Foto Friday - Spring Break

We spent a night at Daytona Beach this week for a brief Spring Break getaway. There isn't anything special about these photographs...they simply were the best of the lot. And some Sabbath photographs are better than no Sabbath photographs these days. Shabbat shalom, dear friends.

Probably the best photograph of the lot. Sunset on the beach. These birds would only let me get  but so close. Still, their reflections add some interest.

The evening mist was really cool.

This has a real retro feel to it. I love the "Eat At Joe's" banner on the pier.

One of these days I'll catch the sunrise at the beach...this was late in the morning.

A Word of Prayer - The Persecuted Church

Four years ago, I paraphrased Romans chapter 12 for a project in seminary. Here are several verses which resulted from that work:

When persecution comes, be a blessing people. Pray for your persecutors, rather than curse them...Do not answer evil with evil. Instead, whenever possible, be proactive and consider a response righteous before God and a watching world. I know that there will be times when it seems impossible, but you should make every effort to live in peace with all of your neighbors, regardless of their race or creed. My dear friends, never play vigilante and take matters into your own hands. Leave it to God to be the righteous judge; for it has been revealed to us in the Scriptures, ‘Vengeance belongs to me and is mine to dish out, says the Lord.’ No, if you’re going to play any part at all, you should ‘feed your foes when they are hungry and give them drink when they are thirsty; this lovingkindness may change their hearts and lead them to turn away from their offensive behavior toward you.’ The only way to avoid being overcome by all the evil in the world is to always respond to it the same way God has-with love and generous goodness. (Romans 12:14, 17-21)

While I was working on this particular section, the story dominating every major news outlet involved a raid in Pakistan and the death of Osama Bin Laden. So, as I watched footage of the celebrations around the world, I thought it more than a little ironic that I was paraphrasing Paul's admonition in verse 19-"never play vigilante and take matters into your own hands."

Fast forward to several months ago. At the invitation of their leader, I was sharing this paraphrase with a men's group who had been reading Romans together and were only just beginning their study of chapter 12. Let's just say that the above verses sparked a "lively" conversation. One member of the group in particular was having a difficult time reconciling these verses with what was happening with ISIS in Iraq.

I didn't have any answers then and I don't really have any answers now. In fact, I need to confess that the conversation was enough to make me avoid what has been happening at the hands of these terrorists-as much as I could anyway. 

After seeing the images of the 21 Coptic Christians kneeling in front of their executioners less than two weeks ago, I could avoid it no longer. 

Since then, it seems that stories about ISIS have become more frequent and devolved from unthinkably horrific to worse. Here are some headlines from just the past couple days (from a variety of sources and all I found to be worthwhile reading):

ISIS Heads to Rome

Christian Persecution Has Never Been Worse 

Islamic State in Syria abducts at least 150 Christians  

ISIS holds 150 Christian hostages, will threaten to kill them 

My struggle with all this has always been, "What can I do?" What is happening is so complicated that it is almost beyond comprehension. Thus, I have been content to leave the pundits on news media, with expertise in these matters, to their conjecturing and the arm-chair warriors on social media, with no expertise whatsoever, to their blustering. I resigned myself to thinking that there simply isn't anything I can really do about the persecution of Christian brothers and sisters across the globe. That was until I read something that should not have been revelatory but was and in a most profound way:

8 Things to Pray for Related to ISIS, War, and Terrorism

Duh.

I can pray. (Lord, please forgive my shortsightedness.) 

Prayer is the first and foremost thing any of us Christians living so far removed from persecution should do. So, I invite you to pray in the manner outlined in the aforementioned article, as I have been as part of my Lenten disciplines. 

I also invite you to pray with me now as you finish reading:

God of the suffering,

and all who stagger under the weight of the cross of Christ,

hear us as we seek to stand with those persecuted for being Christians.

Your cross bearers in other lands are living reminders to us of the cost of discipleship.

While we are at ease in Zion,
they are in an exile of pain and isolation.
While we are feasting on the good things around us,
they keep an involuntary fast.
While we assume a future of well being,
they don't know if they will be alive tomorrow.
While we wear the cross as a piece of jewelry,
they bear it as an invitation to abuse, exclusion, imprisonment even death.

Turn our hearts to them in prayer and acts of compassion and justice.

Thank you for breathing in them and in us
the yearning for sharing one another's burdens.
Loose their shackles and our complacency.
Bind the forces of abuse and violence at work in their persecutors.
In the silence, pray your mercy in us. Amen.

(Source - http://www.gbod.org/resources/a-service-of-prayer-for-persecuted-christians)

A Word of Prayer - Ash Wednesday

God of unfailing love and infinite grace,
     you know us better than we know ourselves,
     for you formed us from the dust of the earth and
        gave us life with your very breath.

As we enter this holy season of Lent,
     our season for self-examination and repentance,
     we pray, O God, for eyes to see the inward and outward
        parts of our lives that separate us from you...
        that keep us from becoming more fully the people
        you created and are calling us to be.

Give us strength to then deny those things,
     so we might open our minds to your will, not our own, 
     and fix our attention on you...
     so we might open our hearts to your way,
        the way of grace and forgiveness, 
        and love from the very center of who we are.

Lord, keep us mindful that beyond the transformation 
     of our singular lives our life together also needs
     transformation...the kind that begins and ends with you. 
        Where there is hatred, help us show love.
        Where there is injury, help us reconcile and heal.
        Where there is doubt, help us have faith.
        Where there is despair, help us bring hope.
        Where there is darkness, help us carry your light.
        Where there is sadness, help us find joy. 

And so, as we begin our Lenten journey, we thank you
     for your grace that goes before us...
     your grace that travels with us...
     and your grace that follows behind us.

In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

Foto Friday - Winter Sabbath 2015

It has become our family tradition the past few years to spend a week in January at our dear friends' cabin in Andrews, North Carolina. The cabin sits in a beautiful area called the Land of Living Water that borders on the Nantahala National Forest. It has become sacred time for our family to reconnect, to rest, and to be renewed after the busy holiday season. I have particularly enjoyed our drives down the scenic byways and my hikes near the cabin and the opportunities they bring for practicing my favorite Sabbath activity...photography. 

This trip we ventured out to locations where we've not been before. Our first day we drove the Cherohala Skyway, through parts of Tennessee and North Carolina.

This photograph hardly does the blue sky justice...this is the view from Santeetlah at 5,377 feet above sea level.

Bald River Falls.

My daughter, Gabrielle, gets the photo credit for this shot of Bald River Falls from my old Nikon...she's taking up the hobby, too.

Dry Falls in the Nantahala National Forest, from above.

Dry Falls, from behind.

Another shot by Gabrielle...hers is better than all of mine at Dry Falls.

When we weren't venturing out, we stayed close to the cabin where the scenery was equally beautiful and awe-inspiring.

One of my favorite photographs from the trip...Living Word, Living Water.

Foto Friday - Warren W. Willis United Methodist Camp

This week I enjoyed the distinct privilege of participating in the first of four Courage To Lead retreats at Warren W. Willis United Methodist Camp. I have enjoyed many holy moments on those grounds and this week was certainly no exception. Tonight, I am so grateful for God's gifts of Sabbath and community. I can hardly wait for the next retreat...

#LukeActs2014 - Acts chapters 20 and 21

In my last blog, I wrote about how Paul should be admired for being "a nurturer, someone who cared about discipleship as much as, if not more than, winning new converts." We see strong evidence of that in Acts chapter 20:

"On the first day of the week, as we gathered together for a meal, Paul was holding a discussion with them. Since he was leaving the next day, he continued talking until midnight. There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we had gathered. A young man named Eutychus was sitting in the window. He was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell from the third floor and died. Paul went down, fell on him and embraced him, then said, "Don’t be alarmed. He’s alive!" Then Paul went back upstairs and ate. He talked for a long time—right up until daybreak—then he left. They took the young man away alive, and they were greatly comforted." (Acts 20:7-12, CEB)

There are some interesting things for us to glean from this passage: 

• We see in verse 7 a reference to Sunday as the appointed day to gather for Christian worship. Sunday is the first day of the Jewish work week but for Christians it is a day of resurrection. So, this is the day set apart to gather in community for worship and fellowship. 

• Paul, the discipling nurturer he was, had gathered the believers in Troas together according to what had become the custom for providing them encouragement in their faith - through Word and Table. 

• We then read at the end of the passage that the believers "were greatly comforted." Paul had done his job and done it well.

So what might this mean for us today? 

Interestingly enough, a former professor of mine wrote a blog just this week titled "Corporate Worship as Discipleship in the Early Church" that got my wheels turning. In it, he writes about how the early worship services didn't focus on the "unchurched" visitors, or their conversion, at all. Rather, the unchurched visitors came as a result of having encountered the believer in the course of everyday, ordinary life and were in attendance so that they could learn about what Christians really believed and why. He concludes with this paragraph:

"What they experienced and learned in the worship service...helped them live lives that proclaimed the truth of the Christian message, and when they gathered together to worship, they were encouraged by one another’s presence and participation in the prayers, readings, preaching, and Communion."

We gather in our places of worship on Sunday to experience the presence of God through Word and Table in order to receive what Will Willimon calls "the ministry of encouragement." Without this time set apart, it would be far too easy for us to "be conformed to the patterns of the world" and for us to forget who we are and Whose we are. It is a time for us to receive, as John Wesley put it, a "strengthening and refreshing of our souls" so that we might go into our everyday, ordinary lives on Monday morning alive and "greatly comforted."

These days, with church attendance in decline, a lot of emphasis is placed on how to attract more visitors on Sunday morning...especially the seemingly elusive "Millennials" (about whom a ludicrous number of articles and blogs have been written). I think the Acts of the Apostles has always had the answer.

Koinonia. 

In other words, community, fellowship, and as Jim Wallis put it "the call simply to be the church, to love one another, and to offer our lives for the sake of the world."

We first encountered this word back in Acts chapter 2:

 "The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers." (Acts 2:42, CEB)

I confess that I read just about every one of the aforementioned articles and blogs about Millennials that I come across. This week was no exception when I read this. I am also a glutton for punishment so that means I often read the comments section as well. I was pleasantly surprised and encouraged, however, to read this comment:

"In case my experience (as a 23-year-old) helps anybody: I began attending my current church, in a new city, 50% because of a word of mouth recommendation, and 50% because their website was clear and up to date and talked about the ministries they do and ways to be involved. (creation care, opportunities to get involved in the worship service). But I STAYED because after the first service people introduced themselves to me, welcomed me, and then when I went back 2 weeks later, remembered my name. I stay not because of amazing music (although ours is decent), or flashy worship (we're Anglican and tradition), or a large youth ministry group (there's me and two others, which is up 50% from a few months ago), but because I am WELCOME. People have offered help, invited me to dinner, asked me to join committees and ministries, given me rides to church when I was without a car. I was seeking community and authenticity and I found it. I am not everybody, nor do I represent all Millennials by any stretch of the imagination, but I believe my experience is similar to many. We want a nonjudgmental community that welcomes us...just like any other churchgoer."

I was seeking community and authenticity and I found it.

It seems to me that is exactly what the early church was about...and so should we.

#LukeActs2014 - Acts chapters 18 and 19

Acts chapters 18 and 19 continue to follow Paul as he travels further to spread the gospel - from Athens (where we left him in chapter 17) to Corinth, Ephesus, Caesarea, Jerusalem, Antioch, Galatia, back to Ephesus, and back to Jerusalem. Paul never stayed in one place too long, only until the Spirit moved him along.

One of the things that we should admire about Paul is that not only was he an exceptional evangelist, as God's chosen agent for carrying the gospel to "Gentiles, kings, and Israelites" (9:15), but he was also a nurturer, someone who cared about discipleship as much as, if not more than, winning new converts. We read time and again about how Paul returned to churches for the sole purpose of strengthening them in their faith. This, in my opinion, is probably the most meaningful contribution Paul made in setting the example for future generations of Christian leaders to follow. Willimon stated it well: "Paul's epistles are testimonial to his determination to be attentive to even the smallest details of daily life within the church." (Interpretation, p. 151)

I must confess that I often struggle with the "smallest details of daily life within the church." They rarely seem to measure up to the pastoral work of preaching, or providing spiritually-supportive listening and prayer for someone who is hurting, or officiating a wedding, or the countless other cool things that pastors get to do. Maybe this week I'll extend myself a little more grace than usual for the time I will spend talking about the 2015 budget or the fall stewardship campaign or the seven meetings on my calendar (and those are only the scheduled ones).

There was something else about Paul in chapter 18 we should pay attention to.

"After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus. He had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul visited with them. Because they practiced the same trade, he stayed and worked with them. They all worked with leather. Every Sabbath he interacted with people in the synagogue, trying to convince both Jews and Greeks. Once Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself fully to the word, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ." (Acts 18:1-5, CEB)

Paul, Aquila, and Priscilla practiced the same trade. The CEB says "they all worked with leather," while other translations refer to their trade as "tent-making." In any case, there are two important points about this:

1. It is likely that the ministry that Paul, Aquila, and Priscilla shared grew out of their shared trade. In other words, the "kingdom work" they did together came about because of the work they first did together in their "everyday, ordinary" lives.
2. Paul, for a time anyway, was bi-vocational. He proclaimed the gospel in the synagogue every Sabbath but worked as a tent-maker the other six days. It was only after Silas and Timothy arrived that Paul was able to devote "himself fully to the word."

This points to the motivation behind my blog that I've felt from its very beginning. God calls each and every one of us, regardless of vocation, to be ministers of the gospel. Ministry was never intended to be performed solely by professional, or institutional, ministers. This passage points to that very truth. Paul practiced his trade until such time he had sufficient support around him that would allow him to fully devote himself to "set apart" ministry. That didn't change a thing for Aquila, Priscilla, Silas, or Timothy, however. They didn't stop their ministry because Paul was now fully devoted to his. 

One more intriguing passage, this time from Acts chapter 19:

"There were some Jews who traveled around throwing out evil spirits. They tried to use the power of the name of the Lord Jesus against some people with evil spirits. They said, "In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you!" The seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. The evil spirit replied, "I know Jesus and I’m familiar with Paul, but who are you?" (Acts 19:13-15)

There was no power in what these Jews were trying to do because they did not know Jesus for themselves. So, it did no good for them to name drop Paul. Here's the thing...once we come face-to-face with Jesus and "change our hearts and lives" in response to his amazing and unmerited grace (like Paul did), we should spend our "everyday, ordinary" lives proclaiming Jesus in both word and deed (again, like Paul). No matter what our vocation, God calls every one of us to do all that we can, right where we are, with what he's given us, for his glory alone. Paul himself put it this way:

"So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering." (Romans 12:1, MSG)

Sound familiar? Grace and peace be with you, my friends, as you minister throughout the course of your "everyday, ordinary" lives.