Clip in

I just started a new book called Clip In.  I'ts written by Jim Ozier and Fiona Haworth.  I heard Fiona speak at a conference and was intrigued enough to buy the book and start reading it. The subtitle is "Risking Hospitality in your Church."

Steve is a cyclist.  When he rides, he wears shoes that clip to his pedals.  This means that he can propel the bike on both the down-stroke and the up-stoke.  If your foot just sits on the pedal, only the down-stroke does any work; your foot just rides up as the other leg moves down.  If you are clipped to the pedal, then you pull up and push down - twice the force to increase the movement of the bike.  This is the image that the authors of the book use to teach about hospitality.

I really like this analogy.

1. There is risk involved in "clipping in." Your foot is connected to the pedal.  Ask my husband. If you lose your balance or stop without planning and are unable to unclip, you fall over.  It's a risk.  
2. You are connected to what you are doing.  You are invested.  
3. You can move forward more quickly because you can do more work.

We need all of those in the work of a church.  We need to be invested, to take risk, and to efficiently and effectively move apply work to move forward.  Steve loves riding his bike.  Ask him, and he'll tell you that the investment, risk and work are work it.  I think we will find that in the work of the church as well.

Communion and worthiness

Think back for a moment to the institution of the Lord's supper in the Gospels.  Can you remember Jesus giving a bite of bread to Judas, right before Judas left to betray him?  Do you remember that Jesus washed the feet of all of the disciples, and then shared the bread and cup with them?  Do you remember what happened to the disciples after Jesus' arrest?  They betrayed him.  Peter denied him.  None of them stood by him. Do you think Jesus knew what would happen to the support of his friends?  Do you imagine he hesitated to offer them his body and his blood that night?

Could it be that their sin was the reason he offered himself?

I hear discussions about who should be allowed to take communion.  My grandmother wouldn't accept communion because she felt her grudge against her neighbor prohibited her from the sacrament. Do you ever feel you are not good enough or sinless enough or clean enough to partake?  

Don't get me wrong.  I think the confession at the beginning of communion is important and beneficial - especially to us, as it offers us an opportunity to be honest with ourselves and God.  Do any of us truly repent of all of our sins before we receive communion? Were the disciples?  Was Judas repentant?  How could he have been, since he left that place to betray Jesus.

It is in communion that we meet the grace of God.  It isn't the sinless who are in need of grace; it's the sinful.  God loves and accepts us, knowing that we have sinned, and forgiving us.  Thank God for that truth.  

Live Like That

I served on a Walk To Emmaus in the prayer chapel this past weekend.  The last talk of the weekend ended with this song:




One of the verses:

Am I proof 
That You are who you say You are
That grace can really change a heart 
Do I live like Your love is true? 

People pass 
And even if they don't know my name 
Is there evidence that I've been changed 
When they see me, do they see You?

Good questions to consider.  Do I live like Your love is true?

High Notes of Eternity

I attended a leadership conference this weekend. As part of one of the worship services, all 700 of us sang the Lord's prayer together.  Near the end, at the "and the glory, forever," the tune went higher than I can reach with me voice, so I stopped singing.  I listened for a moment to those whose voice can reach those notes.  And the prayer continued.

I can't reach the high notes of eternity by myself. None of us can.  But in community, as voices joined together, we come closer.  We can come closer together because God is working through us.

We try to work alone.  Or at least, I do.  Do you? Do you struggle on and on alone because you think you can get it done?  Be good enough at it to not need help?  A soloist who has the voice range can hit that note, but there was something stunningly beautiful about us all singing it together.  And together, if all of us couldn't sing all the notes, all of us participated in the prayer, buoyed along by each other.

Community is a God-given gift.

Band Stand

I haven't disappeared.  I was in New Orleans last week for a national meeting of United Methodist Foundations.  I'll be back tomorrow with my normal "thoughts."

This is an image of a band stand that was built in the New Orleans City Park.  It was built in the early 1900's (I think). John Philip Sousa played marches from this band stand.

Does God care if I am smart or not?

I'm still thinking about the conversation I read on Facebook yesterday between Jay and Don.  Jay said, "...the more we learn from science, medicine, and psychiatry, using the intellect that God gave us, the better we understand who God is and what God is about not only through the sacred scriptures, but also through the gifts of reason and experience that are ours from God.

Don replied (and this is just a part of Don's reply), "Isn't it a bit arrogant to think that the more intelligent a person is or the more human knowledge advances the closer we get to God?"

Hmmmm.  Do I think that the more intelligent we are or the more we know that the closer we are to God?  No, I don't, but I also don't think that is what Jay was saying.  I believe God reveals himself to us where we are and how we are - whether we have a MDiv or no education at all, whether we are sinner or -- well, in our sinfulness, whether we have a high IQ or not.  I also think that God reveals himself to us whether we look for him or not, or whether we engage in spiritual practices or not.  Does that mean that spiritual practices don't matter?  Or that gaining knowledge of the world has no impact on our understanding?  No.

I'm a biologist by training, and when I study the intricacies of DNA or the vastness of the universe or the wonders of evolution, I learn more about God.  God is in all of it.  Those studies of God's universe don't move me away from God - they move me closer to God.  It's wonderful and amazing and divine.  My eyes are opened more to God's presence when I look!

What does that mean about the study of the Bible?  When my eyes are opened by spiritual disciplines or intellectual pursuits, then I may be able to see God more clearly in the Bible.  It does mean that I may be able to approach the scripture in a different, hopefully clearer way. Does it mean that God thinks me more worthy of revelation through the scripture?  Absolutely not.  But, for example, if I understand that epilepsy can be caused by brain injury, then I am less likely to believe that epilepsy is caused by demon possession.  However, anyone, with that knowledge or not, can read the passage, and learn that Jesus heals, and come to a better understanding of who God is.

PS - I should tell you that Jay is my pastor, Rev. Jack Lipphardt.  Don's name is David, but I don't know him.  The entire conversation is from a post by a member of our church, Brad Lesher.

The images on the last three posts are from Cranberry Glades.

Were Adam and Eve a lie?

This morning I read a conversation on Facebook between two people of different viewpoints. Let's call them Jay and Don.  The discussion wasn't heated, although the reader knew that these two people would never agree, and would only debate.  Jay asked Don, "Do you believe in a real Adam and Eve?  Or do you see these two conflicting creation stories as divine love stories developed centuries apart by primitive people to do the best they could to understand God with the knowledge they had and to teach their children about God and God's purposes?"

Don answered that he did believe in a real Adam and Eve. (I wasn't surprised, based on the rest of the conversation).  He went on to say, "I must say that I find it amusing you think people serving a god that says not to lie, use a lie to teach their kids about said god."

I don't want to use this post to debate whether Adam and Eve were real (although my beliefs fall more in line with the second option in the original question).  What surprised me about the conversation is that Don would say that to not believe in a "real" Adam and Eve was to believe and teach a lie.  While I might not believe that Adam and Eve were real people, I do believe that the story is totally and completely true.  The story is not about the existence of Adam and Eve - it's about the truth that God created the world and all that is in it, including us.  The story is no more a lie than a parable of Jesus would be.  No one would think to argue (although maybe I'm wrong) whether the characters in the parable about the Prodigal sons were "real" or not.  The story is so true that it drips with reality and divine revelation.  So it is with the creation story.

I thank God for people like Rev. Chuck Echols, who taught me to examine the contents of the cart - for this is the message, and this is where the truth is found - rather than the cart itself.

Something different

Who goes to a Marshall University football game...

• And shows up extra, extra, extra early to not miss the pre game?
• And wishes the pre-game show led directly to half time?
• And resents the piped-in music?
• And claps when the band plays Sons of Marshall to encourage the band, not to welcome the team?
• And has a heart thrill at the national anthem because the trumpets take the melody?
• And brings a camera, but never takes a picture of the team?
• And sees the game clock as a countdown to the halftime show?
• And thinks the score is how many times she could hear the trumpets?
• And doesn't think it necessary that the football players wear numbers on their uniforms but wishes the band members did?
• And leaves the game at half time thinking the best is over?

This band-mom, that's who!

We Shall Not Be Moved

I was lector last Sunday.  In our worship services, the lector reads the scripture; in this instance, it was a responsive reading of Psalm 1, which included a song response.  That's a long explanation to tell you that the response struck me.  It was from a spiritual, and the line was, "Like a tree that's planted by the water, we shall not be moved.

In Sunday school, we talked about being a witness.  One of the topics that came up was standing for your faith.  Are you willing to stand for your faith against opposition?

How willing am I?  I have certain beliefs, certain conclusions about what God is calling all of us to do, and yet I do not speak of them publicly.  I probably should.  I should probably post about them here, post about them on Facebook.  When I am encountered by steadfast opinions that go against what I believe, I should speak out, and yet I often don't.  My response is often to leave the conversation, but I'm not sure that action speaks very loudly.

I'm not talking about being argumentative.  I'm talking about standing firm in my opinion.  Not being moved.

Why don't I do that?