Monthly Archives: May 2008

What Are Our Choices?

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I am prompted to write this particular thought because of a conversation I had the other day and an e-mail that I received. The conversation had to do with electricity-based cars and the e-mail related to the use of solar energy in the state of New York.

I will admit that I long for the days of “cheap” gasoline but I also know from personal experience that whatever the price of gasoline might be in this country today, it is still cheaper than what other countries are paying for the same product.

And that is the key point in any debate on the price of oil and alternative energy. If there is no incentive, then there will be no exploration. Why did Christopher Columbus sail west? Because he was looking for a shorter route to the spices of the Far East; his desire was not to discover a new country (in fact, I believe that the common thought in the 15th century was that the Atlantic was a single ocean with Japan and the Far East on the far side of the “pond”.) All Christopher Columbus wanted to do was find a shorter route so that he could cut out the middle man and get the spice trade for himself.

Right now, there is no incentive to develop new sources of oil in this country; I believe that the laws of this country discourage such work. People may be clamoring for more refineries but that won’t solve the present and immediate problem (since building a refinery will take time) and I don’t believe that the oil companies want to build them anyway (for one reason, the environmental laws discourage such new construction).

Now, I am not arguing for a removal of environmental laws. That would simply trade one problem for another and while it may solve short-term problems, it may also create more dire long-term problems.

Let us therefore begin a discussion and a consideration for alternative energy sources. What are the potential alternative resources?

They are, in no order of importance,

  1. Nuclear fission
  2. Nuclear fusion
  3. Solar
  4. Geothermal
  5. Wind

Each of these energy sources has its own advantages and disadvantages. But, as things are the present time, none of them is considered because of our reliance on fossil fuels. So we me must find ways to encourage the development and use of alternative energy sources.

We must also consider other alternatives to fossil fuels. Electrically powered cars are a possibility but how will the electricity be generated? Storage batteries could be the answer but there are environmental considerations to consider. Fuel cells are, perhaps, cleaner and more environmentally friendly but storage of the fuels would be a problem.

In the end, any option that we choose is probably going to be more expensive that what we have now but that is only because our thinking is short-term. We want the solution now when the solution will actually take time.

That is not to say that there are not things we can do. We can do an energy audit of homes and find out where energy is being lost. (By the way, there is an advertisement on some of the cable channels for a device that you can hook into your household circuit that will cut your energy bill by perhaps 25%; it is as best not the answer and at the worst a scam). Examine the possibility of solar energy for the home (many utilities offer such opportunities and, in some states, if you generate more electricity than you consume, your local utility will buy it from you).

We can do things like using public transportation or car-pooling when going to work. If you have to buy a car, consider the newer models and the mileage rather than style and size alone. There are ways to reduce your energy bill; the rising fuel costs should be incentive enough.

But we still must begin the discussion with regards to alternative energy sources. It requires not only alternatives but a consideration for the environment. It is both a local, state, and federal issue. It will require a change in the laws and it will require incentives. But it will require that we get involved by doing more than simply complaining that our energy bills are getting too high.

Cross-posted to RedBlueChristian

I Should Be Wearing Green This Sunday

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Here are my thoughts for Pentecost Sunday, 2008. The Scriptures for today are Acts 2: 1 – 21; 1 Corinthians 12: 3 – 13, and John 7: 37 – 39.

I should be wearing green this Sunday. Yes, I know that it is Pentecost Sunday and we are supposed to be wearing red. But it is also Mother’s Day and I need to honor my mother as well as honoring my church. So I shall wear green.

You see, I am red-green color blind. That means that things that look red to you look green to me. This peculiar genetic trait is passed from parent to child through their mother.

Now, my mother has told me that no one in her family is color blind so it is not her “fault”. The particular gene in question is recessive in nature so it is quite possible that it has been handed down through the generations without anyone knowing it. So, if I wear something green, it is because I thought it was red and I honor both my mother and my church. But, of course, I will be wearing red.

Red, of course, is the color of fire and it was the fire of the Holy Spirit that descended upon those gathered together in Jerusalem some ten days after Jesus’ Ascension into Heaven in anticipation of the promise that He gave them as He ascended into Heaven. And many seeds do not grow unless there is a fire to germinate the seeds.

I won’t go into the biology and the mechanisms of germination but many wild flowers and trees need the heat of a prairie fire to begin their growth. This has caused many problems out west where, for many years, mankind tried to control the prairie fires instead of letting them burn. And just as we need the fire of the Holy Spirit to start the growth of the church, so too do we need something to sustain the growth.

Many people come to Christ and they are filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit but like a fire that has no fuel, they quickly burn out. They may continue coming to church but they do nothing but sit in the pew on Sunday and offer nothing towards the growth of the church. Pretty soon, others get burned out because the fire that started the growth is soon gone and there is no impetus for growth.

Besides, green is a good color when we think about the church and its beginning. While Pentecost is the day the church began, we need to also think about how the church grew back then and how it will grow in today’s society.

It was my mother that planted the early seeds of faith in the lives of my brothers, sister, and me. Through her, my faith began to grow. Of course, there came a time when I had to take steps in faith without her presence. And that is true for all of us. In each of our lives there is someone who saw to it that our early growth in faith was nurtured, fed, and watered. But there came a time when we had to take those small and hesitant steps in faith on our own. And many times, we have fallen as we took those beginning steps. We have encountered many difficulties in those steps but we endured and we grew. I would encourage you to read Michael Daniel’s thoughts on this subject (Back to the Basics) over on the RedBlueChristian site.

The problem is that many people do not take those steps away from the environment that they grew up in or in which they came to Christ. They are quite comfortable living a life based on the fundamentals of Christianity and are not quite able to make the jump from a sheltered life into the wild, wild world outside the shelter.

When you are in the shelter, you are protected and you do not necessarily have to think or fend for yourself. But when you leave the confines of the shelter and are exposed to the world outside the shelter, things change. And it can be rough.

I think one of the problems that fundamentalists have with the teaching of evolution in the classroom today is that it requires that the students think and question things. There is no conflict if you are willing to see that science and faith are different; but, if you are locked into one specific manner of thinking, it is very difficult to see beyond that frame of thought. I would also add that those teachers who do not understand what evolution is and only teach it as it was taught to them are guilty of the same fixed form of thought.

You have to be taught the basics of Christianity if you are to be a Christian. But the basics go beyond the Old Testament; they include the New Testament and an exposure to what Christ was saying and doing. Too many fundamentalists today seem to be fixated on the Old Testament and the laws of the Old Testament; they are incapable of moving beyond the fixed structure that those laws inherently trap you in. This was the same problem that the religious and secular authorities had when Jesus was offering a new way of life and a new way to think.

We see that in many ways today; those who wish to be in authority are preaching but no one in the congregation is listening. Some do not listen because they feel that the teachers have not listened to them. If there is to be constructive growth in any community, the leaders must listen to the people as much as the people listen to the leaders. But too many people are not listening because the message is stale or out-of-date. The Bible has become a fixed relic of the past instead of the living, breathing document that it was meant to be.

Borrowing a note from the May, 2008, issue of Context, Chanon Ross noted that we often try to make our ministry relevant to those whom we want to attend. And the target audience does come more often and everyone involved feels rewarded for their efforts. But he cautions that increased attendance and our own happiness do not necessarily mean that they have received the message. Relevance does not come from understanding the culture of our audience but, rather whether grasping the total implications of what it means to be a Christian.

Ross points out that,

To say the Apostles’ Creed is to imagine the unimaginable. We not only hope for the impossible — “the resurrection of the body” — we expect it and look forward confidently to its realization. The scriptures are equally imaginative and audacious. They teach us that God came to us as an impoverished, first-century Jew and that this man, Jesus, is the second person of the Trinity. (The Trinity is another exercise in imagining the impossible.) As Christians we understand ourselves to be in the image of a Being who created the vast expanse of the universe by simply speaking it into existence. Let any of us try to wrap our imaginations around that! But if the creeds and scriptures express the core of Christian faith, imagination and audacity are at the heart of Christian practice. WE can neither teach nor practice our faith without them. (Context, May, 2008)

The people who saw the disciples and followers that first Pentecost could not imagine what had happened; they thought they were drunk. If you are tied to one structure or form of thought, it is very difficult to see another. And that is the problem that many churches have today.

But, as Paul pointed out in his letter to the Corinthians, we have been given many gifts. And with those gifts, we will be able to help others see and understand that which is often unseen and not easily understood. And just as the wild flowers of the Mid-west plains are germinated by prairie fires, so do is the growth of our own gifts started by the fire of the Holy Spirit.

The challenge for each of us today is not to be consumed by the fire of the Holy Spirit but to let the Holy Spirit set ablaze in us those gifts and talents that we have been given so that the church today will grow beyond what it is and will become what it was and what it can be.

When I came up with the title for this little piece, I thought of the phrase “I shall wear purple.” I did not know where I had heard it or when I heard it. It comes from a poem by Jenny Joseph called “Warning – When I Am An Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple.”

When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple with a red hat that doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves and satin candles, and say we’ve no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells and run my stick along the public railings and make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain and pick the flowers in other people’s gardens and learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat and eat three pounds of sausages at a go or only bread and pickles for a week and hoard pens and pencils and beer nuts and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry and pay our rent and not swear in the street and set a good example for the children.

We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised

When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

So maybe people will understand that when I say that I should be wearing green today, it is because I want the church to grow beyond what is now and into what it can be.

Interesting tidbits of sports trivia

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I don’t remember when I cut out these two stories but I know I kept them because they were interesting.  And in at least the first instance, we have probably seen the sign that is mentioned.

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USC’s heavy load floors elevator

You know those elevator signs that say “2,000 pounds maximum”?  They speak the truth — as 10 Southern Cal football players learned.

The 10 were riding a campus dorm elevator when it shut down, stranding them between floors without air conditioning until elevator mechanics arrived — more than an hour later.

The 10: Chris Brymer (300 pounds) Grant Boetler (310) Matt McShane (285) Darrell Russell (305), Taso Papadakis (240) Brett Samperi (280), Mark Manskar (240), David Pratchard (290), Jason Grain (290), and Shawn Walters (235).

Total load: 2,775 pounds

This is also an example of the use of significant figures in an addition problem but we won’t go into what is significant or the figures at this time.

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And the second story

Quotable

Scott Walker, drag racing mechanic in studying Al Hofmann’s new Pontiac funny car, on giving a new version of “R&D” or research and development: “I’m doing some R&D.  That’s rob and duplicate.”

Have a good day.  🙂

Virus Warning

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It has been a typical Monday with the usual job search rejections and comments about how my qualifications and experience are impressive but the company wants to hire someone else (which probably means a few years younger).

And to top if all off, I got the following warning about a virus in the e-mail.

WARNING, VIRUS ALERT:

If you receive an email message with a subject line of “Badtimes,” delete it immediately WITHOUT reading it.  This is the most dangerous virus yet developed.

It will rewrite your hard drive.  Not only that, but it will scramble any computer disks and cassette tapes that are even close to your computer (up to 20 feet).

It will recalibrate your refrigerator’s coolness setting so all your ice cream melts and your milk curdles.  It will demagnetize the strips on all your credit cards, reprogram your ATM access code, screw up the tracking on your VCR and use subspace field harmonics to scratch any CDs you try to play.

It will give your ex-boy/girlfriend your new phone number.  It will program your phone autodial to call only your mother’s number. It is insidious and subtle.  It is dangerous virus to be taken very seriously.

It will mix antifreeze into your fish tank.  It will drink all your beer.  It will hide your car keys when you are late for work and interfere with your car radio so that you hear only 1940’s hits and static while stuck in traffic.

It will give you nightmares about circus midgets.

It will replace your shampoo with Nair and your Nair with Rogaine, all while dating your current boy/girlfriend behind your back and billing their hotel rendezvous to your Visa card.

It will seduce your grandmother. It does not even matter if she is dead, such is the power of “Badtimes;” it reaches out beyond the grave to sully those things we hold most dear.

It will overwrite your word documents, changing all your active verbs to passive tense and incorporating undetectable misspellings which grossly change the interpretation of key sentences.

Badtimes will give you Dutch Elm disease.  It will leave the toilet seat up and leave the hairdryer plugged in dangerously close to a full bathtub.  It will remove the forbidden tags from your mattresses and pillows, and refill your skim milk carton with whole.

Badtimes is an evil virus conceived by evil people.  It is your duty to help alert the world!

PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!

By the way, the part about the “Badtimes Virus” is a joke that has been around for some time.  But the job search is not going well and I have been told that my credentials are in fact impressive and my qualifications do match the position but that the company has found someone who is a better fit.  My resume is posted on another page of this blog and if you know of something, let me know.

On Eagle’s Wings

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I am preaching at Dover UMC again this Sunday.  Here are my thoughts for Ascension Sunday.  The Scriptures for today are Acts 1: 1 – 11, Ephesians 1: 15 – 23, and Luke 24: 44 – 53.

4 July 2015 — This has been edited since it was first posted to modify with a bad link.

 

I have spent the better part of the week thinking about how I could put the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven into a modern-day perspective. How would we have reacted if Jesus had been with us these past forty days as He was with the disciples and the others some two thousand years ago and then ascended into Heaven?

Would we have done as the disciples and followers did back then? Would we have watched in wonder and amazement? Would we have returned to our homes and celebrated as they did? Or would we have cried out in anguish? Would we have reacted with fear and trembling? Just exactly how would we have reacted?

There have been instances in the Bible where someone ascended into Heaven. The first is recorded in Genesis 5: 24, “Enoch walked steadily with God. And then one day he was simply gone: God took him.” The only problem is that nothing else is said. This does not help. But in 2 Kings, we read

And so it happened. They (Elijah and Elisha) were walking along and talking. Suddenly a chariot and horses of fire came between them and Elijah went up in a whirlwind to heaven. Elisha saw it all and shouted, “My father, my father! You—the chariot and cavalry of Israel!” When he could no longer see anything, he grabbed his robe and ripped it to pieces. Then he picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him, returned to the shore of the Jordan, and stood there. He took Elijah’s cloak—all that was left of Elijah!—and hit the river with it, saying, “Now where is the God of Elijah? Where is he?” (2 Kings 2: 11 – 14)

In this passage the prophet’s mantle is transferred from Elijah to Elisha. Elisha’s response could be categorized because of what is happening and because of what it means. No longer will Elisha be the student and follower; now he is the teacher and the leader.

It can be a frightening thing to have to go out on one’s own and to do the things that others have done for you. In Elisha’s case, it was the acceptance of the role that Elijah had played. Elisha was afraid of the change. Elijah was Elisha’s mentor, prophet, teacher, and father-in-the faith. But now it was time for Elisha to move on and take charge of the ministry entrusted to him. Yet, he was afraid to do so. As the student, there was a degree of comfort and a manner of protection. But as the prophet, there was no comfort, there was no protection. Harvey and Lois Seifert put it this way,

In an atmosphere of security and trust, persons are likely to be more ready to change. The child who trusts the mother lets go and takes the first unaided step. A social prophet is better received when listeners have learned to appreciate his or her integrity and friendship. Healthy growth more easily takes place when all participants interact in a mutually supportive environment rather than when some manipulate others to secure the ends of the manipulators. (Liberation of Life)

It is easy to understand Elisha’s response, of not wanting to let Elijah go. Fear makes it easy to cling to the past or to familiar traditions. But that is why faith becomes so strong. While fear would have us cling to the past, faith has us look to the future.

What Elisha was most afraid of was that God would leave him, that he wouldn’t be there. In verse 14, Elisha cries out in despair and loneliness, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” When Elisha hits the River Jordan with Elijah’s cloak, the river parts; in effect, God said to Elisha, “I never left. Life goes on. Elijah’s journey may have ended but your journey continues.”

The same is true, I think, for each one of us. What the Ascension means is that we are now left without Jesus physically present – that means we have to do it now – we have to do the work that he has been teaching about and teaching us. We no longer have any excuses; Jesus is not here to do it for us. Jesus’ ascension means that Jesus really is asking us to get to work.

The problem, I fear, is that we, as a society do not want to hear about the troubles of the world. If we do not hear about them or are forced to face the problems, we think that they will quietly go away. With the exception of those individuals who make the trip to Biloxi and the Gulf Coast, very few people know that the damage from Hurricane Katrina, some three years ago, is still there. Because it is not in the news, it must not be happening.

It is quite likely that many people do not know how many of our military personnel have died in the Middle East in the past seven years; we certainly do not have any idea how many civilians have died. Yes, our lack of knowledge is because the media does not report the death toll with the same fervor and intensity they reported the dead during the Viet Nam war. Yes, the present administration has gone to great lengths to prevent the public from seeing the dead come home. But, as a society, we are not asking or demanding that the truth be told.

We say that we are a Christian country and that we have strong moral values. But when does concern for the lives of the unborn have more value than the environment into which they will be born and have to live? What are we to say when our “family values” are devalued by the very people who proclaim them to be the most important value in today’s society? Why is it more moral to declare homeland security a priority in life while ignoring or denigrating global warming? Where is the morality in extolling the virtues of democracy while at the same time undermining the right of free speech? How are we to judge those who would exclude many from society because of their religious affiliation, sexual orientation, or racial identity when Jesus Himself walked and ate with those whom society excluded? (Adapted from God Laughs and Plays by David James Duncan)

We have become a society where others do our thinking for us and tell us what to say, what to do, and more importantly, what to believe. We are quite comfortable with a religion that allows our fears to dictate what we will do and not do. Instead of resolving our fears, we use our fears to build walls. When faced with the problems of the world, we turn the other way and hope that the problems will go away.

I wrote a piece the other day about the state of education (see “The Bottom Line”). After I wrote, there was a op-ed piece in The New York Times about a report on the state of education in this country today (there is a link to the article in my piece).

This report from Common Core points out that nation’s children are increasingly less prepared for the world outside the classroom than any previous generation. What does it say for our future when fewer than half of the nation’s 17-year-olds can place the Civil War in the correct half century or forty-four percent think that the Scarlett Letter was a piece of correspondence?

But this ignorance is not limited to just high school students and current studies. In a report last year, sixty percent of Americans could not identify five of the Ten Commandments and 50% of high school seniors thought that Sodom and Gomorrah were married. Three-quarters of the American populace believe that “God helps those who help themselves” comes from the Bible. Though it is biblical sounding, it comes from Poor Richard’s Almanac, a book that is definitely not one of the four Gospels. But don’t ask too many Americans because only one-half can name more than one of those books. And only one-third of the populace can tell you who delivered the Sermon on the Mount. (See http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2007-04-29-oplede_N.htm?csp=34) And our understanding, or rather our lack of understanding, of what we say is our religion extends into a lack of understanding of the other religions of this world. And the lack of understanding, as history has time and time again shown, leads to violence and mistrust. And violence and mistrust invariably lead to conflict.

It is time that we begin to change the world that we live in. It is time to begin flying on our own, to begin doing what we are asked to do. You cannot be a Christian if you are not willing to lead a life as Christ would live it nor are you a Christian if you are unwilling to share that life.

I have struggled with the idea of evangelism and what that means in today’s society. The meaning that I give to the word evangelical does not seem to match the meaning that society has given it today. And the meaning that society has given it does not seem to match what it meant that day on the hill in Bethany some two thousand years ago.

What does it mean to be an evangelical? There are those today who define evangelism in terms of bringing people into a saving relationship with Jesus. But the word evangelical is derived from evangel which means “the gospels” and that means something entirely different.

If you believe that Jesus is the Lord and Savior of all and your words, actions, thoughts, and deeds reflect that, then you are an evangelical. If your words harmonize with the examples given to us by Jesus, then you are an evangelical, whether you claim to be one or not. (Duncan) Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, tells us that he has heard of the faith of the people of Ephesus. He has heard of their faith, which means that the people are living the faith and they are evangelicals.

Clarence Jordan, who wrote the Cotton Patch Gospels, said that evangelism was declaring the Good News about all that God is doing in the world. While he emphasized that evangelism includes challenging individuals to yield to Jesus, to let Jesus into their lives, and to allow the power of the Holy Spirit to transform them into new creations, he also made it clear that evangelism is much more than that. It also involves proclaiming what God is doing in society right now to bring about justice, liberation, and economic well-being for the oppressed. It was a call to the people to participate in this revolutionary transformation of the world.

For Clarence Jordan, evangelism was the declaration that God, right now, is changing people and changing the world. This, he said, requires not only preaching, but also the living out of the kingdom of God “in community” and in social action. His work in founding the Koinonia farm was his way of showing the world how to put words into action.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian and, if you will, martyr for the faith, wrote,

Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. He will only do harm to himself and to the community. Alone you stood before God when he called you; alone you had to answer that call; alone you had to struggle and pray; and alone you will die and give an account to god. You cannot escape from yourself; for God has singled you out. If you refuse to be alone you are rejecting Christ’s call to you, and you can have no part in the community of those who are called. Luther said, “The challenge of death comes to us all, and no one can die for another. Everyone must fight his own battle with death by himself, alone . . . I will not be with you then, nor you with me.”

But the reverse is also true: Let he who is not in community beware of being alone. Into the community you were called, the call was not meant for you alone; in the community of the called you bear your cross, you struggle, you pray. You are not alone, even in death, and on the Last Day you will be only one member of the great congregation of Jesus Christ. If you scorn the fellowship of the brethren, you reject the call of Jesus Christ, and thus your solitude can only be hurtful to you. Luther also said, “If I die, then I am not alone in death; if I suffer they [the fellowship] suffer with me. (“Life Together”)

There is a distinct likelihood that what I have written will make some people mad. They want the church today to be exclusive, to deny membership and acceptance to those whose life is somehow different. They would change the community that is found in Christ.

There are those who say that religion is superstition and should be removed from society. No secular philosophy addresses the fact that we are born alone and we will die alone. It is in our nature to seek the solace of divine truth amidst our mortal suffering. To be an evangelical Christian is to offer hope and peace.

The other day, someone posted a comment to my blog in which they say that I offered a “middle-of-the-road” theology. This person identified themselves as one who is on the left side of the Methodist theological spectrum and I thought it was interesting that what I write would be considered middle of the road. I have, in the past, been characterized as conservative and liberal so maybe I am in the middle of the road. But, as I responded to this comment, I thought that the only things in the middle of the road are dead armadillos.

To offer hope and peace in a world of violence and despair is not middle of the road theology; it is a radical new way of life and it forces you to walk another way. But how are we to do this?

The world outside the walls of this church is a hostile world, one not receptive to the thoughts we have. The world of the early disciples was also a hostile world, a world in which a public pronouncement that one believed in Jesus Christ could lead to torture and death.

Because of His own arrest, torture, and crucifixion, Jesus knew what the disciples would encounter. The Wisdom of this moment and this day is that we are not expected to do what is expected right now and by ourselves; rather, we are told to wait ten more days, wait until the Pentecost when the Holy Spirit will come and empower us.

Harvey and Lois Seifert in their book wrote,

This internalizing of openness to God and concern for neighbors is what it means to be a Christian, rather than simply to act like a Christian. That the church can produce this kind of person is a persuasive recommendation for the church.

Within the fellowship of the church, we help one another become such Christians. Here we can become comrades of our better selves. We support one another in our highest resolves. An entire searching congregation turns our attention to the liberation of unrealized possibilities as we respond to the upward call of God. Even one other person or a small subgroup within the church can sustain our determination to spend more time at devotions and to act differently in society.

In such a combination, we are to love both God and neighbor. We cannot fully do either without the other. We reach the ecstatic heights of a devotional life only as we also act creatively in society. Full creativity as consumer, worker, citizen, and friend is possible only with the vision and power that comes vital devotion. To “turn on” is to “turn up” toward God and to “turn out” toward neighbor. The two wings of soaring, liberated life are indeed devotion and action. (Liberation of Life)

When I began working on this sermon, I thought of the song “On Eagles Wings.” It is a song that speaks of the trust that we can have in Christ; it speaks of the empowerment that we will gain through the Holy Spirit.

An ancient saying suggested that there are two wings by which we rise, one being personal piety and the other community charity. No one can fly by flapping only one wing. It is impossible to be sincere in our worship of God without expecting to do the will of God. It is equally impossible to do the full will of God without the guidance and empowerment of a vital personal relationship with God. As Allan Hunter has said, “Those who picket should also pray, and those who pray should also picket.” The same combination of devotional vitality and social action is also emphasized in the two great commandments of Jesus — to love God with all one’s being and to love other persons as ourselves (Matthew 22: 36 – 40). (Harvey and Lois Seifert, Liberation of Life)

We have declared our faith in Christ; we have opened our hearts to the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. In doing so, we have gained a trust that we cannot find in the secular world. It is the one thing that will allow us to gather together as a community; it is the one thing that will allow us to go out into the world and showing through our words, our thoughts, our deeds, and our actions that Christ is alive and that there is hope and peace possible in this world.

That One Moment In Time

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This is a sermon that I gave at Tompkins Corners United Methodist Church on Ascension Sunday (23 May 2004).  The Scriptures for this Sunday are Acts 16: 16 – 34, Revelation 22: 12 – 14, 16 – 1, and John 17: 20 – 26.

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It was the noted philosopher Woody Allen, I believe, who once noted that "time was nature’s way of keeping everything from happening at once." And the Preacher, author of Ecclesiastes noted that "for every thing there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven." And the authors of the Talmud once noted that "In every age there comes a time when leadership suddenly comes forth to meet the needs of the hour. And so there is no man who does not find his time, and there is no hour that does not have its leader."

Our history is marked by moments in time, moments that define our country, our society, ourselves. September 11, 2001 is once such date. Whether we want it to or not, the actions that occurred on the date and the reactions that followed will define this country for history. I hope that we have not squandered the opportunity presented to us to fight for peace, justice, and righteousness.

May 17, 1954 is another such date. For on that date, when the Supreme Court said that "separate but equal" was no longer an equitable solution, we became a country of one whereas before we were many. It still remains to be seen if the goals set for this country on that date have been met.

There are also moments in time that define an individual in such a way that the choices that they make have an impact on the society and civilization for years to come. May 24, 1738, 266 years ago tomorrow, is one such day.

On that date John Wesley went to a prayer meeting in a chapel on Aldersgate Street in London. There he felt his heart warmed by the presence of the Holy Spirit, a feeling of warmth that he had never felt before. Prior to that night, his attempts at a new way to find God had failed. Wesley wrote, "In vain have I fled from myself to America: I still groan under the intolerable weight of inherent misery . . .Go where I will, I carry my hell about me; nor have I the least ease in anything." Prior to that night and his encounter with the Holy Spirit, John Wesley was convinced that his life was a failure. His brother Charles, of the same beliefs as to the righteousness of their ideas, had returned from America some months earlier and was now broken in spirit and in health, to point of lying in death’s bed.

That one moment in time, separate for each Wesley but equal in magnitude transformed them from legalists, those who would follow the letter of the law, into evangelists, those who would follow the spirit. Their own experience of God’s love gave them the sense of spiritual peace, an impulse for evangelism, and a sustaining, motivation for addressing the evils of society. Having experienced spiritual liberty for themselves, they began a new career spreading the good news of God’s love. (Adapted from The Heritage of American Methodism, Kenneth Cain Kinghorn, 1999, page 12 – 13)

And just as John and Charles Wesley encountered the Holy Spirit, so too did Saul on the road to Damascus. His encounter that day some two thousand years ago changed him from Saul to Paul and allowed perhaps the greatest missionary effort of all time to begin.

Our own encounters with the Holy Spirit are perhaps not so dramatic and the effects that each of us have on others will not be known until long after we are gone and aware that changes occurred. But those moments like those of the Wesley brothers and Paul changed our lives. But that is really a discussion for next week, Pentecost Sunday.

Today is Ascension Sunday, the day forty days after Easter when Christ ascended into heaven. This must have really scared the disciples. Again, Jesus is leaving them, this time voluntarily. Taken away from them on Good Friday and crucified, the disciples rejoiced with His resurrection. Celebration and joy on that First Easter morning replaced the pain and sorrow felt on Good Friday. But now He was leaving again, going where, as He said, "they could not go." But He also said, "that he was sending someone to prepare them, to make them ready for when they would be able to go."

And that is what this particular moment in time is all about, our preparation to receive the Holy Spirit and our preparation so that others may receive the Holy Spirit. We are meeting this day to lay the groundwork for the future of the church. We are not deciding the future of the church today, for such decisions are a little more complicated for one meeting. But we can make a decision today and that is to be ready, if we aren’t already, to accept the Holy Spirit into this place and into our hearts.

I know that what I am about to say will make some people upset or uncomfortable but I think we need to change the way Tompkins Corners is seen. It is right and proper to say that this church is an historic one, for it is. But people come to visit historic places; they do not come to stay. The great cathedrals of Europe were built as monuments to the presence of God in the lives of the people. But now they are now largely empty on Sunday and visited by countless number of tourists during the rest of the week. We need to make sure that is not the fate of this church.

We have a number of social activities that people come and support, but the people who come to the social activities, for the most part, do not come to church on Sunday. No matter how important they were to the well being of the church, Paul did not compliment the Ephesians on the wonderful bake goods the members of the church produced. No matter how important they were to the well being of the church, Paul did not compliment the Ephesians on the linen goods the women of the church wove. No, he complimented them on the most important part of the church, the faith exhibited by the members.

It was the faith of the people of the church in Ephesus that was well known; so too must it be that the faith of the people of the Tompkins Corners church that must be known. The generation of people to whom we must reach out are called "seekers"; they are seeking evidence of faith, evidence that there is, amidst all the trouble and pain of this world, an answer. They are seeking people with faith, faith that shows itself and that allows those who seek to find it.

In trying to come to grips with his own struggles, it was the faith of a group of Moravians that guided John Wesley. It was their faith that gave them comfort in times of strife and faith that helped in their understanding of God. It was their faith that brought John Wesley to the Chapel on Aldersgate Street that evening some 266 years ago. So too is it for those coming to this community, so too is it for those members of this church who have stopped attending – it is here that they should find in those of us here today evidence that the presence of the Holy Spirit is strong.

What I am going to suggest today, you can blame in part on my own Southern heritage. But it is something that I feel must be done today. Instead of ushers coming forward to get the offering plates and passing the plates among you all in the pews, I am going to ask that, if you are able, you bring your offering to the altar rail today. We have stated that as United Methodist members we will be loyal to this church through our prayers, our presence, our gifts, and our service. Today I want you to offer your prayers as well as your gifts and service. After placing your offering in the plate, I would ask that you spend a few moments at the altar rail praying. Pray for those on our prayer list, pray for this conference and its ministers, pray for those ministers going to new charges, pray for ministers beginning the pastoral career or beginning their retirement. But today, this one moment in time, pray that the Holy Spirit will come to this church and that some later day Paul will write that in Tompkins Corners one can truly find the presence of Christ, our Savior and Lord.

AMEN

The Faith We Are Taught

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This is a sermon that I gave at Tompkins Corners United Methodist Church on Ascension Sunday (8 May 2005).  The Scriptures for this Sunday are Acts 1: 1 – 11, Ephesians 1: 15 – 23, and Luke 24: 44 – 53.

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There is one address, 3603 Union Road in St. Louis, MO, and one telephone number, TW2-7187, that are not in my address book. I doubt that this telephone number, even in its modern configuration of 892-7187, is even used today. The house at this address is still there though it has changed over the years. I never lived at this address though I stayed there on countless occasions. You see this was where my paternal grandmother lived from the late 1940’s to her death in 1985. It was a place that I knew would be there wherever I might be.

For the son of an Air Force officer, an Air Force brat if you will, home does not have the same meaning that it might have for someone who grew up in the same area where they were born. It is true that I am considered from Memphis, TN, but I only call it home since that is where my mother lives and from where I graduated from high school. Throughout my college years and the beginning years of my professional career, my life and times centered more round St. Louis and the house on Union Road than it did on Memphis.

My grandfather served in the army from 1916 through 1943, often separated from his wife and two sons. The burden of raising my father and uncle thus fell to my grandmother. In all the memories of my grandmother, I remember her attending one church, a few blocks from her home in St. Louis. Though the church changed denominational affiliation at least twice, members of the church were descendants of the German Lutherans who helped settle St. Louis and the surrounding area. The church was a central part of my grandmother’s life. And when my father died in 1993, I found out something about my grandmother and the church that was just as lasting a memory as the flowers, the shrubs, and the trees that were her avocation in life.

As the pastor who knew my father from the Boy Scouts was recounting that night just before my father died, he asked my father if he knew Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. My father acknowledged that yes, he did know Christ in his heart. And then they prayed. When they were done, the pastor, a Southern Baptist, said that my father gave the sign of the Cross. The way the pastor said it, you knew that he did not understand my father’s actions. But I knew that my father had been raised as a Lutheran and all I could think was how proud my grandmother, his mother, would be to know that my father was coming home.

It was also through my grandmother that I came to know that my desire to be a minister is as much genetic as it is a calling from God. Thirteen of my cousins were all Lutheran ministers, so my presence in the pulpit is a continuation of a family tradition that dates back to the days and times of Martin Luther.

My mother, Virginia Hunt Mitchell, was born in Lexington, N. C. “several years ago.” It surprises many people when they find out that my mother is not only a grandmother but a great-grandmother as well. That’s because she doesn’t look her age nor does she let her age dictate what she is going to do. That, by the way, was also a characteristic of my father’s mother, my paternal grandmother.

For all the things that I could say about my mother, I think the greatest thing she ever did for me was to lay the foundation for my spiritual growth. She saw to it that I was baptized on 24 December 1950 at the Evangelical and Reformed Church in Lexington. She saw to it that my two brothers, my sister, and myself were in Sunday school every week. Even now, something isn’t right if I am not in church somewhere on a Sunday morning.

Neither my mother nor my grandmother was “easy” and I have many memories, unpleasant though they are, of what happened when I crossed them. But I also have lots of wonderful memories and appreciation for what they did as my mother and my grandmother that allowed me to find Christ in my own life.

It was their faith that allowed my faith to develop. As Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he had heard of their faith and was enthused by that knowledge. His encouragement to the Ephesians was to keep doing what they were doing because it showed people what the power of Christ was. And he, Paul, would continue to pray that the Holy Spirit would reinforce the work that they, the Ephesians, were already doing. Their work would show others that Christ was alive and that the Spirit of the Lord was present. It was this same spirit that Christ was telling his followers to expect in the coming days as He encouraged His followers to stay together.

When one reads this passage from the Gospel for today, one might think about the formation of a new community. In fact, we know from the historical records that is exactly what new Christians did. They formed new communities for the express purpose of worshipping Christ. That is why we have churches, because they are a way to gather together to worship God. But while we come together in community to worship God and renew our covenant with God, we must also go out into the world.

We should seek to maintain an open secular world in which we claim no established rights over other views, but in which we accept the responsibility to witness for Christ by seeking to point to his presence as He works within history. There are those today who define evangelism in terms of bringing people into a saving relationship with Jesus. But Clarence Jordan, who wrote the Cotton Patch Gospels offered another definition.

For Clarence Jordan, evangelism was declaring the Good News about all that God is doing in the world. While he emphasized that evangelism includes challenging individuals to yield to Jesus, to let Jesus into their lives, and to allow the power of the Holy Spirit to transform them into new creations, he also made it clear that evangelism is much more than that. It also involves proclaiming what God is doing in society right now to bring about justice, liberation, and economic well-being for the oppressed. Jordan called people to participate in this revolutionary transformation of the world.

For Clarence Jordan, evangelism was the declaration that God, right now, is changing people and changing the world. This, he said, requires not only preaching, but also the living out of the kingdom of God “in community” and in social action. His work in founding the Koinonia farm was his way of showing the world how to put words into action.

As Tony Campolo wrote, Clarence Jordan had a hard time being accepted by the Southern Baptists of his time. Were he to be living today (he died in 1969), he would have an even harder time today with Southern Baptists who embrace the war policies of the Bush administration, bar women from ordination into the ministry, and champion capital punishment. It would be very difficult for anyone who followed Jesus as described in the Gospel to fare any better than Jesus did at the hands of the religious establishment of His day.

Too many people today are like the Pharisees and Scribes of Jesus’ day; they believe that that the world outside the church should be excluded. Or, as the report out of North Carolina where members of a church were expelled for not voting according to the dictates of their pastor, the views of a particular congregation should be imposed on the world outside the church.

For those gathered on the hillside in Bethany, the ascension was a political act. In Ephesians, we are presented with a stark reminder of the early church’s understanding of the power of the risen Christ. To the early believers, a theory arose about just who Jesus Christ is and was; that somehow in Christ, the church, the people of God got right-headed. This meant that they, the Ephesians, had achieved some sort of political power over non-believers.

But Christ did not come into this world as an authority imposed from above but as a humble servant who was to be part of the world. He came not as the revealer of an ideological system superimposed on society, but as the one who in the way he gave himself affirmed the need for human freedom and decision. He refused to exercise his power or to show His power through some supernatural power. He came as the one who was prepared to risk His truth (and His life) within the openness of the secular world. (Adapted from Faith In a Secular Age)

But, if we see the process of ascension as moving Christ to the head of the body of which we are all parts, we have a different image of the Ascension. For patriots today, this is not the good news they want to hear. If we turn to Paul, we see that he speaks of the “spirit of wisdom” by which to discern these things. If we use that spirit, we’ll be led to proclaim Christ’s absolute rule — not as king, but as one who feeds and sustains.

Giving all other powers their due and their respect, if we call ourselves Christians, then we cannot as a matter of total confidence or supreme trust embrace the flag, support the government, or pledge allegiance to the country for which they stand. Rather we end up having to say with Paul that Christ Jesus is “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.” (Adapted from “Power Point” by Mark Harris in “Living by the Word” in Christian Century, May 3, 2005)

Those who would have Christ as the political ruler of this society miss the point. We are, to be sure, to follow Christ but in following Him we are to be His disciples, not His enforcers. We cannot follow Christ and then turn around and impose the Christian faith as a metaphysical formula or as a religious or institutional means for providing society with stability and unity.

It is not necessarily a question of asking what Jesus would say if He walked among us today or asking if His message would be heard in the consumer oriented society of today. Rather, the question must be how, we as members of the modern world would react to Jesus’ invitation to follow him. (Adapted from Tony Campolo’s forward to the Cotton Patch Gospels (Luke)) What can we as a church, both as a denomination and as a local church offer to individuals seeking Christ today.

As an Air Force brat, a home is something one never had. Yes, there were places that we lived but more often than not, they were on the Air Force base where we lived and were called quarters. Even when we, as a family, outgrew the base housing, there was no sense of permanency in where we lived. It seemed like the moment we got settled in, Dad would be transferred and off we would go.

But I have come to find that such permanency is not really that critical to one’s life. On the other hand, having a church home was critical. To have a place where I could know that I could find Christ, especially in times of strife and stress, was what I needed.

We live in a time and a society where people no longer automatically live in the same town where they grew up. They have gone away to college and then somewhere else to work and live. They may visit their home town but it is only for brief moments of time. Their lives are somewhere else and the church that may have been a part of their early life is not a part of their present life.

But, having left home and church, many people are finding something missing. These are the seekers, searching for something but not knowing what it is. They seek a peace and serenity that perhaps they knew when they were younger but cannot find in the strife, stress, and turmoil of everyday life. The reason for the success and growth of many churches today is that they offer a sanctuary in which to hide from the outside world. They have created the home church of days past.

But this is not a place where they can find Christ, because Christ is not a part of the past. Christ is very much a part of today and churches need to remember that. Churches need to be that place where people can find the Holy Spirit. They should find that place here. This should be a place where they can find Christ. Our celebration of communion today is an acknowledgement that we are part of a living community that began with Christ’s ascension. We celebrate communion because we are celebrating Christ’s presence in our lives and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

We have heard the worlds of the early disciples today; we have heard the words of Jesus telling us not to be afraid or to worry. And as we celebrate Mother’s Day today, we also remember what we have taught. And like Clarence Jordan, we find that the faith that we are taught only means something when we can put it into action. Our challenge today is to bring into action that faith that we are taught.

Keys To The Car

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This is a sermon that I gave at Walker Valley United Methodist Church on Ascension Sunday (4 June 2000).   The Scriptures for this Sunday were Acts 1: 1 – 11, Ephesians 1:  15 – 23, and Luke 24: 44 -53.

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This sermon comes with a warning for all those seeking to ask their parents for use of the family car or to get a car of their own. This will not help; in fact, it is quite likely that parents will use this sermon as a reason for not giving a son or daughter the keys to the car.

To a fifteen-year-old, the most momentous day of his or her life is the day they turn sixteen. I can remember the joy and exultation I felt when I was a junior at Bartlett High School and found out that I had to take driver’s education in order to graduate from high school. This meant that I would get my driver’s license much earlier than I thought. My father had been telling me that I could not get my driver’s license until I was out of high school.

Of course, after I got out of college and had my own car, I found out very abruptly when I paid my first car insurance bill just why my father didn’t want me to drive. After all, I was the oldest of the four children and would cause, when I got my license and the right to drive, our insurance rates to go dramatically up. Having a driver’s license not only brings with it a freedom to do a lot of things, it also brings with it a great deal of responsibility as well.

Sometimes that responsibility can be a heavy load. When I was a sophomore in high school, the kid next door desperately wanted a car of his own and the right to drive it. His desire to do so was so great that he promised his parents that he would actually study and bring his grades up. This rather dramatic appeal so impressed his parents that they agreed to get him a car if he were to raise his grades to a more presentable level of “C+” or better and keep them there. This, admittedly, makes sense only if you understand that this kid’s grades at that time were like a submarine, below “C” level.

Now, after he had the car a few months, his grades returned to their normal level and his parents were faced with the dilemma of what to do next. They felt that they could not take the car back because they had given their word that he could have a car. But he had failed in his responsibility to keep his grades at the proper level, so something had to be done. So, the parents let him keep the car but took the tires away. So he could sit out in his car but he couldn’t go anywhere.

Getting the keys to the car represent a decision on your part to accept responsibility. Accepting responsibility is this Sunday is about. With Jesus’ ascension into heaven, the responsibility of taking the Gospel into the world is transferred to the disciples. It is interesting that this Sunday comes as we have concluded the quadrennial General Conference and the yearly Annual Conference. These meetings were designed to address the issues of the church’s role in the world.

Some may see a crisis in the church; others may see a crisis in what the world and wonder why the church is not doing more. If we are called to evangelism — calling people to knowledge that Christ is Savior and Lord — we must understand what God is doing in our history and how He is calling us to join Christ in his action in the world. Evangelism, in other words, must point to the presence of Christ as Lord in the affairs of the world and to the call of Christ as Savior of each of us. In this way, we see Christ calling us to abandon our worldly ways — our petty tribalism, our limiting sectionalism, and our own personal selfishness — and accept his grace in such a way that we, as forgiven sinners, can work as servants of His kingdom within the kingdoms of this world.

There is the temptation to forget that the need to see Christ working within the variety of struggles in our time also carries with it the need to see Christ as the one calling us to repent, to die to our selfish ways, and be converted, rising again to a new life with Him, as we learn to be free to serve our neighbor. If we are not careful, we soon forget that the evangelistic task of the church is the framework by which we see our service to the world.

At the time of the first reading and the closing of the Gospel, the disciples were more concerned with the date of Christ’s return.

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1: 6)

But Jesus replied,

“It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.” (Acts 1: 7)

Rather, as Jesus pointed out in verse 8, it was their job to carry His message throughout the whole world.

“You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1: 8)

Being a witness was Christ’s command to His disciples to tell others about Him regardless of the consequences. God empowered His disciples to be faithful witnesses even when they faced the most vehement opposition. Eleven of the twelve disciples, the exception being John who died in exile on the island of Patmos, became martyrs. That same power for witnessing is available for us today. Our task is not to convince people, but to testify of the truth of the Gospel.

Paul, in his letter to Ephesians, emphasizes the rewards to be gained from being Christ’s witnesses in this world.

“so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.” (Ephesians 1: 18 – 19)

But being a witness to Christ in this world can and is a very difficult thing. Some, when faced with the call to follow Christ and accept the responsibility of being His disciple, simply let things slide. They feel that following Christ is not worth the effort or the price. To them, the cares and concerns of the real world outweigh the rewards of a life lived in Christ.

Others decide to go it alone, to take it upon themselves to do everything that must be done, ignoring others. Yes, we come to Christ individually and the decision to follow Him is ours and ours alone. No one can tell us what to do in that regard; we cannot tell someone else what to do, either. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian who opposed the Nazis during World War II wrote,

Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. He will only do harm to himself and to the community. Alone you stood before God when he called you; alone you had to answer that call; alone you had to struggle and pray; and alone you will die and give an account to God. You cannot escape from yourself; for God has singled you out. If you refuse to be alone you are rejecting Christ’s call to you, and you can have no part in the community of those who are called. “The challenge of death comes to us all, and no one can die for another. Everyone must fight his own battle with death by himself, alone. . . I will not be with you then, nor you with me” (Luther).

But the reverse is also true: Let him who is not in community beware of being alone. Into the community you were called, the call was not meant for you alone; in the community of the called you bear your cross, you struggle, you pray. You are not alone, even in death, and on the Last Day you will be only one member of the great congregation of Jesus Christ, and thus your solitude can only be hurtful to you. “If I die, then I am not alone in death; if I suffer they [the fellowship] suffer with me” (Luther). (From Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

You cannot come to Christ through the community; you must come to him alone. But, having come to Christ, you are no longer alone. You are a part of a community.

Whatever the case, the church must be there. It is to be the beacon by which others may see the truth and it is to be the source of comfort for those who weary from the battles of daily life. The church must be more than just a building in which people may feel comfortable.

Churches for the most part have always been structures that one could easily identify. They have always represented a place where a person knew that they could find solace and comfort.

This internalizing of openness to God and concern for neighbors is what it means to be a Christian, rather than simply to act like a Christian. That the church can produce this kind of person is a persuasive recommendation for the church.

Within the fellowship of the church, we help one another become such Christians. Here we can become comrades of our better selves. We support one another in our highest resolves. An entire searching congregation turns our attention to the liberation of unrealized possibilities as we respond to the upward call of God. Even one other person or a small subgroup within the church can sustain our determination to spend more time at devotions and to act differently in society.

In such a combination, we are to love both God and neighbor. We cannot fully do either without the other. We reach the ecstatic heights of a devotional life only as we act creatively in society. Full creativity as consumer, worker, citizen, and friend is possible only with the vision and power that comes from vital devotion. To “turn out” is to “turn up” toward God and to “turn out” toward neighbor. The two wings of soaring, liberated life are indeed devotion and action. (From Liberation of Life by Harvey and Lois Seifert)

There was a day in your life when you looked forward to getting the keys to the car. It meant freedom and gave you the ability to go beyond the limits of the world you lived in. But in taking the keys to the car, you also accepted responsibility, to take care of the car and be respectful of other people, to buy gas and pay for the insurance.

This day is about is accepting responsibility, of accepting the charge that Christ gave to us that day some 2000 years ago — to be his disciples throughout the world. Christ’s death on the cross gave us a freedom from sin and death; it opened up the heavens to us. But it also brings with it the responsibility of taking the Gospel out into the world, through our thoughts, our words, and our actions. It is not an easy responsibility to accept and sometimes we feel that the price to pay, the burden to carry is too great.

Put it is a burden that we need not carry alone; it is a price that we not pay by ourselves. The church today can and must be the symbol of Christ in the world and it must be that place where we can be drawn together. As a united body in Christ, we can pay the price and we can carry the burden.

Dreams of the Present, Visions of the Future

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This is a sermon that I gave at Neon United Methodist Church for Ascension Sunday (16 May 1999).  The Scriptures for that Sunday were Acts 1: 1 – 11, Ephesians 1: 13 -23, and Luke 24: 44 – 53.  This was my next to last Sunday at Neon.  The following week I moved from Kentucky to New York to start a new life.

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In everyone’s life there are particular dates or periods of time that one remembers. I will always cherish June 7, 1973, and July 7, 1976, as those are the birthdates of my daughters Melanie and Meara. And I will always remember the summer of 1995 when I served as the chief supply pastor for the Parsons District of the Kansas East conference. It was during that summer that I began to feel that I could be a preacher, even if I did not have my own church.

And for the most obvious reasons, I will always remember the period from November, 1998, to May, 1999, when I was the pastor of Neon United Methodist Church. For whatever happens in the coming years, I will always know that this church as the place that I was first called a pastor.

And whether I really want to or not, I will always remember the spring of 1968, my senior year at Bartlett High School in Memphis. For that spring was a time that changed the way we saw things and the way we viewed the future.

Of course, the most outstanding memory of that spring was the labor strike in Memphis that brought Martin Luther King, Jr., to Memphis. And while I may have no conscious memory of the night when he was killed, I do remember some years later the speech that he gave the night before he was shot.

“I have been to the mountain top,” he said, “and I have seen the Promised Land.” With either prophetic overtones or with a fatalistic view of the threats on his own life, Dr. King then said, “I may not get there with you.” I do not know if Dr. King was using the passage from Exodus where God took Moses to the top of the mountain and showed him the Promised Land that had been promised to Israelites but that was the passage that comes to mind.

Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the Lord showed him the whole land — from Gilead to Dan, all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, the Negev and the whole region form the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar. Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.” (Deuteronomy 34: 1 – 4)

For because of the transgressions of the Israelites, God required that they wander in the wilderness for an additional forty years. And Moses, though he had himself done no wrong, would not be allowed to enter the promised land but God did allow him to see that when just a dream was for many.

But Moses did not have to worry about getting to the Promised Land because he knew that the mission of the Israelites would be accomplished. Moses knew that he had the individuals, such as Joshua, who can lead the Israelites into the Promised Land.

The other event of my senior year that will always stand out in my memory was the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy. To many, the problems and difficulties that we encountered throughout the seventies might not have been so hard had Senator Kennedy lived. I cannot speak to that point but I do think that things would have been different had he lived.

Throughout the primary elections of that spring, as Senator Kennedy sought to become the Democratic Party’s nominee for President, he would often quote George Bernard Shaw, “Others see things as they are and say ‘why?’ I see things as they could be and say ‘why not?’”

To see things as they are is to just dream of the present; to see things are they could be is to have a vision of the future. When Moses stood on the mountaintop and saw the Promised Land, he saw the future for the Israelites. Both Dr. King and Senator Kennedy saw a future of hope and promise that were not just dreams of things in the present.

I think that it is important that sometime in your life you have a “mountaintop” experience; that at some point in time, you see the dreams that you have for the present time changed into a vision of the future and that you have that vision transformed into an action. Moses stood on the mountaintop and saw the Promised Land that his ancestors could only dream of yet he knew that Israelites under the leadership of Joshua would soon move into the Promised Land.

It was that way for the disciples as well. For while they were with Jesus, He taught them all that they needed to know so that they could continue His work. And then He took them to the mountaintop outside Bethany where they saw him ascend into heaven – “When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.”

The ascension of Jesus to Heaven on this day can be seen as way of telling the disciples and ourselves that the mission of Christ has now been transferred to us – “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The disciples also saw a vision of the future in the Glory of Christ.

”After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into the heaven.”

Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians speaks of the “eyes of the heart.” This was an awareness of what was to come; a vision of the future for the Christian church. Paul knew of the faith that the Ephesians had and perhaps of the great things that they were doing in the church and in that area.

For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

Over the past few weeks, I have spoken of the vision that people have for the Methodist Church in Kentucky. That vision applies to the Neon Church as much as it does to any other church, present or planned. The words of Paul are as true for us today as they were for the Ephesians some 2000 years ago.

The coming years offer much hope but only we if have the same vision as the Ephesians had. It is a hope built on the faith in Jesus Christ and knowing that we are saved through Christ.

When John Wesley started the Methodist Revival, he never anticipated the birth of a new church. All he wanted to do was awaken the Church of England to the needs of the people and to preaching the saving grace of Christ. But the success of the revival could only come about when he, Wesley, had accepted Christ in his own heart. Until that time, all Wesley thought was a dream.

When Wesley turned his live over to Christ, the dream turned into a vision because the Holy Spirit was now a part of Wesley, just as it was to be for the disciples. So today, I ask you “do you just have a dream of the present or is it a vision of the future? Is your life centered in Christ?”