I attended our yearly Life Together clergy conference at St. Luke’s UMC Indianapolis this past Monday and Tuesday. The theme this year was Holy Friendship. We heard presentation from Bishop Janice Huie of the Texas Conference and her experience of bringing together two separate conferences. Since we are in process of bringing the North and South Indiana conferences together, this was interesting.
Matt Bloom (husband of Kim Bloom, associate pastor at SB Clay UMC – and associate professor of Management at Notre Dame) reported on surveys results which we were asked to fill out online in regards to what makes our work as clergy fulfilling and meaningful. In a very small nutshell, what I got out of these survey results – which are still being processed and looked at - is that there is a great passion for service among our clergy but also a sense of discouragement and loneliness were very much present. Being in a pastor in our day and time is much more challenging than it used to be. Long hours and comparatively small pay (for pastors with a Masters’ degree when compared with other professions requiring Masters’ degree) is a source of frustration for many.
Dr. Joyce Moore, associate Dean for the Center for Lifelong Learning at Duke Divinity School talked about this sense of community we all need.
Current Calumet DS Michelle Cobb briefly talked about an upcoming Clergy Wellness program, which will partly be underwritten by a Lilly Foundation grant to help with increasing the mental and physical health of pastors and decrease the sense of isolation among us. More accountability will also apparently be required. I do not have any more details about this at this time.
Lastly we laughed with Mishawaka comedian Craig Tornquist who had already made us laugh at our last Michiana district Christmas party.
We hear interesting people at these kinds of gatherings. The worship was good: More quiet and reflective on the first day and more upbeat the second morning. The last worship of the gathering, Tuesday afternoon, included communion which, for me, is always a moving moment. Seeing hundreds of pastors – some I know and whom are friends – come forward to receive the bread and juice is a powerful thing.
But I would say the most meaningful thing for me – not that these other things are not – is to see pastor friends I had not seen in a while. There was some free time Monday night and the group of pastors I was ordained with (minus of couple) gathered together at a local restaurant for dinner. It was great to see these people whom I have grown to love in the course of our ordination process together. Some I see more often because we serve the same district but some are geographically distant and we had not seen each other in months. Getting together was the highlight for me.
I also felt a great sense of belonging to something more important than me as we were together worshipping a great God. I am grateful.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Easter Power
Acts 4:32-37 - Preached on 4/19/09 at Elkhart Bethel UMC
I love the season of Lent and Easter. That is my favorite time in our church liturgical calendar. In some ways, I like this time of year more than Christmas. I think that is one of the reasons I find myself a little disconcerted and a little sad when Easter day is over. For me, as a pastor, so much time and effort go into the preparation for these times in our liturgical calendar and then the season is quickly forgotten, it seems. The headlines read the same: Economic recession, wars, floods, earthquakes, diseases, death…Does Easter really change anything?
One could get discouraged but then I look at what happens after Easter. We read about this in the book of Acts. This is an amazing book that Luke wrote to tell us about God being at work in establishing the Church of Jesus Christ and its early progression. It is a great book which shows us the power of God and the growing pains as the Church gets birthed. We read of acts which display incredible, beautiful faith; actions which sadden God; the good things, the difficult things…
We have already witnessed incredible things happening: Can the death of Jesus and God raising him from the dead ever become routine?
Amazing things continue to happen. Do you remember Peter, who had denied Jesus three times when Jesus was doing through the most difficult time of his earthly life? The same Peter is now preaching a powerful message. Healings happen. Large numbers are converted.
Well, not everybody appreciates the convicting words and this resurrection thing is a definite stumbling block for many. Peter and John are arrested by the religious authorities and questioned. Peter and John are released unharmed for the authorities fear the people might riot.
Their release triggers an amazing prayer from the believers. They praise the mighty acts of God and ask for boldness in their proclamation of faith. And an incredible thing happens. We witness a second Pentecost of sorts. We are told that, “After this prayer, the building where they were meeting shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And they preached God’s message with boldness.” (v. 4:31, NLT) Now, who said prayer does not do anything!
This brings us to our text for today. I have to be honest: I have resisted preaching on this passage. I had, up to now, always preached on the other Lectionary text of John 20:19-31 which deals with Jesus appearing, post-resurrection, to his disciples and the reaction of Thomas.
I am cool with the first verse. I read, “All the believers were of one heart and mind.” (v. 4:32a) and I find myself sitting up and leaning forward because I want to know more about that.
But then, I read the second part of verse 32, “They felt that what they owned was not their own. They shared everything they had.” And I find myself recoiling. This sound like living in a commune or communism or something. I like my stuff. I have some cool books and neat CDs and I am pretty possessive when it comes to my laptop. What do you mean “they shared everything? ”
I know what happens when I have shared before: I don’t get my stuff back or if it comes back, there are grease stains on the pages of my books and leftover crumbs from potato chips or other greasy snacks that were eaten by the reader stuck on the pages. The CDs have come back scratched with the case cracked. OK, I am exaggerating a little but I have had instances like that so I am a little reticent to let my stuff go. I ask for a security deposit and make a photocopy of the borrower’s driver’s license.
It’s not just books and CDs, it’s big stuff the text talks about: “From time to time, those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. (v. 4:34b-35, NIV – Not all versions of the Bible say “From time to time” by the way.)
This way of living was radical then but more so now in our so very individualistic and materialistic society.
God has been working with me and this text. I realize now that what I am reading about is the Easter power at work. This happened because the resurrection is true and God has sent His Spirit to us and His Spirit enables to think in ways and act in ways which would be really hard, if not impossible, for us to do on our own.
I believe that what God wants us to see is THE MARK OF A GREAT CHURCH:
1. UNITY: “All the believers were of one heart and mind” (v. 32) This does not mean that people, all of a sudden, lose their individuality and personality. What I believe this mean is that they are so in love with Jesus and so full of the Spirit, that what God wants becomes more important than what they want. We are called to be so full of the Spirit and so in love with Jesus, that our stuff does not take precedence over someone else’s needs. Giving is not mandatory but it happens out of love.
What would that look like for us to have that kind of unity, that kind of close-knit community?
“British author and theologian C.S. Lewis, wrote a classic, entitled, “The Screwtape Letters.” In it, he imagined Screwtape as being the Devil (or as he describes himself, “undersecretary of the department of temptation”) and his nephew, Wormwood, a “junior tempter” who had been assigned the responsibility of recruiting members for the Kingdom of Hell.
In one chapter, Screwtape is talking to Wormwood. He says, “you will find that the church is fertile soil. One of the best places to find recruits to Hell is in the church.”
Now here is his advice to Wormwood, “Keep them bickering over programs, procedures, money, organization, personal hurts, misgivings. Keep them bickering. Whatever you do, don’t let them see the banners wave, because if they ever see the banners wave, we’ve lost them forever.”
I think that what C.S. Lewis is saying is that the secret to carrying out the great commission of reaching out people for Jesus is that when our vision is fixed on Jesus, and we are so caught up in Him, we won’t have time to bicker. We won’t have time to worry about our little hurts. When we are caught up in carrying His banner to a lost and dying world then the church will march forward in triumph once again. ”
What would it look like for the millions of Christians on this earth to come together, regardless of denominations, to work for the greater good of the Kingdom of God?
On a much smaller scale, what would it look like for our cluster groups to work together? You should be aware by now that we have formed a cluster with Trinity, St. Paul, Calvary, Elkhart First, Jimtown and Hillcrest. We had our first meeting Saturday morning at Perkins. The turnout was pretty good and we spent over an hour getting to know one another. I was sitting by Don Reed the pastor at Elkhart First and facing a couple of his lay leaders. Except for St. Paul’s (Bill Hemmig is on vacation but they had a lay leader there) all the pastors showed up. We talked about the possibility of doing VBS together or maybe having a common men’s prayer group. Maybe a joint youth group. There are several possibilities. This is an initial meeting. This is something that cannot be only pastor lead. It is meant to be lay lead.
Maybe more unity can start at the grass root level through these cluster groups.
2. GENEROSITY: As I said earlier, v. 32b had caused me to pause and decide to preach on something else up to now.
Was Luke thinking like Karl Marx, linking every human attitude and action to an economic source? “No,” says William Willimon, the Alabama area Bishop of the UMC “Luke was not a Marxist, but he was enough of a realist to know that there is a good chance that where our possessions are, our hearts will be also.”
A surprisingly large amount of the book of Acts deals with economic issues within the community, just as much of Luke’s first volume, his gospel, deals with matters of money (consider the parables of the Debtors, the Good Samaritan, the Rich Fool, the Unjust Steward, the Rich Man and Lazarus and the Pounds. Wealth is not, for Luke, a sign of divine approval — it is a danger (William H. Willimon, Acts [Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1988], 52).
In a society which believed that wealth and good health was a sign of blessing from God, this generosity, displayed by some of the early Christians, was as radical then as it is now. They seem to have taken the command of Deuteronomy 15:4, “there should be no poor among you…” pretty seriously.
If we look at the story of the man born blind in John 9, we get an idea that poverty or a disability of some kind was linked to sin. The thought was basically that people deserved their position because of what they did or what their relatives did.
The disciples, in John 9, asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”(v. 2) Jesus turns their assumption upside down, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” (v. 3)
Look at the book of Job also for this.
I don’t think that this notion of deserving our fate is too far removed from our modern thoughts. We still believe, too much of the time, that people are in trouble because of something they did or failed to do, because of laziness or some other character flaws.
We might also feel that if we try to help, we might end up being taken advantage of or enabling people to continue in their self-destructive behavior. Jesus does not ask us to leave our brain at the door when we follow him but he asks us to open our hearts to human suffering and need and respond accordingly. It is a challenge for sure.
Here is an exotic tale to illustrate: An Arab prince once owned a beautiful horse which was the envy of all. One man in particular tried to buy the horse, but the prince refused to set a price. One day the prince was riding across the desert. He saw the body of a man lying in the path, apparently exhausted. The prince dismounted and put the unfortunate traveler on his horse. Immediately, the traveled revived, straightened up and rode off. It was the very man who had tried so often to buy the prince’s horse. Now he had obtained the horse without paying anything.
“Wait!” cried the prince. “Please tell no one how you got that horse.”
“Why?” laughed the thief, “are you afraid they will laugh at you?”
“No” said the prince, “I am afraid it might hinder someone else from offering help to some other traveler whose need is genuine.” The eternal dilemma: We see someone in need, but we are afraid that we will be taken advantage of if we try to help or we’re afraid that they are somehow undeserving.
Things were not perfect then either. Read the story of Ananias and Sapphira which follows our story today (Acts 5:1-10). They sold a piece of property but lied, with dire consequences, about the proceeds they were giving to the church.
The distribution of food and other necessities was not always without problems either. Read the story of the distribution of food to the Grecian (Hellenist) Jewish widows in Acts 6. This leads directly to the choosing of seven “deacons” to deal with the situation.
Things are not perfect now but we are called nevertheless to be good stewards of what God has entrusted us with. This might mean, among other things, that we work with agencies like Church Community Services or Salvation Army to help insure that something is done to help the less fortunate.
3. GREAT WITNESS: I have shared with you briefly before that I was loved into the Kingdom. There is something really compelling and attractive about a group of people coming together and doing their best to love one another and impact their surrounding in the name of Jesus.
I told you before that I hang out with a bunch of male pastors who talk sports quite a bit. So I am trying to educate myself some on American sports. I came across this story which made me chuckle. I am assuming it is true. For you football fans, “Tommy Bell, a member of the Southland Christian Church in Lexington, KY, was a NFL referee in the third Super Bowl between the New York Jets and Baltimore Colts in 1968 (Wikipedia). In that Super Bowl, Fred O’ Brien was a player. Now Fred had one good eye and one glass eye. In one play he hit the other guy so hard with his helmet that his glass eye popped out and fell on the dusty ground. So they stopped the game, picked up the glass eye, washed it off and then Fred popped it back into his eye socket.
Tommy Bell, the referee, walked over to him and said, “Fred, I didn’t know you had just one eye. What in the world are you doing playing football? Don’t you realize how dangerous this is? What if someone should poke you in your good eye? You’d be blind. What would you do if you were blind?” O’Brien turned to Tommy Bell and said, “I’d be a referee, just like you.”
I like that story. God gave me two eyes and a body that is only going to be around for a while so I am not going to sit around here with my hands folded waiting for life to get easy. God has given each of us gifts and graces to be used in his name. In John 13:35, Jesus says, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you’re my disciples.” (NLT)
American author and war correspondent Marguerite Higgins (1920-1966) was the first woman to win a Pulitzer prize for reporting what she heard from an old army sergeant in Korea during the Korean conflict. 15,000 of our soldiers had been dug in for several weeks, facing more than 100,000 communist soldiers on the other side of the valley. They had been shooting at each other for weeks. They had been living on K rations, unable to bathe, unable to shave. They just sat there day after day cold and freezing, thinking that today might be their day to die.
Marguerite Higgins climbed to the top of the hill with her notebook and pencil to interview the soldiers. She went from one to another until she came to this tough old army sergeant. She posed this question to him, “If I were God and if I could give you anything you wanted, what would you ask for?” The old sergeant thought for a moment, repeated the question and said, “Well, if you were God and if you could give me anything I wanted, here is what I would ask for: I would ask for tomorrow… I would ask for tomorrow.”
Thanks to Jesus we have been given tomorrow. That’s what one of my favorite hymns affirms as well:
Because he lives, I can face tomorrow;
Because he lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know he holds the future
And life is worth the living just because he lives. (UMH 364)
Easter makes a difference. It did then. It does now. The Easter power is available to us through Jesus. We can live today and face tomorrow thanks to Jesus.
I find it really interesting that we are looking at this text in the midst of the worst economic recession we have been faced with since the Great Depression, commentators tell us.
In times of struggles and uncertainty, there is a strong inclination for us to look inward and take care of ourselves. There is a strong inclination to grow blinders preventing us to see the needs around us. There is a strong inclination to dwell on what we think we cannot do, or on what we think we do not have. There is a strong inclination to forget that we are the Church.
Do you hear: Because he lives, all fear is gone.
Dan Parker shared a great verse from the Bible with the finance committee this past week in his starting devotion:
“Give whatever you can according to what you have. If you are really eager to give, it isn’t important how much you are able to give. God wants you to give what you have, not what you don’t have.” (2 Cor. 8:11-12)
Because He lives we can face tomorrow. Amen!
I love the season of Lent and Easter. That is my favorite time in our church liturgical calendar. In some ways, I like this time of year more than Christmas. I think that is one of the reasons I find myself a little disconcerted and a little sad when Easter day is over. For me, as a pastor, so much time and effort go into the preparation for these times in our liturgical calendar and then the season is quickly forgotten, it seems. The headlines read the same: Economic recession, wars, floods, earthquakes, diseases, death…Does Easter really change anything?
One could get discouraged but then I look at what happens after Easter. We read about this in the book of Acts. This is an amazing book that Luke wrote to tell us about God being at work in establishing the Church of Jesus Christ and its early progression. It is a great book which shows us the power of God and the growing pains as the Church gets birthed. We read of acts which display incredible, beautiful faith; actions which sadden God; the good things, the difficult things…
We have already witnessed incredible things happening: Can the death of Jesus and God raising him from the dead ever become routine?
Amazing things continue to happen. Do you remember Peter, who had denied Jesus three times when Jesus was doing through the most difficult time of his earthly life? The same Peter is now preaching a powerful message. Healings happen. Large numbers are converted.
Well, not everybody appreciates the convicting words and this resurrection thing is a definite stumbling block for many. Peter and John are arrested by the religious authorities and questioned. Peter and John are released unharmed for the authorities fear the people might riot.
Their release triggers an amazing prayer from the believers. They praise the mighty acts of God and ask for boldness in their proclamation of faith. And an incredible thing happens. We witness a second Pentecost of sorts. We are told that, “After this prayer, the building where they were meeting shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And they preached God’s message with boldness.” (v. 4:31, NLT) Now, who said prayer does not do anything!
This brings us to our text for today. I have to be honest: I have resisted preaching on this passage. I had, up to now, always preached on the other Lectionary text of John 20:19-31 which deals with Jesus appearing, post-resurrection, to his disciples and the reaction of Thomas.
I am cool with the first verse. I read, “All the believers were of one heart and mind.” (v. 4:32a) and I find myself sitting up and leaning forward because I want to know more about that.
But then, I read the second part of verse 32, “They felt that what they owned was not their own. They shared everything they had.” And I find myself recoiling. This sound like living in a commune or communism or something. I like my stuff. I have some cool books and neat CDs and I am pretty possessive when it comes to my laptop. What do you mean “they shared everything? ”
I know what happens when I have shared before: I don’t get my stuff back or if it comes back, there are grease stains on the pages of my books and leftover crumbs from potato chips or other greasy snacks that were eaten by the reader stuck on the pages. The CDs have come back scratched with the case cracked. OK, I am exaggerating a little but I have had instances like that so I am a little reticent to let my stuff go. I ask for a security deposit and make a photocopy of the borrower’s driver’s license.
It’s not just books and CDs, it’s big stuff the text talks about: “From time to time, those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. (v. 4:34b-35, NIV – Not all versions of the Bible say “From time to time” by the way.)
This way of living was radical then but more so now in our so very individualistic and materialistic society.
God has been working with me and this text. I realize now that what I am reading about is the Easter power at work. This happened because the resurrection is true and God has sent His Spirit to us and His Spirit enables to think in ways and act in ways which would be really hard, if not impossible, for us to do on our own.
I believe that what God wants us to see is THE MARK OF A GREAT CHURCH:
1. UNITY: “All the believers were of one heart and mind” (v. 32) This does not mean that people, all of a sudden, lose their individuality and personality. What I believe this mean is that they are so in love with Jesus and so full of the Spirit, that what God wants becomes more important than what they want. We are called to be so full of the Spirit and so in love with Jesus, that our stuff does not take precedence over someone else’s needs. Giving is not mandatory but it happens out of love.
What would that look like for us to have that kind of unity, that kind of close-knit community?
“British author and theologian C.S. Lewis, wrote a classic, entitled, “The Screwtape Letters.” In it, he imagined Screwtape as being the Devil (or as he describes himself, “undersecretary of the department of temptation”) and his nephew, Wormwood, a “junior tempter” who had been assigned the responsibility of recruiting members for the Kingdom of Hell.
In one chapter, Screwtape is talking to Wormwood. He says, “you will find that the church is fertile soil. One of the best places to find recruits to Hell is in the church.”
Now here is his advice to Wormwood, “Keep them bickering over programs, procedures, money, organization, personal hurts, misgivings. Keep them bickering. Whatever you do, don’t let them see the banners wave, because if they ever see the banners wave, we’ve lost them forever.”
I think that what C.S. Lewis is saying is that the secret to carrying out the great commission of reaching out people for Jesus is that when our vision is fixed on Jesus, and we are so caught up in Him, we won’t have time to bicker. We won’t have time to worry about our little hurts. When we are caught up in carrying His banner to a lost and dying world then the church will march forward in triumph once again. ”
What would it look like for the millions of Christians on this earth to come together, regardless of denominations, to work for the greater good of the Kingdom of God?
On a much smaller scale, what would it look like for our cluster groups to work together? You should be aware by now that we have formed a cluster with Trinity, St. Paul, Calvary, Elkhart First, Jimtown and Hillcrest. We had our first meeting Saturday morning at Perkins. The turnout was pretty good and we spent over an hour getting to know one another. I was sitting by Don Reed the pastor at Elkhart First and facing a couple of his lay leaders. Except for St. Paul’s (Bill Hemmig is on vacation but they had a lay leader there) all the pastors showed up. We talked about the possibility of doing VBS together or maybe having a common men’s prayer group. Maybe a joint youth group. There are several possibilities. This is an initial meeting. This is something that cannot be only pastor lead. It is meant to be lay lead.
Maybe more unity can start at the grass root level through these cluster groups.
2. GENEROSITY: As I said earlier, v. 32b had caused me to pause and decide to preach on something else up to now.
Was Luke thinking like Karl Marx, linking every human attitude and action to an economic source? “No,” says William Willimon, the Alabama area Bishop of the UMC “Luke was not a Marxist, but he was enough of a realist to know that there is a good chance that where our possessions are, our hearts will be also.”
A surprisingly large amount of the book of Acts deals with economic issues within the community, just as much of Luke’s first volume, his gospel, deals with matters of money (consider the parables of the Debtors, the Good Samaritan, the Rich Fool, the Unjust Steward, the Rich Man and Lazarus and the Pounds. Wealth is not, for Luke, a sign of divine approval — it is a danger (William H. Willimon, Acts [Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1988], 52).
In a society which believed that wealth and good health was a sign of blessing from God, this generosity, displayed by some of the early Christians, was as radical then as it is now. They seem to have taken the command of Deuteronomy 15:4, “there should be no poor among you…” pretty seriously.
If we look at the story of the man born blind in John 9, we get an idea that poverty or a disability of some kind was linked to sin. The thought was basically that people deserved their position because of what they did or what their relatives did.
The disciples, in John 9, asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”(v. 2) Jesus turns their assumption upside down, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” (v. 3)
Look at the book of Job also for this.
I don’t think that this notion of deserving our fate is too far removed from our modern thoughts. We still believe, too much of the time, that people are in trouble because of something they did or failed to do, because of laziness or some other character flaws.
We might also feel that if we try to help, we might end up being taken advantage of or enabling people to continue in their self-destructive behavior. Jesus does not ask us to leave our brain at the door when we follow him but he asks us to open our hearts to human suffering and need and respond accordingly. It is a challenge for sure.
Here is an exotic tale to illustrate: An Arab prince once owned a beautiful horse which was the envy of all. One man in particular tried to buy the horse, but the prince refused to set a price. One day the prince was riding across the desert. He saw the body of a man lying in the path, apparently exhausted. The prince dismounted and put the unfortunate traveler on his horse. Immediately, the traveled revived, straightened up and rode off. It was the very man who had tried so often to buy the prince’s horse. Now he had obtained the horse without paying anything.
“Wait!” cried the prince. “Please tell no one how you got that horse.”
“Why?” laughed the thief, “are you afraid they will laugh at you?”
“No” said the prince, “I am afraid it might hinder someone else from offering help to some other traveler whose need is genuine.” The eternal dilemma: We see someone in need, but we are afraid that we will be taken advantage of if we try to help or we’re afraid that they are somehow undeserving.
Things were not perfect then either. Read the story of Ananias and Sapphira which follows our story today (Acts 5:1-10). They sold a piece of property but lied, with dire consequences, about the proceeds they were giving to the church.
The distribution of food and other necessities was not always without problems either. Read the story of the distribution of food to the Grecian (Hellenist) Jewish widows in Acts 6. This leads directly to the choosing of seven “deacons” to deal with the situation.
Things are not perfect now but we are called nevertheless to be good stewards of what God has entrusted us with. This might mean, among other things, that we work with agencies like Church Community Services or Salvation Army to help insure that something is done to help the less fortunate.
3. GREAT WITNESS: I have shared with you briefly before that I was loved into the Kingdom. There is something really compelling and attractive about a group of people coming together and doing their best to love one another and impact their surrounding in the name of Jesus.
I told you before that I hang out with a bunch of male pastors who talk sports quite a bit. So I am trying to educate myself some on American sports. I came across this story which made me chuckle. I am assuming it is true. For you football fans, “Tommy Bell, a member of the Southland Christian Church in Lexington, KY, was a NFL referee in the third Super Bowl between the New York Jets and Baltimore Colts in 1968 (Wikipedia). In that Super Bowl, Fred O’ Brien was a player. Now Fred had one good eye and one glass eye. In one play he hit the other guy so hard with his helmet that his glass eye popped out and fell on the dusty ground. So they stopped the game, picked up the glass eye, washed it off and then Fred popped it back into his eye socket.
Tommy Bell, the referee, walked over to him and said, “Fred, I didn’t know you had just one eye. What in the world are you doing playing football? Don’t you realize how dangerous this is? What if someone should poke you in your good eye? You’d be blind. What would you do if you were blind?” O’Brien turned to Tommy Bell and said, “I’d be a referee, just like you.”
I like that story. God gave me two eyes and a body that is only going to be around for a while so I am not going to sit around here with my hands folded waiting for life to get easy. God has given each of us gifts and graces to be used in his name. In John 13:35, Jesus says, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you’re my disciples.” (NLT)
American author and war correspondent Marguerite Higgins (1920-1966) was the first woman to win a Pulitzer prize for reporting what she heard from an old army sergeant in Korea during the Korean conflict. 15,000 of our soldiers had been dug in for several weeks, facing more than 100,000 communist soldiers on the other side of the valley. They had been shooting at each other for weeks. They had been living on K rations, unable to bathe, unable to shave. They just sat there day after day cold and freezing, thinking that today might be their day to die.
Marguerite Higgins climbed to the top of the hill with her notebook and pencil to interview the soldiers. She went from one to another until she came to this tough old army sergeant. She posed this question to him, “If I were God and if I could give you anything you wanted, what would you ask for?” The old sergeant thought for a moment, repeated the question and said, “Well, if you were God and if you could give me anything I wanted, here is what I would ask for: I would ask for tomorrow… I would ask for tomorrow.”
Thanks to Jesus we have been given tomorrow. That’s what one of my favorite hymns affirms as well:
Because he lives, I can face tomorrow;
Because he lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know he holds the future
And life is worth the living just because he lives. (UMH 364)
Easter makes a difference. It did then. It does now. The Easter power is available to us through Jesus. We can live today and face tomorrow thanks to Jesus.
I find it really interesting that we are looking at this text in the midst of the worst economic recession we have been faced with since the Great Depression, commentators tell us.
In times of struggles and uncertainty, there is a strong inclination for us to look inward and take care of ourselves. There is a strong inclination to grow blinders preventing us to see the needs around us. There is a strong inclination to dwell on what we think we cannot do, or on what we think we do not have. There is a strong inclination to forget that we are the Church.
Do you hear: Because he lives, all fear is gone.
Dan Parker shared a great verse from the Bible with the finance committee this past week in his starting devotion:
“Give whatever you can according to what you have. If you are really eager to give, it isn’t important how much you are able to give. God wants you to give what you have, not what you don’t have.” (2 Cor. 8:11-12)
Because He lives we can face tomorrow. Amen!
When God sends a Saint
I lost someone precious to me recently. Actually, many of us within the Church lost someone precious. Erland Waltner died at the age of 94 on Easter Sunday.
Erland had been a pastor since 1935. He then became a Bible professor and President of Mennonite Biblical Seminary from 1958-1978. He then continued as part-time faculty from 1978-1998 and continued to offer spiritual direction until a week before his death.
He had doctorate degrees etc…
But what I remember him for is as my spiritual director for a couple of years while I was in seminary at AMBS here in Elkhart. He was one of the most faith-filled men I have ever known. He was never full of himself or boastful. He was gentle and patient and witty and funny. He taught me a lot about discerning the Spirit, about prayer, about faithfulness, about perseverance... He was a cheerleader to young, green seminarians like me.
He called me in Frankfort when I was first appointed there after graduating from seminary. He called me at New Salem to see how things were. He knew I was at Bethel and had told me he was praying for me there.
He and I corresponded via email for a time until his eye sight got too bad (macular degeneration) and he became legally blind. His mind stayed sharp till the end though. After that he or I would call off and on. We would talk about ministry, life, aging… I would see him at seminary sometimes when I went to the library or attended chapel
The past few years have been rough on him and his wife Winifred but when I would talk with him, he still praised God for His goodness and it was not faked. He never denied the storms and the pain, but his faith was stronger. I loved him. I believe he knew that even though I never told him in so many words.
I rejoice because he is Home and Easter is a good day to go Home but I feel like crying – am crying – because I will miss him.
It is interesting how you realize when your life comes in contact with a saint.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
A Great Life
Since I have turned 40, a few years ago, I have been in the habit of checking the obituaries in the paper. Not sure what that’s all about. Maybe I want to make sure I am not in there! Actually, I find myself checking for who died, because I know quite a few people in Elkhart and many are elderly. I find also myself checking for who the pastor is performing the service. I often say a breath prayer for them.
It is interesting to read how old people were when they died. I pause when I see that someone died who is younger than me or my age. Reminds me of my own mortality.
I read about what people did in their life, I look to see if they have kids and grandkids.
I find myself somewhat disconcerted when I read that some people, for whatever reason, forgo a funeral service. To read that someone will have no service or memorial and that often cremation will take or as taken place is rather sad. Doesn’t seem quite right to end a life this way.
I find myself wondering about life. How unsettling that a life is summarized in a short column. I start wondering what people will say about me when I die. Maybe I should write something myself to make sure my obituary will read how I want it to read. What would I say? How will I be remembered? Will I be remembered? I wonder since we have no children.
There are some people that somehow you think can never die.
In my head I know that everyone will die one day but there are some people I have known all of your life and somehow I cannot quite imagine them not being there. I think of my parents, who are both now in their late 70’s. Even though we are not close geographically, I cannot imagine my life without them in it. Not hearing their voice on the phone…
John and Helen DeWees were such people. Mom had John as a teacher in HS. John was a red coat at the hospital till he was 95. They both sang at church. John and Helen were the sweetest people you could ever find. They are both gone now.
Another such person was June Deal.I read June’s obituary this week. She was 92. I have heard about June pretty much all of my life. She had a 48 year teaching career mostly at Elkhart High School, which is no more since 1972. She taught when my Mom was a student there in the 1940’s and early 1950’s. I have pictures of June in my Mom’s 1951 senior year book. Incredibly they never changed much. Same hair style. Just got a little smaller and thinner.
June was a member of Trinity UMC since 1936. This is where I met her. She never married, had no biological kids. My Mom, when I called her in France to let her know about June, said that back then women could not marry if they wanted to be teachers. Wow. Almost like going into the priesthood. But June had many adoped kids and grandkids and great-grandkids through her students and their kids and grandkids. She came to my Mom’s 50th and 55th high school reunion a few years back and everybody loved on her.
I had gotten more acquainted with her personally when I joined Trinity years ago before going to seminary and moving on to serve other churches. Got to know her also through CARES (Community Actively Relating to Elkhart Schools), a local mentoring program, which I am a part of. I loved June. She was my kind of woman. Strong, intelligent, funny, well-read, with a passion for learning and education, a passion for helping people.
June was a grand lady. I give thanks for her life and legacy. I hear that Trinity UMC has established a scholarship fund in her name to be used for educational needs. That’s cool.
As we are starting Holy Week, I also give thanks for the gift of salvation which comes to us through Jesus. Because Jesus gave his life, we can have life here now and for eternity and if anyone is welcome in Heaven with Jesus, I would say that June has a spot. I thank God for June.
It is interesting to read how old people were when they died. I pause when I see that someone died who is younger than me or my age. Reminds me of my own mortality.
I read about what people did in their life, I look to see if they have kids and grandkids.
I find myself somewhat disconcerted when I read that some people, for whatever reason, forgo a funeral service. To read that someone will have no service or memorial and that often cremation will take or as taken place is rather sad. Doesn’t seem quite right to end a life this way.
I find myself wondering about life. How unsettling that a life is summarized in a short column. I start wondering what people will say about me when I die. Maybe I should write something myself to make sure my obituary will read how I want it to read. What would I say? How will I be remembered? Will I be remembered? I wonder since we have no children.
There are some people that somehow you think can never die.
In my head I know that everyone will die one day but there are some people I have known all of your life and somehow I cannot quite imagine them not being there. I think of my parents, who are both now in their late 70’s. Even though we are not close geographically, I cannot imagine my life without them in it. Not hearing their voice on the phone…
John and Helen DeWees were such people. Mom had John as a teacher in HS. John was a red coat at the hospital till he was 95. They both sang at church. John and Helen were the sweetest people you could ever find. They are both gone now.
Another such person was June Deal.I read June’s obituary this week. She was 92. I have heard about June pretty much all of my life. She had a 48 year teaching career mostly at Elkhart High School, which is no more since 1972. She taught when my Mom was a student there in the 1940’s and early 1950’s. I have pictures of June in my Mom’s 1951 senior year book. Incredibly they never changed much. Same hair style. Just got a little smaller and thinner.
June was a member of Trinity UMC since 1936. This is where I met her. She never married, had no biological kids. My Mom, when I called her in France to let her know about June, said that back then women could not marry if they wanted to be teachers. Wow. Almost like going into the priesthood. But June had many adoped kids and grandkids and great-grandkids through her students and their kids and grandkids. She came to my Mom’s 50th and 55th high school reunion a few years back and everybody loved on her.
I had gotten more acquainted with her personally when I joined Trinity years ago before going to seminary and moving on to serve other churches. Got to know her also through CARES (Community Actively Relating to Elkhart Schools), a local mentoring program, which I am a part of. I loved June. She was my kind of woman. Strong, intelligent, funny, well-read, with a passion for learning and education, a passion for helping people.
June was a grand lady. I give thanks for her life and legacy. I hear that Trinity UMC has established a scholarship fund in her name to be used for educational needs. That’s cool.
As we are starting Holy Week, I also give thanks for the gift of salvation which comes to us through Jesus. Because Jesus gave his life, we can have life here now and for eternity and if anyone is welcome in Heaven with Jesus, I would say that June has a spot. I thank God for June.
The Servant King
Palm Sunday Sermon
Gloria Swanson was one of Hollywood’s top actresses from the 1920’s to the 1950’s. She was quite ambitious. Early in her career, Swanson was quoted as saying, “I have gone through enough of being a nobody. I have decided that when I am a star I will be every inch and every moment the star! Everybody from the studio gate man to the highest executive will know it.” And Swanson made sure of that. Before returning from a trip to France, she sent a telegram to her film studio informing them that she expected a grand welcome when she arrived in California. To quote the telegram: “Arriving with the Marquis tomorrow morning. Stop. Please arrange ovation.” The studio knew enough not to argue with their star. An ovation was duly arranged.
Jesus does not have to arrange his own ovation when he enters Jerusalem. Word about him have been spreading through the countryside. Healer, teacher, leader: he was becoming quite a celebrity as holy week begins; too much celebrity to suit the entrenched bureaucracy. And so, even as the crowd waves its palm branches and shouts its Hosannas, the shadow of the cross looms in the background: In the bright sunlight of adoration but still on the edge of night.
Jesus is not fooled by the crowd’s adoration. He knows that public opinion is a fickle thing. One day you are a hero, the next you are out of office. You’ve got to give the public what it wants, an image consultant surely would have instructed Jesus to ride a mighty stallion into Jerusalem that day instead of a humble donkey.
The people don’t understand. They shout “Hosanna”. They yearn for a deliverer that would fight off the Roman invaders and send them packing. Jesus is a king but not the king they are expecting.
Jesus knows where he is headed. He does not welcome it: Rejection, pain and death is not the cup he would have chosen for himself but he will be obedient to his Father even if this means death. This death is necessary for our salvation:
Listen to the Message paraphrase of the Philippians text today:
“Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death - and the worst kind of death at that – a crucifixion. Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth – even those long ago dead and buried – will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all (the NIV reads that Jesus Christ is Lord), to the glorious honor of God the Father. (vv. 2:6-11)
Philippians 2:5-11 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. It offers what may very well be one of the oldest Christological reflections (understanding of Christ) in the entire New Testament. Because of the poetic splendor of these verses, there is considerable suggestion that these texts made up an early Christian hymn, which Paul skillfully incorporates into his letter. If this is indeed the case, the theology behind this hymn represents not only Paul’s own thoughts, but also the Christological convictions of the first generation of believers.
Paul had founded the Philippian church early on during a missionary journey around A.D. 50. Paul was persecuted while in Philippi and the Christians of the church there are now also facing a significant opposition so Paul’s letter to them is a call to persistence in faith. They also experience some internal dissention. He writes to them now about 10 years after their start while he awaits trial in Rome. He challenges them to stand firm in one spirit and to strive side by side with “one mind” for the faith of the gospel (v. 1:27). He tells them that humility is essential for those who have the “mind” that was in Jesus Christ (v. 5). Philippians 2:1-13 is a reflection on humility and the example of Christ, beginning with some words of advice (vv. 1-4) and then transitioning into a poetic reflection on the shocking self-emptying of the Lord (vv. 5-11.)
The thoughts expressed in Philippians 2 will be picked up years later in what we call the Nicene Creed which was adopted by the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325 and modified in A.D 381 in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed.
Before his days on earth, Christ enjoyed complete equality with the Father (John 17:24)
Jesus is unalterably in the form of God, but he laid it willingly down for our sake. He emptied himself of his divinity to take upon himself his humanity. This is not role-playing as some would have us believe.
Even in human form, his essential nature remained unchanged; he was still God (John 5:18). Yet so that he might take away the sins of the world, he voluntarily laid aside the privileges and glory of his heavenly authority (v. 8). He surrendered the splendor of his position to identify with sinful humanity.
Christ’s action has been described as the laying aside during the incarnation of the independent use of his divine attributes. He performed miracles but always under the direction of the Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus was so committed to his Father’s plan that he obeyed even to the point of death (Heb. 5:8)
Paul does not specifically spell it here out but there is an obvious parallel between Adam and Jesus, who was known as the second Adam. The comparison juxtaposes the disobedience of the human Adam, who grasped at a divine status that was not his to take, with the obedience of a truly divine Christ, who gladly relinquished divinity for the sake of saving fallen humanity.
“Taking the form of a slave/servant” and “being made/born in human likeness” are both ways of identifying Jesus as fully human. The “slave” or “servant” image certainly calls to mind the Suffering Servant of Isaiah chapters 42-53 – a servant who also willingly undergoes suffering and humiliation for the sake of others. But the “slavery” this emptied Christ takes on could also be a reference to the weight of human sinfulness under which all men and women are born.
While I was pondering Jesus’ sacrifice this week, I thought of a wonderful Charles Wesley Hymn titled, “And Can it Be That I Should Gain” (UMH 363). Turn to your hymnal and sing these poignant words with me:
1. And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's blood!
Died he for me? who caused his pain!
For me? who him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be
that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be
that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
2. He left his Father's throne above
(so free, so infinite his grace!),
emptied himself of all but love,
and bled for Adam's helpless race.
'Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!
I took a class in seminary which touched me and touches me still. I mentioned this before. It was a class on “suffering and the atonement.” We talked about what we think happened on the cross. It really remains a mystery after all. But one of the theories which deeply resonates with me is Peter Abelard’s (Dialectician philosopher and theologian born 1079. Died 1142) Moral Influence Theory. This is what we have been singing about this morning. Rather than a payment to or victory over the Devil, or a satisfaction of a debt owed to God, Abelard sees Jesus’ life and death as a demonstration of God’s love that moves sinners to repent and love God.
When you and I understand (even in glimpses, imperfectly) that we are loved beyond words, something happens to our heart: It begins to melt. We find ourselves wanting to love God and people back. In ways I don’t fully understand, we find ourselves drawn to this Jesus and wanting to follow him.
Do you remember last week’s sermon on John 12:1-8, when Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with expensive perfumed ointment? In that story we get to see Jesus’ humanity. He had to have been scared and troubled by what laid ahead. He was so close to Jerusalem and he knew what awaited him there. He needed and welcomed Mary’s extravagant act of love and devotion for him. She loved him deeply and responded to the love she had received. Maybe Jesus had healed her somewhere, sometime along the way, during one of his visits to Bethany. That is an incredible story.
Our text today is an incredible story too. Imagine: Christianity is a new religion and God is depicted as a slave who emptied and humbled himself!
The whole New Testament is incredible: It depicts a man who is born in a barn, in a obscure corner of a Roman-ruled province; We see a man who is tempted in the wilderness; a man who needs love and comfort like the rest of us; a man who struggles and prays a heart breaking prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane; a man who ends up suffering pain beyond comprehension and dying nailed to a cross because he loves us more than his life…
And this is God!?
I am telling you, this is one of the reasons which tipped my heart toward Jesus. We have a God who loves us beyond words to the point of coming in the flesh, to live and die to save us. This is one of the reasons I know God is real. Who in their right mind would depict a God on the cross if it were not true? It does not seem to me that this would be the best way to get followers. A God who dies on the cross!? Why not talk instead of a god who is all mighty, ruling from above, untouched by our lives below. This is nuts! Yet 1 Corinthians 1:18 says it this way: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
Paul used this beautiful hymn to the Philippian church (but also to us): So that our hearts would be touched and transformed; So that the same attitude of humility and selflessness would be in us too. Believers cannot duplicate the precise ministry of Jesus but they can display the same attitude.
Paul exhorts his readers and listeners to have the same attitude as Christ. What does that mean?
I often spend time during the week with pastors. Most are male. Invariably we talk about sports or cars. I am also married to a car enthusiast. So I hear car stories and the following is one I heard:
A man had posted an article he had written on the Internet about an old car he once had. In his words, this car was ratty and ragged, driven when he was a poor college student. He was having trouble with something he couldn’t readily identify, so he took it to the repair shop. The mechanic looked at it a couple of minutes and said, “What you really need is the radiator cap solution.”
“Oh” said the young automobile owner, trying not to sound too confused. “Do you mean the radiator cap isn’t holding enough pressure?”
“That’s part of the problem” said the mechanic. “You need to lift the radiator cap and drive another car under it. Then the next day you can replace the radiator cap, and it should solve your problem.”
In order to have the mind and heart of Christ, that is what we would have to do – replace not just our attitudes and opinions, but lift these attitudes and opinions and drive a whole new person under them, then throw the old attitudes and opinons out and replace them with new ones.
When we let Jesus in our hearts, we can be transformed in that way. We become new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). We become more like Jesus and with the Spirit’s help we can get to the point of saying to God, “Not my will but your will be done.”
Have you checked for attitudes lately? Are they Christ-like?
Communication
Communication. I watched a show on TV the other day. I can’t remember the station. It was something like the History or Science channel. The show talked about what differentiates human beings from animals. The show explained how our physiology - the size and shape of our cranium, and consequently the size of our brain and the design of our throat etc… - enable us to produce sounds and pitches that other animals can’t. With this ability came better communication capabilities. Increased and better communication, the show went on, gave us a clear advantage in term of survival.
Communication. If you are married, have a family and have friends (that should cover everybody, right?), you know the importance of communication. How tricky communicating with one another can be. Things can go down hill quickly if we fail to communicate properly.
In marriage counseling, quite a bit of time and effort can be spent helping folks actually communicate, instead of talking “above each others’ head”, where the spouses are not really talking with or listening to one another.
I remember a little bit of a speech class I had years ago in college and I remember that we talked about the mechanics of communication. How a “message” is sent and how it is “received” and the interference that are in the way of the sender and receiver. If you have ever played the game of “telephone”, you get the idea of what I mean. A message starts one way and ends up garbled at the other end. There are so many things which can go wrong, beginning with the sender, the space between the sender and the receiver and the receiver itself. Sometimes I think it is amazing that we understand each other at all. I know that I don’t always communicate as clearly as I want to. So I am trying to get better. I am looking at is a book titled, “How to communicate: The Ultimate Guide to Improving Your Personal and Professional Relationships.” I have had this book for a while but had never read it until now.
Communication. I think of communication quite a bit because part of my calling is sharing God’s Word with people. I spend quite a bit of my week praying for, thinking about and crafting the message that I deliver each week. I think about flow, about transitions, about delivery… I had a preaching class in seminary. I have read books about preaching but I want to keep learning and get better so I have started to read a neat resource titled, “The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching” to help me hopefully improve in this endeavor. This book is a hefty tome at over 700 pages. The title struck me because it says the “Art and Craft.” Communication is a skill which can be learned. No one is born knowing how to effectively communicate. It is more than words as you know also, it is body language, the tone of one’s voice, one’s culture, one’s gender in relationship to the people receiving the message… Communication requires sustained intention and care.
So I think a lot about communication as a pastor but I think we all need to give thoughts to this because it is really important for all of us to communicate clearly.
The resources I mentioned above are certainly helpful but I don’t want to forget that Jesus gives us a model of healthy communication among Christians in the Bible. Look at Matthew 18:15-17. It says: Go directly to the person you have a problem with and talk; no gossiping behind the person’s back; no holding on and chewing on something for days, no triangling – trying to get others to take side. Go and talk directly with the one you have a problem with. If this does not work well, than bring one or two others with you and go talk with the person you have issues with. In our denomination, this might be someone from the Staff-Parish committee. In the first church that I served, things unfortunately escalated and the District Superintendent got involved, along with a conflict management consultant, a retired pastor. I hope to never get to that point again. It was ugly and it was painful and I am sure God cringed.
Few things can hurt a church more and lead to faster decline than lack of, or unhealthy communication, among folks. My experiences with churches is that we are not very good usually at communicating clearly. We are usually pretty good at undercover, guerilla warfare, sadly enough. Things are said behind people’s back. Egos get bruised. We don’t want to offend so we don’t say what we really feel. Feelings get hurt but we hold on to a grudge because we are unable or unwilling – because of pride maybe - to talk with the people we feel resentment toward…. Mole hills soon grow into mountains. Do you know what I mean?
Communication. I believe most of the world’s problems stem at some level from lack of or poor communication; from an unwillingness to listen and understand others…
Communication. Clear, healthy, loving communication among Christians can offer a great witness to unchurched, unbelieving people also. Let’s do our best to have healthy, loving communication. As the hymn says, “they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”
Communication. If you are married, have a family and have friends (that should cover everybody, right?), you know the importance of communication. How tricky communicating with one another can be. Things can go down hill quickly if we fail to communicate properly.
In marriage counseling, quite a bit of time and effort can be spent helping folks actually communicate, instead of talking “above each others’ head”, where the spouses are not really talking with or listening to one another.
I remember a little bit of a speech class I had years ago in college and I remember that we talked about the mechanics of communication. How a “message” is sent and how it is “received” and the interference that are in the way of the sender and receiver. If you have ever played the game of “telephone”, you get the idea of what I mean. A message starts one way and ends up garbled at the other end. There are so many things which can go wrong, beginning with the sender, the space between the sender and the receiver and the receiver itself. Sometimes I think it is amazing that we understand each other at all. I know that I don’t always communicate as clearly as I want to. So I am trying to get better. I am looking at is a book titled, “How to communicate: The Ultimate Guide to Improving Your Personal and Professional Relationships.” I have had this book for a while but had never read it until now.
Communication. I think of communication quite a bit because part of my calling is sharing God’s Word with people. I spend quite a bit of my week praying for, thinking about and crafting the message that I deliver each week. I think about flow, about transitions, about delivery… I had a preaching class in seminary. I have read books about preaching but I want to keep learning and get better so I have started to read a neat resource titled, “The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching” to help me hopefully improve in this endeavor. This book is a hefty tome at over 700 pages. The title struck me because it says the “Art and Craft.” Communication is a skill which can be learned. No one is born knowing how to effectively communicate. It is more than words as you know also, it is body language, the tone of one’s voice, one’s culture, one’s gender in relationship to the people receiving the message… Communication requires sustained intention and care.
So I think a lot about communication as a pastor but I think we all need to give thoughts to this because it is really important for all of us to communicate clearly.
The resources I mentioned above are certainly helpful but I don’t want to forget that Jesus gives us a model of healthy communication among Christians in the Bible. Look at Matthew 18:15-17. It says: Go directly to the person you have a problem with and talk; no gossiping behind the person’s back; no holding on and chewing on something for days, no triangling – trying to get others to take side. Go and talk directly with the one you have a problem with. If this does not work well, than bring one or two others with you and go talk with the person you have issues with. In our denomination, this might be someone from the Staff-Parish committee. In the first church that I served, things unfortunately escalated and the District Superintendent got involved, along with a conflict management consultant, a retired pastor. I hope to never get to that point again. It was ugly and it was painful and I am sure God cringed.
Few things can hurt a church more and lead to faster decline than lack of, or unhealthy communication, among folks. My experiences with churches is that we are not very good usually at communicating clearly. We are usually pretty good at undercover, guerilla warfare, sadly enough. Things are said behind people’s back. Egos get bruised. We don’t want to offend so we don’t say what we really feel. Feelings get hurt but we hold on to a grudge because we are unable or unwilling – because of pride maybe - to talk with the people we feel resentment toward…. Mole hills soon grow into mountains. Do you know what I mean?
Communication. I believe most of the world’s problems stem at some level from lack of or poor communication; from an unwillingness to listen and understand others…
Communication. Clear, healthy, loving communication among Christians can offer a great witness to unchurched, unbelieving people also. Let’s do our best to have healthy, loving communication. As the hymn says, “they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”
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