Devotional: Foundation Board meeting

The following is a devotional I shared with our Foundation Board of Trustees at a recent Board meeting.  

I’m going to tell you a story this morning that might embarrass my younger son, if he were here. It is probably embarrassing for my husband and me, too, but we’re going to ignore all of that. 

Years ago, when Josh was young – in elementary school – we noticed that his bedroom smelled terrible.  Awful. Overpoweringly bad. So bad that we started tearing the room apart to find what was causing the smell. Had an animal died in the wall (I’ve never had that happen or even know if it could be a problem, but it’s what I thought of)?  What had happened that would create such an overwhelming, pervasive stink?

We finally found it. Josh had fixed himself a hotdog one day, taken it to his bedroom, and then decided he didn’t want it, so he threw it away in the small trash can by his desk – the one that should be just for paper. “Josh,” we asked. “Why did you throw a hotdog away in your room?”  His answer – “I didn’t want it, and it is a trash can.”

I still remember how terrible the smell was and how it permeated everything in his room.

I think, sometimes, people can be that way – not that we smell bad, but that our actions as human beings can be so bad that the “odor” of them makes our neighbors wish we were somewhere else, impacting someone else.

But Christ shows us a different way. These words are from 2 Corinthians 2:14-16a

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing: to the one group a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. (2:14-16a)

Josh’s room definitely smelled like death.  Do our actions as people and as the Foundation bring the scent of life to our neighbors? What would that be like?

Hear these words from Ephesians 5:1-2:  Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

We can see how our pleasing fragrance permeates the ministries we support through Jeff’s story of impact each quarter in the Trustees Booklet.  I am the keeper of the yellow Gratitude file that Jeff uses to manage and report on those stories.  I pulled this story out of the yellow file yesterday:

A seminary student, who was about to take out a loan, received the news (and the almost $10,000 check) that she had been chosen as this year’s Redding Scholar by The Foundation.  She wrote to Bonnie McDonald and Jeff, “The check from the UMF came in the mail today! I am absolutely floored. It’s just starting to sink in that this is real, and I am so excited and so grateful! Thank you both for all of your kindness, guidance, help and support on all of this. I am eternally grateful for you both.” 

This candidate for ordained ministry has felt and seen the love of the Foundation and of James Redding, who established an endowment in the early 90’s to provide seminary scholarships. She has experienced a “fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” This will permeate her ministry at least for years to come, and maybe for her entire career. All of those she works with in ministry will know Christ’s love through her.

May the Foundation’s fragrant offering to the world permeate our neighborhoods with the scent of life.

Please pray with me.  Creating, loving, sustaining God, empower us, equip us, and motivate us to be a fragrant offering in your world so that all those who come to know The Foundation will know Christ’s love and life.  In your son’s name, Amen.

Pay Attention

 

Inspired by Romans 13:11-14

Pay attention.

Don't be so focused on yourself that you miss it.

Miss what is going on.

Sleep and miss God.

The alarm may sound soon,

waking us up.

The night may be over soon,

and day touches us.

Dawn breaks upon us.

God is at work,

Perfecting us, perfecting salvation.

Don't waste a minute,

don't waste any moment of the light.

Get up,

and dress yourself in Christ.

Waste no time.

Taught to Love

Please read 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12

Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, and indeed you do love all the brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia. (I Thessalonians 4:9-10)

I often think about being a parent.  My husband and I have two adult sons, and even though they are 31 and 29 years old, we will always be their parents. They are so different from each other, but they are both loving and kind men. We’re proud of them and blessed by them. 

How do children learn how to love? I hope our sons learned love by being loved by us, and by witnessing how the adults in their lives loved each other. I think about children who have experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) such as child abuse, neglect, violence, or an unstable home, and the potential outcome of these experiences, such as negative impacts on brain development, health, and an inability to form lasting relationships. 

I am struck by what Paul wrote to the Church in Thessalonica: “you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.” Imagine that. Taught to love by God. Paul could have written this about us. We – you and I - have been taught by God to love one another. God created us, God sent Jesus to us to teach us about life and love. God offers us grace and forgiveness – love, made concrete. We know how to love because God loves us. 

Why is this important? God doesn’t just love us so that we will feel loved. God loves us because there are children in the world who don’t know what love is. There are people around us who are hungry – every day, all the time. There are brothers and sisters in our communities who are crying, suffering, mourning, fighting addiction, struggling to live. God loves us so that we will be loving. 

This fall, our Foundation hosted an Academy of Faith and Generosity. The main speaker, Ann Michel, told a story about her church. The Church owned and operated two homeless shelters.  Someone asked Ann if the church members were trying to convert the people who sought shelter to Christianity.  She said, “No, we’re trying to be Christians.”

How will you be a loving Christian today?

Prayer: Loving God, teach us to love so that we will share your love with everyone. Forgive us when we forget – when we offer judgment and scorn, and lead us to replace those with love.  In your son’s name, Amen.

Not on our Own

Read 2 Corinthians 5:14-21.  Here are verses 17-19:

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation;  that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

I'm not against goals.  I set them every week - or I try to.  I am not against working to improve ourselves or trying to be "better" than we were before.  I remember reading the Benjamin Franklin (was it him?) who would set a positive characteristic that he wanted to achieve.  He would work on it until he felt he had reached it, and then he would move onto another one.

That said, I think this passage helps us to understand that while we can do "better" - maybe - it is God who transforms us.  it is God who makes us a new creation.  That is not self-improvement, but moving onto perfection through God's sanctifying grace.

Verse 21: For our sake God made the one who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Through Christ, we can have a clean heart. That is not something we can do on our own. 

Grace and Works

Read this from James 2: 14-17:

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Surely that faith cannot save, can it? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? ¹⁷ So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

So many people, I think, interpret this to mean that our salvation is through our works, rather than God's grace.

In Matthew 25, we have three stories: The Parable of Ten Bridesmaids, the Parable of the Talents, and The Judgement of the Nations (of course, the original writing didn't have these titles - we given them to the passages). The last one is the story of the sheep and the goats. Matthew 25:35-36 says, "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶ I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me."

I may be the last person on earth to notice the parallel between the Matthew passage and the James passage. 

What does it mean that faith without works is dead, and what does it mean that judgement comes from looking at the evidence of what we have done? Here is my attempt to explain it.

I believe that our salvation is a gift of grace. God comes into our lives, before we even know about God, and saves us. That salvation makes a difference in our lives today, our lives tomorrow, and into the eternal future.  We are changed. The grace is a gift, and we have done nothing to earn it. I'm not even sure we can reject it - it is a gift. What we can do is ignore it. We can turn away from God - the gift is there, but we don't "open it." We don't allow it to make any difference.  However, when we have the faith enough (also a gift from God) to believe, the grace can't be contained.  Our lives are changed, and we follow God. We take care of other - we share that love and grace with all.  That is the fruit of our faith; faith is the fruit of the grace.

We don't earn being a sheep by giving someone a drink of water; we are giving people water and food - love and caring - because of the grace.  Works are not our ticket to salvation; salvation (a gift of grace) is our path to good works.

 

A Prayer of Thanksgiving

Inspired by Ephesians 1

O God, our God 

We come to you with gratitude in our hearts. 

You gave you son for us. 

To us. 

You take us to the mountains 

High places for you. 

 Before we even existed, 

you laid the foundations of our world, 

our lives. 

You created us from your imagination, 

Your love for us existed before we did. 

You have made us whole, 

You have made us your family. 

You have invited us to be as loving and generous as you are.

Because of the gift of your son 

We are a free people. 

Freed from penalties and punishments. 

Not just free, 

but abundantly free! 

You have provided everything for us 

and your joy in your giving is obvious. 

 In Christ we see who and what we live for. 

Christ has been with us, even before we knew of him. 

Our glorious living is part of the plan set forth in Christ, 

including the deepest heaven and all on earth. 

We thank you, o God, 

and we know this is just the beginning. 

There is an eternal life before us, 

full of praise and glory.

We lift up our lives to you our praise, 

our thanksgiving 

with sighs too deep for Words

 

Open Your Eyes to Joy

 This is a devotional that I wrote for the WV Annual Conference Advent Devotional Ministry this year.

³ I thank my God every time I mention you in my prayers. ⁴ I’m thankful for all of you every time I pray, and it’s always a prayer full of joy. ⁵ I’m glad because of the way you have been my partners in the ministry of the gospel from the time you first believed it until now. ⁶ I’m sure about this: the one who started a good work in you will stay with you to complete the job by the day of Christ Jesus.  Philippians 1:3-6

 

Several years ago, when I was Nurture Chairperson of my church, the responsibility for our church’s Wednesday evening dinners was thrust upon me. The truth is, I was resentful of the work and worry of picking up the dinners, preparing them, serving them, and cleaning up afterwards.  For six weeks I worked full of indignation. Have you ever felt this way?

 

After the six weeks, out of habit, I wrote thank you notes to all of the volunteers who had helped. It was a lot of notes; it was a pile of gratitude. After the cards were mailed, I realized I was no longer resentful – I was only thankful.

 

Paul wrote in Philippians (from prison) that he was “thankful for all of you every time I pray, and it’s always a prayer full of joy.”  I wasn’t at all joyful when I was working on the church dinners – I was only resentful. It wasn’t until I felt thankful that I found joy. I don’t think joy is the same thing as happiness; I believe joy is something we feel when we are close to God. That means it was gratitude – thankfulness – that brought me to awareness of joy and of God in the work I had done.

 

I lead the Conference Certified Lay Ministry Course. We meet once a month via Zoom. No matter how tired I am when we start, when I turn off the Zoom and close my computer, I feel thankful. I am grateful for the people who have heard God’s call to ministry and have joined the class.  Every time. It is a joy. Paul’s joy in the people for whom he was praying led him to write to them, “I’m sure about this: the one who started a good work in you will stay with you to complete the job by the day of Christ Jesus.” I think Paul could see the work of Christ in the people of the Philippian Church because he was thankful for them.

 

Gratitude is the key to seeing the people of God and God at work in them. When you are resentful, when you are tired, when you are discouraged, take a moment to offer your thanksgiving. I think God will open your eyes to the joy.

 

Prayer: Loving God, open our prayers to thanksgiving, our hearts to joy, and our eyes to each other. Amen.

How do we thank God for you?

Roughly inspired by 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

I imagine this as a letter to a church

How do we thank God for you?

For your life, your work, your service?

How can we thank God for the joy you bring?

We pray without pausing,

night and day,

with all intensity,

to see you again,

face to face.

We pray that we may bring you faith

the way you have strengthened our faith.

May God set the path

so that we can come to you.

May God direct our way to you.

May God grow the love that is found among you

so that it is abundance and obvious.

So that your light shines for all.

So that the love we feel for you

will be felt among you.

And may God strengthen your hearts

Strengthen your faith

So that holiness is like the water that washes you clean each day.

May you be blameless before God

in the grace God has provided.

 

Every Scripture

2 Timothy 3:15-17

¹⁵Since childhood you have known the holy scriptures that help you to be wise in a way that leads to salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ Every scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for showing mistakes, for correcting, and for training character, ¹⁷ so that the person who belongs to God can be equipped to do everything that is good.

I read this yesterday and thought about the times that people have used it to defend themselves when people disagree with their interpretation of Bible passages.  Please understand as you read this that I am not disparaging the scripture with anything I am about to write; however, I think the passage deserves some thought.

This is from Timothy. Traditionally, Paul wrote Timothy. Modern scholars think this may not be the case - but I don't want to debate this here. Let's imagine the traditional viewpoint is correct (or that it was written by someone who followed Paul's teachings.).  The writer, especially it if was Paul, was probably Jewish. Scripture for that person was the Torah and maybe the historical and prophetic writings of the Hebrew Scripture.

Paul, or whoever wrote this passage, was writing a letter, and yet when we read it, we think of the Gospels and the Epistles (as well as the Hebrew Bible). I wonder what the author would think if he knew his letter was being elevated to the level of Torah.

I was talking to someone once about this passage, and said, "You know, the writer of this Timothy passage wouldn't have thought of what we call the New Testament as scripture."  The person I was speaking to didn't say anything, as if I had spoken a foreign language.

I do think the passage is correct, and I do think it is true of the Gospels and Epistles, even if the author didn't know about them or consider them scripture.  My point is that we need to be informed about what we say. And I think we need to realize that nothing the author of Timothy said means that a literal interpretation of scripture is the best way to open ourselves to the teaching, correction, and traiging the scripture offers.

 

A Stress Management System

In order to write down thoughts I have for future blog posts, I keep a notebook in Evernote of Blog Ideas.  I can access it from my phone, so I can quickly jot down the germ of an idea for future nurturing into a post.  I was looking through that list today and found one from 2014.  Ten years ago I recorded a thought that says, "Philippians 4 as a way to handle stress."  I kind of remember someone saying that, so I wrote it down to explore later.  Today is later.

Here is Philippians 4:4-9, one of my favorite passages in the Bible.  How can this be a way to handle stress?

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.  Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  As for the things that you have learned and received and heard and noticed in me, do them, and the God of peace will be with you.

• Rejoice in the Lord - Find joy in the Lord.  I can imagine that looking outside oneself in a time of stress and focusing on God with joy could be a way to manage stress.
• Let your gentleness be known to everyone - In my mind, I'm hearing "kindness" - Treat everyone with kindness.  Because I know from experience when I do the opposite, my stress levels do not go down, I think treating people with kindness could help with stress.
• Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God - Instead of worrying, place your anxiety in God's hands.  It's easy to say but hard to do.  Have you ever been successful at this? Sometimes I can be, and it does bring a peace that settles like a blanket around you.
• Focus on what is excellent - I've experienced this in my own life. When my younger son was born with a shoulder injury, we focused hard on helping his recovery. That's not a bad thing, but I forgot to remember all the other things about our child that were excellent. This verse changed my focus (although not my determination to help him).

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

 

If I love

The following is a repeat post from February 14, 2007 but it seems fitting for Valentines Day.  

Mark 12:28-31; Corinthians 13

Love God
With all of your heart
With all of your soul
With all of your mind
With all of your strength.
Love God.

Love your neighbor.
As you love yourself.

I hear it,
But what does it mean?

It means that there is nothing more important.
It means that even though God gives us many gifts,
The one which matters the most,
Is love.

If my words are spoken,
Without thought of anyone else,
Then I am just a noise.
Useless to God.
Even if I am smart enough
To predict what the future will bring,
Even if I am clever enough
To understand the most difficult thoughts,
Even if my faith is so strong
That the biggest obstacle I face is nothing at all,
If I do it all without love,
Then God cannot touch others through me.

Even if I am so unselfish
That my belonging are like chalkdust to me.
Even if I give all that I am
To whatever purpose God has for me,
But I do it without love,
Then I have no purpose to God.

I must receive and give the greatest gift of all.
I must Love.

Love works at its own speed.
If I love,
Then I do not wish for what I cannot or should not have.
I do not trumpet my own worth,
I do not value what I do over who other people are.
I show the value of other people by my actions toward them.

When I love,
My own wishes or desires sink in importance
Compared to the needs of others.
When I love, I am easy to be around,
And I do not wish it to be otherwise.

When I love,
I do not celebrate sin, but instead I glory in the truth.
Love will put up with a lot,
Love will trust beyond reason,
Love will hope when all seems lost,
And love never gives up.

Love never ends.

Everything else in the world is temporary.
All other gifts will eventually fade away,
But not love.

Love is so hard to understand,
But God knows that.
He understands that what we can accept
Is so much less
Than what he is willing to give.
The time will come, though,
When all will be made clear.
And love will be for us
Like the air we breathe,
And it will make us complete.

When I was younger,
My habits were those of a child.
My speech, my thoughts, my actions
Were immature.
As I grew older, I grasped something better.
And I gave up my childish ways,
For those of an adult.
We are like that.
What we see now, what we can understand now
Is so much less than what God wants us to be.

My relationship with God,
My ability to love God,
My hope of being able to love my neighbor,
Is fractured.
God has promised
That I will know fully what love means
And that there will come a time
When I am able to know him
Just as fully as he knows me,
When I am able to love him
With just as much completeness
As he loves me.

He has given us
Faith
Hope
Love.
But his greatest gift,
Beyond comparison
Beyond price
Is love.

Concerning Food Sacrificed to Idols

Today I read I Corinthians 8:1-13.  It is essentially Paul telling some of the Christians in Corinth to not eat food sacrificed to idols if doing so will harm people who are young in the faith.  It's a great passage, and there are several parts that I want to highlight today:

1. Knowledge puffs up; but love builds up (8:1b) - Some of us, me included, like to learn, and like to share that knowledge.  Sometimes knowledge puffs up our ego - so that in our mind, we are saying, "I know more than you do, and therefore, I am better."  There is no love in that.  Love builds up. Amen.
2. Verse 9 says: "But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak."  Our freedom - our liberty - should come second in our minds when we are considering the welfare of others. A simple example: As parents of young people, we were free to have alcohol in the house and to drink when we wanted to, but we chose to not do that. We didn't want drinking alcohol to be an example to our kids - something that looked cool and grown up.  Now that they are adults, and have a healthy relationship to alcohol, we don't have that worry.
3. Verse 13: "Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall." What is our priority? Our freedom? Our desire to show off our knowledge? Or the welfare of those around us?  It is more loving, it is more edifying for others, if our priorty is other people's welfare ahead of our own.

It's a helpful passage to read.

In the Footsteps of Bezalel, Part 2

This and yesterday's post are from a sermon I preached last Sunday.

Stephanie invited me to come and share thoughts with you today about your theme for the next few weeks: Cultivating a generous heart and lifestyle.  Specifically, my part of the series is “the gifts of knowledge and skill.” 

We talk a lot in the church about spiritual gifts – Spiritual gifts are given by God to the church to be used in service.  Examples include faith, mercy, prophecy, discernment, and teaching – that’s just a small sample.  But spiritual gifts are little bit different than knowledge and skills.  Bezalel’s skills include metal work and design.  His knew how to build – what tools to use, and what would work and wouldn’t work.  I don’t want to get too hung up on the differences, except to say that we can work to increase our knowledge, and we can enhance our skills through practice. Spiritual gifts are a little bit different – they are a gift – not earned, not inherited, not gained through study, not passed down from our grandparents.  But I hope we can all agree that we are called not only to use our spiritual gifts, but also our knowledge and skills, in the work of God’s kingdom, and when we can, we are expected to build and enhance that knowledge and skills so that we can share them generously with each other.

So, what happens when we do?

Hear these words from Romans 12:1-8:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, on the basis of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the encourager, in encouragement; the giver, in sincerity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

The book of Romans was most likely written by Paul in Corinth in 57 CE, as he prepared to return to Jerusalem.  I think the history of what was happening in Rome and the Christian church there is interesting.  The Christian Church in Rome was probably started by Jewish converts from Pentecost.  They weren’t a passive group, and in eventually, Claudius (the roman emperor) expelled the Jews from Rome.  When Claudius died, the edict the expelled the Jews died with him, the Jews returned.  They found the Christian church the had left in Rome was now very gentile in nature.  You can imagine the conflicts in this divided church.  Paul wrote the book of Romans to this church in the height of the tension.  He wrote to declare the reconciling nature of the gospel and of the power of salvation for both the Jews and the Gentiles.  

A church in conflict.  Hmmm.  Maybe we can find some parallels.

Paul calls on the members of the Roman church to offer themselves as living sacrifices.  Back when Bezalel was building the tabernacle, God was commanding his people to offer sacrifices – burnt offerings, grain offerings, peace offerings, offerings made with animals – the list is long.  But now, as Paul is writing, atonement has already been made by Jesus.  Paul is calling Christians to offer themselves as living sacrifices. Rochelle Stackhouse, in a commentary I read, said a living sacrifice means that we’re not just offering our emotional or intellectual assent to God – we’re offering everything – “This may mean we need actually to do things that will put us outside the norms of behavior for our society” she wrote.  

I think we hear the definition of living sacrifice most clearly in the Jewish Shema as told by Jesus in Mark: ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”  In other words – you are to give all that you are – including your mind - to God and to each other.

And here is the kicker – in the Romans passage, we learn that it requires the whole church.  Paul says, “For as in one body we have many members and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.”

What else? 

In verse 3, Paul cautions the Roman Christians (and us also, I think), not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think.  He is leading us to humility.  

I remember speaking with a pastor once.  He had a small church in a small community; he was loved by his church and he loved them.  All of that was obvious.  That said, pastors are required to do continuing education, and he would not.  He couldn’t see the need for it.  He knew all he needed to know; classes wouldn’t help him.  I don’t mean to judge him, but in this one area, a very humble man thought too highly of himself.

Think of the ways we describe God – omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.  All powerful, all knowing, and everywhere.  I think when we think we know everything – when we close our minds to being taught – we step a little bit into the role of God.  We are not omni-anything.  Not thinking too highly of ourselves will open us up to not only learn more and practice more, but also to be open to what others can offer us when we share our skills.  When we, in humility, generously offer to the church what we know and what we can do, we open ourselves up to not only do God’s work in the world, but to find God in the world.

Next, verse 2 says, “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

I think this means that we have to approach learning, sharing what we know and what we can do with an open mind.  We can’t always assume that we know best – that we are right.  Even the concept of learning and teaching assumes that we do not know everything – especially, most certainly – we do not know everything about God.  It is beyond us – and it is another reason for humility.  

I think a closed mind cannot be renewed.  A closed mind cannot be transformed.  Do we love being right so much that we would lose the chance to discern the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect?

Years ago, when I was in high school, my youth group traveled to Texas to teach a vacation Bible school in El Paso to the children of immigrant workers.  Of course, adults came with us.  Each pair of youth was matched with an adult from our church.  Chris, my partner, and I, were paired with Coe Marsh.  I thought she was very old – she probably wasn’t, but it felt that way to a 17 year old.  She was definitely a grandmother at the time.  I look back now, and I am so in awe of her.  She and her husband left their homes for 2 weeks to travel with us and to be a part of what we were doing.  She offered what she had with grace and humility.  I watched her, from memory, restate the 23rd Psalm in words a young child could understand so that we could teach it.  She was a living sacrifice.

How can you follow in the footsteps of Bezalel and Coe Marsh?

• If you know how to use a hammer, find a Habitat for Humanity project or a neighbor who needs a ramp built.
• If you know how to teach, find some students.
• If you can bake bread, do it, and feed the hungry.
• If you can pray, start lifting your neighbors up to God.
• If you can create a spreadsheet, there’s a finance committee that needs you.
• If you can encourage, start spreading the good news that everyone is loved by God.
• If you can see the gifts and skills in another person, invite them into ministry.

We are the church, and God is calling all of us – each and every one of us – with open, transformed minds, to share what we have – to build the tabernacle with a generous, humble heart so that the thin places abound – and God is known to all of us.

Litany of Light and Forgiveness

Leader: We were once in darkness.
People: But the Lord comes, and we are children of the light.
Leader: Come, Lord, and help us to live as children of light.
People: May the work we do, the ways we serve, shine forth light.
Leader: God of Light, help us to know what is pleasing to you.
People: God of Grace, help us to shine your light and expose the darkness, even when it is in ourselves.
Leader: We confess to you what we hold as secrets.
People: God of Forgiveness, shine light in our shame.  Forgive our sins.
Leader: God of Light, bring the morning. Awake us from our sleep, help us arise from our death.
People: Christ, shine your light in our lives.

Inspired by Ephesians 5:8-14

Love

In Sunday school today, we examined 1 John 4:7-21.  This part of the chapter talks about love. It’s a good one: go and read it.

Here is a sample:

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. (Verse 7-8)

The person teaching the class told us that the author of the curriculum said that we can love someone who we do not like. I would take that even farther to say that we can love someone we have never even met.  There are those of us who can even love someone we desperately hate for what that person has done.

I think we link together the idea that love is a feeling with this verse.  Love can certainly be a feeling, but I don’t think that is what John was talking about.  I think love is an action.  It is an action motivated by God who loves us without condition.  Because of that love - because God loved us first - we can love others.  That love isn’t linked to who they are, what they have done, or how we feel about them.  It is independent of all of that.  The love is motivated by God, and we love through how we treat others - with respect, kindness, and compassion.

Don’t get me wrong - there are people who I do not want to love.  There are people who I cannot love.  And yet, I know that they are loved by God.  (By the way, the opposite is true, too.  There are people who cannot or don’t want to love me, and yet I am loved by God). 

As a side note: I always worry when I say something like this because I never want this - this idea that I think is truth - to be the motivation for someone to stay in a relationship where they are being hurt by someone else.  You don’t have to stay in a position to be hurt because you think God wants you to be loving.  Maybe the way God will help you love that person is to eventually (with God’s help) forgive that person - far way from them.

Sorry - rambling post.  My point is that love is an action, independent of the person who receives it.  It’s not a reward for good behavior.  

Surrender

The following is a devotional I wrote for the West Virginia Annual Conference Lenten Devotional Ministry.

Hebrews 10:16-25

I have a friend, who, when talking about the hymn I Surrender All, jokingly calls it “I Surrender Most.”  I don’t think I am alone in my unwillingness to easily surrender all (or sometimes anything) to God.  I like to hold on to control.  I like to operate under the illusion that I can handle whatever comes my way – that I can, in fact, fix it all.  And we all know that is not true, don’t we?  We can’t fix it all.  We can’t control everything.

 

This morning, I was listening to Casting Crowns’ song I Surrender All to Jesus.  The lyrics include “At your feet I lay me down, all my scars…”  And it goes on “No more chasing yesterday.”  As you think about those lyrics, read verse 17 from our scripture for today: “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

 

Do we surrender our sin to God? Do we offer the pain of it, the burden of it to God? Will we let go of it?

 

Look at the grace God is offering to us.  “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”  This is the covenant God makes with us.  It is a promise from the heart of God.  This is grace freely given – not offered in exchange for something, but already given to us.

 

In our transaction-based society, it is hard to imagine that something as infinitely valuable as God’s love and forgiveness are given to us freely.  It’s hard for us to let go of that which we are ashamed us, isn’t it?  We relive our wrongdoing, playing it over and over in our minds, regretting what we did, wishing we could change the past. We can’t.  We can’t fix the past.  We can’t fix our sin.

 

Will you surrender your scars to Jesus?  Will you stop chasing the burden of what you did wrong yesterday?  Will you hear the words from God, “I will remember your sin and your lawless deeds no more” and believe it?  Will you open your heart and surrender all of your sins to Jesus, and feel the flood of healing grace God has already given to you?

 

Prayer: Loving God, we come to you in gratitude for the grace you have provided for us, for the loveliness of clean hearts and guilt-free souls.  Strengthen us to let go of our past mistakes so that we can experience your grace.  Amen.

If I love

This is a poem I wrote and posted on February 14, 2007.  I'm bring it out again, on its 15th birthday, as a repeat post.

Mark 12:28-31; Corinthians 13

Love God
With all of your heart
With all of your soul
With all of your mind
With all of your strength.
Love God.

Love your neighbor.
As you love yourself.

I hear it,
But what does it mean?

It means that there is nothing more important.
It means that even though God gives us many gifts,
The one which matters the most,
Is love.

If my words are spoken,
Without thought of anyone else,
Then I am just a noise.
Useless to God.
Even if I am smart enough
To predict what the future will bring,
Even if I am clever enough
To understand the most difficult thoughts,
Even if my faith is so strong
That the biggest obstacle I face is nothing at all,
If I do it all without love,
Then God cannot touch others through me.

Even if I am so unselfish
That my belonging are like chalkdust to me.
Even if I give all that I am
To whatever purpose God has for me,
But I do it without love,
Then I have no purpose to God.

I must receive and give the greatest gift of all.
I must Love.

Love works at its own speed.
If I love,
Then I do not wish for what I cannot or should not have.
I do not trumpet my own worth,
I do not value what I do over who other people are.
I show the value of other people by my actions toward them.

When I love,
My own wishes or desires sink in importance
Compared to the needs of others.
When I love, I am easy to be around,
And I do not wish it to be otherwise.

When I love,
I do not celebrate sin, but instead I glory in the truth.
Love will put up with a lot,
Love will trust beyond reason,
Love will hope when all seems lost,
And love never gives up.

Love never ends.

Everything else in the world is temporary.
All other gifts will eventually fade away,
But not love.

Love is so hard to understand,
But God knows that.
He understands that what we can accept
Is so much less
Than what he is willing to give.
The time will come, though,
When all will be made clear.
And love will be for us
Like the air we breathe,
And it will make us complete.

When I was younger,
My habits were those of a child.
My speech, my thoughts, my actions
Were immature.
As I grew older, I grasped something better.
And I gave up my childish ways,
For those of an adult.
We are like that.
What we see now, what we can understand now
Is so much less than what God wants us to be.

My relationship with God,
My ability to love God,
My hope of being able to love my neighbor,
Is fractured.
God has promised
That I will know fully what love means
And that there will come a time
When I am able to know him
Just as fully as he knows me,
When I am able to love him
With just as much completeness
As he loves me.

He has given us
Faith
Hope
Love.
But his greatest gift,
Beyond comparison
Beyond price
Is love