Bridge to the Future: An Update

On Sunday May 4th many of you joined your gifts with those already committed by the church leadership in support of our capital funds drive, “Bridge to the Future.” As a result of all your efforts, we have received cash and commitments totaling some $640,000 as of the date this was written, May 12.

I want to thank all who have responded so graciously. I realize that it was a difficult time in which to ask for significant extra giving. Still, in spite of that, many of you have stepped forward and because of your efforts, we are in shouting distance of paying off the smaller of our two notes.

Several of you have indicated that you will be able to make commitments later when some things become clearer. I understand that and look forward to your commitment.

We are keeping the campaign open and invite you to consider it as a possibility when making gifts in honor or in memory of friends and loved ones. The United Methodist Women recently made such a gift.

I also urge those of you who have not yet committed yourselves to let us know what you might be able to do in this important campaign.

Again, thank you for all you have done and for all you will do.

The Newest in a Long Line

Recently I had the pleasure of announcing to the Administrative Board the good news that both Jen Stuart, our Director of Membership, and Cathy Stone, our Director of Youth and Family Ministries have been accepted and will begin seminary this fall at Austin Presbyterian Seminary. We are delighted for them as they take this step in ministry.

They continue what has been the history of this congregation, and that is working to help produce new leaders in ministry for the United Methodist Church. Over recent years we have seen Mel Hazlewood, Jason Teague, and Kyle Toomire take steps toward ministry beginning here at FUMC. We also claim at least partial credit for Tina Carter.

It is hard to over estimate the importance of this particular portion of our ministry. The Church is always in need of new professional leadership, and for that leadership to develop, congregations have to model the faith, nurture growth, and encourage people in the development of their gifts.

Congratulations and best wishes to Jen and Cathy as they take this new step. They will continue working here and we will continue working with them to help them grow in their abilities. On behalf of the United Methodist Church I thank you FUMC. Your efforts, your nurture, and your faith development continue to help new leadership for the future emerge.

One Week Away

We are one week away from Easter. We are one week away from the celebration of the resurrection and the new life that it promises for us all. The almost universal response this year is “but Easter is so early.” And it is. March 23 is the earliest date in over 50 years as near as I can tell and looking ahead another ten years there is no earlier date for Easter. That meant of course that plans for Easter had to begin even before Christmas. There has been more than a bit of mumbling about the early Easter.

I have been thinking about what it means for us to have an early Easter. What does it mean for the celebration of the resurrection to come earlier than we normally expect it? I have to believe that an early Easter is a good thing for us. The sooner we experience the new life possibilities evidenced in this high holy season, the richer our lives will be.

Last Sunday as a part of the Prayer of Confession prayed in the sanctuary there was this phrase: “Easter in us, O God.” The sense of that phrase is a plea that God will show us the possibilities for new life and that we will be open to that being shown.

If we believe that new life is possible, if we trust that God through Christ Jesus offers that possibility, then an early Easter is something for which we should pray. In fact every day lived without God “Eastering” in us is a day where our life is poorer.

And so Easter is one week away. It is indeed an early date for it to take place, but more importantly may all of us pray that in our lives we will have an early Easter so that the rest of our lives might be lived joyfully as God intended.

Lent 2008: Restore to Me The Joy of Your Salvation

These words appear in one of my favorite psalms. And later on in that same psalm these words: "Restore to me the joy of thy salvation." During this season of Lent, I will be centering my thinking on these words

Every sermon will not be on this text, but sermons will be prayed over and written with these words in mind. I choose to do so because I fear that the joy of our salvation has been misplaced or lost, and I want to help us think about how we might regain, or recover that joy.

Lent is a traditional season lasting forty days not counting Sundays. Traditionally it has been a time for focusing on giving up something and there most likely will be some of that required, but the main issue for me this Lent 2008 is regaining what we have lost

Today we begin the Lenten season with Ashes on our foreheads as a sign of repentance. But why are we repenting and what will we be repenting of? Basically we are repenting of the difference between ourselves and Jesus.

In a way, Ash Wednesday, is the link between Epiphany and Lent. At least twice during the Epiphany season just passed the texts reported God indicating who Jesus is. “This is my son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased.” Translation: this one has it right, listen to him, follow him. As I said, this happens twice-- once at Jesus’ baptism and once at the transfiguration. These two pronouncements by God serve as bookends of sorts to the season of Epiphany. Both indicate that this is the one we should follow and with that awareness we begin the season of Lent. In the 40 days plus Sundays to come, we can make ourselves aware of the difference between Jesus and us as a way of preparing for the new life of the resurrection

How do we go about this? By living into this season of preparation, and of discernment. It is a time of opening ourselves to God by removing from our lives those things which serve as impediments to God’s presence. It is a time of picking out the important from the not so important and the not important at all.

Remember the words from Matthew: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on Earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is there your heart will be also.”

Now that is where the “giving up things” part of lent can come into play. Find those things that are keeping you from perceiving God’s action in your life. Find those things that keep you from the joy of God’s salvation. Find those things and give them up.

But how do we decide. That is the task of this season—discerning and deciding. And we do so with this intent. Again the lines of the Psalm: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.” We look toward a clean heart. That clean heart comes from obeying God when God points to Jesus and says “this is my son, listen to him, follow him.” And as we follow Jesus we draw nearer to God, and as we draw nearer, God’s ways become clearer, and as they become clearer, we sense the joy of our salvation being restored.

Transfiguration Sunday Offers A Commitment Opportunity

This Sunday (February 3) we will celebrate the end of the season of Epiphany using as the basis for our worship Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration. On this day we remember the experience of the three disciples who joined Jesus on the mountaintop. We remember how they came to understand who this one was that they followed, that he was the fulfillment of all that God had been doing prior to that moment.

I have thought how that truth could have been communicated to them had they not been there. Their presence was a necessary part of their learning about Jesus. Our presence is a necessary part of our learning about Jesus. This Sunday as a part of our remembering, we will have opportunity to make a commitment of ourselves to be present in worship for the coming year. True, it will be February, but there is still time to make resolutions and commitments, especially one as important as this for our growth in the faith.

Join us this Sunday, and make your commitment of presence in worship in response to your God and in hopes of learning even more about this one who calls us.

A New Year With Responsibilities

2008 is going to be our year. It has to be. It is the only year we have. This is our time. It has to be because now is the only time we have. The past is gone and the future is not here yet. What we have is now, right now. So what do we do with this “right now” that we have.

Mimi shared a quote with me just today. It is from Thomas Merton:
"I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone." There is good news. We are not alone in this time that we have. God is with us. The God made known through the Christ is with us.

That is one really good reason for having Christmas so close to New Years. We are reminded of time and we are assured who accompanies us through that time. But with that presence comes some guidance, some expectation. “I am with you, and for that to be all that it might be, this is what I want you to do.”

Matthew makes the requirements clear. Whenever you feed the hungry, cloth the naked, greet the stranger, or visit the prisoner, in that moment you are serving God through Christ and you are making the offering of yourself that God seeks. You are spending time as God wishes it spent. You are walking with God along God’s way.

The usual translations of this text talk about doing this to the least of these my brothers and sisters. Eugene Peterson says it this way.
“Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me--you did it to me.”

So that presence, that guidance, involves others. The offering our God seeks is given through service to others, especially the powerless.

Why that? Because it brings us into community with each other.
It makes us more a part of the greater human family and indeed all of creation.

Some of you may be casting about for some commitments to make for the coming year. I have a commitment for you. Some of you may already have some. To you I would suggest this addition. “I will do something for somebody at least x times a month, a week, or a day.
I will do it not for what I might get back for it but because I know deep down that is what God expects from me and wants for me.
God wants it for me because God wants the best for me and for all creation and God knows that a creation related to one another, caring for one another, caring about one another offers the closest thing to the kingdom of God that we can imagine and that has been God's agenda all along.”

So here it is in just a few hours, 2008. It is going to be our year. It has to be. It is the only year we have. But it is also God's year and God’s time. We should live it accordingly.

The Day Is Here

I don’t know how it happens, but it always does. Christmas is here. I know it was in all the papers. The stores certainly wanted me to know that the day was at hand. The number of catalogues should have been a tip off for sure. But still, here it is and I am somehow surprised. So soon it has arrived.

That was probably the way it was on the first Christmas. People had been waiting for years, centuries even. Suddenly, there in their midst was the child, the promise fulfilled. Many, in fact most, were not ready. Despite all the prophecies the child came and caught the world unaware.

Many tell us that people missed the messiah because their expectations were misplaced. They were looking for someone else, someone a bit more grand perhaps. Maybe that is the case with us. Maybe we keep waiting for something else and thus miss the child born into our midst. Maybe in the midst of the business of the season we get distracted from what is truly taking place among us. If that is the case, then great is our loss.

Into our world the light has come, the light that promises to illuminate our darknesses, to help us see our choices for what they are and what they should be. We can see the world for what it might become, for what it was intended to be rather than that with which we have become comfortable.

Open your eyes. I will open mine. The day has come. The Child is born. The light has shown. Christmas is here.