Genesis – Page 3 – Salvaged Faith

rainbows.

Posted on March 1, 2009Leave a comment

Today in church, we painted a rainbow. As we remembered God’s promise to Noah after the flood – we affirmed, as a congregation, that we are blessed by God.

We follow a God who desires not the death of a sinner, but that we all repent and live.

We follow a God who promises to be, and has been, with us through the storms of our lives.

We follow a God who reached down into the dust of the earth to breath life into humanity – and then, even when we turned away, came down and became the dust of the earth to redeem us.

I found this writing by Bruce Pewer a few years ago in one of his sermons on this text and it continues to stay with me:

Rejoice in the rainbow. It is the sign of God’s steadfast love which promises not destruction but hope and reconstruction. It is on the basis of God’s covenant love that we dare to confront evil; it enables us to laugh in the face of the evil one, taking initiative and daring to be pro-active.

Against all the evil you see in the world, against all the injustice and corruption you observe in our nation, against all the perverse evil you see raising its sneaky head within yourself, dare to paint a rainbow!

Paint a rainbow over your frustrating failings and wilful sins, and over your irksome doubts and ignorance.

Over your sins within family life, or the ugly compromises you may have had to make in the sphere of your daily work, set that rainbow.

Project a rainbow over the motley fellowship which is the church, with its flawed ministers, stumbling leaders and its sometimes passive congregations.

In your mind paint a rainbow wherever flawed and lost humanity struggles to find a way of its own mess.

The rainbow is a permanent sign of God’s faithful love. A love which not only creates, but constantly recreates and redeems.

So today, we literally painted a rainbow to remember God’s promises. We painted a rainbow to remember how God has blessed us in the past. And we painted a rainbow to be a sign to us – even in these dark days – that God is with us, and that even in the wilderness of Lent, God will send angels to care for us.

In some ways – personally – with all of the excitement and joy that I wanted this response to hold, as a congregation we had heavy hearts this morning. Right before the service, we learned of the sudden death of one of our own. In more ways than one, this message about the rainbow in the midst of storm clouds really served as comfort and hope, even in the midst of our grief and sadness.

While there of course have been deaths in the congregation prior to this point, none have hit me quite so close as this one. We have said goodbye to many dear sweet older folks this past year, and in some ways, because I was new, and because many of them were in the nursing home and not actively present in the church, it has been easier to be the comforting pastor. This particular passing is the husband of someone I have gotten to know quite well in the past year. And I pray with all of my heart for God’s strength to help me minister to her and her family in these coming days.

time to get back in the swing of things.

Posted on November 10, 2008Leave a comment

i’ve been a bit absent from the blogging recently.

but like everything in life, there are ups and downs and highs and lows and maybe i’m on the upswing.

I am very excited and inspired by how this latest political election has turned out. Not just that my favored candidate won. (although, I do break out into a smile whenever I think about how amazing of a thing we did on Tuesday and whenever I think about that beautiful family moving into the White House)

I’m inspired by the fact that Obama’s speech was a sober speech. That he understood the weight of the moment and that we are all going to have to work together (those who supported him and those that didn’t) and sacrifice a little bit more (time, service, energy, money) to get to that place we are all dreaming of getting – of being a better nation.

I’m inspired by the fact that he talked about “we” instead of “I.”

I’m inspired by fact most of all though that all of this is nothing and absolutely meaningless because we have someone else that we follow.

This morning, the refrain for the morning office was: “Because the needy are oppressed, and the poor cry out in misery,* I will rise up,” says the LORD, “And give them the help they long for.”

This Sunday, I preached on Genesis 28:10-22 – “I am God, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. I’m giving the ground on which you are sleeping to you and to your descendants… Yes. I’ll stay with you, I’ll protect you wherever you go, and I’ll bring you back to this very ground. I’ll stick with you until I’ve done everything I promised you.”

Until everything that God has promised comes to pass, God will be with us. the Lord will not forsake us. God will not let us go. No matter how much we either screw things up or get things right, God will give us the help that we long for.

Gotta Serve Somebody

Posted on June 29, 2008Leave a comment

Last week, we spent some time on Sunday morning asking about who we choose to serve. And as we did so, we focused on priorities… about what happens when you choose to place one thing at the forefront of your life. When you make one thing more important than all the rest.

And you know what? We are going to think about it again this morning. Because the question of “who we serve” is so much harder and more difficult than it looks. It is painful really to have to ask the question… to place one thing above another, to make those kinds of choices, because it means that some things in life – some things that we truly love – have to be placed second. Or third. Or stop becoming a part of our lives all together.

If last week we look at this question from the perspective of priorities, this week, the question comes at us from the perspective of love. What do you love more than anything?

What are you “in love” with more than anything?

I ask the question that way, because when we think about being in love with something – or someone – we forget how often our culture uses the language of servitude and slavery. Last night in fact, I was out to dinner with my brothers and my dad and after we finished eating my brother, Tony pulled out his phone and called his wife. Darren proceeded to kid him: “Boy, are you whipped!”

Oftentimes, you will hear someone talk about being “tied down” with someone – as in – not available, or even worse a spouse referred to as a “ball and chain” – or the thing they are imprisioned to!

Bob Dylan once sang a song called “Gotta Serve Somebody.” And the things we are slaves to are the things we love. As much as we love to talk about freedom here in the United States, the truth is, we are always, every day, serving someone or something. We are always, every day, slaves to something. Whether it is our jobs or our families or a certain value like freedom itself – we live our lives so that that thing determines all of our actions.

And for most of us, we serve that thing because we love it. Or we love what it will bring us. We love it so much that we would be willing to do ANYTHING for it.

If like Bob Dylan sang, we’re gonna have to serve somebody… or something – then I guess what Paul is really trying to ask us in today’s passage from Romans is: Why can’t that be God?

In the Book of Romans, Paul takes us on a trip from our old sinful lives, where we loved everything – ourselves, sin, the world, everything under the sun more than we loved God, and he is taking us to a new place where we choose to willingly submit ourselves to God’s will because he loved us, and because we love him. We stop being slaves to sin and we now becomes slaves of God – slaves of righteousness.

We don’t like that slave word. It makes us uncomfortable. We like to have choice. We like to have freedom. We want to have our own thoughts and actions and wills come into the picture. We want to soften the image up a bit with a word like “serving.” And for a while I thought that would work just fine. We could take the hard edge off. I mean, who doesn’t want to serve God?

But Paul specifically uses “slave” in this text for a reason. He does it because we really and truly have been slaves to sin. We have been stuck in patterns and lives that we didn’t want to live. And Christ broke free those chains and set us free… set us free to choose a new yoke. Set us free to choose a new master. Set us free so that we could make the decision and choose of ourselves who we would serve this day.

Because we’re gonna have to serve somebody.

Paul goes even farther and as a prime example of what it means to love God in this way turns to that father of our faith Abraham. And I think he does it to say that this whole following God thing isn’t easy. At all. We have lots of great stories to tell about Father Abraham… and this mornings reading from Genesis isn’t one of them. It is a painful story. It is difficult. And many times it leaves us with more doubt about God than faith. What kind of God would demand human sacrifice? What kind of father would willingly lead his own son up that mountain?

This is a story about love. And about loving two things. And about trying to choose and decide which is more important. And nothing about it is easy.

Isn’t that what Matthew has also been telling us for the past few weeks? That following God isn’t easy? Just last week we had that extremely difficult passage where we are told

“35For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. 37Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

The week before that, we focused on being sent by God to the hurt and helpless of the world, but if we had kept reading that passage in Matthew we would have been told:

16“See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; 18and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles… 21Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; 22and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

No one ever said this following God stuff was going to be easy. And the thing is, if we don’t whole-heartedly give ourselves, 110% into his care, we won’t have the strength, the courage, the power of the Holy Spirit within us to endure to the end. If we let our own selfish thoughts, our own loves, everything else that pulls on us and drags us back down into that pit of sin have a voice, then we won’t make it. So we give ourselves fully and totally over to God and trust that He will get us through. We trust that God loves us and knows what is best for us. We hold fast to the truth that our lives are in the palm of God’s hand.

We gotta serve somebody… why not let it be God?

And that takes us back to Abraham. Abraham who truly loved and cherished his son. Who loved his son, not just because he was the promised heir and the future of his line. But because this was the joy of Sarah’s own heart and a gift from God. And probably because of his dimples and his curly hair… I always picture Isaac with dimples and curly hair.

Abraham loved Isaac. But Abraham also loved and served the Lord. Abraham who was practically a king in his own right with herds and flocks and land and a trained army at his command. Abraham who had no want for any money or power. Abraham had to serve somebody too. And he could serve himself. He could choose to align himself with others and serve them. He could serve his wealth. But he didn’t. He chose to love and serve the Lord.

And then God does this terrible, terrible thing. God tests Abraham. God says: Put ME first. Above everything else. Even above this precious gift of a child that you love so much. Take him, take your son, your only son, the only person who really matters to you, that one person that you love so much, and take him up to Mount Moriah and offer him as a burnt offering.

Maybe what I find terrifying about this story is that Abraham doesn’t say a word in response! He doesn’t cry out! He doesn’t protest! He just gets up extra early the next day and goes!

I have trouble with this story. I’m not a parent yet, but I cannot even imagine entertaining the possibility of such an act. It is horrifying. It is awful. The only way that I can even begin to wrap my head around such an idea is that Abraham did it because he loved his Son, but he loved and trusted God more. He not only loved God, but he put his life and his son’s life in God’s hands. He gave himself 110% over to God.

And the reason I know this is that when Abraham and Isaac were making their lonely way up that mountain, with the wood strapped to Isaac’s back, with the torch and flame being carried in Abraham’s hand and Isaac looked around and asked where the lamb was, Abraham didn’t flinch. He didn’t panic. He didn’t doubt. He looked his son right in the eye and he said “God will provide.”

He knew that whatever end God had in mind was the best. Whatever end God had in mind could bring no harm. Whatever end God had in mind would come to pass if Abraham followed and listened and obeyed.

That doesn’t make the story any less horrific. Isaac was bound, lying on the altar and Abraham had his knife raised in the air before God stopped him. It was only at the last possible nano-second that a ram appeared. The story isn’t easy. It isn’t nice and tidy. It’s kind of crap actually. It is not the kind of reading that we want to claim as being a part of our faith. It’s not something that we ever want to experience, or want anyone else to ever have to experience. The trouble with this passage is that it means “even when God says crazy, unimaginable, horrible things, you need to listen to him.”

Because you gotta serve somebody.

I think we can hold this passage as a part of our message today with a few caveats. 1) When we choose to serve God, we don’t do it on our own… but we do it in community. And so there are other people around us who can help us to tell whether or not God is really speaking and whether we should act. Faithful people who can tell us whether or not we are ourselves crazy. 2) Abraham had a happy ending in this story. His son was spared. But there are many people all across this world who chose to follow God and who suffer for it. Who lose their lives or whose families are in danger. And things don’t always work out to be such a happy ending. But they do so, because as individuals and as families, they trust that their lives are in the palm of God’s hands.

Whatever we make of this passage, we can say without a doubt that no one can ever question who Abraham chose to serve. That is why Paul calls Abraham a righteous man. He trusted with his whole self the God whom he chose to serve. He loved God and put his life in God’s hands. He believed that the end God had in store…

And by saying that, I don’t believe that the end that Abraham was seeking justified his means. No, I think that when we talk about our journey of faith, the ends and the means are really the same. The only way that we get to experience that wonderful, beautiful end that Paul talks about – of life with God and of freedom to serve God through Christ is by accepting that it is a gift and not something we earn, and by living our lives every day in that reality. Or as the Psalmist says, “I trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.” I trusted that you loved me first and so I was able to love you. I trusted in your promise and gave myself over to you, and so every day your love and your grace flows through my body and allows me to serve you ever more. We have the choices to love and serve God freely… because we know that God loves us. Amen and Amen.

clearing away brush… planting new seeds

Posted on May 20, 20081 Comment

there are so many things happening in the church and in our lives! And I really should have been here sharing all of it!

I’m making a list and maybe I’ll get back and update sometime today.

Church
1) Be the Church Sunday
2) Garage Sale Success
3) So many funerals
4) 5 baptisms in one sunday!
5) art project – genesis reading

Home
1) Birthdays and more birthdays
2) finally getting the lawn mowed
3) starting my garden!!! (and clearing out the weeds)
4) got the grill, got the outdoor furniture, ready to bbq!
5) tasks that have been put off for a while finally getting done (insurance, wedding pictures, hanging pictures on the wall)
6) finally reading for pleasure again! (Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, Water for Elephants)

Things are really falling into place right now and everything feels good. now if I just had more time in the day!

… … … … …

Finally back around to update a few things.

1) Be the Church Sunday: Our church organized an afternoon of community service and outreach to our homebound and nursing home residents. We used the quote “don’t go to church, be the church” to kick off our event and even made t-shirts that have come in handy for other service projects as well. It was a great success – we helped quite a few people, brought the church to many who haven’t been able to come for a while, and I think really came together as a church as well.

2) Garage Sale Success: The city wide garage sale was the last week in April, and we joined in. We made quite a bit of money with the items that were donated, but we also went through the church and did some spring cleaning. The biggest surprise: we found fourteen old greyhound bus travel posters in a storage room, and found out they were worth quite a lot! We ended up selling them to an art dealer in California for $100 a piece! We are using the money to jumpstart our building fund – an emergency repair and upkeep fund so that we aren’t always taking money from our ministries to pay for the building.

3) So many funerals – I had 3 funerals in two weeks! And they were very very different, including my first funeral for a child – an infant really who was born with heart problems. It was extremely moving and quite a powerful experience.

4) 5 baptisms in one sunday! – Memorial Day weekend we baptized 5 great-grandbabies of congregation members! I was kind of torn because all but one of them were not members of the congregation, not even Methodist, and probably would never be. But this church is important for their families… its the space where they have celebrated important moments and together experience God. And as a former pastor said, we Methodists are the ones who “hatch, match, and dispatch” – ie: baptize, marry and bury when no one else will… or for those who don’t have a faith home. I talked a lot throughout the service about the importance of making promises and nurturing these children, and how as a congregation, we are making those promises too. I think the message got across, and I look forward to keeping up with these families.

5) art project – genesis reading – this was something that was done at my last church. as we read the passage from Genesis 1, there was an artist who made a mural painting of what was happening verse by verse. So when the text came up again this year, I went for it. I got a very large piece of black foamboard and as the liturgist read the passage, I painted it. People really enjoyed it and I’m hoping to do more art with them (more interactive stuff for them to participate in) in the future. I think it will be one of those ways I can start to edge into more emerging practices.

If the man was right.. the world would be too

Posted on May 18, 2008Leave a comment

In the beginning…. Before even this world was created… from the very start of it all… there was God.

I don’t know about you, but thinking about what was going on before our world was created gives me a headache. It makes my brain go all fuzzy. Because we don’t know and we can’t know what God was doing, what God was thinking, and what God was feeling.

If we look at the beginning of Genesis, we can figure out a few things… the earth actually did exist in the beginning… it was a mushy, gushy, blob of matter, but there was something there. And there was darkness… lots of darkness… everything was dark. And there was water. “The deep” is what Genesis calls it… the bottomless, endless, Iowa River out of its banks kind of water.

And… there was God.

Now, I’m going to think of this purely from a creative and imaginative perspective. If all that surrounded me was a blob of shapeless matter, utter darkness, and water, water, everywhere, I’m not sure that I would be a very happy person. It would be kind of depressing. It would be so dark and damp and cold. Part of me thinks – well, no wonder God created the heavens and the earth – just for some company! Just for something to do!

But if we think this way – we are ignoring the fact that God wasn’t alone. God wasn’t unhappy. God didn’t decide to create the heavens and the earth to make some friends or to play with us. God was perfectly complete already.

Do any of you remember what I showed to the kids a few minutes ago? What did I say that God was like? (ROUND DANCE)… Round Dance, that’s right… Now there is actually a big fancy word for that round dance that is God… and it’s called Peri-choresis… say it with me now: peri-choresis.

Now, this can be a really strange concept to understand, but it describes the way that the three persons of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all relate, all dwell with one another. Just listen to these scriptures for a glimpse of what I mean:

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. (John 1:1-3)

”I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (John 17: 20-26)

“I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” Therefore, “whoever sees me, sees the Father,” for “I and the Father are one” (John 14: 9-11, 10, 30).

How this happens is a complete mystery to me, but over and over again, we are told in the scriptures that the Father and the Son are one, along with the Holy Spirit. Together, within each other, moving in unison, with one will and one desire, the Holy Trinity is complete, perfect, and needs nothing else.

I guess another way to say it is that before creation, before you and me, before this planet was formed… there were relationships and there was love. Jurgen Moltmann writes in The Living Pulpit that “achievement, individualism, independence, and self-assertion are contrary to the very nature of reality— for all that God has made reflects the character and nature of God.” Our God is not a single, solitary, God… no, with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit together, our God is a community.

And the world that God creates is meant to be about relationship as well.

You see, from the very beginning, we were created as an extension of God’s love and relationship. We were created to participate, to share, in God’s love.

Each and every thing that is created by God has a place…. the earth and its vegetation relies upon the light of the sun for its food and energy… the creatures of the earth rely upon that same vegetation for their food…. I’m reminded of Disney’s movie – The Lion King, and Elton John’s song… the Circle of Life

“From the day we arrive on the planet
And blinking, step into the sun
There’s more to see than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done
There’s far too much to take in here
More to find than can ever be found
But the sun rolling high
Through the sapphire sky
Keeps great and small on the endless round

It’s the Circle of Life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle
The Circle of Life”

As someone who studied science for a brief while before venturing back over into the world of religion, I am always amazed at how fragile and delicate that circle of life is. How intricate the relationships God created in this planet are. How this earth holds just the right balance of sun and water and air to sustain life. And how all of it is God’s doing.

You, know we could spend hours debating which of the two creation stories (yes, there are two versions within our very bibles) are the most accurate… we could launch into a huge discussion about the bible verses science or creation and evolution… but I am not really sure that any of those debates matter. Because the one thing we know is that God has a hand in our creation… and we are made for relationship.

After the rest of the world was finished… God look around and saw that it was good. But then God decided to make one more thing… to make humankind… to make us… in the image of God.

This week in the roundtable pulpit group, we talked a little bit about what that image of God might mean. And we talked about our ability to think and to reason. We talked about the power that we are given to care for other things.

The image of God can also mean that we have been stamped, have been marked as belonging to God. In much older days, a messenger would carry the image of his master in order to prove to another person who he belongs to – who he represents. And so for us to be created in the image of God, means that we represent God to the rest of the world – and to one another.

On this Trinity Sunday – on the day that we remember and celebrate that God is Three-In-One… I think that the image of God and what we represent takes on a whole new meaning.

The image of God means that we are created for and in relationship.

If we jump ahead to the “other” creation story, God actually creates only one human being. And that being is made out of the earth and God breathes life into this human. But then God realizes that it is not good for the human to be alone – that like the divine God – the human needs a partner, needs a relationship with others to be complete, to be whole.

In Genesis 1 we read: So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Unique, distinct, and yet the same – created to be one.

And created with a job to do. This world is not our playground – it is not a treasure chest of goods that we can plunder… it is given to us to take care of. When we think today of the words subdue and dominion we often think of power and tyrants… but we have to think of “dominion” from the perspective of Israel… where the King had dominion over the people – but that also included a responsibility to care for those he ruled. We are to be stewards of the creation, to care for it and tend it, because after all, it does not belong to us – but to God. We are merely servants of God.

Within our United Methodist Church, today is not only Trinity Sunday, but also Peace with Justice Sunday… and it is also a reminder that we are created to care for one another – to be in relationship with one another.
In the resources for Peace with Justice Sunday, there was this story of a father and a son…

A father was minding his son while trying to study. The boy simply would not leave him alone.

In desperation the father thought of a plan. Thumbing through a magazine, he saw a map of the world and explained to his son that this was a picture of our hemisphere. Tearing the picture into pieces, the father said if the boy would put it back together, he would reward him with a surprise. The father left the room, confident he would not be disturbed for the rest of the afternoon. Imagine his surprise when his son soon called him to the other room to see the finished puzzle.

“How did you do this?” the astonished father asked. “You don’t know what the world looks like.”

“No, Daddy,” the boy replied, “but when you tore it out of the magazine, I saw a picture of a man on the other side. I know what a man looks like, so I put the man together. If the man was right, the world would be right too.”

What a profound truth: “If the man was right, the world would be right too.” With God’s help, we have the power to make the world right.(–Jeanie Stoppel)
Peace with Justice Sunday reminds us that the power we have is a gift from God and we are to use to towards the same ends God desires for the world. We are to love with the same kind of love as God. We are to see others as fellow beings, who are created for relationship with us. And we are to see this world as a gift, as God’s holy place, as the place where we are meant to live and grow and thrive.
Let us live our lives as good stewards of this creation. Let us live our lives as brothers and sisters with all of our fellow human beings. Let us live our lives always searching for God’s will. And let us live our lives representing the one who created us… the three-in-one triune God… let us live our lives in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Gracious God,
Thank you for this new day.
Thank you for the opportunity to worship as your body of Christ.
Thank you for the Holy Spirit who fills us with the truth and wisdom.
Holy one, we pray for those who are suffering in China from Earthquakes, Myanmar from the Cyclone, and those who suffer from starvation.
Lord we pray for your peace with justice throughout your whole world.
And now;
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Amen.

roundtable preaching

Posted on February 13, 2008Leave a comment

This past semester I got to work on my senior project with Dr. John McClure, a professor of homiletics at Vanderbilt Divinity. My project has been on the intersection of so-called postmodern church practices with rural churches in Iowa and one of his suggestions, as a homiletician, was that I incorporate some kind of collaborative preaching model.

And to be honest, with my leadership style and my own values, I desperately want to do so. I truly believe that the Holy Spirit brings us to and reveals to us the Word of God as we read scriptures and as we pray about what to preach. And I also believe that I am not the only person the Holy Spirit speaks to in my church! There is a word to be proclaimed and who knows who might have the message from God this week. I think there is also something that we each bring to the text, experiences that we have that need to be shared with others. And that whenever two or more are gathered, Christ is present.

So I made the invitation to people in the church to join me on Monday afternoons for a “roundtable” discussion about the text for the week. And unfortunately the weather both weeks so far has been awful – snowy, icy, foggy. And as I might have expected this early in my ministry at this church, the participants are all the same faithful people who show up for each and every other church group. The good thing about this group is that it is designed to change completely every few months, so in May I will be asking those individuals to stop coming and to help me recruit others.

One of my greatest temptations in this group is to talk too much. I really want to hear what their perspectives and their questions in relation to the text are. I spend monday afternoons doing some serious research so that I can at least begin to address whatever might come up. So far, there have been good outcomes! Last week we were looking at Jesus in the wilderness and the temptation, but because the lectionary places that text alongside Adam and Eve in the garden we got to talking about how as humans we can resist temptation… and that got us thinking about holding each other accountable. I don’t know that I ever would have gone the direction of accountability with the sermon had it not been for the group, but they are aware that as a church we need to be more actively supporting one another. It turned into a great message!

I’m still learning how to incorporate their ideas into the sermon in more compelling ways, however. I realized halfway through the sermon that I said “in our roundtable group this week we discussed..” or some variation of that too many times. I need to refresh myself on the last chapter in McClure’s book “The Roundtable Pulpit”

things i have learned in my first week as a minister

Posted on January 8, 2008Leave a comment

in no particular order:

1) no one notices if you skip the Lord’s Prayer during communion – it was printed in the bulletin… it should have been in my script… but since I switched to a special Epiphany litany, the one with just the great thanksgiving and not the whole shebang, I totally missed it. But… no one seemed to notice, or at least no one said anything.

2) sometimes it’s better to just let someone talk than try to respond – during one of my pastoral conversations with a parishoner they became passionately angry about evolution being taught in the schools and then quoted genesis 1. I couldn’t figure out what to do next. Should I announce my theological differences? Should I point out that Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 tell differing stories and so it’s hard to take them both (or either) literally? Should I say something like “wow, you really seem angry about that… can you tell me why you feel that way?”… Since I couldn’t figure out what to say, I just listened. intently listened. And preceeded to find out that this really kind and sweet old man (and he really was!) was so angry about evolution being taught that he swore he would go after anyone who tried to teach his kids about evolution with a shotgun! While this probably isn’t true, I felt like if I had opened my mouth I would have been run out of town. I think our congregation is a really interesting mix of biblical literalists, fundamentalists (in the early 20th century understanding of the word), people who just want to understand what the text means, and others who could care less. And I desperately want to be honest and authentic about who I am and what I believe. But I’m glad that I just listened to him right then. He got the anger out of his system and we preceeded to discuss whether or not “Deal or No Deal” was gambling.

3) food will be provided at every gathering – YAY! food for bible study, food for youth group, food for sunday morning fellowship. I love being Methodist.

4) when i’m on the internet, no one can call the church office – an interesting consequence of previous pastors not keeping office hours is that the office doesn’t get used much. So they have dial-up and one phone line. But now that I have set office hours (M-Th 9-12), someone is there! And while I’m there, I’m likely to do things like correspond by email to other district and conference pastors, work on my sermon and the bulletin using textweek.com, begin working on a church website… all of which means, no incoming calls. I started to wonder why the phone wasn’t ringing. LUCKILY, no one desperately needed me and we figured this out before any damage has been done. (it’s not like anyone is expecting to get someone at the church… they haven’t for a while). I discussed upgrading to DSL so that we can talk and surf at the same time… it’s in the works.

5) homebound members LOVE IT when the pastor visits – I have been fairly nervous about visiting people. I’m not the most outgoing person in the world and my only experience so far has been making cold calls in a hospital. But there is a huge difference when you are now someone’s pastor and when they haven’t been visited for a long time. A congregation member came with me to begin making visits and it was so good to meet all of these wonderful people! They have so many stories to tell, so much life that they have seen. Each circumstance is different. Some are retired farmers who have moved into town. Others have lived in Marengo their whole lives. Some moved to Iowa later in life. All that I visited were widowers, but some for as few as 9 months and others for 35 years. Each desperately missed their spouses. I think that a significant ministry that our church can offer is ministry to these people. Evidently the church used to tape services for them, which can be done again. And we definately need to start a communion ministry. Maybe we can get some funding from somewhere to invest in a church bus… for quite a few of these people they either can’t drive or the weather keeps them away… all they need is a ride.

6) no matter how long they have been doing without, when the pastor arrives they are expected to lead – My first day in the office, before I even had set down my stuff, I was invited to join in the bible study happening in the next room. I accepted because I wanted to see what they were doing and introduce myself, etc. but EVERY TIME there was a pause or a question, I was supposed to have the answers. As the week has gone on, it hasn’t been quite as bad, but there is an expectation/hope that I’ll be the one who prays, who has the answer, that I’ll come join all the civic groups and participate in each of their outside bible studies. I think the part that is difficult for me is that I really value and want to embody a communal ethic of church leadership… one in which power is shared and we are all ministers in the Body of Christ. They really want a pastor. They really want a shepherd. This doesn’t mean that I want to shirk my responsibilities… it means that I want to help them fully claim theirs. And I think that it will take a little while before we get to that place. I have to admit, I’m tempted at times just to take things over and do them my way… but that’s not how I feel that God has called me to lead, nor do I believe that it embodies the ministry of Christ. So… while it may be slow going… together we will learn how to be the church.

7) croutons of christ just aren’t as full of grace as hawaiian sweet bread – This is for all of you Vanderbilt and West End people… I’m a big fan of intinction… the good old “rip and dip”… especially when you are feasting on a hunk of Hawaiian sweet bread. Yeah, I know Jesus was probably eating unleavened bread in the upper room, but a tender chunk of bread, with all of its texture and the smells… it just really conveys the fact that you are sharing part of a meal with one another. I grew fond of gathering at the table after the worship service was over to eat the communion “leftovers.” Things just are not the same when you have cubed, crustless white bread (especially when you have no loaf to break and when you take the cloth off the plate bread cubes stick to it and go flying off the table) Note to self: have a meeting with the communion committee.