Keep Christ in Easter?

During the past year one of our neighbors has started putting seasonal decorations at the entrance to our neighborhood.  At Christmas there was greenery, wreaths, and red bows.  At Valentines there was hearts of red and pink.  At St. Patrick’s there was glittering green clovers, and now it is decorated again.  It looks like an explosion of springtime.  There are eggs, pastel bunnies, and colorful tulips.  It reminds me of my daughter’s spring preschool pictures, which on some years would include a real-live bunny.  Those photos, on a cuteness scale of 1-10, were a strong 11.

I loved those pictures, and I love the decorations at the entrance to our neighborhood, because of the season of the year that they signal.  The colors, flowers, and even the bunny rabbits indicates that our long winter has come to an end and new life is being born.  I love springtime.  To see the greening of the earth, the flowering trees and bushes, even the dusty coat of pollen brings me joy in anticipation of warmer weather, longer days, and summer vacation.  I also love Easter Egg hunts.  This Sunday morning the deacons have planned a wonderful Easter Egg Hunt, and we will watch our children with their baskets in their hand and smiles on their faces as they search for the sugary treats hidden in the church yard.  This reminds me that springtime is here.

            What our culture celebrates this time of the year at the vernal equinox as the earth’s northern hemisphere tilts closer to the sun is a natural occurrence.  Daylight is no longer outmatched by darkness.  The sun has more time to warm the earth.  Sap rises in the trees, buds appear, flowers bloom, and all of God’s creatures experience a lift in spirits.  The earth is fertile, eggs are everywhere, and animals begin to multiply—rabbits being the most proficient at this natural process.

            Most people don’t realize that Christians face the same danger at “Easter” as we face at Christmas—that our faithful celebration of Christ’s resurrection may be overshadowed or “tacked on” to our culture’s celebration of something else.  Even the word “Easter” is a term that came into English from a pagan Germanic goddess named Eostre.  It is easy in this cultural celebration to simply take Christian’s resurrection story and syncretize it with the bunnies, the eggs, the flowers, and springtime.

            But remember, while the greening of the earth is a natural event that we know is coming year after year, the story of God’s resurrection in the world is a totally unnatural event.  A human body is not like a bulb—when it is planted in the ground it is not natural for it to spring forth from the earth—and that is what we celebrate in the Church.  An unnatural truth in which God intercedes in our world to break all natural law in order to bring us new life.

            So please bear with me as I call “the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox” Resurrection Sunday and not Easter.  It is a day of unnatural occurrences, of a story that makes no natural sense, a story that is due only to the fact of God’s miraculous involvement in the world.

Attitude at Lunch

One of my “family jobs” is to make everyone’s sandwich for lunches each morning.  Most mornings I make four sandwiches, but one morning last week I made only three.  I did so hoping that I would have the opportunity to eat something a little better than my normal PB&J for lunch on that particular day.  Sure enough, almost as an answer to prayer, I had a text from a church member inviting me to lunch a little later that morning.

We met at The County Seat, and had a good time catching up with each other.  I love hearing about people’s families, old stories, and how people get to where they are in life.  On this particular day I heard about how my friend’s mother had such a deep influence on his life.  It was a good story.  But the conversation took a turn and we talked about the importance of positive attitude.

The conversation reminded me of the story in the book of Numbers when God instructed Moses to send spies into Canaan, into the Promised Land.  The twelve went into the land God had promised to their ancestors, and they saw a great land, flowing with milk and honey, and clusters of grapes so big two men would have to carry them between them on a post.  (I think I learned that in Sunday school).  It was everything the Hebrews could have dreamed of.  The spies return to give their report, and ten out of twelve suggest that there was no way they could take and occupy the land.  There were only two, Joshua and Caleb, who insist that they can.  All twelve looked at what God had called them to do, but only two had the faith that they could do it.

Life has not changed a lot for God’s people.  It is easy to get the attitude that “we can never do that!”  And that could be a lot of things.  Every aspect and ministry of church life has thats.  Some are big, and some are small.  But these “thats” tend to reveal which group you are in: the ten, or the two.

I invite you, be one of the two.

Those two didn’t have their yes attitude because they thought the Hebrew people were so great and powerful, but because they knew that God would give them the ability to do what God had called them to do.  And because of that belief, one of those two proclaimed and “I want that mountain” when we get there.

I left lunch last Thursday thinking again about my attitude, and how often I’m in the ten, and how often I’m in the two.  How about you?

Fox Elementary, the City Jail, and Saying Yes

I saw it on the news again this morning.  Richmond’s First Baptist Church opened their doors to students from Fox Elementary School whose building burned last month.  There, on the early local news, were images of the church and all the welcome messages to the students and teachers on church bulletin boards.  The gym is decorated and set up, not for church activities, but for the normal day in the life of an elementary school community.  Every time I see the story on the news, I think about all that was involved for a church to host a public school in their facility.  I also think about the process of Richmond’s First Baptist deciding to say YES to this bold opportunity.

Downtown Wilmington North Carolina is a beautifully revitalized historic district.  In that district are several churches, including First Baptist.  For years there was only one other building on the block where First Baptist sits, and that was the New Hanover County Jail.  One day it was all over the news: the County was closing the downtown jail and opening a new facility farther out in the County.  Several people at First Baptist had a dream of what their church could do with that building, and the most bold plan was to purchase it and provide space for different non-profit organizations that served the New Hanover County area.  It was a bold idea, and the church did not have the millions that the plan would cost.  But they made the decision that they were going to do it.  And they did.

It is no secret that many churches are not what they used to be.  More and more folks no longer attend church, and many Americans (even Powhatan residents) identify as non-religious.  For years pastors and church leaders have attended seminars, read books, hired consultants, and fervently prayed for a secret, a strategic insight, that will enable their church to flourish or just survive in the culture in which we live.  And each year there is another guru who offers the “silver bullet” to church growth and vitality.  Churches will buy the program, make adjustments, put the new plan in place, hopeful that “this one" will be the “jello that actually sticks to the wall.”  And the next year they are at it again.  Churches have done many things:  toss the piano and organ, hire a band; take out the choir loft and get a new plexiglass pulpit;  remove pews, add chairs, and start calling the sanctuary “the auditorium”; encourage people not to “dress up” for worship.  The list goes on and on.

I admire churches for trying what they can, but when I look at all of these things, I just don’t think they make a difference, especially when churches are faithful to who God has put them together to be.  In other words, I would look like a phony preaching in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt.

But, the one thing that I think makes all the difference in the world for a church is this.  It is the courage to say YES when an opportunity presents itself.  Richmond’s First Baptist saw a great opportunity in hosting Fox Elementary, and they said YES.  Wilmington’s First Baptist saw an opportunity to buy the old city jail and use it for God’s work, and they said YES.  Both of these were risky choices.  Both of these YES’S held many potential issues that would have to be worked out, but in faith they said YES.  And in the end, it was God who was presenting both of these congregations with the opportunity to be bold and risky and respond with a YES.

This weekend May Memorial has an opportunity to say YES to something we’ve never been able to do before.  To say YES to a newly created full-time staff staff position, Associate Pastor for Community and Families.  Saying yes will stretch us financially (slightly).  Saying yes will cause us to consider new opportunities and ministries.  Saying yes will cause us to see church life in a different light.  It might hold some risks to say YES, but I believe this is a chance to say YES to an opportunity that God is offering us at this time.

My heart is thrilled at this opportunity.  Our candidate is all we could have ever hoped for.  She is competent, caring, credentialed, and full of energy for her vocation.  She senses a call to May Memorial, and everyone from May Memorial who has been involved in the process sense the same call, that God is calling her here.  I look forward to allowing God’s Spirit to lead us through this exciting time and to understand the potential our future holds.  Sometimes there is a lot required of God’s people to move forward, but sometimes it is just a simple YES.

A Simple Prayer and a Sophisticated Theological Term

The memorized meal prayer that I prayed at my family table growing up started with the phrase “God is great, God is good.”  It is a simple children’s prayer that has been prayed at millions of meal tables of Christian people.  “Let us thank Him for our food.  By His hands we are fed.  Thank you Lord for daily bread.”

In that opening phrase of that children’s blessing exists one of the greatest (maybe THE greatest) challenge to Christianity.  To put it simply, if “God is great,” and if “God is good,” why is there suffering and evil in the world.  If God is all-powerful, doesn’t God have the “might” to do away with evil.  And, if God is good, doesn’t God have the will to use that might to eliminate evil and suffering?  Even though I didn’t know this as a child when I prayed this prayer, this struggle, or problem, has a fancy theological name: Theodicy.

For many Christians in the past two-hundred years the question of evolution was seen as the biggest challenge to Christianity and a belief in God.  Charles Darwin and eventually the Scopes “monkey” Trial in Tennessee represent this struggle.  While many Christians thought this posed a great challenge to the Christian faith, it has been widely accepted now that science should not be seen as a challenge to faith or scripture.

But the theodicy question still remains.  It has existed in different forms throughout Christian history, and many of the great theologians of Church History have attempted to explain the tension in that children’s prayer: if “God is great” and “God is good,” why does suffering and evil exist in our world?

This Sunday in worship we will hear a story from Luke’s gospel in which Jesus is asked about suffering, with the suggestion that those who suffer do so because they are sinful.  “What about those who were killed while offering sacrifices in the Temple?  They must have been sinful for such a tragic thing to happen.”  “And what about those who died when that tower collapsed?  They must have been sinful for that to happen to them, right?”  And Jesus answers plainly: no.

We long for reasons as to why terrible things happen.  Because we can’t bear to think we live in a random world.  Why did the hurricane hit Haiti and thousands of people die?  Why did COVID  begin and spread across the globe?  Why did she get cancer?  If I can just find a reason, maybe I can keep it from happening to me.  And yet random evil things do happen.  Good people suffer and people we may not think are good suffer.  And we can’t find a reason.

It bothered those who questioned Jesus, and it still troubles faithful people.  Jesus doesn’t give all the information we would like, but he does answer the question.

Join us Sunday in worship and join the conversation with the confidence that God will speak to us as we listen for Him.

Chocolat

            One of my favorite movies is Chocolat.  The 2000 movie is set in a small French village in the late 1950’s, and stars Juliette Binoche, Judy Dench, Alfred Molina and Johnny Depp.  I love it because it is a good movie, but more than its cinematic quality I love it because of its message.  In the movie Vianne is a skilled maker of chocolate who wanders throughout France and finds herself settling and setting up shop in a very traditional French village.  When she arrives in this village, there is great distrust and even hatred toward her and her daughter.  This animosity involves many factors, but it is pinned on the fact that she has the nerve to open a chocolate shop right in the middle of Lent.  For the citizens of this village, Lent is seen as a time of denial and repentance, and when one in their village does not conform to their practice they do everything they can to drive her away.  The leader of the town tells Vianne early in the movie that their ancestors drove those accursed Huguenots away in a matter of weeks and that she presents a far less challenge than they did.

            What makes the movie difficult is that Vianne, though an outsider, befriends hurting people and treats them with love that should have been coming from the Christian community.  She helps a lady who is abused by her husband, and welcomes a group of drifters while the village launches a campaign to “boycott immorality.”  The priest of the church is caught in the middle of all of this.  He knows that something is wrong with the way the Christians are acting, especially the mayor of the town who writes his sermons for him and coaches him all along the way.

            What challenges me most about the movie is precisely the thing that I need to hear the most: too often Christians are far more concerned with their rules, rituals, and pious appearances than they are with welcoming the stranger in their midst or offering healing to the hurting.  Chocolat makes this point abundantly clear, and I hope you’ll watch this movie.

            It is said that the Baptist preacher and sociologist Tony Campolo was once speaking to a group of conservatively pious Christians and told them that “every day 30,000 children die because of hunger and preventable diseases[1] and you don’t give a damn.”  He quickly continued, “and what’s so bad is that you are more upset that I said damn than about the 30,000 children who are dying today.”

            May God bless us to major on the majors and minor on the minors.

          [1].  Ronald J. Sider, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity, New ed. (Lanham, MD: Thomas Nelson, 2005), 3.

Adjective or Noun?

In a recent Christian Century Editorial, Peter Marty describes a plumber in his community, a man who describes himself as a “Christian Plumber.”  Marty wonders, what makes his plumbing work Christian?  Is there a special quality to the plumbing parts he uses?  Is there a way to solder an elbow that is unique to Christians?  Is there a way the Christian Plumber’s work differs from that of a Jewish Plumber?  Or an atheist plumber?  Of course the answer is no.  But Marty points this out to call attention to how we use adjectives and nouns.  Marty quotes the great N.C. Baptist Pastor Carlyle Marney who says that Jesus had a very clear picture of how nouns and adjectives should be used.  Jesus showed us that words like leper, samaritan, and sinner should never be nouns.  The nouns we should use are human being, child of God, and person.  

This Sunday we will baptize one of the members of our youth group.  She is a part of a wonderful family that is beloved at May Memorial.  And as Blaire is baptized this Sunday, she (and all of the Church) is reminded of her true identity, her noun, her name.  And that is Christian.  God’s Child.  God’s Beloved.

After a person is baptized they will continue living and will become many things.  Some good things, some not so good things (we’re all human).  But whatever else happens, that noun stays at the center of who we are as God’s Beloved People.

Making this shift in the nouns we use when thinking and speaking about other people could have a significant impact on how we experience others. This shift could remind us that none of us can be reduced to one particular part of who we are, good or bad.  

For Christians, understanding our noun, our core identity, is essential.  We are more than our biggest mistake and our identity is forever in Christ.  And I wonder, what words do we need to retire as nouns?  What words should be only used as adjectives when speaking of another person?  An adjective describing nouns like person, human, or Christian?

As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:27-28)

A List for Lent

Wednesday begins the Season of Lent, the six week/forty day period (not counting Sundays) from Ash Wednesday to Resurrection Day when the Church takes a solemn turn to consider Jesus’ journey to the cross.  We consider our sinfulness, repentance, and our own mortality.  It is a season of soul-searching, a time to return to the Lord in ashes and repentance.  Jesus entered the wilderness for 40 days after his baptism, and the season of Lent designates forty days that we may enter the wilderness and fully rely on God.

Traditionally, Christians have decided to “give up” something during Lent.  Chocolate has always been a favorite, caffeine, cigars, or alcohol.  Many people decide to take a “social media” fast, giving up Facebook or Instagram.  All of these are fine, and some people may find spiritual growth in refusing a reliance of these so that they may rely on God.  This year, my thoughts are drawn toward those things that I may need to give up, not just for the season of Lent, but permanently.

The Prophet Joel will proclaim to us on Ash Wednesday that God calls us to return to God with all our heart.  God doesn’t call us to get everything cleaned up and then come, but to come with our hearts.  God is concerned with those things we do or don’t do, but God also wants our hearts, God wants them to be pure.

Nadia Bolz Weber, a Lutheran pastor in Denver, offered a list for the season of Lent several years ago, an action for each day, and it has been helpful to me.  I offer it to you again as a reminder or a plan of how we may offer our hearts to God and observe a Holy Lent.

Day 1: Pray for your enemies

Day 2: Walk, carpool, bike or bus it.

Day 3: Don’t turn on the car radio

Day 4: Give $20 to a non-profit of your choosing

(Sunday)

Day 5: Take 5 minutes of silence at noon

Day 6: Look out the window until you find something of beauty you had not noticed before

Day 7: Give 5 items of clothing to Goodwill

Day 8: No bitching day

Day 9: Do someone else’s chore

Day 10: Buy a few $5 fast food gift cards to give to homeless people you encounter

(Sunday)

Day 11: Call an old friend

Day 12: Pray the Paper (pray for people and situations in today’s news)

Day 13: Read Psalm 139

Day 14: Pay a few sincere compliments

Day 15: Bring your own mug

Day 16: Educate yourself about human trafficking 

(Sunday)

Day 17: Forgive someone

Day 18: Internet diet

Day 19: Change one light in your house to a compact florescent

Day 20: Check out morning and evening prayer online at The Daily Office.

Day 21: Ask for help

Day 22: Tell someone what you are grateful for

(Sunday)

Day 23: Introduce yourself to a neighbor

Day 24: Read Psalm 121

Day 25: Bake a cake

Day 26: No shopping day

Day 27: Light a virtual candle 

Day 28: Light an actual candle

(Sunday)

Day 29: Write a thank you note to your favorite teacher

Day 30: Invest in canvas shopping bags

Day 31: Use Freecycle

Day 32: Donate art supplies to your local elementary school

Day 33: Read John 8:1-11 

Day 34: Worship at a friend’s mosque, synogogue or church and look for the beauty

(Sunday)

Day 35: Confess a secret

Day 36: No sugar day – where else is there sweetness in your life?

Day 37: Give $20 to a local non-profit

Day 38: Educate yourself about a saint www.catholic.org/saints

Day 39: Pray for peace

Day 40: Pray for your enemies (you probably have new ones by now) then decide which of these exercises you’ll keep for good

The Ugliest Church Meeting I've Attended

The ugliest church meeting I ever attended happened about fifteen years ago, and I remember it like it was yesterday.  It was a meeting of the Music Committee, and in addition to the committee the Music Director and I were in attendance.  It was the only church meeting I’ve ever been present at in which someone “dropped the f-bomb,” and it was the ugliest church meeting at which I’ve ever been present.

            What makes the memory of this meeting peculiar is that I don’t remember the particular topic of the meeting. I don’t remember the reason the meeting was called, and I certainly don’t remember the printed agenda.  What I do remember are the tears, the hurtful words, the rising tempers, which all ended with the seventy-year-old Music Director standing to his feet, slamming his hands on the table, and telling the committee that he hoped they knew never to bother with him again.  He left the room quickly, and the rest of us sat there speechless for what seemed like an eternity.

            The music director was a long-time member of the church whom I deeply cared for, as I did for every other member on that committee.  They were all people who had brought their talents and gifts to the church and for many years had used them for the worship, work, and witness of God in the community.  But something went terribly wrong in that meeting as it had in the weeks leading up to the meeting.

As the pastor, what I was most criticized about in this conflict was what happened after the meeting.  The music director was someone that I cared deeply for, and we had a close relationship for years before that terrible night.  After the meeting I continued my relationship with him, mainly as pastor.  After a cooling off period I invited him back to church, not in the role of music director, but as a worshiper and maybe as a choir member.  I continued to care for him, we went to lunch, and I tried to continue to include him in the life of the congregation.

            The chairperson of the music committee didn’t like this one bit.  Her thinking was that because of his actions we should let him go, never invite him back.  Basically, good riddance.  I had a conversation with her about this one day, and the thing I told her was this.  “I don’t think you (or anyone in your family) would ever do anything like he did.  You’re not that type of person.  But, what I hope you know is that if you or someone in your family ever blows it like he did, I’m still going to love you and that your church is not going to give up on you.”

            She understood what I was saying, but she still didn’t like it.  She never liked it.  And to be honest, I didn’t like it either.  It would have been easier to have let him go, especially after he acted in such an un-Christian way.  But here’s the thing—we all have the real potential to act in un-Christian ways, and some (most?) of us have realized that potential.  I need a church that refuses to give up on people, however inappropriate their actions.

            The church cannot condone harmful behavior, Jesus sure didn’t.  But within the limits of good boundaries and not allowing people to be hurt we do not give up on each other and we do not stop loving one another.  “How many times should my sister or brother offend me and I forgive him?” seven times seven”? Jesus was asked.  “I tell you, not seven times seven, but seven times seventy,” which is saying that there is no limit on our forgiveness.  

St. Valentine

“Which holidays are Christian?”  That was the question the leader of the Bible study asked.  “Of all the holidays we celebrate, which ones started as Christian celebrations?”  He then passed out a list of our normal American holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, MLK Day, Valentines, Mother’s Day, etc.  As we “graded” our own papers it was interesting, if not a little shocking, to see which holidays actually started as Christian, and which ones didn’t.  Surprisingly, Valentine’s Day is a Christian Holiday.  It started as a saint’s day, the feast day of St. Valentine.

St. Valentine was a Christian who was in love.  He lived in the third century in a time when it was illegal for Christians to gather for worship.  Christians were arrested when the Roman authorities caught them in worship, or for simply believing in Jesus, professing that “Jesus is Lord.”  Valentine, who loved Christ and His Church, would visit those Christians who had been tossed into jail.  The Romans started to figure this all out—Valentine must be a Christian too.  So he is arrested and is sent to trial.  If Valentine would have had a really good attorney he would have been told to keep his mouth shut, to not say anything.  But Valentine was a man in love, in love with Jesus, and he couldn’t stop talking about the Jesus he loved.  So instead of staying quiet and pleading the fifth before the judge, Valentine opened his mouth and told the judge about Jesus.  The judge was moved by Valentine and his love for Christ.  He refused to punish Valentine, and the judge commits himself to Christ and was baptized.

The Roman emperor was not happy.  Claudius decided if the judge was not going to take care of Valentine he would.  Claudius had Valentine brought before him so that he could put an end to it all.  When Valentine appeared before Emperor Claudius he started doing what he always did: talking about Jesus.  He was so in love he couldn’t do anything else.  This is what happens when you are in love.  Claudius was not happy that Valentine wouldn’t stop talking about Jesus and that he was trying to convert him to Christianity.  The Emperor told Valentine: you have a choice.  Either stop talking about Jesus or I’m going cut your head off.  For Valentine, that was not really a choice, because he was a man in love.  In love with Christ.  And loving Christ and talking about Jesus meant more to him than anything else.  And he gave his life, because when you’re in love you just can’t stop talking about the thing you love.

Our culture celebrates a holiday today of romantic, emotional, sentimental, erotic love.  And this is not a bad thing…we need more committed love in our culture.  But as Christians let us remember that today is a Christian day, a “holy-day,” when we remember one of our ancestors in the faith who was so in love with Jesus that he would give his life for Him.

Pastor's Letter About the Boiler

On Saturday, January 22 the church’s boiler, which heats the sanctuary, upper level, and fellowship hall experienced a quick and complete breakdown.  Fuel oil was leaked into the boiler room, a mild “puff” of an explosion occurred, and smoke filled most of the building.  As you know, we have been unable to use our building because of the odor and lack of heat.  We are now returning to all scheduled activities in our building.

The odor is nearly gone, and we are leaving doors open during the day this week to finally eliminate the smell.  Because of the strong smell, Trish, our financial secretary, has not been able to be in the building to do her normal work.  This is why there has been no financial updates in the bulletin, along with the reality that we haven’t taken up an offering in three Sundays.  A gentle reminder—your giving and stewardship matter, especially at a time like this.

Many of you are interested in what happened and what is being done.  Here’s a pastor’s explanation.

First, the boiler is older and it has been on the Building and Grounds radar to replace it soon.  The boiler has been regularly serviced, and no one saw this coming.

Second, to repair the boiler now would cost in the neighborhood of $15,000.  This includes work on the chimney, totaling about $5,000, which would have to be complete before the boiler could be relit.  

Third, the Building and Grounds Team wants to gather quotes and plans for the best way to replace this equipment.  Propane is a good option, and because of the higher level of efficiency with a new system we will not have to use the chimney and can close it off rather than repairing it.

Fourth, I don’t think it is in the church’s best interest to spend $15,000 to repair our current equipments for the remainder of this winter when it will be replaced in the coming months anyway.

Fifth, there is a chance that we will have some coverage from our insurance.  The Board of Directors and Facilities Manager is working on this.

Sixth, we have put in a temporary heat source in the sanctuary at a very minimal cost that will keep us warm through the rest of this winter and early Spring.  This enables us to stop the process of trying to repair our boiler and find a good solution that will work for the church for years to come.  The sanctuary will be warm for worship and any other events that are planned there or in the fellowship hall.

This has been a major event for the Building and Grounds Committee, and they, along with Arlie, have worked hard to move this process forward.  The Committee is meeting tomorrow night, and have already scheduled appointments with HVAC contractors to plan a permanent solution for the heating needs.

I hope this helps explain what has happened and the difficult process of finding a solution.  Unfortunately the work of being the church is not always related to “Connecting to God, Each Other, And the World,” but we do know that in everything that happens God is working, even if it is in the background.  

Asset or Liability?

I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church.  This is the title of a book that I read in 2008, and the book deeply affected me then and I still remember parts of it today.  It was reading this book that led me to call a group together at my church in NC where a conversation began through which God led us to start an additional (contemporary) worship service.

There is much I don’t like about that book, I didn’t then, and I still don’t.  Mainly, I hate the title, maybe even the foundational idea, that “dying” is something to be avoided at all costs.  We serve a Lord who willingly died, and it was in his dying that new life is resurrected.  In baptism, we imitate the dying of Christ, and it is in that dying that we are raised to the “newness of life.”  So, we are called to die, to ourselves, that we may live.  So in some ways we should be dying.  And, some things in church need to die.  There are programs, traditions, and habits that have been limping along on life support for years that should die, and when they do we know that God will bring forth new life in ways we couldn’t even expect. 

But one of the truths of the book I have never forgotten is the insistence that when a church looks at its balance sheet, at its assets and liabilities, that a church’s buildings should clearly be categorized as a liability, not an asset.

Everywhere you look there are churches who have buildings that are 50, 60, 100, 125 years old, and these huge aging buildings drain the church’s budgeted dollars and keep the church from using those dollars on ministry.  We also live in a time in which owning and maintaining a building for meeting is less and less important.  The ability and even preference to gather in public spaces, in people’s homes, and even online has lessened the importance owning and maintaining buildings.

For churches like ours, we have inherited large and aging buildings.  They are expensive to maintain, and many churches like ours have faced the realization that in order to reach people with Jesus we must get out of our buildings, go into the community, and carry the good news of Jesus to those who will not come to where we are.

If you have read this far into this article you are probably expecting me to wrap this piece up with a twist that reassures that this issue is really as not as difficult as it seems.  But I don’t have that.  The best churches have figured out is to find good organizations who have worthwhile missions and share the space.  This is what we are doing with the Coalition of Powhatan Churches.  But we must understand that our core mission is not tied to brick and mortar.  Discipleship, community, Christian formation, missions, love, holiness, evangelism, these are not tied to a building, but to a people who go forth in the community to accomplish that mission.

In John 1 we read that the Word Made Flesh went on the move, in fact the Living Word of God, Jesus Christ, moved to where we are that we may be brought closer to God.  Jesus “tented” among us, not waiting for us to go to him.  And we are a part of that same story as it continues in our community and world.

I Dream a World...

Early this morning when I turned on the radio I heard the announcer interviewing a contributor who was asking for submissions from listeners.  The submissions could be in the form of a list, an essay, or a poem.  If the listeners chose to send a poem, it could rhyme but didn’t have to.  The contribution should complete the prompt “I Dream a World...”  Of course, this was offered today because it is the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday, a connection with the “I Have a Dream” speech.   But all morning I have been thinking, and even praying about the world of which I dream.

            I dream a world…

            where swords are beat into ploughshares, and spears into pruning hooks…

            where Jesus, the Prince of Peace, rules in the hearts and minds of all the world’s people…

            where there is no need for abortion clinics or death row…

            where we hear more news stories that are life-giving…

            where we fully realize that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life…

            where we finally see each other as God sees us…

            where we understand that Jesus is as concerned with our life in this world as he is life in eternity…

            where all children have a safe home, enough food, and parents who care for them…

            where all the world’s citizens are free to worship as their conscience leads them, whether I agree with them or not…

            where we are grateful for all that God has given us…

            where we know that we cannot end violence with violence…

            where teachers and social workers are paid more than professional athletes…

            where our heroes are peacemakers and not fear-peddling warmongers…

            where everyone realizes their God-given potential for good in the world…

            where God is not blamed for evil that happens in the world, and people no longer do harmful things in God’s name…

            where Christians understand that the “kingdom of God does not arrive on Air Force One, no matter who occupies it” (C. Colson)…

            where we understand that we cannot make poor decisions as individuals and as a nation and always expect someone else to bail us out…

            where we understand that God created the world in such a way that we reap what we sow, so we work to sow carefully…

            where we know and live in the reality that God will have the final say in all things, and that God’s ways are not our ways.

            These are a few of my “dreams” for the world, and as I think of these and others, I am grateful that while I look to the future for their fulfillment, I know that some of these are already being realized in God’s kingdom.

            What are your dreams?  The world you dream about, how do you see it?  Maybe you can consider today that world, how God is bringing it to pass, and how God is calling you to make that world a reality in our small circle of influence.

Inward Journey/Outward Journey

The Christian life can be divided into two “journeys.”  There is the “outward” journey, or what is “out there” for others to see.  Jesus calls us to imitate him, to “follow him” and our actions and words should imitate his actions and words.  Our outward journey includes our mission work, our acts of compassion and our working for justice in the world.  This is the outward journey.

There is also our “inward journey.”  The Christian “inward journey” concerns our mind, our heart, our soul.  It is directly connected to our “outward journey,” but it must be nourished for it to grow.  When we belong to Christ, we are invited into a life in which our minds are becoming like the “mind of Christ,” our hearts can experience deep joy, contentment, and peace.  Our inward journey is shaped by Jesus, the Living Word, but also by scripture, the written word.

The inward journey is formed by private practices such as prayer and scripture reading, but it is primarily shaped in community, by life together in the church.

This coming Sunday you will be given the opportunity to share with the deacons (by marking a survey) how you would like to participate in Spiritual Formation at May Memorial.  Many have traditionally nourished their “inward journey” through Sunday school, and many have traditionally found that nourishment on Wednesday nights.  But the deacons and I wonder what other ways we can pursue that inward journey together.

Maybe it is Women’s Bible Study?

Maybe it is another daytime Bible Study?

Maybe it is a weekend retreat?

Maybe it is a 6 week topical study?

Maybe it is a weekly small group?

Maybe it is a group that meets at May Memorial?

Maybe it is a group that meets at a local coffee shop?

Maybe it is a group that meets online?

Maybe it is…(you fill in the blank)?

The deacons will look at the responses and this will guide the deacon’s ongoing conversation about our inward journey.  

Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being,

And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.  Psalm 51:6

The Power of Example

Desmond Tutu, the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, died yesterday at the age of 90.  He was a churchman, preacher, theologian, and fighter for racial equality.  He was a joy-filled man, his laughter and sense of humor were contagious.  His Godly impact reached far beyond South Africa, touching Christians around the world.  I love Tutu’s 2010 On Being interview with Krista Tippett, you can listen and learn more about Tutu by clicking here.

When Tutu was a child in South Africa the nation was in the grips of apartheid.  The racial inequality was felt in every aspect of daily life for black South Africans.  When a black person met a white person on the sidewalk, it was required of the black person to step into the gutter, stop, and allow the white person to pass.  Black people were expected to do this to show respect to white people who believed they were superior.  When Desmond Tutu would walk with his mom to town, again and again his mom would step into the gutter, stop, and allow white men to pass.  One particular day he and his mom approached a tall white man dressed in a black suit. Before his mother could step off of the sidewalk, as was expected, the white man stepped into the gutter and stopped, and when young Desmond and his mom passed by, the man tipped his hat in a gesture of respect to his mother.  The young Tutu was amazed that a white man had done this.  He asked his mother “Why did that white man do that?” His mother explained, “He’s an Anglican priest. He is a man of God; that is why he did it.”  Desmond Tutu decided then and there that he wanted to be a man of God, an Anglican, a priest.  The courageous, loving, Christian action of that man on the side walk changed Desmond Tutu’s life.  His action pointed Tutu toward Jesus, to a faithful Christian life that would eventually affect millions of people around the world.

That man on the sidewalk that day was Trevor Huddleston, a quiet, loving, Christlike gentleman.  Tutu eventually attended the church where Huddleston served as pastor, where Huddleston became Tutu’s mentor, friend, and guide to vocational ministry.

In some ways Huddleston’s stepping off of the sidewalk was a small act, but it had tremendous effect.  And my heart is moved by this story.  And I love it when doing the right thing turns the table in big ways.  But for God’s people it is simply the doing of the right thing that is the end goal.  The rest is up to God, and God will take our right actions and use them in small and big ways.

Sunday School and Spiritual Formation

Everything we do as a church falls under one of our five broad ministries: Worship, Missions, Stewardship, Hospitality, and Spiritual Formation.  These are the five important ministries that we are called to as a church, and we have teams and committees that work in each of these ministry areas.  We have continued to do God’s work in the five ministry areas during the pandemic, although some of those ministries have been adapted and more limited.  As we have been returning to a new normal with the benefit of vaccines and other protections, more and more functions have resumed and returned to normal.

Sunday School has been an important part of Spiritual Formation at May Memorial since our founding.  Sunday school has been around for nearly 250 years, it has been vital for millions of Christians.  Through the years at May Memorial many classes have been a source of fellowship, Bible Study, and community for our members.  One of those classes at May Memorial is the Koinonia Class.  The class, taking its name from the Greek word for fellowship used many times in the New Testament, has resumed meeting in our building every Sunday morning at 9:45.

At the December Deacon’s meeting, the deacons talked at length about the importance of Spiritual Formation for our church family and how best to provide opportunities for that to happen.  There was conversation about simply encouraging all of the classes that we had before COVID to simply resume their normal Sunday morning schedule.  There was also conversation about seeing this as an opportune moment to explore new and different ways for Spiritual Formation to happen in our church and community.

During the worst of the pandemic we had an online Sunday school class taught faithfully by Bob Kruschwitz.  The class was well attended, and it provided community, encouragement, outreach, and spiritual formation for us during a difficult time.  Last summer as the vaccines became available and it seemed that life was returning to normal the online class ended and many of those attendees returned to the Koinonia class.  We would have never guessed a few years ago that we could have a “Sunday school” class that met online and it to have been as successful as it was.  And yet it was wonderfully successful.  Which leads me to ask: are there other non-traditional ways for Spiritual Formation to happen?  And, should we explore those as we think of re-starting other Sunday school classes?

Would there folks that would like to meet in homes instead of at the church building?  Or, maybe meet at a restaurant or coffee shop?  Would there be some who would prefer to meet another day and time rather than the traditional Sunday morning at 9:45?  What about “short term” classes, that offer a specific study for a few weeks or months?  Is there still a need for an online class?  These are just a few of my thoughts, and I would guess there could me more options that I may not even think of.

Early in January the church family will be given the opportunity to give input for the ways we can offer Spiritual Formation opportunities.  Please be in prayerful thought of how we can continue to provide opportunities to be formed as Jesus’ disciples.

All is Well?

Robert died last Monday. I found out late Monday night when Anna texted me, and on Tuesday I received an email from the Pastor at Benson Baptist. I was and still am heartbroken.

Robert moved into a “slum-lord” owned rental house behind the Benson Baptist parsonage when my family and I lived there, and Robert became a part of our lives. Robert struggled with most things in life. He struggled to pay his rent, he struggled to keep his power on, and in the Town of Benson when your power was disconnected you also lose water, sewage and trash pick up. Daily life quickly becomes messy without running water and a working bathroom. Robert struggled to keep his house warm in the cold months, and one year Robert tried to heat his home with his kitchen oven, resulting in a power bill that was hundreds of dollars more than he could ever pay.

Of all the things with which Robert struggled one thing he did not struggle with was making friends. He had a smile that would brighten a room, and the Benson Baptist Church family would all return that smile when he came in for worship at our early service on Sunday mornings. Robert would come in late, pick up a cup of coffee and doughnut, and walk down the center aisle to find his seat. He would always speak to me from across the room, even if I was in the middle of my sermon.

During those years Robert came to our home for Thanksgiving and for Christmas, sharing those meals with my family. He was a dear soul.

Before I came to Powhatan the last thing I tried to do was to get Robert into government housing. I helped him get a copy of his Social Security card, a NC ID, and we went to the office of the Housing Authority. Robert needed to be in subsidized housing. Robert received federal disability benefits, and I never knew exactly what his disability was. When I was helping him fill out his application I asked him, and although it was hard to understand him much of the time, he simply said “I’m just slow.” When we met with the director I quickly knew that his chances were not good. Robert had been convicted of a drug charge years earlier when he was arrested for possession of a small amount of marijuana. This made him ineligible for government housing in Benson.

Although I no longer had contact with Robert since coming to Powhatan, the church family at Benson Baptist continued to embrace and love him. Ken Tart, a professional photographer and deacon in that church, looked after Robert, and was a good friend to him. Ken was the one who planned a birthday party for Robert in my last year at Benson, when about thirty of us took him to a North Carolina BBQ Buffet close to Raleigh. We had a great time, Robert was overjoyed, telling us that it was the first birthday party he ever had. He had a tough life.

Last Wednesday night in choir my heart was still heavy with the news that Robert was trying to walk across I-95 in Benson when he was struck by a car and was killed. The anthem Andrew had chosen (a song I love) for the week is titled All Is Well. The idea of the song (you heard it yesterday morning) is that because of Bethlehem, of Christ’s birth, that all is well in the world. And honestly, as I sang, I knew that all is not well. And I still know that all is not well. It is a nice, sentimental idea, but there is so much that is wrong.

Being a Christian does not mean that every hurt and struggle and disappointment and pain is cleared up immediately. Every week people enter our sanctuary for worship and their heart is breaking. Because all is not well. We clean up well and put on a strong front, but we know that underneath it all sometimes we are struggling. As Christians we believe that we are leaning into a coming kingdom where all shall be made right, when God will finally have God’s way, and this world will be “set to rights.” And that is what brings us back, the hope that we are a part of God working His purpose out in this world. And that one day Jesus’ and our prayer will be answered, that God’s kingdom will come on earth as in heaven.

I have decided to include what was sent to me from the Benson Baptist pastor about Robert along with a couple of photos. One is a professionally done photo of Robert done by his friend and Benson Baptist deacon Ken Tart, another is Robert at Vacation Bible School.

——————————————

Robert Rowland, or to us at Benson Baptist just “Robert,” was tragically killed on 11/29/2021 as he attempted to cross Interstate 95 on foot.  Many of us will remember Robert’s infectious smile, the way he would walk into the church during the sermon to stop and wave at people on both sides of the center aisle as he entered the early service.  Robert was so happy to see everyone.  He may have tired of the sermon or maybe just had other things to do because he rarely stayed very long.  But we know he enjoyed breakfast at the early service and he had an uncanny way of knowing when we were having a church meal. 

Many people at Benson Baptist embraced Robert either at church or when they saw him out in the community. Our pastor at the time, Michael Edwards was a friend to Robert and many times tried to help Robert find better housing.  I believe Robert knew that the people at Benson Baptist loved him.  One of our members who took up a lot of time with Robert was Ken Tart.  Robert would accompany Ken to Raleigh to pick up food for the BAMA Food Pantry or you would see Robert around the studio.  But in the end, when attempts to help Robert did not seem to work as we would have wished, all we could do was to just love Robert just as he was.  That was probably the most important lesson he taught us. 

On April 14, 2013, Robert was baptized in our church by our interim pastor, Charles Royal.  Robert was not seeking church membership (because he often attended other churches) but he wanted to be baptized.  

As Lawrence shared in the sermon on Sunday about our being a “present”, I like to think that we at Benson Baptist were a “present” of love and acceptance for Robert as we did our best to represent Jesus to him.  We all know that Robert brought us much love and joy and he taught us how easily we could love someone so different from many of us.   Robert will be missed and his memory cherished.  We know that as God’s child he now rests in his presence.   

________________________

Below is the text from the testimony Ken Tart gave during Robert’s “Re-Baptism” on April 14, 2013.  And attached is a devotion that Chris Underwood shared with Ken, "We are all Robert.”

Robert Rowland’s Baptism at BBC: Shared Testimony about Robert from Ken Tart, April 14, 2013

1 John 3:17 ESV (English Standard Version). “But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?”

I met or “a lot of us first met” Robert about 3 years ago, when he lived across the street from the church fellowship hall on Hill St. He could sit on his porch and see what was going on over here. He started coming over asking different people for a little help. Intimidating looking at first, we didn’t know what to make of him. Was he a humble person saying “he needed money for food,” or another drug addict looking for a way to get high?

I started out giving Robert a few bucks occasionally to help him out, trusting the Lord that he was sincere and would put it to good use. He later recognized my truck at the Studio one day and figured out where “I live”. So then he would drop in unannounced and ask for me. He didn’t mind sitting and waiting if I was upstairs taking pictures. He didn’t have anything else to do. He would offer to work, but there wasn’t much at the time that I needed him for.

Lots of others in our Church have helped Robert out in times of need. Dr. Larry Williams did some emergency work on his teeth when he needed it! Dr. Millie Johnson took him to the Emergency Room another day when he was in pain. Michael Edwards, Luke and I moved in a new-looking stove donated by Hubert & Mary Katherine Worthington to the house he was staying in then.

Two years ago, for his 35th Birthday, several of our church family took him to McCall’s in Clayton! There was about 30 of us total. It was the first birthday party he had ever had! This February a few of us along with Pastor Charles took him to Western Sizzlin’ in Dunn for his 37th birthday. Robert likes the all-you-can-eat buffets as you can tell.

You can’t understand most of what he says. But, he doesn’t seem to mind repeating it as many times as you need him to. Robert along with Thomas Hall, Myra’s son, are my main go to guys that I can count on to go to the Big Food Bank in Raleigh. We fill my Suburban (and the Church Trailer too sometimes) with food to bring back for the local Food Bank. I couldn’t get it done without them. It takes almost the whole day.

Robert’s timing is usually bad...

• Coming in late to Sunday Church, or on Wednesday nights after the food has been put away.

• In the Early Service he can’t be still during “Praise & Worship” - even though he has difficulty reading the words on the screen.

• He‘s the one standing up during Church Service when everyone else is seated!

  Back when Robert had started coming around regularly; I was struggling with how much I should help him. It was May of 2010, because our Church was having a Family Day outside playing volleyball and the beanbag boards were set up. I was tossing the bags with Chris Underwood and a couple of others talking about Robert. Chris, who knew I was unsure about whether I was doing the right thing, asked me if I had read the Daily Devotions this past week in the Men of Integrity devotion book. I said no, and he said go back and read Wednesday or Thursday’s - he wasn’t sure which one it was. I asked him what it was about and he wouldn’t tell me! He said just go back and read it you’ll know which one I’m talking about. So I did, and here it is... (Explain book’s devotion title and read excerpt.)

The Key Bible Verse for that day... Luke 19:10

“For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”

Most of you didn’t know Robert’s last name until you saw it in the program today. Don’t feel bad, I had known him for months before I finally asked.

I didn’t know about Robert asking Pastor Charles about being Baptized today until after Church last Sunday when Charles told me - not Robert. Of course, I had some concerns. What would the church think? Would it be OK? He’s not seeking membership, since he attends a couple of other churches also. - But, he asked to be Re-Baptized here.

Our Church has come a long way in recent years. While we continue to support and lift up each other, we’re looking outside our church walls at the needs of others more than any time since I’ve been here.

You see, our children and grandchildren, the twenty and thirty-somethings age groups are not hung up on church doctrine and whether you’re a Baptist or Methodist, they are looking for Churches where they feel a connection with others - making a difference in the lives of the “unsaved and under-privileged” outside our doors.

The growth and future of our Church, and other Churches, will be the ones who recognize, work, and pray for this. Together we can make a difference to others, whether its the other side of the globe, or right in Benson across from our Church on Hill St.

While I could say a lot more... Thank you, Robert for helping “me” “and us” to see and understand that.

When we are making the effort to Bless others, we are the ones usually who receives the bigger Blessing!

God Bless You, and Miss Ava for your testimony of Baptism today.

Funerals

This past weekend I officiated at my sixty-fifth funeral since coming to May Memorial.  The vast majority of those sixty-five have been for members of the May Memorial family, while others have been for folks in the community who were friends of church members.  A couple of those sixty-five have been people that I have known and not a part of May Memorial, and some are persons who had no pastor and I simply received a call from the funeral home looking for a pastor to preside.  But most of them have been May Memorial people.  In addition to those sixty-five, there have been others who have passed away and I was unable to do the funeral, and I am thankful for former pastor Rudy Potter who has always been willing to lead those and be a steady source of comfort and Christian love.

I have thought a lot about funerals over the past few months, and I have concluded that funerals become both easier and more difficult over time.

How do they get easier?  The way they get easier is that I have established an outline of how to prepare and I know much of what I’m going to say and do.  I always plan with the family about what will be involved at the funeral, but I know that there are some “essentials” that are not really negotiable.  These are words that have been spoken at times of death for centuries (or millennia?).  These are important words.  Important prayers.  Important statements.  Words like “The LORD is my shepherd…even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…”. I am normally not an “off the cuff” person, but especially at funerals I am unwilling to simply stand up and say whatever happens to come to my mind.  It is too important an occasion to rely on my spontaneity to produce the words that need to be said.  I will always speak words about resurrection, Jesus saying “I am the resurrection and the life, those who believe in me…”. I will pray a prayer of committal, “In sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life, we commend to almighty God our sister/brother name, and we commit his/her remains to the ground.  Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”  These are important words, and they will be a part of most every funeral I do.  So in this way, funerals have become easier.  I know my plan.

But funerals have also become more difficult.  And this is simple.  The relationships and love that grows over the course of a decade is far deeper than a relationship that happens in months or a couple of years.  And yes, pastors are emotionally attached and affected when they officiate at a funeral.  A pastor does not have the ability to completely disconnect from the emotion and grief that is so thick at a funeral.  And this is again another reason to rely on traditional words that have been spoken for generations.  It is more difficult emotionally to do a funeral for someone you love.  And each year a pastor’s love for members of the congregation grows more and more.

I take funerals seriously.  If I am off point (or boring or ineffective) for a Sunday sermon, I always have next Sunday coming.  But for a funeral, I have one chance, and I don’t want to waste the opportunity to speak important words well for that grieving family.  Being the pastor of a church like May Memorial means that funerals are a large part of my ministry, and I embrace that calling as from God.  It is not always easy work, but it is important, and I am grateful this good work God and May Memorial has entrusted to me.

Advent Waiting

There are not many things in my life that require me to wait.  I can order a book from Amazon, it will be on my front porch in two days, free shipping, and as soon as the transaction is processed I can read it instantly on my phone.  No waiting.  In my study at church I have a Keurig Coffee Machine.  All I have to do is drop in a pod, press the button, and within seconds I have a great cup of coffee.  No waiting.  I can access almost any piece of music on my iPhone and instantly listen to a wide variety of musicians perform the selection.  No waiting.  I can immediately get in touch with my children, wife, family members, and friends by texting.  No waiting.  I have an app on my phone that will give me directions to any location in the world, and if traffic is backed up for any reason the app will automatically re-route me so that I don’t have to wait in stopped traffic.

            Our world, with its technology, has eliminated many of the things that at one time caused us to wait.  In many ways this is a tremendous blessing.  No one likes to wait for coffee, and what a joy it is to access music without going to a store or waiting for a concert.  But this “immediate” world can cause us to think that all things should happen on our schedule, exactly when we want it, and that we should not have to wait for anything.

            Our world has already jumped to Christmas.  There was no waiting, no patience, the culture simply jumped to the holiday full force.  But if Christmas means the Coming of the Holy One, of God with Us, we people of faith know that God does not work on our immediate schedule.  God rarely comes when we’re expecting Him, more often than not God moves in ways that require us to practice patience and faith. God works on God’s schedule, and for us that means waiting with attentive hearts.

            This Sunday we begin the season of Advent.  For us Baptists we begin catching a foretaste of Christmas during the Advent season, but as we slowly light each candle of the Advent Wreath we are reminded that for ages God’s people waited for the coming Messiah.  This also means that we often have to wait for God.

            I could readily name several things for which I’m waiting on God.  Things that I continue to pray about and carry before God, and God has not yet come for me in these places.  Sometimes it would be easy to give up, to despair, and to try to take matters in my own hands.  But I know that for ages and ages God’s people have waited, and even though they didn’t know when it would happen, God came.

            These Advent Sundays are as important for me this year as they ever have been, and I know that for many in our May Memorial family there are important for them too.  

            Be patient, pray, cry out, keep watch, be alert, for God will come.  

Attitude of Gratitude

It occurs to me that there are many ways to approach life in this world.  There are different perspectives with which people may choose to view their lives, circumstances, and general place in life, and when I am at my best I choose to approach life as a blessed child of God, blessed beyond all that I deserve.  Many in our world choose to approach life as a victim, and some face the world with a sense of entitlement.  For others, luck seems to play a big part of their worldview, and there are still those who take their cues from A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh character Eor, an eternal pessimist who always has a sense of impending doom.  While I am prone to all of these, in my heart of hearts I believe that we are all blessed by God beyond all that we deserve. 

I have a devotional book that offers me a short thought each day, and on many days at the end of the reflection I jot down a list of things that I am grateful for that day.  It is a simple exercise that sets my world in perspective.  In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I offer to you one a short list of what I am thankful for today:

I am thankful for my wife of 25 years come the 28th of December,

            who loves me even when I am (frequently) unlovable, 

            and reminds me to not take myself too seriously,

            and still makes date nights something I look forward to.

I am thankful for my three wonderful daughters;

I am thankful for my church family at May Memorial;

I am thankful for my parents and my wife’s parents,

            that they made us go to church as children—even when it wasn’t fun,

            that they sent us to college,

and expected us take responsibility for ourselves when we became adults and were married.

I am thankful for my home,

            that it is warm and safe,

            that it faces east so the sun shines in the front windows in the morning,

            and that I don’t have to act like a pastor there;

I am thankful that I have all I need, and so much more;

I am thankful God gives me things for free that I could never afford…

            like the joy of sitting by a fire in my yard with my family,

            and the wonder of a sunset over the ocean on summer vacation.

I am thankful for the people that I have met that I would have never sought out and the things I learned from them;

I am thankful that I have not found it necessary to take a drink today just to make it through.

I am thankful for the painful experiences that taught me things I would have never learned without them;

I am thankful for music and people who compose or perform it,

            like Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Jay Ungar, and Doc Watson,

            and Vaughan Williams, J.S. Bach, Morten Lauridsen, and Josquin des Prez.

This week leading to Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful, and when we stop to consider it just for a moment, aren’t we all blessed?  Aren’t we all blessed beyond all that we deserve?

Lapsed Baptism?

The early Church, until about the time of the Emperor Constantine, experienced periods of persecution.  I’m not talking about “Starbucks won’t put Merry Christmas on my cup” persecution, I’m talking about persecution that could cost you your life if you professed “Jesus is Lord.”  Of course the profession “Jesus is Lord” implies that the emperor (or president, or governor) is not, and this did not go over well with the Romans.

During these times of persecution some went bravely to their martyrdom, others did not.  Some lapsed, or renounced their faith in order to avoid death.  But then, a new emperor would come to the throne who was tolerant of Christianity, and these “lapsed” Christians would show back up to church.  They would pick up their bulletin and find their way to their old pew and happen to sit by a widowed woman who’s husband kept the faith and lost his life.  This did not go over well.

And to make it more complicated, there were church leaders (pastors, elders, etc) who lapsed.  And then the question came up about being baptized by a pastor who later renounced the faith in order to save his life?  Was this baptism, by a person who would deny Christ, valid?  Or, did it need to be “redone” by a pastor who did not “lapse?”

It was a complicated problem, as you can imagine, but the Church finally made the decision that being baptized by a clergy person who later lapsed did not mean that the baptism was invalid.  On the human side of things it may have been imperfect, but God got it right.

I was baptized when I was young.  There was a lot I did not understand.  I don’t know that I had my reasons exactly right for getting baptized.  If I did it today I would understand more what was happening and why I was doing it.  But as I look back on it, God got it right.  I was claimed by God, I professed my young faith, and I was initiated into the Church.  If I am blessed to live until I am 80 or older, I will look back to my 47 year old faith and see how I have grown to that time.

We profess our faith when we are baptized, and we are claimed by God in those same waters.  But we never get anything exactly right.  Because we are human.  Our stories and lives are complicated, and often messy.  We are the ones lined up on the riverbank when Jesus shows up and gets in line with us, demonstrating his solidarity with us that we may be more like him.