Vol 3 No 31 - Endurance

On March 5, 1738, a young Church of England preacher by the name of John Wesley was in the throes of deep despair about his faith in Christ, to the point that he was giving serious consideration to leaving the preaching ministry.  Peter Bohler, a Moravian missionary, counseled the young Rev. Mr. Wesley to, "Preach faith till you have it, and then, because you have it, you will preach faith."

These words have been weighing on me over the past month or so as I have been in conversation with several of you, and I have come to conclude that for so many of us, one of the greatest challenges of the Christian life is when faith becomes, for a season of life, a discipline (a ritual, if you will) in which we engage with the mindset of "just getting through."  One of the greatest things that I love about the traditions and rituals of the church (in prayer, in worship, in the patterns of daily life) is that our love of Christ, and our devotion to Christ, does not rely solely upon OUR feelings, OUR emotions, OUR desires; indeed, through the church, the Holy Spirit has given to us a means of grace by which we can 'get through' the dry times of our spiritual and emotional journeys.  As we heard this past Sunday from Paul's letter to the Romans, "...[I] am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

To paraphrase the advice that the Rev. Mr. Wesley received over 270 years ago, advice that is an eternal truth, part of our task as people of the Christian faith is to live faith until we have it, and the, because we have it, we will live it.

Summer is winding down, and I know a number of us are mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally drained right now due to a number of things.  My prayer for all of us is that we will remember that we are not lone rangers - God, through the love of Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, has, is, and will continue to sustain us far beyond anything we can imagine.  Praise be to God!

See You Sunday!
Lamar

Vol 3 No 30 - Connectional Serendipity

I never cease to be amazed at the truly connectional nature of our denomination.  While Erin and I were on vacation in Nassau this past week, we made arrangements with our resort to attend services at a local Methodist church on Sunday.  We were both looking forward to being in worship together and in a place where we could just "slip in" unnoticed and with no responsibility.

Imagine our surprise, then, when we arrived and the interim pastor of this congregation is a retired Louisiana colleague of ours and a former associate pastor where I worshiped as a child.  It was good to catch up with Dr. Gerald Richardson while enjoying the worship and hospitality of Ebenezer Methodist Church in Nassau.  God blessed us immensely through our time with them and by participating as members of the congregation in the sacrament of Holy Baptism of a beautiful little girl.  These truly kind souls made us feel totally at home during our time with them.

We thoroughly enjoyed enjoyed our time with our fellow members of the Methodist tradition and were reminded once again that you never know what is going to happen on any given Sunday when you choose to attend worship.  This was also a good reminder of how blessed you can be while at worship away from home (even on vacation!).

See You Sunday!
Lamar

Vol 3 No 29 - Storytelling

Over the past week or so, I've been reading a great little book titled, "Who Gets to Narrate the World?:Contending for the Christian Story in an Age of Rivals" by the late Dr. Robert Webber of Northern Seminary. His last published work (he passed last year) is the shortest book of his that I've ever read, and one of the most thought-provoking. In a brief, but comprehensive, style, Webber takes us through the history of the philosophical, religious, and moral movements that have shaped the world since the Roman world in which the earely Church was established, while also presenting the challenges facing the modern Church by those philosophies and religions that are in opposition to Christianity. All this information is nice and very informative, but there's one question that came to my mind that I belive that each and evry one of us, as individuals, and as the church, needs to honestly answer, and that is:

Who (or what) is narrating our world?

Not the world at large, but the world of our everyday lives. From the groggy, hit-the-snooze three times daze of the early morning, to the stress of preparing for the day, to the challenges of our daily work, to the family time...who is narrating your world?

See You Sunday!
Lamar

Vol 3 No 28 - Dependent Independence

So many of us are looking forward to this Friday, the celebration of Independence Day in the United States, that I have been thinking a great deal about how so many of us are going to celebrate and observe this national holiday. Some of you, I know, probably won't even get this message until next week, since you're already on vacation taking advantage of Friday being a day off in most places. Almost all of us, I'm sure, will have some sort of celebration involving food, friends, and fireworks (using or watching). Some may attend a parade or be a part of some civic celebration somewhere. Others still may spend the day at a local cemetery, marking the graves of people who have been involved in making this country what it is today. And there will always be those of us who just use the day off to rest and recharge. These are all very fine, very good ways to celebrate the day. I plan on doing similar things myself this Friday. However, I want to ask another question in the midst of our society's observance of Independence Day:

What is the proper way for a Christian, one who is a citizen of the Kingdom of God above and beyond any other citizenship they may hold, to properly observe Independence Day in our society?

Probably the most often quoted sentence out of the U.S.A.'s Declaration of Independence is: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is my belief that the proper Christian response to celebrating our society's Independence Day can find its roots in this sentence. To wit:

We, as Christians, know that in the sight of God, there are none of us who are more superior than any other - the Kingdom of God knows no demographical boundaries such as age, sex, race, wealth, or any other category we use to define ourselves. The Christian community knows that we cannot be people of integrity if we do not live this out in our sphere of influence.

We as Christians know that all people are given by God the right to life; but we also know that the only one in whom we can truly live is Christ our Lord. To live a life that is not about following God, through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in and through all things, is not life but merely existence.

We as Christians know that all people are given by God the right to liberty; that is, the right to true freedom that is found only through the triumph of Christ in the events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday. To not live a life that is set free by the grace of God is to have no freedom at all, no matter the political society in which you may live.

We as Christians know that all people are given by God the right to the pursuit of happiness; and we also know that the only way to pursue true happiness is to pursue Christ in thought, word, and deed, throughout the entirety of our lives. We also know that our ultimate joy will be fulfilled when Christ comes again in glory.

Let me close by saying this: I have no doubt, that even with all its flaws, those of us in the U.S. of A. live in a truly great society and that we should, every chance we get, celebrate the freedom that comes from being here. I also think that the best way for us to celebrate our political freedom is to live life in Christ to the fullest extent possible, for we know that the day will come when all earthly kingdoms will be washed away and what will reign over all the earth is the Kingdom of God. Thanks be to God for his grace in allowing us to live here - let's be sure to honor that properly.

See You Sunday!
Lamar