The Cars Zooming Past

   I was sitting at our men's table group that gathers at 6:00 AM on Tuesdays. There was a lull in the conversation for guys to eat and I found myself gazing out the windows. The headlights of the cars, moving quickly past the Chick-fil-a on Highway 96, seemed to appear out of nowhere and continue on into the darkness. The shape of a school bus caught my attention, as it crossed under the traffic lights going north on Houston Lake Road, zipping along and heading to its first stop.
   "This is a great big world," I thought to myself. Something in that moment tugged at my heart. It has stayed with me.
   I had been thinking ahead to two morning meetings, a list of a dozen things that had to get done that day, and a week filled with opportunities to 'advance the ball down the field' for the church and God's work in our community. Yet, something about those cars moving past gave me reason to pause: every car, truck, and even school bus was loaded with expectations of a new day and all the tasks to be accomplished. We are all more alike than we often realize.

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   The season of Advent begins this week. Observed in churches around the world as a time of waiting and expectation for the arrival of a child born in a manger, the word itself is derived from the Latin word meaning "coming." Advent is about preparing for Christ to come into the world. Paul tells us, "But when the fulfillment of the time came, God sent his Son, born through a woman..."

   Maybe it was a little bit of Advent moving in my heart on Tuesday morning. The Holy Spirit works just like that. I certainly need to be daily reminded of my small place in the world. Christmas is like a reset button, reminding me that even though I am small, God's plans include me and everyone else zooming through life.
   My prayer is that we would allow the word of God, heard in worship and through our own personal devotional life, to take root in our hearts to prepare a place for Christ to enter again this Christmas. God has plans for us and for everyone. Plans for our good and his greatness. Grace and peace, Scott

The Gospel in the Middle of The Table

   Over the centuries, the church has given a variety of names to the meal that Jesus instituted as a commandment for those who follow him. We know it as the Lord's Supper, is breaking bread, the divine liturgy or mass, the service of table, or the sacrament of holy communion. It is known by all these names but none is more ancient than the name Eucharist. It is a Greek word that literally means thanksgiving. This sacrament, passed down directly from Jesus Christ to his followers and referenced throughout the Gospels as the center of worship for Christians, was named early on for the central prayer of thanksgiving, or eucharistia. The Eucharist is and means thanksgiving.
   When trying describe what the bible intends for our meals together, James White, noted United Methodist professor of worship, places thanksgiving at the top of the list. He writes, "It is hard to imagine thanksgiving as absent from the joyful action that bubbled over as the Jerusalem church broke bread with glad and generous hearts" (in Acts 2:46). In fact, Jesus lived out this thanksgiving with every meal he shared with his friends and followers. Thanksgiving is at the center of the Gospel.
   What we do this week, gathered around tables, is the very stuff of the Gospel. Thanksgiving is the good news. We sit and are thankful. We are nourished by what, for the most part, others have gathered and prepared. We suspend rivalries and enmity and celebrate. We slow down long enough to appreciate what we have and from where we have come. All of this is Thanksgiving and all of this is the life of faith. This is what it means to do life together as Christians. 
   You are in my prayers this week. Wherever you are, you are loved. You are forgiven. You are blessed and you are called to be a blessing. May these days find thanksgiving at their center. Grace and Peace, Scott

Like Lightning Following Thunder

Grace always demands the answer of gratitude. Grace and gratitude belong together like heaven and earth. Grace evokes gratitude like the voice an echo. Gratitude follows grace like thunder lightning.... Here, at any rate, the two belong together, so that only gratitude can correspond to grace, and this correspondence cannot fail. Its failure, ingratitude, is sin, transgression. Radically and basically all sin is simply ingratitude.

- Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics

   What a word: like thunder following lightning! Arguably the most significant Christian theologian of the past century, Karl Barth’s stood against the rise of fascism in Germany through two world wars. 

   His quote prompts me to ask, "What follows the lightning in my life?" When good things appear out of nowhere, what follows? What about when bad things happen?

   I believe that God's grace is available in the good and the bad. Am I willing to see it for what it is? I am keen on suffering, for no person should be. But, if in the suffering I am led by grace into a deeper of trust of God, then it seems that gratitude should follow even suffering. I am not fond of persecution. But, if others speaking against me causes me to pause, reflect and repent of the part of their story which is true, and repentance leads back back to the worship of God, then gratitude should follow even persecution.

   It is perfectly appropriate to offer up gratitude for the good, as we gather around tables of turkey this coming week. It is divinely right to reflect on how God is at work in the not-so-good to grow us in trust and love. They will know we are Christians by our love. May the good and bad of life be turned to love and thanksgiving, by God's grace.

   Grace, peace and cranberry sauce to you, Scott

The Secret to Changing Others

   I’ve had a number of conversations lately on the topic of getting others to change. Many of these conversations have been in my head, others have been in my office, and others have happened in hallways or grocery aisles or out and about in the daily rhythm of life. To be honest, this topic has been at the forefront of most pastoral conversations I’ve had since submitting and entering the ministry in 1999. We all long for change: mostly other people to change. More about us in a second. 

   Is there is a clear-cut, fool-proof way to help other people change. Of course not. Yet, there is a truth from the scriptures that is born out from our experience. People rarely change because they are shamed into it. Change rarely comes because they are forced into it. And, lasting change almost never happens because of some transaction - "If you do this, I will do this." I read this just the other day:

Humans change in the process of love-mirroring, not by paying any price or debt. 

- Richard Rohr, p 132, The Divine Dance

   If I want others to change, it begins with me. I have to show love. It is like a mirror that reflects an image back to the other. The image I am reflecting must be love. Change in the other person of a relationship always begins with me. 

   Christianity is a social religion. We learn it from others and are commanded to share it with others. Really very little of it is personal or private. If there is, it is my own personal willingness to be changed, by grace outside of my own ability. Change is grace. Change is submission. It starts with me.

   Grace and peace, Scott

Memory prompts Action: Remember and Give Thanks

   We remember and give thanks.
   That’s what we do in the church. We remember … and we give thanks. We remember the story, from before time was kept through our own time and forward still, and we give thanks. We remember the story of Jesus Christ - who lived and loved and showed us how to love - and we remember the gift of the Holy Spirit that gave birth to Christ's church and are thankful we can be a part of God's ongoing work. We remember and give thanks.
   This weekend, as we celebrate All Saints Sunday, we will remember how the ministry we share now was embraced and lived by generations before us. We will remember by name those of our church family here at Bonaire who in the past year entered into the Communion of Saints. Names will be read, candles lit, lives honored, and holy memories stirred. We cannot begin to capture the fullness of their lives, but we can recall their place in our congregation and the ministry we carry on from them. And, no doubt, our minds will turn to others who touched our lives with God’s grace and showed us the way of faithful living. We will be invited to call their names, too.
   Finally, before each hour of worship is done, we will remember the words of Jesus, who said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this to remember me," in 1 Corinthians 11. Together we will share in the sacrament of Holy Communion. Jesus instructs us that memory prompts action. We remember and give thanks.
   May we be changed for the better by it. Grace and Peace, Scott