Monday, November 17, 2008
Last week I traveled to Alabama with my mother and my son. Alabama is my mother’s home, and where her mother and two sisters still live. While there, several crises arose. We were able to be present in the midst of them.
Too often, families become estranged because of miles or anger, apathy or inability to communicate. When this happens, we forget how to love the family members God has given us with the active care that is the hallmark of divine love. And when that happens, we are in danger of forgetting how to love anyone at all, aside from ourselves.
Mother Teresa once said: “I have a conviction that I want to share with you. Love begins at home, and every[one] should try to make sure that deep family love abides in his or her home. Only when love abides at home can we share it with the…neighbor. Then it will show forth and you will be able to say… “yes, love is here.” And then you will be able to share it with everyone around you.
Today, let us love those God has given us as family, sharing care, forgiveness, and unity. Thus may we learn the ways of love to share in the world beyond our houses and our bloodlines.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ,” the Apostle writes in Ephesians. And then he gets specific to marriage. “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord…Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy.”
Too often, we forget in marriage and other relationships that God has called us to be self-sacrificial, self-giving, self-less instead of selfish. We want to control, dominate, make the rules, get our way.
But the Lord teaches us through the Holy Scriptures that, as Christ our Lord willingly gave himself for the sinners he loved, so we are to humble ourselves and willingly give ourselves to those we have promised to love, honor, and cherish. This is a call to husbands and wives, children and parents, friends and neighbors, strangers and co-workers. Each person around us is a child of God equal to us in God’s eyes. The relationships to which we are called are marked by self-giving agape love, willing submission of our own desires for the building up of another.
Today, let us all examine how well we are acting in selfless love, sacrificial giving, and willing submission in our relationships. Today, might we be willing to put away our own selfish desires, and look to the joy and welfare of the ones we love?
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
“For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”
These words were spoken through the prophet Jeremiah to the people of God at a desperate time. The people were devoid of hope; they no longer knew who they were or what they were supposed to do.
God knew their desperation. The Lord knew their confusion. And into that desperate situation, God spoke to them the word that said “I have plans for you, for your life. That plan is for peace and not harm. I offer you a future with hope.”
Today, many of us may feel desperate or confused. We may wonder what we’re here for, what we’re supposed to do. But just as God once spoke to Israel, God still speaks to us. God has put us, each of us, here for a purpose, a good purpose in the Lord’s great plan of salvation. Each of us is unique, with a particular role to play in the healing of the world and those around us. Hear today the word of God: “I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for peace and not harm. I offer you a future with hope.” Today, the word is for you and me. Believe it.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
This morning, I and other area ministers, are speaking at the Fellowship of Christian Athletes prayer breakfast. FCA is a vital ministry in our community, and it is my joy to be able to engage in prayer for our youth with them on this day. The theme of the morning is “Rescuing and Embracing our Youth and Community through Character.”
What FCA knows is the truth: our youth today do indeed need to be rescued from the things that would keep them from full and abundant life in Christ, and they need to be embraced in love. Orangeburg County as a “community of character” is seeking in many ways to do just those things.
Today, let us say special prayers for our young people. Youth of today are affected by things that, just a generation ago, were unheard of. They have temptations most adults cannot comprehend. They fight battles with evil that leave them feeling alone and torn apart.
More than anything, our young people need the love of God and of the community, who shapes in them a character that can endure and triumph, no matter what they face. Let us pray today for our youth. And let us commit to rescue and embrace them with whatever tools we have available.
Friday, November 21
Today, my son’s preschool is holding their Thanksgiving program. I look forward to seeing my little boy up there singing songs of thanks to God, wearing his little Thanksgiving costume. The other day, he came home dressed as an American Indian from school. They are learning about the first Thanksgiving.
As he learns, I hope he learns that Thanksgiving teaches many lessons. First among them is that as we prepare to gather with family or friends, in churches and homes, around turkey and dressing, yams, green beans, and pecan pie, we must always remember to focus our time of joy on giving thanks to God, who is the source of every good and perfect gift.
The day is called “Thanksgiving” because that is what the day is set aside to do: give thanks to the LORD for the goodness provided at harvest time, when the land brings forth the abundance of food we need to thrive, due to the design and nature of God. As we gather with family in this season of thanks, let us gather in the knowledge of the abundance of God’s love, generosity, and forgiveness, and let us allow those same gifts to flow through us to others.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Too long since a "Jedism" was shared...
Nothing our son has said recently has really "screamed" to be put in the blog, but this week changed that.
So, here's a "Jedism" for you for Thanksgiving week.
The other day a volunteer, and dear member, at the church was wrapping a shoebox to send to Operation Christmas Child. She didn't need the rest of the wrapping paper, so she offered it to me. I gladly accepted.
When I walked in the door at home, I was carrying the roll of giftwrap. My son ran to the door to meet me (he does this whenever he hears my key in the door--it's precious).
"Hey, mommy!" he yelled gleefully, and then, spotting what was in my hand:
"Oh, wow!!" (grabbing the roll of paper now and holding the end to his eye like a telescope) "Is this for playing pirate!!??"
I guess we hadn't told him it was almost time to wrap Christmas gifts!
So, here's a "Jedism" for you for Thanksgiving week.
The other day a volunteer, and dear member, at the church was wrapping a shoebox to send to Operation Christmas Child. She didn't need the rest of the wrapping paper, so she offered it to me. I gladly accepted.
When I walked in the door at home, I was carrying the roll of giftwrap. My son ran to the door to meet me (he does this whenever he hears my key in the door--it's precious).
"Hey, mommy!" he yelled gleefully, and then, spotting what was in my hand:
"Oh, wow!!" (grabbing the roll of paper now and holding the end to his eye like a telescope) "Is this for playing pirate!!??"
I guess we hadn't told him it was almost time to wrap Christmas gifts!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Last Week's Morning Minutes
Monday, November 10, 2008
I’m reading The Shack by William Young. If you haven’t read it, I recommend it. The story follows a man who has experienced great tragedy as God encounters him at the place of his greatest pain. Through this divine encounter, the main character learns who God is in a very different way than he ever imagined possible.
We humans like to “put God in a box”. We tend to stick to images and ideas of God that we’ve been taught by other flawed human beings without delving too deeply into the self-revelation of the Lord in Jesus Christ. But we as Christians believe that when we look at Jesus, when we encounter Jesus—in worship, in the face of another, through humble service, or in the pages of the Bible—then right there we also encounter the Creator: the Holy God.
Today, Jesus wants us to see him, know him, experience him. How can we open ourselves up to meeting him? Can we speak to a stranger in whose eyes we see light? Can we read a page of the Holy Scriptures? Can we offer a hand to someone in need? Can we pray? These are ways we can open ourselves to Jesus, ways he just might meet you and me today.
Tuesday, November 11
Today is Veterans’ Day. We give thanks for the service of men and women in uniform, of all generations, who have willingly given themselves to pursue justice and freedom for people around the world and to provide protection for all of us here.
Today let us pray for our veterans. I borrow from a group of Franciscans these words:
O God, We ask for blessings on all those who have served their country in the armed forces. We ask for healing for the veterans who have been wounded, in body and soul, in conflicts around the globe. Bring solace to them, O Lord; may we pray for them when they cannot pray. We ask for an end to wars and the dawning of a new era of peace, as a way to honor all the veterans of past wars.
Have mercy on all our veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. Bring peace to their hearts and peace to the regions they fought in. Bless all the soldiers who served in non-combative posts; May their calling to service continue in their lives in many positive ways. Give us all the creative vision to see a world which, grown weary with fighting, moves to affirming the life of every human being and so moves beyond war. Hear our prayer, O Prince of Peace, hear our prayer
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Our church and others are busy right now collecting and filling shoeboxes. Many of you have heard of this ministry of the Franklin Graham Evangelistic Association, called Operation Christmas Child. Come Christmas Day, thousands upon thousands of children all over the world, who would not otherwise have received a single gift for Christmas, will get a shoebox filled up with love with goodies and with signs of Jesus’ love. Through the boxes, these children will encounter the truth of God’s gift to our world, the gift of salvation.
It is easy to forget that our role every day is to spread the good news and the love of Christ. As we go about filling shoeboxes and thinking of the children who will receive them, let us also seek other ways each day to bring a good tiding to someone around us who may desperately need to hear one.
Write a note of care, offer a listening ear, commit yourself to do the thing that you know God has asked you to do for another. Tell someone Jesus loves them. Don’t be afraid or ashamed to mention it, to offer it. Just consider it a shoebox full of love, full of goodness, offered to a child of God.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Our church, like many congregations, has committed itself to a program, an ongoing intentional process, called Natural Church Development, or NCD. NCD originally came out of a research project conducted by a German man named Christian Schwartz. Christian Schwartz wanted to know what made a congregation, any congregation any place of any denomination, healthy and vibrant. So he studied 1,000 of them.
By now, tens of thousands of churches have been studied, and the NCD process of improving church health has been birthed, developed, and fine-tuned. It has become a way for all kinds of churches to be intentional about becoming, and growing ever more healthy.
The theory is: no human, no organism, and no organization is perfectly healthy. And just as humans need to have regular doctor’s check-up’s to find the unhealthy places and improve ourselves, so the church needs the same kind of thing. Just as God wants people to be healthy and at their best, God wants the same for the church.
The church, a family, any group of people: we’re all like a person who can be healthier if we’ll just commit ourselves to the processes: a person may need to quit smoking, a family may need to develop better communication, a church may need to learn how to better structure its church life. We can all get healthier, as individuals and groups. What will make you and those around you healthier today in Christ?
I’m reading The Shack by William Young. If you haven’t read it, I recommend it. The story follows a man who has experienced great tragedy as God encounters him at the place of his greatest pain. Through this divine encounter, the main character learns who God is in a very different way than he ever imagined possible.
We humans like to “put God in a box”. We tend to stick to images and ideas of God that we’ve been taught by other flawed human beings without delving too deeply into the self-revelation of the Lord in Jesus Christ. But we as Christians believe that when we look at Jesus, when we encounter Jesus—in worship, in the face of another, through humble service, or in the pages of the Bible—then right there we also encounter the Creator: the Holy God.
Today, Jesus wants us to see him, know him, experience him. How can we open ourselves up to meeting him? Can we speak to a stranger in whose eyes we see light? Can we read a page of the Holy Scriptures? Can we offer a hand to someone in need? Can we pray? These are ways we can open ourselves to Jesus, ways he just might meet you and me today.
Tuesday, November 11
Today is Veterans’ Day. We give thanks for the service of men and women in uniform, of all generations, who have willingly given themselves to pursue justice and freedom for people around the world and to provide protection for all of us here.
Today let us pray for our veterans. I borrow from a group of Franciscans these words:
O God, We ask for blessings on all those who have served their country in the armed forces. We ask for healing for the veterans who have been wounded, in body and soul, in conflicts around the globe. Bring solace to them, O Lord; may we pray for them when they cannot pray. We ask for an end to wars and the dawning of a new era of peace, as a way to honor all the veterans of past wars.
Have mercy on all our veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. Bring peace to their hearts and peace to the regions they fought in. Bless all the soldiers who served in non-combative posts; May their calling to service continue in their lives in many positive ways. Give us all the creative vision to see a world which, grown weary with fighting, moves to affirming the life of every human being and so moves beyond war. Hear our prayer, O Prince of Peace, hear our prayer
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Our church and others are busy right now collecting and filling shoeboxes. Many of you have heard of this ministry of the Franklin Graham Evangelistic Association, called Operation Christmas Child. Come Christmas Day, thousands upon thousands of children all over the world, who would not otherwise have received a single gift for Christmas, will get a shoebox filled up with love with goodies and with signs of Jesus’ love. Through the boxes, these children will encounter the truth of God’s gift to our world, the gift of salvation.
It is easy to forget that our role every day is to spread the good news and the love of Christ. As we go about filling shoeboxes and thinking of the children who will receive them, let us also seek other ways each day to bring a good tiding to someone around us who may desperately need to hear one.
Write a note of care, offer a listening ear, commit yourself to do the thing that you know God has asked you to do for another. Tell someone Jesus loves them. Don’t be afraid or ashamed to mention it, to offer it. Just consider it a shoebox full of love, full of goodness, offered to a child of God.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Our church, like many congregations, has committed itself to a program, an ongoing intentional process, called Natural Church Development, or NCD. NCD originally came out of a research project conducted by a German man named Christian Schwartz. Christian Schwartz wanted to know what made a congregation, any congregation any place of any denomination, healthy and vibrant. So he studied 1,000 of them.
By now, tens of thousands of churches have been studied, and the NCD process of improving church health has been birthed, developed, and fine-tuned. It has become a way for all kinds of churches to be intentional about becoming, and growing ever more healthy.
The theory is: no human, no organism, and no organization is perfectly healthy. And just as humans need to have regular doctor’s check-up’s to find the unhealthy places and improve ourselves, so the church needs the same kind of thing. Just as God wants people to be healthy and at their best, God wants the same for the church.
The church, a family, any group of people: we’re all like a person who can be healthier if we’ll just commit ourselves to the processes: a person may need to quit smoking, a family may need to develop better communication, a church may need to learn how to better structure its church life. We can all get healthier, as individuals and groups. What will make you and those around you healthier today in Christ?
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Today's Sermon
Just Do Your Job:
Proper A28: I Thessalonians 5:1-11; Matthew 25:14-30
Kristen R. Richardson-Frick
November 15, 2008
St. Paul’s UMC
We’re in the “Between Times.” That’s what the people who talk about these things for a living call it….the In-Between Times. That is, we live, move, and exist in the time BETWEEN Jesus’ first coming and his last, BETWEEN the initiation of the kingdom of God on earth and its completion, BETWEEN the giving of the gift of the Spirit and the full pouring out of it on all creation. We live in between. And if you ask any middle child, you know that living in between can be tough.
Jesus knew it would be tough to live in between. The Apostle Paul knew it was tough. And both of them wanted us to have some words of comfort and instruction to get us by, to keep us focused, as we live there. Jesus was talking to his disciples, who had just asked him about the end-times. Paul was writing to the believers in Thessolonika, who obviously had some questions about Jesus’ return at the end of time, and what would happen to those who died before that time and at it. And both Jesus and Paul seem to turn attention away from the question itself in order to say something that goes much more important.
The disciples have asked Jesus, after he prophesied that the great Temple would be destroyed, how they will know when the end of time is (they obviously think that the destruction of the Temple will mean the end-times have arrived). And that question has prompted Jesus to say many things about what the end will look like. We’ll look at Jesus’ words more in-depth on Wednesday night after our meal (there’s a plug for the study), but for now be content to hear that Jesus used the familiar images of wars and rumors of wars, false messiahs, earthquakes, and amines. He tells the disciples they will be persecuted and mistreated, but that the good news will spread through all the nations. He talks about a “desolating sacrilege” in the holy place in the temple and cries woe for women who are pregnant or nursing in those days. He says the Son of Man will come like lightning and that there will be signs in the heavens, and that the elect will be gathered to him.
But then he says, “But as for WHEN all this will happen, not even I know that. It will be unexpected, like when people were going about their business in Noah’s day, and suddenly the flood washed them away…like all of a sudden while two women were grinding meal, one disappears…like a man goes away on a trip and has no idea that a burglar is coming to steal his stuff in the night.
Then Jesus proceeds to give the “sooooo….” to the disciples. He says, “So, since you don’t know when the end is coming, but you know that it is coming, be like the faithful servant who was faithfully keeping the household running when the master of the house returned unexpectedly. Don’t be like the wicked servant who thought his master would be gone a while, so proceeded to get drunk and beat up on the other servants, only to find the master return as the household spiraled out of control on account of him. The master will punish that servant.
“Or think about this: the kingdom of heaven coming that day will be like this: there were ten bridesmaids anxiously awaiting the bridegrooms arrival. Some, assuming he was coming shortly, bought a little bit of oil to keep their lamps lit. Others didn’t know how long he would take, so they bought an extra supply. So when the bridegroom took a while, the anxious bridesmaids fell asleep and their lamps went out. When the cry came out in the middle of the night that the groom was coming, the ones with extra oil were in good shape, but the ones without had to run into town to buy more. They missed the groom’s arrival and were shut out of the party.
“Or think about it this way: There was a man who was going on a journey. So he called together his servants and entrusted all his assets, his property and their tasks to them. To one servant he entrusted $ 5 million, to another $ 2 million, to another $ 1 million. Now the servants had worked for the master for a long time. They had had the opportunity to watch him, to see how he operated, what was important to him. Two perceived him in one way, and the third saw him differently. The first two servants went out and immediately began taking risks with the money, spending and investing it in such a way as to grow it, to get a good ‘return on investment.’ The third took the $ 1 million and buried in the ground.
“When the master of the estate returned, he called back the servants to take back control of his property and wealth. The first was happy to report that he had taken the $ 5 million and made $ 5 million more for the master. The second had a similar report. And they both heard those words we all so long to hear: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will entrust much more to you now. Enter into the joy of your master!” But it was not so with the third servant, who came before the master saying: ‘I knew you were a hard man, punishing, and so I was afraid. I hid your $ 1 million in the ground, and here it is back for you.’ For this servant, the master had only words of condemnation.”
And this last story of Jesus makes me wonder: did that third servant really KNOW his master? What made him see only a harsh tyrant in a master who entrusted a fortune and an estate to his servants, who obviously only wanted to see them invest it well and make it bear fruit? Or rather, what had the other two servants seen in the master that let them know that if he were there, he would be investing the small fortune so it would grow? What had given them the confidence to take risks with what they had been given so they could do what the master did? How did they know that this was the job they’d been entrusted to do?
So often, I think, we take our Lord for a harsh tyrant. We, like the third servant, cower in fear and bury the amazing gifts of the Holy Spirit with which we’ve been entrusted. We forget that we are living as stewards of God’s estate, to care for it as Christ would, in between the time that the generous and risk-taking master has been here, and the time he returns. We neglect the gifts we’ve been asked to make grow into something beautifully abundant for God’s kingdom. We become like the bridesmaids who let the lamps go out, like the servant who decides he’s got enough time before the master of the house returns that he can get drunk and mistreat his peers. And Jesus and Paul have warnings about that: if we fail to be faithful servants of the master, to bear good fruit for him, to keep the light burning for him, to stay self-controlled and loving for him, then there will be a reckoning. We will face that judgment at a time we least expect.
This is why Paul writes with a plea in his words: “Let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us stay alert and sober. We belong to the day, to the light. Defend yourself against the night, the dark. Put on faith and love like a breastplate. Put on the hope of your salvation like a helmet, for we are not destined for God’s wrath, but for salvation and joy in Jesus Christ, who died for us so that we may live always with him. Encourage each other, build each other up, in this, as you already are.”
You may wonder why we’re engaging in the Natural Church Development process, why we’re shifting the structure and operation of the church around, why we celebrate Communion once a month, why I do the things I do or say the things I say the way I say and do them, in worship and teaching and preaching. It’s because I know the Master. I know the abundance of the gifts he’s entrusted to us, as individuals and as a church. I know the way he has worked and the tasks he’s entrusted to us in this in between time.
And I so desperately do NOT want to see us be the unfaithful servant. I so do NOT want to see us consciously or unconsciously become drunk, lazy, or abusive of God’s other children. I so do NOT want us to let the lamp go out, or bury the master’s treasure in the ground.
But I so DO want to see us, as individuals and as a church, remain faithful and care-ful as we tend the Master’s house and engage in his work with God’s fellow children. I so DO want us to keep the lamp-light of Christ burning so a dark world will be drawn to its light. I so DO want to see us take the gifts we’ve been given, the very treasure of Jesus: the good news of God’s salvation, the assurance of forgiveness, the promise of healing, the touch of grace, the love of Christ, the gifts of the Spirit, and make them grow so that everyone in Orangeburg knows how we’re investing God’s goodness, so that everyone around us is brought into the goodness of salvation with us.
I so DO want to see us be the faithful servants God has made and entrusted us to be, because I know the joys that come with faithfulness, and the consequences of unfaithfulness. All we have to do is just do our job while we live in between. We don’t have to know when the Master is returning, just that he is, and that he wants to find us faithfully at work when he does. It’s simple if we want to be ready, Jesus tells us: Just do your job.
Jesus will talk more about what faithfulness and unfaithfulness look like next week, what doing the job he’s given us looks like, and so will I, but for now, let us pray:
Loving master, you have entrusted us with a great fortune and asked us to use it to grow your kingdom. You have asked us to keep the light burning as we await the bridegroom’s arrival. Forgive us when we fall asleep, when we forget our role, when we fail to do the job you’ve asked us to do. Cleanse us now, make us faithful again. Send your Spirit to empower us again with your gifts, and to help us be the faithful servants you need in this time in between. Amen.
Proper A28: I Thessalonians 5:1-11; Matthew 25:14-30
Kristen R. Richardson-Frick
November 15, 2008
St. Paul’s UMC
We’re in the “Between Times.” That’s what the people who talk about these things for a living call it….the In-Between Times. That is, we live, move, and exist in the time BETWEEN Jesus’ first coming and his last, BETWEEN the initiation of the kingdom of God on earth and its completion, BETWEEN the giving of the gift of the Spirit and the full pouring out of it on all creation. We live in between. And if you ask any middle child, you know that living in between can be tough.
Jesus knew it would be tough to live in between. The Apostle Paul knew it was tough. And both of them wanted us to have some words of comfort and instruction to get us by, to keep us focused, as we live there. Jesus was talking to his disciples, who had just asked him about the end-times. Paul was writing to the believers in Thessolonika, who obviously had some questions about Jesus’ return at the end of time, and what would happen to those who died before that time and at it. And both Jesus and Paul seem to turn attention away from the question itself in order to say something that goes much more important.
The disciples have asked Jesus, after he prophesied that the great Temple would be destroyed, how they will know when the end of time is (they obviously think that the destruction of the Temple will mean the end-times have arrived). And that question has prompted Jesus to say many things about what the end will look like. We’ll look at Jesus’ words more in-depth on Wednesday night after our meal (there’s a plug for the study), but for now be content to hear that Jesus used the familiar images of wars and rumors of wars, false messiahs, earthquakes, and amines. He tells the disciples they will be persecuted and mistreated, but that the good news will spread through all the nations. He talks about a “desolating sacrilege” in the holy place in the temple and cries woe for women who are pregnant or nursing in those days. He says the Son of Man will come like lightning and that there will be signs in the heavens, and that the elect will be gathered to him.
But then he says, “But as for WHEN all this will happen, not even I know that. It will be unexpected, like when people were going about their business in Noah’s day, and suddenly the flood washed them away…like all of a sudden while two women were grinding meal, one disappears…like a man goes away on a trip and has no idea that a burglar is coming to steal his stuff in the night.
Then Jesus proceeds to give the “sooooo….” to the disciples. He says, “So, since you don’t know when the end is coming, but you know that it is coming, be like the faithful servant who was faithfully keeping the household running when the master of the house returned unexpectedly. Don’t be like the wicked servant who thought his master would be gone a while, so proceeded to get drunk and beat up on the other servants, only to find the master return as the household spiraled out of control on account of him. The master will punish that servant.
“Or think about this: the kingdom of heaven coming that day will be like this: there were ten bridesmaids anxiously awaiting the bridegrooms arrival. Some, assuming he was coming shortly, bought a little bit of oil to keep their lamps lit. Others didn’t know how long he would take, so they bought an extra supply. So when the bridegroom took a while, the anxious bridesmaids fell asleep and their lamps went out. When the cry came out in the middle of the night that the groom was coming, the ones with extra oil were in good shape, but the ones without had to run into town to buy more. They missed the groom’s arrival and were shut out of the party.
“Or think about it this way: There was a man who was going on a journey. So he called together his servants and entrusted all his assets, his property and their tasks to them. To one servant he entrusted $ 5 million, to another $ 2 million, to another $ 1 million. Now the servants had worked for the master for a long time. They had had the opportunity to watch him, to see how he operated, what was important to him. Two perceived him in one way, and the third saw him differently. The first two servants went out and immediately began taking risks with the money, spending and investing it in such a way as to grow it, to get a good ‘return on investment.’ The third took the $ 1 million and buried in the ground.
“When the master of the estate returned, he called back the servants to take back control of his property and wealth. The first was happy to report that he had taken the $ 5 million and made $ 5 million more for the master. The second had a similar report. And they both heard those words we all so long to hear: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will entrust much more to you now. Enter into the joy of your master!” But it was not so with the third servant, who came before the master saying: ‘I knew you were a hard man, punishing, and so I was afraid. I hid your $ 1 million in the ground, and here it is back for you.’ For this servant, the master had only words of condemnation.”
And this last story of Jesus makes me wonder: did that third servant really KNOW his master? What made him see only a harsh tyrant in a master who entrusted a fortune and an estate to his servants, who obviously only wanted to see them invest it well and make it bear fruit? Or rather, what had the other two servants seen in the master that let them know that if he were there, he would be investing the small fortune so it would grow? What had given them the confidence to take risks with what they had been given so they could do what the master did? How did they know that this was the job they’d been entrusted to do?
So often, I think, we take our Lord for a harsh tyrant. We, like the third servant, cower in fear and bury the amazing gifts of the Holy Spirit with which we’ve been entrusted. We forget that we are living as stewards of God’s estate, to care for it as Christ would, in between the time that the generous and risk-taking master has been here, and the time he returns. We neglect the gifts we’ve been asked to make grow into something beautifully abundant for God’s kingdom. We become like the bridesmaids who let the lamps go out, like the servant who decides he’s got enough time before the master of the house returns that he can get drunk and mistreat his peers. And Jesus and Paul have warnings about that: if we fail to be faithful servants of the master, to bear good fruit for him, to keep the light burning for him, to stay self-controlled and loving for him, then there will be a reckoning. We will face that judgment at a time we least expect.
This is why Paul writes with a plea in his words: “Let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us stay alert and sober. We belong to the day, to the light. Defend yourself against the night, the dark. Put on faith and love like a breastplate. Put on the hope of your salvation like a helmet, for we are not destined for God’s wrath, but for salvation and joy in Jesus Christ, who died for us so that we may live always with him. Encourage each other, build each other up, in this, as you already are.”
You may wonder why we’re engaging in the Natural Church Development process, why we’re shifting the structure and operation of the church around, why we celebrate Communion once a month, why I do the things I do or say the things I say the way I say and do them, in worship and teaching and preaching. It’s because I know the Master. I know the abundance of the gifts he’s entrusted to us, as individuals and as a church. I know the way he has worked and the tasks he’s entrusted to us in this in between time.
And I so desperately do NOT want to see us be the unfaithful servant. I so do NOT want to see us consciously or unconsciously become drunk, lazy, or abusive of God’s other children. I so do NOT want us to let the lamp go out, or bury the master’s treasure in the ground.
But I so DO want to see us, as individuals and as a church, remain faithful and care-ful as we tend the Master’s house and engage in his work with God’s fellow children. I so DO want us to keep the lamp-light of Christ burning so a dark world will be drawn to its light. I so DO want to see us take the gifts we’ve been given, the very treasure of Jesus: the good news of God’s salvation, the assurance of forgiveness, the promise of healing, the touch of grace, the love of Christ, the gifts of the Spirit, and make them grow so that everyone in Orangeburg knows how we’re investing God’s goodness, so that everyone around us is brought into the goodness of salvation with us.
I so DO want to see us be the faithful servants God has made and entrusted us to be, because I know the joys that come with faithfulness, and the consequences of unfaithfulness. All we have to do is just do our job while we live in between. We don’t have to know when the Master is returning, just that he is, and that he wants to find us faithfully at work when he does. It’s simple if we want to be ready, Jesus tells us: Just do your job.
Jesus will talk more about what faithfulness and unfaithfulness look like next week, what doing the job he’s given us looks like, and so will I, but for now, let us pray:
Loving master, you have entrusted us with a great fortune and asked us to use it to grow your kingdom. You have asked us to keep the light burning as we await the bridegroom’s arrival. Forgive us when we fall asleep, when we forget our role, when we fail to do the job you’ve asked us to do. Cleanse us now, make us faithful again. Send your Spirit to empower us again with your gifts, and to help us be the faithful servants you need in this time in between. Amen.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Since the last post is still the post-election one...
I'll post a link to a celebrity's letter to President-Elect Obama.
I thought it was pretty good and thought-provoking.
We Christians ought to know a little something about sacrifice, shouldn't we?
Regardless of your thoughts on how the election went, now is the time to pray and to dedicate ourselves to the work God is calling us to as a nation.
Paula Poundstone has some ideas on that.
I pray that our new president does, too.
Enjoy!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96890409&sc=emaf
I thought it was pretty good and thought-provoking.
We Christians ought to know a little something about sacrifice, shouldn't we?
Regardless of your thoughts on how the election went, now is the time to pray and to dedicate ourselves to the work God is calling us to as a nation.
Paula Poundstone has some ideas on that.
I pray that our new president does, too.
Enjoy!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96890409&sc=emaf
Thursday, November 6, 2008
A Pastoral Letter to My Congregation Regarding the Election
Do not worry 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
+ Philippians 3:6-7
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change…
+ Psalm 1:1-2a
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
On Tuesday, our nation elected a new president. Barack Obama will become the next leader of our nation. While for many this moment was a watershed of progress and hope, for many others Obama’s election raised fear and concern.
Over the past week, I have heard some speaking about our next president as a “savior” figure. I have heard others refer to him as “anti-christ.” I have heard confident people express deep satisfaction at our democratic process and its result, and others concerned that our nation faces uncertainties with an Obama administration that it would not have under a McCain one.
To all of these uncertainties, opinions, and fears, God has a word to speak. The scriptures that are the heading of this letter are the Lord’s word to us in this and every time.
We must remember as we look ahead to January and beyond: We believe that God the Creator is Sovereign. We worship Jesus as Lord of lords and King of kings. We trust that the Holy Spirit is and will be at work in and among the people who trust in God. We must rely on the promises that, no matter what the future holds, good or bad, God our Lord always holds us and our eternal future, if we follow Christ Jesus in the way that leads to life. Therefore we have nothing to fear or dread in this life.
In the coming weeks, we must also remind ourselves and others that Barack Obama is simply a man: a man who gave his life to Jesus Christ at a church altar 20 years ago and was baptized in the one Holy Spirit we all share, a man who pledges love and loyalty to this nation, and a man who we pray will humble himself before the Lord, seeking God’s guidance, during his time of leadership.
Let us be always in a spirit of prayer for our nation, that God’s peace will be sent to and among us, that we may grow in the ways of Christ, and that we may comfort one another with the assuring words of the God’s presence and promise. Let us pray for all our leaders, especially lifting our president- and vice-president-elect.
And let us always seek first the kingdom of God and the Lord’s righteousness, knowing that as we do, we become a light to the nations and a sign of God’s peace, hope, promise, and sovereignty in this and every age.
Love in Christ,
Pastor Kristen
+ Philippians 3:6-7
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change…
+ Psalm 1:1-2a
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
On Tuesday, our nation elected a new president. Barack Obama will become the next leader of our nation. While for many this moment was a watershed of progress and hope, for many others Obama’s election raised fear and concern.
Over the past week, I have heard some speaking about our next president as a “savior” figure. I have heard others refer to him as “anti-christ.” I have heard confident people express deep satisfaction at our democratic process and its result, and others concerned that our nation faces uncertainties with an Obama administration that it would not have under a McCain one.
To all of these uncertainties, opinions, and fears, God has a word to speak. The scriptures that are the heading of this letter are the Lord’s word to us in this and every time.
We must remember as we look ahead to January and beyond: We believe that God the Creator is Sovereign. We worship Jesus as Lord of lords and King of kings. We trust that the Holy Spirit is and will be at work in and among the people who trust in God. We must rely on the promises that, no matter what the future holds, good or bad, God our Lord always holds us and our eternal future, if we follow Christ Jesus in the way that leads to life. Therefore we have nothing to fear or dread in this life.
In the coming weeks, we must also remind ourselves and others that Barack Obama is simply a man: a man who gave his life to Jesus Christ at a church altar 20 years ago and was baptized in the one Holy Spirit we all share, a man who pledges love and loyalty to this nation, and a man who we pray will humble himself before the Lord, seeking God’s guidance, during his time of leadership.
Let us be always in a spirit of prayer for our nation, that God’s peace will be sent to and among us, that we may grow in the ways of Christ, and that we may comfort one another with the assuring words of the God’s presence and promise. Let us pray for all our leaders, especially lifting our president- and vice-president-elect.
And let us always seek first the kingdom of God and the Lord’s righteousness, knowing that as we do, we become a light to the nations and a sign of God’s peace, hope, promise, and sovereignty in this and every age.
Love in Christ,
Pastor Kristen
Monday, November 3, 2008
Celebrating All Saints': Today's Morning Minute
Monday, November 3, 2008
Yesterday at St. Paul’s, just as in many churches, we celebrated All Saints’ Sunday. Each year on November 1, Christians all over the world stop, remember, give thanks, and worship. For each November 1 is All Saints’ Day, or All Hallows’ Day.
We may think of the saints as people different from us. But in its most basic form, the term “saint” simply means “one who is being sanctified, or made holy by the Holy Spirit at work within him or her.” So, if you are hearing the sound of my voice, and if you have asked the Spirit of Jesus Christ to come into your heart and life and make you like Jesus, make you holy, then you, my friend, are a saint. Just like the 14 people our church named on Sunday, those who have been removed from our membership roll to the membership roll of the Church Expectant in heaven, you and I are created and called to be saints, people who show those around us what God is like, people who are being made more like Jesus by the Holy Spirit each day. You are a saint.
Never thought of yourself that way? Well, start. Each day, wake up and say to yourself in the mirror: “I am a saint. Lord, help me behave like one.”
Yesterday at St. Paul’s, just as in many churches, we celebrated All Saints’ Sunday. Each year on November 1, Christians all over the world stop, remember, give thanks, and worship. For each November 1 is All Saints’ Day, or All Hallows’ Day.
We may think of the saints as people different from us. But in its most basic form, the term “saint” simply means “one who is being sanctified, or made holy by the Holy Spirit at work within him or her.” So, if you are hearing the sound of my voice, and if you have asked the Spirit of Jesus Christ to come into your heart and life and make you like Jesus, make you holy, then you, my friend, are a saint. Just like the 14 people our church named on Sunday, those who have been removed from our membership roll to the membership roll of the Church Expectant in heaven, you and I are created and called to be saints, people who show those around us what God is like, people who are being made more like Jesus by the Holy Spirit each day. You are a saint.
Never thought of yourself that way? Well, start. Each day, wake up and say to yourself in the mirror: “I am a saint. Lord, help me behave like one.”
Saturday, November 1, 2008
On the Death of Trick-or-treating: A Lament
In one of the little towns I which I was ministering last year, they do it right. The kids and their friends from my former church all pile into a trailer behind of the dads' pick-up's, and they go from house-to-house trick-or-treating.
Everyone sits on front porches and hands out good things for the children to enjoy, and everyone oohs and aahs over the kids' cute costumes. Other children are all running around the neighborhood, and it's just good fun. Neighbors get to know each other, and the feeling of community is palpable.
It was not so in our new community last night. Only a couple of houses on each street in our neighborhood had on lights. Only three cars with children in them stopped at our home for treats. And as we walked the streets of our neighborhood looking for inviting front porch lights, all three of us in our cowboy hats, we ran into NO other families.
It was as we walked that I realized: the community I served last year, where my son had the best trick-or-treating experience possible, is probably the exception, rather than the rule, now. People have become so afraid of the neighbors they don't know, so untrusting of others, that most families stick to church or community events for Halloween fun. They don't even go trick-or-treating anymore. And most people in houses on Halloween night have become so disgusted by greedy teenagers wanting candy for free, or even afraid of people taking advantage of an open door to commit crimes, that they no longer turn on the porch light. They stay holed up inside, safe.
Stories like the one I read this morning don't help.
When I was a little girl, things were different. I remember how the neighborhood crawled with kids running from house to house, and I looked forward every year to dressing up as a hobo, or Strawberry Shortcake, or Pippi Longstocking. I remember chatting with neighbors I didn't know, and suddenly they became friends.
When trick-or-treating dies, so does something wholesome and good that taught us that strangers can become friends, that our neighbors are people we can and should care about (even those we don't know), and that a community spirit can be real in our neighborhoods.
I'm sad today.
I'm sad that neighborhood trick-or-treating seems to be a dying tradition.
I don't know what we'll do next Halloween. In the meantime, I'll pray that God will work in a powerful way to take away fear, and to return safety and joy to our communities, so maybe trick-or-treating can make a comeback.
At least my son said he had fun last night. He didn't know any different, not able to remember last year. I guess his joy is all that matters.
Everyone sits on front porches and hands out good things for the children to enjoy, and everyone oohs and aahs over the kids' cute costumes. Other children are all running around the neighborhood, and it's just good fun. Neighbors get to know each other, and the feeling of community is palpable.
It was not so in our new community last night. Only a couple of houses on each street in our neighborhood had on lights. Only three cars with children in them stopped at our home for treats. And as we walked the streets of our neighborhood looking for inviting front porch lights, all three of us in our cowboy hats, we ran into NO other families.
It was as we walked that I realized: the community I served last year, where my son had the best trick-or-treating experience possible, is probably the exception, rather than the rule, now. People have become so afraid of the neighbors they don't know, so untrusting of others, that most families stick to church or community events for Halloween fun. They don't even go trick-or-treating anymore. And most people in houses on Halloween night have become so disgusted by greedy teenagers wanting candy for free, or even afraid of people taking advantage of an open door to commit crimes, that they no longer turn on the porch light. They stay holed up inside, safe.
Stories like the one I read this morning don't help.
When I was a little girl, things were different. I remember how the neighborhood crawled with kids running from house to house, and I looked forward every year to dressing up as a hobo, or Strawberry Shortcake, or Pippi Longstocking. I remember chatting with neighbors I didn't know, and suddenly they became friends.
When trick-or-treating dies, so does something wholesome and good that taught us that strangers can become friends, that our neighbors are people we can and should care about (even those we don't know), and that a community spirit can be real in our neighborhoods.
I'm sad today.
I'm sad that neighborhood trick-or-treating seems to be a dying tradition.
I don't know what we'll do next Halloween. In the meantime, I'll pray that God will work in a powerful way to take away fear, and to return safety and joy to our communities, so maybe trick-or-treating can make a comeback.
At least my son said he had fun last night. He didn't know any different, not able to remember last year. I guess his joy is all that matters.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)