That my child may have peace

I hope you’re able to see the poster accompanying this blog post.  It’s a wonderful photograph of a servicewoman in camouflage hugging her daughter with tears streaming down her face.  The caption reads, “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.” 

What a powerful reminder of the spirit that, at its finest, motivates our armed forces. We all want peace.  We want it for ourselves and for future generations.  It’s one of the hard realities that the desire for peace often seems to mean we have no choice but to take up arms.  While people can disagree on how to respond to that desire and choice, there should be no doubt that the dream of peace – especially in a volunteer military – compels our service personnel today. 

The poster also reflects the driving force behind the sacrifice of Jesus. I can easily see Jesus here, embracing any one of us children, tears streaming down his face, wanting only our welfare and our peace. I can see him saying, “Take me, that my children might live in peace.”  

I do hear him saying that – from the Garden and the cross. That is what He did. This is the meaning of sacrifice. 

This weekend we thank God for that spirit of sacrificial love that is ours in Jesus Christ.  We thank God for that spirit motivating our service personnel and our veterans. We thank God for anyone who receives and honors and acts on the spirit that calls us to loving sacrifice: 

“If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.”

 Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Pastor Larry

C.H.A.N.G.E.S.

My father long ago introduced our family to the wisdom of Heraclitus.  Heraclitus was a Greek philosopher who lived in Ephesus around 500 years before Christ.  His adage: “The only thing constant is change.”  Dad reminded us that the one thing you can count on not to change – is that everything changes.

This Sunday morning we will confirm almost 20 eighth-graders who leave behind the spiritual complacency of childhood. They will confirm their faith in Jesus Christ so that they may live as followers of Jesus “on purpose.” Change.

There’s less than a month of high school left for our seniors. Soon the reality they’ve known all their lives will change.  Out of public school. Usually out of the house. Away from Burke.  Change.

College seniors will soon bid campus life goodbye. Financial challenges loom. Friends disperse. Change.

We have about a half-dozen families who’ve welcomed newborns into their lives in recent months. Several more young families will grow by one this summer. Our church community is seeing retirements and deployments, reassignments and departures, arrivals and readjustments. Old Heraclitus was right.

Yet by my desk is posted the word CHANGES as an acronym.  Each letter stands for a word, so that the deeper meaning of “changes” is revealed. That meaning is --   

Christ Has A New Gift Each Second.

All of our times are in God’s hands, and God’s will is always – always – to bless us. So times of change are also gifts from God.  Certainly new opportunities and exciting possibilities are gifts; certainly milestones passed and achievements reached are too. 

But sadness is also a gift from God; grief and regret are also. They invite us to savor each second that has passed. They invite us to remember the securities of home or friends that we counted on so long. We give thanks for the blessings of stability and the precious gifts we enjoyed effortlessly. No we realize we can no longer count on those things. The past is over. These harder gifts of sadness and grief and regret can awaken us to live in new ways in our new life chapter. What can we continue – and what do we want to change – in the seconds, days, years that are about to begin?  Often we’re not motivated to ask these questions without Christ’s harder gifts of sadness and regret.

So maybe change isn’t the only thing that’s constant. Constant also is the grace of Jesus Christ. Constant is His desire to bless you. Constant is His determination to help you grow in wisdom. Never-changing is His commitment to your growing in faith and hope and love.

Christ has a new gift each second. I hope you will welcome the days ahead – joy and sadness alike – as gifts from the hand of a loving Lord.  

Pastor Larry

Faithfully ... Into the Future?

A few weeks ago I wrote about the issues coming before the General Conference of United Methodists in Tampa.  That Conference is now over.  Here are some of the actions taken (and not taken).

1. The "Call to Action" initiative to restructure the denomination's agencies for ministry was supplanted by several subsequent proposals. The Conference did vote to shrink some agency boards, but they went through arduous voting processes until a final comprehensive plan was proposed.  That restructuring plan passed by a 60% vote but was subsequently declared unconstitutional by the Judicial Council. Most of our structures will remain as they are for another 4 years, while some consensus for restructuring will take a higher priority.

2.   Guaranteed appointments for ordained elders were eliminated.  Bishops and Cabinets will have fuller discretion over appointments, though a number of procedural safeguards and processes will undoubtedly appear in each individual Conference.

3.  The proposal for a "set-aside bishop" was defeated. The Council of Bishops will most likely continue to select an active bishop to preside over the Council and serve as spokesperson for the church when necessary.

4.  A $603.1 million denominational budget for 2013-2016 was passed, 6% smaller than the current quadrennium.  Changes to clergy pensions were approved that will shift more of the risks in retirement preparation from annual conferences to individual clergy.  The United Methodist Church entered into full communion with a number of historically black pan-Methodist denominations, and the Conference approved making the United Methodist Women an autonomous organization rather than operating it under the church's missions agency;

5.  There was no change in the wording of our denominational stand on homosexuality, which currently reads:  “The United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality and considers this practice incompatible with Christian teaching.”  After over an hour of passionate debate, the Conference could not even agree that it disagrees over the issue of homosexuality.

The Revs. Adam Hamilton and Mike Slaughter, pastors respectively of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection (Kansas) and Ginghamsburg UMC (Ohio), proposed a substitute statement acknowledging honest disagreement among faithful believers on this topic. The proposal urged unity over division and respect for co-existence of differing views.  Hamilton reminded delegates that John Wesley once said, “Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt, we may.”

After the proposal was defeated, the Daily Reporter spoke with Laura Rossbert, a visitor from the Tennessee Annual Conference, who was in tears.  “I stand here broken-hearted, knowing the church has done harm to my friends,” she said. “As a straight, married woman, I have privilege – but I am also expecting a child in September. I want my church to love my child no matter who they grow up to love.”

If I may offer a personal word:  It probably comes as no surprise that my own discernment has led me closer to the stance of Adam Hamilton, Mike Slaughter and Laura Rossbert than to the current wording of the Discipline.  I pray for our denomination to be one in unity and love – and I also pray for the full inclusion of everyone.  I would hate to see the church divided; I also hate to see the pain and anguish that this stance causes to so many. It remains hard for both of these prayers to be answered fully in our denomination right now.

But my hope remains strong that our own Burke UMC remains within the holy circle of God’s love.  In light of that love, I hope we will continue to practice John Wesley’s advice.  We may not think alike, but we can love alike. We do not have to be of one mind in order to be of one heart. 

“Faith, hope and love endure, but the greatest of these is love.”

Pastor Larry

Living on Someone Else's Blood

One of my parishioners in Richmond years ago suffered from a cancerous type of anemia.  In a phrase, the disease ate Ginny’s blood cells. She would have to go to MCV Hospital every three weeks or so for blood transfusions, and her energy level would increase.  As the weeks would pass she’d slowly get weaker and more anemic until it was time to go for her next round.

Ginny found the turn her life had taken her to be quite astounding.  “Literally,” she said, “I’m living on someone else’s blood.” It was amazing to her that medical science enabled that to happen – but it amazed her even more that total strangers would donate their blood, their “essence of life” (she called it), so that people they didn’t even know would have the opportunity to live. She was grateful beyond her ability to express.

I wrote a sermon on Ginny’s life experience.  I wanted to remind myself and my church that all of us are living on someone else’s blood. The gift of Jesus Christ on the cross has freed us from the dead-end of sin and death.  We owe our lives to the One who gave his “essence of life” that we might see gratefully see more joyful days on earth.

Every time I donate blood, I think of two people – Ginny Willett is one.  My Dad is the other.  Dad gave so regularly he began earning pins for his donations. I know he earned a 5 Gallon pin (that’s 40 pints), and I think he earned a 10 Gallon pin before he had to stop donating. But he’d done it all his life.  He’d always say simply, “It’s something I can do.”

The Bloodmobile is coming to our parking lot on Saturday, May 19.  It will be part of our Change the World celebration.  It’s another way you can change the world – literally – for the Ginny Willetts of this world. It’s something you can do.

I suggest it also as a means of grace.  We experience the grace and love of God through many means – praying, worshipping, serving, helping, working for justice, and so on.  Just as we pray remembering that Jesus also prayed, and wash feet remembering that Jesus also washed feet, and show mercy remembering that Jesus also showed mercy – so we can do the same this month.  Jesus gave his blood. Perhaps, as we do the same thing, we’ll discover a new closeness and blessing from the Lord.

What’s critical here is that we need your sign-ups by Saturday, May 12. You only need to go online to www.inova.or/donateblood, click on Donate Blood 2X and use the Sponsor Code 1092.  You can also contact Pam Riffe who’s coordinating this at pam.riffe.a7k8@statefarm.org or 804-980-0116.

Change the World offers a multitude of ways for the community to join us in bringing powerful change to our planet. Please don’t neglect sharing “the essence of life” itself. It's what Jesus did for you.

Pastor Larry

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