New Year's Thoughts

As a United Methodist pastor, I mark years at the halfway point.  Calendar years may run January to December, but appointment years run July to June. Our family marks the years by where we’ve lived; when that changes, it’s always the end of June and the start of July. 

So I remember that it was almost 6 years ago that the moving van pulled up at the Wesley Pond parsonage and we began our sojourn in Burke.  It’s a good time, as I begin Year Seven as your pastor, to say again what a joy and a privilege it’s been to serve here. You are a loving, faithful, open, generous, and welcoming church.  The years have gone quickly, and we still have so much more good to accomplish, and so many more blessings to experience.

This month for me also marks the completion of 35 years of full-time active ministry.  I began my first appointment out of Yale Divinity School at Fairlington UMC in Alexandria in the hot summer of 1978. In between Alexandria and Burke we have lived in Herndon, Richmond, Ashland and Arlington – each community full of loyal Christians and good friends. Those years have also gone quickly, and I’m blessed to have had a very fulfilling ministry in each place.

Our Annual Conference begins tomorrow in Hampton. I’m one of our clergy delegates, along with Judy and Morgan; lay delegates are Randy Allen, Nancy Flythe and Jim Hudson; Todd Ringenbach is a District delegate; and Marti Ringenbach will attend to be licensed as a Local Pastor. Morgan will begin his fourth year as our Associate, and Marti her first (at Springfield UMC). And we’ll celebrate our deepening relationship with the Methodists of Cambodia. 

Many of you got to meet our four Cambodian guests this past Monday evening.  Ann Stingle, Judy Fender and I had the privilege of housing and coordinating them in their visit to the D.C. area. Thank you for your attendance at our dinner and program last Monday evening.  We learned so much about the potential to rebuild a nation as well as a church, and you generously contributed $1500 to help make that happen.

Immediately following Conference Bev and I will fly to Ireland for about 10 days. Friends who live there have invited us for so long to come and visit, and we’d always declined.  But in one of those “We’re not getting any younger” epiphanies, we decided we needed to stop saying “Someday.”

(I remember the poster that said, “There is only Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  There is no Someday.”  I learned  that to accomplish anything at all, it has to be planned for one of those seven specific days.  That’s all we’ll ever have.)

So I’ll look forward to seeing you in early July. July will bring us a visit from the Voices of Youth on July 13 and our first-in-a-long-time Church Picnic the following day, July 14.  Much to look forward to!

Oh – and plan to stop by the Sweet Frog Frozen Yogurt store in the Giant / BB&T shopping center on Burke Centre Parkway tonight (June 20).  We’ll be sponsoring an Open Mic evening from 7 – 9 pm. Should be great fun.

Taking Sides

I’ve long remembered the story of the elderly woman who was frail, hard of hearing, and nearly deaf.  Despite these obstacles, every Sunday morning she rose early, dressed and did her hair and makeup, and then called a taxi.  The taxi took her to church. After the service she took the taxi home.  This was her regular Sunday routine.

While at church one morning, her pastor said to her, “I know what an effort this is for you.  You know you don’t have to be here each week.  You can listen over the computer, or I can have someone bring you a copy of the service. You don’t have to go to all this trouble. So why do you do this week after week?”

"Because," she replied, “I want people to know which side I’m on.”

It’s easy for people of all ages to find reasons to stay inside, or stay away altogether.  This may be even truer for young people who have an array of digital amusements that older folks could never navigate. There is also less expectation among young people that they will take a stand for the Lord. That’s one reason why Confirmation Sunday is always moving for me.

When we’re so often told that Christianity is always just one generation away from extinction, I’m heartened by young people who step forward to say, “I’m on Jesus’s side.” I’m encouraged by these teenagers who want to be a part of God’s great work in the world, teenagers who cast their lot with the disciples and denominational church and say, “Count me in.” Every year on Confirmation Sunday, a fresh group of adolescents comes forth to make a public profession of faith, to kneel before God, to receive the prayers and the laying on of hands, and to rise into a new life of Christian discipleship.

This Sunday is Confirmation Sunday.  It’s an appropriate Sunday for Marti Ringenbach, our Director of Youth Ministries, to preach the sermon.  She has worked faithfully and diligently in the Confirmation program and is beloved by so many of our youth.  Marti has also responded to the calling of the Holy Spirit in her life -- she's preparing to become the Associate Pastor at Springfield UMC as of July 1. 

So this weekend is a time for celebration and wonder at how the Holy Spirit persists in calling people to take sides and choose the Lord. “Let no one despise your youth,” Paul wrote to young Timothy, “but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”

Come to encourage them, to celebrate them, and to show them they’re not alone – that you stand with them on the side of Jesus Christ.  

 

            Pastor Larry

Water on my brain ...

Summertime always means “water” to me.  I was blessed to grow up along a wide branch of the Elizabeth River in Tidewater Virginia.  June meant getting the boat & motor ready and launching it for the summer.  All summer I skied with friends, explored new inlets, crabbed a little, met girls, and skied some more. Summertime also meant sailing, the beach, the local pool, cool showers, water balloon fights, on and on.

Water is on my mind as we approach this first June weekend. I hope you won’t miss Cruise Ship:  The Musical, Burke’s annual musical variety show.  It premieres this Saturday evening at 7:00 pm. The encore performance is Sunday, June 2, at 3:00 pm. It’s funny, it’s upbeat, it’s musical as all get-out – and there’s a great blend of familiar faces and some Hollywood stars too!  We promise it’ll be safe, clean, smooth sailing – and we’ll definitely dock on time!

To fit with the chancel / stage setting, I’m going to talk about Jesus stilling the storm (Mark 4:35-41). You can join us at the 5:00 LifeSign, just prior to the Saturday Cruise Ship premiere, or on Sunday morning. We see in that story how the joyful elements of summer (light breezes, peaceful water) can turn into metaphors for the testing times in life:  heavy winds, roaring seas, dangerous waves.  How can Jesus help us through those anxious moments?  How can we not be overwhelmed?   We’ll find clues in the story – and in our hymns for this weekend, “Stand By Me” and a BUMC favorite, “Eternal Father, Strong to Save.”

Later this month our confirmation class will confirm the vows that were spoken at the baptisms. Confirmation Sunday is always a moving service, as we witness a new generation of young people saying Yes to Jesus Christ.  These 8^th graders say Yes to the One born through the birth waters of Mary, the One baptized in the river waters of the Jordan.  They say Yes to the water poured on their own fuzzy heads long ago.  They say Yes to the One who’ll see them through their own storms of life, now and forever.

Can you say Yes to the waters this month?  Yes to the waters that gave you birth?  Yes to the baptism that brought you into God’s fold?   Yes to the path that leads “beside still waters”? Even Yes to the path that leads through stormy seas?  Hear the Word of God:  “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you!” (Isaiah 43:2)

All water can carry us closer to the heart of God. This summer and always – let Jesus Christ be your Yes.

            Pastor Larry

Wishing You a Noisy Pentecost

This coming Sunday (May 19) is Pentecost Sunday.  One of the three great festivals of the Christian church (along with Christmas and Easter), it celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit to the gathered followers of Jesus.  It may be because it’s a celebration of a disembodied God – we can more easily envision a newborn infant or a battered man than an invisible spirit – that Pentecost doesn’t have the traction of Christmas and Easter.

Yet Pentecost is the event that establishes the church as an eternal and worldwide fellowship. Christmas and Easter require participants to be “on site.” An embodied God has to be in a singular location in space and time; if Jesus is “there,” he can’t be “here” – at least not until after Pentecost.

Pentecost is, in a sense, the celebration of God’s radical availability to us.  Pentecost shifts us from being observers to participants.

Maybe that’s why Pentecost is the noisy celebration.  The others are quiet.  We get the impression that observing Christmas, for example, is like being a spectator at a golf match.  “How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given.” “Silent night, holy night, call is calm, all is bright.” Sshh.

Easter also evokes our awe.  Easter stories include dumbstruck disciples, personal conversations, baffled guards, and maybe the sound of running feet. Eventually we get our religious response ordered into an well-planned concert, with a brass quartet, massed choirs, choreographed dance and harmonized Hallelujahs. All in orchestrated order.

But Pentecost is noisy! What a racket.  All heaven breaks loose – a violent wind, different languages “spreading out like fire,” Galileans babbling in a multitude of languages, widespread bafflement and confusion. “They’re all drunk,” the bystanders jeered. Even the participants who knew better asked “What on earth is going on?”

Isn’t it odd that the public and visible expression of God – the “Word,” Jesus Christ – arrives in silence?  And that what we so often claim to be inward and private – the Spirit of God – breaks forth in such a public and cacophonous way?  God again turns our expectations upside down.

This Sunday we invite you to join the excitement of the Spirited, worldwide fellowship of the church. You will hear languages spoken you have never heard before! You’ll meet new members, and you’ll celebrate the Spirit in fresh ways.  We ask you to wear something RED – the color of fire and energy and passion.

For that matter, join us also the day before. This Saturday morning  (May 18) we will literally Change the World.  We invite you to wear anything Burke UMC-related that you have:  any BUMC T-shirt, nametag, buttons or hats.  We’re welcoming our neighbors from 10 am – 1 pm to “Drop In and Do Good.” Together we’ll package meals, plant a community garden, prepare school and medical kits, sort relief items – and enjoy free food and music too!

“Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” (Colossians 3:14)  A Burke shirt on Saturday, something RED on Sunday.  God’s love can be raucous and spirited!  Let’s prove it!

Pastor Larry

Mothers Work for Peace

Last week I mentioned that one of the most moving memories of my trip to Israel was our visit to Kfar Aza kibbutz.  Kfar Aza is a neighborhood of about 700 people just a few miles east of the Gaza strip. The residents live under the constant anxiety of bomb shells being lobbed in from Gaza.  When the public address system intones “Code Red, Code Red,” they have 12-15 seconds to find shelter.  Unsurprisingly it’s the younger residents who feel most helpless and angry. 

The mother who spoke with us said, “It’s just very hard to raise a 13-year old son.  It’s even harder to raise a 13-year old son without a heart full of hate.” 

Most of us aren’t living in situations that dire, but we parents often face similar challenges with our kids. It may be guiding them through the horrific news of bombs in Boston or kidnapping in Cleveland. It may be helping them survive the taunts of their peers, the fickleness of their friends, or the hurts of a broken heart.  

God bless you moms especially, those of you who know that faith in a loving God is so critical in challenges like this. God knows and loves your child, and nothing the world does or says has the ultimate power to define them. They are defined only by their infinite worth as God’s children. 

God has set in their hearts a life purpose to be discovered and gifts to be utilized. God helps us not to automatically return evil for evil; Jesus can free us from the cycle of violence and help us to forgive. The Body of Christ at its best shapes us as a loving community of grace, and teaches us how to show grace in a frightening world.

Mother’s Day has its roots in Julia Ward Howe’s attempt to establish a “Mother’s Day for Peace” in the years following the Civil War.  It took hold in the U.S. in the years leading up to World War I.  At the heart of Mother’s Day is the simple passion for peace.

I want to bless all of you mothers who work day by day for peace at home, peace at work, peace at school, and peace in the hearts of your children. There’s no task more important than raising children with hearts that can love.

Happy Mother’s Day!

 

Pastor Larry

Jesus in Color

I want to thank you again for your prayers for me as I spent the last week in Israel. We spent as much or more time looking at 21st Century Israel as we did at 1st Century Israel. We went to Jerusalem and Galilee and the Dead Sea. We also went to the Knesset, a kibbutz near Gaza, and the Red Cross station on the border of Syria. Both were powerful perspectives for me, and I look forward to sharing my insights in the weeks to come.

One thing about 1st Century Israel that struck me was the opportunity to put places and colors to the locations we only read about in the Bible. When I read in Matthew 13, "That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea," my vision of that event remains vague and colorless in my mind.

But when I was actually in the land, I realized how concrete these events were. I understood that the fuller story would say, "One Wednesday morning in the spring, about 8:30, the sky was a glorious blue, the sun was hot, and the breezes off the Sea of Galilee caressed the faces of the disciples. Jesus went out of his house in Capernaum, walked through the town and down to the grassy bank of the Sea of Galilee, and sat on the ridge by the intersection."

His days were like ours - blue and green, grey or brown, rainy or cool. Seeing the land itself (which is so important is Israel's life, then and now) - its roads and ridges and overlooks - helped bring His story to life.

The other thing about 1st Century Israel that struck me was the proximity of one place to another. When I experienced how close Capernaum is to the Mount of the Beatitudes, and to the beach where the disciples ate fish with their Risen Lord, then the concrete reality of His life struck more forcefully. I experienced the geography of Jesus's life and could easily apply it to our geography.

That is, a parallel to his ministry there would be to say, "Jesus taught in the Rolling Valley Mall parking lot. Then he walked down Old Keene Mill Rd to the intersection, where he called his disciples. Later he gathered with them at Burke Lake Park. The next day he walked to Chipotle. "

I could visit the places that this man actually lived. Just as it rooted the reality of His life in a particular geography, it also rooted Jesus' life more closely in the geography of my heart.

I did errands around our community today, with the vision that Jesus could be that young man jogging down Burke Centre Parkway. He could be in that group of teenagers in Chipotle. He drives down our roads on a beautiful blue and green May morning, just as surely as He walked in Galilee.

 

Pastor Larry

A Whole New World

Happy Easter!  You know, I’ve really come to love Easter more and more in recent years.  It may not match up well to the emotional buildup and quiet holiness of Christmas, but I’m learning that its meaning is far more revolutionary than I’d ever realized.

For years I thought that the Resurrection was mainly a symbol that life goes on, that God gives us a second chance. If something comes to life that once was dead, it must be sharing that “Jesus-spark” that keeps hope alive when everything looks dead.  (Never a big fan of peeps and chicks, but certainly dormant flowers that bloom in the spring made a fine symbol of Easter.)  And Resurrection must be the proof of an afterlife, that there’s more to existence than this earthly plane.

And although I am one of those people that believes in the bodily resurrection, I didn’t quite know how to respond to the assertion that “Life just doesn’t work that way; resurrection is scientifically impossible.”  So Easter mostly had a “Don’t give up hope” encouragement to it, and I mined that as deeply as I could.

Well, that’s not deep enough, not by a long shot.  It may be all of the above (except maybe the afterlife proof), but it’s so much more.

Now I see, for example, that science is the study of repeatable events. History, on the other hand, is the study of non-repeatable events. History is the accumulation of events that happen that we don’t insist on being subject to scientific examination.  We use different means of verifying their having happened. Scripture, tradition, reason and experience can all bear witness to the likelihood of a bodily Resurrection. So I believe that resurrection may or may not qualify as a scientific event, but it definitely qualifies as a historical one.

Now I’ve come to see the resurrection of Jesus as the in-breaking of God’s New Creation.  It’s the inaugural weekend of a new and unprecedented reality.  We have been in a fundamentally different order of creation since that Sunday ages ago.  “Our old history ends with the cross; our new history begins with the resurrection.” (Watchman Nee)

Our world is qualitatively different now.

Now I see that we live in “a new world order, [one which] has opened up in the midst of the present one. God’s future has arrived in the present in the person of the risen Jesus, summoning everybody to become people of the future.” (N. T. Wright) God’s future is one in which the dead are raised. It is the future in which sin and death lose their power. In God’s future our battered planet is renewed, justice becomes the norm, all reconciliations are accomplished, our human bodies are remade, and the knowledge of God is rewritten on every human heart. 

God’s future is the one consistently proclaimed throughout the Bible.  And it’s a future that happens here – not in heaven, but on earth as it is in heaven.

The reality of the resurrection removes this ideal from “Wouldn’t it be nice…?” and places it squarely in the realm of “This will be.”  That’s why it summons every one of us to become “people of the future.”  This is what’s before us, so why not start living it now?  Why play by the rules of a losing contest? 

If you want to live a life that endures and counts for something, remember:  “The entire plan for the future,” said Billy Graham, “has its key in the resurrection.” That key will open more doors than we ever realized before.

Pastor Larry