I am fascinated by the church. It is probably why I do this. We are the body of Christ, the living embodiment of the Son of God. How remarkable is that? We declare that we are his very hands and feet in the world. We preach his word. We worship him. We reach out to the rest of his people and gather them in together. We go out together to take care of God’s people hurting and alone in the world. We sit around tables together, either in the formality of the Lord’s Supper or the informality of a Sunday meal, and we get a taste of heavenly banquet in the Kingdom of God to come. I am amazed by that. Martin Luther took this activity so seriously that he wanted to move away from calling this thing we do together “the church” and instead favored “congregation”. He thought it better described our work together: congregating. I like that. At the same time, the church is divided into an infinite amount of subdivisions – denominations, associations, conferences, para-church organizations, non-profit corporate entities, confessions, individual congregations and the like. And within these divisions, even more disunion according to theology, worship style, tradition, music, race, class, creed, ecclesiology, missiology, and on and on. The greatest witness that we are not fully one in Christ is how much the church is not one in anything we do or believe. In part, we reflect the great sorting that is taking place in the society in general. We self-identify and are classified into a million minute categories. And often, those categories exist over and against all the other categories. We are at odds with one another either in theory or practice. A few years ago, I was at a worship conference and the conversation turned, as it often did, to diversity in the service - diversity of style, prayer types, music, people, technology, and more. How do we handle the dissatisfaction or grumbling that naturally ensues when people do not get what they like or want? The leader of the talk gave the example of multiple generations living under one roof as a model. Sometimes the kids will not like what a parent fixes for dinner. Sometimes grandpa might not like pizza night. Mom hates when grandma takes the children for ice cream before dinner on the way home from school. And yet, what unites them is greater than their differences. The unity of the family trumps all the ways in which they are pulled apart. I think this is the great challenge of the church today. There is an ever-present tension between our unity in Christ and the reality that there are thousands of churches out there that may be closer to our personal preferences and theologies. Nevertheless, we work and worship together in the church as an affirmation that we are one in the body Christ. We are Southminster Presbyterian Church. That we have new and old hymns and hymns from halfway around the world in worship is by design, but it is also a statement about the community we envision for ourselves. We are welcoming and inclusive of all. We hear sermons about pressing social issues alongside prayers of comfort and support for those down the pew from us. We gather around the bible for personal study and we go out to volunteer. At Southminster, it is a philosophy of both/and rather than either/or. If nothing else, it follows in the model of the Jesus Christ calling women and men, tax collectors and fisherman, thinkers and zealots, and so many others. I do this work because I believe without a doubt we are one in Christ. Let us work to make that a little more real every day. Blessings,Rev. Tim Blodgett
Southminster 75 and Beyond
When the Elders and Deacons of the church met in January for our Southminster Officer Retreat, one of the discussions was about “slaying dragons”. What histories, concerns, issues, problems, etc. are keeping the church from fully living into the God’s good future for us? What is holding us back in Brookside? What dragons have been slayed and where are we with the rest? We talked about losing members for x, y, and z reason, our invisibility behind the development on Peoria, and the decline of membership from the peak 20 or 30 years ago. It was a thoughtful and helpful conversation. The consensus was that we have done a great deal of work slaying those dragons, but there is still more work to do. One dragon we did not talk about in as much detail was the construction of the Community Center. It was a trauma for the church. We are thankful for its construction and the great ministry that is done from it now, but it was not an easy process. There were site and building issues. The finances became, perhaps, the greatest struggle. Fundraising was difficult. Asking the congregation again to give was challenging. Ending up with debt to carry was problematic. All of you that were here during that period know about all of this better than I do. It is a battle scar. We entered the Southminster 75 Capital Campaign with this dragon still looming. We also arrive here knowing that the church is in a completely different place than it was 10 years ago. Financially, we are remarkably blessed by the Center One development and the cell tower leases. The generosity of this congregation is amazing. Pledging increased even as we loss some key givers to death and relocations. The budget is cleaner, leaner, and nimbler than it has been. We are back to running surpluses and carrying money forward year to year. We are all much more hopeful about the future of this church. The Southminster 75 Capital Campaign is a celebration of 75 years of ministry in Brookside. It is an affirmation of the next decades of ministry to come here. I think it can also be another dragon we slay together. The past of this church does not dictate our future. Previous struggles are not predictors of present circumstances. We can move towards the good future that God has planned for us. And we can do all of that together for the benefit of our ministry in Brookside and the Kingdom of God work we are doing here. On April 1, the Southminster 75 Capital Campaign begins. The campaign funds five projects across the church that would take place over the next two years leading up to the 75th anniversary of the founding of the church in 2020. While the projects will be completed in less than two years, we will continue to receive pledges until December 31, 2023 for a total of five years of giving. The cost to complete all the projects including a new air conditioner, audio/video upgrades, and painting for the sanctuary, an elevator for the Community Center, a partial remodeling on Cottrell Hall, and updates to the east side exterior will be $350,000. $110,000 has already been pledged to the campaign before it even starts. The median pledge is $10,000 over five years or $2,000 per year. Easter Sunday, what will you give? How will you impact ministry in Brookside for the next 75 years? Will you help us slay this dragon?
Imagine Jesus
Picture Jesus. In your head, think about what Jesus would look like for you. Do you have that image? Is Jesus Caucasian with blond hair, blues eyes, and a kind smile? Does he have a beard? Or is he a darker complexion? Is he short or tall? What kind of clothes is he wearing? Jesus is definitely not in a three-piece suit, but is he wearing nice white clean clothes or is he more shabbily dressed? Is he in sandals or barefoot?While so many pictures of Jesus in church hallways and Sunday School classrooms may influence our vision of Jesus to some points of commonality, when we shut our eyes we are each seeing a slightly different version of the same person. In reality, Jesus looked how Jesus looked, but we cannot get back to a place where we can take a snapshot. We each see Jesus individually.The same is true of our understanding of Jesus’ life and ministry: each of us has our own perception of Christ. We emphasize different things. We care more about certain things than others. Like the gospel writers, we all have our own slightly different spins on the life of our Messiah. Only two of the gospels depict the birth of Christ and each in different ways. In the original ending to Mark, there is no post-resurrection appearance of Christ. Details change from author to author. The same is true for a hundred different parts of our personal understanding of Jesus. We include some things and exclude others. We like particular actions, but cannot understand others. More than ‘picking and choosing’, we fit together our own personal understanding differently. We imagine Jesus differently.The opportunity and challenge of that kind of faith is that each of us is responsible for how we envision Jesus Christ, his life, and ministry. The same is true for the rest of our lives of faith. Learning and growing is key in this reality of faith. You are not spoon fed an image of Christ. You discover and develop one. Whether that image is better or truer depends on our understanding and willingness to dig deeper in faith.As we continue in Lent, how are you discovering and rediscovering Christ? What do you see?
Love More
As we approach Super Bowl Sunday, I am reminded of an advertisement from a few years ago that was equally applauded as it was derided. Coca-Cola, the ubiquitous soft drink company and global presence, offered an ad featuring the song “America the Beautiful” sung in eight languages by Americans of different ethnicities. You may remember it. Many found the commercial to be beautiful and imaginative. Others were offended at the suggestion that “America the Beautiful” was sung in anything other than English.My first response was not about the patriotism of the ad or the beauty. My first response was “this looks like Pentecost.” Acts 2 describes Pentecost and the work of the Holy Spirit in the apostles. On that day, the Holy Spirit descended like a tongue of fire and it allowed the crowd to hear the apostles in their own language. The Holy Spirit allowed the gospel message to be taken and heard to the furthest reaches of the globe. The Holy Spirit helped a diverse world truly be one body of Christ. Of the eight languages of the Coca-Cola ad, I speak one, English, and have some passing knowledge of a couple of others, but I knew what they singing. I witnessed a little of Pentecost in this Coca-Cola ad.The little piece of the Kingdom of God that we witness in Pentecost and the even smaller piece in the Coca-Cola ad points to a larger reality. What God is doing in Jesus Christ and through the church is a ministry of reconciliation, of reuniting. What is divided by ethnicity, language, politics, inequality, and even religion will someday be rejoined into one body. That is our hope and our common mission. Regardless of how divided we are today, we are and will be one in Christ.Following close after the Super Bowl this year, is the overlapping holidays of Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday. Many ministers have asked themselves, “What can we do to mark this unusual intersection of days?” The popular song goes “They will know we are Christians by our love.” I think this is true and particularly so as these holidays cross paths. To be more exact, though, I think they will know we are Christians by who we love. Maybe that is how we can approach this February 14th: Who do you love and how can you spend Lent learning to love more?
True Christmas Hope
By the time you read this, we will be in the middle of the 12 Days of Christmas. Yes, they come after Christmas not before. Epiphany will conclude the Christmas season on January 6. (We will mark the occasion the Sunday before on December 31.) All the weeks and months of preparation for Christmas will finally conclude. At some point, the Christmas tree will find its way into a closet or attic.For most of us, Christmas was the culmination of weeks and months of preparation. The stores pushed Christmas specials since September. All of the presents were wrapped and tucked neatly under the tree. Warm, clear weather allowed the insides and outsides of homes to be decorated leisurely for the last two months. In the church, this Advent time saw us journey through the prophecies about Jesus’ coming all the way to his birth. For weeks, we prepared our hearts and world for Jesus to arrive. We lived in a constant state of activity in lesson, song, and prayer looking forward to Christmas Day. We looked forward to the way this world was about to change.Ironically, we may prepare too well. For months, we prepared for this day and then when it arrives it is over. We may be better at the living out the Season of Advent than the Season of Christmas and beyond. And the same could be said about Easter. We do Lent well. We like to prepare. We do not know what to do once that preparation comes to fruition though. We arrive at the weeks following Easter and wonder “What is next?”The scene plays out in our living rooms on Christmas morning. After weeks of decorating and wrapping gifts, the whole thing is over after ten minutes of paper shredding and thank you hugs. And it happens in our churches. The decorations go up. The carols come out. We celebrate for a day and then go back to normal. The day that is supposed to change everything… doesn’t.I think that it is easier to prepare than to live in the reality of what has happened. It is easier to prepare for joy than to live a joyous life. It is easier to proclaim that the world is about to be transformed in this child who is coming into the world than to actually go out alongside him and change it. It is easier to say that we will be present with you in Jesus Christ than it is to be the presence of Christ in the world.My hope for you in this New Year and time after Christmas is that you will be truly changed by all the preparation that took place this Advent season. My greater hope is that it will not stop here.
Hopeful Waiting
I may be the worst person in the world when it comes to waiting. I think Kati would agree with me on this. At the grocery store, I am the one changing checkout lanes for the possibility of making it through the line a minute faster. I am one of the people that pre-orders everything from Apple because I cannot stand to queue up at the store. This morning, I changed lanes three times on the Yale. I will not even mention the lifespan of presents in our house (Hint: They do not make it to Christmas or birthdays). I am not good at waiting.I do not think I am alone either. We have a society based of instantaneous gratification. Waiting is antithetical to so many societal and technological trends. Movies and television shows are on demand now through smartphones, tablets, and computers that we can take anywhere and watch anytime. Fast food is even faster than it was a generation ago because so much of it is precooked and simply reheated. In Texas, there are stretches of road where you can drive 85 miles per hour to help get you to your destination a little sooner.This lack of waiting makes the season of Advent particularly challenging. We do not wait well in general, so an entire season of the church dedicated to waiting is difficult. And since Jesus has already come and does every Christmas, then that makes the waiting all the more arduous: we have waited before on Jesus.Luckily, this waiting is not without activity. We are waiting in preparation for something to happen. This waiting is pregnant with expectation for this future. In many ways, we are starting our faith journey anew each Advent. We are evaluating where we are and where we are going. We are discerning where God is coming into our world in fresh ways. What has happened in the past is not necessarily predictive of where God will be in the new future and we must prepare for that. Jesus may arrive every Christmas, but neither Jesus nor we will be the same at each encounter. Advent prepares us for that reality.This is a time of hopeful waiting. Jesus is coming. The world will change again. Our world will change in him. Wait. Prepare. Expect.
Truly Thankful
I love Thanksgiving. The food is wonderful. The gathering together of family is a blessed time. The hours of relaxation after the food are great too. Most of all, I love the football. Professional or college football, the fact that I can eat that much and then watch football for hours afterwards is a true Thanksgiving blessing.When the Pilgrims and other early settlers first celebrated Thanksgiving, they were thankful for a lot more and a lot more important things. They traveled thousands of miles to an unfamiliar land. They were cut off from everything they had previously known. The conditions here were harsh and daunting. Everything they needed, they now had to make or create for themselves.The image we most associate with Thanksgiving is the image of the pilgrims and Native Americans sitting down to a meal in Plymouth, Massachusetts. We all know this story. After a long year, harvest came and the pilgrims wanted to give thanks to God for such a bountiful harvest that would allow them to survive through the winter and beyond. They were thankful for God’s grace. This was only one of many early Thanksgiving meals. When a group arrived at the Berkeley Plantation in Virginia, before they planted a single crop, they set out a large feast to celebrate the safe ocean crossing and to give thanks to God. Many other Thanksgiving meals were celebrated in those early days in the New World and in all of them there was a recognition that everything we have to be thankful for comes from God. Our hands can plant the seed, but the seed, the water, the sunlight, the energy to grow, and abundance of the harvest all come from God.I urge you, as you are eating later this month (and at gatherings throughout the month), to remember these early celebrations of Thanksgiving. See what they saw: God at the heart of all goodness. Know what they knew: everything we enjoy and live for is from God. Today, tomorrow, everyday let us be thankful for God’s grace, for God’s love, and for God’s mercy.
500 Years of Reforming
The final Sunday of October marks our annual observance of Reformation Sunday. On Reformation Sunday, we celebrate the tradition that grounds our faith. This year is the 500th anniversary of the day on October 31, 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenburg Church. This symbolic act marked the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. A short while later, John Calvin, the spiritual father of the Presbyterian Church (USA), became another early voice calling for reform in the church. On the last Sunday in October, we remember these leaders and many others that sought to change the church for the better.The Reformation is often framed in theological terms. Luther, Calvin, and others called for changes in the way that the church thought about the bible, salvation, communion, and more. They made many theological arguments and wrote many thoughtful books. Their core concern, however, was pastoral. How could the average person be assured of their salvation? How could the person in the pew know God if the bible and mass were in a language they did not understand? How could believers experience the imminence of God if the bread and wine were reserved only for the priest? The reformers were motivated by a love for their brothers and sisters in Christ. They wanted them to know that it is through faith that they are saved, that the bible and liturgy should be in their native tongue, and that Jesus Christ is present with them as they eat and drink at the Lord’s Supper.One of the other battlegrounds of the Reformation was what was called the “priesthood of all believers”. They believed, as we do today, that in our baptism we are called to service in the church and world. Each of us is called and equipped uniquely and personally to do ministry. Some are indeed called to be ministers, but all are called to do something in the name of God. In that call to service, we are all equal and all priests. It is a priesthood of all believers, not just some.As we mark Reformation Sunday and the 500th anniversary of the start of the Reformation, I call you to remember your baptism and your faith. Where is God calling you? How is God calling you to service? I also call you to a deeper faith. Generations of people fought and often died so that you could participate in this journey of faith more fully. They died so that you might know Jesus Christ in a fuller way. When was the last time that you read your bible? When was the last time that you discussed your faith or asked questions to dig deeper? When was the last time you enjoyed a prayer or song in worship?We exist because of the reformers before us. Our faith and our ability to discover what our faith is comes to us because of Luther, Calvin, and many more. Celebrate by believing!
