God, Caesar and Preschoolers

God, Caesar and Preschoolers

Mark 10:13-16,  Matthew 22:15-22

A young boy was visiting his grandmother one day.  After becoming bored he picked up her rather large Bible and began thumbing through it.  He was fascinated with some of the things his grandmother kept in her old Bible – Baptismal certificates, newspaper obituaries of family members and other such things.  Suddenly his eyes grew wide and his mouth opened.  His grandmother asked, “Jimmy, what did you find?”  Little Jimmy answered, “I think I found Adam’s underwear.”

Obviously he had been to Sunday school and possibly to a church preschool.

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 For over 40 years the St. Paul Preschool has been a trusted place for parents to bring their children.  St. Paul’s Preschool has a long-standing reputation in this community and in Spartanburg of providing an excellent preschool experience for children and parents alike.  We are proud of our preschool program and the staff who work here.

It’s not easy being a parent.  Those of you who are parents and those of you who have been parents know the truth of that statement.  Parents are always anxious over whether their child is safe, secure, happy and growing in appropriate ways. Hundreds of times each day parents wonder if their child is laughing or crying, participating with other children or playing alone, feeling secure or anxious.

Preschoolers are also anxious.  They are anxious especially in the first days and weeks of preschool when they are surrounded by a sea of unfamiliar faces in an unfamiliar place.  As time passes, they discover, or we hope they discover the preschool is a safe, caring, fun place to be.

I have to also say the staff, many who have worked here for a number of years, have their own anxieties.  They want to give the preschoolers the best learning and growing environment they are able to give.  They want to see the smiles blossom on little faces throughout the day.  They want parents to be pleased with the care their child is receiving.  They want to help each child grow as Jesus himself grew, physically, mentally, socially and spiritually or as the gospel writer said, “in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.”

The best environment for such well-balanced growth is when parents and staff work together to create an environment so that children are able become the young men and women God created them to become.

Even in the preschool years parents are already dreaming of their child’s future.  They may not be dreaming of the specific careers they may have in the future, except maybe  the Heisman Trophy, but parents are already dreaming of their child as successful, model citizens and if all children were like my child – my what a wonderful world it would be.  I can say that because my wife and I have raised, and are still raising two children of our own.

The truth is the world is not quite the wonderful place we thought it was in childhood.  Somewhere along the way we became adults, we grew up and our eyes were opened to the sometimes painful and unpleasant realities of the world in which we live.  And somewhere between the world as it is and the world as we believe it should be we had to choose how to negotiate those two realities.

JESUS, GOD AND CAESAR

Jesus came to teach us and to show us how to live in a world that is not as it should be.  In a world where politics and religion were in many cases one and the same Jesus provides a path for his followers to walk.

In our second reading from the gospels Jesus is confronted with a question – a question regarding politics, government and religious faith.

The question appears simple.  “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor?”  To put this into terms we can understand today, the question is, “Should a Jew pay taxes to a Roman emperor?”

As simple as the question is, it is a trick.  If Jesus says they should not pay taxes to Caesar, he will be guilty of sedition, a crime punishable by death.  On the other hand if Jesus says they should pay the tax, he shows himself to be at odds with the populace for whom the tax was not only a burden but a symbol of Roman oppression.

Jesus’ answer seems simple.  After asking for a coin and asking whose head is on the coin, he says, “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

The Romans held that the emperor was a divine figure.  So the question is not so much about paying taxes as to whom will we give our allegiance?  We are to give to the state what belongs to the state.  We are to give to God what belongs to God.[i]

WHAT BELONGS TO GOD

 While teaching one day the people brought their children to Jesus to bless.  His disciples were indignant and spoke harshly to the parents.  Jesus quickly stopped them and said, “Do not hinder these little ones for such is the Kingdom of God.”

What was behind Jesus’ defense of these children is the belief that children ultimately belong to God.  They are God’s gift to us not to own or possess as our own, but to nurture, care for and guide so that they can become responsible citizens of heaven and earth.

I think the parent/preschool relationship is a microcosm of the God-parent relationship.  Parents bring their children to the preschool each morning and entrust them into the hands of our preschool staff.  These children do not belong to the staff or to the preschool for the day.  They are a given as a gift, a gift that needs loving care, genuine nurture, wise and helpful guidance.  For a short time each day the preschool staff is responsible for their well-being.  Even so, the preschool staff has no claim to the children.  The preschool staff members are stewards of the gift of each child that comes.

In the same way, we parents are given a wonderful gift in our children.  They come to us as a gift from God and they bring to us a tremendous responsibility for the primary care, the well-being and the guidance of these young lives.  Although we parents have the primary responsibility to raise and guide these young lives, ultimately they do not belong to us – they belong to God.  We are but stewards of the gift of each child we are given.

GIVING TO GOD THE  THINGS THAT BELONG TO GOD

So when Jesus says, “Give to God the things that belong to God,” among the many things to which he is referring, he is referring to children.  Whether we are parents or preschool staff or Sunday school teachers or children’s ministry leaders, or church members, we join together as a team to mold and shape these young lives into the likeness and character of Jesus Christ.  For in so doing, we offer to God the things that belong to God.  Amen?  Amen!

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[i]Davie F. Watson, Lectionary HomileticsVol. XXII, Number 6, pg. 18.

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Faith Models

Faith Models

Philippians 4:9

Emma Daniel Gray died on June 8, 2009.  She was 95 years old.  Most people had never heard of Emma Daniel Gray.  She wasn’t famous by any means, yet the Washington Post printed a rather big story about her soon after her death.

Emma Daniel Gray, for 24 years beginning in 1955, cleaned the office of the President of the United States.  She served six presidents until her retirement in 1979.  Every president from Harry Truman to Jimmy Carter had his office cleaned daily by Emma Daniel Gray.

A little known fact about Ms. Gray’s daily routine is that when she dusted the President’s chair in the Oval Office she would pray over it – her cleaning supplies in one hand and the other on the chair.  She didn’t pray that the President would succeed or like many in our time, pray that the President would fail.  She prayed for the President of the United States to have God’s blessings, wisdom and safety.  Day after day she prayed for the good of her President whether Democrat or Republican.  Day after day she kept to her practice of praying for our nation’s top leader.

PAUL:  MODEL ME!

The Apostle Paul invites his readers to this kind of faithful persistence.  “Keep doing the same things” he wrote – in other words, be persistent.

Paul is not writing about being persistent in life, however.  He is writing about being persistent in faithfully living for God.  He even holds himself up as a model of faithful living as a follower of Jesus Christ.  He doesn’t simply say, “Keep doing the same things.”  He writes, “Keep doing the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me.”  In other words, Paul is saying, “Follow me.”

WE ARE CHOSEN TO BE MODELS OF FAITH

Most people would be hesitant to say, “Follow me; do as I do” when it comes to the life of faith.  Most people don’t like to be role models do we really have a choice?

Around twenty years ago basketball great Charles Barkley denounced the pressure put upon himself and others about being models of behavior for society.  Barkley declared, “I’m not paid to be a role model.  I’m paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court.”  You may remember Barkley’s remarks sparked a nation-wide debate about the responsibility athletes and other superstars have in shaping the character of younger, more … children and youth.

In a column written for Sports Illustrated, fellow hoopster Karl Malone responded to Barkley by writing, “Charles…I don’t think it’s your decision to make.  We don’t choose to be role models, we are chosen.  The only choice we have is whether to be a good role model or a bad one.”

Malone’s observation about professional athletes is equally true for every person who follows Jesus Christ.  We do not choose to be models of faithful living for other people.  We are chosen by God to follow Jesus Christ and because we are chosen to follow Jesus Christ, we are chosen to live before others and the world as models of the grace of God in Christ.  God has chosen us, you and me, to be the models, the examples of faithful living so that others can see in human form the life that God offers us.

Nowhere is this more obvious that when we baptism a young child as we did this morning.  Far from being a sweet service for parents and family, the Baptismal Covenant is a commitment made to God to live before this child as role models of faith.

The parents themselves vow to nurture the child in Christ’s holy church so that by the parent’s teaching and example the child will be guided to accept God’s grace for themselves, to profess their faith openly and to lead a Christian life.  It’s not up to the child, but first and foremost up to the parents to live and model faithful living for this child.

Then we, the church, the local congregation where this child will attend also vows to God to proclaim the good news and live according to the example of Christ before this child.  In addition, we vow to surround her with a community of love and forgiveness so that she may grow in her trust in God and be found faithful in her service to others.  But we don’t stop there.  We vow to pray for her so that she may be a true disciple who walks in the way that leads to life.

This little child will grow through her toddler years and into her childhood and youth years looking to you and me to provide the footprints in which she can walk and follow so that she too will become a faithful follower of Jesus Christ.    Together we model the life of faith, hope and love for Abigail Grace by following the example of Jesus himself.  Together we are the faith models she will need to become all God has created her to be.

MY FAITH MODELS

Personally, I do not know where I would be today or what I would be today had it not been for that small, faithful congregation called Green Street Methodist Church once located on the Union Mill village.  The people there were only partially educated, a few with college degrees.  They were hard-working people as was true of most people who lived and worked in the cotton mills.  They didn’t’ have much in terms of material wealth.  But they were people of faith who read and studied the scriptures listening for the spirit of God.  They were people who prayed for each other, comforted each other in times of sorrow and grief; who took responsibility for the spiritual well-being and growth of children and adults as well.  They were faithful to the vows they made at my baptism and I along with Sherry are partially who we are because of their guiding influence in our lives.

I could tell you of Tony Batezel, a Captain in the U.S. Air Force who led weekly Bible studies in our barracks and who mentored young servicemen in learning how to read and study the Bible; how to pray; how to live as disciples of Jesus Christ.  Or Betty Beckon, a missionary in Taiwan who raised ten children on the mission field and who mentored servicemen who were stationed in a foreign land.

These are some of the people who by their lives, their faith and their commitment to Jesus Christ helped to shape and mold my faith and love for God.  These are some of the people who by their lives said, “Keep doing the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me.”  They, like the Apostle Paul accepted with gratitude God’s choosing to be not only a follower of Jesus Christ, but a model and guide of faith for others.

KEEP DOING WHAT YOU HAVE SEEN IN ME

The truth is, my friends, someone is watching you, observing the example you provide as to what it means to follow Jesus Christ.  Someone is looking to you for guidance as models for what it means to have faith and be people of faith.

Maybe something is rising up within you saying, “But I don’t want to be a role model.  I don’t want others looking to me as an example of faith.  Good friends, if you are not willing to say, “Follow me.  Keep doing the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me,” then maybe you need to take a long look within yourself, for to this you have been chosen.

It does take a village to raise a child.  And it takes a faithful congregation to make faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.  It takes ordinary people like you and me who can say by the lives we live and the faith that has become a part of us, “Follow me as I follow Jesus Christ.  Keep doing the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me.”  Amen?  Amen!

The Ten Freedoms

The Ten Freedoms

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Our reading from the Old Testament this  morning is familiar to most if not all adults and most if not all children.  We know the reading as the giving of the Law by God to Moses for the ancient Israelite people.

For some time now the Ten Commandments have become a lightning rod on the American cultural landscape.  We have been divided as a nation into two opposing camps: those who want to see the Ten Commandments displayed in our schools, courthouses, in city halls and in other public places; and those who feel to do so would threaten the separation between the church and state.

It seems as if the battle lines were drawn by Judge Roy Moore, the former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court who refused to remove the Ten Commandment monument from his courthouse.  As you know, Roy Moore was removed from his place on the Alabama Supreme Court because of his decision.

The controversy in Alabama became a national issue and gave rise to the plastic and metal wire lawn signs displaying the Ten Commandments still seen around our neighborhoods.  Of course if you drive by a lawn that has one of these signs you cannot read the Ten Commandments because the lettering is too small.  I suppose it doesn’t matter if you can read it or not.  What matters is that the Ten Commandment are being displayed in public.  If I may borrow Dick Derrick’s phrase “thinking out loud” it makes me wonder if we have turned the Ten Commandments into a lucky charm, subconsciously thinking that by displaying them evil will magically disappear from our communities and nation.  To be truthful with you, I have never known of a person’s life to be transformed simply by reading the Ten Commandments or by having them displayed in public.

It makes me think of Georgia Representative Lynn Westmoreland who came out in favor of posting the commandments in public places.  When asked in an interview on national TV by Stephen Colbert to name the Ten Commandments, Westmoreland looked surprise at the question.  After a moment of silence he said, “Don’t lie, and don’t steal.”  Finally he said, “I can’t think of any more.”[i]  Does it make sense to you to make a law enforcing the display of a set of religious rules if they are not important enough to memorize the rules yourself?

 

EXODUS 20 – GIVING THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments they were given not as a list of rules to follow.  In Jewish tradition the first commandment is the beginning words, “I am the Lord your God who brought you God who brought you out of the land of Egypt,  out of the  house of slavery.”  The early church read the Decalogue differently including only the list of “thou shalt not’s” and “thou shalt’s”.  What was for the Jews the first commandment became for the church a prologue or introduction to the commandments.

The prologue to  the Ten Commandments provide us a way of  understanding the commandments so that they do not  become a magical list of do’s and don’ts that if kept will make God love us more than others.  The prologue offers us an understanding of the commandments that allows us to live as free people.

Indeed, the prologue declares, “I am the Lord, your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”  The Israelites, once slaves in Egypt, are now a free people by the goodness and grace of God.  God had freed them from bondage and oppression.  Because God had freed them from their bondage and slavery, they are to live in gratitude and gratefulness to God by following the commandments.  The commandments are the divine guides for a life of freedom; they are the Ten Freedoms.

We Christians understand that even though we may not be slaves to a foreign power, we are slaves to something more oppressive.  We are slaves to sin.  The ancients called it original sin, the understanding that from birth we are prone to, drawn to sinful living.  Try as we may, we cannot free ourselves.  Yet like the ancient Hebrews, God has seen our bondage and God has come in Jesus Christ to free us from the enslavement to sin and death.  And so through Jesus Christ we are free to live as God created us to live, free to live free.  And like the ancient Hebrews we receive the commandments as the ways in which true freedom is lived out and maintained in human life.  They are not so much a list of do’s and don’t's but God’s gift of freedom – thus  the Ten Freedoms.

THE MAP OF THE LAND MINES

Once upon a time, a tribe of people lived between the jungle and the sea.  They were very happy, for the Great Power, which is what they called their deity, had given them fertile soil for growing wheat and the jungle for gathering bananas and the sea for abundant fishing.

One day a series of disasters began to mar their idyllic existence.  A young woman was walking in the field at sunset to meet her lover when an explosion suddenly rent the air, scattering her body over hundreds of yards.  Some days later, a child was playing near the jungle with a sling he had fashioned from a piece of animal hide.  As he reached for a nice, smooth stone for his sling as explosion ripped through his little body as if it were made of paper.  Another time, two men were pulling their nets at the mouth of the river where it joined the sea.  One stepped back upon a clump of saw grass and an explosion blew away half his body.

The Council of Elders met to consider the situation.  They realized that their village was mined with dangerous explosives, but they didn’t know what to do about it.  The people couldn’t simply remain at home; their livelihoods and happiness depended on the freedom to move about.  So they prayed to the Great Power for help.

Several days later, after more tragedies had occurred, a bell summoned all the people to their assembling place, and an elder stood to speak.  “Last night,” he said, “I had a dream.  In my dream, the Great Power swept me up and revealed to me where the land mines are hidden.  Here is a map of their locations.  If we learn to avoid the places marked with an X, we shall live happily ever after.”

A great shout went up from the people, and they lifted the elder and carried him about on their shoulders.  They made copies of the map, lest the original should ever be lost, and many of the people committed it to memory.  It was, they said, the greatest gift they had ever received, and it deserved to be honored not only in their lifetime but for all generations as well.

The people who followed the map lived safely and happily ever after.  But those who ignored it were destroyed, bringing sadness to the hearts of all their friends and loved ones.[ii]

I think you see the parallel.  As long as they followed the map they lived free, free from fear, free from the dangers hidden around them; free to live free.

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In a few minutes we will come to join our Christian brothers and sisters across  the planet as we remember our  Lord through whose  death and resurrection we have been freed from the bondage and  fear of sin and death, freed to live  free.  Because of what God has done for  us in Jesus Christ, we are free, free to follow the map God has  given to us and through following the map of theTen Freedoms, we continue to live free.  Amen?  Amen!

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[i] Character of  Freedom, Lisa Kenkeremath, Lectionary Homiletics Vol XXII, Number 6, pg. 8,9.

[ii] To MyPeople with Love, John Killinger, Abingdon Press, 1988, pg. 17-19.

Called by God: When You Can’t do Anything Else

Called by God: When You Can’t Do Anything Else

Exodus 3:1-12; Matthew 4:11-18

I am curious this morning and I hope you will indulge me in a short survey.  I would like to know by a show of hands how many of you came with eager expectation over the topic for today – the call to ordained ministry.  A second question for those of you who raised your hands; how many of you are lying?

I am under no illusions that the call to ordained ministry is not the burning concern on most people’s minds and hearts.  And preaching a sermon on the call to ordained ministry is somewhat like placing a platter of steaks, fried chicken, pork chops and breaded fish on the table in front of a vegetarian.  I mean, it’s just not going to go anywhere!

Just mention the words ordained ministry and people begin to think within themselves that’s not for me, after all I’m too old.  I am retired.  I have a career to maintain and a family for which I am responsible.  I can’t go into the ordained ministry with such responsibilities.  How can I go back to school after being out for so many years?

Even those who are younger see no appeal compared to other careers.  Consider the initial salary levels and the handwriting is on the wall – who would want to work for this when I can have my weekends off and make so much more money?  And who would want to move every few years, uproot your family and start over again and again?  And if that is not enough, then you have to put up with those ornery church folks! (Present company excluded, of course) No wonder few people ever consider the ordained ministry as a career or as a possible occupation.

Each year at our Charge Conference our District Superintendent asks the question, “Who has been sent into ordained ministry from this congregation?”  Some congregations proudly answer with the names of several former members who have entered the ordained ministry from their church.  Other congregations sit and look down at the floor despising the very question because no one has entered the ordained ministry from among them.  It may be for those congregations a sign that they have not created a spiritually-charged environment for people to hear and respond to the call of God on their lives.

A number of years ago I was asked to participate in Career Day at Erskine College.  So on Career Day I  showed up at Erskine College and was assigned a table among other tables where people from various occupations was available to discuss with students the career possibilities  in their respective fields of work.  For three hours I stood and sometimes sat waiting on someone, anyone to come and talk to me about ordained ministry. No one came by.  Even when I stepped out and began conversations with some to the students, as soon as I said ordained ministry, they ran away like a gazelle being chased by a tiger.  No one was interested in ordained ministry.

As I reflected on that Career Day experience I realized there was one primary flaw in my showed up to represent the ordained ministry at a college Career Day.  We do not choose ordained ministry.  We are chosen by God for ordained ministry.

IF YOU CAN DO ANYTHING ELSE

 Soon after acknowledging God’s call to ordained ministry my pastor, Bill McNeill, invited me to a District Minister’s meeting one Monday morning.  The District Office was located here at St. Paul where our church offices are presently located.  The minister’s meeting was held in Poston Hall.

Following the meeting, Bill McNeill led me from Poston Hall to the District office area because he needed to speak to our superintendent, the Rev. Ted Walters.  While waiting on Ted, Bill introduced me to several of the ministers who were there to see Ted also.  One of the ministers I was introduced to that morning was Sam Poston who was serving in the Spartanburg District at the time.  When Bill introduced me to Sam as a possible ministerial candidate, Sam looked at me and said, “If you can do anything else, do it!”

At first I was surprised.  I expected Sam to tell me how good  it was  to have a new candidate to the ordained ministry and what a  grand experience  it was to be  called  by God to ordained ministry.  Instead Sam speared me with the words, “If you can do anything else, do it.”

Over the years I have come to the conclusion that Sam’s words were correct when it comes to the call to ordained ministry – if you can do anything else, do it.  By that I do not mean if you have no skills to do anything else then go into the ordained ministry; neither do I mean if you can’t get a job anywhere else then go into the ordained ministry.  But what I am saying is that if the call, the pull, the tug of God on your soul is so great that you will never be satisfied doing anything else, then and only then follow that calling.

MY PERSONAL JOURNEY INTO ORDAINED MINISTRY

My personal journey into ordained ministry began as an infant when, at my baptism my parents and the congregation of Green Street Methodist Church vowed to nurture me in the Christian faith and life.  Through family prayer and devotional time and through the educational ministries of the church I was guided as to how to listen to the voice of God at work in my life.  I would not be here today, I do not believe, had it not been for the spiritual foundation given to me by my parents and my church family in those early years of my life.

While serving in the U. S. Air Force there were many temptations to choose the wrong paths, and sometimes I did.  But deep within me the compass of being a follower of Jesus kept pointing me back to the Christian path.  While serving in Taiwan, a small island in the South China Sea, predominantly Buddhist, I met a number of Christian missionaries who build on the foundation already given to me by my parents and church family.

When I returned home from Taiwan and from the U. S. Air Force I sensed deep within myself a desire to serve God in some capacity.  At that time I was thinking as a missionary primarily because I had been influenced richly through the missionaries I had known.  I began to find ways to invest myself in the ministries of my local church.  I taught the youth Sunday school class and helped my brother who was the youth director at our home church at that time.  I led a Bible study at Spartanburg Methodist College for a while.  All the while I was searching to find what it was that God wanted me to do with my life.

In the spring of 1977 I was asked by my minister if I would meet with the Staff-Parish Relations Committee on Sunday afternoon.  The minister didn’t tell me why, just what time to be present.  At the appointed hour I was present and the chairperson said to me, “Frank, we think God has called you into the parish ministry.  We don’t know what you think, but we would like for you to pray and think about whether God has called you into the ministry.”  To be honest, I had never thought of ordained ministry to that point.  But they saw in me what I didn’t see in myself, so I began to explore that avenue of service to God.

A few months later while attending Spartanburg Technical College, I was sitting at my drafting table when in a moment of time a sense overcame me that I was in the wrong place.  That is the only way I can express it.  I felt in the deepest part of my being the course I was taking, the path I was traveling was the wrong path.  In that realization I knew with great clarity where I needed to be and what direction I needed to take.  Within two months I was starting Wofford College and had entered the process of candidacy for ordained ministry.

REFLECTIONS ON THE CALL TO ORDAINED MINISTRY

I think it is important to note no two people are called in the same way by God.  I share my story with you to highlight a few keys I believe are important for one who feels called into the parish ministry.

First, there were no voices, no crisis moments when I vowed to God if God would get me out of a particular situation I would go into the ministry.  There was an ongoing hunger within myself to know what God wanted to do with my life.  Through that longing to know what God wanted to do with my life, God was able to guide me to where I needed to be.

Second, the call of God is never an isolated call.  I needed the church family, particularly the SPRC to help me hear God’s call much like young Samuel needed Elisha to hear and discern God’s call on his life.  Indeed, one of the ways we hear God’s call is in the presence of the faith community.  Through the community of faith God’s call upon our lives is affirmed and confirmed.

Third, Sam Poston was right – if you can do anything else, do it.  But if you cannot do anything else, if you are not satisfied doing anything else, it is a good sign that God has called you to serve God and God’s people through ordained ministry.  I could not do anything else and be satisfied.

PARTING WORDS

Jesus said to his disciples in the Upper Room before his arrest, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.”  Every baptized believer is called by God, chosen as a minister of the grace of God.  Each of us has differing gifts and skills for ministry.  As we discover the gifts God has given us, we discover where God has chosen to use us in the ministry and mission of the church.

There are those God chooses, calls to serve God’s mission through the ordained ministry.  If you can serve God in some other capacity, some other way, do it.  But if not, know this, the journey of ordained ministry is a richly rewarding, deeply satisfying, immensely fulfilling endeavor that at times you want to throw up your hands and just quit – but you know you can’t, and even if you could, you wouldn’t!  Glory be  to God!

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Even There!

Even There!

Psalm 139: 7-10

Zion Reflections

 First let me express to you our joy in being present with you for this year’s Homecoming.  Often times Sherry and I reflect on our 32 years of ministry and the congregations we have been privileged to serve.  Some of our fondest memories come from our times at Zion.  And whenever we return for whatever the reason we always feel at home in your presence.

I remember the first day we arrived here, an elderly gentleman stood out by the old tree beside the driveway and watched as our personal possessions were unloaded and moved into the parsonage.  I went out to introduce myself and met for the first time Caldwell McAteer.  He told me he always visited the pastor on the day they moved into the parsonage, and I was no exception.

I also remember the first Sunday at Zion.  It happened to be the Sunday the men were having breakfast in the building on the hill at the ball field.  I went that morning not knowing very many people.  I was talking to Steve McDonald when he said to me, “Have you met that man who just walked in?”  I looked and didn’t recognize him and replied, “No, I don’t believe I have.”  Steve then said, “Frank, you need to meet that man.  His name is Wink McAteer.”  It was my second encounter with a McAteer in a matter of a few days!  I made my way over to Wink and held out my hand while introducing myself.  Wink didn’t take my outstretched hand.  He looked me in the eye and said, “Let me tell you right now, if you see me doing this, you need to cut it off,” meaning it was time to stop preaching.  I didn’t know what to say, so I said, “Wink, if I see you do this and you see me do this, you get up and leave!”  We became instant friends at that moment.

It’s hard to believe that since leaving Zion our daughter has finished high school, college and is now on her own in Charleston; our son Taylor has also finished high school and is beginning his college career at Wofford College.  I look around and see children who have now grown up in a short few years, some of whom I do not even recognize.  There are also faces I do not see, members and friends who are no longer with us.

While reflecting on what to say this morning it came to me in a profound way how time moves on.  As much as we would like to freeze time at one particular moment, we simply cannot.  Time moves on and so do we.  Yet amid the changes and transitions of life in the movement of time, God’s grace is always with us.

It was while I was here at Zion I discovered in a powerful way the richness of the 139^th Psalm.  Let me share with you the 7^th through the 10^th verses this morning.

Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.

Did you hear those two words that form a profound affirmation in the midst of life’s difficulties and transitions?  Even there.  Even there – wherever we may be in life, even there God is with us.

This affirmation is reflected in many of the hymns we sing such as

O God our help in ages past, our hope for years to  come;

our shelter from the stormy blast and  our eternal home.

Or. . .

Be still my soul, the Lord is on yourside; Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.

Leave to thy God to order and provide; In every change God faithful will remain.

 Probably the most familiar is found in the hymn Amazing Grace the third verse.

Though many dangers, toils and snares I have already come;

‘tis grace hath  brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.

THROUGH MANY DANGERS, TOILS AND SNARES…

Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come.  We have come through many dangers, toils and snares, haven’t we?

Since being reappointed in 2002, the world has changed.  9/11 brought about some of that change.  But then, we have ridden the downslide of the economy.  There are probably few places in South Carolina that has not felt the devastation of the economic rift more than in Lancaster County.  Along with the struggling economy, the closing of Springs Industries added to the difficult times you have been facing here.

Because of the economic environment you as a congregation have had to struggle and work to maintain the level of ministry you have been engaged in through the years.  Sherry and I read the Zion Newsletter often and we know of the many ways you are working to fund the Thompson Family Life Center that was built when the economy was in much better shape.

As I look across the congregation I see the faces of those who are missing from us this morning.  People who would be here, who would be present each Sunday morning and involved in the ministries of the church and who would be supporting the work of God through Zion UMC today if only they were here.  But they have passed beyond their days here on earth and now live in the presence of God.

All of that being true, it doesn’t make it any easier for those of us who remain.  When we gather for Homecoming, we remember their presence among us; give thanks for their lives even as we still feel their absence.

We understand what John Newton meant when he wrote, “Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come,” for we, too have come through many dangers, toils and snares, not just since our coming and leaving Zion, but through the many years prior.

 ‘TIS GRACE HATH BROUGHT ME SAFE THUS FAR…

Time moves on, and so does John Newton’s third verse.  Newton does not stop with the fact of reality, through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come.  He moves on

to the point he is making through this hymn, “’tis grace hath brought me safe thus far.”

Wherever you are today in your life, you are by God’s grace.  You’ve made it, not as you hoped or expected to be at this point in time in your life, but you are here!  You’ve made it, and you’ve made it by the grace of God!

You see, faith is not about getting somewhere you are not.  Faith is about knowing in the midst of life you are not alone.  Faith is living in the presence of God.  Faith is walking the path of life knowing you are accompanied by God.

Faith knows whether in life or in death, in success as well as in failure, in victory or in defeat, in good time and in bad times, in good news as well as in times of unwelcome news comes God is with you.  It knows the grace of God accompanying and surrounding us throughout our lives.  It knows as individuals and as a congregation that at all times and in every place we are in good hands because we are in God’s hands.  There is no safer place to be.  Or as John Newton put it, ‘tis grace hath brought me safe thus far.

While serving Trinity UMC in Anderson a member of our congregation, Bob Moorer, was having some health issues.  Tests were done.  More tests were done.  While in the hospital undergoing these tests, Bob had a stroke.

I would visit Bob every day in the hospital and would end my visit with a prayer.  As I had begun doing, stemming from my encounter with the 139^th Psalm, I ended each prayer with the words “We are in good hands because we are in God’s hands.  There is no safer place to be.”

One morning I walked into Bob’s room.  His wife was standing there along with his son.  Bob was in a wheelchair.  There were wheeling Bob out for more tests.  They were in a hurry, so I didn’t have time to speak to Bob, but as they pushed Bob passed me, Bob held out his hands in this manner.  And I knew that Bob knew he was in good hands regardless of the outcome.

Faith knows, believes, lives in the reality that God is with us wherever we are, in whatever situation we find ourselves, for it is grace that hath brought us safe thus far.

AND GRACE SHALL LEAD US HOME

I don’t have to tell you the ending of the third verse of Amazing Grace.   You know it already.  “And grace shall lead me home.”

Many of you know my mother died this past January.  Since then myself and my two brothers have been cleaning out her house.  Two weeks ago I was going through some papers she had put away I a plastic bag to preserve them.  One of the items in the plastic bag was a copy of the words spoken by my parent’s minister at my father’s funeral.

My father had been in Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte to remove an aneurysm.  Before the surgery the minister asked my father what he thought about his upcoming surgery, my father replied, “It will be alright.”

Two days later my father died.  At his funeral, the minister used those words to reflect on my father’s faith and to remind us of the grace of God in our midst.  These are the words the minister said,

Somewhere, some way this afternoon in a different, more personal relationship with his risen Lord “it is alright with ‘Goo.’”  We must believe “it will be alright” with the rest of us, too.

It will be alright.  That is a statement of faith.  That is a statement that declares in the face of the uncertainty to life all is well.  It is a statement that expresses the truth of human existence, that wherever we are, whatever the situation, whatever  is yet to come, we are in good hands because we are in God’s hands and because we are in God’s hands we know God’s grace will lead us home.

EVEN THERE!

Through many dangers, toils and snares we, you have already come.  ‘Tis grace hath brought us safe thus far, and grace shall lead us home.

Or as the Psalmist expressed it,

Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.

 

Amen?  Amen!

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Jesus’ Summer Lineup – More Than Meets the Eye

More Than Meets the Eye

Mark 4:26-29

 God is alive and active in the world. 

Even when the evidence seems otherwise,God is alive and active in the world.

To this end Jesus told a story, a story about a farmer who planted his seed in the ground and in the end reaps a grand harvest.  But before the harvest arrives, before the plant breaks the surface of the soil there is a period when it seems as if nothing is taking place.  The farmer went about his daily tasks while nothing seemed to be happening with the seed he had planted.  Beneath the surface, however, that small seed is in the process of becoming a plant.  Beneath the surface hidden from human observation the soil and seed are working together to produce a plant that will one day reap a harvest.

Jesus told this story to the end that we would have the eyes to see what many people do not see – that God is alive and active in the world even when the evidence appears otherwise.

***

We Methodists call this prevenient grace – the grace that comes before.  Before we are aware of God’s work in our lives, before we are sensitive to the work of God in the world, before we do or perceive anything, God is already at work in the world.

Indeed, centuries before the writer of the 37^th Psalm penned these words,

Do not fret because of those who are evil
or be envious of those who do wrong;

Why not fret and be anxious when evildoers prevail?  Why not be afraid when those who do wrong prosper?  His answer is simple – because they will wither like the grass and fade like a green plant.

The Psalmist sees what no one else sees especially when those who do evil prosper.  He sees God alive and active in the world and therefore the success of the evildoers will only be for a short time then God will ultimately triumph over those who perpetrate evil.

During the struggle for freedom over the apartheid system in South Africa Bishop Desmond Tutu stood before P.W. Botha, the President of South Africa and staunch leader of the apartheid system.  Tutu declared to President Botha that apartheid was against the will of God and would fail.  No one believed Desmond Tutu.  No one could see the failure of the powerful South African government as it faced the powerlessness of the people.  Yet Bishop Desmond Tutu believed something was taking place underneath the surface, something likened to a seed being sown in the ground, little by little, hidden from human eyes it was growing and sprouting until it broke through the powerful apartheid system and freedom began to blossom in South Africa.

Desmond Tutu and others believed even in the face of brute force that God was alive and active in the world and because God was alive and active in the world evil and those who did evil would be overcome by good and by God’s will and purposes.

We make this affirmation each time we sing,

This is my Father’s word, O let me ne’er forget

That though the wrong seems oft so strong

God is the ruler yet.

Even when it seems otherwise, do not fear or fret because God is alive and active in the world.  Even when it appears nothing is taking place God is quietly at work in the world.

***

Ezekiel the prophet was shown a vision of dry bones, bones bleached white over time, bones that have been lying in the desert sun for decades.  God asks Ezekeil, “Can these dry bones live again?”  Ezekiel knows the answer, but because he is dealing with God he is afraid to tell God what he’s really thinking.  So he gives God a safe answer, “Only you know, God.”  And before the vision is taken away, the dry bones have become an exceedingly great army because with God it’s always more than meets the eye.

John begins his gospel with an introduction that defines what to look for when reading his gospel.  He says, ‘In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us in Jesus Christ.  What John is saying is to look beyond what is visible, look beyond what is seen, look beyond what is plausible because in Jesus of Nazareth there is more than meets the eye.  This is the Son of God walking among us.

 ***

I am reminded of a story told by Fred Craddock about a young woman who visited him one day in his office at Candler School of Theology.  After some brief small talk she told this story.  She had gone to a bridge in Atlanta the night before.  Her intention was to jump off the bridge.  While standing on the bridge, she remembered a quote from somewhere, she did not know where, but that quote kept her from taking her own life.  The quote was, “Cast all you care upon him because he cares for you.”  She asked Dr. Craddock if he knew where that quote came from.

Dr. Craddock asked, “Did you ever attend church anywhere as you were growing up?”  She said she did not, her family was not particularly religious and so they did not go to church.  But then she said during the summer she would visit her grandmother who lived in the country.  Every Sunday morning when she was at her grandmother’s they would go to church.

Dr. Craddock shook his head as if he knew something she did not know.  For Sunday after Sunday in that rural church a faithful Sunday school teacher, a faithful pastor taught and preached the gospel to the same people every week year after year except when a young girl would come with her grandmother a few Sundays in the summer.  If you had asked one of the members what happened in church that Sunday, they would have probably said, “Not much.  We had a lesson.  The pastor preached and we went home.”

Yet through their faithful teaching and preaching, unknown to them, God had planted a seed in this young girl’s heart.  For months, even years, it seemed as if nothing was happening, until one Sunday evening as she stood on a bridge in Atlanta, Georgia and the words from Paul’s letter to the  Philippians began to break through into  her life,  “Cast all your care upon him because he cares for  you.”

***

In a day and time when we live by instant gratification, when we seek the immediate and expect to see the results of our labors instantaneously, Jesus’ story is a corrective measure.  For through this story he says  to pastors, to teachers, leaders, assistants, to parents and all who serve others: be patient, be confident, be faithful, for even when you see little to nothing taking place, God is still alive and active in the world and in the church and in our personal lives beyond what you and I can see.  Amen?  Amen!

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Questions God Asks Us – Do You Want to be Made Well?

Do You Want to be Made Well?

John 5:1-7

A few years ago a young man came to see me.  He and his wife were members of the church I was serving.  He told me this story.

He had become addicted to video poker and had gambled his life away.  He owed a large amount of money because of his gambling addiction.  He almost lost his home, his wife and everything important to him.  He hated himself.  He felt utterly trapped by his addiction.  The harder he tried to free himself the stronger he found his addiction.

One Friday evening he checked himself into a motel room.  He carried no clothes, no bags or toiletry items with him.  The only item he carried into that motel room was a .38.  In his mind there was no way out except this one.  He was trapped.

***

 Our scripture lesson this morning is about a man who feels trapped.  He has been paralyzed for thirty-eight years.  It has cost him his job.  It has left him in poverty.  There was no cure, no way out for him.  No way out until Jesus came and asked him, “Do you want to be made well?”  That question changed everything.

This is the question God asks us to consider when we feel paralyzed and trapped.  Do you want to be made well?  Do you want to get better?  Sure we want to get better.  Sure we want to be free of those things and situations that render us paralyzed and trapped.  But we have a question, too.  Our question is how – how can we be made well?  How can we get out of this incurable, paralyzing place we find ourselves?

That was the man’s initial response to Jesus.  It’s impossible.  There is no way things can change for me.  I’m stuck.  There is no one to help me into the water and by the time I get there, someone gets in before me.

A little explanation is in order at this point.  In Jesus day it was a popular belief that periodically an angel would come and stir the water at the Pool of Bethsaida.  When the water was stirred the first person to get into the water would be made well.  You can imagine the numbers of people who crowded around the pool just waiting for the moment when the water would be stirred.  It was no different with this man.  But to add injury to his already paralyzed condition, he had no one to help him into the water and so he never was able to get there in time.  He is trapped.

The story ends with the man walking and rejoicing in the freedom given to him by Jesus.  How did it happen?  What can we learn from this man’s encounter with Jesus that will free us from those things that trap and paralyze us?  Let’s take a closer look at this story.

ASK THE RIGHT QUESTION

The first thing to note is the question Jesus asked, “Do you want to be made well?”  We have to ask the right questions.  Often we ask the wrong questions, questions such as why did this happen to me.  Why did God no do something to prevent this?  Is God punishing me?  Does God not care about me?  These are the wrong questions.

The right question is the question asked by Jesus, “Do you want to be made well?”  The man was spending him time looking at what had happened to him and why he could not get better.  Jesus asked him the deeper, more searching question focusing on his deepest desires – do you want to be made well?  Do you want to get better?

Sometimes we don’t want to get better.  We like the attention of not being whole, the attention of having others fuss over us.  I wonder if the man was like this.  He had to have someone bring him to the pool every day; someone to provide his breakfast, lunch, dinner every day.  He had to have someone to help bathe him and ensure he got to the doctors on time.  The local synagogue may have had a caring team that visited him once a week at the pool, brought him a basket of fruit each month and a meal at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  If he were to get better he would lose all of this.  Maybe he didn’t want to get better.

The primary question we need to ask ourselves when feeling trapped by a situation or circumstance is do I want to get better.  Do I want to be free from the trap, this thing that has paralyzed my life?  Even God can do nothing for us if we don’t want to get better.  So we begin by asking this primary question asked by Jesus, “Do you want to be made well?  Do you want to get better?”

TAKE THE APPROPRIATE ACTION

Getting better, being healed, being made well is often a process over time not an instantaneous event.  After wrestling with the question do you want to be made well Jesus invited the man to take another step in the process of being free from his paralysis.  He invited the man to take appropriate action, to do something positive about his situation.  “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”

As long as the paralyzed man kept his focus on why he couldn’t be healed, he wasn’t healed.  As long as he filled his daily thoughts with his inability to get to the water first; his having no one to help him into the water, as long as he believed in the superstitious he would never be healed.  Jesus tells him to take appropriate action, to do something about his situation, to rise, take up his bed and walk.

This story reminds me of my cousin Katrina.  Katrina was born with cerebal palsey in the 1950’s.  My earliest memories of Katrina were her quite noticeable walk that caused her to sway from side to side.  Her bent and twisted arms and legs would not allow her to keep up with her friends and classmates.  Her words were slurred and choppy.  Her teachers found it difficult to read her writing because writing was an almost impossible feat for her.  She had every reason to be angry, bitter; to give up because cerebal palsey had trapped her in a body that made the simplest tasks a gigantic challenge.

Katrina completed her high school education.  She graduated from the University of South Carolina.  Several years later, Sherry and I was in the upper deck at Williams Brice Stadium in Columbia and who came climbing up those steep steps at Williams Brice Stadium with a smile on her face as she bounced from side to side – Katrina!

You see, there are some things about her life Katrina will never be able to change.  She cannot change her paralysis.  She will be paralyzed until her death.  But she didn’t let her paralysis paralyze her.   She did something about her situation.   She took appropriate action.  She took her paralysis and made something out of it.

This is Jesus’ invitation to the man who was paralyzed for thirty-eight years.  Rise, take up your bed and walk.  Don’t let the things that paralyze you hold you back.  Don’t let your paralysis paralyze you.  Do something positive about your situation.  Take appropriate action.  Move in a positive, forward direction.

This is Jesus’ invitation to you and to me when we find ourselves stuck, trapped, paralyzed by our situation.  Rise, take up your bed and walk, do something about your situation, take appropriate action.

***

The young man laid his .38 on the table beside the bed.  In order to muffle the noise, he turned on the television set.  He picked up the remote and began to flip through the channels when he came to a Christian program and he stopped there.  Though he hadn’t planned to, he began to listen to this program and through the program he heard the living Christ whisper in his mind and heart, “Do you want to be made well?”  He wanted to be free from his addiction more than anything in his life.  Instinctively he knew what he needed to do.  He stood, took up his .38 and left the motel room.  And like the man in our text this morning, he rejoiced in his new-found freedom.

I’m not going to say it was all over for this young man that evening.  It wasn’t.  It took several months for him to be completely free of this addiction that at one time paralyzed him.  But that evening he knew the grace of God was more powerful than that which left him paralyzed and trapped.  And that grace has allowed him to walk tall and free once again.

***

Do you want to be made well?  That is the question God asks us when we find ourselves trapped, paralyzed, stuck by life.  Do you want to be made well?

If so, God will give you the grace to rise, take hold of the thing that has trapped and paralyzed you, and the grace of God will allow you to walk free once again.  Amen?  Amen!

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