What happens in me is more important than what happens to me. I read this statement recently, and it struck me so much that I wanted to share it with you.
For me, it addresses the question “What do I do when someone hurts me?”
“Don’t get mad, get even,” says the world.
“Turn the other cheek,” says Jesus.
“All’s fair in love and war,” says the world.
“Love your enemies,” says Jesus.
“My kid beat up your honor student,” says the world.
“Pray for those who persecute you,” says Jesus the living Christ.
People will hurt me. I cannot change that. Sometimes they will do it on purpose – sometimes by accident. I can choose to seek revenge. I can spend years litigating our dispute. I can spend hours or days or years stewing over the injustice. Or I can ask God to change my inner life.
There is only so much room in me. If I fill myself up with rage, envy, contentiousness, discord, or hatred, there is very little room left for God. I may come to church, sing the hymns, pray the prayers, listen to the sermons, but God will still seem distant. Conversely, if I am filled with the Holy Spirit, that very presence of God that can be within me, there is no room left for the harboring of old injustices.
What happens in me is more important than what happens to me. I have a choice. I can allow the events that happen to me to rule my life. Or I can allow the Holy Spirit within me to rule my life. I choose the later!
I’m not that good at it. I sometimes slip into old ways, but when I remember to make room for the Holy Spirit, that Spirit gives me the strength and courage to be a new creation. With God’s help I can be who God intended me to be.
You and I can live full of the Holy Spirit, or we can live full of bitterness. We cannot do both! Ask God today to empty you out of bitterness, envy, hatred, pettiness, or whatever it is that crowds out God’s presence in your life, and then ask God to fill you with His power and His love. May God bless you richly through the presence of His Spirit.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
You Can Take It With You!
One of God’s gifts to this Church is the faithfulness of people in the past who have donated to the Church’s endowment funds. Those gifts will support ministry in this community out into the unforeseeable future just as God has worked through faithful Christians in the past, helping us to have the ministry we have today.
An expert in Church endowments once told me that the only reason people often leave money to hospitals, libraries and universities in their will and do not leave money to their Church is because the hospitals, libraries, and universities asked, and the Church did not. So here I am asking. If you are in a position to do it, would you consider including the Church in your will? All you need to do is look at what God is doing with money given in the past to know that we will be good stewards of your money, and that your gift will enable this Church to do ministry long into the future. You can designate your gift to a particular area of ministry about which you are concerned, give to the general endowment, or you can leave the discretion up to our Church session for ministries we might never imagine today.
There are other innovative ways that the Presbyterian Foundation can help you to make gifts to the Church. One of them is to establish a charitable gift annuity. In exchange for your gift to the Presbyterian Foundation, you will receive payments for life. After your lifetime the gift, less the payment you received, is used for the Presbyterian mission you select. This manner of giving ensures an income for the rest of your life, has significant tax benefits, and supports your church when you pass.
You can contact the Presbyterian Foundation at 800-858-6127 or look them up on the internet at www.presbyterianfoundation.org .
The worst thing to do would be to let a gift go unmade because of procrastination. 70% of Americans don’t have a will! 50% of lawyers don’t have a will! When these people die, the State will decide where there money goes, and if they have minor children, where their children go! My suspicion is that the reason many of us don’t have wills is that it isn’t fun to think about death. But remember that death does not have the final word for us as Christians! When we die we will live again in the fullness of life which God intended. Let me encourage you to think of a will as a wonderful opportunity to have a ministry after your death. You’ve heard the expression “You can’t take it with you.” I’m telling you that it’s not true. If you invest it right (i.e. give it away) you can take it with you. Others will benefit from your faithfulness for years to come!
An expert in Church endowments once told me that the only reason people often leave money to hospitals, libraries and universities in their will and do not leave money to their Church is because the hospitals, libraries, and universities asked, and the Church did not. So here I am asking. If you are in a position to do it, would you consider including the Church in your will? All you need to do is look at what God is doing with money given in the past to know that we will be good stewards of your money, and that your gift will enable this Church to do ministry long into the future. You can designate your gift to a particular area of ministry about which you are concerned, give to the general endowment, or you can leave the discretion up to our Church session for ministries we might never imagine today.
There are other innovative ways that the Presbyterian Foundation can help you to make gifts to the Church. One of them is to establish a charitable gift annuity. In exchange for your gift to the Presbyterian Foundation, you will receive payments for life. After your lifetime the gift, less the payment you received, is used for the Presbyterian mission you select. This manner of giving ensures an income for the rest of your life, has significant tax benefits, and supports your church when you pass.
You can contact the Presbyterian Foundation at 800-858-6127 or look them up on the internet at www.presbyterianfoundation.org .
The worst thing to do would be to let a gift go unmade because of procrastination. 70% of Americans don’t have a will! 50% of lawyers don’t have a will! When these people die, the State will decide where there money goes, and if they have minor children, where their children go! My suspicion is that the reason many of us don’t have wills is that it isn’t fun to think about death. But remember that death does not have the final word for us as Christians! When we die we will live again in the fullness of life which God intended. Let me encourage you to think of a will as a wonderful opportunity to have a ministry after your death. You’ve heard the expression “You can’t take it with you.” I’m telling you that it’s not true. If you invest it right (i.e. give it away) you can take it with you. Others will benefit from your faithfulness for years to come!
Friday, June 19, 2009
Summer Sabbath
Exodus 20:8-10 Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God.
Sadly, we’ve lost the regular practice of Sabbath. Whether on the sixth or the seventh day, the Sabbath was God’s reminder for us to take a break; to rest; to relax; to spend quality time with family; to spend quality time with Him.
We don’t have a Sabbath anymore – most of us struggle to fit in an hour and a half (when you include travel time) to come to church on Sunday. Then it’s off to soccer games, on to yard work, back to the office, off to Walmart. I could preach myself blue in the face, and I don’t think the weekly Sabbath is coming back to American life, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. We don’t have a Sabbath anymore!
But we do have summer. For the ancients, summer was anything but a time of rest and reconnection. It was a time of agricultural labor – hard labor. They worked from sun-up to sundown, and the days are longer in the summer. But we get a bit of a break in the summer. Most of us have a few less meetings, a few less demands, and a bit more time. Most of us get to take a vacation: Another unknown in the ancient world. Although we have lost the practice of a weekly Sabbath, we have another opportunity for Sabbath keeping, and that opportunity is summer.
I invite you to use the lazy days of summer for some Sabbath activities: Take a break, rest, relax, spend quality time with your family, and spend quality time with God. Sabbath is more than just activities; Sabbath is a mindset. It’s a theological mindset that not only puts the feet up, but thanks God for the opportunity to put the feet up. It’s a mindset that lets God rejuvenate the gifts He has given you, so that when you reenter the rat-race, you do it better. It’s a mindset that savors relationship rather than production. Summer is upon us. Will you be better next fall because of it?
Sadly, we’ve lost the regular practice of Sabbath. Whether on the sixth or the seventh day, the Sabbath was God’s reminder for us to take a break; to rest; to relax; to spend quality time with family; to spend quality time with Him.
We don’t have a Sabbath anymore – most of us struggle to fit in an hour and a half (when you include travel time) to come to church on Sunday. Then it’s off to soccer games, on to yard work, back to the office, off to Walmart. I could preach myself blue in the face, and I don’t think the weekly Sabbath is coming back to American life, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. We don’t have a Sabbath anymore!
But we do have summer. For the ancients, summer was anything but a time of rest and reconnection. It was a time of agricultural labor – hard labor. They worked from sun-up to sundown, and the days are longer in the summer. But we get a bit of a break in the summer. Most of us have a few less meetings, a few less demands, and a bit more time. Most of us get to take a vacation: Another unknown in the ancient world. Although we have lost the practice of a weekly Sabbath, we have another opportunity for Sabbath keeping, and that opportunity is summer.
I invite you to use the lazy days of summer for some Sabbath activities: Take a break, rest, relax, spend quality time with your family, and spend quality time with God. Sabbath is more than just activities; Sabbath is a mindset. It’s a theological mindset that not only puts the feet up, but thanks God for the opportunity to put the feet up. It’s a mindset that lets God rejuvenate the gifts He has given you, so that when you reenter the rat-race, you do it better. It’s a mindset that savors relationship rather than production. Summer is upon us. Will you be better next fall because of it?
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Something Greater
A few weeks ago I had an enlightening experience in our Orangewood Fellowship Service. The theme of the service was that when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper it is a foretaste of the great supper in the Kingdom of God where we will be reunited with loved ones who have passed away. Prior to communion, we asked each worshipper to sculpt, out of modeling clay, some representation or symbol of a loved one who has gone on before.
I hated it! In the same way that most people have a public speaking phobia (which, clearly, I do not have), I have an art phobia. I’m not good at it, and I have an irrational fear of people seeing my pitiful efforts. It was not a worshipful time for me – my discomfort got in the way . . . Until we began the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Suddenly, I looked around and we were seated at table in the Kingdom of God with our dear departed!
I had made a symbol of my grandmother. Emma, who was seated next to me, had made Duke, our dog of 17 years, whom we had to put down last summer. I looked around the table and saw some widows and widowers. I saw some people who had lost a parent in the last few years. Their art wasn’t that great either, but I was pretty sure whom they had made, and what it might mean to them to be seated at that table. My heart soared! My understanding deepened! My soul praised the Lord!
I had a big say in planning that activity and I knew I wouldn’t like it when we planned it. I kind of figured that so much of what we do is heady, intellectual, sermonic. Perhaps we should do something that might reach a different kind of person: The artsy, hearty, hands-on kind. I figured I could deal with a little discomfort if their worship was enriched with something different. That’s what I thought going in. Turns out God could do something greater than my limited expectations.
We have new projection capabilities in the sanctuary. Some of us are greatly moved to worship through it. Some of us really don’t like it. That’s okay. We’re all entitled to have likes and dislikes. We can deal with a little dislike, though, if it helps us to enhance the worship of a different kind of person: Those who are more visual. That may be the best some of us can do: “It doesn’t work for me, but I’m glad we do it for others.” That in itself is a wonderful Christian attitude. We will sit at table in the Kingdom of God with all kinds of people.
And who knows – maybe God can do something greater than our limited expectations.
I hated it! In the same way that most people have a public speaking phobia (which, clearly, I do not have), I have an art phobia. I’m not good at it, and I have an irrational fear of people seeing my pitiful efforts. It was not a worshipful time for me – my discomfort got in the way . . . Until we began the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Suddenly, I looked around and we were seated at table in the Kingdom of God with our dear departed!
I had made a symbol of my grandmother. Emma, who was seated next to me, had made Duke, our dog of 17 years, whom we had to put down last summer. I looked around the table and saw some widows and widowers. I saw some people who had lost a parent in the last few years. Their art wasn’t that great either, but I was pretty sure whom they had made, and what it might mean to them to be seated at that table. My heart soared! My understanding deepened! My soul praised the Lord!
I had a big say in planning that activity and I knew I wouldn’t like it when we planned it. I kind of figured that so much of what we do is heady, intellectual, sermonic. Perhaps we should do something that might reach a different kind of person: The artsy, hearty, hands-on kind. I figured I could deal with a little discomfort if their worship was enriched with something different. That’s what I thought going in. Turns out God could do something greater than my limited expectations.
We have new projection capabilities in the sanctuary. Some of us are greatly moved to worship through it. Some of us really don’t like it. That’s okay. We’re all entitled to have likes and dislikes. We can deal with a little dislike, though, if it helps us to enhance the worship of a different kind of person: Those who are more visual. That may be the best some of us can do: “It doesn’t work for me, but I’m glad we do it for others.” That in itself is a wonderful Christian attitude. We will sit at table in the Kingdom of God with all kinds of people.
And who knows – maybe God can do something greater than our limited expectations.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
It's Not About Me!
I went home from the December Session Meeting depressed. The Session took action to remove about 50 people from the church rolls. It was the right thing to do. It simply reflected reality – they were not active members any more. It saves us money on our per-capita assessment. But my heart grieved for each of those people. I’m sure God has not lost all of them, many of them must still be people of faith in Jesus Christ, but at least some of them surely are not.
I must admit I was feeling sorry for myself as well. I work hard. I think I’m good at what I do. I care passionately. Why can’t I grow a church? It’s all about me when I’m feeling depressed!
It’s not about me! Don’t come and pat me on the back and tell me it’s not my fault, because I might smack you . . . in Christ. To some extent it’s the fault of all of us! We’ve got a broken model of church, which worked from the ‘50s – 80’s but hasn’t worked since, and we’re still hanging on to it. It’s a model where we do church well and people come to us. We do church well: The campus is attractive, the music is beautiful, the preaching is decent, the programs are solid . . . but people aren’t coming.
We need a different model, and it’s not a model that some guru can simply tell us how to build. It’s a model where we attempt to be the church IN THE WORLD. Some of it will still happen on our campus, but we will have to let the world shape how we present the gospel of Jesus Christ. Much of it will have to happen in the office, the lunch room the playground, the soccer field, the bridge club as we seek, not to invite people to church, but to introduce them to Jesus Christ the Living Lord.
At the February Session meeting, we listened together to the call story of Abraham. We were all struck by how God called septuagenarian Abraham and Sarah to pack up and leave everything they knew to travel to a strange country on the strength of a promise of blessing from God. God is calling the church to pack and move to a strange land. Will we leave a whole lot behind? Yes. Will we know where we are going? No. Do we have a promise of blessing from God? Absolutely!
It’s not about me! It’s not about you! It’s not about the programs! It’s not about the building! It’s not about the music! It’s about the saving grace of Jesus Christ! We’ve got that grace, now we need to decide whether we will hang on to it and hope people will come, or whether we let it compel us into the world to share it.
We’re going to try some new stuff. We’re committed to try reaching out to the youth and their families of our neighborhood, and in the coming year we’re going to get serious about doing it. I’m intentional about that word “try.” This will involve some experimentation. Some of what we do will bring changes that put us out of our comfort zones. Some of what we do won’t be successful. That’s not our job. Our job is to pack and go when God calls us to do it. The success is God’s job! Abraham and Sarah never saw most of God’s promises fulfilled. Those blessings were for their offspring. God want’s to bless us and our offspring.
It’s all about God!
I must admit I was feeling sorry for myself as well. I work hard. I think I’m good at what I do. I care passionately. Why can’t I grow a church? It’s all about me when I’m feeling depressed!
It’s not about me! Don’t come and pat me on the back and tell me it’s not my fault, because I might smack you . . . in Christ. To some extent it’s the fault of all of us! We’ve got a broken model of church, which worked from the ‘50s – 80’s but hasn’t worked since, and we’re still hanging on to it. It’s a model where we do church well and people come to us. We do church well: The campus is attractive, the music is beautiful, the preaching is decent, the programs are solid . . . but people aren’t coming.
We need a different model, and it’s not a model that some guru can simply tell us how to build. It’s a model where we attempt to be the church IN THE WORLD. Some of it will still happen on our campus, but we will have to let the world shape how we present the gospel of Jesus Christ. Much of it will have to happen in the office, the lunch room the playground, the soccer field, the bridge club as we seek, not to invite people to church, but to introduce them to Jesus Christ the Living Lord.
At the February Session meeting, we listened together to the call story of Abraham. We were all struck by how God called septuagenarian Abraham and Sarah to pack up and leave everything they knew to travel to a strange country on the strength of a promise of blessing from God. God is calling the church to pack and move to a strange land. Will we leave a whole lot behind? Yes. Will we know where we are going? No. Do we have a promise of blessing from God? Absolutely!
It’s not about me! It’s not about you! It’s not about the programs! It’s not about the building! It’s not about the music! It’s about the saving grace of Jesus Christ! We’ve got that grace, now we need to decide whether we will hang on to it and hope people will come, or whether we let it compel us into the world to share it.
We’re going to try some new stuff. We’re committed to try reaching out to the youth and their families of our neighborhood, and in the coming year we’re going to get serious about doing it. I’m intentional about that word “try.” This will involve some experimentation. Some of what we do will bring changes that put us out of our comfort zones. Some of what we do won’t be successful. That’s not our job. Our job is to pack and go when God calls us to do it. The success is God’s job! Abraham and Sarah never saw most of God’s promises fulfilled. Those blessings were for their offspring. God want’s to bless us and our offspring.
It’s all about God!
Monday, November 24, 2008
Whose birthday is it anyway? Yours? No, you’ve got one of those, and you’d probably prefer not to have two per year. Your kids’ or grandkids’ birthday? I’m sure that they would love to have another birthday, another special day that’s all about them, but this isn’t it. Christmas is Jesus’ birthday.
Now is a good time to examine your holiday traditions. Take a look at each of them, and ask the question: “Do they really honor the birth of Emanuel – God with us?” A lot of them do . . . when kept in their place. Jesus liked a good party, too. It honors God for us to get together with friends and family. The Bible even commands feasts for special days. Of course overindulgence has no place on Jesus’ birthday. Presents have their place, too. God wants us to enjoy the good gifts he has given, but spoiled children and months of credit card debt do not honor Jesus. Keep it simple!
Make sure to include the poor in your gift giving. Extravagant gifts for your family, while others starve and go without shelter do not honor Jesus. Keep your gifts to your family within your means, so that you can be extravagant in gifts that truly meet basic human needs. The $239 that you might spend on a Play Station 3 could buy 400 subsistence meals for people in Northern Africa who will die without them. It could pay an electric bill for a family in which mom or dad has lost their job.
Make sure to include advent in your “Holiday Season.” Advent is a time for preparation and expectation. What would you do if you knew Jesus was coming in four weeks? Decorating the tree and baking cookies would move way down on your to-do list, wouldn’t they? You would work on preparing your heart to be worthy of the presence of the Son of God. Advent is a time to do that. If you don’t currently practice daily devotions, now is a good time to start. There are devotional materials available in the back of our sanctuary, and plenty of good ones on the internet. Scripture reading and prayer are a must in preparing for Christ. Daily devotions with your family will help to make sure that your children are expecting Christ more than they are Santa!
May Christ come into your heart anew this Christmas, and may he find you a ready and willing disciple!
Now is a good time to examine your holiday traditions. Take a look at each of them, and ask the question: “Do they really honor the birth of Emanuel – God with us?” A lot of them do . . . when kept in their place. Jesus liked a good party, too. It honors God for us to get together with friends and family. The Bible even commands feasts for special days. Of course overindulgence has no place on Jesus’ birthday. Presents have their place, too. God wants us to enjoy the good gifts he has given, but spoiled children and months of credit card debt do not honor Jesus. Keep it simple!
Make sure to include the poor in your gift giving. Extravagant gifts for your family, while others starve and go without shelter do not honor Jesus. Keep your gifts to your family within your means, so that you can be extravagant in gifts that truly meet basic human needs. The $239 that you might spend on a Play Station 3 could buy 400 subsistence meals for people in Northern Africa who will die without them. It could pay an electric bill for a family in which mom or dad has lost their job.
Make sure to include advent in your “Holiday Season.” Advent is a time for preparation and expectation. What would you do if you knew Jesus was coming in four weeks? Decorating the tree and baking cookies would move way down on your to-do list, wouldn’t they? You would work on preparing your heart to be worthy of the presence of the Son of God. Advent is a time to do that. If you don’t currently practice daily devotions, now is a good time to start. There are devotional materials available in the back of our sanctuary, and plenty of good ones on the internet. Scripture reading and prayer are a must in preparing for Christ. Daily devotions with your family will help to make sure that your children are expecting Christ more than they are Santa!
May Christ come into your heart anew this Christmas, and may he find you a ready and willing disciple!
Thursday, November 6, 2008
November
About ten years ago, I bought $2,000 worth of a particular stock. That was a lot of money to me back then – it still is. I owned it for about two years during which time its value doubled.
I had a preaching professor who warned me that a pastor should never tell a story in which s/he comes out as the hero. This looks like one of those stories . . . except . . . what I want to stress is that I checked the value of that stock every day. Sometimes I checked it twice a day! Sometimes I would get up in the morning and during the time when I usually do my devotions; I would get online and check my stock. Even when it went up, I worried. Should I sell now? Will it drop? Will it keep going up?
After I sold it, I decided that I do not have the temperament to own individual stock. Investment gurus would say my risk tolerance is low. I put my little bit of investment money in broadly diversified mutual funds, and made a commitment not to check it every day. In fact, I consider it a spiritual discipline to read my quarterly statements, and that’s it.
I broke my own rule last week and checked my investment account when the economic crisis came to a head. (Has it come to a head? I have to write my Pastor’s Page two weeks in advance!!) My little portfolio doesn’t look good! You know what I’m talking about? You do now! Just like you, I wish my risk tolerance had been even lower – as in Treasury Bonds or a hollowed out mattress.
I’m intrigued, though, that in the midst of rotten economic times, there were two very successful banks in a bidding war to buy Wachovia. (Chris Kaup used this metaphor first – I’m just running with it.) Truly successful institutions know that the crisis is the time to take a risk, to do something bold.
The Presbyterian Church is in crisis. We have been bleeding members over the past several decades. We have churches that have closed and many more that seem destined to. Orangewood has grown slightly over the last year, but the tenyeartrend is down about 20%. Statistically it doesn’t end well . . . or last very long. Here I am – your pastor with a low risk-tolerance!
The question is: “Which bank are we?” Are we a failed bank, just using creative accounting to stretch things out a little longer? Are we a sound bank, but one that doesn’t want to take a risk in these hard times? Or are we Wells Fargo – willing to step out and take a risk when the time is right? We have substantial resources of all kinds here at Orangewood. Are we risk intolerant, or are we ready to put them on the line for investment in the Kingdom of God?
Truly, the Kingdom of God does not fully lend itself to statistical analysis or investment metaphors – as if its success is up to us. The Holy Spirit is in charge here. It’s not our job to save the church or the Church or the Kingdom. Our job is to use our resources to join the Spirit which blows where it will in ministry. That’s risky! Especially in hard times, our natural inclination is to circle the wagons, but God wants those wagons headed outward. We have a special opportunity to reach out to a world that is anxious and hurting right now. I have found great comfort and courage in our Lord and in the fellowship of God’s people over the last couple weeks of crisis. This crisis is a great opportunity to bring others to God!
Which bank are we?
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