A Letter to Justin

My first grandson, born this day in the early morning hours, in the waning of one year, we are so glad to welcome you to the family! And your arrival reminds us once again of our need to stop fighting for as much as we can snatch from the world and it's people, and start the transformation that God wants to take place. We will vote and work for those who will work for peace. We will take care of the earth. We will stive for a more tolerant and accepting approach to life.

The Iowa Caucuses are just around the corner, and that will impact your early years, my grandson, in that we will elect a president to help restore our nation's position in the world, restore the civil rights that have been stripped from us, and reinject our nation's resources and support into turning around global warming so you and your children and your children's children will have a planet fit for human habitation.

We will stand by you, guide you, challenge you, love you. We will work now and throughout the rest of our days to make this a better world for you. This pledge I make you, Justin Lee H., I will begin now to develop a more positive attitude and outlook. I will consciously strive to see the good, the brightness, and the potential rather than seeing bad, dark obstructions. In that manner, I will begin being part of the solution, rather than part of the problem. I pray others will also start to see the glass as half full rather than half empty.

Bless you, child. Lead us to a better world! May this letter apply to all who welcome the arrival of new babies! May it apply to all who seek new opportunities! May it be!

Peace!

Waiting for Baby

Our son and daughter-in-law are awaiting the imminent arrival of their firstborn. Being with them this Christmas season brought back a lot of memories - the short nights of sleep even before the baby's arrival because she isn't comfortable, and you are more attuned to her discomfort; the persistent people who seem to feel that you are conspiring to keep the news from them - get real! - and ask daily if not more if the baby has arrived; the plans, the work to be ready when baby does arrive.

It really is like life, when you stop to think about it. We ARE to be attuned to one another's comfort level and to help where and how we are able. That works for those standing on the sidelines as well - realize that there is a great deal of stress in the last weeks of the pregnancy and PLEASE don't aggravate it by asking daily about the still impending arrival! You will learn of the birth in due time - and the parents certainly aren't holding back on you!!!

The good things in life will take time, and effort, and teamwork! I'm constantly reminded that the church is compared to a body - and I think the same is true of families and communities - each having a role to play in support of or complimenting others. If any fail to fulfill their role, they diminish the results of the whole. Churches, families and communities have been moving for a long time toward seeing a certain small group as responsible for all the work, while the rest want all the benefits - imagine your heart being the only thing that had to work in your body, while all the other members wanted to have the benefits of a healthy heart. Or imagine a football team on which everyone expected the quarterback to do it all - block, run, pass, catch, tackle, sack, cover, special teams - but all wanted to be a championship team. It isn't a pretty thought, is it?

So, when our son and daughter-in-law were more subdued and tired than usual, we asked if they would rather have time to themselves - and when they agreed, we left. If they call asking for help, we will drive back up and offer what we can. Sensitivity is something we need to cultivate in relationships, families, communities and the world. Tolerance is part of that sensitivity. We must tolerate the differences in others, or they will not tolerate our differences - and no matter how homogenous we think we are, we are dramatically different.

With a new year around the corner, here's a challenge for all - develop your sensitivity, work on your tolerance, and understand that if God weren't tolerant (as our role model) we wouldn't live because of our differences from God's desired standard. Give people room to grow, let them communicate to you, but use your common sense as well. Peace!

The Wisdom of Age

I visited with an older member of the congregation today, one I had been told was having some health issues. It would appear that what I was told has been addressed, but others still loom. This down-to-earth person told me that the only real sorrow was the inability to have learned a serenity and acceptance of life only so late in life. I understand that thought completely! It does seem a bit unfair that during the years we think ourselves indestructible we should never gain that acceptance that something just happen, and all we can do is acknowledge that it did, and go on with life. Past is past, and cannot be regained. What worked won't necessarily work again. What was right may be proven wrong. Witness what has happened in medicine with the reverses that have happened on several fronts over and over. This is bad for you, a new study shows its good, that expert warns against it, and that one is on television touting its benefits.

God has a plan for us, and sometimes that requires that those who have gone before, or those who have gone beyond - educationally, experiences, whatever - be allowed to guide us through some changes that may well push us into new directions, and help us to grow in amazing ways - though not necessarily in the ways we wish.

This congregation suffered the deaths of some great saints of the church, all within a relatively short time. Last night, at our Blue Christmas Service, we allowed time to grieve, asked to remember to good times, and to consider how we might take the best, most important parts of their lives present in our lives to help others. Three of the women there, with tears in their eyes, or streaming down their cheeks, paused to thank me for allowing that statement that Christmas isn't always that joyous occasion we would like. Again, age teaches us lessons of reality and hope - for while they grieve, they also understand that life does indeed go on, though a gap may seem to be there now where once he or she or they once stood.

But close your eyes, allow your memories to play, and you will find that you can be with that one you miss, talk with them, laugh, cry, and have the companionship you need. God's love and signs of hope are all around and in us. Peace!

Christmas and Tension

Christmas is just around the corner, and many people are overjoyed with the lights, the decorations, the presents and the food. However, for many, many people this is not a particularly joyous time - because loved ones have died, tragedies have hit, troubling news hangs over the holiday season, differing understandings strain relationships with family members. Christmas is to be joyous, but perhaps we need to take another look at what it provides to people - perhaps we need to emphasize more that God's Son comes to help us through all those difficult times, that Jesus, as a real human being, understands the pains and troubles of being human - complete with the loss of parents, friends, scorn, misunderstanding, hate - all of it. Perhaps we focus more on the hope and less on the frivolous side of the commercialized binge we now have.

Before our children were born, my wife and I had a conversation with her cousins that impacted us in a powerful way I think more consistent with our faith than the usual understanding. We had it pointed out that we raise our children in our country on Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and Jesus. As they grow older, they learn that Mom and Dad are Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy - so what conclusion logically follows about Jesus? In keeping with this, our children grew up knowing that Christmas was to celebrate and honor the birth of Jesus the Savior, and we exchange gifts in remembrance of the Magi and because we love each other. Santa was a guy in a costume in the mall giving out candy and help kids share things. Similarly, Easter is when we remember Jesus returning to life, and making it possible for us to have eternal life as well. We hid eggs, but it was clear that Dad and Mom did the hiding and we had great fun doing it. We didn't talk to them about a Tooth Fairy, but told them to put the tooth under their pillow and we would replace it. They are healthy, well-adjusted adults - even though both sets of grands thought we were mad!

Our Church will have a Blue Christmas service on Saturday night, a time to honor the pain, the confused feelings, the tensions that this season can bring about. I have no idea how well or poorly attended it will be, but we, as disciples of the Galilean Carpenter, are called to make the effort to help those in need.

So, I would ask you to consider some changes to the "usual" understandings, some thought to the thought process of children, and some serious time spent considering how our faith really ought to impact the way we think and celebrate holy days. Peace!

Late Night Reading

Well, I've just read through many renderings of responses to the question: What have you to say about our church? The upshot is that many see me as the problem for differeing reasons: I preach the same message for three years - does this suggest something other than I'm obsessive? I'm so focused on myself that no one self matters - does this really mesh with my ability to be good to work so well with families who have lost a loved one? - I'm so out of touch that I cannot understand the needs of those aroudn me?

Well, I want to understand where people are coming from - so I'll stop sharing stories that illustarate that I know what you are going through; I'll stop being someone who is willing to share what I REALLY believe in order to shar what you believe -- is that what you really want? I'll start preaching feel good sermons that don't challenge and only comfort - is that what you really want? I'll make study series ONLY what you want - will that get you to attend?

It seems that for the church to be "acceptable" we nee dto be ONLY what certain people want, only what will make people feel comfortable - when did people stop being able to understand when someone else was the target? So, it would seem that I need to work myself to the bone to make sure the "church" grows in order to have the people feel I'm doing my job, and if they do nothing, that shouldn't surprise me.

I'm sorry but I find that the current emphasis on how "I" get what "I" want as the focus of the church as a bit of a return to what led Jesus to protest the religious establishment and what led the protestant reformers to witness to a different way of looking at faith.

Where did we lose our focus on the salvation that comes by faith and by living? May we find it again. May we realize Jesus never meant for even 10% of the church to do it all! May we truly take on the roll of disciples - all of us!! Peace!]

Bleakness in the sunshine

Well, that's one way to look at it. The church I serve is going through a difficult time of adjustment and considering the future - one likely without me in the picture, and possibly without either of the full time staff. Why? Well, in part the same difficulty so many churches are struggling with - the unwillingness for individual members to take full responsibility for their membership. If the church is to grow, it must grow through the efforts of professional leadership. We recently tried what was openly proclaimed a short term experiment in Christian Education - our youth knew the scriptures for the day, came together with their own paraphrases and developed the plan for the day with the help of the Christian Education Director and then taught the children later in the morning. It was resisted by a few from the start, though the Board agreed to try it. People who came to listen largely bought into the idea. Since it started, older members have complained about kids running wild after the Church School time has ended, some have stated their children will NOT attend as long as this continues - it's ending now. Yet the reason for trying it was that no one wanted to commit to teach Sunday school even a month at a time.

I see this, along with the news that this pattern is being repeated in other churches in the community, as a continuing sign of the changing of the times, and of the need for the church to understand that living in the past just won't do it. The difficulty is that the older members tend to be the more vocal, and they don't want their comfort zones challenged. When people begin to state expounding the scriptures in a way that addresses life today as being too political, I can only assume they have come with an agenda, rather than simply listening to information that is being shared. I have others in the church that on the same services speak to me of what a good service they think it was.

I draw courage from the stories of leaders throughout history who have faced the opposition of the larger faith community. I know we are not promised an easy road, but sure wish we could find a way to work with some trust in our training and considered thoughts about how to work. Along with others, I'll continue to pray that God's Spirit will move, and that the willingness to change will come before it is too late.

I hope others are finding an openness to change, for life is built on change. Only death is built on stasis and stagnation. Flow, Spirit, flow and move us into the promised realm!

Peace!

Tragedy

Last night, tragedy struck this rural small city when two of the high school students here were killed in a car-semi accident. I learned today that the driver of the car was being told by a mother whose husband had committed suicide as they talked on the phone, that the son better get the car home NOW or she would call the police to bring it home - and that was as the accident occurred! Another young man was on a cell phone with a female classmate at the time of impact. The car hit the semi, which then drove over the top of the car and spun it into the ditch. Two young men following pulled the backseat passengers from the wreckage, then called help for the two in the front seat as the car smolder. It burst into flames and was fully engulfed by the time help could arrive.

I was first notified of the accident by a staff member of our church, then called to be at the high school with other clergy and counselors to help students early this morning. I was the first clergy or counselor to arrive. We were briefed, and right after the first class session began, they began to arrive. Girls clutching one another as they wept in shock and grief, young men who either came in devastated by the loss of close friends and bawling out their disbelieving grief, or stony faced and glassy eyed in that same disbelieving grief.

Counselors and clergy, we offered the comfort of presence, the quiet voices of those who've dealt with death, grief and tragedy before. We shared our frustration at not being able to answer their frustrated, angry "WHY?!" We shared tears, and we shared laughter as they remembered two young men well able to light up a room with a joke or their presence. We listened to their recollections of students seeking a way through the dysfunction of our society. We marveled at the ways they reached out to one another - words like "I love you! You need me, you call me, do you hear? Anything, you call me. I'm hear for you!"

And I couldn't help but wonder, what if we could begin to face life that way as a nation - "I love you! I'm hear for you, whatever you need from me, I'm hear! Call me, I want to help you! I love you!" Wow! What a picture that would be for the world to contemplate! Love in action, love lived out between friends, neighbors, even strangers - because I didn't know most of those I offered help to on this day of tragedy, but offer I did, because that is what my faith calls me to do. I hope it makes a difference, that it will begin a chain of random acts of kindness and caring that will catch fire and spread across this little town struggling for survival, make it a place people will flock to in order to learn how to love this way.

There are many times that we are called to live idealism!! To know we are going to get hurt, scorned, ridiculed, and do it because it is right! Nothing more - no reward - no recognition - nothing but the knowledge that we did what was right when we needed to do it. Today was one. May we not wait until it is too late before we make this a pattern of behavior instead of an exception in our otherwise busy, race-through-life-with-the-blinders-on stress-filled days! May our children learn how valued they are, how much we love them, how proud we are of them - our children, our most valuable life's treasures - God's gift to us, on loan to train and give back.

Tears, sighs, hugs, silent-sitting-with presence. Peace!

Why?

I was talking with a colleague, one of those fellows to calls it like he sees it, and we discussed why churches fail to even consider what they say, how they act, or how they undermine their clergy.

One example from a former parish of mine was of having lightning burn out the refrigerator in the parsonage. We were promised a new refrigerator, but before it could be delivered, the sister of the president of the congregation called and reminded him that the women had wanted a new refrigerator at the church - so just take the old one out of the church for the parsonage and given the new one to the women, complete with ice maker. The first Sunday after this was installed, I was asked to empty the ice tray on Thursday and take the stale ice home so they would have fresh ice on Sundays - and I think you can imagine my answer. Why do that? What would a church member feel if that were reversed on them? How long before the pastor was run out of town on a rail? But it is all to commonplace, my friends.

Another, from the ministry of a fellow theater buff and colleague. He had started looking for another congregation. Our denomination has a certain etiquette for the call process. A church that he hadn't even known was looking at him sent 6 people to his service, where they sat together - about as subtle as an elephant sitting in the center aisle. You can imagine the comments floating around the church after that service, and they were truly incredulous that anything was wrong in what they had done.

Churches are organizations made up of people, and we are very concerned to get as many people as possible involved, but some people just aren't suited to some of the jobs in the church - though they may be quite skilled in other things the church requires. The image of the body suggests that we scrutinize people and consider where their gifts will BEST suit the life of the church. The very earthy person may not be the best suited for the children's Sunday School class. The best carpenter may not be the best person to fix the plumbing or electrical wiring.

If the church is to function to its best capacity, it needs to be willing to guide persons to where they will best HELP the life and progress of the church - just as we need to be willing to live with some uncertainty and discomfort for the sake of not becoming static and stagnant! Growth requires change, life requires change, surprise and a certain imbalance to things. But those make us VERY UNCOMFORTABLE!

God, help us trust you and your Spirit! Peace!

What's wrong with Christmas?

As we get well into December, a local writer asks, "What's wrong with Christmas?"

Well, let me attempt to share some of what's wrong with Christmas - which, by the way, comes from Christ mass. This is a holy day based in a lie - not the content, the date. Jesus, scholars tell us, was born in March-April and about 4-6 years earlier than tradition announces. The date we use was actually a substitute to over-run a pagan Winter Solstice celebration. But enough of that particular point - after all we know some who celebrate a birthday in June or July for a Christmas baby, or people born in leap years who nonetheless celebrate an annual birthday. It's just that perhaps the church needs to own some of its own misdeeds of the past, before trying to run everyone's life.

Another wrong of Christmas is lamented year after year, but the consumers don't seem to catch the disparity between their actions and their words. We now have Christmas gear showing up in stores before the Halloween candy and costumes are put away! While I indeed enjoin those who come to Christmas Eve services that Christmas should be year-round, rather than one of the few times they show up in church. Commercialism is robbing this holy day of its true meaning. Gifts are to be given in the name of Jesus, to honor his birth, to celebrate the coming of the beginning of God's recreation of the world into its intended life by the people of God; it is NOT meant to be a season where budgets are blown in our race to outdo others with the gifts we get and give.

Another problem I have with Christmas - we skip Advent to get right to Christmas - sort like skipping what leads to the baby's arrival! Why don't we have a wedding, then rush the blushing virgin bride off to the hospital for darling child number one? Because there is so much more than needs to be there! There is wonderful Advent music that isn't heard in the rush to start singing Christmas carols from the very start! Savor it! Enjoy each week, and learn the lesson of the candles. Learn to practice the virtures that are symbolized, and Christmas will have a much deeper meaning.

Another, and perhaps the biggest wrong for me, is the manner in which the story has been trivialized to the point that it is just so much traditional trapping for our joyful time - and something to be moved through as quickly, but stately, missing none of the "cherished" carols or traditions we think should be there, whether we tell anyone or not. We have become a people so comfortable with tradition's rendering of this story, we don't even try to under the deeper message of a persistent faith that is willing to face social ridicule, isolation and even death to follow the path God sets before us. We don't want to focus on Joseph, because God is the Father - yet family and friends sure assumed he was the father, and it is indeed Joseph who teaches Jesus to know "father" as a revered and trusted figure that will never give us a chore too hard, nor abandon us in our time of greatest need.

We just get so caught up in the glitz that the foundations and tear-drop by sweat-drop bricks of the building of this dramatic introduction of God's chosen and anointed Holy One are forgotten amid twinkling lights, twirling trees, and ka-chinging cash registers.

What's wrong with Christmas? Nothing, when we get back to its true meaning. Perhaps the question is "What's wrong with us at Christmas time?" Peace!

Snow doubt we will be watching

My wife had a medical procedure about 30 miles south of our home today, and the roads were fine on the trip down. When we came out, the snow had started. We are to get 3-5 inches of snow, followed this weekend by a storm that is supposed to put another inch or two of ice on top. What does this have to do the tenor of my posts to this point? Simply that life goes on, in spite of the difficulties, the plans, the efforts of those things that we think we have under control. "The best laid plans of mice and men . . . " and all that. We sometimes get hung up on not being able to accomplish what we thought we would - and to a degree that is alright, because it shows our determination to do our best at the project; but it can also become a determent when our focus is so narrow that we cannot see that if we have put our best into it, that is all we can offer. From there, we must go on trust.

An important consideration is our own personal integrity. It is ok to want to succeed and to do all in our power to get there, but if we are willing to sell our principles to get to an end point we cannot otherwise achieve, we are better to change our focus! What is the point of a large, booming church if in the process one loses self, family and friends in order to achieve that end? What is the point of a wealthy lifestyle, if we become heartless pursuers of ever-increasing bank acocunts and have no love in our lives? What is the point of the fame of stars and athletes if it leads to the sort of headlines we've seen lately of suicides, crimes that have been hidden, gambling debts that tarnish our names and reputations?

Life has to be built on a combination of faith and intergrity, of family and friends, or we lose sight of the point of being human. Compassion has to be a building block or we are no better than a lump of coal in a coal scuttle. There are times when I despair of the process of trying to lead churches to see the course of the priesthood of all believers, when so many are intent on using a professional clergy as the stop gap that allows them to simply drop a check occasionally and show a few times a year. I despair of congregations so locked into who they were that they cannot look at the need to change with any sort of rational thought, or perception that they are losing their younger members. Yet, behind it all, is the assurance that I need not do it all, only offer my best to the congregation. From that point, God will find a way - though perhaps not through me - to work the needed changes. That can be hard, and some would say it's taking the easy way out when challenged. I truly do not believe that is my approach, because I try to find different ways to present my ideas, and listen to people who have studied the changes that I recommend, then temper all of that by what I know of the people where God has placed me.

There are times that snow falls - criticisms that hinder my desired direction, or compliments that soften those criticisms. There are times the ice comes, stopping projects cold, sometimes for more thought on a better way to approach them, sometimes because people flat refuse to allow such a thing! Sometimes they combine, but, as with nature, I am reminded that God's timing isn't mine, that God's control is beyond my sight or understanding.

Therefore with the same faith that tells me the snows will fall this winter, I strive to offer my best and trust the rest to God. Peace!

Winter Thoughts on . . . .

Winter is here. Ice and snow, cold and wind, another source of inconvenience and anger. It is time for us to realize that for many people, any source of inconvenience can become a source of anger and angst for some of those we work with; and perhaps time for us all to start taking the approach of a colleague in responding to these reactions - "Let's be clear that I was called by God to this job, you provide for me and my family because as God's servant working in this place and time I also serve you, but I am God's servant. If you do not want to support my ministry among you as God's servant that is your decision, but I am God's servant."

Sounds harsh, and would indeed get some of us in very hot water, very fast. But isn't it the unwillingness to stand up for our calling that has resulted in so many of us being in a situation where we feel we have no power - not even influence - in our churches? Isn't it the unwillingness to confront wrong attitudes that puts us into the untenable situations that leave us back into corners until we are crippled in our ministry? Isn't it the giving up of our voice and vote that denudes us of the ability to truly lead in any way other than kill ourselves trying to do it all so the church grows and prospers, with money and members that won't listen to us once they are acclimatized to the culture of the congregation?

I grew, in my pastoral role, during a time that said the pastor has nothing better to do than serve us! Family, personal and health issues, personal spiritual life - all were to take a back seat to growing numerically and financially the congregation one serves by oneself - or perhaps with a few committed people willing to give an hour or two a week. I bought that image for years, and it took my wife telling me I would either change or go on without her and our children to cause me to actually start growing in my understanding. I'm still trying to put understanding into practice. But I don't back down as much as I used to. I'm not as good at confrontation as I would like, but I'm not sure that my understated ways don't, at least at times, leave the door open to teaching a better way. I'll continue to grow, and to look for the path God calls me to walk, and I will NOT relinquish my considered beliefs simply because someone who doesn't study, doesn't live and struggle every day with this faith disagrees with me.

God calls us to walk a difficult and painful road, but that difficulty and pain should be less within the gathered faithful and without, and the truth is most pastors having trouble in their congregations are more liked in the community than they are in their congregation - sad but true. So, courage, brothers and sisters! Jesus walked here before us, and walks with us.

Peace!

Chili, ice, birds, pregnancy

So, do I have you confused? First the chili reference, and a bit of humor - the other night as we prepared for my 59th birthday, I was helping my wife make venison chili - which required grinding dried chilis. While we grinding, we were sneezing and coughing and laughing, until I slipped up behind my wife, with my hands on her hips and said, "Boy, you are one hot mama now!" Then we both rolled with laughter!

Ice - well, we've dodged the bullet on winter so far, and today we are paying for it! With a funeral scheduled for this morning at 10:30, I had no choice but to get out. It was poorly attended, but the family understood, even urging some not to come because of the weather. Interestingly, when I left, there was about 3 inches of ice pellets and it was like walking in large grained sand. It has continued, but is supposed to be out of here tonight, allowing for programming tomorrow as usual.

I looked out the window while helping my wife in the kitchen and was amazed at the numbers, but my wife simply said "any port in a storm, and we are probably the only source in this area." Which prompts me to think about the church's approach to helping people - we have become so concerned about being taken by the abusers of the system that we often turn away even those who legitimately need our help. We recently had a situation where a young woman needed help, but because she wasn't a member, even though she wanted it as a loan rather than a gift, she was turned down for help and sent to look for help in the community -- do you think she will still consider our congregation as a future church home? I don't. I wonder what Jesus would say?

Pregnancy - well, this one comes from our daughter-in-law and son. She had a doctor appointment on my birthday, and was already 1 cm. Today my son noted the baby was "riding VERY low." We are starting to get even more excited about being grandparents for the first time, and are reveling in the excitement of our children at the prospect as well. New life is such a joy! That wonderful bubbly trust and enjoyment of life is infectious! Don't believe me, try this little exercise - when you feel a little down, go hold a baby for a while and see what happens! Smiles, playfulness, a sense of happiness and well-being are close behind! God bless all the babies, make them wanted, and blast all of us complacent types for not making sure they are all cared for to the best of our ability!!!!!

Peace!

Pen Pal's Letter and response

For the second year that I have been a pen pal for a 3rd grader at the school near where I live. It is a program through RSVP, and allows, in some instances, a role model and positive influence in the lives of children clearly missing some of that. Last year's pen pal was a boy focused on violence and power, so my focus was to try to urge a bit of caution while not saying "NO!" and to try to model strength that didn't depend on violence, along with an awareness that video games and movies are all make-believe.

This year's pen pal is as bubbly, but not so focused on violence and power. We have a common point in our love of betas (though he just told me it's spelled "b-a-t-a"), and our enjoyment of games. I also learned in his latest letter that his father wants to be a police officer - another point of contact, since my own father was in law enforcement.

I have tried for years to find those places where I can model the behaviors I would like to see in young people around them consistently and in close enough relationship that they can see those behaviors are real. I've coached Little League - and stopped in part because too many coaches and parents see it as simply a kid's big league, Youth soccer for boys and girls teams - with one program I worked hard to develop actually sending a team to the state youth soccer playoffs only a year or two after I moved away. I've worked with youth programs, and taught youth about faith and the benefits of spirituality, and enjoyed the parrying that goes until they determine you're honest with them, when you can get to the real questions.

I would that more adults, secure in themselves to the point of being vulnerable to the youth; serene enough to teach that violence isn't the only answer; and in good enough relationships to show that one doesn't need to dominate a partner in order to have a good relationship and get what one wants. Our world would be immensely improved if our children began to understand mutual respect within relationships; mutual caring with partners, friends and strangers; and to be confident of who they are to admit where they don't know, aren't strong enough, need help. Perhaps we adults will indeed learn that need some day, but I think some more pioneers are going to be needed to break the trail and set the examples. Takers? Peace!!

A Daughter's Inspiration

In sharing some thoughts by email with our daughter, I was reminded of the need to be as creative in our approach to life as possible! She lives and works in Colorado. Our son and daughter-in-law live and work in Minnesota. We are in Iowa. That makes holidays (read holy days) a little difficult at times - because we as a society have invested so much in calendars! And not always accurate calendars at that! Christmas, for instance, is ALWAYS celebrated on December 25 - why? Scholars tell us the birth of Jesus most likely occurred somewhere in April or May, and about 4 to 6 years earlier than we traditionally think. Retailers want us thinking of December 25, a pagan holy day taken over by the Church to increase its hold and influence over people. All in all, I wonder if it isn't time for us to begin clearing the calendar of commercialism, and traditional dates; and make room for families to find ways to celebrate what these holy days really mean. Why would it be wrong to gather in April or May to remember the child whose birth, death and new life turned history on its ear? Why would it be wrong to remember his tragic death for teaching a new love, for confronting oppressive powers some time other than what the calendar makers mark on their money-making lists? God isn't limited by our constraints, so why should our celebrations honoring momentous times in the lives of God's people? Something to consider, ponder and chew on. Peace!

One of those Sundays

You probably think I'm going to complain about yesterday, but, in truth, I was gratified by several things that happened. First the Adult class got into some very good discussions about Christ as the invisible image of God - what does that mean? What did it communicate about the role Jesus plays for us? And garnered one of those thank yous we all like to get, as a member of the class stopped me following worship to indicate she particularly liked the class that morning. Second, after stepping out a bit more than I usually do on the changes I think we need to be making in the church, another member paused after worship to say the whole service was very good. Third, I volunteered to do a devotional thought at the care facilities here in town in the absence of a pastor or worship team from one of the local church, but asked that arrangements be made for a pianist and songleader - that person called as we started the service to say they weren't coming - in stepped the daughter of our 103 year old member to play, if falteringly. While we didn't sing as much as we usually do when our church's team is there, we had a nice service. At the other facility, there was no song leader, but an appreciative group sang with gusto, and picked familiar hymns for us to sing. There were words of appreciation from most of the residents that we had a worship service.

It is all to easy to become comfortable with "the way things are" leading to occasional deep discomfort over a change. But if the church is to impact the world, we need to remember that Jesus comes to bring NEW life, ABUNDANT life, JOY-filled life. He is the LIBERATOR of the oppressed and enslaved. He sees the God-life within, not society's deliberate attempts to keep us fragmented and at each other's throats for crowd control. Heaven knows if we all decided to live that kind of life, the politicians would be without jobs, and so would the care agencies!

Perhaps it is too much to ask for us to push outside our comfort zones occasionally to try to be what the Master wants us to be? Perhaps Peter, Thomas, John and Judas still walk the earth with their own earthly agendas they wish to impose on the Teacher, and us. Perhaps it is time to hear Jesus again say, "Get behind me, Tempter!" Perhaps.

Getting Started

Well, my lovely bride of 34 and nearly a half years has suggested this for a while, and this slowly-learning techie is launching into blogging. A little about myself - I'm nearly 60 and have been a pastor in the United Church of Christ for over half that time. I married my bride because she absolutely ambushed me while we were in college; and if I could go back, I wouldn't change a thing about our getting together, only move up that wedding date!

I'm an example of someone whose faith was stuck in Sunday School until about midway through my college years, then it began to open. In part, this was due to some fantastic teachers along the way, and, in part, to the experiences and ponderings that began as I made the Bible a personal part of my life. Don't think that means I'm a Bible-thumper - because I'm not! I truly believe that we are to learn, ponder, struggle, and develop our own understanding of who God is, who Jesus is, what we are supposed to do with the gifts and skills we have. Every person is their own theologian, though they might as for someone else to share with them in the process.

I'm also a pastor that believes the pattern of ministry developed since professional clergy emerged - a pattern of we pay you to do all we won't do on our own - is all wrong for this day and age. If the church is to survive, we need to turn back the practice of Christian life to the early disciples - each one actively engaged in reaching out, each one willingly and humbly listening to others in order to see the wider picture from the widest possible angle. I truly believe that the ONLY role model we CAN have is Jesus' ministry - helping whoever, wherever, without stopping to judge their social acceptability before we offer. When that is taken into account, there is no one, male or female, child or adult or aged, straight or gay or bisexual or transgender, hawk or dove, Republican or Democrat, documented or undocumented that we have a right to shut out, come down on, or condemn. Jesus allowed people to condemn themselves by their actions and words, and tried to provide that which would help them see the difference available. I try to follow that pattern.

But I am all-to-aware of my own failings, including weighing too much, eating some of the wrong foods, and having acknowledged prejudices. I'm working on losing weight, eating healthier and learning to appreciate the better points of those against whom I have prejudice.

So you know a little about me, and I would invite your comments, and invite you to join me in the journey of life. Peace!