 In recent conversations I heard again a tired excuse that has been used against religion and the church for ages. It’s a refrain that has been around for centuries, especially made vocal with atheists, both today and in times past. That particular comment is this: church (religion) is for the weak. The argument would continue thusly: I am not weak, therefore I do not need church-religion-Christ-God (there is a variety of objects here that can be said not to be needed). So, is this true? Is it true for us?
Are we the weak who gather each week to worship the God who gave us life and to whom we answer in death? Are we the weak who take seriously Jesus teachings of love and service, humility, doing to others as you would have them do to you? Are we the weak who believe Jesus’ saying about fear itself, “do not fear those who kill the body...rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body...” (Matt. 10.28)? Is it weakness or wisdom to take action on the realization that we do not give ourselves life, nor is it ours after death? That we answer to a higher power? That there is something and someone far greater to be seen and known in our lives than our lives themselves? Is it weakness or wisdom to believe that there is a God, and that God has expressed himself supremely in Jesus whom we call Christ?
There is an ordained institution which seeks to embody and represent Christ in the world. It is the church, and each week comes an opportunity for us to come together to hear and perhaps be touched by the Spirit, by that greater and more real world both in and beyond our own. This coming week is Pentecost when we remember the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the gathered disciples. Gathered not in fear nor in weakness but in worship and expectation. Then power from on high decisively “descends”! Fear and weakness in not part of this equation at all! Rather, wisdom and faith and spiritual power. God is at work here!
Join us this Sunday, if you feel weak or if you feel strong. The Christian life is not for weaklings, but the weaker among us can be made strong. And both the stronger and weaker can do great things. As the saying goes, with God all things are possible.
Have a meaningful and blessed Memorial Day and weekend. Join us in worship if you can. Come honor God who blessed and guides and gives us the strength and direction for living. God is with you all.
Pastor David
Recently, over a period of several weeks I concentrated in Sunday services and sermons on the extra-ordinary nature of Jesus. Over and over in the scripture records we read of things that Jesus said and did that is almost unbelievable-- beyond the ability of the modern, scientific oriented mind to truly accept without fear of abandoning all reason and sense. But over and over we are challenged to do just that, to believe-- to have faith-- in a person who was historically in the world but bigger than the world. Who performed stupendous works of healing and liberation. A man like no other, unique in world history, whose works and authoritative teachings had never before been seen on this world. Nor would they ever be again.
Jesus’ life was like no other. He was (and is) different from ordinary humans on an order of magnitude that boggles the mind. We affirm and proclaim, sincerely and seriously, that “Jesus Christ is Lord.”
Another example of the exceptional nature of Jesus is this, taken from John 10:17-18:
“For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”
We are accustomed to thinking of Jesus‘ resurrection as something that God the Father did for Jesus. But the above statement says something else: that Jesus himself had the power and authority of resurrection, even his own resurrection! It is an extraordinary thing to assert. The last sentence of the quote is basically saying that it is God’s will that Jesus has this power. This is simply another example of the claim that Christians make, that Scripture and the early church made, as to who Jesus really is, and how unique his life and ministry was among us.
C.S. Lewis, a classics professor and well known Christian author and apologist, has written about the challenge that Jesus presents to us. Considering the deeds and especially the words-- the claims that Jesus makes about himself as reported in the Gospels-- one must decide between two choices. Either Jesus was basically unstable and insane. Or he was (and is) exactly who he claimed to be, the Son of Man--the Son of God. This Jesus, who says, “The Father and I are one” (e.g. Jn. 10:20). The option of deciding that Jesus was just a “moral teacher of goodness and truth” seems out of the question. He is who he says he is, or is he not. The decision is ours.
Who do you think he is? If he is who he says he is, and if you believe that to be so, then: Is he central in your life? And can those around you tell?
Those who accept that Jesus is who he says he is; those who believe the early witness of his disciples that is recorded in scripture; those who have knowledge of his work and word in the world and in their lives even now; all those who accept and believe want to be with others in worship, learning, working, serving. To be with others who believe, to proclaim Christ as Savior, Lord, Incarnate God; to ourselves affirm and give witness to our belief that Jesus was and is exactly who he says.
Actually, I believe he is much more, much greater than the people of 1st century Galilee could possibly see and know. That is true, I believe, for the 21st C. as well. By his grace one day we may see and comprehend “how much more” Jesus is!
Thanks be to God, for Jesus and for each of us as we gather in worship and fellowship each Sunday, giving thanks always for the incredible gift of Christ and his Spirit within and among us. This Sunday, also, giving special thanks to our mothers and grandmothers.
Blessings in Shalom,
Pastor David
It is a rare opportunity to hear a life-story like that of Barry Beach. He will be speaking this weekend in the Native American Sunday worship, sharing his personal story, his journey. It has been a very tough journey.
Barry was in the news quite a bit a few months ago, before and after his release from prison. Convicted of a murder of a young woman, he spent 29 years in prison before new testimony about the case brought about his release pending a decision on a new trial. He has given many interviews, and the last two Sundays have seen United Methodist Churches in Dillon and Deaver/Lovell host him in worship. He was very well received in those churches, as well as other venues
in which he has spoken. He has much to say, and a witness that we all need
to hear.
I hope that each of you will plan to come this Sunday, that you may see him and hear his story-- his turnaround in prison, and the importance of Christ in his life.
We are very pleased to have him with us on this special Sunday. And wouldn’t it be great to have a super turnout? Barry has much to share with us, and I have no doubt that it will be a moving and meaningful experience for all of us.
________________
Thank you, all of you who have contributed toward our roofing fund. This last
week we had a significant and gracious contribution of $12,000 towards this effort. Our total available funds for our roof replacements are now over $19,000, but we need another $13,000 to meet our goal to replace both roofs, the main church as well as the parsonage. Your help would be very much appreciated--and very worthwhile. Always, thank you for whatever you can give toward this effort.
May is approaching, perhaps summer is already here! God bless you all as we enter again into these glorious spring-summer months that God gives to us each year. Let us count our blessings, and give thanks to God always! In him is our life and our salvation--in God alone, as revealed and made accessible in Christ. Let us give thanks always.
Grace and peace,
Pastor David
Often in our lives, we find ourselves in a situation or controversy where the most important thing to do-- and the most difficult-- is to find the core of the problem. This happens most frequently in personal and family matters, but finding the core of a problem is an issue in all kinds of disagreements or situations in which alternatives must be weighed and decisions made; it happens in law, politics, ethics, and business. Finding the core of an issue very often is absolutely necessary to resolve it. Counselors, physicians, and lawyers are faced with this constantly. What is at the core of a problem, a disagreement, or conflict? What is the heart of the matter?
We are also faced with this question when we work to find the meaning in something complex or multifaceted. What, for instance, is the core issue-- the central meaning-- in Melville’s great novel, “Moby Dick?” What is at the core of who we are as a country? What is at the core of Jesus’ teachings, indeed, what is the core meaning of Scripture itself? And this: what is at the heart of the Christian faith and walk? Chances are that we will have some differing answers to these questions.
Let me suggest that Holy Week is the journey into the core of Christianity, into the very heart of our faith and values. It is why this week is so important in our tradition. It is why Christians down through the ages have honored this week with their presence in worship and prayers through the week. It is a holy week, the most central and important time in the whole year. In this journey through Holy Week we will find the core events and meanings of our faith; we will find the heart of the matter.
As is my joy to do every year, I invite all of you to be a part of this journey into the heart of the matter. It begins with Palm Sunday and concludes with Easter Sunday, passing through Holy Thursday and Good Friday. Central services all; none is less important than the others. Those of faith will want to honor all of these services with his/her presence and prayer. It is Holy Week. Together, we enter the heart of the matter.
I am looking forward to seeing you. Keep each other in your prayers in this coming week; stay as close to Jesus as you can. For it is in this week that he draws closest to us.
Blessing and grace,
Pastor David
It’s a heartbreaking story. The tornadoes that swarmed the eastern U.S. this last week, and the death and devastation that resulted. One of the biggest stories concerned a toddler whose whole family were killed in the tornado, but she was found alive some 10 miles away, carried there by the storm. Sadly, she died a short time later. As of now, some 40 have died, several communities completely obliterated, lives as well as properties upheaved and torn apart. Tornadoes do that. I know because I grew up with them in Kansas and Missouri (actually, just a few miles from Joplin which was hit last year with a EF-5, the strongest category of tornado). Though my boyhood home was destroyed by a tornado many years ago; though the nursing home where my mother stayed and the hospital in Joplin where she died were both destroyed when the twister his last year; though I’ve seen many, many tornadoes from a distance away, I’ve never been personally in one. I take this as a blessing. Most of us have not experienced firsthand a tornado. Or a hurricane, flood, or fire. This leaves us in a position to better help those who have. Indeed, to help is our calling. To love and serve and minister to those in need. If you would like to give to help, UMCOR (“United Methodist Committee on Relief,” one of the best things we do as a church) has set up a relief advance for this project, “Tornadoes 2012,” and its identifier is UMCOR Advance #901670. The website to visit for more information is http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/. Your gifts would very much be appreciated. And certainly your prayers as well. May God’s blessings fill us all... with thanksgiving and praise and worship always!! Pastor David
The thing about having some years to your life is that there is some history. I’m thinking now of a particular song from back deep in that history. The lyrics for the first verse and chorus:
Baubles, bangles, hear how they jing, jinga-linga
Baubles, bangles, bright shiny beads
Sparkles, spangles, your heart will sing, singa-linga
Wearin' baubles, bangles and beads
You'll glitter and gleam so
Make somebody dream so that
Some day he may buy you a ring, ringa-linga
I've heard that's where it leads
Wearin' baubles, bangles, and beads.
(if you’re lost with all this, you can look it up and hear it on Youtube).
Did any of you recognize this? Sure you did! “Baubles, Bangles, and Beads,” the song that’s launched a thousand bauble and trinket stores, originally part of a 1953 musical, “Kismet,” and later recorded by (among others) Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, and in 1958 by the Kirby Stone Four--which is the version I dimly remember. It celebrates sizzle, flash, glitter, gleam and glitz. One thing it does not celebrate nor connect with is something upcoming in our church life: Lent.
Lent knows nothing about baubles, bangles, and beads. Lent leaves that all behind on Mardi Gras. Lent is about reality, what is, who we are; it is about serious and devout things, the things that provide gravity and true vision in our lives. Lent is about that which separates us from the ultimate and true, and about drawing nearer to God. It is about walking with Jesus to Jerusalem for his final and finest hour; Lent is about carrying the cross.
Peggy Lee, a singer mentioned above and whose career spanned from the 1940s into the ‘70s (and beyond. And there’s nobody who had a voice like Peggy Lee!), recorded a song that, as a young adult, I found haunting and unsettling. It was called “Is That All There Is?” (It’s also on Youtube-- all you younger adults, and it’s worth a listen). The song observes the let-downs of life and life’s loves, expectations unfulfilled. It’s an experience we all have had, but most of us do not sink to the dark depths of this song. Its cynicism is lost to Lent. Those walking the Lenten journey know this; in Lent, there are sacrifices made and extra burdens taken on for the sake of something big, very big--something vaster and infinitely more important than we are. It’s about the center and meaning of our life. In Lent, in Christ, you will not ask “Is That All There Is?”
Let us leave the baubles, bangles, and beads behind. Let us leave our self-centered, sometimes cynical and empty lives; let us enter the Season of Lent. It commences next week with Ash Wednesday Service, beginning at 7 pm. The Season of Lent is 40 days, not counting Sundays, and is modeled on the 40 days of Jesus in the wilderness. Like him, it is time to be about our Father’s business. With him, it is time to set our faces toward Jerusalem. Won’t you come?
Let’s have some fun with numbers. I’m told that it really can be fun. Perhaps even illuminating! A noted physicist and mathematician, Dr. Richard Feynman, once told an interviewer that the language that God speaks is calculus. Now admittedly, I do not speak that language. Frankly, I’m kinda math challenged; my level of operation would be addition, subtraction, and multiplication--especially using a nice little calculator. Anyway, we’re going to play with arithmetic a little in this column, trying to get a better idea and feeling for large numbers. To this end, let us play a bit with seconds.
There are of course 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in hour, 24 hours in a day. Doing the math, then, means that there are 86,400 seconds in a day. And with 365 days in a year, it would mean that there are 31,536,000 seconds in a year.
How many seconds in 500 years? Answer: 15,768,000,000 seconds. That’s 15 billion, 768 million. Quantitatively, that’s a figure about one or two billion more than the figure often used by cosmologists when they talk about how many years ago the “big bang” happened, the “beginning” of the universe according to modern science.
Let’s say that it is 2000 years since Christ. How many seconds would that be?
63,072,000,000. That’s 63 billion, 72 million seconds in 2 thousand years. Of seconds!
Go back another 2000 years, about the time of Abraham. That’s 126,144,000,000.
Another 4000 years back (that’s 8000 in all), 252,288,000,000 seconds. We’re now well into pre-history!
16 thousand years has 504,576,000,000 seconds. A big bite over 504 billion.
You hear a lot of these kind of figures in the news these days. Indeed, much higher figures are often used, for instance, in talking of our national economy and budgeting issues. A trillion is a number used quite often, usually in multiples, as in our “national dept.”
So how many years would it take to contain one trillion seconds?
It would take 31709.7919.... years for one trillion seconds. Nearly 32,000 years!
(Or precisely: in 32,000 years, there would be 1,009,152,000,000 seconds.)
Thank about it. When you think about the size of these figures-- as used in our economy and government, for instance -- it is certainly mind-boggling. Also, sobering if not downright scary.
Well, We’ve played with numbers for a very practice purpose. And even that has been an exercise well beyond our realistic comprehension. Using this exercise, ponder a reality beyond numbers, beyond limits, outside of time. Eternity. God-time. Beyond all numbers.
In the words of one of last Sunday’s hymns, “Ponder anew what the Almighty can do, who with his love doth befriend thee.” Meditate indeed on what it would mean to live in God, eternal life.
Do this.... then lift your worship and prayer!
God with you all....
Pastor David
Lent began last week. Forty days of it. It seems like a long time, doesn't it, this "forty days" business? One may wonder how this particular length of time was chosen. Well, forty is a special number, a special length of time. Read, if you will, some excerpts from the Ash Wednesday Communion liturgy which tells us a lot about why this season of time is as it is.
The Great Thanksgiving on this day begins as it always does, then proceeds to narrate these particular biblical details:
-- "When rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights, you bore up the ark on the waters, saved Noah...and established an everlasting covenant...
-- "you led Moses to your mountain for forty days and forty nights and gave us your teachings. You led us through the wilderness and fed us manna for forty years and brought us to the promised land.
-- "you led your prophet Elijah to your mountain where, as he fasted forty days and forty nights, he heard your still small voice.
-- "blessed is your Son Jesus Christ...your Spirit led him into the wilderness where he fasted forty days and forty nights in preparation of his ministry...
-- "When [Jesus] suffered and died...you raised him to life, presented him alive to the apostles during forty days..."
The forty days of Lent reflects and continues this special tradition of history, meaning, and symbolism. Ash Wednesday is when Lent begins, and we too enter once again into this story and history of God's working within us and for us. Once again we are given forty days (Sunday in Lent are excluded from the count)-- a traditional and special period for preparation, discipline, spiritual focus and prayer, that we may grow closer to God and his Son, and more faithful as disciples.
Come join us as we begin this special time of forty days, remembering the historical precedents and the spiritual significance of Lent.
In God's Grace,
Pastor David
(from the March 2, 2011 Laurel Lantern - LUMC Newsletter)
The Sermon on the Mount is the most comprehensive collection of Jesus' sayings in the New Testament, and begins with a set of teachings that have come to be called the "Beatitudes." This set of teachings was the scripture and subject of the sermon last Sunday. In this listing of blessings as well as the teachings that follow, we have a vision set forth, a value perspective that is central to Jesus' teachings and complementary with the "good news" of the gospel. The beatitudes and even the rest of the teachings presented in the Sermon on the Mount are not the Gospel, per se; they seem to be focused upon the vision and spiritual foundations that needs to be present in the ambassadors of the Kingdom of God--the disciples of Jesus. This next Sunday we will talk further about the Sermon on the Mount, beginning with "the salt of the earth" and the "light of the world."
Looking back and reflecting further upon the sermon last Sunday, I'm struck by the "blessings" that seem pointedly relevant today. And one especially I've found myself thinking about: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."
One way of trying to understand the beatitudes, to get a handle on what they mean for us today, is to pose the possible opposite attitudes or values for contrast. For instance, here, the opposite of pure heart would be--what?--impure, polluted, muddy or cloudy, duplicitous, double-minded, conflicted, and more, suspicious, skeptical, cynical, negative, etc. (You can do a lot with opposites). In my sermon last Sunday I tended to focus more on our tendencies to be cynical and suspicious, surely not qualities associated with what we would call the pure in heart. Thus, this beatitude can be problematic for us: How can we be pure in heart today in our modern world and culture? How can we be pure in heart (purpose, will, devotion) and at the same time be realistic about other people and the world around us? Did Jesus understand this problem? Was it not a problem then as well?
And yes, it was an issue for Jesus and his disciples as well. There are plenty of instances where it is obvious that Jesus was not an out-of-touch visionary and dreamer. He new and understood the world. He was a realist. Thus: "I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves" (Matthew 10:16). Jesus knew the world and those in it. There was a place for caution and very realistic assessments, and Jesus knew and spoke of these things. Yet we must be able to affirm that Jesus himself was pure in heart, indeed embodying and expressing all the beatitudes within his life and ministry.
In this modern world, with all the good but also all the darkness and evil, we as Christians must be discriminating, realistic, alert and ready, prepared for what comes our way. We must be able to recognize the darkness. And yet, we must live in the light as children of God, committed to purity of heart, along with meekness, humbleness, openness, mercy, peacemaking, righteousness, and all the rest. It can be done. Jesus' has done it. And by his grace - and our commitment and cooperation, so can we.
Peace in Grace,
Pastor David
Excitement is building as our normal (but different!) Sunday schedule begins this month. Well...At least it is for me! It will be good to see more things begin to happen again in the life of the church as our fall season commences.
Throughout this month and October as well I intend to focus on key beliefs and values within our Christian life, Lifting up our Primary Task (September 5th), Revelation and its Limits (September 12th), followed sequentially by the Nature and Work of God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and other crucial Christian theological areas which I believe we need to reconsider, and to be regrounded in as our year proceeds. Our life as Christians are built around some core ideas and beliefs. We will look at these together. Perhaps by mid-October, those interested in further discussion can gather some weekday evenings in a group devoted to these central values and their implications. I am looking forward to this time with you. I believe you will be challenged in some new ways. That we may grow together and mature in our Christian belief and faith in these modern ti
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