First Days

  The first days of summer have me thinking about starting over. We've heard the cliches.

The first day of the rest of your life.

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

  The importance of the first moment or first day is captured in the Scriptures. The story of Creation begins with God at work on the first day. Then, in the Gospels, which tell of God re-creating the world through Jesus Christ, we are told that the women went to the tomb on the first day only to find it empty. Easter is the first day of the rest of history.

  Think of all the first days you have experienced. First day of school. First day in a new city. First day in a new job. First day at home with a newborn child. Each one is precious and powerful in our minds. Of course, on that first day we don't know what the future will hold. But we do know that it all starts with the choice to do a new thing.
  Our worship this weekend takes on a First Day theme. I was inspired some time back by a song by Matt Maher. The chorus says,

This is the first day of the rest of your life

‘Cause even in the dark you can still see the light

It’s gonna be alright, it’s gonna be alright

  In an article talking about the 2010 song he says, "You know, the Gospel does not promise wealth. It does not promise earthly success. Jesus in the scriptures promises two things — 1. trouble 2. peace in the midst of it." He goes on to capture his ideas by saying "To love is to risk and be promised extraordinary highs and lows; it will help you soar through the highs, and carry you through the lows, so you can help carry your neighbor through."
  I want every person to have the opportunity to make a first day sort of commitment. We don't know what the future holds, but we do know that is our love for each other that helps carry us through. That is what Epworth is about. That is the joy and blessing of what it means to be the church. So with Andy playing a new song in worship this weekend, I want you to be present for a special morning.
  You should also come prepared to see something new when you walk into our building. It is another small way we are moving forward and welcoming our neighbors and each other to this great place.
  See you in worship. Grace and Peace, Scott

Pay Attention

   It was a simple act. The woman pulling off of busy Manchester Expressway looked into the parking lot of Dunkin' Donuts before she entered. I was in the parking lot, still some distance away, but the simple act of paying attention caught mine. 
   The earth is spinning around its axis at 1,041 mph, the same as always. But most of us have the feeling that our little worlds seem to be spinning faster and faster. Information is coming more quickly and opportunities to 'do things' seem to be on the increase. Life rarely slows down. Even trying to slow things down takes some work. So we all take note of the people around us who seem to be able to slow things down and pay attention a little better. I thought I would take that nameless driver's lead and pay attention to what is around me:

• Jack Osteen is faithful at delivering the remaining flowers from worship each week to persons in need of a little boost in the hospital, nursing home or at their home.
• Martha Conklin arrives quietly each week, almost never missing, and cares for the most precious ones at Epworth each week in the nursery.
• Fred Scanling is not in worship with us very often, but has an important ministry of paying attention to what we post online and in our bulletins and helping us catch errors. 
• Janie Nellums pays attention to the preacher's typos, comma mistakes, and never misses anyof them. See what I did there!
• Jan Shackleford sends hand-written cards to people in need us a word of encouragement with no fanfare or special praise.
• Ella Kate Conkle is on the lookout for me every week to run and give me a hug. Even on the weeks my sermons go too long. 
• Jeannie Guilbeault walks the halls of Epworth every week during Sunday School to look in windows and around corners to make sure kids and youth are safe and cared for.

   My friend from the Pastoral Institute, Stephen Muse, wrote recently, "Belovedness is essential nourishment to the human soul and this remains true our whole lives. When it is missing, violence emerges, both with the mind and body, in the form of various diseases and higher mortality rates as well as with betrayal and addiction within our families and communities." (find his book here). He was talking about the critical role parents plan in raising children. I think he is saying we must pay attention to children and then pour on them our love. Attention is important to keep them from harm right now, but love is critical for them to grow up well later on.
   I think the same is true for adults. Paying attention and showering others with love helps us grow well later on. Grace and Peace, Scott

A Better Way to Lose Sleep

   Charles Ramsey is a hero. He is also very funny. I am laughing because he speaks the truth in a way that we rarely hear from people pushed into the light of national attention. Charles speaks the truth. In the days after he rescued Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight, held captive for 10 years in a Cleveland, Ohio home, he talked about having trouble getting to sleep. It wasn't because of all the excitement that followed his knocking down a neighbor's door, freeing three women and a girl who police say were held hostage for years. Instead, Ramsey told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Tuesday, it was about knowing he had lived for a year near the captive women on the city's West Side.

"Up until yesterday the only thing that kept me from losing sleep was the lack of money," the restaurant dishwasher told Anderson Cooper on CNN.

After rescuing these women from across the street, he was now losing sleep for an even larger purpose. What he had seen and done had changed his vision. [You can read the story on CNN here]
   I am not suggesting we should lose sleep. In fact, most people I know need to get more sleep. Americans don't sleep enough, and television, smart phones, and worries contribute to that unsettling trend. But if losing sleep is a phrase we use to describe what we give our attention to and what we yearn to have solved, then Charles Ramsey has found a better way to lose sleep. I have seen it happen time and again. When a person has their eyes open to the real needs of others around them - Jesus calls these others our neighbors - then their attention is forever changed. The way we see the world is different, like the Samaritan in Luke 10.
   I've been sitting and learning from Epworth folks for a project for school about the dreams of our leaders. One person told me that they were now dreaming about the future of the church more than ever because of the new things they had seen and were doing. This is so true. What we see is supposed to change what we dream about. 
   I am dreaming for Epworth because I have seen what happens here. I'm dreaming of a future so bright we cannot make out all of the details, just yet. I don't know exactly what is to come, but I pray you will join me in dreaming and doing to make great things happen. Grace and Peace, Scott

Career Day

   Paul writes to the church in Philippi to share his current status, for he was suffering in prison, and to say that he longed to see them face to face, again. He goes on to lift up persons as examples of faith for the believers who would read his letter to follow. After referring to Jesus, Timothy, and Epaphroditus, Paul gets around to his own life in the third chapter. He describes the career he made for himself and then uses choice language that is translated into English as rubbish or refuse to say that all of the career he made for himself before encountering Jesus was worth nothing. (read more here)
   Since 'retiring' from a career in college basketball, I have thought about the ways in which my path was similar to Paul's. While Paul reached the pinnacle of excellence at an early age and was admired by his peers, my career trajectory was slightly lower as a junior college coach and then a Division II coach. I did have the chance to help Georgia Tech win a couple of championships, and spent a couple of summers working in the NBA and for the Olympic Dream team. Yet, like Paul, the accomplishments of those days pale in comparison to the work Christ has called me to now. 

Teresa, Quinley and Leighton

Blaire and Leslie

   On Monday evening, a couple of Epworth's very best walked across the stage as they graduated from Columbus State University. The names Blaire Delane Morris and Quinley Augusta Russell were called out as their families looked on with pride. Their stories are awesome and they deserve a moment to bask in the glory of such an accomplishment, as do all of the graduates this year who will be celebrated in the coming weeks. 
   It was on this same Monday night that my father, Dan Hagan, came into town to visit. He was speaking at Sam and Jack's elementary school for their Career Day. This is the fourth or fifth time he has done so and each year he returns more excited to talk about science, bugs, and the neat things he has been able to do. But, how do we reconcile a successful career with Paul's words about counting it as refuse?
   I think Paul was right. Our careers and accomplishments are rubbish compared to the glory of knowing Christ. But, I think we have misread Paul if we come away thinking that our careers cannot be used for the glory of Christ. My father is a Christian who happens to be a biologist. Blaire and Quinley are Christians who are now college graduates, both of whom have the chance to take the past and leverage for the Kingdom. God calls us to use all that we have to be about his Kingdom agenda: bringing healing to broken places, putting the world back together and sharing the amazing love that was first shared with us. I think if Jesus had ever spoken at a Career Day he would have shared those very ideas like he did in the parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25. 
   May we all make such accomplishments be our goals, as well. Grace and Peace, Scott

The Holy Spirit

   A friend joked recently about me coming into their class to help teach on the Holy Spirit, implying they needed help because the topic is so elusive. They were right, for sure. It is hard to get your arms around something called Spirit or Ghost!

The Spirit portrayed as a
dove, on a stained-glass
window in Epworth's Sanctuary.

   The Apostle's Creed we recite is built upon the three parts of our we understand God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The teachings of the church since its earliest days center on the three-part nature of God, which we call the Trinity. We use such language to get our minds around how God has operated through history and how the Bible teaches us about God. In truth, most of what we know about God relates to the first two persons of the Trinity. We believe God to be like a powerful, creative, loving Father. This is the first person. We know God as humble, miracle-working, obedient, suffering Savior. This is the second person. Yet, we know little of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. 
   If you went searching a textbook you'd find that the Holy Spirit functions to reveal truth to us. The Holy Spirit is critical to the relationship we have with Christ. The Holy Spirit is also the power of God to bring us together as one, which is the highest goal of God for all believers. Basil of Caesarea, who lived in the 300's, wrote this:

All who are in need of sanctification turn to the Spirit; all those seek him who live by virtue, for his breath refreshes them and comes to their aid in the pursuit of their natural and proper end. Capable of perfecting others, the Spirit himself lacks nothing. He is not a being who needs to restore his strength, but himself supplies life; he does not grow by additions, but possesses abundant fullness; he abides in himself, but is also present everywhere. The source of sanctification, a light perceptible to the mind, he supplies through himself illumination to every force of reason searching for the truth. By nature inaccessible, he can be understood by reason of his goodness; filling all things with his power, he communicates himself only to those who are worthy of him, not by sharing himself according to a unique measure but by distributing his energy in proportion to faith. 

   In addition, I offer one small story of how the Spirit is working this week. I was invited to attend a breakfast meeting about a pressing need at Open Door for volunteers to help with childcare during the amazing Circles meetings that now happen every Thursday night. This is where lives are being changed forever for the good. Well, I committed Epworth people to help this week - they needed us badly! As the meeting was ending, I get an email on my  phone from Julie asking if I could watch the boys so she could volunteer at Open Door on Thursday because Becky Britton has sent out an email seeking help. But, no one from Open Door knew Becky was asking - she just knew of the need and was trying to help. So while we were meeting, there were others are work to meet the need! Some could explain this away as coincidence. I say otherwise. The Spirit of God is working for good in and around us. May we have eyes to see it.

   So, I would have gladly obliged my friend but am teaching the Young Adults class right now as we move through the Gospel of Luke each week. I left him to fend for himself. Except he wasn't by himself, was he? That is the very essence of the role of the Holy Spirit. We are not alone. Grace and Peace, Scott