Cookie

I will have to admit that the last thing any of us probably needs right now is another cookie.  At my house we had 7-layer cookies, red velvet cookies, ginger cookies, and fudge (I guess that is cookieish).  Way too many carbs, but they were sure good!

During the holidays I was watching a cooking competition, and the theme involved cookies.  One of the contestants was baking gingerbread men using a cookie cutter.  He carefully cut out the shapes, but as he looked at them he said, "those gingerbread men look like Leprechauns!"  As the judges looked at his cookies, one of the judges did something interesting.  He turned the gingerbread "man" upside down and found the problem with the whole thing.  The cookie cutter, and the cookies, was actually a reindeer shape.  The contestant had used the cutter upside-down!

So ... lessons from this cookie?  I can think of at least three!

1. As we are immersed in the holidays, it is easy to get off-track.  We see the events, the glitz, the glitter, and we become pretty disoriented.  We are in a confusing mess, trying to keep up with people, places, emotions and our feelings about everything.  The Christmas story says ... stop!  Stop and observe Joseph as, amid great confusion and personal sacrifice, he follows God ... "and he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife ...  and he gave him the name Jesus (Matthew 1:24-25)."  Amid the confusion and mess, follow Jesus.

2. Laugh at your mistakes.  That's what happened on the cooking show ... they all had a good laugh.  It is interesting to reflect on how the judge knew what might have happened.  I'll bet he knew because he had done the same thing before.  You are doing life among other people who have messed up too!  Romans 3 reminds us that we have all sinned and that none of us can claim righteousness, except through Jesus.  Laugh at your mistakes, (people ... stop taking yourself too seriously)  recognize them, and walk away.  I bet the cooking show contestant won't make that mistake again!

3. Finally, we face an enemy that is telling us that "this" is all there is, that "we" are just like we are, that this "upside-down" world is the way it is supposed to be.  The story in 2 Kings 6 takes place in Dothan.  The king of Aram has sent soldiers to surround Elisha and his little band.  Elisha's servant goes out in the morning and sees the enemy army has surrounded them and says, "Oh no, my Lord ... what will we do?"  Elisha responds, "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them."  Then Elisha prays, "Open his eyes Lord, so he may see!"  God, who knows us and this world, has come into the world to turn it right-side up!  See God's work, His forces and His blessings, happening right in the midst of this messed-up world!

Don't let your fears, the demons that want to block your vision, the lies of your feelings, the deception of the enemy and the facade of overwhelming force, divert you from allowing God to turn your world right-side up.  It is how God rolls!  Have a cookie and smile!  Randy

Selah

In my "The Complete Word Study of the Old Testament" the word "Selah (Psalm 3)" means, pause.  It was probably both a musical instruction and also a call to "stop and praise God."  In reading the Wake Up Call devotional this morning, I was definitely sent to this concept of pausing as we reflect on the magnitude of Advent and Christmas.  It is worth pausing ... for if we fail here, we will miss what is most important.

Wake Up Call spoke of a famous violinist (Joshua Bell) being part of an experiment in societal blindness.  Bell played a $13 million Stradivarius violin in a New York subway, disguised as a street performer.  He was only recognized by one person, and his take for the session of music was $37.17.  Beauty, greatness and value were all missed by those walking past an experience of a lifetime.  God's instruction, as we walk through the elevator music of life?  Selah!

Stop and reflect upon the "bread of life" coming into a small town that is called "house of bread (Bethlehem)."  Sunday afternoon and evening we will remember the "bread of life" and the "Lamb that takes away the sin of the world!"  That includes your sins and my sins!  Selah!

Stop and consider that in the context of history, conflict, war, poverty, strife, political unrest, God came!  He came to Mary and Joseph, some livestock, some shepherds who paused, a host of angels and to all of us.  Chris Rice says he, "wrapped our injured flesh around Him, breathed our air and walked our sod, robbed our sins and made us holy, perfect Son of God!"  Selah!

Don't walk past the priceless!  Don't invest a petty $13.17 in the most expensive gift ever ... don't miss the chance to be part of the beautiful and meaningful music of truth, faith and joy ... don't be so wrapped up in this world that you miss what Jesus said ... experience a direct view into God's Kingdom.  Selah ... praise God! AMEN

Hatching

Some of you will remember the story of Horton Hatches an egg.  It is a short little story about a lazy bird (Mayzie) that cons Horton (an elephant) into sitting on her egg while she goes off to relax, enjoy and "live the life" on the beach.  Horton stays back with the egg (through rain, snow and strife) and it eventually hatches.  Here's the part of the story I want us to get ... the egg hatches into a little elephant bird.  It looks like the one who was with it all those very long days!

Why is this important?  Well ... "Train up a child in the way he/she should go, and when he is old, he will remember it (Proverbs 22:6)."  Or, "and we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18)."  Here's the operative question.  Are we a product of the priorities in which we are immersed?  Do we look like the thing(s) in which we invest our time? If so, what do we look like?  What is hatching us?

Last evening I spent a lot of time with our people, the Church here in Abbeville.  It was Cantata night and the day was long and tiring, but fruitful.  The Church in Abbeville came in to hear some beautiful music, the real story of Christmas, and it became an amalgamation I think would honor God.  I wonder if these moments and times become "hatching" to both adults and children?  The Word is proclaimed when someone sings "my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior (Luke 1:46-47)."  Mary is joyful for God bringing her out of obscurity and into a difficult journey of faith ... her faith and her attitude reflects her Savior, Jesus!

The other day Samson, my 23lb cat, did something he loves to do.  He jumped on an Amazon box.  I don't know whether he does this out of curiosity or whether he just loves to crush things, but you can be assured that the box collapsed like a cheap lawn chair in an NFL locker room.  I wonder if this is why we have such an epidemic of mental health issues and narcissism, as our children and grandchildren bear the weight of a world in which they are at the center.  "What can we do to "blow away" or kids at Christmas?"  "How can I make Christmas memorable and epic?"  "Where can we go to "crush it" in the holiday season?"  And we DO crush it, as the box collapses and we, our children and our grandchildren find their spiritual house built on a cultural "house of cards."

Reginald Heber, Bishop of Calcutta, was an Anglican Priest in the early 1800's.  He is best known for writhing a little song called, Holy, Holy, Holy (you might have heard it).  In writing about the majesty and holiness of God, Heber wrote a lesser-known song that described both the shallowness and God's expectation of our devotion to God.  It is called Brightest and Best.  In the song, Heber writes ... "Say shall we yield Him, in costly devotion, odors of Edom and offerings divine, gems of the mountain and pearls of the ocean, myrrh of the forest, and gold from the mines ... vainly we offer each ample oblation, vainly with gifts would His favor secure, richer by far is the hearts adoration, dearer to God are the prayers of the poor."  You will hear this song at our 9am service this Sunday!

We, our kids and our grandkids will become what "hatches" us.  Will it be our willingness to invest in the struggle, the work, the time, the resources and the hearts adoration it takes to build His Church and His Kingdom ... or, will it be the "box" of sports, parties, stuff, frantic schedules and cultural emptiness?  That "box" will get crushed when weight is added.

I invite you (really the entire community) to come, kneel, leave baggage and let God fill you up with His good things every Sunday and (at a very special hallelujah moment) at 6pm Christmas Eve.  Invest some heart-felt adoration.  Leave some gifts for the poor.  Hear the testimony of God's word.  Take in the music that speaks truth into the façade we encounter in culture.  Let's hatch something that reflects the likeness of Jesus, who is both the babe in the cradle and the King of Kings!  This Christmas let your soul magnify the Lord and let your spirit have joy in something worthwhile ... our Savior and the Church for which He will return! Randy

Changing Rivers

"I got peace like a river, I got peace like a river, I got peace like a river in my soul!"  Sing that with me for a moment.  Now think about those words.  We DO have peace like a river.  Moving.  Sometimes tranquil pools and sometimes roaring rapids.  Sometimes clear and clean, and sometimes muddy.  Rivers can be gentle, flowing quietly in normal times, or they can rage with the melting snow or the pouring rain.  If rivers have peace, there is usually an undercurrent, sometimes a strong one.

If you've been whitewater rafting, it will ruin this song for you.  A few years back our youth went whitewater rafting.  Emily was on that trip, and she did what happens a lot on those rafting trips ... she fell overboard.  For a few very scary moments she was actually pinned under the boat.  Ask Emily about that wonderful little song.  Rivers aren't exactly peaceful ... but they can be!

In Psalm 23, David writes about something he knows ... being a shepherd.  In this Psalm about God's presence during life, David describes the peace I think the little song is trying to capture.  "He leadeth me beside still waters, He restoreth my soul (Ps. 23:2-3)."  He know sheep, and he knows that moving or troubled water is disturbing to sheep.  So the shepherd leads the flock by those waters that appear still, and they are calm and feel protected.  What can we learn here?

1. There is the obvious.  The shepherd knows sheep inside and out.  He knows what they need and when they need it.  Our Great Shepherd knows us (and we are described as sheep pretty often).  Let's allow Him to lead us to those places where we can catch a deep breath and become still enough to see life around us ... to discern light from darkness and good from folly.

2. There is the unseen, but true.  Sometimes the water appears still, but it is deep, moving and a nearly unstoppable force.  Our society seems to be pulled along, loving the excitement of the rapids, and resting in the deep pools, thinking all is easy and quiet.  But the river is still moving.  It is persistent, unrelenting and always headed to a destination.

In 1863 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow came to this exact conclusion.  He thought about the cannons thundering on the battlefields of civil war.  His wife had died in a fire two years earlier, and his son had been severely wounded in the Civil War.  Two lines of the song come to mind ... "I thought how as the day had come, the bells of all of Christendom, had rolled along, the unbroken song, of peace on earth good will towards men" ... still but unrelenting waters, that are deeper than they look.  Then he writes these lyrics of despair ... "And in despair I bowed my hear, there is no peace on earth I said.  For hate is strong and mocks the song, of peace on earth good will towards men."  Are you in that river?  Doubtful, confused and not sure of just where your peace will come from?

Isaiah writes about this ... "And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father ... Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6)."  From darkness to light, from death to life and from chaos and confusion to peace!  How do we get there?  We change rivers (kingdoms).  We get out of the river of culture and into the river of our Lord.  Wadsworth did just that , writing, "Then pealed the bells more loud and deep.  God is not dead, nor doth He sleep.  The wrong shall fail, the right prevail.  With peace on earth, good will towards men."

Change rivers!  Live in the kingdom of the Prince of Peace!  There will always be wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, troubles and strife.  It is even happening in those "still waters" that flow relentlessly toward a destination.  Change rivers to a destination of God's plan and God's rule.  Wadsworth knew it!  "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep!"  Place your trust, your time and your life there!  Our Good Shepherd leads us there!  AMEN

Paradox

Isaiah, in predicting the Christmas miracle of Jesus, makes a very paradoxical statement.  "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness, on them a light has shined (Isaiah 9:2)."  And we, staring down into a stone cradle at a helpless child born to a poor couple, wonder, "What is Isaiah talking about?"  A paradox for sure!

Each Sunday during the Advent season, 1st service will begin with a paradoxical song, "He Shall Reign Forevermore."  The song starts like the 1972 poem by Christiana Rossetti, titled "A Christmas Carol."  "In the bleak midwinter, all creation groans, for a world in darkness, frozen like a stone, light is breaking, in a manger made of stone, and He shall reign forevermore."  Wait?  How did we get from a helpless child in a manger to reigning forevermore?  Do you see the paradox?

Our western eyes see everything in English, black-and-white, seeing is believing and power is status/wealth/fame/notoriety/popularity.  We too easily forget that last week we celebrated Christ The King Sunday, where we lifted up the Lordship of Jesus.  We now stare down at a manger, and wonder, "How can THIS be the power of God, come into the world?"  How can we believe Micah 5:2 that foretells, "But you Bethlehem, Ephrathah though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for Me the one who will be ruler over all of Israel."

We can believe because:

1. We are not "seeing is believing" people.  We are people of faith who believe "faith is the evidence of things we cannot see (Hebrews 11:1)."  There is power and purpose in the unseen realm of God ... the one that raises up little children to become the very power of God.

2. We are not "power is status/fame/notoriety/popularity" people.  We worship a Jesus who has power, even over death.

3. We ARE people who believe in the paradox of Scripture.  That God's plan, however unbelievable, can happen.  That a little light can cast off the darkness.  That our hopeless world can be turned rightside-up by that little baby in the manger.  That HE shall reign forevermore.

Come sing it with us ... "Into our hopes, into our fears, the Savior of the world appears, the promise of eternal years, Christ the Messiah, and He shall reign, forevermore, forevermore!"

Food

Most of you see the title of the blog and get a little "bloated" thinking about the days to come.  When Lee and I lived in Charlotte we would eat Thanksgiving lunch at my parents and then Thanksgiving dinner at her parents.  That evening I felt like Joey Chestnut after a hot-dog eating contest.  WAY too full!!!!

Most of us will have an abundance of food, family and friends this week, and I hope we (as expressed musically on Sunday) are "grateful for the hands we hold, gathered round the table."  Lots of food, fun, football and fizz (of Alka-Seltzer after the meal).

But it isn't like that for everyone.  JD Walt (Wake Up Call ... see the link at the bottom of your weekly newsletter) tells a story of being aware of the Holy Spirit as we navigate the food table this Thanksgiving.  Here goes ...

When I was employed at the US Postal Service, I had a friend (John) with a large family, 8 with one on the way.  John, shared a lunchtime Bible Study with me, an especially fulfilling part of my life. We shared prayer, life, concerns and fellowship.  One day after John asked for prayer for his family, I felt the urging of the Holy Spirit.  I called my wife, Stella, and asked her to purchase $100 worth of groceries for John's family.  The Holy Spirit didn't just talk to me.  Stella told me that $100 of groceries looked too meager, so she purchased over $200.  When I got home we loaded the groceries in the trunk and went to John and Patty's home.  I knocked on the door and said, "John, we are not trying to embarrass you, but are just trying to be faithful to the Holy Spirit's calling.  We have a gift for you from our family and the Holy Spirit.  I opened the trunk, and John and Patty embraced in tears.  John took me into the house and opened their pantry door.  All they had was a single bag of rice.  John said, "We have already exhausted our opportunities with the food pantries in town, and this is all we have till payday, 5 days off.  Thank you!!!"  We watched as the kids excitedly unloaded the groceries and placed them in the food pantry.  It was full! I had difficulty driving away, because of the tears that filled my eyes, and for the Spirit using His hands of provision for a family in need.

This story makes me understand better our food pantry at church.  It reminds me that God is working in small things that are often minimized by our culture infected with affluenza. It makes me both thankful and challenged that God sees, hears and acts to use us (the body of Christ) to shout God's presence into a world that is missing Jesus.  It makes me think of Isaiah 40:3, "In the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord, and make straight in the desert a highway for our God."  Let's take this as a challenge this holiday season.  Instead of a barely-distinguishable game trail, Isaiah calls us to allow God to use us to "make a highway!"  Let's shout and sing and proclaim that Christ is born and God's Spirit is here, bringing heaven to earth!  Amen!

Lacy, Flat Tire and a Cat

No ... I haven't gone totally crazy (well, maybe I have!).  As you look at the blog title you might wonder what these three things have in common.  You might also wonder why this title appears in a sermon series about the needed shifts in American churches that will re-center us on the message and mission of Jesus.  Well ... here goes!

Lacy is the glue that binds those other two references to my mind and heart.  She was a little girl that lived in the house beside us in Kentucky.  She was just another little girl, living in a small town with her mama and daddy (the local Sheriff).  I think she was the first townsperson I met in Mt. Olivet, and she had something to do with my first act of ministry as a Methodist pastor.  We had just moved into the parsonage, and old building with ties to the Underground Railroad and that little town.  I heard a knock at the door and little Lacy, forlorn, was standing on the front porch.  She said, "Are you the new Methodist Minister?"  I said, "Yes."  She said, "My cat is in a tree."  I followed her across the street, and sure enough there was a small kitten up in a tree.  In true, and professional ministerial form, I climbed the tree and scooped the cat into my hand, carrying it down to a happy little girl.  I learned two lessons from that story.  First, ministry isn't so much about eloquence and expertise ... it is about meeting a need during a time of crisis (there was no Seminary course in tree climbing or cat scooping).  Second, ministry is meeting people where they are, just like Jesus did.  Jesus (Luke 19) used his pulpit (the street) to get a tax collector named Zacchaeus out of a tree, and out of a life of cheating people.  When Jesus left Zacchaeus' house, salvation (Jesus' message of forgiveness) had come to that house!

My next remembrance of Lacy was a 4th of July Parade/Party in Mt. Olivet.  The town (go figure) was into racing like the rest of Kentucky ... only not horses.  They had built a 4x8 plywood racetrack, complete with lanes.  That is where they had the terrapin (turtle) races.  Little kids would catch a turtle, enter it into the race, and make noise to scare the turtle into moving.  Lacy's turtle was named "flat tire" because it only had 3 legs.  Flat tire was not whole, but darned if he didn't win the race!  I learned two more lessons from this story.  First, people are far too caught up in entertainment for their own good.  That turtle race was better attended than Sunday morning church in that little community.  Second, things that aren't whole can win the race.  Zacchaeus was far from perfect, and he was despised by his own people for the things he had done.  But Jesus chose to save him from his sins and to redeem him anyway.  Zacchaeus repented and became accountable for his mistakes, and Jesus treated this social outcast like He treated anyone ... for "Jesus didn't come into the world to condemn it, but to save it (John 3:17)."

Both of these stories bring me to our shift for the week ... the shift from popularity to transformation.  Jesus' statement in John 3:17 was probably not popular.  People were happy to hear they were "chosen" and were also pleased that the law (the teachers/priests) condemned those who were not so popular and not so whole.  Lepers, sinners, blind people and Samaritans were all looked down upon for what they had done or what their infirmity suggested they had done.  Surely those hurts, pains and conditions were because they or their family had done something wrong.  But (if you remember from last week's sermon) God looks at the heart.

The question is, where are our hearts?  In many modern churches, the stage and musical performance has become central to the "experience" of Sunday morning.  Are our hearts all into the musical ambiance, the beat, the guitar and drums ... or do God's Word and the Holy Spirit speak Jesus to us?  Have we become inconvenienced by things like sharing prayers, hurts and the lives of fellow worshippers, or do we embrace the collective struggle that true faith brings?  Have we sought to make our congregations convenient, compliant and culturally-correct, but forgotten that carrying our cross and following our Savior involves struggle and work?

I don't know where little Lacy is today.  Her family was far more focused on parties, work and the culture of our little town than they were on church.  I hope Lacy will one day remember that we are all more like a kitten up in a tree ... lost, afraid and unable to extricate ourselves from the mess we have gotten into.  Maybe Lacy will remember that we sometimes need to call on someone to help.  Someone who can climb up, scoop us up into His arms, and take us to the safety of solid ground.  I hope Lacy found Jesus along the way!  Randy