I am going to continue my sermon series on our mission and the way we live out that mission in our church community. This Sunday is about engaging in mission. As I had stated last time, while at the clergy conference, I was reminded about the need we have of balancing our love of God with our love of neighbor.
When I read an article in the Omaha World Herald, I was amazed as to what the reporter stated. The organization Voices for Children, a well-known child advocacy agency, reported that the Nebraska's rate of child poverty rose 50% between 2000 and 2005. We pride ourselves on our work ethic and we have an higher percentage of working parents than any other state. Yet, families are falling into poverty at a rate faster than the national average. This creates more problems for struggling families. It is not rocket science to realize that the more families struggle especially financially the more social problems exist and the more that children are the most affected. The numbers are sobering to the idea that there are enough jobs for everyone and that those jobs pay what it takes to survive. What are the findings are that 15% of children are impoverished and 36% live in low-income housing. The problem is that minimum wage jobs do not pay enough to help those who are impoverished improve themselves and most of those jobs do not include health benefits. The two edged sword is that while we encourage parents to increase their job skills and to seek to become self-sufficient the jobs that they can have are not enough to raise them above poverty level. Also we take away what benefits mostly health benefits away when they are the most vulnerable.
Somehow we need to look at this differently. As Christians, we need to be empathetic to the poor. We may not be able to eliminate poverty but we are called to reach out to those who are hungry, sick, and imprisoned. I hope that we as a church can continue to become more aware of the issues of struggling families and not make judgments on their character. Most parents want to be able to provide for their children. Maybe we need to re-distribute our resources away from destruction to healing. Is this what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 25:31-40? Or when we read James 5? I would ask that you reflect on what it is we can do both as acts of compassion such as our pantry and also acts of justice to help all people who are struggling.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
cont reflections on IDEAL
I have been thinking about what I am going to be talking about next Sunday. I am here at our called clergy conference. As I prepared to come to the sessions, I was not sure what to expect. To say that I was mildly surprised by what we were doing is an understatement. Sometimes attending conferences one is never sure what might be happening. I have attended the main speakers and have been excited about some of the ideas that were presented. The one breakout group on living as a United Methodist or really living as a Christian was interesting as it provided ideas for my sermon series.
We were talking about the importance of small groups and also about the three general rules that John Wesley spoke of. For those who may not remember what they are or have never been exposed to them, Wesley stated that there are three rules to live by as a methodist. The first was to do no harm. He broke that down to several examples. I have certainly thought about those at differing times and have thought about maybe reflecting on those on our Wednesday services. The second rule is to do all the good that you can. The third rule is to attend to the church's ordinances and sacraments.
In that session, we also talked about the balancing of our Christian lives between acts of personal piety and acts of social piety. As we discussed these, I realized that what we have come up with as our mission in our church speak directly to these. Too often we can become stuck with pursuing our personal piety which would include worship, spiritual disciplines, prayer, communion, my personal spiritual development and feel that is all we need to do. There is a tension between salvation by faith alone and our actions in this world. John Wesley felt that we needed to take our faith into action for compassion and justice. We talked about the I.D.E.A.L. life. The first is identifying our spiritual gifts which is an act of personal piety. The second was to discover and develop our purpose which included both personal and social. This week we will be looking at engaging in mission.
We need to take our faith and put into practice what we have stated that we are. I would suggest we read Matthew 25:31-40 and James about faith in action. When we are able to balance these two aspects of our lives I believe we are able to be more faithful to God's calling in our lives.
We were talking about the importance of small groups and also about the three general rules that John Wesley spoke of. For those who may not remember what they are or have never been exposed to them, Wesley stated that there are three rules to live by as a methodist. The first was to do no harm. He broke that down to several examples. I have certainly thought about those at differing times and have thought about maybe reflecting on those on our Wednesday services. The second rule is to do all the good that you can. The third rule is to attend to the church's ordinances and sacraments.
In that session, we also talked about the balancing of our Christian lives between acts of personal piety and acts of social piety. As we discussed these, I realized that what we have come up with as our mission in our church speak directly to these. Too often we can become stuck with pursuing our personal piety which would include worship, spiritual disciplines, prayer, communion, my personal spiritual development and feel that is all we need to do. There is a tension between salvation by faith alone and our actions in this world. John Wesley felt that we needed to take our faith into action for compassion and justice. We talked about the I.D.E.A.L. life. The first is identifying our spiritual gifts which is an act of personal piety. The second was to discover and develop our purpose which included both personal and social. This week we will be looking at engaging in mission.
We need to take our faith and put into practice what we have stated that we are. I would suggest we read Matthew 25:31-40 and James about faith in action. When we are able to balance these two aspects of our lives I believe we are able to be more faithful to God's calling in our lives.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
The Ideal life
I have been doing a sermon series on living the ideal life, as if. I know that life is often far from ideal from one's perspective. What I am not talking about is the perfect life, but rather a life that has some meaning to each of us. I don't know about you but there are times that I struggle with the question, Why am I here? There are times that I have a better insight into the answer but there are still struggles that go on that raises the old doubts. So this sermon series that is based on our mission statement in our church is of importance for me as well as any others.
Tomorrow I will be talking about discovering our purpose which is the second item of the sermon series. The first dealt with identifying our gifts. I was looking over some of the resources that I plan to use in the sermon which I base out of Jeremiah's call to being a prophet for the Lord. Most of the call stories in Scripture tend to have those called seriously reluctant to do what God asks. They often offer many objections for this call. Somehow I find that comforting for myself. It helps me realize that struggling with purpose and meaning is important and not just to be minimized in our lives. So when we struggle or doubt our purpose it is not something to be ashamed of or avoided. Rather it is something to continue to reflect, pray, and continue to discover. Victor Frankl in his book Man's Search for Meaning states that meaning comes from the life situations that we face. These are constantly changing and that we are to change to meet those expectations. "It does not matter what we expect from life, but rather what life expected from us." Frankl does not believe that purpose or meaning in life can be generalized but that it is real and concrete for each of us individually. Again I find that important in my reflections on call and on my relationship with God. God calls me to become who God wants me to be and to use my gifts for God's purpose. No one else is uniquely qualified to do what I can do. Likewise there are others equally qualified to do what they do. When we are able to work together we create the body of Christ more fully. In my credo at seminary, I called this the gestalt of God.
In all of my resources, what each author had to say was that love if what makes a difference in our world and in our lives. Jesus' love for us is our salvation. My use of my gifts, my purpose is to share that love with others using the unique talents that I have. So it is true of you. We are called to do this with each other in relationship with God and those whom God has created. God did not make a mistake creating us. We need to put our trust in the Divine's aim for all of creation.
Tomorrow I will be talking about discovering our purpose which is the second item of the sermon series. The first dealt with identifying our gifts. I was looking over some of the resources that I plan to use in the sermon which I base out of Jeremiah's call to being a prophet for the Lord. Most of the call stories in Scripture tend to have those called seriously reluctant to do what God asks. They often offer many objections for this call. Somehow I find that comforting for myself. It helps me realize that struggling with purpose and meaning is important and not just to be minimized in our lives. So when we struggle or doubt our purpose it is not something to be ashamed of or avoided. Rather it is something to continue to reflect, pray, and continue to discover. Victor Frankl in his book Man's Search for Meaning states that meaning comes from the life situations that we face. These are constantly changing and that we are to change to meet those expectations. "It does not matter what we expect from life, but rather what life expected from us." Frankl does not believe that purpose or meaning in life can be generalized but that it is real and concrete for each of us individually. Again I find that important in my reflections on call and on my relationship with God. God calls me to become who God wants me to be and to use my gifts for God's purpose. No one else is uniquely qualified to do what I can do. Likewise there are others equally qualified to do what they do. When we are able to work together we create the body of Christ more fully. In my credo at seminary, I called this the gestalt of God.
In all of my resources, what each author had to say was that love if what makes a difference in our world and in our lives. Jesus' love for us is our salvation. My use of my gifts, my purpose is to share that love with others using the unique talents that I have. So it is true of you. We are called to do this with each other in relationship with God and those whom God has created. God did not make a mistake creating us. We need to put our trust in the Divine's aim for all of creation.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
the new year
I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Time has a way of going by so quickly that I have neglected to keep my blog up. We are at an exciting time in our church as we begin the process of re-visioning our ministries. We will be focusing on our new mission statement and on our new vision statement. As we continue this process, we met as chairs of the various committees last night. As we began, I shared with them this scripture, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord (Jeremiah 29:11-14)."
I would encourage everyone to spend some time reflecting on this passage as we prepare to meet this Sunday to set goals for our committees. We need to remember that God truly wants us to prosper and to offer hope for the future. Paul in Romans states, "If God is for us, who can be against us." We as a church need to remember that God is for us. It is only in our own imperfections and sin that we separate ourselves from God's love and mercy. I am excited about what the future holds not only for our church but for our community as well. I would pray that we move forward remembering that it is only through God's blessing that we are able to do what we can.
If you are not a member of a committee, I would hope that you will keep the members in your prayers. Their names are posted on the web site www.springfieldmethodist.com. We will be also making a list of the goals that each committee comes up with and posting those. If you see something that you would like to help with please contact the chair of that committee.
I would encourage everyone to spend some time reflecting on this passage as we prepare to meet this Sunday to set goals for our committees. We need to remember that God truly wants us to prosper and to offer hope for the future. Paul in Romans states, "If God is for us, who can be against us." We as a church need to remember that God is for us. It is only in our own imperfections and sin that we separate ourselves from God's love and mercy. I am excited about what the future holds not only for our church but for our community as well. I would pray that we move forward remembering that it is only through God's blessing that we are able to do what we can.
If you are not a member of a committee, I would hope that you will keep the members in your prayers. Their names are posted on the web site www.springfieldmethodist.com. We will be also making a list of the goals that each committee comes up with and posting those. If you see something that you would like to help with please contact the chair of that committee.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Preparing for the New Year
As I determined to clean out my desk, I found an article that I had written for the Keith County News that appeared on January 4th 2006. As I was re-reading what I had written, I thought that even today this insight might be helpful especially as we work on the new year. So I decided to write what I said and one can make the changes to 2008 rather than 2007.
"As I watched the ball descend in New Year in 2006, Dick Clark made a statement about New Year's resolutions. More than a decade ago, the number one resolution was to quit smoking. During the years, people have come to realize the dangers of smoking on one's health and many have quit.
Today, the number one resolution is to lose weight. We are beginning to understand the dangers of being over-weight and how that affects our health. Some people may not only make that their resolution but look at other areas of their lives that they feel need improvement; which could include exercise, spending more time with family, and could even include ways of improving one's mind.
Though, if any of the people are like me, I can make determined resolutions and within a month lose sight of them. The problem, at least for me, is that I need the help of others for me to follow through with these types of commitments. To try to lose weight alone or to exercise alone is difficult to do consistently. It is far better to do so with members of a group who support one another in their efforts, much like ministry.
All these resolutions are wonderful, but do not include any spiritual resolutions. As a pastor, I have seen wonderful choices in ways of living a better life. Yet, if one does not include some spiritual growth in the process, I have also seen many who fail to either institute the changes in their lives on a permanent basis or that changing their physical and psychological makeup does not seem to change their lives.
Jesus understood the difficulty in changing one's life. He did state that the body is the new temple of the Lord. Yet, his concern was less about what one would do to lose weight and change one's attitude if one did not turn to God in the same process. He began his ministry after the temptation story in the desert by saying, "turn from your sins and turn to God, because the Kingdom of Heaven is near" (Matthew 4:17 NLT).
He began to instruct us on how we are to become spiritually prepared for the kingdom. In Matthew, chapters 5-7, he instructs his disciples and ourselves in what it means to make those spiritual resolutions. This beginning of a New Year would be a wonderful time to again read these chapters and look at what resolutions we might want to make for the coming year.
These wonderful teachings express not only making God our priority but on how to live the teachings in this world. these include teachings on love of one's enemies, on not judging especially who is in or out, giving to the needy, about money and a more proper perspective, and caring for others.
Jesus knows that to do what he asked required major changes in one's choices, one's attitudes, and one's physical body. He never said that we are to do this alone. Rather, he gathered people together so that they could support one another.
This New Year, gather those around you who can support your resolutions whether to lose weight, exercise, or even in growing spiritually. Join a bible study. Go to church services on a regular basis. Participate on a mission team to help others and to spread the gospel.
Truly, if we are able to do these resolutions then we can begin to see a change in the year 2006 and live our lives in the way Jesus has taught."
I would hope that the same could be said for 2008. As we make plans and resolutions for this coming new year, take time to read Matthew and to reflect on how we can live a more fruitful life. A life that God wants us to live.
"As I watched the ball descend in New Year in 2006, Dick Clark made a statement about New Year's resolutions. More than a decade ago, the number one resolution was to quit smoking. During the years, people have come to realize the dangers of smoking on one's health and many have quit.
Today, the number one resolution is to lose weight. We are beginning to understand the dangers of being over-weight and how that affects our health. Some people may not only make that their resolution but look at other areas of their lives that they feel need improvement; which could include exercise, spending more time with family, and could even include ways of improving one's mind.
Though, if any of the people are like me, I can make determined resolutions and within a month lose sight of them. The problem, at least for me, is that I need the help of others for me to follow through with these types of commitments. To try to lose weight alone or to exercise alone is difficult to do consistently. It is far better to do so with members of a group who support one another in their efforts, much like ministry.
All these resolutions are wonderful, but do not include any spiritual resolutions. As a pastor, I have seen wonderful choices in ways of living a better life. Yet, if one does not include some spiritual growth in the process, I have also seen many who fail to either institute the changes in their lives on a permanent basis or that changing their physical and psychological makeup does not seem to change their lives.
Jesus understood the difficulty in changing one's life. He did state that the body is the new temple of the Lord. Yet, his concern was less about what one would do to lose weight and change one's attitude if one did not turn to God in the same process. He began his ministry after the temptation story in the desert by saying, "turn from your sins and turn to God, because the Kingdom of Heaven is near" (Matthew 4:17 NLT).
He began to instruct us on how we are to become spiritually prepared for the kingdom. In Matthew, chapters 5-7, he instructs his disciples and ourselves in what it means to make those spiritual resolutions. This beginning of a New Year would be a wonderful time to again read these chapters and look at what resolutions we might want to make for the coming year.
These wonderful teachings express not only making God our priority but on how to live the teachings in this world. these include teachings on love of one's enemies, on not judging especially who is in or out, giving to the needy, about money and a more proper perspective, and caring for others.
Jesus knows that to do what he asked required major changes in one's choices, one's attitudes, and one's physical body. He never said that we are to do this alone. Rather, he gathered people together so that they could support one another.
This New Year, gather those around you who can support your resolutions whether to lose weight, exercise, or even in growing spiritually. Join a bible study. Go to church services on a regular basis. Participate on a mission team to help others and to spread the gospel.
Truly, if we are able to do these resolutions then we can begin to see a change in the year 2006 and live our lives in the way Jesus has taught."
I would hope that the same could be said for 2008. As we make plans and resolutions for this coming new year, take time to read Matthew and to reflect on how we can live a more fruitful life. A life that God wants us to live.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Christmas eve
As I sit here in preparation for our services tonight, I have been reflecting on what is the message that I need to hear. As I contemplate all that has happened in my community and in the world, I realize that now more than ever I need the grace of God in my life and to be an instrument of that grace towards others. So many people are separated this Christmas whether by the war, by death, by divorce, or by illness. We need to have the Prince of Peace be with us during these troubling times. Not one of us is immune to the stress and anxiety that seems to be a normal state of affairs. Many struggle without adequate housing, little to no food or warm clothing, and Christmas becomes just another day of empty promises.
Christmas is the ultimate promise of God's redemptive love for us. In the congregation that I serve I spent the last 4 weeks focusing on the secular images of Christmas whether that be consumerism, work, or even family. We seem more concerned about the gifts we give or receive than we do about God's gift to us. We seek comfort in the secular world and the myths that it produces. And somehow we continue to feel empty and unfulfilled. We look for other means to continue to seek happiness or at least a reduction of our anxiety or fear.
Christmas is about the birth of our savior Jesus, Emmanuel God with us. It is not about Christmas trees or Santa Claus or what I received. Those are important but in and of themselves do not provide our salvation or our purpose.
I mentioned last week about a number of things one family can do to share the true Christmas Spirit with those around them. One can donate food to a pantry, winter coats, gloves, mittens to shelters or schools, buy a meal for someone at the Open Door mission or other shelters. The list is endless. When we do something for someone else with no expectations of being paid back, we are sharing what God has done for us.
May this be a very Merry Christmas for you and your family. Spend some time between the food and fellowship and the gift giving to remember the story that started it all.
May God bless you.
Christmas is the ultimate promise of God's redemptive love for us. In the congregation that I serve I spent the last 4 weeks focusing on the secular images of Christmas whether that be consumerism, work, or even family. We seem more concerned about the gifts we give or receive than we do about God's gift to us. We seek comfort in the secular world and the myths that it produces. And somehow we continue to feel empty and unfulfilled. We look for other means to continue to seek happiness or at least a reduction of our anxiety or fear.
Christmas is about the birth of our savior Jesus, Emmanuel God with us. It is not about Christmas trees or Santa Claus or what I received. Those are important but in and of themselves do not provide our salvation or our purpose.
I mentioned last week about a number of things one family can do to share the true Christmas Spirit with those around them. One can donate food to a pantry, winter coats, gloves, mittens to shelters or schools, buy a meal for someone at the Open Door mission or other shelters. The list is endless. When we do something for someone else with no expectations of being paid back, we are sharing what God has done for us.
May this be a very Merry Christmas for you and your family. Spend some time between the food and fellowship and the gift giving to remember the story that started it all.
May God bless you.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Christmas eve eve
This time of year is busy in a lot of ways with family gatherings, hectic last minute shopping, and planning for services. I do want to wish those who read this blog a Merry Christmas and hope to see you on Christmas Eve.
I wanted to share with you this insight from my grand daughter. She had told Nancy that she wanted a Ken doll. Nancy asked if she had one and she said that she had but that she took the head off the doll. Nancy asked her why she had done that. Her reply was "to see what was underneath." Nancy then asked what was underneath. She said, "nothing." From the mouths of 5 year olds, she has figured out that in the minds of men there is nothing :). Only kidding but was worth a smile or two.
I hope that all of those who are expecting family this season that they arrive safely and when it is time for them to return to their homes that they are able to arrive without incident.
God Bless.
I wanted to share with you this insight from my grand daughter. She had told Nancy that she wanted a Ken doll. Nancy asked if she had one and she said that she had but that she took the head off the doll. Nancy asked her why she had done that. Her reply was "to see what was underneath." Nancy then asked what was underneath. She said, "nothing." From the mouths of 5 year olds, she has figured out that in the minds of men there is nothing :). Only kidding but was worth a smile or two.
I hope that all of those who are expecting family this season that they arrive safely and when it is time for them to return to their homes that they are able to arrive without incident.
God Bless.
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