Jill Duffield, Editor of the Presbyterian Outlook, wrote an editorial entitled “All Hands on Deck”, (http://pres-outlook.org/2016/04/all-hands-on-deck/), calling Christians to work together in our time of crisis.  It is a well written article that calls us to unified action instead of “church party affiliation” (my term).  She says:

The line at the front is out the door, so all cashiers come to the front. The patient has just crashed, so everyone on the resuscitation team run to the room. The fire alarm has sounded, so put down the planned lesson and get the children safely out. All hands on deck.

As the son of a grocery clerk, I remember the days when I would visit dad at work.  He was in the frozen food section, usually arranging food in the big storage freezer and stocking the freezers in the aisles when the call would come; “All cashiers to their registers!”  Instantly dad would stow the frozen items back into the walk-in freezer and head up front to handle the crowds.

The problem with this analogy is that the grocery lines in our churches are not full.  There is no reason to call the cashiers forward, rather a need to send them out into the streets.  The best analogy Duffield uses is the one about the patient crashing.  An analogy I thought of was the television show M*A*S*H, when the P.A. announcer would call the medical staff for the incoming wounded, and the triage team would meet them at the helicopter pad. 

We do live in a battlefield.  There are injured people all around us, needing what the church hospital provides.  But unlike M*A*S*H, where the injured were met in the battlefield, cared for by a medic then transported to the hospital unit for emergency surgery, we expect the wounded to walk in.  We expect those with spiritual needs to find their own way to the operating room, sit down and participate (in the ways we want them to participate).

Jill, I loved your article.  Thank you for challenging us.  I want to re-read it, take it in, and act on it.  But I’m also going to consider how to expand it – to look at my ministry as a M*A*S*H unit.  Somehow, through God’s help, we can change how we look at the church.  We can send out more helicopter pilots and triage units to bring the wounded to the hospital.  But only by working together, rising above the factions and “insider battles” and relying on Christ can this happen.

Peace,

Bill

Easter Monday.  A day of rest after the (VERY) busy Lenten season, Holy Week and Easter Sunday celebration.  But my mind is not quiet, not at all.  You see, there is still a lot of processing going on in my brain – what we could have done better, what we will do next year, what we should do next Sunday.

Just before the Easter service, a member told me how much he liked the Good Friday service – how meaningful it was.  And he lamented that so few of our members came, considering how much work I put into the services. I thanked him for recognizing my efforts.  In fact, I received more of those comments this year than any over the past 7.5 years at this church.  More people have mentioned how meaningful the services were, more people realizing just how much goes into them. And I am not alone.  So many of my colleagues all put their hearts into Lent and Holy Week.  We strive to do something each Sunday to bring meaning into this season.  And then, Palm/Passion Sunday comes and we try to bring the story into everyone’s lives – connecting God’s story – Jesus’ story with our story.  By Easter, we are all exhausted.  And thankful.  Especially when we see how God works.  One man greeted me on Maundy Thursday, shaking my hand and not saying anything, at least with words.  His eyes did all of the talking.  The service reached him.  Another, a Baptist pastor who happened to come to our service, asked permission to use it for his congregation.  On Friday a woman shared how she never realized all of the parallels between the birth narrative and the passion narratives in the bible – until my wife and I presented them on Palm Sunday.

Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t do these things for recognition (although it is nice to see my work appreciated).  I do these things because I am a pastor.  I am a Minister of Word and Sacrament, and Holy Week is certainly a time to pastor.  Through the Word, through the Sacrament, through the messages, through the liturgy and through the music we can link God’s story with ours.  And that is really what we do.  It is not so much about things I say or do, but about connecting people with God.  That is my role.  That is what I do.  That is who I am.  And when that connection happens, joy results.

May God continue to bless you this Easter season, and may you connect with His story.

Ash Wednesday is upon us, which means we are entering the season of Lent.  Lent is a time of penitence, a time of fasting, a time to realign ourselves with God. 

Over the centuries, as a spiritual practice, people have given up things they love during Lent – usually sweets or snack items.  Last year I gave up something and was quite successful.  This year I was considering what to give up, and thought hard about my diet.

Normally I eat pretty healthy, but lately I’ve been under a lot of stress.  And my self-medication is potato chips.  Because everyone knows the best way to reduce stress is to increase our consumption of sodium and saturated fats, right?  Can I get an Amen?

So, I was convinced that I would restart my healthy eating on Ash Wednesday.  Then came Tuesday; 4:20 AM Tuesday to be precise.  I slept decently Monday night, but woke up at 4:20.  That is nothing unusual, as I often wake up in the night.  And I decided to pray a bit.  That is something I do when I wake up, and usually fall back asleep.  But not Tuesday morning.  I was praying and soon it was 5:00 AM and I was wide awake.  So I decided to get up, go downstairs and open up my devotional.  I read the daily scriptures and prayed some more.  Then it hit me. Hard.

I was doing a lot of talking to God.  But I was not really listening.  And I began to reflect on that.

In worship, after taking the prayer requests and before leading the congregation in the “Prayers of the People”, we sing a short verse.  Sometimes it is “Lord, listen to your children praying” other times “Hear our prayers O Lord.”  And as I thought about both of those songs, I noticed the similarities.  We keep telling God to listen to us.  But do we either ask God to speak to us, or do we bother giving God time to speak?  Do we listen for God’s voice?

I pray a lot.  I pray with others, I pray on my own.  And my prayer life can always get better – I can always pray more (in fact, I need to).  But, beginning Ash Wednesday as my Lenten spiritual practice, I am going to strive to listen more for God’s voice. I’m going to sit in the stillness and silence and “allow” God to speak to me.

Oh yeah, and I’m going to try and reduce the number of potato chips I eat as well.

May God bless you on your Lenten journey,

Bill

It is Friday afternoon and I’m waiting for the snow.  It’s been a pretty mild winter so far, but a storm is on the way – and snowfall expectations are around a foot, combined with high winds.  The snow blower has been repaired and is gassed up; we have a new shovel and new sleds.   Oh and we have milk, bread and eggs just in case we decide to have French toast!

Snow in our neighborhood is great.  The kids and parents get together to sled, and then usually meet up at someone’s house for hot chocolate (and something else for the dads!).  It’s always a lot of fun – even with the shoveling.

But this time it feels different.  I’m just waiting.  The storm is expected to start later tonight, and snow through Saturday into Sunday.  We’ve already cancelled Sunday school, and will delay until as late as possible to decide on worship.  But for now we wait.

This is not the same waiting as waiting for Christmas, or for a loved one to come home, or even for the Novocain to work before the dentist starts drilling.  This wait seems a bit eerie, a bit strange, a bit foreboding – and I don’t know why.  It might be that the forecast keeps changing (potential accumulation is already higher than when I started writing this).  It might be due to the possibility of high winds, wet snow and power outages, and it might just be the long wait itself.  It seems like we’ve been talking about and waiting for this storm for quite some time.

It will start soon (or later, depending on the storm), and tomorrow I’ll be shoveling.  But for now I wait.  And wait.

If you are waiting too, go ahead make some hot chocolate.  Make some French toast.  Huddle up together with a movie, a blanket and your loved ones.  And wait.

I have been mulling this question over and over a lot lately.  You see, I pastor a typical mainline denomination church, which means we are an aging congregation.  And we need young families.

But the question is:  Do we need young families to continue the institution, or do we want young families because we offer something different than the rest of the world – something that meets needs in their lives?

Any institution needs new “customers”.  Think about it.  Go to your local mall and look at the stores that exist, and the ones that are no longer there.  Many companies go out of business each year.  And they go out of business because they did not get new customers.

On a recent shopping trip, my family went into one of the old retail “giants”, a name at one time synonymous with American retail strength (especially in the catalog days).  But this company is going to close in the next few years.  New customers are not shopping there.  Where is the fault?  The bad young families who refuse to shop there? Or is it the retail establishment that does not change to reflect the needs of the young families?

During our shopping trip, we were met with terrible customer service.  Absolutely terrible.  We purchased two dresses for our daughter and the clerk was going to shove them into a small bag – she apparently did not know about garment bags.  We wanted to use our “loyalty points” but she ignored that, finally telling us it was our fault.  We left quite disgruntled.

Upon going into another retail store, we found similar dresses for a lower price and purchased them.  The clerk greeted us warmly, immediately hung the dresses in a garment bag and checked the remaining value on a gift card.

I returned the first dresses to the store, told the supervisor and left.

So – how does this relate to church?  I now wonder how many times we give our visitors the same bad customer service.  I wonder how many times we expect young families to act like the families of 1952, when society was different.  I wonder how many times our visiting young families feel like my family did when we left S***s.  How many will just not return?

For those who follow sports, when your team wins you feel good.  But truthfully whether the Eagles win the Super Bowl (yeah, right) or not, my life is the same.  A sporting event, while entertaining, is not life changing.  The church, however, is.  The church brings the good news of Jesus Christ – news that we are loved, forgiven, at one with God.  And that is important.  The church needs to remember that God loves all people and wants all people to turn to Him.  And that is life changing.  The church offers changed lives – or we should.  The church must be different than all the “choices” out there.

The church can assist families with raising our children in the faith, with living the “sandwich generation” (caring for children and aging parents), with the pressures of two income households, with the pressures of schedules, and everything else.  We need to focus on creative ways to bring us all closer to Christ without creating “one more thing” on the schedule.

And so, young families forgive me when I’ve been the “bad retail clerk”.  And help me.  Tell me – how can we work together to make the church a better place for young families?

Think about how many words you hear in any given day. From the moment you wake up until the moment you fall asleep, how many words do you hear?  10,000?  12,000?  15,000?  When you stop for a moment and think about all sources of spoken word – other people, television, radio and other forms of media, the estimate gets higher and higher.  And we all know that not every word we hear is a good one.  We hear a lot of negative words every day.  And we hear a lot of words that go against our values as Christians.  Words filled with hate, rage, retribution and evil are a part of the everyday lexicon.  And for that reason, it is important to start and finish our days with positive words – words that reinforce love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians’ 5:22-23).

I was reading an article about Mr. Rogers, you know, the “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood” Mr. Rogers.   Mr. Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister and his flock was the youth of America who watched his show.

Before entering that office each day, Rogers would pray, “Dear God, let some word that is heard be yours.” (Jonathan Merritt http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/mister-rogers-saint/416838/).  Think about that prayer for a moment. What do you think would happen if:

1. We added that prayer to our morning prayer time?
2. We actually opened our ears to listen for God’s word?

My guess is that we would hear from God.  We might hear from God through the people we encounter, and we might hear directly from God’s mouth.  We might actually be astonished to hear what God says to us – and if we listen to Him, we might just make it a beautiful day in the neighborhood after all.

Dear God, let some word that is heard be yours.  Amen.

It is that time of year again.  We enter into the “Holiday Season” when retail establishments and local government offices get in trouble for saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.”

And, of course, we see on many cars the little manger magnet that says “Keep Christ in Christmas.”  And somehow we’ve managed to merge the two thoughts together, as if the only way to keep Christ in Christmas is by retail establishments saying “Merry Christmas.”  How simple.

But that is not the answer – how can we expect a business – a corporate entity – a NON-HUMAN to keep Christ in Christmas?  It is not a retailer’s job to do this – rather a retailer’s job is to sell products and services at a profit.  That is it.  And if a retailer wants to identify itself as a “Christian business” fine – but why do Christians expect businesses to do our ministry (spreading the love of God through Jesus)?  Why do we want the Mega-Box Retailer, Inc. to keep Jesus in our hearts?  Isn’t that what we are called to do?

So I have a solution.  If we want to keep Christ in our Christmases, we need to observe the season of Advent – those four weeks before Christmas – both in our churches and in our homes.

The church does a good job of observing Advent.  We change the liturgy and music to match the season, we preach heavily from both Old and New Testament passages regarding both the first coming and the second coming of Christ.  We light the Advent wreath each Sunday, adding a candle to remember the Hope, Peace, Joy and Love of the season.  At least we try.

But then as people head home – and enter into the rhythm of Monday through Saturday, how are WE keeping Christ in Christmas?  Are we observing Advent or are we feeding into the retailer’s dreams of a “green Chri$tma$?”

This Advent prepare yourselves.  Prepare yourselves to celebrate the first coming of Christ – the birth of Jesus.  Celebrate the joy of the Resurrection and its great promise of hope.  Live your lives in the peace and love of Jesus, and be prepared for the second coming – when all things shall be renewed by God.  Keep your own Advent wreath – light a candle for each week, read the readings, make it a special family devotion.  You might be amazed at how it affects all of you.

Advent is your time and your way to keep Christ in Christmas.  Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord.

Over the past few months, I’ve tried to highlight the plight of Syrian refugees.  I tried to inform the congregation, I’ve prayed for the situation, asked others to offer their opinion on how we can help, and held a special offering.

And I’ve dealt with some of the suspicions:  “Why should we help them when we have needs in this country?”  “Who are these people and why do they want to enter the U.S.?”  “What if ISIS terrorists are hiding among them?”  I’ve tried to answer all of these questions as intelligently as possible.

Then the Paris attacks happened.  And with it a lot more suspicion that the refugees are in reality, ISIS members trying to infiltrate Europe and the United States.  Some states have decided against hosting refugee families, others are considering it.

Now the truth is we never know who is a terrorist – no matter what their religion or nationality.  We can look at attacks in the United States perpetrated by people of all different beliefs.  We can point to white supremacist groups, religious fanatics of all “flavors”, the Boston Marathon bombing, the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting, the Nickel Mines Amish shooting and many others.  Terrorists, fundamentalists and extremists know no boundaries.

But because of 9-11 and radical Islam, this country is much divided over the subject of the Syrian refugees.  Many do not want to help these people who are in dire need.

Then I read some comments from a colleague, Rev. Daniel Smoak (a pastor in South Carolina) who said:

Christian friends: If your church were to work together to sponsor a family of Syrian refugees and one of them turned out to be a terrorist, would he/she be emboldened in their convictions after living with you for a year, or is it possible that Jesus’ love in your church is stronger than hate? Don’t underestimate ISIS? Ha. Don’t underestimate Jesus.

This got me thinking.  If we truly believe in the love of Jesus, and we truly show that love, wouldn’t we overcome more than ISIS?  Think about it.  If we were to actually live like Jesus, loving one another, caring for one another, being more concerned about connecting people to God than judging them, wouldn’t things change for the better – in Syria, in Philadelphia, in Detroit, in any place in the world?

Or am I wrong?

If so, our faith is empty and our God is impotent.  I am reminded what Paul said in First Corinthians:

But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not  even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.  More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise    him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.  Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.  If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Don’t underestimate Jesus.  Ever.

Recently I have been convicted of something.  I’ve been hearing the stories of the Syrian refugees and have heard God saying to me “Do Something!”  Now this crisis has been going on for a long time, but I paid no attention to it.  And granted, there are thousands of crises out there that I’ve paid no attention to.  And, Lord knows, I have enough crises to deal with.  I’m a solo pastor of a small, aging church.  I took some vacation time and the church totally respected that.  For the first summer in two years I was able to take some time off without having to cut it short, or be “on call”.  My congregation knew I needed some time away (and a huge “thank you” to them).  And as I returned, there were plenty of crisis moments – multiple surgeries, hospitalizations and the like.

But there is nothing like the Syrian refugee crisis.  And for some reason, this was the time that God opened my ears, eyes and heart.  I am convicted that we must act and must act now.  And our actions cannot just be “here is a check.” We, as a congregation, must get involved.

I’ve asked our congregation to consider how to respond.  And on Sunday, I will do something I’ve never done before – devote the sermon to this issue.  I have charged them before, but not on this level.  I am asking the congregation to join me on this.  To do something for God’s children in a way we have not done before (at least during my time here).

On one hand I think I am risking myself.  What if I “rub someone the wrong way”?  What if I “tick off” someone?  But on the other hand I think about what it must be like to be forced from your home.  And as a church leader, my role is to push us into action.  The church must respond to this crisis.  This is not about liberal versus conservative agendas.  This is not about the latest issue within the church.  This is about life.  The lives of so many people who have no place to live, no place to work, no place to worship because they have been forced out of their homes.  And this is about God.  What does God say regarding refugees?  What does God say about people?  We say “God is love.”  Well it is time to prove it.  It is time to “put up or shut up.”  It is time for action.

Brothers and sisters, please pray for me.  Pray that I deliver the sermon that has been bubbling inside of me.  Pray that our local congregation can do something to help someone in this crisis.  Pray that I am brave enough to follow through with this.  But most important, please pray for those refugees.  Pray for the people truly suffering.  Pray for a response.

As my congregation is well aware, one of the questions I always ask is “what gifts to you bring?”  I was having a conversation about the church in general with a family friend when I asked her that question.  She jokingly replied “I bring dessert.”

Then I told her this story:

We were at a neighborhood picnic for Memorial Day when someone mentioned that I make a good pumpkin crème brulee.  The neighbors asked “where is it?”  I said I would make them some.  Along comes July 4^th, and they are asking again “where is it?”  Two weeks later we had a picnic and again, “where is the pumpkin crème brulee?”

So, while on vacation I made it and started to deliver it.  Most of the neighbors were surprised, not thinking I would ever make it.  But then one neighbor told me his story – his niece was just diagnosed with a serious condition that would take her life at an early age.  With all my seminary training and pastoral work, I stood there and said “I’ve got nothing.”  And he said, “no, you brought this, something nice for us.”  What began as a joke between our neighbors became a source of comfort for someone hurting.

God will use our gifts – whatever they may be.  We just have to be open to using them ourselves.

Peace,

Bill

Oh – and one more thing.  Please pray for the little girl – God will know who I mean.  Thanks.