Where Did the Baby Go?

Where Did the Baby Go?

Luke 2:41-52

If only babies would stay babies…don’t you want to ask that question sometimes?

If only puppies and kittens would never grow up.

Yeah, right.

Do you suppose Christmas is prone to this kind of thinking too?

If is possible that we want to keep Jesus in the Bethlehem manger rather than face the reality of him as a grown up?

I sure do. We say at our house that Christmas is visible in the magic that unfolds when the young ones unwrap their gifts, and we get see the expressions of joy on their faces and the glee in their voices.

In fact we have a young one who is 32 and still brings that kind of moment to our Christmas mornings. We hope she never grows out of that.

And yet…

While celebrating Christmas day will always hold that special flavor, when it comes to honoring the One whose birthday it is, let’s face it…it’s not his birthday that has kept the Christian faith alive; it’s his life, death and resurrection that lay the foundation of our faith tradition.

The history of Christianity isn’t based on a story about his birth; rather it exists in the stories that surround his teaching, preaching and healing, and probably most notably his death and resurrection – the event that got his first followers in no small amount of trouble.

His impact on the world has not had much to do with being born in a barn, really. His impact is about the justice, mercy and grace he brought to life in his life, the way he lived as he interpreted the law and prophets in his time; and, like it or not, his impact is due somewhat to the controversy, the conflict that followed closely behind him. That began if you remember, even as a baby when Herod decided that all Hebrew male children under the age of two should die so that none could threaten to take the throne from his own family line. That’s what is called a stormy beginning.

So I think Luke wastes no time in telling us that to keep him in the manger too long is to miss the whole point of his life.

However holy is the night on which Christ was born, if that’s where our faith begins and ends, we have made that night an idol.

So what does this mean for us?

I think it has something to do with the church being the body of Christ – the incarnation of his life in our time and place.

· Even as God entered into the human condition in Jesus Christ, so can the church put human skin on justice and mercy and grace in society, everywhere we can go, from across the parking lot to across the world.

· Even as the teachers in the Temple taught and listened, interacting with Jesus to shape his wisdom tradition, so can the church be a place that recognizes the importance of learning for all who come to the faith communities for study, for support, for spiritual nurture; the church ought to be the best there is at teaching character and morality – bringing the ethical dimension into every facet of our culture – business, politics, education.

· Even as Joseph and Mary raised their son under the influence of the Temple, so can the church share the responsibility for parenting - not only those who live under our roof at home, but the children of all who happen to worship under this roof. Every time we baptize a child we promise to do that. The churches in our land ought to be the most supportive environments available in our communities for helping parents cope with raising children.

· And even as Jesus taught us to love all people, not merely our friends, so can the church deliver God’s love in the world so that all can know the meaning of grace where it is needed most – in the lives of those who - like us – don’t appear to deserve it.

Where did the baby go? The baby became the embodiment of God’s unconditional love for sinners. And that’s some of us all the time, and all of us some of the time.

Jesus would not have made it in the Cell phone business. He became the savior not because he was savior for friends and family; he became savior because his life was the light of all people.

Where did the baby go? He grew up to be us – the body of Christ in the world today.

After Christmas...It's All About Women!

September 11, 2001

"[Men] never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religous conviction."
-Blaise Pascal

"Every year, lack of adequate health care causes more American deaths than the 9/11 attacks and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq combined."
-Jim Wallis, Sojourners

Worth Considering

One of the blogs I check frequently is written by Dr. Dan Dick, Director of Connectional Ministries for the Wisconsin Conference, United Methodist Church. Any church leaders who would like to grow their church by adding people unlike the people they already have could gain from following the link to his recent posting on Methodeviations. Note - he says that not many of us really want to do this, so beware...Read and learn--

http://doroteos2.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/how-badly-do-we-really-want-it/

God's Great Dream - "S.W.A.B."

S.W.A.B. "Sealed With A Baptism"Ephesians 4:25-5:2
August 9, 2009
On Christian Belonging

Author Ann Weems is reminded of the time she was in Wisconsin leading a worship service at a Conference. Before supper that first night, a man with a southern accent came up to her and asked, Where are you from? When she said, Nashville, he smiled and said, “I knew that.” Who are your people? he asked.Ann recalls that a surge of memories swept over her. She saw faces and names and even smelled some of the sweet aromas associated with home. She had answered the question before: when she went to college in Memphis and when she had married and her name changed. She writes, “I knew what it meant: To whom do you belong? Ann writes. It is an ancient question. It's a means of identification, a claiming of ties. It can instantly open doors or shut them in your face.‘My father is Tom Barr’, Ann replied.His face lit up with a look of recognition. He told the people with him, She's one of us! She's Tom Barr's daughter. They gathered around and led her to their table, talking about people they knew twenty-five years ago in Nashville. ‘We dashed back in time and it felt right, Ann recalled. I belonged. I was accepted. I know who my people are.’” --Ann Weems, Family Faith Stories, (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1985), 18-19.
To whom do you belong? Do you know who your people are?
Today with the baptism of Oliver Kramer, we have a chance to talk about this in a personal way. But it’s a question that every one of us can answer. It’s the question that Paul was addressing when he wrote the letter that we now have in Christian scriptures called the letter to the Ephesians. He was addressing people who if they had formerly had any religion at all it was likely to have been pagan – to use a term that doesn’t sound very nice but in reality was just the religious environment of the day…a less offensive word might be “gentiles”. Whatever…they were people who were persuaded to became Christians because of interaction with Paul, and after seeing the behavior of their friends and neighbors who were followers of what Christians in that day called “the Way”…these people came to the faith from the outside, unlike the first Christians who were no doubt Jewish people living in Jerusalem. The world in which the Ephesians lived was full of religion – lots of gods everywhere to choose from. But when they met Christians they saw something that had been missing – a way of life that was different than any religion the Greek culture around them had to offer. It was rooted in the life and teaching of a Jewish carpenter who was believed by some to be the Son of God, the savior who had been promised for centuries. These Ephesians didn’t have the background of the Jewish faith out of which Jesus came; they were grafted into the family by their own choice to follow him. They were rough around the edges, but they were serious seekers. If you want a contemporary image of these people, think of baptized Hell’s angels. A little rough around the edges, but nevertheless a community of believers who found acceptance in Christ and who were trying to live a different life as a result of it.
So Paul wrote with the purpose in mind to tell them who they were now – who their people were. He wrote to tell them that because of who they were now, they were called to live with new rules.
You might say these people had some “issues” to address, with regard to behavior. When Paul writes to them he comes at them directly: “Go ahead, be angry, but don’t sin; thieves among you – stop stealing; do an honest day’s work and share your surplus with the needy; clean up your language, say things to each other that build people up; be gracious…for heaven’s sake, don’t give the Holy Spirit any grief…you were sealed for the final judgment – marked for it – so protect that seal.” Paul doesn’t mince words.
Today's reading is a sketch of what it looks like to say yes to God. If we claim our identity in Christ, if we know ourselves as members of a body, how can we be at war with one another, outwardly or underneath the surface and behind one another's back? If we belong to one another and to the Body of Christ, how can we, for example, hurt one another with angry words and actions? If God has been generous and forgiving to us, how can we who belong to God be anything but generous and forgiving, anything but kind to one another?
It seems like kindness ought to be the foundation of our behavior toward one another; even Plato, long before the time of early Christianity, said that we should "be kinder than necessary--everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."
Last week I said the central thought of the letter to the Ephesians is that we live in a world filled with discord, disharmony, and disunity. Nation is divided against nation, humankind against humankind, class against class, and within us there is an inner battle between the higher and the lower part of us. In other words, this great letter could have been written yesterday.
Paul believed God’s plan is that all fractures between God and us, and between us and us – all disunity and disharmony – can be resolved in Christ; all people and all nations can become one if we live our lives after the example of Jesus. God’s great dream is that we will all be one, and the way to that end is to be like Christ.
He says “be imitators” of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us…” (5:2)
He was talking about character, a way of living expected if the Christians are to be people who reconcile people to people, and people to God.
John Wesley wrote a sermon called “On Grieving the Holy Spirit” in which he said, "There can be no point of greater importance to [one] who knows that it is the Holy Spirit which leads us into all truth and into all holiness, than to consider with what temper of soul we are to entertain his divine presence; so as not either to drive him from us, or to disappoint him of the gracious ends for which his abode with us is designed; which is not the amusement of our understanding, but the conversion and entire sanctification of our hearts and lives."
That’s the 18th century version. If he were around today I suspect he’d say something like, “For those who are believers and who don’t want to disappoint God, there is nothing more important than character”.
So in this letter Paul writes about rules to live by…tell the truth, don’t steal, speak with grace to one another…
It’s as if bad behavior isn’t just bad manners; bad behavior grieves God because it isn’t becoming of us; we were made for something better – to love as Christ loved us.
It is in Christian baptism that followers of Jesus are marked, and we become "members one of another" (4:25). This means that we live in relationship with others in the family of God, and that means behaving in certain ways.
It’s God’s great dream that we belong to one another in a community of faith....belong to a fellowship that behaves in such a way that God’s great dream for God’s people takes on life in us. It’s about good manners, but more than that; it’s about living as a community of faith.
I want to end with a story from Fred Craddock, the preacher/teacher/writer whose gift of storytelling is legendary. The story has to do with adult baptisms, because that was the tradition of the church where he served at the time. but it’s still a good story and it doesn’t lose any strength because of that detail.
(Craddock Stories, p. 151, “They Call That Church”)
"It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for" (1:7b)." Here is what it means to remember who we are, and to remember whose we are. Here is what it looks like if we say yes to God. Here is what it looks like if we claim our identity in Christ, if we know ourselves as members of a body.

August 3, 2009 | The General Board of Church and Society

Jim Winkler is the General Secretary of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, housed in the United Methodist Building across the street from Capital Hill in Wasthington, D.C. He writes a weekly column called "Word from Winkler" I found this one to be both troubling and hopeful. Those who have ears, let them hear.
August 3, 2009 The General Board of Church and Society

Shared via AddThis

God's Great Dream: the One Thing

“The One Thing”
Ephesians 4:1-16
August 2, 2009

William Barclay says that the central thought of the letter to the Ephesians is that we live in a world filled with discord, disharmony, and disunity. Nation is divided against nation, humankind against humankind, class against class, and within us there is an inner battle between the higher and the lower part of us. (If that doesn’t sound like it was written for us, we’ve been missing something of the human condition in our time)!
Paul believed God’s plan is that all fractures between God and us, and between us and us – all disunity and disharmony – can be resolved in Christ; all people and all nations can become one if we live our lives after the example of Jesus. He is the center around whom all people can be gathered in one. If this is going to happen, it’s the purpose of the church to take this message to all people; to be the instrument in God’s hands to bring unity into the world.
Paul believed that the church’s job was to continue the work of Christ – to be the incarnation of God (we talked about that word a couple weeks ago. It means the Word took human form – became flesh). That’s what God wants us to be: just like Jesus – to show people how much God loves us. To do this, Paul wrote and preached about the character of the Christian that is necessary if the Church is to fulfill this great mission – to be Christ’s instrument reconciling people to people to people, and people to God. Ephesians is an instruction book on how to live Christ-like lives, so that the world may be one. Like Jesus, we the Church are here to open our arms and hearts and reach out to all people. Do you know the tag line used by the United Methodist Church in our evangelistic effort for the past five years? “Open hearts, open minds, open doors…the people of the Methodist Church.”

It’s God’s great dream – that all creation might be reconciled with God in Christ, “that we would be one”.
Think of a circle, whose center is Christ. The closer we get to the center the less room there is for disunity and fragmentation.
Paul actually introduces this idea in the first chapter of his letter, in verse 10 – God’s great dream is to “gather up all things in him (Christ), things in heaven and things on earth.”

The Message puts it like this:

“He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.” (v. 10).

God’s great dream of all being one in Christ is a vision of what could be – it doesn’t exist yet; it’s still out there in front of us, but because it is God’s plan, Paul believed nothing could stop it.
In Christ, one day there will be one community – one faith community that would put aside all labels.
One community means that we’ll see past these human definitions to an identity that makes us all members of one inclusive family.
If it is up to us to become one, forget it. We are not good enough, smart enough, creative enough, kind or gentle enough, generous enough, faithful enough…you name it. We don’t have what it takes to do this on our own. But here it is: God can use us anyway. That’s the miracle.
The good news is about God. It’s God who works graciously this miracle of unity through Christ, to gather us all together.
This is a remarkable message: the idea that God would do something for us before we even ask; before we would even think of asking; before we might even realize our need for it.
God does what we cannot do – what we would never dream of doing – God brings unity where there is none.
If we humanoids wish to resemble the perfect love of God in the world, then we will accept this identity: One body brought together by the unity of Christ.

This is pretty heavy theological stuff; maybe an illustration will help bring it down to earth.
Robert Fulghum – you remember that name? He is a writer and a teller of tales. You may know his book: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. I’ve told you this one before – good chance for those who have heard it to catch a few winks…
One of the essays in his book is about an experience that casts this vision – pictures this dream we’ve been talking about.
Every year Fulghum spends a week in Weiser, Idaho; a little tiny place. And when I say tiny…I mean hard to find on a map. 4000 people live there. Little happens in that town except once a year when it swells to 5000 and becomes the home of the Grand National Old-Time Fiddlers’ Contest.
On the last week in June, people descend on that little village. Fiddlers come from Pottsboro, Texas; Sapulpa, Oklahoma; Caldwell, Kansas; and some people come from as far away as Japan. They come to play, and sing, and have a good time.

Years ago, fiddlers were pretty straight, traditional country folk. The men had short hair, the women stayed home and cooked, and everybody went to church on Sunday. But through the years the Fiddlers’ Convention has changed. Longer hair began to show up -- on men. People with tattoos and leather jackets arrived on motorcycles.
He says all this to say: some of these people were wonderful fiddlers.
Fulghum asked one of the old-timers what he thought about the new crowd joining them.
The old man said, “I don’t care who they are or how they look. They can have a bone in their nose as far as I’m concerned. It don’t matter. If you can fiddle, you’re all right with me.
It’s the music that counts.” Good answer.
Fulgum said that out there under the stars, with a thousand people picking, singing, and fiddling together, he looked out on young and old, hippies and straights, people of all races. He said it was such a moving sight he came back year after year. One day he played his banjo next to a Weiser policeman. As they picked, the old policeman winked at him and said, “You know, sometimes the world seems like a mighty fine place.”

Boom! That’s what Paul wanted the Ephesians and us to know! He wanted them – and he wants us to see that in the middle of a fractured and divided world, there could be a unity where all could live with very real differences; where all people can find a place of safety and wholeness. “If you are in Christ, then you’re alright with me”, Paul might have said.

Like the fiddler policeman in Weiser, Idaho, to Paul the world would be a mighty fine place if all people could learn to make music together. He believed the church is the place for this to start. It made no difference to Paul who they were or how they looked. Everything comes together in Christ.

They must have liked what they heard in Paul’s letter too, because the young churches were so taken by this vision that it became part of the liturgy of the early church…the words of Ephesians made their way into the prayers, the songs, and the sermons.
I think there is a vision for any Christian in this hymn…the vision where we are all gathered into one in Christ. It takes some maturity, for sure…for people to resemble the nature of Christ.
What does this all mean for you and me?
The call to Christian living is a call to unity of the fellowship of believers in God’s love. What this means is that the togetherness is not about us and our ability to feel cozy with each other. The unity is possible because God is one; it is God’s love for all that unites us, not our ability to overcome differences. We aren’t used to thinking like this, I know. So much of life depends on what we do to make it happen, or so we think. Paul is suggesting that we don’t create unity; God does. What a relief!
Something happened this week that I’ve been dying to tell you about.
Out of the blue one day this week I received an email. It came from someone who went to our web site and used the “contact us” form that is there. (Did you know we have a “contact us” feature on our web site? Did you know we have a web site?)
The email said, “Hello. My name is Nick Mathis. I’m the song leader at Wyoming Park Bible Fellowship. I’ve been here 18 months and haven’t taken the time to introduce myself. I was wondering if we might get together so I could meet you and offer you encouragement in the faith.”
That was it.
You know it’s nice to get an email once in a while from somebody who wants to support you instead of sell you something or worse, take a piece of you.
I looked at my schedule and wrote him back. I said “Sure, I’d be glad to meet you. And by the way, I haven’t taken the time to meet you either, so we are about even. That’s a good place to start.”
To make a long story short, we set it up, and Friday afternoon Nick came over and after a quick tour of our building we sat in my office for about an hour, getting to know each other; sharing information about our families and our churches. And before we ended our conversation, we were ssaying --- what if we try to do something together? I wonder if we could pull it off?
I don’t know if anything will come of it or not. There are those doggone barriers we set up for ourselves like differences in doctrine. But when you get down to it, those are human inventions and have nothing to do with God’s dream that we would be one. He loves Jesus; I love Jesus. Our churches are both pulling for the children and young people in this community. There isn’t much more to it than that.
The time we spent chatting was the most fruitful conversation I’ve had with another church leader in a long time – including those conversations I routinely have with other United Methodists.
When we found out that we both worship at 9:30 am, he said, “I know this is a crazy idea, but some Sunday one of us should put a sign on our door and say worship is across the street today.”
No warning. Just put up a sign on the door. You see what God does when people decide to get to know each other?
Would you risk crossing the street if it meant you might build a bridge with other Christians?
Scary, huh?
But why not?
This is really nothing compared to Paul’s time. What is more crazy than Paul writing to Christians, Jews, Gentiles, slaves, free, men, women, Greeks, Romans --- whoever –- and telling them they are all one in Christ?
You think we have barriers to cross? What about the faithful of the first century?
It’s a stretch; but if Christians don’t start building bridges with each other, to use Martin Luther King’s phrase, “we are going either hang together, or hang separately.”
Making disciples isn’t about converting people into copies of us. It’s about God’s great dream – more people who name Jesus as Lord, gathered into one.
After all, if they love Jesus, they’re all right with me. It’s the music we make that counts.”

"God's Great Dream"

The unity that exists in Jesus Christ is the subject of the letter to the Ephesians. In August at Wyoming Park we'll be looking at this unity from two perspectives - individuals and the faith community. It is God's great dream that all creation will be one. Come and see just how...

Our August Series...

August 2
Ephesians 4:1-16 “The One Thing”

August 9
Ephesians 4:25-52 “S.W.A.B.” (aren't you curious?)

August 16
Ephesians 5:15-20 “A Word to The Wise”

August 23
Mark 1:16-22 “A Fishing Story” (Rev. David Bell, preaching)

August 30
Ephesians 6:10-20 “Suit Up”

Rethink Church quote

"We must realize that slight tweaks, new music, creative lighting, wearing hula shirts, shorts, and flip-flops won't make doing church more attractive.  Church must not be the goal of the gospel anymore. Church should not be the focus of our efforts or the banner we hold up to explain what we are about.  Church should be what ends up happening as a natural response to people wanting to follow us, be with us, and be like us as we are following the way of Christ."

"The Tangible Kingdom" by Hugh Halter and Matt Snay

A Home for God
Message Preached at Wyoming Park UMC
2 Samuel 7:1-14a
July 19, 2009
In July we are talking about the theme of traveling; it’s a kind of summer-time theme, assuming that vacations happen in summer, and some day the economy will turn around and normal people will once again enjoy some of the wonderful opportunities for travel in our own state and elsewhere.
What we’ve been trying to say is this series of messages, is that even when things are tough all around, we have a God who provides everything we need. We dare not forget that God provides.
So we come to this story in 2 Samuel.
King David had moved the Ark of the Covenant to his city, Jerusalem, and he has now settled into his residence, which even by ancient standards was no doubt a luxurious palace. It was made of cedar, and that wasn’t easy to get around there. You had to go to Lebanon for it, and employ craftsmen from Tyre to build a house like that.
So he is resting after his victories, getting settled into his nice house. And being a very pious King, David begins to think pious thoughts. You might even say he is feeling a bit of pious anxiety, living in a stately house while the Ark lies neglected in a tent: “Here I am living in this fine house of cedar, and there is the Ark of the Covenant, our symbol of God with us, resting in a tent. It’s just not right.
On the one hand this is a good thought. It has the mark of a genuine gift from a thankful king for the good fortune he believes God brought him. David is feeling secure in his power, feeling thankful and pious about the good things that he is experiencing; he has been blessed, and so he wants to give something to God.
So David tells his prophet friend Nathan what he wants to do for God: he wants to build God a house to live in. Nathan answers spontaneously in agreement: “Yea, good idea; go for it king.”
But…you gotta love the scriptures. One simple phrase turns a whole story upside down. “But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan…”
God speaks to Nathan, and says “Tell David ‘thanks, tell but no thanks’. I have been with you ever since you left Egypt, moving about in a tent; I never asked for anything more than that. Didn’t need it then, don’t need it now.”
Moreover, I’m going to build you a house. Your name and your sons’ name will be on the throne of Israel forever.
Two things and then I go to camp: (I know, it’s usually three things, but I’m anxious to get to camp).
1. We can’t improve on God’s provisions. If this sounds slightly familiar, it should. It is exactly the problem that God had with Adam and Eve in creation. Do you remember? God explained they had everything they needed, but they didn’t trust that, and tried the forbidden fruit from the one tree God had told them to avoid. They couldn’t leave well enough alone.
Human beings have been trying to improve on God’s provisions since the very beginning, and it doesn’t ever work out.
2. We can’t locate God according to our needs. Building a house for God was David’s agenda, not God’s.
Once we fix a location for worshipping God, we can get lulled into believing that the space within the walls is God’s real, maybe God’s sole stomping grounds.
God will not be limited to a fixed location. When we impose restrictions on God’s freedom of movement, we leave ourselves vulnerable to a form of idolatry: We worship something we created, instead of worshipping the creator.
And it’s not just in buildings where we are tempted to confine God.
Sometimes we confine God to heaven. Most of us have had at one time or another, an image of God sitting on a throne in heaven, ruling from on high.
God is somewhere “out there” beyond the clouds, as if on some lofty perch, away from us, watching our comings and goings in a detached sort of way with a telescope. That idea doesn’t feel very comforting to me.
Or maybe we coop God up in our churches, “sacred barracks” as someone has said. Once inside our doors, you really find God, Buildings mean furniture, and furniture means symbols, and symbols – if we are not careful – become the essence of God. While the furniture and the decorations and the physical appointments we add to church buildings are important reminders of God, they are still only reminders. They are to be valued, but not worshipped.
Reminds me of the story a friend of mine tells – he’s a Lutheran pastor in a fairly “high church” setting – very formal liturgy…and once he was conducting a tour of the sanctuary with a pre-school Sunday school class. One of the tykes had made himself this pastor’s assistant, and clung to his side all the while they walked from place to place, noting the pews, the windows, the baptismal, the pulpit.
The altar in this church was a large, formidable solid piece of wood, massive in weight and size. When they got to the altar my friend was about to explain the purpose of it, and this self-appointed assistant piped up, “I know what that is. That’s the box where you keep Jesus.”
No doubt the pastor’s turning to and from the altar as he prayed had planted this idea into the mind of this young-un.
Or maybe we are prone to localize God to our own land, slipping into a habit of thinking that God is our way of life, our national destiny. Without even meaning to, we can come to believe that it is only here, on this plot of earth, that the Almighty pitches tent, within the boundaries of “this nation under God.” It’s not a huge leap from that, to concluding that we are God’s favored children.
God is found in moments of worship in our churches, and in our other sacred private places, and in searching the Holy Scriptures, in choir songs, and hymns ancient and new, in gatherings like this, or in a small and simple gathering with old friends.
But here’s the thing – God keeps surprising us over and over again, by stepping into your life and mine, even when we least expect it.
This brings us back to David, who wanted to build a house for God. He had good intentions; he was grateful for what God had done for him.
But God said to Nathan, “tell David thanks but no thanks.”
Instead God preferred, and I believe still prefers another kind of house – mysteriously – still the house of David. But a spiritual one – a dynasty kind of house.
This is the house of David that you and I belong to as we trace our spiritual roots back through someone who introduced us to God in Jesus Christ; back through the one who introduced that one, who introduced that one, and so on…all the way back to a young woman who lived in Nazareth, engaged to her beloved, and who like Nathan the prophet, received a message from God; a message regarding the place where God wanted to make his home – Mary’s heart.
And so it is – no box, no place however well-intentioned and beautiful, is able to limit God’s freedom of movement.
And that means that we had better be ready to have God appear right under our noses, lest we miss the chance of a lifetime to see God face to face.
One of the reasons I go to camp every year is because I have learned that God shows up there in a big way. Others have learned that a week living in Christian community is an opportunity for God in Christ to go to work in people. True – it takes place in a particular spot: Lake Michigan Camp near Pentwater, Wesley Woods near Battle Creek, Crystal Springs near Dowagiac, Lakeview Camp near – Lakeview; Albright Camp near Reed City, Lake Louise near Boyne Falls, and even Duncan Lake Middle School in Caledonia. (Who says God isn’t alive in public schools?)
But when all is said and done, the camp location isn’t the main thing. The campground or school building is the tent where the people of God live for a week or so; and it’s the community of faith that reveals the living God; it’s the people where the resurrected Christ finds a home.
It’s the family of God, even the family gathered here at Wyoming Park Sunday after Sunday – this is the house that God has built for us.

The Elders

I subscribe to a weekly email called "Sightings" written by Dr. Martin Marty, church historian, Lutheran clergyman, seminary professor, (retired from all) and prolific commentator on not only history but all things contemporary. This mailing connected me with a relatively new (2007) organization I wanted to share.
In my opinion one U.S. President in my lifetime stands out as an example of the kind of character our country should look for in every presidential election. Jimmy Carter. (Too soon for a Barack Obama rating).
The organization called "The Elders" is one more example of his passion for justice and why he has had more influence on world events since his days as President than he was able to accomplish in a fickle episode of American history.
Anyway - this is not an op-ed piece, but just a note to tell you about The Elders. Anyone interested in peace and justice will appreciate it.
Hope you find this helpful.
Peace,
Bill

http://wallwritings.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/carter-and-the-elders-challenge-injustice-wherever-we-see-it/


References:

Read Jim Wall on the Elders: http://wallwritings.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/carter-and-the-elders-challenge-injustice-wherever-we-see-it/

Read Jimmy Carter in The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/12/jimmy-carter-womens-rights-equality.

Visit the Elders website: http://www.theelders.org/elders

United Methodist Beliefs

I know, the subject sounds as dry as dust, but being a United Methodist is anything but that! We started a class last Sunday at 11:00am that I hope will interest you. Faith may be simple, but beliefs are not an easy matter. United Methodists share many foundation stones with other Christians, but we also have some uniqueness. I want to discover both sides of this coin with a group of people over several weeks beginning this summer and who knows what after that? Last week we listed topics that members of the class would like to address, and that's where we're beginning.

The class is in the sanctuary so we can take advantage of the internet and large screen to explore online at times. (I was challenged last Sunday, but will have that fixed this week). We'll also have handouts for those who want to take information home.

Last Sunday we discussed "What we know" and "What we want to know" and I've attached the notes taken (thanks to Lisa Gallagher and June Harrington) so you can see the whole landscape of ideas that emerged. We decided to begin with "Core UM beliefs" and branch out from there. I'm sure we will visit both sides of the center line on this page (sometimes what we think we know isn't really what we know, and sometimes we know more than we know we know)!

Also - for those who may want to know - I am looking for two teachers for young children during this hour as well - not a nursery but a real Sunday School class for children in the first three years of life. There is an old proverb that says "when the student is ready, the teacher appears." After watching Simon Kramer last Sunday during our class, I am convinced at least one student is ready! I have curriculum ready to go, and as soon as God calls teachers and they answer, we'll offer the class, which I would like to title "I.T.T." (infants, toddlers, and two's - or "itsy-bitsies, teethers and talkers"). Until we have teachers they will be invited to play in the sanctuary, hopefully with all of us taking a turn with caring for them. Simon already knows this church is for him, and I want every child to know what he knows.

Those with children in this range will also want to know that we have freed up some memorial funds to purchase a portable air conditioner for the nursery so children and the adults who care for them can be as comfortable as the rest of us. It's only right. This has been a long time coming and although it will only be a portable unit, we expect that it will do wonders on hot sticky days ahead.

Back to adults -- Our spiritual health is as crucial as our emotional and physical health. And we deserve more than dusty old faith that someone else told us about. We need to forge our own way in the wilderness that contemporary life is most of the time these days. United Methodism, I am proud to say, can be a guidepost. I make no apology. I take issue with the common wisdom that says "it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you believe...or...we all have the same God." Not really; you and I know people who worship gods that in the end don't do much for us. I think it matters a great deal what we believe. In fact, our lives and the lives of our children depend on it.

That's it for now. If you will give this a try - once or all summer long - you will find there are others on the journey with you, and instead of dust you may find a cool refreshing stream to help you along the way. It may be just an oasis for a while or it may be the place where your faith rests from now on. You can decide.

One more thing. Some of you have been looking for a church home. Wyoming Park isn't everything to everybody, but we offer the best we have - a relationship with a God who is visible in others, encourages and loves children as an extended family, and provides a place for everyone to find his or her gifts that God needs. You wouldn't have the gifts if that wasn't so.

Come, just stop in or settle inside the park. We're all going somewhere.
Grace and peace,
Bill J.
P.S. Been to our web page recently?

Memories, like the corners of our mind...

Thursday, April 23 I visited the building where I attended high school. The Grand Rapids Public Schools had sold the property to the Grand Rapids Christian Schools, and the new owners determined they would dismantle the historic structure in favor of a more cost-effective approach - to build a new building on the present site.

I hadn't been to the former Ottawa Hills since 1985 when I helped prepare a slide show for our ____ class reunion (guess which number fits in here). So April 23 as I drove to the school, still several blocks away, I was moved to see how many cars and people had come out to say good bye and pay tribute to the place we once called "The Big House" (check the corner towers this freshman referred to as "guard towers" back in the day). I'm not big on that analogy, so I won't take that illustration any further...what did I know at age 14?

I parked three blocks away, and as I walked toward the school I was aware of a kind of heaviness washing over me. I wasn't ready for my reaction to the tour on Thursday. How does it happen that we feel an attachment to buildings that, when we were using them day-to-day, were merely the space where we went for what we did at that stage in life? Men in old varsity sweaters and young families with children swarmed around the two city blocks at Alexander and Iroquois. All of them sensed there was something here more than bricks. What was the meaning of that baseball-sized lump in my throat, while standing in the old corridors, gazing at a dusty gym floor, looking out through the third floor classroom windows where the Legend Year Book staff gathered once a week. I wanted desperately to open locker #119, but figured people would think I was nuts. Oh man, did I remove those pictures...?

What is it about "place" that is at the very core of us? The biblical story-tellers know. Our ancestors understood that an experience was worth marking with some symbol, most often a pile of rocks. God had been there, and you are supposed to remember where you find God.
You never know when you may want or more likely - need - to go back for a visit, or tell your children a story and want to show them for their own eyes to see. Even the Bible is a symbol, a collection of memories whether poetic or chronicled, telling the story of God's relationship with humankind. It's a spiritual book. It's where God can be found.

In January 1979 the First United Methodist Church of Holland burned to the ground. On the sidewalk in front of the rubble that used to be the building, an old saint and former pastor of the church , John Hagans, stood with then Senior Pastor John Francis and I. In his 90s, the good Reverend Hagans had been driven from his home in Allegan, to pay tribute to his former church. I'll never forget his words: "You know, that wasn't the church...the church is still here. That was a building; the church is the people." Yes, the church is people; and the old school was the people who taught us, who sat in class, crafted the year book, broke their bones and bore bruises, cheered and cried with us. But...

A Holland church member stopped by later that same day, and looking at a door frame left standing in the corner of the sanctuary, he said, "That's the last door I walked through as a single man." The words spoke volumes.

So where is the truth? No doubt it is somewhere among the great mysteries. People are more than places. And places are more than rocks, brick, mortar, steel and glass. Places are spiritual symbols that are part of who we are. Without them we are less than animals. With them we connect with the highest reaches of humanity, something just short of God-like-ness.

A part of me crumbles when the wrecking ball swings. And a part of me lives in the memories of relationships honed in that place once called "The Big House". Life is like that. We are body, mind and spirit. I didn't know at the time exactly how big that house was.

Pulpit Preview

Rethinking Church

A new media campaign of the United Methodist Church is designed to promote the idea that there is a rich mission field at our doorstep, if we will only rethink the way we "do" church. To get a glimpse of this campaign, you can check out http://www.10thousanddoors.com/.

Have you ever wondered why God would create the Church? On Sunday mornings in May I'll be looking at what the Christian tradition calls the Body of Christ. Using passages from John's gospel, I'll begin with what Jesus says about himself, and try to unpack the purpose of the church using his wonderful images in John 15, "the good shepherd", "the true vine", "friend", and then round it out with Jesus' prayer for his followers in John 17.

Join me in thinking through this idea, or, as I've called the series, "Rethinking Church" . I'd love to see you!

Great Ride

Congratulations to coach Donnie Tyndall and the Morehead State Eagles for a noteworthy season, making it to the NCAA tournament as Ohio Valley Conference champs. Seated 16, they were paired with the no. 1 Louisville Cardinals in the first round of the Mid-west bracket. Tough break! Nevertheless, Donnie and his team finished a fine season, his third as head coach at MSU. The future is bright, and if you ask me (which nobody has) this won't be Don's last trip to the big dance.

Way to go Don!

One of the joys of reaching "maturity" is you get to see younger generations grow into adulthood. Don Tyndall was one of the "youth" whose path crossed mine while pastor at Aldersgate UMC in Grand Rapids. He was a standout at Northview HS and at Morehead State. He is now head coach at Morehead and the link with this posting shows his latest accomplishment - winning the Ohio Valley Conference championship. They are "Going Dancing" ! What a thrill for his family and this geezer.
Check it out! http://www.flickr.com/photos/msu1887/sets/72157615022534606/show/

Lent, Temptation and Turtles

I saw this on CBS News: An Alligator Snapping Turtle that lives to be over one hundred years old, and can weigh up to 150 pounds. Compared to other sea creatures, it isn't the fastest thing in the water. You might wonder how anything this bulky could get enough food to keep it alive. After all, seaweed is only a snack for a 150 lb. turtle. The secret is its deceptively small tongue. Yup. I said tongue. I said deceptively small. Apparently to get food, Sammy or Sally Snapper opens its mouth and sticks out its tongue, which is small compared to the turtle's size, but long and very narrow like a worm. Unsuspecting fish looking for dinner head for the bait, and wham! Turtle food.
The thing about temptation is its deception. You think you're headed for a good nutritious meal and what you get is junk food. Feeling smart and quick, we can turn into sushi faster than you can say snapping turtle.
Nobody gets fooled by evil in a red suit with horns, a tail and a pitchfork. We can see it a mile away and run for cover. As Adam and Eve tried to teach us, evil is more likely to tempt us with flattery and cool talk. The fact that God said "Don't" wasn't enough for our first parents nor is it for us.
So, the lesson in every season (as Lent reminds us) is watch out for the scrumptous-looking worm. Things are not always as they appear.

Do you know the name Jim Wallis, of Sojourner's? He rings my bell with regularity through his Sojomail articles (sojomail.com). His recent article comments on the president's address before a joint sesssion of Congress on Tuesday night. For the record, Wallis (God's Politics) goes head-on with republicans and democrats with equal fervor. But when there is praise to give, he is right to give it. I recommend this piece.
http://blog.sojo.net/2009/02/25/obamas-call-to-rebuild/

Of Geezers and Geeks

I just learned that there is a book for people like me - born a generation too early for geekhood, and too young (I contend) to be a geezer. Anyway, it's got a title that has something about Geezers and Geeks. I don't really think of myself as either one, though some of my young friends are certain the former fits. Whatever.

At any rate, until the day I die I vow to believe that old dogs do in fact learn new tricks when the arthritis and unchanging ways don't hinder us. Didn't Grandma Moses paint Whistler's Mother at 80-something? I rest my case.

I'm going to need a lot of help with this, so share the blog if you think it's worth it. I'm counting on my friends to lead me into this century, and those who are not my friends, well, what are you doing in my address book anyway?

Here are some pictures of God's grace in my life. One stands for an early passion that won't let go of me, and the other two pics are the people I won't let go of. I think I'll also post sermons (or maybe summaries) for those interested in seeing what I say from the pulpit to the good people at Wyoming Park United Methodist Church. I hope the messages help, but if not, you will at least gain appreciation for the long-suffering and tolerance of this humble faith community who keep showing up for reasons that have more to do with their faith than the preaching. What can I say? Hope springs eternal at 2244 Porter St. SW, Wyoming. And that's no lie.

I have always enjoyed writing, and ever since Konrad Zuse built the first computer it's gotten so easy that one would be a fool not to give it a whirl. Besides, I wake up in the morning wanting to write and they say that's what matters. Until now I've let schedules and to-do lists order me around, but no more. I am, therefore I blog.

I expect this will take a while to get in the groove. All good things do. But one has to begin somewhere. There's a great line in the film Finding Forrester, when the recluse author William is coaching his young prodigy. Jamal is having trouble getting started, so the impatient mentor shouts at him, "Just pound the keys!" If this is just so much drivel, just remember I'm only pounding keys. Anyway, nobody is forcing you to keep reading, so for heaven's sake move on. You've got a list of blogs and facebook friends to check in on. So I hate to put it this way, but even mild-mannered pseudo-geezers at some point learn to be blunt: It's not about you anyway. I'm writing selfishly for me.

For those who may happen to drop in...your posts will spur me on. And who knows, you may even find that you inspire something for the blog. In the words of a geezer, that would be, well, neat.
bj