Who Are You in the Story

Another diversion the past few weeks was the final preparations for our women’s retreat. I have been on some level of the planning team for over ten years. It’s my favorite committee even though I often come home more tired than energized as the word “retreat” would frequently suggest. Last year I even took an extra day off work to rest after the retreat! Still, I find it hard to imagine not being involved. Inevitably, if you are in a bible study with a group of women, the story of Mary and Martha is bound to be used as an illustration at some point. I usually identify with Mary, in part because the last place that feels natural to me is the kitchen and I’m much more likely to be in another room, working a puzzle, on the computer, or plain ole’piddlin’. I’m really good at piddlin’. But I realized during this particular retelling of the story during the retreat that when company comes, I would probably head for the kitchen, not because I’m a Martha, but because I’m not a Mary either. Mary is the quintessential host, the one who stops everything she is doing and makes you feel like you are the most important person in the room. Mary is not idle as Martha supposes; she’s busily asking questions, making you comfortable, and listening for cues that help her find out what is important to you. I’m not a total introvert, and I think I’m a good listener, but after a few minutes in the sitting room I would probably find a reason to go to the kitchen where I could do something with my hands and appear busy. Not because the kitchen is my habitat, but it’s a haven. Whenever the options are A or B, my response is likely to be C.

My prayer for the congregation?

Dear God, You know us through and through and love us still. When we surprise ourselves with a new revelation, you nod, knowing all along our weaknesses and strengths, both disguised and forthright. Help us to work with, and through, our gifts and challenges. If you can create a pearl from a grain of sand, you can transform our minds and lives. Help us to discover the many talents in our congregation and recognize their unique purpose. We are thankful for those who are naturally welcoming and embracing like Mary and thankful for those who are actively feeding the hungry and mending brokenness like Martha. We are thankful for those who play on the ground with the youth and those who study into the night. We are thankful for those who share in song and joy and those who endlessly pray. We are thankful for the peacemakers, the dreamers, the prophets. We are thankful for those who yearn, even when nothing is clear. We are thankful for those who follow, even when it’s clearly an unknown direction. Let our response be “Thy will be done.” Amen.

Without An End In Sight

One of the projects that kept me busy the past few weeks was my involvement on a committee that generated a mailer intended to reach 6,500 people. It was our first try at such a venture, and it was an awakening to the process and the effort required to reach the goal. There were different theories of efficiency, estimations on how many letters were left, and if the letters would arrive in time to allow guests to attend an educational forum. My concern was efficiency. I wanted to know the best way to fold, insert, stuff, seal, and apply labels with the least amount of handling. It made no sense to have to touch the same piece of paper four different times, in my calculating brain that would mean over 25,000 different times the material shifted through the different staging areas! I brought paper home to fold, I watched movies I had never seen before, I found uses for household objects to help expedite the task (an old 3.5 disk is great for making a crisp fold), but most of the time I kept concentrating on the number. I was grasping at understanding the enormity of 6,500. I could single-fold 1000 in about 2 hours, but it was merely a blimp in the process. But then I began to wonder if that number is so vast, so expansive, what is this promise of eternal life? “Forever AND ever?” My brain hurts….

My prayer for the congregation?

Eternal God, Very God, we praise you. You know the grains of sand, you name the stars, and you claim the hairs on our head. We use science to try to explain your mysteries, we use math to try and explain your majesty, we use poetry to try and explain your love, and we use art to try and explain your beauty. Still, we are stymied in our inability to capture your essence. You do not ask us to explain your stateliness, but ask instead that we share the tidings of grace with our neighbor. Let us worry less about theory and more about caring. How long must we continue? How long can we discount? How long must we pray? When does one life end and another begin? Let us relax our quotas and statistics and simply be in your eternal presence, forever and ever. Amen.

The Lord rules.
He puts on majesty as if it were clothes.
The Lord puts on majesty and strength.
The world is firmly set in place.
It can't be moved.
2 Lord, you began to rule a long time ago.
You have always existed.
3 Lord, the seas have lifted up their voice.
They have lifted up their pounding waves.
4 But Lord, you are more powerful than the roar of the ocean.
You are stronger than the waves of the sea.
Lord, you are powerful in heaven.
5 Your laws do not change.
Lord, your temple will be holy for all time to come.
Psalm 93 (New International Reader's Version)

…it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up—and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life. This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.
John 3: 15-16 (The Message)

East. The edge of the world.
West. Those who came before me.
- Laurie Anderson

When You Grow Tired

It’s been a double-dose of iron pills kind of day for the past few weeks. The last time I left a post it was during our busiest week of the year at work. By that Friday night I was asleep by 8:30pm and slept almost 10 hours. The next morning I helped for a few hours at the USO, and came home and took a four-hour nap. The get-up-and-go does not have an endless supply anymore. As my next decade approaches one starts to earn a new respect and perspective on the heroes of the Bible like Abraham and Sarah who having reached an age of earned rest, were led instead on a path that would have challenged a younger couple with fresh legs and energetic optimism. Instead, the unlikely couple of seasoned years were chosen to enter into a faith covenant that would grow a nation with more members than the stars in the sky. I just need a little more iron in the blood to propel me forward, and then I can tackle the extra projects at work, squeeze in a load of laundry, and engage in ministry as the Lord reveals. Wait! I’m too tired to cook dinner much less grow a nation! Couldn’t my ministry be licking stamps? Surely the risks of paper cuts and dry tongue would compensate against the calls to change a lifestyle or an opinion held firm. Yes, I’m sure the call to grow a nation is for someone other than me. God called people who were too old, too young, too handsome, too obscure, too mean, or too full of doubt, but not one who was too tired.

My prayer for the congregation?

Dear God, Your will is infallible. We find it improbable to think that we could be a representative of your choosing. We find it intimidating to think that you may put your trust in our gifts. We find it too easy to think that we have an excuse to decline your call. Help our will come into measure with your vision, help our lives follow your direction, and help our doubts fall towards your assurance. In our quiet center, we know that you would never send us away from you. Help us quiet our minds, our fears, and our disbelief. If we become tired, use our rest to increase our willingness to dream and be led. Amen.

Lincoln Legacies

Today marks the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth. On the first Saturday of each month, C-Span will air an original program investigating the life of the 16th president. The Civil War began one month after his inauguration and he was assasinated one week after the end of the Civil War. His entire presidency was in response to the unrest and difficult questions of the day. Following are some excerpts from speeches that formed his heritage.
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Let us re-adopt the Declaration of Independence, and with it, the practices, and policy, which harmonize with it. Let north and south---let all Americans---let all lovers of liberty everywhere---join in the great and good work. If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union; but we shall have so saved it, as to make, and to keep it, forever worthy of the saving. We shall have so saved it, that the succeeding millions of free happy people, the world over, shall rise up, and call us blessed, to the latest generations. – A Lincoln,
Speech in Peoria, Illinois 1854

The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail---if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise councils may accelerate or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later the victory is sure to come.
“A House Divided Speech” 1858

I have often inquired of myself, what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the Colonies from the motherland; but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but, I hope, to the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all men. This is a sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Now, my friends, can this country be saved upon that basis? If it can, I will consider myself one of the happiest men in the world, if I can help to save it.
Address at Independence Hall , 1861

My prayer for the congregation?

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong." - -- A. Lincoln

And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. ... We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness. (National Day of Fasting proclamation 1863)

On Good Authority

I am shamelessly borrowing thoughts this week or I may never get sleep. The following is a passage taken from a recent talk by Tony Campolo on “30 Good Minutes.” He explains how he views the difference between power and authority. His mother had authority even though he towered over her. Jesus spoke with authority. Power may intimidate obedience, but it doesn’t build trust.

Whenever the Church speaks with authority, people listen. But the Church has to be sacrificial. And I’m afraid that the Church has not been sacrificial enough. In these days of an economic downturn there is a tendency in the Church to say, well, we’ve got to keep our own building intact, we’ve got to take care of our own staff, we have our own needs. And I’m telling you that the church that forgets itself and sacrifices for the needs of the poor and the oppressed—not only in their own neighborhood but around the world—that’s the church that will speak with authority. The church that speaks with authority doesn’t have to resort to power. People will listen.

My prayer for the congregation?

Dear God, All dominion and authority are yours. It seems the more apparent power we gain only fuels the appetite for a larger increase in control and influence. We dislike being told what to do and work aggressively to claim our perceived rights and entitlements. Let us remember that our true freedom is supplied by the authority of the resurrection. Let us humbly stand down in rank. Let us be voices of camaraderie instead of coercion, encourage self-sacrifice rather than self-centeredness, and center our consciousness globally instead of isolationism. Let us be a congregation that has the authority to change lives. Amen.

Todays No

It’s our busiest week of the year at work and I used to look forward to the note we would put on the counter top letting our customers know that we would not be able to accommodate special orders with short deadlines. It was about the only time of the year when we felt vindicated in our refusal to accept rush orders. Usually we are known as a service that will bend over backwards if it will help our customers, and our service has a good reputation among our peers. There was something a little rewarding though about not being placed in a position of having to juggle priorities. Our workload has changed, and we no longer place on a sign on the desk, in part because we have fewer orders placed in person. But another change is in our response to our customers. If the answer has to be “no”, we then do our best to offer alternatives. They still have the need, which ultimately serves our system’s primary mission, so if we want to stay viable and pertinent, then we have to update our approach and our ability to resolve deadlines.

My prayer for the congregation?

Dear God, You are a changeling with permanent virtues. You minister to the needs of your people and craft alternatives when our choices are desperate. You set clear boundaries, and we find loopholes. You set limits, and we are thankful as long as they apply to the next person and not ourselves. You set expectations, and we find a different approach to evade your pronouncements. Let us use the same energy that we extend for equivocation and set up a balance of action and planning. Give us patience to see your answers unfold, and let us recognize that the answer may not come packaged as we imagined our needs would be met. Amen.

Go With God

Music stays with me throughout the week and I find myself humming, singing or merging songs that I’ve heard recently. Since I live with men-folk, I listen to quite a bit of sports talk, or books on tape rather than Top 40 or other music stations. As I watch the Grammys tonight I find that I haven’t heard 80-90% of the songs or the artists. So the music that carries me through the week is usually what I hear on Sunday morning, songs that come out of the memory banks, or made up songs. Today was an especially good day for music during worship and I’ve already been singing around the house as if I was on microphone because it’s a song that I can honor and sing as if the words had been written by me. I can’t think of a better blessing for the week to offer to the congregation.

My prayer for the congregation?

Farther than lands you have ever imagined
Deeper than even the oceans of blue
An open horizon is waiting like morning
Waking the dreamer who's living in you

So now go with the wind at your back
and the sun on your face
With a song in your heart and the promise of grace
Go in peace and in truth and let love lead your way
Go with God
Go with God

Stronger than will in the soul of a fighter
Higher than hope in the heart of a child
There is a longing, a yearning inside us
That's reaching for heaven and won't be denied

So now go with the wind at your back
and the sun on your face
With a song in your heart and the promise of grace
Go in peace and in truth and let love lead your way
Go with God
Go with God

“Go with God” by Carolyn Arend