Are you a procrastinator? Do you put things off until the last minute? Do you try to eek out every little minute before you need to go somewhere and often arrive barely on time or a little late? Does this sound like a bad informercial to you?
I am a procrastinator. Very true. And it’s gotten worse over the years. From high school to college to seminary, my procrastination and procrastinating skills increased exponentially. I think part of my main fear of working on a doctorate one day is that there’s no way I can get any worse at waiting to the last minute.
So tonight is one of those hyper get everything done times. Tomorrow morning some of the Winthrop, Charleston and Furman Wesley crews will leave for Student Forum in Indiana at 5 am. This means Narcie needs to wake up at 4 so that I get to Wesley at 4:30 to load up. This is not a good thing. I should definitely be in bed right now. But it’s also a newsletter night. You know I can rattle off a lot of random nothingness until I need to actually turn in something for print with a deadline. Nothing makes me not want to do it more.
Why is that?
Why can I languish on the to do list for days on end but wait until a looming deadline or trip or big event or conference to actually start cranking things out?
Now I was not one of the folks thinking we were suddenly going to be raptured this past weekend and I sure hope we don’t see as much news coverage, facebook statuses and other opinions when the new date of October 21st rolls around. As much as I don’t exactly get where these people were coming from, I can understand the great feeling of getting your life in order. For me, deadlines or trips or things are those times of organizing things so that I have to get them done. It’s nice to have things organized. It’s nice to mark things off the list. It’s nice to finally do that thing we’ve been dreading whether that’s something big or small, repairing a broken relationship or finally taking that jacket to the dry cleaners.
So no, I’m not leaving with everything done. I wish. But this is reality. However – I’ve done what I need to so that I can go in peace. And of course try to do something on the way during that long drive.
Maybe we’re not people that believe in a set date for rapture. I’m not even though I know the Hallelujah chorus is going to be sung at some point and it’s coming. But, we can try to prepare and plan and keep walking on this journey moving towards that beautiful feeling of contentment and new life and peace and that sense of completion when we have done what we need to do, what we want to do, what we’re called to do.
What’s still on your list? What’s unfinished for you? Not just at work, but at home, in your family, in your friendships, in your heart? It’s easy to look around a house that you’re thinking about selling and see all the things you’ve got to do and that you need to start working on little by little, but it’s harder to look into our lives and do the same thing.
So in the spirit of Spring cleaning and the beginning of summer let’s GO! Take a break from procrastinating for just a bit and rock it out where God is leading us.
I readily admit that I am a lover of Broadway. Love it! Especially musicals. From the first time I saw Cats in the 6th grade to Wicked to Avenue Q to Phantom to Promises, Promises to In the Heights to most recently The Book of Mormon, there’s something about a story being acted out in the midst of great acting, catchy songs, and neat stages/dancing/the whole atmosphere that I just can’t get enough of. I know, I know – it’s a long way to Broadway. But there’s loads of shows that come through even wonderful South Carolina. And you could see the Legally Blonde musical on MTV or the anniversary special of Les Mis on PBS or even bootlegging from your wonderful youtube. There’s just something about being transported and watching really great art – singing, dancing, acting, the amazing orchestra – the whole experience.
So that’s the place I’m coming from when Mike won tickets to the Book of Mormon and we could see the whole thing from boxed seats and into the orchestra. I’m not the hugest fan in the world of South Park. I think it’s sometimes funny – the episodes about Tom Cruise, Scientology, Mormons, the Christian rock band, those I can find the humor and appreciate it. I’m not a fan of the overkill of language and violence but I know that is part of what they’re trying to speak to. I get that. I had no idea what to expect out of this musical. I had read about it in Entertainment Weekly and how they described it as “an atheist’s love letter to religion.”
I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, there’s some awful language. So much so in parts that I can’t even describe some of the songs. But how real and open they were to work with real issues and serious situations in the midst of the hilarity and satire, was a unique look about religion, faith, and just how cruddy or overly fake life can appear to be and yet how real and authentic it is.
I think about this how end of the world hoohah right now. When we were in New York people were wearing signs and handing out brochures in Times Square about our upcoming May 21st big day. One of the newspapers quoted a retired bus driver who had put in over $40,000 to get the word out to the “unbelievers.” That’s a whole lot of money to put out there. It also quoted a bunch of people who had already quit their jobs and sold their houses. I can’t even imagine that kind of….what’s the word….devotion? (lots of other adjectives that could be used here)
In the opening song of The Book of Mormon and also as part of the finale there’s a song called “Hello!” and it’s a melody of Mormons doing their somewhat cliched ringing of doorbells and introducing people to the Book of Mormon. I wouldn’t say the musical is completely anti-Mormon, but it certainly does poke major fun and lots of holes and questions about the legitimacy of Mormonism. It talks about these missionaries being dropped into these communities and not really caring how the people are actually doing or how they live, but only caring about witnessing. Now I’d like to get on my high horse and say that the United Methodist Church doesn’t do that – we’re working with communities, handing out bed nets, providing food, clean water, education. You can’t deny that UMCOR rocks. Very true.
But do we care enough to give our $40,000 savings to anyone or anything to get out any kind of message? I’m not saying you should start shelling out money a la to some televangelist – quite the contrary. I’m just saying, I don’t know how many of us are willing to part with our life savings for anything. And definitely not to our churches.
What do our missionaries look like? And not just our missionaries because that’s putting it off on just a few, but what do we look like as we share the Gospel? Do we share a Gospel with strings attached or just the simple bare basics in our every day lives? Do we tell people how our scripture could change their lives? Do we share how Jesus is relevant to our lives today? Have any of us shared scripture with someone else, much less a Bible? Do we think that’s too pushy or too “something”?
It’s great that we are doing Change the World weekends as a UMC. Really great. That’s what we should be doing. But all the time and all the churches. Too much to ask? Maybe so. But if we as a church – not just UMC, but all of us – aren’t doing something, living something, breathing something, actually giving a fig about something enough to put our time, hearts, and money where are mouths are, than what are we doing?
So I’m trying to not eat for energy or pick up my favorite coffee drink at The Coffee Shack. I have done pretty well at The Coffee Shack – only one in a month and that was after the New York trip before I went to a wedding rehearsal so not bad. Anyway, so I’m terrible at this don’t eat for energy thing and I remembered that in the Wesley kitchen we found some melted chocolate from the New York trip. I know it’s a pretty low standard if you’re looking at melted chocolate from a road trip. Anyway, again (I’m digressing a lot here), I got a Coke Zero that someone left here and I found a melted bag of Reese cups (jackpot!) and I’m walking back to my office, when lo and behold I’m walking by the front door and I think I see out of the corner of my eye, a figure at the door.
At first I keep walking down the hall and then I think, wait a sec, I think that really may be someone at the door. Sure enough it’s a guy. He’s pointing at our picture that sits on the table in the entryway that says, “I stand at the door and knock” and then he says through the glass – “See, I stand at the door and knock.” I open the door and of course he’s asking for assistance and if we’re a church. (I must say that I love our Winthrop Wesley sign and the symbol of the cross and flame that is now big on our wall outside, but no one ever stopped by and asked for assistance before we had that new sign. I guess they didn’t think we were a church with the words “The Wesley Foundation” on the outside, probably thinking we were a bank or insurance company or philanthropy or something.)
I explained about our college ministry and walked him around the corner pointing out HOPE, Inc. an agency down the street that many of our churches support, I point out the churches in the area, I give him directions to some, tell him about Dorothy Day, etc. All this time saying that I personally can’t help him, but holding my Coke Zero and bag of Reeses cups in my hand. As I walk back into the building and I look at the picture and I see what it says, “Behold I stand at the door and knock: if any hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.” Hello, conviction as I walk in the door.
By the time I caught up with the guy after grabbing the cash from my wallet to help him with his bus ticket, he’s at the Presbytery building on the corner. He looks at me and says, “See, I’m trying. I’m doing the best I can asking these churches to help me.”
It’s tough. I know that HOPE only helps people every certain amount of days/weeks and they had helped this guy when he was in the hospital last week. I know that certain folks that he had talked to only give utility bill help or food or they give all their money to HOPE to distribute. I know that none of us want to be taken advantage of or to enable. Heck, enable is pretty much a curse word these days.
I know I am one fiesty woman, but also alone in the building so I didn’t want to invite the guy in and I somehow didn’t think handing him spagetti sauce and uncooked pasta from our pasta lunches would actually help anything. I could have driven him somewhere and I thought about it, but the whole woman alone thing – sometimes I’m okay with that, and sometimes not so much. So yes, I ended up doing something that I actually don’t usually do and I sometimes even say we shouldn’t do – I just gave the guy some money.
It’s such a hard issue – to give or not to give, enabling or accountability, erring on the side of grace or of caution. What would you do? Do you go with your gut? Do you listen to the Spirit as you discern?
How is our church inviting people in as they stand at the door and knock? Do we just give them some money or do we actually invite them in and build relationship with them? What does the world see about a church that says we want to clothe the naked and give homes to the homeless and yet we have nothing to offer? What does the world see in a church that just gives hands out and not hands up or real relationship?
The United Methodist campus ministries went on our annual trip to New York this past week. It always a rich time with students getting to make new friends and see and learn so much from the city. It is also a blessing to be able to stay at Metropolitan Community UMC in Harlem. Their hospitality has always been a huge gift to us and a shining example of the United Methodist connection.
This year the United Methodist Seminar Program led by Jay Godfrey and Jennifer McCallum outdid themselves, scheduling 3 parts of our group in 3 different areas of the city for 3 days to learn about the communities, culture, and social action taking place. We were divided into groups going to the Bronx, Lower East Side and Harlem and had one day of service at a meals on wheels sort of thing where we actually walked to apartments and delivered meals to the elderly, one day of learning about cultures in our particular communities, and one day of seminar focusing on some of the issues in our communities and what organizations in those communities are doing to combat them.
I had spent some time doing seminars in Harlem and the Lower East Side so I was particularly interested in the Bronx. What a huge area and diverse group of people the Bronx includes. In all of the stops at museums, art collectives, a Yankees game, community action groups – each area of the Bronx was really different. They were all so proud to be “Bronxites” that their enthusiasm for their borough was infectious. We all felt like Bronxites to an extent at the end of our time. Did you know that the Bronx has more green space than any other burrough in New York? Me either.
What we heard from a lot of people and I would think the other groups would say this to, was people saying that they grew up dreaming of moving somewhere else and starting a new life, but that through whatever experience, education, epiphany moment, they decided to stay in their community and try to bring about change and keep fighting for chances and opportunities for the children growing up behind them. Many of the speakers we talked to were born and bred in these communities and the passion, devotion and pride that they felt for these places was evident in everything they said whether the good or even the challenging issues that they are still battling.
It was good for the students and me to see these people standing up for what they believe in using real, practical, and change-bringing principles to their every day, bringing voice to the voiceless.
The divide I feel when I’m talking about us going to a living wage rally or fighting on behalf of the poor versus some of the questioning looks I get from people back home, has a lot to do with people’s questions about justice and righteousness. We say we don’t believe all of the malarky about people who suffer having done something wrong or may not have lived right and have caused their suffering. We say that we need to support our mentally ill, veterans, the widows, the orphans, those that can’t help themselves. But then again, when it comes to our wallets and our own comfort, it seems easier to say and assume that if people were just working hard enough, if people just did what it takes to succeed, they would somehow pull themselves up out of these places of poverty.
We just witnessed a royal wedding where a commoner who descended from coal miners and criminals married a prince. As much as I like the fairytale and as hard as her family worked and as many names they have been called for “social climbing,” I think it paints a somewhat unfair picture of what the cycle of poverty really looks like. To say that it is hard to break that cycle is such a rough and belittling use of an adjective that it feels wrong to say. To stand up in the face of corruption, in the face of not just people but entire systems that abuse you, to demand the same rights that others enjoy when you’ve never gotten a fair shake – that is scary, it’s terrifying, it’s intimidating.
I am constantly amazed at the voices that do stand up though. I was glad to hear of a student from the Bronx talk about students in the Bronx organizing a walk out of thousands of students when the government was going to take away their right to a student metrocard to get to and from school. I was inspired listening to Intikana from Rebel Diaz Arts Collective talking about how they’re using art and music and film and all sorts of creative outlets to give people in the Bronx a way to express themselves in non-violent and constructive ways. It’s great to see young people working to bring about a new day. It’s good for all of us to see that we can make a difference, whether through our churches doing a soup kitchen, clothing closet, food pantry, or other social action. In the midst of the sometimes uphill climb and little defeats in the battle, it’s good to know that none of us are alone in this battle and that we have folks journeying with us all over the world.
From a faith perspective, we are clearly called to the poor, to the wounded, to those that need to feel that love and wholeness and new life. This isn’t just the obvious poor among us, but it’s also the single mom trying to make ends meet, it’s also our cranky next door neighbor who’s as lonely as heck, it’s also our friends, our family, the people we see at the office or grocery store or school.
One of this past week’s lectionary texts was 1 Peter 2:19-25 and it talked about suffering and following in Christ’s footsteps. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t ask God for suffering. If you suffer, you suffer, but Christ suffers with you, I get that. But I’m not asking for it like the lovely Mr. Wesley in his new year’s service. There’s two things I like in particular about this text – one that Christ suffered for us and so God knows what suffering feels like – for real without a doubt not even his fault suffering. There’s a song in the new Broadway musical, The Book of Mormon that’s called “Man Up.” I am NOT endorsing or saying you should go out and watch Book of Mormon or get the soundtrack. The story is about two Mormon missionaries in Africa and needless to say, one of them is seeing that he has a challenge before him and he’s like, hey – Jesus had to man up, so I need to too. I’m not saying that we all have to man or woman up, but the song is right in that Christ did suffer and die and he’s been there. He knows what it’s like to feel alone, tired, hungry, beaten, ridiculed, and tortured.
The other thing is that he did the suffering for us, that “by his wounds you have been healed” and he is our Shepherd leading us home. To me, this calls us in two different directions – one to realize that we realize that this LOVE and sacrifice was for us. The other is to realize that we have to share this LOVE and sacrifice with the world. We can’t say, that’s not my problem, it’s a problem over “there” with “those” people in “that” place. Nope, it’s something that we all must wrestle with as we share the light and love of Christ. This cycle of poverty only ends as we all jump into the fight, pool our resources, and leave our pride, self-protection, and rationalizations at the door.
We learned a ton in New York. It was a great trip. The thing I like about these trips is that it’s not just something we leave in New York, in this far away place, but these are things we learn and do and bring home to make a difference where we are, not just in a nice, greeting card kind of way, but for real.
How do we break the cycle of poverty in our communities? How do we break the cycle of unbelief and fear and doubt? How do we break the cycle of people believing that Jesus would just look at them with contempt and say that they deserved it because of what they did? What are our churches saying about the cycle of poverty and suffering? Anything? What message are we telling? What inner soundtrack are our lives rocking along too?
A nice, tame song by JJ Heller, “What Love Really Means.”
Man Up from the Book of Mormon – (don’t forget this is a satirical musical written by the creators of South Park and Avenue Q so listen at your own risk…this is your disclaimer, seriously.)
If someone was going to write a satirical musical about our faith? our denomination? our churches? what would it say???
Evy loves playing with my toothbrush. She does. It happens. I know I should think this is gross and I know we’re exchanging germs, but in the scheme of things, I don’t really care if she’s playing with my toothbrush. She’s not using it to clean the toilet or scrub the floors so that’s a plus. Both the kids had strep throat about a month ago and the 10 days of antibiotics and trying to get those things down them, was a challenge. Enoch finally starting taking the medicine like a “big boy” hallelujah but we had to practically hang Evy upside down to get her to take it. Oh the fun of parenting!
A week after that low and behold Mommy wasn’t feeling well and my throat was just plain gross. Strep throat it was. Immediately the doctor asks, has anyone you know been sick with strep throat? Yep. The two kids. Did you change out their toothbrushes? As soon as he asked the question, I know for sure and for certain how I got my lovely strep. It’s crazy how a simple, small thing like letting your two year old play with your toothbrush can cause something that makes you not want to get out of bed in the morning and feel terrible.
It’s not like Evy did it to intentionally get me sick and it’s not like I thought about – hmmmm, let me give myself strep today. Not at all. But sometimes the small decisions we make that seem to have no impact on our lives at all, can creep up on us in major ways. Eating those couple little hershey kisses every day can add up to a lot of chocolate and a lot of pounds over the year. Putting off quiet time alone with God, intentional prayer, Sabbath and time to refresh, or times of reconnecting and quality time with friends, family and our spouse/significant other can seem like a lot of small decisions, but the impact over time can really knock you off course.
I’ve been doing a lot of premarital counseling sessions lately because there are 4 Winthrop Wesley related couples getting married this summer. Very exciting! I love officiating at weddings. I did the premarital counseling for another couple in grad school here at Winthrop who are getting married in Florida and they really wanted to do the 5 Love Languages quiz. Most of the quizzes or exercises or things we talk about center on communication and being intentional with time and priorities. These and the 5 Love Languages show that the little things really do add up. It’s the small decisions that we make every day that paint the big picture, not just the grand gestures.
So in essence, instead of just looking at the big decisions like jobs, houses, and marriage prayerfully and with wisdom and care, we should apply that same amount of discernment to how we choose to react to the everyday. A lot of these little things have to do with our mouth – are we showering forth blessings or curses. In Proverbs 12:15-23 there is all sorts of wisdom about our words and the power that our mouths can have. Maybe sometimes it is best to not say anything at all. Maybe sometimes to not speak up and say something is an injustice or cowardly. It really does depend on the Spirits leading.
May we today be mindful of our actions, even the little things. May we feel peace and wisdom as we go through our day so that our hearts and minds aren’t off to the races and reacting before we’re thinking. May we acknowledge and confess that sometimes things that we don’t think are a big deal at all, can have profound affects on our lives and the lives of others, and may we reflect and purposefully go forward spreading the love of Christ, the joy of grace, and the meaty thanksgiving that comes when we are in pace with God’s Spirit.
Just last week I was talking about the beautiful weather and now we’ve been in a week of rain. I was listening to Carole King’s “Beautiful” earlier and in it she talks about reflecting in how you look, how you feel on the inside. We know the research about how even when you’ve had a really cruddy day, there’s something about smiling, something about laughing, that can make a dark day seem a little brighter. Turn that frown upside down, if you will. If all of us reflect the love that we feel than what a world that would be. I don’t think that means we walk around like Stepford Wives or people smiling and fake all the time. Far from it. I hope that it means that in the midst of us being real, we realize how blessed we are and how thankful we should be, and that the joy inside that we feel will bubble out from us. If we are living as grace-filled people that have been given this new life, the very breath we breathe, than that should be reflected in the love and thanksgiving that we show the world. So on this very cloudy yucky day, may we be thankful for both the little things we sometimes take for granted (running water, flowers, food, clothing) and the big things (getting to go to school, opportunities to learn and grow, a gift of wisdom, thought, discourse, dialogue). Let’s rock it on from the inside to the outside and back again! Not fake it to make it, but let our guards down to let the laughter and smiles of our hearts flow.
Carole King’s, “Beautiful”
You’ve got to get up every morning with a smile on your face
Some beautiful smiling faces!
And show the world all the love in your heart
Then people gonna treat you better
You’re gonna find, yes, you will
That you’re beautiful as you feel
Waiting at the station with a workday wind a-blowing
I’ve got nothing to do but watch the passers-by
Mirrored in their faces I see frustration growing
And they don’t see it showing, why do I?
You’ve got to get up every morning with a smile on your face
And show the world all the love in your heart
Then people gonna treat you better
Some smiling, silly faces!
You’re gonna find, yes, you will
That you’re beautiful as you feel
I have often asked myself the reason for THE sadness
In a world where tears are just a lullaby
If there’s any answer, maybe love can end the madness
Maybe not, oh, but we can only try
You’ve got to get up every morning with a smile on your face
And show the world all the love in your heart
Then people gonna treat you better
You’re gonna find, yes, you will
That you’re beautiful as you feel
The text for this past Sunday is one of my favorites. I feel like I say that just about every week though so it’s a little redundant. It was a long one – John 4:5-42. It’s hard for people’s minds not to wander with such a chunk of text but how can you break these things up? It’s the story of the Samaritan woman at the well which is a familiar one to a lot of us.
Every week this semester, Josh, Adrienne and I have been playing basketball in the West Center (the gym on campus) on Tuesdays and Thursdays when time and no meetings have allowed. It’s two against one and we go to 21 by 1’s and 2’s for a typical 3 pointer. The best we’ve ever done against Josh is 15 to his 21. The worst is 1. Sad times. Josh definitely takes a healthy joy in blocking my shots after me blocking his through out my growth spurt in high school. After one of these lovely work out sessions, we went back to Wesley and I was beyond thirsty. I asked them if we had anything besides water in the building. I’m not a complete water hater. Well, actually I kind of am. I just don’t really like it. How spoiled and snotty is that? True. Anyway, there were 3 or 4 students in the office at the time and we had a long, serious conversation over how I say the word, “water.” Why do they have to hate on their campus minister this way?
Apparently, maybe due to my strong Southern roots, say something along the lines of “warter.” When I should be saying “wa-ter.” Whatever. At the time of this conversation on Tuesday I had no idea that the text coming up was the one with the Samaritan woman at the well. I pick texts along time in advance and don’t always remember where we are. So on Sunday as I’m trying to read this text in front of a congregation and than later on in front of the students, I felt more than conspicuous and nervous about saying it – oh about a dozen times. I was so concerned about the pronouncement and trying to get the words right, that it would have been easy to miss the whole point of the text.
Some of us that may not always talk right or look right or use the right scripture or dress a certain way or do a certain job or belong to the special club or organization, we may sometimes be afraid to speak up and be real. In this week’s Neue This Week, they had a post from Relevant Magazine called Church Members Anonymous. It spoke about a pastor visiting Alcoholics Anonymous with some friends. It talks about some of the similarities he saw between AA and the church and the honesty he encountered in this meeting. He talks about being real and these moments of personal confession and being active participants in our faith community.
This Samaritan woman didn’t show up at the well for an AA meeting, but Jesus made no bones about knowing exactly who she was and what was happening in her life. The disciples walk up later and they can’t believe he was talking with someone from Samaria, much less a woman, and they didn’t even know about her husband history. If she were a college basketball team, she wouldn’t be the one that people would pick to go all the way in a go spread the Good News and people are going to listen to you kind of way. And yet, this little Cinderella story had the energy – she went around and rallied the people and told them about this man who could be the Messiah. She might not have been the one anyone would pick to do it, but her sharing about this man that knew her better than anyone got people out to meet the One she spoke of. In verse 39 it says, “Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.” She got them there just by sharing her story, her interaction with this man who told her everything she had ever done. And then they saw it for themselves and believed. “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
She had this interaction. She had this experience. She felt this grace and had to share it.
I love it. It was never really the big shot teachers or the intidating people that none of us think we can live up to, but regular folks just like me and you that just spread this thing like wild fire.
A really, really old song that I think fits this well and one that I always think of with this text is Sierra’s “No Stone to Throw.” I know that is hugely old school Christian music and showing my age. I get that. But some of the verses say:
I’ve got no stone to throw,
No ax to grind,
I look in Maggie’s life,
And I see mine.
I see somebody searchin’ for somethin’,
A little love and understandin’,
And the longer I know the Lord the more I know,
I’ve got no stone to throw.
I don’t think any of us would get away with much in the face of Jesus. It’s like a kid caught with his/her hand in the cookie jar. Or with crumbs on his/her shirt trying to cover up the evidence. None of us has any stones to throw.
God can use any of us to spread the Gospel. None of us has messed up too much or for too long. None of us has won the perfection award for 10 years running. If we are honest, like at that AA meeting, we know that all of us struggle and mess up at times. Realizing that justifying grace that this Teacher, this man is speaking to me and is including and accepting me, is a big deal. And then we keep moving towards that repentance and renewal.
The thing about that justifying grace is not just that it leads us to sanctifying grace or in other words, moving closer and closer to living in right relationship with God, but it’s something we’ve got to share. There’s an urgency there to share what we have seen and touched and know. Just like this woman, we don’t have to do this all by ourselves. She just shared her testimony and the people’s interaction with Jesus did the rest. She just opened her mouth and told the world.
I agree with the AA story that what the world wants to see is people being real. They want to know that this is available for them too, not just a select few.
My challenge this week to the students and to me is that we intentionally pray for 5 things.
1. a family member (this one should be relatively easy, but hey you never know – it could be hard)
2. a friend (this one should definitely be easy. they’re your friend for goodness sake)
3. a broken relationship (when I described this to the students I literally break my hands together showing something breaking – this is a wound or something that hasn’t been resolved and forgiveness found, this is something that still needs some healing)
4. someone you’d least like to pray for (when I started this list was their someone that came to your mind that you were like – heck no, I do not want to pray for that person? that’s who we challenge you to pray for)
5. the lost among us (even down here in the crazy South, there are people who haven’t heard the Gospel, or at least not as it directly relates to YOUR life and YOUR experience with God – how are we sharing that? who are we sharing this living water with?)
Will that be hard this week? Probably so. Do we have to have a certain degree or knowledge to say the words? Nope. Do we even have to pronounce the words all in the most correct way? No. But I have a sneaky suspicion that intentionally praying for these folks may open our eyes to some other things around us and ways we can be in prayer and sharing in real and mighty and tangible ways with our neighbors. Are we willing to surrender a bit to the Spirit some of our time and energy and resources to see where this will lead? Are we willing to drop everything like she did to go and tell people?
Food for thought or should I say, living water for thought. And for prayer hopefully.
On the Wesley trip to Washington, DC for spring break, I finally got a chance to listen to the new Taylor Swift CD all the way through. I know there’s some Taylor haters out there, but I’ve always really liked her and I love this CD. And all of us – ranging in musical loves – enjoyed listening to it, which is always a good thing. Who knew you could bond over Taylor Swift singing at the top of your lungs together?
The song that keeps replaying over in my mind is her song, “Mean.” The lyrics are below. In talking with students or youth or friends for that matter, there are so many people that have been wounded by “that mean guy” or “that mean girl.” There’s that person or people that get under our skin and say words that go straight to the heart in amazingly hurtful ways that we can sometimes remember for years.
It’s crazy how much these things can hurt. And it’s amazing to me how many people are affected by this and they never get a chance to speak up for themselves. I think about the movie “Mean Girls” and all the hate and power trips and nastiness. I know, I know, that many a time these mean folks are covering for their own insecurity, but that still doesn’t justify their uber mean behavior.
Here’s the thing. We’ve got to let go of the mean. We’ve got to let go of the rude things people have said. We’ve got to let go of the hurtful things that we remember at our lowest points or times when things feel like they’re falling apart. We’ve got to step out of the round and round cycle of drama and situations that just hurt us, and say enough! There are so many students that I see that are in friendships/relationships that are just plain stressful. Nobody needs the added stress and emotional energy that it takes to deal with unhealthy relationships that just bring you down – especially during the end of semester crunch. Maybe this Lenten season, letting go of some of those wounds and hurts is something we should think about. As we look at this season of repentance and renewal, maybe it’s time we open our hearts to the Spirit of Truth and let go of the hurtful crud.
I think about the ending of The Help where Aibeleen tells Mae Mobley, “You kind. You smart. You important.” That’s the part that broke my heart because so many don’t realize this, and it was so evident that Aibeleen wanted badly for Mae Mobley to get and feel this. I know about the “me” generations and I get that, but I also feel like often my students are reflecting their questions about themselves back to me through their questions, their hurts, their eyes. The heck with the mean ones that just want to tear you down. The heck with those that haven’t walked in your shoes and who are just hurling darts because they’re scared themselves. You are kind. You are smart. You are important.
Let’s let go of the mean…and grab hold of the good that God has spoken over our lives.
Taylor Swift – “Mean”
You, with your words like knives
And swords and weapons that you use against me,
You, have knocked me off my feet again,
Got me feeling like I’m nothing.
You, with your voice like nails on a chalkboard
Calling me out when I’m wounded.
You, pickin’ on the weaker man.
Well you can take me down,
With just one single blow.
But you don’t know, what you don’t know,
Someday, I’ll be living in a big old city,
And all you’re ever gonna be is mean.
Someday, I’ll be big enough so you can’t hit me,
And all you’re ever gonna be is mean.
Why you gotta be so mean?
You, with your switching sides,
And your walk by lies and your humiliation
You, have pointed out my flaws again,
As if I don’t already see them.
I walk with my head down,
Trying to block you out cause I’ll never impress you
I just wanna feel okay again.
I bet you got pushed around,
Somebody made you cold,
But the cycle ends right now,
You can’t lead me down that road,
You don’t know, what you don’t know
Last night during the Ash Wednesday service there were many funny occasions as I caught Erica (our volunteer sign language translator extraordinaire) giving me and others looks like – what!!? how am I supposed to translate that???. But one thought-provoking moment stood out. She had asked Mary earlier in the evening what the sign for the word forgiven is and so when I said as part of the liturgy, “In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven” she thought she nailed it. The irony came when she found out afterwards that the sign she was doing was punished not forgiven. Mary of course knew what she meant and I am as always hugely grateful that Erica puts up with us, but I’ve been chuckling and musing about this since last night.
In the name of Jesus Christ, you are punished.
This morning at Wesley we hosted a district meeting for the clergy and Kathy James our Congregational Specialist talked about generational divides and opportunities for our churches. How do we minister to all of these different groups and spek their language in the midst? We talked a lot about images. We could easily recognize the logos from products or stores whether there were words or not. We’re a visual society and the shorthand that our communication has become in many ways has bled over into the images that we see and know even if the actual writing is explicit or not.
Then came the wise question of what image or icon or logo does the church have? How does society recognize us? The cross and flame wasn’t mentioned although I do think that’s one of the images for the UMC, but do people on the outside actually get that? The cross in general, buddy Jesus, a traditional picture of a church, a pair of hands praying….none of those came to mind for us this morning discussing it. What our motley crew worried about was that the image people might have of Christians right now is of people protesting funerals or others condemning and judging people. So seriously, what would our logo/image/picture/icon be?
When I think of the “In the name of Jesus Christ, you are punished,” I can’t help but think of some of those images and icons that people may recognize us by. Are they images of hate? Are they images of middle class complacency? Are they images of frowny faced people in suits and Sunday dresses? What do you think?
I was happy to see people sporting their ashes on ESPN and Colbert last night. There’s a fun witness. Will you watch them differently? Hold them to a different standard? Expect more? I had no problem taking the students to IHOP last night while we were still “ashed,” but I must admit, that it did give me pause about how we acted or how we were perceived by the folks working there or others eating. When we have that sign/image/icon of the cross on our foreheads, people are watching. We know people can see it. We represent something and someOne when we wear our faith.
In our every day, we don’t wake up every morning and put our cross on our forehead. Heck, the Matthew passage last night (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21) actually speaks out against practicing your piety before others and I completely agree. I’m not saying you go stockpile ashes to begin this process every morning, but I am saying we shouldn’t just try to “act right” or live out our faith just when we have the sign of the cross on our heads. We should dig deeper and show the world by our words, our acts, and our love that in the name of Jesus Christ they are FORGIVEN. This crazy thing called Christianity is not a battle for Super Christian of the ages, but it’s a recognition that we can’t do it all by ourselves. It’s a knowledge that we mess up, boy do we sometimes, but that there is One who walks with us and gives us new life.
This forgiveness is available for each of us whether rich or poor, black or brown, lefty or righty, insider or outsider. It’s a free gift unlike the Clinique bags that get quickly given out to the first wave of customers. This is a free gift that never runs out and doesn’t expire.
So on this day after Ash Wednesday when our crosses have been washed away, what remains of our commitment to repentance and renewal? What does God have in store for us this season? What kind of visual do we as Christians offer the world?
If you could pick a universal picture or image to represent the church what would it be? (No this is not a branding meeting where we’re going to put millions of dollars in and take the airwaves, but I’m curious as to what you name.) Punishment or forgiveness? Peace or hate? I’m not saying that all of our images will be pretty or nice or clean, because I don’t believe that being the body of Christ is all roses and butterflies. But I am saying that the images we project need to be real and they need to reflect the Gospel, not just what we’ve made it into.
this is every worship picture these days...wowzers...
One of our small groups is reading Shane Claiborne’s Irresistible Revolution right now and it has brought about a lot of interesting discussion. I often feel like I’m defending young adults to the church and the church to young adults. As someone who was nourished and formed in the United Methodist Church who has seen the good, the bad, the ugly and the awesome as a preacher’s kid, and as someone who has felt called to lead and be apart of this church, there’s part of me that wants to defend it until I’m blue in the face. At our recent small group talking about the book, it was me and another student who is a PK who were defending the established church in the face of students that don’t necessarily align themselves with a particular denomination or group, but are serious about their spirituality. And before some of you reading think, that it’s just young people that feel that way, it’s not. Yesterday we had someone stop by Wesley giving us a donation to help with painting and repairing some of our windows around the building. Is this guy a United Methodist? Nope. Had I ever met him before? Nope. Was he young guy? Nope. He simply said he didn’t really believe in all the denominations but that he was a Christian and he wanted to help us out by doing the repairs and help the guy doing the work out, by giving him some work in this hard economy. There’s something about some of our denominational structures that people find intimidating or they’re just mistrusting. Who can blame them?
In a world where not just young people, but many relate sincerely to the statement, “I’m spiritual, not religious,” what role do we play as the church? There’s something about living out our faith and actions that speak louder than words that my students and many of us find refreshing in books like Shane Claiborne’s. Even the biggest of mega churches are starting to realize, you have to have that service and outreach component for people to buy in to what you’re offering. I’m not at all saying that our older generations aren’t socially conscious and don’t where their faith on their sleeves. Quite the contrary. I see the amazing folks of Bethel UMC rocking the soup kitchen week after week. I see many of our “great generation” as Tom Brokaw calls it, being the ones that give to our churches, to our missions, and to our campus ministries with their time and money. These folks are our bedrock. They are our foundation. We have relied upon them in our attendance, giving, and mission reports for years and years. I honestly have no idea what our church is going to look like a decade from now.
For years I’ve heard people rally around sayings like, “Our young people aren’t the future of the church but are the church today.” I also have heard very clearly that in the next ten or twenty years our church is going to change radically. At a recent District Superintendent gathering of the SEJ, Lovett Weems talked about a “tsunami of death” expected to happen by 2018. A new body is going to have to step up. Even more than that, a collective body needs to be formed and shaped and nourished as we go into this new territory together. And it needs to be something new…and thank God we believe in One that makes all things new. What worked in the 50’s and 60’s in our hayday is not going to work now.
I think most people would agree that we want our churches to have young people. I can’t imagine anyone actually admitting out loud in front of people that they really don’t want to give up their space or their community or that they want to keep it solely theirs and nobody else’s. Most people would also probably agree that we don’t really want to see our average age of clergy or congregant creep any higher. We want these young people to join our churches, but how often do we really try to plug them in to the life and leadership of the church? We think that a college Sunday school class is the answer to everything, like somehow these young adults are going to smell this addition out in the atmosphere or its like batman’s bat light is going to shine forth from that particular church and young adults will automatically flock to it.
I hear pastors say that campus ministry is a great place for college students and young adults but it’s hard to get them invested back in our local churches. You’re right about that. It is hard for young adults that have been fed, nourished, and empowered in campus ministries to go back to local churches where they don’t always feel heard or like they matter except in the “we really want you here because you’re young, but we don’t want to give you any kind of say-so over anything.” It’s not that you should be pandering to young adults or any one else in this consumerist crowd, but if some of the keys of the kingdom aren’t gently handed over it’s going to be hard to pry them out of the cold dead hands of our churches a decade from now.
So what does this mean for us? Where can we go from here? How do we bridge this divide?
A wise beyond words former student of mine posted this on facebook in reaction to some of the assumptions in the Call to Action report. This quote comes from the top of the page talking about vital congregations (http://www.umc.org/atf/cf/%7Bdb6a45e4-c446-4248-82c8-e131b6424741%7D/PROPOSEDVITALCONGREGATIONSPLANNINGGUIDE-2-14-11%20(2)%20(2).PDF) “The United Methodist Church is called to be a world leader in developing existing churches and starting new vital congregations so that we make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” Then he writes, “But what if we’re not? How do we know? How do we know we’re not called to repent of our sin of desiring worldly influence that has resulted in our church functioning to bolster war, imperialism, eugenics, and the like over the past two centuries? How do we know we aren’t called to use all our buildings to feed the hungry and house the homeless? How do we know we’re not meant to shrink and become even more marginal before our comfortable church learns what being the body of Christ is about? I’m unimpressed with the presumed triumphalism.” I want to give a huge amen and shout a loud PREACH BROTHER!
Yes, things are changing. And like I said before, I have no idea what the church is going to look like in the next 10 – 15 years, but instead of being sad and angry and depressed and bitter and cynical as is so easily slipped into, why don’t we intentionally pray, discern and vision, call on the Spirit to lead, get totally excited about the possibilities of what can happen if we let the old paradigms fall away and we revision anew. A “revision” of a paper, isn’t writing the whole thing over again, even though some paragraphs and parts, some sentences and words, sometimes even some of the critical parts are tweaked, corrected, and changed. We don’t have to throw the whole thing out, but we do have to imagine again what this church is called to do and to be in this world and what that means for us.
This is representative of where we are in campus ministry right now, trying to offer the Good News in the midst of people being pulled in different directions, trying to articulate that “church” isn’t just always those brick and mortar buildings with the steeple but that it can be community and justice and discipleship and nourishment too. As we stand on the precipice of something that’s going to change and happen whether we like it or not, we need to all be intentional in our prayer, in the Gospel that we share, in the asking of the Spirit to lead and guide us in ways that we can’t even imagine. These aren’t times to be afraid or hold even tighter to our fear and control, but this is an exciting time in the life of our larger faith community. How are we going to set the tone? How are we going to shape the conversation through the power of the Spirit? How are we going to step out in faith? What do we keep and what needs pruning?
I don’t know about y’all, but I haven’t decided what I’m adding or giving up to help me draw closer to God during this Lenten season yet. I still have til tomorrow night so I’m fine. I’ve heard of pastors intentionally praying for everyone in their congregation – love that idea or adding times of fasting and prayer. I think though one of the things that I would like to do and I would like my students to do, is to pray for our church. And not just little c church, but also big c Church. Instead of watching all of this unfold and getting swept to and fro in the midst, why don’t we actually ask the Spirit to steer the ship and blow and move? Why don’t we ask for guidance and discernment and illuminating instruction to be given to our church leaders, those lovely people we call the bureaucrats of the church, and not just them but to all of us – lay and clergy alike? Would you care enough about the present/future of our church to intentionally pray for 40 days? Do you think it’s inevitable doom and gloom or is there hope in the midst? I choose hope. And I choose to pray. And I choose to believe that God will shock our socks off with all that’s in store. We’re right on the edge of a powerful movement. The signs are there. It could happen. We can choose to see this as a wonderful opportunity or as the last death nail….let’s choose life.
Evy and Enoch at a recent youth event...what will the Church look like when they're young adults?
Are you a procrastinator? Do you put things off until the last minute? Do you try to eek out every little minute before you need to go somewhere and often arrive barely on time or a little late? Does this sound like a bad informercial to you?
Blessings on the Journey 
