Expectations

Mark 13:24-37

     This is the first Sunday of Advent, Advent is a season of preparation. Advent is about acknowledging that we need a savior. This is the season when we are reminded that we need to keep a posture of wakefulness as a spiritual discipline. It is about expectations.

     Advent is not about getting ready for December 25^th. It's not like Jesus will be born on that day. We celebrate his birth on that day but Emmanuel, God with us, Jesus has already been born and lives on.

We can make all the preparations possible to get ready for an event that will happen in about a month, but if we are just getting ready for the day, the day will pass and nothing will have changed. We all have expectations around this Holiday. What we expect, reflects what is in our heart.

     Back in 1999 around this time of year there was a lot of talk about the problems that the changing of the year to 2000 would cause with computer systems that used only the last to digits of they year rather than all four. Remember? Y2k was, for some, impending doom. I have a friend of a friend who quit his job in Chicago moved back to Michigan and stockpiled food. I wasn't too worried but I was curious, so I stayed up on December 31 with my 3-year-old son my 6 month old little girl and my wife to watch as the clock ticked past 11:59. And as you know, nothing happened. I think that some were actually disappointed. If you put so much energy into an event, a date the inevitable consequence is that when that date passes there will be a let down. How about the poor fellow who keeps predicting the end of the world on specific dates and keeps getting it wrong. I want to know how sure he actually feels. Does he sell his stuff? Does he quit his job? Does he come clean about his past like a prisoner on death row? My guess is that he is using expectation to draw attention to himself or at least to his message.

     According to the scripture today, there will come a time when things will be radically changed. “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see “the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.” These words of Jesus demonstrate great urgency. He even says that they will happen soon. “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” But then he goes on to say that we wont know when these things will happen. He tells a story as an illustration about someone going on a journey and leaving his affairs to his servants. And that when the master returns, he expects the servants to be awake. Jesus final words on this is “What I say to you, I say to all: “Stay awake.” He didn't say, “try and guess when I am coming again and on that day be ready.” that would be just cruel considering it has been nearly 2000 years since his resurrection and ascension.

     So its not about the expectation of an event. It is the posture of wakefulness. So what does that mean for us?

     It means that Jesus expected us to wake up from our spiritual sleep and be alert and attentive to what he is doing in the world and to participate with him in the ordering of the kingdom. In the Gospel lesson Jesus used physical wakefulness as an example but I am absolutely certain he didn't intend for us to go with out sleep. But we can use physical sleep and wakefulness as an example.

To be alert and attentive we need to be well rested. God said that we should labor for 6 days and on the seventh day we should rest. When I was going to Ferris State University before the whole internet thing we had to register for classes by phone. The problem was that we had specific times that we were allowed to register. Often our time began in the middle of the night. So to get the classes we wanted we would have to stay up all night to make sure that we registered as early as possible during our designated time. It became a thing. My friends and I would all register, stay up all night then go out for breakfast the next morning. Of course the next day was shot because I was so tired. Sacrificing your rest, your health, your sanity, your peace is no way to stay wakeful. We are designed to have periods of activity and of rest. This is true of our Spiritual life as well. Some times we are active and sometimes we are in retreat. There are times when we engage the world and it is also necessary once and while to disengage. The trick is to not engage so long that you burn out and to not disengage so long that you disconnect.

       To stay awake spiritually we need something to hold our attention. Jesus Christ, our Lord should always be at the center of our attention. Jesus should be at the heart of all our motives. This may be difficult. We have so many mundane things in a day that we can easily become distracted. How do you keep Jesus at the center of your attention, when you have a million things to do and not enough time to do them? How can you keep your motives all about God's will when every thing in the world seems to pull your attention away? This is where regular spiritual discipline and practice comes in. If you want to be a better piano player, basketball player, quilter, pastor... you practice more, you push yourself to try new things and you pay attention to what you are doing and learn from your mistakes. I often hear people say they don't know how to pray. My best advise it to just try it. Talk to God without any fear of “getting it wrong.” I used to see my cousins every holiday. There was always that awkward time when we first arrived when we had to re-familiarize ourselves with each other, then we would be off and running. God know you. You can't get it wrong. You just have to get used to doing it. But Praying is just one of the spiritual disciplines; just one of the ways you can direct your attention toward God.

      When I have a particularly full schedule I intentionally set an alarm on my phone to go off every hour. It is a bell and when I hear it, no matter what I am doing I pause and acknowledge the presence of Jesus. We have to be intentional about where we put our attention.

      To stay awake we need to be well nourished. When the kids and I did the 24-hour fast last week, there were several of the youth that took naps during the day. Without nourishment the body has no energy. We need spiritual nourishment to stay awake as well. I find nourishment in reading Holy scriptures, and in worship. Jesus once compared him self to a vine and we are the branches. If we stay connected to the vine we will have life. When we disconnect we will wither and waste away.

      To stay awake it helps to have someone with us. I probably would never have been able to schedule my classes and stay up all night if I were by myself. Likewise, it is good go have companions along for the journey. The conversations we have after worship, the Sunday School classes, the simple meal, the Christmas party, all those things that we do together as the body of Christ helps us each to keep focused and to stay awake.

      This is advent. It is not a time of getting ready for one particular date that will come and go. It is a season to remind us that we need to always be prepared to receive Jesus in what ever form he may appear. So how is it with you today on this first Sunday of Advent? It is time to wake up. The king is coming! Would you pray with me?  

Pepper Was A Good Dog

     He may not have been the best dog. He bit our friend Roger once. Sorry Roger. He wasn't on his thyroid medicine yet and was a little ill-tempered.

he was a good dog. He liked it when I said so. “You're a GOOD DOG Pepper,” in that voice that people use only for dogs, you know that low, gravely, exaggerated way that they seem to respond to. He would wag his tail and almost smile when he was praised. He also liked it when I would scratch his ears. He would lean in so hard to get as much out of those ear scratches as possible.

     Pepper came to be a part of our family in 2001 when we met him at the Humane Society Animal shelter. We knew he was supposed to be our dog. We took him home, did all the necessary things with the vet and he became a part of our family. The vet said he was probably about five years old back then. So in 2011 he was an old dog, but a good dog.

     In his younger years the kids would attach his leash to their tricycle one would ride while the other would call to Pepper down the driveway and he would run giving the rider a wonderful ride. Over and over they would do this. When Pepper was tired he just stopped and the kids would do something else.

By the time we moved to Ludington this summer, Pepper had slowed down considerably.

He slept a lot. Once and a while he would get a burst of energy and chase the family cat or play with our other dog Maggie, but mostly he just slept. He still appreciated a good ear scratching though. Then on Monday the 21^st of November we noticed that he was growing weak, he couldn't keep food down and we saw what we thought was blood in his urine. On the morning of the 22^nd Diane took him into the vet. She she called me from and said there was nothing to do for him. He was losing blood, his body temperature was well below normal, he was dying. We made the decision to have the vet administer a drug that would stop his heart so that the end would come quickly so that he wouldn't have to suffer a long death.

  I have always said, quite callously I have to admit, that the reason for pets is to teach children about death. When the call came from my wife from the vets office I thought that I could detach myself from the situation. I told her I didn't need to be there, but just as soon as I hung up the phone I knew I needed to be there. I raced out of the church parking lot, phone in hand, calling and calling wanting to say that I would be there. I wanted them to wait for me. I wanted to be there for Diane and for Pepper.

     I got there and they were prepping him. They brought him into the exam room with a port in his front leg for the injection. I gave Pepper an ear scratching. I thought he might like that. He didn't have the strength to resist so is head shook to the rhythm of my scratches. The Doc said I am going to administer the “treatment” now. I told him to go ahead. I got down so my face was level with his and I told him over and over, “you are a good dog Pepper. You're a good boy.” He likes that you know. And as the solution entered his veins, Pepper slowly put his head down and closed his eyes. The veterinary assistant listened with a stethoscope and said that it was over.

     A sound came form deep inside of me, from the very depths of my soul. It was a wail of sadness that was completely involuntary. To teach children about death?! I apparently had a thing or two to learn. Animals are a part of God's beloved creation. Pets are those animals that we have been entrusted with to care for, nurture and love. Pepper was more than just a creature that shared the same living space that I did. He was a part of my life. The life that God intended for me. I no longer take that as lightly as I did before. The Spirit of God pulses through all of that is. Yes there is a special place in the created order for humanity but that doesn't mean that that the rest of creation is not special and precious as well.

     The kids had a half-day of school that day. When they got home we told them what happened. I had made arrangements with a friend to bury Pepper at his farm. So we all went to that place, out in a pasture where horses are kept. There is a nice tree there. My son and I dug the hole. We put Peppers favorite pillow, the one he slept on in the bottom. Then we lowered his towel wrapped body into the hole, thanked God for bringing Pepper into our lives then filled the hole in. There were a lot of question about what happens next. What will happen to his body? Is there heaven for dogs? What will happen to me? Yes there were lessons learned through this experience for my children and for me as well. It is a sad and painful experience that we are going through right now, but I come away from it with a greater appreciation for the good things inn life.

   Pepper was born circa 1996 and lived to November 22, 2001. For me he was part of the abundant life that god promised to all of his children. Thank you God, for Pepper. He was a good dog.

The Kings Orders

A really cool stool given to me on Father's Day several years ago

Matthew 25:31-46

This stool I have right here was a gift from my family. It was a Fathers Day gift several years ago. It is supposedly a Chiefs stool. I don't know which culture it comes from but apparently a leader of a tribe/community would have something like this and it is a symbol of his authority. It isn't the most comfortable thing though. It is a little too low and there is this metal work that takes away as much comfort as it adds design and beauty.

We, in the adult discussion group, have been talking for the past couple of weeks about Christmas and the best gifts, the worst gifts and the most appropriate gifts to give that demonstrate love and honor Jesus. Rather than being participants in a hyper-consumerist frenzy that ends in disappointment on or about December 26^th every year, we have been exploring ways to make the celebration of the coming of the Savior a more intentional, more meaningful event. And more than that: Not just a day but the whole season can bee steeped in generosity that doesn't have to show it's self in meaningless spending but its a generosity that truly demonstrates the unbounded, unrestrained, unconditional love of god for us.

We were talking about specific gifts we had been given that were meaningful. I failed to remember one very important gift I received. It was a gift that produced in me so much gratitude I couldn't have expressed it adequately with words. What I received on one particular summer day in either 1992 or 1993 I can't exactly remember any more, was one that, though I don't remember the year I will never forget the gift it's self

Now you might expect me to tell about a time when I learned something from a beloved friend or relative that taught me a valuable lesson. Or perhaps I came to a realization about some truth of life through some hardship that I went through. Well, such examples are valuable and can be gifts to be cherished, this, example however is nothing like that. The gift I received was an actual object given to me with out any expectation of return.

It was a t shirt. A single brown cotton blend t-shirt. There were no words printed on the front of it. It didn't come from a particularly special person. I didn't receive it on a particularly auspicious occasion. Just a t-shirt. The thing is, is that the thing I needed most at that moment was indeed a t-shirt and when I needed it, it was given to me.

It was a hot-hot day in that summer of '92 or '93. I was in Grayling Michigan with my National guard unit. We were on a long movement, walking through the woods, ruck sacs full, up and down those hills trying to stay focused, trying to get to where we were going. We stopped. Someone was down. Someone in my unit was suffering from heat exhaustion. We were in too remote an area for an ambulance so we made a litter a stretcher and carried him to the nearest place where an ambulance could pick him up. We moved on. Hot and sweaty we pushed on. When the storms clouds rolled in we saw it as a welcome relief from the heat. When it started to rain we didn't even put our rain gear on because it felt so good. But that turned out to be a mistake. I would find out days later that the National Weather Service reported that the temperature that day dropped 40 degrees in less than 30 minutes. Now I don't know if it was 100 degrees and dropped to 60, or if it was 90 and dropped to 50, I just know that when you are wet, tired, hungry in 40 or 50 or even 60 degree weather it's cold. In fact one of our soldiers went into hypothermia. Sgt. Steed earned a lifesaving medal that day when he lent his own body heat to that down soldier while we waited for the med-evac helicopter to come. We were to far in the woods to carry him back to the point where an ambulance could get to him. We were all cold. I was shivering violently and uncontrollably. I could have been the next one to do down. Until one of my fellow soldiers handed me a dry brown t-shirt. I took of the wet one I had, put the dry one on. Covered it in a rain jacket. Instead fighting to keep my body temperature normal I was able to focus on the task at hand, which was getting out of the woods and going home. I felt such relief and such gratitude.

We serve a Great, Big God. That this great God uses small things to reveal himself to us. He didn't call the elite or the powerful to be his disciples, he called the outcasts and the not-good-enoughs. He wasn't born in a palace but in a barn.

God doesn't call us to to be the biggest and the best. God doesn't call us to draw attention to ourselves with the grand gesture. He calls us to offer water to the thirsty, visits to those who are sick and in prison, food to the hungry and might I add, a t-shirt to those who are cold and wet.

Does this look like a throne of a king?  Perhaps.

This is Christ The King Sunday. This is the last Sunday of the liturgical year. At the end of this year we are at the very edge of a new beginning. Next week we begin again a year with the season of Advent. Christ the King, bumped right up next to Christ the baby born in a barn to a teen-aged mom. The baby who lived under Roman occupation, the baby who would be a refugee in another country for a time. That baby would be come Christ the King. Our king! Jesus said, “When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory?” I wonder what that will look like.

What will the throne of Jesus look like? Have you ever seen the movie Indiana Jones and the last Crusade? There is a scene in which Indiana Jones has to choose from dozens of goblets the one that belonged to Jesus during his earthly life. He bypassed all the big, bejeweled, and shiny Goblets in favor of a small simple cup. “The cup of a carpenter” he said. We serve a big God, we serve a powerful god. But God is a god of the small, the simple and the humble. Rather than big and shiny and bejeweled, I figure God's throne might look something like this Chief's stool. Simple and wooden.

We might be tempted to make the faith and to make the season about grand gestures and events and really great feelings. But Jesus says it's about giving a cup of water to the thirsty, some food to the hungry and taking care of the stranger.

So how is it with you today? Your King requires something of you. Mica 6:8 says, “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? We can't say we never knew what we were supposed to do. Its right here in his Word. If you did or did not do it for the least of these who are members of his family you did or did not do it for Jesus. Simple as that. Would you pray with me?  

24 hour fast

It's nearly 7 am and I have been here at the church with eight youth learning about hunger, poverty and their causes. As a part of that we fasted from solid food during this time. I pray that something new will awaken in us through this experience.

In our midst

 Here is a series of art pieces that are found about my home.  Yes the artists are indeed members of my family and I paid exactly zero dollars for the collection, just the same, the collection is priceless.

Truth Justice and God's Way

Matthew 24:14-30

This past Friday was Veteran's day here in the United States. By a show of hands, who among you have ever served in the Armed services?

We all had different motivation to serve. Some were drafted, some volunteered. Some made a career of it some served the minimum amount of time required. Some liked the military lifestyle while for some it didn't suit them as well. Some served during times of conflict while others served during peace time. What ever the experience, one does not serve in the U.S. Armed forces and come away unchanged or unaffected.

I never went into a combat situation but the realization that whether or I went or not depended completely on the decisions of people higher on the chain of command forced me to give up the illusion of control in my life.

Control is an illusion. Despite our strongest efforts or our deepest desires, life happens to you. Challenges come. People are unpredictable. The only control we have is what we do with our own actions. We have to decide what our motivation is, that will guide our actions. Our nature will be formed by our motivation to please the one we serve.

We all serve something. Even if it is ourselves. If we are self serving then we obviously will have a selfish nature. In the military there is a strong motivation to serve the Nation. Even when we as a people get things wrong I still love this country. I like patriotic songs and I love it when we get lots of gold medals at the Olympics.

There are those who may serve there work, or their children, their political affiliation, their union, or their college football team. Or any combination of a variety of other things. The motivation to please the one your serve will shape your nature.

The farm where I grew up.  It was a dairy farm when my dad was a kid,
 a beef farm when I was a kid and now it is  practically a farm in name only.
Earthly circumstances change.  God is eternal.  

In the Gospel lesson today Jesus is, again, describing what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. “It is as if a man is going on a journey. He summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them.” We are tempted to think that this man going on a journey is supposed to be God. Because indeed Jesus ascended into heaven and had promised to come again. So it would seem to fit. However, I don't think that is the point that Jesus is making here.

Jesus tells the story about the man going on a journey and the gives 5 measures of wealth to one, 3 to another and 1 to the last. The slave that receives the one measure gets himself into trouble when the master returns because he didn't do anything with the money. He just buried it and waited until the master came back. Then he dug it up and gave it to him.

The reason I don't think that Jesus was comparing the landowner to God is in the description of the landowner by the slave. He said “Master, I knew that your were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid...” This is not a description of God. This does not paint a picture of a loving and forgiving master. However in the parable that Jesus tells, the master does not dispute this description of himself. Yet he is still displeased with the slave. He is displeased because this slave knew exactly what sort of man his master was and yet he did not do as his master does. The other two did. When the master went on his journey they continued to conduct business as usual on the masters behalf. The slave with the one talent did not and therefore displeased his master.

Remember the story of Jesus childhood when he and his family went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover? When it was over Mary and Joseph and the rest of the family were heading home and discovered that Jesus wasn't with them. They had to go all the way back to Jerusalem and they found Jesus in the temple and they were getting on his case about it and Jesus said to them, “Why were you searching form me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” (Luke 2:49)

If they understood his nature they would have known where to find him.

How about one of the many times when Jesus was challenged and he said “If I a not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” (John 10:37,38)

Proof of his nature lies in what he says and does. Jesus and the Father are one.

The parable of the Talents is not a description of God's interaction with us but rather it is a description, or rather an illustration that shines light on the fact that we should be about our Fathers business in his absence. While we are waiting for Christ's return we will conduct his ministry as he would.

If we fail to do so. If we bury our talent, even if we have just one, we are of no use to the Lord. We are called to do the work of God and to use what we have at hand to do so.

We talked a little earlier with the young disciples about Justice. Justice can mean different things depend on who you serve and who your master is. If justice means that you should get everything you want, then you are probably serving yourself. Justice means that we are obligated to use what we have to serve our God according to His will. The challenge and the difficulty comes when we try to figure out just what that is. Because like the slave in today's Gospel lesson we may have a particular understanding of the one we serve that may differ from our brothers and sisters in Faith.

If you see God as a God of unconditional love only, then you are obligated to follow suit and love unconditionally. That means acceptance of those that hate, those that victimize and those that prey on innocence. If you see God as a god of justice then you may have strong views about law and of punishment. Perhaps you see God as the giver of good things to those who are faithful. Then perhaps as a good servant you are trying to determine how much God loves you by the amount of good things in your life. The fact is that God is a god of love and justice. God does bless us with good things. However we have to be careful not to minimize God as to serve our own purposes. God is bigger than our minds can fathom. God is both transcendent and present. God is three: Father, Son and Holy Spirit and yet God is One.

As faithful servants of this marvelous god we must be about our Fathers business. God came as the person Jesus. Jesus affirmed that the greatest commandments tell us to love god and to love each other. Jesus embodied that. Jesus lived that. THAT we can understand. That we can wrap our mind around.

So how is it with you today? What is your view of the God you serve? Know that God, through Jesus Christ expects us to conduct business as he would in his absence. And on that day when we see him again, may He say to each one of us, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of may things; enter into the joy of your master.”  

Like the Morning Frost Being Melted By the Sun

In my study, on the top shelf, I have displayed a book called Bible Forget Me Nots it was published by DeWolfe Fiske & Co in 1898.  This book is a gift from former parishioners whose wedding I officiated.  At 114 years old there is no one alive today that was alive at its printing.  In 114 years from now not one of us will be alive.
Jesus gives us some perspective, “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, `What shall we eat?' or `What shall we drink?' or `What shall we wear?
We may be more valuable than a lily or grass in a field but our lives are just as temporary, therefore each day is a celebration.  Even the planned and regular interruption of my much valued sleep by Miles Davis playing from my CD alarm clock is a joyful event.  I have, in my most human way, tried to order my life so that it is as predictable and manageable as possible.  However, as we all know, change happens.
We get older, we grow stronger in our convictions or we let some of them go as they are no longer useful.  Our bodies start to fail as the years wear on.  Even if the circumstances of our life were stable…we are not.
Truth is circumstances are even less stable than our physiology.  Things happen.  Relationships change, children grow up, economies falter, wars rage, tires go flat and in the midst of all that God says “I am with you.”
When I was about ten years old, there was a tornado warning, and for whatever reason my parents were not home.  My grandmother knowing I was home alone came to our house with a package of those cheap sugar wafer cookies and she sat with me through the storm.  She couldn’t protect me from a tornado but it was nice that she was there.  What ever may come across that field she and I would be together and every thing was okay.
The tornado never came.  That was thirty plus years ago.  And now my grandmother is near the end of her life.  Her body is failing her.  She is facing the end of her earthly existence and I know that God is with her.  I know because he has a steady stream of loving family members taking turns sitting with her.  The storm is coming but its okay because she’s not alone.
In the Bible Jesus says, “The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.”
 I pray that we… that I can give of myself in every moment the way she gave of herself for me on that summer afternoon in 1981.

Spiritual Preparation

Spiritual Preparation

Matthew 25:1-13

This scripture is about being prepared, isn't it? Jesus tells this parable about ten bridesmaids to explain yet another way and from a different perspective, what the Kingdom of heaven is like. Jesus is telling us across the milennia, through the Holy Scriptures to prepare yourself for something new, something different, something wonderful.

We know about preparing for wonderful things. In just a few weeks the season of advent will begin. This is the season of preparation to celebrate Christmas. The question that we ask each other is, “are you ready for Christmas.” because we know that it does take a lot of preparation to celebrate Christmas in Western culture. Generous giving has come to be the norm for us. Unfortunately generous sometimes turns into extravagant. And sometimes we put so much pressure on ourselves to give extravagantly that we lose sight of the relationship with Jesus. We lose sight of honoring God with our gifts. Then there is the beautiful simplicity of Christmas morning when everything is quiet and hopefully, if we had been distracted before, now we can contemplate the fact that God is in our midst. Hopefully all of our preparations pointed us to that moment of realization.

Christmas morning naturally is connected to Easter morning in that we would not have a resurrected Lord if he had never been born. We celebrate the resurrection every Sunday. This is the day we set aside to Worship the Living Lord. We live in a world that is not yet perfected. We live in a world that draws our attention away from God. We have to prepare for things that are not so wonderful.

I was not prepared for the events of September 11, 2001.

I was not prepared, in 2005 for the news that my Dad, who I had only seen a handful of times in the previous decade, was taken in for emergency Brain surgery.

I was not prepared to be asked to officiate my 42-year-old cousins funeral on my 40^th birthday this summer.

But in all those situations God was there. On September 11, 2001. I was going to college at Central Michigan University. When I heard the news I went to the Sanctuary of the Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church and prayed. And I read psalm 27 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

In 2005 when I drove from Greenville to Traverse City to be with my dad, I didn't know it then but my dad would live for three more months, during which time we were reconciled.

And this summer when I officiated my young cousins funeral. God gave me the strength in a very difficult situation to proclaim the Gospel about Jesus Christ to nearly my entire family.

In these situations I was not initially prepared but God found ways to bless me.

However the consequences of not being prepared for the Kingdom of God means that we will not be able to participate in that new creation. Not because we deserve to be punished. Not because we didn't live up to a particular set of rules but because we didn't have a relationship with Jesus. At the core of who God is, is Love. If you don't have love then, you don't know God. That is the beginning of being prepared. If we are unprepared then when the time comes he will say “I never knew you.”

We talked last week about the fact that ultimately it is just between you and God. You have a choice in every moment to seek God and live for God. You may come from a long line of Christian believers, but if you don't seek a relationship with God, it wont matter. God wants your heart. God wants you to love him. We have this gift of scripture. We have this gift of a parable that Jesus taught 2000 thousand years ago what was remembered by his listeners, written down by the disciple Matthew, hand copied, and now we have it before us today. The words of our Lord Jesus. And he is telling us to “be prepared.”

Keep your lamps lit. or at least keep on hand enough oil so that when you need the light you will be able light your lamp. Scripture tells us that, “all things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being, in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:3-5)

Our bodies are the lamp and the oil is Jesus. We need to have Jesus living in and through us to be prepared for eternity. This means we need to submit to the Lordship of Jesus in our lives. This means we need to seek Jesus with our Heart and not just our intellect. When we seek Jesus in earnest he will come to us, and the Holy Spirit will live in us.

When we have that kind of intimacy with God, we will readily recognize the love of God in our lives. We will see the blessings that God is giving us. When we see and recognize God's love in our lives we will be all the more ready to return that love and worship God with all that we are. This is what it means to have a relationship with God.

When we share Holy Communion we are in the presence of God who feeds us and who also feasts with us. God is both above everything and in everything. This is a glimpse of the banquet that we will gain admittance to if we have the light of Christ burning in us at the end of this life.

Holy Communion is but one of the many ways in which we experience Christ in our midst. Another is in the fellowship of believers. When we gather in Christs name and keep Jesus at the center of our attention. He is present in and through us and we are blessed.

Jesus is calling us to be prepared.

So...How is it with you today? If you were to show up at the banquet of heaven tonight would your lamp be lit or would Jesus say “I never knew you?” Would you pray with me?

...Dragged a Comb Across My Head.

The life of the pastor as I have been living it for nearly six years now is much different than I imagined it would be.
I had delusions of a lifestyle of quiet contemplation. Though I do have those moments, they are far from being normative. Times of quiet, of prayer, of introspection and of contemplation all have to be intentionally carved out of a schedule that has many earthly demands.
I wake four of my children at 6 am to get ready for school. Then I sit and have my first, followed quickly by my second oversized cup of coffee. By 7 am after much moaning and gnashing of teeth we load up in the embarrassingly large family van and head a mile down the road to the bus stop.
Then I wake the little guy if he isn't already up and get him ready for a 7:45 bus pick-up. I get myself ready and head over to the church. Today, my dog, Pepper. Followed me. He's an old dog who has gone def and his sight is failing. But once and a while ( if we have given him his thyroid medicine and has had sufficient sleep) he will run and play with the kids.
I live very much in the "earthly" world. I deal with snot, paperwork, pride, poop and hurt feelings. In the midst of all that, if I pause and pay attention I can feel the love of God sustaining me. If I take the time to listen, I hear God directing me. If I have the courage to act out of faith rather than fear or selfish motivation I know God will use me.
Yes we live in a world that sets our attention on seemingly mundane things, but if we shift our focus slightly, we will see that the underlying structure of everything that IS, is of God. God lived among humanity, as Jesus, with an earthly body as so blessed this life that we live despite the less desirable (or even disgusting) parts.
As you seek truth, peace, love and the life that God intends for you, may you see see that you are blessed and love where you are.