Pastoral Prayer for 16 June 2013 (based on Gal. 2:15-21)

Holy and Gracious God:

We have come into your house to worship you, for you alone are God and you alone are worthy of our praise.  With grateful hearts, we thank you for the gift of your Son Jesus Christ, who took flesh, lived, died, and was raised that we might know your great heart of love and that we might be completely saved in every way.

We have tasted your love, though we have rarely lived fully in the light of your love.  We have sought to prove ourselves to you, to others, to ourselves.  We have always felt like we never quite measured up, like there was always something more that should be done, or always something that we had done that could never quite be overcome.  We have tried to make a case for ourselves.  We’ve looked at the man in mirror and tried to feel good about what we see, though deep in our hearts we’ve always had our doubts.  Someone else is smarter, more beautiful, more successful, better liked, more loved.

So today, help us to rest in you, to trust in you alone.  You have loved us eternally.  Each of us is precious in your sight, and a unique act of your loving creation.  Most importantly, the blood of Jesus was shed for each of us and for all of us.  Whenever we seek to waste our lives in building a false case for ourselves, teach us to look to the cross and to see that we are worthy of the sacrifice of the son of God.  

We trust in you alone.  We thank you that we need nothing else.  

Amen. 

Wedding homily for the marriage of Jack Allen and Heather Kelly

Genesis 2:14-18

18 Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.’ ¹⁹So out of the ground the LordGod formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. ²⁰The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man^* there was not found a helper as his partner.²¹So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.²²And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. ²³Then the man said,
‘This at last is bone of my bones
   and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called Woman,^*
   for out of Man^* this one was taken.’
²⁴Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.

This is a familiar story, and yet it's a strange one, a story about divine surgery, complete with holy anesthesia.

It's a story about the nature of covenant.  It reminds us that this wedding today is not a show. It's not about the flowers, or the pictures, or the programs, the dresses, the music, or even about the bride.  You are not the audience.

Today we have gathered in the house of God in God's presence.  As is always the case when we gather for worship, God is the audience.

Our response the the glory of God, the proclamation of God's Word, and, most importantly, God's faithfulness, is to form a covenant.

A covenant is a kind of promise.  It's a promise beyond a promise, a promise that binds those who make a promise together and makes something new.

Today, Heather is making a promise to Jack.  Jack is making a promise to Heather.  Heather and Jack are making a promise to God.  Most importantly, God is making a promise to Jack and Heather.  God is binding Himself to them.  He is faithful, and God will surely be true to His promise.  This is why Dietrich Bonheoffer once said in a wedding homily that we often say to couples that their love will hold their marriage together, while the exact opposite is true.  Because your marriage is a covenant and because God has promised to be with you always, your marriage will hold your love together even when it waxes and wanes.

The image we have in our text of a rib being taken from the man to make the woman is an image of covenant.  It's an image that reminds you that because you are in covenant with each other, you are part of each other.  It's an image not unlike that of the Church as the Body of Christ--because we, the Church, are in covenant with God and each other, we are part of each other and belong to each other.

That means that from today on, each of your joys will be the other's joys.  Each of your hurts will be the other's hurts.  Your dreams have become each other's dreams.  Your children, your choices, your money will always be shared.  Nothing good can happen to one of you without the other being blessed.  Nothing bad can happen to one of you without the other hurting.

So be always be good to one another, because in being good to each other you will also be blessed.

And know that you are not alone.  Your life together is a new thing and your life has become different. And God is with you in your life together.

Just as God's presence is here in this place of worship, God's presence will always be with you, and you will never be alone.

Pastoral Prayer for 9 June 2013 (based on Galatians 1:11-24)

Holy God:

We have come into this place for one reason only this morning: to worship you.  Only the sacrifice of your son gives us access to your throne, only the faithful love we have seen in Jesus makes us know that we are loved, only your radical grace draws us into your fold and wraps us in your embrace.

It was the love of Christ that brought us to this house today, it was the love of Christ that made us part of this family, it was the love of Christ that made our hearts alive.

We have been tempted to be distracted by many things since--We have easily become lost in activities and rules and church protocol. We have thought that our life together was about meetings and vestments and calendars and things to be fixed.  We have become so passionate about the songs we should sing that we have lost the spirit of the one who put a song in our heart.

You care about the work done at meetings, about the opprtunities for renewal we put in a calendar, about the songs that teach us to remember your great love in Jesus.  So help us always to put first things first.  To love him first and foremost, and to allow everything in this life to point us back to the love that set us free.

Amen.

Creationism Petitions

Annual Conference is over--a very wonderful Annual Conference with a tremendous level of harmony.  One subject of debate was a conversation about Creationism due to three petitions submitted by John Moneyham of Forest Park UMC in Panama City, along with his pastor, John Friedman and his District Superintendent, Gary Daniel.  I am a member of the Committee of Resolutions and Petitions and had a front row seat on this conversation.

I'm grateful for the way in which the conversation was held.  Mr. Wesley taught us about "holy conferencing." He believed that we learn from God when we gather to hear from each other in a spirit of openness and love.  I think our conversation mostly was focused on listening and learning rather than fighting and winning.

Though Mr. Moneyham and I saw the issues differently, I was pleasantly surprised that the process gave me opportunity to become friends with him.  He's a delightful guy, even if he's very determined.  His motives are terrific.  He teaches Sunday School for teenagers.  As questions arose among his students about evolution and creation, he researched the position of the United Methodist Church and, as a Creationist, was disappointed to find a pro-evolutionary stance.  He feels that a person can be Christian and believe in theistic evolution, but he feels that our statements preclude the beliefs of a person who believes in a literal six day creation.  I disagree with him--I think that our statements make room for anyone who affirms the Affirmation of Faith's confession: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, CREATOR of heaven and earth."  I was opposed to the petitions for many reasons, but mostly because I felt that they limited the options for how a faithful Christian can think about God's creating.  I was encouraged to know that this was not Mr. Moneyham's intention and that he wants a church that allows us to think and let think on these issues as much as I do.  Even on the issue of the Clergy Letter Project (of which I am a signee), Mr. Moneyham does not oppose much of the language of the letter itself, and he opposes the letter because he reads it differently than I do.  He believes it only makes room for darwinian atheistic evolution and that it undermines the authority of the Bible.  I believe that the letter acknowledges that faithful Christians believe in the Bible and its authority, and believe in God as Creator though they can read scripture and come to different conclusions as to how God creates and is creating.

I was disappointed that Mr. Moneyham questioned Rev. Kathy Knight's faithfulness to the position of the committee as a whole.  Kathy had a very difficult job.  Mr. Moneyham is a member of the Committee on Resolutions and Petitions and he submitted three petitions.  This gave him an opportunity to monopolize the time of the committee arguing for his petitions.  We spent more than an hour discussing his petitions and had less than fifteen minutes to discuss all the others.  (This raises a big question in my mind--I think that it's inappropriate for a member of the committee to submit a petition or resolution and I think we need to spell this out in the Standing Rules.  The whole purpose of the committee is to have a disinterested group to study and give guidance to the issues on behalf of the whole conference.)  Kathy had a very difficult job--she had to share basic rationale for the committee's recommendations and she had to condense an hour long conversation to a few short sentences.  She did an amazing job and was very faithful.  I'm deeply grateful for her wisdom and leadership, and I'm impressed that she never got defensive when integrity was questioned in the way it was.  My one regret from the whole process is that I did not get up to defend her.  If the conversation had not shifted so quickly to substance than I would have certainly done so.

This conversation is meaningful and important.  It's a conversation about what is necessary and fundamental and what is not.  It's a conversation about the Gospel--is the preaching of the Gospel the only burden we will put on those who are challenged to give their lives to Christ, or will we add a particular view of science and origins on top of it?

It is also an issue of the authority of Scripture--Will we trust Scripture?   How should Scripture be read well and faithfully?  How do we rightly divide the Word of truth?

It's a question of the interaction of faith and culture.  What role does faith have in the shaping of culture and what means are appropriate to influence culture?  Is it appropriate for Christians to use their influence to tell science teachers what to teach in the classroom?  If so, should we be surprised if the science teachers want to tell us what to say in our churches?

I've recently been asked to become a part of the Conference Board of Church and Society.  Dr. R. Lawson Bryan shared with me that he felt that this important issue would be a very helpful one for the Board to take up.  He feels that we could be helpful in bringing together people who could teach us how to speak faithfully, wisely, and intelligently on these issues, and could offer resources for churches to discuss these issues with their people.  I certainly will make this a priority in my time on the Board.

The Conference Board of Higher Education and Campus Ministry presented Huntingdon College President J. Cameron West the Francis Asbury Award for contribution to campus ministry, and in his acceptance speech, he offered Huntingdon College as a resource for this conversation.  It seems to me that this is one of the primary reasons we ought to have a United Methodist College--to serve as a place where people with good minds can help us think well as faithful Christians in ways that impact our congregations and our people who live as disciples in the world.  We have United Methodists scholars who are trained to teach us how to be disciples by loving the Lord with all our minds.  Huntingdon has some great resources--Erastus Dudley is a science guy, but he is also a faithful Christian who makes a tremendous contribution to the spiritual life of the college.  Jason Borders is a fine New Testament scholar and deeply committed believer who began is training to be a scientist before he switched over to  biblical studies.  Frank Buckner is the head of the Religion faculty and this question is at the center of his academic expertise.  These fine Christian scholars love to share in local churches (Jason and Frank are ordained UMC clergy).  I encourage folks who want to think these issues through to avail themselves to these folks as well as the many other fine science and religion faculty at Huntingdon.

As a beginning--Let me offer two resources I have found helpful on this subject.  Our own Dr. R. Lawson Bryan spent an extraordinary amount of time (over a year of preparation) researching a sermon series on faith and science.  Dr. Bryan began his education in the sciences before he was called to ministry.  He used the preparation for this sermon series as a basis for a very fine, very accessible, short and thoughtful book on the subject entitled Pursuing Science, Finding Faith.  It's available on Amazon (here's a link): http://www.amazon.com/Pursuing-Science-Finding-Faith-Lawson/dp/0984942602/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1370530384&sr=1-1&keywords=faith+and+science+lawson+bryan

I have also led a congregation in a study of Adam Hamilton's Confronting the Controversies and found it very helpful.  It has an entire chapter on the question of evolution being taught in the public schools.  It also began as a sermon series, at the largest church in our denomination.  The very articulate 18-year-old who spoke on the petitions at Annual Conference references how helpful he had found Hamilton's work.  Here's a link to that book: http://www.amazon.com/Confronting-Controversies-Biblical-Perspectives-Issues/dp/0687346002/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1370530627&sr=1-1&keywords=confronting+the+controversies

I look forward to seeing where this important conversation leads us!

Pastoral Prayer for June 2, 2013 (based on Galatians 1)

Holy God:

We thank you for Jesus. We thank you that you took flesh, that in him you showed what you had intended for human life.  You showed us the way to live fully, fully alive and fully loving.  We thank you that he died to heal the broken relationship between you and every person, that he rose again to prove who he was and to demonstrate that you would be true to your promise to make us and all things new.

This simple Gospel has meant everything to us--it has brought us from death to life.  It has made us see the difference between drawing breath and living life to its fullest.  Knowing Jesus has meant everything to us.

From time to time we have lost our way.  We have made our lives in Christ about something else--about religious busyness, or following moral rules, or knowing the right things or doing things the right way or a million other diversions from simple trust and joy in you.  

So help us to find new life today in the place where we found it at the first.  Help us to look Jesus square in the face and be overwhelmed by his grace and love, to give ourselves entirely to Him as he has given himself entirely to us, to know ourselves to be forgiven and beloved, to trust him completely and nothing else.

For Jesus, who made us and all things new, who is the beginning and end of our hope and the one in whom we place all our trust, we are eternally grateful.

Amen.

Pastoral Prayer for Pentecost

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.  And you shall renew the face of the earth. O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy your consolations.  

May the same Spirit who blew over the formless mass of creation and brought order, new life, and a new earth blow over us today and bring order to our lives, create something new in us, and renew our hurting world.  

May the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead raise up everything we thought was hopeless.  

May the same Spirit that gave courage to the prophets shake us out of complacency and empower us to speak the truth of God boldly and uncompromisingly in the spirit of Christ’s gracious love.  

May the same Spirit that made us the Church draw us together as a congregation and as a worldwide Christian family, with unbreakable bonds and loving unity.  

May the same Spirit that caused the first Christians to share the Gospel with boldness until the whole earth knew the name of Jesus compel us to give of the grace we have received until Millbrook truly knows that there is life in the name of Jesus.  Amen.

Eighteen (June newsletter frontpage article)

There’s a number that keeps coming back to me, nearly tormenting me.  The number is 18.  I learned this number from Dr. Jim Graham, pastor of Coosada Baptist Church.  It’s the percentage of people in Elmore County in church each Sunday morning.

Of course, the real number that shakes me up is 82--the 82% who stay home.  Who are these people? Many of them probably have never heard the Gospel and have only a passing acquaintance with the name and person of Jesus Christ.  Most of them probably had some religious training in childhood but have since dropped out because something happened to cause them to disconnect along the way.  Many of them are youth and children whose parents never brought them to church and have no idea what church is about.  We church goers have become an extreme minority.

What does this mean? For one, it means that if we don’t get serious about reaching unbelievers with the Gospel we should expect that Christianity will become irrelevant in our community within a generation or two.

For another, it means that we need to think differently about how we reach people.  Most of us have spent our lives in a our world where people were basically Christian and church growth meant that congregations competed for where people went to church.  That world is gone.  If every church in Elmore County doubled in attendance, we still would be reaching less than half the population.  We need to work together.

For another, it means that evangelism can no longer be the work of advertisement or a committee alone.  Every Christian needs to have a conviction that people need Jesus, Jesus is found in church, our church offers Jesus, and people need to be here.  Each of us needs to invite people to church all the time.  Graciously, never being pushy, but always looking for opportunities to invite.  Everything that happens at our church, from Vacation Bible School to a Sunday School supper, is an evangelistic opportunity.

We also need to recognize that the people who visit us do not come fully formed and do not know the customs and expectations of our congregation.  We need to be patient and recognize that the only thing that really matters is Jesus.  We also need to remember how easy it is to forget how strange and scary it can be to be somewhere new, how helpful it is to find a friend, find a sign, and get help in understanding how things work.  

So let’s all be invitational, hospitable, and visionary.  God has given us a great opportunity.  Praying, working, dreaming, loving together, I believe we can win Elmore County for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Blessings,

Nathan