The Widow's Mite

The story of the Widow's Mite is found in Luke 21:1-4 and reads as follows:

He looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. He said, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for all of them have contributed our of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on."

I have preached and taught on this text before, usually on the subject of stewardship. I, along with other pastors, often talk about the importance of the percentage that you give rather than the dollar amount. We talk about giving sacrificially and not just out of your abundance. And I think these are all true and valid points.

But I noticed something different in the text today. The text tells us that the widow gave all that she had. It wasn't just a large percentage; it wasn't just a big sacrifice; she gave everything. And in the end, that is what Jesus Christ offered to us on Good Friday and what he asks from us in return...all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. All. Are we willing to give as Jesus did?

Parable of the Wicked Tenants

One of the parables that Jesus tells during his last week of life is the Parable of the Wicked Tenants in Luke 20:9-19. In it, Jesus tells a story of a man who plants a vineyard and then leases it to some tenants while he is living far away. He sends a series of servants to the vineyard to collect his rent or share of the produce, but the tenants beat up the servants and send them away empty-handed. The man then sends his own son to collect, but the wicked tenants kill the son. The man then comes, kills the tenants, and gives the vineyard to others.

Now, I think the symbolism in the parable is fairly obvious. The man is God, the tenants are Israel or at least the leaders of Israel, the servants are the prophets, the son is Jesus, and the new vineyard workers are the followers of Jesus.

As I read the passage today, something caught my attention. In verse 14, the motivation for the tenants' murderous act is revealed: "let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours." Their motivation is not to get the owner off their backs. It is not because they hate the son or really wish him harm. It is not even that they simply want to be able to do what they want to do. Their motivation is greed.

Especially in Luke's Gospel, Jesus is portrayed as an itinerant preacher who goes around proclaiming the good news. And this good news is about the kingdom of God coming near and is told particularly to the poor and marginalized. Jesus' message is that you don't have to be part of the religious elite or the ruling powers to participate in what God is doing in the world. In fact, if you are part of those groups, it might even impede your ability to be part of God's kingdom. These are radical teachings, both then and now!

So we can see why the religious and political authorities weren't too fond of Jesus. He was a threat to them and his teaching called into question their power and even their standing with God. It's no wonder they had him killed! They were greedy and afraid they might lose their power, wealth, status, and authority. As a middle-class white American, I can certainly relate. Lord, help me not to be greedy with what I have - money, possessions, power, education, status, and much more - so that I might not miss out on being part of your Kingdom.

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

During Holy Week, I have decided to write about a particular story or teaching of Jesus from the final week of his life. As a church, we are following Luke's account of Holy Week for our worship services for Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter, and I will be using Luke's account of the rest of Jesus' last week as well.

The story of Jesus cleansing the temple is probably familiar to most of my readers. In some of the gospels, it is much longer, describing Jesus turning over tables and making a whip to chase out people. Luke's gospel, however, provides a much shorter, simpler, and more direct version. Luke 19:45-46 reads as follows:

Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; and he said, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers.”

Jesus here references two passages from Old Testament prophets: Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11. Without these references and the accounts from the other gospels, this passage would be quite confusing. Why is Jesus upset? What drives him to such action? But we know that people had perverted the practice of worship through sacrifice for the benefit of themselves and their own wealth, and Jesus couldn't stand by and let it continue.

When is the last time you saw or heard of something that so offended your sense of justice (in the biblical meaning, not the political one) that you couldn't help but act? If I'm honest with myself, this really hasn't happened in quite some time, and I'm ashamed to admit it because there is so much injustice, oppression, and evil in the world. Instead of noticing it, though, I too often turn a blind eye and pretend like it is not there. And so this day I offer a simple but dangerous prayer: "Lord, give me eyes to see and ears to hear."

Ain't No Rock

Today was Palm Sunday, and this morning I preached on the text from Luke describing Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. I focused on the reply that Jesus gave to the Pharisees when they asked him to silence those who were praising him: "If these were silent, even the stones would shout out."

I spent some time talking about how we, as humans, are created to be in relationship with God and to worship God. We lifted up several Bible verses that tell us that creation itself - from the heavens to the mountains to the trees to the rocks - offers glory to God. Then I made the point that we are the chief creation of God, and we are called to lead the rest of creation in the worship of God - not just by singing praises or attending church one hour a week, but by our entire lives being offered to God. Finally, I challenged the congregation not to let the rocks cry out in their place, but to live their lives as an act of worship to God. I invited everyone to take a small rock with them and to place it somewhere they would see it everyday to remind them not to let the rocks cry out in our place.

I, too, took a rock and am placing it in our bathroom (not sure Nancy will be too thrilled about having a dirty rock laying around, but whattaya gonna do). The bathroom is pretty much the first place I go in the morning when I wake up and the last place I go before climbing into bed in the evening. My hope and prayer is that this simply rock will remind me to live my life as an offering to God each and every day, and at the end of the day it will challenge me to reflect back and see where I have fallen short and resolve to do better through God's grace tomorrow. If you received a rock today, I pray the same for you.

Wesley Fellowship Groups

This is a make-up post. I had done great all through Lent, and then I simply forgot to do a blog post yesterday. Earlier in the day I had decided on a topic, but when the evening rolled around and Kentucky lost and Becca was sick, the blog just slipped my mind. I'm sure God still loves me, though :)

Yesterday morning I attended a training event led by Bishop Wills at Bethlehem UMC down in Franklin about Wesley Fellowship Groups. It was a great event with a packed house - well over 100 clergy and laity in attendance. The topic was small group discipleship in the Methodist tradition. Wesley called his groups "Class Meetings" and "bands." Today, we have several different names for them, but Bishop Wills calls them "Wesley Fellowship Groups."

Before being elected to the episcopacy, Bishop Wills served Christ Church in Ft. Lauderdale Florida and implemented a huge program of Wesley Fellowship Groups, with over a thousand people participating in them by the time he left the local church to serve as a bishop. He got the idea when he travelled to South Africa and saw the Methodists there had continued the practice instituted by John Wesley of meeting together in small groups for covenant discipleship.

After hearing all the stories of lives changed and ministries happening through these groups, I am convinced that this is the best way to do discipleship, especially in our United Methodist tradition. Each group has a leader who invites others to be part of the group. The leader is not expected to teach or preach or be an expert, but simply to facilitate the group as they study together and watch over one another in love. Part of what gets built into the group is a desire to spawn new groups, so the leader often has an apprentice who will one day lead a group. The groups meet together weekly, usually in someone's home and often around a meal (or at least some snacks).

Bishop Wills described five key ingredients in the recipe for these groups: Fellowship, Worship/Prayer, Study, Accountability, and Mission/Outreach. Each ingredient is essential and none should be neglected, although different groups will have various amounts of the ingredients depending on the emphasis they desire.

I truly do believe that these kinds of groups are the key to renewal in our churches. Through them, people form deep relationships and true community happens. People grow in the love, grace, and knowledge of God. And people live out their faith in real, tangible, and challenging ways. If we were to start these groups in all of our churches, what an amazing work God might do through the power of the Holy Spirit. There is no limit to what God can accomplish through small groups of committed disciples of Jesus Christ!

Sick Little Girl

Becca is sick :(

She's got the diarrhea. Big time. She's also thrown up every day for more than a week now. This morning, we gave her some orange Gatorade, and then she projectile vomited all over me. Good times! On top of that, she has an ear infection and just acts pitiful. I feel so badly for her. One of my least favorite things in the world is to be sick, but I would gladly be sick if it meant she didn't have to be.

I guess that's part of what being a parent does to you. You truly do start to care for someone else more than yourself and put her needs ahead of your own. You know what, that's a big part of what Jesus calls us to do as well. In many ways, becoming a parent has helped me to grow into the likeness of Christ more than a lot of other things in my life, which is pretty ironic since Jesus (at least as far as we know) never had any children. Then again, God is the Parent of us all, so Jesus had that going for himself.

Anyways, poor little Becca. We gave her three baths today, changed her clothes more than that, and even changed her bedding 2 or 3 times. It's been a messy and "frazzled" day, as Nancy said earlier. But one of the nice things about today is that Nancy and I really worked together to make it through the day and care for Becca. It often took both of us to change her diaper and clean her up (she was not a happy girl at all), and we would tag-team caring for her and cleaning up the messes. One of us would snuggle with her to keep her on her side while the other put drops in her ear. I'm very thankful to be married to such a wonderful woman and love sharing our life together!

Homebound Members

I visited several of our homebound members (shut-ins) earlier today. If I am truly honest with myself (and those of you reading), I always dread going to see them and often put it off. But every time I do go, I enjoy it and usually learn something along the way. I'm not really sure why I have this reaction before I go. I talked about it with Nancy some today, and I think it might have something to do with my instinct to try to fix things, and I can't really fix the fact that someone is homebound. Don't know if that is it or not. If anyone else has any ideas, let me know!

I wish more of our church members knew and visited our homebound members. We do now have a small group who is doing this, and it is a wonderful ministry, both for the ones visiting and the ones being visited. Those of us who are younger have much to learn from those who have gone before us.

One of the things that made the biggest impression on me today was visiting with Ms. Skinner at the nursing home. I bring Communion to share with our homebound members when I visit. Ms. Skinner has to drink her liquids through a straw rather than sipping from a cup, so I take a flexible straw and place it in one of those tiny Communion cups. It looks pretty funny, but it works. Today, she had some trouble getting enough suction to pull the grape juice through the straw. She would take deep breaths, and then suck. It took quite a bit of effort, but she was eventually able to drink most of the juice in the small cup. It was amazing to see her determination and the effort she put forth to receive this sacrament. It made me grateful for my health, and it also helped me to realize that I often take for granted how easy it is for me to worship and participate in the community of faith. There are so many folks who have this same ability, but choose not to attend or get involved. And here is this sweet little lady who would give anything to be able to do that, but she simply isn't able. She is dependent on me to bring Communion to her and to share news of what is happening in the life of the church. I truly am blessed to be able to perform this sacred task of ministry...maybe I just need to remind myself of that the next time I start putting off my visits!

Way Back Wednesday

I am pumped for our church's Saturday Night Alive! at the end of this week. I went to Agape's (our praise band) practice tonight to talk through a few things for Holy Week, and got to listen to them practice for Saturday. They sounded great and it is going to be a lot of fun! Most of the songs were popular Christian songs when I was in school, so I am especially fond of them. And they not your straight-up praise and worship songs, which is what most of the Christian music is today. Praise and worship is great, but I miss the good old days (you know, 10-15 years ago) when Christian music was more about thought-provoking lyrics and good instrumentation. Bands like Jars of Clay, Caedmon's Call, Third Day, and Audio Adrenaline were putting out great records. This music helped to shape me and my faith, much more than the present-day praise and worship craze.

So, I am looking forward to Saturday and getting to hear and sing some of my old favorites: Flood, Petrified Heart, Thankful, These Thousand Hills, and more. There is something about the music of your youth that is special and never leaves you. I'm glad that much of mine was from wonderful Christian artists, and that we can still sing them today!

Tennis, Anyone?

I played tennis today for the first time this year. I am now 2 for 2 on days exercising! It was a beautiful spring day out there, but I sure was rusty on the tennis court. It is amazing how your skill level can deteriorate when you are out of practice. My serve was weak and wimpy, my shots were errant, and my court coverage and reaction times were pathetic. But, as the match went on, everything improved. My serve got better, I hit some good shots, and even ran down a tough ball or two. Hopefully the weather will stay nice, and I'll be able to play more and continue to shake off the rust.

It's funny that there are a lot of things in life like what I just described: your proficiency decreases and your skills atrophy, but with some effort, everything starts coming back. "It's like riding a bike." Or playing an instrument, or knitting, or doing Sudoku, or juggling, or speaking in public, or calculus, or any number of other things. If we don't use it, we lose it, but we can get it back.

I think our faith is like this sometimes. We drift away from God and really just kinda forget what it means to walk in the Way of Jesus Christ or be led by the Holy Spirit. But our God is a God of second (and third and fourth...) chances, always more ready to welcome us back than we are to return. So, if you're reading this and you feel like you have wandered away from God or you haven't been to church in awhile or you've stopped your efforts to stay in love with God through spiritual disciplines, take heart! These things are like playing tennis (or riding a bicycle): they come back to you more easily than you might think. It may be a little awkward at first, but pretty soon you'll get the hang of it again and everything will be coming up aces!

And when the moon is on the rise, they all go up to...

...Exercise!

This is one of the lines from one of our family's favorite night-night books: The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton. I bring it up because I just read it to Becca as I was putting her to bed, and because I did something today that I haven't done in far too long: exercise!

I am woefully out of shape and overweight. And it's high time I did something about it. Today marks the beginning of that something. I walked (semi-briskly) on the treadmill for 30 minutes and burned about 200 calories. It's no marathon, but not a bad start.

Seeing several of my friends from seminary at Billy's wedding on Saturday helped to put in perspective the physical state of my body. Many of them are in much better shape than when we were in school together. We even joked that between Linzie and Cindy, they had lost enough weight for an entire other person. Everyone was looking great, and then there was me :( Granted, none of these other folks have children yet, and that certainly eats into your available time and energy for working out, but that's really no excuse. If anything, having a child should motivate me even more to get in shape so that I have better odds of growing old and seeing her grow up and possibly have children of her own. So, thank you to all my seminary friends who have gotten into shape over these last few years. You have inspired me (or at least shamed me) into getting in shape myself.

One of my biggest hang-ups for getting in shape is that I am not much of a morning person. If you notice the time stamps on my blog posts, you'll see that almost all of them are in the evening/night. I love to sleep in, and Becca is a champion sleeper (she still sleeps 12 hours a night with a 2 hour nap during the day!) and I rarely have much going on with the church early in the morning, so I often sleep fairly late as well - and by fairly late, I mean 8:00 or so. I just can't seem to motivate myself to get up earlier so that I can exercise by myself.

All the experts tell us that the morning is the best time to exercise because it gets your body and metabolism going and helps you to burn calories throughout the day. I have often convinced myself that if I don't exercise in the morning, then I am failing or it's just not worth doing at a different time. When it comes down to it, though, exercising in the evening has got to be much better than not exercising at all. So my plan is to start exercising in the evenings: walking/running on the treadmill, maybe doing some push-ups or sit-ups, maybe using the Wii Fit, maybe going for a walk through Bethpage, who knows. What I do know, is that it's time to make a change for the better. Here's to a healthier, happier me!

Esther and Youth Sunday

Today was Youth Sunday at Bethpage UMC. Our high school and middle school students led us in both of our worship services this morning and did an absolutely fantastic job! The newly formed youth band led us in singing, many of the youth served as greeters, Emily prayed for us, Sara took up the offering at 11:00, Tricia introduced the story of Esther, several of the youth did a dramatic reading of Esther, and even more helped to get things together beforehand. It was a wonderful morning and a powerful testament to God's work in the life of our young people.

Esther is a strange book of the Bible. It never mentions the name of God - not once! And it is not particularly spiritual or religious. In fact, it is the story of the origination of the Jewish festival Purim. In essence, a powerful man named Haman, who is described as the arch-enemy of the Jews, wants to wipe them off the face of the planet because one of them (Mordecai) will not submit to him. Haman obtains an executive order from the king to have all of the Jews executed, but little does he know that the king's wife, Esther, is secretly a Jew. Esther musters up the courage to reveal her identity and ask the king to save her people, which he does and even gives them the authority to attack whatever enemies they have. Purim is the celebration of their survival and victory over their enemies.

One part of the story that stood out to me today is that when Esther is trying to work up the courage to go before the king (her life was on the line because no one - not even the queen - was supposed to come before the king without being summoned), she asked Mordecai and the other Jews to fast for her. In this season of Lent, people often give up something (fasting) or take on a discipline (like this blog) in order to realize more fully their dependence on God or to grow closer to God. In this not-particularly-spiritual book, we see that a group of people fast for someone else. I wonder when the last time was that we did something like that? Perhaps that is a much better use of our spiritual efforts and energy rather than always doing it for our own benefit.

Wedding

This evening, Nancy and I went to the wedding of our good friend from seminary named Billy Kilgore. He married a wonderful young woman named Cara Doige at Vine Street Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Nashville. It was a lovely service, and it was so great to see some of our friends from seminary. We had a fantastic time catching up with them and simply enjoying the company of good folks.

Going to Billy's wedding made me think of our own, which was nearly 5 years ago now. In fact, it will be 5 years in August, and we are planning a little trip to Chicago for it (my friend Kelly from college is getting married there then too!). Nancy and I have been through a lot over the last 4 and a half years: Becca's traumatic birth and hospital stay, 2 big moves (oh the joys of being Methodist!), adopting 2 dogs, the death of multiple grandparents, several job changes, and so much more. I don't know if we really knew what we were getting into when we got married!

But one thing I have learned about marriage is that you just have to stick with it. Sometimes it is thrilling and careful, but other times is tedious and stressful. In the end, though, you always have someone you can count on to be there for you and you for them, through thick and thin. You have a life partner, whatever good or bad life may bring your way. Marriage is hard, probably the hardest thing I do, but rarely in life are the easy things the most worthwhile. So, today I am thankful for my wife Nancy, and I am thankful for Billy and Cara and pray that God's grace will be upon them as they forge a life together.

Favorite Chapter

We read the book of Romans for our Disciple Bible Study class this past week, and at our meeting last night, I made the comment that Romans 8 is probably my favorite chapter in the whole Bible. That got me thinking about other chapters (not just verses) in the Bible, and which one really is my favorite. Here are a few of the contenders (excluding any of the Psalms):

• Genesis 1 - The creation story
• Matthew 5 - The Sermon on the Mount
• Luke 15 - Parables of the lost
• John 17 - Jesus prays before his arrest and crucifixion
• Romans 8 - Wonderful summary of Paul's theology - from forgiveness to hope to love
• 1 Corinthians 13 - The love chapter
• Hebrews 11 - The history of faith
• Revelation 21 - The new heaven and new earth

It's interesting to note that I tend to think of the Old Testament in terms of stories, passages, or verses rather than in terms of chapters, which is often how I think of the New Testament. I'm sure that I am leaving out some great chapters, so feel free to comment and leave your thoughts on one or more.

Of these, I think I have to stick with Romans 8 as my favorite, although Revelation 21 (the end of the story) and John 17 (Jesus' prayer for you and me) come in closely behind it. I love Romans 8 because it says so much good stuff:

• "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (verse 1)
• "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you" (verse 11)
• "For we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words" (verse 26b)
  
• "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose" (verse 28)
• "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (verse 31b)
• "In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us" (verse 37)
• "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (verse 38-39)

It's all in there - forgiveness, life in the Spirit, adoption into the family of God, the great hope of our salvation, and God's never failing love! No wonder it was on hearing Luther's preface to the book of Romans that John Wesley's heart was strangely warmed. What an amazing witness to who God truly is in our lives!

NCAA Tourney Picks

The first round of the NCAA tournament begins today. I am a big college basketball fan, so I thought I might share my picks with you:

First Round Upsets

• Midwest Region: N. Iowa over UNLV; San Diego State over Tennessee (sorry to all the UT fans out there!)
• West Region: Murray State over Vandy; Florida over BYU
• East Region: Cornell over Temple; Washington over Marquette; Missouri over Clemson
• South Region: Utah State over Texas A&M; Siena over Purdue; Old Dominion over Notre Dame

Sweet 16

• Midwest: Kansas, Maryland, Georgetown, Ohio State
• West: Syracuse, Butler, Pittsburgh, Kansas State
• East: Kentucky, Wisconsin, New Mexico, WVU
• South: Duke, Siena, Baylor, Richmond

Elite 8

• Kansas, Ohio State, Syracuse, K-State, Kentucky, WVU, Duke, and Baylor

Final Four

• Kansas, Kansas State, Kentucky, and Baylor

Championship

• Kentucky over Kansas

A few notes

• I like to call some upsets in the first round, but mostly go with "chalk" after that (only 1, 2, and 3 seeds in the Elite 8 and beyond)
  
• The biggest exception this year would be Richmond going to the Sweet Sixteen (gotta pull for the alma mater) as well as Siena, and then Baylor making it to the Final Four
• I'm not really all that confident in Kentucky's ability to win it all. They are so young and didn't play an extremely difficult schedule, but I just couldn't pick against them

I hope your March Madness experience is as fun as mine will be. I just love this time of year - the weather is getting warmer, the days are getting longer, college basketball is ruling the sports world, and Easter is just around the corner!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I wore my green shirt today so that I wouldn't get pinched. St. Patrick was a clergyman in the 5th century sent from England to Ireland. As a boy, he had been captured and enslaved in Ireland for 6 years. He escaped and went back to England and became a priest, only to be called by God to return to Ireland years later. Legendarily, he is also said to have rid Ireland of snakes. This may have a more symbolic meaning of converting the Druids or rooted out the heretical beliefs of the Pelagians. So, in honor of St. Patrick, I thought I might share a few words about the Pelagians.

The Pelagian controversy/heresy began in the fourth century and was condemned by the church in the fifth century. In essence, Pelagians claim that we don't really need the grace of God; instead, through sheer force of will and determination, we are able to live good and moral lives free from sin. For them, original sin is more about a bad example that was set for us by Adam and Eve than about our actual state or status as human beings. And the work of Christ is more about setting for us a good example rather than actually imparting to us his righteousness.

Now, don't get me wrong, I certainly believe that part of what Jesus Christ set out to do was to show us a more excellent way to live, but he did much more than that! And I also believe that we can do no good things apart from the grace of God, but as a good Wesleyan, I am convinced in the reality of God's prevenient grace in our lives. God's grace is always with us, even before we realize or have any notion that God exists, and enables and empowers us to make moral decisions and to do good deeds. And then, as we grow in the knowledge and love of God, that grace grows within us and spurs us on toward acting completely out of selfless love - something that we are incapable of doing all on our own.

So, on this March 17th, I am thankful for St. Patrick and for God's grace that constantly surrounds me.

Not Your Parents' Offering Plate

I went to a leadership learning group up in KY today with several other young clergy from the Kentucky Conference. Bishop Davis and Moses Kumar, who is the head of the General Council on Finance and Administration for The United Methodist Church, led our time together. Our topic was stewardship. We talked about various aspects of it, especially as it relates to connectional giving (apportionments), but much of our conversation centered on a book that we all read by J. Clif Christopher entitled Not Your Parents' Offering Plate: A New Vision for Financial Stewardship.

It was a thought-provoking book and discussion. I don't agree with all of Christopher's ideas, but I do think he has some good ones. In the end, I think his thesis is that as pastors, we need to think about giving in the church more like the head of a non-profit organization would think of giving. I'm not sure I quite buy into that, but I do think there is probably a lot we could learn from non-profits. For example, we need to do a better job at thanking people for their giving and at communicating what a difference in the world and in the lives of people that their giving makes.

In the non-profit world, though, asking people to give is mostly about being able to fund whatever it is your organization is trying to do. That certainly is part of giving in the church - we need money to do the work of ministry - but giving in the church is also more than that. It is about spiritual truths and practices, stewardship and discipleship. Part of what we believe about the world is that God created it and everything belongs to God. We have been entrusted with a great responsibility to care for the world and use what we have to make it a better place that is more in line with God's vision for the world (you know, the Kingdom of God). Also, part of being a follower of Jesus Christ is learning to trust God with all of our lives, including our finances. We should be growing as disciples and in our spiritual practices: studying scripture, prayer, worship, works of mercy, acts of justice, and giving.

In the end, if we lose sight of why we give, then we have become nothing more than fundraisers, albeit for a worthy cause. But if we stay firmly grounded in a biblical and theological understanding of giving and stewardship, then not only does the gift make a difference, but we have made a difference in the giver as well.

Hospitality

Nancy, Becca and I are up in Kentucky right now. I have a leadership learning group at the Kentucky Conference offices for most of the day tomorrow, so we came up this afternoon to spend a little time with some of Nancy's extended family. Actually, to make a long story short, this is the part of her family that she didn't know existed until she was older - in high school or college I think. Only recently has she really connected with them.

We arrived around 6:00 to find a house full of people to welcome us. We talked, laughed, looked at pictures, played with kids, ate supper, and Nancy sold some of her Usborne books. All around, wonderful evening. And we are spending the night here as well. Bob and JoAnn have been very gracious hosts for us, and we are so thankful.

It reminds me of the importance of hospitality. If you read through scripture, hospitality is one of the commandments that occurs over and over again. In the Old Testament, the prophets are constantly reminding the people to welcome the stranger. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, at least in part, due to their lack of hospitality to the angels who visited them. In Jesus' birth story in Luke, his family is not given much hospitality (no room for them in the inn), foreshadowing his eventual rejection by humanity. The disciples are sent out on several occasions, dependent on the hospitality of others. And Paul calls his readers to welcome others on more than one occasion. Hospitality is all over the Bible, but yet we often neglect it today.

As people of faith, we are called to welcome people into our home and to care for them. Even more importantly, we are called to welcome them into God's house (you know, the church building) and care for them. So often, though, we neglect this basic principle of the Christian faith. Every time we, as a church, fail to welcome someone and show them kindness, we are essentially rejecting them. And when the church rejects someone, many times it feels to them like God is rejecting them. What a travesty we commit! Lord, forgive us for not welcoming people as you would welcome them and grant us the grace to be more like you!

Selection Sunday

Today is one of my favorite days of the year: Selection Sunday. This is the day when the teams are selected to be in the NCAA men's college basketball tournament. And from my perspective, this was a great year! Kentucky is the #1 seed in the east region. Richmond made the tournament as an at-large selection as the #7 seed in the South regional. Several of my least favorite teams - North Carolina, UCLA, Arizona, Indiana, and UConn - didn't make the tournament. And 8 teams from outside the "big 6" conferences received at-large bids, which is twice as many as last year.

I also think the selection committee did a good job. The last teams to receive an invitation to the tournament appear to have been Utah State, UTEP, and Minnesota as 12, 12, and 11 seeds (with Florida, Missouri, and Georgia Tech as 10 seeds), and I think all of these were good selections. Among the best teams not to make the tournament were Virginia Tech, Mississippi State, Illinois, and Rhode Island. Some would say that these teams were "snubs" - that they should have gotten a bid over one of the other teams that did get in. It's tough to say, but Jerry Palm of collegerpi.com called the field as it is, and I usually think he is pretty spot on.

As I was watching the coverage, I listened to an interview with Virginia Tech's head coach Seth Greenberg. He was obviously upset that his team didn't make the tournament and probably even a little bit angry. He made a strong case for why his team should have been included (mainly going 10-6 and finishing tied for third in a good ACC conference and a pretty good non-conference win over Seton Hall). At the end of the interview, he was asked that if his team deserved to be in, then that means another team didn't - which team did he think Virginia Tech should have gotten in over? I was really impressed with his answer. Rather than naming a team (and he probably had 2 or 3 in his mind), he said that he wouldn't answer that question because he didn't want to take away from what other teams had accomplished and the excitement they were experiencing.

What a great answer! Most of us, myself probably included, would have been more than happy to name a team and say, "We deserved to be selected instead of them." His response was much more dignified. Now, most of us aren't ever in that exact position, but we probably are sometimes in similar circumstances where we might be tempted to put someone else down when we are at a low point. I will try to learn from Coach Greenberg's response and be gracious even when I am at my lowest.

Lock-In

Our youth group had a lock-in last night, and I decided to hang out with them for (most of) it, and I had a great time! We met at the church and then went to Nashville to play lasertag, which is always a ton of fun! Then we drove back to the church, stopping to get pizza on the way. At the church, we ate the pizza and watched a video of a comedian named Tim Hawkins, who was hilarious - we were laughing so hard we were almost crying. Then we played some games for awhile and finally split up to work on some things for the upcoming Youth Sunday. All of that started to wind down around 4:00am, which is when I decided to head home to try to get some sleep. I think the youth popped in a movie and did the same.

The entire event was a lot of fun. I want to say thanks to John, Mary, and John's friend for chaperoning the lock-in. And to the Women's Group for cooking breakfast. I think everyone had a blast! Going to the lock-in made me think back on my own experience as a youth growing up in church, and lock-ins were certainly one of the highlights. I hope and pray that the youth of Bethpage UMC are having the same kind of youth group experience that I did - one that deeply forms them in the Christian faith and community and instills in them a lifetime of love and devotion for God. What could we give to anyone that would be more significant than that?

Render Unto Caesar

I filled out and mailed in our tax forms today. That's always a good time (please catch the sarcasm)! No refund for us this year. Actually, we never get a refund because clergy taxes are weird - we are treated as self-employeed, so we have to mail in quarterly estimates. We did actually overpay by a little, but I just applied it to next year's taxes.

I decided I'd like to learn a little bit more about the history of the income tax in the US, so I turned to my favorite source: Wikipedia. According to the online encyclopedia, the first income tax was levied for the Civil War at a flat rate of 3% for income over $800 (which I'm sure was a lot more money back then than it is now). Then, in 1894 the first peacetime income tax was levied at a rate of 2% for income over $4000 (which meant that less than 10% of the population had to pay). Can you imagine an income tax of only 2% or 3% - that sure would help the wallet!

For me, filling out our tax forms calls to mind the famous quote from Jesus found in the synoptic gospels: "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's." Well, there is no longer a Caesar, but we do have good ol' Uncle Sam. Legally, we are required to "render unto Caesar" and there can be pretty significant consequences if we don't. And I think that paying taxes is a good thing because they help to fund so many different things: national defense, public transportation, education, scientific research, and much more.

But what about "render unto God?" There is no legal requirement or criminal consequences if we don't fulfill this part of what Jesus commanded, but I sure do believe that there are spritual and practical consequences. If we don't give, the work of ministry suffers. If we hang on too tightly to our money and resources, we lose perspective on who and whose we are and the sin of greed, which is one of the seven deadly sins, can creep in and took root in our lives. I could go on and on about this topic, but in the end it is really a matter of discipleship and faith: Are you a disciplined enough follower of Jesus Christ to give what God asks? Do you trust God with everything, including your finances?

March Madness

Today is March 11th. It's hard to believe I haven't written anything about basketball yet! Well, the wait is over. This is my favorite time of year, after all! I just saw West Virginia hit a last-second, off-balance 3-pointer to beat Cincinnati, and I could hardly contain myself!

Part of me wants to get into the real nitty-gritty stuff here as it relates to the NCAA tournament and make predictions for Selection Sunday, but I will resist the temptation. Instead, I simply want to highlight one of the most thrilling aspects of the college basketball year-end tournaments: the upset.

I think just about everybody loves a good Cinderella or underdog story. We love to root for the little guy against the powerhouse. We want David to fell Goliath (unless you are a Kentucky fan like me, then your team is the Goliath). But, if your team isn't playing, most of us want to see an upset, and there have been plenty of them so far in the various conference tournaments - Syracuse, Villanova and Pittsburgh all losing today in the Big East are probably the most glaring examples. And we especially love to see it in the NCAA tournament. When a double-digit seed beats a top-five seed, there is not much in all of sports that is more exciting. I remember #12 Western Kentucky beating #5 Illinois last year and #13 Cleveland State defeating #4 Wake Forest. And then two years ago when Davidson made it to the Elite 8 and gave Kansas (the eventual national champs) the best game of the tournament with a narrow two point loss. How can you not love an upset story?!

In high school and college, one of my favorite bands was the Christian rock group Audio Adrenaline. I always loved the song "Underdog" from their album of the same name. In the song, there is a little part where the following words are spoken:

Underdog. I wince everytime I say the word.

Especially in connection with Jesus.

Yet, as I read the birth stories about Jesus,

I cannot help but conclude that

Although the world may be tilted towards the rich and powerful,

God Hallelujah, in his mercy, is tilted towards the underdog!

There are certainly times when I feel like an underdog, like the world is out to get me, like the cards are stacked against me, like I'm facing an obstacle too big to overcome. Maybe you feel that way too sometimes. If so, I hope you can take heart in knowing that God is rooting for you!

Eutychus

In our Disciple Bible Study class, we have been reading the book of Acts for the last two weeks. This past week, I was reminded of a character named Eutychus. We read in chapter 20 that he was a young man. Paul (the Apostle) had recently arrived in a city by the name of Troas, which was on the coast of the Aegean Sea in present-day Turkey. He was gathered with the other believers on Sunday and began teaching them. Well, Paul's sermon went long...all the way to midnight, in fact! Young Eutychus couldn't keep his eyes open and he fell asleep. Now, normally, this would not have been a big deal. People fall asleep (or at least get heavy eyelids) all the time during sermons [although, now that I stop to think about it, I've been seeing this a lot less lately - does that mean my preaching is getting better or the sleepyheads are staying away?]. But Eutychus happened to be perched in a third-story window, and when he fell asleep, he did so quite literally, all the way to the ground. The fall killed him. Can you imagine..actually dying from a sermon?! In the end, all turns out well when Paul goes down to the young man and miraculously restores his life.

So, the next time you are bored or sleepy during a sermon, think about young Eutychus. Take heart because the sermon you are listening to probably isn't going on for hours upon hours, and at least it won't kill you!

Tuesday Night = Date Night

For the last couple of months, Nancy and I have been having Tuesday night "Date Nights" each week. Now, on our date nights, we don't actually go out on a date, mainly because it would be difficult to find someone to keep Becca every week and we don't exactly have a lot of cash to spend on a weekly date. Instead, we do a stay-at-home date. A few weeks ago when the premiere of Lost was on, we had an island-themed dinner while we watched the season premiere. We've also had board game nights and done other random, fun things. Tonight, I brought home some Chinese food for the two of us, we worked on some things for Nancy's book show tomorrow, and we watched a couple of television shows together. It was nothing fancy, but it was some quality time together.

Life can get pretty crazy for us, and I imagine the same is true for most of the folks reading this blog. I work during the day and then have something at church at least 3 evenings per week. Nancy spends all day taking care of Becca (what a supermom she is!) and now is selling Usborne books as well. It would be easy for us not to spend much quality time together. That is why we are intentionally setting aside one evening per week that we can fully devote to one another, and it has been great! I would highly recommend it to any couples out there. It is vital to any relationship to make time and space to connect with each other. So, whether it is Tuesday night date night for you or something else, purposefully making time to spend together can make a world of difference for your relationship. And in the end, as we often said in seminary, "It's all about relationship!"

More on Spiritual Gifts

Today has been a long and tiring day, so this will be a short post. I preached yesterday about Discovering/Identifying our Spiritual Gifts. I have previously published on Facebook three sites you can visit to take a spiritual gift inventory or test, and I share those again here:

http://bit.ly/Qgi7S

http://bit.ly/2o2AvL

http://bit.ly/3JJmzS

Also, as part of my sermon on Sunday, I shared some words that could be used to describe individuals with certain gifts. I borrowed much of that content from a publication put out by the Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City. This is the church that put together the Serving from the Heart materials that we are using for our Lent small groups based on the STRIDE concept: spritual gifts, talents, resources, individuality, dreams, and experiences. You can view their short publication, which I hope you might find helpful, by clicking here.

The Interwebs

I am a fan of the interwebs (that's what we call the internet in our household). It is great for staying connected with friends and family who live far away, doing research, getting up-to-the-minute news (especially sports scores) and tons of other positive things. But there is certainly a negative side to the interwebs as well. There is a lot of bad information out there as well as unwholesome content. People use the interwebs to stalk and prey upon others. Many waste hours upon hours playing games or doing other useless things (you know if I'm talking to you!).

I ran across a news story today on CNN. You can check it out here. It is about a couple in South Korea who became obsessed with an online virtual world to the point that it caused them to neglect their infant who subsequently died of malnutrition. Can you imagine?! They became so wrapped up in their fantasy world that they couldn't function in the real world and properly care for their child. How messed up is that?!

Now, I know probably all of us are nowhere near to that extreme with our usage of the interwebs, but most of us (who are reading this blog, anyways!) probably spend more time than we should in front of a computer screen and not enough time face-to-face with people we care about. So, let's resolve to use the interwebs for good and in moderation and never give up the practice of real-life relationships!

Sermon Series - Please Vote!

I like to preach in sermon series. For those of you who attend BUMC, this is fairly obvious. For those of you who don't and aren't familiar with the sermon series, it means that I preach a number of sermons in a row on the same topic. Currently, I am preaching a three-week series about Spiritual Gifts. The various topics/titles are "Given by God for a Purpose," "Identifying Them," and "Using Them." Some previous sermon series from the last year have included the book of Ephesians, Characters of Christmas, Mission: Possible, Doing What Jesus Did, This We Believe, Stories from the Start, and He Lives.

Part of what I like about sermon series is that they necessitate some intentionality and prior planning on my part. You can't just "wing it" when doing a series of sermons on the same topic. In many ways, the planning and implementation of these series has become a spiritual discipline for me - one that I think is bearing fruit in my own life and in the life of our congregation.

I have my sermon topics planned through Easter Sunday and would like to begin looking toward the later part of spring into summer for worship and sermon planning. And I would love some help from you Bethpage folks! I have created a poll on this blog for you to vote for what you would like for the next sermon series to be. Now, I'm not promising I will do whatever gets the most votes. I have to do what I feel like God is leading me to do. But I certainly have faith in God's ability and propensity to lead me through what the congregation is desiring and needs. So, if you are a BUMC person, please take a moment to look at the poll in the column to the right and vote for what you think the next sermon series should be. These are your options:

The Beatitudes
Seven Deadly Sins
The Smallest Books in the Bible
The Will of God
The Lord's Prayer
Old Testament Royalty
ReThink Church

$2 A Day

As I was looking through the latest edition of Interpreter magazine, which is published six times per year by United Methodist Communications, I was reminded once again on one of the pages that "more than half the world's population lives on less than $2 a day." Can you imagine? Trying to live on less than $2 per day? It's hard enough for me to eat a meal for less than $2!

Now, I know that most of the folks who live on less than $2 per day live in a society and culture much different than mine with very different standards and costs of living, but still, there is something wrong when over 3 billion (yes, that's with a "b") people live on less money per day than is probably in the cushions of my couch.

I am left wondering what God thinks of this situation. I would imagine that it breaks God's heart for those folks, and that God is probably not too happy with those of us who have enough to help but don't. God is probably even less happy with those of us who have plenty but don't think we do and aren't thankful and grateful for it. What are we, as Christians, supposed to think about this? How should we respond and react? What are we called to do?

In many ways, this issue is much bigger than any single one of us, but that doesn't mean that every single one of us can't make a difference in the life of someone else. How will we help those who live on less than $2 per day? Do we even really know that they are there?

Getting Out of the Way

An important lesson that I've had to learn as a pastor and leader - and that I need to be reminded of often - is that sometimes the best thing I can do is simply to get out of the way. Personally, I have a tendancy to be a little bit of a control-freak and hold things close to the vest, and that is not always (or probably even usually) the best way to lead. I have to work on letting other people lead and take responsibility as well as allowing God to work through situations without my interference.

This morning, I was reminded of my need to get out of the way. My original plan for the day was to spend most of it visiting some of our homebound members. However, the daughter of one of our church members is pregnant and in the hospital in Nashville with pre-eclampsia and is in a situation fairly similar to Nancy's when Becca was born. My first instinct was that I needed to drop my original plans and go down there and be with the family. But, Nancy said she wanted to go instead. This, then, presented an issue: with Becca, how can Nancy go to the hospital while I am working? Nancy suggested that she take Becca with her, but we decided that wasn't a very good option (even though Becca probably wouldn't be on a wing of contagious people - the hospital is still not the best place for her these days). We tried calling someone to keep her, but that didn't work. Then we realized that I could take Becca on some of my visits! And the folks we visited together were absolutely thrilled!

This morning I was reminded that being a pastor doesn't (and shouldn't) mean that I am the one doing all the ministry. I didn't need to be the one to go to the hospital. Nancy will do a much better job than I would at providing pastoral care and identifying with the family during this difficult time. Becca was able to bring much more joy into the lives of some of our homebound members than I am able to bring on my own. Even at the WOW meeting last night, different people were given different jobs and tasks to help make this ministry come to fruition. That is how ministry should work: all of us doing our part that God has gifted us for and given us the grace to do. Let's hope I can continue to manage to get out of the way and let the work of God's ministry happen!

WOW!

We had a planning meeting for WOW this evening, and I am really getting exciting for it. WOW is a ministry on Wednesday evenings that BUMC did several years ago that was very successful. It stood for Way Out Wednesdays, and we tossed around some ideas of updating what it stands for, but for now we are just sticking with WOW.

We had a really great group of folks at the meeting tonight, and I think everything is going to come together and this will be a fantastic ministry for our church and community. We're going to have a free meal (donations accepted, but we want everyone to be able to come regardless of their ability to pay); games, lessons, and activities for the children; youth group; and studies for adults. It will be a community event open to everyone with something for all ages each and every week!

In The United Methodist Church, we currently have an initiative going by the name of "ReThink Church." The purpose of it is to get us to think about church in terms of more than just a worship service and Sunday School, and I think WOW will do just that. We will be providing a great service to the community with a fun place for children and youth to spend their free time, we will be doing outreach through a free meal and hopefully some other things like a food pantry and clothing closet, we will be offering meaningful ways for people to grow in their faith, and we will be looking beyond our church membership to see what we can do for our community and the world. I think that's more what Jesus had in mind when he started this entire movement some 2000 years ago!

A Sign

We have a big sign out in front of Bethpage United Methodist Church. And I mean big - 12 feet wide and the top is probably at least 15 feet off the ground, if not more. It is an LED sign with red lights, so it lights up the road and serves as a beacon in the night. Well, this sign has been a constant thorn in our side at BUMC. It only works well intermittently and for short amounts of time. This last time it quit working, it was stuck on a rotation of three things: our church name, our worship times, and a Bible reference to Colossians 3:17. Could have been much worse. It could have said, "VBS this week each night at 6:00" or "Christmas Eve Service at 5:00" or "Clothing Give-away on Monday" or any other number of time-sensitive or season-specific items.

The sign had been stuck on this rotation for months. There was a communication issue between the computer in the office and the sign outside. Wow - how many sermons could I get out of that one! Anyways, we got a new computer a few months ago and weren't able to install the software on it because it was running Windows 7 and the software was designed for Windows XP. I spent the better portion of this afternoon on the phone with the sign company figuring out how to get this thing working again. We did some workarounds and installations on the computer and thought we had everything in place, but then the computer still couldn't connect to the sign. Turns out, one of the wires had come loose. So, I had to run to the house to get some tools, but got that taken care of, and voila, it worked. Houston, we have liftoff!

I was able to communicate with the sign and change the messages on it. We are working hard to launch a new Wednesday evening ministry (or are we re-launching an old one???) after Easter. So, I put that up as one of the items: "WOW is coming back! April 21st at 5:45pm"

I was so excited that I had been able to fix the sign! I sent out e-mails to the Trustees and to our Admnistrative Assistant and Communications Chair. A church member stopped by and I told him. A few folks called on their way home from work to let me know they had seen it. I was feeling good, excited even...and it was about a silly sign.

As I reflect back on what I was feeling, I realized that I don't often feel a sense of accomplishment anymore. When I was growing up and in school, I felt it all the time. I would get a good grade on a test, turn in an assignment, or finish a group project and get a sense of accomplishment. I would score a goal at soccer practice, hit an ace on the tennis court, or answer a difficult question correctly for the quick recall team and get a sense of accomplishment. I would memorize and recite a Bible verse at our children's ministry at church, clean my room, beat a video game, or build something out of Legos and get a sense of accomplishment. That rarely happens anymore. I no longer have schoolwork or play on a team. I don't play video games very often. I do clean, but that has definitely lost some of its appeal. I often don't feel like I'm accomplishing much.

Part of the deal, I suppose, with pastoral ministry is that so much of my work is not about concrete, measurable, easily-defined tasks (like fixing a sign). It has much more to do with caring for people and fostering their growth as disciples, with leading a church toward a common mission and vision, with developing ever-changing systems that enable and empower ministry, with learning and growing in the faith myself, and with proclaiming and living the Good News of Jesus Christ. These are processes that are never really finished. As I look back over my time as a pastor, I can see positive changes that have occurred in our church and in people's lives, but the work is never done. And when the work is never done, I guess it is hard for me to feel that sense of accomplishment.

So, today, it was really great to have something challenging and concrete that I was able to do and feel like I accomplished something. I hope that in your life, work, and ministry, you are able to find ways to feel that same sense of accomplishment. I think we all need that kind of encouragement in our lives.

Spiritual Gifts

During Lent this year, our church is studying the topic of Spiritual Gifts. I am preaching a sermon series on the subject using 1 Corinthians 12 as my scripture text, and we have 3 small groups organized that are working through the book "Serving from the Heart" together. So, I thought I would outline a few basic thoughts on spiritual gifts here. Warning: for those of you who were in church on Sunday, this may sound pretty familiar!

1) Spiritual gifts are gifts given to us graciously and lovingly by God. This means that we haven't done anything to earn or deserve them. They are a free gift. This also means that we don't get to choose which gift(s) we get. God does not present us with a list and say, "Pick whichever ones you want." No, God (in God's infinite wisdom and kindness) chooses which gift(s) will be best for us. So, we should never be jealous of someone else's gift, but thankful because God chose the perfect gift(s) for us.

2) Spiritual gifts are spiritual in nature. This means that they are different than our natural talents and abilities. They have nothing to do with our genetic material or even with how we have been raised and nurtured. They are given by the Spirit of God. When the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us, we are changed: we repent from our sins, we are renewed in the image of God, the process of sanctification begins in our lives, and we are gifted by our Creator.

3) Spiritual gifts are different for different people. There are a variety of gifts and ways to use them, but they all come from one God. Some people have one gifts; others have many. Some are very strong - even miraculous or supernatural - in the exercise or display of their gift(s) and some are not. But God is the source of all our gifts, and everyone who believes in Jesus Christ and has the Holy Spirit in their hearts has at least one spiritual gift!

4) Spiritual gifts are given to us for a reason. God gives them to us not for our own benefit or glory. They are given to us for God's glory and "for the common good" (1 Corinthians 12:7). We are to use what God has given to us to benefit others, to make the world a better place, to expand the Reign of God, to love our neighbors, and for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Next Sunday, we will seek to identify and discover what each of our individual spiritual gifts are - I'm excited and hope you are too!