TO WHOM DO I BELONG?

TO WHOM DO I BELONG?

At issue here is this question: "To whom do I belong? To God or to the world?" Many of my daily preoccupations suggest that I belong more to the world than to God. A little criticism makes me angry, and a little rejection makes me depressed. A little praise raises my spirits, and a little success excites me… Often I am like a small boat on the ocean, completely at the mercy of its waves.

-- Henri Nouwen in The Return of The Prodigal Son

How I want to belong only to Christ. Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief.

A new way of praying

A new way of praying
That isn't about me.
Not my laundry list of how God should 'fix' things
Yet, my openness to to how God wants to move through me.
Not that I don't care about
people
situations and circumstances
hurting and sorrow and grief
I trust God enough to lift these things up before Him and let God be God.

So what is prayer if it isn't dumbly reciting lists or rote recitation of liturgy?

It is the list and the liturgy
infused with the recognition and offer of my life
met by and subsumed in
the reality and the power of the Holy Spirit

One wave running back out to sea (which is my life tossed briefly up on the shores of reality) where it meets the larger waves rolling in (the work of God though the Holy Spirit in the world). Prayer is where those two waves meet, they come together and are reunited, inseparable. It takes place in the rough waters of the surf, not up on the dry land or out in the deep water beyond the surf line.

We hold the lists and the liturgy lightly to offer them and then let them go.

Sitting on the dock of the bay...

or the pier on Silver Lake actually. Why is it that when I am on vacation the ideas flow fast and furious, everything is seems possible and the cold-water-dash of 'you can't do that' doesn't seem to exist? More and more I am discovering that not everyone sees the connectedness of all of life the way I do. To me, it's no coincidence that I can sit on Ocracoke at the pier on Silver Lake knowing that my beloved grandparents house sits on another Silver Lake back home in Kentucky.

I am preaching and singing this morning at the Ocracoke UMC with two of the finest musicians with whom I have ever been privileged to work: Marcy Brenner and Lou Castro. Lou is the best guitarist, his fingers fly, amazing. Marcy has a transparent soul that captures the poetry that is her life, distills life as all poets do and sets it to music, to sink down into that deep place that is the core in each of us.

Good stuff. God stuff.

More Than Enough

I have been away at a conference, so my husband Dean took his place at the 'sacred desk' on Sunday. Here are his reflections on faith, scarcity and abundance..



20090517 A Message of “More than Enough” Dean Sorg
In the reading of John 15:9-17, Jesus reminds his disciples who they have become. He calls them HIS friends. He tells them that they did not choose Him. But He does say that HE chose them. And that He appointed them to go and bear much fruit. Is He not also speaking to each of us as His disciples?
When we hear that Scripture, sometimes an unusual thing happens. Our minds tend to grab onto the words we want to hear. We hear the ideas we naturally gravitate to. To those words we are more comfortable with. What is it you’ve heard in this scripture?
Are you hearing the word ‘command’ or the word ‘love?’
Perhaps what you hear depends on where you are focused. Are you focused on the ‘rules?’ Or are you focused on Godly ‘love?’
Which of those two things do you want in more abundance? Do you want more than enough of the rules or more than enough of Godly love? For Him, from Him, and by Him.
Jesus asks us as His disciples to “go and bear much fruit.”
So…How are we focused?
On the ‘abundance’ or the ‘scarcity?
Our scriptural emphasis this morning is about God providing “more than enough.”
We know that what we are about in our Christian lives starts with God’s desire to spread the good news and transform lives. It's really not about each of us individually.
In the Acts 10:44-48 reading, it's about the Spirit pouring out when the Spirit is ready. In the gospel of John 15:9-17, Jesus tells us He’s choosing us and it’s NOT just us choosing Him. And in the I John 5:1-5 reading, God gives commandments that we are to keep. Psalm 98 tells us to tell the story of God at work in the world and in our lives with great joy and gratitude. A glorious new story.
These lectionary readings say that we aren’t here in this world to DO God's mission. We’re here because we’re here to JOIN God’s mission. Because God’s mission is, and always has been, already-in-progress. It was that way before we could have ever known what His mission would be for us.
Because He chooses us. And because he provides for us abundantly.

In John's gospel we have Jesus stating plainly these words that often get overlooked: He said, "You did not choose me. I chose you" (John 15:16). Just before that in the scripture, we want to focus on the words: "I have called you friends." Because he had taught them everything they needed to know to fulfill his mission for them, Jesus calls His followers friends.
When Jesus says this, "You did not choose me; I chose you" many of us may be uncomfortable with what that really means.
Even if we think we do, we don’t really choose our own paths in this life. The paths of our lives really choose us. Actually, they are divine appointments, if we choose to accept them.
A lot of things happen to help us choose where we go in our careers and in our service to the Lord. Some of those choices may seem to simply be accidents. Accidents of timing and place that might just seem to happen. They represent conditions in life where we have invested significant time, resources, hopes and aspirations. Many times our best efforts at the direction we think we choose are left unfulfilled. At least, unfulfilled in our own minds and hearts.
Are these just our own decisions? Or are these divine "paths" and divine decisions chosen for each one of us. It can be easy to disagree with what I am saying, but I believe that most things and situations are happening even before we're aware.
We think we choose them.
But God chooses our situations, first.
Two thousand years ago, and even today, Jesus chooses for his disciples a different path. A path designed to continue creating God's way in the world and bearing the fruit. Fruit that is ever enduring. He trains his disciples, even today, in the will and ways of "the Father" (verse 15). His lessons share with us what is God's mission… in, and with, our Lord. Our Lord is always leading the way. But we need to recognize that Jesus does choose us first.
Certainly we each choose to follow Christ. But, still, it was our Lord who chose us first. He chose us to go into the world and “bear much fruit” as we work to accomplish what our Lord knows we will be doing to serve His purposes.

You’ve heard Pastor Kelli talk about God as a God of abundance, not a God of scarcity. Jesus revealed to us God’s abundance when in John 6:5-15, when there seemed to not be enough bread to feed the crowds. To the faithful, He provides so much bread there are twelve large baskets of abundance leftover. In Luke 5:1-7, when His disciples could catch no fish, Jesus shows them where to catch an abundance of fish, so many that the boat nearly sinks.

And when we ask Him, in complete faith, God gives us more than enough: more bread and fish than we can eat. And more of God’s love than we could ever have dared to ask for.
What would it be like if each of us decides there is really enough of everything for everyone, food, knowledge, Godly love… everything… more than enough… What if we believe that God will provide for everyone what they need? What if in our daily practices, we truly believed that our Lord is a God of abundance?

Would there not always be more than enough?

There’s a Greek word for “spirit” that also means “breath.” When we speak about the Holy Spirit, we speak about the breath of God breathing in us.

We don’t often think about our own breathing, unless there’s something going wrong with it. Then we can become afraid of the scarcity of our own breath.

That has been brought home to us plainly in the life of our fellow church member this week. Even though Jim is now doing as expected after surgery, the problem with his lung brought us an awareness of the literal scarcity of his breath… and perhaps ours.

The Spirit of God is as close to us as our own breath. God’s spirit is even more intimate to us than we are to ourselves. We sometimes don’t fully appreciate it, but without us aggressively accepting that closeness, we cannot live into that “spiritual life.”

It is the Holy Spirit of God who does pray INTO us. That Holy Spirit offers us many gifts. Love, forgiveness, kindness, goodness, gentleness, peace, and joy, etc. An abundance of gifts. Wouldn’t you expect, that just as He prays those gifts into us, that He wants us to pray those gifts INTO those we encounter?

It is, indeed, the Holy Spirit who offers us the life that death cannot destroy. Because of that truth, us always pray, “Come, Holy Spirit, come.”

Yes, we’ve each been given a spiritual gift. If you will, a spiritual cup to carry. At times, it’s full and at times it’s nearly empty. Your cup, can at any time, be ready to “run empty.” That emptiness can be because we choose to not appreciate the gift of that cup. But, we should know the Lord will refill our spiritual cup with the Living water of the Holy Spirit, the Living water that gives each of us everlasting life.

We can also develop the mistaken belief that we can’t share that Living water… that Spirit, with others because we might fear it’s very scarce and essential to ONLY us. We might feel we have to hoard it. Then we risk not understanding that we have a God of abundance. Each of us needs to try to empty that cup. We do need to share that cup the Spirit has given us to carry. For without giving to others of what we have received from that spiritual cup, there is no opportunity for us to receive those ever-available “refills” from God’s abundant, fullness of life.

I John 5:6 - This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.

The Easter celebration does continue. Today and until the last Sunday of the month, which begins Pentecost. Easter continues to be the celebration of the ultimate relationship between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And the celebration of that relationship between our triune God and each of one us.

We are welcomed into that celebration relationship. We can know THAT joy because of the Grace of God, the Mercy of God, and the Graciousness of God.

There are times, perhaps, when we might find ourselves complaining about “stuff” …other cultures, other ways of life and things going on around us. Yes, we might hear dissatisfaction about things that go on around us.

But think about this… What if we do hear something that’s not as quite positive as we really would like to hear? It may be important to listen carefully. But rather than allowing less than positive comments to continue, rather than sharing negative concerns with others, rather than just letting others complain, Psalm 98 has a simple answer.

That answer is…, “Find a new answer!”

Let’s strive to find a better song to sing. Let’s tell a better story. Everything you hear and discuss can be done in the light of the love of Christ. It can be done to improve what is going on in all phases of our lives, but especially in our Christian life.

You know the Lord loves you. So what you do and what you say should be done in the name of God’s love, in return for the love that originates with God.

Let’s look at excerpts from Psalm 98 - 1 O sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things…. 2 The Lord has made known his victory;… 3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness… 4 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises….

Nothing about these scriptures say, “complain.” They do say, “Sing a new song.” Yes, the scripture does say “sing a new song; make a joyful noise to the Lord.” And I would say that applies in our conversations with each of your brothers and sisters in this church. Let’s all find new ways that will advance and enhance the rein of Christ in this world and in this church. Some of the possible negative discussion could be compared to old notes and sour notes. Those can be destructive to our hearts, to our church, and eventually to this world.

I’m not saying there shouldn’t be open examination of diverging opinions or having righteous discussion of learning issues. I’m simply saying that there can be a new song to bring glory to God and to live up to the Grace He has given us. Let us continue to find a new song to sing about the abundance He provides.

Let us hear again, the reading from John 15. Listen to see if you are hearing the word “command.” Or are you hearing the word “love?” Hear the Holy Spirit as he speaks to you in this gospel. Hear the love, not the rules; hear heaven’s possibility, not the scarcity; hear about the abundance… Do you hear that what we have in Christ is more than enough…

John 15:9-17 – 9 (NRSV) As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. 12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

Putting feet to our faith

In the Sundays since Easter day, we have watched the spread of the Gospel from Jesus’ resurrection appearances to his disciples, to Jesus making himself known to many people before his ascension into heaven and now today, even before we have celebrated the miracle of Pentecost, the Lectionary points us to the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. It wasn’t until I went on into higher theological education that I found out that Philip wasn’t one of the 12 disciples. He was a Greek, appointed by the apostles to be one of the deacons of the early church, providing leadership, making sure the widows in the Jerusalem church got fed. So here, before Paul has his experience on the Damascus Road, here one outsider, a Greek, shares the gospel with another outsider, one who is definitely on the outside of what the Jews would have allowed as pure and undefiled.
This story from Acts highlights the explosive nature of what happens when regular people, like you and me, are on fire for the gospel, when we truly believe in the power of God to transform the world one person at a time, when we have cast fear away from us in pursuit of God’s best for the world.
Let us go back and explore who this “Philip” was. I must confess to you that up until studying for this, I had assumed that the Philip who preached the gospel to the Ethiopian was the disciple Philip. But he wasn’t. He was one of the Greeks that had been appointed to make sure the Greek widows were getting their fair share. If we go back to Acts 6, we read how after Pentecost, the church was experiencing tremendous growth. So much so that the rules, the things that had been keeping the community together needed to be revisited. The apostles couldn’t do all the work themselves and so named some helpers. Acts 6:1-6 NRS Acts 6:1 Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. 2 And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, "It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, 4 while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word." 5 What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6 They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
So Philip wasn’t necessarily even one who had seen Jesus but perhaps he had come to the faith later, after Peter had preacher his sermon when 3000 were converted.
There’s another thing about Philip that we miss. The first Greek the disciples appoint was Stephen, the first Christian martyr to die for his faith, the one who was stoned by the Jews while Saul held their cloaks. It was after Stephen’s death that the Christians began to be scattered across the known world for fear of persecution. That is what is described at the beginning of chapter 8. Here at the beginning of chapter 8 we hear about Philip again, Acts 8:5-8 5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. 6 The crowds with one accord listened eagerly to what was said by Philip, hearing and seeing the signs that he did, 7 for unclean spirits, crying with loud shrieks, came out of many who were possessed; and many others who were paralyzed or lame were cured. 8 So there was great joy in that city.
Before this conversation with the Ethiopian, while the apostles remained in Jerusalem, Philip, under the threat of the persecution that had been fatal to Stephen, goes to Samaria to tell the good news. Even Simon the magician believes and the harvest of believers is so great that Peter and John travel to Samaria so ask the Holy Spirit to come to these believers. And it is in the midst of this great missional time, when the Great Commission is literally being fulfilled that Philip finds himself alongside the chariot of the Ethiopian.
According to all the rules of that time and, in some ways, our time, Philip was not the one who was the ‘right’ choice to teach or to explain the Scripture, certainly not the intricate prophecy of Isaiah that is vague and for which the Hebrew can have many meanings. Surely, it would have been better for God to send even Nicodemus or one of the Jewish converts who were better educated about the nuances of the text, someone who could intellectually meet this rich, well-educated and curious Ethiopian on a level, intellectual playing field. But that is not who God sends, he sends one with an obedient heart instead of one with a well-tuned computer between his ears. Philip also wasn’t going to be the one to show how, in Jesus, the Jews had been justified, how the prophecies about Israel had come true. Philip wasn’t going to be the one who hammered the point home of how the Jews were God’s chosen people. Phillip was a Hellenistic Jew, that part of the gospel wasn’t the most important part to him. Again, God could have chosen from many others who would have been glad to make this point to the seeker. But Philip wasn’t the one to make that point.
But Philip was the one to make the point to one so racially, ethnically, politically, economically different that the Kingdom of God is where all people find a home, where all people find forgiveness and hope and purpose, with belief as a starting point on the journey that leads past the foot of the cross into God’s incredible future.
“New branch, new life, new hope, new responsibilities, new power. In the NT, love describes not so much what people say but what they do.” N.T. Wright

What is true about Philip and the Ethiopian that is also true of us today? Where is God wanting us to step alongside a chariot and answer the question “What does this mean?” You don’t have to have a theology degree to tell what Jesus has done in your life, you don’t have to be licensed and ordained to point out where you see God moving in the world. By virtue of your belief and baptism, God has already ordained you, set you aside for work in His Kingdom. Go back to Philip. He had already been chosen by the disciples and apostles at Jerusalem to serve in the Christian community there. Maybe his initial appointment was to make sure the Greek widows got fed. That does seem like evangelism does it? It seems more like administration, hospitality, fellowship. But here Philip is out in the desert, away from Jerusalem and God calls him up higher, to a new place of service, a new outcast to reach out to.
What’s true about Philip and his changing role is also true of us. If we have been faithful in the things God gives us, He is never content to let us stay where we are. There are always new areas to live up to and live into. Just as the seasons of our life change, so do the seasons of our service in the Kingdom of God. Often it has to do with our life season as well. When our children are small, we are involved in Vacation Bible School. As they get older, we begin to take our turn teaching Sunday School, making meals for the youth group and going on trips. As they grow up and fly to their own nests, we can get more involved in leadership, in training and supporting the next generation of young families. Our roles continue to change as our lives change.
All the while, if we are faithful, God is calling us closer and closer to Him. We are transformed slowly but surely into his likeness and we find ourselves doing things that we never would have imagined if we weren’t walking so closely with God.
What must it have been like for Philip when he found himself riding and talking out in the desert? What is it like for us when we find ourselves out of our comfort zone, doing something for God we never thought we could do. I think we experience a bunch of emotions from fear to fearlessness, all at once. But the proof of what happened that day is in Philip’s reaction as he finds himself at Azotus and travels on. The Ethiopian eunuch was not the only one whose life was changed that day: Acts 8:40 he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
Once he had started proclaiming the gospel, he didn’t quit. He went right on doing what God had shown him he was empowered to do. That isn’t just a sweet Bible story. It is the truth about how God acts in our lives. Acts, we call this book, the Acts of the Apostles. Sometimes I think it is misnamed: It should be the Acts of God in the lives of the Apostles and all who love Him.
God is still acting today in those same amazing ways. Where are you finding yourself being called higher or deeper? Open your hands, open your hearts and pray that you will serve like Philip and you will go on your way rejoicing and giving God the glory for what He has done.

Too much

I am reflecting this morning on the breackneck speed at which I am living my life. Taking time off seems to cost too much both in dollars and in playing catch up after the time off has been taken. I am sitting here looking at long-stemmed red roses and white chrysanthemums that are stuffed in a vase because I simply do not have the time to take 5 minutes to arrange them. And I love to arrange flowers, it used to be one of my favorite things.

Here's the question for the day. Is this what God is requiring of me, that sometimes the roses must be ignored and left to die? Or is this another hamster wheel in which soemthing/someone else has entrapped me?

How can we make good decisions about our world, our families and our future if we don't even have the mental space to decide what to have for breakfast? What is the political equivalent of grabbing a granola bar as you run out the door?

Come away with me, Jesus said. At this point, He may have to kidnap me.

Change

People and systems don't change unless:

they have to because otherwise it hurts too much
they have to because they have learned enough to want to
they have to because they have grown enough to need to

Change is inevitable. Which group do you want to be in?