A Deadly Silence

Before our summer sputters to a close, it’s worth noting how often illegal guns were involved in numerous tragedies.  The summer’s news included:

·         On July 20 in Aurora, Colorado, a single gunman killed 12 people and wounded 58 in a movie theatre.

·         Less than 3 weeks later, on August 5, a lone gunman with a 9 mm handgun shot and killed 6 people and injured four others in a Wisconsin Sikh temple.  Among the wounded were police officer Lt. Brian Murphy, shot 8-9 times at close range.  The gunman eventually shot himself.

·         On August 7, Jared Loughner pleaded guilty to shooting and killing 6 people and wounding 13 in Tucson in January 2011.

·         On August 12, 67 family members of the Virginia Tech massacre victims wrote President Obama and Governor Romney, pleading with them to break their silence and present a plan for gun control.

·         On August 24, a lone gunman shot and killed 2 people and wounded 9 near the Empire State Building in New York City.

·         Earlier this week, more than a dozen survivors and family members of the 2011 Tucson shootings outlined for Attorney General Eric Holder their campaign to stem gun violence. Their petition had over half a million signatures.

Every day in the United States, 34 persons are shot and killed by guns.  This is more than a Virginia Tech massacre every single day.  The national death rate by handguns would compare to the entire population of Fairfax being obliterated every two years.

I’m sick of hearing this sort of news week after week.

The petition that the Tucson and Virginia Tech families are proposing is available at www.demandaplan.org.  It calls upon both President Obama and Governor Romney to move beyond “a moment of silence” and propose a plan to curb handgun violence.

The petition doesn’t outline or advocate one specific set of solutions.  In that sense it’s intentionally non-partisan.  Rather, it pleads with both men – one of them surely our President for the next 4 years – to break their deadly silence on this most deadly issue.  We’re not well-served as a nation by allowing our leaders to ignore this problem altogether.  Yet that’s what both men aim to do.

That’s why I’ve signed the petition and posted it on Facebook.  I invite you to do the same.

My candidate, Jesus Christ, said, “Those who live by the sword will perish by the sword.”  And Lord, we are perishing!

Demand a plan.

Pastor Larry

Gas Up!

Any car that starts out on a road trip makes one essential stop before hitting the highway.  The gas station.  You need a full tank before you begin your trip.  The metaphor is pretty apparent:  As this new season of your life begins, do you have the fuel?       What’s in your tank?

 

I just read the story of John Sage and Greg Forsythe, two friends leading a creative business venture whose profits went to help street children in Costa Rica.  Greg, their chief financial officer, was an experienced executive who brought tremendous business skill and mentoring wisdom to the company.  Unexpectedly, Greg was invited to come to Houston to interview for the Number Two spot at Jiffy Lube.  John knew his company could never match that offer financially, but he drove Greg to the airport.

As Greg was getting out of the car, John said, “Just remember the Jiffy Lube slogan.”  Greg looked puzzled.  John continued, “I saw it on TV last night.  Their tag line is, ‘We don’t want to change the world, we just want to change your oil.’” He then wished Greg good luck.

When he returned two days later, Greg had rejected the Jiffy Lube offer.  He returned to their company for a fraction of the pay. Greg realized that his life couldn’t be about the money, it had to be about the meaning.

That’s what fills our tanks – the conviction that we’re doing something important with our lives. Your job may bring you that fulfillment.  You may also want to make more of your life, to add more meaning, to live your life more fully. 

We’re a congregation full of people like Greg.  Our fuel is meaning.  So we teach children, we sing in worship, and we mentor youth.  We go on mission trips, study more intentionally, and give generously. As we grow, we learn to recognize God’s opportunities when they appear.

 

This fall you'll have two opportunities to "fill your tank" with an understanding of the Bible.  Disciple 1 classes will meet Tuesday morning and Tuesday evening. This is the best gift you can give yourself and the world you want to change for the better.

The Apostle Paul praises the God “who fills all in all.” (Ephesians 1:23)  Why not make God your first stop this fall?

Pastor Larry

A Prayer for the Big Picture

I was looking for the word to describe why I’m going to do what I’m going to do this weekend. I discovered it:  multivocal.  (It’s actually pronounced mul-TIV-o-kul.)   From the basic interpretation of “many voices,” it denotes something having different meanings of relatively equal validity. 

Scripture is multivocal. Rarely does a Bible passage have a point. Rarely can we determine the meaning of a word or sentence. The richness of God’s word to us is that it can say different things to us at different times.

This weekend I plan to preach on the same passage that Morgan preached on last week:  Ephesians 3:14-21. I have no quibble with his excellent sermon and no reason to correct what he said. Rather, as our Monday evening RE-Focus group pondered this passage and Morgan’s sermon, we found ourselves going down a different path – one that I hadn’t yet taken from this passage before.   

Paul offers here what I call “A Prayer for the Big Picture.”  He prays these things for his hearers:

·        That they may be strengthened inwardly                               (v. 16)
·        That the love of Jesus Christ will dwell in their hearts          (vs. 17, 19a)
·        That they will grasp the immensity of God                             (v. 18)
·        That they will be filled with God’s fullness.                            (v. 19b)

This can be another way of grasping the Big Picture called Why Am I Here?  When life is fragile and short, what marks time on earth well-spent?  When life is long, what matters most?  When we dwell in the valley of the shadow of death, what do we focus on? 

Paul points us in this prayer to the Big Picture. We’re not here to figure life out – to answer some cosmic question – or just to “do the best we can.” The quality of human life is measured by our capacity to open our hearts to God and experience love.

This is Paul’s prayer for Ephesian people and for you.  How well is your life responding to this prayer?  Do you know the inner strength of God that enables you to be patient – forgiving – thoughtful – and kind?  Do you know you are loved with a love that surpasses all human understanding?  Are you ever bowled-over and awed by the hand of God in the world?  And are you growing in love?  Is your heart becoming fuller as you age, or emptier, or more apathetic and cynical?

Scripture is multivocal.  Familiar passages, read again, will yield new meanings.  I’ll invite you this weekend – at Saturday LifeSign and at Sunday services – to listen again to this familiar prayer.  See if it helps you see God’s “BIG Picture” for your life in a new light.

Pastor Larry

Bishop Young Jin Cho

I understand that for many of us, the identity of the Bishop of United Methodists in Virginia is too far removed from us to make much of a difference. The head of your particular division or company may be more important to you than to your neighbors.

But since we have chosen to affiliate with Burke United Methodist Church, since we are all members of this Body of Christ, and since the nature of the person “at the top” influences the culture and direction of the body as a whole – I want to say a word about our new Bishop.

Young Jin Cho reminds us of the power of the worldwide church – and the global character of United Methodism. He is the first Asian Bishop in the Southeastern Jurisdiction of United Methodist churches and the first non-Anglo / person of color ever to serve as Bishop of Virginia. If we ever despair of the world not changing much, here is proof that that’s not true.

Young Jin served for 22 years as the pastor of the Korean United Methodist Church of Greater Washington in McLean.  Under his leadership the church bought a smaller United Methodist church with cash, successfully completed three building projects, and guided it to become the largest worshiping congregation in our Conference (over 1000 people in worship each week). I would venture to say that more people have been sent into ordained ministry in the last 20 years from KUMC than from any other church in the Conference.

Young Jin became the Superintendent of the Arlington District in 2006.  This means he has offered spiritual and institutional guidance to roughly half of all UM churches in Northern Virginia, and his influence has been widely felt as well.  I had the privilege of working with him for several years prior to my arrival here at Burke.  Young Jin believes that in every aspect, the church’s vitality depends on its strong prayerful connection with God through Jesus Christ.  When we attend to our spiritual identity, then other measures of growth and fruitfulness will appear.  When we ignore the disciplined spiritual life, everything else is hollow.

Young Jin begins his duties on September 1. Because of our mandatory retirement age, he will only be able to serve as Bishop for one four-year period.  Since it takes any new Bishop (or pastor) about two years to get to know a new community, Young Jin’s assignment anywhere else would have severely limited his ability to make a difference for Jesus Christ.  Since he knows Virginia and vice-versa, his assignment here offers a unique opportunity for both continuity and re-focus.

I hope to welcome Young Jin here at Burke UMC in the near future, as his schedule permits. In the meantime, I invite your prayers that his leadership will indeed deepen our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthen our ministries in His name.

Grace and peace, 

Pastor Larry

Little Demons

I’m nerdy enough to be excited by the almost-certain discovery of the Higgs boson this week.  You may have read about this.  Particle physicists believe they’ve found the “missing piece” that explains what’s called the Standard Model of physical reality.  It’s a particle without mass that seems to attract and interact with other mass-less particles, and together they create mass.  It’s a transformational particle.  The Higgs boson is why, in short, there’s something instead of nothing. So it’s sometimes called the “God Particle.” 

That’s also part of The BIG  Picture, what we’re exploring in sermons this summer.  When “Christ fills all in all,” at some level we’re talking physics and cosmology.

The Bible passage coming up this Sunday is a look at cosmology, but from a very un-scientific viewpoint.

In Ephesians 2:1-10, Paul mentions “the ruler of the powers of the air, the spirit now at work among those who are disobedient.” Paul is referencing the ancient belief that the universe is as alive as the earth.  His contemporaries considered the skies to be as teeming with life as is planet.  Heavenly beings were both angels and their opposites – unholy beings which are called “powers” or “principalities” or “rulers of the air,” all dwelling miles over our heads.

Very few of us could believe that to be literally true.  But we so often find ourselves being ruled by powers that seem to be “in the air we breathe.”  There’s something about the Washington area, for example, that forces us to serve the gods of Work and Efficiency more here than most other places.  Why is that?  Just seems to be part of the atmosphere.

Another unholy ruler of the air might be Speed.  Our guiding verse is often The Faster the Better. The computer industry has done a wonderful job in convincing us that increasing our processor’s speed by milli-seconds is worth replacing a fairly new, fully operable device – and at some expense  Cell telephone companies compare their service with racing motorcycles. When our mission teams arrive in another country, our first drive is to get the project completed quickly.  We serve this invisible authority called Speed, which is (by the way) never – never – named as a holy value.

We can name others: 
·         Choice (fewer options is always bad);
·         Position (we’re either #1 or failures)
·         Newness (new is always better).

The gospel sets us free from the tyranny of these principalities and powers. We are freed by the grace of God in Jesus Christ.  He alone has cut the bonds that bind us to these false gods, gods such as Work and Speed and Newness, little pretend-gods which exhaust us and demean us.  You are healed and held together by the love of God in Jesus Christ, never by trying to satisfy one of these little demanding rulers.

Knowing that cosmologists and particle physicists have debunked that old worldview doesn’t in itself set us free.  Only Jesus Christ does that.  Only in Him are we a freed and forgiven people.

Remember The BIG Picture. 

Pastor Larry

Living Large

Ever since we started planning for our summer sermon series, The BIG  Picture, I’ve been thinkingabout living large.  (No, please do not insert weight joke here.) Am I “living large” with the life I’ve been given? Are you?

Marti Ringenbach’s sermon last weekend got me to pondering one verse in particular of the passage she read.  The apostle Paul is writing to the Ephesians (Ephesus is in modern-day Turkey) about the immensity of what God is doing for us in Jesus Christ.  He says that God is setting forth in Christ a plan for the fullness of time – to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Eph. 1:10)

There’s enormity in those words!  God’s plan is to gather up – that is, to bring together, to reconcile, to heal – everything!   Everything that in our lives is broken, alienated, hostile or divided – God will re-unite.  Our planet. Our nations. Our families. Our souls and spirits. Our hearts and minds. Everything that exists will be healed.

Once we even glimpse this astounding promise, we can understand more deeply the work that God wants us to do.  It’s the same work – healing, making peace, reconciling, forgiving.  Making one where there now is two.  Repairing the breech. Binding the wounds. Fostering agreements. Ending hostilities.

Yet we often settle for just “straightening our desks.” Rather than leave a messy top and get outside to do the big things, we stay around tidying up the small details. I need to confess this small thing; I need to examine myself; I need to explain myself; I need to forget it; and so on. 

Yes, I still believe that the small things, like mustard-seed faith, are important. But sometimes we act small out of fear, not love.  Someone wise said, “Your playing small does not serve the world.”

Here’s that Marianne Williamson quote in its fuller context: 

            “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.  … Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.  We are all meant to shine, as children do.  We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.”

I resonate with those words.  I’ve just begun a new decade – well, at least the first number is new – and that sort of thing does tend to re-focus our view of life. We ponder, “What am I called to do?  Why am I here?  What are my gifts?  What is God planning and wanting from me?”

And God reminds us that his plan includes healing and reconciling, forgiving and uniting. We have the capacity to do so much more of this than we usually settle for.  It takes vision and courage, true, but God gives us vision and courage through the Holy Sprit of Jesus Christ.

God helps us do what God wants us to do.

I hope you’ll reflect on your life today.  Are you helping to bring reconciliation at work?  How’s your marriage? Are you ending divisions or perpetuating them? What alienation is Christ nudging you to bridge? 

You are powerful.  Remember The BIG   Picture.  Risk a little larger today.
 

Pastor Larry

Seeing The BIG Picture

Dear Friend of Burke UMC,

It’s been hot!  It’s going to be hot today. 

 “How hot is it?”

Farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying boiled eggs.
The cows are giving evaporated milk.
The trees are whistling for the dogs.

So stay cool.

+          +          +          +          +          +          +

Do you remember those old computer-generated pictures you’d see in the mall?  Colorful canvases of abstract shapes in rows and waves.  Apparently, if you looked at them in a certain way, another shape would emerge – a knight, or a guitar, or Jesus – a vision that you missed at first glance.

Our summer sermon series The BIG Picture is a bit like that. Our familiar picture is of Jesus’ birth, his teaching, his death, his resurrection.  But Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians invites us to see something new about Jesus beneath the familiar picture.

Ephesians gropes for language to covey the immensity of God’s plan – which is to heal and reconcile everyone and everything in all creation.  It’s not about offering personal salvation to one individual after another, so much as bringing everything together in universal wholeness. 

God reconciles us to him through Jesus. God makes us one with every human being; no more “us and them,” friend and enemy.  God heals Planet Earth, Nature itself.  Heaven and earth are united. The Body of Christ fills everything that exists with love – a “fullness” that “fills all in all.”  From the tiniest quarks to the most distant black holes, it’s all saturated with God’s healing energy. 

Immense!

Our sermon series will start as Ephesians does – from a distance – like approaching a painting in the mall.  In chapter 1 Paul first rhapsodizes about the enormity of Christ’s presence.  As he draws closer he starts pointing out the major brushstrokes of God’s masterpiece – Jesus, salvation, the church (he’s quite unapologetic about the cosmic importance of the church). He gets closer still and names your role in all this – your marriage, your relationships, your speech, your emotions, your nightly prayers. 

Along the way we’ll have the opportunity to step back and refocus. Every Monday evening this summer I’ll host a conversation called Re-Focus.  We’ll talk about the sermon; we’ll talk about how God is or isn’t apparent in our lives; we’ll pray for each other.  Join us any Monday evening this summer, 7:30 – 8:45 pm for Re-Focus.   

By summer’s end I hope we’ll have seen new images emerge from the familiar picture.   The masterpiece of God called Jesus Christ will have revealed a new perspective on your everyday life.

This summer, think BIG!

+          +          +          +          +

It’s been hot!  It’s going to be hot today. 

“How hot is it?”

The birds are using potholders to pull worms out of the ground.

 

Stay cool.

Pastor Larry