New Year, New Opportunity to Pray

   With the change of the calendar into 2016, United Methodists from around the world begin more earnestly preparing for one of the key components of our denominations' connectional structure: General Conference. At least a dozen of you are asking, "What is that?"

   The United Methodist Church’s top legislative body will meet at the Oregon Convention Center, the largest convention center in the Pacific Northwest, on May 10-20, 2016. General Conference is the top policy-making body of The United Methodist Church which meets once every four years. The conference can revise church law, as well as adopt resolutions on current moral, social, public policy and economic issues. It also approves plans and budgets for church-wide programs. As you can imagine, topics including sexuality, who can be ordained, and/or what place does the Bible have in the life of the church, are all on the table when we gather every four years (and all the days in between). We need to pray now...
   Funny you should mention that. General Conference begins 131 days after the New Year. By coincidence, there are 131 annual (regional) conferences in The United Methodist Church. The UMC wants to use each of these days to bath General Conference in prayer. The Council of Bishops has invited each of the annual conferences to host a 24-hour prayer effort. The South Georgia Conference's 24-hour prayer vigil is set for Friday, January 22.
   Eight-hundred sixty-four (864) delegates, half of them being clergy and half of them laity from local churches around the world, have been elected to serve. In Tifton this past June, four clergy delegates from South Georgia were elected: Rev. Don Adams, Dr. Buddy Cooper , Rev. Jay Hanson, and Dr. Bob Moon. Rev. Jim Cowart and Rev. Denise Walton were also selected to serve as alternates, and will be attending. I was humbled to be one of the other clergy elected as an alternate. In addition to the May meeting in Portland, these same clergy and South Georgia's laity delegates will attend a the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference in July to select the Bishops serving in the fifteen annual conferences around us. (I am prayerfully considering attending some of the General Conference in Portland, as well.)
   We all know it is never to early to begin praying. May we start this year praying for the Spirit of the Living God to lead our church in Bonaire and around the world! Grace and Peace, Scott

Silence at Christmas

"Christmas! Never was there such a word! Poets have dreamed, writers have composed, artists have had their raptures, but none has been comparable to the thoughts that the word Christmas inspires. Christmas makes heaven and earth so akin. Jesus! O marvelous Babe, O Babe Divine!"

- Father Judge, 1928

The Holy Night, by Carlo Maratta (1625-1713)

   O how true! Songs have been written - great ones at that - and stories have been told that attempt to capture the glory of that night. Yet, no single song, prayer, story, event, or ritual fully lays hold of all that happened in that moment in history. Christmas. Think about it; people continue to write new songs and we continue to listen. We never grow tired of hearing about the story, possibly because there is always more to the story than words or art or actions can grasp.
   Then I come across this sliver of scripture assigned in my devotion this morning:

"Silence is praise to you, Zion-dwelling God, And also obedience. You hear the prayer in it all. We all arrive at your doorstep sooner or later..."

- Psalm 65:1-2, The Message

It is difficult to admit and even more difficult to do; sometimes we run out of words. Trust me, I know the irony of a preacher, paid to speak, uttering these very lines. It is true, though. Christmas, in the end, is beyond our ability to describe. God loved us so much, he came down here. God's plans to save us are so incredible and important, he sent his only son. 

   Silence. May our silence in the coming days be acceptable to you, O God, as our worship of your majesty and your love. 

   Grace and Peace, Scott 

Nine Days in Bonaire

   What we do says a lot about who we are, right? I was walking across the street to go to work one morning, still basking in the glow of a great event at the church the day before, when I realized how many of those we are experiencing these days. Let's take stock of what we are in the midst of:

Mission Marketplace – saw hundreds of people from around the community visit our building, greeted by our people, and leave with untold treasures and gifts to give. And, we raised over $3000 towards missions in the process!

Ladies Night - brought together over ___ men and women for a great meal and the joy of singing along to tunes of the season and years gone by. Thanks to great work by our Men, it was just simple fun. 

December Food Pantry and Clothing Closet - on Friday will provide warm clothes and nourishing food to our neighbors in need of something to help makes ends meet. It includes prayer, hard work, and lots of grace. It is scriptural, it is an act of generosity, and it is beautiful. 

Belize Mission Trip Meeting - we're committed to growing a relationship with a village in Central America in order to care for the bodies and souls of our neighbors there. Interested people start making plans this Sunday at 2 PM.

The Christmas Cantata - offers the eager anticipation of Christmas through the songs of Russell Mauldin's Bethlehem Morning. Members from both the 8:30 AM and 11:00 AM choirs and a host of other volunteers will make it happen, then everyone is invited to stay for refreshments, afterwards, hosted by our Methodist Men.

All of this is happening in the short span of nine days at Bonaire Church. Add to this list worship with traditional and modern songs, children learning and singing and playing, young people growing in their faith, and adults all over the campus in Sunday School, as well. Nor does this list include the countless prayers being offered in homes, at work, in hospital rooms, and all places in between by our people for each other and the world.
   What does this say about our church, the body of Christ living in our community? We sing. We give. We go. We pray. We serve and we are served. God is calling you to be a part; where will you plug in?
   Grace and peace, Scott

The Season of (Waiting, Preparing, Anticipating) Advent

   The Four Sundays of Advent make up the first season of the Christian year. Advent derives from the Latin word adventus, which means “coming.” In other words, this is the season that proclaims the comings of Christ.
   The church uses these four weeks as a time to prepare for Christmas.  I believe firmly in this idea - we need to get ready for what God has in store for us on Christmas.  Not another present under the tree, not the car in the driveway with the oversized bow on top as the television commercials would have us believe - but the coming of a Savior to win us away from slavery to sin and death and back to the freedom to live.  We are preparing to celebrate once again, the birth of One who comes continually in Word and Spirit to us.
   But Advent is not only about Jesus’ birth in that manger, as if we should keep our eyes fixed on the rearview mirror of history.   It is in God’s plan that Jesus comes again, a second time.  Advent is equally about the time in history when Jesus did come and about the time in the future when He will come, again.  We celebrate the two comings of Christ.
   Each year Advent calls the community of faith to prepare for these comings.  So worship is a little different for these weeks - because we are different.  While the world busies itself with preparations for presents or parties, the church pushes past some of that to see beyond. We want to gaze into the truth God has for us.
   We begin worship these weeks by lighting candles and reading scripture.  Candles remind us that Jesus comes as light of the world - and that we too often find ourselves walking in shadows and darkness.  I believe the church is obligated to proclaim, “We need a Savior.”  Let us enter into the season of Advent expectantly preparing for His arrival.
   Grace and Peace, Scott

The Effort of (Actively) Waiting

How do we wait for God? We wait with patience. But patience does not mean passivity. Waiting patiently is not like waiting for the bus to come, the rain to stop, or the sun to rise. It is an active waiting in which we live the present moment to the full in order to find there the signs of the One we are waiting for.

The word patience comes from the Latin verb patior which means "to suffer." Waiting patiently is suffering through the present moment, tasting it to the full, and letting the seeds that are sown in the ground on which we stand grow into strong plants. Waiting patiently always means paying attention to what is happening right before our eyes and seeing there the first rays of God's glorious coming.

- Henri Nouwen

   We spent Thanksgiving in Statesboro this year. It was the first time in a while, as my parents moved back there this summer after living in Macon for over a decade. It was good to have a few days to travel down old roads, visit places I remembered from years ago, and even do some things we did as a kids. One of those Hagan traditions, that we lived out this weekend, was Georgia Southern football at Paulson Stadium. 

   The boys and I stood alongside the field this past Saturday, in the final ten minutes before the game would start, watching both teams. I was reminded of a truth of Advent and the Christian life watching the players as they waited: they exert a great deal of energy before the game had even started. For an athlete, waiting for game-time is an active event. Stretching, running, clapping, listening and talking, none of this is done sitting down or resting.
   Like Nouwen says in this devotion, waiting on the return of Christ, which is the other half of Advent, is not intended to be entirely passive. It often requires effort. It takes effort to pay attention to our spirit and attitude. Forgiving others and ourselves is strenuous. Planting seeds through encouragement takes time and energy. 
   This is my prayer: May every single one of us spend these days of waiting and anticipating the Coming of Christ at Christmas actively engaged in the work of God: loving, forgiving, praying, listening, stretching our minds, and welcoming God's Spirit to move. Lord, let it be. Amen.

The Mother of Thanksgiving and a model of Perseverance

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

- Signed by President Abraham Lincoln, on October 3, 1863

This is the last section of a proclamation written by William Seward, then Secretary of State, and signed by President Lincoln. With the nation embroiled in a bloody Civil War, they set aside the last Thursday in November as a national day of thanks. But, much of the credit for the proclamation should probably go to a woman named Sarah Hale. She had grown up celebrating Thanksgiving in her home state of New Hampshire, but back then not every state marked the day and those that did were not unified as to the date.
   Hale was not the first to organize a unified day of gratitude, though. Following the American Revolution, a newly inaugurated George Washington called for a national day of thanks to celebrate both the end of the war and the recent ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Other Presidents followed suit, but that stopped with Thomas Jefferson, who sought what he called a "wall of separation between Church and State." Decades later, Sarah Hale came along and made this one of her life goals. She apparently wrote to every President before Lincoln for fifteen years before he took office. But, this time it worked. Within a week of receiving her request, Seward had drafted Lincoln’s official proclamation fixing the national observation of Thanksgiving on the final Thursday in November, a move the two men hoped would help “heal the wounds of the nation.”
   It is a lesson in perseverance. Gratitude is worth spreading, and repeating, and sharing with others. Grace and peace, Scott

Money: the (bad and the) good side

   Have you followed the story from the campus of the University of Missouri? It started back in August with racial slurs, inappropriate actions, some really disgusting stuff, and finally a failure at the top of the University's leadership to respond, all brought about protests calling for action and justice. Before it was over, it seemed like everyone was protesting:

• the Student Body president
• ad-hoc student groups frustrated over racial tensions
• a coalition of on-campus Jewish groups
• nine faculty Deans of various schools/departments on campus
• the University Faculty Senate
• people speaking on behalf of the Republican party
• people speaking on behalf of the Democratic party
• on November 2, one student went on a hunger strike
• elected members of the Missouri State Legislature

But, nothing really happened. Until the threat of the school losing money entered the conversation.

   On Saturday, November 7, thirty football players announced they were boycotting team events (practice, games, etc) until a resolution was delivered. The next day, November 8, the entire team made it clear that they stand united: no football until people resign. So, after more than two months of trouble and protests, which included literally tens of thousands of people, the President and Chancellor both resigned within hours. It is unfortunate that it is widely-held that two people losing their jobs and status was what right looked like. I am glad that the right thing was done. I am not glad that it took the potential loss of millions of dollars of football revenue to finally prompt it. It is clear that money held sway in bringing about a resolution. Sports is powerful, but what does it say when it takes the threat of cancelling a football game before the right thing is done? Money has power, because we let it. [I don't blame the football team - they used the money they generate for good. I worry that we would not see the role we have in propping up an industry that wields such power through profit.]
   The scriptures are clear, it is not money that is the root of all evil, but the love of money (see 1 Timothy 6:10).
   How do you use money? For good? Do you invest in others? Do you give money away as a sign of your belief in God's ongoing abundance? Do you save money as an antidote against the deadly illness of over-consumption? Do you have a healthy relationship with money, or does it control you in ways that are not healthy? Money is neutral - it is the place that we give it in our life and the ways that we use it that cause it to be good or bad. The Ten Commandments start with, "You shall have no other gods before me."
   Grace and peace, Scott

Am I Talking To You?

   The spiritual life is not a life before, after, or beyond our everyday existence. No, the spiritual life can only be real when it is lived in the midst of the pains and joys of the here and now. Therefore we need to begin with a careful look at the way we think, speak, feel, and act from hour to hour, day to day, week to week, and year to year, in order to become more fully aware of our hunger for the Spirit. As long as we have only a vague inner feeling of discontent with our present way of living, and only an indefinite desire for "things spiritual," our lives will continue to stagnate in a generalized melancholy. We often say, "I am not very happy. I am not content with the way my life is going. I am not really joyful or peaceful, but I just don't know how things can be different, and I guess I have to be realistic and accept my life as it is." It is this mood of resignation that prevents us from actively searching for the life of the Spirit. 

   Our first task is to dispel the vague, murky feeling of discontent and to look critically at how we are living our lives. This requires honesty, courage, and trust. We must honestly unmask and courageously confront the many self-deceptive games. We must trust that are honesty and courage will lead us not to despair, but to a new heaven and a new earth.

   - Henri Nouwen, from Making All Things New

   Our first task is to look critically at how we are living our lives. We must stop deceiving ourselves. We must be honest with ourselves. If we follow truth it will lead us to heaven. Sounds good, but....
 None of this easy. 

   First, many people who read all the way through the article to this very point are not even aware that these words or warning could apply to them. I don't talk like this often (maybe I should more), but the ruler of this world (Jesus says that is Satan in John 12) is working against us at the most basic levels. The world does not want us to think deeply. It wants us to never ask ourselves about our own motivations. The bad guys would be happy if we never thought about our attitudes and certainly if we never learned that we have the final say over our approach to God, neighbor and self.
   There is good news: there is a power available to everyone that overcomes, short-circuits, and crushes the spiritual forces of wickedness that would keep us dumb to our own self-defeating tendencies and drag us into the lowest depths imaginable. The power for good has been written into our software: the Holy Spirit is within us, if we would turn it on through repentance and commit to the Way of Jesus.
   Am I talking to you? Maybe. Grace and Peace, Scott