The Man at the Gate of the Year

One of the Buxton family traditions I’ve adopted over the years is a brief quote with an interesting history.  My Dad used to say it at dinner every New Year’s Day.  All throughout my ministry – or at least for as long as I can remember – I’ve used it as a benediction on the Sundays closest to January 1.

It’s a snippet from a longer poem by the little-known British poet Minnie Haskins.  Published in 1908, it came to public attention when King George VI (father of the current Queen Elizabeth) quoted it in his 1939 Christmas address to the British Empire on the eve of World War II. 

I recently learned that when the Queen Mother was buried in 2002, the words of this poem were read at her state funeral.

The quote I learned is:

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:

       “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied: “Go forth into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.

       That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

What has spoken to me over the years is this assertion:  that going forward into the unknown, accompanied by God, is safer than going into the known without God. God alone makes the journey into unknown territory better than following a well-lit path.

Our prayer is so often for certainty. “If I could only see what’s ahead! If I only knew!”  But that’s more dangerous than we realize.  A false sense of security breeds inattention, which trips us up time and again. 

But here’s fresh wisdom:  Go by the way of not-knowing – hand in hand with God.  Walking in companionship with the Lord is safer than traveling a well-lit path by ourselves.

May you walk closely with God into the new beginning we call 2013.

 

Pastor Larry

Guns & Jesus

It becomes increasingly obscene to balance the American desire to cling to guns with the message of Christmas. We observe a holiday centered in the birth of a powerless and vulnerable child who lived a life of nonviolence. He chose weakness over power, love over force, sacrifice over self-will. How this life squares with the insistent demand to own weapons without restrictions is beyond me.

And while today’s church is obviously made up of human beings who live in the “real world” of the 21^st Century and not first century Palestine, trying to square the message of Christmas holiness with the “God-given” right to arm ourselves grows increasingly offensive.

We are confronted with two stories to live. There is the “American” story that offers violence, force and self-protection at all costs and that clamors for our rights as means to our salvation. And there is the story of Jesus Christ, one who was born in vulnerability and lived in trust. That story insists that ultimate victory belongs to “the lamb who was slain” by the violence of the world. That story insists that our responsibilities trump our rights, that community trumps self, and that forgiveness trumps retaliation.

Only one of these stories is true and worthy of our commitment. We cannot have it both ways.
 

Pastor Larry

Grace in the Twinkling of an Eye

I had a minor outpatient procedure this week, one that involved anesthesia for a brief time.  (Actually, I wasn’t planning to say “colonoscopy” here at all. But it’s an opportunity to say to you:  Please do not neglect this!  If you’ve never had one or are overdue, it’s no big deal – and it could save your life.  I’ve done too many funerals to believe otherwise. Go. You are too precious to God not to.)

Okay – now back to Tidings.  The most wondrous thing about this to me was the experience of the anesthesia.  I said it’s really a form of time-travel:  One second you’re in this room; the next second you’re in another room and an hour has gone by.  Zip!   It’s that immediate – and that amazing.  So many of you have had the same experience, maybe more often and for longer than mine.

But it got me pondering.

I give God great thanks for the gift of anesthesia and God’s trained practitioners. I also wondered if the gift of death is anything like this experience.  Your eyes close involuntarily.  Consciousness drops away. You lose any conception of earthly time.  You trust others to take care of your body. You are not in pain. You awaken in another location, seemingly immediately and yet much later.  You’re beckoned by soft voices that welcome you into a different reality from the one you left.

I take this as a glimpse of the mercy God has prepared for us. I know the reality is probably far more complex.  I believe in a time of judgment, for example (which this experience didn’t include).  But even in preparing for that moment we’re urged to remember that the One who judges us most finally is the same One who loves us most fully.

Christmas is obviously about the birth of Jesus, not his death. But our final encounter with Jesus can come at any moment.  A lot of us have lost family members over these past weeks, too, so any musing about death is always timely.  

So Paul writes to the Corinthians: 

Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye… and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. (1 Cor. 15:52)

Amazing things happen in the twinkling of an eye. Much to give thanks for.

Think Small

The opening verse of our Scripture reading for Sunday is a word of hope from Isaiah:

            A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,

          and a branch shall grow out of his roots.   (Isaiah 11:1)

Odd words, aren’t they?  There’s a lot of hidden metaphor in that verse.  Jesse was King David’s father.  His “family tree” had come to an end.  Jesse’s clan was no longer the “royal family” – David was gone, his sons were dead or disgraced – and the prophet Isaiah likens his once-great family tree to a stump.

But Isaiah is saying that the longed for Messiah – God’s special chosen one who would lead Israel back to glory – would be a descendant of David nonetheless. He would come from this stunted family tree. The dead stump would send out a shoot.  Hope would peek out like a small bud or a twig or tendril.  This tentative growth would develop into a branch, and that branch become the lineage of the unexpected Messiah.

Notice the littleness of this new beginning.  A small shoot of new growth. A tender bud. Fragile, barely noticeable, easily overlooked. These are the ways of God. The world of commerce constantly shouts and screams; it tries to shock or dazzle or outrage.    But God enters quietly.  Jesus is born in a hidden stable, far away from the royal power brokers of the capital city.

That’s why Jesus constantly says, “Watch.” Hope will be born in your midst. 

You just have to think small.

 

Pastor Larry

Don't Believe Everything You Think

I saw another thought-provoking bumper sticker this week:  Don’t Believe Everything You Think.

It speaks on several levels, doesn’t it?  Don’t Believe Everything You Think. 

It could mean Don’t Close Your Mind, Stay Open to Truth. The things we think we know for sure always need to be tempered with humility.

It could mean Give the Benefit of the Doubt.  You may think you understand the whole situation, but the odds are very good you don’t.

And it could mean Watch What You Let Into Your Mind.  Modern culture barrages us with advertising, celebrities, bad news, and trivia. We need to control what comes into our inner world.  It’s incredibly hard to keep your view of the world from growing cynical in 60 minutes once a week (at best). Worship alone isn’t enough.

I’m not striking the stereotypical anti-commerce “Feel guilty for buying Christmas presents” note here. Just a reminder that if you’re not intentionally devoting time to Jesus, you’re more susceptible to the junk all around you. You may find yourself believing everything you think.

Take time for quiet.  Find times and places of solitude.  Read the Gospel of Luke, or the Psalms, or devotional books, or anything reflective and uplifting.  Make time for music (such as Handel’s Messiah here Sunday morning) and for worship. Pray, no matter “how bad” you think you are at it.   Hold on to all that is good and holy and true this season. Believe the good news of God.

 

               Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds,

so that you may discern what is will of God – good, acceptable and perfect.

                                                                 (Romans 12:2)

 

Pastor Larry

I’ve always sort of been a sucker for reunions.  I’m the rare bird that enjoys high school reunions. If I’m invited back to a former church, I like seeing and hearing how peoples’ lives have unfolded in my absence. I dream about former homes and past communities.

This week a group of my former classmates is attending a Yale Divinity School 35^th Cluster Reunion.  I went 5 years ago and hope to go in another five, so I decided to sit this one out.  But I’ve enjoyed reading Facebook updates from old friends and classmates and remembering how my faith was shaped by those years in New Haven.

My “conversion experience” happened through the teaching of Robert Johnson in systematic theology, where sin was first explained in a way that I said, “Oh, that’s me.” And once I saw that, I knew that Jesus came for me as well, and that the Christian story was my story too, and … well, all sorts of things began to click into place after that. Thank you, God, for Robert Johnson.

My spiritual life grew under the guidance and friendship of Henri Nouwen. While I was first visiting the school, this unknown man with the heavy Dutch accent welcomed me to his apartment for tea and conversation. I had the privilege of getting to know him in worship, in the classroom, and even at the movie theater.  (He loved “Star Wars.”) Thank you, God, for Henri Nouwen.

Joan Forsberg taught me that being interrupted by people wasn’t a distraction from my ministry, it was my ministry. Abraham Malherbe and Marvin Pope opened the Scriptures to me in a vivid and life-changing way.  Bill Muehl’s wisdom in preaching has helped me prepare to preach almost every single week since.  Thank you, God, for them all.

Each of these people has passed away in the intervening 35 years.  And one aspect of heaven that captivates me powerfully is the notion of an eternal reunion.  I want to see my Dad and his parents and Cousin Ellen and so many others – but I know I’d be blessed by seeing these wonderful teachers again too.  I’d say Thank You – and I’d ask what they’ve learned since they came to heaven that they could pass on!

Celebrate the people – and don’t lose contact with those – who’ve shaped your life.

This Sunday we get to be reunited with a living teacher and friend to Burke UMC.  The Rev. Dr. Justin Allen, son of Randy and Gail, influenced numerous youth when he worked here as a youth pastor years ago.  Justin is now the Dean of Spiritual Life and Director of the Institute for Church Professions at Shenandoah University in Winchester. 

I hope you’ll come to welcome and hear this dynamic young church leader, one who himself will be remembered by hundreds of students in the years to come.

Pastor Larry

Families

Murphy's Laws for Parents   1. The tennis shoes you must replace today will go on sale next week. 2. Leakproof thermoses -- will.   Family life – it’s rich and fulfilling; it’s exasperating and challenging; it’s funny and frightening; it’s sometimes ugly, frequently upsetting, and nearly always unpredictable.  It’s also a reflection of God’s glory in all of its facets.   The Bible says, It is not good for one to be alone.  And elsewhere we are assured, God settest the solitary in families.   3. The chances of a piece of bread falling with the grape jelly side down is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet. 4. The garbage truck will be two doors past your house when the argument over whose day it is to take out the trash ends.   Our ability as human beings to live together well is determined in large part by our experience in families. And while the earliest years may be the most crucial, our identity is also heavily shaped by our own adolescence – and living with adolescent children.  My sons are now in their mid-20’s, and Bev and I are learning new ways to parent and to be together as a family.   5. The shirt your child must wear today will be the only one that needs to be washed or mended. 6. Gym clothes left at school in lockers mildew at a faster rate than other clothing.   That’s why I’m so glad to be beginning our Third Thursday program, which starts tonight.  It’s a time for families to come together for a simple meal, then to choose among a number of opportunities for conversation and growth. We’ll do this every Third Thursday (except December 20) through the year.   I especially want to encourage you to attend the monthly sessions on Family Life, led by Francine Ronis.   7. The item your child lost, and must have for school within the next ten seconds, will be found in the last place you look.   Francine is a Licensed Professional Counselor with the Center for Pastoral Counseling (CPC) of Northern Virginia.  She holds Masters degrees in both Counseling and Development, and Early Childhood Education, and has been working with families and individuals in the Northern Virginia area for more than ten years. She specializes in working with children and families experiencing relational problems, behavior difficulties and attachment issues, and with new parents (birth and adoptive) around issues of bonding, positive discipline, and changing family dynamics.   Tonight’s Theme is “Relating to the People I’m Related To.” We’ll discuss the concepts of emotional intelligence with Francine.  You’ll learn more about how you can improve relationships in your family with some simple skills, knowledge, and understanding.   8. Sick children recover miraculously when the pediatrician enters the treatment room. 9. Refrigerated items, used daily, will gravitate toward the back of the refrigerator.   Join us this evening – October 18, beginning with dinner at 6:00 and programs at 7:00 – and every Third Thursday this year for the opportunity to strengthen our lives as members of a family.    10. Your chances of being seen by someone you know dramatically increase if you drive your child to school in your robe and curlers.

 

                Pastor Larry