Chchchchanges

I am about to begin my second year serving as pastor to a 118 year old church. As the first female pastor in their history some new territory is being forged and will continue to be over the course of the next year. Today is the day many United Methodist pastor's preached their last sermons before moving on to new appointments in new churches. It is a bittersweet time for both pastors and congregations. Some are sad to leave and some are sad to be left while some are anxious to move on and some congregations can't wait for the pastor to move on :). All that being said these changes can be difficult on everyone involved. There are few people I know who like change or seek it out. It's hard, it's uncomfortable, it's takes a lot of energy. Sometimes difference feels like the wrong way to some, just because it's different. What I know is this. A lot of prayer and discernment goes into these decisions and moves and I believe that God is in it. I believe that God knows far more than we do and that these changes should be seen as opportunities to grow for all involved. Ultimately it's not about us, it is about God and God's purposes and plans for us all. Surrendering to that is the hard part.

What I do know for sure is that in a world that is constantly changing around us, change is inevitable. The challenge is seeing these changes as an opportunity to grow, to sharpen our skills, and tone some muscles. As the church we must be poised to meet the changing landscape both inside and outside the doors of the buildings where we worship, to step outside our comfort zones, and learn who our neighbors are and what speaks to their hearts. We have to be willing to put our own likes, preferences, and comfort aside for the opportunity to share God's love with others.

I pray this year of continuing change will be instrumental in my "going on to perfection" as John Wesley would say, and that we all might be further shaped into the reflection of God we were created to be.

The Way

I have yet to do this but thought today might be the day to post the manuscript for the sermon I preached this morning. Mind you, though it is a manuscript it never comes out the way it is written.

Your comments are welcome!

The text is John 14:1-14 Read it first!
Some interesting events have unfolded in these last few weeks with Harold Camping, president of Christian Radio Network, predicting the beginning of the end, or the rapture, yesterday. Interestingly Family Radio’s website was offering special promotions as late as Friday that expired May 28.
All false prophets and shenanigans aside, If it was your last day, or if you knew death was imminent is there anything you would have made it a point to do, like something on your bucket list, or made it a point to say to your loved ones?
I confess I have not thought a lot about final words in regards to my own life, though I have had the privilege to sit with both loved ones and practical strangers as they passed from this world. I’ve thought about hymns and music for my funeral and scripture that I want read, but as far as the words that will be said before that day, not so much. The closest I have come was when after having Sierra I experienced some strange symptoms that prompted many medical tests and a possible diagnosis of MS that really rocked my world in considering the span of my life and just how much of my two daughter’s I would be able to be a part of. I began to think about what I would want them to know about me, my life and my hopes and dreams for them, what wisdom I would want to share born of my own experience, and what comfort and love and peace I would want them to know in spite of my own imminent death.
Oddly enough most of us don’t give a lot of thought, at least with great intention, to these things unless they are staring us right in the face. Thing is, life is fatal. We will all die a physical death. What are your hopes and dreams for those whom you love? Do you tell them or hold them in your heart for the “right time”. Will your own loved ones be able to find peace and comfort and a reason for living differently in your absence? Will their journey be different because of your life?
Death bed confessions, death bed instructions…or as this text is referred to by biblical scholars, a farewell discourse is a place where deepest desires and concerns are expressed and a quality and character of one’s life is shared. A farewell discourse, a speech delivered in the face of imminent death or departure, known from ancient Jewish literature. The speaker makes known his deepest desires and concerns for those he leaves behind. In this text Jesus expresses his concern for the community he leaves behind, for the quality and character of their life together, and for the witness they bear to him in the world.
Jesus repeats the words believe and dwelling several times in this passage. So much so that one is led to believe that we come to believe and know based on where we dwell.
These words are words of comfort. Christ, knowing he was about to face a bodily death, a painful death, was comforting those whom he would leave behind. Those who would be asked to carry on what he began. How are they to do this? The way “Hodos” in the Greek is also used as a path or a road, journey. The path of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection is one that we are being called to as well. We try to make it complicated, we strive, to work, and maybe these words of comfort should resonate more deeply…just do what I do, just dwell in me, live in me. The disciples are troubled, saying “don’t leave us we don’t know what we are doing, we don’t know where we are going, where you are going”. Jesus says, “Don’t be troubled”. I am the image of the invisible God…you know me, you know God. You know me, you know the way. You’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.
Many get caught up in the “no one comes to the Father except by me” and many a heated debate has been had in regards to these words. Like all of scripture we have to consider the context in which they were spoken before jumping to conclusions.
These words are meant to bring comfort to some pretty distraught disciples. They are words of peace and assurance. “I go to prepare a place, a dwelling, and I will come back”. This place, this Oikos in the biblical Greek this (household)—oikia house…also used in the same context is monay…dwelling
As Peter’s epistle instructs, we too are being built into something as we dwell in Christ we become a dwelling of his Spirit. The way can be understood as a place or as an action, a state of living with vitality. A way of living, the journey, not the destination at all. It is in the journey that we are being built into this house, this dwelling for the Spirit of God.
If you knew your death was imminent what would you say to those you leave behind? What would your wishes be? What great wisdom would you want to share? Would you make video tapes like some of those who are dying to their children? What I wish for you. Would it be a means of comfort or a charge as to how to live? Because, if you read a little further Jesus is doing both, comforting and charging. Would your words convey something to the effect, I have done some living, I am facing death, do it this way. Or, if I could do it all over again. If you were on your death bed, what would you want to tell your loved ones? How would you give them peace? What legacy would you leave? How would you bring them comfort?
This is what Jesus is doing in his farewell discourses. Death was imminent and yet he wanted to leave those closest to him with some final words of comfort and peace as well as instructions on how to live and assurance that they would be together again. Are the instructions something you do joyfully in loving memory or are do they become a burden to those you leave behind? Lest they do become a burden, Jesus assures them further if you read further in this passage, that he is not leaving them orphans but instead is providing an Advocate, that will equip, counsel, comfort and convict in his absence, the Holy Spirit.
You do know the way. I am the way. No one comes to the Father, except through me. So rest assured, you know me therefore you know my Father and the way to him. Christ’s message to his disciples is the same for us today. Know me, know the way.
He is the way, the journey. Do you know him? Where are you living? It is not just about that one time decision to make Christ your savior, it is about molding your life after his example. It is about joining him on the path, the road, the journey toward God. Your life is hidden with God in Christ. Christ, as Paul writes in Colossians 1:15, is the image of the invisible God. Know him, know God. Know him, know the way. How? What do you know about the way he lived his life? Anyone can tell you he was a good man. Anyone can tell you he did good things. How? Why? How do our lives embody the same today? What does it look like in the 21st century? What is righteous anger because Christ displayed it when injustices were done and when people served themselves instead of others, particularly those in places of authority and wealth? To him who much is given, much is expected, or with great power, comes great responsibility. Christ gave his disciples all authority in heaven and on earth.
Hearing these words, these parting words from this perspective, then can change some of the common hang-ups about them. They are meant to bring comfort and simplicity and peace, not division, and exclusion.
These words meant to bring comfort and peace to Christ disciples both then and now call us to live accordingly, following him with our lives, making him our dwelling place. Modeling our lives after his example, not because we have to, but in response to what has been done on our behalf in his life, death, and resurrection, in a desire to embody his way and point to him with our lives for others.
What would our journey, our way look like if we lived as though we were part of the household of God; not self-righteous but the embodiment of the righteousness of God, like Christ, the image of the invisible God, faithful in the small things? Making our lives about knowing him and making him known. What would it look like if our dwelling was the very heart of God rather than one made with human hands?
The way, is the journey. Live in him. Dwell in him. Be a household of faith. Abide in him. Abide in the vine that as branches we might bear much fruit. Read your Bible. Pray. Study. Share the stories of God’s faithfulness, forgiveness, transforming love and grace in your life. Bear one another’s burdens and know with Christ as your savior, the forgiver of your sins and the Lord of your life you know the way.

Death and the Grave

Death seems to be a theme in my life these last few weeks and just in the last two days I have had two congregation members who have lost their loved ones to the grave. On a day when God's love was nailed to a cross and left to die, this recurring theme of death became even more apparent.

A few weeks ago I checked out a book on cd called "Here if you need me" the autobiographical story of the first female chaplain for game services in the state of Maine. The author became a chaplain following her husband's untimely death while working as a state patrolman. He had wanted to go to seminary, to be a pastor himself. She made it her mission to do it for him. She did the seminary thing but instead of pastoring a parish she became a chaplain in the game services. She was present for search and rescues, for missing children, found bodies, and notifying next of kin. She speaks quite lovingly of death with a touch of "matter of factedness". She tells the story of wahing and dressing her husband's body for cremation, sitting outside the furnace while his body burns, and asking to be cremated in the same furnace upon her own death.

Almost two weeks ago I attended a lecture series at a local seminary called "The Undertaking". The relationship between the pastor and the funeral director was explored as were the opportunities to assist families in more fully participating in the funerals of their loved ones. Stories were shared of the former practice of visitation in peoples homes rather than funeral homes, to carrying the casket of loved ones, and digging the grave and covering the casket with dirt by the family and loved ones.

Death is something most people stay as far away from as possible. When people are sick or dying they are often sent to the hospital or hospice,but away. We don't want to be close. We let the funeral directors plan the plans and prepare the bodies, and the heavy equipment bury our loved ones, we need distance. Truth is, life is lethal. We will all die someday. We will experience death up close and personal. Truth is for those of us that call ourselves followers of Christ we are called to die, that we might truly live. We are called in our baptisms to come face to face with death to die to ourselves that we might be risen to new life in Christ. Our bodies indeed will die, but we will live on in God's eternal kingdom, because of this Good Friday. Christ has overcome the grave. Death has met its end and we have been risen to God in Christ. Thanks be to God.

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Right?

It's been a tough few weeks. I, we, have suffered a major disappointment. What I had been working so diligently toward in these last 3 1/2 years, provisional membership as an elder here in North Georgia for the UMC, has not been realized. For many reasons I won't go into, I have passed 2 of the 3 parts of the Board and will have to wait another year before I can have another shot at the 3rd part again. To say this has been devestating is an understatement.

One of the most difficult parts has been feeling as though I have let people down. I did not get to where I am, through seminary, two job losses for Marten, major illnesses, hospitalizations, etc. without the prayers and support and encouragement of so many people that believe in me and have affirmed this call to ministry. Of course I wanted to make them proud and I wanted to celebrate with all of them. Most of these saints have told me they are far from disappointed in me and this is just a set back. How amazing is that? How blessed am I?

I am still trying to make some sense, some meaning of all of this. I know my God is faithful, that He called be by name, and that none of that has changed. It has been painful, never more painful than when I completely focus on me. When I look at the big picture, that I will not be deterred from continuing to reach people with the good news of God's amazing love and grace I am beyond ok. My prayer is that this next year will be one where I will continue to be a part of seeing people's lives transformed by God. That is what this is all about. Can I get an amen?!

The trials of these last years have been difficult, but I have seen God glorified in it and He will be in this as well. The trials of these last years have caused us to look more fully at the big picture and not be deterred by these detours or roadblocks. The trials of these last years have shown us how faithful our God is. The trials of these last years have not killed us but made us stronger and better equipped to be grace givers even in the midst of trials. We are not stronger in our own power, but by the Spirit of God in us. God is, has been, and always will be with us.

I have jokingly said to a few these past 2 weeks that I am so tired of growing. I need rest. I am unrecognizable from the woman I was 5 years ago. I have been bent until I might break and stretched until I might snap, but ultimately I will continue to grow. I will grow stronger in the grace in mercy God has shown me that I might show it to others. Our God works on our behalf to bring good out of our circumstances, those of us who love him, and good will come of this. I pray I will recognize it when I see it!
More later. Please continue to pray that the hurt will heal as we seek to live into God's purposes for us.

Some tools for the prayer tool belt!

Just a quick post this time. I made some very intentional, measured resolutions for the year this year and I am glad to say I have done pretty well for the most part. One of my resolutions was to pray more and be more intentional about prayer, thus my "Facetime" posts, but how does one do that? I do journal and keep a prayer journal. There are too many times someone has asked me to pray about something, and I said I would, and then I forgot. Well that stopped years ago when i starting keeping the journal because it gave me a place to write things down and to see what God was doing, the answered prayers, and the unfolding story.

My brother Keith has brought to my attention an awesome tool he uses for prayer called echo prayer, you can check it out here

Another discipline I have been moving toward since my trip to Jordan almost three years ago are regular fixed hours of prayer. The Muslim practice of praying five times a day and the regular stopping in worship and awareness of God touched me deeply. In the Christian tradition this is sometimes called the Divine Hours. I have attempted to do this haphazardly off and on with little discipline. I am excited about the potential for intentional and regular prayer with this tool and thought you might want to check it out for yourself.

Let me know how it works for you.

Vision, Running, and the Church

So, I have started training to run a 5K. I know big deal huh? Well I am not a runner. I never have been. This is hard for me! So, I am building my endurance lttle by little by alternating walking and running. I was doing this the other day when I noticed something, the more I focused on trees, street signs, cars in the distance, the farther I was able to go without feeling nearly as out of breath.

I danced growing up, ballet, tap, jazz, modern. I was even in a dance company. I remember whenever we would turn or pirouette we would find a spot on the wall, in the distance, and that is what we fixed our eyes on, so that even in our spinning, we kept our momentum, we were able to remain steady, upright, and in motion.

In pondering these things I began to think of the church I serve. It is 116 years old and it has seen many changes and transitions over the years. For so many years it struggled to survive to the point that survival became the point of focus. The church has begun new growth in the last few years. New vision has been important to the direction and momentum that has begun to build and new vision, new focus will propel the church further forward even still. The key then is to constantly be looking up to what God is doing, to what God is calling us to next. Churches are not meant to exist forever, the Kingdom of God is. That is the vision that must propel the Church forward beyond any other vision, plan, or survival skills for that matter.

Facetime #4

That's me, no makeup. I went out to run an errand like that tonight, no makeup, bare, nothing hidden, not even the outbreak of acne I had this week. I know, nice huh? Well, that is how we all approach God really. I mean we might kid ourselves that we are hiding something but are we? God knows every hair on my head and yours, and yet so many of us fear coming to Him with our deepest, darkest places, the scars, and imperfections in our lives. Coming to God in prayer with these scars and imperfections is what God wants. Yes He knows they are there, but our coming to Him in prayer is an act of worship, of who He is, perfect and holy, and who we are, broken and in need of saving grace. This is what I know; we can try to keep these places hidden or undercover but ultimately it is only shining some light in those dark places that is ever going to bring real healing, covering those wounds and scars only causes them to fester and grow deeper. Getting real with yourself enough to own your junk and get real with God in confessing it is what it takes so some light might shine in the dark and new life might begin. Then growing in an honest, open, real, relationship with the creator of the universe and the lover of your soul,naked an unashamed. I'm convinced of this, if we can be really real with God when we go to Him in prayer, we can be a lot more real with the people in our lives as well.


"Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account".
Hebrews 14:13