The Question

As a church we are on a path to a destination. Looking back over my life I can see exactly why I am here. When I was younger, much younger, standing in a hot Hay mow, waiting for that next bail to fall of the elevator I decided I didn’t want to be a farmer.  So I made intentional decisions that lead me away from that life.

I learned this week that I am not a very good farmer; At least I am not a very knowledgeable one. I have mentioned before that I grew up on and around farms.  My dad raised beef cattle and chickens.  We had various other animals at times.  At one point we had couple of pigs. When I was quite young I remember having a goose that was pretty aggressive and scary. My dad always planted a garden. It was always big and lush. He knows seeds he; he knows soil.  He knows when he wants to harvest so he times his planting.  Apparently I am too impatient.

I learned that I am too impatient with the seeds that I plant.  I want those seed to grow faster and to produce fruit sooner. 

There is something about that seed catalog that you get in the mail. There are all those pictures of ripe fruit and vegetables and flowers in full bloom that is exciting.  The potential of what can be can be intoxicating.

This past week I went to a clergy retreat at the Lake Michigan camp.  As a side conversation I was discussing a prior appointment, the place I was before I came here.  I served three churches.  One of those churches caused me great pain.  The pain I felt was the pain of a father watching his child not live up to their potential.  I was discussing my failure as a pastor at that place.  They are good people with good resources who are facing significant challenges.  I felt like I couldn’t get anything accomplished there.  One example, a woman who is a talented gardener came to me with the idea of planting a community garden in the church yard.  I thought it was great.  We were in a small town with a lot of people far below the poverty line who could use the food that we could have cultivated. The church board said, “No.” We didn’t want the lawn ruined.

At every turn, new ministry ideas were rejected for very good reasons.  Years of this went on. I discussed it with the superintendent.  He said that I was in a long line of pastors whose vision for the church was rejected by that congregation.

I wasn’t going to take defeat like that. In my naïveté I stood up one Sunday morning and told the gathering of 20 people that in 15 years the church would close because there are no new people coming and they were not doing anything different to change what they were doing.

I was chastised after worship by the man who made it clear that he was a major donor to the church. It wasn’t the time or place.

About a year and a half later I was moved here.  

As I was discussing that particular congregation at the clergy retreat, the person I was talking to was surprised to hear that I was the pastor at that particular church.

“I wondered who the pastor was.” “Whoever was here before really prepared them for change.” They were the first Church in the conference to go through a consultation with the Vital Church Initiative team.

So you see I am not a very good farmer. God planted a seed in them it is now growing and will bear fruit.  I left that Church thinking I had failed them. But I was operating in the short term.  I was operating on my timeline.

We are operating on a vision that is short term.  We are finite creatures and that is just the way we work. We are working on the operation of the church. We are working on procedural things that once addressed will make us stronger.  But there is a bigger picture. I’m looking at that seed catalog and I am seeing the potential for great a great harvest.

Right now we are just sitting with pencil and paper in hand and planning out the garden but I am looking forward to the feast after the harvest.

Ultimately, as faithful people, as the church we look forward to union with Jesus Christ.  Where his spirit lives in us. His law is written on our hearts and there is no obstruction between his spirit and ours.  We look forward to a time when our desires for our life match his desires for us. The ultimate harvest is when we all live fully devoted to him and love each other unconditionally and each of our spiritual gifts uphold and strengthen the community.

That’s where we are going. This is where we start from.

Today’s scripture comes to us today in two scenes.  The first scene is John the Baptist pointing out Jesus to his followers for two days. The second scene is Jesus’ interaction with some of those followers.

This is one illustration of the mission statement at St. Paul UMC. “To Know Christ and to make him known.” 

John the Baptist is making Jesus known. And his followers go after Jesus to get to know him.

They are hanging around John the Baptist seeking spiritual nourishment and to some degree they are getting it, because he is speaking the truth.  They are content to stay with John until John points them to Jesus. “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sing of the world!” Then he testified to what he saw with his own eyes. 

The next day: “”Look, here is the Lamb of God!”

Then they followed him.

Someone must have told you about Jesus.  Someone must have told you he was here. You are looking for something and someone said “come and see.”

And so here you are.  We have the cross, and the altar, and the pulpit. We celebrate the sacraments. We praise God with music. But where’s Jesus?

The gathering is the body of Christ.

Look around.  The gathering of the faithful is the body of Christ on earth.

Is it perfect? Have we matched the picture of us that is in God’s seed catalog?  Have we reached our full maturity and potential?

Not yet, but we are headed in that direction.  

Worship is our central act. We gather together to be the body of Christ for the purpose of giving God praise.  Some folks make the mistake of understanding the Christian faith as an individual journey.  Being a follower of Christ means that we are part of a body. When we are alone in our faith we are by definition incomplete.

Remember the vision? All loving each other unconditionally mutually lifting each other with our gifts.

Everybody starts with themselves. We have to make the decision to follow Christ. But that circle of concern that we draw around ourselves quickly expands to include others, hopefully our family. Then our church family. But it can’t stop there. 

Neighbors.  Who is the neighbor?  The one who cares for even the despised.

Jesus concern for people being freed from the distractions of this world so that they can see God’s truth.

An invitation for others to join us in this work, to be a part of the body of Christ for the transformation of the world.

Command of Christ to go and make disciples in Matthew 28 ¹⁶ So the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain Jesus had designated. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted.¹⁸ Then Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

That is what Jesus commanded his followers to do. 

We are the family of God at St. Paul United Methodist Church. What does all this mean for us?

Our namesake, St. Paul wrote to the Church in Galatia in part:

Galatians 2:20 ²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

This is part of the vision.  Complete unity with Christ. No differentiation between what he wants and what we do.

 Consider special devotion to St Paul the Apostle as teacher and inspiration of our mission. From him we learn openness to the world that points us to bring the message of salvation to all people. He was the Apostle to the gentiles

Bearing the name of St. Paul implies devotion to Jesus as Master. This devotion embraces the whole person; it is to be applied to spiritual work, to study, to the whole of religious life.

What does the picture on the seed package of St. Paul UMC look like?

That part of you that is beyond your fears, the part of you that is the most real, the part that has never changed since the day of our birth. It is the part of you that survives all.  It is beyond any of your hurts it is the part of you what will live for ever and ever.  It is beyond your failures; it is beyond all our sin.   It’s the part of you that is eternal that was placed in you when God formed you.  It is the You that God loves. That Jesus came to uncover and to set free. It’s the place where the Holy Spirit resides.  That is where we are going.  That is where we want to live, each of us.  It’s a pilgrimage of peeling back the layers.  Of surrendering to God and living out Gods call to live in a new way.

I see in the picture on the package of seeds here at St. Paul UMC fully formed disciples confident of their salvation.  I see Disciples of Christ worshiping from the very core of their being.  I see a community of faith that love and supports each other so much that Christ is revealed. I see this community of believers using this building not only as a place to meet but as a place to serve our neighbors.  The picture on the seed package of St. Paul UMC is a picture of the surrounding communities knowing that if they want to find Jesus, they can find him here.  When our worship looks like the work we do for God in the world and the work we do for God in the world looks like our worship then we are getting close to the picture on the seed package.

So how is it with you today? Jesus asked those who were following him, “What are you looking for?” What are YOU looking for?

When the Andrew heard the question he didn’t answer because he found what he was looking for, he found the Messiah.  He simply asked “Where are you staying?” he was all in, he was ready to follow. 

Jesus is asking, “What are you looking for?”

Those Words!

Matthew 3:13-17

December for our family is a month of birthdays.  My wife, two of my sons and of course Jesus.  Birthday celebrations of all sorts dominate the calendar for the month of December. Now it’s January.  The pace is a little slower.  The weather is colder, the roads are harder to travel, the schedule is lighter.  January is a good month for reflection and reassessment.  How did I do?  How well did I handle the challenge of the holidays? Where did I fall down and where did I succeed? How can I correct my path? How can I repair the damage?  How can I grow from what I have learned? How can I use my life in the coming year to Honor God?

I wrote a couple paragraphs on Facebook this past week reflecting on my baptism.  I wrote a letter to Dr. Neil Bintz, the pastor that baptized me.  I explained in the letter that I posted it on line because, well, Dr. Bintz passed away some years ago and I have never met him outside of my baptism as 5 month old baby.  I have no what he looks like and I have only talked to one person that knew him personally.  And unfortunately that person has passed away as well.  I would have liked to meet him but the fact is that it wasn’t him that did the baptizing it was the Holy Spirit. It’s just that Dr. Bintz was the one who was the willing servant of God who stood in that place and said those words in front of that congregation. It was my parents who took vows on my behalf.  It is God who loves me, who poured out his blessing on me but it was the loving arms of that congregation and many more people throughout my life who have acted out that love.  For that I thanked Dr. Bintz a man I have never had a conversation with.  A man whose understanding of the scriptures I have never been exposed to. A man who’s life I know nothing about.

What if I find out he lived out a life of Christ like perfection in love?  What if I found out that he was a complete fraud?  Does that change the love of God for me?  Does that change my response to God’s love?  Absolutely not. 

Think about your own baptism.  Who baptized you?  Does the character of the one who baptized you shape your spirituality today? Were you baptized as an infant or later in life?  Was it by sprinkling, pouring or emersion, and does that matter to you?  Where did it happen?  Was it here in this place? Was in another church or at a camp or at a lake or a river?  I want you to ponder your baptism story because it is your beginning.  Your baptism is your initiation into the family of God.   Mine happened at Mt. Pleasant First United Methodist.  I have been back to that sanctuary many times.  The large glass windows on one side and the brick wall on the other side.  The large chancel area. The Narthex. Even the entryway and the parking lot, all these places hold many memories for me, both joyous and painful ones. That place is part of my spiritual journey.  That place is a part of my walk with Jesus.

In today’s scripture we read about the place and events of Jesus’ baptism. It was at a river. There were probably a lot of people around. John was teaching and baptizing.  He was preparing people for the coming of the messiah.  Then one day Jesus showed up. They knew each other, probably.  Their mothers were cousins.  Mary stayed with Johns mom Elizabeth shortly after she found out she was pregnant. And Elizabeth was already about 6 months pregnant with John, so Jesus and John were about the same age.

Jesus gave himself to be baptized. It doesn’t seem like the whole conversation was recorded.  Elizabeth was quite advanced in age when she had John so it is likely that she was gone at this point.  But this was a gathering of faithful people right?  Like a church? If I know anything about church folk they like to chat and get caught up.  So I imagine John was asking how Mary was doing.  How are Jesus younger brothers doing now that Jesus left the family business, all the while knowing that Jesus is the son of God, that his younger cousin is the savior of the world?  It was a very special place that God put John.  To know Christ intimately as both family and as savior.

 Jesus went to the Jordan to be baptized by John.  John, knowing who Jesus is through and through protested, he thought that Jesus ought to baptize him. I would do the same. With the knowledge that John had of Jesus wouldn’t you have the same resistance?  Jesus didn’t need to be baptized; there was no old nature to cast off.  There was no sin that needed to be forgiven.  But Jesus made the public statement that day that he belonged to God. Not only was he making a statement but he was sanctifying his earthly existence.  He gave himself over to God and the Holy Spirit rested on him.

Then came those words.  “This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

What did that sound like? Was it booming from the clouds? Was it as if someone was yelling from a distance? 

Have you ever heard from God?  Have you ever been aware of God’s will in a specific way?  Have you ever noticed God’s action and working in the world?  How did it come to you?  Was it a booming voice from the clouds?  Or was it knowledge that came to you?  Or a feeling or an…epiphany?

However it happened. It was clear that Jesus was God’s son and God is well pleased. 

Do you know that God says the same about you?

You have been adopted and a child of God and our Lord Jesus Christ gives his righteousness to you. When God sees you sees the holiness of Jesus Christ.  Whatever sin you may have committed, he is willing and eager to forgive that sin when you come to Him in confession. God will dwell in you by the Holy Spirit when you become his child. Baptism is the door we walk through to have this wonderful relationship with God.  So today we reaffirm our baptism.  If you have never been baptized I invite you to come and receive the free gift of God’s grace. If you have been baptized you need never be baptized again.  God’s grace has been poured out on you and you are a child of God.  Paul says in the book of Romans that nothing can separate you from God’s love.  So why would we reaffirm our baptism? God remains faithful to God’s half of the covenant; we are not always faithful to our promises. Our half of the covenant is to confess Christ as our Savior, trust in his grace, serve him as Lord in the church, and carry out his mission against evil, injustice, and oppression.

The breath of life is in us.  When we were born and we drew our first breath, we have the life in us that God had granted.  That breath is a daily reality. Every day we celebrate that first breath with each successive breath.  We celebrate that first breath yearly on our birthday. We blow out the candles on the cake to show the breath of life is in us.  We appreciate life on a daily basis but that day is special.

On the day we were baptized we put to death our old nature; we share in Jesus death to the body new life as a child of God.  Every day we celebrate being a child of God.  But on this day the day of the Lords baptism we should celebrate our baptism as sort of our Spiritual birthday party since our life is in Him.

The vows that we took at baptism reflect the work that Jesus did on earth and calls us to carry on on his behalf. When you read the words try to envision what they will mean for you in the year to come. How can you live into these vows in a more intentional way? 

So how is it with you today?  May you always know that you are God’s beloved child and that in you he is well pleased? 

Today marks the 2-year anniversary of our little man coming
to live with us. I am so full of gratitude to God for this blessing.

By Another Road

Merry Christmas.  This is the twelfth day of Christmas. This is Epiphany Sunday.  I love epiphany Sunday because it is still Christmas while Christmas is by and large done for most people.  You can see we have most of the decorations taken down but we still have the nativity scene here.  The epiphany is the celebration of the visitation of the wise men.  People from the east came and the divinity of Jesus was revealed to them.  Jesus was born as a Jew in a Jewish land but at a very young age (under 2) the non-Jewish world (the bible calls us “gentiles”) was let in on the miracle of his birth.

What does this mean?  I mean, so what? I struggled with the importance of this day for a long time. A man who I knew, who has since passed away, said that this is the most important holiday of the year. I didn’t get it.  So some guys came and brought gifts.  Is this a historical record a sort of review of the gust book of visitors to the young Jesus? Jesus divine nature was revealed to the gentiles.  Okay did they start a church?  Doesn’t say that.  Was their lives changed?  Doesn’t say that either. It did say that they went home by a different road.

When I struggle with scripture, I often find clarity in my conversations with people who have a love for God and faith in Jesus.  If you have ever been part of a bible study you probably have experienced this.  A question comes up, it is dealt with on a surface level then someone says something that sparks a conversation.  What comes next is a God-thing.  The Holy Spirit begins to work in and through the conversation and a truth emerges that no one can lay claim to as an individual.  It is in the community that we hear from the voice of God.  I often try to seek out the wisdom of others.  I may be the pastor of this this church but that doesn’t mean I have all the answers. The wisdom is in the gathering. Think about those people in our gathering, now and those who have gone who you would consider good strong Christian people.  What is it about them that is so special?   I thought about this and some traits came to mind.  Knowledge, compassion, self-sacrificing love.  I thought of the fruits of the spirit. All good things but it seems like there was something more. The intangible, the indescribable part that I try to grasp at is that those wonderful people reveal Christ in them. They let the love of Christ flow through them.  They unfiltered, uninhibited, and unashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

God

Scripture says that wise men came asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage."  When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 

There are people who are, and have been since his birth, afraid of Jesus.  Why?

Why would a king be afraid of a baby?

Why are people threatened by the Good News about Jesus Christ? Jesus was born into this world.  That was the easy part.  Everybody who ever amounted to anything was born.  Everybody who failed to reach their potential was also born.  Having life is indeed a miracle and a gift of God but let’s be honest, that’s the easy part.  The hard part is living.  It wasn’t that Jesus was born of a virgin that troubled Herod.  The troubling part to Herod was that this baby was born to be king of the Jews.  Herod thought that was his job. And he didn’t want to share.

So Herod gathered some intelligence. He did some investigating all because he wanted to honor the new baby but we really know that he wanted to destroy the threat to his rule. He told the wise men to report back to him when they found him.

The wise men found Jesus.  And they worshiped him. They presented him with gifts of Gold, frankincense and myrrh. They must have stayed more than your typical visit to a baby because they were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod. Perhaps they told Joseph about their dream. Perhaps Joseph had his dream about the same time and began the preparations to flee to Egypt.  Perhaps it was the gifts they brought that sustained the Holy family during their time as refugees.  Whatever happened at that visit by the wise men from the east, life was certainly different afterwards.  Not only did Joseph, Mary and Jesus flee to Egypt, the wise men took a different route back to their home country. Jesus was just a baby and He was already changing things.  Jesus was disrupting the order of things.  Of course babies do that anyway.  But this baby was different.  The wise men, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds all knew that this was God in the flesh. There was an ever-widening circle of people who being let in on this wonderful news. 

What if his identity, his nature was never revealed?  What if God came and was silent?  What would have changed?  We cannot possibly know. The thing is, it was the epiphany, the revealing of his divinity that changed and is continuing to change the world.  When you came to believe that Jesus was the son of God and put your trust in him, the Holy Spirit took up residence in you.  Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Christ was born in you. At your baptism you died to your flesh and were born of the Spirit. 

The epiphany is God’s divinity revealed in Jesus Christ after he was born.  If Jesus was born in you at your baptism don’t you think it’s time for an epiphany?  Don’t you think it’s time for you to reveal the Christ that is living in you? 

Let me tell you. Some people won’t like it.  There are Herods out there that will try to kill it as soon as you reveal it.  Christ’s message is radical.  Christ’s presence in this world is disruptive.  Folks that have a stake in keeping things just as they are will try to silence you and discourage you.  But you don’t have to take abuse.  Take a different road. You are not in this alone. This is a body of Christ’s believers.  Next week is the celebration of Jesus baptism.  A perfect time to be baptized into God’s holy church.  If you feel God’s call to live the life he has intended for you, I invite you to see me about beginning your journey.  If you are already baptized and are not yet a member of this gathering, I invite you to take a deeper, more public commitment to this body of believers and become a member. 

How is it with you today?  God lives in each of us. The question we face as a believer is how much of God are we willing to reveal in our lives.  How much are you willing to reveal?