Call and Response

By now, information should have reached you about the next chapter in my ministry. If it has not, I have been selected as the candidate to be the next General Presbyter for Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery. The presbytery will vote on May 31 at the Tri-Presbytery meeting in Oklahoma City and I would start June 1. This is a journey that I begin with much excitement and with great sadness over leaving Southminster. This is a church that Kati and I love. It is a place that we have found to be a home and a home for our boys. This was a process filled with a lot of prayers and tears, but it is where I believe God is calling me to serve the larger church, including Southminster. 

One of the words you have heard a lot from me over the last three years is that word “call”. “What is your call?” “How are you fulfilling your call?” “What might God be calling you to do today?” In a reformed, Presbyterian faith that stresses the priesthood of all believers, call is central to our identity. It is the place where our gifts and possibilities meet God’s plan for our lives and the needs of the world. It is there that we are faithful, not just to a moral or ethical code, but to God’s will for us in our whole like. Discerning how we are called (along with actually doing it), becomes one of the central aspects of our discipleship. Faith is more than mere theological assent, it is prayerful action in the world.

The Lenten devotional book we have been reading in the adult Sunday School class has touched on this topic many times already in Lent. The title even speaks to the theme: A Way Other Than Our Own by Walter Brueggemann. In Lent, particularly, as we introspectively look at the state of our faith lives, we encounter anew God’s leading. In Lent, we become aware of the distance between where we are and where God is and is going. Often we are called to a way other than our own. 

It is also the biblical story. It is the call and response of Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Moses, of disciples and apostles, Peter, Paul, and James. It is the story of Jonah running away from his own call only to finally fulfill it. It is the Good Samaritan feeling the call to help and responding. Our lives are filled with these questions. How do we go? Where do we go? Where is God calling us now?

I told somebody the other day I could not preach and teach about call if I was not willing to follow that call as well. As Lent continues, Easter approaches, and the journey of faith continues for each of you, I hope you find and follow your call too.

Spring, Rebirth, and Resiliency

Earlier this week, Sharon Coffman inspired me with thoughts of spring in her devotional study at the Session Meeting. The change back to winter with ice and the possibility of snow has not dampened that mood for me as I sit down to write this month's newsletter article. 

I have always planted a garden as a homeowner. From a few pots to a few raised beds and an entire flower garden, it is a calming and therapeutic task most days. Evan is of the age now that he thinks gardening is fun. He likes playing in the dirt, planting seeds, watering, and even pulling weeds. - That may change one day, but I will take advantage of it while I can. - This winter, we got ambitious with our garden: we would grow the tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, and more from seed. In late January, we started planting tiny seeds in seed starter pots and watering them religiously. We rejoiced as the first buds started to break through the dirt. We celebrated as they touched the roof of our tiny greenhouse and we had to move them to bigger pots.

They did not thrive in their new home, however. The dog knocked over a pot investigating one day and the plant was hopelessly damaged. Simon tried to “help” his brother and I by pulling off leaves. We lost a couple of quick growing pumpkin plants that way. We moved the trays of seeds into a sunny window and the combination of the sun’s rays and the heater vent's blowing air dried out the plants more than we could water them. Some are still holding on, but it looks like this batch of plants will be a total loss except for some very hearty peppers. Evan had great fun seeing the process, so it was not a complete waste of time. 

One of the lessons I am teaching my kids and that I have found invaluable in the church is resiliency. All is not lost when the plants all die. We can plant more and start again. All is not lost when X, Y, and Z happens in the church either. They always have happened and always will. What matters is that second part about starting again, renewing efforts, looking with fresh eyes, and trying something new. As I look out at the church and all the places where there is truly lifegiving work being done in the church, often it is where there have been a lot of failures and trying again. The opposite is also true. Many times the churches that are stuck in a rut or are on the verge of closing are there because of some distant wrong that always stuck around and the church never got past.

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday on March 6. It is a time of renewal. It is also a test of resiliency. It is a time of dying and rising again. Refining. What must die in us and in the church to be reborn again? Where do you or we need a new chance, a rebirth? How do we build resilience into the DNA of our faith and church? How might we grow and thrive if we do just that?

Celebrating Welcome

Monday nights are usually a madhouse at Southminster. Tuesdays and Thursdays can be too. Saturday is filled with people utilizing our church. If you are only here on Sunday, you might miss how busy and active we are seven days a week. For example, six different groups were using the building last Monday, including the Session Meeting. The Boy Scouts held a Court of Honor Ceremony for an Eagle Scout, which meant they used the sanctuary and the dining hall for a celebratory reception. We had meetings and support groups spread throughout the building all night. People were here until 9:30pm that day and that was an early evening compared to others.  

One of the things I celebrate about Southminster is our sense of welcome. We do this on Sunday morning. You all are great at warmly greeting one another and new faces. You notice when people have been gone. You perk up when there is somebody new. The Passing of the Peace goes on forever because we are so invested in making each individual feel like they are valued and welcomed here. We also live into it throughout the week. It is part of the culture around here. Southminster opens up its doors to a plethora of support groups and outside organizations. Life Senior Services brings a wide variety of activities and participants to our doors. The Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts meet here. The Brookside Neighborhood Association gathers here. I suggest Southminster to host events for the presbytery and church organizations as often as I can, because I know we will do a great job and make people feel at home. In fact, we are hosting the Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery meeting in a few weeks. Even if it is just putting out coffee and cookies for a group, we do our best to care for others. 

Being welcoming is more than just being good hosts. It is a biblical value. It is a way of proclaiming the good news. In Matthew 25:35-40, Jesus says, “for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me." Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?" And the king will answer them, "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

Continue to welcome in Christ’s name.

Something Is Happening

I love rediscovering books. The scenario often goes something like this: 1) See an ad for a book via email or while browsing Amazon, 2) Buy the book, 3) Receive the book and plan to read it, 4) Not read it immediately and put it on a shelf, and 5) Rediscover the book months or years later. The latest version of the scenario played out before Christmas. I was looking for material for a devotional when I came across a thin collection of Christmas sermons by Thomas Long. He is one of the best preachers alive, so I thought he must have some wisdom for me. And he did. 

In his book, “Something Is About To Happen…”, he shares the story of man who comes back to church week after week with a contagious enthusiasm for the life of faith. When asked what keeps him coming back, he responds “It’s strange, I know, but I get the feeling here, like nowhere else, that something is about to happen.” Long shares this story in the context of Advent. Jesus is about to arrive on Christmas. Something is about to happen – the world is about to change – but it is also something more. It is the persistent hope that lives will be impacted, faith will be restored, miracles will happen, people will be fed and healed, and more. Every day is something new. It is a new possibility. 

I have commented many times that the reason I love my job is because everything is constantly changing. New challenges appear almost daily. The liturgical cycle keeps us moving and on our toes. The ebb and flow of the church year assures that there is something about to happen, almost always, that needs attention. 

In Advent, we prepared and anticipate the arrival of Christ. In this season after Christmas, we expect the world to be changed by that birth. As I said at the Christmas Eve service, we are a part of that change. In a New Year and in all we do, we know that Christ is working. Something is happening…

Christmas Brings

Last Sunday after worship, the Christmas season arrived at our house. We transformed our home with Christmas decorations over the course of the afternoon. The seasonal fall decorations (and a few leftover Halloween ones) came down and red, white, green, and gold exploded. The rooms were filled with Christmas carols. Simon stole a jingle bell from that ornament box and was dinging it through the hall. We had ladders and chairs everywhere to hang garland and bows. Closets were carefully opened to not reveal unwrapped Christmas presents that were already hiding from Black Friday shopping. (Don't tell Evan and Simon.) 

Even with Christmas a month away, it felt like it was closer once the house looked the part.

We celebrate Christmas with decorations. We celebrate it with presents. We celebrate it with family, friends, and neighbors. We even prepare for it, sometimes months in advance, but what are we celebrating? What does Christmas bring to you? What does Advent prepare for you?For me, it brings those four words so associated with this time of year and Christ’s birth: joy, hope, peace, and love. It means the arrival of a baby in a manger, Emmanuel, God with us, Jesus Christ the Son of God. More than that, we are preparing for and celebrating what it means that he is born.

The divine has come close to the human. Our comfort and strength lives among us. God and humanity are one in Jesus Christ. Our Savior is here. Christmas means all of that. It brings all of that.Jesus’ arrival brings change, as well. It means change to us and to the world. His arrival will bring wholesale upheaval to the order of the world both at his time and ours. Christmas brings change to us. At this time of year, more than any other, we do not live for ourselves. This is one of the changes his birth brings and is part of our Advent preparation. We serve others in soup kitchens. We buy presents for folks off of Angel Trees. We donate to charities serving the neediest in our communities. We invite people into the transformative story of Christmas at Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols Services. Some of that may happen elsewhere in the calendar, but it happens with a particular vigor as Christ’s birth approaches. It is a reminder, again and again, that the world is changed, is changing, will change.Christmas brings Christ. Christmas brings change.

What will it bring to you?

We Make The Road By Walking

The story goes that as Harvard University added buildings around the famous Harvard Yard through the 19thcentury that they did not include paved paths between the buildings. For decades, they simply kept adding buildings and allowed the students and professors to find their ways from building to building without set sidewalks between them. This created a spider web of intersecting paths. It also created a network of paths that were the fastest and best paths that had been discovered from getting from one building to another. Yet none were ever planned beforehand. When the walkways were eventually paved, it was the network of student and professor made ruts that were converted into sidewalks. Harvard Yard is filled with those same pathways today.

“We make the road by walking.” This is the phrase I repeat often in ministry. So much of what was once fixed and normative a generation ago in ministry and elsewhere is in flux. Like the early students and professors at Harvard, we are once again charting the quickest and best path between where we are and where we are going. What we are to do tomorrow is still in front of us.

The phrase comes from a proverb poem by the Spanish writer Antonio Machado. The suggestion is that the future only exists as we begin to live into it. It is in beginning something, anything, that we find our way. We may plan (and we should), but until we actually walk and make the road, it does not yet exist.

We are  a month from the start of Advent. In Advent, we prepare ourselves for the arrival of Jesus Christ, the baby meek and mild, but also the savior King of all creation. In entering creation, the entire biblical narrative of God’s interaction with humanity was turned on its head. Never since the Garden of Eden was the divine and human so close.  And yet, dangerously, unexpectedly, it was. God was here in the person of Jesus Christ, a baby in the manger, the Son of God on earth.

Whenever the church and the people in it are afraid of an unknown future, I think of Christ, the disciples, and the entire gospel experiment. Nothing like that had ever been done before and every disciple knew it. And still, they followed that path. No god had ever died, let alone for the sins of all creation. And nevertheless, Jesus does. We make the road by walking because often the future into which God has called us has never been trod. We make the road by walking because where God is calling us nobody has ever been before. We make the road by walking because we are the ones called out into God’s good future to do so. We make the road by walking.

New and Renewing Faith

Last Sunday, we marked the beginning of the Sunday School year with Celebration Sunday. It is also the unofficial kick off of the fall. With our adjusted calendar because of the sanctuary projects, it corresponded to the actual start of fall this year. In some churches, what we call “Celebration Sunday” is known as Rally Day or Back-to-Church Sunday. All the days, whatever they are called, mark the start or a transition towards one of the livelier seasons in the life of church. They move us beyond the carefree days of summer to a mixture of work, school, church activities, sporting events (football!), and more church activities.

I like the sentiment behind this day. We claim a faith that is timeless. We should practice our faith all the time, but our faith does require nudges from time to time. We need reminders that our faith is ever changing and, hopefully, ever growing. Our practices need to be refreshed. It is good to have a new entry point. There is still more to learn. There are more ways to live that faith out. Celebration Sunday and all the other days that mark this occasion serve as an invitation to a faith that is never stagnant.

One of my greatest joys in ministry is seeing that jump forward happen in real time. Somebody will sit in on a class and begin to engage the material. Before long, they learned something new. Maybe a comment peaks their interest. An idea or scripture takes on a new light. They connect with a bit of history they had not encountered yet. You see a recognition take place that somebody had the same question or struggle. Soon enough, the lightbulbs are coming on. I love teaching for that reason. It is a joy.

As we enter the fall and celebrate a new beginning, I also want to challenge you to reengage that faith. Join a Sunday School class. Make an extra effort to participate in worship. Open your bible and read. (Maybe find it first.) Whatever you may do, take this transition to fall as an opportunity to discover Christ anew.

Pink Polka Dot Stroller at Sunrise

A number of years ago, an older neighbor practiced Tai Chi on my street corner every morning as the sun rose. It was a beautiful juxtaposition of art and exercise bathed in the warm orange glow of the early morning light. I noted at the time his dedication. The gentleman did this every morning, regardless of temperature. The only thing that seemed to stop him was rain or snow. It was a religious and dedicated practice.

His daughter and granddaughter came to live with him and his wife after several years of this practice. There were three generations living under one roof at that point. Every morning after this change, there was no Tai Chi on the street corner. Instead, this man took his granddaughter to the park at the entrance to the neighborhood. He pushed her in a small pink polka dot stroller down the sidewalk, around the corner, and across the street swimming in the same warm glow that once lit his morning exercise. His new practice is just as religious and dedicated with a few more exceptions made for temperature.

What would be that important to you? This man is dressed and ready to play at the park with his granddaughter by 7:30am every day. She is dressed and ready to go too. Surely, they have both eaten and been awake for some time. He may have even gotten in his Tai Chi before all of this happens for all I know. What would get you going like that beyond a job Monday through Friday?Luke 12:34 contains the often quoted line, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” This is true. “For where your time is spent, there your heart will be also” might be truer. Between all the places you could expend your time, where is it actually spent? Where would you like to spend it?How much time are you spending in the park or at sunrise? How much time do you find yourself in silence or prayer? Where are you seeking out moments of awe? When do you cross paths with God?

Fall in the church always comes as an invitation. Our calendar starts again. Our programs restart. We offer a natural entrance point for your spiritual journey to start again or be renewed. This could mean worship or a Sunday school class. It could simply mean waking up to read your bible before or during the first light of the day. It might mean volunteering as schools start again or as the weather changes on our needy friends.Where would you like to spend your time? What gets you out of bed?