gracenotes

Ways to Pray

2012-03-06T09:39:00.000-08:00

So Pastor Pat. What’s the right way to pray? Am I supposed to stand up, kneel down, fold my hands, raise them up, repeat after you, say something I’ve memorized or make it up as I go along? It seems like there are so many rules, so many “right ways of doing it” How can I be sure I’m doing it the way God wants me too?”

You’d be surprised how often I get asked these kinds of questions. Prayer is after all a sacred moment in time when we talk with the God of the universe on our most intimate terms, when we share our deepest thoughts, when we ask our most profound questions, questions that our faith, our lives, rely upon. We want to get it right.

And what is the “right” way to pray changes with times and circumstances, with who we are, where we are, and where our relationship with God is at that moment of time. To me, all the methods of prayer can be very meaningful at different points and I use them all.

I can be bebopping down Front Street singing songs of praise to my ipod feeling good, and praising God and just remembering and giving thanks for how wonderful my life truly is. Or I can find myself as I did just a few days ago in the Garden of Gethsemane, kneeling on a rock, swaying back and forth, weeping for all Christ did for me. Or I can find myself holding someone I love --- just holding them ---knowing God is holding us both, strengthening us both for the time to come. Or I can find my eyes closed with a group of believers saying “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name….”

All of these are valid forms of prayer. All will touch our hearts and the heart of God. There is no one right way to reach our redeemer. I suppose the message is that we should not limit prayer or how prayer happens. It happens as we weed our gardens as much as in our cathedrals. It can happen during red lights as well as on our knees at night. We should be open to all the ways God may speak to us and we may respond to Him.

Never forget though, the best prayer of all is the simplest prayer of all, the prayer God longs to hear above all others. “I love You Jesus .Help me love Thee more.”

Lent Begins In Israel

2012-02-27T11:35:00.000-08:00

I have quickly lost track of time over the past weeks, days, hours, centuries. We went back and forth throughout them all. Here is a lavish palace built by Herod and here is the narrow business street that the soldiers pushed Jesus along while merchants tried to sell a robe for a song.

“Come little lady. It is a beautiful scarf ---- for you 8 sheckles --- don’t be so hard. I must make my living --- three sheckles then but last offer.” Morning songs broke out. Arguments, smells of baking, the pushing and shoving of a busy market. “Excuse me.” “I’m so sorry,” “No. I don’t want to buy.”

And through it all the horror of a bloodied man whose skin had been stripped from his body while he was still living. They stopped the beating at 39 because 40 was said to kill a man. He no longer looked like a man at all, just a bloodied pulp, dragging a cross to an unknown destination where He would die, so we will live.

It’s all confused in my mind for the moment--- this story of unrequited love, of beauty beyond all knowing, of human crueltry, of the darkest sin and the brightest grace.

I am grateful more than ever for a season of lent, for forty days to make a picture clear, to find my place in the story of God’s Amazing Love and to bring others to the role they must play as well.

keep on swimming

2012-02-06T06:07:00.000-08:00

His wife had had a stroke. He had spent weeks in the hospital praying for her to move, to show some sign of life. He prayed that she would suddenly wake up and everything would be normal again. But she didn’t.

There was no miracle. God did not speak a healing word.

Still, he put one foot in front of the other and lived through the tragedy to the other side. He didn’t know how he made it through those days, but he did.

Then, one day he saw a special on the tv. It was about the experiments they used to do on dogs and wolves. They would put a wolf and a dog in a tank full of water that they could not get out of to see which would last the longest.

Invariably the wolf would give up but the dog wouldn’t. Why? Because the wolf had always taken care of itself, and so when faced with an impossible situation, where he could not save himself, he couldn’t go on. But the dog was used to having someone care for him. So when faced with an impossible situation, the dog kept on swimming, knowing his master would come to rescue him.

When we are faced with impossible pain, when we are faced with utter despair, when we are faced with what feels like the absence of God, we are like that dog. We keep on swimming, because we know our Master will be with us when our worst nightmare comes true. We know that He is with us in the midst of our pain, and is giving us the strength we need to endure it. We know we do not swim alone.

Whatever you are facing,, know that you do not fight alone. God is there in the midst of the battle, helping you along the way, carrying you and doing the fighting for you when you cannot find the energy to fight on your own.

Pepper, dish detergent, and grace

2012-01-30T05:42:00.001-08:00

I did an experiment with the children in church yesterday that was really mostly for me. (I do that a lot with the children’s sermons.) I took several glasses of clear, pure water and then I had the children pour pepper on the top of the water.

I asked them to imagine that the pepper was the things we do wrong. They liked that because as they said, “pepper is black and made the water yucky, and it makes you sneeze!” One little girl pointed out that there wasn’t enough pepper in her glass. Now, I could relate to that.

The next step was to stir the pepper with their finger and see if they could push it away. They couldn’t, although one little boy bet he could and he stirred the water like a little cyclone hit it. Still, after a while, all that pepper covered the top of the water again. It just wouldn’t go away.

Then I asked them to put some dishwashing liquid on their fingers and pretend it was God’s love and grace. They put their fingers back in the water and the pepper that they couldn’t move by themselves, fell to the wayside.

That’s how it is with life. We can try and try and try to make the ugly “yucky” stuff of life go away, but no matter how hard we try, it always manages to stay right there, close to the surface.

It takes God’s love, God’s grace, in our lives for us to really begin to push it aside and see the possibilities of the people we are created to be.

The children got it. I hope you will too.

If I Were A Rich Man

2012-01-23T07:18:00.000-08:00

“God, I know You must love the poor. You made so many of us. I know, of course, that there’s no shame in being poor, but it’s no great honor either! So what would be the harm if I had just a little money?” Those are Teva’s words at the beginning of Fiddler on the Roof. Then he begins to sing a song we all know so well, “If I Were a Rich Man.”

Most of us have dreamed of that --- of being rich. It’s the reason why people buy lottery tickets and enter the Publishing Clearinghouse Sweepstakes. We want to grasp at the golden ring. We want to have it all. And I’m as guilty as the next person. Quite frankly, I think I would have made a great “rich man.”

Some how we think that money will solve all our problems and set us up on easy street forever. But far too often that’s not the case.

And why? Because money doesn’t solve our problems. Instead, the Bible tells us it can seduce us into selling our very souls for the sake of things. We all know that verse in I Timothy where Paul says, “The love of money is the root of all evil”

Notice one thing: It is the love of money that is the problem --- not money itself. It is when we make money our god that we get into trouble. It is when we think of money as our savior that things go wrong.

Money can not save us. It can not make us whole or quench the thirsting in our soul. Only God can do that.

When we die, God will not look at the balance in our check books. He will look at the balance of our lives. When we stand in heaven, He will look in our hearts and ask “What did you do with the life I gave you? Your time? Your talent? Your skills? Your treasure?”

What’s your answer?

God's Big Ten

2012-01-15T09:05:00.000-08:00

Top ten lists are all the rage, sparked by David Letterman’s top 10 every night. But my favorite list, hands down, is the Pastor’s Top 10 list of things you’ll never hear in church:

10. Nothing inspires me and strengthens my commitment like our annual stewardship campaign

9. Pastor, we’d like to send you to this Bible study in the Bahama’s

8. Since we’re all here why don’t we start the service early?

7. (my personal favorite) I love it when we sing hymns I’ve never heard before.

6. Forget the denominational minimum salary. Let’s give our pastor a big raise.

5. I volunteer to be the permanent teacher for the

Junior High Sunday School class.

4. I’ve decided to give our church the $500 a month I used to give to tv evangelists.

3. Personally, I find witnessing to strangers much more enjoyable than a round of golf.

2. I was so enthralled, I never noticed that your sermon went 25 minutes over time.

And the number one thing you won’t hear in church is:

1. Hey! It’s my turn to sit in the front pew.

Now, those are a great top 10, but God’s top ten are even better. They were given to us as a gift from a loving God, intended to make the road of life smoother, the journey less complicated, the destination, more certain.

You see, God loves us, and as a loving God He gave us these basic rules of living. He had to. Why? Because love without limits is not really love at all. We need to know the ground rules for life, so we can see the consequences of our actions, and not hurt one another.

That’s why a good parent sets limits to their child’s behavior. It’s not good for children --- or adults --- to do whatever they want. If you go to bed at midnight there are consequences for that the next morning. If you don’t have to pass the spelling test, there’s a consequence to that.

In the same way, if you lie to one another there’s a consequence: people can’t trust you. If you commit adultery, your marriage will never be the same.

Let me assure you that the commandments were never meant to be negative. They are not the ten don’ts, taking away our freedom. Instead they were always meant to be a blessing, granting us true freedom within limits.

It’s as if God says: “I love you. Look at all I have already done for you. Now I want to give you something wonderful which will help you live joyfully and productively… Learn them and live by them. They will bless your lives.”

God didn’t give the law to condemn us. He gave it as a blessing.

Giants in the Land

2012-01-09T05:54:00.000-08:00

A pile of bills. A dream that seems out of reach. A past you don’t think you can ever overcome. A dramatic change in the life you planned and worked for. These seem at times like giants, giants that fill you with despair telling you to just give in, don’t put up a fight you can’t possibly win, nothing will ever change.

The Bible is filled with stories of people who faced such giants, knew such despair. One such story occurred when the people of Israel were right on the verge of the promised land after years of journeying in the wilderness.

When the people reached the edge of Canaan, they sent in spies to get the lay of the land. They were not fools. They wanted to see what lay ahead of them, what dangers might lurk there.

And the spies came back frightened. All but one, a young man named Caleb who was unafraid. What had them so scared, so reluctant to claim the promise? The land was occupied. People already lived there --- well armed people lived there --- giants in their minds.

“We cannot do it,” they said. “It’s going to be too hard. Let’s not even try. God has brought us here only to die. Let’s go back to Egypt --- back to that time so long ago --- back to the chains of the past.”

Only Caleb said “With God all things are possible. This is the land God has given us. We can claim it if we dare. We can claim it if we only try. We can claim it in the power and the strength of the Lord.”

There is a promised land ahead for each of us but most of us will have to face giants of doubt, fear, and even despair if we are to claim it. But they are not giants that we cannot conquer in the power and the strength of the Lord.

Why go to church?

2012-01-02T06:37:00.000-08:00

A husband and wife were sitting at the breakfast table finishing up their morning coffee. “Well,” the wife said, it’s time we start getting ready for church.” “I’m not going to church today,” her husband replied. “In fact, I don’t think I’ll go to church ever again.”

“Why on earth not?” she said. “Well, the people there just don’t like me very much and quite frankly, I’m not crazy about them.”

“Look, I’ll give you two good reasons you’ve got to go. First, you’re 42 years old, not twelve, and second you’re the preacher.”

We all know someone who at some time has stopped going to church because they discovered the church, or the pastor, was not all they thought it should be, or we know someone who has said “I don’t go to church because it’s full of hypocrites.”

We want the church to be the one perfect place in the world where we can go and rest assured that everyone will always act with Christian love and perform their Christian duty. We want the church to be our oasis in a sin weary world.

We want our sanctuary to be a refuge from pettiness and bitterness, from jealousies and disputes over seemingly unimportant issues and we become disappointed when we discover that is not always the case. We become disappointed the first time we discover that the church is made up of ordinary people who are sometimes – often times – sinful folk doing the best they can.

But why should we be surprised that church is not perfect? After all, it’s made up of people who have already confessed by the simple act of being there that they are a sinful people who cannot make it on their own.

Those of us who attend regularly throw ourselves on the mercy of God and what we find is God’s love. We also find ourselves strengthened for our day to day lives with all their ups and downs.

And just as we as individuals are saved only by grace so is the church saved only by grace. We are saved by grace alone --- not by our good works. That’s the good news. The good news is that God loves the church in spite of all its imperfections and in spite of the many ways in which it fails to hear His calling.

So if you’d like to be a part of a group of people who do the best they can and regularly screw it up, if you’d like to be a part of a group who support each other in the struggle to be more loving, if you’d like to be a part of a group of people who have found God’s grace and mercy, then as Bob Barker would say, “Come on down!” Join any church wherever you live and remember it's going to be as imperfect as you!

Return A Different Way

2011-12-25T06:12:00.001-08:00

Christmas has come and gone. There was a flurry of wrapping paper, squeals of delight, turkey, ham, cookies, a rush of hugs and visits, and then in a matter of hours, weeks – even months -- of preparation were over and done with. Now some of us --- the less virtuous of us --- are left with a dried out tree and the used look of decorations that need to be put away.

All too often at this point of time we’re left wondering what happened to it all. What happened to the magic and wonder of the carols? What happened to the glory of a new born king? What happened that we could not make the holiness, the specialness stay with us just a little bit longer??

And I wonder why it seems that that can never be. Why we listen to a world that says with a sigh of exhaustion, and even with relief, that it is time to get back to normal, back to life as we have always known it. Back to a life where “Merry Christmas” doesn’t fall from everyone’s lips, where the magic of giving and receiving doesn’t fill the air, where the homeless can be more easily ignored, and the hungry go unnoticed, where those in nursing homes can wait alone for next year’s carols and December’s visits. Where tv specials don’t touch our hearts and commercials don’t talk of peace on earth, goodwill toward all.

Why must we go back to a world that doesn’t care? Why go back to a world full of Herods waiting to destroy the good news that has just been born? Why go back to fear and darkness and despair? Why get back to “normal”? To life as we’ve always known it?

This year, unlike other years, let us not just give our gifts and go on our way. But let us listen to angels talk to us as if it were a dream, just like they talked to the wisemen of old in their dreams. This year, let us listen; listen to the sound of angels’ voices as they tell us that while it is true that we must go, that we must return to the places from which we came, it is also true that we should go a different way.

Let’s go back along the highway of peace. Let’s return with songs full of joy and hearts of love. Let’s stop in the middle of everyday life and help someone else along the way. Let’s send cards with well wishes and love in the cold, dark of February and let us visit the lonely in March. Let’s fill Salvation Army coffers in July and sing songs of good news and God’s love in September. Let’s hold on to the star and the angels and the spirit of love for more than just a day.

The gift that keeps on giving

2011-12-19T05:08:00.000-08:00

The story of Christmas, the miracle of Christmas, is that God came seeking us out, for the perfect Christmas story is not found in the beginning of Matthew or Luke. It is found in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son…” That’s the story in a nutshell.

God loves us so much that He gave the perfect gift of love all wrapped up in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. He loved us so much that He would give the perfect gift of Himself to the loveable and the unlovable, to the good and the despicable. He loved us enough to show us love from a stable’s cradle to the victory of an empty grave.

And what of our love? Our response to God? For while God’s love is forever, it takes our response to His eternal love to make a difference in our lives. You see, God will not force His love upon us. We must accept it and live out of it. That’s the message of the Christmas version of I Corinthians 13 I’ve adjusted those verses for the holy days of this season:

If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties, and sing in the choir’s Christmas cantata but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug a child. Love sets aside the decorating to kiss a spouse.

Love does not envy another home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens. Love doesn’t yell at the kids to get out of the way.

Love doesn’t give only to those who are able to give in return, but rejoices in giving to those who can’t.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. Video games will break. Pearl necklaces will be lost. Ipads will be outdated. But giving the gift of love will last forever.

This year give the gift that keeps on giving. Give the gift of love. Give the gift of your heart to the One who gave the most precious gift of all ---His Son.

you better be good?

2011-12-12T06:07:00.000-08:00

"Tis the Season to Prepare

2011-12-05T07:43:00.000-08:00

Get ready. Get set. Go. The holiday season is upon us, and quite frankly this year it has caught me by surprise. I’m not ready to be rushed into Christmas. I want more time – a lot more time. I don’t have my list of things to do done. And I’m not quite certain how that happened. I always have my list done. I always make sure that I’m prepared. But there it is and here I am, caught off guard.

It’s odd in a way. The more I thought of it, the more I realized how many people do get caught off guard by the season of Christ’s coming. They don’t see the angels in the sky or the angels in their lives. They miss the bright, shining star and they don’t hear the carols singing. They are so caught up in holiday expectations that the holy day catches them unaware, unprepared.

It’s easy to do. We all know that. All we have to do is look at our lists of things to get done as we get ready for the big day. The question is who or what are we getting ready for? Is it the parties, the pageants, the coming of Santa Claus --- or are we preparing for the unadorned arrival of a Savior? Are we preparing ourselves this year for the advent of the coming of God? And if so, how do we prepare?

Not by shopping in the mall but by bringing food for the hungry --- not by putting up our Christmas lights but by praising the light of the world --- not by a rush of parties but by a discipline of prayer. This is the way we must prepare for the coming of Christ --- not at Walmart but in our lives. Tis the season to prepare. Prepare your heart for the coming of our King.

Which Way Will You Choose To Celebrate

2011-11-28T06:55:00.001-08:00

In this holy season, we see them everywhere --- people cramming as much as possible into days that were already full to overflowing.

At 5am they are up and running. By 6am they are already at Wal Mart, buying just one more Christmas gift before their credit cards max out --- at 8:00 they are at work, planning the office Christmas party. They’re addressing their Christmas cards over lunch so they can drop them off at the post office after work.

At five o’clock they leave one job to start another. They’re just in time to pick up their sons and daughters and deliver them to the rehearsal for the church Christmas pageant. There’s no time to eat so they buzz through the local drive through on their way to play basketball in the game that will determine the regional championship. It’s 9:30 at night before they ever make it home, and then it’s time to bake the cookies they promised for the girl scout party tomorrow night. It’s 11 before they can finally get started on the laundry that has been piling up. Then it’s in bed by 1 until they wake up to start it all over again.

No wonder they are grouchy and on edge wondering where the real Christmas lay. It’s like the story of the woman frazzled by all the shopping who crammed herself and her packages into an already overfull elevator. She held her cranky, tired daughter with one hand and the packages in the other until they started to slip away. Just as all those gifts hit the floor, tumbling out over everywhere, she let out a deep sigh of frustration and said “Whoever, thought up Christmas ought to be shot. “ when from the back of the elevator came the voice of a young man. “You don’t need to bother. We‘ve already crucified Him.”

That pretty much sums it up. There are two very distinctive ways of celebrating the holidays. One is to worship a babe who came into this world with nothing but His Father’s love and the prayer that He could change our world for the better. The other is to turn this Babe’s focus on love and salvation into a frenzied celebration of all the things that are not important and can, when taken to extremes, destroy the life He offers us.

Which way will you choose this holiday?

Thanksgiving

2011-11-17T06:38:00.001-08:00

The best Thanksgivings I remember were when I was just a little girl. I remember sitting in third grade art class making turkeys out of paper plates and handprints. Then on the Wednesday before the Big Day, we’d all carry home our treasures and hang them on refrigerator doors right beside the pilgrim hats made by our brothers and sisters.

But that wasn’t the best part. The best part was the way the house smelled like pumpkin and cinnamon from the pies baking in the oven. We’d wake up on Thanksgiving morning to the smell of the turkey already in the oven and the laughter of aunts and uncles and cousins that we’d see just once a year.

Thanksgiving for me was a time to gather the clan around a table filled to overflowing with all kinds of food. Then right before the feast began, the laughter would stop for just a moment and all our relatives would gather together in a prayer of thanks and a prayer of remembrance.

In spite of all the troubles the last year may have brought, in spite of any illnesses or deaths, or lost opportunities, we took time to pause and give thanks for strength lent and courage given. We gave thanks for love that surrounded us on every side no matter how dark the c loud of trouble may have been.

Perhaps that’s the real meaning of Thanksgiving. It is more than a pause in lives filled with laughter and blessings, more than a time to give thanks only for gifts of plenty, it is also a time to pause and remember, a time to stop and remember God’s presence with us in the midst of our sorrow as well as in our laughter and our joy.

protecting the children

2011-11-14T05:56:00.001-08:00

The news stunned a nation – young boys sexually molested over a period of fifteen years by a revered football coach and the story isn’t over yet. The tragedy is that the story is far too common. Child abuse doesn’t just happen to those people over there. It doesn’t just happen in the poorest parts of town or in broken homes. Sometimes it happens in the house next door --- and sometimes it happens in our houses.

But what can we do in the face of such horror?

The first thing we can do is be aware, to watch and to listen. So often we don’t want to know the reality of the situation so we close our eyes to signs of neglect, even the obvious signs of bruises and cuts and burns. We’re afraid to know, afraid to speak out, and because of our fear, children suffer.

We have to be willing to see what we don’t want to know and we have to be willing to open the way for a cry for help to come into being. Too often we are told that children who are abused did try to tell --- to tell a teacher, a friend, a counselor, a minister, a member of their church. They took the risk to ask for help and they were sent away --- told not to make things up, told that it couldn’t possibly be that bad, told to be good and do what their parents say.

We must at all cost keep children safe. We must talk to parents when we are concerned for their child’s safety and we must file reports when that proves necessary. Above all, we must be certain that we do not abuse, that we do not strike out, that we do not belittle, that we do not destroy.

We must let every child know that there is a safe place they can go, a place where they matter, where they are important, where they are cherished and they are loved. At times, the greatest protection we can give is a safe haven of love in a world broken apart by pain.

Don't Worry

2011-11-06T06:16:00.000-08:00

“My unemployment runs out in two months and I still don’t have a job. How am I going to pay the bills then? We’re barely managing now.” “The biopsy came back malignant. It’s stage 4 and the doctors don’t know if chemo will work this time.”

“Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Look at the birds in the air… consider the lilies of the field…If God takes care of them, won’t He even more care for you? Don’t worry.”

Scripture sounds so different when we read it here in the sanctuary surrounded by prayers and beautiful music, than it does when you read it at a kitchen table surrounded by too many bills at the end of the money. When you read it there, Jesus sounds unrealistic and naïve, far removed from the reality of the situation.

After all, the birds of the air may not sow or reap but they don’t pay mortgages or college tuition either. The lilies of the field may not toil or spin, but they also don’t need health insurance and have never needed to apply for a job.

So is Jesus just glossing over the problems we face in the real world or is He giving us a real alternative to the fear and anxiety that can all too easily overwhelm us? I think it’s the latter.

Look at what He does tell us to do: “Don’t worry. Trust in God. Worrying will get you nowhere. It’s not going to solve any of your problems. It won’t make that stack of bills disappear. It won’t shrink the tumor. It won’t put Christmas presents under the tree. Focus on what is really important. Focus on what is the Kingdom of God. Worrying about what is going to happen tomorrow won’t change a thing. Just take care of today. Take care of right now. Take care of the next five minutes.” (That’s the Pat Ramsden translation by the way.)

Jesus tells us to stop focusing on all the problems and start focusing on the solution --- on what you can do right here and right now. He doesn’t tell us not to do anything at all and just sit there twiddling our thumbs waiting for God to magically make all our troubles go away.

But what He does tell us to do is to stop focusing on what might happen in the worst of all possible worlds, to stop building catastrophes in our minds as if they’re realities, to stop listening to pundits spouting gloom and doom and the end of civilization as we know it. After all, He asks, “How’s that working for you?”

Imagine instead a life where you open your hands and release the panic and fear and trust in the possibilities, trust in the love of God.

The See Saw of Love

2011-10-31T06:14:00.001-07:00

She was physically and emotionally exhausted with running here and running there to meet the needs of her children. She was 72 and still held a part-time job so she could support her alcoholic son’s drinking habit. Oh, she didn’t say it that way. She said she was “helping him pay the bills.” He kept running “low” on money and what could a mother do?

Another son wanted her to babysit, not just occasionally but at the drop of a hat, and she would change her plans at a moment’s notice to go babysit her three grandchildren, who really were darlings. It was just that the hat kept dropping with more and more frequency and her friends had stopped inviting her to go out with them because they never knew when she would cancel.

As she sat in my office it reminded me of a parable. It’s a story in Matthew 25 about wise and foolish bridesmaids. Now, the obvious point of the story is about being ready for the coming of Christ, but like so many of Jesus’ stories there are layers and layers of meaning, and one of those layers seemed to speak to my friend’s situation.

In the story, the foolish bridesmaids were unprepared for the coming of the groom. Notice that they were not necessarily bad or immoral. They were foolish. They also assumed their well being was guaranteed to them no matter what they did. They expected the wise bridesmaids to sacrifice for them so they wouldn’t have to face the consequences of their actions. They wanted to make it – expected to make it -- on someone else’s oil.

Too many of us tend to judge the wise bridesmaids when they said no, they couldn’t share their oil --- even though giving away their oil would mean they would run out too. But the reality is we can only help in so many ways before we give out. Our obligation has to be to take care of ourselves so our own light won’t go out. We can’t empty ourselves out for other people at the cost of our own lives.

There must be a balance between loving others and loving ourselves. Lean too far in either direction and what looks like “loving” can become destructive.

Where are you on the see saw?

Which Son Are You?

2011-10-25T05:17:00.001-07:00

They were as different as night and day. The oldest boy was always in trouble, while the youngest was a smarmy Eddie Haskell kind of kid --- always having the right words to say -- as if butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.

One day the dad came and told the oldest of the two boys to get up off his keister and go mow the lawn. “No”, came the quick reply. The dad turned away shaking his head in sorrow and sadness wondering what he would ever do with his child.

But while he was lounging in front of the tv, the son happened to look out the window and saw that the lawn really did need mowing so he got up and he went and he mowed the lawn just like his father asked.

In the meantime, the father had gone to the “good” son, and asked him to do the mowing. “No problem”, he said. “I’ll get right on it. And do you want me to trim the hedges while I’m at it?” “No, son. That’s ok.” And the dad turned away wondering why his oldest son couldn’t be more like that.

All the while, the youngest of the two got himself comfortable in his favorite chair in front of the tv.. Actually going and mowing the lawn was the last thing on His mind.

Now which of the two boys did what the father wanted? Which one obeyed him? Who was the real “good son”? The question is easy.

You see, talk is cheap and actions speak louder than words or as they say in AA, “you have to walk the walk and not just talk the talk.” You have to love God and your neighbor with what you do as much, if not more, than what you say.

So when someone asks if you can pick up a bottle of shampoo or a tube of toothpaste for RAM so a child doesn’t have to go to school with greasy hair or scum on his teeth, you may want to reach for two. Or when someone calls from meals on wheels to ask if you can possibly drive, you may want to reconsider how important it is that you not miss Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. And when a child needs to be read to and a lap to sit in during story time at the library, you may want to think about how cozy your lap would be.

For what you do matters – both here and in all of eternity.

Mental Illness

2011-10-09T07:06:00.001-07:00

We don’t talk much about how Jesus devoted a good part of His ministry to healing the mentally ill. We don’t mention how He approached them with love and gentleness, meeting them in their pain and making them whole again.

Perhaps we don’t discuss it because like those who lived in the time of Christ, we are still afraid, still ashamed of the mentally ill. We don’t understand their suffering because we can not see it in the same way that we see a broken arm or a body decimated by cancer. Their pain is invisible and so we want to pretend it just doesn’t exist.

But there is something terribly wrong. Depression can be a debilitating illness when it is not confronted and treated by doctors in the same way we would treat any other disease or illness. The miracle is God still heals depression, as He heals so many other diseases -- by giving us doctors and counselors and medications that make us whole.

Mental illness is not caused by a lack of will. It’s caused by a chemical imbalance within the brain. And like any other chemical imbalance it can be controlled by medication --- much as in the same way a diabetic’s imbalance of insulin is controlled by medication. It’s like the person with high blood pressure who must take their daily pill, whether they “feel” good or not. You have to take care of yourself every day, day in and day out no matter how you might “feel”.

When you do you will be amazed what medication and therapy can do to help. It’s true that you may have to try a few different medicines to find the right one. It’s true you may have to try a few different doctors to find the one you are most comfortable with, but I can tell you that when you do your part, a miracle occurs.

When you stop saying I am so ashamed, when you stop saying I can do, I SHOULD, do this all by myself, when you stop saying I just need to be happier ---- then God can perform his miracle and you can be healed.

Trust the people waiting to help you and trust God. If you are in need, reach out for help. For help is there for the taking.

Putting On The New

2011-10-09T07:05:00.001-07:00

Once, a long while ago, Jesus told a story to help us understand the kingdom of heaven. In this story a man who attended a wedding feast given by a king, but the man didn’t change out of his dirty clothes once he came to the party. When the king saw him, the king threw the man out into “the outer darkness”.

I have to say, I have a difficult time with this story. Now, don’t misunderstand me. I don’t think my strong emphasis on grace is misplaced. But I do think we need to remember that God’s grace doesn’t intend to leave us where we are. We can’t stay in the dirty garments of sin that we were wearing when we first got invited to the party. We need to clean up and put on new clothes of joy and love.

God does not call the alcoholic to keep drinking. God doesn’t call the bigot to keep hating. He calls them --- He calls us --- and then says put on new clothes, take off your old. Here, I’ll help you.

Once God’s love is given and received, once the invitation to the party is accepted, it is our responsibility, our work as subjects and disciples of the King, to make ourselves ready for the feast of love.

But at the same time, we need to remember that this is not some act of drudgery to be avoided or dreaded. It is a part of the wonderful and exciting adventure of faith, for as we take off the old soiled clothing of hate or depression or of constant worry, we will experience the joy of putting on love and peace.

We are to prepare ourselves with all the joy of a bride getting ready for her wedding day, glorying in the moment, anticipating the love to come. Let us be among those who choose to accept the king’s invitation. Let us take off the old, put on the new, and join in the party.

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani

2011-10-03T06:27:00.000-07:00

        As many of you know Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani has been condemned to death by an Iranian Court for refusing to denounce his Christian faith. Now in the face of international protest they have added the charges of rape and extortion that were never before mentioned in the charges before the court. Please pray for him and his family as they wait to see if the execution will actually take place or if his sentence will be commuted.
        But as we pray fervently for him and for all those Christians persecuted around our world, it is also important that we pray for moderate Muslims who will once again pay a heavy price for extremists in their faith and governments who use religion as an excuse to torment and control others. It is far too easy to tar all Muslims with the same brush --- just as it is far too easy to tar all Christians with the acts of extereme intolerance exhibited by those on the far end of either spectrum. We must pray that they and we will find the way to reveal the true message of our faiths that understanding and tolerance in the midst of disagreement will prevail.
         And I would ask one more thing which some will find far more difficult. We must pray for all extremists of faith and extremists in positions of power. We must pray that their hearts and minds will be touched by the message of love, mercy, and justice that is the hallmark of faith.
         Thank you for your prayers. May heaven be merciful upon us all.

What love Is

2011-10-03T06:04:00.000-07:00

Ask a group of 5 to 8 year olds what love is and you can get some fascinating, and wise, answers. Here are just a few:

· Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.

· Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.

· If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate.

Now that’s love, and it’s the kind of love that Christ calls for each of us to exhibit in our lives. Each of these children knew that love was more than just saying the words “I love you.”

Words are cheap. Love is not, for you see true love is found in doing something. It’s more than just a warm, fuzzy feeling. It’s action. It does no good to tell someone you love them if you keep throwing your dirty underwear on the floor for them to pick up.

Love is a whole hearted “yes” that is acted out in the way we treat one another. “What does love look like?” For Augustine love “has hands to help others, feet to hasten to the poor and needy, eyes to see misery and want, ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of others. That’s what love looks like.”

living water

2011-09-26T06:16:00.000-07:00

She had it all. A beautiful home in the suburbs with a three car garage. A husband who loved her. Two kids and a dog. Then she found out that the husband who loved her had been sleeping around and suddenly her nice little life came unraveled. She was caught up in the tragedy of divorce and found herself needing an income for herself and the kids. She had plenty of questions and no answers. She was dying of thirst and didn’t know where to go for a drink of living water.

We are surrounded by people just like her. Busy people. Burdened people. Burned out people. But before God can give us what we need to quench the thirsting of our spirit, the thirsting of our heart, we have to recognize what we really long for.

We need to recognize the thirsting of our hearts for something more. It may show itself in a restlessness of our spirit, or a life out of control. We may push ourselves even harder – getting involved in more and more activities in the hope of filling up the hole in our soul. Still we may have a sense of loneliness that cannot be filled, and if we are honest with ourselves we would have to say that our lives, too, often run on empty.

Ever feel like that? Even a little? Then it is time for you to go to the well of living water that streams from the heart of God. And what is this living water?

It is love. It is grace. It is the certain knowledge that you are not alone. You do not have to rely only on your own resources. You have all the resources of heaven to draw upon. So stop for a moment, open your canteen of prayer, and take a good, long, refreshing drink of love.

To tell the truth

2011-09-12T07:58:00.000-07:00

“Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you God?” That question sums up the ninth commandment, “You shall not bear false witness.” It is the basis of not only our justice system but all justice. It covers all forms of slander, defamation, and misrepresentation. The Contemporary English Version translates it as “You shall not tell lies about others.”

And yet we handle the truth lightly these days, so lightly that we have a hard time telling truth from fiction even from what ought to be responsible sources. It is difficult to separate truth from political bias for instance on so called “news” reporting. And by now, we all know that you must separate all truth from fiction on the world wide web.

We can’t even believe what our eyes see these days because of PhotoShop. And bent truth like this is much more dangerous because it is so difficult to detect it, to not be taken in by it.

But in addition to the bending of the truth we experience so often in the media, there are also the times we are guilty of a little truth bending in our own lives. Slander, gossip, and bullying cannot only destroy a person’s reputation but their life. And it’s not just teenagers that bully. Turn on talk radio, listen in on a cantankerous board meeting, sit in on some morning coffee clubs and you’ll find bullying at its worst.

But just as dangerous (and prevalent) is the false witness we bear by keeping an inappropriate silence. Too often we sit aside quietly while someone else is being discredited or put down. We “don’t want to get involved” we say. We want to just let it pass. It’s so much easier to stay out of the fray. And yet by doing so, by letting the petty gossip, the insults, and sometimes the lies go unchallenged we are equally guilty. Silence is not always golden.

I;d never steal!

2011-09-01T07:28:00.001-07:00

Take a quick glance around your house. How many pens have you collected? How many cd’s or dvd’s have been copied or downloaded from the web when you knew they weren’t supposed?

It seems so simple. Thou shalt not steal. And we are certain that we would never do that. We would never break into someone’s home and take what is not ours. We would never rob a bank or the seven-eleven. And yet many of us find the temptation to steal hard to resist because it is so often impersonal, almost “accidental”. It’s not really stealing after all. No one gets hurt. We’re just beating the system. Besides, everyone does it.

What’s the difference if I come in 10 minutes late to work or take an extra 15 minutes for lunch? Or read my email and surf the web on company time? Surely there’s no harm in taking a stamp from the drawer without paying for it? I only do it once in a blue moon. And what difference can it make if I let my child eat some of the grapes in the store before they are weighed and paid for?

Then there are the biggies like changing tags on clothes in a store or shopping lifting small items or taking more change than we are really owed, or exaggerating our deductions on our income tax statements.

After all, who are we hurting? Everyone. We hurt everyone. The employer, the shopkeeper, those who have to pay a higher price to cover the loss, but most particularly ourselves. For when we steal, we pay the price of our own character. And that’s far too high a price to pay.

the gift of sex; the sin of adultery

2011-08-29T06:36:00.000-07:00

The Bible is not against sex. There I’ve said it. I thought it needed to be said because too many people carry around the misconception that somehow the Bible and Christianity – and, yes, even God ---- believe that sex is a four letter word that must be endured --- not enjoyed --- for the procreation of the species.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed God and scripture view sex as a beautiful, holy thing to be celebrated with great joy. Anyone who doubts this should read the Song of Songs, a wonderful poem in the Bible devoted to celebrating the sensuous side of love.

The truth is we are the ones who reduce sex to a vulgarity. We have taken one of God’s great blessings and made it cheap and casual, the butt of coarse jokes. But even worse we have too often turned it into a curse. We have perverted this gift of joy into the violence and horror of rape and prostitution. Too many young girls and women are sold as sexual slaves unable to escape the bounds that bind them.

And so, because we are so good at perverting the greatest gifts God gives us, there is the commandment “You shall not commit adultery”. Chaucer points out in Canterbury Tales that this command comes between the commands not to murder and not to steal because it encompasses both.

Adultery murders a sacred relationship and bond between a man and a woman and has the effect of telling the one who is betrayed “You count for nothing. The covenant I made to you and God counts for nothing.” It steals away trust and self-respect.

Is it unforgivable? No. Marriages and relationships can be resurrected. Trust can be rebuilt. Joy and sacredness can be restored. But it is hard. It takes work. It takes the re-forming of a partnership between the man, the woman, and God.

It takes forgiveness and love --- but God specializes in both.

Thou shalt not kill

2011-08-22T07:03:00.001-07:00

“Thou shalt not kill”, or as it has come to be more accurately translated, “Thou shalt not murder”. It sounds straightforward enough, but its meaning in our complex society is hotly contested. It is a commandment that has been used as an argument opposing the death penalty, abortion, euthanasia, suicide, and serving in times of war. It’s even been quoted by vegetarians as a mandate for not butchering animals to consume their meat.

These are issues that deserve serious study, prayer, and debate as we grow in our understanding of God’s commands and how to apply them to our daily lives. With some you may easily agree, with others you may vehemently disagree. The study, the debate, helps us all grow.

But what did Jesus say? In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells us, "You're familiar with the command to the ancients, 'Do not murder.' I'm telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother 'idiot!' and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell 'stupid!' at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill. “(Mt 5: 21-22).

Taken at face value, these words seem to take the command to a ridiculous height. Who hasn’t muttered the words “You idiot!” as a car has cut them off by pulling into traffic without looking or muttered them as they listened to a political debate of the opposing side?

But Christ’s point is in the stark reality of His final sentence. “Words kill.” Too often we forget that. We forget how easy it is to destroy the human spirit. We casually murder someone’s reputation with speculation and half-truths. We tear down their self-esteem by pointing out only someone’s faults. We clip the wings of ambition and dreams with the easy statement of “Whatever made you think you could do that?” We kill the soul with our prejudices and our snap judgments. Physical violence is not the only way to take a life.

We must love others even as we love ourselves.

Suicide and Faith

2011-08-09T10:06:00.001-07:00

I just left the funeral of a seventeen year old girl whose father gave her the Native American name “Gentle Wind.” And from all accounts the name fit her. She was indeed a gentle wind, a gentle spirit among us filled with life and love. Yet this gentle wind took her own life just the other night.

What pain, what feelings of hopelessness filled her in those moments I don’t pretend to know. I know she carried them alone, hiding behind a smile and butterfly kisses and assurances that she was fine. Perhaps you’ve smiled such a smile, made those assurances, thinking the pain was too great, too private to share. Please don’t.

Please tell someone, share the depths of your heart for even when they do not know the words to say, even when they have no easy answers to the questions or the pain, their love can wrap your hopelessness in their hope as they walk alongside you.

Know too that God is with you. Some people say that the hardest thing about suicide is the terrible aloneness of it. Yet I believe that even in the moments of that deepest despair, no one is truly alone. God is there even in that. I believe that God’s love was with Gentle Wind and is with you and me even in the moments when we feel most alone. He was there wrapping her in understanding and His Spirit prayed for her spirit to trust in His strength when she had done left of her own.

And yet, as she could not do that this one more time, He understood her pain and gentled her home to His eternal heart. Now He is with us as we walk through our own valleys of pain and grief and, yes, perhaps feelings of guilt we do not want to even speak of. Now we must surrender to a love and strength beyond our own.

I encourage you to do that now.

And if a friend, an acquaintance, someone you know and love, or a stranger on the bus reaches out to you, take their hand. You may not have the words, the answers, but God will give you the strength to be with them. See that they get the help they need. Get the help you need. Place them in the care of someone trained. And if they seem suddenly calm and at peace after sharing deep troubles, talk with them more. They may have developed a final plan to end this life. Anyone who has such a plan must be taken to a safe place, whatever that place might be. It takes strength and courage to say this is more than I can handle. But please have that strength and that courage.

Finally, I want to give you a gift given to me. It is the Native American version of the 23^rd Psalm. It is a tribute and a prayer to all the Gentle Winds among us.

The Lord is my Great Father and Shepherd Chief.

I am His and with Him I want not.

He throws out to me a rope and the name of the rope is love.

He draws me to where the grass is green and the water not dangerous,

And I eat and lie down and am satisfied.

Sometimes my heart is very weak and fails me

But He lifts me up again and draws me into a good road.
His name is WONDERFUL.

Some time, it may be very soon, it may be a long, long time off,

He will draw me into a valley.

It is dark there, but I shall not be afraid,

For it is in between those mountains that the Shepherd Chief will meet me

and the hunger that I have had in my heart all through this life will be satisfied.

Honor thy father and mother

2011-08-08T07:14:00.001-07:00

The fifth commandment in our series on God’s Top Ten is the oft quoted “Honor thy father and thy mother.” But one of the questions that this raises, particularly in today’s world, is the question of what makes someone a mother and father? In a world of artificial insemination, surrogate mothers, and adoption, this becomes an issue. Is an egg or a sperm enough to make someone a mother or a father? However, the point of the command is not so much biology as theology.

It is concerned with how we treat those who are elderly who can no longer make provision for their care in old age because they can no longer work. In many cultures of that day, a person lost all value once they could no longer “carry their own weight” and they were the last to receive food or assistance. They got whatever was left and if nothing was left then they received nothing.

Perhaps that’s one reason the word translated as “honor” is the Hebrew word “kabed”, which means “heavy” or “to give weight to.” In our society, one way we have decided to keep the command is to help “carry the weight” for all our seniors by providing social security and basic health care to be certain no one is left behind.

One can argue whether our society as a whole should shoulder the moral responsibility given in the command so that all oldsters are covered and not just those with children who can care for them. And we can argue whether these programs do an adequate job of helping the poor choose between utilities, food, or medicine. Indeed, such arguments are already taking place in the halls of Congress. But the command is still there.

Notice too that the command does not mention our feelings toward our parents. It also does not speak about whether our parents deserve such honor. We must treat our oldsters, and I would argue that this includes all oldsters and not just our own mothers and fathers, with respect and dignity, giving their needs “weight” whoever they are.

Sabbath Tine

2011-08-01T06:20:00.001-07:00

“But I can’t do that! You don’t understand. It’s just not possible to take a day off. No. Not even three hours in a row. There are too many things that have to get done and I don’t have enough time as it is.”

That’s far too often the response I get when the fourth commandment comes up. Heck, it’s far too often the response I give! “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Work six days and do everything you need to do, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to God, Your God…. For in six days God made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them; He rested on the seventh day.”

Now contrary to popular opinion, this commandment is meant as a gift --- not a burden. The Sabbath keeps us in balance and gives dignity to life. It reminds us that we are not just worker bees. We are beloved children of God.

But Sabbath time is a gift we regularly refuse and is probably the most broken of all the commandments. Yet it is a practical recognition of how our bodies work. Without sufficient rest our bodies --- and our spirits --- break down.

So how do we reclaim “Sabbath” time? The answer is not by surrounding it with legalisms. Too many of us remember the days when Sabbath time meant not doing anything that looked like fun: no movies, no card playing, no dancing or listening to the radio, and definitely no shopping.

But the meaning behind Sabbath is to just be and enjoy time. It is resting, rejoicing, and remembering the blessings all around us, thanking God for His good creation. We don’t all have to do that on the exact same day in the exact same way. For some, Sabbath time is spent gardening, for others, it is spent taking an afternoon nap with a book on their lap, for everyone it will be different.

Can’t start with an entire day? Then begin with a few hours and build up to a day of remembering the joy of living and the gifts God has given. And, yes, you really can do it. As scary as it may seem, you are not indispensible and the world does not depend on your “to do” list. After all, even God took a day off. You can too.

Don't misuse my name

2011-07-21T09:40:00.001-07:00

Names are precious. It’s the first thing we want to know about someone. “What should I call you?” we ask, and the answer reveals something about how close we are to that person.

There are some people with whom I pull out all the stops and to them I am only the Rev. Dr. Patricia Ramsden. (These are people who have really irritated me or who are busy impressing me with how important they are and how unimportant I am.) To most people I’m Pastor Pat and to my friends I’m just Pat, but absolutely never “Patty.”

So it’s not unusual when Moses asks God His name. “What shall I call you?”

And God tells him and us, but He also says in the commandments, “Don’t misuse My name. Don’t insult me by using it carelessly or crudely or even carelessly. Don’t lower me to the position of human excrement. I am the Creator of the Universe, the One you have promised to love and serve, the One who loves You with an undying love. Don’t betray My love or your love by treating Me as a casual curse.” And yet, too often, people do and it breaks my heart and God’s.

But in my mind, even worse than casual cursing, is when people misuse God’s name by doing and saying unspeakable things “in the name of God”. There is the “pastor” from Kansas who shows up at military funerals spouting hatred and condemnation. There are those who condemn children to a life-time abuse all in the name of “God sanctioned” discipline and “obeying” your parents. And let’s not forget those who would condemn others to a living hell of shunning and soul destroying slander because their lives don’t live up to “Godly” expectations. I can hear God screaming from heaven, “Don’t misuse my name!”

“Don’t misuse my name. My name is “love”.

No graven images

2011-07-18T08:19:00.001-07:00

I don’t know about you, but I have a favorite among the ten commandments. It’s the second one: “You shalt not make for yourself an idol. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.” I like it because I think it’s one commandment I can keep. Surely I’m on safe ground here. But as soon as I looked into the meaning behind the meaning, I discovered that even with this command I’m on shaky ground.

I think we all have some sacred image of God we carry in our mind. I remember when I was growing up if you asked me what God looked like I would have said an old white man with a long beard sitting on a throne. My grandmother used to tell me He sat behind a judge’s bench, writing down all our sins in some huge accounting book with a quill pen. I have another friend who loves seeing God as the black motherly woman constantly baking and cooking nourishing food and wrapping people up in her arms of love, like in the novel The Shack.

It’s so tempting to want to pin God down to an image we can understand. It’s tempting to want to contain Her and yet Her fullness is beyond our imagination. (And if you cringed when you read the pronoun “Her”, you too have one definite image of God that is sacred to you.)

I love the way Athanasius, a 14^th century theologian put it when he said grasping God is like trying to get hold of a whirlwind. In Isaiah 55 God tells us, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways.”

This command then tells us that we cannot hold on to just one image, just one version, of who God is and how God acts. God is both grace and law, love and judgment, strong rushing wind, still quiet voice. God is all we can conceive of and even more. To try to hold on to Him (or Her) is to break the commandment.

God's Big Ten

2011-07-11T06:58:00.000-07:00

Nothing has stirred as much controversy over the last years than God’s Big Ten. Should they be in the schools? Should they be on courthouse lawns? What do they mean and how can we bring them up to date and make them “relevant”? So let’s take a second look --- maybe even a first look --- at what these commands are really about.

They begin with a statement, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, where you were slaves. Worship no god but me.”

Susan is a successful corporate lawyer whom I have always admired. She knew what she wanted. She wanted to be a high powered lawyer. She wanted to be a big name, and she is. The problem, she confessed, is that she had nothing else. “It’s not unusual for me to work anywhere from sixty to eighty hours a week. I can’t even really get away on a vacation. The phone and my laptop are always there 24/7. I don’t even have friends anymore and when someone asked me what I liked to do, I had to confess I didn’t know --- all I do is work. It’s become my life.”

It was even worse. Work, success, had become a god to her. She started out worshipping it and had wound up a slave to it. Now, she all she wanted was to be free, free to discover who she really is, who God designed her to be.

That’s the meaning behind the command. When we worship anything, anyone, but God, we become less than we are meant to me. Any other god will inevitably nibble away at us until we lose our focus --- until we lose ourselves.

Only you know who or what may have become your god. It may be your children, your status in the community, even your work at church. It can be anything that has taken control of your life until you have become a slave.

I’m reminded of the truth in an old Bob Dylan song, “You’ve got to serve somebody. It may be the devil. It may be the Lord, but you’ve got to serve somebody.” So in the words of Joshua, “Choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” When we do that, we will discover a God who will free us from our bondage, and we will know the fullness of the negro spiritual “Free at last, free at last. Thank God almighty, we’re free at last.”.

Freedom

2011-06-27T05:03:00.000-07:00

Perhaps there is nothing Americans value as much as our freedom. It is the heart and soul of our nation. Over 225 years ago, on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed. The men who signed it longed for freedom: freedom to govern themselves, freedom to worship as they pleased, freedom from the tyranny of the throne and so they wrote these most memorable words:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights: they are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Millions of men and women have died for the cause of freedom and millions more put themselves in harm’s way each and every day to protect that right for us all.

Still it only took one man to die to set us free for all eternity. For our best freedom --- our final freedom --- has come at the cost of the cross. It is the cost of that cross and the very nature of eternal freedom that Paul defends in the book of Galatians.

It is our freedom in God that we celebrate this day and every day.

“Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.” Galatians 5: 1

Our acceptance of God’s love brings us freedom from fear and the certain knowledge that we never have to walk alone or trust only in our own strength, but that God will always walk with us through our trials and tribulations giving us strength and courage as we journey along life’s way;. We are freed from the bondage of guilt and shame as we know God’s forgiveness. Finally, we are freed from the tyranny of sin and darkness to walk in the light of love and righteousness.

some doubted

2011-06-20T04:10:00.000-07:00

…”but some doubted…some hesitated…” Just three words, but what wonderful words they are! They come at the very end of the gospel of Matthew when the disciples gathered together to hear Christ’s last words to them before He ascended into heaven. I, quite frankly, like the fact that at least some of those people gathered on that mountain doubted and were at least a little bit hesitant. It makes me feel better about my own faith.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m a person of great faith, but still there are those moments… I think everyone has those moments. Those moments when I’ve walked into a hospital room and seen a mother still rocking her newborn baby who had just died…. Moments when I’ve read about the tortured body of a 14 year old who had been arrested after protesting for freedom… Moments when I’ve tried to reconcile the miracle of resurrection with my 21^st century scientific mind and discovered it couldn’t be done. Moments when I’ve doubted….moments when I’ve hesitated. Haven’t you ever had those moments?

So I find it a gift from God that at the very end of Matthew’s gospel, there are men and women who doubted and hesitated too. After all, if these men and women who had traveled, laughed, and cried with Jesus could hesitate, if the very ones who had listened to Him teach and seen the miracles and put their hands in the risen Christ’s side could doubt, then certainly I could too. One of the best lessons I ever learned in Sunday School was that if my faith didn’t have its moments of doubts and questions it was no faith at all.

There’s something else about these doubters that I love. Jesus had faith in them even as they doubted Him. I love that. We have a God who believes in us no matter how small--- or even non-existent --- our own belief is. He is always there.

Birthday of the Church

2011-06-06T06:27:00.000-07:00

I love birthdays! It’s a special time when the world pauses just to celebrate you. People send you cards saying they love you. They hold a birthday “dinner” in your honor. There are balloons and presents and even a special song sung just for you. They’re a time to look at our dreams and hopes and choose which ones to turn into realities over the next year. Everything and anything seems possible on a birthday. What’s not to love?

And so I love this coming Sunday. In the Church it’s known as Pentecost and we celebrate it as the birthday of the Christian Church. On Pentecost, so long ago, God’s love blew like a gentle breeze and like a strong wind through an upper room where the men and women who followed Jesus waited and prayed.

It stirred up their joy and energy and stories of their Savior that were just waiting to be shared. It stirred them out of their lethargy and onto the streets. It stirred and stirred until that small band of believers became a mighty movement, calling all the nations of the earth to see and know God’s love.

Has the Church always done that perfectly – or even well? No. We have much to be ashamed of as ambassadors of Christ. It’s true. We have hated in Christ’s name instead of loved. We have killed in His name and set out to conquer nations and peoples with swords and guns instead of offerings of grace and life. We have made God’s Word a burden instead of a yoke that sets us free.

But that is not all of our past. It is not even the majority of our past. The Church is also that place that births missions in the streets of Calcutta where the “unclean” are declared children of God and are loved and cared for with great tenderness.

It is the place that nurtures and sends countless volunteers to disaster sites here and abroad who stay long after the cameras have moved on.

It is the place where congregations work together to organize community food and clothing pantries, helping with utilities and giving out school backpacks filled with supplies to children in need --- pantries and communities like ours.

It is the place, where with all of our faults (for we are after all a collection of sinners) we meet and celebrate and focus our lives on the One without sin, the One who does love perfectly. Each week, each year, with the help of God, we do a little better. We blow out the candles of the past and start again to love God with all our heart, strength, and mind, and our neighbors as ourselves. Come join us. Come celebrate.

Why I'm A Christian

2011-05-31T08:22:00.001-07:00

It’s a pretty basic question. So, why are you a Christian? What’s the deal? What’s the payoff? It’s no longer the “in” thing to be anymore. People don’t get up and go to church these days because that’s what you’re “supposed” to do. These days, you’re “supposed” to sleep in, mow the grass, anything but go to church.

And forget church for a moment, who wants to be a Christian? Aren’t they those judgmental hypocrites who want to send everyone else to hell? Aren’t they the ones with the long list of “Thou shalt not’s” who look like a smile would crack their face and think “fun” is a four letter word?

No. They’re not. I’m a Christian because of how much God loves me, how much He enjoys me, how much strength and joy He gives to me. He loves me more than I can even imagine --- even on my bad days – even when no one in their right mind would love me, and He loves me just as I am warts and all. I can be totally honest with God and He is still there. He will follow me through -- and out of – hell if necessary --- and has.

Why wouldn’t I love a God like that? Why wouldn’t I want to live into the person He longs for me to be, the person He created me to be? Because of God, I can believe in love when I can believe in nothing else. And because of His strength, I can make it through the worst that life can offer. I can do more than just survive life. I can find its joy, a joy that bubbles up to the surface in moments of laughter and is still there running underground in times of tears.

I’m a Christian because I can’t imagine life without Christ. Quite frankly, I’ve seen what life without Him is like. I’ve seen what it can do to people and I can’t imagine how or why they choose the darkness, the pain, the loneliness over the joy, the love, the life I have in Jesus.

I’m not the kind that will ever stop you in an elevator and ask when you gave your life to Christ. It’s not my place to assume anyone is going to hell. That’s God’s job and frankly I think He’s more likely to let you choose to go there than to send you there, but I’ll be glad to tell you what I’ve found and what you will find in the source of love. Just email me or post a comment. Let’s talk.

The Second Coming

2011-05-23T06:35:00.000-07:00

Saturday, May 21, at 6:00 I looked at my watch and said, “Darn. Maybe they meant Pacific time.” But Sunday morning the sun rose and the news reported that Jesus had not come again. There was the cynical laughter of reporters and the news went on.

But I would beg to differ. Jesus did come again and He is coming now, in this moment, as well.

Jesus comes each time my ninety year old neighbor living on Social Security stops at Harding’s to pick up spaghetti sauce for the food pantry. Jesus comes as a four year old skips down the aisle in the middle of the sermon and waves to me as she cuddles next to her grandmother. Jesus comes when one friend silently holds another friend in front of the casket at the funeral home.

Jesus comes in the midst of our personal Armageddons and carries us home. When our personal world has been destroyed by grief, pain, or that diagnosis we feared most in all the world, Jesus comes and wraps us in silent strength and comfort. Jesus comes in the surprise of a freshly mowed lawn as we turn in the drive, too tired to take another step. Jesus comes in a shared cup of tea and tears. Jesus comes in all of His glory to take us home and give us a glimpse of His love.

In a very peculiar way, the doomsayers were right. Jesus did come May 21 at 6:00 just as He will come today at 10:05 and tomorrow at 11:21, for Jesus has never left us. His love is still here surrounding us, strengthening us, calling to us, for His love --- and His life --- shall never end.

Those prophets of the Second Coming were right about something else too. The Bible guarantees it.

even a small faith

2011-05-09T06:11:00.000-07:00

The apostles had been listening to Jesus teaching them how far they must go to be his faithful disciples and they were overwhelmed with the task before them and what it would mean to be faithful to our God, so they asked Jesus for one thing. They asked Him to increase their faith.

And Jesus replied in a very definite way. All they needed, He says, is faith the size of a grain of mustard seed--- faith as small as the smallest seed they knew of, for even the smallest of faith would be enough to do the seemingly impossible.

Jesus’ response was to say to the disciples you already have the faith you need to do the impossible. It’s true, your faith may be small and shaky, but it is enough. We don’t need more faith --- we just need to use the faith we have, for we have not yet begun to use the power God has already given us, for faith is the greatest force in the world.

It was by faith and faith alone that Mother Theresa began a small mission in the slums of Calcutta to meet the needs of the untouchables. It was by faith that it grew to world wide renown, beginning many other shelters working with the poorest of the poor.

It couldn’t be done, people said. And yet with Mother Theresa’s faith the nay sayers were rooted up and cast out. We know now from her writings that she felt as if her faith --- a faith that we see as so strong – felt to her as something small and weak, and she worried that God would not hear her cries for help – her cries for yet a stronger faith.

But one of the lessons her life proves is that if we begin a task with the approach of “It can’t be done” then it will almost certainly not happen. But if we approach the same task with the attitude that “It must be done and we can do it” the chances are that the thing will come to pass. For we know we do it not by our strength alone but by the strength of God --- not out of faith in ourselves but through our faith in the Lord.

a mother's love

2011-05-02T12:51:00.001-07:00

This Sunday we will be celebrating Mother’s Day with cards, dinners out, and bouquets of every description. Why? Because of all the best our mothers have given us through the years. I think that kind of love can best be summed up like this:

Mothers never give up. They care more for others than for self. They don’t have a swelled head. They aren’t always “me first”. They don’t fly off the handle. They don’t keep score of the sins of others. They trust God always and always look for the best. They believe the best about other people. A mother’s love never ends.

Perhaps you recognize that description of a mother’s love? It’s based on Paul’s famous hymn of love in I Corinthians. I’ve taken parts of that passage from a paraphrase called The Message, but this time I substituted “Mother” for the word love. Whether they always succeed or not, this is how almost all mothers long to love their children.

You’ll notice something else about this passage. Love is a verb rather than a noun. That’s important because we can say I love you till the cows come home, but there has to be action to back it up. It doesn’t matter how often you tell someone you love them if you keep throwing your dirty underwear on the floor at night, for love is found not so much in smaltzy Hallmark moments but in the everyday things of life.

So this year, don’t just tell your mother you love her on this one special day. Instead resolve to show her your love on each and every day.

Be Not Afraid!

2011-04-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

There He stands, in resurrected splendor --- Jesus --- greeting two trembling women, running to tell frightened, hiding disciples the Good News, the incredible news, that the tomb of death held, not their Master, but a flaming messenger of God proclaiming their Savior was not there. He had risen, just as He said. Their Savior was alive. The inconceivable, the unimaginable had happened. Hell was forever conquered and Life had vanquished death forevermore.

In those moments, Jesus spoke to those faithful women and what He said was astounding, “Be not afraid! Now, in this moment of triumph, do not be afraid, in the face of new life, do not be afraid, in the beginning of an eternal tomorrow, do not be afraid. I will go ahead of you and be there once more traveling with you through Galilee.”

For Galilee is the place of extraordinary, ordinary life. It was in Galilee where He called the disciples, taught the crowds, healed the sick, showed compassion to the suffering, fed the multitudes, blessed the children, and lived us all into love.

What Jesus told the women, what He tells us, is I will meet you in Galilee, in that place of your day to day life and I will transform all of life into a new adventure. Don’t be afraid. It may be hard at times and you will not always be certain of the way, but know that now and forever, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life and it is Life in all its limitless possibilities that I am giving you.

Like the women on that first Easter morning, we are invited to leave behind a world of shadows and darkness to enter a world of new life, resurrected life. So listen to the words of Christ: Be not afraid, for Christ is risen and He is waiting for you on the shores of your own Galilee. Yes, it is true. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.

why the cross?

2011-04-18T05:25:00.000-07:00

As we enter the remembrance of Christ’s death and resurrection one of the questions I always hear is why a cross at all? What does it matter? Why did Jesus have to die? Why not just say, “You’re forgiven” from a cloud in the sky?

Although the sacredness of the cross and the sacredness of Christ’s death are too profound for us to ever fully plumb their depths, one of the basic reasons Christ died is that our sin makes a difference to the heart of God. Our acts have consequences and one of the consequences is that when we turn our back on Christ, when we fail to live as He would have us live, we break the heart of God. We turn away from His love, and we wound our relationship with Him.

The price for our sin, our disobedience, our failure to live out of God’s love, is so great that we can never begin to pay it. We have damaged ourselves and our relationship with God in ways we cannot begin to repair. If we have to undo the damage and the hurt we have caused, it’s hopeless.

But God’s love goes beyond our hopelessness. And for us to understand that, for us to recognize that, for us to be changed by that, He did something beyond our wildest imaginations, He put Himself in our place. He said, “I will heal the breach between us. I will pay the cost. I will make it so we can begin again.”

That’s one of the profound messages of the cross. We can begin again. That’s why it is so important that we come to believe in what Christ did, what Christ does. It allows us to begin again. It gives us the opportunity to live life to its fullest, life as it is meant to be and to become the wonderful children of God we are created to be. Because of the cross, we can live in God’s love, out of God’s love, instead of being bound forever by our sins, condemned by the past.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosever believeth in Him might not die but have everlasting life, for God sent His Son into the world not so the world might be condemned but so the world might be saved through Him.”

The message of the cross comes from the cross: “Father, forgive them.”

unimaginable grace

2011-04-04T05:50:00.000-07:00

Ask most people what you have to do to get to heaven and we have a list. Buddhists have an 8 fold path. Hindis have Karma. Jews have a covenant and the Torah. Muslims have the law of the Koran. Only Christians talk of God’s unconditional love. Only Christians speak of unimaginable grace. Only Christians point to a crucified Savior, murdered for the high crime of loving.

So does God’s grace come at no cost at all? No. Here is the eternal contradiction, the dilemma of righteousness. Sin claims its cost. And its cost is death. Its cost is hell. And it is a living death, a living hell.

It is the hell we experience in the middle of the night as we lie awake wondering if anyone could love us if they only knew, the hell of knowing we don’t even love ourselves. It’s the hell that says I’ve gone too far to turn back now. I can’t pay the price of love.

And we are right. We can’t pay the price. We can’t get out of the darkness, whatever the darkness might be, by ourselves. God knows that too. He knew it from the beginning of time when Adam first hid from His love, afraid of what he had done and of what the ultimate price would be.

God knew we could never pay that price and so He paid the ultimate price of sin Himself. He died for us. He went through hell for us. He stretched out His arms upon a cross and said, “This is My love. This is My grace. This is my life, given in your place.” “For God so loved the world that He gave His only beloved Son.”

Jesus chose to die for our salvation. He was held on the cross not by the nails in His feet and hands. He was held on the cross by His love for you.

The question now is will you accept His gift of love? Will you open your heart to love and grace and undeserved acceptance? Will you turn toward heaven and hear God’s voice as He says, “Welcome home. I’ve been waiting for you.”

Why?

2011-03-28T07:54:00.000-07:00

There are moments in all of our lives when we have cried out our whys into the darkness and we have shaken our fists at God in pain and helplessness and grief --- not because we have no faith, but because our faith is so great, because we knew God could be trusted with our tears.

I want to remind you of a story of grief and life you all know very well. It is the story of Mary, Martha, and their brother Lazarus, whom Jesus loved. Lazarus passed away of an illness before Jesus arrived to see him.

Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again. I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

She said to him, "Yes, Lord; I believe."

There are a few things I want to tell you about this story. First, Lazarus did not die because Jesus did not come, because Jesus was not with him. He died because of his illness. Second, he did not die because Jesus did not love him enough to step in. Scripture is clear, Jesus loved Lazarus very much and wept over his death in this realm and over the sorrow of Mary and Martha.

The same is true with those we love. They do not die because God is not there to heal them, because somehow He didn’t love them or us enough or we did not pray hard enough. They died because of illness or tragic accident or pain that goes beyond our understanding, and Jesus weeps with us as we say goodbye to them here on this side of eternity.

But even more importantly is the assurance Jesus gives us that our deaths are not forever. We, like Him, will rise again to eternal life through Him who is the resurrection and the life. And we, like Martha, can say unhesitatingly, even in the midst of tears and questions and yes even doubts, “Lord, we believe.”

Cross Talk: Begin Again

2011-03-14T06:27:00.000-07:00

Why did Jesus have to die? Why not just say, “You’re forgiven” from a cloud in the sky? That’s one of the most frequent questions pastors are asked this time of year as we prepare for Good Friday and the cross.

One of the basic reasons Christ died is that our sin makes a difference to the heart of God. Our acts have consequences and one of the consequences is that when we sin, when we turn our back on Christ, when we fail to live as He would have us live, we break the heart of God. We turn away from His love, and we wound our relationship with Him.

Think of it this way. As a parent, you set limits and boundaries for your children that they must obey for their own good. You don’t ask them to eat their broccoli, or go to bed at a decent hour, or do their homework because you intend to make their lives miserable or are an uncaring despot who just doesn’t understand. You do it because it’s what is best for them. And when they don’t do as you ask, when they say they hate you, it wounds your soul because it’s they who don’t understand how much you love them and how hard loving can be.

But still, you know you need to enforce the rules for their own good. You love them too much to let them do whatever they want whenever they want to, because you know it will hurt them in the long run.

But the price for our sin, our disobedience, our failure to live out of God’s love, is so great that we can never begin to pay it. We have damaged ourselves and our relationship with God in ways we cannot begin to repair. If we have to undo the damage and the hurt we have caused, it’s hopeless.

The message of the cross comes from the cross: “Father, forgive them.” And we are forgiven --- forgiven and freed to begin again.

My Lenten sacrifice

2011-03-07T07:49:00.000-08:00

It happened years ago when I was still teaching at the college. There was a young man in my class who rarely showered and the stench was so overpowering no one would sit near him. His glasses were so caked with dirt you could literally scrape it off and his teeth were a light shade of green from the scum. I hated to even have him come to the office for conferences.

I knew this child needed more help than any other I had ever met, but it was a struggle for me to offer it. It was a struggle to see the pain that was under the mask because the mask was so repulsive. So for Lent I decided my “fast” would be to pray for him. Each and every day I prayed.

I’d love to say that in those forty days his life turned around. It would be such a great story, but that’s not what happened. Oh, he did improve. He started to brush his teeth and he showered a bit more often, but nothing could make up for years of neglect in the classroom and, in the end, I had to advise him to drop the class because he was going to fail.

No. The reality is that in those days of prayer I changed far more than he did. I learned to care about this wounded child of God. I stopped trying to avoid him at every opportunity and I offered him help. It was a struggle, but I did it.

I also learned a painful lesson about myself. I had to admit how selfish I am with love. Oh, I’m willing to love all those people I find loveable but too often I turn my back on those I’d really rather not have to deal with.

So every year during Lent I pick someone to pray for, and I pray for me, that I might become more loving, more accepting. That’s part of my Lenten “sacrifice” and somehow I think it means more to God than giving up boiled carrots.

Worry

2011-02-28T05:43:00.001-08:00

I have a friend who was a past master at worrying. She was so bad that if things were going really well, I’d worry about what I’d forgotten to worry about. Then she found the answer! She told me, every night, before I go to sleep, I turn all my worries over to God. I figure He’s going to be up all night anyway!”

She has a point. Still most of us do worry. It’s part of our nature – and some worry is actually good for us. Worry --- normal, everyday worry --- that leads us to take care of things that need taken care of, that leads us to make plans for the future and carry those plans out, is a necessary part of life.

So when Jesus tells us not to worry in the Sermon on the Mount, He’s talking about something entirely different. He is talking about the kind of worry that keeps you up all night, the kind of worry that takes over your life until you can’t do anything else but worry, until you become like a hamster in a cage constantly running around and around on a wheel you can’t get off of. It’s not the kind of worry that leads to finding a solution. It’s the frantic, frenzied, worry that insists that there is no solution,

And Jesus gives us some very clear, very practical advice on how to stop our useless worrying. He starts by telling us to look at our priorities, to remember what is really important to us.

What really matters is love --- the people we love – the God we love. If we remember that, Jesus says, we’ll be amazed at how many of our worries will melt away and how easy it will be to not let the future overwhelm our present.

Next He reminds us that we are to trust in God. When we become frantic and think things must be done asap, we need to stop and remember that asap really means always say a prayer.

Jesus clearly says, “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”

So when you cannot get to sleep at night because of all the what if’s and why did I’s and the what do I do now’s in your world, here’s some advice from the great Physician: Remember what’s truly important, take a prayer, and know He’ll be up all night taking care of things and when you wake up He’ll still be with you in the morning.

What Are You Looking For?

2011-02-22T05:04:00.001-08:00

“What are you looking for?’

It’s one of those life questions. In fact, it’s one of the first questions you’ll find listed in Stephen Covey’s book “Ten Habits of Highly Successful People” because knowing what you want – knowing what you’re looking for – is essential. It defines who you are and who you want to become. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it’s the first thing Jesus says in the gospel of John. His first words aren’t a teaching. They’re a question. “What are you looking for?”

It seems we have to answer that question time and time again in life. When we’re 16 what we’re looking for may just be the keys to the car and a date to the prom. At 28, it may be a good job with a future. When we’re 60 it might be a sound retirement program and at 77 it might just be good health.

But, in fact, the real answers to what we want from life, what we’re looking for, run much deeper than any of those things. We’re looking for love, for a sense of belonging, a place to be safe, a place to be ourselves, a place to become who God created us to be. Most of us, in our heart of hearts, are looking for God, for who God is, and what God can bring to our lives. And Jesus says “Come and see.”

To the woman at the well who wanted nothing more than for someone to listen, for someone to care, Jesus said, “I care. I will listen and I will forgive you. Follow me and I will give you new life.”

To the man at the pool who had spent his entire life waiting and longing just to stand on his own two feet and walk, Jesus said, “Take up your bed and follow me.”

To so many men and women who are looking for answers, searching for God in the circumstances of their lives, seeking to be healed from the brokenness of life, Jesus says, “Come and see! Follow me.”

And those who followed then, and those who follow now, find life in Him --- life more marvelous and more demanding than any of us ever thought possible. Life full of laughter and love, strength and courage, possibilities and challenges.

So the answer to life’s most basic questions can still be found, as so long ago, in this man from Galilee. Come and see!

love is...

2011-02-14T06:42:00.001-08:00

As I sit and write this it is Valentine’s Day and so my thoughts turn to the meaning of love. On this day most people express their love with a heart shaped box of chocolates or a dozen red roses arranged in a vase, a candlelit dinner for two, and a romantic evening out.

But true love is most ordinarily expressed by picking up your socks and putting them in the hamper, having still warm chocolate chip cookies ready at home (even if they’re slice and bake) the day of the big test, a listening ear, a caring heart, and a kiss at the end of every day whether it’s been romantic or not. True love is shown in what we do every day, day in and day out.

But love cannot stop at home. It is also what we do for others in small and large ways. It is the homemade treat for someone in the nursing home who hasn’t had anything homemade in weeks. It is the care box of valentines sent to troops overseas and the thank you notes to their families here at home. It’s toothpaste and toilet paper for our food bank and a gentle hug for the neighbor who lives alone.

It is the prayer of thank You and the singing of Amazing Grace. It is reading the scripture as the love letter it is meant to be and sitting down for a nice, long chat with the ruler of the universe. It is discovering who we are meant to be and living into that vision.

But most importantly, love is the gift of God’s only Son who came as love itself to teach us what love and grace are all about, the gift of a Son who came to save us, all of us, and who gave His life that we might have life, true life, now and forevermore.

salt of the earth

2011-02-07T05:31:00.000-08:00

I have a confession to make. I love salt. I’m one of those people who will salt things even before I taste them because I just know they aren’t going to be salty enough. As far as I’m concerned salt adds the “pop” to food and my greatest fear is that someday, some doctor will say I have to go on a low salt diet and use one of the salt substitutes out on the market. Now, I have nothing against Mrs. Dash but a salt substitute? Never.

So I totally understand what Jesus is saying when He tells us to be the salt of the world. Christianity is supposed to add the zest to life. It gives it its flavor and “pop”. That’s what people should see when they see us --- people who are getting the very most out of being alive, people that make them say, “I want what they have.” But far too often we have become a “salt substitute” a little bitter with a strange aftertaste --- nothing like the real thing at all.

Maybe we need to get back to what salt actually is, what it actually does. Maybe we need to go to a Christian version of the Salt Institute. Yes, there really is something called the Salt Institute. It’s an association of salt companies dedicated to helping consumers unlock the secrets of salt. Who knew that salt has secrets?

But maybe it does, maybe we have lost the secret of what Christ is calling us to be. So how do we go about being “the salt of the earth?” Easy. We flavor life with love and joy. We bring out the best in ourselves and other people. And the amazing thing to me is that it doesn’t take a lot of salt to make a big difference.

So take your soul off its low salt diet and add the spice of Christ to your life and the lives of those around you.

Blessings Upon You

2011-01-31T06:33:00.000-08:00

This past week I was studying the Beatitudes, Jesus’ list of blessings, when I realized that what God and I meant by a blessing were frequently two entirely different things.

When I say “God bless you” I mean that I want God to give you all the good things in life. I want your life to be filled with laughter and love. I want your dreams to come true. I want God to bless you the way I want you to be blessed. I want you to live a fairy tale life with no problems, no grief, no pain.

But God doesn’t do fairy tales. He does life as it really is. And in real life, people lose the ones they love the most. They lose their jobs. They become desperate.

In real life, people are diagnosed with cancer and dementia. They fight against addictions that threaten to destroy them. They struggle to pay the rent. And God meets them --- and us --- there in our real lives.

The Beatitudes remind us that being blessed by God does not mean we should expect life to always be perfect. It does not mean that we will somehow escape all the tragedies that happen to other people just because we are people of faith. As Ecclesiastes reminds us, “The rain falls on the just and the unjust.”

But there is in the life of faith what Max Lucado calls “a stubborn joy” --- a joy that refuses to bend in the wind of hard times – a joy that we can hold onto in the face of pain – a joy that lends us a sense of peace that defies our tragedies – a joy that comes “through the back door of our hearts.” It is a joy that no person and no circumstance can take away. It is a joy that is far more than mere happiness.

And so in all the circumstances of life, good and bad, I pray that God will richly bless you.

What does the Lord require?

2011-01-24T07:51:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite verses in the Old Testament comes from the prophet Micah. It is an answer to the question many people have --- how does God want me to live my life? What pleases God most? And the answer is clear.

“What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah, chapter 6 verse 8)

Notice something about this verse. God doesn’t say study justice or talk about justice. He says do justice. So what does justice look like? What must we do? Jesus is clear. Doing justice is very concrete.

We must feed the hungry. Give the thirsty something to drink. Clothe the naked. Take care of the sick. Visit those in prison. But we must not do that simply out of a sense of obligation while still holding the needy in disdain, judging them every step of the way. We must do it out of love.

We must learn to love as God loves and God knows that loving carries with it a cost. It is not an abstract emotion. The words “I love you” mean little if they are not followed up by actual acts of love. When Jesus asks us to love our neighbor as ourselves, He is asking us to hurt with those in pain and work to help them out of that pain not because we ought to but because we want to, because we care.

We must care about the mother whose daughter just died and make sure she knows she is not alone in her pain, and we must do it not just for the week of the funeral but during all the empty weeks that follow. We must work to be certain someone without insurance gets the medicine they desperately need just to stay alive. We must be certain the homeless man sleeping in his car has somewhere warm to go when the temperature is frigid. And we must do this because we care, because they are our mother, our sister, our brother.

And we must not try to do all of this by ourselves. If we do, we will only wear ourselves down. We will be overwhelmed by the hopelessness of the situation. We will become desperate over the need that is all around us and we will be tempted to do nothing instead of something.

We must take the time to walk with God, to sit in the presence of the Lord and be renewed by His power and His love for the task that lies ahead. For while the second great commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves, the first is to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, and strength.

As we continue in our journeys of faith, I pray each of us will grow as the Lord would have us, learning to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.

the kingdom of God is love

2011-01-17T08:55:00.000-08:00

This was the place. This was the time. Jesus had grown from that small babe in Bethlehem into a man, into the Son of God. So He said farewell to Nazareth and to His family. Everything He says and does from this point forward is to show us and teach us what the kingdom of God is like --- and it is like nothing we have ever seen before. It is more than we can ever imagine.

In Jesus Christ we learn that the kingdom of God is found in the heart of God. In Christ we receive heaven’s kiss and come to know heaven’s bliss. In the words of Christ, the teachings of Christ, the acts of Christ, the love of Christ, we see the kingdom of God come near.

Each one of us feels it, knows it, sees it, in a different way – in our own way. For one of the secrets of heaven that Jesus shares with us is that it is a place where each and every one of us is the center of heaven’s heart --- no matter how rich or how poor, how old or how young, how talented or how skilled, each soul is worth heaven’s Son.

For God sent His Son to earth to proclaim the good news, to teach those willing to learn, and to show the way to the Kingdom of God through Him. But we must do more than hear the words, we must be changed by them.

We must turn our lives around. We must choose love. We must choose Christ. We must choose the way of the kingdom of God, for the kingdom of God is not some mystical place in the great by and by. It is here, now, for each and every one of us. We must live it. We must be it. We must share it with others. We must share God’s good kingdom of love.

The fight against evil - thoughts on Arizona shootings

2011-01-10T06:55:00.000-08:00

The news took my breath away and I sat stunned. Twenty people shot, many killed, a congresswoman fighting for her life. And the question from one of the victims hung in the air. “How could someone hate that much?”

How can such evil happen? It is a question that has rung throughout the ages. And I wish I had an easy answer, but I don’t. What I do know is that evil is God’s enemy as well as ours and we are called to destroy the evil that breaks out of the darkness and destroys all that God created good.

We are not called to understand the “how” of evil any more than we are called to understand the “how” of love. We are called to be the soldiers in the battle to destroy the one and become the other.

But that still leaves me with the question of where God is to be found in the midst of such tragedy. I believe God is there holding those who weep. I believe He is in our prayers that give us all a strength greater than our strength alone. I believe God is with us as we say compassionate words and allow the grieving the dignity they deserve. I believe God is in our efforts to make certain this never happens again – that the innocent are never again destroyed. Yet even in the face of that truth we cannot deny that evil is very real. The cross is evidence of that. But the cross is evidence of so much more. For when evil thought it had crucified love and lay waste its power, Love rose from the dead with a power that evil could not even imagine. Love rose from the dead to give life the victory, to give right the victory, to give God the victory. Love rose from the dead to proclaim that our God reigns.

Love rose, Christ rose, not just on that first Easter morning but for every day of our lives. And when Love rose, when Christ rose, He called us to rise up in battle as well --- and to fight a battle we will win.

Yes. Evil is a reality but it is a reality we can destroy and it is a reality that cannot, will not, ultimately destroy us, for nothing, not even the greatest evil that hell can devise can separate us from God. That is our declaration of faith, our battle cry, today and always.

River of Life

2011-01-05T08:10:00.000-08:00

Over the last few weeks I have discovered a new taste treat that I didn’t even know existed. You can now buy water in different flavors like raspberry and black cherry! You can get it fortified with minerals and calcium. You can get it in a sports bottle or by the gallon jug or even delivered straight to your home or office.

These days not even water is water, and yet from the very beginning of time to the very end of time God says His mercy, His grace, flows through our world and our lives like living water, healing streams, that will touch us and make us whole. This river of life is ours today and all days.

So why do our lives frequently feel so arid and barren --- more like desert places than an oasis? Could it be that we have damned up the river or caused it to move underground? Have we interrupted its flow like beavers busily building, trying to control the movement of the streams in our lives -- piling up the mud that is our worry, the sludge that is our pain, the sticks of busyness that we have gnarled and gnawed from the tree of life ---- distorting that river’s original purpose from one of healing to stagnant pools of sin and pain? For you see, this river of life was never meant to be damned up --- its flow interrupted, distorted .

Allow God’s river of love to flow throughout your life. Do not force it underground or your life will become like a barren desert, a hot, wind-swept waste land.

Remember instead that the river of life is there to restore you. Whenever you are worried or sad, the water is there to refresh you, when you become tired and discouraged, the water is there to revive you.

And when the world breaks in and you forget the presence of God that is with us all, stop and say “Wait. Let me be refreshed by the water. Let me take a long cool drink of love. Let me return to the shores of the river of life. “