Monday, February 3, 2025

When Life Deals You Lemons

The New Testament speaks extensively about fruit and growth. One of my favorite passages is in John, where Jesus encourages us to live and abide in Him, the true vine. He states, "I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener" (John 15:1). He continues, "Yes, I am the vine, and you are the branches. Those who abide in Me and I in them will produce much fruit" (John 15:5). According to John, we are called to produce fruit, and the key to this fruitfulness lies in staying connected to the "true vine." 

Over the past few weeks, Lee and I have learned a valuable lesson about fruit. We have owned a house in Freeport for eight years, where we discovered two lemon trees in the backyard. One winter, one of the trees succumbed to exposure, leaving only the lemon tree next to the house. I mostly ignored it until about four years ago when I decided to harvest some fruit to make lemonade. After squeezing a bunch of lemons, adding sugar, and tasting the result, I was disappointed; it was the worst lemonade I had ever made! Despite my efforts, it was inedible. Fast forward to late January this year: Lee looked out to see that the tree was covered with fruit—more than we had ever seen! However, there was something unusual about the fruit; it wasn’t yellow but orange! We picked one of these "lemons" (which were really oranges) and tasted it. To our surprise, it was delicious! Last Sunday, the congregation in the first service enjoyed fresh-cut oranges for breakfast. The tree that had produced terrible lemons turned out to make wonderful oranges! 

From this experience, I learned several important lessons: 

1. **The obvious lesson**: Unripe oranges make terrible lemons. They are so bitter that they couldn't be salvaged. I think about how often people tell young folks, "You can be anything you want to be." That advice can be misleading. Instead of listening to cultural messages, what if we listened to our Creator? God made us, and we thrive when we remain close to the "true vine," Jesus. He understands our design and when we are at our best, living within the "sweet spot" of our purpose. This happens when we abide in Him and align our lives with His will. Be who and what you were created to be! That is where you will find happiness, fulfillment, and fruitfulness. 

2. **The second lesson**: Ripe, fresh oranges are wonderful fruit. As Psalm 139 states, "I was fearfully and wonderfully made." When God created that orange tree, He knew exactly what He was doing. 

3. **Finally**: Fruit is best when it is ripe. The oranges resembled lemons until they reached their peak ripeness. Many of us have faced trials, difficulties, and mistakes throughout our lives. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t experienced some major challenges. Satan often presents us with problems and suggests we rely on the wrong solutions to deal with them. The secret to transforming my faux lemons was to abide in the truth of their creation, design, and destiny. The fruit remained on the tree until it became exactly what it was meant to be. In a world that craves quick fixes, perhaps we should allow God to lead, teach, and help us grow into our best selves. In Matthew 11, Jesus invites us to "take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, and you will find rest for your souls." I love that word "rest," as it signifies completion or ripeness. This completion is part of a process of growing in Christ! 

"Abide in Me, and I in you, and you will produce much fruit!" This is Jesus' instruction in John 15. He is the true grapevine, and the Father is the gardener. Why should we do this? John 15:8 reminds us, "When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to My Father.” When life feels sour, like a lemon, remember to abide in Jesus, and you might just discover you are an amazing orange!

Monday, January 27, 2025

Presence

I have to confess something.  Every time we sing, "Surely the Presence" (you know the song) my memory is drawn to the 1980 movie, Airplane.  I wonder if God is thinking on the same 'plane' (pun intended) and wants to respond, "Yes, I'm here ... and don't call me Shirley!"  But enough of that!  God's presence is serious business that is apparently a bit misunderstood by the Church.  As we move from our New Year thoughts to settling into the seasons of Epiphany, Pre-Lent, and Lent, I want us to stop and consider this important, and often ignored, part of Wesleyan theology, and Biblical truth.

On two weekends in January, we (GMC Board of Ministry members) interviewed candidates for ministry in the Alabama Emerald Coast Conference.  We had some great conversations about ministry, life, and presenting Jesus in the context of Wesleyan Theology.  Some foundational parts of that theology are things like 1) Jesus wants all to be saved, 2) all CAN be saved, 3) all can know they are saved, and 4) all can become sanctified to the point they are, as Wesley called it, "saved to the the uttermost," meaning they approach life in, through, and with the love of Jesus.  Another part of Wesleyan theology is the reverence, meaning, and foundation of our sacraments.  One specific question seemed to be difficult for many of the candidates. We asked, "What makes these sacraments (Baptism and Communion) sacred?"  We generally got the answer, "Because Jesus prescribed them."  While this is true ... that Jesus prescribed and participated in these sacraments with the disciples ... it lacks the completeness of the truth from a Wesleyan perspective.  So ... here goes with a little Wesleyan theology, and a lot of what is missing in the American church.

Wesley believed, and practiced, a very Jesus-centered view of the sacraments, and a Jesus-centered view of how God's grace is conveyed to us in everyday life.  That "Wesleyan Way" is described to us as "Presence."  We just left the Advent/Christmas season.  We used a word during that time called Emmanuel ... "God with us."  At the end of Jesus' ministry in Matthew 28, Jesus said something to us about this ... "I will be with you, even unto the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:20)."  Jesus' story in the Gospels described this presence in every event.

John begins telling this story of Jesus' presence, by describing Jesus as a pathway, gateway, and stairway between heaven and earth.  In John 1:51, John describes Jesus as "the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth."  I could call this a clue to Wesley's theology of the sacraments.  But it is WAY more overt than a clue.  John says Jesus IS the connection between heaven and earth.  When Jesus is with us and in us, as we participate in one of these sacraments, we are in vertical connection with God (through John's stairway) and in horizontal connection with Jesus and the Church (the people) because he is with/in us.  Did you get it ... "on earth as it is in heaven?"  Do you get that the reasons our sacraments are "sacred" are not:

1. Jesus prescribed them;

2. They are symbols of what Jesus did in Scripture;

3.  They are just a "sign."

The reason they are sacred is that Jesus is present ... the Holy Spirit is with us, in the present.  It is the only way for us to be wholly in the Spirit and Truth Jesus describes to the Samaritan woman in John 4.

Why is this understanding important?  Because to have the power of God and the Spirit, we must have the presence of God and the Spirit.  One of many "telling" passages about this happens in the early Church.  In Acts 19, seven sons of Sceva try to "invoke" the power of Jesus by casting out a demon.  The demon responds ... "I know Jesus, and I know of Paul, but who are you?"  We, the Church, cannot be known for going through the motions of being the church.  We can be thoroughly connected to amazing music, beautiful sanctuaries, powerful/eloquent speakers, aesthetic surroundings, and everything that is attractive to the people of our society.  But, when we "get down to business" (the title of my message a few weeks back) we had better be willing to shed all of those things.

I know a young woman ... a friend.  She has had trial after trial.  We have been called upon to be her prayer warriors, her support system, and an expression of a faith she is counting on.  We have moved from the sidelines into the game.  We have gone from the admin tent to the front lines.  How will the demons of infirmity see us?  Will we approach with the signs and wonders of our trappings ... eloquent prayers, appealing songs, stunning sanctuaries, and attractional theology?  Or, will we embrace our friend, cover her with prayers, and allow the presence and person of Jesus to flow from us into her broken body?  Will we understand that the presence of Jesus, in this grace we express and give away, is all we have to offer?  "Surely, the presence, of the Lord is in this place ... I can feel His mighty power, and His grace.  I can feel the brush of angel's wings, I see glory on each face.  Surely, the presence of the Lord is in this place!"  Pray in Jesus, the son of the Living God ... and the very gates of hell will not prevail against us!  AMEN

Monday, January 20, 2025

Hoboes and Destinations

I was intrigued by a story I heard at the 30A Songwriter Festival.  The story was about a man named Steamtrain Maury, elected 5 times as "King of the Hoboes."  Most of you are reading this and wondering, "How is a person elected King of the Hoboes?"  Since hoboes are wanderers, it seems structurally impossible for them to elect anyone.  But, there is a Hobo Convention in Britt, Iowa (go figure?) and elections are held for King.  So, the title King of the Hoboes.

Maury was a strange, troubled, and complex character.  He hopped countless trains, and still had time to visit 34,000 veterans (he served in the military as a medical technician).  He had a heart for those who had served their country. He lived 89 years.

As I heard Steamtrain Maury's story in song, I wondered ... did he just randomly jump trains, not knowing (or caring) where they were going?  Did he just, on a whim, follow the wanderlust of the rails, thinking that all of these random, seemingly disconnected, journeys were "freedom?"  And, is our spiritual journey any better?  Do we have a solid starting place?  Do we have a purpose in our travels?  Do we have a destination?

I plan to stay in the Book of John in the weeks coming up to Lent.  One of our adult Sunday School classes will be traveling alongside us.  John is a simply-constructed book that focuses on the person and work of Christ.  John, the writer, was in Ephesus in the mid to late 1st Century when the book was written.

John was not a spiritual hobo.  John knew where the Gospel story began.  It started with the person of Jesus who told us our starting point.  Jesus said, "I am ... the light of the world (John 8;12) ... the door of the sheep (John 10:7) ... the good shepherd (John 10:11) ... the resurrection and the life (John 11:25) ... the way, the truth, the life (John 14:6) ... and, the true vine (John 15:1)."  This is where we start our journey.

John knew the journey was filled with stories, testimonies, and opportunities to know Jesus.  The Samaritan woman learned the truth about Jesus and herself ... and she was changed.  Nicodemus learned that we must be born of the Spirit, which has a direction and purpose that "goes where it will!"  Lazarus and his family learned that even death cannot overcome the power of God.  

John also knew where the story ended.  It didn't end on the cross, though the powers of this world thought it was finished.  It didn't end in a cold, dark tomb, though even the disciples feared all hope was lost.  It ended in a very strange place ... with Jesus, the Kingdom, and the very presence/Spirit of God indwelling the earth and God's people (all believers).

We are "pilgrims and strangers, traveling through this world of woe," as the old song says.  But we have a beginning ... Jesus.  We have a purpose ... our testimony of blessing to all the world.  We have a destination ... the Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

Our special song for the 1st service is called, Glory Bound.  The words say, "Well I don't know which way you're going, and I don't know if you're lost or found, all I know is you've been forgiven, and this train is glory bound!"  Steamtrain Maury didn't always know where he was going.  One obituary said he, dying at 89 years old, had finally hitched a ride on a comet.  But we, God's people, will have a better destination ... the glorious Kingdom of God!  Jump on board! AMEN 

Monday, January 13, 2025

Down To Business

January 13th (WOW, already a half-month of 2025 has gone!) is a reminder of what Gordon Lightfoot writes in a song ... "time doesn't wait for nobody to find what they're after, It just keeps on rolling on down the deep canyons and through the green meadows into the broad ocean." That lyric reminds me of what my friend Jimmy Rane told me one day ... "Daylights a' burning." Time is a finite resource. So ... with a lot of chaos in the world around us, we remember that Jesus said, "You know the saying, 'four months between planting and harvest.' But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for the harvest! (John 4:35)."

There are 3 instructions in what Jesus tells his disciples in this prologue from the story of the Samaritan woman. They are simple, but necessary if we are to proceed with any urgency toward what God is calling us to do.

1. Wake Up - In his Wake Up Call devotional, JD Walt begins each devotion with a prayer. It says, "Wake up sleeper ... rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you!" The prayer comes from Ephesians 5:14, and harkens from passages in Isaiah and Malichi. The Bible is in a constant state of calling God's people to wake up. I did a sermon once called, "I Believe In Zombies." Zombies are, of course, walking, dead people. I see them every day. We walk past the stricken traveler on the side of the road. We walk past the signs, warning us that something is right. We know differently. Last week we sang "Is He Worthy." The first line of the song is a statement and reply ... "Do you think the world is broken? We do!" We see fires, floods, broken people, pettiness, anger, deceit, destruction, and all manners of struggle. Yet, we are content to be a cog in the wheel of time. JD Walt says, wake up! Rise from the dead. We are called and equipped for such a time as this!

2. Look around - Isaiah 43 says, "Behold, I am doing a new thing! Do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert (Isaiah 43:19)!" We know we are living in this time of wilderness. I think we, if we look around, can see and feel the parched desert. God's word has said this would happen. Amos 8:11-12 says, "A time is coming, says the Lord, when I will send a famine upon the land. Not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord!" We HAVE the word of the Lord in the Scriptures we have been given. We HAVE God's Holy Spirit to open, teach, and unpack the word of the Lord. What we are missing is eyes to see and ears to hear. Notice the passage from Amos says ... 'a famine of HEARING the word of the Lord.' I wonder if this is why Jesus (and John in Revelation) frequently say, "Let he who has eyes see and let him who has ears hear." We are called and equipped for such a time as this!

3. See the ripeness of the fields - Here is what we often miss. In our sheltered settings ... in our pristine buildings ... in our preferred styles of worship ... we forget about the mission and purpose. In 2025 I will pound the mission and purpose into our consciousness. Forgive my repetition, but the Mission is to be God's blessing to the world (not just America, which, by the way, isn't hearing/seeing/perceiving our message) ... Genesis 22:18. Our Purpose is to be part of God's plan to "bring people to Himself (Exodus 19:4)."

Wake up! Look around! The fields are ripe! The Church has a mission. The Church has a purpose. Time keeps "rolling on down the deep canyons and through the green meadows into the broad ocean." We worship and follow the Lord of the harvest. Let's get down to business!

Monday, January 6, 2025

Wise Advice

I have an acquaintance who is in charge of a large school system.  He is a good leader, and, best of all, a wise witness to students who share his challenging upbringing.  He didn't rise to his position easily ... it took lots of effort, education, struggle, and hard work.

One day, a person working with students with discipline and learning challenges asked him to speak to these struggling students. They might listen to someone who had similar challenges in education and life.  Here is what he said was the #1 thing that would lead these struggling students forward.  "Do not be, or allow anyone to make you a victim.  Being a victim is a crutch, a cultural sham, and a lie.  It will cause you to focus on how others are the cause of your situation.  Remember ... you are who you choose to be.  If you become a victim, you will never be accountable for anything.  It will always be some other person's fault, and you will live in anger, mistrust, and falseness.  Live and grow past this attitude.  Make choices that will grow you and challenge you.  Work hard.  Be the person you were created to be, and don't let victim mentality take that away from you!"

John 21:21-22 addresses this head-on.  Peter gets in victim mode as he sees John following while he is conversing with Jesus.  Peter asks Jesus, "What about him?"  Jesus (in what seems to me a snarky tone) says, "If I want him to stay alive till I return, what is it to you?  YOU must follow me!"  What is Jesus saying here?

1. Stop coveting - The 10th Commandment (Exodus 20:17) tells us "Do not covet!"  To Peter, Jesus is saying, "Stop diluting your witness, your walk, and your actions based on what other people are doing ... follow me!"

2. Stop worrying - You get the impression that Peter is still caught up in diva mentality ... he wants to be the top dog.  Yesterday Tyrek Hill, Miami Dolphins wide receiver, said, "I want out ... I'm a competitor and I don't want to just go out there and be there."  My comment to brother Hill would be ... "Are you saying that the other players on your team don't desire to win and compete?  Are you saying you are better?"  Peter is part of something bigger than him ... divas are not needed in ministry!

3. Stop sifting life through your perceptions and feelings - Maybe Peter feels threatened by John's relationship with Jesus.  Maybe Peter feels like what happens to John diminishes what Jesus has to offer him.  For a group of students struggling with school and authority, a wise administrator is telling them to drop the concept of sifting their life through what happens to other people.  Work hard.  Trust leaders who are investing in you.  You are not better or worse than other people, but you are different.  Your gifts, when used by the master, are just what the master needs.  Be taught.  Be led. Be you. Be God's.  Be completed by the only one who can complete you.  Let the other doubts, emotional impulses, and Satan-led (yes, I said it!) perceptions be negated by the God who says, "With God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26)."

You say, "Ok pastor ... that is what we stop doing.  What do we do?"  We do to others as we would have them do to us (Matthew 7:12).  We live in the thin place of serving God, washing feet, spending time with the brokenhearted, extending mercy, loving justice, and walking in humility (Micah 6:8, Psalm 34:18, John 13).  We worship with all we got (Psalm 150).  We share the Good News with everyone so that disciples of Jesus are made (Matthew 28).  And, we pray a lot, using our 2 ears more than our 1 mouth (1 Thessalonians 5:16-17).  This should keep us busily doing what Jesus told Peter ... "You must follow Me!"  AMEN

Sunday, December 29, 2024

Plain and Beautiful

I was cleaning up after Christmas Eve communion.  The mess was pretty substantial.  But communion mess doesn't bother me.  I think about communion and remember the mess.  That first time in a room with 12 disciples was pretty messy.  It was presented as a different covenant ... a new promise sealed by Jesus' blood.  In fact, it is what "New Testament" means.  It was framed by great passion from Jesus, great confusion by the disciples, and great betrayal by Judas.  Messy!

We are pretty messy too!  While some of us think highly of ourselves, we, as a group, are tarnished, dirty, and (the old song says) poor and needy.  We are carrying the dirt and dust of the world. And though some of us look shiny and pristine, down deep we are all as plain as a ball of clay.  Messy!

It is only appropriate.  The story of Jesus is messy too.  He walked through the dust and dirt of Israel and surrounding areas.  He encountered filthy and demon-possessed people.  He had a run-in with pig farmers.  He ate with sinners and tax collectors.  He met a Pharisee in the dark of night to answer questions, and he talked one of those tax collectors down out of a tree.  He was beaten, jailed, schlepped from one palace to another, and then asked to carry His own cross up a hill.  Messy!

That is one reason why I love our time of communion.  It reminds us of our messiness and the messiness God (in Jesus) endured for our salvation.  One song says it like this ... "It is true we are as fallen as an angel, but you and me, we're also holy as a prayer."  I think God likes it that way.  And, in our communion this Sunday, we will gather with messy people who are bound together by plain wood and simple nails, put together in the shape of a cross.  It was the messiest of deaths.  As two very common substances come together to become a cruel cross, I am reminded of the good and bad uses of plain things.  Some become cruel.  Some become beautiful.  Maybe the choice is ours, as we either become haughty, demanding, and proud, or obedient, submissive, and moldable.  Isaiah pondered this (45:9) when he said, "Does the clay tell the potter, "What are you making?"  The implied question is, do we (the plain, messy ones) tell God (the one we call Lord) what to do and how to do it?

So I will begin this year with an attitude that acknowledges what I am ... a big old mess!  I wonder ... when we meet with our Church Council at NOON today, will we, collectively, have that attitude?  Will we, as leaders here at Abbeville Methodist, see ourselves as plain wood and nails, usable as building materials for something very good?  In the song "Wood and Nails," Audrey Assad ponders the uses of wood and nails.  Will they build little crosses that crucify Christ again?  Will they build coffins, becoming the whitewashed tombs of Scripture?  Or ... in the hands of the great carpenter, will they/be be used to build an unshakable kingdom that will become a blessing to all people?  That would be beautiful, wouldn't it?  We have the capacity to allow either of these 3 options.  What will our choice be?   

Sunday, December 22, 2024

What to Keep

A few years back we had a crisis at Abbeville Methodist.  We were setting up for Christmas, with the usual anxiety and chaos.  There are always things that are hard to find.  But we were missing one major thing.  Our long-time baby Jesus was nowhere to be found.  We looked and looked.  Finally, someone found him in one of the upstairs rooms, and all was well.

But I wonder.  As we take down all of the Christmas trappings ... trees, wreaths, candles, nativity scenes ... do we ever throw out the most important thing?  Do we throw baby Jesus out, while carefully storing away the things we use to "dress up" the church?

The Scriptures tell a story about Jesus as a boy.  The story in Luke 2:41-52 tells a Biblical "Home Alone" story in which Jesus is left behind at the Temple.  Our family is particularly connected to this story because we (in Mobile) once left Christopher (my son) at church (I'll unpack that story on Sunday).  Stuff like that happens, and the story from Luke makes me feel less like a bad parent.  But this story reminds us that we must all be attentive to remember the most important thing ... Jesus.

We are entering a new year.  We will take down the Christmas decorations (eventually).  We will put the Cantata books in the file till we bring them out another year.  We will find a new section of hymns in the hymnal, appropriate to either Epiphany, Lent, or Easter.  The Christian year will move on.  But let's remember the baby Jesus that wrapped humanity around Himself, so He could bring us to God's Kingdom, both on earth and in heaven.  If the New Year is about, for, and with Jesus, the year will be good for the Kingdom and glorifying to God.  Don't throw out the baby!  AMEN