I hate to get my hair cut. It has nothing to do with some strange phobia about sharp objects close to my body or anything like that. It's the dreaded conversation with the hairdresser. For some reason, they feel they must make conversation. I would be quite content, thank you, to just sit there and let her snip away in silence-- take a moment for myself to zone out. But this is usually not possible, so the first time I go to a new hairstylist, it is somewhat of a nerve-wracking experience.
I wait for that dreaded question: "So, what do you do?"
Unfortunately, I was raised not to lie, even when it was non-consequential, relatively. Why can't I just say I'm a clerk at Wal-Mart? Or that I input date at a Real Estate office? Why must I tell the truth?
"Uh... I'm a pastor."
Oooohhhhhh.
That always cuts the conversation short. What do you say to that? Dear God, she's got a pastor in her chair. I can see her start to go back over our preliminary conversation; did she cuss? did she talk about her boyfriend living with her? did she talk about the great time she had at happy hour?
I want to help her. Save her. Not for her eschatalogical destination, just for the present moment. I want to relieve her panic. "I'm cool," I want to say. "Be yourself," I want to say. But it's too late. It's already out there. The rest of the haircut I get my coveted silence, but it's not relaxing. She seems to flinch at the conversations of her colleagues at other stations, riddle with four-letter words or the great sex they had or the party they went to. I can sometimes see her trying to shut them up with a look. It's awkward.
I don't like to be called Pastor Peggy. I mean, think about it. I don't call you Bank Teller Barbara or Secretary Sue or Police Officer Patrick. I don't call my friend and ask for Nurse Linda. I never hear about Turkey Plant worker Phil or Cashier Carrie. Why call me Pastor Peggy?
Besides, it sets me apart. In seminary they would have said, of course it sets you apart, you ARE set apart. Well, yeah, technically. But. And I mean BIG BUT. I can be a much better pastor if people can see me as a regular person who happens to work as a pastor for a living. It doesn't make me different. It's my job. Now, granted, there are some pastors who really get off on the power trip of the whole role, but not me. I'm just a regular person who loves Christ and is trying to figure out how to be Christ's disciple here on this crazy planet and fulfill the Love Your Neighbor Don't Kill Them commandment. How can I do any good if I'm set apart? If you can only say holy words around me and not be yourself? I understand. I make it my business to understand. I know what it's like to feel pain, to have my heart broken, to get depressed, to feel run over by a truck, to lose a loved one, to be slandered, to try to be myself when the whole world tries to tell me what I "should" be. Who wants to talk to a pastor who is so spotless and holy that they never get their jeans dirty? Who has never yelled at God? Who has never bled? Who has never wanted to quit the whole serving humankind thing and go live on a mountain in Colorado and read a lot of books? Not me.
Besides, I don't think anyone ever called Jesus, Rabbi-Jesus, or Rambling-Preacher Jesus, or Incarnation Jesus. He never would have been invited to that wedding at Cana or the leper's house or that Gentile village. No way. He didn't even wear a clergy collar. Really! I know this for a fact, I forget where I read it.
Plus, if nothing else, Pastor Peggy sounds like you're spitting.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
I Know Who You Are
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Faith United
August 25, 2007
Jeremiah was a pastor’s kid
Well, not in the traditional sense of the word
he was the son of a priest in a town where there were
mostly priests living
So he had a first hand look at what being a priest was like
how it was often a thankless job
how priests were set apart from the community
it wasn’t an easy job
It was very likely, that as a boy,
who is the son of a priest
that that would be his likely vocation
but maybe in his heart of hearts,
he hoped something would change
Nobody ever said to me,
So, you gonna grow up and be a preacher
like your Dad?
Nobody ever said that to me.
I had three older brothers, who all had that asked of them
along the way
but they made it very clear by their actions
and lifestyles as teenagers
that the answer was NO WAY….
I’m not that old,
and yet expectations were very different for me even then
I remember one pastor’s wife suggesting I go to seminary
not to become a PASTOR,
but to meet a pastor that I could marry…
She meant well
I was fine with no one asking me that question
My view from the parsonage was enough to convince me
it wasn’t an easy job by any means
and nothing in my experience made it obvious to me
at the time, that that’s where my own life was headed
It first occurred to me at the age of 15
that God might be calling me into the ministry
It was at summer camp, after a very emotional worship service
that left many of us crying and hugging and feeling close
to God
But then I came to my senses and pursued other goals
It was two years out of college
where I’d worked at several different jobs
struggled to pay the bills on my own apartment
and groceries
and reached what felt like a dead end
It was Annual Conference, of all things
that changed everything
I accompanied my parents to the worship services
at Annual Conference in Ocean City, NJ
to hear a preacher from Kansas City, Missouri
That sermon changed my life
scared the you know what out of me
and pulled the rug out from under me
all the expectations of my life that I assumed
were blown apart
Two months later, I was headed to seminary in New Jersey
and written in the front of my new Oxford Annotated Study Bible
were the words of God to Jeremiah….
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you
and before you were born I consecrated you;
…. Do not say, I am only a youth;
for to all to whom I send you you shall go
and whatever I command you you shall speak,
Be not afraid of them,
For I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.”
I had no idea what all was ahead of me,
and I’ve often said that it’s a really good thing
or I would have run the other direction
God seems to communicate on a need-to-know basis
and that’s a good thing
Jeremiah was only a teenager when God called him
and as you imagine, Jeremiah was adamant
Hey, I’m only a kid! Why would you call ME?
What can I do?? They’ll laugh at me!
And God says, yeah, they will
But that’s ok
I’ll give you what you need
I’ll give you the words that you need to say
and the ability to do what I need you to do
All the good ones argued with God
Moses said, ‘hey, I can’t speak, I’m no leader…
You got the wrong guy…’
Mary said, ‘what are you talking about, me having a baby?
I’ve never been with a man, and I’m just me… just a peasant girl…’
I’m JUST
I’m JUST…
I’m just a youth, I’m just a stuttering old man
I’m just a young girl, dreaming of my wedding…
Then there was Peter, who said, I’m just a fisherman, man,
I’m a rough character, you don’t want me…
Or Abraham,
Ï’m just an old man, near the end of my life,
and my wife, she’s just an old woman,
her womb has never worked, and it ain’t gonna work now
Don’t you think you might have gotten the wrong number, God?
King David…
I’m just boy, and he’s a giant, are you kidding??
St. Paul,
Hey, I’m just a guy with a really bad temper,
and I don’t even like Christians, what do you want from me?
God has a crazy way of calling people to do what God wants
It’s actually quite ridiculous if you think about it
God calls the most unlikely people
to do what seems impossible
Jeremiah was called to be a prophet to the people of Jerusalem
at a time of crisis
When everything was falling apart
when they would all end up in captivity
of a foreign country
and be helpless to know how they could keep
worshipping God in a foreign land
that has taken their people captive
Thanks a lot, God
God calls Jeremiah to bring the bad news over and over again
they didn’t listen,
they beat him up, they threw him in prison
they threw him into a deep, dark hole
If you read the book of Jeremiah,
You’ll find a guy who yells at God a lot
What are you doing to me??
Is THIS what you had planned for me?
This isn’t going well!!
And time and time again, he quit
I’m done, he said, I’m not gonna proclaim your word anymore
But it was really really annoying
Jeremiah discovered that he couldn’t just keep him mouth shut
that God’s word was so much a part of him
it burned inside of him
the more he tried to keep it down
It tortured him
Because he was, in fact, a prophet of God
He was born to speak God’s word, the good news and the bad
and when you go against who you truly are…
you find that life can be torture
Have you ever tried to be something that you’re not?
To please other people?
You pretend that you’re happy
You say the words people want to hear
and yet it’s killing you inside,
because you’re not being true to yourself?
Answering the call of God
is not just about finding out what God wants you to do for a living
You may be called to work a job
that seems to have so little to do with your Christian calling
and yet, as you work in that capacity,
you have the ability to touch lives, to be an example
to make a difference
Being called by God is being called to be a child of God
in the world
We’re often called into difficult situations
painful situations
called to simply BE with someone
as they go through a hard time
We can’t fix it, we can’t even make it right,
but we can be a peaceful, healing, life-giving presence
in the midst of chaos
Hanging in there with a kid who’s gone wrong
believing that they will find their way
Some of us are called to be parents
sometimes to our own children
sometimes to children who don’t have parents
or whose parents gave up
Sometimes we’re called into lives that are broken
and we feel inadequate to help
But God may be calling us to simply love that person through
to trust our gut,
to trust that God will give us what we need
to be a blessing
God calls us to be with a loved one who is suffering
and to do things in caring for them
that we never imagined that we could do
but we do it because we love them
and love gives us the power to do the impossible
Sometimes God calls us to drop what we’re doing
and to make a change
People rarely stick to one job throughout their lives anymore
the world has changed
and is changing all the time
and so, too, our lives change
Larry feels called to be a Hospice Nurse,
after 25 years in the pastoral ministry
He knows that if he didn’t pursue it,
it would burn inside of him
but it’s not easy starting all over at 54
When God calls us to something,
there is no guarantee anywhere
that it will be easy or smooth or always rewarding
Just because what we bring to the world
out of God’s love
is something so different, so opposite sometimes
that people will often react in anger or hate
I’ve been in some tough situations in ministry
and there have been many, many times
that I’ve shaken my fists at God and said
What do you think you’re doing???
Are you paying attention??
Larry and I were both called to a church in Pennsylvania
whose pastor of 18 years was abruptly removed
because of sexual misconduct
It was just plain nasty
It was like being called into a live hornet’s nest
That year was probably the most painful year of our ministries
and we may never know what good we did by being there
for that time
but I still believe somehow, that God wanted us there
for that year
I still don’t know why
and it took time to recover from it
it still comes back to haunt me at times
God doesn’t punish Jeremiah ever
for questioning God
God never gets angry at Jeremiah’s rampages
at his frequent bouts of depression and despair
God never scolds him for giving up in the worst of times
God just hangs in there with him
brings him through
I’m just a boy, Jeremiah said at the beginning
But that boy, by God’s power, became a prophet
A prophet who kept giving the people of Israel
words from God in the midst of their crisis and bondage
He helped them remember God’s promises
even when there was no evidence of those promises
in sight
Who are we in this foreign land?
Who am I now that my parents are both gone?
Who am I now that I have this illness?
Who am I now that my child is in trouble?
Who am I now that I’m out of a job?
Who are we, the people needed to know,
who are we now that we’ve been captured by the enemy
and defeated?
And Jeremiah comes to them with a word from God saying,
“You are still mine.
You are still my people. I formed you, I made you,
I called you. The story is not over..”
You are still YOU
And in the midst of Jeremiah’s worst despair
when he wants to die,
when he does his best to run away from this call of God
that has become a torment,
He remembers what God said to him
in the beginning,
“before I formed you in the womb, I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you…”
It’s an intimate kind of knowing
no one else can know us the way God knows us
And we’ve been known and loved since before we were born
In other words, God says, in the midst of chaos and crisis
I will not leave you
I will never leave you….
Frederick Buechner, a Christian writer and preacher
Once wrote,
“The place God calls you is to the place
where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger
meets.”
You’ll never know, fully, how much you have filled someone’s hunger
and that’s ok,
We go forward, trusting that God will use us
to fill a hunger, to be a blessing
You may say, “We’re just Gibbon.
We’re just a small town, we’re just… we’re just…”
And yet… God says, no, you’re not JUST anything
You are my people, called to be my followers
Called to be my lights in the world
to shelter the broken,
minister to the grieving,
comfort the despairing
give joy to people who have not known joy….
Do not say, we are just a small town or a small church …
For God says, to all to whom I send you you shall go
and whatever I command you you shall speak
be not afraid of anyone,
for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord
It doesn’t get any better than that….
Faith United
August 25, 2007
Jeremiah was a pastor’s kid
Well, not in the traditional sense of the word
he was the son of a priest in a town where there were
mostly priests living
So he had a first hand look at what being a priest was like
how it was often a thankless job
how priests were set apart from the community
it wasn’t an easy job
It was very likely, that as a boy,
who is the son of a priest
that that would be his likely vocation
but maybe in his heart of hearts,
he hoped something would change
Nobody ever said to me,
So, you gonna grow up and be a preacher
like your Dad?
Nobody ever said that to me.
I had three older brothers, who all had that asked of them
along the way
but they made it very clear by their actions
and lifestyles as teenagers
that the answer was NO WAY….
I’m not that old,
and yet expectations were very different for me even then
I remember one pastor’s wife suggesting I go to seminary
not to become a PASTOR,
but to meet a pastor that I could marry…
She meant well
I was fine with no one asking me that question
My view from the parsonage was enough to convince me
it wasn’t an easy job by any means
and nothing in my experience made it obvious to me
at the time, that that’s where my own life was headed
It first occurred to me at the age of 15
that God might be calling me into the ministry
It was at summer camp, after a very emotional worship service
that left many of us crying and hugging and feeling close
to God
But then I came to my senses and pursued other goals
It was two years out of college
where I’d worked at several different jobs
struggled to pay the bills on my own apartment
and groceries
and reached what felt like a dead end
It was Annual Conference, of all things
that changed everything
I accompanied my parents to the worship services
at Annual Conference in Ocean City, NJ
to hear a preacher from Kansas City, Missouri
That sermon changed my life
scared the you know what out of me
and pulled the rug out from under me
all the expectations of my life that I assumed
were blown apart
Two months later, I was headed to seminary in New Jersey
and written in the front of my new Oxford Annotated Study Bible
were the words of God to Jeremiah….
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you
and before you were born I consecrated you;
…. Do not say, I am only a youth;
for to all to whom I send you you shall go
and whatever I command you you shall speak,
Be not afraid of them,
For I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.”
I had no idea what all was ahead of me,
and I’ve often said that it’s a really good thing
or I would have run the other direction
God seems to communicate on a need-to-know basis
and that’s a good thing
Jeremiah was only a teenager when God called him
and as you imagine, Jeremiah was adamant
Hey, I’m only a kid! Why would you call ME?
What can I do?? They’ll laugh at me!
And God says, yeah, they will
But that’s ok
I’ll give you what you need
I’ll give you the words that you need to say
and the ability to do what I need you to do
All the good ones argued with God
Moses said, ‘hey, I can’t speak, I’m no leader…
You got the wrong guy…’
Mary said, ‘what are you talking about, me having a baby?
I’ve never been with a man, and I’m just me… just a peasant girl…’
I’m JUST
I’m JUST…
I’m just a youth, I’m just a stuttering old man
I’m just a young girl, dreaming of my wedding…
Then there was Peter, who said, I’m just a fisherman, man,
I’m a rough character, you don’t want me…
Or Abraham,
Ï’m just an old man, near the end of my life,
and my wife, she’s just an old woman,
her womb has never worked, and it ain’t gonna work now
Don’t you think you might have gotten the wrong number, God?
King David…
I’m just boy, and he’s a giant, are you kidding??
St. Paul,
Hey, I’m just a guy with a really bad temper,
and I don’t even like Christians, what do you want from me?
God has a crazy way of calling people to do what God wants
It’s actually quite ridiculous if you think about it
God calls the most unlikely people
to do what seems impossible
Jeremiah was called to be a prophet to the people of Jerusalem
at a time of crisis
When everything was falling apart
when they would all end up in captivity
of a foreign country
and be helpless to know how they could keep
worshipping God in a foreign land
that has taken their people captive
Thanks a lot, God
God calls Jeremiah to bring the bad news over and over again
they didn’t listen,
they beat him up, they threw him in prison
they threw him into a deep, dark hole
If you read the book of Jeremiah,
You’ll find a guy who yells at God a lot
What are you doing to me??
Is THIS what you had planned for me?
This isn’t going well!!
And time and time again, he quit
I’m done, he said, I’m not gonna proclaim your word anymore
But it was really really annoying
Jeremiah discovered that he couldn’t just keep him mouth shut
that God’s word was so much a part of him
it burned inside of him
the more he tried to keep it down
It tortured him
Because he was, in fact, a prophet of God
He was born to speak God’s word, the good news and the bad
and when you go against who you truly are…
you find that life can be torture
Have you ever tried to be something that you’re not?
To please other people?
You pretend that you’re happy
You say the words people want to hear
and yet it’s killing you inside,
because you’re not being true to yourself?
Answering the call of God
is not just about finding out what God wants you to do for a living
You may be called to work a job
that seems to have so little to do with your Christian calling
and yet, as you work in that capacity,
you have the ability to touch lives, to be an example
to make a difference
Being called by God is being called to be a child of God
in the world
We’re often called into difficult situations
painful situations
called to simply BE with someone
as they go through a hard time
We can’t fix it, we can’t even make it right,
but we can be a peaceful, healing, life-giving presence
in the midst of chaos
Hanging in there with a kid who’s gone wrong
believing that they will find their way
Some of us are called to be parents
sometimes to our own children
sometimes to children who don’t have parents
or whose parents gave up
Sometimes we’re called into lives that are broken
and we feel inadequate to help
But God may be calling us to simply love that person through
to trust our gut,
to trust that God will give us what we need
to be a blessing
God calls us to be with a loved one who is suffering
and to do things in caring for them
that we never imagined that we could do
but we do it because we love them
and love gives us the power to do the impossible
Sometimes God calls us to drop what we’re doing
and to make a change
People rarely stick to one job throughout their lives anymore
the world has changed
and is changing all the time
and so, too, our lives change
Larry feels called to be a Hospice Nurse,
after 25 years in the pastoral ministry
He knows that if he didn’t pursue it,
it would burn inside of him
but it’s not easy starting all over at 54
When God calls us to something,
there is no guarantee anywhere
that it will be easy or smooth or always rewarding
Just because what we bring to the world
out of God’s love
is something so different, so opposite sometimes
that people will often react in anger or hate
I’ve been in some tough situations in ministry
and there have been many, many times
that I’ve shaken my fists at God and said
What do you think you’re doing???
Are you paying attention??
Larry and I were both called to a church in Pennsylvania
whose pastor of 18 years was abruptly removed
because of sexual misconduct
It was just plain nasty
It was like being called into a live hornet’s nest
That year was probably the most painful year of our ministries
and we may never know what good we did by being there
for that time
but I still believe somehow, that God wanted us there
for that year
I still don’t know why
and it took time to recover from it
it still comes back to haunt me at times
God doesn’t punish Jeremiah ever
for questioning God
God never gets angry at Jeremiah’s rampages
at his frequent bouts of depression and despair
God never scolds him for giving up in the worst of times
God just hangs in there with him
brings him through
I’m just a boy, Jeremiah said at the beginning
But that boy, by God’s power, became a prophet
A prophet who kept giving the people of Israel
words from God in the midst of their crisis and bondage
He helped them remember God’s promises
even when there was no evidence of those promises
in sight
Who are we in this foreign land?
Who am I now that my parents are both gone?
Who am I now that I have this illness?
Who am I now that my child is in trouble?
Who am I now that I’m out of a job?
Who are we, the people needed to know,
who are we now that we’ve been captured by the enemy
and defeated?
And Jeremiah comes to them with a word from God saying,
“You are still mine.
You are still my people. I formed you, I made you,
I called you. The story is not over..”
You are still YOU
And in the midst of Jeremiah’s worst despair
when he wants to die,
when he does his best to run away from this call of God
that has become a torment,
He remembers what God said to him
in the beginning,
“before I formed you in the womb, I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you…”
It’s an intimate kind of knowing
no one else can know us the way God knows us
And we’ve been known and loved since before we were born
In other words, God says, in the midst of chaos and crisis
I will not leave you
I will never leave you….
Frederick Buechner, a Christian writer and preacher
Once wrote,
“The place God calls you is to the place
where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger
meets.”
You’ll never know, fully, how much you have filled someone’s hunger
and that’s ok,
We go forward, trusting that God will use us
to fill a hunger, to be a blessing
You may say, “We’re just Gibbon.
We’re just a small town, we’re just… we’re just…”
And yet… God says, no, you’re not JUST anything
You are my people, called to be my followers
Called to be my lights in the world
to shelter the broken,
minister to the grieving,
comfort the despairing
give joy to people who have not known joy….
Do not say, we are just a small town or a small church …
For God says, to all to whom I send you you shall go
and whatever I command you you shall speak
be not afraid of anyone,
for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord
It doesn’t get any better than that….
Monday, August 20, 2007
Cloud of Witnesses
“WALKING ON A CLOUD”
Text: Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Faith United
August 19, 2007
I didn’t grow up around extended family
My aunts, uncles and cousins were either down in Mississippi
and Louisiana
or scattered all over the world
So I didn’t even KNOW most of them
And in New Jersey,
it’s not a cultural thing like it is in Nebraska
for parents and grandparents to go to every single game
ice cream social or music concert
that happens at their kids’ school
I didn’t grow up expecting that,
because mostly I didn’t have any extended family
who could show up if that was even the norm
When Sarah was little and started playing soccer
at the age where parents are just happy if the kids stay on the field
much less kick a goal
I loved watching her play
I loved watching her kick the ball instead of running away from it
or block a goal when she was goalie
I remember thinking during those days
what God must feel like
If I felt that proud of my little kindergartener
going on there and running up and down that huge field
chasing a ball
If I felt so overjoyed at watching her achieve something as small
as just kicking the ball…
How must God feel looking at US?
Does God absolutely DELIGHT in watching us grow and learn
and discover and get back up again when we fall?
I think so…
If I as a human parent can feel that delight,
how much more must God feel for each of us?
I tended to adopt extended family along the way
because everybody needs a cheering section
I particularly remember my high school graduation
I did ok in high school
I didn’t know I was smart
So I didn’t try too hard
but I got by with ok grades
I didn’t win any big scholarships
or even place in the top 10 of my class
I didn’t win anything for athletics or have any trophies
But I did get to go up on stage for some smaller awards
like Best Spanish Student
or Best Senior Essay
and then I think I got a nice little scholarship
from the AAUW local chapter
But they weren’t the big ones
and I wasn’t one of the top kids in my class
or one of the most popular
However, I do remember every time I got to go on stage
for those small awards
and then for my degree,
my Aunt Sandie-- who wasn’t really my aunt,
she was just my Mom’s best friend--
I remember she stood up and screamed
waving her arms like a real lunatic
shouting my name across the auditorium
while my mother looked very embarrassed
But she did it every time my name was called
and as embarrassing as it was,
inside I was grateful to be singled out and cheered for
when I felt like nothing special at the time
We don’t have heroes much anymore
the ones we might look up to
Ttnd to fall very far from grace
and thanks to the media
we know all the sordid details of their failures
So we’re more cynical, I think, about heroes
Also there’s a difference between growing up, maturing
and becoming cynical
As a child, I remember looking up to people
assuming they knew everything
assuming that they did everything right
and that they had it all figured out
I also remember different occasions
when I’d see an adult I admired or looked up to
make a mistake or show their mean side
or just do something stupid
and how disappointing that was
The image I had of them was shattered
and I didn’t think they could be my hero anymore
The media has a way of trashing people in our culture
especially public figures and leaders
nobody can live up to that perfect image
We can’t just dislike someone or disagree with them
If we don’t like them, as a culture we tend to discredit them
and tear them apart… no one really has a chance
But then we look at Scripture,
look at this list of heroes
You won’t find a blameless, perfect person among them
King David? A man after God’s own heart
who also committed adultery and murder
Samson? Had more brawn than brains, it seemed
and was easily manipulated for his power
usually by a woman who knew his weaknesses
The people of Israel who walked through that Red Sea?
All along the journey they complained,
they thumbed their noses at God
One minute God was the greatest, the next minute
they were praying to golden statues…
Rahab, the only woman besides Sarah
who is named among the greats of the faith,
and who helped the Israelite spies
She was a prostitute
None of these people’s characters would have endured
the scrutiny and arrogant analysis of our 21st century media
As a child, I banked a lot on my heroes
Sometimes they made me feel like I could be fantastic
it was like walking on a cloud
but then to find out that they were just as human as me
that they were sometimes weak or afraid
they made bad decisions, even failed
As a child it was disillusioning
and I often swore I’d never look up to them again
But the letter to the Hebrews says that we are surrounded
by a great cloud of witnesses
heroes of the faith
to look up to them, to be empowered and encouraged
by their stories and their lives
is not like walking on a cloud
but like being SURROUNDED by a cloud
at first glance, the list of great ones may look like a list of losers
instead of winners
People who got beaten up, crucified, persecuted, publicly humiliated
Not people who made straight A’s in school all the time
or won all the races, or got any awards
In our cultures’ standards, the heroes of the bible
look like a bunch of losers
And Jesus?
He was supposed to conquer the kingdoms
He was supposed to display his superior power
He was supposed to assume the throne
and make everything right again
Instead he ended up completely humiliated
treated like a common criminal worthy of execution
It looked like he let his enemies win
while he hung out with the poor and the wretched of society
and tended to avoid the bigwigs and the people that could
get him where they thought he needed to go
He had only a team of 12 disciples to begin with
and his crowd of followers was relatively small
not worth noting, really
It was quite a little ragtag army
Of course, that’s looking at it all from a human perspective
We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses
human beings that have lived and died in their faith
In the Apostles’ Creed we say that we believe in the communion of saints
which means that as Christians,
we believe that there is an ongoing spiritual relationship
between the saints who have died
and those who are still living
And all those imperfect lives point to the life of Jesus Christ
Those lives still speak to us
tThey stand as witnesses to the amazing grace of Jesus Christ
Who takes our ordinary, imperfect lives
and makes them extraordinary witnesses of the Gospel
When I first learned about the communion of saints
I was a little skeptical
I mean, it’s hard to believe
At least, it’s easier to believe
until someone we love actually dies
and death slaps us in the face
But then someone pointed out to me that
we believe Jesus died, was dead and buried
we also believe he rose from the dead
and ascended into heaven
And we believe that he is alive
sSo much so that he is guiding us, directing us, loving us
and that we can communicate with him
any time we want
even though we have never met him in the flesh
In the same way, we believe as a church
that the saints who have gone on before us
are still connected to us
they’re kind of our balcony people
cheering us on, because they’ve already been there
As I’ve grown up…
I’ve learned that nobody and no-thing is perfect
We live in a very imperfect world
We live in a great tension between what God wants
and what the world is actually like
Between who God wants us to be and who we are
Even the Church is infected with sin
because it’s made up of human beings
But the good news is that God formed the Church
a long, long time ago,
began with a ragtag army of disciples
who followed Jesus but were never quite sure
of who he was
and they got it wrong more often than not
But the Church is still going
it still takes it’s blows, it still suffers its disappointments
and setbacks
But God still calls us, the Church, to join the great cloud of witnesses
the communion of saints
in telling and living the Story of Jesus Christ
Someone else walked the road before us
And don’t shy away from the identification of saint
Saint doesn’t mean that we or they were perfect
it just means that we are the people of God
trying to figure out just what that means
The stories in the Bible don’t sugarcoat anything
they’re raw, they’re sometimes uncomfortably blunt and honest
but they witness to the power of God in Jesus Christ
It’s hard
I remember some cynics telling me in seminary
that I was about to jump onto a sinking ship, meaning the Church
because yeah, the numbers are down, the Church is still trying to
figure out how to be a credible witness in the 21st century
and we don’t always get it right
there are times that it seems all wrong
And yet… and yet…
We remember the stories that point to THE Story
and we get back up off the ground, and we get going again
We run with perseverance the race that is set before us
We may not win any ribbons
or break any records
our lives may seem so ordinary
and unexciting
We may even royally mess up and trip up along the path
And yet according to Hebrews, the point of the race
is not necessarily to win,
at least to win by the standards of our society
But the writer of Hebrews is more concerned with throwing off
whatever holds us back from reaching for the prize,
reaching for the goal, from running the race at all
from reaching higher and further
What holds us back? What excuses do we make for giving up?
For sitting on the sidelines?
Lay it aside, we’re told, shake it off
Look to Jesus as the author and perfecter of our faith
Our lives are only part of the ongoing story, the ongoing witness
but we play a part, we have a role
we have a sentence to contribute
a note to be sung
When we were in South Dakota, after visiting Mt. Rushmore,
we went to the Crazy Horse monument
they’ve been working on that monument for 50 years
and only the face is finished
The story of how the dream came to be is fascinating
The original sculptor began the project completely by himself
When it’s all completely finished,
Mt. Rushmore would fit into the hair of Crazy Horse
and the monument will be of Crazy Horse riding his horse
and pointing out to his lands…
It’s crazy..
The original sculptor is dead
His family has taken over the project
They won't live to see the final results
But they have given their lives to a dream
aA dream that may not come to fulfillment in their lifetime
bBut they know that they will have had a part in making it possible
It’s not a practical dream, but it’s an inspiring dream
aAnd little, by little, year by year, it’s taking shape
That takes faith
and vision
and a heart with the capacity to see beyond
what the physical eye can see
What we are called to live and to be as Christians
may seem absurd and may seem like a dream out of reach
But still we keep running the race, believing in the dream
keeping our eyes on the one we can’t see
but the one we know in our heart of hearts goes before us
blazing the trail, paving the way
and giving the power to keep running,
to keep reaching, to keep searching
to keep loving, dreaming dreams and seeing visions
of God’s kingdom on earth
We are not alone
We can’t see them,
but the air around us in our worship and in our living
is filled with the spirits of the imperfect saints
who shared the same dream, the same vision
and whose stories and lives give us the hope
that we’re not just walking on a cloud
but that our feet are walking on solid ground
towards the dream embodied in the face of Jesus Christ
My father was know to say in his Sunday School class
“Now we better go back before we go forward…”
And what he meant was that we had to look back
at what other people have said about what we were learning
before we could go on and learn a new thing
All that we learn is something that someone else learned before us
and passed it on, whether it’s history, geography, science
or the Bible
we are the bearers of a tradition
And no matter what we do to communicate the Gospel in our changing times
we can never let go of the traditions that got us here
the teachers that have taught us
We can modernize and contemporize,
but we can never fully let go of the past and all that it teaches
And we have the communion of saints in our hearts and memories
to be examples of lives that have fought the good fight
and finished the race,
even if we thought that they finished much too soon
In 1984, just a year after she cheered at my high school graduation
Sandie died from melanoma at the age of 39
It was horrible and devastating and I was furious with God
and even though I had faith,
I had a hard time believing that Sandie was truly alive
that she was ok
About two months after her death
I had a dream
that she came to the house with her family
with her husband and two young kids
We played games, we laughed, we ate around the table,
just like we always did when they came to visit
but we all knew that she was just visiting
from eternity, that she couldn’t stay with us
In the dream, she took me to the kitchen, off by myself
and we hugged a long time
I told her I missed her and I didn’t know how to get along
without her
She held me away from herself and looked me in the eye
She said, “I miss you too, but you know what?
someday you’ll see me again.
and when you do, we’ll never have to say goodbye again.”
I woke up from that dream
with my skin feeling as if I’d actually touched her
aAnd I knew that dream was a gift from God
I still grieved her death,
in fact, 23 years later, I still miss her
and wish I could tell her stuff
But in the midst of the tears, I had that dream
tTo keep me moving forward, trusting that she is still
up there in the balcony cheering me on the rest of the way
There is a sign on the Winchester cathedral in England that says:
“ you are entering a conversation that began long before
you were born and will continue long after you’re dead.”
What verse will we contribute to the poem?
What notes will we add to the song?
What will our story be?
Text: Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Faith United
August 19, 2007
I didn’t grow up around extended family
My aunts, uncles and cousins were either down in Mississippi
and Louisiana
or scattered all over the world
So I didn’t even KNOW most of them
And in New Jersey,
it’s not a cultural thing like it is in Nebraska
for parents and grandparents to go to every single game
ice cream social or music concert
that happens at their kids’ school
I didn’t grow up expecting that,
because mostly I didn’t have any extended family
who could show up if that was even the norm
When Sarah was little and started playing soccer
at the age where parents are just happy if the kids stay on the field
much less kick a goal
I loved watching her play
I loved watching her kick the ball instead of running away from it
or block a goal when she was goalie
I remember thinking during those days
what God must feel like
If I felt that proud of my little kindergartener
going on there and running up and down that huge field
chasing a ball
If I felt so overjoyed at watching her achieve something as small
as just kicking the ball…
How must God feel looking at US?
Does God absolutely DELIGHT in watching us grow and learn
and discover and get back up again when we fall?
I think so…
If I as a human parent can feel that delight,
how much more must God feel for each of us?
I tended to adopt extended family along the way
because everybody needs a cheering section
I particularly remember my high school graduation
I did ok in high school
I didn’t know I was smart
So I didn’t try too hard
but I got by with ok grades
I didn’t win any big scholarships
or even place in the top 10 of my class
I didn’t win anything for athletics or have any trophies
But I did get to go up on stage for some smaller awards
like Best Spanish Student
or Best Senior Essay
and then I think I got a nice little scholarship
from the AAUW local chapter
But they weren’t the big ones
and I wasn’t one of the top kids in my class
or one of the most popular
However, I do remember every time I got to go on stage
for those small awards
and then for my degree,
my Aunt Sandie-- who wasn’t really my aunt,
she was just my Mom’s best friend--
I remember she stood up and screamed
waving her arms like a real lunatic
shouting my name across the auditorium
while my mother looked very embarrassed
But she did it every time my name was called
and as embarrassing as it was,
inside I was grateful to be singled out and cheered for
when I felt like nothing special at the time
We don’t have heroes much anymore
the ones we might look up to
Ttnd to fall very far from grace
and thanks to the media
we know all the sordid details of their failures
So we’re more cynical, I think, about heroes
Also there’s a difference between growing up, maturing
and becoming cynical
As a child, I remember looking up to people
assuming they knew everything
assuming that they did everything right
and that they had it all figured out
I also remember different occasions
when I’d see an adult I admired or looked up to
make a mistake or show their mean side
or just do something stupid
and how disappointing that was
The image I had of them was shattered
and I didn’t think they could be my hero anymore
The media has a way of trashing people in our culture
especially public figures and leaders
nobody can live up to that perfect image
We can’t just dislike someone or disagree with them
If we don’t like them, as a culture we tend to discredit them
and tear them apart… no one really has a chance
But then we look at Scripture,
look at this list of heroes
You won’t find a blameless, perfect person among them
King David? A man after God’s own heart
who also committed adultery and murder
Samson? Had more brawn than brains, it seemed
and was easily manipulated for his power
usually by a woman who knew his weaknesses
The people of Israel who walked through that Red Sea?
All along the journey they complained,
they thumbed their noses at God
One minute God was the greatest, the next minute
they were praying to golden statues…
Rahab, the only woman besides Sarah
who is named among the greats of the faith,
and who helped the Israelite spies
She was a prostitute
None of these people’s characters would have endured
the scrutiny and arrogant analysis of our 21st century media
As a child, I banked a lot on my heroes
Sometimes they made me feel like I could be fantastic
it was like walking on a cloud
but then to find out that they were just as human as me
that they were sometimes weak or afraid
they made bad decisions, even failed
As a child it was disillusioning
and I often swore I’d never look up to them again
But the letter to the Hebrews says that we are surrounded
by a great cloud of witnesses
heroes of the faith
to look up to them, to be empowered and encouraged
by their stories and their lives
is not like walking on a cloud
but like being SURROUNDED by a cloud
at first glance, the list of great ones may look like a list of losers
instead of winners
People who got beaten up, crucified, persecuted, publicly humiliated
Not people who made straight A’s in school all the time
or won all the races, or got any awards
In our cultures’ standards, the heroes of the bible
look like a bunch of losers
And Jesus?
He was supposed to conquer the kingdoms
He was supposed to display his superior power
He was supposed to assume the throne
and make everything right again
Instead he ended up completely humiliated
treated like a common criminal worthy of execution
It looked like he let his enemies win
while he hung out with the poor and the wretched of society
and tended to avoid the bigwigs and the people that could
get him where they thought he needed to go
He had only a team of 12 disciples to begin with
and his crowd of followers was relatively small
not worth noting, really
It was quite a little ragtag army
Of course, that’s looking at it all from a human perspective
We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses
human beings that have lived and died in their faith
In the Apostles’ Creed we say that we believe in the communion of saints
which means that as Christians,
we believe that there is an ongoing spiritual relationship
between the saints who have died
and those who are still living
And all those imperfect lives point to the life of Jesus Christ
Those lives still speak to us
tThey stand as witnesses to the amazing grace of Jesus Christ
Who takes our ordinary, imperfect lives
and makes them extraordinary witnesses of the Gospel
When I first learned about the communion of saints
I was a little skeptical
I mean, it’s hard to believe
At least, it’s easier to believe
until someone we love actually dies
and death slaps us in the face
But then someone pointed out to me that
we believe Jesus died, was dead and buried
we also believe he rose from the dead
and ascended into heaven
And we believe that he is alive
sSo much so that he is guiding us, directing us, loving us
and that we can communicate with him
any time we want
even though we have never met him in the flesh
In the same way, we believe as a church
that the saints who have gone on before us
are still connected to us
they’re kind of our balcony people
cheering us on, because they’ve already been there
As I’ve grown up…
I’ve learned that nobody and no-thing is perfect
We live in a very imperfect world
We live in a great tension between what God wants
and what the world is actually like
Between who God wants us to be and who we are
Even the Church is infected with sin
because it’s made up of human beings
But the good news is that God formed the Church
a long, long time ago,
began with a ragtag army of disciples
who followed Jesus but were never quite sure
of who he was
and they got it wrong more often than not
But the Church is still going
it still takes it’s blows, it still suffers its disappointments
and setbacks
But God still calls us, the Church, to join the great cloud of witnesses
the communion of saints
in telling and living the Story of Jesus Christ
Someone else walked the road before us
And don’t shy away from the identification of saint
Saint doesn’t mean that we or they were perfect
it just means that we are the people of God
trying to figure out just what that means
The stories in the Bible don’t sugarcoat anything
they’re raw, they’re sometimes uncomfortably blunt and honest
but they witness to the power of God in Jesus Christ
It’s hard
I remember some cynics telling me in seminary
that I was about to jump onto a sinking ship, meaning the Church
because yeah, the numbers are down, the Church is still trying to
figure out how to be a credible witness in the 21st century
and we don’t always get it right
there are times that it seems all wrong
And yet… and yet…
We remember the stories that point to THE Story
and we get back up off the ground, and we get going again
We run with perseverance the race that is set before us
We may not win any ribbons
or break any records
our lives may seem so ordinary
and unexciting
We may even royally mess up and trip up along the path
And yet according to Hebrews, the point of the race
is not necessarily to win,
at least to win by the standards of our society
But the writer of Hebrews is more concerned with throwing off
whatever holds us back from reaching for the prize,
reaching for the goal, from running the race at all
from reaching higher and further
What holds us back? What excuses do we make for giving up?
For sitting on the sidelines?
Lay it aside, we’re told, shake it off
Look to Jesus as the author and perfecter of our faith
Our lives are only part of the ongoing story, the ongoing witness
but we play a part, we have a role
we have a sentence to contribute
a note to be sung
When we were in South Dakota, after visiting Mt. Rushmore,
we went to the Crazy Horse monument
they’ve been working on that monument for 50 years
and only the face is finished
The story of how the dream came to be is fascinating
The original sculptor began the project completely by himself
When it’s all completely finished,
Mt. Rushmore would fit into the hair of Crazy Horse
and the monument will be of Crazy Horse riding his horse
and pointing out to his lands…
It’s crazy..
The original sculptor is dead
His family has taken over the project
They won't live to see the final results
But they have given their lives to a dream
aA dream that may not come to fulfillment in their lifetime
bBut they know that they will have had a part in making it possible
It’s not a practical dream, but it’s an inspiring dream
aAnd little, by little, year by year, it’s taking shape
That takes faith
and vision
and a heart with the capacity to see beyond
what the physical eye can see
What we are called to live and to be as Christians
may seem absurd and may seem like a dream out of reach
But still we keep running the race, believing in the dream
keeping our eyes on the one we can’t see
but the one we know in our heart of hearts goes before us
blazing the trail, paving the way
and giving the power to keep running,
to keep reaching, to keep searching
to keep loving, dreaming dreams and seeing visions
of God’s kingdom on earth
We are not alone
We can’t see them,
but the air around us in our worship and in our living
is filled with the spirits of the imperfect saints
who shared the same dream, the same vision
and whose stories and lives give us the hope
that we’re not just walking on a cloud
but that our feet are walking on solid ground
towards the dream embodied in the face of Jesus Christ
My father was know to say in his Sunday School class
“Now we better go back before we go forward…”
And what he meant was that we had to look back
at what other people have said about what we were learning
before we could go on and learn a new thing
All that we learn is something that someone else learned before us
and passed it on, whether it’s history, geography, science
or the Bible
we are the bearers of a tradition
And no matter what we do to communicate the Gospel in our changing times
we can never let go of the traditions that got us here
the teachers that have taught us
We can modernize and contemporize,
but we can never fully let go of the past and all that it teaches
And we have the communion of saints in our hearts and memories
to be examples of lives that have fought the good fight
and finished the race,
even if we thought that they finished much too soon
In 1984, just a year after she cheered at my high school graduation
Sandie died from melanoma at the age of 39
It was horrible and devastating and I was furious with God
and even though I had faith,
I had a hard time believing that Sandie was truly alive
that she was ok
About two months after her death
I had a dream
that she came to the house with her family
with her husband and two young kids
We played games, we laughed, we ate around the table,
just like we always did when they came to visit
but we all knew that she was just visiting
from eternity, that she couldn’t stay with us
In the dream, she took me to the kitchen, off by myself
and we hugged a long time
I told her I missed her and I didn’t know how to get along
without her
She held me away from herself and looked me in the eye
She said, “I miss you too, but you know what?
someday you’ll see me again.
and when you do, we’ll never have to say goodbye again.”
I woke up from that dream
with my skin feeling as if I’d actually touched her
aAnd I knew that dream was a gift from God
I still grieved her death,
in fact, 23 years later, I still miss her
and wish I could tell her stuff
But in the midst of the tears, I had that dream
tTo keep me moving forward, trusting that she is still
up there in the balcony cheering me on the rest of the way
There is a sign on the Winchester cathedral in England that says:
“ you are entering a conversation that began long before
you were born and will continue long after you’re dead.”
What verse will we contribute to the poem?
What notes will we add to the song?
What will our story be?
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Wild About Harry
On Friday night, July 20th, at 11:55 p.m., I was sitting in the Hilltop Mall on one of those hard benches waiting for my family. Most of the stores were closed, mind you, all except for Walden Books. There was a long line full of people, old and young, some dressed in black robes and neckties, many teenagers simply dressed as teenagers do. Larry was further up in the line than Sarah and her friend Erin, so he came back to me with the orange-covered book earlier, giving me the chance to look on the last page for the last sentence: “all is well.” That’s all I needed to know ahead of time. All is well in the end.
Yep, I’m 42 years old and I stayed up for the Midnight release of the final book in the infamous Harry Potter series. Was I just being one of the good, supportive parents who often make such sacrifices for their children? No—well, partly, I suppose, but I was there as much for myself as for Sarah. I have loved Harry for 6 years. During the Fall of 2001, in anticipation of the release of the first HP movie, I decided as a pastor and as a parent, I ought to check out this phenomenon. I read the first book in the series. Within three weeks, I’d read all four of the then-existing books. I couldn’t put it down. I was hooked. In a world that had recently been shattered by 9/11, Harry took me off on his magic broom and reminded me that love conquers all.
There are 7 books in the series, and 7 is a biblical number of perfection. Completeness. And Harry’s story is indeed complete. The story is written with enviable brilliance. There are many biblical undertones throughout the books. If J.K. Rowling has no background knowledge of the Bible and Christian tradition, then her writing is even more magical. Harry has been a big part of our family’s life over the last 6 years. As of Friday night, Sarah and I had some disagreement over details in the final story, and waited to see who was right (I won’t say who was right). But through these 6 years of following his enchanting story, Harry has reminded us delightfully that love is the most powerful force in the universe. Friendship and loyalty, to the point of laying down your life for a friend, are some of the most important gifts there are. Ultimately, it’s about the struggle between Good and Evil, as any good fairy tale, and in the final book, there is an Armageddon-type battle between the two forces. Seemingly bad people turn out good. Nobody is perfect, but they all have their stories, and knowing their stories helps you understand who they are and why they are the way they are, and elicits sometimes reluctant compassion toward them. The story is very dark in places, as you’ve most likely heard, as Evil gets a foothold on the world for awhile and it seems very likely that Evil will dominate and win. As is painfully true in our own world, the fight for Good to win involves sacrifice, losses, and an ongoing commitment to keep fighting for what you believe in even when it looks like the world is coming to an end and Good is losing. The darkest parts of Harry’s story are simply as dark as our own reality. Harry, in the end, is a Christ-like figure, whose greatest power is not magic, but his ability to love. And it is that relentless power to love and purity of heart that defeats evil in the end.
I’ll miss Harry. There are few books of fiction that compare to Rowling’s level of writing. She is simply brilliant. But Harry gave me something to share with my daughter as she grows into adolescence. He’s given us something to talk about together, care about together, wonder about together, and journey with together through our own dark and difficult times in this post-9/11 world. And he has let us ride off on a broom with him for many hours at a time, step back, and remember that God reminds us that the world may seem dark, but Love as we’ve seen it in Jesus Christ-God Incarnate, is the only thing worth fighting for and hoping in. The Kingdom of God, Jesus promises, will come in the end. Love will win in the end. Good will triumph at last. And in that day, when there are no more tears, no more death, no more wars, no more terror, no more blatant evil and chaos, we can say, finally, “all is well.” And it will be. Jesus said so.
Yep, I’m 42 years old and I stayed up for the Midnight release of the final book in the infamous Harry Potter series. Was I just being one of the good, supportive parents who often make such sacrifices for their children? No—well, partly, I suppose, but I was there as much for myself as for Sarah. I have loved Harry for 6 years. During the Fall of 2001, in anticipation of the release of the first HP movie, I decided as a pastor and as a parent, I ought to check out this phenomenon. I read the first book in the series. Within three weeks, I’d read all four of the then-existing books. I couldn’t put it down. I was hooked. In a world that had recently been shattered by 9/11, Harry took me off on his magic broom and reminded me that love conquers all.
There are 7 books in the series, and 7 is a biblical number of perfection. Completeness. And Harry’s story is indeed complete. The story is written with enviable brilliance. There are many biblical undertones throughout the books. If J.K. Rowling has no background knowledge of the Bible and Christian tradition, then her writing is even more magical. Harry has been a big part of our family’s life over the last 6 years. As of Friday night, Sarah and I had some disagreement over details in the final story, and waited to see who was right (I won’t say who was right). But through these 6 years of following his enchanting story, Harry has reminded us delightfully that love is the most powerful force in the universe. Friendship and loyalty, to the point of laying down your life for a friend, are some of the most important gifts there are. Ultimately, it’s about the struggle between Good and Evil, as any good fairy tale, and in the final book, there is an Armageddon-type battle between the two forces. Seemingly bad people turn out good. Nobody is perfect, but they all have their stories, and knowing their stories helps you understand who they are and why they are the way they are, and elicits sometimes reluctant compassion toward them. The story is very dark in places, as you’ve most likely heard, as Evil gets a foothold on the world for awhile and it seems very likely that Evil will dominate and win. As is painfully true in our own world, the fight for Good to win involves sacrifice, losses, and an ongoing commitment to keep fighting for what you believe in even when it looks like the world is coming to an end and Good is losing. The darkest parts of Harry’s story are simply as dark as our own reality. Harry, in the end, is a Christ-like figure, whose greatest power is not magic, but his ability to love. And it is that relentless power to love and purity of heart that defeats evil in the end.
I’ll miss Harry. There are few books of fiction that compare to Rowling’s level of writing. She is simply brilliant. But Harry gave me something to share with my daughter as she grows into adolescence. He’s given us something to talk about together, care about together, wonder about together, and journey with together through our own dark and difficult times in this post-9/11 world. And he has let us ride off on a broom with him for many hours at a time, step back, and remember that God reminds us that the world may seem dark, but Love as we’ve seen it in Jesus Christ-God Incarnate, is the only thing worth fighting for and hoping in. The Kingdom of God, Jesus promises, will come in the end. Love will win in the end. Good will triumph at last. And in that day, when there are no more tears, no more death, no more wars, no more terror, no more blatant evil and chaos, we can say, finally, “all is well.” And it will be. Jesus said so.
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