Ministry Sunday starts in the Bible: God's Word on How We are Made

Christ is just like the human body - a body is a unit and has many parts; and all the parts of the body are one body, even though there are many....
Certainly the body isn’t one part but many. If the foot says, “I’m not part of the body because I’m not a hand,” does that mean it’s not part of the body?
But as it is, there are many parts but one body.... You are the body of Christ and parts of each other.
- from 1 Corinthians 12

He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. His purpose was to equip God’s people for the work of serving and building up the body of Christ until we all reach the unity of faith and knowledge of God’s Son. God’s goal is for us to become mature adults—to be fully grown, measured by the standard of the fullness of Christ.
- Ephesians 4:11-13

Above all, show sincere love to each other, because love brings about the forgiveness of many sins. Open your homes to each other without complaining. And serve each other according to the gift each person has received, as good managers of God’s diverse gifts. Whoever speaks should do so as those who speak God’s word. Whoever serves should do so from the strength that God furnishes. Do this so that in everything God may be honored through Jesus Christ. To him be honor and power forever and always. Amen.

- 1 Peter 4:8-11

Three of my favorite words: "I Don't Know"

   Born in 1946, Marilyn vos Savant has been known for much of her life as having the Highest IQ ever recorded and was actually listed in the Guinness World Records for it. So, she's kind of smart. Since 1986 she has been writing a column in Parade Magazine where she fields questions on the widest range of subjects and ideas. Her column from July 29, 2007 shared questions she found difficult to answer, but not because they were too tough. Take a look at some of the questions she did not print and answer in her column...

• I notice you have the same first name as Marilyn Monroe. Are you related?
• Do you think daylight saving time could be contributing to global warming? The longer we have sunlight, the more it heats the atmosphere. 
• I see falling stars nearly every night. They seem to come out of nowhere. Have stars ever fallen out of any known constellations?
• When I dream, why don’t I need my glasses to see?
• Can a ventriloquist converse with his dentist while his teeth are being worked on?
• I just observed a flock of geese flying in a ‘V’ formation. Is that the only letter they know?

- from John Maxwell's Good Leaders Ask Great Questions written in 2014.

These are hilarious. I really do believe that there are no dumb questions, but these come close, right?
   I've never met Marilyn vos Savant, but I trust that she is very smart. I like the fact that she is able to admit that there are some questions she cannot answer. I've known some really smart people: some have been related to me, many have been church members, and a couple of them were teachers or professors with whom I have studied. The thing that every smart person I've ever known has had in common; they know that they don't know everything. I love it when someone tells me, "I don't know." It makes me feel great. Because, I don't know everything and sometimes wonder if other people can relate.
   I think Paul was right on it when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 8, "We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes people arrogant, but love builds people up. If anyone thinks they know something, they don't yet know as much as they should know." And Proverbs 3 is a verse for life: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths." - Proverbs 3:5-6
   May we all not know it all. Grace and peace, Scott

Lost! She was knocking on our front door...

   The doorbell was ringing and someone was knocking repeatedly. Well, that is what Julie told me when she woke me up! The clock showed 5:40 AM, which my body knew immediately was a half an hour before my alarm was set to go off. Yet, I could hear the knocking and went to check.
   Standing on our front porch, with tears streaming down her face, was a young girl looking for her mom. Along with her older brother, the three of them had joined an early-morning running and exercise group, known as a boot camp, and had made it to our church from their starting point at the parking lot of the Baptist church. Her brother had run ahead and she was left behind.
   The story turns out great. She calmed down immediately while sitting on our front porch and left her mom a voicemail on her phone. We talked about Middle School and playing basketball and soon enough we could hear the call of her mother through the trees a block away.
   It happens. We get separated from the crowd. Sometimes our brothers run off. It unsettles us. It should. We were made to run together. We are supposed to travel in the company of others. So, the young girl standing on our steps could have been any of us and maybe has been us, at one point or another. What did she need in that moment?
   Really, this same scene is played out every week at the front door of our church. People walk up looking to attend worship, or our youth or children's ministries, or they come looking for help with food or clothes. All them are looking to connect. All them are looking for someone to travel with. God has literally made us to help them. We are made to connect. As Christians, we are commanded to be those who open the front doors of the church and welcome them. Serving them with hospitality and compassion, connecting them and offering comfort, showing them that better days are ahead; this is what it means to serve through the church.
   This is exactly what Ministry Sunday on August 28 is about - showing us where and how our time and care can help put the world back together for the people who come to our church. We will hear from volunteer Team Leaders in 8 main areas: hospitality, care ministry, students, children, office administration, worship, events and missions.
   People walk up every week needing the same thing our new friend did that morning: to be reassured they were in a safe place, to be called by name, to have someone care about them, and to know that they could be reconnected to the best stuff of life. Serving on ministry teams is what it means to be the church.
   Grace and peace, Scott

Two letters to two different places, but one message for us all

   Along with notes written to first-time guests, a note following up on a prayer request, letters to two committees within the church organizing for their work, and probably three dozen emails, two items I wrote this week will stick with me.
   I wrote two letters this week to young men who were very involved in the youth ministries I helped to lead over the past 17 years of ministry. One of the young men enlisted in the US Marine Corps two weeks ago, and I got his address on Parris Island from his mother. I got the address for the other young man from his mother, too. He is in prison for a sudden act of violence that led to an outcome, I believe, he did not intend. It is hard to imagine two different destinations for letters, right? I am struck, though, how similar my content was to them both. I think that if you were writing the letters, your versions would be similar, too.
   I told them both that I loved them. I wrote about God's desires for them. I shared my prayers for them. I wrote about how our family is doing, so they would pray for us, too. And, I included the same passage of Scripture to them both. My friend at Parris Island and my friend in prison both need to hear James 1:2-6 & 12,

My brothers and sisters, think of the various tests you encounter as occasions for joy. After all, you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let this endurance complete its work so that you may be fully mature, complete, and lacking in nothing. But anyone who needs wisdom should ask God, whose very nature is to give to everyone without a second thought, without keeping score. Wisdom will certainly be given to those who ask. Whoever asks shouldn’t hesitate. They should ask in faith, without doubting. Whoever doubts is like the surf of the sea, tossed and turned by the wind....
Those who stand firm during testing are blessed. They are tried and true. They will receive the life God has promised to those who love him as their reward.

I believe that these words are as true and timely for both of them as they are for all of us. I need to hear that testing leads to faith and endurance. I need to be reminded to pray for wisdom. I need to hear, again, that those who stand firm will be rewarded. Grace and peace, Scott

I want what I want and I want it now

I am sure I have said those words, or at least words similar to them. I am sure that I have thought ideas that are similar to them, as well. Haven't you? Haven't we all?

Isn't that what politics, at least the simplistic rhetoric of modern American politics, is putting on display in every news cycle? It sounds like this; a vote for me is a vote for you to get what you want! Doesn't this sound like every demanding boss or person in authority you've known? In every case, the means of achieving what I want right now is always about a grab for power. Yet, the message of the Gospel and was the message of this past Sunday's teaching is that Satan tempts with power and Jesus resists because that is not the way of God. Here is the same message from a different voice:

"Before we get too carried away with the thoughts of God's power, we should listen attentively to what St. Paul says about the "weakness of God" (1 Corinthians 1:25), which is a vital part of gods self – revelation. If we look at the way in which he discloses himself in Jesus Christ we have to acknowledge that he does not come into our world with a great display of superior power; in fact, this was one of the temptations which our Lord had to resist as being contrary to his mission, contrary to his true nature (see Matthew 4). He does not come in strength but in weakness, and he chooses the foolish and weak and unimportant things of the world, things that are nothing at all, to overthrow the strength and impressiveness of the world. As we saw earlier, he is like the judo expert who uses the strength of his opponent to bring him to the ground; it is the art of self-defense proper to the week. This is why, if we keep clamoring for things we want from God, we may often find ourselves disappointed, because we have forgotten the weakness of God and what we may call the poverty of God. We had thought of God as the dispenser of all the good things we would possibly desire; but in a very real sense, God has nothing to give at all except himself."

- from Prayer, written in 1975 by Simon Tugwell

May we place our trust in a God who is powerful enough to do anything, but doesn't overpower anything. God loves differently than that. May we love each other in the midst of our weaknesses, and speak the truth in love to every person who can hear it. Grace and peace, Scott

A Difficult Word to Write: Allowing Time for God’s Spirit to Work within the Church and in Our Lives

   I sit every week with the intent of engaging the news and current events of the world with the Word of God in a manner that is helpful to people within the congregation that I shepherd as pastor. This week there are so many pieces of news that deserve attention. I am writing about one, in particular, that is causing much anxiety to some of our people.
   On Friday, July 15, the Rev. Karen Oliveto, pastor of the Glide Memorial UMC in San Francisco, was elected as a Bishop at the Western Jurisdictional Conference. The next day she was consecrated and assigned to serve as a Bishop to four conferences that include churches in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Rev. Oliveto has been described as “an openly lesbian clergyperson”, as she married her partner last October. This election raises significant concerns and questions of church polity and unity. Many people believe that her election is not permissible by our agreed-upon polity, specifically as found in ¶304.3 where it deals with the Qualifications for Ordination,

The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Therefore self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in The United Methodist Church.

There is already a legal request within our UMC’s system of appeals that the Judicial Council would rule on whether her election is within order. That ruling could come in October. Beyond that, the General Conference will possibly re-convene in a special session as soon as 2018 to act on a report around how to move forward, in light of this and other non-compliance and significant differences within our denomination around how to interpret the Scriptures.
   I have shared with many people in the past two months that my personal prayer, repeated often as I traveled to General Conference in May as a delegate for the first time, was that I would do no harm. This was the first of John Wesley's General Rules for the Church from the 1700's, and it's value is timeless today. I sit to write about events within the larger story of the United Methodist Church with these same words repeating in my heart: do no harm.
   The UMC has engaged in a conversation on sexuality for over four decades now. Many would consider our debate as having been more civil and more Christ-like that those held in other denominations during the same stretch of time. I think that is largely due to our never-wavering conviction to uphold the Scriptures while also seeking to care for all persons. One primary way this is lived out is through statements within our Book of Discipline - our church's constitution and book of policy and law that is amended every four years at General Conference. In ¶161, a section of our beliefs on Human Sexuality, we state,

We affirm that sexuality is God’s good gift to all persons. We call everyone to  responsible stewardship of this sacred gift. Although all persons are sexual beings whether or not they are married, sexual relations are affirmed only with the covenant of monogamous, heterosexual marriage. It goes on to say that, We affirm that all persons are individuals of sacred worth, created in the image of God. All persons need the ministry of the Church in their struggles for human fulfillment, as well as the spiritual and emotional care of a fellowship that enables reconciling relationships with God, with others, and with self. The United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality and considers this practice incompatible with Christian teaching.

We are talking about practice, and not orientation. The Bible says nothing about orientation. There are references in the Bible to same-gender sexual behavior, and all of them are undeniably negative. There was no word in Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek for ‘homosexual’ or ‘homosexuality.’ So it is not correct to say the Bible calls ‘being homosexual’ a sin; it is always referring to practice.
   Obviously these are difficult words for most people to read. Every person knows someone, probably someone close, that differs with whatever is your stance on sexuality. Those differences are certainly found within the membership of the UMC, a global movement of 12 million people from countless cultures and nations. I imagine that is what prompted the Holy Spirit to open my bible on the morning I started writing this to...

Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged. You’ll receive the same judgment you give. Whatever you deal out will be dealt out to you. Why do you see the splinter that’s in your brother’s or sister’s eye, but don’t notice the log in your own eye? How can you say to your brother or sister, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ when there’s a log in your eye? You deceive yourself! First take the log out of your eye, and then you’ll see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s or sister’s eye. - Matthew 7:1-5

   I am not suggesting we don’t speak the truth in love. I am simply pointing us back to love. We are not to engage our brother or sister about the small object in their life until we have dealt with the objects in our own: remembering that Jesus knew the objects/issues/sins in our lives were often larger than we would ever want to admit. We can do harm to others if we have not dealt with our own objects/issues/sins. It is biblically wise to slow down and pray for the Spirit’s guidance.
   Our own Bishop James King wrote about this in a Pastoral Letter last weekend:

Dear Beautiful People of the South Georgia Conference, we are in a season where it is difficult to find people who are not anxious about the future, angry about the status quo, or generally find it difficult to have a deep sense of peace and joy about life. There is confusion, pain, and grief all around us. I know many of you have questions about the action taken by the Western Jurisdiction in electing an openly gay bishop. Indeed, this election raises significant concerns and questions of church polity and unity. Our Book of Discipline has clearly delineated processes in place for resolving issues even as complex and unprecedented as this election. The South Central Jurisdiction was still in session when the election took place. They approved a resolution requesting a declaratory decision from the Judicial Council on whether “the nomination, election, consecration, and/or assignment as a bishop of The United Methodist Church of a person who claims to be a ‘self-avowed practicing homosexual’ or is a spouse in a same-sex marriage (is) lawful under The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church.” ....In a world where there is so much uncertainty, you can be in control of you and believe that God will take care of you because His certain and predictable love never ends. I encourage you to stay focused on Jesus Christ and on our love for one another as Christ loves us. I ask you to join me in prayer as we strive to faithfully and compassionately fulfill our covenant with God, the church, and one another.

   I believe God’s Spirit is at work to bring healing and to show us a way forward. I am open to how God works. Echoing the words of Bishop Ken Carter, who grew up in South Georgia, “Patience is a fruit of that same spirit....I can wait on and work with God. We are not yet perfect, but I plan to hang in there. I hope you will be there, too.”
   Grace and peace, Scott

This is God's song; let it be ours as well

   Worship on Sunday was moving. I found myself caught off guard and moved in my spirit on three occasions during the hour we were gathered together, all in one place. Once was when Brig. General Sehorn spoke about every prisoner memorizing the names of over 400 fellow POW's, in the hopes that when one of them might be freed, they could return to the US and inform the 400 families that their loved ones were OK as of a certain date. That little detail struck a chord, as I thought about all of those families that went years without knowing anything good. Later, I was moved to tears as Jim described the moment on the USAF cargo plane headed out of North Vietnam that would carry hundreds of airmen home after years of brutal captivity and they stood to sing praise to God. That thought was still in my head on Monday night as our family sat on a grassy hillside watching the red glare of fireworks; our nation celebrates its 240th year of independence because of the intentional service and sacrifice of real men and real women.
   The other moment that moved me on Sunday happened before Jim's message, though. After singing The Star-Spangled Banner, Karen Clay had chosen for us to sing a moving tune that opened with,

This is my song, O God of all the nations,

a song of peace for lands afar and mine;

this is my home, the country where my heart is;

here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine:

but other hearts in other lands are beating

with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

- Lloyd Stone, composer

Stone wrote the opening two verses of the hymn we sang in the interval between WWI and WWII; he was 22 years old at the time. Halfway through these opening words I found myself unable to sing for a moment. I was struck; God hears the songs of many nations, God desires the hearts of every person, God longs for peace in every place, and the end of tyranny for all time. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayers for the same. Grace and peace, Scott

Obedience and Freedom

   Reading through a little book by Frederick Buechner, organized like an encyclopedia of topics on faith, I came across an entry for Obedience. It simply said, see Freedom. Going to that entry I found:

Freedom:  We have freedom to the degree that the master whom we obey grants it to us in return for our obedience. We do well to choose a master in terms of how much freedom we get for how much obedience. 

When we follow God, that Master is love. Buechner goes on to say in his definition of Freedom,

...to obey Love itself, which above all else wishes us well, leaves us the freedom to be the best and gladdest that we have it in us to become. The only freedom Love denies us is the freedom to destroy ourselves ultimately.

What a timely word. Still alive, Buechner will turn 90 years old in two weeks. I don't have any reason to think that he was thinking about the Fourth of July. Yet, the truth is the freedom we celebrate this weekend, won through the heroes who volunteered to serve and sacrifice for our country, points us back to the God who has created us free. May we respond to the freedom that God has given to us with obedience to him.
   Grace and peace, Scott

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   I don't hear anyone these days saying, "Turn up the heat?" But, what if God allowed that very thing to happen? It happened for Jesus; after spending forty days in the wilderness, hungry, tired and miles from his home, Satan arrives to test Jesus. On most days most adults can resist most temptations. What about on our worst days? And, what is the worst that the devil can throw at us? 

   Join us in worship July 10, 17 and 24 to learn how to beat the flames of "you know where".