Personal Perspective in a Selfie World

   If we ever make it to Mars in the next five decades, there is a NASA spacecraft waiting there to greet us! Despite being built to stay in service for only two years once it landed in 2012, the Curiosity has performed so well NASA has extended its mission indefinitely, saying it could operate as long as 55 years. "We've already decided with this plan that we will continue to operate Curiosity as long as it's scientifically viable," says John Grunsfled, NASA's associate administrator for science. The nuclear-powered rover has enough plutonium on board to last 55 years, says Grunsfeld.

   That is a long time. What will it do, alone on a planet? It will be working. Along with sending massive amounts of data from the Red Planet, the Curiosity is able to send photos and videos. But like an American teenager, Curiosity is using the camera for something else: selfies. A selfie is a picture you take of yourself. This image was taken by Curiosity not long after it landed on Mars. 

   The only thing with the photo it took of itself - it couldn't do it alone. Because of the short distance of its arm and the particular lens it was using, the image required lots of work to 'stitch' it together. A team of NASA engineers spent hours using software to turn this image into something that actually looked like reality. 

   Are you with me? Sometimes our perspective is too close.  Sometimes we look through the lens and what we see is distorted. Most of the time, we are not able to gauge reality on our own. Actually, all of the time. It is a part of our human condition. We are fallen. We have blurred our vision and can no longer see things as they are. Like the Curiosity on Mars, we need other people and their software to help us. The people who do that are Christians (it's up to you to allow them to help) and the software is found in God's Word (the Bible is the most accurate lens through which we can see reality). 

   We believe that Epworth's mission is to connect you to others and to equip you with what you need to keep reality in perspective. Not every idea you have is right. Not every impulse brings God glory. Our personal perspective is sometimes poor. But, together we can see things clearly and continue to operate for good for decades into the future!

Where Will Your Name Appear?

   One of the great and enduring joys of my childhood started on one trip to visit my grandparents' home in Brunswick. I was probably in middle school, back then, when my grandfather introduced me to one of his favorite pastimes: reading Louis L'Amour westerns. He had nearly every one of them and dozens of duplicate copies. L'Amour wrote novels filled with action that taught me invaluable lessons about right and wrong, tough choices, courage and, most important of all, never sit with your back to the door of the saloon!
   Jokes aside, the L'Amour books I loved reading the most were from his seventeen-novel series that follows the Sackett family from the British Isles to Colonial America and then across the Wild West. So, when my oldest came looking for a book the other day, I was delighted when he accepted my recommendation of Sackett, first published in 1961.
   When I went online to find reviews that might jog my memory of any content too adult for my son (it turns out they are fine for teenagers), I stumbled upon a note I never knew: his first books were written under a pseudonym that he never claimed to have used. He was commissioned to write four books in 1950 for a series called Hopalong Cassidy. Originally published under the under the pseudonym, "Tex Burns," L'Amour denied writing them until the day he died, refusing to sign any of them that fans would occasionally bring to his autograph sessions. It seems everyone knew he wrote them, but he said, "I just did it for the money, and my name didn't go on them. So now, when people ask me if they were mine, I say 'no.'"
   This is fascinating to me. A famous and influential writer - Ronald Reagan gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984 - would not claim books that he wrote because of the original intent he had in writing them: just for the money.
   What about us? Have we ever created something to which we we later did not want our names attached? Have we ever written something, spoken something, or done something that we would later want to distance ourselves from?
   The good news, really it is the Gospel, says that we can move forward and past the things and places from our past. Our names might be attached, but we don't have to be defined by them. And L'Amour wrote that very thing once in a book when he said, "The way I see it, every time a man gets up in the morning he starts his life over. Sure, the bills are there to pay, and the job is there to do, but you don't have to stay in a pattern. You can always start over, saddle a fresh horse and take another trail."
   May we be about the creation of words, actions and lives that are worthy to bear our names and the Name of the One who created us. Grace and Peace, Scott

Do We Need Jesus in Our Death Penalty Conversation?

   A leading voice in the Southern Baptist community, Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, responded to the tragic botched execution in Oklahoma earlier this month with this statement to CNN this week:

"Should Christians support the death penalty today? I believe that Christians should hope, pray and strive for a society in which the death penalty, rightly and rarely applied, would make moral sense." 

His 1200-word opinion piece went on to say that he worried that the use of the death penalty would decline in the US and that Christians should stand up and work to defend the death penalty. Read the entire piece on CNN.com. His argument included some references to Scripture - he mentions that Moses, David, and Saul (later Paul) all committed murder, but were not executed - but he leaves out one notable, and often very quotable source: Jesus.
   Before I go on, I should say that I have personally been against the death penalty for a couple of decades now. The evidence, as I see it, points to the overwhelming slant based on personal economics and race. That doesn't even mention that the latest studies find at as many as one in twenty-five persons executed are actually innocent! The United Methodist Church's official stance, crafted at the quadrennial General Conference, includes this statement:

We believe the death penalty denies the power of Christ to redeem, restore and transform all human beings. 

   It was Shane Claiborne's take on all of this that caught my attention this week, though. He was the first to note Jesus' absence from Mohler's statement. Here are snippets of Claiborne's article:

Consistently, Jesus said things like “I did not come for the healthy but for the sick, not for the righteous but for the sinners”…“blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy”…“inasmuch as you forgive you will be forgiven”…“judge not lest you be judged”…“You’ve heard it said ‘an eye for an eye’ but I tell you there is another way....” We dare not forget the story – of a God who so loved the world that Jesus was sent, not to condemn the world but to save it.   We must not forget that much of the Bible was written by murderers who were given a second chance. Moses. David. Paul. The Bible would be much shorter without grace.

   What do you think about the death penalty? Since it's return in the US in 1977, is murder down? Does it work. And finally, do we need Jesus in our conversations about the death penalty, gun rights, healthcare, taxes, Little League baseball, and all of the other stuff that occupies our attention? I think yes.
   Grace and Peace, Scott

God Is Big Enough

  One conversation at the church earlier this week involved the capacity of roll-off dumpsters. You know, the large containers used by contractors to hold the materials left over in a demolition project. One person suggested that one size would be adequate, while another was wondering if we could save a few bucks by going with a smaller size container.
   The parking lot expansion project has started this week. The first phase is to remove some trees, but before that can happen the "past-its-prime Eagle's Nest shed" that has been home to many an insect and spider for decades now needed to get removed. A word of thanks to Jimmy Bridges and his crew for making quick work of the task. Some of its contents were kept, others are being offered to local churches who could use them, while the rest were placed in the 30-yard capacity container that will be hauled off later this week.
   How much can a container hold? The answer depends on its size.
   How much can God hold? That answer is given in Scripture. 1 Peter 5:7 says, "Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you." Another translation says cast all your cares, while another says put all your troubles, and still another says give all your worries to God. God is big enough.
   Oh, what a promise. Can it be true? Is there a limit to God's capacity to take on our worries, troubles, sins, fears, anxieties, and suffering? There is no limit. The God who spoke a word and created galaxies and constellations a billion miles wide, has more than enough room.
   That is a word I need to hear. I need to hear that I can give my grieving to God. Your fears are welcome in Him. God welcomes your doubts and even your anger. He cares about you and about me.
   Grace and Peace, Scott

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   While the demolition and construction of the new driveway and parking lot in the rear of our church got started this week, we anticipate that we can park there one more Sunday (this May 11). We are making plans for the following Sundays. We will have greeters out front to offer help and volunteers in the porte-cochère (our fancy word for the covered driveway) to valet cars to safe places on the streets. We do not want anyone to stay away from worship because of this week. Please let us know how we can help.