Morning Minutes this Week

Monday, October 27
Last week, I spent a few days back up on the campus where I spent my seminary years studying: Duke University. There is something about that place. It isn’t just the beauty of the Gothic-style architecture or the uniform granite facades of the buildings. It isn’t just the beauty of the trees and flowers and shrubs. It isn’t just the liveliness of the young undergraduates.

There is something else that I love about the place: it feels like home. It was a place I was nurtured and formed in the Christian faith. And at its center stands the amazing Duke Chapel, built like a European Gothic Cathedral from centuries past, but serving as a sanctuary of peace for generations of students, including me.

At the center of Duke’s campus stands a beautiful church building, with spires reaching high heavenward, directing all eyes and hearts up to God. At the center of the campus, at its heart, is a huge and tangible reminder. Focus your attention to the Lord.

What is the “Duke Chapel” of your life here? What is it that, when you see it, directs your attention heavenward? Is it a place, a person, an object? I hope it is something, for always, our hearts can find refuge when we focus them upward to God.

Tuesday, October 28
In recent weeks, we’ve heard a lot about the “credit crisis” that we are hoping and praying is soon to resolve itself. I heard something of it from Adam Hamilton at Duke the other week when he spoke there. Rev. Hamilton is the Senior Pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leewood, Kansas, a church of 14,000 members that was started with about 14 people gathering in a funeral home about 16 years ago.

But Rev. Hamilton wasn’t talking about the church’s story while we were gathered at Duke. Instead he talked about leadership in difficult times. As he spoke about the current economic situation, he quoted an economist as saying that the current crisis is a crisis of faith, and then he pointed out that the word “credit” is the same word as “credo” in Latin, which means “I believe.”

Our whole credit system is based on a belief, a trust, that the person who borrows money will be able and willing to pay it back. When that belief, that trust, is gone, the whole system fails.

Today, where does our belief and trust lie? The markets can fail. Our hopes and dreams based in this world can die. But there is one who never fails us, who never let us down. Will we believe in and trust that One, our Lord today? If so, no crisis can shake us.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008
When I heard Rev. Adam Hamilton speak at Duke he talked about a lack of leadership in such difficult times.

We all know that the world is not the way God intended it. We as humans have messed things all up. In the beginning, God created a garden of peace, a place of tranquility for us, but we tried to grasp what wasn’t ours to have and thus destroyed it all. God created one human race to live in harmony, but we have divided ourselves by tribes who fight and kill each other.

In Jesus, however, God came among us to invite us into a new way of being. In Jesus, God came among us to show us how to live in the peace that was originally created and intended. In Jesus, God gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit to help us live into this vision for humanity.

Rev. Hamilton pointed out that much of our problem as a church and a nation is that we have plenty of people in authority, but too few visionary leaders who can help us move from the brokenness we are in, to the vision of peace that God intends. Today, let’s pray for God to raise up such leaders, and let’s commit ourselves to following them in the way we know is right.

Thursday, October 30, 2008
On Monday, the United Methodist pastors of our area gathered together for prayer, fellowship, and learning. We had the pleasure of hearing from Orangeburg’s Chief of Police, and we were enlightened. As he spoke, he talked about the partnership necessary between Christians and the police, as we both seek to do battle against the evil in this world. And then he talked about one of the most profound manifestations of evil: criminal gangs.

As with most things evil, the evil of gangs is perpetuated by its preying on the young and vulnerable. The recruitment starts in elementary school, and it targets those who feel broken, who are desperate for a place to belong and to feel like a part of something, and don’t know where else to find it.

We have heard our Lord say when he was challenged for keeping company with sinners: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners.” We have heard him say, “I was lonely, and you visited me.” We have head him ask us to care for the least, the last, and the lost.

The battle against gangs that prey on our young is a spiritual one against the force of evil. It is about bringing healing and help to those who need it. How can our community and our churches do spiritual battle in this area? I pray we commit ourselves to doing so.

Friday, October 31, 2008
Today is All Hallows’ Eve. That’s what the church calls it. You may call it “Halloween”. Today, Christians can rejoice that our Lord Jesus Christ has defeated evil and death in all their forms. Today, Christians can face the reality of evil still present in the world and say with confidence: you have no power over us, and you will not win this battle. Today, Christians can rest assured that our God is and always will be triumphant over the forces that seek to destroy us.

This is the meaning of Halloween for me. The holiday may have traditions associated with pagan rituals of the past, but for the church, it has become a time to face the reality of evil and to rejoice that God gives the people of Christ victory over it, and protection from its power.

Thus, we can enjoy the simple pleasures of the holiday: giving good treats to children just as God gives goodness to us, and letting little ones enjoy the fun of being a princess or a cowboy for the night.

And we can put candles in our pumpkins, reminding ourselves that we are all like one, a creature out of whom God has scooped the nasty stuff, given a smile to, and put the light of Christ inside, so it can shine for the world. So tonight, have some wholesome fun, and give thanks to God for victory.