The Dead of Winter

There is an expression when the calendar reaches near the end of January that we've reached "The Dead of Winter." It signifies that we're at the mid-point of winter. Most of us are quite tired of what we've been experiencing this winter as I watch the snow begin to fall once more. I'm tired of less light, of polar vortex's, wind chills, sub-zero temps, of slippery roads, and not being able to enjoy tropical drinks from my patio.

 I'm watching the ever increasing snow fall in "The Dead of Winter waiting for a furry rodent to appear and tell me how much winter I'll have to endure and persevere. Although, I've come to understand it doesn't much matter if the furry rodent comes or not... winter continues until it doesn't. It doesn't matter because it still is the same amount of time nonetheless.

Winter is just a season in life. It happens every year... seasons change... we move from winter to spring, to summer, to fall, and return to winter every year with seemingly little effort. But it seems this winter season is much harder. It's colder than I remember. Snowier. Windier. Colder. I remember in younger years that I liked winter. Friends would gather to sled down a hill. We would ice skate in backyard ponds, play hockey, grab the bumpers of cars and slide down the road. Of course, there's no real car bumpers anymore so the younger generation looks at you a bit odd when you tell them you did this. We would make snow forts and have snow ball fights and it was fun. Now... "The Dead of Winter" has me frowning. It's cold and I have to be out in it. I have work to do. I must shovel and sno-blow the drive and sidewalks. I really don't like it.

The snow continues to fall. Winter is but one season and life has many seasons. The winter season is often understood as death or dieing. Spring is about new life. Summer about growing, and fall about harvest and celebration of a productive year. In younger years I spent winter time dreaming of the future. One had hope that things were about to change and life would be exciting. There's a story where young people will see visions and old folks having dreams. As one grows... dreams and hope seem to mature. There is less excitement about the future. While there might be hope... it's much more controlled, reserved, and held pretty tightly to the vest.

"The Dead of Winter" has me perusing the obituary page of our local paper more frequently. While I don't consider myself old, I am approaching an age where I will have less life ahead of me than I've already lived. I was reading that the average life expectancy now about 82 years. When I began my adult years it was about 72. Which by the way is remarkable when you think about it. I plan to live into my 90's as my linage has demonstrated by my grand parents. So... "The Dead of Winter" has me looking back perhaps more than I should, but I believe it's what happens. We tend reminisce as we mature and reflect on what has happened and what could have been. I think there's hope in that. I think it helps us see better and to be more grateful of what has happened in life. And to see that all the dreams were in fact, not really all that important in the end.

I lived in a warmer climate for a while. I never thought I would like it... but I did. I liked it a-lot. There was little seasonal change and the only way you knew was by the calendar on the wall. Does it mean people in these area's don't experience "The Dead of Winter?" I think not... it's just different. Maybe... that's the point. Difference or In-Difference. I don't know for sure, but it's still snowing and I'm still waiting for that furry rodent to show up and tell me "The Dead of Winter" will end and the season will change, and there is good reason to dream and hope anew.         

Walking in the Way of Jesus... Prayer

Jan. 19, 2014        

Mark 11:12-14, 20-26

Pr. Jim Harrish tells a story of a man who came home one day to find that his wife has hung a plaque on the wall which read, Prayer Changes Things…

Prayer Changes Us.

Prayer Changes Others.

Prayer Changes Things.

Prayer Changes the Church.

Prayer Changes the World.

Within 24 hours the plaque had been removed. She asked, “What’s wrong? Don’t you like prayer?” He said, “Sure… I like prayer, I don’t like change.”

Prayer

We begin today reflecting on the 6 values of walking in the way of Jesus…. These Values… Prayer… Worship… Learning… Serving… Relationship Building… Generosity are meant to help us, to encourage us, to empower us in growing and living our lives closer to God thru Jesus. In Fact… as I mentioned last week…these Values should be the Modus Operandi for every faith community. God tells us in Duet. 6… “The Shema”… to love our God with all our heart, soul, and strength. To memorize his laws, to teach them to our children, and to talk about them all the time. The values of walking in the way of Jesus are the values God desires us to live by.

We often say we do this… we even tell our kids they are to learn these values… the truth is… as the church we don’t do these values very well. What we say and what we do is often times two different things, and is part the reason the church is not attractive to younger groups of people. Our young people see through all of this… they see the hypocrisy. We need to do better… and why we need to re-examine what we value.

Today we begin by reflecting on the Value of “Prayer”

Prayer… seems like a no-brainer… of course we pray! Yet… many of us struggle with prayer. We struggle to find words that express what were feeling. We struggle with inadequacy… being worthy enough… speaking well enough. We struggle with whether or not we are even in the right posture. Do we stand, kneel, sit, bow, eyes open or shut?

Yet… Jesus tells us in our story today that “Everything you ask for in prayer will be yours, if you have faith.”

People have told me… Pastor I prayed, and I prayed, but I don’t seem to receive. I prayed for God to heal my_______ , but God didn’t heal or God wasn’t listening…. Because they weren’t healed. This is an issue for us as Americans because we tend to get what we want… we’re a very impatient people. The truth is… our expectations are way off base.

Kathleen Norris in her book “Amazing Grace” says, “sometimes people will say things like, “Your prayers didn’t work, but thanks, as if a person could be praying for only one thing.” A miracle. A cure. But in the hardest situations, all one can do is ask God for is mercy: let my friend die at home, Lord, and not in the hospital. Let her go quickly, God, and with her loved ones present.

One Benedictine friend, a gentle, thoughtful man who has been in constant physical pain for years and is now confined to a wheelchair, says of prayer, “Often… all I can do is ask God, Lord, what is it you want from me? From him I have learned that prayer is not asking for what you think you want, but asking to be changed in ways you can’t imagine. To be made more grateful, more able to see the good in what you have been given instead of always grieving for what might have been. People who are in the habit of praying know that when prayer is answered, it is never in a way that you expect.”

Jesus’ friends had difficulties with prayer as well. Jesus asked his friends to go with him to pray… they often weren’t overjoyed. Jesus wanted them to stay awake and pray with him in the garden… they couldn’t… They even ask Jesus how to pray, then teaches them what we know as the Lord’s Prayer. Actually… Jesus taught them two forms of prayer.

 
1^st Individual Prayer… Mark 1:35… Jesus gets up early in the morning to go into the desert to pray… go out in nature. Jesus went out in nature by himself to talk with his daddy… his father. It was a time to focus and reflect. Matt. 6… Jesus tells his friends to go into a room alone and pray… Jesus instructs them to take time alone to be with God. It is a time take and make time to reconnect and to get refreshed. Jesus took time to be alone with his father. Most of us don’t have a problem here… most of can do this because it’s private… no one is looking.

But Jesus also taught that they… his followers are to pray together as a group…

Luke 11… Jesus teaches them as a group… around a meal to pray. The context of Luke 11 is that they are at Mary & Martha’s house sharing a meal. For Jesus… group prayer is a prayer that opens the heart to the kingdom of God, and to seeing what God sees… from which they through God will move mountains.

Let’s look at What Prayer is Not.

Pr. Mike Foss states, “Prayer is not a special formula… prayer is far more than a single creedal formula that makes us feel good.” And prayer is NOT for God’s benefit, but for us to share our lives as a trust & dependence on God. Prayer is NOT limited to special people… like pastors or those trained, or prayers like the ones someone reads from a book… you know canned prayers… for me there not prayers because they’re not ours!! Prayer is NOT for our own self-indulgence…Things… Desires… Wants

Robert Capon says, “Prayer is not going to God (he’s already in you), or seeking God (he’s already found you), or opening yourself to God (you couldn’t keep him out if you tried), or becoming spiritual (he’s already sent you the Spirit). And it’s certainly not about buttering up God (because he already thinks your dandy). Prayer… is just talking with someone who’s already talking to you. ”

What Prayer IS?

Is a Conversation with God. Just like talking to your parents, or family, or friends… simply having a conversation with another person. It’s not all that difficult… we all talk to people. Sometimes too much. Prayer is the same thing… it’s talking to God in our language. When I fully understood this it became much easier to pray. I wasn’t worried about how and what I was praying. I was just being myself and I believe that’s all God expected. It didn’t matter how I spoke it… if it was coming from my heart, that’s all God wanted… and it’s about God, not about whose hearing me.

Is Connecting to God and Becoming one with God… drawing close to God thru prayer. Acknowledging God as Lord of my life. Not for providing me with special things, but for providing what I need. And…seeing what God sees. Looking around me for what God may be already doing.

Is an Attitude of Love. It’s an opportunity to become intimate with God and others. Prayer is an opportunity share our lives, and dump our baggage. To open our hearts for transformation and forgives so that grace can be received. For us to be honest about our lives so we don’t have to play act or try to be someone were not. It’s also an opportunity to seek forgiveness and grace thru love.

Is about Talking & Listening. Prayer is a two-way conversation… our words… our language… our hearts… our hurts and pain… our ears and our ears collectively. Too often we do too much talking and not enough listening. If fact… it is our biggest problem and why we often miss what God is doing and wants to do with us.

Why is Prayer Important for Community?

First… To Trust in God’s Hands. Prayer is an opportunity to let go of ourselves and our self interest. To let go of our agendas and to be open to God’s agenda.

Pastor & Theologian NT Wright wrote about the Lord’s Prayer… “what might it mean to pray this kingdom prayer? It means, for a start, that we look up into the face of our Father in heaven, and commit ourselves to the hallowing of his name, that we look immediately out upon the world that he made and see it as he sees it. Thy Kingdom Come…  to pray this means seeing the world in binocular vision. Seeing it with the love of the Creator, and seeing it with deep grief for the battered and battle-scared state which the world now finds itself. Put those to together and bring the picture into focus… The love and the grief join into the Jesus shape… the kingdom shape… the shape of the cross.”

Second…To Listen & Discern God’s Direction.

What will be Cana’s Values?

What will be Cana’s Mission?

In what ways may Cana have to change?

These questions and others need to be asked and to be blanketed in community prayer. How would a congregation know what it wants to do, is what God wants them to do? How would you know if God really wants you to do this or that ministry?  How would you know? If you weren’t in community prayer! The early church followers did this. They gathered, they prayed, they shared meals, money, food, whoever was in need they shared. They worshipped, they praised God, they listened to God’s Word… what happened because of this? God added to their number… That’s how they knew they were doing God’s work.

I believe Community prayer outside of praying on Sunday morning is the only way you would know. I believe congregations need prayer teams in order to discern God’s direction for them.

When I was on internship at Spirit of Joy they were getting ready to build their first unit in a neo-traditional community that eventually became a new city. They were going to be in the cent of the town… the center of a downtown. Then it all came crashing down in April of 2002. The developer pulled the rug out from underneath them. They were angry… an understatement for sure… they had spent about $300,000 on all the planning and it looked like they were going to lose it all. They gathered to talk about their next moves. They probably had a case to sue the developer, but they prayed and voted unanimously to forgive and walk away losing the $300,000.

At which time I said to the pastor… what about that big building over there and pointed to it. So     we gathered every Tuesday evening to pray at a former Builders Square. And… for 2 years…. A group of 20-30 joined together… every Tuesday evening to pray and ask God for direction and if this was the place for them.

God did provide… not the former Builders Square building, but a former bowling alley across the street. Their communion table is made from one of the bowling alleys.They continue to have a prayer team that meets every week.

Third… Faith Communities that Pray… Grow.

If Cana Lutheran is going to grow spiritually and numerically there must be a prayer team that gathers weekly to pray. To pray for God’s direction… for her leaders… for her pastor… ministries… the concerns of the community… her people… others. To pray for the spirit to come and open us up to the ways of Jesus… in other words… to change us. It has been my observation and experience that when congregations do this intentionally… they grow.

Closing:

If Prayer is an important value in walking in the way of Jesus, and if Prayer is important to Cana Lutheran, and if Cana Lutheran is serious about the value of Prayer..,. then, Cana Lutheran should develop a prayer team that meets weekly. Community Prayer is a must if you are going to discern your values… your mission… and who your next pastor will be. So… I encourage you… I implore you… I demand that you put together a Prayer Team and pray weekly for God’s direction.

I’d like to close with one final story.

There is an old expression all of us have heard: Prayer changes things. We like the sound of the saying because it doesn't tell things exactly like it is. Prayer changes things, yes. But even more fundamentally, prayer changes people. Even more particularly, prayer changes the pray-er. Many of us want to be converted, but we don't want to be changed. To pray is to be continually converted, yes. But to pray is to be continually changed.

Walking in the Way of Jesus... "Walk On"

January 12, 2014

I'm sharing a sermon series at Cana Lutheran, the faith community I'm serving at titled, "Walking in the Way of Jesus... 6 Values of Discipleship" as a way to highlight congregational core values. This effort is part of the transition process the congregation is journeying through towards calling a new pastoral leader. 

So... the next 6 posts on Reverend DAM, I will share those sermon thoughts and ideas of what I believe are 6 fundamental values faith communities need to embrace for 21st century ministry. More importantly, for the faith community to grow in its faith and love and devotion to Jesus. The early church wasn't about making members of another Jewish religious movement, but about making followers of Jesus. The future of faith communities (the church) is tied to her efforts to make followers/ disciples of Jesus. This series is intended to help the congregation discover her core values and begin to "Walk in the Way of Jesus."

Prayer

Matthew 16:21-28

So… we begin this journey of discovery today with the theme of “WALK ON”

To get us started thinking about Values we’re going to watch a video… Phil Hansen is an artist who developed a shake in his hand which prevented him from doing his art. Or so he thought. This is not a religious video, however, I want you to watch this video from the perspective of the church. You will also see how it applies to your life, but for our purposes today look for the applications to Cana Lutheran.

How does this get you thinking? What shake does Cana need to embrace? 

How might you need to look at Cana's limitations? What Values might Cana need to consider?

More importantly... Can Cana embrace her shake?

 

Our bible story today Jesus is shaking his friends understanding about his purpose. Jesus is talking about his journey towards death. Peter didn’t like hearing that… he says “Stop talking like that Jesus.” You can’t go anywhere… you need to stay with us. This can never happen… Jesus says, “Get Behind Me Satan.” Jesus then tells them Vs 24, “If you want to follow me you must forget about yourselves, take up your cross and follow me.”

Jesus challenges Peter & friends to change their focus. To value what I, Jesus values. Walking in the way of Jesus means you need to let go of self interest and walking towards Jesus’ values. 6 days later, Jesus takes Peter, James and John up the mountain, from which they have this God moment, from which begins to open up their understanding… but like most mountain top experiences… they don’t last. You have to come down the mountain.

However, at the core… Jesus uses these two experiences to move his friends from where they currently are to a place where God wants them to be. In other words… Jesus wants them to embrace their shake. And… God wants us to move too, to be followers of his son, to have the same values & focus, and to place these values at the core of our being.

What does this mean for us in the Faith Community?

First…it means we have to think differently about what it means to in the faith community. For many of us… the church has confused being a disciple/follower with that of being a member. For many of us membership is about Voting… Marriages… Baptisms… Funerals… Friendships… and a Safety-Net for the After-Life. Essentially… the church has been about member “Privileges.” Not about following Jesus. The time has come to change this notion.

Lutheran Pr. Mike Foss in his book, “Power Surge” says, “Membership is about Getting, Being a Follower… about Giving, Membership…Dues, Follower… about Sharing, Member… belonging to a select group, Follower… about changing & shaping life by the Grace of God”.

Being a follower of Jesus means we must focus on and have the values of Jesus. Vs 24… take up you cross… forget about self.  We need to be willing to give up your materialized & commercialized life for a new life. This means… if you and Cana want to have life… you and Cana must become Disciples/Followers of Jesus. That means you must follow in the ways of Jesus. You must integrate Jesus’ Values into your life. Had Peter & friends had the Values of Jesus… Jesus would never have invoked Satan.

There is a great story about what God Values in Acts 10.

The story of Peter & Cornelius is a great example of how God challenged Peter to greater kingdom understanding and the values of God. Peter had a set of cultural and familial values that were limiting and God wanted to open his eyes to the greater values & mission of God wanted to do. You see… Peter had rules to live by. As a good Jew he couldn’t associate with non Jews, and he certainly could not meet with a Roman soldier. In his dream God told him to eat things that were off limits. These were unclean animals. This would have gone against everything he knew. These were values that kept the Jewish people healthy and well. But God tells him to eat and to associate with Cornelius and this stretched Peter’s understanding tremendously. Peter needed to embrace his shake… Peter needed to adapt new and different values… God’s values…. To love and value all people.

Peter needed to look at his limitations as opportunities to be creative. And I’m challenging you to do the same… to open your eyes to see what God sees.

Over the next 6 weeks we will reflect on 6 of what I believe are God’s Values for the Faith Community. If fact… these 6 fundamental values should be the “modus operand” of every church community. They are: PRAYER…. WORSHIP… LEARNING… SERVING…    

                RELATIONSHIP BUILDING… GENEROSITY

Closing:

The video had a key piece… at least it is for me… when Phil talked about thinking outside the box. He came to the conclusion thinking outside the box stifled his creativity. Rather he suggests since we live mostly in the box it is our limitations that spark creativity. Now… I’m an outside the box thinker and I still believe it’s necessary to do this. However… I think there is something to embracing our limitations that can drive creativity. For example: Cana is an older congregation and I see a lot of GranMa’s and GramPa’s sitting here… what might it be if one Friday evening a month Cana Lutheran had a community “Date Night Child Care Service” at the church so that young Mom’s & Dad’s could have an evening out? And that it would be free!

o    Games, Music, Movies, Some of you have connections with the zoo… maybe the zoo could bring in some animals so that kids could gain a better appreciation for animals.

What about having a once a month community dinner… where the whole community can come for a free meal and conversation.

What might it look like if you were engaged with the community rather than whining about what you don’t have? Being stymied by your limitations? According to Hansen… “We must be limited to become limitless.”

We, the church need to learn the art of letting go… letting go of Our Personal Preferences… letting go of Our Failures….

Our Imperfections… Our We Never did it This Way Before attitudes… And learn to embrace Following in the Way of Jesus.

 

Where is God Taking You?

Where is God taking you this year? Does 2014 provide you with opportunities? Do you see excitement in the future? or Disappointment?

These are questions we all ask as we enter a new year. They are questions of concern, anticipation, and wonderment. What does the new year hold for us? How will it impact our life? What about the church you belong to... is there a sense of new life among those gathered?

I read the following blog from "Living Lutheran" and it left me thinking about where God is taking me this year. What about you? Check out the link and let me know Where You See God Taking You this year.

http://www.elca.org/en/Living-Lutheran/Blogs/2014/01/140107b-Where-is-God-taking-you