Vol 2 No 1 - Sloth-itis

As you may remember from earlier e-mails, the reading group that I host on Tuesdays has spent this fall studying 'Sinning Like a Christian: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins' by Bishop Will Willimon. The chapter that we read for our meeting yesterday dealt with the sin of SLOTH. Like so many people, I had no reason to think that I was being slothful, since my calendar is far too full as it is, and sloth is the opposite of being busy, right?

What a way to start the new year. Through this chapter, I soon began to realize that sloth permeates the lives of those of us who are way over-programmed far more than we realize. Bishop Willimon's point was that the sloth that is a deadly sin in our lives is the slothful attitude we take towards our relationship with God. How many times do we rationalize not spending more time with God and nurturing our relationship with the Almighty because of all the other things in our lives?

Going into this next year, let us resolve, individually and as a church, to be more intentional about making our priorities in the right order. Let us resolve to not let the things of every day life that we consider far more important than they really are to dictate the terms and conditions of our relationship with the Author and Perfector of our Faith.

See you Sunday!
Lamar

Vol 1 No 21 - The Bridge to Christmas

Preparing the 'last' of anything for a given period of time is always an opportunity for reflection. As I write to you this last column of the year (for Sunday is the end of the Christian year), I find myself looking back over the last year, and see two distinct choices staring me in the face. One one hand, there is the typical tendency to do a 'year-in-review' sort of thing, look back on the past and live through all that has transpired since we last celebrated Christ the King Sunday. As a student of history, I love to do this kind of thing, for I firmly believe that when we fail to look at and learn from the past, we are the loser. Highs and lows have been a part of the past year, and any of us could easily allow ourselves to want to stay in those moments.

On the other hand, the end of any year is also the opportunity to anticipate what is coming in the next year. It is my firm belief that the saints of the church laid out for us a Christian year that puts us in this perspective. We start out anticipating the future. We start out in a time of preparation, marking the time until we experience the ultimate new event, the Savior's birth. We spend time intentionally observing Hope, Peace, Joy and Love, and as we do, we see an Advent wreath coming more and more to light. From absolutely no light to a wreath of light on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. How wonderful it is to anticipate a life of light - light from Christ. That's what we get to do - anticipate a life of light, not darkness. Our sole task as the new year begins is to prepare ourselves for this newborn's arrival.

You will be getting soon (if you have not already gotten it) our church's Advent calendar. I urge you to take part in these preparation activities. From the Hanging of the Green through Christmas Eve night worship, we will be preparing in many different ways for the arrival of our King. In their own ways, each of the events that are planned bring to us a sense of hope and anticipation. In their own ways, they give us (the body of Christ) a means of preparation for this wonderful celebration of God breaking through into humanity as one of us.

May we not be in so much of a hurry to get to Christmas that we miss Advent.


See you Sunday!
Lamar

Vol 1 No 20 - The Advent of a True Message

One of the ways that I can tell the seasons of the year is by the different 'forwards' that appear in my box (usually from 4 or 5 people within a 24-hour span) that go around every year. Christmas is coming, I know, because I am starting to see the usual stuff denouncing the ACLU, Target, Wal-Mart, and others who have either now or in years past tried to make sure that it is the 'holiday' season being celebrated - and these well-intentioned forwards urge all who get them to take action or otherwise the world will come to an end if Target doesn't let the Salvation Army do the Red Kettle campaign, the ACLU gets the Christmas tree off the courthouse steps, and retailers encourage their employees to wish people a happy holiday rather than Merry Christmas. While I do think that Christians are too often discouraged from sharing their Merry Christmas greetings and symbols in society today, I also think the church often allows itself to drift away from what Christmas is all about.

Huh? What do you mean, preacher? After all, we are the ones defending Christmas.

Think about all the things you come to expect from the church this time of year. Specific decorations in and around the church facility. Certain songs sung during the month. Annual events that 'we always do'. Personally, I love the traditions of the church at Advent. However, I want to encourage you to make sure that your first and foremost focus during Advent (which is NOT the same as the Christmas season) is anticipating celebrating again the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It's not a far stretch to think that we are very capable of becoming so captive to 'what we always do' that we allow it to diminish the fact that what is most important is WHO is being anticipated, not WHAT is being done (or not done).

Let us prove to the world that we are not going to allow anything, be it a retailer, newspaper, the ACLU, or the church traditions that we hold so dear, keep us away from THE MAIN THING.


See you Sunday!
Lamar

Vol 1 No 19 - To Do or To Be?

I'm writing to you today in anticipation of fasting from my everyday life for five or six days. Five or six days away from the computer, the office, the church, the church facilities, the satellite TV, and the high-speed Internet connection. Five or six days apart from all of the things that make life "normal" (whatever that is). Not to say that I don't need this time of fasting from the trappings of my everyday life - but I am a little anxious. After all, right or wrong, doesn't what we do define who we are?

Upon further reflection, that's a pretty sick statement - one that is an indictment of where we allow ourselves to be far too often. Of course, what happens when you are at some social event and meet someone for the first time? Not too far along in the dialog, inevitably the 'What is is that you do?' questions comes rolling along. Then you spend time either mentally or verbally comparing your various occupations.

However, don't we do the same thing when it comes to churches? What is it that that comes to the front (after 'How big is your church?') when talking with another about your church? Ah yes - what all is 'going on' over there. The whole 'church envy' discussion comes into being. It's companion on a personal level is, 'So what is God doing in your life?' or 'What is God saying to you these days?' Usually when any of the above questions is asked I'm sorely tempted to respond with "Do you REALLY want to know?"

I find it far more penetrating (and humbling) to ask myself (and the church) not action questions about God but state-of-being questions about God. Stuff like, "So who is God in your life?" or "Where is God in your soul?" or "How does St. Egoistus the Self-Important Church see God?" These are questions about who God is, not what God is doing. The question we face is not what are we doing, but who are we being?

Last week, I quoted Eugene Peterson's 'Eat This Book' in the "Another Voice" section of the MWM. I'm continuing along in the book and was hit square in the face with this observation:

...[I]t was to make us followers of Jesus that this text was given to us in the first place, and if either the larger story or the detailed sentences are ever used for anything else, however admirable or enticing, why bother?

I'm going to challenge you while I am on my fast to allow for God to reveal the Divine presence in you through ways you've never seen before - not by DOING, rather by BEING. Being one who is focused not on what you are doing for God (although that is mightily important) but in who God is within you.


See you Sunday!
Lamar

Vol 1 No 18 - A Fresh Coat of Paint

Most all of you know by now that the downstairs area of the educational building is in the process of receiving its first new coat of paint in, to be generous, a few years. As this paint job has gone on, and the old colors are replaced by the new, and the wallpaper has been taken down, many of you have commented to me about how nice it is to see a fresh coat of paint on things. Many of these same people have told me that they never really noticed how badly it was needed until they saw it being done. I've been thinking a great deal about this as I watch our painter, Cleveland, go about doing his work each day. Right now, he is right outside my office, diligently and painstakingly going over each square inch of the hallway, making sure the roller and the brush doesn't miss anything.

As I watch Cleveland do his work, and I see people's reactions to the paint job, I am reminded that far too often we miss the idea that little things make a huge difference in our lives. For me, watching this place get a new coat of paint has been refreshing - for it helps me to see that things can change and it's going to be OK. Watching this new coat of paint go on, I have noticed that it has affected my attitude. I don't know if it's the paint fumes, the solid colors that are going up, or what exactly has struck me - but I know that I feel a little more excited about things. And this is a simple paint job It's not a remodel or demolition or anything like that - just a simple coat of paint that has such an effect.

The question I am faced with is what is it in my life, in my soul that needs a fresh coat of paint? What is it in your life, in your soul, that needs renewing by something simple like a coat of paint? Why is it that we look for big, dramatic things to change us, rather than allowing for the reality that it is usually the things that we perceive as being small or insignificant that wind up having the most profound effect on us?

See you Sunday!
Lamar