What's in a Name

   Frances Phillips was hired in May as Epworth's Summer Children's Worker to help with VBS and Sunday School, and to launch a new weekly summer ministry with children she is calling Wacky Wednesdays. Last Wednesday was the first to be officially Wacky, and 30 children came to run and splash in the water around the yard of our church. A grand time was had by everyone. 
   As our position is part-time, Frances is also working at a local restaurant this summer while she is home from  'that other college' in Athens. Recently she was telling me about serving someone during the lunch hour who happened to share her same name. It seems Frances does not have the chance to engage lots of people who share her name, and this woman made an impression on her. This is not something the Johns, Bills, Andrews, or even we Scotts of this world have considered much.
   I was intrigued. So I looked into the name Frances to see how many there are out there.* I did not know that exactly 100 years ago Frances was the 9th most popular name given to infant girls and that it held a place for well over a decade. It has dropped off considerably since then, 894th in 2011. In 1993 it was the 294th most popular name with exactly 640 girls given the name Frances the year Earl and Melonie welcomed theirs into the world. 
   Of course, Frances Griffin has been a Frances for even longer. She told me I could tell everyone she celebrated her 86th birthday last week. She was surprised when I said that there were 13,352 little Frances born the with her in 1926. I happen to think we have two of the best Frances out of all of them. 
   For all of this trivial information, what matters most is that every Frances ever born is known by God. In Isaiah 43 the LORD declares, "Don't fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine." He goes on to say that despite calamity that would sink us, trouble that would burn us, or enemies that would capture us, we should not fear because the LORD will never abandon us. Whether you are Frances, Frank, Bill or Barbara, you are made and kept by the most powerful force in the Universe - the One True God.
   If that seems Wacky or hard to believe, then you are probably closer than ever to getting it. The love of God is mystery and it is magnificent. It is for you and for me and its portion does not grow smaller...regardless of how many like you there are!


* You can get all of this information from a great website curating by the Social Security Administration (www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/).

Are We More Than Just Biology?

   I was driving down Hamilton Road earlier this week when I saw a common occurrence in a new way. I was following a large SUV and out from the driver's side window appeared a dog, enjoying the wind as it blew his way. The only interruption to this moment of bliss came when he saw someone on the sidewalk. The dog would then bark at each person he saw walking down the road.
   This was really nothing out of the ordinary until I began to consider the relative scale of it all. You see, it was a very small dog poking his body out of a very large vehicle. Now I never caught a glimpse of the driver, but based on the stickers on the rear glass indicating that were a retired Army Ranger who had served our nation on foreign soil, size did not matter. I was struck. Why all the barking? Who did this dog think he was protecting? Were there any real threats to him or his owner on the street that day?
   Of course, the answers to these questions return us to biology. It was Harvard professor and psychologist William Bradford Cannon who coined the term fight or flight response. It has since been classified as the acute stress syndrome and I can hear my father now describing the catecholamine horomones as the actual triggers released in the bloodstream. Either way, this little dog was displaying this classic and natural response perfectly, however silly it seemed to all of us onlookers. 
   We humans often find ourselves in situations of fight or flight. But, while it is silly and even comical to see a tiny dog barking away, I am struck by how damaging and destructive it can be when we are not aware of what we are doing. 
   It is one thing when the situations call for it. But, does every situation demand fighting or fleeing? I think not. Most days and most moments call for grace and peace. I am thinking now of snarky comments and behind-the-back name-calling and gossip. To be honest, it happens to often but most of the time it is excused because of some perceived threat posed by the other. "You should have seen what said or did." Sometimes the response is the opposite. People will withdraw instead of addressing the person. Grudges are easy to hold...if you don't ever speak to the person again and share your feelings.
   I think Jesus was thinking about much more than literal slaps on the cheek when he said, "If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also" (Luke 6:29). I think Jesus wants to ride down the road of life not barking at everything as though they were a threat to us. Fight or Flight might be natural, but that does not mean it is always right. Aren't we more than just biology? Aren't we more than some pre-programmed response? Are we not created in the great likeness of the One who is grace and love and mercy? I pray I would live that way. 
   Grace and Peace to you.

Be A Fish...

   So much to say, so much to convey. As I travel down this journey I am one, pursuing God and God's best for me, and our church moves through an amazing week of Vacation Bible School using the theme of the ocean and all of its creatures, the writing below caught my attention. Read and consider this passage from Prayer by Simon Tugwell.

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So often we are too full of what we think should be happening to us in our spiritual lives to notice what God is actually teaching us. We must be still enough, simple enough, humble enough, to let him plan the course, and use whatever opportunities there may be for our instruction. We must not think that as we progress in prayer everything will necessarily become much more overtly holy. What it will become is more simple, more humble, more actual.

St. Ambrose gave his congregation some very good advice. Using the old Christian symbol, he compared them in this stormy world fish swimming in the sea. And to them he said, “Be a fish!” We must learn how not to be swamped by the situations that we find ourselves in. We must learn  learn how to get through them with a minimum of damage, and a maximum of profit.

One aspect of this is simply learning to get through situations, and not always take them with us. There is a story told of two monks in Japan, "travelling down a muddy road together. A heavy rain was still falling. Coming around a bend they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross at the intersection. 'Come on, girl,' said Tanzan. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud. Ekido, his companion, did not speak until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he could no longer restrain himself. 'We monks don’t go near females,' he told Tanzan, 'especially not young and pretty ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?' 'I left the girl there,' said Tanzan, 'Are you still carrying her?'

We must learn to pass through situations like a fish, rather than carrying them all with us like a snail. We should certainly emerge with a little bit more experience of life, but there is no need to carry more with us than we have to – each situation carries quite enough trouble with it by itself!

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   Oh, that we would travel as one who moved through life not carrying around the weight of the world, but learning and leaving it behind us. Oh, that we would be like fish who move with a minimum of damage. This is my prayer for myself, and I extend it to you. Grace and Peace in the name of the One who passed this way that we might learn to live with abundance!

I am the Church

I am the church.....

The great Creator drew the plans for me within his heart of love.

The great architect gave his dearest possession that I might be erected.

My one and only foundation is his Son - whose body was nailed to a tree.

My cornerstone - the stone which the builders rejected - is Christ himself.

My walls - placed without the sound of hammers - were built with the blood of the martyrs.

My steeple points upward toward the great Architect, builder throughout eternity.

From my belfry rings out the call to worship to multitudes of all ages.

My door swings open to all people of every condition and age, bidding them welcome.

In my sanctuary there is -

  Peace for troubled minds,

  Rest for weary bodies,

  Compassion for suffering humanity,

  Forgiveness for repentant sinners,

  Communion with the saints,

  And Christ for all who seek him.

(poem by Beulah Hughes)

   This is one of the 277 poems and clippings that my grandfather passed on to my brother, cousin, and myself to use in our preaching and ministry. I cannot find it on the Internet, yet here it is. It is interesting and peculiar, to be honest. We are so trained by the children's song to think of the church as you and me and not a building, that a poem written in the 'voice' of the structure where we gather for worship and ministry is striking.

   Yet, there is much truth here. God created the church and God's plans for her are mighty. We are to partner in ushering in the Kingdom of God. We are called to continue the mighty acts of Jesus Christ, just like the first apostles did in the Book of Acts.

   Read the poem one more time and consider all of the work of God and the sacrifices of God's people throughout the ages that have given to us this opportunity to be a part of God's amazing work of grace in the world. Humbling. Inspiring. Daunting.

   Grace and peace, Scott