Learn Some New Steps

One of the privileges of my role as spiritual leader of a congregation is to invite you into deeper experiences of the Holy Spirit. Often there are rich traditions of the church’s worship that have been forgotten, rejected, or co-opted by one‘side’ or another. Yet millions of people find themselves enriched by reclaiming the old and making it new again.

 Old practices can bless us in fresh ways.

The use of ashes on Ash Wednesday is a key example. Once practiced solely by the Roman Catholic Church, making the sign of the cross with ashes has been reclaimed by the universal church as a powerful witness to the enduring love of God.

Here are three practices -- three steps -- we’re including in observing Holy Week, the final week in Jesus’life. They’ll be offered on Holy Thursday and Good Friday (April 5 & 6).

·         Footwashing is Jesus’ command to his followers in John 13. In John’s gospel it receives far more
attention than the Last Supper itself. Often practiced by the“low church” denominations (Anabaptists, Baptists, Mennonites, Brethren, etc.), footwashing is a powerful experience of devotion to Christ and loving servanthood before others.

·         The Stations of the Cross have been long embraced by the more“high church” wing of Christianity (Roman Catholics, Anglicans, etc.). In our Protestant version it becomes a way for you to walk Jesus’ Good Friday journey in a thoughtful, contemplative way, and at your own pace.

·         Tenebrae is Latin for “shadows.” It has its roots in twelfth-century Christianity as a reflection of the meaning of Jesus’death on a cross. It incorporates music and word, sound and silence, light and darkness into a profound retelling of the crucifixion journey.

The barriers between “low church” and “high church” are coming down. What’s old is new again, especially if it brings us a powerful experience of Jesus Christ.

I hope you’ll find these a nudge beyond your comfort zone. Try something new and old at the same time. I hope these worshipful opportunities will be meaningful "new steps" for you on your faith journey.

Pastor Larry

Go Green - Go Patrick!

As St. Patrick’s Day approaches, I got curious again about just who this person was.  Aside from green beer and shamrocks and Irish jokes, what might his life bring forth within us?

I went searching on history.com, and here’s what I learned about St. Patrick:

It is known that Patrick was born in Britain to wealthy parents near the end of the fourth century. He is believed to have died on March 17, around 460 A.D.  That means that this weekend honors his death, not his birth.

At the age of sixteen, Patrick was taken prisoner by a group of Irish raiders who were attacking his family's estate. They transported him to Ireland where he spent six years in captivity.

During this time, he worked as a shepherd, outdoors and away from people. Lonely and afraid, he turned to his religion for solace, becoming a devout Christian.

After more than six years as a prisoner, Patrick escaped. In doing so, he walked nearly 200 miles from County Mayo, where it is believed he was held, to the Irish coast. After escaping to Britain, Patrick reported that he experienced a revelation – an angel in a dream told him to return to Ireland as a missionary. Soon after, Patrick began religious training, a course of study that lasted more than fifteen years.

After his ordination as a priest, he was sent to Ireland with a dual mission – to minister to Christians already living in Ireland and to begin to convert the Irish. (Interestingly, this mission contradicts the widely held notion that Patrick introduced Christianity to Ireland.)

Familiar with the Irish language and culture, Patrick chose to incorporate traditional ritual into his lessons of Christianity instead of attempting to eradicate native Irish beliefs. For instance, he used bonfires to celebrate Easter since the Irish were used to honoring their gods with fire. He also superimposed a sun, a powerful Irish symbol, onto the Christian cross to create what is now called a Celtic cross, so that veneration of the symbol would seem more natural to the pagan Irish.

There were no literal snakes which Patrick drove into the sea.  It is thought that his strengthening the church of Christ helped eliminate paganism from Ireland – hence, the pagan “snakes” were driven out. The Irish culture has long centered around a rich tradition of oral legend and myth. When this is considered, it is no surprise that the story of Patrick's life became exaggerated over the centuries.

So if you raise a glass this weekend, raise it to a man of faith, one who endured great hardships at an early age and dangers throughout his life. 

Raise it to a man who followed the guidance of the Lord, even at personal cost to his health and his dreams. 

Raise it to a man who took the traditions and symbols of his culture and used them to honor Jesus Christ. 

Raise it with your toast to Patrick and to the Lord, the maker of all good things: 

Faith n Begorrah!

Pastor Larry

The Patient in Bed A

A nurse told me once of her experience in tending to patients in a particular room.  Every nurse knows of “good patients” and “bad patients,” and on this particular shift she had one of each in the same room.  The patient in Bed A stayed positive, took time to say thank you for her medications, and asked her once about her own family.  The patient in Bed B hit the call button incessantly, complained about almost everything, and just seemed sour the whole time.

Near the end of her exhausting afternoon shift my friend said to herself, “Lord, when I get old or sick, please let me be more like _________ (the patient in Bed A).”  Then she realized – or “it came to me” – or a Voice said – “Start now.”  The moment was quick, but it was clear.  Start now. It made her realize that neither patient was necessarily acting that way only in the hospital.  They were the same way in their beds as they were in their outside life.  So the only way she could be more like one than the other was to live that way now – with consideration and gratitude.

Stephen Covey taught that one principle for effective living is “To begin with the end in mind.”  Rather than just jumping in to do something, be as clear as you can about the outcome you want. Visualize and identify the result you intend. Not every road will take you to that particular place, just as not every interstate leads to DC. To arrive at a place of serenity and trust, start now.

I just returned from three hospital visits with parishioners who are recovering from surgery and regaining strength.  I’m thankful that all three of them are “Bed A” patients!  I’m personally blessed by their positive spirit in the healing process, their gratitude for their surgeons and nurses, their living in short-term pain without complaint.  Not one of them was crabby or sour; all three lifted my spirits as I hope I did the same for them.

They’ve already started. They’ve found Someone to trust in times of discomfort; a Great Physician who helps heal them; a Spirit that strengthens their inner attitudes; and a loving community that visits and prays for them. These are God’s gifts to us through the church.

I think Bed A patients are comfortable in being receivers – in receiving care as a gift and blessing as a windfall.  Sometimes when we “put on a happy face,” we discover that we grow into the attitudes we adopt; we can indeed “fake it til we make it.” But in the long run, this is a spiritual process. In the long run, it’s less about what we try – and more about Whom we receive.

Why not start now?

Pastor Larry

A Rummage Sale?

“Every 500 years the church holds a rummage sale and cleans out the house.” That’s been an encouraging metaphor for those of us who worry about the future of the church.

 You undoubtedly know that Christian faith is losing adherents, at least in the Northern Hemisphere countries of the world. In the U.S., Europe and other similar nations of the world, the influence and numbers of the church are dwindling. (By comparison, Christianity in Africa and South America is exploding.)

 Locally, Burke UMC hit its attendance high in 2002. We’ve been on a slow numerical decline for the past 10 years. Almost every other congregation in the United States is in the same situation. Churches close, and new expressions of faith seem odd and off-putting to many traditional worshippers.

The person who coined the “rummage sale” metaphor reminds us, though, that this type of thing has happened before. By the year 500 AD, for example, the Roman Empire had fallen and theological disputes were rampant.  Local or house churches dissolved, and Christendom began its retreat into monasteries. Around 1000 AD, the Great Schism split the church into Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Catholic) divisions; the Crusades, which followed shortly thereafter, further hurt the church. The Protestant Reformation of the 1500’s again traumatized the institutional church and brought about entirely new theologies and expressions of faith.

And here we are, 500 years later. Many people have named this era “The Great Emergence.” Traditional expressions of church are declining, and no one knows for sure what’s next.

I just returned yesterday from my second round of annual interviews on behalf of the Virginia Conference Board of Ordained Ministry. Once again I’ve been struck by the energy and creativity that people seeking ordination are bringing into the United Methodist Church. It’s difficult to be too pessimistic about the future of the church of Jesus Christ when more of the brightest and best of our young people are choosing careers in the ministry.

I met candidates who had taught English in Poland, worked on political campaigns, served in higher education administration and corporate America, and taught in inner cities.  They were Korean, African-American, Hispanic and Caucasian. They came from Ivy League universities and the hills of Appalachia. They had passions for youth, for teaching, for starting new churches and strengthening existing ones. My team interviewed 14 such candidates; all in all, 40 people of various ages but most of them under 35, presented themselves for consideration as church leaders.

I have no idea what’s ahead for the Christian church in our country. But I’m far more hopeful now than I was this time last week!  You should be too.  God is good – all the time!

Pastor Larry