Pump a little spirit?

            The first week or two of every new year is a great time to turn our attention to our physical fitness. Gyms around the country report huge surges in membership and jam-packed exercise floors and weight room equipment. Fights have been known to break out over whose turn it is for the elliptical machine or the treadmill. Of course it all dwindles and shrinks back down to a more manageable size in early or mid-February as the energy of New Years resolutions is replaced by an awakening to the sheer drudgery and routine that exercise just is.

So here is the question I would like to pose to us today as we prepare for the first weekend of 2012: how does our attention to our spiritual health resemble or not resemble our attention to our physical health? Long before a person arrives at the ripe age I attained at my most recent birthday the awareness dawns that in neither case do these things just “take care of themselves.” In both areas we have to intentionally TAKE STEPS in the direction of positive health. There is no such thing as doing nothing. Doing nothing is, in fact, taking steps in a backward direction.

Just to be clear: we certainly do not earn God’s grace by going to the spirit “gym” and pumping up our souls. As the Bible endlessly reminds us, God’s grace is poured out extravagantly onto each of us every day (Eph. 2:4-5). The great unknown in this equation – as always – is our readiness to fully receive and live this gift. That’s where our “exercise” comes in.

I asked the question on Facebook the other day – and to myself in my time of devotion – “What things that you will do or encounter today will serve to BUILD UP your spiritual health? What things will ERODE it?” Your day – and mine – will likely offer examples of both… some of which we have a choice about and some of which we don’t. A quick example from earlier today; I like to listen to the “All Comedy” local radio station periodically and mostly find it fun and entertaining. But as I was listening to one particular off-color comedian I audibly said to myself, “This is just not good for my soul!” and hit the button back to NPR.

We have just passed the traditional date of the Feast of Epiphany. An epiphany is the dawning of a light… the explosion of an insight… the breaking in of a new awareness. My prayer today is that we can link arms as a church and further become a place where we dare to encounter new insights, apply those to our lives, and reinforce our commitments to lean into those things which build up my spiritual health and away from those which erode it. 

Working our moral muscles

I beg your indulgence for a quick reflection on the events surrounding the firing of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno last week. I am sure you are feeling as if you’ve heard about as much as you can stomach and are ready to move on to something else… ANYTHING as long as it is a little more positive and affirming.

I know exactly what you mean. I am sometimes a little too emotional about things, but I have to tell you… any event involving the injury or exploitation of children both turns my stomach and enrages me. But this one also caused me to pray and reflect on what we all might be able to learn as a result of this unspeakable tragedy and I decided that one conclusion was worth taking time to share.

During the flurry of media coverage and interviews surrounding this story, there has been one question that has seemed to baffle everyone who has ventured an opinion. The question is, “Why did no one speak out sooner? Why did it take so long, at the expense of so many more children, before anyone went to the authorities or confronted Joe Sandusky directly about the horror of what he (allegedly) was doing?”

Many theories about this answer have been put forward: some say it is the power of the Penn State football program, the fear of tarnishing the image of JoePa, the natural reluctance of people to intercede in an emergency, and on and on. The real answer – for me – goes right to the heart of why we are doing what we are doing as people who decide to follow Jesus Christ. You see, as most of us go through the routines of our daily lives, I would guess that we are not regularly faced with the opportunity to make dramatic, life-altering decisions, or to take actions that have the capacity to make a profound change in the direction of another person’s life. We see our lives as more of a collection of “small” steps and “small” decisions that have some consequence, but certainly not HUGE or LIFE-ALTERING consequence. And so as a result, our “moral muscles” get a little flabby and out of shape.

Then, when we suddenly find ourselves confronted – in the blink of an eye – with the need to dramatically speak or act to confront some monstrous evil that has just reared its head, we find ourselves weakened… unable to “rise to the occasion.” The heartrending result of our “moral flabbiness” is that evil goes unchecked. Lives are damaged, right there in front of us.

I believe that if our faith means anything to us at all, it should be a compass that guides us through every decision of every day. I believe we are wrong to label the moments of our life as “big” or “small.” I believe that for God, every moment is big. I believe that you and I – and every person alive – have the capacity to see God actively at work and to collaborate with God’s work in even the most mundane encounters of our day. I believe that “God’s will for my life” is not necessarily revealed in a huge master blueprint for the next 50 years, but through discerning and doing the right thing in this next moment, and then this next moment, and so on for the rest of our lives. I believe our faith should be not just the filling station where we fill up, but also the gas tank that fuels our every movement.

When we adopt this mindset about our faith, it is like doing the daily exercises – the curls, the pull-downs, the sit-ups, and push-ups – that keep our moral muscles in shape. And then, when that “moment of monstrous evil” confronts us, we are ready to meet it and respond as Christ would have us respond.

When Jesus said, in Matthew 24, “… be ready… for no one knows the day or the hour,” he wasn’t just talking about the time when he would return to the earth. He was talking – I firmly believe – about how you and I daily live as his disciples. 

So the question is: are you ready?

Basic instinct

I heard an amazing story on the radio today I wanted to share with you. I am sure manhy of you heard it also. It was about 23-year old U.S. Marine Dakota Meyer. Meyer was just presented with the nation’s highest honor for valor on the battlefield. He’s the first living Marine since the Vietnam War to receive the Medal of Honor. Meyer was serving in Afghanistan in 2009 when his unit found out that another nearby unit – made up of both U.S. and Afghan troops – had been ambushed by Taliban fighters and were under attack. Four times Meyer asked his commanding officer for permission to go in and attempt a rescue, and four times his request was denied. Finally, in direct disobedience of his orders, Meyer and a colleague, Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez, commandeered a vehicle and drove into the fire fight to rescue the other soldiers. It is reported that Meyer and Rodriguez-Chavez were able to save more than two dozen Afghans, a dozen U.S. Marines, and also brought out the bodies of four Marines who had been killed in the battle. I found myself shaking my head in amazement as each new detail of the story unfolded. For me it is nearly impossible to relate to the level of courage and absolute disregard for personal safety that was in evidence through this story. My version of “risk” amounts to figuring out if I am bold enough to try and walk the dogs before the second half kick-off of the Chiefs game, or daring to drink the milk even though it is one day past the “Use before” date. This story caused me to want to look more deeply into the heart and mind of someone like Dakota Meyer. I wanted to try to understand the unique combination of factors that allowed him to take that kind of action. Was this the result of his upbringing? Did the Marines do such a thorough and complete job of indoctrinating him that any consideration of his personal safety was simply trained out of him? Did the heat of the moment just overtake him and cause him to act without thinking? I am not sure we will ever know the whole answer. Dakota Meyer might not even know himself. But one thing is certain: whatever it was that guided him out into the middle of those whizzing bullets was something that lived at the most basic and instinctual level of his being. I suspect that Dakota Meyer’s response that day was something that was an essential part of who he is rather than something he had to spend a lot of time thinking and wondering about. Few if any of us will ever face the need to do what Dakota Meyer did. And yet, when we talk about something as harmless-sounding as “faith development,” it strikes me that this very “churchy” pursuit might share some key characteristics with Marine basic training… characteristics that aren’t always obvious. You see, I have never believed that studying the Bible was meant to be undertaken just so you and I could accumulate some interesting facts to know and tell our friends… or so that we could be brilliant conversationalists. No, I am persuaded that the point of deepening our faith – whether through Bible study, through the spiritual disciplines, through corporate worship or Christian conversation – is so that we will be changed. It is meant to revamp and reshape our fundamental instincts and understandings about life.  To extend the metaphor of Dakota Meyer a little further, it is meant to embolden us to drive into the face of hostile fire and care for our brothers and sisters… regardless of their race, gender, religion, sexual orientation or any other differentiating factor. When we embark on study and prayer with the full intention it requires, casual friends and acquaintances should have a hard time recognizing us when we finish. In our place, they should see a replica of Christ.

who IS my neighbor?

I heard a story on the radio the other day (yes, sorry… I am a HUGE National Public Radio fan) about the very robust health of small-town weekly newspapers. It said that contrary to the national trends we are seeing, small-town newspapers are more popular than ever and are actually making money.

If you are still one of the staunch minority who still subscribe to your big city, hometown daily newspaper you have no doubt noticed that it keeps consolidating, getting smaller and bringing less and less news to your doorstep. The speculation in this story was that most folks prefer to get their news electronically… whether by the TV or internet. By the time a news story has been reported, written, typeset, and printed on sheets of newsprint, it is as stale as yesterday’s toast.

So why are the small-town papers doing so well while others struggle?

The primary theory proposed by the person being interviewed was that people love the COMMUNITY created by those newspapers. The stories they carry are about the local high school football team, the winners of the “largest zucchini” competition at the county fair, the comings and goings at the Baptist Church ice cream social and the little scandalous bits of news about the calls the local police department responded to… news stories about people that people know and care about. In contrast, a story about a murder or fire or an earthquake in Chile doesn’t create nearly the same level of interest in the casual newspaper reader.

No doubt this is the same dynamic that is behind the popularity of Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace and other social media. These are avenues that allow us to stay abreast of the events in the lives of the communities we care about most… the community of “people I know.”

As we each think about the news events that most capture our attention and contemplate our call to Christian discipleship, the question inevitably arises, “Who is my neighbor?” Or to ask the real question Jesus intended to pose, “Who are you and I called to care about?”

We are certainly called to care about the people nearest and dearest to us… beginning with our family and then radiating outward. But just how far “outward” can our compassion radiate before it becomes strained and weakened and ineffective? We ask ourselves, “Can I realistically care about everyone?”

And of course, we can’t. We are not that strong. We are not that compassionate. Most of the time, left to our own devices and inclinations, we are really not even that nice. That is the exact moment we come face to face with the need to be empowered by something that is distinctly “not us.” It is not just the addict or the alcoholic who faces the need to “surrender my life to God.” The need to be fully surrendered… to earnestly pray, “Not my will, God, but yours,” and really MEAN it is the faith challenge each of us face every day.

This is why we worship. This is why we gather in community. We come to meet God and we come to hold each other accountable to be the willing and surrendered disciples God calls us to be. I pray that God continues to work with each one of us and draw us into that bond of AUTHENTIC discipleship every day.

the mysteries of prayer…

Do you remember what you were doing one year ago at this time? I remember that Joan and I were spending our fourth or fifth night in a motel room after our central air-conditioning gave up the ghost in the middle of the Heat Wave of 2010. What blessed relief when the new one was finally installed and the house began to cool down from the 90 degree inside temperatures we had been experiencing.

I also recall that it was just about this time one year ago that we had our ears glued to the news reports of the 33 miners trapped underground by the mine collapse in Chile. The mine collapsed on August 5, 2010 and it was not until August 17 that rescuers were able to bore a hole that finally reached into the air pocket 2,000 feet below the ground where they were huddled. I remember the global cry of joy when the people on the surface pulled up a note attached to the end of their probe that read, “We’re all good in the refuge, the 33.”

“The refuge.” Interesting choice of words… they could have called it “the air pocket” or “the chamber,“ or maybe if they were in a more pessimistic mood, “our tomb.” But the main story that was told again and again during the ordeal was the story of the non-stop prayers, both of the miners themselves and of the friends and family members on the surface. It raises an interesting question about the nature of prayer for all of us. Does prayer change God’s mind, or ours? In other words, is there a “critical mass” of prayer that must be achieved before God decides to intervene to supernaturally rescue miners trapped underground (or anOverland Parkhusband and wife without air conditioning)?

Or perhaps is it more accurate to say that placing our trust wholly in God during the crisis points in our life is the critical factor that helps us see hope where things might otherwise look hopeless? Might prayer be the crucial ingredient that helps us call a tomb a refuge? I will be the first to admit that there is a whole lot I don’t understand about prayer. One thing that I DO know is true – without knowing why – is that “more is better” in matters of prayer.

In the days and weeks and months ahead I want to challenge us to continue and deepen our prayer life as a congregation. As we put more of our attention on what GOD has in mind for this church and less on what WE have in mind, I predict we will be led into some awesome and fruitful places. True, we might have to dare to let go of some treasured artifacts from the past along the way, but God is so incredibly good and faithful and will ALWAYS provide beyond our wildest imagination.

how precious

Joan’s daughter (my step-daughter) Jessica has just begun her first year as a medical resident in the OB-GYN specialty area. She is alternating time between Saint Luke’s on the Plaza and Truman Medical Center. The other day she entered a very excited post on her Facebook page that said she was about to do her first, unassisted C-section delivery. All apparently went very well, the baby and mother (and father) were overjoyed, and Jessica went on to the next task in her busy day.

But I had to stop for a moment and think about that baby. A new life entered the world at that moment. It brought with it a new history, and soon would have new thoughts and hopes and expectations and experiences. I know absolutely nothing about the family that received that new life, but I do know that nothing will be the same for them from this moment forward. They will do everything in their power to provide a safe, stimulating, and loving environment for little Baby New Life. They do not know what the future holds for them, but somehow they will do their best to deal with whatever comes their way.

The gift of life can be simultaneously miraculous and mundane… awesome beyond belief and astonishingly trite and trivial. We get to see, taste, and experience it every day and so we come gradually to ignore the miracle and wonder of being alive HERE and NOW. Not so for the “survivors” among us. People who have survived a life-threatening disease, or perhaps a terrible accident speak almost universally of their new-found appreciation for the absolute preciousness of the gift of life.

The fact of the matter is that life IS precious… whether we have survived cancer or not. Our faith and our time spent alone with God in prayer, study or meditation can be the doorway to kindling that awareness in all of us. And then we come to see that the heightened awareness of the preciousness of MY life leads to a heightened awareness of the preciousness of YOUR life. And that leads me to treat you with a new kind of dignity and respect… even if we have never met. And I am pretty sure that this is the kind of world Jesus had in mind all along.

My challenge every day – and I hope yours, too – is how will I both experience and express the love that is innately part of my being. Come to worship this Sunday and join together with a community of people who love life and the world we live in!

a new day at Heritage!

What an auspicious and just plain awesome day this is in the life of Heritage United Methodist Church! It has felt like there is something worth celebrating every week of the four weeks I have been here, but this one is really the cherry on top of the sundae! Thursday at around 2:30 in the afternoon the final “I’s” were dotted and “t’s” were crossed to finalize the sale of 27.5 acres of land that the church has owned and has been trying to sell for a LONG time. The finalization of this process owes a lot to the persistence and tireless dedication of Jim Atwood in particular, but I want to thank and praise our treasurer Ken Clark, our chair of Finance Doug Van Dyke, the people who have served on the church council and both of my predecessor pastors, Rev. Tom Brady and Rev. Jeannie Jensen for everything that they did to help bring about today’s amazing developments.

One of my first questions on getting to Heritage and hearing about this protracted effort to sell the land was, “What if God decides it is time for Heritage to grow by adding more members and expanding our space? Will we still have enough land left to respond?” I was shown a plan that shows that even if we QUADRUPLE our current size and attendance and build a sanctuary and parking lot to suit, everything will fit comfortably within the remaining, unsold land area.

There are still many, many more discussions ahead about the implications of this sale for the church’s ministry budgets, for urgent maintenance items, and for long-postponed projects. But it is clear that we are absolutely on brand new footing as a church as we prepare to celebrate 25 years of history. Please make a note that we will have a special celebration for the whole church next Sunday (August 7) immediately following the 10:30 worship service to give thanks to God and say a very orderly, Midwest Methodist “YEEEEHHHAAAAWWWW!”

In the meantime, I would love to hear your thoughts about what this sale means to you and to the church. Please feel free to email those to me at: russellb@heritageumc.org.

THANKS FOR YOUR THOUGHTS!

Last week at the end of the sermon time I asked people to write down on a sheet of paper their answer to the question: “The reason I have decided to make Heritage UMC my church home is…” We got a stack of responses a couple of inches thick! I sat down with those the other day to get a sense of the kind of things people were saying and two themes kept coming up over and over again: the music and the PEOPLE! I have already experienced the truth of both of those, even in the short time of my tenure. It really does go a long way toward demonstrating what the real heart of the church is. Let’s be honest… you really do need a talented leader like Becky Waters to have a truly top-notch music program. But the fact that so many people talked about the grace, the friendliness, the warm, caring acts of kindness they have received from other Heritage members really underscores the truth of the old saying that the church is what is left over after the building burns down and the pastor leaves town. YOU are reason someone chose Heritage over all other alternatives. YOU make this church what it is and what it WILL BE in the future.

HOW DOES GOD SPEAK?

Have you ever wondered how God communicates with all these people who say they heard from God? I imagine God (being God, after all) is able to use an unlimited number of channels to communicate with us. The trick is whether or not we are ready to listen. Come this weekend for the beginning of a new sermon series, “Unexpected Lessons from Unexpected Places” and be ready to hear God speak directly to YOU.

God’s abundant blessings to you and yours today. Try to stay out of the horrible heat!

 

Tricky business

Without a doubt the first order of business today is to pause and offer a prayer for those who are struggling the most with this oppressive heat. I am sure most people reading this today have ready access to an air-conditioned environment (as I do) and are not required by your line of work to be outside in the sun (as I am not). There are many people in our area, and probably some right near our church, for whom these are not true. Would you please pause right now and lift them up in prayer with me?

Thank you.

Here is one of the other things that is on my mind today: Have you looked around recently and noticed the sheer number of high level and yet totally stalemated negotiations that are going on right now? Over there in Washington, D.C. we have the President and the Republicans and the Democrats negotiating for a new debt ceiling so that the government can pay its bills after August 3. In New York we have the Battle of the Millionaires vs. the Billionaires trying to work out a new collective bargaining agreement that will allow the National Football League to keep playing, and then finally the same thing going on with the owners and players for the NBA. As I watch the news reports of these “discussions” I imagine a long, polished wooden table with rows of scowling people on each side and glasses of water and yellow legal pads scattered everywhere. If it were a different era there likely also be clouds of cigar smoke in the air.

As we hear the reports on the progress (or lack thereof) of these negotiations, the public statements made by each side seem to focus on attacking the integrity of the other… pointing out how badly “we” are being treated and how bleak and grim the outlook is for a positive outcome.

Is there an easier or better way to do this? Do negotiations always have to be so incredibly adversarial? It is of course hopelessly naïve to think that people will just sit down, sing a chorus of “Kum By Ah” and effortlessly work out an agreement on these kinds of things. Still, I can’t help wishing that there might be even the tiniest recognition of the fact that the people on the other side of the table are human beings, children of God, created in God’s image, imbued with worth and dignity and deserving of grace and respect.

But then I am forced to look in the mirror and ask myself how often I really approach another person from that kind of godly perspective and I am embarrassed to admit how often I fail… even when we are NOT talking about contracts worth millions of dollars.

This morning’s devotional reading (from the book, Jesus Calling by Sarah Young) sent me to Ephesians 5:8-11 which reminds us all, “For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light – for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”

Let us each “live as children of light” today!

How Might God Use Me? Or You?

Entrepreneurs are some of my favorite people. Throughout my career in the business world and even now I have always been impressed to see the way they become seized by a vision of  the “not yet” and then set out in dogged pursuit to produce something out of nothing. Usually when we think of entrepreneurs we visualize people who walk around with their hair on fire, taking extra-outrageous risks, walking the thin tightrope between success and utter failure every day. In my experience, a lot of that stereotyping is absolutely true.

But because I have sat and talked with many of these folks I know that even though many of these pursuits pay off with a huge financial reward, for most of them the chase is not about the money at all. It is about following a passion… it’s about facing down challenges and prevailing… it is about being engaged in the thrill of raw creativity… it is about having a compelling vision for life that makes them eager to get out of bed in the morning and face the new day. That said, the money is a really nice little side benefit that none would turn down, to be sure.

As unique and wonderful as this special breed of person is, I believe that within each one of us is planted a similar kind of seed. When I read in the Genesis creation account the phrase that tells us, “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them,” (Gen. 1:27), I read in this passage an intention of pointing us to the characteristics that we share with God, not the physical traits, per se. (after all, God is spirit, not flesh!) Being made in God’s image means that just as God is defined as love, or as relationship, so are humans. And just as God is understood as raw creative energy, the One who brings Order out of Chaos, Something out of Nothing, so also are human beings “wired.” I believe we are born to create.

And so the question we each wake to every morning is, “What is mine to create?” In pondering this question, do not be intimidated by the initial loftiness of its sound. To answer it, you don’t need to be an artist. You don’t need to be an entrepreneur. You don’t need to possess special gifts or talents in the areas we traditionally think of when we think about being “creative.”

You first need to just commit to knowing yourself fully and completely. (As Jesus tells us in Luke 8:17, “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.”) And you need to believe with absolute certainty that there is something God intends to use you for here on earth that is a purpose that cannot be accomplished by anyone else. It is yours and yours alone to create.

And I can promise you that when you connect with it and when you are actively engaged with it, you will feel an aliveness coursing through your veins that you have never felt before. You will jump out of bed and say, “Thank you, God, for the gift of this day!” You will have no doubt about who you are and why you are here. You will see every roadblock and disappointment you encounter as challenges to your resourcefulness and not as dead ends. You will have an attitude and an energy that is evident to everyone you meet. They might not understand it, but they will be inexplicably drawn to it.

And as you remain connected with God and with your new-found purpose, you will find yourself joyously echoing the words of Esther who realized that perhaps she was indeed born, “For such a time as this.” (Esther 4:14).

That is my prayer for you today.

The problem with Florida

Don’t get me wrong… today – Tuesday, March 8, 2011… I am loving the fact that I am sitting here on Anna Maria Island dabbing lotion on my newly sunburned cheeks while my workmates back in Kansas City are facebooking about the giant snowflakes invading their skies. If I were Roman Catholic I would have to do a BIG bunch of penance for the glee I am taking in the misery of my friends.

But here is the thing: I am not sure I will ever be able to fully embrace or even trust a place that has no seasons. There is something about it that is just wrong, intrinsically. Life has seasons! Dark helps us appreciate light. Pain helps us appreciate un-pain. Absence pumps up presence, and winter makes summer a whole lot sweeter when it comes. A never-ending consistency of experience – even if that experience is made up of everything we think we crave – dulls the mind and flattens the spirit, I would propose.

And when you are in a place (as I am today) where the shared basis of human community is people who have escaped from somewhere else, you really have to tread lightly. Any questioning or challenging of the proposition that “Of course this is paradise! How could it not be??!!” will be swiftly and effectively dealt with. My wife’s sister moved from LaCrosse, Wisconsin to Phoenix 20 years ago and will not tolerate anything but rave reviews about the AZ weather. Joan and I take a little naughty delight in counting how many times we can make her say, “But we love it here!” in the course of a single conversation. The current record is eight.

In the end I am glad that places like Anna Maria Island and Phoenix exist. They provide great targets to set your sights on when the snow keeps falling and the cabin fever has finally gotten out of hand. But just as I could not eat strawberry shortcake for every meal, I seriously think I would freak out with 80 degrees and sunny every single day for the rest of my life.