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My heart beats for love. I want to be different. I want to be who I am called to be. WORTHY and LOVED!

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Living Our Beliefs: Small Groups

Acts 2: 42-47 “Living Our Beliefs: Small Groups - Fellowship and Community”       Hebrews 10: 24-25
Proverbs 27:17 4/26/16

A brief history lesson - when John Wesley started the Methodist movement in England, one of the key pieces for spiritual groups were small groups. These groups were called classes and were the predecessor to the modern day Sunday School, small groups, and cell groups. The idea behind such gatherings that it was here, in the company of no more than eleven other people, that people would become empowered to be disciples. These neighborhood groups had a leader, picked for their spiritual maturity, who would lead people through questions as well as celebration and confession. 
What exactly do United Methodists believe and how do we live out those beliefs in our daily lives? Today we are launching into a sermon series on just that - what makes United Methodists - United Methodists. As you can guess from our brief history lesson, this week’s topic focuses on small groups - the places where we can grow in our faith with other people. 
Perhaps the original small group can be found in the book of Acts, were followers devoted themselves to the teachings of Jesus. We do this different ways. For most people, the extent of family development and Christian Education is limited to the worship hour on Sunday morning. This is understandable. We are busy people in a chaotic world with over-crowded schedules. But for the early apostles, what was preached publicly was different then what was taught. Preaching was meant to give people the basics of Christian teaching and living, the teaching was studying together more deeply the word of God. Its in this teaching and studying time that the disciples were constantly reminded who they were as Christ followers and held each other accountable to the standards of Christian living. For our faith is something that we continually grow into and live out of. The earliest disciples understood this. Apart from continually learning, one could not grow in faith. Its through study that we can become more faithful followers of Christ, because we know what Christ requires of us and we are surrounded by others who hold us accountable. 
Second, the followers were in fellowship together. At this time in the life of the church, the Holy Spirit is drawing together people from every nation and tongue, people who prior to their conversion would not have fellowshiped together. What made their fellowship even more remarkable was that it was not simply brotherly and sisterly love, rather it was a fellowship that was marked by wonders and signs, which included the selling of possessions in order to meet the needs of others. The fellowship didn’t exist solely for itself, it existed to reach out in love. It existed for something beyond itself. This wasn’t a community that held possessions with the idea of this is “mine” or this is “yours” and this is “ours”. Rather all was truly God’s and was to be used for the mission of Jesus Christ to give God the glory.
Third, they broke bread together. The breaking of bread can mean two different things. It could be sharing in meals together, around the table, or it could be the celebrating of the Eucharist. Or perhaps Luke, the author of Acts, means it to be both. Gathering around the dinner table is an intimate time, and often leads to people being excluded. The table is a place to talk about the events of the day, to share our deepest hearts, and to feast on what has been provided. In the ancient world, table fellowship was reserved for family and dear friends, and clear lines were drawn between those who were invited to the table and those who were not. Think back to the gospels and how many times Jesus created controversy around who he chose to dine with. For Jesus there was a place at the table for everyone, and the early church upheld this teaching. Here all were counted as close friends, and social barriers were broken. All ate of the same food, showing their unity. And when they partook they did so with glad and generous hearts, praising God for what had been provided. 
About three years ago, my home church in Clearfield decided to take a leap of faith and serve a free weekly meal to any who showed up. They opened up their doors, put on their aprons, and started to cook a simple meal each Monday. Then they would gather around the table with all who showed up and have fellowship. Their wasn’t a distinction between who was a church member and who wasn’t. Or between who cooked the meal and those who ate. For all shared together. There is something beautiful and Christ like about this type of table fellowship that is unique to the church. 
Lastly, the people of Christ were marked by their prayers. The believers taught each other how to pray, and did so without ceasing. They prayed for people they did not know. They prayed for each other. And they prayed with each other. 
Perhaps one of the most powerful marks of the community of Christ is this ability to pray for and with each other. To authentically lift each other before the throne of grace and be vulnerable enough to share the joys and concerns of our hearts. To pray for those whom we may not even know, but to do so as a mark of our deep care for them. 
When I was working as an intern, one of my favorite times during the week was Tuesday afternoons, when I would go to pray with another person. Each week I would meet with this amazing woman of God for an hour. We would share our hearts with one another and lift each other up in prayer. It was a powerful time that cannot be contained in words. We were able to remind each other about how God has answered prayers in the past and hold each other accountable in our struggles. The Holy Spirit was noticeable in each of our prayer times and God was praised.
For the early Methodist this is why classes, or small groups, were formed. Groups of 8-10 people who looked after each other. Prayed for each other, both when they were together and apart. And asked each other “how is it with your soul?” and expected a truthful answer. It was the place where they lived into the scripture from Hebrews, spurring one another one towards love and good deeds. They shared food together. Learned together. Who are the people in your small group? Those whom you can grow in Christ’s love with? If you don’t have such a group of people, where can you look for one? Who are people you can invite into your faith journey in an intentional way and grow with every week?
Church is more then something that we attend once a week or a place that we go to. Church is being the body of Christ where we share in a common life together, a place where we sharpen one another. It is a new type of family. A family that learns, prays, laughs, fellowships, eats, and grows together. Let us live into the gift of small groups in our lives. 

Sunday, April 17, 2016

“Praying Big Prayers” Numbers 11:4-23, 31-32

The story of the Circle Maker goes something like this. The people had been without rain for far too long. Not a drop. The drought threatened to wipe them all out. Then along came Honi, with his six foot staff and confidence in God, who came among the people and drew a circle with his staff. He stood in that circle and declared he was going to stay there until the waters came. And they did - small little drops. The people rejoiced, but Honi stayed in the circle and prayed again - not for this sort of rain, God did I pray. The thunder claps and heavens broke open and rain drenched the earth, which frightened the people. But Honi stayed the circle and prayed again - not for such rain did I pray. And finally the waters fell at the perfect pace for the ground to quench its thirst, causing the people to dance in the rainfall.
When is the last time you prayed a bold prayer like Honi did that day? I think sometime we are afraid of offending God with our prayers. So we pray these anemic prayers that don’t speak to the heart of God - that aren’t Kingdom sized prayers.
Pastor Mark Batterson wrote a wonderful book on prayer entitled The Circle Maker. One of the first quotes that jumped out to me from the pages was “bold prayers honor God.” That gave me pause to examine my own prayer life - do I pray bold prayers? A few months ago we took the journey markers survey together, helping us see where we were as individuals and as a congregation on our journey of faith together, almost everyone checked that they pray daily. Let’s take a moment to rejoice in that! We are a people of prayer! My hope and prayer is that we will be a people who prayer bold prayers.
Sometime I think our prayers look more like those of the Israelites than Moses in today’s scripture lesson. The Israelites have been wondering in the dessert in the while and they have a complaint for God - they don’t like the food they are being provided. They are craving meat, not the bread like substance called mana that was falling from heaven each day. They were starting to grow restless and were talking about what they once had back in Egypt - fish. They didn’t think they had been provided for; they didn’t think they had enough. Have we ever prayed prayers where we have told God, directly or indirectly, that we do not have enough? 
But Moses overhear the Israelites complaining and he gets upset. God was becoming angry as well that the people didn’t recognize what they had been given. So Moses starts to ask God why him? Why was all this trouble upon him? Where can I get what the meat they are asking for? Have we ever cried out to God in prayer about our frustrations?
What amazes me about this particular piece of scripture is that God responds to all of their cries about not having enough and all of Moses frustrations in a big way. First, he has seventy of the elders of Israel consecrated to help Moses lead. They received a portion of the Spirit that had fallen upon Moses so that he didn’t have to struggle with the people alone or feel like he was the only one carrying their burden. 
Then God gave the people quail. In fact, God gave the people so much quail that they were told they would become sick of it. The first day enough fell from heaven that each person could have ten. Moses said he had 600,000 soldiers, even if this was just ten for each of them, it would equal 6,000,000 birds. God provided in a dramatic fashion.
Sometimes I think we don’t open up our eyes to see how God is answering our prayers in dramatic ways. Or we pray such vague prayers that we would never even notice that they have been answered.
What I also find striking about this passage of scripture is the intimacy Moses had with God. He could take his frustrations to God the way he did because of how he walked with God. In a way, even Moses’s prayers of frustration were responded to in such a profound way because of the deep roots of his relationship with God. Perhaps at times we don’t feel as close to God in prayer or are hesitant to pray big, bold prayers because we don’t have a daily rhythm with God we have a weekly rhythm. 
Moses’s prayer was also desperate. He was facing a big demand from the people, and you can’t help but pray big prayers when you are facing big circumstances. The truth is, if we aren’t desperate sometimes we won’t pray like everything depends on God. We try to do things on our own, by our own power. And when we try to go by our own power alone, it is as if we are invariantly making the statement that God is not powerful enough. Sometimes we need desperate situations in our lives to remind us who God is. We need to be in situations that are far beyond our control, to remember who God is. Sometimes we need to lose our job to see that God is offering us our dream one. Or sometimes we need to step away from a ministry, to see what new opportunities God is giving us. Or sometimes we need to wait a long time for something to be reminded that God alone is the one that provides, not us - we need to be in situations where we can say, but by God’s hand alone 
Lastly, Moses’s prayer was one of praying through. Big situations don’t go away over-night. We need to remember that big situations demand big prayers and big prayer are not prayers we simply pray for a time or two, big prayers are ones that bring us to our knees time and time again. And when we ware on our knees we need to not just be praying for things to happen but praying though them. We need to pray for God to do something unpredictable and uncontrollable. We need to pray that whatever we are going through is planting seeds for the faith of others. We need to pray. 
Brothers and sisters, only you can know what your prayer life is like with God. Only you can know if you pray bold prayers like Honi or Moses, or prayers like the Israelites, that ask for what you need at the moment. There is a whole range of ways to pray. The first step is to pray, but what we are looking towards growing into through our relationship with God is to be people who pray bold Kingdom sized prayers.

Will you pray with me….

Sunday, April 10, 2016

Finding Rest in God Pt 2

4/10/16 Sabbath: Pt 2 Deut 5: 12-15
Time is a precious thing. We only get 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 8,736 hours a year. How are we going to spend them? And what is our relationship to time. Does time control us - pulling us this way and that? 
The bible has two words for time - chronos and kairos. We are probably most familiar with chronos time - chronological time. What happens during our days. How we are going to spend those 8,000 plus hours we have been given a year. But kairos time is different - that’s God’s appointed time. God’s moment or season that are a gift to us. Sabbath time is kairos time, but it is hard to fit this into our view if we are viewing everything as chronos time.
The truth is even though we see time as one of our most precious commodities, we squander it. We very rarely ask bigger questions about how we spend our time and instead it simply become a routine. Get up, get ready, go to work, come home, spend a little time with family, go to be. Repeat. Then by the time the weekend comes we feel pressure to get done everything that didn’t fit into the rest of our week. We quickly become overwhelmed by time instead of embracing it. 
What is your biggest regret? Its a tough question isn’t it. What is your biggest regret? I was reading a book lately where the response may not be what you expect, but deeply resonated with me - being in a hurry. When we keep worrying about having our schedules full and getting to what comes next, we miss something beautiful about being in the moment. We miss something in the relationships we have and the quality of our time. And we start to regret what we are missing. 
The book of Deuteronomy tells the story of what happened to the Israelites once they fled Egypt. In some places it retells the stories found in Exodus and Numbers. In other ways it is wholly unique. In the particular area we pick up at this morning is a retelling of Moses receiving and then relaying the ten commandments. This is one of the longer commandments - keep the Sabbath holy. To only work six days a week and on the seventh day set it apart - marked for God. No one is to work - even those who are currently slaves and the animals. And as the people rest they are to remember that God brought them out of the land of Egypt. 
The people needed a law, or a commandment in order to change their behavior. Their chronos time had been filled with toiling every day - that was their reality and even though they were now free it was hard to change that behavior. So they had to have a commandment that helped them change their mind about changing their behavior. They wanted to - it was just so foreign to them.
Is that true of us too? Are we so used to being busy that it is hard for us to imagine Sabbath rest? Hard for us to imagine changing our behavior? In the words of Pastor Mark Buchanan, “Busyness makes us stop caring about the things we care about”. If we keep up the pace we are going eventually we become too numb to care. So God gives us, as well as the ancient Israelites, a commandment to stop. To rest. To be.
That doesn’t make it any easier to live into, but at least the commandment makes us consider why God commanded Sabbath rest. And helps us to put on our radar to choose to follow this particular law. Here’s the thing - there is no thing as partial disobedience. You can’t partially break the Sabbath. You either follow the command to rest or you don’t. But let’s at least be honest with ourselves about where we are, what we need, and how we can improve. 
Let me be clear - we live in a very different time then ancient Israel. We live in a very different time from even the 1950s in America. So we need to figure out how to live into the heart of Sabbath today. The reality is for some people Sabbath isn’t Sunday. They have to work that day. So what day have you set apart to fill your spirit and worship God? What day do you have when you can simply be with your Creator? And what day do you have where you can rest without feeling guilty or like you have to get on to the next thing? 
The truth is Sabbath can do wonders to transform us, which is why God offers it to us as a gift. It can free us from our concerns and obligations. Sabbath can transform our relationships. It can free us from stress.
We know that we have too much stress. We know we live in a world where are are defined, not by how God sees us, but by our productivity and accomplishments. This stress and definition of self comes from the belief that we need to have too much to do. We need to keep ourselves busy in order to seem successful. And that is why we need the discipline of Sabbath.
Sabbath truly is a discipline. We’ve talked a little bit about why it is hard to do. So we need to make it a practice in our life, in order to transform our understanding of time and sense of self. Sabbath requires us to prepare. It requires us to get done what needs to be done so we can simply rest. It requires us to say “no” to continuing to work so we can say “yes” to all that life has to offer us. And when we allow ourselves to live into this rhythm of a weeks or a few months, we can see that Sabbath, when practiced properly, also effects the rest of our week, preventing us from becoming a workaholic. 
I shared with you last week a little bit about my practice of Sabbath, this week I want to share with you about a friend and his family’s practice. Sabbath is a time to say “yes” more often. To say yes, we have time to go to the park, or the museum, or the zoo when his son asks. Its a time to bake meals together and invite other people over to share them or say “yes” to the invitations they are offered to eat with others. Its a day to say “yes” to long walks in the sunshine or building snowmen. And the more they are able to say “yes” because there is space in their schedule to do so, the more the find themselves delighting in each other and the experiences they can have together right now, in this moment. For them, Sabbath is about relationships, especially with family, trumping all else, so they can celebrate the good gift God has blessed them with. 

What do you need to say “yes” to in order to reorient your time? What do you have to say “no” to in order to move away from the demands of chronos time? While our sermon series on this particular discipline is concluding this week, the journey towards reorienting our time is not. Let us encourage each other to embrace Sabbath rest in order to get our heart in the right place to worship God and find his rest. Amen. 

Sunday, April 3, 2016

“Finding Rest in God: Part 1” Gen 2:2-3 and Exodus 16: 23

This is a sermon just as much for me as for anyone else. As I write it, I am full of anxiety and stress. I worry about people in this church and my family. I didn’t sleep much the night before - tossing and turning. I am in need of rest. Of Sabbath rest.
Are you feeling rested this day? Or do you feel like your life is one endless run on of things to do and places to be? Our days just seem too full. How are we to rest when there are chores to be done, kids to be feed, work to attend to? Do you have enjoyment in your days? Do you have enjoyment in God? 
I don’t think many people would proudly declare that they broke most of the commandments. We don’t find Christians who find joy in the fact that they murdered someone or took the Lord’s name in vain. Yet, there is one commandment that many Christians seem to find such comfort in when they break - the command to keep the Sabbath. 
Pastor Mark Buchanan wrote a book I read while in college that changed my view of Sabbath rest entitled The Rest of God. The pages of the book are filled with colored markings and questions I posed to myself as I read through the pages. The basic question that is asked of each of us in this: how many of our problems stem from not honoring the Sabbath fully?
The idea of Sabbath rest traces the whole way back to the book of Genesis, to creation. God created the world, putting the stars in the sky and creating the fish of the sea. God put each flower and animal and blade of grass on the earth and declared it very good. Then good created the finest masterpiece yet - human beings - a mixture of flesh and bones, breath and blood. Made in the very image of God. Then when God had finished and declared that everything was very good, God rested. 
We don’t talk about God resting very much. Perhaps because the idea isn’t one we like. That God wouldn’t just busily move on to the next thing when there is so much more to do in the world. We don’t like the idea of God resting because it makes us come face to face with our own need for rest, the Sabbath rest that God modeled for us by declaring that the seventh day was holy - set apart, not to work but to just be. 
We are a purpose driven people - moving from one thing to the next and finding our worth by how busy we are. How often has someone asked how you are doing to which you replied “busy” or “tired”? According to spiritual author Jane Rubietta in her book Resting Place, constant activity - even when it is good activity - can damage us, damage our bodies and wound our souls. 
We recognize that constant working was not good for the Israelites when they were slaves in Egypt. They were under the direction of the pharaohs to build great things for Egypt’s glory. But as the people of Israel grew in number, the Pharaoh started to fear their insurrection more. So he made them work every day of the week. With less materials and demanding more productivity. When they could not produce they were punished. When God brought them out of the land of Egypt one of the first things he provided was a day of rest - holy, Sabbath rest, when they stopped toiling for productivity and instead rested in the Lord. 
There is nothing wrong with working. Unless we let our work consume us. When let work become our personal god instead of worshipping the God who gave us the ability to both work and rest. According to Pastor Buchanan, “The opposite of a slave is not a free man. It’s a worshiper.” Are we a slave to our work or a worshipper of God, because according to this particular pastor it is very very hard to do both, as they are at opposite ends of the spectrum. 
The truth is if we are on the go all the time, always working, we lose pleasure in our work. We need a place of respite. Sabbath allows us to reorient our time towards God and remember whose we are and who we are. Sabbath sanctifies time. Without it, we feel like we can get just one more thing done in order to prove ourselves to be worthy instead of finding our worth in God alone. 
We know that we are made to be people with a purpose, but the true question is - what purpose is that exactly? Is it to work all that we can? Or is it to fall in line with God’s rhythm for living, which involves rest. Sabbath offers us a gift to simply be still. To simply be. And to become alive under the rest and care of our Creator, who made us to be more than simple work horses. During that time we open ourselves us not only to re-creation, but to listening - to listening to the voice of God stirring in our spirits. Its a time to play, to remember that we to are called to create in so many different ways. Above all, sabbath is a time to cease from doing what is necessary.
So what does that look like exactly? I think its different for each of us because we each rest differently. I have even changed how I embrace Sabbath rest at different times in my life, but let me tell you what it looks like for me now. I prepare for Sabbath the night before - making sure all of the dishes are done and the house is clean, so I won’t be tempted to tidy up a mess the next day. I have a cup of slow brewed full leaf tea. Often I soak my feet in a foot bath and curl up with a good fiction novel before going to bed. The next morning I sleep in, not setting my alarm. When I wake up I have a small canister next to my bed with different spices that I open up, to remind me to use my senses different on Sabbath. I light different candles. I eat different foods. And I do everything more slowly. I let the day dictate what I will do, listening to what my body needs on that particular day. This is not a day for doing laundry, or cleaning, or getting groceries. It is a day to have lunch with friends or dinner with family. A day to talk to those I love. Its a day to be fully me.
Sabbath time is different then the time the rest of the week. By doing things differently, I physically mark that this day is different, set apart. Jane Rubietta states that such type of rest is a death - where we allow ourselves to die to ourselves and our agendas and to learn to let God love us deeply right where we are. Brothers and sisters, that is a hard lesson. One would think that resting would be easy, especially with so many of us on the brink or exhaustion, but its not, because it requires us to set how we perceive ourselves aside in order to let God fully love us. 

Will you join me this season on trying to embrace Sabbath? Trying to live into the commandment? Maybe you’ve been going at full speed for so long that the idea of an entire rest seems too hard for you. Can you start with a half day? Or could you not fill in your schedule when God gives you glimpses of reprieve? Can you let yourself simply be for a few hours one or two days a week to start? What could Sabbath renewal do for the state of your body and soul? Amen.