What Do We Do with God’s Plan?

A mom was out walking with her 4-year-old daughter when her girl picked up something from the ground and started to put it in her mouth. The mother tells what happens in her own words:

"I took the item away from her and I asked her not to do that."

My daughter quickly asked, "Why?"

"Because it's been lying outside, you don't know where it's been, it's dirty and probably has germs," I replied.

At this point, my daughter looked at me with total admiration and asked, "Wow! How do you know all this stuff?"

I thought quickly and said, "All moms know this stuff. It's on the Mommy Test. You have to know it, or they don't let you be a Mommy."

We walked along in silence for 2 or 3 minutes, as she pondered this new information.

"Oh...I get it!" she beamed, "So if you don't pass the test you have to be the daddy?"

I smiled and replied, "Exactly."[1]

Does it feel some days as if life is a test for which you didn’t study? Then you are in luck, because in today’s passage, we found two disciples who were in the same boat, and what they discovered that day changed their lives and could change yours as well.

First, Jesus comes into the messiness. Why these two disciples left Jerusalem is not clear, but they are obviously depressed about Jesus’ crucifixion. Are they trying to leave the hard facts of death behind as they head out of town? In the midst of their confusion and sadness, Jesus comes. Two weeks from tomorrow, the packers come to pack up all our things. In the meantime, we are sorting and packing and we are living into the messiness trying to get ready. But ready or not—and yes, we will be ready—the movers will be there. Jesus doesn’t wait until these disciples are organized and ready, and Jesus doesn’t wait until our lives are neat and orderly. Jesus comes into the messiness of our lives.

Second, Jesus cares about what’s going on inside us. You’ll notice that Jesus asks these disciples what they are talking about, and truly listens to their response. At church camp, I saw two of the high school guys standing by each other. This is how the conversation went: “How ya doin’?” asked one. “Fine. You?” “It’s cool.” Then they just stood there, not knowing what to say. Finally, one said, “Want to throw the Frisbee?” and both relieved, they ran out to the field. These guys crack me up, but women are often no better. Why do we ask, “How are you?” if we are not really ready to listen, or really ready to share. Jesus knows what is going on for these two disciples, knows what has upset them, but Jesus knows telling someone what is really on our hearts helps and heals us. Jesus cares enough about what’s going on inside to truly listen to our hearts.

Finally, Jesus explains to the disciples why it had to be. One of the great books I read a while back is The Juvenilization of American Christianity, by Thomas Bergler. He describes how in America, we have become satisfied with a nice God who wants us to be good, and who helps us on the road to self-development. But this empties the Cross of its power, forgetting that we can worship and experience the power of God in our suffering as well as our good times. Bergler writes, “We must be vigilant and creatively compensate for what gets lost in translation when we use the language of youth culture. For example, if we sing songs that highlight the emotional consolations of the faith, what can we do to help young people also embrace the sufferings that come with following Jesus?”[2] Indeed, Paul experienced God saying, “My grace is sufficient for you and my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) Jesus explains to the disciples why it had to be in a way that made their hearts burn with joy and passion.

What do we do with God’s plan? It’s a question we each have to answer. It’s a question our church has to answer. Max Lucado tells the story “of a group of climbers who set out to scale a large mountain in Europe. The view boasted a breathtaking peak of snowcapped rocks. On clear days the crested point reigned as king on the horizon. Its white tip jutted into the blue sky inviting admiration and offering inspiration.
On days like this the hikers made the greatest progress. The peak stood above them like a compelling goal. Eyes were called upward. The walk was brisk. The cooperation was unselfish. Though many, they climbed as one, all looking to the same summit.
Yet on some days the peak of the mountain was hidden from view. The cloud covering would eclipse the crisp blueness with a drab, gray ceiling and block the vision of the mountaintop. On these days the climb became arduous. Eyes were downward and thoughts inward. The goal was forgotten. Tempers were short. Weariness was an uninvited companion. Complaints stung like thorns on the trail.
We’re like that, aren’t we?”[3]  For more than a year, the direction of God seemed clear. We felt God’s power come as we sang and worshiped, worked and laughed together. What do we do with God’s plan? We could see the peak to which God was calling us—life as a family of followers of Jesus Christ…we said it in our Covenant and Mission this morning—but now we cannot see the future as clearly. What will we do with God’s plan?

Life can indeed seem like a test, for which we haven’t studied. But life is always changing, infinite in its diversity and surprises, so we need God’s help to make it through, especially when God’s plan isn’t clear. In many ways, I wish today were not happening. But I know, I know, this is right for me and my family, and for our church family. I am not altogether happy about it—as I have said to some of you, God and I have had words about this—but I have this sense of great blessings around the corner for all of us. I believe God is leading you all forward to a future in which the blessings are greater than we who are now here, can even imagine. In fact, one of the reasons I love this story of the Road to Emmaus is that when we are, like these two disciples, wondering what to do with God’s plan, Jesus comes into the messiness of our lives and really listens to us—what are we thinking, what are we sad and upset about. Then, if we will listen, Jesus will use God’s Word to explain. Jesus tells us of the never-failing, sacrificial love of God, of the way the Christ will help us put God’s Will above our own, and how the Cross (a symbol of death) releases the power of forgiveness and healing. Jesus is with us, though it may be—like the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus—that Jesus will use someone from our family or our church or a complete stranger to explain it to us. And yet…when we worship, and God takes us, and blesses us, and breaks us, and gives us to each other and to the world. Then our eyes will be opened, the eyes of everyone will be opened, and we will all see Jesus Christ is indeed with us in a way that fills our hearts with passion and our limbs with energy to tell the Good News! Jesus is risen and is with us! Hallelujah!

Pastoral Prayer:

Lord Jesus, guard and keep us in our comings and goings. Help us to see your face in each other’s faces, hear Your voice in each other’s voices, and grant us the strength and courage to respond to Your direction with joy-filled hearts. Amen.

[1] From a sermon by Mark Opperman, “Mothers: Guardians of the Heart,” 6/19/2012. SermonCentral.com.

[2]Thomas Bergler, “When Are We Going to Grow Up? The Juvenilization of American Christianity,” Christianity Today, June 2012, Vol. 56:6, pp18ff. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/june/when-are-we-going-to-grow-up.html

[3]Lucado, Max. God Came Near : Chronicles of the Christ, pp. 189–190. Portland, OR: Multnomah Press, 1987

Finding God in Disney: Beauty & the Beast (COVID Worship 4-12-20)

Welcome and Introductions

Good morning, friends and members of Jesus Christ! It’s in Jesus’ Name that we gather today, trusting in Jesus’ promise that “wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I will be in the middle.” On behalf of the members of the First Church of Squantum, a hearty welcome to another of our COVID worship services. For those who are joining in that I haven’t met yet, I’m Pastor Doug Gray and I have the great joy of being the pastor for the First Church of Squantum. Wherever you are today as you join us, I trust God is able to bridge the miles to link us all together. And it’s Easter Sunday! In the ancient church, Christians would gather on Easter and a leader would say, “He is risen!” to which the congregation would respond, “He is risen indeed!” and then everyone would say together, “Alleluia!” which means “Praise God!” So let’s bring this ancient tradition alive with our new technology today. I’ll say “He is risen!” You say, “He is risen indeed!” and we will all say, “Alleluia!” Shall we try it? Here we go! 

He is risen!

He is risen indeed!

Alleluia!

Let us worship God!

**Heart-Opening Song Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord

**Call to Worship

One: By the waters of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus walked and taught and watched the sun rise.

Many: Though some felt threatened by Jesus’ message of the coming Kingdom, Jesus’ Kingdom is a place of grace and steadfast love.

One: Jesus died 2000 years ago in Jerusalem, put to death by the authorities of His day.

Many: We believe, Lord. Help our unbelief.

One: He is risen!

Many: He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Opening Prayer

Be present in our midst this morning, Risen Jesus. As You appeared to the disciples, help each of us recognize this morning where You have walked with us over the course of our lives. Give us eyes to see and faith to trust, that You are our risen, living God, faithful to all Your people. Inspire us to be Your witnesses, and stir us to be Your hands and feet in the world. Hear us as we pray as Jesus still teaches disciples to pray, saying, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power and the Glory forever. Amen.”

Song Tale as Old as Time (Beauty and the Beast)

Tale as old as time

True as it can be

Barely even friends

Then somebody bends

Unexpectedly.

Just a little change

Small to say the least

Both a little scared

Neither one prepared

Beauty and the Beast.

Ever just the same

Ever a surprise

Ever as before

Ever just as sure

As the sun will rise.

Tale as old as time

Tune as old as song

Bittersweet and strange

Finding you can change

Learning you were wrong.

Certain as the sun

Rising in the east

Tale as old as time

Song as old as rhyme

Beauty and the Beast.

Tale as old as time

Song as old as rhyme

Beauty and the Beast.

Stewardship Reminder Today, in my office, I am surrounded by the most beautiful lilies and tulips. They’ve been given by some families and memory or celebration of loved ones. I invite you to take a look in the notes for those names. On behalf of everyone who gets to enjoy these flowers, thank you to those who provided them to us! Thanks, also, to those who are continuing to give. Encourage you to take a moment to sign onto our church’s website and use the donate button.

Prayer Song Glorious Day

Scripture Luke 24:1–12

24:1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. 5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” 8 And they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, 11 but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

Devotion I’m with Jesus!

Most of the time, our world tries to convince us that we can be gods. “Have it your way,” Burger King says. Apple names its online service, “me.com” because after all what matters is me. The saying, “The customer is king” has become “the customer is a god.” The more choices, and the more power we seem to have, though, the harder our lives seem to get. Have you ever felt like your life was too complicated? Does it ever seem that life is moving so fast that you can hardly keep up? Do you ever long for a simpler life? You are not alone. One of the problems with the Church in America is that we have made faith just as complicated. In fact, a woman once said to Max Lucado—one of the great preachers of our day— “I’d like to try Jesus, if I could just get past the religion.” For Jesus, it wasn’t about the clothes we wear or the sanctified language some Christians use. It wasn’t about believing certain, obscure teachings. Jesus wasn’t trying to start a movement—he was trying to start a relationship, to keep it simple. He said simply, “Follow me.” Our passage for today offers some critical insights into what it means to follow Jesus and simplify our lives.

First, the tomb is empty. Anthony Robbins tells the story of Richard Bandler who once visited a mental institution to deal with a man who insisted he was Jesus Christ—for real. When Bandler met this man, he asked, “Are you Jesus?” “Yes, my son,” the man replied. Bandler said, “I’ll be back in a minute.” This left the man a little bit confused. Within three or four minutes, Bandler came back, holding a measuring tape. Asking the man to hold out his arms, Bandler measured the length of his arms and his height from head to toe. After that, Bandler left. The man claiming to be Christ became a little concerned. A little while later, Bandler came back with a hammer, some large spiked nails, and a long set of boards. He began to pound them into the form of a cross. “What are you doing?” the man asked. As Richard put the last nails in the cross, he asked again, “Are you Jesus?” Again the man said, “Yes my son.” Bandler said, “Then you know why I’m here.” Somehow, the man suddenly recalled who he really was. His old pattern didn’t seem like such a good idea. “I’m not Jesus. I’m not Jesus!” the man started yelling. When we look at our seemingly infinite choices and extraordinary power, we are tempted to believe we are our own savior, but the world and we ourselves shy away from the sacrifice of love that would make us real saviors. The angels said it beautifully, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” If we want to find Jesus, it won’t be in empty complexity or purposeless speed. 

Second, He is risen. We will have to seek Jesus among the living. Joyce Hollyday tells the story of a school teacher who was assigned to visit children in a large city hospital. One day she received a routine call asking that she visit a particular child. The teacher took the boy’s name and room number, and was told, “We’re studying nouns and adverbs in this class now. I’d be grateful if you could help him with his homework, so he doesn’t fall behind the others.” It wasn’t until the visiting teacher got to the boy’s room that she realized he was in the hospital’s burn unit. No one had prepared her to find a young boy horribly burned and in great pain. The teacher felt that she couldn’t just turn around and walk out. And so she stammered awkwardly, “I’m the hospital teacher, and your teacher sent me to help you with nouns and adverbs.” This boy was in so much pain that he barely responded. The young teacher stumbled through the English lesson, ashamed at putting him through such a senseless exercise. The next morning a nurse on the burn unit asked her, “What did you do to that boy?” The teacher started on her apologies, but the nurse interrupted her: “You don’t understand. We’ve been very worried about him. But ever since you were here yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He’s fighting back; he’s responding to treatment. It’s as if he has decided to live.” The boy later explained that he had completely given up hope. “But then I realized,” the boy said with joyful tears. “They wouldn’t send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a boy who was dying, would they?” Even when all we seem to see around us is pain, disappointment and brokenness, on the other side of pain, there is resurrection. When we seek Jesus among the living and show the hope we know, somehow Jesus always finds us and catches us by surprise!

In many ways, we are like the women who loved Jesus and came to the tomb looking for him. It’s Easter and we came here at the break of dawn to find Jesus. In Jesus’ death on the cross, we see how far God was willing to go to show His love. But on the other side of Good Friday’s darkness comes the brilliance of Easter morning. As we look at the sacrifices it will take to show God’s steadfast love to the people around us, we will say, “I’m not Jesus! I’m not Jesus!” How could we love enough? How could we—failed, flawed and feeble as we are—ever love like that? Especially when we look at all the pain and need in the world, all the deep, deep darkness, we are tempted to throw up our hands. Something amazing happens when we stop trying to be God. He makes it simple for us:  joy comes in the morning! In the dark places of our lives, when we cry out to our God, Jesus comes…with a brilliance that beats back the darkness, a compassion that fills our hearts, and a strength we need to face it all. We are not alone. Jesus is with us. When we follow Jesus Christ, living out His sacrificial love, then even Death, our ancient enemy, will find us ready. For as we face the final darkness, our cry has become, “I’m with Jesus! I’m with Jesus!” He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Easter Prayer

Closing Hymn — #367, Christ the Lord is Risen Today

Benediction

We gathered in hope today, and now we head into the rest of our lives. We trust that You will go with us, Jesus, and that Your guidance and strength will come when we most need it. May others see Your grace shining through us, and know the power of the new life we are finding in You. Amen.

Finding God in Disney: Moana (COVID Sunday 4-5-20

Palm Sunday/Moana Sunday 

Welcome and Introductions

Good morning, friends and members of Jesus Christ! It’s in Jesus’ Name that we gather today, trusting in Jesus’ promise that “wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I will be in the middle.” On behalf of the members of the First Church of Squantum, a hearty welcome to another of our COVID worship services. I have heard from a number of you how much you are enjoying being able to watch wherever you are—some are watching in their PJs over a cup of coffee, others are watching on their back deck, and still others are enjoying being snuggled up with a loved one or pet. Good for you! These are indeed crazy times, but worship is not about how our times are going, but about the beauty, power and steadfast love of God, about expressing our gratitude to the One who continues to be faithful even in our crazy times. So let us worship God!

Opening Prayer

You have called us together, Lord, called us into virtual community that by Your grace can be more. We ask that You would enter into this time with us, that we might experience for ourselves how much and how deeply we are loved. As we remember Palm Sunday today, may we be reminded of how You long to ride through the gates of our hearts. Hear us then, as we pray together the prayer that Jesus still teaches disciples to pray, saying, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And leave us not in temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

Song                             Moana — How Far I’ll Go

Stewardship Reminder      Thanks to those who are continuing to give. Encourage you to take a moment to sign onto our church’s website and use the donate button.

Scripture                        Luke 5:1–11

Prayer Song                    Create in Me a Clean Heart

Devotion                        Becoming the Call We Receive

When you were a kid, was there someone whose phone call you didn’t want to take? I had a friend, who loved to talk, and if he called, I pretended I wasn’t home, because I knew if I got started with him, I wouldn’t ever get off the phone. Once I was mad at my high school girlfriend, and I made my parents answer the phone for me, saying I wasn’t able to come to the phone right now. In the movie, Moana, it’s the ocean calling her to adventure, tenderly teasing her with shells, persistently giving her clues and help on her journey. In our passage for today, Jesus is calling, and he has some odd instructions for Peter, James and John. What’s Jesus call like? Why does Jesus give odd instructions?

Jesus’ call to the disciples starts with something easy. Jesus climbs into Peter’s boat and asks Peter to take him out a little ways, so Jesus could teach from the boat. It’s a pretty smart idea. Have you noticed how far sound carries over water? Jesus uses that idea as a way of miking his voice so people could hear him better. I think Jesus often calls us with something easy—to help someone who needs it, to stand up for a little guy, to remind someone of a neighbor’s or friend’s need. As some of you know, when I finished college I worked a year as a chemist in Southern California. One of the coolest parts was going to the Tustin Presbyterian Church with a couple of my older cousins, George and Maxine. They asked if I wanted to join the choir, and I love to sing, so I said sure. That choir became a lifeline to God’s love for me. Jesus does the same thing with Peter, using things like boating and fishing to draw him in. How is Jesus drawing you in through something you know well or love to do?

But Jesus’ call moves onto something much crazier. Jesus tells Simon Peter to “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” Yep it’s crazier—Jesus the carpenter telling Simon the fisherman what to do. Peter says, “We’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.” The thing fishermen do at the end of the day is wash their gear so it’s ready for the next time, and since that’s what Peter was doing, he and his buddies were hanging it up till next time. But something about Jesus called to Peter. Something about who Jesus was or how Jesus said this, changed Peter’s mind. He says, “But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” There comes a time when Jesus calls us to do something more intense, something out of the normal, calls us to go to someone we don’t really want to see or help someone we don’t really want to help. It’s when we, like Peter, say, “Because you say so, Jesus, I will do it” that’s when we may the really big catches, the ones that change our lives and the lives of others.

Sometimes we receive that catch with joy, but sometimes it comes with “Oh my gosh! What am I doing? How can it be?” Peter falls on his knees and tells Jesus how unworthy he is. Maybe you have had that sense too. Why should Jesus love me? Why should Jesus want me? But He does! We don’t have a choice about whether or not we are loved—that’s God’s choice! The question for us is how we will respond to the gift, to the call, to the catch? When you were a kid or a teen, was there someone who when they called, you would drop everything to talk with them? If they said, “Let’s go!” you would leave everything to go and spend time with them? Today, as Jesus is calling, may your heart leap inside of you. Whether it’s easy or a crazy, if it’s Jesus calling, may our response be, “But because you say so, Jesus, I will do it.” Like Moana who discovers she has become the hero she was called to find, may we too become the call we have received from the Jesus we are learning to serve. 

Pastoral Prayer

Song                             Days of Elijah

Benediction

We gathered in hope today, and now we head into the rest of our lives. We trust that You will go with us, Jesus, and that Your guidance and strength will come when we most need it. May others see Your grace shining through us, and know the power of the new life we are finding in You. Amen.

Finding God in Disney: Mary Poppins (COVID Sunday)

Good morning! On behalf of Jesus Christ, welcome! On behalf of the members of the First Church of Squantum, welcome to the first of our Coronavirus Sundays. I’ve been thinking and praying for you each day this week. Still it’s not safe for us to be in the same space—to shake each other’s hand, give each other a hug and pass the peace of Christ to each other—at least physically. Since we are going to go like this for a while, I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve turned our sanctuary space into a TV studio. I’m really hoping that we can do worship and Bible Study together from here as we go forward. One of my buddies gave four reasons that online worship was great—1. You don’t have to worry about parking or finding a seat. 2. You can refill your coffee or get a snack whenever you want. 3. You can relax in your pajamas. 4. You can mute the pastor.

Perhaps we will try some live worship next week, but for now let’s gather in an attitude of worship.

Opening Prayer

Lord, You are the One Who makes heaven and earth, and You care for each of us. Thank You for all the blessings of today, and the chance to gather in Your Name to worship You. By Your Spirit link our hearts and minds across the distance, so that we might be Your people gathered in this moment. To say that we want to be Your people, Your children, is to say we want to be like You, Jesus, that we want to live like You, so that together with You, we can be the hope of the world. Hear us now as we pray the prayer that You still teach those who seek You to pray, saying, “Our Father…”

Song                             Spoonful of Sugar (Mary Poppins 31:20–36:32)

Stewardship Minute          Showing people how to find the donate button online.

Scripture                        Matthew 16:21–26

Matthew 18:1–4

Prayer Song                    More Precious Than Silver

Devotion                        Letting God Drive

I grew up wanting to drive. Driving is how you got to go places and I wanted to go places. Driving was a way I knew I was in charge. I wanted to drive.

When I watch Mary Poppins, I see Mr. Banks loving to drive, and he’s having a great time leading his family—blissfully unaware of how miserable his children are in the back seat, or how disconnected he is from his wife in the passenger seat. He’s so busy going places, having fun with his power and authority, that he has become miserable to live with.

What I love about this movie is that the children, Michael and Jane, and their parents are on opposite trajectories, all circling around the song, “Spoonful of Sugar.” Michael and Jane are learning that there can be fun in every bit of work if you look at it the right way. A little sugar to help the medicine go down. Meanwhile, their parents, George and Winnifred, are so involved in their own jobs—George at the Bank, and Winnifred working for women’s suffrage—that to one degree or another, they have stopped at adding any sugar to their medicine, any fun to their work. The kids are learning that work is ok in the middle of their play and the parents are learning that play is ok to balance their work. That’s fine, even a good plan.

But the movie, Mary Poppins, hints at deeper meanings. Whether it’s work or it’s play, Mary Poppins lets the moment lead. I would say that she lets God lead, changing course in mid-stream as something unfolds differently than she planned. One of my favorite parts is when Mr. Banks begins his “you are getting fired” speech, and winds up taking his kids to the bank the next day. When he gets to the end, Mary has so successfully summed up his thinking that he’s convinced it’s his own idea! Or the time she’s headed out on errands with the kids and goes to help Uncle Albert with his laughing problem. One has the sense that Mary goes through her life looking for the next thing to unfold and then jumps into whatever it is like she jumps into the chalk painting—with both feet.

Which gets me thinking about living with Jesus in crazy times like these. All of a sudden, we have to rethink everything! My brother is in upper management for a world-wide tech support firm. They are having to completely retool how they do things for their 40,000 employees around the world! I feel like such a slouch—I have to look after you all and my family! But we are having to rethink things too, right? How are we going to do school? Many of us appreciate how hard teachers work, am I right? How are we going to work? Some of us are still working—people who are keeping everything else in working order, keeping people safe, keeping people fed, keeping people healthy. My hats off to those of you who are on the front lines doing these important things. Some of us have lost our jobs. Some of us are trying to figure out how to make ends meet. Some of us are working from home. Some of us trying to find new ways to play and spend time—no playgrounds? no problem! Family games are coming back in. Puzzles too. Reading books, magazines and news—some of it online, some of it on hard copy. I’m valuing the Patriot Ledger more than I have in a while. Some of us can’t go to see our loved ones in nursing facilities or even at their homes to limit their risk factors. In crazy times like these, many of us have realized we are NOT in the driver’s seat. The question I would ask each of us today is this:  have we put Jesus in the driver’s seat? Do we trust that God is still driving? Do we look for signs that Jesus is adding a twist or a turn to our path? We can look at everything as a pain and a frustration—or we can look for the element of fun, embrace the change, see others with compassion, and recognize that Jesus is going a different direction than we had planned.

The other day I was out for a walk and going by someone’s house, and saw them outside, washing their car. Now I don’t want to break social distancing, but I took a few minutes to see how they were doing. We had a great conversation. I’m pretty sure I didn’t save the universe with that one, but it seemed like a good idea, so who knows. I do still love to drive, but I’m trying to leave more space for unexpected blessings. In the bitter pill of all this shut-down, we are learning new ways to sweeten our lives by moving over and so Jesus can drive. Amen.

Song                             10,000 Reasons

Benediction

We gathered in hope today, and now we head into the rest of our lives. We trust that You will go with us, Jesus, and that Your guidance and strength will come when we most need it. May others see Your grace shining through us, and know the power of the new life we are finding in You. Amen.

Finding God in Disney: Frozen (ft. COVID-19)

March 22, 2020

Rev Doug Gray

Welcome and Introductions

Good morning! On behalf of Jesus Christ, welcome! On behalf of the members of the First Church of Squantum, welcome to the first of our Coronavirus Sundays. I’ve been thinking and praying for you each day this week. Right now, everything feels different. I know we would all want to be together for worship, but our desire for worship is greater than either our sadness or our frustration. So here we are to worship God together! Let’s pray!

Prayer

Lord, today You gather with each of us, wherever we are. We gather in Your Name to seek Your Presence, Your guidance and Your peace. Most of all, O Lord, we gather to worship You. You are the One who made us, Who blessed us so abundantly, Who guards our paths, and holds us in tender care…and You are worthy of our worship. So come Holy Spirit and link us across the miles so that as we worship You, our lives might change and our world might shift. We pray all these things in the Name and Spirit of Jesus Christ who still teaches us to pray, saying, “Our Father…”

Song                           Let It Go  (31:05–34:42)

Scripture                    John 14:27, 16:33

John 14:27Peace I leave with you; my peaceI give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

John 16:33      “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

Song                           I Love You, Lord

Devotion                    Finding Peace

Welcome to Frozen Sunday! All this Lent we have been spending time with different Disney movies. It’s been a lot of fun watching the movies and singing along in worship. As it turns out, Frozen hits some high notes that speak to some of what Jesus had to say, some of what the spiritual greats have taught.

The first great insight is that fear is the enemy. In the movie, little Elsa and Anna are playing around using Elsa’s cold powers. Little Elsa accidentally hits Anna with some of her freezing magic and Anna’s head is pierced. The head troll warns Elsa.

7:30–8:12

Lots of people think the opposite of love is hate, but that’s not true. The opposite of love is fear. Fear builds walls, hides from sight, clenches us inside. Fear keeps us from trusting, leads us to act out of anger, or demand our own way. Fear causes all sorts of problems for Elsa and her kingdom. The song Let It Go we saw earlier is about Elsa letting go of her fear of herself and her great gift.

The greater insight is that love is the antidote to fear. When Anna’s heart is pierced by another of Elsa’s freezing magic, Anna is told only an act of true love can warm her heart. Everyone thinks it’s going to be true love’s kiss, given by one of the men in her life. 

1:25:50–1:28:46

Choosing to love and protect her sister, Elsa, not only saves Elsa, but Anna herself. Love is what allows Elsa to truly know and control her gifts. Love is what makes her safe, strengthens and opens her to the life she has always wanted. So fear is not just the enemy, but love is the antidote to fear. In his first letter, John writes, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love [mature love] drives out fear…”

Which is why I’m thinking about love and fear today—and about peace. Things are crazy right now, aren’t they? The novel coronavirus seems to be growing, something we are fighting by staying home and driving ourselves and each other crazy. We could get scared, and for sure there’s lots to make us anxious or worried. But remember, mature love—God’s love for us, and our love for God and each other—casts out fear. If we are like a cup, love fills us up until there is no more room for fear. 

This week, I found a letter from a pastor in Wuhan at ground-zero of the Covid-19 pandemic. He writes, 

“As for the church, the safety of the congregation, a faithful witness, the possibility that members could contract the illness, have all become a great area of struggle. It is readily apparent that we are facing a test of our faith. 

“The situation is so critical, yet [we are] trusting in the Lord’s promises, that his thoughts toward us are of peace, and not evil (Jeremiah. 29:11), and that he allows for a time of testing, not to destroy us, but to establish us. Therefore, Christians are not only to suffer with the people of this city, but we have a responsibility to pray for those in this city who are fearful, and to bring to them the peace of Christ. 

“First, we are to seek the peace of Christ to reign in their hearts (Hebrews 3:15). Christ has already given us his peace, but his peace is not to remove us from disaster and death, but rather to have peace in the midst of disaster and death, because Christ has already overcome these things (John 14:27, 16:33). Otherwise we have not believed in the gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:15), and, with the world, would be terrified of pestilence, and lose hope in the face of death. 

“… Christians may with the world face the same tribulations, but such tribulations are no longer punishment, but a new opportunity to grow nearer to the Almighty, to purify our souls, and an opportunity to proclaim the gospel….

“Spoken for today, Wuhan’s pestilence cannot separate us from the love of Christ; this love is in our Lord Jesus Christ. These words are so comforting for us, we have already become one body with Christ. We have a part in his sufferings, and we have a part in his glory, all of Christ’s is ours, and our all is Christ’s. Therefore, Christ is with us as we face the pestilence in this city; the pestilence cannot harm us. If we die in the pestilence, it is an opportunity to witness to Christ, and even more to enter into his glory.

“Thus, my brothers and sisters, I encourage you to be strong in Christ’s love. If we more deeply experience death in this pestilence, understanding the gospel, we may more deeply experience Christ’s love, and grow ever nearer to God.”

That’s my prayer for us, dear friends. Remembering how much God loves us, allows us to embrace ourselves, our giftedness and to embrace others…maybe with a little social distancing these days. Amen.

Song                           Blessed Be Your Name

Prayer

Benediction

We gathered in hope today, and now we head into the rest of our lives. We trust that You will go with us, Jesus, and that Your guidance and strength will come when we most need it. May others see Your grace shining through us, and know the power of the new life we are finding in You. Amen.

Finding God in Disney: Mulan

March 15, 2020

Rev Douglas Gray

When you were growing up, what are some messages people hear about being a boy or a girl?

[Take responses from the congregation.]

I heard things like “Big boys don’t cry.” and “A lady never reveals her age.” Some of those messages may be helpful sometimes, but at other times… One of the things about Disney’s movie, Mulan, is that it talks about gender roles and about people who might not fit with the stereotypes. But underneath is a deeper challenge for Christians that Paul addresses in his letter to the Christians in Rome.

First, let us be aware of roles others assign us, and the roles we assign ourselves. As we first meet Mulan, she is being prepared to meet the Matchmaker, the woman who helps young women make good marriages.

[Show Mulan, Girls Bring Honor as Brides / DVD 5:56–7:51]

Not long after Mulan pretends to be a man and joins the army to save her father. Mulan discovers that men of her society have just as rigid a set of expectations.

[Show Mulan, Learning Man Walk / DVD 29:10–31:08]

Our society has its own form of role and gender expectations. We talked about some of them at the beginning, didn’t we? Whether we are talking about male and female, parent and child, partner and spouse, or other roles, there are expectations—patterns we follow. Paul writes, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world…” and to do that we have to recognize the patterns in the first place.

Second, let us recognize that the roles and patterns of the world don’t really fit very well. Mulan loves being a daughter and works hard to care for her family, but chafes at the restrictions of gender roles. Even so, Mulan brings great humanity and strength to her role as soldier, valuing the death of a child as highly as that of a general. In our society, some roles and patterns don’t fit us well either. When I was a kid, I remember putting on my Dad’s suits and my Mom’s heels. The sleeves dragged on the floor and I nearly killed myself in Mom’s heels. Paul writes, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” If we feel like role or gender expectations are too constricting, perhaps what we really need is to know ourselves in a new way, to see ourselves less through the eyes of our society and more through the eyes of God. Then we are transformed from the inside out.

All our lives, people will tell us who they expect us to be. Like Mulan, we may feel like we have to wear a mask to fit in, as if we could change who we are. And we can never measure up, we will never be good enough in the eyes of the world. In our time, people will even tell us what we should be doing to be a good Christian, trying to lay on us expectations that are not even God’s expectations. Like Mulan, people may tell us we will never bring honor to our family or to our God. The good news today is that Jesus came to free us from other people’s expectations. Our lives are made meaningful by God’s love and by our response to it. As we watch Jesus escape people’s expectations—those who wanted an earthly king, those who wanted him to put family first, those who wanted him to be a good Jewish boy—we see how he holds unswervingly to a loving relationship with God. Paul writes, “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” In that well-formed maturity, our reflection matches who we are inside, our giftedness matches our passion, and what we do matches who we are. “…in view of God’s mercy, offer your selves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.” Then we will know what God wants, and we can live it out as simply as breathing—not for ourselves, but for the God who knows us and loves us through and through.

Finding God in Disney: The Little Mermaid

Rev Doug Gray

March 8, 2020

When you were a kid, did you ever wonder what it would be like to be a grown-up? I know I did. Lots of adults wanted to know what I wanted to be when I grew up. Do you remember thinking about that? For a long time, I wanted to be a firefighter, and then an astronaut, and for a while a school teacher. I remember watching the adults around me doing things that seemed very grown up, and I would try to imagine what it would be like to do those things if I were a grown up. What I love about the Disney movie, The Little Mermaid, is that Ariel is in one world trying to imagine another too. That’s true for us not just when we are kids trying to imagine what it would be like to be “all grown up,” but as teens and adults we live in the mundane world and wonder what the spiritual life would be like. In our passage today, Paul talks about his experience of the spiritual life in the midst of his real life, and I’d like to share with you how it made me think of The Little Mermaid.

The first key to finding the spiritual life is longing. Ariel has that in spades, doesn’t she? Looking in sunken ships for “treasure,” signs of the surface world. She sings, “I've got gadgets and gizmos a-plenty. I've got whozits and whatzits galore. You want thingamabobs?I've got twenty!But who cares?No big deal. I want more! I wanna be where the people are.I wanna see, wanna see them dancin',Walking around on those - what do you call 'em?Oh - feet!” As a teen going to church, I knew the names of church gadgets and gizmos—where I’m standing is called the pulpit, and the other place to speak from is the lectern. I knew choirs were for singing and pews for sitting. I knew communion meant something big, but it didn’t mean that for me. I wanted more! I knew a few handfuls of people who were different. They seemed to live a life I didn’t know, to know a meaning I hadn’t experienced, and to have a strength, wisdom and peace I really wanted but didn’t know how to get. When some people prayed, they were different after. Why was that? Paul expresses this kind of longing too. In verse 10, he writes, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death…” Though even now I don’t fully understand these words, I have a sense that Paul knows something super important and crazy interesting about the spiritual life in Jesus, and I get a sense of how much he wants to know more, and that awakens my longing to know too, to understand the new reality. 

The second key to finding a new spiritual world is curiosity and a willingness to leave our old life and habits and try new ways. Of course, Ariel needs legs instead of fins, and she experiences new kinds of moving.

[Show “Seeing the Kingdom” — Little Mermaid 57:07–58:25]

How do we live a life marked by faith? Like Ariel observing horses, chickens and people, we can watch people of great faith, talk with them, learn from them. Who are the people of great faith around us? Do we know them well enough to learn from them? Do they know us well enough to coach us? What’s this prayer thing people do? How does that work? Like Ariel learning how to dance, it helps that we are dancing with Jesus who really does know how it works. We will have to try new things that may feel awkward at first, but as Paul writes, “Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” Like Paul and Ariel, I am happy to let go of ordinary things to have something “Wow!”

The third key to finding the spiritual life is transformation. While the first two keys are ones inside of us, only God has the power to truly transform us in a lasting way. Only real love can truly transform us. 

[Show “Father’s Love Brings Transformation” —Little Mermaid 1:15:10-1:16-21]

Like Ariel, sitting on a rock, unable to make the transition to the new world, teen-age me sat in the pews longing for more, but unable to transition to life in Jesus Christ. And then I experienced great love in my youth group. They saw past my acne and desperate desire to belong, to the real, God-given heart. They saw God at work in me, though I didn’t have the eyes to see. In the love of those teens and the adult advisors, I experienced a reflection of Jesus’ love and sacrifice. In the moment that I prayed, “Jesus, I want to be yours” I found the “Wow!” I had longed for. The insurmountable gap between knowing about God and knowing God, between sitting in the pews and participating in the spiritual reality of worship—that gap suddenly disappeared, and God’s Presence came flooding in. But it’s not something I could do for myself. That transformation, turning fins into legs, opening eyes and heart, were things only God could do in me.

It’s a strange thing, isn’t it, being what my small self would think of as a grown up. It’s strange because when I think about it, I don’t think I have really arrived yet. I’m not a firefighter or an astronaut, but together, we are trying to create a place where each of us can catch glimpses of the spiritual life, a life beyond knowing about God, a life of embracing the Lord we long for. Together with Jesus in our midst, we are trying to create a group of people who look past physical and emotional appearances to love people for who they truly are. In that place where the love of Christ is reflected, we pray and work so that God might enable people to go from sitting in a pew to walking with Jesus. The curious thing is that while I have a sense of what the spiritual life is like, in a sense the transformation isn’t complete yet. I don’t understand so much of what life in Jesus Christ is meant to be, but I know that this world is not my home, not really. My true home is the one completely on the other side of all our mundane reality. Paul writes, “our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.” Let’s pray

Finding God in Disney Movies: The Lion King

Rev. Doug Gray

March 1, 2020

One of the great preachers of our time is Dr. Fred Craddock. Craddock tells a story about vacationing with his wife one summer in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. One night they found a quiet little restaurant, where they looked forward to a private meal. While they waited for their food, they noticed a distinguished looking, white-haired man moving from table to table, visiting with the guests. Craddock leaned over and whispered to his wife, “I hope he doesn’t come over here.” But sure enough, the man did come over to their table. “Where you folks from?” he asked in a friendly voice.

“Oklahoma,” Craddock answered.

“Splendid state, I hear, although I’ve never been there,” the stranger said. “What do you do for a living?”

“I teach homiletics at the graduate seminary of Phillips University,” Craddock replied.

“Oh, so you teach preachers how to preach, do you? Well, I’ve got a story to tell you.” And with that, the gentleman pulled up a chair and sat down with Craddock and his wife.

Dr. Craddock said he groaned inwardly and thought to himself, “Oh, no! Here comes another preacher story! It seems like everybody has at least one.”

The man stuck out his hand. “I’m Ben Hooper,” he said. “I was born not far from here across the mountains. My mother wasn’t married when I was born, and I never knew my father, so I had a pretty hard time. When I started to school, my classmates had a name for me, and it wasn’t a very nice name. I used to go off by myself at recess and lunch time because the things they said to me cut me so deep. What was worse was going to town on Saturday afternoons and feeling like every eye was burning a hole through me, wondering just who my father was.

“When I was about 12 years old, a new preacher came to our church. I would always go in late and slip out early. But one day the preacher said the benediction so fast I got caught and had to walk out with the crowd. I could feel every eye in the church on me. Just about the time I got to the door I felt a big hand on my shoulder. I looked up and the preacher was looking right at me. ‘Who are you, son? Whose boy are you?’ he asked. I felt this big weight coming down on me. It was like a big black cloud. Even the preacher was putting me down. But as he looked down at me, studying my face, he began to smile a big smile of recognition. ‘Wait a minute!’ he said. ‘I know who you are. I see the family resemblance now. You are a child of God.’ With that he slapped me across the rump and said, ‘Boy, you’ve got a great inheritance. Go and claim it.’”

The old man looked across the table at Fred Craddock and said, “Those were the most important words anybody ever said to me, and I’ve never forgotten them.” With that, he smiled, shook hands with Craddock and his wife, and moved on to another table.

And as he walked away, Craddock (who was born in Tennessee) remembered from his childhood history that on only two occasions had the people of Tennessee elected to the office of governor men born out of wedlock. One of them was a man named Ben Hooper.[1]

We have all been rejected at one time or another, for one reason or another. And that rejection can strike home in our hearts, and come down like a crushing weight. Sometimes the name-calling and ridicule gets to be so much that we begin to forget ourselves. That’s Simba’s problem at one point in The Lion King, isn’t it? He believes Scar’s lies, and runs away. Sure, Simba’s the son of the king, but by not claiming his inheritance, by not taking his place in the circle of life, he has forgotten his father. Jesus came to prove once and for all that each of us is loved, to remind us we are children of the King, and that God has a remarkable place in the Circle of Life for each of us. As the preacher said, “I know who you are. I see the family resemblance now. You are a child of God.” But if all we do is sit in the pews and think to ourselves how nice it is to be loved by God and to love him back, then we have missed the second part, when like the pastor, Jesus says, “Child, you’ve got a great inheritance. Go and claim it!” So what would life be like if we lived as a child of the King? Nelson Mandela, the great leader in South Africa, once wrote:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. 
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. 
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. 
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, 

talented, and fabulous? 
Actually, who are you not to be? 
You are a child of God. 
Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. 
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so 
that other people won’t feel insecure around you. 
We are all meant to shine, as children do. 
We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. 
It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. 
And as we let our own light shine, 
we unconsciously give other 
people permission to do the same. 
As we are liberated from our own fear, 
our presence automatically liberates others.

So let us take our place in the Circle of Life

[1]SOURCE: This illustration is part of the sermon above “Is It Well with Your Family?” and is adapted from a Sermon by Fred Craddock.

A Little Less Perfectionism, and a Little More Maturity Please

Rev. Doug Gray

Feb. 23, 2020

Several years ago, I had the chance to go on a mission trip to Jamaica, working in an impoverished community on the north side of the island. It was hot, hard work digging out an outhouse pit for the church we were helping. The soil was red clay, and as the hole got deeper, the humidity in the ground combined with the heat to make it feel as if we were shoveling in a sauna. Just 15 minutes of shoveling took its toll. Our work had gathered an audience. Who were these crazy white people who would dig like this? I struck up a conversation with one young man, perhaps in his late teens-early twenties. I asked him if he was married. No, not yet. He wasn’t ready to get married. “If you get married, you can have only one wife. The Christians do that.” I looked at him, a little confused. He explained, “I’m not good enough to be a Christian yet.” At the time, 

First, love is always truthful. 

Love is always truthful. As a teen, I was in love with my first real girlfriend, and it was a perfect Saturday in Spring, and I thought wouldn’t it be great to spend an afternoon together. So I called her up and we figured out a good park to have a picnic that we could bike to because neither of us had our license. For reasons that escape me now, maybe embarrassment, I told my parents I was biking to the library. So I had a wonderful, sunny afternoon with my girlfriend, walking in the park with the sunshine sparkling off the leaves, blowing dandelions and making wishes. In due time, we had to leave to get home on time, and I biked home. When I got home, I learned that one of my friends had come over, heard that I had gone to the library, and had gone to find me there. When he didn’t find me there, he had returned to my parents with the news. I was completely and utterly busted. The thing that was most crushing to me was that my parents didn’t go ballistic and start shouting. They just looked at me with the eyes of people whose full and loving trust has been completely broken. Their disappointment and hurt cut me to the core, and I never lied to my parents like that again. Jesus calls us to account for having different levels of truth. Are you more truthful if you say something, and add “Swear to God!” or “I swear on my mother’s grave!”? Does that mean that if you don’tswear to God that you are less truthful? Jesus that’s all nonsense. Love is always truthful, because love is all about trust.

Alright, alright! Yes, I know, there are times when not telling the truth may be kinder. Several years ago, I went to see Evelyn Pease. She was a very kind, long-suffering follower of Jesus, and her son, Monte, had died of a heart-attack just a few weeks before. Evelyn had come to the funeral and been incredibly lucid, but she was on a memory unit. Not long after I got there, Evelyn said that Monte was going to be coming by soon. The staff member sitting with her said, “But Evelyn, Monte died, remember?” Evelyn said, “He’s dead? Monte’s dead?” The staff member would say something like, “Yes, Evelyn. I’m so sorry.” Evelyn burst into tears and we cried together. A few minutes later, Evelyn said that Monte was going to come by soon and take her to McDonald’s, and the conversation repeated, and Evelyn burst into tears like it was the first time she was hearing that her son had died. After two or three times in this loop, I excused myself and called Evelyn’s daughter. Could we tell Evelyn something else? We agreed that we would all start telling Evelyn that Monte had moved to Indiana to be close to his wife’s family. Things got a little easier for Evelyn and for all of us after that. Were we lying? Yes, we were…and I would do it again. What mattered for Evelyn was that Monte had gone away and who knew when she would see him again. I am very ok with lying in that situation so that Evelyn would not have to experience her full grief every 10–15 minutes. Whenever we tell a lie, we are headed into dangerous waters. My experience tells me that as long as we are truly being loving to the other person, telling the lie because it truly helps them instead of helping us, we are probably safe. It’s so easy to deceive ourselves, though, that most of the time I find I would rather tell the truth and let the chips fall as they may. Love is always truthful. 

Second, Love does more than is required. A little girl was in kindergarten and was given the assignment to make or draw a birthday cake out of paper and crayons. When the children finished their projects, they should bring them to the teacher. The little girl took a pink piece of construction paper, cut off the corner went up to the teacher. “Here’s my birthday cake, Mrs. Applebaum.” The teacher was surprised that the little girl had finished so quickly, saw that not much had been done, and asked the little girl to do a little more so that she could tell it was a birthday cake. The little girl went back, drew one candle on the cake and took it back to the teacher, who asked the girl to make improvements. This process repeated itself several times, with the little girl adding the bare minimum, until the teacher finally decided that she had had enough. Jesus calls us to account for only doing the bare minimum. Should we hurt the people who hurt us? When someone asks us to do something, do we make their life a living hell while we do it? Mahatma Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Love does more than is required.

Finally, Jesus says we are to love our enemies, and I want to revolt. But then, Jesus talks about how God loves. God “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” Should we only love the people who love us? Are we only kind to the people who are kind to us? God does so much more. How many blessings have you received this week? Were you perfectly good, perfectly grateful, perfectly loving even to the people who gave you the hardest time? Yeah, me neither. And then Jesus drops this bombshell, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” I don’t know about you, but that really kicks in my perfectionist self. I start to think, “I have to be the perfect son, the perfect husband, the perfect father, the perfect pastor—everything has to be perfect.” If I fail to be perfect, then I must be a bad person. I heard some of you echo this last week, as we were talking after worship. Did Jesus raise the bar? Several of you felt Jesus put the bar out of reach! Jesus has created a standard of not expressing our anger, or our desire or thinking about others in relationship that’s impossible. 

My friend in Jamaica was thinking like this. I’m not good enough to come to Jesus. When I get my life together, then I’ll think about praying. Jesus has a word of hope for our overwhelmed, perfectionist selves: the word Jesus uses for perfectdoesn’t mean get a 100% on the test. A better translation would be “Be mature, therefore, as your heavenly Father is mature.” “Be complete and whole and finished, therefore as your heavenly Father is complete, whole and finished.” All of a sudden, things start to make more sense. Instead of a God who is mad or frustrated with us for not loving perfectly or getting angry or lusting after someone or swearing all the time, Jesus shows us that God wants to help us become more mature. No, not the boring kind of mature, the beautiful kind of mature. The kind of mature that really treats everyone like the child of God that they are—that’s grace! The kind of mature that is rock-solid honest no matter what’s at stake—that’s someone who can be trusted. The incredible thing about Jesus is that Jesus modeled a life of full trust in God, standing for the truth when others were beating him down, sticking with God even though the world may have evil, brutal, thoughtless people in it. That’s the meaning of the Cross and it’s the meaning of grace. We don’t have to be perfect before we come to Jesus. Jesus died for us before we were good. In fact, the whole point is to come to Jesus when we aren’tperfect, when we can’t help ourselves, when we are hopeless and helpless, to find the love and power to become more what God wants—whole people, fully energized and fully surrendered to His will. More than anything else, God is looking for a lot less perfectionism, and a lot more maturity. 

To See Beauty, We Must Know Truth with Our Hearts

Rev Doug Gray

February 16, 2020

When I was a junior in high school, my parents went on a trip to Europe, and left my brother and me—alone, in charge of ourselves, at home. Freedom! As they were getting ready to leave, each of them talked separately with my brother and with me, and then with both of us together. Here are things we can do. Here are things we can’t do. Don’t let your brother talk you into the things we can’t do. Don’t let your friends talk you into things you can’t do…blah blah blah! Can we get to the…Freedom?! My mom’s dad—we called him, Grumpy, even though he wasn’t—called during this time period, and my mom as usual was listening in. He said, “Whatever your parents say, make sure you have a good time. Just don’t scar the walls.” My mom said, “Dad!” He said it again, “Remember, just don’t scar the walls.” We live in a time where we all have greater freedom than humanity has ever known. Of course, perhaps the scarier thing is that our kids have greater freedom than any other generation before them. Many people have placed a greater focus on the rules, on the laws that govern our society, as a way to define the boundaries of right and wrong. But whether we are talking about drugs, guns, cyber-laws or campaign finance, things are changing so fast, that no sooner do we pass a law, than someone has found a way around it. Our passage for today has a way to approach freedom that could solve our legal dilemma. You see, Jesus knows what rules can and can’t do.

First, love restores relationships. The Law says, “Don’t murder,” and most days we say, “Whew! I didn’t break that law today.” If we are trying to find out if we are good people, not killing someone is a pretty low bar. I don’t know if you know this, but I have a terrible temper. When I was young, my little brother would tease me and I would try to be cool because my parents said, “Just ignore him. He’ll get tired of it and go away.” (laughingly) Lies! The more I ignored him, the more he picked on me. Finally, I would just haul off and slug him, and he would go to my parents, “Oh boo hoo! Doug hit me,” and then he would smirk at me, which made me even more frustrated! As my parents talked with me, the problem was not just that I was slugging my brother, but that I reached a point where my anger took over, and in my rage, I stopped thinking. Had I killed someone? No, thank God! But there were times when anger ran the Doug Gray show. Jesus challenges us to think about the real meaning of violence. Is there a time when our anger and bitterness, our frustration and pain, run the show in our lives? Insulting people comes out of that place, so does mocking, and contempt. We have not killed the person physically, but we have surely done violence to them. Jesus raises the bar:  it’s the thought that counts. To truly keep the commandment, “Do not murder,” we have to take the violence out of our thoughts. In fact, Jesus tells us healing relationships is more important than even our worship of God. Do we have a broken or bent relationship? Don’t wait! Settle up quickly! 

Second, love is not predatory. One of my favorite commercials from a few years ago had a husband and wife sitting at a table having a thoughtful conversation. A very well-endowed waitress walks by and the guy keeps his focus on his wife. The slogan was what would you do for a Klondike Bar. Hmmm. Now wait a minute! The reason this guy doesn’t look at another woman is that he wants a Klondike Bar? How is that better? I mean he’s still lusting after a Klondike Bar! On the plus side, I guess he’s unlikely to sleep with a Klondike Bar, but I think he missed the point. C.S. Lewis once said, “If you look upon ham and eggs and lust, you have already committed breakfast in your heart.” Jesus doesn’t just want us to understand that pornography is a bad idea, or that eating more than we need is a bad idea, but that letting our desires for earthly things run our lives is a bad idea. You’ll notice that this gets big really quick. Do we get so focused on what we want, that that desire runs our lives? Whether it’s a woman or a brownie or a Pokemon or a car—whatever it is!—if it leads us to objectify people, to treat someone as a means to an end, it is running our lives and we are in serious spiritual danger. To use other people in this way is to act as a predator. We have not slept with another man’s wife today? Well good for us! But Jesus raises the bar:  it’s the thought that counts. To truly keep the commandment, “Don’t commit adultery,” we have to take the lust out of our thoughts. In fact, Jesus says it’s so important, if desire for someone or something is running our life, we should cut it out and throw it away. It’s more important that our hearts be clear.

Finally, love is compassionate. In Jesus’ day, a man could divorce his wife by saying in front of witnesses, “I divorce you. I divorce you. I divorce you.” A man did not have to give cause, only had to say those words. A woman could not divorce a man back then. Yep, it was a patriarchal society, and a woman who had been divorced not only didn’t have a voice in the courts, she would find it hard if not impossible to find a husband again. And it gets worse! Technically speaking, only a woman could be caught in adultery! A guy sleeping with another man’s wife was the crime, and the woman was the one usually punished. Tell me how that is fair?! Oh and did I say that adultery was a capital crime? The law read that a woman caught in adultery was to have rocks thrown at her until she was dead. Dang! That is harsh! Jesus is not saying divorce is wrong! Read it carefully! Jesus calls out his male-dominated culture, and calls men to think about the person they are divorcing. Has this man thought about what it will do to the woman? How it makes her an object of contempt, puts her in the position of seeking another relationship at an even greater disadvantage, could even threaten her life? You’ll notice that Jesus doesn’t say divorce is wrong or that it might happen sometimes. Jesus is an early advocate of the #MeToo movement. No one is disposable, to be exploited for pleasure and discarded. Jesus challenges people to think about the other person, about what matters to them, about how ending the relationship will affect them. Jesus takes issue with the serial-divorcers who use their partners and then move on. The law says someone can divorce someone else. Ok, so you’re keeping the law. But Jesus raises the bar:  have we thought about how that will affect the other person and the other persons involved? To truly fulfill the law on divorce, we have to make our decisions with compassion. Perhaps Jesus is leading us to think more clearly and compassionately about the power dynamics and personhood of our partners in our romantic relationships.

We do live in exciting times! That’s what my brother and I knew when we took our parents to the airport and headed home to a house with just us. Freedom! We did have a party, but our parents knew about it. In fact, my parents gave us permission…and no we didn’t scar the walls! What was really terrific about those two weeks is that it was the first time that my brother and I really made decisions more by what was right and less by the rules. That was the way my folks taught us to think—maybe encouraged by Jesus’ example in this passage right here—to look beyond the rule, to see the relationship that mattered, the principle for how we are to treat each other, to find a right way to live together. The people of Jesus’ day thought the Pharisees were hard-core—and they were about keeping the rules right, but not keeping their hearts right. Jesus challenges us today to think about our hearts, about our relationships, about whether we are just living for ourselves or really living for the God who loves us. Are there places where our emotions are driving our lives—anger, fear, loneliness, despair? Jesus challenges us to let God’s love and grace direct us instead. Are there places where what we want is running the show—lusting after people, objects, money, collections, sex or drugs? Jesus challenges us to seek what God wants first, so we will have all we need. Are there places where we just make or break relationships because it’s more convenient or gets us what we think we want? Jesus challenges us to think about what that relationship or that break will mean not just for us, but for the others involved. As long as we try to run our lives by just the rules, we will never catch up. There’s always a way around, always a way to deceive ourselves and others. Jesus’ way challenges us to look truthfully at our own hearts, to think thoughtfully of others, and to love God more deeply than any rule can require. To see beauty in our world and in each other, we have to know the truth in our hearts. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth and the life.”

Yes, There Is SomeOne Beyond Politics

Rev. Doug Gray

February 9, 2020 

   A Seahawks fan, an Eagles fan, a Chiefs fan, and a Patriots fan are climbing a mountain and arguing about who loves his team more. The Seahawks fan insists he is the most loyal. 'This is for the Seahawks! ' he yells, and jumps off the side of the mountain. Not to be outdone, the Eagles fan shouts, 'This is for the Eagles!' and throws herself off the mountain. The Patriots fan is next to profess her love for her team. She yells, 'This is for everyone!' and pushes the Chiefs fan off the mountain.[1]Yes, last week was Superbowl Sunday! And fans all over are wishing there was still football! At first blush, football seems to have nothing to do with today’s passage, but as we scratch the surface, we may be surprised. Jesus has a lot teach us about being fans.

First, God is more important than team membership. A while back I went to a Christian men’s conference and I had a wonderful time! There was a lot of singing and worship, some great speaking and praying. But I have to say my favorite part was talking with people. When I would start a conversation, whoever I was talking to would throw in some good “churchy” words and expressions—grace, anointed, gifted, worship, Praise the Lord!—and maybe mention when they were saved or how. Then they would look at me, to see how I would respond, and almost everyone did this. I finally realized that they were waiting to hear if I used the right words in response, kind of like a sign/counter-sign thing. If I didn’t say the right words, then I wasn’t one of them—I wasn’t a “real” Christian. The Pharisees are doing that kind of test with Jesus in our passage today. As I mentioned, the Pharisees were one of the up-and-coming religious groups in Jesus’ time. They were the ones who took God seriously, poring over God’s Word, trying to make God part of every moment of every day. One of the things they focused on was staying ritually “clean.” Where the Bible says that only the priests have to wash their hands before eating, the Pharisees encouraged everyoneto take holiness as seriously as a priest would. Actually, I like the idea of everyone taking God more seriously. But I wonder if part of the reason the Pharisees ask Jesus why His disciples break the tradition of the elders, is because they want Jesus and his team to be members of their fandom. Do what we do, and you’re in. Wear your Patriots jersey. Put on your Patriots hat. But how do you know you’re a real fan? What else do you have to do to prove you’re part of the team? Push people off of mountains? Where does it stop? Jesus says one place it should stop is when being part of a group or having a tradition is more important than what God wants. 

Second, what we say matters, because what we say comes from the overflow of our hearts. A while back, one of my children came into the room and did something irritating, and I snapped at them. And they looked at me with a hurt look, and I paused—as I should have done beforeI said anything—and realized that I was angry about something that wasn’t any of their doing…and I had taken it out on them. Anybody else have something like that happen? Whatever is going on in our hearts—good, bad or indifferent—we are going to express that in what we do and say. If what we do or say doesn’t come out right, we need to ask ourselves if our hearts are right with God. Jesus talks about this when He quotes Isaiah, “These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn’t in it. They act like they’re worshiping me, but they don’t mean it. They just use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy.” In his book, Leadership by the Book, Ken Blanchard (the author of One-Minute Manager) writes, “Jesus’ message is not just for the mind. It’s directed at the heart…The underlying message in all his teachings is about character change…rather than asking us just to do [or say] kind things, [Jesus] wants each of us to become a kind person. When that happens, everything we do will be stamped with kindness even when we must disagree with someone…”[2]When I snapped at my family, I knew my heart wasn’t right with God, and I had to apologize. Is God glad when we do or say something kind? Sure…that’s good! But what God really, really wants is for us to become someone who wants what God wants—love that sacrifices, courage in the face pressure, peace when others are coming unglued, joy that cannot be taken away. Rather than all the ugly side of humanity, the overflow of our hearts will be a sweet, refreshing source of grace to everyone! God wants our hearts to be in a right relationship with God. God wants us to have a heart like Jesus had.

One of the time-honored traditions around sports is a little trash-talking of the other team—like telling jokes about each other’s teams. Since every team does it about the other team, mostly we take it in stride, right? Do we know where it crosses the line, when it moves into being mean or mean-spirited? We wouldn’t really do some of the things in the joke, like pushing someone off the mountain. Do we know where it goes over the top? I’ve been talking about sports teams, but we should also mention that this applies to politics, especially these days. Does someone have to say the right things in order for us to listen to them or for us to share what we really think? Do we have traditions about party or ideology that we put ahead of what God would want? Do we speak our mind out of anger or fear, lashing out at someone unfairly? Yes, God is beyond our politics, but by founding our lives on Jesus’ teachings, it gives our politics a place to stand beyond our tribal parties. Let me be clear: I am not taking a political stand for the Left or the Right, but Iamtaking a political stand—that we have to be able to listen to one another, and we need to talk about what God would want based on the Word of God, not just what we think or what our party says we should think. This week at the National Prayer Breakfast, our President told us he didn’t agree with Jesus’ teaching that we should love our enemies, and he mocked those who do. Jesus prayed for His enemies and eventually died for everyone, including His enemies. This week at the State of the Union, the President refused to shake the hand of the Speaker of the House, and the Speaker of the House tore up the President’s speech. Those decisions are also not loving our enemies. Do I understand everything has a context? Sure, but our nation—we—can’t live or function in a state of all-out war, of using our most extreme statements and actions as fundraising tools. We have taken the idea of party or team beyond where party or team loyalty is meant to go. Whether it’s football or politics, if Jesus is right, then our hearts can only be right if they belong to God. Our founding parents got it right when they said, we are one nation under God. Jesus would go farther I think—He would remind us to help even a Yankees fan or a Chiefs fan in need. Because at the end of the day, we are more than Yankees and Red Sox, Republicans and Democrats—we are all children of the most high God.

Now I recognize that because I mentioned politics, some of you are mad at me and may not hear another word I say. I have tried to speak gently about this idea of Jesus being our all in all, first in our thoughts and hearts. C.S. Lewis is famous for saying that “a fanatic is someone who won’t change their mind and can’t change the subject.” I don’t want you to think I’m a fanatic or even merely a fan. Jesus was not looking for fans. Jesus was looking for followers. More than anything, God longs for our hearts to beat in time with God’s heart. By most political standards of his day, Jesus was a fool for being on God’s team first, and He died for it. The promise to us in this time is: if we belong to God’s team first, if we love steadfastly even our enemies, if we refuse to lash out in fear or anger, and if we show grace to all (especially those who are different from us), then we will find the path to new life. But it all begins with us—and letting God transform our hearts. Yes, there is Someone Who is beyond our politics and our teams, and God proved it by dying for even His enemies on a Cross.

[1]source: http://www.jokes4us.com/sportsjokes/nfljokes/atlantafalconsjokes.html

[2]Ken Blanchard et al., Leadership by the Book: Tools to Transform Your Workplace(NY: William Morrow and Company, 1999), pp. 40–41.

Success Redefined Is Simple

Rev. Doug Gray      February 2, 2020

1Cor. 1:18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,

     “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

              and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

1Cor. 1:26 Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, 29 so that no one might boast in the presence of God. 30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

1Cor. 2:1 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3 And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. 4 My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

If I were to ask you to pick out the most successful people of our time, who would you pick? How do you know?

[Take responses from the congregation.]

We live in a society where success, status and power are really important. We applaud the people who “make it” and we hear the message that we too should “make it.” In one sense, there’s nothing wrong with that. All these things are good in some sense. But talk to the people who have “made it,” and you find many of them are not satisfied or fulfilled or often even happy. Why is that? Is there a way to be successful and happy? Our passage for today asks one question that can guide us into a better future:  Are we keeping the way of Jesus simple?

A few years ago, I had the great blessing of going to the Massachusetts Association Annual Meeting. The main speaker was Chris Sears, a 27-year-old drug addict who had, by the grace of God, been sober for 17 months. He talked about how for years the drugs tried to own him. During that time, like a lot of addicts, he didn’t go to church. But he talked about what it meant when he got out of jail, and how the church threw him a party. He walked into their Fellowship Hall and saw the banner signed by everyone that said simply, “Welcome Home, Chris.” Instead of hearing about all the rules, or hearing about all the ways he had failed, what he heard was “We love you!” And he cried as his parents beamed with pride and his six-year old niece ran to him. People hugged him and patted him on the back, and really cared what was going on for him. In the dark and grim days of relapses and homelessness that would follow, that scene would play over and over in his mind. Paul writes, “Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles…” Does it seem too simple? The life of Jesus draining out on an undeserved cross, for people like you and me and Chris, who don’t deserve it. And forgiveness and a new, abundant life to be had for the asking. It’s all about grace.

Maybe it seems too simple for us, like it was for the Jews of Jesus’ day. They wanted Christians to do miracles to prove what they said about Jesus, and so do we. Show me you’re real, God! we pray. If you’ll just do this for me, then I’ll believe. Until we are in the next jam, and we start looking for another miracle. Instead of learning to trust God, to have a relationship with the Risen Jesus, we ask, “What have you done for me lately.” It’s scandalous that people should try to live like Jesus, sacrificing themselves for someone who doesn’t deserve it. Why would we risk anything for someone else?

In another sense it’s way too simple for us, like it was for the Greeks of Jesus’ day. They wanted Christians to make a great argument to prove what they knew about Jesus, and so do we. You’re are perfectly logical, God, we explain, and so God’s wisdom starts looking a lot like the conventional wisdom in the world. Instead of letting God direct our paths, we try to put God in a box, to let God have a little time here or there. It’s just foolishness to believe in God, to surrender our whole lives and live like Jesus, to make choices that are not in our rational self-interest but for the good of people we may never even see. Why would we give up our rights or privileges for someone else?

Maybe that’s why we need to live in community with others who are also trying to live the paradoxically simple life of a Christian. Part of why we come to church is to remind ourselves that we are part of God’s team, to cheer for God with a bunch of other people who love to cheer for God’s team. Another part of why we come to church is to remind ourselves that we are on the winning team. As the great Baptist preacher, E.V. Hill puts it, “If God is in it, God will win it.” Whatever happens, whatever tough times we experience, we know God wins in the end. We need each other to encourage and be encouraged, to huddle up with, so we know what the next play should be, to listen to Coach Jesus as He directs the game and shapes us and molds us for greatness. Jesus’ idea of winning and power is different from the world’s, and we need each other to stay in the game.

Sometimes we get an idea that we are not the greatest, not terribly successful, not very wise, not very powerful. That maybe true…but if so, then we are right where God wants us. Paul writes, “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are… so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” If we add God’s strength to our strength, God’s wisdom to our wisdom, God’s power to our power, we are totally unbeatable. The best things in this life come from God, and the best of who we are comes from the nail-scarred hand of a Lord who was willing to die on a cross. Following Jesus really is simple: offering our lives to know Him, and to show grace to the person in front of us in that moment. Relationships and grace. “Welcome Home” parties for addicts. Taking care of those who need it. Seeking justice for those with no voice. Doing the right thing even if it costs us. Ironically, it’s when we keep it simple that we do see the miracles, that we do find everything makes logical sense. It’s so simple, it blows our minds. So let us dream the dreams of our crucified Lord and make real the resurrection hope God wants to bring to life in us and our world…by His grace.

Stardust and Clay

Dr. David L. Gray, Guest Minister, January 5, 2020 

How dark is the night sky when one is in a boat out in the ocean where there are no lights and the water around you is black as far as your eyes can see? 

It is God who first said “Let light shine in darkness. The God who sent Jesus into the world has come to be in our hearts.

What an awesome treasure – to have “God with us” here on earth – come to save us from our worst selves that we might have the inner strength to realize the potential God has placed within us.

And God gave each of us His Grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift to us. But it is up to us to use the talents and skills that we have as potential to help bring God’s kingdom into reality here on earth. What an awesome job description we have been give.

At times the problems in the world seem so vast that it is easy to loose sight of what is most important.

Where does real power lie in this world –

Is it in strong economy, strong military. Etc.?

Is the media so powerful that it can and does determine the wishes of the masses?

We live “caught in the middle”

Between birth and death

Between childhood and adulthood

Between control and letting go.

Between trusting ourselves and trusting in God.

Between being our best selves and or giving in to our worst selves?

How are we to live in the middle of a secular world in which the goal seems to be to take care of oneself no matter what the cost to anyone else?

What difference can one person make in the world for God?

ILLUS

I received an email that has been circulating before. I have no idea where it started but it still has a clear message for us. The email said

“One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my class walking home from school.  

His name was Kyle.
It looked like he was carrying all of his books.  

I thought to myself, 'Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday?  He must really be a nerd.'  

I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friend’s tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on.  

As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him.  

They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt.  

His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him.  

He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes.  

My heart went out to him.

So, I jogged over to him as he crawled around looking for his glasses, and I saw a tear in his eye.  

As I handed him his glasses, I said, 'Those guys are jerks.'  

They really should get lives.   

'He looked at me and said, 'Hey thanks!'  

There was a big smile on his face.  

It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude.  

I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived.  

As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before.  

He said he had gone to private school before now.  

I had never hung out with a private school kid before.  

We talked all the way home, and I carried some of his books.  

He turned out to be a pretty cool kid.  

I asked him if he wanted to play a little football
with my friends  

He said yes.  

We hung out all weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him, and my friends thought the same of him.  

Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books again.  

I stopped him and said, 'Boy, you are gonna really build some serious muscles with this pile of books everyday! He just laughed and handed me half the books.  

Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends..  

When we were seniors we began to think about college.  

Kyle decided on Georgetown and I was going to Duke. I knew that we would always be friends, that the miles would never 
be a problem.  

He was going to be a doctor and I was going for business on a football scholarship.. 

Kyle was valedictorian of our class. I teased him all the time about being a nerd.  

He had to prepare a speech for graduation. I was so glad it wasn't me having to get up there and speak  

Graduation day, I saw Kyle.  He looked great.  

He was one of those guys that really found himself during high school. He filled out and actually looked good in glasses.  He had more dates than I had and all the girls loved him.  

Boy, sometimes I was jealous!  Today was one of those days.  

I could see that he was nervous about his speech.  

So, I slapped him on the back and said, 'Hey, big guy, you'll be great!'  

He looked at me with one of those looks (the really grateful one) and smiled. 'Thanks,' he said.  

As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began  

'Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years.  Your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach….but mostly your friends...  

I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give them..  

I am going to tell you a story..'  

I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the story of the first day we met.  

He had planned to kill himself over the weekend. He talked of how he had cleaned out his locker so his Mom wouldn't have to do it later and was carrying all his stuff home.  

He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile.  

'Thankfully, I was saved.  

My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable..'  

I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy

told us all about his weakest moment. I saw his Mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful smile.  

Not until that moment did I realize it's depth.  

Never underestimate the power of your actions..  

With one small gesture you can change a person's life - for better or for worse.  

God puts us all in each other's lives to impact one another in some way.  

Look for God in others.” 

It was God who said “Let Light shine out of darkness” Who is the One who has shone light into the world and today shines His Light into our hearts and minds.

“God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting our sins against us.” John 3:17 “For God sent not His son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

Every person is made with God’s Spirit within them giving him or her the ability to share joys and sorrows, the yearning to become what God created us to be, and the deep longing for the home which awaits us in heaven where there is no more pain and suffering, where tears and sorrow are turned to joy.

The spiritual part of us is created to see the Spirit of God in the spirit of another human being. 

When we focus on the Spirit of God within us, we are no longer caught in the middle between what we know is wrong and what we know is right.

Whatever belittles the stardust in our nature tears us down, is not of God’s Love.

On the other hand, whatever build us up, which strengthen us by helping us be kind and loving to one another, is right because it is an expression of God’s Spirit coming through us.

We can say with Paul, “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

There is great work to be done for the Almighty God who can fill us with His Love.

Often God calls persons like you and me for His awesome work of reconciling the world so we can live together in peace.

ILLUS

(From Cousin Jim’s Christmas Letter)

“In March we returned from our second season of service as Visiting Pastor for one year at the American Church in Paris.

“The France we left was, and is, conflicted by ongoing political, economic, and labor struggles. The America to which we have returned is divided with an enmity and inequity that weigh heavily on the heart and lives of many and cry out for the compassion and self-emptying love of Christ.”

When Jesus sent out his disciples into the villages He instructed them to preach saying “the kingdom of heaven has come near you.” (Matt. 10:7)

When you think of someone you know that is headed in the wrong direction or being harassed by his or her friends to turn away from God, God may be calling you or me to respond in some loving way as the friend did for Kyle. 

Sometimes it is only through prayer that we come to learn what God is calling us to do. Sometimes God is calling someone else to share their faith in some other way and our task is to pray -- not to intercede except through earnest prayer.

Sign in desert entrance to Spiritual Retreat Center  NO HUNTING – EXCEPT FOR PEACE.

No matter who you think you are – young or old, tall or short, poor or comfortable, you may be the one special person through whom God may choose to reach another person.  Perhaps someone you thought would never ever be filled with the Spirit of God, may be the very person God is calling you to pray for.

It is no secret what God can do. What He’s done for others he’ll do for you. God answers prayers in His own way and in His own time.

We live in the middle of a society and a world where many people and nations do not know the God who loves the world so much that God sent His Son that we might not perish but have everlasting life.

It is a common human trait to try and earn ones way into heaven and be proud of our earthly achievements. But inner peace does not come from things that we do but rather from receiving God’s greatest gift given to us through Jesus Christ.  We have that treasure in earthen vessels of clay.  (2 Cor.7)

God has written His Love and Grace not on tablets of stone but into our minds and heart. We show God’s love is in our relationships with one another.

[We are able to know what it’s like to be forgiven by God.

We can know the blessing of being accepted by God completely.]

This is a wonderful time to be alive and serving God.

We are learning what it means to be a fellow worker with Jesus Christ in the world today.

I close with these few lines:

New life begins again and again through Christ within you.

If you really care you can dare To share Christ’s love

Knowing the Holy Spirit will be there.

Do not underestimate God,

The Eternal, all powerful King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

What the world needs now -at Christmas time- and all year long

Is God’s love experienced

“On earth as it is in heaven” partly through you and me.

God has placed His Stardust into our Clay so we can pass on God’s love to others

keeping the joy of Christmas ringing

Throughout the New Year.

Amen                                                                                       2 Corinthians 5:14-20

Light of the World The Voice in “No Vacancy”

Luke 2:1 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

It was dark and rainy, the night Cynthia and I were on the road to Colorado to spend time with family. It was in the days when we had cell phones but not smart phones, so we were navigating by map and we were getting tired. Our oldest, Morgan, was crashed in the back seat, but Jordan was awake and watching. We found an exit with a bunch of motels, so we pulled off the highway. All the big, bright signs seemed to welcome us in and we could almost feel the relief of slipping into the cool sheets of bed. Maybe we could find one with a pool so the kids could play the next morning before we left.

Some say we live in dark and troubling times. On the one hand, it’s easy to believe that if we think about the threats of climate change, partisan politics, human migrations on a massive scale, unrest in many lands, destructive forces of earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, floods and volcanoes. So much catastrophe, so much need, so much loss, fear and hatred. On the other hand, we live in a time when many of us have unprecedented access to wealth, power and opportunity. Almost anything under the sun we can order with a click and have it come to our doors. We have one of the lowest unemployment rates the world has ever seen. We live in one of the safest, most prosperous countries in the world, and yet some of us feel anxious about our safety, worried about foreigners coming into our communities, and we find ways to make bubbles that keep out things, ideas and people who are different from our own.

All those big, bright, welcoming signs lied. There was no rest for us in any of those hotels. I know…because I asked at every one of their front desks. Being the persistent kind of guy that I am, I also asked if they had any rooms that were likely to cancel and other bright ideas for getting the room we needed. No luck. So we went on to the next exit, hoping there would be a place for us to lay our heads.

Certainly, if we look back two thousand years, we can see some of our troubles reflected in Jesus’ time. Jesus was born at the beginning of one of the economic golden ages of the world—the Pax Romana. Free trade had meant the making of tremendous fortunes around the Mediterranean. Under the direction of Caesar Augustus, the Roman Empire had secured all its borders and had sufficient resources to guard land and sea routes. Oh traveling and trade still had risks and there were still pirates and bandits, but it was a time of almost unprecedented freedom of movement and prosperity…for some. But in Jesus’ small province, far from the corridors of power in Rome, the wealthy were getting much wealthier, and the poor were just struggling to make it. Palestine was mostly an agricultural area—big on olive trees and growing grains—but lots of the poorest people didn’t own their own land and hired themselves out as day-laborers. Wealthy land-owners or their managers would come by the city square in the morning and hire someone for the day. It was a hard life, and children were your only long-term insurance for aging and working the land if you owned it.

It was twenty-five, long miles to the next exit. There weren’t as many hotels here and the lights weren’t as big. Maybe there wasn’t a dentist convention in this town…but there was a high school graduation. Hotels don’t put up “No Vacancy” signs anymore, because they want you to actually come in and have a customer experience. Well I had three more negative, customer experiences—no room here either. Back in the car. And now it was starting to get really late and we were more tired than ever. Even Jordan had given up and fallen asleep in their car seat. So we were on to the next exit, hoping it would be different there.

Mary was probably a teen-ager, maybe 15 or 16. She had married the much older carpenter, Joseph, and this meant Mary and Joseph were part of a small middle class at the time. Since Joseph was a carpenter, I wonder if he had made a cradle for Jesus to come and if the two of them had spent time getting the nursery ready. With Mary so pregnant, it can’t have been their own idea to leave town right then with and travel the two-day journey south from Nazareth to Bethlehem. They were just doing what they had to do, what the government told them to do. So they went, and they had the same kind of experience Cynthia and I had as we were traveling—a “No Vacancy” sign that meant no place to stay, no room in the inn. And yet, the inn-keeper found a place for Mary and Joseph, just a stable but it was warm. Was there straw to sleep on? Better than nothing. The Son of God—no cradle made by earthly hands, no beautifully decorated nursery—wrapped up snug and laid in a feeding trough.

The next exit was a hotel and it was full, but the night manager was a kind woman and perhaps she saw the desperation in my eyes. There was a room with a single twin bed for the night manager to rest, would I be interested in that? There was enough room for a cot and a port-a-crib. I jumped at it with great gratitude and relief. As we carried our children in, I remember that even the fog of sleepiness couldn’t keep my heart from singing. I have never forgotten that experience, nor the tremendous difference compassion made in our lives that night.

As I look back on that experience, I realize looking for a room and finding “No Vacancy” signs was a lot like other experiences I had had—as a teen-ager, carrying a lunch tray in a new school and finding no space at any tables; as a twenty-something trying to land my first real job, calling place after place, trying to get interviews and finding no positions available for someone with no experience; as a thirty-something in a church that was glad to have me but no one ever invited us over for dinner. I have seen “No Vacancy” signs and they have meant there’s no space, no welcome, no warmth for me.

My friends, there are “No Vacancy” signs all around us in our time, but maybe we don’t see them all the time. We have made for ourselves nice, comfortable bubbles so we don’t have to recognize our power and privilege. Even so, we do live in dark and troubling times, but perhaps no darker nor more troubling than the days in which Jesus was born. In other ways, perhaps our times are darker because I wonder if we feel less compassion. If we were the inn-keeper, would we have found a pregnant traveler a space to sleep? Have we decided that we don’t have time to help our neighbor, listen to an older person, care for someone who is sick, or show a child kindness? Have we decided that those less fortunate have earned their fate, that the hungry and homeless will just have to figure a way, that the immigrants shouldn’t have left their own countries and deserve whatever comes? Then we have put up a “No Vacancy” sign on our nation and our hearts, and when Jesus comes looking for a place to stay, He will just have to move on. The “No Vacancy” sign that Mary and Joseph found in Bethlehem is also a story of compassion, and its voice calls out to us today to find at least that much compassion—at least a stable’s worth!—so that the Son of God can find room in us today.

Light of the World: The Promise of Potential

Luke 1:26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. 36 And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

Luke 1:39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

46          And Mary said,

     “My soul magnifies the Lord,

47                   and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

48          for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.

              Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

49          for the Mighty One has done great things for me,

              and holy is his name.

50          His mercy is for those who fear him

              from generation to generation.

51          He has shown strength with his arm;

              he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

52          He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

              and lifted up the lowly;

53          he has filled the hungry with good things,

              and sent the rich away empty.

54          He has helped his servant Israel,

              in remembrance of his mercy,

55          according to the promise he made to our ancestors,

              to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

Luke 1:56 And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.

  How would you tell someone you are going to have a baby? One YouTube video I saw featured a woman who told her husband to look in the kitchen for a bun. He’s opening the microwave, the drawers, the refrigerator. Finally, he finds the bun, in the oven, but he looks up just puzzled, clearly not getting the clue. When someone gives you unexpected news, how do you respond? Do you stand there scratching your head? Do you freak out? In our passage for today, an angel shows up to tell Mary she will have a baby. Her conversation with the angel, and later her visit with her cousin, Elizabeth, reveals how we can respond to the unexpected, and help others to do the same.

First, stay receptive. The story is told of a young man who was graduating from high school. His dad was a deeply devout man, but the young man wasn’t so crazy about the faith. He was, however, crazy about cars, and his dad had an original Mustang convertible in mint condition—so beautiful. At the end of the graduation party, the dad took his son aside and gave him a box. The young man opened it with great anticipation, only to find to his disappointment that it was his dad’s well-worn old Bible. He gave his dad a hug, thanked him and put it with his other graduation presents, but in his heart he thought, “Dad just doesn’t understand me.” The young man went off to college, and when he came back, his dad asked him if he’d had a chance to open his Bible yet. “I’m sorry, Dad. I just haven’t had the time,” but what he thought was, “He just doesn’t get me.” Not long after, the young man’s dad passed away, and after the funeral, the young man was going through things and found the box with his dad’s Bible in it. He sat down on his bed and let the Bible fall open. In the crease, he found the keys to his dad’s beautiful, original Mustang convertible. When we receive something unexpected, do we dismiss it or reject it because it’s not what we expected? What I love about Mary in our passage, is that she stays receptive. She may be upset or troubled—more than perplexed, don’t you think?—but still she waits to hear more, asks how this can be, and with humility says, “…let it be with me according to your word.” In the face of the unexpected, Mary stays receptive and receives the blessing.

Second, nothing is impossible for God. One of my friends, Bob Samsela, is always getting dragged along shopping by his wife. He said to me that it’s impossible for him to enjoy shopping, but I think he found a way. You see, just the other day, Target sent his wife a letter. It began like this:

Dear Mrs. Samsela, Over the past six months, your husband has been causing quite a commotion in our store. We cannot tolerate this behavior anymore and have been forced to ban both of you from the store. Our complaints against Mr. Samsela are documented by our video surveillance cameras.

1.    June 15: Took 24 boxes of hemorrhoid cream and randomly put them in people's carts when they weren't looking.

2.    July 2: Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals

3.    August 4: Went to the Service Desk and tried to put a bag of M&M's on layaway

4.    August 14: Moved a 'CAUTION - WET FLOOR' sign to a carpeted area

5.    September 4: Looked right into the security camera and used it as a mirror while he picked his nose

6.    October 3: Darted around the store suspiciously while loudly humming the 'Mission Impossible' theme

7.    October 18: Hid in a clothing rack and when people browsed through, said in a small voice, 'PICK ME! PICK ME!'

See! It’s not impossible for Bob to have a good time shopping with his wife—he just may be having a good time…differently. But we are like that with God sometimes, aren’t we? God calls us to go deeper, to try something new, to do something we aren’t big fans of, and we decide it’s impossible, and so we kind of make it up from what we think would be fun. God says the world could be/should be a place where kindness is shown, justice is done and hope wins, and we say, “It’s a pipe dream. You’re not living in the real world.” In contrast, Mary seems very chill, very relaxed. “Let it be with me according to your word.” It’s almost as if Mary accepts the idea that God can do the impossible, and then joins God in that impossible.

I still can’t get that poor guy out of my head, the guy whose wife tells him to look for a bun and he finds it in the oven. She knows she’s pregnant, and she’s trying to do something cute and fun. “It’s a bun…in the oven. There’s a bun in the oven.” And then, in the video, she begins to realize, he has never heard someone say that to mean someone’s pregnant. Finally, she has mercy on him and says, she’s pregnant, and the lights come on and the smile comes out and he hugs her. For centuries, God said “I love you!” to the Israelite people, but they didn’t quite get it, and sometimes it came in forms they didn’t expect. Finally, God had mercy on all of us and sent Jesus to say, “I love you!” plain as day, a baby born in a stable who grew into a man who hung on a cross. When God calls, how often do we not get it? How often does God’s call come in ways we don’t expect? In the face of the unexpected call of God, Mary stays receptive and trusts God can do anything. She understands the incredible promise of potential, and says, “Let it be with me according to your word.” and so she finds peace, and becomes a blessing. May it be so with us today.

Light of the World: The Meaning of Memory

Luke 1:5 In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord. 7 But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years.

Luke 1:8 Once when he was serving as priest before God and his section was on duty, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense. 10 Now at the time of the incense offering, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. 11 Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him. 13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. 14 You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink; even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. 16 He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” 18 Zechariah said to the angel, “How will I know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.” 19 The angel replied, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur.”

Luke 1:21 Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah, and wondered at his delay in the sanctuary. 22 When he did come out, he could not speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He kept motioning to them and remained unable to speak. 23 When his time of service was ended, he went to his home.

Luke 1:24 After those days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she remained in seclusion. She said, 25 “This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favorably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people.”

This summer my family and I were going through stuff in our basement. As we were going along, Cynthia would run across a photo and say, “Oh look what I found! Do you remember when…” or a program or bulletin from a wedding or a dance or a graduation. Do you ever go rummaging around in your basement or your attic or your hard drive, and you find things or photos that bring back memories? How do we deal with our memories? How do we find peace with the difficult memories and still enjoy the best? Our passage today offers some surprising insights.

First, remember the story is always easier to tell from the end. Do you have some stories of the “Bad Old Days?” Usually they begin like this, “When I was a kid…” and then they go on to describe ridiculous things like walking through the blizzards to get to school and it being uphill both ways. As I read today’s story, I imagine Luke—Paul’s personal doctor—sitting down with Mary, Jesus’ mom, to get her tell the stories about Jesus being born. And she starts, “In the days of King Herod of Judea…” Now those were some bad old days! King Herod was known for his tremendous building projects—the Temple, His palace, Masada, the colossal seaport, Caesarea Maritima—and his tremendous cruelty. Though we don’t have historical evidence for the “Killing of the Innocents” when Herod put to death all the boys two years and younger in Bethlehem after the wisemen leave, we do know that Herod had his own sons killed, and also his wife and her parents because of his paranoia. And yet, looking back on those days, Luke knows Herod is not nearly as important as Zechariah and Elizabeth, who have no children, but who are given a promise. When you look back at your life, do you have turning points? Do they hinge on the political events of the day, or do they revolve around the simple, everyday promises made and kept? When we look back, maybe we can see more easily what really matters.

Second, we can find peace from our troubling memories. “In an article in Guideposts, Corrie ten Boom told of not being able to forget a wrong that had been done to her. She had forgiven the person, but she kept rehashing the incident and so, couldn’t sleep. Finally, Corrie cried out to God for help in putting the problem to rest. She writes: ‘His help came in the form of a kindly Lutheran pastor to whom I confessed my failure after two sleepless weeks. “Up in that church tower,” he said, nodding out the window, “is a bell which is rung by pulling on a rope. But you know what? After the sexton lets go of the rope the bell keeps on swinging. First ‘ding,’ then ‘dong.’ Slower and slower until there’s a final dong and it stops. I believe the same thing is true of forgiveness. When we forgive, we take our hand off the rope. But if we’ve been tugging at our grievances for a long time, we mustn’t be surprised if the old angry thoughts keep coming for a while. They’re just the ding-dongs of the old bell slowing down.” And so it proved to be. There were a few more midnight reverberations, a couple of dings when the subject came up in my conversations. But the force—which was my willingness in the matter—had gone out of them. They came less and less often and at last stopped altogether. And so I discovered another secret of forgiveness: we can trust God not only above emotions, but also above our thoughts.’” Through the years, Zechariah and Elizabeth had lots of sad, disappointing memories of trying to have children. The happiness of growing old together was overshadowed by this empty place in their lives. Is that why Zechariah has trouble believing the angel when it says Zechariah and Elizabeth are going to have a baby? Sometimes we are so busy hanging onto the bad memories, we find it hard to trust God’s promises and hear Good News. Forgiveness is one of the ways we take our hand off the rope and allow the troubling memories to lose their force…and allow God’s promises—that God is Present, that God cares, and that God is at work—to outweigh our troubling memories.

We all have basements or attics of memories. Some are happy and nurturing. Some are painful and troubling. One of the reasons I love Thanksgiving and Christmas is that these events are times when our memories seem closer to us. We tell family stories that make people laugh, like the time Zechariah was working in the Temple and didn’t believe an angel and couldn’t talk for months! I wonder if Elizabeth was thrilled with that! Maybe we remember hard times too, but maybe like Zechariah and Elizabeth, they get swallowed up by the love with which we approach our lives. Memories are not just about the past. When we have a tradition, it reminds us of another year when we were doing the same thing, and yet, we are also making new memories for the years to come. The meaning of memory lies not just in the past, because we can’t live in the past. No, the meaning of memory lies in us remembering how God has remembered us, remembered our needs, and come to us. As we look at the future, remembering how God has come in Jesus, remembering how God has always heard the cry of His people, remembering how God has moved with power helps us look forward in hope, and hope is the real meaning of memory.

Catching Jesus Bad Habits: Jesus Thought He Was God

Luke 4:1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” 4 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’”

Luke 4:5 Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 Jesus answered him, “It is written,

‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”

Luke 4:9 Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written,

‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’

11 and

‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”

12 Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 13 When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.

Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods are standing at the throne of heaven God looks at them and says, “Before granting you a place at my side, I must ask you what you believe.” God asks Arnie first: “What do you believe?” Arnie thinks long and hard, then he looks God in the eye, and says, “I believe in hard work, and in staying true to family and friends. I believe in giving. I was lucky, but I always tried to do right by my fans.” God can’t help but see the essential goodness of Palmer, and offers him a seat to his left. Then God turns to Nicklaus and says, “What do you believe?” Jack says, “I believe passion, discipline, courage and honor are the fundamentals of life. Like Arnold, I believe in hard work. I, too, have been lucky, but win or lose, I’ve always tried to be a true sportsman, both on and off the playing fields.” God is greatly moved by Jack’s thoughtful eloquence, and he offers him a seat to his right. Finally, God turns to Woods: “And you, Tiger, what do you believe?” Tiger replies, “I believe you’re in my seat.” We laugh at least in part because we know—no matter what Tiger says—he is so far from really being God, but Jesus had a pretty terrible habit that used to get him in all kinds of trouble: Jesus thought He was God.

If you read the Gospels—pick one, they’re all good!—Jesus thinks He’s God by what He does and what He says. Things that only God does, Jesus does. He forgives sins. He changes centuries-old laws so people’s hearts could be changed. He teaches with authority. When Jesus prays, the world shifts—praying is the only thing Jesus’ disciples ever asked Jesus to teach them was how to pray. Jesus freed people from their physical and psychological bondage. And Jesus said He was God, that He existed before Abraham, that to see Him was too see God, and that He and the Father are one. What’s interesting is that Jesus had a different take on what it meant to be God.

It all starts with Jesus getting baptized and going into the wilderness to be tempted. As Leonard Sweet puts it in The Bad Habits of Jesus, “In the wilderness, Jesus knows he is the Messiah. The only question is what kind of Messiah he will be. Will he be the world’s kind of Messiah or the Kingdom’s kind of Messiah?” Watch the temptations unfold. Satan invites famished Jesus to make stones into bread, to feed himself, instead of trusting God to provide. If Jesus is God, He didn’t come to serve Himself. Then Satan lays before Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, and tries to make a deal—worship me and it’s yours—to see if Jesus would let anyone, anything come between Him and God. If Jesus is God, He didn’t come to be powerful as the world understands it. Then Satan puts Jesus on the highest point of the Temple, above the thousands of people who had come to worship God, and tells Jesus it’s time to do something spectacular—to trade on His special relationship with God, and make that viral YouTube moment that will prove to everyone He’s God. If Jesus is God, will He build a following with a stunt or with grace given to one life at a time? If Jesus is God, then Jesus came to show us how different God is from what the world expects.

Jill Briscoe tells of a visit to a funeral home with a grieving widow, standing by the open casket. Out of the corner of her eye, Jill sees a member of her church coming toward them and thinks, Here comes trouble. The woman approaching the casket believes Christians should never be sad or weep; they should always be upbeat and happy. Predictably, the dear lady comes up and starts to comfort the grieving widow with words about thinking positively and lifting the chin. The widow looks at her and says, “Well, if we are not supposed to cry, how come Jesus wept?” Whereupon Jill, with her wonderful British, says, “Well obviously, honey, Jesus wasn’t a very good Christian.”

Sweet goes on to say, “Jesus was not a very good Christian if by “good Christian” we mean someone who is respectable, presentable, well-mannered, well meaning, and well wishing. Jesus was not a very good Christian if by “good Christian” we mean someone who moves in gospel goose step at authority’s command. Jesus was not a very good Christian if by “good Christian” we mean the business of getting more things, if the gospel is “good news” about increasing our living standards more than our loving standards. Jesus was not a very good Christian if by “good Christian” we mean the sort of person who is always snooping around to see if people are enjoying themselves and then trying to stop it. … Jesus was not a very good Christian if by “good Christian” we mean someone who tries to save the standing order rather than creating an alternative order of reality within every standing order. Jesus was not a very good Christian if by “good Christian” we mean always being a “winner.” For Jesus, you can be a “winner” without someone else losing or without having all your demands met. Jesus was not a very good Christian if by “good Christian” we mean a gravy train for the professionals. Jesus was not a very good Christian if by “good Christian” we mean someone who has the right friends and keeps the right kind of company. Jesus hung not with the “in” crowd but with the sinners … And at Calvary, he literally hung with the sinners in dying as he hung with them in living. Jesus was not a very good Christian if by “good Christian” we mean someone who has a problem with sin. Sin is not a problem for Jesus. The problem is getting sinners to see they are sinners, confess their separation from God, and accept God’s invitation. … Jesus was not a very good Christian if by “good Christian” we mean someone who would like to be labeled “Christian” or “good.” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered the rich man. “Only God is truly good.”

Jesus was not a very good Christian, but He was an awesome Christ. Though He was God, He didn’t ask for the throne. As Paul puts it, “He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the very nature of a servant…” Though He was God, Jesus “humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” With absolute power at His command, Jesus walked with people, laughed with sinners, spit, and healed, was angry, and loved and wept. In the end, Jesus wasn’t in it for Himself; Jesus was in it for God, and so for us. John wrote, “We love because He first loved us.” And Sweet continues, “In other words, the greatest love story ever told, the love story that stops clocks and starts hearts, is a love story that began in heaven and brought heaven’s best to us, to begin heaven in us, to spread heaven among us, to prepare us for heaven as heaven prepares for us. Heaven has a name: Jesus Christ.” And that’s a great cause for Thanksgiving.

Catching Jesus’ Bad Habits: Jesus Focused on the Little Things in Life

Matt. 13:31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.”

Matt. 13:33 He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

Matt. 13:34 Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable.

This week, I was tremendously saddened to hear of the death of Lieutenant Jason Menard of the Worcester Fire Department, the firefighter who gave his life Tuesday night to save an elderly woman and two other firefighters who had been trapped on the third floor of a burning building. The next day, Jason and his wife, Tina, were due to head to Disney World with their children.[1] When I think of heroism, I’m drawn to examples like Lt. Menard’s, sacrificing themselves to save others. Or else I’m drawn to the great women and men of history—to Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Eleanor Roosevelt, or Dwight Eisenhower and Martin Luther King Jr.—people who seemed larger than life, who fought great battles for our society to win a war at home and abroad and to secure voting and civil rights. But when I look at Jesus, I see, as Leonard Sweet puts it, that “Jesus had a bad habit of fixating on the little and ignoring the big—the big people, the big deals, the big ideas. Jesus did not sidle up to the movers and shakers but sat among the forsaken and the inconsequential, the lame and the left behind.”[2] If God asked you and me to change the world, wouldn’t we look for a strategic point where we could reach the most people and have the most leverage? So why does Jesus have this bad habit, and what can it teach us?

First, all the best things begin small. Babies, puppies, kittens—they’re often small and often gross, so it’s a really good thing that they’re adorable! They don’t stay small forever though, right? They grow and become even more wonderful, but they start small. In Jesus’ story today, He uses the example of a tiny seed that grows into a large plant, large enough to shelter others. I once saw a church sign that read, “An oak tree is an acorn that held its ground.” Small—but growing to become amazing. It happens day by day, and then you look at the baby, puppy, kitten or acorn—and they’re an adult, dog, cat or tree. When did that happen! It’s like that with the Kingdom of Heaven. It starts as God sows hope in our hearts, calls us to Himself, and hopes we will say yes in our hearts. And with that small “Yes, Lord! I’m yours!” that seed begins to sprout and grow, and in its time, God’s Kingdom planted in us will bear fruit! God seems to delight in the small and simple—like us—taking the world by surprise.

Second, doing small things makes a big difference. Leonard Sweet writes, “Jesus did not mount campaigns against the social structures of his day but focused on the needs of neighbors and individuals.”[3] Elmer Bendiner, in his book, The Fall of Fortresses, describes one of his World War II bombing runs over the German city of Kassel. He writes, “Our B-17 (The Tondelayo) was barraged by flack from Nazi antiaircraft guns. That was not unusual, but on this particular occasion our gas tanks were hit. On the morning following the raid, Bohn had gone down to ask our crew chief for that shell as a souvenir of unbelievable luck. The crew chief told Bohn that not just one shell but eleven had been found in the gas tanks—eleven unexploded shells where only one was sufficient to blast us out of the sky…[T]he shells [were] sent to the armorers to be defused. … when the armorers opened each of those shells, they found no explosive charge. Empty? Not all of them. One contained a carefully rolled piece of paper. On it was a scrawl in Czechoslovakian. … Translated, the note read: ‘This is all we can do for you now.’”[4] Lloyd Ogilvie, former Chaplain to the Senate, wrote, “Jesus wants us to discover the might of the miniscule.”[5] How do we know that? Because Jesus wasn’t born in Rome, didn’t grow up as a prince, didn’t aim to start a movement. He was born in a tiny town in Palestine, grew up the son of carpenter, and found a couple of handfuls of people whose lives were changed by the small things he did. Though he could have run to heal celebrities, women and children, beggars and outcasts found Jesus was happy to be with them. His attitude seemed to say, “I want to make a difference in you.” Jesus knew that small things can make a big difference.

For sure, we each come to pivot points in our lives, moments of high leverage. In the course of his day, Lt. Jason Menard found he stood at one of those, where he could leverage his life for the lives of three others…and God bless him and his family, he made that courageous choice. I believe God has put you and me in this place at this time for a reason. This is a moment of high leverage for our families, our neighbors and our community. We have the chance to change this building in a way that can change this community for generations. But most of the pivot points of the world are smaller, and may pass unnoticed. Fred Craddock, the great preacher, once wrote, “To give my life for Christ appears glorious. To pour myself out for others . . . to pay the ultimate price of martyrdom—I’ll do it. I’m ready, Lord, to go out in a blaze of glory. We think giving our all to the Lord is like taking a $1,000 bill and laying it on the table—'Here’s my life, Lord. I’m giving it all [to you].’ But the reality for most of us is that he sends us to the bank and has us cash in the $1,000 for quarters. We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there. Listen to the neighbor kid’s troubles instead of saying, ‘Get lost.’ Go to a committee meeting. Give a cup of water for a shaky old in a nursing home. Usually giving our life to Christ isn’t glorious. It’s done in all those little acts of love. Twenty-five cents at a time. It would be easy to go out in a flash of glory:  it’s harder to live the Christian life little by little over the long haul.”[6] Do we just not see these small moments as pivot points, moments of high leverage with our family, or our neighbor? Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”[7]

  What happens when our lives and our whole community fill up with grace? What happens when the love of Jesus Christ can be felt wherever we go? Don’t you want to know?

[1]https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/11/14/firefighter-saved-worcester-fire-jason-menard-faces-long-road-recovery/BYavfg3XBUEQE35A1JKhTN/story.html

[2]Leonard Sweet, The Bad Habits of Jesus: Showing Us the Way to Live Right in a World Gone Wrong, 2016, p. 165.

[3]ibid.

[4]Told in Craig Brian Larson, Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching from Leadership Journal, 1993, p. 219.

[5]Lloyd Ogilvie, Autobiography of God, 1979, p. 90.

[6]Larson, op.cit, p. 200.

[7]Matthew 5:14ff.

Catching Jesus’ Bad Habits: Jesus Said Money Was a Tool, Not the Goal

Mark 10:17 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before Jesus, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” 20 He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” 21 Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” 22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Mark 10:23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”

Mark 10:28 Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

A few weeks ago, I heard that Big John Carter, one of the members of our fellowship was going to give a TEDTalk at Massachusetts College of Arts. So I got myself all signed up and yesterday I sat down in an auditorium full of interesting people. The lights dimmed and out came the first speaker. Speaker after speaker told their story, and all of them came to points when they wondered why they cared, what was the point, am I really making a difference? Those are the kinds of questions I know I ask myself. I suspect they are questions all of us have asked in way or another. I believe it’s a set of questions that the young man in our story today is asking too. If we follow Jesus’ conversation, we begin to see one of Jesus’ bad habits:  He said money is a tool not the goal.

First, Jesus makes it clear that being good is still not enough. So let’s take a moment and make a list together:  what are some of the things “good girls” or “good boys”—good people don’t do?

It’s a list, right? A list largely of our culture’s making. Jesus makes a list too, from the Ten Commandments God gave to Moses. The thing about the list of things we shouldn’t do is that if we are human, we have all broken at least one commandment. Jesus reminds us that only God is completely good, and provides a way out of the guilt and shame through forgiveness. When the young man says to Jesus, “All these I have kept from my youth,” can you hear what he’s really saying, “I really want to be God’s man, to have [as he puts it] abundant life for the ages”? Even if we could keep all the rules, at the end of the day it’s not enough. There has to be something more.

Second, you’ll notice that Jesus loved this guy for wanting more, for recognizing the emptiness. The other day, I finished cleaning the bathroom. I know…I’m weird…but I really like cleaning the bathroom. I like that when I do a great job, it actually feels clean as well as looks clean. So the other day, I finished cleaning, and not even 5 minutes later someone went in to use it and did something unspeakable. Really? But isn’t that how it is with everything? No sooner do we get one thing nailed down, then something else pops up. If we get that problem solved, then something else comes up. It’s like it never ends! Sometimes, doesn’t it feel like life is just grinding us down? When that’s happening for me, I find myself getting depressed or angry or anxious or upset, or some combination of all those things. When I finally come to the point where I throw up my hands, when I stop working harder at things that aren’t really getting me anywhere, when I take a deep breath and ask, “What am I doing?” I feel like Jesus is there, smiling, saying, “Well, it’s about time!” When I ask for help, I have a sense of Jesus saying, “I was wondering when you were going to let me help.” I wonder if that’s what Mark means when he writes, “Jesus, looking on him, loved him…” When we take a moment to realize the emptiness of our path, and express how unsatisfying this is, then we are right where God wants us to be.

Finally, Jesus challenges the young man to let his stuff be tools for grace and to make God His goal. Just so you know, I really don’t like it when Jesus says things like, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” Instantly, I ask myself why I haven’t done that, and I start feeling guilty for having a fancy phone and a car and…and…and… Let’s be clear:  that you and I are here, that many of us have vehicles and places to live and food on the table, makes us part of the 1% most wealthy people in the world. In the United States, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, still 1 in 6 people are “food insecure” either they are hungry or they are not sure they will have enough to eat. That’s wild. The question Jesus’ response to the young man in our story forces us to ask is “Have I made gathering, organizing, using my stuff and resources the goal of my life?” Jesus asks us today to contemplate a world in which we lose all our stuff. God forbid, but what if our houses burned down today, and we were left on the street with no stuff. What would our lives be worth then? What if all our financial gain was lost overnight? What would our lives be worth then? When we think this way, we begin to realize that all we have is a gift from God, and to ask ourselves how are my resources working for God? Are there any resources that aren’t working for God? If I have a car, how am I showing grace with my car? If I have an education, how is that education a blessing to someone else? If I have financial wealth and am good at making it grow, how could my financial resources make a high impact difference in the amount of grace in the world? When Jesus suggests thinking like this, the young man goes away sad because he had lots of possessions—and they were his goal, his trophies that showed his hard work—the designer clothes and slickest phones. Give them up? Put them in God’s hands? That’s hard! Jesus said, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!...It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” It’s hard to put our lives in God’s hands, and sometimes it’s even harder to let God work change in us. What if our stuff and our wealth were tools for helping ourselves and others know that loving God and each other is the real goal in life?

I was so impressed with the people I heard at the TEDTalks yesterday. Musicians, artists, leaders, activists, trainers, especially Big John. All of them asked why they cared, what was the point, am I really making a difference? And all of them shared their discovery that they can and do make a difference, even if it’s in a small way. I left the TEDTalks yesterday, so encouraged about where the emerging generations are able to go with their determination and vision. It got me thinking about the adventures for which God has gathered us. Here we are with all the resources of experience, gifts and financial wealth at our disposal, trying to figure out how much grace we can pour into our community, not just for ourselves and our friends, but for the emerging generations—our children and grandchildren. How can this church help others who are wrestling with the emptiness and meaninglessness of our world, looking for a purpose, longing for a sense of community and a sense that, together, we are changing the world?

Catching Jesus’ Bad Habits: Jesus Spent Way Too Much Time with Children

Mark 9:33 Then they came to Capernaum; and when [Jesus] was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” 34 But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. 35 He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” 36 Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

Mark 10:13 People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. 14 But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 15 Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” 16 And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

At Sunday School, they were teaching how God created everything, including human beings. Jackson seemed especially intent when they told him how Eve was created out of one of Adam’s ribs. Later in the week his mother noticed him lying down as though he were ill, and said, “Jackson, what is the matter?” Jackson responded, “I have pain in my side. I think I’m going to have a wife.” Children often have a fresh way of looking at the world and themselves. Maybe that’s why Jesus loved being with children, maybe too much. In fact, for Jesus, something about children is so important, He says we can’t make it into the Kingdom of God as an adult.

In Jesus’ time, little children were not signs of care-free wonder, they were associated with death and heart-ache because 1 in 3 children died in their first year, and nearly half by the age of five. People hesitated to invest too much love in their children as infants because they didn’t want their hearts broken. In Jesus’ day as in our own, parents loved their children, but children were often considered a nuisance, better seen than heard, or else valued mostly for their usefulness—how hard they could work, how they would take care of their parents in old age. You had as many children as you needed to work the farm or run the business. Someday children would grow up and then they would be worth spending time with. Jesus, however, saw children as people who were important now, not just for the future.

So what does this mean for us? How could our lives be different because of Jesus’ bad habit? First, nothing says “I love you” like spending time with someone. The great theologian, Paul Tillich once said, “The first duty of love is to listen.” Children always know when we are really truly listening to them or just kind of listening to them. Often it’s about hearing what they aren’t saying. A sweet little boy surprised his grandmother one morning and brought her a cup of coffee. He made it himself and was so proud. He anxiously waited to hear the verdict on the quality of the coffee. The grandmother had never in her life had such a bad cup of coffee, and as she forced down the last sip she noticed three of those little green army guys in the bottom of the cup. She asked, “Honey, why would three little green army guys be in the bottom of my cup?” Her grandson replied, “You know grandma, it’s like coffee ad on TV...The best part of waking up is soldiers in your cup.” What this grandma quite rightly heard when she listened to her grandson, was his desire to do something good and kind, and his pride in being able to be helpful. She truly listened to him and so instead of disgust, she responded with curiosity. In return, this child knew his grandma had really listened to him. Can the people we care about tell we love them by how much we listen to them?

Second, we need to cultivate the childlike quality of trusting honesty. A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin, 5, Ryan, 3. The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake. Their mother saw an opportunity: “If Jesus were sitting here, He would say, ‘Let my brother have the first pancake. I can wait.’ “Kevin turned to his younger brother and said, “Ryan, you be Jesus!” The mom in this story is quite right: it’s a great to teach about what Jesus would do, and Kevin’s honesty will make him more teachable. One thing I think Jesus loved about children is that they didn’t try to be anything but themselves—greedy, curious, cruel, and filled with wonder. When caught in the wrong, most children are willing to learn a different way. I think this childlike authenticity is one of the things that made David, the shepherd boy who became a king, “a man after God’s own heart.” If you read the Psalms David wrote, you find him sometimes moving from deep love for God to wanting bloodthirsty vengeance on the people who are out to get him, from profound wisdom to utter despair. We also know that when David was caught in the wrong, he admitted his mistakes, prayed for forgiveness and tried to make things right. He trusted that God’s love would always be there—even when he stumbled in his life—and so he could be completely open with God. Like a child, because we know we are loved, we learn to trust that we will be given all we need. Because we are loved, we can pour our whole selves into all we do.

Third, we need the childlike sense of possibility. A man was driving home from work one day, when he stopped to watch a local Little League baseball game that was being played in a park near his home. As he sat down behind the bench on the first-base line, he asked one of the boys what the score was. “We’re behind 14 to nothing,” he answered with a smile. “Really,” I said. “I have to say you don’t look very discouraged.” “Discouraged?” the boy asked with a puzzled look on his face. “Why should we be discouraged? We haven’t even been up to bat yet.” God’s Kingdom is all about possibility that through faith turns to hope. Taken a tough blow in your life lately? Had some bad news? This childlike sense of possibility doesn’t worry or fret, but instead looks for what will happen when God steps up to the plate with us. Discouraged? We haven’t even been up to bat yet!

Today we are reminded how much we have to unlearn. We have learned about economic forecasts, getting things done, and political games at the office. We have learned that hyper-partisanship gets us re-elected, that the poor make us uncomfortable, and children don’t really know very much. We have so very much to unlearn. Jesus’ bad habit suggests we take ourselves too seriously, get anxious too quickly, and need to re-learn how to be child-like again. Somehow children get some things about life—living for the moment, trying hard, loving well, being completely ourselves, and approaching life with an attitude of play and wonder. In fact, learning how to be kids in all the right ways, is the only way to find our way into the Kingdom of God. One mom told this story, “One day I spoke gruffly to my little daughter. ‘If you don’t watch it, young lady, I’m going to pick you up and whirl you around and hug you and kiss you.’ Her eyes narrowed. Gravely she said, “I’m not watching it, Mom.” I solemnly filled my arms with my daughter, spun her round and round, and then kissed my bundle till we both were giggling. I know this was a good thing, one of the many, quick, marvelous moments between parent and child. It might have been fleeting, but she wanted to do it again and again, then call her dad to tell him. I repeat it just often enough with my daughter to keep the chuckle fresh. I like it especially when she comes and finds me, peeling carrots or sitting at the [computer], and holding back a smile says, “I’m not watching it, Mom.” Already my daughter is 38 pounds. I won’t always be able to scoop her up and whirl her around. But when I make wishes, one of mine is that “being whirled: will be one of her favorite childhood memories.” What memories are you making with your children and grand-children? What will they learn about God from us? In the end, we are all children of God, and perhaps we all need to be child-like before our Heavenly Father. Perhaps we should learn how to say to God, “I’m not watching it, Dad.”