New Call

I start a new call/ job tomorrow. I will be what we in my tribe The Evengelical Church in America(ELCA) call, "an Intentional Interim pastor." What that means is, I will be helping a congregation through an intentional transition process towards calling a new perminate pastor. This process typically runs about 18 months in duration, but can be as early as a year and as long as 2 years or more. Alot depends on the circumstances of why the congregation is without its pastor.

I am coming into this congregation whose pastor has recently retired after 25 years of service. So... for them the interim period will mainly focus on how to transition to a different way of experiencing ministry. For some, it will mean how do I move on from the only pastor I've ever known. This will be the biggest challenge for the congregation.

For me... personally... I am thankful and grateful to have any position. This call/ job is a 3/4 time call... meaning I will be on the job, in a manner of speaking, 3-1/2 days + Sunday. Of course this will vary... pastors never really have so called set hours, after-all it is a 24-7 job in many respects.

Many of you know that I have been without a perminate call since last July. Many of you know my severance ran out in January. Many of you know that I've had to use retirement resources to get by. So... I'm grateful this opportunity comes along and provides adequete income and benifits. While it's not what I would like nor hoped for... it is a job.... God does provide! AMEN

More to follow as I reflect on the journey to what God is calling me to be about.

See You Out on the Road


















  

DUST..... A Reflection on Lent

I do not like Lent.

I do not like being a Jesus follower in Lent.

I do not like it because Jesus confronts me in Lent.

The stories of Lent just deepen my dislike for Lent.

The stories of Lent point, to how negligent I am as a human being…. A man nothing more, nothing less.

The stories of Lent, Jesus cuts to the chase and gets in my face.

When you get down to it… the stories of Lent really show my dust… my dirt… my true self.

Rms 7:15, Paul says,

 “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not, but I do what I hate.”

Lent shows our dirt…

Lent is an opportunity to wash the dirt and dust off.

Lent is an opportunity to look at ourselves and make changes.

Lent is a time to re- remember that we are finite and human.

“From dust we were created, and to dust we will return.”

Lent is an opportunity to remember the cross of ash on our foreheads as an opportunity to remember God’s love for us through God’s son Jesus.

What about you… How does Jesus encounter you in Lent?

We can see the speck in others, but all to often, we neglect to see it in us.

How does Jesus encounter you in Lent?

Even though we are created from dirt and will return to dirt,

God made a way for us to be loved by the cross of Christ… Forever.

Completely Changed

Sunday Sermon Feb 19, 2012

Mark 9:2-9

In my last call I served at a church named Transfiguration Lutheran Church. And at my very first council meeting after our opening devotion one member of the council asked me point blank; “What do you think about the name of our church?” Feeling a bit taken back, and not wanting to touch that question with a 10 foot pole, I turned the question around and asked back, “What do you think about it?” He responded by saying, “I think it sucks… What does it really say? And what does it really mean?”

So… today is Transfiguration Sunday… What does the word Transfiguration really mean? Simply it means, “To Be Changed.”

The Greek word used in this passage “Meta-Noi-A” meaning “Make a Change or Turn Back.” It’s a familiar word to us, or at least it should be because it’s used countless times in the New Testament and some 20 times in various ways in Mark’s Gospel.

A couple of examples in Mark Chapter 1:4… John the Baptist saying, “Turn Back or Repent”

And Jesus saying in Vs 14, “Turn Back or Repent”

It seems Mark is big on the word “Change” as he uses the term many times. Perhaps “Change or Meta-noi-a” was the Good News message from Jesus Mark intended to write about.

For many in the world and in the Church change is difficult. Perhaps, it’s because we prefer the familiar… sameness… being comfortable… and stability. In fact, our current bishop rallied the synod around the word “Stability" at our last synod convention. There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of these words, but the images we see in our reading speak to something most radically different.

Our story today says Jesus is completely changed… into what I’m not sure, but Peter, James and John saw Jesus in a different light and in a different way. They experienced something radically different than they had previously experienced with Jesus before. In many ways… they were changed themselves. And like many of us who experience mountain top experiences we desire to keep the experience going by whatever means. Peter makes the suggestion, “Hey let’s just stay up here”… let’s build some shelters and it will be great. The word used here is translated as “Dwelling or Shelter. However, the word could also be translated as “Tabernacle” or “Place of Worship” one could even make the connection to that of “Church”…. Let’s build a church here!!!

Do you see what Peter, James and John are thinking here? Peter is thinking, let’s stay here and worship God on the mountain. We can experience the Glory of God all the time…. No worries… no concerns… life will be comfortable and stabile.

However, what happens? Jesus says, “Time to go back down”… my emphasis. A bit later in the story he says he must suffer and die. In essence…Jesus is saying, we can’t stay, we must go back into the arm-pit of the world. Where there is little comfort, not much stability, chaos and death.

So… part of our faith journey is about the amazing and awesomeness of the Glory of God. But the Cross looms large as well. Suffering and Death are part of the story as well. You see… I believe you can’t have one without the other. You can’t experience the Glory of God without first experiencing the Cross and experiencing the Cross is the “Mets-Noi-A” to experiencing God’s Glory.

Which brings us back to Transfiguration… or Change with the question… how can you be changed? How can the church be changed?

There’s a story of a wise, old Middle Eastern mystic who said this about himself. "I was a revolutionary when I was young, and all my prayer to God was: 'Lord, give me the energy to change the world.' As I approached middle age and realized that my life was half gone without my changing a single soul, I changed my prayer to: 'Lord, give me the grace to change all those who come into contact with me. Just my family and friends and I shall be satisfied.' Now that I am an old man and my days are numbered, I have begun to see how foolish I have been. My one prayer now is: 'Lord, give me the grace to change myself.' If I had prayed this right from the start, I would not have wasted my life."

--As quoted in Paul J. Wharton, Stories and Parables for Preachers and Teachers (Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1986), 31.

What kind of Metamorphous would need to take place in our lives in order to change yourself?

More to the point… could we in the church be transfigured/changed enough so that the full glory of God inside of us could be revealed to those seeking change in their lives.

Perhaps, if we viewed change like the sagged mystic we too could change the world.

See You Out on the Road

Death

Today I presided at a funeral. I didn't know this person, but like many funerals I preside at and especially those which I don't know the people, they become joyous encounters of inspiring spirit. Today was no exception. There were humouring stories of a person who enjoyed life. There was one story where the son-in-law shared a custom of his mother making him a special birthday meal of Hawaiian Spam. His mother-in-law (she was the person who died) carried on the tradition after his mother died. Death seems to bring out humor amongst the grief and sadness.

There was nothing sensational about this funeral. About a hundred people came to share and celebrate the life of an amazing person. Quite the opposite of this death is the death of Whitney Houston. Like many famous and infamous celebrities the media coverage is adnausium to say the least. It will be news for a number of weeks as the world waits to discover how Houston really died.

But, what about death in and of its self?

4 WORDS

Sermon from Sunday

Feb. 12, 2012…. Mark 1:4-45

How did you make out last week with connecting people with care needs with people who needed callings?

What did you discover?

My prayer is that you continue to look for ways to connect people who need a calling with those who are in need of care.

Prayer

We are finally finishing the 1^st chapter of Mark today. Did you know more than half of the chapter is been devoted to Jesus healing people. From the demon possessed man to Peter’s mother-in-law, to countless others, and now a man with leprosy. Ironically, it’s not over… Jesus healing people… even though has said in Vs 38, “That he must go to other towns to tell (Preach) the good news.” And, if you look ahead in your bibles, you will see that chapter 2 and 3 begin with stories of… you guessed it… healing. The healing aspect of Jesus’ ministry is far from over.

So… as we finish the 1^st chapter of Mark, our story today and the first chapter of Mark can be summed up with “4 Words”.

I’m going to read the story again, you can follow along, and I would like to invite you to jot down 4 words that come to mind that describe Jesus. There is not a right/wrong exercise, but a way to help summarize our last story in this chapter to better understand what Jesus is really up to.

READ STORY>>>>  A man with leprosy came to Jesus and knelt down. He begged, "You have the power to make me well, if only you wanted to." Jesus felt sorry for the man. So he put his hand on him and said, "I want to! Now you are well." At once the man's leprosy disappeared, and he was well. After Jesus strictly warned the man, he sent him on his way. He said, "Don't tell anyone about this. Just go and show the priest that you are well. Then take a gift to the temple as Moses commanded, and everyone will know that you have been healed."  The man talked about it so much and told so many people, that Jesus could no longer go openly into a town. He had to stay away from the towns, but people still came to him from everywhere. 

I’d be interested in hearing some of your words…

I’ve come up with four words I believe describes Jesus and have the capacity to even transform our lives today….

They are…

#1. “Compassion”

Mark doesn’t often relate Jesus’ emotional state, be he does in this story. We often fail to understand the mood and tone of Jesus’ words because of the language difference between the English and Greek. But when the leper approaches Jesus, Jesus is immediately moved to compassion. The Contemporary English Version (CEV) translation that I have says, “Jesus felt sorry for him” New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) states, “Moved with pity”. If you notice… Jesus is not saying what you might expect from an observant Jew. The Jew might say, “What are you doing? Don’t touch me.” Or “Get away from me, I can’t touch you.” Or perhaps something we might say,, “Get up from the ground you idiot, your embarrassing me.” Jews wouldn’t touch or better yet not even be around someone like this leper… it was just not appropriate to do.  But Jesus doesn’t do this….NO!!! Jesus places no judgment here…. Rather He has compassion for the man. One could understand how the man might feel some judgment even from God… many of us may see God as judgmental. However, this is not what’s happening here. I believe what we’re seeing here is a God who sent Jesus into the world to demonstrate that He… God is really not a judgmental God, but a compassionate God, and this leper is now experiencing this.

#2. “Touch”

There’s and intimacy taking place here that we often take for granted. Just as in last week’s story of Peter’s mother-in-law as well as with the leper today, Jesus touches the person in need. Jesus takes hold of Peter’s mother-in-law’s hand… and Jesus put his hand on the leper. There’s an intimate experience taking place and one that forces us to pause…. Touch becomes a conduit to care for take place.

Ask the elderly, or those with illness. Ask the home-bound person, or those who are isolated just how rarely they experience human touch, and when they do, the joy and healing they experience. I often hold the hand when I pray with a person that is home-bound or hospitalized. Human touch is one of the few gestures that demonstrate love, care, and healing. Of course, there is inappropriate touch that is harmful and wrong and we need to make sure we don’t cross those lines of life-killing. However, there is appropriate touch that is life-giving and brings hope and healing.  Of course, Jesus could have spoken healing as he did with others and he could have raised his hands and commanded healing which he did with some. But, in our story today Jesus touches this man and something spectacular happens. The leper is full of joy and commences sharing this life-giving event.

#3. “Willing”

Jesus was a willing participant in responding to this man’s plea. A leper was a low value person in Jesus’ day. He was a person on the margins, and often forced to live off the little generosity of those with means. Having leprosy in Jesus’ day meant a person was disregarded by society. Shunned… and while this leper was a diseased person, leprosy wasn’t always and illness, but could have been and human malady, and while leprosy is all but vanished in our country we still have our lepers. Remember about 20 or so years ago, we shunned people with Aids… we still do to some extent.

What about physically challenged people.

What about abnormal disabilities or physical disfigurements…

What is our usual response when they are struggling? Often, we will just stare at them and do nothing.

But Jesus doesn’t… Jesus takes the risk and is willing to touch the untouchable and healing happens. Jesus just demonstrates God’s love, grace, and mercy and eagerly blesses the man.

#4. “Love and Loneliness”

Yes I know… this is two words, but it’s the words that came to me while I was reflecting on the story. While Jesus’ love and acts of mercy are given freely, they do come at a cost. Jesus heals and restores this man to his community, however, Jesus can no longer travel freely. It will be a lonely road for Jesus from now on.

Jesus tells the man to not say anything and commands the man to only go to the priests to show he is whole, but that’s not good enough. The healed man just starts shouting it out… Jesus has healed me… Jesus healed me and shares it with everyone who will listen to him. When you look closely at the Greek words, Jesus is not happy about this. The intensity of the words used here are emphatic and that of anger. Our English translations temper this in part because English speakers don’t want to see an angry Jesus.

But think about it… Love costs us something doesn’t? In Jesus’ case, he’s becoming all too popular and people are now coming from all over wanting Jesus to help them. He can no longer be alone. For us, when we love someone we must give up something… right… loving our spouse, our kids, parents… Love Costs something… it’s no longer just about us. We have to lose something so that we can love the other. Love costs something.

There you have it… These are my “4 Words”… maybe 5 words that describes Jesus for me… maybe you have some different words… no matter the words, I hope you these words have help transform your life with Jesus.

I’d like to close with this story…

Barbara was 31 and a mother of three children. And she was staring at possible thyroid cancer.

As she awaited the results of the tests, she revisited what she knew of her faith and found that she had more than a "little faith" in God. Dale Matthews tells the story: "Given her intimate familiarity with the Gospels, it is not surprising that Barbara found a metaphor for her personal healing in a Bible passage. One Sunday, as she was praying in church, the gospel story of the woman with a hemorrhage kept coming into her mind .... "[The woman] wanted to be healed but she didn't want to bother Jesus, so she approached him in a crowd and touched his robe," Barbara explained. "Of course, Jesus knew what happened and praised the woman for her faith. I wanted to be like that woman."

"As Barbara prepared to go up to the altar for Communion, she suddenly thought, "I could be like her.' An Episcopalian, Barbara viewed the priest who was presiding at the Holy Eucharist as a "stand-in' for Jesus during the service. She decided she would touch the priest's robe when he gave her the Communion wafer.

"I touched his robe, and he couldn't have known that I did, though he did know about my cancer," she remembered. "He did something in that moment that I had never seen him do before: He put down the paten with the Communion wafers and came over to me; laying both hands on my head, he prayed for my healing."

"After receiving the Communion wine, Barbara stood up at the altar. "I was so overwhelmed with God's love that I knew I was healed," she said. "My healing wasn't physical at that point, but my heart was healed. I wasn't anxious or afraid or doubtful or sad at all. I had complete trust in God and his love, something he knew I needed far more than any other kind of healing at that moment."

"A few weeks after her healing at the altar rail, Barbara's surgery revealed that the lump [on her neck] was indeed thyroid cancer. She went through treatments then, and six months later for a recurrence. Somehow the medical treatments, too, seemed to be directly from God: "I felt that God had simply completed a healing he had started at the altar at church."

"Today, Barbara is healthy and leads a full and prayerful life. Her youngest child is in college; the God-given sense of assurance she received in 1979 as the mother of three young children has been borne out in her life."

--Dale A. Matthews, The Faith Factor (New York: Viking, 1998), 62-63.

Two Kinds of People

Sermon for Sunday Feb 5, 2012…. Mark 1:29-39

There is a “Pontius Puddle” comic strip that begins with…. "I wonder if God can really hear me." The next frame shows Pontius praying: "Hey, God! What should I do with my life?" The third frame has a voice from heaven saying,

"FEED THE HUNGRY. RIGHT INJUSTICE. WORK FOR PEACE!"

"Just testing!" Pontius replies.

"Same here," God speaks back.

Prayer:

There are two kinds of people in the world…

People who need help and people who need to help.

Put another way…. There are two kinds of people in the world…

People who need care and people who need a calling.

Of course, you could describe two kinds of people in a variety of ways, and it can be said, that we all have been both kinds of people at any given time in our lives.

So…I ask you, “Which of these two kinds of people are you today”?

Are you are person who needs help or care… or are you a person that needs to help or needs a calling?

Pause…

If we knew what kind of person you are… we could direct or connect those who need help with those who need a calling.

Then we could move out from the church to care and help our community. Can you imagine what could come from this?

Maybe you’re not quite ready to pursue this radically simple practice, so let’s look at how Jesus demonstrated this act in our gospel reading from Mark today.

Yes… we are still in the 1^st chapter of Mark… So far…Jesus is baptized, deals with Satan in the wilderness, calls some fishermen to follow him, confronts a demon possessed man whom he heals… now he goes to Peter’s house to perhaps get some rest. However, Peter’s mother-in-law is sick, so I guess… Jesus’ work isn’t quite finished after-all. Just as an aside…. I’m wondering why Mark doesn’t tell us Peter’s mother-in-laws name. He just says it’s his mother-in-law!! I wish he would have recorded it because it would have made the story more personable. So for our purposes today… lets name her Esther because there are already too many Mary’s found in the bible.

So… Jesus heals Esther and he does it is a fashion like resurrection. Jesus takes her hand and she raise up… she sits up. Then she immediately, as Mark is fond of saying, goes and makes dinner. I don’t know about you, but if I was sick and the fever broke I wouldn’t be fixing anyone dinner. In addition, please don’t place your own biases on Esther here. She’s not doing this because of her gender. This isn’t some form of servitude being played out.

As Lutheran Theologian Sarah Henrich points out… [I]llness bore a heavy social cost: not only would a person be unable to earn a living or contribute to the well-being of a household, but their ability to take their proper role in the community, to be honored as a valuable member of a household, town, or village, would be taken from them. Peter's mother-in-law is an excellent case in point. It was her calling and her honor to show hospitality to guests in her home. Cut off from that role by an illness cut her off from doing that which integrated her into her world. Who was she when no longer able to engage in her calling? Jesus restored her to her social world and brought her back to a life of value by freeing her from that fever. It is very important to see that healing is about restoration to community and restoration of a calling, a role as well as restoration to life. For life without community and calling is bleak indeed.

You see… this was a person (Esther) who had a calling, but needed care so that she could resume her calling. Folks…. Do you see the correlation? We all fall into both categories throughout our lives. We all have roles to play and we also have to care and be cared for.

Word gets out and the whole community descends on Peter’s house and Jesus and by association his friends help and care for many people. This was exhausting to say the least. Think about it. You find yourself sitting in a hospital with a loved one. You’re just sitting not doing much. Your there to love and support your loved one, then, friends and other family members come and when you leave your tired and exhausted. This must have been what Jesus felt like when the people needing care left.

So Jesus gets up early and goes out to be alone and pray. By-the-way, this is something we should all be doing… all work and no pray is not all that healthy. Jesus’ friends get worried and begin looking for him and when they find him, Jesus tells them they must be moving on to other places to share the good news and that is why he came. Do you see the duality? Jesus does both, he cares for people and he has a calling.

So… there you have it. Two kinds of people… people who need help and people who need a calling….And at any given time we could be any of these two people and Jesus demonstrates this by fulfilling both of these.

This got me thinking and wondering about this community in caring and needing a calling. Maybe you’re doing this and if so I praise God for your effort. Nonetheless, in what ways might we imagine our role, our purpose and identity for the way we use our time, resources, the way we run our meetings, and set our priorities. Could Emmanuel be that community that responds to those currently in need and in clarifying those who need a calling?

So… what I would like to do is to have you pull out the 3x5 cards found in your bulletin and I would like to invite you to write down a care if you need to be cared for. Or write down a care that you can provide.

Or write down something you need help with… or some help you can provide.

For example… maybe you need a ride to the Doctor or to the store or maybe you can provide that ride.

Maybe you are Lonely, have a Medical Issue and need an ear, or struggling with Loss, Addiction, or maybe you just need to talk with someone.

Maybe you can provide a listening ear, or have experience with some of these struggle that can bring comfort.

Write down your name along with your care or calling and place it in the offering basket and Pat will go through them and make the connections to place the people with cares with the people who have a calling.

Can you imagine how this might change this congregation… then branch out into the community, can you imagine how profoundly this would change this community.

There you have it… Two Kinds of People… Which are you today?

I love Jesus, But I Swear a Little: An Open Invitation to Unfriend Me on Facebook, Stop Following Me on Twitter and Discontinue Reading My Blog if You Need To.

I was reading a blog of a colleague about language and how pastors and christians are suppose to be and act. While I believe we (pastors) do bare some responsibility for how we act and speak we are far from being perfect people. Which by the way, is why we should be modeling forgiveness and grace, and why people in general should take note.

I love Jesus, But I Swear a Little: An Open Invitation to Unfriend Me on Facebook, Stop Following Me on Twitter and Discontinue Reading My Blog if You Need To.

I'd like to hear your thoughts.

See You Out on the Road

Don't Worry, Be Still

I've been mulling... meditating... ruminating on "Be still, and know that I am God" Ps 46:10 and "Don't worry about tomorrow" Matt 6:34 for the past several days. Interestingly enough, given my unemployed predicament at the moment, these two passages come into my thoughts quite often.

Perhaps it's my anxiety about where my next dollar might come from to pay a bill, or something to eat, or gas in the car to look for a job. These are real anxieties for those who are wondering how they're to provide for themselves. Yet the truth is, can any of this worry make it better? Not really. Furthermore, the words saying, "look at the birds, they don't plant or harvest anything, yet they somehow survive. And it doesn't do any good to worry about tomorrow either because you can't do anything about that as well.

Yet, we worry about most everything in our lives. I think most of this comes from the idea as Americans we can have it all, it can be the biggest and the best, and not only can you have it all, but you can have it all now. Our understanding of life in my view is very skewed and for the most part not attainable. Yet, we have this notion we can do anything we set our minds to. We are afforded this as Americans, but at what price? Before you think I'm against being, or becoming a 1%er, or that we as Americans should some how shirk opportunities... NO!! What I'm suggesting is that much of our worry and anxiety comes from too much consumption and the thinking that we can have anything we desire. For the most part, when we acquire, we don't want to let go... thus feeding the anxiety and worry about how I'm going to live the next day.

However, we still find ourselves worrying about the next day and how we are going to make it through that day. For me, I really don't like hearing this... I want to know how I'm going to make it through tomorrow the week before tomorrow even comes. What I find interesting is that within the context of "Don't Worry" it says, "only people who don't know God always worry." I don't believe this is true. Whether or not you believe in God people of all stripes worry. You don't have to be a believer to have troubles with worry, and just because you believe in God doesn't mean you will not be an worrier either.

Perhaps as a person of faith, my anxiety level isn't as high as it might other-wise be... but maybe not either. I... like others, I have a nice home that I want to keep. I want to eat healthy foods. I want to have nice fashionable cloths. People of faith are not all that different in reality that those who are not people of faith. We are all worriers and maybe as Americans we worry more than others.

For me... my worry dissipates when I still myself. When, be still and know that I am God finds its way into my being, my anxiety... my worry is often less. It's not totally gone, but seems to be more manageable. Perhaps, this is what Martin Luther experienced when he wrote the hymn "A Mighty Fortress" because the "Be Still" passage of Psalm 46 is the context for the hymn. Perhaps, Luther, who was a person full of anxieties, discovered as I'm discovering that being still with God is a calming life factor helping me to keep perspective.

Being Still with God seems simple enough, but like most of us, we are often to preoccupied with other things. Being Still means being still... coming to a stop... letting yourself do nothing. It means to focus on God. The great mystics found ways to do this. Being Still with God takes practice and patients, and I'm discovering, it seems to be working. While I am worried about what is going to happen, I seem to be less anxious about what might happen. I find this amazing because in 6-8 weeks we will be out of money and no income. So... I am REALLY trying to Not Worry and to Be Still with God.

Time will tell... I do have an opportunity for work in the next couple of weeks, and so... maybe "Don't Worry" and "Be Still" does work. Perhaps, it's also having a little faith.


See You Out on the Road