Give Me Freedom

As summer is upon us, I can’t help thinking of July 4th, Independence Day. We remember Patrick Henry saying, ‘Give me freedom or give me death!’ I’m reminded as I recall my family history of my ancestors from Germany, England, and Ireland, of the great struggles they were willing to go through, for a purpose. Yes, economics and opportunity would be on this side of the ocean. But the great cost paid in so many ways had to be for more than just that. Freedom is a great motivator. And for many, the oppression they sought to get away from was most grievous in the area of freedom to have a relationship with God in their own way, not the way dictated by the elite authorities of the dominate national religious institution. Freedom to love, worship, and relate to God was worth all the sacrifice, even to the point of the risk of life. Life without freedom with God was unthinkable. May it still be!

Blown Away

Acts 2:1-21
The spark that keeps us from a life of business as usual is the fire from above. It is God’s initiative that we have life, life full and free, and more life. It was his initiative to speak our life into being in Genesis, his decision to send his son to give us direct access to himself, and his decision to send his spirit. Spirituality is defined in many ways, especially today. I’m glad that more people are becoming aware of the spiritual nature of life. But the true source of holy fire is in God alone, who sent his holy fire, not just one altar fire this time, but a fire to all who sought him together, and that holy wind & fire blew away the barriers to everyone knowing how glorious our Lord is. Keep blowing us away, Lord!

Who's Laughing Now?

A few years ago as we in the North Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church) were considering our coming together with the South Conference to be one conference, we had a laugh moment. A delegate likened our two well established conferences coming together to a widow and widower in a nursing home getting married and moving into the same room. He said that it might be nice, but ‘don’t expect any children!’ We laughed. But, I seem to recall that Sarah laughed at the thought of she and Abraham, both well blessed in years, having a child. God got the last laugh, when a year later they were parents! And this year at Annual Conference, we celebrate that as our conferences have come together, this year, for the first time in my memory, we have Grown! Who’s laughing now? It’s a good thing our nursery is painted, because our (over age 100) churches have newborns! God is so good!

God Gets the Last Word

Lectionary passage 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
Following Christ puts us in a process of refining. If we want to have our lives refined, we stay in the refining process. We do this when we are willing to be alert and admit to where we tend to get tripped up. We all have hang ups and places where we get tripped up. It’s in our Christian community where we recover life and are refined. It’s a life recovery group. Our ‘higher power’ is Jesus. We do not have to keep getting tripped up over the same things. We get honest about our hang-ups, have each other to hold us accountable, and recover the life Jesus meant for us to have. Jesus has the last word, and words well worth remembering often: “It is finished!” Jesus said these words on the cross as he took away our bent toward missing the mark in life. When we get ready to be finished with our hang-ups in life, God’s gift of power to us to overcome is ready for the taking and unpacking in our life recovery group- Christian community.

The End of the World (Again!)

If you are reading this, then the end of the world did NOT happen on Saturday, May 20 as predicted by a West Coast minister. This same minister also predicted that the world would end on September 6, 1994. Twitter and other social media sites are having fun with Rapture jokes. A group of atheists, ‘Eternal Earth-Bound Pets’ has set up a company to care for the pets belonging to those Christians who have been raptured. There is also a company called ‘You’ve been left Behind’ which will, for a fee of $14.95, send your digital music to an un-raptured friend after the judgment day. While this all makes for lots of laughs, the subject is really serious. Biblical prophecy at its core reminds us that there will be a day when all the wrong of this world will be set right. It’s called The Day of The Lord. Our hearts long for all the wrong around us to be made right. Jesus did not even claim to know the day or hour that this would take place. The important thing to keep in mind is that the day is coming, and we don’t have to know when, but we can know Him until then.

Don't Give A Second Thought

Lectionary Passage 1 Peter 3:13-22

At times when the Christian community is faced with great challenge, even our central purpose of making Disciples seems so out of reach! In this passage, we are encouraged to do three things. 1) Stay focused on Christ with our heart and mind, not giving a second thought to the difficulties. 2) Be ready with a testimony about what Christ did for us. And 3) let Christ do his work of salvation in the middle of seemingly impossible times for the furtherance of his church. This advice got the Christian community through their rough season, and the church did get to a productive season of making disciples. Our hope today comes from this same advice at such similar times.

Growing Up

Lectionary Passage 1 Peter 2:2-10

Like an infant grows up, consuming increasingly complex nourishment, we are encouraged to grow up spiritually with the rich nourishment God gives us. We can go beyond the childish concerns of life to grow into our calling to be like a nation of priests, using the words of our testimony to act like a door into the things of the kingdom. The words of our testimony tell how we went from darkness into life, and these words of testimony act like keys to unlock doors to let the light of Christ in.