July is here! It is time for family vacations, fun in the
sun and the 4th of July celebration.
On the 4th we there will be a lot of grilling, family, and
fireworks. I once heard someone say that we are, “celebrating the birth of our
country by blowing up a piece of it!”
But what are we celebrating on the 4th of July?
The primary emphasis of celebrating Independence Day is celebrating our
freedoms we enjoy in this great nation. Just a few of them are the freedom of
speech, assembly, and, perhaps most notably, freedom of religion. We are so
blessed to live in such a country!
As Christians we always have to remember, however, that our
greatest freedom comes in Christ. In the book of Galatians Paul reminds us
that, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.Stand
firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery,”
(5:1). Without Christ we are enslaved by our selfish desires or forces outside
our control. This Independence Day, I want us all celebrate as Christians.
Free, through Christ, not just from the guilt but the power of sin. Further,
this freedom is not meaningless. Instead we are freed so that we can do what we
can seek and live out who God has called us to be. May God bless you as you
seek to become freed son or daughter of God.
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!
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#!
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!
“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.”
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
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?
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!
