Vol 4 No 14 - Lenten Stuff

I'm writing to you a day early this week because I am so excited about what all is going to be happening in the midst of our congregation over the next week and couldn't wait to remind you.  Tomorrow is the last of our Lenten Luncheon series - this has been a very enjoyable time of food and fellowship as we have journeyed through the Gospel readings for the Lenten season.  We will be honored to have our District Superintendent, Roger Lathan, coming to be with us as we share together.  I know you will want to join me in welcoming our friend back to Morgan City.

This weekend, we have two special events in which we all should be looking to take an active part, the first of which is 11th Annual 5K Mission Run/Walk in memory of Dr. Edward Askew.  Whether you are a runner, a walker, or a volunteer, there are plenty of ways to help make this happen and I look forward to seeing you all bright and early Saturday morning.

The second special event of the weekend is our annual Palm Sunday picnic lunch after worship on Sunday.  In today's hectic, busy world it is often easy to miss one another on a particular Sunday, which is why it is so important to jump at opportunities such as these to live out the true meaning of life in the body of Christ.  After lunch, we will have a time of fun and games for the children.  If you like, bring a side dish or dessert to share.  Ham will be provided.

Holy week will be a special time of observances, more of which you will hear about in next week's e-mail; make plans now to attend the Maundy Thursday communion observance @ 6:00PM and our Easter Cantata Good Friday celebration at 7:00PM.

See You Soon!

Lamar

Vol 4 No 13 - March Madness

Everything you've worked so hard for at least the past year, if not your whole life, is out of your hands.  You've done all you could to give yourself the best possible shot at success.  From early in the morning to late at night, with so many different things tugging at your heart, your mind, and your emotions - it's been hard to keep your focus on what is the most important thing, the goal that you have pursued for so long.

The pursuit of this dream is something you have dreamed about as a kid, and ever since.  You've sacrificed friends and family along the way to help make it happen.  It's that close.  Now, as time draws near to find out what will happen next, you gather on Sunday with those whom you've walked this journey to see if it's all paid off, to see if you will indeed get the opportunity to pursue your goal for just a little bit longer.

This was the scene being played out in college campuses all over the country this past Sunday as the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament brackets were released.  Watching teams explode when they found out they were going to get a chance to play, the exuberance that was around the room was a joy to watch.  Watching teams implode as their dreams of getting a chance to play were shattered was heart-wrenching.  Ultimately, for many teams, their fate was out of their hands, being determined by a committee far away in Indianapolis by people who they probably never have met.

And it got me thinking.  I love the NCAA's - men & women.  To me it's the most exciting thing in sports.  But as I watched all these young men gathered around the country to learn the decision of committee, I couldn't help but be reminded that for the Christian, our journey is also filled with highs and lows, sometimes painful sacrifices along the way.

However, unlike the college basketball teams of our country, our fate is in the hands of one who loves us, who walks with us, and has promised to never forsake us.  This is the joyful hope we anticipate - may it be so.

See You Soon!

Lamar

P.S.  Don't forget about today's LENTEN LUNCHEON in the fellowship hall!  Good food and fellowship provided.

Vol 4 No 12 - Challenging Different

This morning & evening marks the beginning of our Lenten Study Group meetings, 6 sessions between now and Holy Week that more than a few of us will spend together journeying through the Lenten season.  As I was reading and re-reading our lessons for today, I was struck by the challenge of Lent.  In our Ash Wednesday service and in the first two Sundays of Lent, we have heard about the radical transformation that is done in so many through the exercise of the discipline of Lent, but I wonder sometimes if we miss the potential for the things of this season to truly transform our lives.

See, in our study group, we are looking at N.T. Wright's Christians at the Cross: Finding Hope in the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus, and I know from previous encounters with Bishop Wright's work that he can be a bit of a challenge for us to read.  After all, he is one of the world's foremost New Testament scholars, very prolific in the breadth and depth of his writings, quoted often in academic and mainstream circles alike.  Also, Bishop Wright is a Church of England man, serving (as Bishop of Durham) in a culture and a setting that is quite dissimilar to our own.  It would be very easy for any of us to dismiss the challenge of reading his work, for some of the cultural and scholastic references he makes are completely foreign to us.

However, this is where I think that we have the most to gain; we are people who like the familiar.  We are people who like to make things on a level where 'we can get it.'  We are people who like to know the answers before the questions are asked.  We are people who, knowingly or not, go through the routines of life, finding (more often than not) security in being 'in control'.  Lent knocks us out of this thinking.  Lent is a season given to us by God through the church as a time to say, 'No, things are going to be different.'  Lent is a season where we are, if we are willing, challenged to step out of our routines and look closely at what Christ has in store for us.  It is, if you will, a season of returning to the cross.  It is quite unfamiliar to us, this idea of being transformed by another (in this case, Christ), for we live in an age where it's all about 'personal responsibility', 'calling your own shots', etc.

To allow Christ to do transforming work in and through you by stepping into something different, like the discipline of Lenten observation, is like diving into a completely different style of book from a completely different kind of author than you know - it is equal parts challenging, frightening, frustrating, and liberating.  The easy thing to do in life is to stick to the familiar, the tried and true.

The challenge of the Cross is to go to something completely different.

See You Soon!

Lamar

Vol 4 No 11 - Sacrifice & Self-Denial

Thank you to all who helped make our first Lenten Luncheon of 2009 such a success yesterday.  Between the wonderful meal provided by Dana Blanco and the inspirational message given by Rev. Erin Oliver, I know that it was truly a blessing for God's people to be together in such an environment.

As Erin mentioned yesterday during lunch, I have spent the past three days traveling from Ruston to Woodworth to LaPlace in my role as a member of the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry.  Part of our responsibilities is to do annual interviews with those serving as local pastors (as opposed to Elders), evaluating their fitness and effectiveness in ministry.  To see and hear the stories of people that God is using to make mighty impacts in the life of churches across the fruited plain was absolutely inspirational.  These are people who in many cases are holding down 40+ hour/week jobs, tending to families, going to school 2-4 times a year, and pastoring at least one church.  If it were not for the ministry of full and part time local pastors, a large percentage of the pulpits in our state would go unfilled.  Thus, it was an honor to go as a representative of the larger church and visit with these wonderful servants of God, affirming their gifts, challenging them in their areas of improvement, and helping them discern what their future ministry may look like.

Thinking back on these three days, I can see a very Lenten thing coming to mind, the idea of sacrifice and self-denial.  In the scripture lesson for this week's Sunday worship, Paul reminds us that the promise made to Abraham or his descendants did not come from the law but through the righteousness of faith.  Every day, each of us faces those obstacles that we allow to get in the way of our fully living life by the grace of God, because we don't choose to exercise the faith given to us from God by Christ through the Spirit.  What struck me over the past three days, thinking not only about these men and women who we had the honor of visiting with but also each and every one of you, is that when we get serious about sacrifice and self-denial, when we get serious about living out the Lenten disciplines, there is no telling what God and and will do in and through us.  

All across this state, there are men and women who are constantly engaging in sacrifice and self-denial to serve the Kingdom of God, when we all KNOW that they don't have the time.  However, God, the dispenser of unlimited Divine grace, empowers us beyond all our known limitations.  My hope and prayer is that each of one us takes this message to heart, this message of God's work in and through the disciplines of sacrifice and self-denial during this season.

See You Soon!

Lamar