Day 29 of Lent, Monday, April 7, 2014

“What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.

                         Matthew 21:28-31 (NRSV)

It has been 20 years today since the Rwandan genocide.  In 100 days, 800,000 people, mostly the minority Tutsi, were slaughtered by Hutu extremists.  

The violence was horrific and many of the people were killed with machetes. Roadblocks were set up.  Rwandan ID cards identified people by their race.

The racism was so pervasive in the country that some clergy participated in the genocide and have been convicted of these atrocities.  While the church should always stand in opposition to racism and genocide, this is a reminder that the church often is reflective of the culture in which it exists.

When we as a church are guilty of promoting hatred, it is good to apologize whether we were actively a part of it or not.  It may have been our forefathers or even distant cousins.  If the sincere repentance for these deeds can help with the healing of the wounded then it is worth it.

I remember attending the 2012 General Conference and many were not happy about the service of repentance led by our Native American brothers and sisters.  Those upset by the service claimed that the past should be the past and we should move on.

My take was that if it was helpful to some who have suffered, then it was worthwhile for all of us to attend.  It cost me nothing, save some retrospection.  I gained new perspective and understanding which is always valuable.  

As we continue in Lent, please be in prayer for our Rwandan brothers and sisters.  My prayer is that reconciliation will continue so that they never have to repeat this awful tragedy.

Skull and Belongings of Genocide Victims
Here, a sister in Christ.
Genocide Memorial Center - Kigali - Rwanda

  

Photo by Adam Jones, Ph.D. (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Fifth Sunday of Lent, April 6, 2014

                     “Lazarus, come out!”

                                          Jesus of Nazareth from John 11:43

One of my favorite movies is The Shawshank Redemption.  It is a story of Andy Dufresne played by Tim Robbins who ends up serving time for two murders he did not commit.

As the innocent man who brings light to those in the prison - even suffering on their behalf - he represents a Christ figure in the film.

You see the Christ image even
on the movie poster with the arms
extended out as he faces the light.

At the turning point for Andy in the movie, he is speaking to his friend Red played by Morgan Freeman. Andy is telling him about a place on the Pacific Ocean down in Mexico.

He states that the Mexicans say the Pacific Ocean holds no memory and that is someplace he would like to go: a warm place with no memory.

He tells Red that he could use a friend like him down there someday.  Red tells him that he doesn't think he could even make it on the outside.  As he admits this dark secret to Andy, he then begins to berate him because the whole idea seems ridiculous - a pipe dream.

Andy then says that it comes down to one thing: "Get busy living or get busy dying."

In today's lectionary reading of the Gospel, we have the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead.  The wonderful thing about this miracle is that it can be taken literally or it can be applied metaphorically to our lives.  There are places where we have been busy dying.  These places sometimes become like caves to us.  They are dark and they smell like death and no one can come to us there.

No one dares come except the Christ.

Hear the words of Jesus, "Lazarus, come out!"  Put your own name in the sentence.

As Jesus states in verse 25, "I am the resurrection and the life."

It's time to get busy living.

Day 28 of Lent, Saturday, April 5, 2014

             “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
            
                                    John the Baptist, Matthew 3:2 (NRSV)


Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship stated that "cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance."

This is an important statement for today where many people expect their sins to be forgiven without taking on a forgiving nature themselves.  Jesus spoke of the dangers of this in the parable of the unmerciful servant.

What does our inner self begin to look like
when we nurture bitterness toward another?

We pray this each week in worship when we pray the Lord's Prayer,  "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."

I've often wondered that if we don't forgive the sins against us - those things which have really wounded us - do we really understand what we're asking God to do?

It seems that Jesus tied these together on more than one occasion for a reason.

During Lent, this is a good thing for us to pray about and maybe we'll understand a little better the depth of grace.





Photo by Jessica Flavin from London area, England (Anger Controlls Him) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Day 27 of Lent, Friday, April 4, 2014

     Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, 
        my brother would not have died.
                                                             John 11:21

Four soldiers died on Wednesday at Fort Hood, Texas including the gunman who committed suicide.  Iraqi vet Ivan Lopez shot 19 people, three of which were killed.

Lopez was undergoing treatment for mental illness and had a wife a daughter living on base.

This tragedy comes after the shooting in 2009 on Fort Hood in which 13 people were killed.

The remains of Sgt. Amy S. Krueger are carried to the waiting aircraft by the Fort Hood honor detail.
 Krueger was killed during the Nov. 5, 2009 massacre at Fort Hood.

The kind of grief that comes with this encounter for the family members of the victims is often horrific.  There is a steeling of oneself when a loved one goes to a foreign base where combat duty is a real possibility.  But to have this happen on American soil is likely more difficult because it seems so random.

When we lose loved ones - especially without warning to tragedy - the grief can be overwhelming.  Different people cope in different ways.

Diana Troxwell, who lost her 20 year old daughter to a heroin overdose felt like a failed parent.  She joined a support group of other parents who faced a similar loss.

Some people turn to their faith in times of grief while others feel that God somehow abandoned them.

They want to know, "Where was God in this?  Why didn't my son or daughter's guardian angel show up and prevent this from happening?"

In a shooting, there is not much room between being injured and being killed.  The small margin of error - the bullet moving just inches one way or another - can be the difference between life and death.

Knowing this can cause a person to "what if" themselves to a breakdown.  It can also leave them feeling as if God is oblivious to human feeling.

This Sunday's lectionary reading is from the story of Lazarus in John 11:1-45 and my sermon title is "When Death Seems More Real than God."  It will be available on www.piedmontumc.org by Monday.

I also found this prayer to be especially helpful for the grieving:

We give them back to you, dear Lord, who gave them to us.  
Yet as you did not lose them in giving, so we have not lost them by their return.
What you gave, you haven't taken away, O Lover of souls; for what is yours is ours also if we are yours.
And life is eternal and love is immortal, and death is only a horizon, and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.
Lift us up, strong Son of God, that we may see further; 
cleanse our eyes that we may see more clearly;
and draw us closer to you that we may know ourselves to be nearer to our loved ones who are with you.
And while you do prepare for us, prepare us also for that happy place, that where they are and you are, we too may be for evermore.  Amen.

                                 William Penn, 1644-1718


Photo by John Byerly, U.S. Army (Fort Hood departure) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Day 26 of Lent, Thursday, April 3, 2014

    The heart is devious above all else;
                      it is perverse—
             who can understand it?

                       Jeremiah 17:9

     Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, 
       according to our likeness; 

                       Genesis 1:26


These two scriptures seem opposed to one another if you don't imagine God to be devious or perverse.  Of course a devious or perverse God doesn't seem to fit with the letters of John which define God as love.

Do you see humankind as inherently sinful or as made in God's image - a little lower than God? (Psalm 8). 

Maybe we are both.  We are created in the image of God, capable of great good.  Yet we are oriented around the self which causes sin to distort our potential.

It used to be that liberals followed along more closely to the idea of being created in God's image while conservatives were more likely to speak of the sinfulness of all people.

Yet when we speak of the free market, we find almost the opposite.  Conservatives seem to value less regulation by government, preferring the free market to self-correct.

In other words, businesses whose products are dangerous or deficient would be unable to survive the lawsuits and bad press and would go the way of the dinosaur.  Businesses that provide quality services and products would rise like cream to the top.

This is almost an egalitarian view of companies and their strategies to make a profit.

On the other hand, liberals tend to look for regulations to protect citizens from some of the more dangerous products or practices.

They tend to have a darker outlook on the nature of businesses, seeing CEO's as robber barons of old.

Some of the regulations that we have in the United States that both sides tend to agree on would be food and water standards.  It is nice not to wonder about the quality of the meat or produce we purchase at the store.

We assume certain safety regulations when we fly on a commercial plane and are happy that we don't have to wonder if a new airplane that just rolled off the line will be safe or not.

The question becomes, how much regulation is enough and when does it become ponderous?

This argument garnered the spotlight on Wednesday when the Supreme Court struck down the

 James Earle Fraser's statue The Authority of Law, which sits
on the west side of the United States Supreme Court building.

campaign contribution cap for our elected officials.  The conservative opinion prevailed 5-4 as this regulation of American politics was removed.  

Both sides speak in Pollyanna: the liberals imagine that deregulated spending on elections will look more like Lord of the Flies while the conservatives see them more as the unspoiled Blue Lagoon.

Okay, this may be exaggeration but not much.

As a pastor, I believe that humans are made in God's image and yet when we gather together, we sometimes revert to the lowest common denominator.

I've seen elections run with a sense of goodwill for one another and I've also seen them where the candidates run each other through the mud.  At the end of the day, everyone feels dirty when this happens.

When all is said and done, is the better person with the ideals we need elected to serve? Or is it more likely the person willing to sling mud with the coffers to do it that comes out on top?  

The Founding Fathers were skeptical of democracy believing that the common person was swayed by gifted orators rather than making informed decisions.  Hmm.

A representative government was built to protect us from ourselves.  

Theologically, I would like to be optimistic about our ability to work together and come up with leadership that is selfless.  But I also ascribe to the fact that all sin and fall short of God's glory.  

Is the amount a person can spend on political elections a form of free speech?  The Supreme Court says yes.  Is it wise?  Time will tell.  

As we continue to walk with Christ during Lent, let us be in prayer for all our political leaders that they might not be swayed by the dollars of political supporters but rather by information and the good of the people they serve.




Photo by Matt H. Wade (User:UpstateNYer). [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Day 25 of Lent, Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Whoever welcomes one of these children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me isn’t actually welcoming me but rather the one who sent me.
                                          Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in Mark 9:37 (CEB)

One of the challenges of moving to an appointment without a parsonage is buying a home. Difficulties aside, the good thing about this is that we get to choose which school district we want for our children.  We picked the Cheyenne Middle School because Kyla already takes orchestra there on Monday nights so the transition will be smoother.

Unfortunately, this school district seems to be a popular one around Edmond which means the housing prices are higher.  Parents want quality education for their children and are willing to pay more or live in a smaller home to get it.

Our teachers held a rally at the capitol on Monday to remind the rest of us that education is important.  If we believe it to be important, we need to do a better job of funding it.  As we can look at Edmond or Piedmont, we see that young families are attracted to these areas because of the good school systems.  When we think about the long term future of our state, if we become known for top-notch education, it will be easier to attract families to come and live in our state.

As a church, we have always supported education.  We believe that God can more fully utilize a person's gifts if they are educated than if they aren't.  It's a matter of giving God more tools to work with!

I saw the sign below on a post from Twitter:

Great sign. #OKEDRally pic.twitter.com/LcICRNrv0D
— Cal Hardage (@calhardage) March 31, 2014

This sign is sobering because it is likely true.  It really gets to the heart of our priorities, darn it!

As we continue during Lent, we may look at extending our hand to the least of these in society.  As we do so, we discover that we are serving Christ.  The scripture in Mark above reminds us that this same relationship exists as we serve the children.



This is one of my favorite educational songs of all time:

Day 24 of Lent, Tuesday, April 1, 2014

"Guess what, kids?  It snowed last night!"

This might actually be believable this year as we've had some strange winter weather but I think spring is finally here to stay.

And with spring comes April Fool's Day.

Every year I usually tell the kids that it snowed.  It's a fairly harmless prank that used to work every time.  Alas, they are getting older and it is hard to use the same trick year after year.

I told Sheryl today that I was going to tell them that the Bishop changed his mind and we aren't actually moving.  She cringed and said, "I'll probably just listen from the next room."

I won't actually do that one - a little too cruel to play with their emotions that way but my mind seems to go to extremes.  It's a gift.

A prank in London going back to at least 1698.

It wasn't on April Fool's Day but I do remember a good prank I played in college.  It was Easter Sunday afternoon and we had an Easter Egg Hunt scheduled for the Wesley Foundation at OSU for those students that didn't go home.

Shannon Davis (now the pastor at Woodward First United Methodist Church) and I were in charge.  We decided not to hide the eggs but then go ahead and tell them that they were hidden all around Theta Pond.

We told everyone that this was a really tough hunt and only the most diligent would find any.  They looked for about 10 minutes before we revealed that there were no actual eggs hidden.  This was all on videotape and at this point, you saw the camera drop to the ground as we ran for our lives.

I'm not sure how we escaped being thrown into Theta Pond but the other students showed more grace than we did.

As you consider April Fool's, have a little fun with it.  But remember not to be cruel.

If you get punk'd, remember to be a good sport about it even if it really irritates you.

The best thing to do is to realize that people wouldn't go to the trouble if they didn't like you.

And remember, patience, joy, gentleness and self-control are all fruit of the Holy Spirit!




A good April Fool's song for the day.  Don't try this in Piedmont, kids!