Category: Uncategorized

Spiritual Med School

For six weeks we have been practicing a “cardiology of the soul” and examining situations and conditions that keep our “spiritual hearts” from fully beating for God (i.e., “heart” in bible refers to the “seat of our emotions” from which we make important decisions in our lives).  Like our physical hearts, the condition of “the heart of our spirit” can slowly deteriorate over time due to lack of proper exercise, “feeding” it in unhealthy ways, exposing it to repeated stresses, etc., such that our hearts become bruised and unable to fully respond during times of ultimate need.

It is helpful then, to be aware of the inherent danger of inattention to our souls and to understand the need for spiritual discipline to stay healthy.  For example, athletes training for Olympic gold medals expect that their goal will not be reached without great personal to achieve their dreams.  Long before the champions are crowned, they must have had a strong commitment in their will. The eventual result of their strongest hopes will have been determined by their initial level of commitment. Their hearts have to fully “burn” for their greatest desires.

Deciding to Make a Decision

On this final week of our “Heart” series, we pray that the “heart concerns” we have examined across these weeks will create incentive for someone near you (or in your own seat) to fully beat for God.  In many “call stories” of the Bible, some very ordinary people had their hearts ablaze to follow God.  From Abraham’s call to “take up” from Ur and, “Go to the place that I will show you” [Gen 12:1ff], to Jesus’ calls to his initial disciples to leave all and follow, there is a special alignment of forces within and around our hearts that allows them to be used for God’s purposes.

Getting There

When it comes to finding those “all in” for become full followers of God, we are full of potential to, “be more like Jesus.” Saints before us five families” have done things like mortgaging all they have owned to build our sanctuary, as just one example. “Stoking the fire” of the hearts in this generation requires us to continue to dare to dream God-sized dreams for our community, to match the fullness of our own individual “treasures” to those dreams, and to understand each of us have gifts essential for that dream to become fulfilled.

Likewise, followers must make  essential choices in our personal lives (Jesus calls it “pruning,” in John 15) to reach our common goals for God. What things might we need to let go of to fully serve God?

When we truly feel the loving gaze of Christ locked onto our hearts and  the desire to return the passion of his love, the beginning of a wondrous works begins and the love becomes contagious.  From the closing wit of John Wesley: “Catch on fire, and others will love to come watch you burn!”

The Great Revealing   

If you are a religious or history geek, you have probably heard of “The Great Awakening[s].” The first Great Awakening occured in the early 1700’s when the gospel spread through the early colonies and the expanding open plains.  A second “awakening” of religious fervor swept the land in the late 1800’s.  Methodism fueled both.

In the very recent past, our society has experienced another as-yet-unnamed societal shift that I will dub as “The Great Revealing.” Instead of a mass awakening to God, it was a mass awakening to our human condition.  It occurred with the emerging of social media that changed the way we relate to one another.

When social media exploded

[“exploded” is the right word],  my responsibilities in the parish

changed overnight. New social media tools that allowed the simultaneously viewing of an entire community’s real-time, unprocessed thoughts caused massive problems. A few negative posts by a few people created a catalytic chain reaction of polarizing responses that continued across the day until the offended parties ended up in my office for resolution and counseling.

Suddenly, most of the hours of every day were needed in conflict management for those who felt extremely damaged over what often began as the most petty and insignificant of issues. Envy, jealousy, and frustrations bubbled over from previously concealed prejudices.  The world where I served

clearly could not handle the sudden change in this new way so many people were broadcasting their raw feelings and perspectives.

In order to cope, I came up with the most thinly veiled means of self-protection to keep my own heart from being bruised: I started posting on Facebook, posting an excerpt of my morning devotion for the congregation to read.  My hope was

that some might see

that post and be more careful about their first post across the day. If so, we might all regain time to work together to address significant issues in the community and bring about positive changes for Christ.  That is to, “be in the world, but not part of” the worldly behavior .

The Divine Perspective

If you think about it, that moment social media exploded was our first chance glimpse what God has always seen: the simultaneous revealing of a world of raw thoughts and prejudices multiplying through families and communities in ways that harm and hurt every day. The “Great Revealing” exposed the condition of our hearts.

Perhaps that gives us some idea of how important it is to God to find one soul in any community whose heart is devoted to God for just a day.  The “ripple effect” for good is enormous.  Have it happen in more than one person, for more than a day and that is very Good News!            -Sonny

Getting Away from Day

With social media and interconnected telecommunications providing immediate access to horrifying events all around the world, it takes real effort to separate ourselves from the violence that is constantly unfolding.  Ask a friend how to shield yourself from the shock of it all and you will get the instant response, “Just turn off the cellphone [/computer/TV/etc.] for periods of the day or week so that you can think and function!”  Their advice rings true, but is hard to put into practice.

It is hard to disconnect ourselves from the pain and difficulty of others because we either want to learn more about their tragedy in hopes of protecting ourselves from it, or we want to see if there is a way that we can help.  After all, as a nation and a church, we find amazing ways to respond to tragedy with hope through basic necessities.

But what about when the violence is happening inside us and we are the culprit?

Hurting a Mystery Person

One of the great challenges in life is to forgive, and especially to forgive ourselves. There are a myriad of ways we disappoint others and ourselves.

Life happens.  The more years we are given to live, the more opportunities we have to have mess up, to have challenges, or to witness tragedy. When an injustice or tragedy happens to us, our human condition is to want to not only to steep in anger, but to conceive of ways to exact some revenge and throw some of our pain at the offender (the very definition of “blame”).

Nelson Mandela said that resentment is like swallowing poison and waiting for your enemy to die. The science of resentment, and blame confirms his observation, as in times of steaming resentment, our body releases stress hormones that scar our arteries, lock up our brains from making decisions and increase our chance of stroke or heart attack. A grudge is really violence done to ourselves.

It Matters to God

What you do to your own body matters to God.  When you harbor bad thoughts about others —and especially disappointment with yourself—you are committing a violent act against someone God loves immensely:  you.

But when you make the decision to forgive, you discover that you are bigger than your emotions and free to be who you were created to be.  Freed from the chains that tie you to the pain of the past, you are free to have life, and have it abundantly.

Meet God at the starting point of forgiveness at the place God treasures: right inside your heart.

Trouble Makers?

This Sunday’s reading from John 4 is a well-known conversation between Jesus and “the woman at the well.” John makes it clear in the passage that, “Jews do not associate with Samaritans” (v. 9), there could have been a stern tone (from at least one side of the conversation) as it began.  A woman alone in such a situation would likely be wary of a stranger’s intentions. Understandably, she throws a flurry of distance-affirming barbs at Jesus by stating that she has the control of the conversation if he wants water and that she and her people are in control of the holy place of Jacob’s well and live on the holy mountain.

Though Jesus diffuses the potential conflict between the two very easily, most of  us could still grow in our ability to manage potential conflict with others.

Conflict Primer

Deep inside each of us is the need to want to be right.  The Good News is that, as a Christian, our “righteousness” is not determined by winning an argument but by Jesus’ atoning life and death on a cross.

We need to realize that in our relationships with others, sometimes we will be right and sometimes we will be wrong. We do not have to allow our inner drive to want to be right to tower over others to gain our rightness and justification.  We can share opinions and offer suggestions to others for our mutual benefit without “having to be right.”

Offering criticism can be positive if done in the right way.  Though criticism connotes negativity to many, it can be helpful. A movie critic, for example, can provide “critical acclaim” to guide the masses in seeing something valuable. To keep criticism useful and to provide a foundation for growth, there are several keys to sharing it in the right manner.

One key in sharing criticism is to acknowledge that the opinions and perspectives that another holds are as valuable as our own.  A second key is keeping our motives straight—the point in sharing a different perspective is to potentially help another person to become a better or healthier believer and further their growth.  Third, remember that it takes time for another to hear a point of view that is different and remember to give them “space” and time to imagine to “try on” the new perspective you are suggesting.

If you think about it, our relationship with God is one of conflict—conflict atoned for in the life and person of Jesus. And it is the loving heart of God who invites us to come alongside the Spirit as co-creators and change agents for the good of the world.

Call to Conversion

If you enter our sanctuary and look up to observe the beams overhead and the decking between the beams, it is not hard to envision the same sight while peering down from the deck of a ship to view the construction of its hull below.  Throughout the years, many have made the nautical connection of each congregation as a single crew working together on a journey through time to share the Good News of Christ.

In the book, Teaching a Stone to Talk,  Annie Dillard shares a gentle challenge to church members concerning our purpose and call in the “congregational boat.”  In a playful way, she asks each of us to explore the question of why we are on the boat and what our responsibilities are as while sailing through life. Enjoy her playful insight and wit:

“Why do people in church seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute? The tourists are having coffee and doughnuts on Deck C.  Presumably someone is minding the ship, correcting the course, avoiding icebergs and shoals, fueling the engines, watching the radar screen, noting weather reports radioed in from shore.  No one would dream of asking the tourists to do these things.  Alas, among the tourists of Deck C, drinking coffee and eating doughnuts, we find the captain, and all the ship’s officers, and all the ship’s crew. The officers chat; they swear; they wink a bit at slightly raw jokes, just like the regular people. the new members have funny accents. The wind seems to be picking up.

   On the whole I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions.  Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we blithely invoke?  Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it?  The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning.  It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews.  For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us to where we can never return.”

 Rocking the Boat

    For Christians “outside of the catacombs,” as Dillard describes us, the power of God to heal, reconcile and make new is more immense than we know.  The nearness of the Holy Spirit to empower us is more intimate than we realize.  And willingness to be a “crew member for Christ” is a decision of the mind and an  inclination of the heart.

.

Call to Conversion     

In our current sermon series in which we are inviting God to examine the condition of our hearts, marriage provides a great metaphor for our call to be God’s partners in the world.

In marriage, there is a responsibility for “continual conversions” across the life of the relationship. Once the initial wave of the euphoria of love is past, both partners have to lay aside their own agendas and to begin committing themselves to “stoking the fire” of the relationship they have begun. Across time, the “conversions” needed to keep the relationship strong may not be obvious and the partners must learn to “read the signs” of their interactions if communication begins to become strained.  In those times, self-reflection is needed by both before asking, “Why are we having trouble and what do we need to improve so that our love can grow stronger than ever before?” Constant “reckonings” and constant conversions are required to make the relationship flourish and grow.

Preference or Totality?

Robert Morris shared in a devotional that marriage is not so much seeking homogeneity in both learning to love the same things, but rather a realization across time in the discovering the difference in the delights for each  partner and learning to support and encourage each other’s interests in a responsible manner.

Just as there is something terrible about a spoiled child who grew up getting everything (making them ill-suited for any lasting relationship requiring give-and-take), the challenge is doubled in a marriage where one pursues interests to the detriment of both.

Morris writes that, “any goal, whether scaling of Mt. Everest, learning to play the piano, or cultivating a friendship imposes its own limits. Rules, sacrifices and disciplines are essential to reaching the goal.” These disciplines required to maintain and enhance a relationship are the building blocks of love.

Love Manifest

The danger in describing a life of the necessary “conversions” across a marriage (and in our relationship with God) is giving the wrong impression that the relationship is just one long, dry day of sacrifice and compromise after another. Rather, through the difference-making blessing of God’s love in the relationship, we are able to go through “thick and sin,” as Morris says, so that our hearts grow in freedom and purpose together.

God’s love and enduring presence is a divine flow of energy that bears all, and is, for all the world.