Jesus Walks

I joined the Women in Study class this morning to see pictures of Ellen Quisenberry’s recent trip to Israel.  What a moving experience it must be to walk that land!  Ellen’s pictures and narration brought me more closely into the Holy Land and moved me to see what Jesus must have seen.

I’ve never had a problem with believing that Jesus the man really existed.  But to actually see the landscapes he saw, the valleys he crossed, the side of the well where he may have rubbed his hand, the walls he leaned against, the same trails that he walked – I really had a new realization that here, in this place, a miracle lived.  Jesus walked. He walked in that relatively unchanged land.  A man with a specific accent and fragrance and hair color and sense of humor once had the same view of the lake that I saw.

I’m blessed to know, and know something about, a lot of individual people. Most of them I meet at church or in the neighborhood. But when I visit a home, I get a whole different feel for their uniqueness as people.  I see their photos on the wall or their books on the shelf or the garden they’ve cultivated so lovingly.  The context helps “flesh out” the whole person.     

So I’m thankful and hopeful – thankful to Ellen for showing us Jesus’ context, and hopeful that I might see it someday myself.  In the meantime, I remember the words that Jesus spoke: Have you believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe. (John 20:29)

We don’t have to see Israel to know where Jesus walks. He moves not just in those places where Palestinian dust swirled around his ankles.  Jesus walks among us today.  The rapper Kanye West wrote and rapped:

To the hustlers, killers, murderers, drug dealers, even the strippers
(Jesus walks with them)
To the victims of welfare – for we living in hell here – hell yeah
(Jesus walks with them)
Now hear ye, hear ye – want to see Thee more clearly
I know he hear me when my feet get weary
‘Cause we're the almost nearly extinct!
We rappers are role models? We rap, we don't think
I ain't here to argue about his facial features
Or here to convert atheists into believers
I'm just trying to say – the way school need teachers,
The way Kathie Lee needed Regis – that's the way I need Jesus.

Is Jesus walking with you?

   Pastor Larry

Changes Afoot

This coming Tuesday the United Methodist General Conference opens in Tampa, Florida. I doubt that the Post will cover it closely.  Even though United Methodist membership in the United States has declined 29% since 1968,  we are a major American church and a growing worldwide denomination that will consider several important and controversial issues.

Close to a thousand United Methodists from all over the world will gather for two weeks of work and worship.  Our own Virginia Conference is sending 26 delegates, equally divided between clergy and laity.

Most delegates have come to realize that the status quo is unsustainable, but obviously views differ on how to change it. Several key items are worth tracking.

A “Call to Action” initiative aims to restructure the denomination’s agencies for ministry. A proposed “United Methodist Center for Connectional Mission and Ministry” would combine the functions of nine current agencies into a far more centralized organization.  The membership of the governing boards would shrink from more than 400 people to 15.  Proponents believe the future organization would be “more nimble, cost-effective and focused,” while opponents fear it would minimize opportunities for racial and ethnic diversity befitting an international church.

The other key proposal would eliminate guaranteed appointments – also known as “security of appointment” – for ordained elders. Guaranteed appointments were introduced in 1956 as a way to protect the rights of women clergy, which the UMC began ordaining that year.  It has been in effect since then as a covenant of mutual commitment between clergy and the denomination. Many fear that eliminating this provision puts clergy at the arbitrary mercy of Bishops and Cabinets without adequate recourse.  Others believe that the church has been forced to rotate ineffective clergy for too long, to the detriment of local congregations, and that eliminating this guarantee encourages excellence in clergy leadership.

Another proposal would create a “set-aside bishop,” one who would lead the full Council of Bishops without having to simultaneously lead a geographical region of Methodists. Some feel this would allow the church to give more attention to national and global issues and to speak with a single, clearer voice.  Opponents fear it would shift too much power to bishops.

Other proposals will address various ethnic initiatives and shifts in representation to the worldwide church; a denominational budget for 2013-2016; changes to clergy pensions that would shift more of the risks in retirement preparation from annual conferences to individual clergy; and consideration of alternative wordings in the United Methodist Book of Discipline. Most observers predict that proposals to change the denomination’s stance on homosexuality, for example, will be offered but will not pass.

Other proposals will suggest changes to policies regarding membership, administration, property, and judicial proceedings. Revisions to The Book of Resolutions and the Social Principles will reflect current wisdom on how best to be faithful to the call of Christ in the 21^st century.

You can watch the proceedings of General Conference with live streaming of worship and conference sessions — and news stories, photos and videos will be available. You can learn more by going to <http://gc2012.umc.org>. Please keep our leaders and our denominational structures in your prayers in the days to come.

Pastor Larry

The Future Now

Beverly used to have a large poster on her office wall that was a particular favorite of mine.  It quoted the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who said:  “The future enters into us long before it happens.”  For years I’ve found that to be a thought-provoking statement. 

It reminds me that the seeds of what may happen to me today were planted a good while back:  A phone call this morning began with someone’s idea last month; an insight this afternoon ties in with a conversation of some weeks ago.  Newness doesn’t usually just drop out of the sky. It began with someone else, in an earlier time and place, and it connects me to those other people with wonder and gratitude. 

It also means that a seemingly insignificant conversation today may lead to something powerful in the weeks to come.  The work I do, the prayers I raise, the coincidences I notice each day are the beginning of something yet to be – “unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.”  That’s why every day is precious.  It carries priceless seeds of the future. 

Easter is a prime example of this. I believe that the mystery of resurrection wasn’t an off-the-cuff reaction of God to an unanticipated crucifixion.  I have trouble thinking that God fore-knew every exact detail of Jesus’ life, but I do believe that his death and resurrection were woven into God’s dealings with us from pretty early on. 

I also see resurrection as a glimpse into our own ultimate destiny in God. What Jesus was then and is now, we too shall be someday. Jesus “comes to us,” in a sense, from God’s glorious future. The resurrection is God’s invasion of the here-and-now with the reality of the there-and-then. Our future includes a life on this earth that lies beyond death; a life that leaves buried all of our fears and infirmities; a life that is emptied of evil; a life that shows us perfected through the grace of God; a life lived in a community of joyful holiness.

Resurrection is a “sneak preview” of what God has in store for us.  Or, “The future enters into us long before it happens.” 

If true, then we can live this future now.  That’s why our current theme is The Future Now. What we embrace today shapes our future.  How we live, who we follow, what we value – all of this and more is shaped by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  

     Pastor Larry

Tonight begins four days of worship that are the high point of the entire Christian year. I want to borrow liberally from one of Morgan’s emails to invite and encourage your participation in as many of these worship events as are meaningful to you.

Maundy Thursday Worship 7:30 pm
Tonight's service commemorates the last supper Jesus had with his disciples. The two acts associated with this supper are Holy Communion and footwashing. (The first three gospels all focus on the Last Supper; John’s gospel emphasizes the washing of feet —as a sign of humble servanthood.) Not everyone feels comfortable with footwashing. It's perfectly fine to sit back and watch as a visual meditation. If you feel led to participate, though, you'll most likely find it a powerful experience.

Good Friday  Stations of the Cross 9 am to 7 pm; Worship 7:30 pm
We have two worship activities to commemorate Good Friday: the daytime Stations of the Cross and our evening Tenebrae service. The Stations of the Cross is a Christian tradition in which we walk around the sanctuary past fourteen stations that describe the journey Jesus took to the cross. We have booklets with reflections for you to read as you walk, sit and pray. The sanctuary will be open from 9 am to 7 pm for your personal journey.

The Tenebrae service (the word means “shadows”) tomorrow evening at 7:30 is structured around 15 candles.  Fourteen are extinguished one by one as people read different portions of the story of Jesus' crucifixion. Only the Christ Candle remains.

Holy Saturday Worship 5 pm; Prayer Vigil 6 pm to midnight
Holy Saturday is the day that Jesus lay in the grave. Thus it's a day we remember the necessity of a painful waiting.  “What will happen in a world where the Son of God is absent?” Our Holy Saturday service will meet at the usual LifeSign service time of 5:00 pm, though it will NOT be a LifeSign "Easter service."  It will have a much more somber tone than usual. This is the only Saturday of the year that this service will not celebrate Communion.

After the service, we'll hold a prayer vigil from 6 pm to midnight in the Reflection Room. The vigil will combine structured liturgical prayer and Psalms readings with extemporaneous prayer. You are welcome to participate in silence or verbally.  You do not need to attend the whole time, it's fine to drop in.  We will celebrate Communion at midnight as Easter Sunday finally arrives.

Easter Sunday Worship 8:15, 9:45, 11:15 am
Our Easter service is always a time of great celebration; we'll celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ with brass, handbells, singing, flowers, dance, preaching, and Holy Communion.

It's also a time when many members of the community will be visiting our church for the first time. Please be especially attentive to your hospitality on Easter and introduce yourself to anyone you don't recognize. You might be the one whom God has decided to use to welcome them into our church family.

We, your pastors, along with the entire staff, look forward to these days of observance and celebration with you. We wish you a Blessed Holy Week and a Joyous Easter!

 Pastor Larry

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