Celebrations and Concerns: Join Me In Prayer

   What a blessing for each of us to witness the young people before us on Sunday, confirming their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and moving forward in growing as disciples:

Maxx Anthony Bass

Jacob John Broome

Luke Jeffery Elliot

Lucas Rye Mathis

Hannah Marie Wood

   And, these were not the only ones who took part. We had a great group of other students stand in front of the church and re-affirm the covenant they've made with God. I am proud of each of them, and Matt and I said as much to each of them as we prayed with them two weeks ago following their decision to say Yes to Jesus.
   My prayers for the church, everyday, include these young people and their families. I specifically pray for our members and the visitors who worship with us. I, also, have written on my prayer pages a reminder to pray for the visitors who've not yet attended Bonaire, but who one day will walk through our doors. I want us to be a church where those who've already said Yes and those who have yet to commit feel the love of God.
   There is so much going great at Bonaire Church. We are discipling each other, we are serving our neighbors, and we are generous with the world - water wells and mission trips and more. Yet, indeed, we've got places of concern. We want our worship to be great, regardless of the style we are offering in that hour. We want our children - from birth through the school years - to be included, to be cared for, and to be offered every chance to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ in a way that works for them. I promise you that the staff who work here and the countless lay people who serve alongside are working on these very things every week. We fall short all of the time, but we also rely on God's grace to make up the shortfall. Join me in praying for more great Sundays like this past weekend, where people of all ages are able to say Yes to Jesus.
   Grace and Peace, Scott

Do not be Conformed...

"Our consumer culture is organized against history. There is a depreciation of memory and a ridicule of hope, which means everything must be held in the now, either an urgent now or an eternal now."

Walter Brueggemann in his book The Prophetic Imagination, 1978

   I have to read it a couple of times to get it, but when I do I proclaim, Amen! The world wants everything now. Modern culture tries to force us to squeeze all of history into the mere present. Things have to be done now. People trust less, because that requires faith in the future. People value the past less, because we've bought into the myth that it is not relevant to the present. Of course, the culture is wrong!
   God, through the church, calls us to hold the present in tension with the past and the future. The present matters, but so do the past and the future. There is more to history than right now, which is why we read from the sacred texts of the Bible every week in worship and teach our children to memorize them every month. We sing songs that were not written to sell records. We gather in a place that was built by the hands of others who came before us. We go forth believing that our purpose in life is larger than our appetite or needs or impulses. This is the very essence of the church's counter-cultural response. Paul pleads with us not to be conformed to the culture of this world in Romans 12.
   Confirmation is also about honoring history, empowering our sense of memory, and finding hope in both the past and the future. As Confirmation Sunday approaches this weekend, I am looking back on the past three months spent in close proximity with the young people who have participated. I am in awe of what a blessing it has been for me personally. They are smart, funny, engaged, and every moment spent with them has been a tremendous gift. I am thankful to Matt Martin for his steady and faithful leadership in the lives of these young people. I am thankful to all of the parents who helped these young people to keep this a priority.
   The young people who stand in front of the church are embracing the past and staking a claim in the future. This is the calling on everyone of us, every day. We trust the Creator from our past, the Savior of our present, and seek the Spirit who leads us into the future with hope.
   Grace and Peace, Scott

Be Careful, Trouble Lies Just Outside

   The phone rang and I stepped out of the church office, because I like to walk and talk on the phone. Long before there were devices tallying my steps, I have preferred to walk and talk.
   I was making my first lap around the historic chapel that anchors our campus when my eyes stopped at something out of place: a nail. It was in the middle of the asphalt that wraps around the front of the building, where hundreds of cars pass each week. It struck me that it could have been entirely possible that someone who showed up to attend worship - to sing praise to God, to reorient themselves to the true north that Jesus provides, to listen to the Word of God offered, to connect in fellowship that changes their heart - could have been the very one to have that nail pierce their tire as they pull away. It doesn't seem right that you could spend an hour doing right only to walk outside and suffer wrong.
   In Genesis 4, right after Cain stands before God and doesn't get what he wants, God warms him to be careful, because "sin will be waiting at the door ready to strike." Cain stepped on that nail.
   In Mark 8, right after Peter proclaims that Jesus is the Messiah, his very next step is to rebuke Jesus to act according to Peter's terms and not those of heaven. Peter stepped on that nail.
   Throughout the teachings of Jesus, both the commandments that point to the truest way to the live and the stories that are laced with wisdom, Jesus is also offering words of warning. In Matthew 24, Jesus begins an entire chapter about what is ahead with the words, “Watch out that no one deceives you." He warning them about stepping on that nail.
   It does not seem fair, but it is true; we must be careful. John Wesley's three simple rules begin with "Do No Harm." Surely that includes the harm that is done to ourselves when we don't watch out for the nails that would pierce our bodies and harm our souls. What do they look like to you? Anger, fear, resentment, worry, doubt, greed, lust, contempt? Don't step on that nail.
   Grace and peace, Scott

News about the Panama Papers is spreading, but is anyone surprised?

   Over one year ago, an anonymous source reached out to a German newspaper in order to pass on a collection of documents related to a law firm located in the country of Panama. In all, there were 11.5 million documents, dating back to 1977, that contained information on 214,000 entities, including companies, trusts and foundations. That original newspaper gave the information to an international group of investigative journalists to try and make sense of the overwhelming amount of data contained in the leak. The files show how clients of Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian Law Firm, were able to launder money, dodge sanctions and avoid taxes from countries around the world. The Australian Broadcast Corporation wrote on Monday:

Using complex shell company structures and trust accounts Mossack Fonseca services allow its clients to operate behind an often impenetrable wall of secrecy. Mossack Fonseca's success relies on a global network of accountants and prestigious banks that hire the law firm to manage the finances of their wealthy clients. Banks are the big drivers behind the creation of hard-to-trace companies in tax havens.

   As more and more news outlets begin picking up the story of the Panama Papers, more and more people are beginning to catch little bits and pieces of the scale of this story. The world is learning how many people are involved. Already the Prime Minister of Norway has resigned, after it was shown that he and his wife were hiding assets in off-shore accounts that created conflicts of interest and not revealing them in his election to office. There is a website showing the families of world leaders who are currently known to be involved: https://panamapapers.icij.org/the_power_players/.
   Here is the thing: this story is apparently huge, yet not everyone will learn about it, not everyone will care, and most everyone will soon forget it. Why is that? Could it be that we have all become so dulled, desensitized, and basically not-surprised about bad news after what seems like forever? And the volume of bad news seems only to be increasing.
   That is what is so fascinating about the Easter story; good news spread quickly. Despite the efforts of Roman authorities and Jewish non-believers, the flow of information about an empty tomb and then repeated appearances of a Palestinian man who had died but was now alive could not be ignored. I think people crave Good News. I think people want to tell about it. There is not enough of it in the world. Here is goes again from 1 Corinthians 6:14: Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power.
   Grace and peace, Scott