Home For Christmas

     I think that we can all relate to Clark Griswold in the movie "Griswold's Family Vacation." After doing everything in his power to have his family experience a 'good old fashioned family Christmas,' everything that can go wrong, does go wrong. Relatives bring unwanted and unruly pets into the home, the Christmas tree is set ablaze by cat chewed Christmas tree lights, and a rouge squirrel in the replacement tree causes a squirrel verses dog chase leaving the Griswold home almost uninhabitable! Because of this, the relatives decide to throw in the towel on this 'fun old fashioned Christmas.' Their giving up, prompts this (pastorally edited) rant from Clark:

 Where do you think you're going? Nobody's leaving. Nobody's walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas. No, no. We're all in this together. This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here. We're gonna press on, and we're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny (bleep) Kaye. And when Santa squeezes his fat white (caboose) down that chimney tonight, he's gonna find the jolliest bunch of (folks) this side of the nuthouse.

    In the same way, we try and try to capture this magical feeling  with some forced family fun and it never lives up to our expectations. However, are these expectations the one's we ought to have? Is this what the very first Christmas looked like? In the opening chapters of Luke, we find the story of the first Christmas and it is not nearly as shiny, pristine, and perfect as our expectations normally are.

    A poor, unwed, teenager, becomes very unexpectedly pregnant. Despite the social, religious, and legal rejection that it carried, Mary and Joseph (with a little angelic help) decide to continue their engagement and traverse the difficult road from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Mary is very pregnant and all the homes very full. Mary is forced to deliver Jesus, Love's pure light, in a dirty and smelly manger, where the animals were kept. To say this was a messy and un-pristine way for God to come to earth would be the understatement of the millennium!

     There has only been one person in the history of creation to be able to choose where He was born, Jesus Christ! He did not choose to make his home for that first Christmas a perfect, pristine and mess free family. Instead, He made His home among us in the dirty, gritty, and very messy stuff of our lives. If any of us are experiencing a full blown, four alarm, holiday emergency, take heart. The angel in Luke 2 reminds us all that even in the messiness of Bethlehem, and our lives,  the Lord gives us "good news that willcause great joy for all the people!" This is the news of the arrival of a Savior that does not wait for us to have our lives all figured out. Instead, He is a Savior who is our Emmanuel (God with us) in the midst of our messy, chaotic, and sometimes unpredictable lives.

     As we come home for Christmas, let us consider the fact that Christmas is not our birthday, it is Jesus' birthday. Let us consider how to honor Him by sacrificially giving to others just as He sacrificially gave Himself so that we might have life and have it abundantly!

Many Christmas Blessings  from our family to yours!

Pastor Bill, Brittany and Billy

New Channel on Viemo!

Greetings everyone,

I have just started a channel on Veimo with recordings of some of the worship services at Christ UMC. If you are interested in checking out some of the videos here is the link: https://vimeo.com/channels/622526#!

Giving Thanks

Mark 6:38-44

38 “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”

When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”

39 Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand. 

This month we will, as a nation, give thanks. Celebrating by eating too much food, seeing too much family, watching too much football and, hopefully, having too much fun doing it! As we approach this day of thanks I thought we could reflect on a biblical model of giving thanks.

In Mark 6:30-44 we find Jesus inviting the disciples into a period and place of rest. However, the crowed followed them. Instead of getting frustrated, Jesus feels compassion for these folks. So much compassion He decides to feed them.

What is interesting is that the disciples focus on what they do not have by saying “That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?” In contrast, Jesus wants to focus on what they do have by saying, ““How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” The rest of the story can only be described as miraculous. The disciples come up with five loaves of bread and two fish to feed over 5,000 people. Being the healthy eater that I am, I would definitely look at this meager offering with despair. However, Jesus gives thanks to His heavenly Father for it then tells His disciples to feed the people. Amazingly, everyone gets their fill and they have twelve baskets of left overs (thus a biblical basis for having leftovers, I always knew my mom had a good reason for cooking too much, but I digress).

In a similar way we can often look at our meager resources and think, “This cannot be enough to satisfy the overwhelming need that is out there!” We see all of the starving children in the world on television, abused kids next door, and suffering all around and feel helpless to make a difference. However, our job is not to worry about what we do not have but what we do have. If we give our gifts, time, energy, and money into building the kingdom of God the Holy Spirit will multiply our efforts. 

So, as we celebrate Thanksgiving this year let's celebrate as Christians. Christians who are thankful for what we do have and not focused on what we do not have. Christians who surrender to the Lord what little, time, talent, energy, and money that we do have. Surrendering it trusting that, while we might plant and water, God will give the increase (1 Corinthians 3). Increasing His kingdom around us so that, in looking at the sea of human need, we might experience a miracle of our own! 

All in One Lifetime!

An amazing quote by Malcolm Muggeridge:

“We look back on history and what do we see? Empires rising and falling, revolutions and counter-revolutions, wealth accumulating and wealth dispersed, one nation dominant and then another. Shakespeare speaks of ‘the rise and fall of great ones that ebb and flow with the moon.’
In one lifetime I have seen my own fellow countrymen ruling over a quarter of the world, the great majority of them convinced, in the words of what is still a favorite song, that, ‘God who’s made the mighty would make them mightier yet.’ I’ve heard a crazed, cracked Austrian proclaim to the world the establishment of a German Reich that would last a thousand years; an Italian clown announce that he would restart the calendar to begin his own assumption of power. I’ve heard a murderous Georgian brigand in the Kremlin acclaimed by the intellectual elite of the world as a wiser than Solomon, more enlightened than Ashoka, more humane than Marcus Aurelius. I’ve seen America wealthier and in terms of weaponry, more powerful than the rest of the world put together, so that Americans, had they so wished, could have outdone an Alexander or a Julius Caesar in the range and scale of their conquests. All in one little lifetime. All gone with the wind.
“England part of a tiny island off the coast of Europe, threatened with dismemberment and even bankruptcy. Hitler and Mussolini dead, remembered only in infamy. Stalin a forbidden name in the regime he helped found and dominate for some three decades. America haunted by fears of running out of those precious fluids that keep her motorways roaring, and the smog settling, with troubled memories of a disastrous campaign in Vietnam, and the victories of the Don Quixotes of the media as they charged the windmills of Watergate.
All in one lifetime, all gone. Gone with the wind.
“Behind the debris of these self-styled, sullen supermen and imperial diplomatists, there stands the gigantic figure of one person, because of whom, by whom, in whom, and through whom alone mankind might still have hope. The person of Jesus Christ.”

http://www.wordsntone.com/index.php/site/comments/who_is_jesus_the_central_question/

Club or Kingdom

1 Peter 2:9-10 says:

9 But you are a chosen people,(S) a royal priesthood,(T) a holy nation,(U) God’s special possession,(V) that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.(W) 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God;(X) once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

      One of my favorite people in the whole world is Dave Scavuzzo. One of the reasons for this is because Dave has an uncanny way of speaking the truth in such a way that it sticks. This past conference Dave was giving a sort of farewell address as District Superintendent because he has taken the role as senior pastor at Strongsville UMC. While he was talking he made the excellent observation that, "The only two human institutions that do not change are cemeteries and churches doing their best impression of one!"
     This comment received an appropriate laugh but I think Dave is on to something. Why is it that church's are so resistant to change? Why is it that many church's choose to go the way of the cemeteries rather than embrace the risk of change? Some say that is simply because change is difficult. Other's say that the whole world is changing and folks want one thing to stay the same, their church. These, and other reasons, may all have truth in them but I think there is a deeper more important issue at work here.
     I believe something deeper is at work because companies change despite the difficulties, and people are increasingly finding stability in other places (friends, family etc). The deeper issue at work is a fundamental understanding, or misunderstanding, of the nature of the church. The deepest question is not why church's doing their best impression of a graveyard? The deepest question is are church's aware that the grave of Jesus is empty!
     I mean really aware of it. Aware of the fact that Jesus is not dead but He is living, supposedly, through His church. After all Paul does not say that we are like the body of Christ or we can see our selves like the body of Christ. He said "you ARE the body of Christ," (1 Corinthians 12:27)! As the body of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords we are not meant to simply maintain a church 'club.' A club that is ran and directed by the preferences of its members. Instead, we are supposed to be a kingdom. A "chosen people royal priesthood, a holy nation" that is called to "declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light." 
     Sometimes the decision making discussions in church's scare me. It frightens me when people talk about what they want to do with 'their church.' If it is a Christian church it does not belong to the members. It belongs to JESUS CHRIST THE RISEN ONE!!!!! We are not working toward a club where everyone's preferences are met but a kingdom where the one good King rules and reigns. 
     This King's parting words to the founders of the church was not to sit in a circle and sing 'Cum By A." Instead His parting orders were to 

"go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

     If we follow the orders of our One True King we will have the great privilege of experiencing His power, grace, and purpose in or lives. More importantly, however, we will be a part of spreading a Kingdom. Not a club with the limited goal of appeasing its members. Instead a Kingdom with the eternal purpose of shining light in the darkness, hope for the hopeless, love for the loveless, and Resurrection Life for those crushed by death!

So which would you like to join, a club or The Kingdom?

William Wendell's Page

William Wendell's Page

Greetings everyone,

This Sunday Pat and I will be taking on the Warrior Dash to benefit St. Jude's hospital. If you are interested in giving a last minute donation click on the link above!

Blessings,
bill

The Least of These

In Matthew 25:40 our Lord says, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." 

I had the privilege of serving as a counselor in a camp called Royal Family Kids Camp this past week. This is a camp for children who have been abused and neglected. These children's stories bring about a combination of rage and hurt to my heart. Rage toward the person who has done these awful things and hurt for the children. In many ways these kids have been made 'the least of these' because their earthly parents have let them down.

As I am getting settled back into the work of pastoral ministry, I am looking around the landscape of the church in general and am appalled. We are so obsessed with petty politics and church turf wars that 'the least of these' go anywhere but church for acceptance, love and approval.  While the church is fighting over worship style and what color to put in the sanctuary these children never hear about their Heavenly Father who will never leave, or forsake them.

This comes into sharp focus as the church I serve engages in ministries to children, including children with special needs. The stories of parents being told that they and their 'normal children' are welcome but their 'other' child has to stay home make me sick.

My prayer for anyone reading this is that we, as the faithful church of Jesus Christ, would take our disgust for the church's behavior and turn it into energy. Energy to get over ourselves and truly serve those the world calls 'the least of these.' Not so that they can fill our coffers or pews but so that they might know the love of a God:

who did not consider His own God-ness something to be used to his own advantage;7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness.8 And being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross!
(pastor Bill translation in italics)  (Philippians 2:7-8)

May we, like Christ, empty ourselves so that 'the least of these' may be filled. Filled with the Holy Spirit by Jesus Christ with the love of their Heavenly Father. So that in the church little boys can be Kings and little girls can be Queens, clothed in His majesty!