Attention Couples in Ministry

Laurie and I have been on the planning team for this retreat hope to see some of you there. This is the invitation letter if you would like a brochure drop me an email at mignonsdad at yahoo dot com and I will get it right out to you.

Jim

Greetings in Christ,

My name is Kate Rascoe. I am a minister, and one-half of a “clergy couple”. My husband, Clayton, and I met in seminary, and quickly learned of the complexity of discerning two separate, yet intertwined calls. We have come to appreciate the unique challenges and blessings that come with being a couple in ministry. Along the way, we have had the joy of meeting other couples in situations similar to ours – ministers, co-pastors, chaplains, camp directors, educators, and missionaries who are called not just to the ministry, but also to a relationship with another in ministry. From these others we have gleaned a lot of wisdom – how to balance, how to negotiate terms of call and maneuver through the Board of Pensions, how to retain a sense of humor…

It came to our awareness that there are quite of few couples in ministry out there, but not many (if any) events designed to fit our unique needs. Wouldn’t it be great if we had a place to gather, relax, and learn from each other? Viola! The Couples in Ministry Retreat at Mo-Ranch was born.

We are inviting you to be part of something new and unique – both for what you could gain from it, and for what you could share with other couples in shoes that resemble yours. Our goal is for this to be an easily accessible retreat – family friendly and at a reasonable cost. We have attached a brochure with more information about the purpose and scope of the retreat. However, if you find yourself wanting to know more, please contact Clayton at 1-800-460-4401 ext. 242 for more information. We also realize that we do not have an exhaustive list of couples in ministry, so we invite you to forward this on to other couples you know (both inside and outside the bounds of the Synod of the Sun). Please share this opportunity with other couples in ministry you know. We hope you can join us out at Mo-Ranch October 27 – 30, 2008 – we look forward to meeting you!

In Christ,

Kate and Clayton Rascoe

Mignon in the Llano

Mignon in the Llano
Originally uploaded by mignonsdad

Here is some video of a happy girl playing in the river. Life is good!

Camping in July

When I was a kid we did lots of family camp outs, I was really lucky! I was also in the Boy Scouts and camped at least once a month with them and then spent a week at scout camp every summer. Most of my camping as a kid was in a tent either the thin nylon taffeta type or the heavy canvas type. Growing up in Florida when you went camping you were either hot getting eaten by mosquitoes, or cold, there never seemed to be that perfect weekend. But all in all I have terrific memories of my camping experiences and don't seem to remember the heat bothering us all that much.

Boy, how times have changed. Now our family camping trips include either AC or heat.

We have a great little camper that is easy to pull and has ac, heat, microwave, toilet, oven, stove and two king beds. Camping is not what it used to be. Yesterday our high was 102 but we were able to stay cool in the Llano River and in the pop-up.

We are very fortunate in that where we camp is less than 5 miles from our house so we can steal away for a night here and there without much expense. It is an isolated spot on the river, you can't hear traffic and at night you can see stars by the millions.

Sermon: Wisdom and the Kingdom by Laurie

Wisdom and the Kingdom
1 Kings 3:3-12; Matthew 13:44-52


There is a bumper sticker that reads: I once took an IQ test and the results were negative.

An astronomical IQ isn’t everything. I read about a young girl in California who scored a perfect 1600 on her SAT. She also scored perfect in several other California state tests and college prep tests. She was interviewed about this amazing feat. The reporter asked her with all that she had learned that had enabled her to achieve such intellect, what did she feel was the meaning of life for her. Her reply was that she had no idea what her life’s meaning was! Unfortunately this isn’t as humorous as it is sad.

Today, I want us to think about two concepts that I believe are related. What is the meaning of the word wisdom and the meaning of the phrase the Kingdom of God (KOG)? What ideas or images come to your mind when you hear these?

The first part of the question concerning wisdom tends to lead me to a Proverb: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…” This Proverb has meant different things to me at different times. I first encountered it as an epiphany of sorts in a sermon in my home church while struggling to discern my future direction. To me at that time, it meant that if I surrendered all to God, then I might better understand God’s will for my life.

This led me to encounter the phrase again about a year later etched into the archway over the seminary library. I continued to relate to this Proverb in that same way through most of my seminary education. But now, as I reflect upon the meaning of the word wisdom in light of Solomon’s dream, these parables of the kingdom, and my experiences in ministry, I think its placement on the library also serves as a great warning – intellectual knowledge is contained in this building, wisdom may not be.

We often interchange the words wisdom or wise with words such as smart, intellectual, knowledgeable, and intelligent. Doing such, I believe has lessened the true meaning of wisdom. Yes, to gain wisdom does involve using your brain and intellect to an extent. But very smart people are not always wise and many times a young child can show more wisdom than his or her parents can.

Thus, wisdom isn’t solely contingent upon intellect. I think the meaning of wisdom is closer related to experiential understanding than to knowledge. There was an old man in a Kentucky town who was celebrated for his wisdom. A young man once asked him, “Uncle Zeke, how does it come you’re so wise?” The old man said, “Because I’ve got good judgment. Good judgment comes from experience, and experience – well, that comes from poor judgment!” (Gerald Kennedy A Reader’s Notebook)

Frederick Buechner says, “Wisdom is a matter not only of the mind but of the intuition and heart.” (Whistling in the Dark. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988, 112.) Solomon shows this true wisdom by asking God to grant him “…an understanding mind to govern your people that I may discern between good and evil…” He realizes his limitations; he knows what he really needs to be able to rule. Solomon is not asking to be radically transformed into something other than what he already is. His sincere humility is just what God was hoping to hear and in turn God promises that Solomon’s wisdom will be greater than any before or since.

Is this what most of us would ask God to give to us if we had a wide open choice of anything in this world? Probably not, based upon how many people respond to Ed McMahan’s invitation to send in their sweepstakes entry or the number of lotto tickets sold. I have been guilty of falling prey to the lure of both. So, I think Solomon was already wise in many respects since he understood what he needed to govern was more important that what he may have wanted for his personal comfort or gain.

Our parables today are considered to be a part of the grouping known as “Parable of the Kingdom”. Jesus uses the then familiar teaching method of comparative stories containing common every day images. In these stories, the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven is compared to some ordinary element of life. Before today’s lesson in Matthew 13, Jesus tells his followers the Kingdom is like…a sower, a farmer’s wheat field infiltrated with tares, a tiny mustard seed, the result of a little amount of leaven mixed in flour. Today we add the KOG is like…a man finding a buried treasure, a merchant finding a great pearl, a catch of fish, and a trained scribe literally throwing out old and new treasures from his storeroom.

While parables may be extremely confusing to us, I don’t think they were supposed to be. I think sometimes our intellectual pursuits and intense dissections of biblical texts have caused us to forget to use common sense and intuition – basic wisdom – to guide our understanding. Just like Solomon, we need to ask for God’s help, for a discerning mind, when we read the Bible. If we truly believe that the scriptures are God’s inspired word, why do we not trust that the author knows what the text is trying to say to us? Again, this is why we have a “prayer for illumination” before the scriptures are read.

Jesus’ parables are not intended to completely baffle and perplex. They are a central part of his teaching and as such, it doesn’t make much sense that such a large portion of his teaching would be intentionally misleading. But they were not overtly easy to get either. Most are open-ended and a little shocking or scandalous in their comparisons - all with the intention of making us use our brains – they should cause us to think. Instead of allegorizing every minute detail, we need to read them in their 1st century CE context – comparisons utilizing simple daily elements of life found in that time. But making that kind of transition is hard for us, because here in the 21st century, we do have a much different life.

This morning I want us to not rip these stories and sayings apart at their seams to figure out how they were made, but instead to work backwards. I asked it earlier, what does the phrase the Kingdom of God mean to you? What images does it conjure? If they are wheat fields and tiny seeds and sowers throwing wildly, then we have knowledge of the texts, we’ve memorized the answers, but I am not sure we understand our answers. I know I still struggle here a lot of times.

Rev. Barclay has related that the KOG can be defined as “a state of society upon earth where God’s will is as perfectly done as it is in heaven…therefore to be in the KOG, to enter the KOG, is to do God’s will…” (Daily Study Bible: Matthew – Part 2). Think about the Lord’s Prayer – “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This prayer in itself defines the reality of the KOG.

Part of what makes the KOG hard to understand is that Jesus talks about it in different ways. At times, he speaks of the Kingdom as imminent. The mustard seed follows this – the KOG is here, it has been planted and even though it looks puny, even absent, it will grow into its own immense size. Then there are the times that Jesus talks as if the KOG is still to come. At the Last Supper he says that he will not drink of the fruit of the vine again until he drinks it in the Kingdom. This is the dilemma theologian Karl Barth called the “Now and the Not Yet”. And as frustrating as it often seems, this is where we live today - somewhere in the middle. The KOG is here, God’s reign has begun, but it is far from completed. The full fruition has not been realized and has a ways to go.

In the buried treasure and the pearl parables, we have stories relating how surprising the KOG can be when it is found in whatever state of fulfillment, how people become disciples in response to their perception of God's presence in their lives. The first man happens upon such while going about his day’s labor of digging in a field for the field’s owner. The second man has been searching for a great pearl. As a merchant he is always looking for and buying the best he can find, but this time he finds one that is the finest imaginable. Regardless of their different paths, their reactions are the same – they joyfully go and sell everything they own in order to obtain their great treasure.

Complete commitment and fervent desire lead to unspeakable joy and excitement. The KOG is worth any sacrifice. It is not a grim task for these two to give up all they have. They do not walk away sad like the rich young ruler. They do not pause to count the cost. It is almost reckless abandon that overtakes them. Their treasure has changed them – forever.

I think it is interesting that in the Jewish culture both buried treasure and pearls were considered to be symbols for wisdom. The audience hearing Matthew’s gospel would have picked up on this. In this context, not only is the KOG like a monetary fortune, it is also like the richness of true wisdom. As related earlier, when we are truly wise, we ask for God’s guidance and help, we ask for a discerning mind. When these actions lead us to understand God’s will for our lives and we obediently try to follow that will, then we may get a glimpse of “a state of society upon earth where God’s will is as perfectly done as it is in heaven…”

It is because of our sin, our weak human nature and its propensity toward apostasy that we only get glimpses of the KOG now. In Barclay’s commentary he said there are many nice, fine pearls in this world – pursuit of knowledge, the arts and literature, service to others, friendships and relationships – but there is only one great pearl of supreme beauty: the will of God and willing obedience to it. He says there is no other way to gain peace of mind or heart in this life than following the will of God. I know from my own experience he is correct.

I read somewhere, but I cannot remember where that the highest truth about the KOG is that the King is a loving Father and his Rule is one of Grace. This makes sense when you consider Jesus’ life and ministry. He followed the law of love and grace, and he followed this law not passively, but confidently and fiercely. His teachings show us that love and justice are not options or pieces of legislation, they are essential elements of life, elements that open up glimpses of the Kingdom because they allow a sliver of society for a brief time to follow God’s will here as it is in heaven.

One way a teacher checks for understanding is if a student can relate the concept of the learning within a different context. This is a great exercise to try. This morning, I want to end with a few kingdom parables I have roughly drafted based upon our current everyday life in this part of the world. You may or may not understand my point of connection or comparison, and you may or may not agree, but that is OK. Remember, the intent is to make you think and consider. The possibilities really are endless…

The KOG is like…
… a church with a few scuff marks on the walls or floors, glue and marker stuck on some tables and cookie crumbs ground in the carpet after a week filled with the fun and laughter of VBS.
… a cedar tree growing out of solid rock.
… a motionless body of water that perfectly reflects the images of its surroundings, thus multiplying their beauty.
… a cool beverage that quenches thirst and restores vitality to the body.
… the sound of children’s slightly off-key, yet joyfully robust singing.
… the excitement of seeing a 12-point buck on your side of the fence.
… cedar pollen – just think about that one for a while…[my interpretation - seemingly, leaves it mark on anything and everything, often intrudes irritatingly into our lives]
… a community whose many different churches gather to worship and serve their Lord as one united body.

Finally, for me, the KOG is like two different worshipping communities that are willing to support and share a very humanly flawed leadership, embracing its failures and its successes, accepting the persons and the personalities that encompass this leadership as they are and being willing to step out in faith and walk beside them in the search for pearls of wisdom and the treasure of discipleship.

The KOG is here, and while it may not be fully completed, it can be glimpsed in this place! May we be wise enough to relish this treasure we have found. Amen!

Getting Wii Fit

We finally got a wii fit, I won't tell you what my BMI is for now but hopefully with a change of lifestyle (food choices) and some exercise I can get it down to an acceptable range. Laurie's BMI was perfect. We will have to see how it reacts to her being pregnant.

The really funny thing about the wii fit is that it checks your balance and I lean to the left and Laurie leans to the right. That's probably only funny if you know us but if you don't it's completely backward.

I have been wanting a game console for a long time and just didn't need another excuse to sit on the couch. This seemed like a good way to actually enjoy getting some exercise. I'll post some updates with our experiences in the future.

Mignon at VBS

We have had a really fun week at church and Mignon has had a blast. We had a group of 2 and 3 year olds for the first time and they did the full rotation and did just as good as the other groups. We had VBS in the evenings 6-8:30 and all the kids did well. God's Big Back Yard by Standard publishing appealed to kids of all ages 2 to 15 and was pretty easy for our adults to implement. The theme of service was different from VBS curriculums that we have done in the past. I am really hoping that we can carry the service ideas over into our elementary afterschool program and our youth group this fall.

VBS 2008

We we got off to a good start with about 40 kids. Not bad for a small church. We are using God's Big Back Yard which in my opinion is one of the best VBS curriculums that I have seen. It is oriented to service and reaching out to family members, community and beyond. The young folks seem to really like it as well.

The Wheat and the Tares Sermon for Sunday July 20th

ESV Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

24 He put another parable before them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?' 28 He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' So the servants said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' 29 But he said, 'No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"

36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field." 37 He answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed is the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

Sermon

“Change Your Focus”

This parable of the wheat and the tares makes me think of a story that circulated by email. A man was stopped, waiting for the light to turn green. When the light changed, he was distracted and he didn't budge. The woman in the car behind him honked her horn. He still didn't move. She honked again. By this time, she was pounding on the steering wheel and blowing her horn non-stop. Finally, just as the light turned yellow, the fellow in the first car woke up and drove through the light. The woman in the second car was beside herself. Still mid-rant, she heard a tap on her car window. She looked up to see the face of a police officer. "Lady, you're under arrest," he said. "Get out of the car. Put your hands up." He took her to the police station, had her finger printed, photographed, and then put her in a holding cell. Hours passed. The officer returned and unlocked the cell door. He escorted her back to the booking desk. "Sorry for the mistake, Lady," he said. "But I pulled up behind you as you were blowing your horn and cursing out the fellow in front of you. I noticed the stickers on your bumper. One read "Follow me to Sunday School." The other, "What Would Jesus Do?" So, naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car. Are we wheat or are we weeds in the field disguised as wheat?

There are lots of folks who when they look at this parable, think it’s just a rehashing of what Jesus said about the sheep and the goats, and they conclude that Jesus is talking about how when he returns in glory he is going to separate the good from the bad. But I don’t believe that that’s the point he was trying to communicate. What Jesus is proposing is something more radical. Most farmers would sooner plow under a bad crop and start over, than try to separate the seed at harvest. But Jesus is concerned that none of the good harvest gets lost; and I think that is where we begin to understand the story.

In my own life, I have had a lot of difficulty trying to decide who the sheep are and who the goats are, who is a good seed and who is a weed. There are many days when I feel more like a goat or a weed. It’s too easy for us to separate humanity into two groups them and us; the good and the bad. In reality, life is not like that. Most of us are made up of both good and bad. In our own lives we have weeds growing among the wheat. Our world is a place where both good and bad seed have been sown, and we don’t always know what wheat has been sown in the most weed-filled garden. That’s where we begin today with Jesus’ concern to not lose any of the good wheat.

Pat Green told me one day, don’t worry about killing the weeds; but give enough water and fertilizer and the good grass in our yard would push out the weeds. If we have the attitude of Christ we will concentrate our energies on the positive, and this will keep us from making some bad judgment calls and removing some wheat with the weeds. There are times that what we call weeds turn out to be something else. Jesus' parable takes the responsibility for the pulling the weeds out of our hands.

The weeds that the enemy had sown were known as bearded darnel. If this plant was consumed it could cause dizziness or nausea. Darnel looks very much like wheat until it is ripe. That is why no one realized that anything was wrong until “the wheat sprouted and formed heads”. As soon as the servants realized what had happened they wanted to pull up the weeds immediately, but the owner told them that they must wait until the harvest. You see, the owner knew that his servants could not infallibly distinguish between the wheat and the weeds yet and so they were told to wait in order to insure the safety of the true wheat. So his servants had to exercise patience. Likewise, we cannot infallibly judge between a true Christian and someone who merely professes to be a Christian with their bumper stickers. Our human judgment is faulty and so we have to wait patiently for God to be the judge.

The Great Commission tells us that we are to carry the gospel of Jesus the Christ to the world. We are called to issue invitations for people to live the only life for which they were created. Christians should be known for carrying good news, the gospel itself, out into the world. Disciples of Jesus have so many positive things to say that there should be little time for braying about the bad or droning on forever about the dangers.

This is not to say that turning your life over to Christ turns your mind off to the world's injustices. In Jesus' parable of the wheat and the weeds, the patient farmer is not blind to the weeds growing in his field. He can easily tell a weed from a wheat stalk. How to deal with these intrusive weeds is the question he faces, not whether they really exist.

Along with this we need to recognize that there are gray areas. Did you know that the Bible speaks about these gray areas? Romans 14:1 says, “As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.” Christian harmony should not depend on one hundred percent agreement on all matters pertaining to the Christian life. I think that our motto should be, “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity”.

The farmer in this parable wisely decides that it is better to leave the weeds growing among the wheat until harvest time, so that the tender roots of the growing wheat stalks are not hurt by trying to rip the weeds out of the growing field. We know weeds when we see them. Or do we? In nature, the distinction between what is a "weed" and what is a useful, valuable plant is less clear than you may think. A dandelion growing in your yard is a weed. But a dandelion growing in your garden is a delicate flavorful green. Ivy scaling a brick chimney can threaten the stability of the mortar. But ivy carefully trained up a trellis adds beauty. In nature, you can never quite tell what might issue from a weed. While we were in California we never had a salad that was made with iceberg lettuce, they all had greens that looked like someone picked them out of their back yard. I would have called them weeds. The same is true in the garden of humanity as well, just because it because it doesn’t look too appetizing doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not edible or healthy. Remember that in his explanation of this parable, Jesus defines the field of weeds and wheat as our world. We share our world with people just like us, a combination of good and bad. Although some of us have a relationship with the owner of the field and through his grace we have been forgiven, and our job then becomes sharing the good news with a hurting world.

In our own lives we need to nurture the good seed through prayer, reading and meditating on scripture, worship, and fellowship with other believers. If we concern ourselves with what we should be doing then we will not need to worry too much about what we shouldn’t be doing. I think that one of the traps that we fall into is focusing on negative things at the expense of what is truly important. We need to let our good grass push out the weeds.

Jesus doesn’t intend the body of Christ to be a pleasantly potted plant just hanging on a porch free from the encroachment of foreign seeds. Our Lord wants us to focus of our energies on where he calls and guides us. Yes we have to live in the world, among the weeds, and we need to be able to survive and even thrive in the presence of their negative impact and energy. We can by trusting the strength of God and by nurturing ourselves and others through abiding in his Love. Pulling the weeds is not the church's business nor is it ours as individuals. Growing wheat, being salt and light for a hurting world, growing souls is the task of each Christian and each church.

Jim

Long Day

With both of us being ministers our poor child has a pretty tough schedule. She handles it like a trooper but some days she just poops out.

What I Believe

I believe in one God, Creator, Son and Holy Spirit. God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, the creator of all things seen and unseen, created all things from nothing and continues to exert power and control in all of creation. I believe that God has been revealed to humanity through Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God. I believe that Jesus is fully human and fully divine and that it is through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ that the sins of the world are atoned. In Christ we are reconciled with God the Father and it is through Jesus that we can all be adopted sons and daughters of God. I believe in the Holy Spirit who is God present with us for comfort and guidance. It is the power of the Holy Spirit that continues my sanctification by helping me to grow in the faith. The Holy Spirit is the unifying connection between all believers that unites us as one body in the church universal.

I believe in the church universal, that from the beginning there has been, now is, and shall be one church. The church universal contains the chosen of all ages, from all nations and races. We are united in our worship of one God sharing one baptism. The church is invisible and known only by God who alone knows all who are chosen. The church contains not only those who live today, but also people of the past (Church triumphant) and people yet to come. I believe that the church particular is a body of local believers that are united in worship and service, sharing God’s love to part of a hurting world.

I believe the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper to be signs of God’s grace bestowed upon humanity. We are welcomed into the community of faith through one Baptism and we are nourished, body and spirit, through the breaking of bread and the sharing of the cup as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. By sharing in these Sacraments we are united in the Love of God with all believers in every time and place by the Holy Spirit of God.

I believe in the Holy Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, to be God’s living and inspired word, revealed to individuals and passed down to believers through generations. I am guided by the historic confessions of the church, by the community of faith, and by God’s Holy Spirit as I struggle to interpret the scriptures for others and myself. God’s word is alive for us today through the hearing of the word proclaimed, the reading of scripture, and the celebration of the sacraments.

I believe that as a human I am a finite being and that because of my finitude it is natural for me to choose my will over the will of God. By choosing my own will I sin. I believe that it is through Jesus Christ that I am justified and my sins are forgiven. This is God’s gift of grace to me and there is nothing that I can do to deserve or earn this gift. I can only love God because God first loved me. I believe in the resurrection of the body. Because Christ conquered death we all find new life in him and share in his resurrection.

Finally my only comfort is that in body and soul, in life and in death, I belong to my faithful savior Jesus Christ.

Jim Barker

“The ‘Perfect’ Church” Laurie's Sermon July 13th 2008

Scriptures

1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17
10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, "I follow Paul," or "I follow Apollos," or "I follow Cephas," or "I follow Christ." 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Acts 15:1-12
1 But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." 2 And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. 3 So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers.1 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. 5 But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, "It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses." 6 The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. 7 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. 10 Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will." 12 And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done.

Isaiah 55:6-13
6 "Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 12 "For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."

“The ‘Perfect’ Church”
1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17; Acts 15:1-12; Isaiah 55:6-13

My experience at the 218th GA ran the gauntlet of exciting, amazing, humbling, frustrating, overwhelming and ultimately exhausting. The weight of what I was doing loomed even heavier over me than the weight of the propaganda, pleas, and pamphlets I received in the mail before I left. What tempered that and made it more bearable were the several letters and cards I received from individuals and sessions and congregations than knew only my name, but whose sole purpose in contacting me was to let me know that they were lifting me up and holding me in prayer during this period of awesome responsibility. It meant so much to me and I would suggest that some of us do the same thing for someone before and during the next assembly in 2010.

What made this responsibility harder for me is the fact that I am a peace-maker by nature. That has been my role in my family for many years…I was the one sent to talk to the other, the reasoning one asked to mediate or explain or mend. I think this peace-making role has been both a blessing and a curse in my life. It is a blessing in that much of the time I am able to try to see both sides of an issue, look for what is good or what may make sense about each argument and try to find what those good things might have in common. I am able to openly listen most of the time, holding off judgment. What is the curse is that in doing this, I can sometimes resist making a firm decision or forming a personal opinion. And I know that this nature has at times become a fence-sitting cop-out that kept me from sticking my neck out.

This handicapped me at times in San Jose because I could only punch one button on my voting machine at a time – yes or no. Though I can say I voted on every issue brought before the assemble, after more than 400 votes, I now can’t remember which button I pushed on which issue much of the time. I tried to open myself up to the leading of God’s Spirit, but I know there were times I voted on pure personal opinion opting out of consulting God. I can’t tell you how hard it was to try to really listen and ask for God’s guidance ALL THE TIME! Such asking is always risky because it can mean that I might hear what I personally don’t like.

But I felt the most handicapped in a conversation with the older retired doctor from San Antonio who was assigned to sit to my right for all plenary sessions. He was a wonderful man with a great sense of humor who also felt the weight of the responsibilities before us. He looked at me one evening toward the end of the assembly during a particularly intense debate on a sensitive subject. There was sadness in his eyes…really the look of pure shock and grief when one experiences a great loss out of the blue. He said, “I just don’t think there is a place left for me any more in the Presbyterian Church.”

My heart wanted to cry out to him, “No, don’t say that…you are so faithful and so honest and compassionate – we need people like you, people that…” But I couldn’t say anything, words just would not form because I could see his side of the issue, I understood and felt his pain just like I could see and understand and feel the same things that those on the other side of the tough issues were experiencing. All I could do was place my hand on his arm, give it a squeeze and try to show him the most understanding and compassionate look I knew how to express. His eyes and his statement have haunted me ever sense.

There is pain all around and between and in and through our denomination and really the same is true for most Christian denominations. As the body of Christ, as members of the one true church, we all are broken, we are hurting and we are grieving. We are a tattered and divided witness in need of much mending. While all of this sounds so sad and maybe hopeless, we need look no further than scripture to find that we are experiencing the same pains and illnesses that the body of Christ has experience since before its foundation. Remember that the disciples, while their Lord was still on this earth and in their very midst, would argue and fuss, show jealousy and conceit, grab for power and attention. In many ways are we are not far removed from our beginnings.

After finding some time to think about the doctor’s statement, I realized that one possible response I could have offered is that there is no perfect church. There is no such thing as a perfect congregation or denomination, perfection is just not something that we can attain in our lifetime. The paradox though, that can be very frustrating, is that our calling as Christians is to work toward that perfection anyway, to do all we we can to follow Christ’s teaching and life. And while striving for perfection is not wrong by any means, we need to temper our quest with the reality that the body of Christ, the church, is made up of human beings, God’s children, who are far from perfect, who sin in little and grand ways, who always find a way to mess things up.

The first two scriptures we heard this morning are examples of the earliest of church divisions and fights. The early Acts controversy was a matter of doctrine and belief – who could receive salvation and who couldn’t. Many of today’s church dissentions revolve around essentially the same subject. After coming together to debate the issue in the first Jerusalem Council, the apostles and elders made a decision toward inclusivity, making it easier for more Gentiles to come to the faith by not having them be circumcised and requiring the strict following of the Torah. While this was the consensus at that time, many were not happy with the decision and tension remained in many areas.

Then we have Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth, which is really a long scolding for their failure to play nice together while also a plea for them to become “united in the same mind and judgment”. Paul isn’t asking for a cookie cutter, clone group to form that will all think exactly alike. The word translated as ‘united’ here in the Greek is used elsewhere in the New Testament with a basic meaning of: to thoroughly prepare something to meet demands; to put in order, restore to a former condition, mend, or repair. Paul realizes that this part of the body was wounded and in need of healing and for Paul, the only way to heal the body was to allow God in Christ to be the physician; for the lowliness and humility of the cross of Christ to be the power that repairs and restores.

Friends, that I believe is our hope too. We cannot heal ourselves, we cannot clean up our own messes, and we cannot keep ourselves from making new messes…but God can. As the Corinthian church refused to listen to one another and divided into factions over who was the better leader and who was more faithful to God, the concerned apostle realized that some of the greatest sins that were corrupting this group were idolatry and pride. They held ideas and people and opinions in higher esteem than God. They believed they alone had the inside track on what God really wanted. Even if they might have been able to hear a part of God’s will, their knowledge was worthless because it was lorded over those who thought differently or forced upon others. They had forgotten Micah’s call – do justice, love kindness and walk humble with your God. Can justice really be just without kindness and compassion to foster it? Can we be kind and walk humbly with God if we continually keep score about how ‘right’ we are and how ‘wrong’ everyone else is? And is humility really a character trait if we fail to continually to submit our wants and wishes and plans and dreams and desires to our Lord Jesus and to God’s will?

When we look at all the pain and suffering in the world, the division and factions within the church universal, it can seem overwhelming and frustrating. But friends, no one ever said that Christianity was the easy way. Yet, today in American is has become too easy for far too many. There are people who try to find their cozy niche and settle in for what they can get out of a church. They don’t want debate, they don’t want people who think differently, they don’t want tension or anxiety to muddy their tranquility…they want the perfect church. If that is all you want, I dare say you may be in the wrong place this morning. While it is something we are to pray for, something we are to work toward, it cannot and will not be a reality until our Lord returns to usher in the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God. In the meantime, this is what we’ve got, this is the hand we’ve been dealt and our calling is to roll up our sleeves and get to work where we can.

I can honestly tell you that my time at the General Assembly left quite a mark on my heart and despite what I have said so far, it is not a negative mark by any means. It is, I think, a mark of reality. There is much to do in Christ’s name. And while we all are not called to solve all the problems and debates of this world, we are called to seek God’s will for our individual lives and for our combined witness as Christ’s body in this community. We each have been given distinct gifts and abilities, the most needed and critical of which is the gift of prayer and discernment, which are not easy endeavors.

When I look back upon the whole experience, I don’t think we could have had a better guiding scripture during the assembly than the Micah passage. We are called to do justice, but our passion and our zeal must always contain kindness toward all, great humility and a continued openness to God’s leading Spirit. It is OK to have strong opinions and fervor for what we think is right, but if those opinions and enthusiasm take a higher precedent than seeking if they are truly God’s will, they become idolatrous and hurtful.

I try to never say or suppose I know what God wants, that I am completely certain what God is thinking or doing or planning. To me, that is just audacious to assume. What tiny scrap of knowledge or understanding I do have comes not from my own abilities or research, but is instead a gift of God’s grace. Anything I am able to do, all that I have, all that I am has been entrusted to me by my Creator. All I can do is trust that God knows what God is doing, that God has a plan and that the more I pray and spend time with God, the more I will come to understand and the better I will be able to align my will with God’s.

I firmly believe that God’s will was done in San Jose. Did I like everything that happened? No. Did everything I wanted or hoped for happen? No. And it is because of the very fact that I answer ‘no’ to these questions that I believe God’s will was done for that time in that place in those circumstances. There was no way that any one of the 973 of us gathered together to discuss, to debate and ultimately to decide could have been happy with all 400 and sometime decisions made. Part of the difference between GA and any other old convention was that as a group we prayed together, we worshiped together and we sang together – before, during and after our sessions. The moderator introduced every vote with the following: “Sisters and brothers, sharing our common faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and walking humbly with our God, let us proceed to vote on the question before us.”

Before a possible contentious vote, there would be a call to spend an extra few moments in silent prayer. After a very close vote that was tied to much emotion we stood together and sang “Spirit of the Living God”. I guess what I want to get across to you the most is that nothing that came out of the assembly was done half-heartedly or without a lot of thought and prayer and tears. I think that is what made it so exhausting. I really tried to put my wants and opinions to the side and be open to God’s guidance.

I know God had to be there, moving among us when, throughout the 8 grueling days together, very few ever lost their cool, people played nice together, there was no heckling or name-calling and rarely was anger even slightly displayed. The place anger was most prevalent was outside the convention center when a group of protestors, supposedly speaking God’s word and will, shouted hateful, demeaning and vile statements at us when we left for meal breaks. The anger in their eyes was vivid and appalling. They stayed for a few days, but seemed to quickly dissipate after a group of our Youth Advisory Delegates silently walked up to them in the park one afternoon. These high school and college disciples, as they were being lambasted by insults, knelt together and prayed out loud for the protestors in that public park. Then they silently got up, and continued on their way to dinner. That act basically diffused the hate and we didn’t see much of them again.

Kindness, humility and love all anchored in guiding prayer are the keys to changing the church, changing our society, changing our world for the better. Keeping God as the main focus of our life and ministry, looking for God’s direction each and every step we take, being willing to listen to one another without prejudice, judgment or self-pride – these are the building blocks of the kingdom. They were the weapons our Lord Jesus Christ lovingly used to open us to the beginnings of kingdom life and they will be what will bring it to full fruition…in God’s time.

The Isaiah passage was the only one that was part of today’s lectionary. I chose it as the last reading on purpose and I want to reference it now as an anthem of hope for our future. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD… so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

Friends, God will work through us when we will allow, but God can just as easily work around us and in spite of us if we insist. Too often our hardheadedness and inability to submit to God’s guidance cause stumbling blocks for ourselves and our brothers and sisters. Regardless, in the final say, God’s will and purpose and plan will work out. In that lies my hope, my confidence, my security and I trust it can be yours as well. However, it is still up to us to be the hands and feet that serve others and lead the world toward God’s reign. We must remember that God is not through with us, nor with God’s church. There is no perfect church, only her head and foundation, Christ Jesus, is perfect. Our calling is to be faithful and open to God’s will.

I want to close with a poem I found, whose author is unknown, but I think very wise.

If you should find the perfect church without fault or smear,
Please, don't join that church, you'd spoil the atmosphere.
If you should find the perfect church where all anxieties cease,
Then pass it by lest joining it you mar the masterpiece.
If you should find the perfect church, then don't you ever dare
To tread upon such holy ground you'd be a misfit there.
But since no perfect church exists...made of imperfect men,
Then let's cease looking for that church, and love the one we're in.
Of course it's not a perfect church, that's simple to discern,
But you and I and all of us could cause the tide to turn.
So let's keep working in our church until the resurrection,
And then we each will join God's church without an imperfection.
Amen.


SENDING OUT

Remember Friends:
That it is not we who chose Christ,
but Christ who chose us,
That we were not here because of our goodness
but because of Christ’s grace,
That we were not here to enlighten ourselves,
but to allow Christ to enlighten us,
That we do not go our separate ways alone,
but in the company of the Spirit
who has great things in store for us.

Grace, mercy and peace, from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit be with you today and always.
Amen!

Wow!

We went to the Dr. yesterday and got a good report. The Dr. said Laurie gets an A+ for progress so far. She had lost 2lbs since the last visit but all her blood work came back perfect. The Dr. also said that this baby is on track to be bigger than Mignon who was 8lbs 6oz three weeks early.

I am truly amazed by the technology that is available, we were able to see the baby very clearly as he/she moved around, kicked and punched. Mignon didn't know what to think. We asked her how many babies she wanted to take home and she answered 3. Here are a couple scans from the ultrasound.

Back in Texas

Well we made it back to Texas. Laurie's dad picked us up at DFW today. We couldn't wait to see Mignon! Two weeks was almost unbearable, she has grown and is talking like crazy. She sure was happy to see us and her presents.

She likes her new outfit from China Town. We will be back in Junction tomorrow, and it sure will be nice to be home.