his father was Greek, and so he circumcised him personally and ordained him as a preacher.  His mother Eunice, and his grandmother, Lois, are noted as examples of piety and faith. 

What kind of legacy will you leave your descendants?  Alan Jamieson says it like this, “Like Abram, the question that we, too, must consider is whether we will have descendants:  not children in our own line but descendants in faith and life.  Will we love and care for others in such a way that they become descendants?  People to whom and through whom the lessons of faith we have learned are passed on?”  What’s our legacy going to be?  Will our descendants be numerous as the stars or will they all be extinguished when the mere flicker of doubt sends them running for the hills?

Before Paul had a Timothy, he first had to BE a Timothy.  Paul was a protégé of Gamaliel, the most important rabbi in Jerusalem during the time of Jesus.  Gamaliel was the grandson of Hillel, one of the greatest interpreters of the Torah in Jewish history, as evidenced by the title bestowed on him of Rabboni, “our teacher” rather than Rabbi, “my teacher.”  Even though Gamaliel recommended patience with those who claimed that Jesus was the Messiah, his star pupil Saul didn’t agree with him and stoned the “blasphemers.”  Before becoming an evangelizing Paul, Gamaliel’s star pupil was a persecuting Saul.  In Acts 22:3 Paul tells a crowd in Jerusalem, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.” 

A mentor is someone who is a wise and trusted counselor and teacher or an influential senior sponsor or supporter.  Synonyms for mentor are an advisor, master, guide, or preceptor.  We all have mentors that shape us and mold us as we ask vocational questions or continue on our career paths.  That make it easier for us to not walk this journey alone.  It depends on the relationship how hands on the teaching is, how personal.

Osmosis was how protégés like Timothy learned from Paul.  He traveled with him, watched what he did, and then was given “tests” or assignments to complete to see how well he was developing his potential.  Wherever Timothy went, he carried the aura of Paul’s authority and name with him.  For example, the Assistant Directors are leading the leadership meeting this afternoon, and I want y’all to treat them the same way y’all would treat me….only better.  The Timothy relationship cannot develop without the patience of presence.  A Timothy needs a balance of instruction and silence to process the teaching, and the trust you place in him or her to do the job.  You don’t have to say a word, or call every other day, to let him or her know you still care.  That’s the difference in a Timothy relationship, you care.  You care about how well their soul is doing.

I will have dinner with three of my Timothy’s tomorrow night in Atlanta.  I’m meeting with Angela, Jessica and Jon at the Vortex, a hamburger joint in Little Five Points.  Angela spent two years with me.  She was a rising Junior when I got to Winthrop Wesley, needless to say that first semester our relationship was rocky.  She didn’t want anything to change and she liked Wesley small, which would never work for me.  I’ll never forget taking Angela on her first camping trip or her first rafting trip.  Stories abound, and I will tell you about her first camping trip Wednesday night.  She saw me at my best, and at my worst.  And she’s the only one that has ever experienced the joy of Enoch projectile vomiting on her when he was an infant.  She’s now the campus minister at Georgia State Wesley, and I’m exceedingly proud of her.   Jon and Jessica are in their second year of Candler, where I went to seminary. Jessica worked for me as my student assistant for 3 years and Jon lived for two years at Wesley in a small room that we had on the side.  So they certainly saw “my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness.”  The good, the bad, the ugly.

I could name students that are not ministers, lest you think I’m creating little spawns of me.  Josh and Jaime that work at the CDC, Jan that’s a neuro nurse, Ashlee who some of you met in New York, that got her Master’s in Social Work from Columbia University.  I am incredibly proud of all of them and I’m hoping that they’re creating a ripple effect of being God’s hands and feet in the world.  A healthy tree is not a single tree, no matter how beautiful it may look.  A healthy sycamore tree is a tree with heirs, a sycamore community with trees in various stages of growth and development.  You must always look at trees successors before you judge its health and vitality.

Joshua in the Old Testament, did not pass the baton, he had no heirs.  Then came the judges, spawning the most horrible times recorded in the Hebrew Bible for Israel.  When the baton is passed, we tend to grab the wrong end of the stick, where our mentors are holding.  We want to be clones not heirs.  Joshua is not Moses’ clone.  Timothy is not Paul’s clone.  What we find is a “mash up.”  Mash-ups remix the same song with a different beat, sometimes in a different key. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FPsAVg2DNU 

Glee made mashups popular again.  Do you see what I’m saying?  They’re not the same song, but there are some similarities and you can tell it is the same vein.   

The process of being a Timothy is a gradual revelation of the song your life is composing, that one-of-a-kind, unrepeatable, irreplaceable song that only you can sing.  Remember Winnie the Pooh in the story about losing his song?  He gets his friends to go on the hunt for his song and then he finds that his song is within him.  “A friend is someone who, when you forget your song, comes and sings it for you.”

When James Mawdsley was imprisoned in Burma, he sang to give himself courage, “After [the prison guard] left, still unable to sleep, I began singing “How Great Thou Art.”  My voice got louder and louder until I was belting it out.  I could feel strength coming back to me; I was not going to bow yet.  A gaggle of guards came running and told me to be quiet.  They were excited and afraid.  I sang to the end of the song, congratulating myself on my defiance, then crumpled back into bleakness.”  Let Jesus sing through you.  When God sings in and through us, liberation happens.  The sound of a voice calling from the darkness can pierce through that very same darkness.

The primary organ a Timothy must possess is ears.  Jesus says when Pilate confronted him, “Everyone who belongs to the Truth hears my voice.” Sweet says if anything indicates the success or failure of a Timothy, it’s the ability to listen.  “Some things can only be heard by those with ears to hear.  The more layers of interference—iPods, iPhones, cell phones, the tv, Netflix – the more our inner voice is blocked and the more help we need to hear.

Astonomer and atheist Carl Sagan said, “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”  Sweet makes the supposition that more either becomes better or different.  More as better means doing what you’re already doing, except doing it bigger, faster, with added value.  In contrast more as different means doing something unique and outside the box.  As Christians, we don’t live better than others.  But we sure as heck better be living different.  They will know we are Christians by our love.  Timothys have to take some leaps into the unknown when they do the different route.  How about you, when someone says, “You sure are different and you think different.”  Do you take it is a compliment?  Is it meant as a compliment, or is it almost always negative in its implications?  What about when we say it to others?

Charlie in the Broadway Show Kinky Boots, is set to inherit his father’s shoe business, but he has other plans of moving to London with his girlfriend Nicola.  When his father suddenly dies, he must take over the shoe business.  His doubts are expressed in a song “Charlie’s Soliloquy” and I would like to play it for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E81VXIDSxe4

Charlie:
Do I belong here?
Am I what’s wrong here?
Know what I’m doing?
Or am I a fraud?
Do I fit in?
Where do I begin?
Same old Charlie,
Frightened and flawed.
So, I pretend
and keep my head up like I
Know how this will end.

Maybe these pieces
Are falling together.
Making me feel like
I’m not alone.
Punching holes
Into this leather
This kind’a feels like
I’m back home.

I’m watching myself
And I know what to do.
Hey look at me now
It’s a shoe.

Charlie was feeling alone with the burden and the weight of his father’s legacy on top of him.  But then he realized that he’s not in it alone, he’s got a community behind him.  He’s got a cluster of sycamore trees rooting for him, quite literally.

I couldn’t help but call to mind the Rob Bell NOOMA video “Dust”  so I’m going to end there.  Because anybody can be a Timothy, if they want to be.  Anybody can follow if you have a willingness in your heart.  Just pay attention to be on the lookout for mentors.

Dust – 9:30-13:49

 

Let us pray.

Holy and Gracious God, may we be covered in your dust.  May we earnestly seek you and to do your will in our lives.  May you give us hearts to follow, but also hearts to mentor, to guide, to lead.  Like Charlie may we find reassurance for our doubts.  May you speak truth over our lives and may we hear your truth and not brush it to the side.  In Jesus’ name I pray, and I pray as you taught your disciples to pray, saying…

Posted in Campus Ministry, God's Providence, Identity, Music, Scripture, Sermons

Overcomer

Posted on by narciejeter

My mom sent me a song in an email.  It’s meant to be encouraging.  It’s meant to speak truth to my life.  It’s meant to remind me that God’s with me.  

But I deleted it.

This was a particularly low point in chemo (I had brain surgery in May of this past year and they completely got all the tumor, but because it had changed to a grade III which is cancerous and my type of a tumor – an oligodendroglioma – is in the cells, the doctors thought that I should have radiation for 30 days as well as chemo for 6 months.  The surgery also affected my speech and right arm since it had invaded the motor cortex.)

But you know how God keeps popping up, two weeks ago, my friend Corrie posted the video.  I hesitated opening the link because I didn’t want to acknowledge that it could be about me.  You see the song was Mandisa’s “Overcomer.”    

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z29olPjFbqg  (Mandisa’s Overcomer Lyric video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8VoUYtx0kw (Mandisa’s Overcomer Actual video)

I felt God working on my heart so I finally listened to the song.  And I’m glad I did.

My communication skills are something I’ve taken for granted.  I heavily rely on written and verbal communication.  I didn’t realize how much it was my “go to” thing.  Until I lost my ability to communicate.  These gifts were a part of my identity.  They made me who I am.  I’ve struggled to find my new normal and I have often found it frustrating.  But God has been faithful in the midst.  Giving me the verses of scripture that I need for me to keep moving forward.   

“Be strong and bold; have no fear or dread of them, because it is the Lord your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.” – Deuteronomy 31:6

“Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him.” – Psalm 37:7

“The battle is not for you to fight; take your position, stand still, and see the victory on your behalf…Do not fear or be dismayed…the Lord will be with you.” – 2 Chronicles 20:17

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” – James 4:8

“From now on I will tell you of new things, of hidden things unknown to you.  They are created now, and not long ago.” – Isaiah 48:6-7

The Lord said to Moses, “I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” – Exodus 9:16

The Lord said, “See, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tested you in the furnace of adversity.” – Isaiah 48:10

The Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9

Last week as I drove back from Evensong, I was sharing with a friend, that I felt like there were moments during Communion as I said the Communion liturgy where it naturally flowed.  It was the first time post-surgery, I had ever felt that way.  That’s when “Overcomer” came on the radio.  I had never heard it on the radio before.  I guess it’s not in the regular rotation on the JOY FM or 106.9 The Pulse.  I just had to stop the car and acknowledge this as a God moment as tears began to fall.

On August 20th my mom sent me another email that had a new video with Laura Story, who she knows I really like and yet again, I haven’t opened the email until this afternoon.  Call me a slacker.  Call me an avoider.  Call me a procrastinator.

Here’s the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VRUU8UBXCk – Laura Story’s “I Can Just Be Me”

We need a healer, comfort, peace…  What makes you, YOU?  You’re enough.  You’re more than enough.  Laura Story says about the song, “How freeing it is to just sit back and allow God to be the one that writes the story. Allow God to be the healer in the relationship.”  God loves you for you.  You were known in secret in your mother’s womb.  God knows when we sit and when we rise.  What makes you think that God doesn’t know what’s on our hearts – our worries, our fears, our hurts, our struggles?   So why are we surprised when God shows up and provides what we need?  God is faithful when we least expect it.  Even when we don’t want to hear it.  Even when we’re kicking and screaming.  Even when we ignore Mom’s emails.  

Posted in Brave, Campus Ministry, Freshman, home, Risk-taking

An Open Letter to New College Students

Posted on by narciejeter

I know that some of you have already started the mass exodus as one by one you and your friends leave for college.  Can you believe it’s here?  I know whether you’ve already started school or not, it carries with it a wide-range of feelings and emotions.  Excitement, apprehension, curiosity, freedom, change, joy, fear, nostalgia, adventure….what will this be like?  My hope is that no matter where you find yourself on the sometimes crazy rollercoaster of university life, you will find a community, and hold tight to it. 

My campus minister used to say, “The only way to live life is in community,” and he exemplified that by how he lived his life.  I know you’ll think I’m biased but I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to root yourself in your new adopted home.  Get involved on campus.  Explore.

Enjoy every minute that you can of this new step.  I’m sure you’ve heard the advice “get out of your comfort zone” so many times you want to scream, but I’ll simply say be brave.  Don’t be afraid to take chances.  Don’t be afraid to get your nose out of your cell phone and start a conversation.  During those sometimes awkward or uncomfortable times when you’re not with the people that know your story, the people from back home – take a deep breath and know that it takes time.  Take a risk.  Try churches for a second time or a third time, not only to let your parents know that “you gave it a shot.”  Real community takes time.  It’s not going to be easy. When you share your lives with people it’s messy.  Let your guard down.  Don’t be afraid to show people all of who you are with the cracks and vulnerabilities. 

Find a ministry that’s going to challenge you, nurture you, and love you.

Know that you have people out there that care about you and know you and love you.  Both those that you treasure at home and those that you will meet in the coming days.  Know that you have people to support you throughout this and don’t be afraid to reach out.

Blessings on your journey – may this be a time in your life when you are able to question and search and wrestle, but may it also be a time when you begin to discover the things that make you come alive!  In the midst of academic rigor and residence hall life – may you feel the love and presence of God. 

 Image

Sara Bareilles – Brave – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUQsqBqxoR4

Posted in Campus Ministry, Exams, Hold Me, Music

Hold Me

Posted on by narciejeter

Do you like these Florida days when the weather doesn’t know how to make up its mind? It can be dark and cloudy one minute and bright and sunny the next. Either way, we can’t do anything about the humidity. So whether you wet from rain or wet from sweat, makes no difference in the long run. We’re all a little damp.

We’re three weeks into the semester, so not quite a quarter of the way through, but papers, tests, and projects are still looming. You may feel like you’ve finally got a handle on this college thing. There’s fifth year seniors who admittedly still claim to have no idea. You’ve color-coded your calendar to draw some inspiration from that, but you still may be feeling overwhelmed with everything and it seems like there’s too much to do and not ever enough time.

There are also those times when it’s hard to get started on anything or inspired to actually study or write that paper because there are so many other things you would rather be doing. There are also those days and weeks when there’s so much other “stuff” going on whether friends or family back home or friends and roommates here. Or maybe it’s with your significant other or the one that you want to be with. Life can come at you trying to twist and turn and pull you in many different directions.

Maybe you’re searching for the right answer or a little inspiration. You don’t have to do everything all by yourself. You can ask for help. You can trust that God is right there with you in the all-nighters and in the nights where you didn’t procrastinate and went to bed at a decent hour. God’s right there with you no matter what. Let God speak to you and lift you up and give you that burst of energy or that rest that you need.

An oldie but a goodie – Jamie Grace’s “Hold Me” – Do you like these Florida days when the weather doesn’t know how to make up its mind? It can be dark and cloudy one minute and bright and sunny the next. Either way, we can’t do anything about the humidity. So whether you wet from rain or wet from sweat, makes no difference in the long run. We’re all a little damp.
We’re three weeks into the semester, so not quite a quarter of the way through, but papers, tests, and projects are still looming. You may feel like you’ve finally got a handle on this college thing. There’s fifth year seniors who admittedly still claim to have no idea. You’ve color-coded your calendar to draw some inspiration from that, but you still may be feeling overwhelmed with everything and it seems like there’s too much to do and not ever enough time.
There are also those times when it’s hard to get started on anything or inspired to actually study or write that paper because there are so many other things you would rather be doing. There are also those days and weeks when there’s so much other “stuff” going on whether friends or family back home or friends and roommates here. Or maybe it’s with your significant other or the one that you want to be with. Life can come at you trying to twist and turn and pull you in many different directions.
Maybe you’re searching for the right answer or a little inspiration. You don’t have to do everything all by yourself. You can ask for help. You can trust that God is right there with you in the all-nighters and in the nights where you didn’t procrastinate and went to bed at a decent hour. God’s right there with you no matter what. Let God speak to you and lift you up and give you that burst of energy or that rest that you need.

An oldie but a goodie – Jamie Grace’s “Hold Me” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISgr8SgCYbYhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISgr8SgCYbY

Posted in calling, Campus Ministry, God's Voice, Movies, Nathan, Sermons

Nathan – The Editor

Posted on by narciejeter

This semester at Gator Wesley, we are going to use as our backdrop, Leonard Sweet’s book, 11 – indispensable relationships you can’t be without – in which he talks about the 11 people [relationships] that we need to be who Christ creates us to be – we need
• an Editor
• a True Friend
• a Butt-Kicker
• an Heir
• an Encourager
• a Yoda
• a Back-Coverer
• a Reject
• a ‘Little One’
• a VIP
• a Place
• a Paraclete – “one who consoles, one who intercedes on our behalf, a comforter or an advocate”

This week we have Nathan, the editor.

1 Chronicles 17:1-15
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
God’s Covenant with David
17 Now when David settled in his house, David said to the prophet Nathan, “I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the LORD is under a tent.” 2 Nathan said to David, “Do all that you have in mind, for God is with you.”
3 But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, saying: 4 Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the LORD: You shall not build me a house to live in. 5 For I have not lived in a house since the day I brought out Israel to this very day, but I have lived in a tent and a tabernacle. 6 Wherever I have moved about among all Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people, saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar? 7 Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the LORD of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people Israel; 8 and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies before you; and I will make for you a name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 9 I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall wear them down no more, as they did formerly, 10 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will subdue all your enemies.
Moreover I declare to you that the LORD will build you a house. 11 When your days are fulfilled to go to be with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. 12 He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. 13 I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, 14 but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever. 15 In accordance with all these words and all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

Have you ever heard of a “yes” man or woman? It’s a thing. Merriam Webster defines it this way, “a person who agrees with everything that is said; especially: one who endorses or supports without criticism every opinion or proposal of an associate or superior.” You will meet “yes” men all the time in the workplace. Have you ever heard of a celebrity out of control because they’ve surrounded themselves with no one that ever tells them no? I can name all sorts of actors/singers/entertainers that died tragically because they were surrounded by people on the pay roll. They received no unbiased opinions, because the machine around them depended on their celebrity for their livelihood. We can give countless examples of these behaviors…..Hello, Britney shaving her head or Justin Bieber in his latest trouble or need I even say Lindsay Lohan without images flashing through your head?

They needed someone to be “real” with them or keep them grounded. They needed an editor, like Nathan. Nathan spoke truth to power. Who’s not afraid to call you into account for your actions? Who’s not afraid to get under your skin? Who’s not afraid to gently, but firmly say that you’re acting like a jerk? That’s your Nathan.

A Nathan reveals, pulls back the curtain, to who you truly are. Recently I went on a facebook posting rampage, where I watched the movie The Legend of Bagger Vance. In the movie Bagger played by Will Smith, says, “Inside each and every one of us is one true authentic swing. Something that we were born with. Something that’s ours and ours alone. Something that can’t be taught to you or learned. Something that got to be remembered. Over time the world can rob us of that swing. It can be buried inside us in the woulda, coulda, shoulda’s. Some people forget what their swing was like.” A Nathan’s not afraid of calling you out because he can see through the layers to YOU. And the Nathan’s in your life, care about and love you, but they’re not about to let you get away with anything, just like Bagger Vance.

Nathan figured prominently in David’s life 3 times. At 3 critical junctures. In the text for today, 2 Samuel 7, David had just finished building his palace. He had been greatly blessed by God and decided that the ark of the covenant, which was still in a tent, needed a permanent home. He consulted with Nathan who agreed at first, but as you hear in the passage, Nathan changed his mind because it was not what God wanted. Nathan also said some good things to David – that David’s name would be great, his people would have peace, his son would build a “House for my name,” the throne and kingdom of David and his son would be established forever, and what would later become the Davidic Covenant – that Jesus would be in the lineage of David. You may be thinking that’s not gutsy speaking truth to power, he just told him not to build a church, and he said several good things after that. Well in 2 Samuel 12, David had recently committed adultery with Bathsheba and had arranged the death of her husband Uriah. Nathan was sent to David by the Lord with a parable – a poor man had one lamb, a rich man had great flocks of sheep – a traveler came to the rich man who prepared a meal for him – the rich man took the lamb from the poor man rather than use one of his own for the meal. David heard the story and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die!” [vs5] Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!” [vs7] Awkward.

David repented of his sin, and the Lord forgave him – but the consequences of his sin then meant that the child born to Bathsheba did in fact die. The sign, however, of forgiveness was that David and Bathsheba had another son, Solomon, the inheritor of the promise.

The third time doesn’t have the same sting as the Bathsheba story, but it’s important nonetheless. It happens in 1 Kings 1 right at the end of David’s life. God had made it clear that Solomon would inherit the throne from his father – when another of David’s sons, Adonijah, tried to usurp the throne, Nathan supported David rather than Adonijah. He informed Bathsheba of the plot and advised her on how to ensure the right successor. Nathan was called in by David and told to anoint Solomon king – this he did and it was proclaimed to the people.

An editor works tirelessly so that you can be the best that you can be.

“Joe Myers illustrates the editability with the story of his wife, Sara, handing him back an essay she had edited for him, and all he could see was red. Every page was dripping with blood. As he tried to find one pure white page, she said these words: ‘Joe, this is fantastic! This is one of the best things I have ever read! This is going to change people’s lives.’
‘You’re kidding. You hate it…’
‘No, I love it.’
‘But look at all the red. You hate it.’
‘Joe, I love it. I just want you to get your ideas out as powerfully as you can. Every time you see red on the page, you should hear me saying to you, ‘Joe, I love this, I love you, and I want the whole world to read this book.’”

How many times do we see the editors of our lives as our biggest critics? How many times do we see the ink all in red and think that we’re not good enough? How many times do we take personally what we see as criticism but those that love us have said it to make us better?

Leonard Sweet writes, “What makes the Nathans unique in your life is that they are fundamentally best understood as welcome intruders. They tend to pop in unannounced to take the moral temperature of a particular moment, especially at the most inconvenient and disturbing of times. But because you are already in a relationship with them, and authenticity is your brand, their temperature taking isn’t always welcome. In a culture of increasing transparency, thanks to the internet and ubiquitous surveillance (the average Londoner is captured on camera over three hundred times a day), you refuse them entrance at your peril.”

In biblical language, Nathans “speak the truth in love.” As it says in James 1:22, a Nathan is not someone who rushes to “tell you the truth” but someone who helps you to “do the truth.”

As anyone who has ever written some words on a piece of paper, it’s not always pleasant or fun to get edited. The English major in me, cringes at the thought of taking my paper to the writing center and for them to pull out the fine tooth comb or the magnifying glass to make corrections. It’s like they see my soul stripped bare and the vulnerability is apparent. They see me. In all of my weaknesses, in all of my vulnerabilities, in all of the places I would rather not see – they see me.

So prayerfully consider the Nathans in your life. You don’t want to pick a person that is critical for critical’s sake, that is destructive to your world, or does not care about your well-being. So be discerning as you notice the people in your life that make you better, aren’t afraid to give you a reality check when the situation calls for it, and do so in love.

But as you notice the Nathans in your life they have some tell-tale signs. The first is they get under your skin. They look at the inner workings of your life and are not afraid to call BS. An English teacher in high school taught me the acronym meant Be Specific.

The second is they will ask you questions. Sweet says that questions can comfort, challenge, or convict. A Nathan looks at the heart. Snow White on Once Upon a Time wouldn’t get away with the darkness growing in her heart, if a Nathan was around. A Nathan would ask the familiar words of Wesley, “How well is it with your soul?”

The third and final thing is that they will tell the truth. A Nathan helps us see the truth about ourselves – truth telling, not truth dumping. Truth dumping is when we tell someone the “truth” but we’re really giving our own opinion, and it’s needlessly hurtful because the truth teller is not seeking to make us better but is seeking to destroy, cut down, or belittle. Nathan’s words are blunt, but with love. It is said about a Nathan, “There are kinder words that could have been said to me, but there aren’t truer ones.”

My brother Josh just happens to be a Nathan in my life. You’ll meet him on fall retreat because he’s going to be the speaker. He’s not afraid to call me on the carpet when he thinks I’m not being my most Godly. But I trust him implicitly. I don’t always like what he says. I don’t always agree with what he says. But 9 times out of 10 he has a point. He has perspective on my life. Even when I don’t see it. Even when I can’t see it. He has a way of breaking through. It may take a couple of days, of inner debate within myself, to see truth in his observational interruptions, but I trust him. So I listen to him. Because I know he’s watching out for me and just wants me to be the best that I can be.

So I’m glad that Len Sweet writes, “Everybody needs a Nathan. Even Nathan needs a Nathan.” Even Josh needs a Nathan in his life.

So open your eyes to the Nathan’s of your life. Your Nathan’s may easily come to mind. They may not. But we all need them. Oprah is attempting to be Lindsay Lohan’s, but that is another story and another sermon.

Do you know what David named his son? That’s right. Nathan. And that’s the line through which Jesus came through Mary’s side. You see, the Nathan’s of your life will have a big Godly impact in your life if you will let them. May it be so.

Holy and gracious God, may we be ever on the look out for the Nathan’s in our life. That they call us into account and are willing to ask the hard questions. May you set our feet on right paths and may we walk in your ways. Thank you that we were fearfully and wonderfully made and we can rest in the promise that you will never leave us or forsake us. May you give us wisdom as we discern answers to questions that seemingly have no answers. May you give us your peace that transcends all understanding, when we wrestle or need your comfort. May you give us your grace that we may know your more fully and as we continue in your sanctifying grace to be the person you created us to be. In Jesus’ name I pray. We pray now as you taught your disciples to pray….

Posted in Campus Ministry, Commitment, Faith, Friendship, Holy Friendships, Obstacles, Prayer, Sermons

Mark 2

Posted on by narciejeter

Mark 2:1-12

There was a crowd because in the scene immediately preceding this Jesus had healed a leper, and although he told him not to say anything, he did anything but.  “40 A lepercame to him begging him, and kneelinghe said to him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.”41 Moved with pity, Jesusstretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!”42 Immediately the leprosyleft him, and he was made clean. 43 After sternly warning him he sent him away at once,44 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.” 45 But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesuscould no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.”

When we were growing up, the nearest movie theater was an hour away.  So we would squeeze in my mom’s minivan.  One time we laid the back seat flat and fit 8 people on there.  We squeezed two people in the back of the van.  And we had 4 in the captain’s chairs with 1 in the middle.  So we got all 15 of us in the minivan.  I do not recommend this.  And we broke several laws.  And come to think of it, my mom still doesn’t know this happened.

I tell you that image because I visualize it when I read this passage.  The crowd that was gathered was packed in like sardines.  This was no time to be claustrophobic.  Saying it was hard to get in, may be an understatement. But the four friends were determined.  They knew that Jesus was the Great Healer, who it was said later in Matthew 11:4-5, “Go and tell John what you hear and see:  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.”

They had to dig into the roof, which was not easy. It was made of beams 3 feet apart filled with twigs, clay and dirt – like working with dry wall.  The people below probably were not happy to be covered by first little flecks of dust, then some tiles here and there and not to mention long splinters of wood.  Then they had to lower a paralyzed man slowly into the center of the room.

Now what would be your reaction if you were in the crowd?

Sometimes we see obstacles and we’re defeated or coughing up excuses before we even start.  Sometimes the impossible is made possible.  That’s the thing about faith made real.  Their friend couldn’t walk – so they carried him.  The crowd blocked their path and access to Jesus – they went around or bypassed them.  The roof was in the way – they ripped a hole in it.  They were people on a mission.  They were determined.  Spiritually and physically they were determined. 

If only the Gators would be so determined to win games.  May it be so.  If only we were so determined to dive into the Santa Fe community and University of Florida community – developing relationships, stepping out of our comfort zone, and not being afraid of what people were saying about us. 

It would be radical. 

We all know people who need healing back home and here at school – what are we doing to be present with them – intercession – prayer, encouragement, our actions?

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?

Do we get our hands dirty in other people’s lives?  Rejoice with those who rejoice.  Weep with those who weep.

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).

The Great God of the universe went to extreme measures for us.  We need to do the same.  It’s the little things.  Say a prayer, a kind word, a smile, hoping the Spirit’s imprint on our hearts will be read by someone else.

A couple of years ago an NC State student became involved in a theatre group sponsored by one of the campus ministries. He wasn’t a Christian, he just liked acting. The group performed during the Sunday morning services at several churches in the area. At one of the churches, Adam was captivated by the prayers of the people which included intercessions for people with AIDS. He was so moved that he decided to be baptized and join the church. That church was God’s letter to Adam, which said, “There is suffering in the world, but God cares and we care.” 

Lawrence Kushner in Honey from the Rock 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 not 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.” 

Some quotes on friendship • A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out. • Everyone hears what you say. Friends listen to what you say. Best friends listen to what you don’t say. • A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.  A friend perseveres.

This semester at Gator Wesley, we are going to use as our backdrop, Leonard Sweet’s book, 11 – indispensable relationships you can’t be without  – in which he talks about the 11 people [relationships] that we need in this life to be who Christ creates us to be – we need

  • an Editor
  • a True Friend
  • a Butt-Kicker
  • an Heir
  • an Encourager
  • a Yoda
  • a Back-Coverer
  • a Reject
  • a ‘Little One’
  • a VIP
  • a Place
  • a Paraclete – “one who consoles, one who intercedes on our behalf, a comforter or an advocate”

Who are these people or who can they be for us?  I hope you will join us this semester as we take this journey together – but I can assure you, it will not be as great a journey without each of you – I need all of you on this journey of life and faith, and I am grateful for our time together. 

As Sweet says, “The real meaning of life is not a journey question or an arrival question.  It’s a relationship question.  Your journey AND your destination are both important, but neither is possible without an answer to [the] prior question: ‘Who do you have with you?’” [Sweet, 11, page 19]