salvagedfaith

An Act of Holiness

Posted on April 9, 2020Leave a comment

Text: selected verses from John 13

Never before in my life have I thought so much about washing my hands… how about you?

I mean, I washed my hands before… and I hope you did, too…

But never before did I see it as such a holy and important act.

A life saving act.

In the midst of this pandemic, washing our hands so frequently is flattening the curve.

It is giving our health care workers a fighting chance.

It is protecting the vulnerable in our midst.

Never before in our lifetimes was hand-washing such an act of service to our neighbors.

An act of service and humility and love just like Jesus shared with the disciples when he got down on his knees and washed their feet.

In the midst of Peter’s protest, he reminded them that this is not just an act of hygiene… not just something that he was doing to make them clean…

It was an act of holiness.

It was a means of grace.

It was a sign of love.

So tonight, gather at your table and to eat your supper and think about our call to love…

But before you do that.

Before you eat.

Take a moment and wash your hands.

If you are gathered with your family, crowd together around the sink and wash each other’s hands.

And as you wash your hands, think not just of hygiene.

Think not just of scrubbing germs away.

But remember that this is a holy act.

An act of love and service and humility and grace.

The Stones Would Shout

Posted on April 5, 2020Leave a comment

Text: Luke 19:29-40

If the disciples were silent, the stones would shout.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how no matter what happens in this world… no matter the destruction or devastation…no matter the obstacles or despair… there is nothing that can stop God from being praised.

About three weeks ago, tornadoes filled the skies over Nashville. My friends at East End UMC woke up to discover their building had been destroyed. But they gathered that Sunday morning in the park next to the church. An alter made from broken pieces of their sanctuary grounded them. And they sang their hearts out, surrounding one another with love and lifting up the name of God in praise.

This week, I tuned into “Some Good News” a web series launched by John Krasinski, whom you might know from the Office or the new Jack Ryan series. One of the stories he shared was of an elderly couple separated by COVID-19, because the wife is in an Alzheimer’s care unit. Even in the midst of their separation and struggle, the husband stood outside of her window, singing “Amazing Grace” and you can hear her gradually catch on and start singing out her own praises of God.

I think about those disciples of Jesus, headed into Jerusalem on that morning. They had seen mighty and amazing things done by this man, their teacher. They had witnessed the dead being raised. The blind and the sick healed. They had witness barriers and boundaries being crossed as women and children and Gentiles and Samaritans were welcomed by their Master.

Jerusalem was the seat of power. And heading there, on that day, on that morning, with that colt… Well… it felt like a victory march! Of course they were singing and shouting and praising God with a loud voice:

Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven!

These are echoes of the cries of the angels in the field… Of the psalmists…Of the prophets throughout history… They were witnessing God’s glory revealed and present…

and it was all taking place before their eyes! Of course, they were praising God.

Only…

If we move just one verse past this Triumphant Entry, there is not joy, but weeping. Jesus weeps. He looks out over the city and can’t contain himself. Because he knows that this Kingdom they are waiting for, it will not arrive in an instant. He knows that in the coming week, those same disciples that were praising him would betray him. He knows that there will be wars and destruction and illness and death long before these visions are ever realized. He knows that this moment of God’s embodied presence with the people is fleeting.

We live in that in-between times. That Kingdom of God, it’s not fully here yet. Conflict rages in our world. A virus has brought us to a standstill. I could go on about the climate, and poverty, and racism… Jesus still weeps over our cities and towns and neighborhoods.

And there are days when it is awful hard to praise God. It’s hard to lift up our heads and see the good. Some of you are already exhausted and the peak of this illness is still weeks away here in Iowa. Some of you are worried about loved ones who are sick. Some of you are on the front lines and every day you put yourselves at risk for others. And we can get so focused on the task before us, that sometimes, its hard to stop and focus on God’s goodness.

Maybe your own heart has been quiet this week. Maybe your lips have been silent. Maybe it’s not just this week, or this crisis, but the grief or the pain in your life has been weighing on you for some time.

I keep thinking… how do we praise God when the words just won’t come?

And then I realized… maybe you don’t.

If the disciples were silent… the stones would shout. That’s what Jesus told the Pharisees who were trying to silence their voices. He was telling them that there is nothing that can stop God from being praised. There is no force on earth or on heaven that can stop this momentum. The Kingdom is coming and there is nothing they or any other power in this world can do about it.

This week, Billie shared with us a passage from Romans 8 as a part of our staff devotion. And I got to thinking about how Paul captures this sentiment in his particular chapter.

He tells us that there is no comparison between these hard times and what will come next…But Paul also reminds us that it isn’t just us, not just human people, who are waiting for God’s Kingdom. Even the creation is groaning and waiting and breathless with anticipation.

And the moment we get worn out and can’t wait any longer and don’t know what or how to pray… well, that’s when the Spirit steps in. That’s when our “wordless signs, our aching groans” are turned into prayer by God’s very spirit. Even the groans of creation are turned into prayer. Because when we fall silent and have no words to say, even the stones will shout. It will shout out the truth that there is nothing at all in this world or beyond this world that can separate us from God’s great, amazing, sacrificial love. Not trouble or hard times or hunger or homelessness or danger or threats… Nothing. No thing. No power. No principality. Nothing that was created. Not even death itself.

When we don’t have the words to sing. When the world overwhelms our hearts. When our lips fall silent. Look around. Look around at the signs of this great truth blossoming everywhere. Look at the crocus and the daffodils with their white and yellow and purple blossoms of joy. Look at the buds forming on the tree and the grass turning green. Open the windows and listen to the birds sing their own tunes of praise. Watch the squinnys play in the yard and the wind blow. Let the warm sun fall on your face. How are these not divine messages…songs from above… creation itself shouting out God’s praise?

We might not be gathering in the sanctuary this morning to praise God together. We might not be waving palm branches and lifting our voices. But we are not alone. No matter where we are today, the creation has joined us in praising our maker. The creation has joined us that hope-filled wait for the new creation, the Kingdom of God.

So my challenge to you all… Get out there and join in the song. Where do you see God’s wondrous world shouting out praises? Take a picture…. Make a short video… Send it to us here at Immanuel on our facebook page or by email… But also – share it with your friends and neighbors and loved ones. Think of all the mighty things you have seen God do in your life and with a photo or a snapchat or an email… share the good news… shout God’s praises… let your voices raise in glory. Amen.

How Will We Care for One Another?

Posted on March 29, 2020Leave a comment

Text: Acts 4:32-35, 6:1-7

We aren’t quite to Easter yet, but I thought it might be a good idea to take a sneak peek into the future. The life of the early church, told by Luke in the book of Acts, has an awful lot of parallels with our experience right now! Everything was changing. The foundations were shifting underneath their feet. The old ways of doing things were tossed out. Something new was brewing.

You see, even in the midst of all of the uncertainty and fear and transformation they were experiencing, the disciples and the community of believers had tapped into the power of God. The Holy Spirit flowed among them. They were of one heart and one mind. They looked out for each other. They encouraged one another. They were grounded in their relationship with God. But they also never stopped sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with others in the world.

We’ve been reading through “Unbinding Your Heart” together as a church this Lent and today I want to take us back to chapter three. Martha Grace Reese invites us to think about these three interwoven sets of relationships that we have… relationships that we see clearly in this passage from Acts chapter 4. Our relationship with God. Our relationships between church members. And our relationships with people outside the church.

As she writes:
“God works powerfully through these three sets of relationships in healthy churches. These great churches, large and small, have a spider-web wholeness about them. Touch one area of the web, and ripples shimmer across its entire surface. As individual relationships with God grow, people are able to be more real with each other within the church. As relationships within the church get richer, members of the church somehow know how to be better friends at work, in the neighborhood, coaching Little League…” (p. 45)

That was exactly what was happening with the early Christian church. They were deeply connected with God, devoting themselves to learning from the disciples and their prayer and worship life. Every day they met together and praised God. And the scriptures say that there was no needy person among them! Because they relied upon God, they had no shame or guilt about their situations. They were real and honest about what was going on in their lives and when a difficulty or challenge arose, they shared it…. And the community stepped up in response. Everyone cared for everyone else.

But here is the thing. This wasn’t an isolated and insulated group. Luke tells us that they were out there in the world, demonstrating God’s goodness to everyone. In just four chapters of scripture, the family of believers goes from 120, to three thousand, to five thousand! Talk about exponential growth! Daily God was adding to the community. (2:47)

That makes sense, doesn’t it? After all, Reese writes that: “If faith and church have changed your life, you’ll want to share that discovery with your friends. You want everyone to know that Christ lives. You want everyone to know that God loves us extravagantly. You want everyone to know that God will overwhelm their souls with grace and wash away their sins. You want everyone to understand to the soles of their feet that there is no sin, no resentment, no bitterness, no wound, no fear, no illness, no loneliness that Christ cannot forgive, dissolve, heal, cure, fill…. Nothing is more beautiful than this good news.” (p. 51-52)

I’m challenged by those words, because I know that I have been less than enthusiastic about sharing this good news with others. Maybe it’s because I’ve heard “no” too many times. Maybe it’s because I’m too worried about what they might think.

But our book also reminds us that all of these areas are interconnected. So maybe my, our, hesitancy to step outside and share the good news with others also has something to do with those other relationships.

Maybe our relationship with God needs some work. If that’s the case, then maybe before we step out there and start telling people about the good news we need to let it sink into our heart a little deeper. We need to spend some time in prayer each morning. Or read scripture each day. Or join a bible study. Or more regularly participate in worship.

Maybe our relationship with God is just fine, but there is a conflict or a struggle or we aren’t feeling supported by our relationships within the church. This happens far more than we want to admit. We feel slighted by not being invited to lead or serve. We have an interaction that rubs us the wrong way. We have made a mistake and instead of turning to the community, we turn away.

Or maybe there is a huge thing happening in our lives… the death of a loved one or a job loss or a new baby or a child coming home from college… and instead of bringing all of the joys and struggles and stress and realness of our lives to one another, we hold it all inside.

Or maybe, the church got so busy taking care of other things that they literally started neglecting some of their own.

That’s the situation the disciples found ourselves in by chapter six of Luke’s account. The numbers within the community kept increasing, but with more people came more work. Like most churches… c’mon, let’s be honest!… people started to group together with people that were like them. Same age groups, same ethnic background, same party or perspective. And because of this, some of the community was slipping through the cracks.

It’s hard to feel excited and passionate about your church if you aren’t feeling cared for. It’s hard to get out there and share the good news if you have needs yourself that are unmet. And it’s hard to learn how to step out of your comfort zone and talk with your neighbors when you haven’t even done so with the members of your own faith community.

A few weeks ago, Jerad Fischer shared with our church that deep relationships grow when you have something in common. And how awesome is it to discover that what you have in common with someone is God!

So the disciples looked out at the community and realized they needed to be more intentional about how they cared for one another. They needed to help the church build new relationships within the community itself that cut across all of those old lines of cliques and comfort zones and familiarity. They called some leaders to step up and reach out to care for one another.

Friends, I think that’s the kind of situation we find ourselves in today. In a world that is so uncertain and unknown, it’s time for us to be more intentional about our relationships, too. It’s time for us to go deeper in prayer and worship and time with our God. And it’s time for us to really reach out and care for one another as a community of faith.

This week, we are sending out assignments for our caring connections groups. Every member of our faith community has been grouped together with others. Some of these are people you might know, and others are new relationships that you haven’t built yet. But in each group, we’ve got families and elders, retired folks and working parents, children and youth.

And just like the apostles called upon the members of that early faith community to reach out and serve one another, that is your task as well. When you get your caring connection assignment, your job is to reach out to those members of your faith community. Send them a card. Call them up on the phone and ask how they are doing. Find out if they have access to our worship on Sundays. See who might need groceries. Draw pictures and mail them. Look out for one another.

As much as the world feels like it is upside down right now, I have to tell you that I am excited. I’m excited about the opportunity to let the distractions fall away. I’m excited about the time we get to spend with God in a new way. I’m excited about building these new relationships that are going to strengthen our church for the long haul. I’m excited about discovering new ways of “being church.”

And I believe… I know… I have faith… that as we deepen our relationship with God and we solidify our relationships with one another, all of that love and energy and grace is going to spill over into the world and it will impact the relationships we have with every other person we meet.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

You Have Everything You Need

Posted on March 22, 2020Leave a comment

Text: Mark 6:34-44

This week, all of our lives changed.

I’m not just talking about this congregation…. Or people of faith… but everyone… everywhere.

Our lives were turned upside down.

We have had to stop.

Stay home.

Make adjustments.

For some, these are minor inconveniences.

For others, the impact of the coronavirus threatens their physical or financial wellbeing.

While our leadership here at the church has been busy putting into action plans that will help us to connect and care for one another, I’ve also been doing a lot of praying for our neighbors.

I’ve been thinking about people who don’t have a community of faith to encourage them or check in or point to hope during this time.

Our vision as a church is to be out there in the world, loving, serving, and praying, so that all who hunger might be fed by God’s grace.

So I’ve been asking… where is there hunger in our world right now?

How might we be called to respond?

In Mark’s gospel, Jesus looks out upon the crowds… the multitudes… the neighbors and strangers all huddled together and has compassion on them.

He aches in his very core for these people who are hungry for a word, a touch, a glimpse of something new.

So he stops everything he was about to do and teaches them.

Spends time with them.

Connects with them.

You know… he does what Jesus does.

After a while, the disciples start to notice their own stomachs growling.

It had been a long day.

Their own hunger and exhaustion and stress and concern was all they could think about.

“Send the people away,” the disciples urged.

“Let them figure something out for themselves.”

“That way we can figure out what to do for ourselves.”

It makes sense, right?

We’ve all been told to put on our own oxygen mask before we put one on someone else if we are flying.

We’ve all been told that we can’t continue to keep giving and giving and not take time to stop and refill our cup, too.

After all, this whole story begins with Jesus and the apostles in a worn out tired place.

They had just gone out to do a whole lot of ministry and had just returned.

In verse 30, it says that so many people were coming and going that they had no time to eat!

So Jesus invites them away to a quiet place to rest for a bit.

Only… when they get there, that’s when they get overwhelmed again by the crowds.

What is a weary disciple to do?

Jesus answer surprises us: Look at what you have.

Look at who you are.

Take stock of it all.

You already have everything you need.

Or rather… what you need, is what they need.

You are not different from them, or separate from them.

There is no “them” at all.

It’s just all of us.

Right here.

All stuck in the same place with the same needs.

So whatever we have to take care of ourselves, it’s good enough to share with everyone else.

What is the hunger of the world right now?

What are the needs in our community?

What are people longing for?

Well… what do you need?

Because… honestly… they are probably the same.

On a normal day… all we really want is to feel loved, accepted and comfortable in our churches. We want to grow in our faith.

In these kinds of times… those things are mostly true, too, but we also have some other needs.

Peace in the midst of anxiety.

Groceries in a time a social distancing.

Connection when all around us is isolation.

Stability when everything feels uncertain.

And what are the resources we have to meet those needs?

Well, we have words of comfort in scripture… but also things like prayer and breathing deep and the ability to turn off the news and watch the birds sing.

Some of us have the ability to go out and shop or order things online.

We have phones and cards and computers to build connection in new ways.

We have a firm foundation in God that we lean on in times of stress.

Those are our loaves of bread and fish.

And we could use them all to take care of ourselves… which we’ll do…

But what would it look like to place them in God’s hands and let these small simply things abundantly multiply and spill over and feed not only our bodies and minds and souls, but that of our neighbors as well?

In our study and prayers around “Unbinding Your Heart” and “Unbinding the Gospel” the fourth chapter and week is all about what people outside of our churches need.

And it’s really simple.

They want to know that they are loved by God and that the church loves them.

That’s it.

And most people, our book tells us, are open to becoming part of a faith community during a time of change in their lives.

At a time when they were seeking and open for something different.

A time… maybe not unlike now.

It’s why the crowds of people had gathered there in that deserted place to meet Jesus.

They were already looking…

Already seeking…

Already longing…

Already hungry…

As we take stock of our resources and check in with one another and build new online connections, I think that the very things we are going to be doing and starting are exactly the kinds of things that our neighbors outside the church are looking for, too.

I kept thinking about how we are putting together church groups so that we might connect and care for one another over the coming weeks and months.

And about the online opportunities we are starting.

And I realized that my neighbors, Cheryl and Ann, probably need the exact same thing.

They are an older couple and don’t get out much anyways and already experiences some isolation.

So I just walked over to their house and left them my phone number.

I told them that if they need someone to pick up groceries, to give me a call.

If they feel stuck inside, give me a call.

And maybe next week, if I get braver, I’ll invite them to join us online for worship.

We already have everything we need to share with others during this time.

We’ve got the love of God in our heart.

We’ve got a peace that passes all understanding.

We’ve got phones and computers and cards and pen and crayons to make connection.

We’ve got time… blessed time… to work on our relationships.

All we need… all that any of us hunger for… is to know that we are loved.

That we are not alone.

That someone is thinking about us.

Watching over us.

What a better way for us to go out there and be the church…

To let loose the good news of God on this world.

To share it with everyone.

Deeper Water

Posted on March 8, 2020Leave a comment

Text: Matthew 18:18-20, Luke 5:1-10

I’ll often come across a quote or a few paragraphs in a devotional that I’ll save for later, thinking – Ahh! This will make a good sermon illustration!

Today, as we think a little bit about diving into deeper water in our prayer lives, I remembered a story told by the seventeenth century French mystic Jeanne Guyon in her book, “Experiencing the Depths of Christ.”

But before I get to her writing, a little about Madame Guyon herself.

She grew up very religious, spending much of her childhood in a convent until she was forced into an arranged marriage at the age of 15.

By the age of 28, Madame Guyon was a wealthy widow with three surviving children.

But the piety of her youth was what drove her and she continued to have mystical experiences of God. She felt called to share these teachings and eventually left her children into their grandmother’s care and left behind most of her personal possessions to do so.

At one point, Guyon was imprisoned for her teachings on prayer, which focused on constant prayer and inward stillness which brings us into the presence of God. Her writings were considered heresy at the time because they prioritized stillness over vocal prayer and pious action.

So imagine this woman, who has not had an easy life. But through it all, she believed God was with her in the midst of her trials and suffering. Madam Guyon wanted others to experience the depths of a relationship with God that she herself had found.

She tells the story of a traveler who has embarked on a long journey… a quest of sorts. But when the man comes to the first inn along the way, he stops there and remains there forever.

Why?

“He has been told that many travelers have come this way and have stayed at this very inn; even the master of the house once dwelt here… Oh soul! All that is wished for you is that you press toward the end… Only remember this: Do not stop at the first stage.” (Guyon, Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ)

Do not stop at the first stage.

I wonder how many of us have stopped at the first stage of our prayer lives.

We recite the Lord’s prayer.

We have a few prayers we turn to before meals.

We might even have a daily devotional we pick up a few times a week that includes a prayer at the end of every reading.

But for many of us, we pray in much the same ways we did as children.

We learned some of the basics of prayer and then stopped at that stage along the way.

We forgot about our destination, what we were striving for in the first place: a life spent in the presence of God and a faith connected with the power of God.

While we spend a lot of time thinking about the prayer that Jesus taught us, we forget what else Jesus taught us about prayer.

Ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find.

Knock and the door will be opened (Matthew 7:7-8 and Luke 11:9)

If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can move mountains… nothing will be impossible (Mt 17:20)

If we ask for anything in agreement with God’s will, God listens to us… we know that we have received what we asked from God. (1 John 14-15)

And from our gospel reading today:

What your bind or loosen on earth will be bound or loosened in heaven.

When just two of us get together and pray about something, God goes into action in response. (Matthew 18:18-19)

If we pray… stuff will happen!

Not little stuff… BIG. GIGANTIC. POWERFUL. MOUNTAIN SIZED stuff!

That’s what scripture tells us.

That’s what Jesus keeps reminding us.

Prayer is powerful.

So why is it such an after thought?

Even in the church, this institution dedicated to the teachings of Jesus, prayer seems to be icing on the cake, rather than the main course.

Think about our typical response to things.

When we see a problem or we have a goal, we create a team!

We have meetings and we plan and organize and we get approval.

And then we work.

We work our tails off trying to make something happen.

And at the end of the day we find ourselves so busy and exhausted and barely one step farther along the way.

Maybe, MAYBE, we had a devotion and a prayer at some step along that journey.

But not always. And not often. And not primarily.

Martha Grace Reese reminds us that churches are not declining or struggling because we are lazy.

We work really hard.

Maybe the problem is that we aren’t praying as much as we work.

In Luke’s gospel, Simon and James and John found themselves in this very situation.

They were hard workers.

They had been up all night and put in the hours.

And yet, they had nothing to show for it.

Until they listened to Jesus’ invitation to go a little deeper.

To row out a little farther.

To push beyond what they had always done.

Was it simply that there were more fish out deeper in the water?

Surely, that can’t be it… for they knew these waters like the back of their hand.

Was it that they just put in more hours of work?

A whole nights worth of effort didn’t accomplish what miraculously came in through one toss.

No, what changed is that they had spent some time with Jesus.

And they listened to what Jesus asked of them.

In “Unbinding the Heart,” Reese shares the story of the Benton Street Christian Church and their evangelism team.

As they got started in their work, Reese asked them to not make any decisions for three months to but simply spend their time in prayer.

This was incredibly difficult for this church full of do-ers and they got frustrated that the only thing they could report was that they were praying… but they did it.

They got together and prayed.

They prayed between meetings.

They prayed every day.

They got teased a little… but then they started getting prayer requests.

And by the time their three months of prayer was done, they had vision and energy and direction and one month later had fifty people involved in the ministry.

As one of the volunteers later said, “It was incredibly difficult for these four ‘can-do’ women to wait in prayer… a year and a half later, all four of us would say our prayer lives have been permanently impacted by this experiment… the entire church is still being impacted by this willingness to risk praying first.” (p30)

Isn’t that a funny phrase…. To risk praying first?

What risk is there in praying first?

What risk is there in stopping to ask God to be present and to guide our work?

I’ll tell you what the risk is…

Something might happen.

Something might change.

And it just might be us.

Richard Foster once wrote, “prayer is the central avenue God uses to change us. If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic of our lives.”

Or to put it another way, if we are content with the status quo, we are probably not people who turn to prayer a lot in our lives.

The opposite is also true.

If we believe God is active in the world…

If we see that something needs to change…

If we want to transform our very way of being in the world…

Then prayer has to be part of the process.

It is key to the journey.

It isn’t just one stop along the way…. It is the very road beneath our feet.

Two weeks ago, our church leadership team thought together about the work we have before us this year and the role and responsibilities each of us will play along the way.

One of the things that we focused on was our vision statement.

Can we read that aloud together?

Through personal engagement in and partnership with our community, we will live a life of love, service, and prayer, so that all who hunger might be fed by God’s grace.

We’ve been working hard on making this happen.

We try to create opportunities for people to personally engage and reach out to our partners like CFUM and Women at the Well and Simpson Youth Academy.

We focus on physical hunger through our food pantry and meal programs.

We reach out to meet that hunger for connection and relationship.

But do you know what we haven’t done.

We haven’t invited all of you to pray about this vision.

We haven’t stopped to ask God to help us accomplish this work.

As much as we talk about love, service, and prayer… as much as we even practice intercessory prayer for one another’s joys and concerns… we have not prayed as a community for our work together as a church.

It’s almost as if we took all of the power of God to bring fruit and change and life to our congregation and we locked it up in a box.

Today… let’s set the power of prayer free.

Let’s let the good news of Christ loose on the world.

Let’s turn this work over to Jesus.

Just as Christ urged Peter, James and John out into deeper waters, this next week, each day you’ll get an email inviting you to pray for Immanuel.

Not just for our people.

But for the vision God has given us.

For the work before us.

Let’s not stop at the first stage.

Let’s not be content resting before our journey is complete.

But together, let us keep pressing onward, deeper, out into that place where the presence and power of God can truly change us and this world.

May it be so. Amen.

Getting Off the Mountain

Posted on February 23, 2020Leave a comment

Text: Exodus 24:12-18, Matthew 17:1-9

There are a number of places in scripture where the divine is revealed in those thin places where heaven and earth meet.

I think about Elijah hiding on the side of the mountain.

Or when Moses heads up the mountain and receives the word of God for the people.

Or our reading from the gospel today when Peter, James, and John travel up to the mountain top with Jesus.

You know… I was thinking about Moses’ time up on the mountain and this renewal leave that I just finished.

Moses took this time to head up the mountain and spend some time with God.

This is actually a story that we’ve looked at this past fall with our Bible study groups on Wednesday’s and one of the things we discover if we read ahead a few chapters is that the people started to get worried that maybe he wasn’t coming back!

Forty days and nights go by and for all they knew, Moses had been engulfed by the cloud and the darkness on the top of the mountain and they were on their own!

In fact, Moses only comes back in chapter 32 after they discover that the people down below have begun to rebel – forming a golden calf and offering sacrifices.

Well, good news friends… I’m not back because I’ve heard you were misbehaving!

But these mountain top experiences were all surrounded by something really hard.

They came in the midst of stressful and difficult times of ministry.

Persecution.

Exodus.

The first prediction of Jesus death and suffering.

They are transition moments that remind each of these people who God is… and who they are.

They remind them that God is there.

They remind them they still have a job to do.

And in many ways, that is what my renewal leave has been about.

In the midst of the mounting pressure and stress of our denominational life…

In the midst of staffing transitions…

In the midst of some personal relationship struggles that I needed to focus on…

This set-apart time to breathe, and sleep, and focus on God and finding a new balance and rhythm in my life has been so important.

So many of you have been asking already, and so that I don’t repeat myself a hundred more times… my work on renewal leave was pretty simple.

I completely disconnected from email and the constant call of social media.

I spent time every morning reading – scripture, books, resources to help ground myself in God.

I spent hours talking and cuddling with my spouse.

I hiked in the snow.

I didn’t set an alarm for an entire month.

I laughed a lot with friends.

I listened to the birds.

I made some really good homemade bread.

I had the opportunity to really drink deep from the living water and to fill my cup back up for the season ahead.

And I am so grateful that you have been supportive of this time away.

But in some ways, I also have a new insight into how Peter, James, and John felt at the top of that mountain.

They had been following their teacher for quite some time now and they had witnessed some pretty amazing things.

But they also had just learned how difficult the journey was going to be.

They were starting to experience push-back.

And Jesus had just shared with him for the first time that he expected to be executed.

He was calling them to lose their lives, too.

This trip up the mountain must have seemed like a welcome respite from the stress and strain of this work.

As they get to the top of the mountain, Jesus changes before their eyes!

His whole body radiates with glory and even his clothes shine… brighter than the sun!

And as their eyes adjust to this brilliance, two others appear… Moses and Elijah.

Our text says that Peter reacted in this moment.

He reacted by wanting to bottle it up and capture it right there, just like that forever.

He interrupts Jesus and Moses and Elijah and offers to build some shrines where they can sit down and get comfortable and just stay right there.

None of this talk about losing your life.

None of the persecution that was happening back down in the valley.

None of the stress.

Just this perfect presence of the divine.

Light. Life. Glory.

If you encountered it… you wouldn’t want to leave either.

When you have a chance to catch your breath and rest in God’s presence it’s awfully hard to not want to just stay right there forever.

Trust me… I’ve just had four weeks to dwell in this beautiful space.

And while I’m excited to be back, it was also really, really hard to let go of that precious time away.

I’d be fibbing if I didn’t admit that a part of me imagined what it would be like to just leave it all behind and stay in that place forever.

During Lent this year, as a church, I’m challenging you to participate in one of our small groups focused around the book, “Unbinding Your Heart.”

I think this particular study is so important right now, because in some ways, I think we have got a little comfortable.

We’ve taken rest in the familiar and the holy and everything we know about God and the church.

We get into our patterns and routines and sit in the same seats on Sunday mornings and like Peter and James and John have built a little beautiful shrine around everything we believe about God and church.

This holy place is amazing and we want to stay right here in our comfort zones.

But on the mountain top, the voice of God quickly sets things straight. Out of the clouds, the glory of God rumbles: This is my Son, This is my Beloved! Listen to him!!!!!!

Just as quickly as it appeared, the clouds and fog dissipated and three bewildered and terrified disciples opened their eyes to find their teacher Jesus, standing before them alone.

It was time to head back down the mountain.

It was time to get back to work.

You see, the mountain top is not a destination.

It is more like a rest stop.

It is a place to fill up your tank, to pick up some snacks for the road, to take a nap if you need to…

But it is not the be all and end all of the journey.

This mountaintop transfiguration comes at a key transitional moment in the gospel.

It is framed in Matthew’s gospel by these two predictions of his suffering, death, and resurrection.

Jesus has set his face towards Jerusalem.

The disciples were being called to leave behind the healing and teaching and instead to head straight for the seat of power.

They were being called not to violence or revolution, but a display of righteous love that would “refuse to play the world’s power game of domination, exploitation, greed, and deception.”[1]

In the church year, it is also a moment of transition.

We, too, are setting our faces towards Jerusalem as we enter the season of Lent.

This Wednesday, we will remember our mortality when a cross of ashes is placed on our foreheads.

We, too, will live together the last week of Christ’s life.

We, too, are called to live out God’s righteous love in a world that doesn’t always accept or understand it.

As people of faith, we were never called to build tents and tabernacles to enshrine these moments forever.

We can’t say – oh, well, we accomplished that, look how great we were, and be done.

We can’t neatly wrap up our faith with a bow and put it on a shelf.

We have to set it free.

We have to keep working.

We have to keep seeing what changes need to be made.

We have to keep following the guidance of the spirit.

And that means getting off of the mountain top, rolling up our sleeves, and getting to work.

We do it all, because Christ has already gone before us.

He is the one we are following down the mountainside.

Jesus showed us you can take a moment for affirmation and to rest in the glory of God, but then we have to be on the move.

We have to let the good news out.

That light that overcame Jesus on the mountaintop – the glory that transformed him into a dazzling visage – wasn’t meant for him alone.

Christ is the light of the world and he knew that in order for that light to dwell within each of us, he was going to have to shine even in the darkest places of the world.

He was going to have to confront evil powers.

He was going to have to withstand betrayal and abuse.

He was going to have to carry his cross and enter the grave of death.

And we can’t stay on the mountaintop either.

We can’t rest for a moment longer.

We have to come down and let that light of Christ shine through our hearts.

If you haven’t already signed up for one of our Lenten groups, I urge you to do so today.

They will be starting this week and next and the discussions we will have as part of them will help us learn what it means to get out of church… to get out of these shrines and tabernacles we have built… and go out there to where people are waiting and hungry for the good news of God.

It is a chance to spend some time listening to God, listening to Christ, listening to the cries of our neighbors.

It is a chance to push ourselves out of complacency and into the harder and more beautiful realm of real ministry.

It is a chance to unbind the gospel… to set it free from those quiet mountaintop moments so that every moment can be filled with the good news of God.

Friends, it’s time to listen to Jesus.

It’s time to let God’s light shine through us.

It’s time to plant the seeds of the Kingdom of God everywhere we go.

It’s time to get off the mountain.

[1] Rodney Hunter, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol 1, page 454.

Comfortable In Our Skin

Posted on February 5, 2020Leave a comment

My gym regularly has challenges that help us to stay motivated and accountable with one another and our goals. For almost three years, Elite Edge has pushed me and shaped me and it is an important part of my week and how I care for myself.

But I have to admit that I have this internal struggle going on with one of the key reasons I go and show up and put all sorts of limits on what I eat in order to accomplish the goals I set there:

I don’t always feel comfortable in my body.

I actually remember why I signed up in the first place. I had looked at this image of myself in a conference news story and it was rounder than I remembered it being. A lot rounder. To be honest, I hadn’t stepped on a scale in a while. I was filling my life with work and family and wasn’t doing much to take care of myself in healthy ways.

There are two parts of this realization that are important. My relationship with my body was virtually non-existent. I just wasn’t paying attention to it. And from a health perspective, that’s not a great thing. I was experiencing a few symptoms of dis-ease that I was ignoring but that photo of myself caused me to ask some questions of my doctor. I want to be strong and healthy and full of life as I age and this was a moment to change the story I was writing for myself. And I did.

But it also stirred up all sorts of anxiety about how I should look. What other people thought about how I looked. What I thought it meant to be young and sexy. How society portrays what a fit body looks. And success at this gym was predicated around lowering our weight and losing inches, which wraps itself all into those expectations of body image that we should be smaller, thinner, more like the images we see in the media.

There are a hundred layers of this that could each be pulled back: double standards, the objectification of women’s bodies, class and racial expectations of beauty, consent and sexual violence… and they all gravitate around a harsh reality. We do not allow people to feel safe and comfortable in their own bodies. We do not respect one another’s bodies.

These over-sexualized expectations and fat-shaming perspectives are all around us. They dominate our advertising. They feed our economy as they are used to drive our consumer desire to buy products that will help us achieve these goals. And I buy into them sometimes. It’s honestly the thing that got me to stop into the gym that morning. I was willing to try something new, to spend my money, to buy into this crazy idea that I could lose twenty pounds in six weeks… because I didn’t like what my body said about who I was.

Now, having been to this gym for a few years, I have a completely different relationship with my body.

I know how strong it is.

I have walked people of all different bodies and sizes and shapes walk into that gym and we all give that session our all and leave equally sweaty and gross and energized.

I know that I do five straight minutes of jumping jacks and know every single muscle that goes into one… because those muscles hurt for nearly a week after.

I wear skinny jeans now. And I never felt comfortable in them before because they accentuated how large my thighs were, but now, I daily wear form-fitting leggings to the gym and there are huge muscles there and I don’t hide them or cover them up and no one cares or judges. And having that space where I could stop worrying about what someone else things freed me up to stop worrying in other places too.

I notice how different foods and drinks impact how I feel in a given day. Which give me energy and which leave me feeling tired and bloated.

Because I’m more comfortable in my own skin, I’m also more comfortable in my own sexuality and that part of my relationship with my spouse has grown as we actually talk about how what we are doing makes us feel and I have let go of shame or embarrassment about how I think I look.

And in all of these three years, I’ve been a variety of different sizes. I take breaks from healthy eating. I have seasons where I push harder at the gym and where I give myself a rest. I try to focus more on what is leading to my overall health, rather than getting too wrapped up in what the scale says.

And yet… there is this part of me that still cares.

Still cares about wanting to look a certain way.

Still is uncomfortable when the scale reads over a certain number.

Still worries about the curves and love handles.

This winter, instead of a numbers based challenge, my gym is focusing on non-scale victories and so we each set three goals. And one of those primary goals for me is to get to a point where I am more comfortable in my own skin.

Where I don’t just pay attention to my body, but I love it.

I embrace it no matter what the scale says.

I respect it by taking care of it to the best of my ability.

I cherish it by holding to good boundaries between myself and others, protecting it from the actions or words that could harm it.

I celebrate it openly in the world instead of feeling shame or guilt.

I’m not there yet… but I’m working on it.

This past weekend with the Super Bowl, much has been said about Shakira and J.Lo but I have to say the very first thought I had was: look at how their bodies can move!

Here are two women, older than I am, who just shared with us a celebration of who they are with every cell of their bodies.

I saw the incredible strength it took to climb and maneuver a body on a pole. (and honestly, I thought Cirque du Soleil before someone mentioned a “stripper pole”)

I saw the sweat and hard work of incredible footwork.

I saw curves and sparkle and life and energy.

I saw a full-throated embrace of a cultural reality that is not my own through words and music and images and bodies.

I saw two women who were absolutely comfortable in their own skin… who trusted their bodies and their identity and celebrated it in front of the world.

Maybe if the first thing we see is sex, it’s because we aren’t comfortable with bodies. We aren’t comfortable with our own… or with other people’s.

Maybe it’s because we have already bought into the belief that every body is an object, rather that belonging to a person with a story and feelings that come in flesh and blood. We have no respect for the bodies of others – especially those who look or sound or think differently than us.

What if we were comfortable enough in our own skin that we could allow others to fully celebrate and be comfortable in their own without judgment or revulsion or drooling?

What if we allowed the bodies of others to teach us, inspire us, push us, free us from our own limitations?

What if we created space for all bodies, for everybody, to be celebrated and cherished, embraced and respected?

The art of cuddling

Posted on January 30, 2020Leave a comment

I remember as a little girl when my mom would sit leaning on her side on the sofa and I could curl up in the cozy little spot that her legs made. It felt like it was a spot just for me. A place of safety and warmth and love.

As an adult, my spouse and I don’t have children – but we do have cats that like to cuddle.

Turbo is very extra particular about how he likes to cuddle. Usually, it is at the most inconvenient time (like when you are sleeping) and he has to be touching a minimum of two body parts at once (like an arm and your chest, or your head and your neck, or your leg and your stomach) and it takes him 15 minutes of moving around and going back and forth before he flops down exactly where he wants to be.

Tiki on the other hand wants a spot that is just far enough away for him to be self-differentiated. He’s a cat after my own heart, because his favorite spot is the same one I gravitated towards as a child, snuggled in the bend of a leg when someone is reclining or sleeping.

During this time away on renewal leave, I’ve had some really great time available to cuddle with my spouse. For some reason, cuddle time had been relegated to bedtime and we had found ourselves in the habit of keeping our own spaces the rest of the day. On the couch there is often a throw pillow or a whole cushion between us. Or we find ourselves in separate rooms all together, watching our own shows or doing our own thing. That is when I’m not spending my evenings and weekends at church.

But one afternoon last week, we cuddled on the chaise together for nearly two hours in the middle of the afternoon. There was nothing on the television… it was just us. We watched it snow. We giggled. We made plans for the coming week. We discussed some things we had been neglecting. We simply rested in one another’s presence. It was a place full of warmth and safety and love.

It struck me how long it has been since we had simply spent that time with one another… in not just close physical proximity, but that mental and emotional and spiritual kind of way, too. In that kind of way that blurs the line between where one begins and another ends.

I’ve been reading Cloud and Townsend’s book “Boundaries” during my renewal leave ( I have a lot of thoughts about this book – some positive and others not so much – but that’s probably another blog post), and one of the key messages throughout is that bonding is key to building good boundaries. In order to set boundaries, you need to know that you are loved, safe, and accepted. You need to know that in conflict, those things don’t and won’t change.

It’s why that space curled up with my mom was so important as a kid. I knew that no matter what, she was going to be there for me.

It was vital in the early stages of my relationship with Brandon. We would sit for hours in the back of his truck and cuddle up stargazing. We would sit close at movies with arms around one another. We would hold hands in the parking lot at school and talk until it got dark. Whenever we traveled with family, especially in those early years, I could tell the anxiety of the new places and people and relationships could all be soothed away at night when we snuggled in close together… just the two of us.

But it is also something that my spouse and I have been neglecting a bit in our relationship. When our time was occupied with chores and dinner and television watching an arms length apart, we were not reinforcing that message for one another. And in fact, some of the other messages we were sending had nearly the opposite effect.

We’ve been cuddling a bit more. Creating space for one another on the couch while watching a show. Intentionally stopping by one another’s space even when doing separate things to offer a squeeze or rub a shoulder or just cuddle for a minute. And taking time to literally stop everything and simply be present with one another.

I think it’s helping us to re-establish for one another that safe place of acceptance and love that has allowed us to engage in some other conversations in our life with a different sort of energy.