Knowing When to Say When – to WORK

“The short answer is, this is a very bad idea. It does not reflect the spirit or teachings of Jesus Christ or the teachings of the apostles. It is both a publicity stunt and a means of inciting people towards anger and violence. It may somehow feel good to the 50 members of that church, and perhaps to a small fraction of Christians who find in it an outlet for revenge and anger over the words and actions of radical Islam; but it is another example of “when Christians get it wrong.”

I want to mention briefly two stories that illustrate a United Methodist approach to Christian-Muslim relations and how it contrasts with the “Dove World Outreach Center’s” approach (Dove is the 50 member church proposing to burn the Quran).

Dan Johnson is the Senior Pastor of the Trinity United Methodist Church in Gainesville, Florida. The Church Council at Gainesville voted last week to hold a service tonight for the greater Gainesville area to pray for Muslims and to express their opposition to the “burn a Quran” event and to pray for the Muslim people in their community, expressing their care for them. Thousands will join them for this event and it will send a message that the Christian gospel calls us not to insult or provoke our neighbors, but to love them.

Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church in Ohio, led by my pastor Mike Slaughter, has spent the last five years building wells and schools in Darfur among impoverished Muslim populations as an expression of the love of Christ. The perception Muslims in those communities have of Christians has been forever shaped by the fact that their children no longer die of dysentery and they have schools to attend built by Christians in America.

This kind of work, not burning a Quran, has the power to change not only the future of Christian-Muslim relations, but the lives of those who experience this kind of sacrificial love.“

I hope you will join me in praying that the pastor of Dover World Outreach Center will experience a change of heart and come to the conclusion that burning copies of the Quran is a terrible idea.

The Ben-e-diction: May we continue to model the sacrificial love of Christ for all the world to see and may we continue to pray for peace on all fronts.

http://www.umportal.org/article.asp?id=7101

So having read it, what do you think?  Is St. Mark’s UMC too bland?  Perhaps we are not as bad as Russell describes but we could certainly improve.  What would you recommend?  Do we ask enough of members?  Should we do more to explain the vows and hold people accountable?  What would you suggest?  Share your thoughts…

On a positive note, The World Cup has reinvigorated my prayer life!  Last night my wife came home from a night out with friends and found me on the floor, on my knees, with my hands folded in prayer mere inches away from the television!  As she crossed the threshold, she exclaimed, “What are you doing?”  “PRAYING for a miracle,” I exclaimed!  “There is only 4 minutes of stoppage time left and the U.S. has to score a goal to stay alive!”

Then my wife offered an observation that is still stinging this morning.  She stated, “Wow!  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen you pray like that before!”  Seven years of marriage, 2 kids, in excess of 300 worship services, and she’s never seen me pray like that!  What does that say about my prayer life?  Granted, I do a lot of praying in private – in my prayer closet – but still shouldn’tmy outward daily behavior at home and in the church bear witness to a life more visibly rooted in prayer? 

So like the U.S. Soccer Team – who clearly has some work to do on the fundamentals of the game, I too have some work to do on the fundamentals of the faith.  Maybe it is a good thing that goals, referee calls, and winning hasn’t come easy for the USA.  Why?  Perhaps because if the USA had just easily won their group and advanced without any problems, I might not have been on my knees in front of the T.V. last night and my wife might not have said, “I’ve never seen you pray like that.”  Which in turn might not have convicted me to start today to get even more serious about my prayer life! 

What about you?  What fundamentals of the faith do you need to work on this summer?  Is it prayer, service, Bible Study, and or worship?  Here’s to hoping that you too catch The Fever!  No, not a real fever and no, not World Cup Fever but a Fever for falling more in love with Christ every day!

1. Who first shared with you about Christ?

2. How did you come to have faith in Jesus Christ?

3. What difference does your relationship with Jesus Make in your life?

As you work to answer these questions begin to think about who you might share your story with in the days ahead.  Ask God to help you see opportunities all around you.  Then like Peter and John in Acts 5 , have the courage and conviction to bear witness to your faith.  Remember your story has value.  It is inherently good because it contains the Good News of how Christ has encountered and transformed your life.  So go and ACT OUT in a big way for God!  That’s your Ben-e-diction and that’s an order! 

Hiccup is a most unlikely hero and probably the least Viking-like Viking in the world. He is different, no macho bravado. He is rejected in his home town because his ways are not the ways of the people.

The Vikings in the movie “How to Train a Dragon” have two functions: Kill the dragons that plague them and train up their children to do the same. Hiccup’s father is disappointed that Hiccup is not more eager to play such dragon games. But Hiccup tries to overcome his fears and feelings of failure. He designs a canon that shoots a web that catches the most prized dragon, the Night Fury. When he finds the Night Fury downed and trapped, he goes in for the kill. Hiccup cannot bring himself to kill the dragon in the ways of his culture.

Instead Hiccup shows mercy and kindness to the Night Fury he names “Toothless.” In acts of mercy and kindness, with all fear overcome, Hiccup learns the ways of the dragons. He learns about their likes and their fears. And he learns that there is a greater evil that drives their onerous deeds. Relationship grows trust and trust grows love.

When the great battle with evil begins, it is this unlikely hero that comes on the back of a dragon so fierce his name is Toothless. You know the rest of the story. Mercy, kindness, love change the outcome of Viking City. Evil loses. New life is born among a people who put away their armor and huff and try a new way of living together, even with those whom they fear.

An unlikely Savior comes among us today on the back of a donkey of all things. He also has known rejection. He comes with a message of hope and peace, motivated only by the Love in which he comes. He comes with the call to live a new way, a way without fear and hatred. Let us welcome him with joy and sing our loud “Hosannas.”

Palm Sunday leads us into a week of great love. Let us gather with palms and praise! Amen.

Bellybutton lint; pocket lint; dryer lint; lint filters; lint rollers; there’s even a “National Lint Project” – if you don’t believe me, you can check it out at http://www.studiocapezzuti.com/lint/lintguys.htm

I started thinking about lint this morning, on this first day of Lent, as I was tidying up my desk, doing a little spring cleaning as it were, removing some of the lint that had accumulated in little corners and crevices.  And I wondered where lint comes from.

The internet is a wonderful and bizarre place, and with just a few clicks, I knew far more about lint than I truly ever wanted to know.  Lint is mostly made up of fuzzy fibers – fibers that used to be part of some article of clothing or other fabric, and have jettisoned for some mysterious reason.  Individually, a piece of lint is nothing to worry about, but collectively, lint can take on a life of its own (did you check out the “National Lint Project”?!).  And lint attracts even more lint.

Lint makes clothes look shabby, assists in the production of dust bunnies, and sometimes start fires in the clothes dryer.  It is a good idea to get rid of lint before it reaches that point.

You may think I am making WAY too big a deal out of lint.  Well, I was thinking about Lent, and how the tiniest of things, over time, can start to accumulate in the corners and crevices of my spiritual life.  After a while I hardly notice how messy the place has become – maybe a shabby prayer life here, the production of unkind thoughts there – and I am well on the way to something combustible!  So, Lent is a time to really take a look, and tidy up; use the disciplines that help remove those stubborn little fibers that just want to hang around; do some spiritual spring cleaning. Read the Bible. Pray. Go to church.  That’s a good start.

And just because I do some cleaning this year doesn’t mean I won’t ever have to clean again.  I’m sure of it!  And I know I will have to clean the exact same places – over and over again.

But then, that is what Lent is for.

Happy cleaning!

“People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self centered.  Forgive them anyway.  If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.  Be kind anyway.  If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you.  Be honest and frank anyway.  What you spend years building someone could destroy overnight.  Build anyway.  The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow.  Do good anyway.  Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough.  Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.  You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God.  It was never between you and them anyway.” (Love Them Anyway - Mother Teresa) 

It is true.  It is between you and God.  What a great Ben-e-diction.  What a great way to go forth into the world.  What a great way to live.  May we seek to live this truth today and everyday.  Amen

I have only really been interested in Golf during one period of my life.  During my High School years, my friends and I would go to the par 3 course every Wednesday afternoon.  The only clubs I had were my Grandfather’s 40 year old right handed clubs.  The problem with this is that I am left handed. 

          I used the backside of the putter so that I could putt left handed, but to tee off I had to hit right handed.  I always finished last when we played but I became very comfortable playing right handed.

 I played for 2 years as a mutant right handed / backward left handed golfer.  One afternoon when we were playing a round there was a group of older gentlemen in front of us.  They decided on the 6^th green to wait there and let us play through. 

One of the older gentlemen had watched me tee off and finish putting with the backside of my putter.  He came over to me and asked if I would like to try his left handed clubs.  I thanked him but told him I was fine and that I had played this way for two years and it was working for me so I didn’t need to change now. 

We continued to play through the 10^th hole with me struggling to get a drive on the green and putting backwards. As I stepped up to tee off on the 11^th hole, I felt a tap on my shoulder.  It was the older gentleman.  He took the club out of my hands and handed me his driver.  “Just try it,” he said.  I hesitated but decided to give it a try. 

After a couple of practice swings, I reared back and swung through the ball, hitting a shot that bounced a couple of times and landed two feet from the cup.  It was the best shot I had ever taken. I turned around to the gentleman and told him how wonderful it was to actually hit a ball on to the green.  He told me he had had the same problem until he realized you could buy left handed clubs.  I told him that I should have changed a long time ago and started to pass back the driver to him.  “Keep it” he said, “from one left hander to another.”

 Often we go through life used to the way things are.  We don’t stop and open our eyes to realize that the world changes, people change, and technology changes.  We start using phrases like “well that is the way it has always been or that is the way we have always done it.”  Sometimes not making changes hinders us over helping us and we get stuck being a left handed player playing with right handed clubs.  We have to understand that change helps us to reach out to serve God in different ways and brings others closer to God.  When God offers us a “God Sized Dream”, we have to take that opportunity, grab that left handed club and aim for the green.

I love jigsaw puzzles. 

I come by it honest.  My dad loved jigsaw puzzles, and both my brother and I love them.  (It has yet to be demonstrated if my children have inherited the jigsaw gene, but I remain hopeful!)

There is an art to putting together a jigsaw puzzle.  After sifting out all the “puzzle dust” I find all the edge pieces.  And in the process, when I find the corner pieces, I have a little mini celebration.  Corner pieces are very exciting.  More celebration is in order as I complete the first edge – giving me one of the dimensions, either the length or height of the puzzle.  When all the edge pieces are together, this calls for greater celebration, for now I know how big this puzzle is going to be!  Then I group together the inside pieces according to their color.  The group of “sky” pieces is usually the largest.

When working on a jigsaw puzzle, fun usually has a companion called frustration.  Frustration shows up when I can’t find that one piece I have been looking for.  It is at this point I will typically say something like, “This puzzle is defective!  The store sold me a puzzle with a piece missing!  I’m taking it back to the store and getting my money back!”  That is when someone (usually someone who does NOT love jigsaw puzzles) walks up, looks at the pieces for about 3 seconds, picks up a piece and plops it right in the spot I was hoping to fill.  “Is that the piece you were looking for?” they innocently quip.

I think they were hiding it up their sleeve.

Recently, I was going through some old toys – trying to get rid of some of the things my kids no longer use or want.  The things that still have some usefulness left in them were placed aside to bring to the church for the youth yard sale.  While cleaning out a closet I came across two little jigsaw puzzles (and by little, I mean under 100 pieces).  I asked one of my sons to put them together to see if all the pieces were there.  He quickly put the first one together.  And indeed, all the pieces were there.  It was a complete picture.  Now, someone else could take those pieces and put them together and see the same picture.  All the pieces went back in the box, and we put tape on it to hold it together – so none of the pieces would be lost.

Out came the next puzzle.  But pretty soon, it was evident that some of the pieces were missing.  The picture was incomplete – and no one looking at it would ever know the full scope of what it should look like; no one, no matter how hard they tried, would be able to put it together to make a complete picture.  Sadly, the pieces were tossed into the recycle bin along with the box in which they had come. 

This thing we call “the church” is kind of like a jigsaw puzzle.  Each one of us has a piece of the puzzle to give.  God has gifted you in ways like no one else.  Some of you are corner pieces; some of you may be edge pieces; and some of you might be a piece of blue sky.  You may think that your piece isn’t as important as some other piece.  But it is.  Without you the picture is incomplete.  And the world around us can’t see the beauty of the full picture.

There is a lot more to this metaphor, about the shape of each piece, and how sometimes a piece almost fits – but really belongs somewhere else; about pieces that have very distinct parts of the picture, and pieces that do not; about the glaring hole when a piece is missing, compared to hardly noticeable pieces when the picture is whole.  But I will leave those things for you to ponder.

I have a puzzle to work on!