Time to Be Brave

     Have you seen the commercial?  I don't really remember what they were trying to sell me; probably some sort of electronic thing. It was about "Annie who wanted to fly." A girl did some video editing to make some special effects to make it appear that she could fly.  Aside from the fact that I love flying, dream of flying and am sure that in when I enter into the eternal presence of God and I leave this body behind I will be granted the ability to fly, aside from all that I really like the song in the advertisement.  It's "Be Brave" by the Strange Boys. 

Oh, I had to be brave

*You gotta be brave

Oh, I had to be brave

*You gotta be brave

Oh, I had to be brave

*You gotta be brave

Don't seem like no choice to me.

Not normally visible
this is one of many labels
Pastors hide behind for
fear of success.

     Turning 40 last year and then 41 recently got me to thinking...(mid life crisis?) What am I doing?  I am in a great position to really do good things, great things even.  Jesus made this promise to his disciples that we would do greater things than he did when he was here in the flesh.  So why haven't I done these great things.  Martin Luther King Jr. was 39 when he was assassinated. Look at what he was able to accomplish before he was 40.  It may seem ludicrous of me to compare myself to MLK and really I am not.  However, he realized more of the potential that Jesus said we all have.  I am not saying that I am as good as MLK, I am saying that he has raised the bar that we should all strive to exceed.  Sure adopting four children and forever changing the course of their life will have an immeasurable impact for generations to come, but I could have done that if I were still a pizza guy.  We all rise to the challenges that are before us.  With that said, however, the challenges we face are largely our own choosing. 

      Dr. King could have been complacent; Rachel Corrie could have remained silent; I could have happily raised my two children and been a good maintenance pastor of what ever church the bishop sent me.  So here I am in Ludington, Michigan. I've been here for over a year.  It is time to submit reports and describe, in numbers, what we have been doing as a congregation for the past year.  Did our membership go up or down?  What is our average attendance?  As long as the numbers look good, I look good.  As long as I don't damage the congregation, everything will be okay.  Is this the greatness that Jesus called me/us to? I think not.  

Time to drop our excuses at the foot of the cross.

     There is a hunger for something more.  I want to be a part of something that has meaning.  God has called me to this place at this time.  My task is to figure out what my purpose is.  That purpose will not be discovered by dutifully filling out forms and maintaining the institution.  Our purpose is discovered when we are interacting with as many people as we can; loving them; serving them.   So what is holing me back?  The fact that I haven't been given authority to administer the sacraments outside of my ministry setting? The fact that, because of my particular clergy status, I have no official membership in any church or spiritual community? I tire of my colleagues making excuses for not being faithful servants of Jesus.  I tire of hearing about non-cooperative administrative boards.  I tire of hearing about a lack of resources and a lack of willingness to reach the unwanted and the marginalized.  You are pastors, my brothers and sisters, I am a pastor.  The bishop may have laid hands on you and said, "take thou authority" but authority does not come from the bishop or any other human.  We have been called by God to do God's will.  

     "Okay Jon. What would you have me do?"  Sorry, I am trying to figure that out for myself right now.  I know that time spent in the parsonage, in my study or making the rounds of the shut-ins will not yield anything new.  The thing that needs to be done has to be sought after. It has to be tracked down.  We have to stand in its path and risk being crushed by it if we want to really make a difference.  We have to put ourselves in a position where being brave is the only choice we have. Just like Jesus.  

Julian's baptism

Juliana's baptism

    

Nowhere to Hide

John 6:56-

I cannot do anything on my own! There is not one thing. The life I live is possible because of the community around me. The health of the economy depends on people actively participating in it. The food I buy is purchased with a paycheck given me because I fulfill a function. Food that is grown and produced that provides a paycheck for those who grow it; purchased at a store who earn a paycheck for providing their services. I stand in this pulpit, in this Church, on this piece of land because people before me prepared the way.

I preach from the Bible of which the newest parts were written 2000 years ago. Preacher's have been standing in this place <Or in Similar places> trying to be faithful to the faith that has been handed down to them.

All that comes down to this moment, in this, place, right now. The present moment is the only one we really have and God is asking us to be faithful to Him. To cultivate the seed that others have planted before us and to plant seed that will grow the tree, that will bear fruit that we will never eat in this lifetime.

Do I feel adequate to the task? Usually not! Do I trust God bring out the best in whatever we do? Absolutely!

Oh Lord, you examine me and know. You know when I sit down and when I get up; even from far away you understand my motives. You carefully observe me when I travel or when I lie down to rest; you are aware of everything I do. Certainly my tongue does not frame a word without you, O Lord, being thoroughly aware of it. You squeeze me in from behind and in front; you place your hand on me. Your knowledge is beyond my comprehension; It is so far beyond me, I am unable to fathom it. Where can I go to escape your spirit? Where can I flee to escape your presence?

This is from Psalm 139. Nowhere to run no where to hide usually implies trouble and fear and danger. But here, 'nowhere to run and no where to hide is a wonderful thing.' It means we cannot pretend to be anything but who we really are with God. God knows your strengths and your weaknesses. He knows your victories and your failures. God loves you more than you can possibly love yourself, which may not be a very high bar to clear sometimes.

We all fail. We all fall. When we do we can either trust in God's love to pick us up, build us up and start again or we can let the failure define us and we can stay in the ditch that we fell in. In the story of Adam and Eve in the first part of the Bible, God gave them full access to the tree of life. They could eat freely of its fruit and live forever. They were innocent and unaware. Then came the other part of the story. They were enticed to eat of another kind of fruit which God had said they were not to eat. This was from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. When they ate it they became aware of their own nakedness. They became focused on themselves rather than focused on God. Rather than living in their innocence they hid from God in their guilt.

This story is so beautiful because it describes our human condition so well. We are given so much but through our own desire to be at the center of the universe we miss out on the abundant life.

With Jesus at the center of our lives and at the center of our Community. The fruit of the tree of life is again available to us. This is food that sustains us for eternal life. Life in Christ is something to celebrate. Life in Christ is something to share. But as we have seen in God's word sometimes there needs to be planting, there needs to be pruning, there needs to be constant attention and care given.

Over the next several months a team of people from this congregation in including John, Betty, Erin, Gary and Peg, Deann and my self will be studying and learning and being trained on some fundamental aspects of church health. This 9 month process is the beginning of the Vital Church Initiative. We want to be vital.. we want to be full of life as the body of Christ. In September we will be reading and learning about the 5 practices of fruitful congregations. Next month it will be something else. We will share what we learn and we will hopefully integrate it in the way we do ministry and share the love of Christ.

Chalk art by Rod Snow.  The cross and the empty tomb
are difficult teachings to accept to (post) modern minded people.
Yet, the truth remains that in Jesus we find life. 

This will be an intentional way of moving in the direction God is calling us. But no matter how we tweak things, no matter how many structural changes we make. None of will make any difference we our central focus is not clearly on our Lord Jesus Christ.

What Scripture says about the Lord s life affirming and life giving. Some of what scripture says is challenging but we cannot shy away from or ignore the difficult parts. What does the bible say about the idea of “once saved, always saved?” This week I got a call about the Lord's prayer. That line about forgiveness. Forgive us AS we forgive others? The question was, “does that mean that if we don't forgive others we will not be forgiven? What about all who believe in Jesus will be saved?” This is a good question. What about all the things about judgment that Jesus said? Tough stuff. What about Ananias and Sapphira? Do you remember this story from scripture? It's in the Acts of the Apostles chapter 5. It's difficult story to accept but it's there.

Peter's confession shows that even he found the Lords teaching difficult to accept, yet acknowledges that there is no place else to turn for what Jesus offers.

Jesus offers the word of life. Not just good philosophy. Not just good advise. But the Word that is the spirit of God that will live in you when you submit to Jesus Christ as Lord will give you life that will never end. Human effort is useless. Our will to save ourselves is futile. The live that Jesus gives will never wither away.

The fruit of the tree of life is still fresh and crisp. Jesus is the perfect revelation of Almighty God. In Jesus we find our salvation. Not in learning about him but about taking his life into us. But that doesn't mean that we cannot do things better as his disciples.

There are seven of us who have committed to leaning and training, but we don't go thinking that we are only seven. We go knowing that you all will be praying for the church. We go knowing that we are inextricably connected to this community and that we go only to strengthen and serve the body of Christ.

So how is it with you today on your walk with God outside of the Garden? Do you feel up to the task of cultivating God's orchard? Yes we are aware of good and evil. We do feel shame for our failures. We do work by the sweat of our brow but thank God that Jesus has offered us to eat again of the fruit of the tree of life. Where else would we want to be? Where else could we go?

Sure Footing

John 6:51-58

     We need to have a clear idea of who we are. We need to know clearly what our purpose is. We are the beloved children of God. Humanity is broken and wandering and has fallen into the muck and our loving God, our Heavenly Father became human and came to save us. Jesus came to reach out his hand to lift us out of our delusions, he came to life us out of our self-destructive behaviors, Jesus came to save us and to give us life in abundance. Jesus offers his hand with out conditions. Trusting him to save you is all that is required.

     This past Thursday I attended a memorial service of a 24 year-old-man that I first met 13 years ago. His was a sad and tragic death.

He was born with some physical challenges that he had to deal with his entire life. Sometimes they were frustratingly impossible to overcome when it came to getting what he wanted, like a driver's license. When I knew him as a high-schooler he had ideas of going into pastoral ministry and would often stop me in the halls of the church to ask me questions about the process.

I mostly lost touch with him over the last few years. I got a cryptic Face book message from him last summer, to which I replied but he didn't respond back. I had no idea that he was living in Manistee.

What I knew of him was that he had a strong faith and a supporting family. I thought that with all challenges he faced in his life that he had a good foundation...sure footing to stand strong.

But based on the decision he made it is obvious that there was pain that I did not see and there was unstable ground where I thought there was a rock.

     When you lose someone like that it causes you to ponder and to reassess. I was doing that the day after the memorial service when Alex said, “I want to go for a hike.” Perfect. That is just what I need. So he and I went up to the National Forest and hiked part of the Nordhouse dunes trail. I had never been there before . It's a beautiful place. We started by going out to the beach. We stumbled over hills of sand just to get a look at Lake Michigan which was just roaring that day with huge waves. Then we went and hit the trail. We climbed up and as we walked along the trail I was aware of the risk involved. The down side of the dune ,which was rarely more than just a couple of feet from the trail and sometime much closer, dropped off 60-100 feet to the bottom. It was pretty steep and had lots of trees. The trail is sandy and had lots of obstacles like roots across it. If one were careless it would be easy to trip and fall and get hurt pretty bad if they went over the side of the hill. Alex and I hiked for little over an hour. My senses were elevated because of the risk. I was thinking, “I want to make sure my son had sure footing both on the trail and in life.”

     Jesus Christ is the source of everlasting life. Jesus Christ is the Lord of Lords. Before he existed in the flesh He was the Logos, the Eternal Word of God. All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.

     As we stumble through life climbing the unstable piles of sand It is good to praise God for the abundant beauty that is around us in those he has put on the path with us and in everything he created. When we work to get over all the unstable ground that this life throws at us just to get to ultimately reach the lake shore it is good to have some assurance of our destination, and I'm not talking about riding the Badger to Wisconsin.

     Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats from this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

      Jesus promises eternal life and life for the world. He is offering something eternal, unchanging stable. He is giving the alternative to the instability of life. Life without Jesus leads only to death. There are some who only hear what they want to hear.

Scripture says, “Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus began to argue with on another, 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?'”

     They were taking Jesus words literally without listening to what he was really telling them. Jesus was offering something wonderful, but because they had an agenda to discredit and to destroy they were looking for any possible way to distort his words. Why would anyone who is stuck in the muck and the filth not take the hand of one who could get them out?

     When you have been in the muck so long you begin to think that is just the way things are supposed to be. And if you can explain the muck well enough. If you can explain our human predicament well enough and if enough people listen you begin to believe that it is the only truth there is. When you are convinced that the ditch is holy and there is no other alternative to the cycle of life that you are in, then the offer of Jesus' salvation seems like a fantasy that is too good to be true.

     Some people just don't want to hear it. Jesus doesn't back down from his metaphor. “The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood resides in me, and I in him.”

     We are to eat his flesh? We are to take on the sanctified nature of our humanity. We were made in perfection. We have messed up, failed and have fallen. But Jesus came to clear all that up. Jesus came in the flesh to purify our flesh. We need not be ashamed of our humanness. We need not be ashamed of our nature. God made us the way God intended and any corruption that is in us, Jesus will correct if we just reach out our hand and accept his salvation.

     Jesus says we are to drink his blood? Yes! Blood is life. We are to take Jesus life that he has offered as our own. Our life on this earth will end. But while we are here we take the life of the eternal Christ in us an live in confidence, serving our neighbors without hesitation or restraint because we know that we have eternal life even beyond death's door.

     We are going to have two baptisms. In baptism we as a community of faith welcome new members into God's family. In baptism God's undeserved love is lavished on those he has created. In baptism God offers sure footing in a world of shifting sands.

     So how is it with you today? How confident are you in your spiritual walk. How is you relationship with God?

     I invite you to remember you baptism. Not necessarily remember the day, but remember that you are a beloved child of God. Remember that God acted first in offering you a way to an abundant and eternal life.

Remember that God made you on purpose and loves you very much.

House of Bread

John 6:35, 41-51

I talked to the Young Disciples about building a house out of Bread. About having our focus on What is eternal; about trusting in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the only one that can pull us up out of the ditch of our self delusion and corrupt nature. No matter how many bricks we lay in this world. It is all temporary. The things we build will eventually come down. Our bodies, no matter how well we take care of them will eventually return to the earth. So we have to orient ourselves to what is eternal. We have to eat of the bread that that leads to eternal life.

I Posted a picture on Facebook yesterday. It's a picture of me and my sister on one of our weekends at our fathers cottage on Houghton Lake. From what I can tell I was probably five or six years old and my sister is about two years older than me.

This is not a picture that I would pose for now under any circumstance. In it I am wearing a bathing suit. That's one strike against it. But that is not the most objectionable part of the photo. My father, whom I estimate was around 27 years old when he took the photo and perhaps had not yet fully embraced his role as an adult, suggested that my sister and I hold empty beer cans and act as if we were drunk. We did. I am not sure why I was holding a hammer in my other hand, just as it is a mystery why my sister was holding a BB gun in hers. With all my father's mistakes, miscalculations and odd choices I can say this about him: He believed that Jesus Christ was the son of God. And Because of that I know that we will see him again in the resurrection.

Fast forward 35 years and here we are. A lot has happened in the past three and a half decades. Life is different. I finished elementary and secondary school. I went to college. I made mistakes. I got married, had kids. Went into the ministry; Had some more kids. Had another kid. You know what? 35 years goes really fast. I suspect based on my experience and the things that folk with more life experience than I, say: The next 35 years (if I am blessed to have them) will go even faster. And if I am not careful. If I don't intentionally make my way through life seeking the will of God, I may just have a few regrets.

That kid in the picture is a lot different than the person that stands before you know. Like you I have experienced loss. I have experienced Joy. I have experienced life. There is one thing that is unchanging. The spirit in that kid in the picture is the same spirit that lives in me now. I can connect to that picture of my self because there is the part of me that was created by God. It is the way that God created me to be. The way that God wanted and wants me to go. It is the potential that is in all of us. It is the innocent, undefiled pure nature that is in all of us.

But that nature gets hidden doesn't it? That carefree attitude about life dissolves a little and gets muddled. We forget what is real and what is important and give into what is urgent and demands our attention. We get knocked around in life and we look for a little relief from the pain and sometimes we don't make the right choices. Sometimes we feel like life is going to come crashing down on us and its going to take us out. So we spend our time trying to manage the crisis. We keep the dangers at bey. In the process we lose ourselves. We lose the perfection that God put in us. At some point in your life you may have realized that you want to life a better life. You don't want all that garbage... all that baggage. So you set out to try harder, to do better, to live life right. Well good luck!

It is impossible to get is all right. We are weak creatures! We are weak but He is strong!

December 1999 I had my life all together. I had it. I knew what I was doing. I had a wife, a son, a daughter a business. I was a member of the Lions Club. I pressed myself into a lifestyle where I was in control. I had all I wanted and I was miserable.

Before bed one night I prayed to a God that I knew as a child and had forgot to keep in touch with. I simply said “Help me.” I don't know if it was the next morning or the one after that but I went into our restaurant early one morning to bake bread. I was good a baking bread. With the drone of the two oven fans and the squeak of the conveyer belts along with the repetitive nature of making dozens of loaves of bread coupled with an open heart to God created, for me, the perfect environment to hear from God.

It was like a lightening bolt. I felt God in my life like I never knew was possible. I was given the vision to see that I was on the wrong path. I could see where I needed to go. I was given the carefree spirit that I had in that picture me with my sister at the cottage at Houghten Lake but it better, I had the wisdom of experience and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I knew the love of God and I knew that it had nothing at all to do with anything I had done or not done.

I talked to a pastor about my experience. Pastor Harry. He explained to me that Jesus the Son of God was born in Bethlehem. The word Bethlehem is two Hebrew words put together. Beth meaning house and lehem meaning bread. House of Bread. He was delighted with my story of baking bread and God speaking to me through that experience. He asked me to share that story several times. Pastor Harry has been gone two years now. With all his mistakes, miscalculations and odd choices I can say this about him: He believed that Jesus Christ was the son of God. And Because of that I know that we will see him again in the resurrection.

In today's Gospel lesson Jesus said. “I tell you the solemn truth, the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that has come down from heaven, so that a person may eat from it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats from this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of this world is my flesh.”

So how is it with you today? Is life passing you by? Perhaps life is running you over. Jesus invites you to find life in him. To draw spiritual nourishment from that which is eternal. The things of this life are temporary. When you put your hope and trust in things that are temporary you are sure to be disappointed. Jesus is the only true source of hope.  

Baptism of Rylee

Jesus our True Savior

John 6:24-35

Jesus went away. The crowds followed him. Jesus cured them. Jesus took the disciples away for a little rest. The crowds followed him. Jesus fed them. Jesus went away. The crowds followed him. Jesus always had compassion for them. Jesus met the needs of those who came to him in faith. Jesus worked miracles to bring some to belief. Everything he did was to bring people to belief that he is the Son of God so that we can have everlasting life in his name. Jesus is our True Savior.

This past week, Monday through Friday the church was filed the the sounds of young disciples having a great time. We put on a Vacation Bible School that had a national Park theme it was called Sonrise National Park. All week the kids sang and danced and learned from the stories of our faith. Each Day they were introduced to a new promise of God. They learned that in God we can find true peace; true riches, true power, true love and true hope. Two hours a day for 5 days these young ones came and got excited about our faith. For 5 days volunteers were here to tell the stories, lead the music, prepare meals, clean up big messes...for 5 days we invested a little time and a little money and a bunch of kids had a great time learning about our true Savior Jesus Christ. I read an article recently that questioned the value of Vacation Bible School in our contemporary culture. Well if you were here you could see the value. And rather than do less of that sort of thing I would think we would want to do more.

Vacation Bible School is just the beginning. VBS is just the open door. It gets kids asking questions about God. What does it mean to trust God? What does it mean to have faith? VBS starts conversations. Parents want to know what their child was doing for two hours at that church on the corner of Morton and Kinney. They want to know why they were so excited about going back the next day. Vacation Bible school builds relationships. I met some pretty great servants of Christ from the Scottville church that came and worked in the kitchen all week feeding us. I met some of your grand kids that I had never met before. All these new people in our lives have gifts from god to share. We all strengthen each other. Hopefully our community will grow so that there will be a greater diversity of gifts in this gathering to Honor and glorify God.

That is why we come. We come to Honor and Glorify God. We come to worship God. We come to serve God. Sometimes, though we get a little mixed up. Sometimes we think that our purpose for coming is to get something. To “recharge our battery” or to “fill our tank” and when that doesn't happen we get disappointed and frustrated. We get disappointed and frustrated because we hear the promises of what Jesus can do. We know part of what he is capable of and we want part of it. But as we see in scripture when the crowds follow him only to receive, Jesus has compassion and meets their needs but only to teach them to have faith in Him then he withdraws from them.

In scripture Jesus does wonderful things but he doesn't let the attention remain on the miracle. The wonderful things he does is a pointer toward who he really is: The son of God, our true savior.

He told the crowd flat out, “you came looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate all the loaves of bread you wanted.” The crowd tracked him down because they wanted another hand-out. He said don't do that. He said You are working for food that will be gone. You are focusing on the temporary. You are focusing on the earthly. You need to get your mind, your attention on what's important. Jesus wants us to work for the nourishment that will last forever.

Did you know that Jesus doesn't NEED you to to follow him? Jesus is complete. Jesus is God in the flesh. Jesus was the one through whom you were created. If you don't follow Jesus He will still be ALL THAT...and much much more. Jesus doesn't need to be needed. Jesus is the one making the offer. Your aren't doing Jesus any favors by accepting his grace/his love.

One time, a long time ago back when I was first dating my wife she said something to me that, at first, I thought was hurtful and mean. She said, “You know something....” She had her finger pointed right at me. “You know something, I don't need you.” I thought she was saying that I was expendable, that I had better watch my step. Until she said this: “I am here with you because I want to be not because I have to be.” What I thought was hurtful turned out to be honoring and loving. Men and women don't complete each other. God makes us complete. Your children don't make you complete. Your job doesn't make you complete; the only one that completes you is the one that created you. If you need to be needed or if you are with someone who needs to be needed you need to spend some time at the foot of the cross offering yourself to God so that He can begin the work he started in you.

Jesus loves us because he wants to love us. He defeated death for us because he loves us. We are not doing Jesus any favors by accepting his love.

He offers it without price. He offers life everlasting. He offers life in abundance. He will do wonderful things with you. But if you go chasing the blessing. If you go waiting on the miracle and refuse to work for the bread that lasts for ever. Jesus may just withdraw for a time. He may go off like he did in the scriptures to be alone with the father, to be alone with those who have dedicated themselves to following him and obeying him.

Okay Jesus, how do we work for the bread that lasts for ever? That's the question the crowd asked when he called them out on chasing him down for some more bread.

Jesus said, “This is the deed God requires- to believe in the one whom he sent.”

They didn't quite get it yet. They started asking for a sign. Apparently they missed the big meal they had the day before that came from only 5 loaves and two fish. Jesus started talking about the true bread from heaven. “For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

So they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread all the time!”

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never go hungry and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty.”

he said it to them as plain as can be. Yet still some complained and did not believe. But Those who do believe receive the extraordinary gift of everlasting and abundant life. Today is a remarkable day because we have a little one who's parents are going to commit to raising her in the christian faith. In the sacrament of baptism God's mysterious grace is poured out not because we have merited it but because this is what God desires to do. In this we commit to our participation in God's work as a community of believers to be vessels of his will. Today we will also share Holy communion at God's table where we give our selves as holy and living sacrifices to our God.

So how is it with you on this very special day? Have you offered yourself in completeness to almighty God who has promised to be your true savior?