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Momentum for Life: Eating & Exercise

Posted on February 7, 2016Leave a comment

About ten years ago, I was living in Nashville and was in the middle of my seminary journey. I was overwhelmed by studying and coursework and I was working full time at a local church as a part of an internship. I was burning the candle at both ends and learning a lot… but I was worn out a lot, too.

One afternoon, I stepped on the scale at my parent’s house… I didn’t have a scale myself… and I was blown away by the number listed right by my toes. It was the most I had ever weighed in my life.

I had been so busy doing all of this work that I hadn’t been taking very good care of myself. I was using food to get me through the day. I wasn’t taking time to exercise. And part of the reason I felt so worn out wasn’t all the work… it was that I wasn’t giving my body the right kind of energy to sustain the work.

I started preparing healthier meals in smarter ways – cooking up a whole crockpot on the weekend to last me through the rest of the week.

The next week, I started going to the gym with a friend of mine.

And suddenly, I discovered I wasn’t nearly so tired. I could focus more and tasks didn’t take as long. My mind was more nimble. And my soul felt more whole than it had in a long time.

We have been exploring Michael Slaughter’s acronym “DRIVE” over these past few weeks. He is inviting us to think about all of the things that give us momentum to keep following Jesus Christ.

D – for Devotion… for that personal one-on-one time with God in scripture and prayer

R – for a Readiness to Learn… for the ways in which we allow ourselves to be taught by God and one another.

I – for an Investment in Relationships with other people who are on this journey with us – through mentoring and being mentored and honoring our families.

V – for Vision… and understanding that we have a clear sense of where we are going… together!

And lastly E.

E is for Eating and Exercise… but when I look at this topic, it is really about how we honor and care for our bodies so that they have the energy and the focus they need to keep making this journey of discipleship.

Ten years ago, when I decided to focus on being healthier, I found a community of support online. There was a website that I visited every single day and I logged what I ate and how long I worked out and I found that there were kindred spirits who could encourage me or help me resist temptation or who needed MY help in their own journey.

I’m not sure I could have done it without them.

That sense of community is important when it comes to our bodies. Because we as Christians do not believe that we exist as individuals completely set apart from other people. This walk of discipleship is one that we take with others.

And Paul agrees. In his first letter to the Corinthians, he talks a lot about our bodies and what we do with them.

Before today’s reading, Paul writes about how the community should hold itself accountable for faithful living.

He doesn’t want us to live apart from the world – completely separate from those who engage in unhealthy activities. We can’t! It’s impossible to totally shut ourselves off from every sinful behavior we see.

But as we live in the midst of our communities, those of us who claim to follow Christ can hold one another accountable for what we eat and drink, who we sleep with, what we say.

Why should we do these things? What does it matter?

As we heard in our reading today:

It may be true that the body is only a temporary thing, but that’s no excuse for stuffing your body with food, or indulging it with sex. Since the Master honors you with a body, honor God with YOUR body! …

Or didn’t you realize that your body is a [temple, a] sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? (1 Cor 6:13-20)

As we think about the role of eating and exercise in our journey of discipleship, there are two basic ideas at play here.

First: life itself is a precious gift. These bodies are a precious gift from God.

On Wednesday of this week, we will gather once again for Ash Wednesday and the putting on of ashes reminds us that from the dust of the earth we were formed. We were made by our Creator who breathed into us the breath of life. Every life, every body has value.

And when God took on our human flesh and was born as one of us, Immanuel, he came so that we might have life and life abundant ( John 10:10).

The very concept of momentum reinforces the fact that we need energy to go the distance. We need a healthy system of food and relationships, active lifestyles and spiritual care in order to sustain long and abundant life.

A team of researchers discovered in 2004 that there were small communities around the world where people lived measureably longer. In what they termed “Blue Zones” folks reached the age 100 at a rate 10 times greater than the United States.

What was the difference? What made their communities healthier?

Nine characteristics were discovered… characteristics that I think echo what we have heard from Slaughter during this series:

They exercise as a part of daily living
They understand their purpose – they have a vision of what we are here to do
They down shift – they find ways to relieve stress and take Sabbath
They abide by the 80% rule – they stop eating when they are 80% full.
They eat more plants – they sometimes eating meat only once or twice a week
They have a drink with friends –moderation and community are key!
They belong to a faith community – attending a church service four times a month adds 14 years to life expectancy (REPEAT!)
They put their loved ones first – they care for their elders and invest in their children.
They choose a healthy tribe – they surround themselves with people who support healthy behaviors

Do any of those sound familiar to our D.R.I.V.E. acronym?

By being part of a faith community that supports a healthy lifestyle, we can help one another, in the words of the psalmist, “experience Jerusalem’s goodness your whole life long…. And see your grandchildren.”

But we also have to remember a second very important point. Our bodies are a gift… but they don’t belong to us. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians:

“Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? They physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:16-20)

As Slaughter writes, “You cannot be a healthy influencer and agent of kingdom change if you are not demonstrating the reality of the kingdom of God within yourself.”

We have to live what we are teaching and preaching. Our lives, our bodies, witness to the faith we follow.

We are the hands and feet of Jesus in the world, after all. And if you are not taking care of yourself, you will not have the energy you need to serve where God calls you.

But this also means that advocating for health and the care of other’s bodies needs to be a part of our ministry.

One of my leadership commitments in the community is that I am on the board of the Des Moines Area Religious Council. Every month, we as a church contribute food and resources to DMARC for use in their 12 food pantries across the greater Des Moines area.

A few years ago, DMARC made a conscious decision to change the food it was providing to clients. Researchers from ISU had helped the organization to discover that rates of diabetes and obesity were much higher in the clients we served than the general population. So a very intentional shift was made to provide more whole grains, to focus on fruits in their natural juices and not in heavy syrup, or vegetables with no salt added. The shift means that the food we provide is a bit more expensive, but contributes to a healthier overall lifestyle.

I’m going to close with a confession.

I have personally not been living out these principles lately. I stepped on the scale this winter and found myself back up to where I was about 10 years ago. Actually, a couple of pounds higher.

We are entering the season of Lent… a time of fasting and transformation. A time to recommit ourselves to the journey of discipleship. A time of accountability.

People all around this world give up indulgences for this six-week season, but I, personally, have felt convicted by the reality that I cannot serve God if I do not have the internal resources and energy to do so. So my commitment this Lent is to a healthier lifestyle… and I hope you will help hold me accountable to that… to eating better and exercising more.

And I hope that you will think about the momentum of our faith journeys we have discussed over the past month. Do you need to spend more time in devotion? Do you need to practice humility and an openness to learning? Do you need to invest deeper in relationships with your family or community? Do you need to spend time discovering the vision of God’s future for your life? Do you need to re-evaluate your eating and exercise habits?

This is the perfect moment to shift gears. This is a perfect time to create a new habit. This Lent is God’s gift to you and to this church as together we follow Jesus in the walk of discipleship.

A Spotlight and a Platform

Posted on February 6, 20161 Comment

Martin Shkreli, the man who raised prices on various life-saving drugs purely for profit, testified before Congress recently:

What really struck me in this video, was the plea of Mr. Cummings.

He lifted up the truth of the impact of Mr. Shkreli’s actions, but did not merely question or shame or condemn him. Instead, he turned the interrogation into a witness to the power of transformation. While so much of the world has written off Mr. Shkreli as a terrible, rotten person who deserves the worst the world can throw at him, Mr. Cummings spoke to his better angels.

“You have a spotlight and you have a platform.”

“I truly believe you could become a force of tremendous good.”

“There’s so many people that could use your help. May God bless you.”

And you could see, for a moment, Mr. Shkreli squirming in his seat.

How do we, as the church, speak the truth to people who have power? We do it in love.

Shouting has its moments, but sometimes truth-telling happens with a quiet voice… a persistent voice (“are you listening?”)… that requires the other to pay attention.

Sometimes, it is the vision of what could be that is just as effective as what has been.

Sometimes, we appeal to the Kingdom of God by naming the small kernel of possibility and hope we see in the humanity of another person… even if it is really, really, really tiny.

Our politics and discourse with one another these days is so vicious and dividing. It happens in elections and in our capitols and it happens in our church life as well.

What if instead we reached out to one another like Mr. Cummings?

What if instead we listened to the words of Christ in Matthew 5:43-45?

Love your enemies and pray for those who harass you.

Just as Mr. Shkreli has a platform and a spotlight, so do you, with every action you take every day. And you have a chance to stand there and speak for truth and justice and love.

Awaiting the Already: The Promise of a New Dawn

Posted on November 1, 2015Leave a comment

Have you ever sat and watched the sunrise?

The hints of purple… turning pink… and then neon orange as the sun peeks over the horizon.

What a profound thing to realize that each morning, as we wait for the sun to rise in our sky, it has already risen for our neighbors to the east… and set for our neighbors to the west.

We are waiting for something that has already happened.

Throughout this month and the season of Advent, we will be exploring these sorts of paradoxes and promises…

The already and the not yet…

The things that have happened that are about to happen again.

Of course the most obvious of these is the coming of Christ.

We remember that he came as a child to Mary and Joseph to save us from our sins.

But we also are waiting for him to come again and take us home.

Already…

And not yet…

Today, we will explore words of great comfort, as we are reminded that the promises of the resurrection are real and present for those we have lost… even as we await for the glorious day of resurrection with our Lord.

Already…

And Not yet…

A sunset, seen from the other side is a sunrise (Bishop Rueben Job)

Today is a special day in the life of the church when we take time to remember those who have experienced the final sunset of their lives.

But we do so, holding firmly to the promise that what we see as a sunset, is merely the beginning of a new dawn, a new life.

And we acknowledge that those who have died… these flames that flicker before us… they are still with us… still waiting like we are to experience the glory of God.

I have very little knowledge about the mysteries of death. No amount of book learning can prepare us for whatever might await us. But I can speak with certainty about the promises of scripture.

One of those promises comes to us from the Wisdom of Solomon – the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and no torment will every touch them… they seem to have died, but they are at peace… their hope is full of immortality.

One of those promises comes to the thief crucified beside our Lord – he is promised that today he will be with Jesus in paradise.

In the book of Revelation we have the promise of the day of resurrection – when we will all be raised and clothed in our recreated bodies and there will be weeping and crying and pain no more.

In the gospel of John, after their brother has died, the sisters Mary and Martha are besides themselves with grief… each one pleads with Jesus – “if you had been here, my brother would not have died!”

Martha knows in her heart – she trusts in the promise that on the last day her brother will be raised again. She knows that he and she and all of us are pressing on and that Christ is the Messiah – the Son of God who will bring us to the other side; to the dawn of resurrection.

And surely Mary understands this also. But that doesn’t take away their pain and grief at the loss of their brother in this life. No longer can they reach out and touch him or hear his laughter or look into his eyes. While they trust in the promises, it doesn’t take away their sorrow.

It doesn’t take away the grief Jesus himself feels as he weeps before the tomb of his friend Lazarus.

What Jesus then does, is to give us a glimpse of the resurrection.

Lazarus – who had been dead for four days – is called out of the tomb.

We are reminded of what awaits us all.

We are reminded that the Lord God will swallow up death forever.

We are reminded that God will wipe away every tear from our faces.

This year, we have said goodbye to many people who were a part of this church family. We have lit a candle for each of them, in honor of their lives among us, the ways they helped to shape our faith, and we wait with them for the day of resurrection.

They have joined the countless other faithful who surround us with love and encouragement.

They join the company of saints with whom we sing praises to God every time we gather around the communion table.

In Isaiah, we are reminded that God will prepare for all peoples a rich feast…

Bread and wine, joy and celebration…

As we gather today around this table, it is a reminder that the feast we are waiting for is already present among us.

It is present here today in the bread and the cup.

But it is also present here today in the company of those we love and lift before God.

As you came in this morning, I hope you received one of these paper angel cutouts.

If you haven’t… will you lift up a hand so we can bring one to you… ?

These slips of paper represent those saints in our lives who have and continue to encourage us in the faith.

We shared meals with them while they lived among us, and we continue to feast with them around the table of the Lord.

They are the names of people who took risks and showed us what trust looked like.

They lived through tough times and survived.

They refused to give in.

They were kind to us when no one else was.

They believed in the promise of resurrections.

This table this morning is set with bread and the cup, but what we bring to this meal, every Sunday we gather, but especially on this All Saints Sunday is the fellowship of each of these saints.

I want to encourage you to take a minute and think about who has been a saint in your life and if you feel led to write their name on your paper.

“Behold, God has made a dwelling among the people. God will live with them and they shall be God’s people. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying…”

I really wanted to take a moment to tell you a story about one of the saints written on my slip of paper… my Grandma Doni.

But the truth is, I couldn’t do it without crying.

I had the honor of sharing a few words at her funeral in 2002 and I bawled through half of it. I’d be a blubbering mess if I even tried to start.

The day Isaiah lifts up, and John lifts up in Revelation… of no more tears?

That day is not here… yet.

But we hold fast to the promises.

We hold fast to the glimpses of resurrection we have seen throughout history.

We hang on to the amazing, powerful, awesome love of Jesus Christ that went before us through the valley of the shadow of death, who walked through the sunset so that one day, we all might rise again to a new dawn.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

**Photographer Don Poggensee

Saving and Investing

Posted on October 18, 2015Leave a comment

I stand up here today exhausted, and yet filled with joy and satisfaction.

The past two days, I have been at Ankeny First with a few others from here at the church learning about how to be a better church for our members and our neighbors struggling with addiction, incarceration, mental illness, racism, life in general.

See highlights here: https://storify.com/RightNextDoor/right-next-door-5623dc20f44af4f567e61ee9

But this was not only a conference I attended, it was something I invested my time and energy in for the last nine months as part of the planning team.

And that investment grew and was added to over the past few months until it matured this weekend in 215 people, from 16 states, gathered in a sanctuary to pray, sing, learn, and be changed.

This month, we are exploring John Wesley’s advice to earn all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.

In The Message last week, I briefly touched on how John Wesley encourages us to truly make all the money we can with our work… as long as it is good for our souls and good for our neighbors.

And today, we are going to talk about what to do with that money… how to make your money do some work for God’s kingdom…. About how we invest our resources, how we save them instead of wasting or hoarding them.

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Will you pray with me?

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Our gospel reading this morning tells the story of a man going on a trip who delegates some responsibilities. He gives each of his servants some money to take care of while he’s gone. Two of them get started immediately and put that money to work… and it grows and doubles and multiplies. But the third, buries the money and sits on it. He is afraid to lose it and so he hides it. He hoards it and in doing so, he wastes it.

James Harnish tells two stories in his book, Earn. Save. Give. about children of the Great Depression. One is about Ivy League-educated brothers, Homer and Langley who withdrew from society. In 1947, police were called to their home because someone noticed a smell. They found both brothers dead in the house… one died in his chair, the other had been crushed by a booby trap he’d set for potential robbers. As the house was cleaned out, “the authorities found 130 tons of stuff, mostly junk… fourteen pianos… thousands of books… a dressmaker’s dummy, and part of a Model T Ford.”

The other story he tells is about a woman named Dorothy. She loved flying and served as a pilot during WWII. She worked as a nurse the rest of her career. She gave generously to her church. And when she died, she left $4.7 million to the school where she was trained and left a large gift to her church’s endowment.

One family hoarded their money and possessions out of fear… much like the third servant. The other family saved their money and gave it a purpose.

For our time of confession this morning, think about something in your life that you hoard… that you hold onto out of fear or compulsion. Share what that might be with your neighbor.

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Are you hoarding God’s gifts? Or are you saving them?

Are you wasting the resources you have been blessed with? Or are you investing them?

This is the question presented to us today as we think about what it means to SAVE all we can.

And Wesley doesn’t go around spouting off this advice because he feels like it… no, he lived it.

He figured out early on, when he was a young pastor and not making much money, that he could live on 28 pounds a year in England. When he got a raise with his work, and as he gradually began to make more money from publishing and speaking, his income grew drastically. He truly was earning all he could and eventually his income reached 1,400 pounds annually – 50x what he had first made.

Yet, he continued to live on 28 pounds a year.

He didn’t see an increase in his salary as an opportunity to buy more stuff or wear nicer clothes – he saw it as an opportunity to save more and give more.

Wesley encourages us to see our income – all of the gifts and resources we have – as something that has a considerable role to play in God’s kingdom.

Yes, we are supposed to take care of ourselves and our family. We need to be well-rested and healthy and safe if we are going to be out there on the front lines working for Jesus.

But we aren’t meant to spend all of God’s gifts on ourselves.

Wesley writes:

“Do not throw the precious talent into the sea… Do not throw it away in idle expenses, which is just the same as throwing it into the sea. Expend no part of it merely to gratify the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, or the pride of life.”

Wesley wanted his people to invest their resources in the Kingdom of God.

Wesley wants us to put our resources to work.

Sometimes, we act like the last servant, who dug a hole and buried the gifts.

This servant thought about the high standards of his master and didn’t want to disappoint by not doing something perfectly. So the servant did nothing at all.

This is the attitude that infects our minds whenever we see a sign-up sheet for some project at church and we think: Oh, I could never do that…

It’s the hesitation that creeps in when an opportunity to serve comes along and we think: There are so many people better suited for that… they are so much better at it than I might be.

It is also the compulsion that we have to be the best and have the best and look the best. It is the compulsion that causes us to work too much or get involved in too many things or spend all of our time and energy and resources to become the best at our job or at school or a sport so that we aren’t left behind in the dust… so we can be the best.

I understand that, and I find myself there more often that I want to admit.

Fear keeps us from investing in the lives of other people and the Kingdom because we aren’t sure about them, and because we aren’t confident that we are taken care of.

And fear is a powerful thing. There is no denying it.

But the truth is, all of these fears and compulsions keep us keep us from digging deep into relationships that really and truly will save our lives and further the kingdom of God.

So maybe we should be like the first two servants in our gospel lesson from Matthew.

They received (earned) sizeable gifts, talents, resources, and thought… Aha! I know just what to do with this. They got to work and the investment grew and grew and grew until it doubled in size.

They didn’t spend their talents and they didn’t hoard them… they saved them and invested them.

We can save our resources and talents… maybe by not buying that Starbucks, or staying home and eating in more often. We can live a little bit more simply so that we have a little bit more to invest.

Right here at Immanuel, there are tons of opportunities for you to invest your resources in the kingdom of God.

Before we dismiss/As we got started today, Erin McGargill shared with us about one way we can invest time and money to change a child’s story. By reading to children, by placing books in their hands, we are making an investment in their future… and investment that will multiply many times over as their head start allows them to break generational cycles of poverty.

We can also invest in the health of a community by helping to put wells in South Sudan. Our investment of resources means bringing clean water to families, the time saved allows women and children to learn more, it works to combat diseases and creates the conditions for life and life abundant.

Every week there are opportunities to think a little bit less about ourselves and a little bit more about the people God has called us to care for… whether it is teaching Sunday School, or serving meals with CFUM, or sleeping outside in a cardboard box to raise money for homeless youth.

When we live more like the first two servants, we discover that our resources can be used to bring the Kingdom of God to earth, right here, and right now. We discover that our money and our time and our talents have a purpose.

Lives changed, disciples made, the world transformed.

Amen. And Amen.

Daily Bread

Posted on October 4, 2015Leave a comment

My friends and family play this game called “Would You Rather…” It sets up silly and sometimes serious scenarios and you have to decide which of the two you would rather do. It’s good for parties… it’s good for car rides…

And it’s good for getting to really know someone.

Would you rather live in a place that was always very hot or a place that was always very cold?

Would you rather swim in a pool of marshmellows or a pool of M&Ms?

Would you rather go without the internet or a car for a month?

Would you rather be poor and work at a job you love or be rich and work at a job you hate?

With our children in just a minute, we’ll talk about how King Solomon is faced with a “would you rather” question of his own.

God comes to Solomon in a dream and basically asks what is the one thing that he wants to receive… what is the one blessing that he wants to sustain him for the rest of his life.

Would you rather have wealth or power or love…?

Or would you rather have something else?

Solomon quickly answers with the one thing he both wants and needs… “Give me your wisdom so that I can help your people.”

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If you are anything like me, when faced with a kind of “would you rather” question about the one thing I want or need, my thoughts first went to the things that I need in my life for daily sustenance.

And because we live in a world that is run by money… maybe that is what I would ask for.

But how much? How much money is enough?

Enough to provide daily bread for my family?

Enough for a rainy day?

(For our time of confession this morning), I want to invite you to turn to a neighbor and answer this question:

How much do you need to provide daily bread for your family? Or to put it another way, what does it cost to put food on the table for one week in your home?

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The Batsuuri family in their single-room home—a sublet in a bigger apartment—in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, with a week’s worth of food. Standing behind Regzen Batsuuri, 44 (left), and Oyuntsetseg (Oyuna) Lhakamsuren, 38, are their children, Khorloo, 17, and Batbileg, 13. Cooking methods: electric stove, coal stove. Food preservation: refrigerator-freezer (shared, like the stoves, with two other families). /// The Batsuuri family is one of the thirty families featured in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats (p. 226). Food expenditure for one week: $40.02 USD. (Please refer to Hungry Planet book p. 227 for the family’s detailed food list.)

How much do you need to provide daily bread for your family?

It is a question we all wrestle with…

The Glad-Ostensen family in Gjerdrum, Norway. Anne Glad Fredricksen, 45, her husband Anders Ostensen, 48, and their three children, Magnus, 15, Mille 12, and Amund, 8 with their typical week's worth of food in June. Food expenditure for one week: 4265.89 Norwegian Kroner; $731.71 USD. Model-Released. — The Glad-Ostensen family in Gjerdrum, Norway. Anne Glad Fredricksen, 45, her husband Anders Ostensen, 48, and their three children, Magnus, 15, Mille 12, and Amund, 8 with their typical week’s worth of food in June. Food expenditure for one week: 4265.89 Norwegian Kroner; $731.71 USD. Model-Released.

whether in Norway

The Aboubakar family of Darfur province, Sudan, in front of their tent in the Breidjing Refugee Camp, in eastern Chad, with a week’s worth of food. D’jimia Ishakh Souleymane, 40, holds her daughter Hawa, 2; the other children are (left to right) Acha, 12, Mariam, 5, Youssouf, 8, and Abdel Kerim, 16. Cooking method: wood fire. Food preservation: natural drying. Favorite food—D’jimia: soup with fresh sheep meat. /// The Aboubakar family is one of the thirty families featured in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats (p. 56). Food expenditure for one week: $1.23 USD. (Please refer to Hungry Planet book p. 57 for the family’s detailed food list.)

or Chad

The Caven family in the kitchen of their home in American Canyon, California, with a week’s worth of food. Craig Caven, 38, and Regan Ronayne, 42 (holding Ryan, 3), stand behind the kitchen island; in the foreground is Andrea, 5. Cooking methods: electric stove, microwave, outdoor BBQ. Food preservation: refrigerator-freezer, freezer. Favorite foods—Craig: beef stew. Regan: berry yogurt sundae (from Costco). Andrea: clam chowder. Ryan: ice cream. /// The Caven family is one of the thirty families featured in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats (p. 260). Food expenditure for one week: $159.18 USD. (Please refer to Hungry Planet book p. 261 for the family’s detailed food list.)

or Des Moines.

Today, as we think about our daily bread… as we think about breaking bread with people all across the world today, on World Communion Sunday, the stark differences between what is available and what is needed in these various places across our world is astounding.

The Ahmeds’ extended family in the Cairo apartment of Mamdouh Ahmed, 35 (glasses), and Nadia Mohamed Ahmed, 36 (brown headscarf), with a week’s worth of food. With them are their children, Donya, 14 (far left, holding baby Nancy, 8 months), and Karim, 9 (behind bananas), Nadia’s father (turban), Nadia’s nephew Islaam, 8 (football shirt), Nadia’s brother Rabie, 34 (gray-blue shirt), his wife, Abadeer, 25, and their children, Hussein, 4, and Israa, 18 months (held by family friend). /// The Ahmed family is one of the thirty families featured in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats (p. 118). Food expenditure for one week: $68.53 USD. (Please refer to Hungry Planet book p. 119 for the family’s detailed food list.)

The needs and concerns that any given family have are so varied.

The Bainton family in the dining area of their living room in Collingbourne Ducis, Wiltshire, with a week’s worth of food. Left to right: Mark Bainton, 44, Deb Bainton, 45 (petting Polo the dog), and sons Josh, 14, and Tadd, 12. Cooking methods: electric stove, microwave oven. Food preservation: refrigerator-freezer, a second small freezer. Favorite foods—Mark: avocado. Deb: prawn-mayonnaise sandwich. Josh: prawn cocktail. Tadd: chocolate fudge cake with cream. /// The Bainton family is one of the thirty families featured in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats (p. 140). Food expenditure for one week: $253.15 USD. (Please refer to Hungry Planet book p. 141 for the family’s detailed food list.)

I recently joined the Board of Directors with DMARC, the Des Moines Area Religious Council. Today, one of their major focuses is on food distribution in Central Iowa.

And what I have learned is that the need that surrounds us, right here in Polk County is great. Many families… many working families… don’t have enough to put daily food on their tables.

Solomon was King David’s son and when his father died, he became the ruler of the land. He wasn’t a perfect person and he often was focused on things other than God.

But God came to Solomon in a dream one night with a simple offer: “Ask whatever you wish, and I’ll give it to you.”

Whatever you wish.

He could have asked for palaces of gold, or a thousand wives, or to rule the world…

But he found himself in this new position of power and responsibility and he had one request:

“Give me, your servant, a discerning mind so that I can govern your people, so I can tell good from evil, and so I can take care of your people.”

What amazes me is that Solomon didn’t see this one wish, this blessing from God, as a “I” request… what do I want or need.

He saw it as an “US” request… what do we, God’s people, need.

He asked for wisdom.

He asked to be fed, not with the daily bread of grains and wheat, but with the daily bread of the Word of God.

He asked for something that would bless all the people.

Today, we are kicking off our month long series focusing on John Wesley’s simple advice for our finances… that we should earn all we can, save all we can, and give all we can.

And I think that as we start to explore Wesley’s advice, he starts in the same place as Solomon.

Over the next few weeks we will discover that he encourages us to find joy in the money we make, but to do so in ways that benefit the well being of others and ourselves.

He will encourage us to be frugal, to not be extravagant or wasteful and to save as much as possible.

But the goal of both of these is always in service of the third…. To give all we can.

To make a difference in the lives of other people.

To serve God by feeding the people, visiting them in prison, taking care of the sick, giving clothes to the naked.

Wesley encourages us to do just what Solomon did…. to shift our focus away from what me and my family needs and to think bigger…

What do God’s people need?

What kind of wisdom and discernment and truth is required in order to take care of one another?

What is needed, here in Polk County, in order to survive?

Above is a basic budget that details the cost of living in this county in Iowa… a comparison of the basic expenses that a family needs in order to provide a simple home and daily bread for their family. (from www.iowapolicyproject.com)

As the demand for food pantries and assistance in our community has skyrocketed in the last few months, I was wondering why until I saw this chart.

If you look at the final column, you will see that a family of two working parents with only one child needs to make at least $44,639 a year in order to meet these basic expenses.

That means that together, with both working, they each need to make at least $10.50 an hour.

At least.

The minimum wage here is $7.25.

If you work full time on these wages, you simply cannot make ends me. It is impossible.

So I wonder what it means to ask for daily bread and daily wisdom in Polk County, Iowa today.

I wonder what it means to ask for daily bread in Mongolia and Ecuador.

And I pray that God would give us the wisdom to ensure that every family has enough, as we gather around the table this morning to break bread.

Amen.

J&MES: Blessing & Cursing

Posted on September 27, 2015Leave a comment

Our tongues are muscles – and the strongest muscle in our body at that. In fact – a man once lifted a 24 lb. 3oz weight using ONLY his tongue. But for being such a strong muscle, it is also extremely flexible.

And, the tongues is the only muscle in our entire human body that is not connected on both sides. Think about it… our biceps connect at the shoulder and elbow, our calves do work through tendons connected to the bones in our legs. In fact, the work of a muscle is to contract or release and thereby move our bodies.

But the tongue is only connected at one end. With the other, it is free to roam. Free to do great good or fantastic harm. Capable of blessing and capable of cursing.

Our tongue is the only muscle that can get into trouble all by itself. Like a flame of fire it is wild and unpredictable and can easily get out of control.

As The Message translates James: you can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue.

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As James writes in his letter to the people of God: A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything – or destroy it! Our words matter because they reveal who we are.

All of the carelessness of our speech, James embodies in our tongues. He compares it to the rudder on a ship or the bit in a horses mouth. Our tongues guide our futures, direct our paths, and lead us… whether we want them to or not!

If you don’t believe our tongues are important – talk to a politician. They know, perhaps better than anyone, how every single word you utter can be taken out of context… or how the off-hand remarks you make can come back to haunt you.

But really, when you think about it… just like the rudder of the ship is controlled by the captain and the bit in a horses’s mouth is directed by the hands of the rider, our tongues are not autonomous creatures… they are a part of us. They are directed by us. And because of this, whenever the tongue moves, it is merely revealing the state of our hearts and minds.

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It is precisely the condition of our hearts and minds that gets Lady Wisdom so upset in the first chapter of Proverbs. She is the Spirit of God personified and stands in the streets calling out to the people.

No one is listening to the voice of God. The people are full of mocking and curses, on one another and on the wisdom of the Lord.

Does that at all resemble our modern culture? Does it resemble how we treat one another? I can’t turn on the television or scroll through my facebook feed without seeing an attack ad, mocking, and political vitriol.

Lady Wisdom sees it too, and simply being nice hasn’t helped…

“So she changes tactics, from calling people to wisdom and the fear of the Lord to making sure everyone knows the ruin they are heading for if they do not start paying attention.” (GBOD Preaching Helps)

“You ignored all of my advice, and you didn’t want me to correct you, so I’ll laugh at your disaster; I’ll make fun of you when dread comes over you, when terror hits you like a hurricane…” (1:25-27)

As parents or aunts or big brothers – certainly you have tried that tactic yourself. When the children don’t answer when they are nicely asked, you pull out the big guns: You had better do it right now OR ELSE!

We like to be people of encouragement and blessing and support, but there are times in our lives when we need to call out the warnings and troubles that wait if we remain on the paths we tread.

As Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us:

There’s a season for everything and a time for every matter under the heavens…

a time for tearing down and a time for building up.

A time for crying and a time for laughing…

a time for keeping silent and a time for speaking,

a time for loving and a time for hating…

Sometimes, we need to speak the truth and call to task those who oppressive.

The question that faces us is how do we know when to bless and when to curse?

How do we get our hearts and minds in the right place so that our tongues can do God’s will?

Proverbs 1: 32 and 33 tell us:

Waywardness kills the simple, and the complacency of fools destroys them.

Our Lord doesn’t want us to be wayward and complacent, going this way and that, controlled by nothing but the whims of the world and our hearts desires.

God wants to guide our thoughts and actions.

Like the rudder of the ship needs a strong captain, like the bit of a horse needs a discerning jockey, so our tongue… and the brain connect to it… needs some wise direction.

The problem is, that tongue isn’t going to tame itself.

As we think about what it means to be people of blessing or people of cursing, there are three traps we can avoid as we put God in control of our tongue.

First, the trap of ignorance.

Too many of us are wandering about aimlessly flapping our tongues because we never stopped to pay attention and see if God was guiding us or not.

We never stopped to look at a roadmap of faith. We haven’t opened our bibles and spent time with God’s word. And because we don’t know the Word… we can’t do anything with it.

This is one of the most biblically illiterate times in the history of the United States. In many cases, we can’t fault people for not doing God’s will – or for not knowing how to listen to God – because they have never been taught.

To use another sort of metaphor of the tongue – they are like children who are starving. They do not have good food set in front of them, if any food at all.

The best remedy for the trap of ignorance is to seek out God’s word and to share it.

Once we realize how hungry we are… how much we have been missing… then we realize just how much abundance of knowledge and wisdom is at our fingertips… and we find the source that can truly direct our tongues and our lives.

The second trap we fall into is cynicism.

Some of us curse for cursings sake. We complain about everything. When our cynical sides come out, we doubt that God’s word will have any impact on our lives. Sometimes, we even begin to be skeptical about God.

If the ignorant were starving children, then the cynic is a picky eater. They move around the items on their plate, but only eat a small amount. They complain about what they get and want something else.

And so our faith is cold and stale, picked apart and unbalanced. We do not delight in the law of the Lord, but look upon it as a burden that is getting us nowhere. We let the pain of the past dictate our future.

Katherine Kehler wrote: the only cure for cynicism is to cultivate a habit of thankfulness.

In an article about Thoreau, Wen Stephenson says that the remedy for cynicism is action, engagement, awareness of this moment that is around us.

In many ways – thankfulness and engagement are two sides of the same coin. We need to open our eyes and see the gift we have been given. We need to live into this moment and cherish it with our whole lives. And when we do so, our innate cursing turns to blessing.

The final trap we fall into is pride and the refusal to learn.

Our pride tells us that we can do it on our own. Our pride makes us believe that we don’t need anyone to guide us. We turn away from advice, scoff at help, and stubbornly stand still. We bless ourselves and curse the world around us.

In fact, this is one of the primary things James writes about. We cannot see our own faults because we are so focused on who we think we are. We let the desires of our own heart rule the day and shut the door on anything that is contrary to those desires.

We may not be starving children or picky eaters, the prideful are the ones who have a plate of good and delicious food set before them and stubbornly refuse to eat. They don’t need it. They aren’t hungry. They are just fine on their own.

But without the word of God to nourish us and give us strength, our own devices quickly fail. We stumble and fall.

Humility is the only thing that will tame a prideful tongue. Our boasting brings us low when reality sets in. We get to decide whether that humility is on our own terms or if we are destroyed by our own smugness.

Humility means that we ask for help. Humility means we admit that we need to grow. Humility means recognizing that we were not meant to go it alone and finding a group to study with, friends to lean on, and a God to depend upon.

James tells us that the wisdom from above is pure. It is gentle and reasonable. God overflows with mercy and blessings. And in a community that is healthy and robust and depends upon God for direction, your tongue will be anchored in the life-giving Word.

The good news is that Lady Wisdom is ready to pour out her spirit upon us. If we let go of our ignorance… if we shed our cynicism… if we abandon our pride… we will find direction in God….

J&MES: Preparation & Opportunity

Posted on September 13, 2015Leave a comment

We talk about preparation all the time.

Am I prepared for retirement?

Are we ready for school to start?

Are the teams ready for the rivalry game?

Or, the conversation around here lately… Are we prepared for Rally Day?

We want to be like those who seem to be the most prepared and we try to be part of that crowd by going to the best schools, practicing our hearts out with an instrument or a sport, working extra hours to get the big project done at work…

Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. (Seneca, ancient Roman philosopher)

LUCK is where PREPARATION meets OPPORTUNITY.

What kinds of opportunities are you preparing yourself for?

Are you seeking opportunities to serve God or yourself?

Are you seeking opportunities to be like Jesus, or the Joneses?

We might cry out that we will not forget God, that we will worship and honor Jesus, that all of our hearts yearn for God’s plans…

Yet what are we doing on a daily basis to prepare ourselves for God’s opportunities?

James writes his letter to the people of God because they have been so focused on:

what they want

and what they think

and what they believe that James no longer sees the word of God in their midst.

They have deceived themselves into thinking they were following God, when all of their preparations were merely distorting God’s word into something to suit their own needs.

And then… when God’s opportunities came along, they were not prepared.

Instead, they argued.

They argued about who was more important and who was right, rather than listening.

They argued about who was included and who could be forgotten, rather than reaching out.

They argued about how much time they had to put in and why it wasn’t their turn, rather than get their hands dirty.

And in doing so, they exchanged the gifts of peace and love for the desires and sin of this world.

You know what? We have, too.

We teach our children they deserve to have everything regardless of the cost.

We are quick to judge when we encounter someone with different political viewpoint (ahem, or different sports team) and make assumptions about their intellect.

We walk right by the neediest around us and put a check in the mail to make ourselves feel better.

We spend our days working hard so we can have the finer things in life and then are too tired to enjoy them.

We use and abuse one another so we can get ahead.

We ask the question, “how will this help me?” more than “how can I help others?”

Those words do not describe a people, a church, a nation that is allowing the word of God to prepare them for opportunities to be like Jesus.

God doesn’t want us to strive to get ahead of each other… God wants us to sit down and fellowship with our neighbors.

God doesn’t want us to be first… God wants us to be servants.

So the question is… what kind of preparations should we make in order to be more like Jesus on a regular basis?

What can we do so that we are lucky enough to be prepared when opportunities come along?

In James 2: 1-6, and 3:13, we reminded to be humble. We are called to stop showing favoritism to the rich, and instead to honor the poor among us.

A spirit of humility helps us to recognize we are not God’s gift to this earth – but imperfect vessels that the word of God can transform.

Humility means that we treat the love of God as a gift, not something we deserve.

Humility means that we make ourselves low so others might be raised up.

Humility means that we put another before ourselves.

Humility means that we are quick to truly listen to what another person has to say before we butt in with our own thoughts and feelings.

And when we are humble, then we are also lucky enough to be prepared when someone in need crosses our path and we can help them with compassion and dignity.

James writes in chapter 4:1 that the source of our conflict is our cravings. He writes that we waste our energy and gifts on things that aren’t good for ourselves or others.

I keep thinking about all of the bad habits in our lives that are wasteful. The things that merely satisfy a craving and aren’t preparing us to be obedient and merciful and genuine.

What if (and this is one I’m guilty of) instead of wasting our time following celebrities on social media, we sought out role models who are making a difference in the world?

What if on Monday mornings we spent less time trash talking about who won the big game, and instead we shared an act of kindness with our “enemy”?

What if the gossip at lunch on Thursday afternoons was replaced with brainstorming ways to help out with a community problem?

What if we spent a few less hours watching television and spent a few more hours volunteering?

All of these daily habits can cause a subtle shift in our lives, so that we are lucky enough to be prepared… and have the time and energy to respond when God’s opportunities fall in our laps.

We also can prepare ourselves by changing where we store our treasures.

James 5:1 cautions the wealthy that misery is coming upon them… the more we have, the more we have to lose.

And in striving to be financially prepared for our future, we are hesitant to respond when we see genuine needs around us. We close off our hearts and homes and lives.

We often cling so tightly to our stuff, our issues, and our solutions that we can’t open our hands to receive the amazing and beautiful gifts of God.

Let go. Open your hearts and your hands to welcome the word of God. And then live it out in every moment of your days to everyone you meet.

And when you do so, you will be able to embrace the riches of compassion and forgiveness, patience and joy, kindness and peace.

And we will also be in luck… because those treasures are exactly what we need when opportunities to be like Jesus come around.

This is a church full of doers and I know that so many of you work your tails off to be prepared, so that when the opportunities come around, and they do… you are prepared to take advantage of them.

We work so hard to get ahead.

But I want us to remind what James has to tell us about our preparations, in chapter 4:

“Pay attention, you who say, ‘today or tomorrow we will go to such-and-such a town. We will stay there a year, buying and selling, and make a profit.’ You don’t really know about tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for only a short while before it vanishes… Pay attention, you wealthy people! Weep and moan over the miseries coming upon you. Your riches have rotted. Moths have destroyed your clothes. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you.”

James is warning us to stop putting so much stock in our preparations.

He reminds us that when we seek our own opportunities, we tend to forget what God wants for us.

Every day, God gives us opportunities to be like Jesus, to be God’s hands and feet in the world.

Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.

Are we prepared for what God has in store for us?

J&MES: Faith & Action

Posted on September 6, 2015Leave a comment

This month in worship, we are going to be focusing on the book of James in the New Testament.

It is all the way in the back of our bibles… just after Hebrews and right before a couple of shorter letters that lead into Revelation.

This book is actually a letter written by James to many churches.

And while I encourage you to read the whole letter… it’s only five chapters… we are going to be focusing on a just a few of James’s main points.

Sometimes, we are asked to embrace the both/ands of life… like faith & action.

Sometimes, James will show us how the &’s in our life… like blessing & cursing… are keeping us from being faithful.

Will you pray with me:

Gracious God, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts and minds be holy and pleasing to you, O God, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

You must be doers of the word and not only hearers.

You must study the word and then put it into practice in your life.

Sometimes, James gets a bad rap. In fact, Martin Luther… the same guy that nailed up his demands on the door of the church and started the reformation… wanted to leave this letter out of his bible precisely because of this theme of faith & action.

We talk a lot about faith. We talk about how the only thing we have to do to receive God’s love is to believe. To trust. That faith alone matters. There is nothing we can DO to earn salvation.

The problem is not that James disagrees.

It is that James defines faith a little bit differently.

He doesn’t see it as an either/or. It’s not that we choose between faith and action to get to salvation.

It’s not even that it’s a two-step process. First, faith…. Then, works.

No, in James’s understanding they are the same thing. You simply can’t have one without the other.

Faith, when it is alive, can be seen in the works we do and in the ways we treat one another.

Put another way… actions are the fruit that grow on a healthy and living tree of faith.

I had a whole sermon in the works that basically took that point and ran with it…

But I realized yesterday that it was just me, saying a whole lot more than I needed to say on the topic.

James is pretty clear (and this is the Message translation):

Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?

I was going to stand up here today and give you a whole lot of God-talk.

But we need some God-acts today.

We need to see where we have simply been looking on and praying and wishing people well without living out our faith.

And I’m thinking specifically about those who are naked and hungry and hurting today.

I’m thinking about the images of children being washed up on shore we saw this week.

I’m thinking about the millions of families who are fleeing from the violence in Syria.

According to Mercy Corps, more than 11 million people are displaced.

More than half of those who have been forced to flee their homes are under the age of 18.

4 million Syrians have registered or are awaiting registration with the United Nations High Commission of Refugees.

(Read more from Mercy Corps here)

And hundreds of thousands of them are risking a dangerous and costly trip across the Mediterranean Sea to get to Europe. One man, Abu Jana, told the Guardian, “Right now Syrians consider themselves dead. Maybe not physically, but psychologically and socially [a Syrian] is a destroyed human being, he’s reached the point of death. So I don’t think that even if they decided to bomb migrant boats it would change people’s decision to go.”

We have seen how our own ancestors in faith, like Abraham, Lot, Jacob, Moses, and Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were refugees themselves… fleeing from persecution, famine, violence, and war.

And because of their experiences, we have been told over and over again in our scriptures about our call to care for immigrants and refugees.

Exodus 22: You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien; for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”

Leviticus 19: You shall not strip your vineyards bare… leave them for the poor and the alien.

Leviticus 24: The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

Psalm 146: The Lord watches over the strangers…

Isaiah 16: Be a refuge to the outcasts of Moab.

Malachi 3: The messenger will bear witness against those who thrust aside the alien.

Each of these passages uses the Hebrew word nokri (nok-ree’), which can be foreigner, alien, or stranger…

And when we get to the New testament, we hear over and over again the call to reach out to the strangers among us.

Matthew 25: I was a stranger and you welcomed me

Romans 12: The Mark of the true Christian…. Extend hospitality to strangers…

Will we simply hear the words? Or will we live out our faith?

Yesterday, I read a blog post from a woman named Ann Voskamp and I decided to rewrite most of this sermon.

Because she reminded me that this is not a new problem… and that I have been sitting back and not doing much for a while now.

And I felt after reading her words like the person James was talking about in his letter… who hears the word of God but doesn’t do it. Who listens and then forgets.

And what I love about her post is I felt like I have something I could do.

Like there are things WE can do.

Ways for the church to be the church and live out our faith.

The first thing we can do is simply understand the problem and let it move you. Maybe some of the facts I have shared today, or the stories you have seen and heard this week are part of that for you.

Second, while we may not be able to physically make a journey to Syria or the Mediterranean to make a difference, we can advocate for our government to open the doors to more refugees who are seeking a life for themselves and their families.

You can write a letter to one of our congressional leaders.

You can sign a petition at whitehouse.gov for our country to resettle Syrian refugees here.

And after worship today, you can take a picture of yourself with this sign (#refugeeswelcome), post it on social media, and encourage others to share the word with our government as well. In fact, I encourage everyone who wants to do so, to come back up to the front after worship so we can take some pictures together.

Third, you can support the organizations that are on the front lines making a difference.

Doctors without Borders.

The Migrant Offshore Aid Station, which is a family foundation that has launched a private ship to rescue people at sea.

World Vision.

Our very own United Methodist Committee on Relief.

The list goes on and on and a number of different organizations are included in Ann’s blog. If you are so moved, choose one that inspires you and give financially to support their efforts.

The last thing that we can think about doing…. is to consider sponsoring a refugee family yourself.

I was amazed last winter as we celebrated the life of Evie Surface to learn about her efforts to help settle refugees from Vietnam here in the United States.

She was just one person, but she believed that Jesus meant it when he said that we were to love the widow and orphan and stranger among us.

Here in Des Moines, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants helps to resettle refugees and they have a wide range of opportunities for you to give of your time and energy to help folks who have sought home here in our community.

Hearing and Doing.

Faith and Action.

“It is the seamless unity of believing and doing” the Message translation of James tells us. (2:25-26)

We have heard the word this morning. A word of calling to reach out in love to the last and the lost and the least in this world.

And as that seed is planted in our hearts, may it bear fruit in the world.

Amen.