Pastor Tim

Financial: Risking Your Money

2012-02-26T20:21:00.000-08:00

Weekly Devotion – February 26, 2012 – 1st Sunday of Lent - Resources for Mission: Financial: Risking Your Money

Theme/Title: Show Me the Money.

Scripture: Deuteronomy 12: 5-6; Matthew 6: 24-33; Mark 12: 41-44 & 2 Corinthians 9: 6-8

Media:

YouTube video - poverty and wealth by KavanaghInfo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZGaR0mUE-A&feature=related

Reflection:

As we wind down our conversation about resources for accomplishing our mission we have to take a look at the subject most of us don’t like to talk about, money. The key resource we have to fulfill our mission (besides faithful people willing to make God’s dream real) is money. Money pays the bills, frees us to explore new directions and funds our efforts to boldly shape partners of God for the transformation of the world.

In case you don’t know, our Bible is chock full of references to money and wealth and instructions on how faithful people are to employ this gift from God. Deuteronomy 12 is concerned with the rituals of worship and lays out the expectation of offerings of your wealth as a major part of worship. Matthew 6: 24-33 is part of the Sermon on the Mount and focuses upon Jesus’ teachings about practical piety and contains that famous phrase “No one can serve two masters…You cannot serve God and wealth.” Mark 12 has Jesus in the Temple teaching as the end nears and has within it the story of the widow and her offering known as the “Widow’s Mite.” 2 Corinthians 9 is the conclusion of the section of this letter from Paul about the relief collection for Jerusalem and reminds us all that “God loves a cheerful giver.” This is just a sampling of what the Bible has to say about wealth. But it can be safely said that there is a constant theme running through them all, those who have are to give, not because it’s required but because we want to respond to the generous gifts of God we have received by sharing them and it is one way to participate in the bringing about the Kingdom of God.

Giving is a spiritual matter. It is listed among the fruits of the spirits and spiritual gifts. Generosity is a mark of faithful living and a hoped for way of faithfully responding to the gifts of God one receives. How you utilize the wealth you have is a visible indicator of your values and shows what you truly believe in. We are amazingly generous in this church and because of that generosity we are doing a lot to bring about the Kingdom of God. But if we are to have an even more dramatic and significant impact on the world, transforming it and doing so as partners with God, then we need to create and find projects and programs to fund that will emphasize inclusion, bring hope, protect and preserve the environment and make a sizable dent in the causes and the results of poverty. We need to sow abundantly so that we can reap abundantly.

Meditation:

Look over your checkbook and bill pay printout. What do you spend your money on? When you have funds not committed to the fixed expenses of life what do you do with them? How have you seen generous giving making a difference in the world? What stops you from giving more to programs and projects that are making a difference in our world?

Prayer:

Thank God for the wealth you have and the opportunity God gives you to steward that wealth. Ask God to give you wisdom and courage to use your wealth in ways that make a difference in our world. Seek God’s advice on how our church can best use the wealth we have to bring God’s dream to fruition.

Can I Get a Witness

2012-02-20T21:29:00.000-08:00

Weekly Devotion – February 19, 2012 – Resources for Mission

Witnessing: Risking Your Reputation

Theme/Title: “Can I Get a Witness?”

Scripture: Luke 24: 44-49; Acts 1: 6-8 & Acts 4: 1-4

Media:

YouTube “Practice what you preach” by cooltonetheman1

Reflection:

“Can you practice what you preach?” the Black Eyed Peas sing. Are you willing to risk your reputation, your good name, your comfort? You see we have to share the story of God’s grace and love if we truly want to boldly shape partners of God for the transformation of the world. There isn’t any other way to accomplish our mission and reach our goals. We are God’s witnesses to Hayhurst, Portland, the United States and the entire world. Christ commissions us to this work. And we are either witnesses in the legal sense – sharing what we know as truth to a world with God on trial – or in the evangelism sense – showing God to the world through what we say and do and how we live out our faith in our daily lives. Either way we are sharing the story of our faith and our relationship with God so that others can come to know God too. Either way we are risking ourselves.

In the past couple of decades I have been embarrassed to be known as a Christian because of the bad images and connotations associated with that word. Think about it… televangelists stealing money, predominate pastors having drug induced orgies, Catholic priests sexually abusing children, right to life people bombing clinics and killing doctors, creationists pushing Intelligent Design as a reasonable theory for creation, and advocates for war in the Middle East who say it is what needs to happen to bring about the Second Coming of Christ. I have hid my faith from public awareness because I didn’t want to be lumped in with these abuses of Christianity. But in hiding I have abdicated the meaning of faithful living to the radical fringe and left people believing that this is what it means to be a faithful child of God.

I have sinned because I have done this. I have allowed a false teaching to perpetuate. I now confess my sin and know that speaking my story, sharing what I believe and why are critical to the realization of God’s dream for creation. People need to know God and they can only begin to know God through my introducing them to God. I must boldly stand before the world and proclaim the grace and love of God for all people. I must offer others the space, time, experiences and opportunities to encounter God and I must help them as they too begin to practice what they preach. When faithful people like you and me share what we know of God’s grace and love we begin to transform this world.

Meditation:

Reread the above paragraph. Can you see yourself as the “I” in what it says? When has someone shared God’s grace and love with you? Have you ever shared your story of your relationship with God with anyone else? How have you helped the world to know God?

Prayer:

Offer a pray of thanksgiving for those who have the strength and will to share God with others. Thank God for those who have shared their faith with you. Ask God to empower you so that you can share your experience of God with others. Seek God’s guidance for yourself and for our church as we move ahead in our efforts to boldly shape partners of God for the transformation of the world.

Prayers and Presences – Risking Your Time

2012-02-12T14:40:00.000-08:00

Week of February 12, 2012

Resources for Mission: Prayers and Presences – Risking Your Time

Theme/Title: Prayer Power and Being Present

Scripture: Mark 11: 22-25; James 5: 13-16 & Acts 2: 43-47

Media: YouTube “God help the outcasts”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESVAexpA1Wc

Reflection:

Jesus in Mark’s gospel and James in his letter both are trying to tell us something about prayer. It is critical to our lives of faith and it is indispensable as a community. How can we achieve our mission objective of boldly shaping partners of God for the transformation of the world? By employing all the tools and resources we have and among these is prayer. Esmeralda in Disney’s “Hunchback” finds herself in the cathedral of Notre Dame and she is moved to speak to God. She prays a prayer that picks up so much of what prayer is about. A conversation with God about what’s most important in life. An important aspect of this prayer is its focus on the needs of others.

Prayer is central to our life of faith and our life as a community of faith. James attests to this in our passage this week. Prayer is one of the most powerful and effective tools we have in our effort to be all God wants and needs us to be. We pray for strength to do what needs doing, for guidance to know what we are to do, for inspiration to keep ourselves going, for forgiveness when we miss the mark, and offer thanks for all that we are blessed with. We pray for others that they may find their way, that they may be healed and comforted, that their needs might be met, and that they might experience a deeper relationship with God. Through prayer we call God’s attention to what we feel is vital and important in our lives and the lives of others and seek God’s insight and inspiration for living out our faith and accomplishing our mission.

Because we believe in God, because we are part of the Christian faith, because we know God’s heart and the values of our faith tradition we understand the critical nature of being present. But this presence is so much more than just being physically in a place. When we are present as people of faith we are present physically, mentally, spiritually and psychologically and we are involved in this holistic way in the events, programs, ministries and worship experiences of our community. But presence also means being present wherever we are as God’s representatives. Living the life of faith you cannot “take off” your faithfulness, you’re partnering with God, when you don’t feel like being a partner it doesn’t work like that. Being God’s partner is 24/7. The world needs us to be present so that God can be present so that the world may be transformed. Risk your time – God and the world need it!

Meditation:

Have you experienced the power of prayer in your life? Have you known of a time when your prayers made a difference for someone else? When do you feel most connected to God? How do you understand prayer and how do you use prayer? Has there been a time in your life when being with other faithful people helped you? Has anyone ever shared that having your presence with them made a difference?

Prayer:

Sit in silence for a few minutes and listen to what God might be saying. Pray for those who need your prayers. Pray for yourself. Ask God to give you strength to be the presence needed in your family, work place, school and world. Commit to being present whenever you can in all the ways you can.

Resources for Mission: Talents & Skills Risking Who You Are

2012-02-05T19:28:00.000-08:00

Weekly Devotion – February 5, 2012 – Resources for Mission: Talents & Skills Risking Who You Are

Theme/Title: B.Y.O.T. S. – Bring Your Own Talents and Skills

Scripture: Exodus 35: 10-19 & 36: 2-3a; 1 Corinthians 12: 12-21; John 6: 1-14;

Media: YouTube video EDS "Airplane" by AFallGuy4u

Reflection:

All my life I wished that I were more talented, more gifted, and more skilled. I am not very good at a lot of things. I am not a good singer, I never played the guitar. I can’t paint a picture or rebuild a car. I don’t play piano and I sure can’t dance. My grades were so-so and reading came hard. I have always been overweight and my athletic ability is mediocre at best. All in all I feel somewhat inadequate and wonder how what I have to offer matters.

I don’t write this to get your sympathy nor to get you to shower me with praise. I’m trying to show that we often don’t see our own gifts. The truth is we all have gifts and talents and abilities some have more than others, some are extremely gifted but no matter the level we all have something unique to bring to our role as partners of God. A master builder cannot build a cathedral by him or herself. The master builder need stone masons and laborers and carpenters and blacksmiths and a host of others to complete the task. Each one must bring their talents and skills and abilities to the job in order to see it through.

Our mission is to build a better world, to transform it into the creation of God’s dream. We are pooling our skills, talents, resources and abilities together as we partner with God to shape others and ourselves into the bold people God needs for things to get better. Whatever I am and whatever I can do and whatever I can access is what God needs me to bring to the build. God is asking me to risk what I am and what I have and who I know so that my meager resources can be pooled with those of others and soon we will have more than we can use to build the tabernacle. But first I must be willing to risk who I am, offering myself without pause or reservation, willing to put all my trust in God.

We have to be like that man in Tiananmen Square who stood in front of the tanks holding his shopping bags and stopping them in their tracks. He didn’t raise an army. He wasn’t a charismatic leader. He didn’t offer motivating oration. He simply did what he could with what he had. He risked himself and did more to affect the world then all the speeches and marches. This is what God asks of us as we work to boldly shape partners of God for the transformation of the world.

Meditation:

Think about a time when you worked with others to accomplish a task that you could not have done alone. What did it feel like? Remember a time when you were trying to accomplish something but you didn’t have what was needed to finish the job. What did that feel like? How did you complete the task? Have you ever had to risk yourself in order to do what was right?

Prayer:

Pray for those who risk themselves. Ask God to give you the strength and courage to risk yourself. Pray that when the time comes you will offer your skills, talents and abilities in order partner with God and transform the world.

Resources for Mission: Goals and Benchmarks

2012-01-31T20:05:00.000-08:00

Weekly Devotion – January 29, 2012 – Resources for Mission: Goals and Benchmarks

Theme/Title: The Finish Line is Where?

Scripture: Luke 14: 25-30; Luke 6: 46-49 & Luke 8: 1-3;

Media: Vulture scene from Disney’s “Jungle Book”

Reflection:

I am a bit of a handyman or at least I can do small projects and remodeling around my house. Before I begin a job I assemble the tools and materials I have that will help me complete the project. In fact, the tools and materials help me determine if the project is one I can accomplish because if I don’t have the right tools or materials I cannot do the job.

Among the tools and materials we need to accomplish our mission of boldly shaping partners of God for the transformation of the world are money, talents, prayers, presence, witness and goals. Goals and their accompanying benchmarks are key to the completion of our task as they give us landmarks on our journey to achieving God’s dream.

As I have already said, I believe that VHUMC and its people are uniquely positioned to address four key issues of our community and world: inclusion, poverty, the environmental crisis, and the need for hope. We have strengths in these areas. We have a proven track record in these efforts. We have people committed to addressing these concerns both locally and globally. With strengths and passion we have a step up in determining goals and setting benchmarks. Our goals for realizing our mission must grow out of what we do well and what we are passionate about if we have any hope of success.

Think about yourself. What do you already do, support, and advocate for, that addresses the four areas mentioned? What do you already have a passion for, commitment to and desire to achieve that is included in the four areas listed? What do you bring to the table as we begin the process of setting goals and deciding benchmarks that will guide us in our effort to achieve God’s mission for our lives and community? We cannot carry out our mission if we don’t have your work, your passion, your resources and your commitment to realizing the goals that will guide us in boldly shaping partners of God for the transformation of the world.

Any chance of success for any effort takes some vision, some planning, some idea of what will be needed and the resources necessary to complete the task. We have the vision in our mission from God. We have the idea of what we need to do. Now we must pull together the resources so that we don’t get a half laid foundation or wage a battle without troops enough to win. We want to build our effort on the rock so that nothing can sweep it away. And we need people to step up and provide out of their resources for the accomplishment of the work.

Meditation:

What do you do and do well? What are you passionate about that addresses God’s mission? What tools and resources do you bring that will help in setting goals and creating benchmarks for our task? What goals should we set? How will we measure our efforts at meeting them?

Prayer:

Thank God for the passion you have. Praise God for the things you do and do well. Ask God to help you discern how you can apply your resources and passions to our mission. Ask God to reveal the goals and benchmarks needed for our community to realize God’s mission.

Goals to help us do the “How”

2012-01-24T08:31:00.000-08:00

Weekly Devotion – January 22, 2012 – Goals to help us do the “How”

Theme/Title: Keep Your Eyes on the Prize!

Scripture: Philippians 3: 12-16 & Mark 12: 28-31

Media: YouTube video David Summerford “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize”

Reflection:

I have a hard time with goals. Not with setting them or seeing their value and importance. The problem I have with goals is that I do such a poor job of achieving them. I allow myself to get distracted or I don’t keep the ultimate goal in mind.

Often my struggle with goals is twofold: I either do not have a clear end result identified or I haven’t recognized the benchmarks along the way. Goals are fine, but if the ultimate prize isn’t very well defined or understood then no matter the goals they will not be achieved in any meaningful way. If the end result is clear and goals are set I still can’t accomplish my mission if I don’t have clear, specific and reasonable benchmarks to measure my progress.

A goal is the purpose toward which an endeavor is directed; an objective. A benchmark is a standard by which something can be measured or judged and is used to determine if a goal is being reached.

In setting goals and benchmarks you have to keep a couple things in mind. One is that playing to your strengths and your preferences will help and the other is being clear about the what and the how of reaching the goal. In addition you have to be willing to compromise all else in your effort to complete the mission, subjugating other wants, needs and desires to the ultimate achievement of benchmarks and goals. Add to this a clear understanding of what your resources are and the passions that drive you and allowing them to influence the goals and benchmarks you set.

Loving God with all you are and loving your neighbor are goals for the mission God has given us. But what are the benchmarks? In the Gospel of Luke the Great Commandments section is followed by the Parable of the Good Samaritan which is Jesus’ answer to the question “who is my neighbor?” which is the setting of a benchmark for the goal of loving your neighbor. Our benchmarks might be different. But they will all serve as a standard by which our loving can be measured or judged and used to determine if the goal is being reached.

What do you think the goals and accompanying benchmarks should be for our church? What are the areas or ministries we have a passion for? Where can our skills, talents and resources best be used to complete God’s mission?

Meditation:

What is the one issue you are most passionate about? What are your strengths, passions, skills, talents and resources? What ministries would they be most useful in?

Prayer:

Thank God for your skills, talents, resources and passions. Ask God to reveal to you the places you should be in ministry. Ask God to reveal to you or someone else the ministries our church should be about.

How? Ending Poverty

2012-01-24T08:27:00.000-08:00

Weekly Devotion – January 15, 2012 – How? Ending Poverty

Theme/Title: The Simple Fix – Eliminate Poverty

Scripture: Psalm 10; Isaiah 58: 6-8 and Luke 1: 46-55

Media: YouTube video “Sermon @ the 51st Annual Prayer Breakfast” by WildxFlower,

Reflection:

So now we get to the final area that the church can really have an impact on, poverty. We have been working at this for centuries. In fact, the very first churches struggled with how to feed the widows and poor and Paul even took up a collection among the Gentile churches for this need in Jerusalem.

The United Methodist Church has programs to feed the hungry in countries all over the world. We have programs to teach farming techniques, sustainable practices, irrigation programs, animal husbandry; we offer programs in food storage and preparation. We also do things to address poverty like micro loans and house businesses. We try to take donated funds and spend them in country to help with local economies. We are providing health care, vaccines and nets to fight malaria. We really are invested in addressing poverty as a denomination.

As a local church we collect food and household items for FISH. We collect money and food stuff for Neighborhood House’s Emergency Food Box Program. We drive Meals on Wheels and serve Loaves and Fishes. We volunteer at the Oregon Food Bank and on Habitat builds. We support the SW Health Clinic and many of our people volunteer there. We really do a lot to address poverty.

But still it is a problem. The 2010 US Census found that more people than ever are poor in this country. Famine is raging over parts of Africa. Floods have wiped out crops in Pakistan and the poor are bearing the brunt of the loss. The statistics prove the adage that the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer and those of us in between are getting to be a smaller and smaller number. But hope is not lost. People still give. People still care. And with celebrities like Sean Penn, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Bono and billionaires like Bill and Malinda Gates and Warren Buffet stepping up there is some traction being gained. But until the richest nations invest substantial dollars, time and resources into addressing the root cause of poverty the problem will persist.

And for people of faith who are boldly shaping partners of God for the transformation of the world we must see addressing poverty and its root causes as a spiritual matter and not just a political or humanitarian one. Poverty is a symptom of spiritual anemia as John Wesley knew and pointed out. His challenge to faithful people is famous: “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, as long as ever you can.” What more needs to be said?

Meditation:

Remember a time you helped address poverty by helping with a program or project. Call to mind a time when you found yourself judging someone less fortunate for their choices. Identify something you feel passionate about that will address poverty and its root causes.

Prayer:

Pray for the poor and those who work tirelessly to help the poor and address poverty’s root causes. Offer thanksgiving for people of wealth, fame and status who give and work to make poverty history. Pray for strength and wisdom to invest yourself in the fight to end poverty. Ask God to help you live simply so that other can simply live.

How? Cleaning up and Caring for God’s Creation

2012-01-24T08:21:00.000-08:00

Weekly Devotion – January 8, 2012 – How? Cleaning up and Caring for God’s Creation

Scripture: Genesis 1:1 – 2:4 & Mark 13: 32-37;

Media: YouTube video “The Crying Indian – Keep America Beautiful”

Reflection:

I remember seeing the commercial of a Native American paddling a canoe and finding pollution everywhere. The commercial ends with a bag of garbage landing at his feet and a tear running down his cheek. Powerful! It is one of the iconic images of my youth and still causes me to pause and reflection on what it is we are doing to planet earth.

There is a saying, “Live simply so that others can simply live.” And it is a statement of truth, justice and challenge for us all. Gone are the days when we could just pretend that what we did to the environment didn’t impact us or others. We all know how something we buy here is a product of manufacturing and mining and transportation and how all these steps contribute to the health or lack of it for our environment. We know that the metaphor of the butterfly flapping its wings is true – the cutting of a tree in Brazil does affect the air quality and temperature in Texas.

Recycling is an act of faith. Community Supported Agriculture is a spiritual discipline. Buying less and reusing more is a witness. Energy efficiency is a testament of your beliefs. What you buy shows what you believe. Caring for this creation is an act of everyday justice it brings hope to others and shows acceptance of the basic fact that we all are in the same boat, we all are equal because the sun shines on us all, water is life to us all and what we do to the air and water we do to ourselves.

To boldly shape partners of God for the transformation of the world we must do all we can to protect, restore and revitalize creation. Our actions show others the way and bold actions are seen more clearly. By partnering with God as co-creators we take our task of stewarding creation to heart and it deepens our relationship with God, ourselves and others. When we practice what we preach and are a community that shows its care for creation we take steps to transform the world.

Meditation:

How do you participate in caring for creation? How do you see yourself in the web, the circle of life? When have you been a restorer of creation and how did it feel? When have you witnessed the destruction of creation? When have you participated in it? Who has helped you claim your role as steward of God’s creation and how did they do that?

Prayer:

Thank God for the wonders of this creation. Praise God for all that creations gives to you. Hold up to God those who work to make this earth healthy and whole. Ask God to help you be the steward, the partner, God needs to insure the health and vitality of earth. Seek God’s forgiveness for those times and ways you have not cared for creation as you ought. Thank God for letting you be a witness to living simply.

Our Commitment to the Mission

2012-01-03T10:36:00.000-08:00

Week of January 1, 2012 – New Year Renewed Commitment

Theme/Title: Our Commitment to the Mission

Scripture: Genesis 22: 15-18; 2 Kings 23: 1-3; Jeremiah 31: 31-34; Matthew 25: 31-40

Media: YouTube video “Bono Prayer Speech” by Jborn4christ

Reflections:

Happy New Year! Once again we begin a new year, a new opportunity to do things differently and to be different. We make resolutions and seriously expect that we will work at keeping them. All is positive expectations about what is to come. We do have our nagging thoughts about all that bothered us in the old year. We know that most of what was will continue to be. And we aren’t naive enough to believe that all changes just because it is 2012. We also take it with a grain of salt what the doomsayers and predictors of the coming end are saying. But still it is a new year and an opportunity to try and get it right.

One thing we in the church have is a way to move beyond the past and into a future that is better, we have confession and forgiveness; we have grace. As those who know God and God’s grace we know that tomorrow can be better than today and that today can be better than yesterday. And because of this knowledge and belief we make a promise to God and the universe. We enter into a covenant, a pledge, a promise that this day and this year will be better for all God’s children and all God’s creation, that we will do what we can to make this so and that we will move beyond our own selfish wants and needs toward meeting the wants and needs of God’s children throughout the world.

We say, like St Francis and John Wesley and so many others, “Not my will but thine be done.” We ask God to help us be whatever it is God needs us to be and then to help us move beyond ourselves so that we can be what it is God needs us to be; what the world needs us to be. We covenant and our strong conviction is that we will fulfill that covenant knowing that God always fulfills God’s part – to grant us grace, to accept and love us and to be with us no matter what we face.

May we all say with honest conviction and wholehearted enthusiasm “O glorious and blessed God…thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it. And the covenant which I make on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.”

Meditation:

Standing before God, perhaps at night under the stars, reflect on the year past. Remember all the times you knew God’s grace. Call to mind the times when you helped to make the world a better place. Celebrate those times. Dredge up those times when you gave in to your own wants and needs, when you didn’t care about the world and making it better. Bear in mind that God has already forgiven you, now forgive yourself.

Prayer:

Thank God for the year past. Praise God for the moments of grace you experienced. Thank God for the good you did and the blessings you gave others. Claim the forgiveness God has already granted you for those failures and missteps of the year past. Ask God to give you strength and focus in the year ahead so that you can honestly fulfill your covenant to follow and do God’s will.

The Symbol of Our Mission - Christmas

2011-12-27T21:41:00.000-08:00

Week of December 25, 2011 – Christmas

Theme/Title: The Symbol of Our Mission - Christmas

Scripture: Luke 2: 1-20; Isaiah 9: 1-7

Media: The final scene from " The Fourth Wise Man"

Reflection:

C.S. Lewis wrote a poem entitled “The Nativity.” I think it is a good one to read and reflect on this Christmas.

THE NATIVITY

Among the oxen (like an ox I’m slow)
I see a glory in the stable grow
Which, with the ox’s dullness might at length
Give me an ox’s strength.

Among the asses (stubborn I as they)
I see my Saviour where I looked for hay;
So may my beastlike folly learn at least
The patience of a beast.

Among the sheep (I like a sheep have strayed)
I watch the manger where my Lord is laid;
Oh that my baa-ing nature would win thence
Some woolly innocence

My favorite song of Christmas is “Do You Hear What I Hear?” When I listen to or sing it I find that I have connected somehow to the real meaning and significance of Christmas. It ends with the line “The child, the child sleeping in the night, he will bring us goodness and light.” It makes me aware that the message of Christmas is that goodness and light have come to our world. It also makes me aware that the world will really only know of this goodness and light if I share it with them. The world will be God’s dream when all people know goodness and live in the light. This is when the world will be transformed and people will be shaped and molded into partners of God. So pray for peace people everywhere and have a very Merry Christmas!

Meditation: How has Christmas shaped you? Do you remember a Christmas where you didn’t get much but it was a great Christmas? What made it so? How is Christmas a symbol of our mission to boldly shape partners of God for the transformation of the world?

Prayer: Pray for children everywhere but especially those who will not know a Christmas that is anything like the one you will have. Pray for peace. Pray that all people will find hope and love and know joy. Pray that you will be open to the spirit as it seeks to lead you forward in a life of faithful living.

Celebrating the Incarnation

2011-12-27T21:29:00.000-08:00

Week of December 18, 2011 – (Joy Sunday of Advent)

Theme/Title: Celebrating the Incarnation

Scripture: John 1: 1-5, 14 & 16-18; Luke 1: 26-38; Matthew 1: 18-25;

Reflections: Incarnation – the central Christian doctrine that God became man in the form of Jesus, the son of God and the second person of the Holy Trinity. In Jesus the divine and human nature are joined but neither is changed or diminished. This difficult doctrine gave rise to a variety of heresies, some denying Jesus' divine nature, others his human nature. For orthodox believers the conflict was settled at the Councils of Nicaea (AD 325) and Chalcedon (AD 451).

What does it mean to believe that God was/is incarnate in a human being? Why would this be a central Christian doctrine? You can go to thousands of websites, read hundreds of books and talk to many different pastors and theologians and get so many and varied answers to these questions. But what seems most important to me is the idea that God became human, became like you and me. Why did God do this? I believe because God wanted to know what it was like to be human; God was trying to understand all the various emotions, desires and beliefs that we humans have and how they affect the choices we make and the things we do. God is all knowing (omniscient) but knowing isn’t always understanding and I believe God sought to understand God’s human creations. There is no better way to understand another then by walking in their shoes therefore the Incarnation!

God also needed to show us that we could do it, that we could live as God wants us to live and do as God wants us to do. God needed to be sure that God’s creatures had the stuff to be able to live in such a way as to make the universe over into God’s dream for creation. Jesus is our sample, our mold, our way of knowing how we can and ought to live so that God’s kingdom can come and God’s will be done.

And so, as God had done before, a message arrives with a messenger only instead of an angel or a prophet, a burning bush or cloud of smoke and pillar of fire, a still small voice or a thundering earthquake God comes as a baby, born to a teenage mom in a stable in a backwater town. God comes to show us the way, to teach us about love and to call us to the task of being beloved Children of God – loving and serving – witnessing – practicing what we preach and putting faith into action – caring for the least and lost – working to change the world into God’s intent for creation.

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” Isaiah 9:6-7 (KJV)

Meditation:

What does it mean for God to know what it feels like to be human – to know our emotions and desires and ways first hand? When has the Incarnation had meaning to you? Why then? Is it meaningful to you now?

Prayer:

Thank God for coming to us and experiencing human life first hand. Ask God to help you move on to perfection so you might be as Jesus was and is. Pray that others will know God and Christ and find in this relationship hope, peace, joy and love.

Hope: What the World Seeks Now

2011-12-13T09:26:00.000-08:00

Week of December 11, 2011 – How? Offering Hope (Hope Sunday of Advent)

Theme/Title: Hope: What the world seeks now
Scripture: Psalm 62: 5-8; Psalm 130: 1-8; Romans 5: 1-5 & Luke 24: 44-48

Media:

“Doing the Right Thing” Liberty Mutual ad on YouTube

Reflection:

I believe that a lot of what ails our culture, world and its people can be boiled down to one thing, hope. More accurately it is the feeling of hopelessness that seems to permeate life for a lot of people on this planet. I can only speculate about other cultures but I know for a fact that here in these United States we suffering greatly from a sense of despondency, of hopelessness. The economy, the ongoing wars, the debt crisis, unemployment, loss of retirement funds, loss of employee benefits, the lack of compromise and solutions to our problems that is coming from our political leaders, etc gives rise to the belief that from here on out life will be just a bit tougher; that the future will not be as optimistic and bright as it has seemed for past generations.

Part of the hopelessness people experience is due to what is known as “a hole in the soul.” Religious people talk about this as the place of God in a person’s life and if you don’t have a real and vital relationship with God then there is a hole in you that aches to be filled. AA programs talk about a “Higher Power,” self-help gurus preach about finding inner peace, life coaches advocate discovering your strengths and developing self-confidence. They all are speaking about filling this hole in the soul and what they hint at is what we know – get God and hope comes. Many try to fill this hole with drugs or food or sex or shopping. Some are overcome by it and sink into depression. Some feel so out of sorts that they lash out, abusing others or hurting themselves. While there are other causes for some of these reactions hopelessness plays its part.

At this time of Advent – of awaiting the coming of God into our lives and world – it seems appropriate that the church, the place of hope, speak and act in ways that help the “hole-y” ones find the Holy One. We are the ones on this planet that know where hope comes from and the value of filling the hole in your soul with meaningful relationships based upon faith in the one God whose grace and love are for everyone and sufficient to provide all people hope. We sing about Jesus being the hope of the world. We pray to the God of all hope. We look forward to a world better than the present one, we hope for the kingdom of God. Hope defines us and motivates us. It is who we are and what we are about – bringing hope, light, love, grace, help into the places that are hopeless, dark, hateful, diseased and suffering. If there is no other issue the church is uniquely positioned to address hope is the one.

And where do we find hope, we find it in a community of faith that believes in grace and love, which lives hope and believes hope. Hopefulness comes from meaningful and deep relationships with faithful people and with God. The hole in our souls is filled to overflowing and it is part of our vocation to pour that hope upon the world.

Meditation: Remember a time when you felt hopeless and how you found hope. Reflect on a time when you brought hope to someone else. Meditate on a time when you felt God in your life and the hope that came from that encounter. Ponder the world and the places and situations that are hot beds of hopelessness and ways to being hope to them.

Prayer: Pray for hope for the world. Ask God to let you and the church be beacons of hope for the world. Pray for those who are hopeless that they might find hope. Ask God to shower down upon this earth hope and healing.

Who Belongs?

2011-12-06T19:33:00.000-08:00

Week of December 4, 2011 – How? Addressing Inclusion (Peace Sunday of Advent)

Theme/Title: "Who Belongs?"

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 10: 31-33 & Matthew 15: 21-28

Media:

YouTube video Radical Face 'Welcome Home' by thebreadcrumbtrail

Reflection:

Since the beginning the church of Jesus Christ has had to wrestle with the issue of inclusiveness - who belongs, who is acceptable, what is required for participation and salvation? Paul struggled with this issue when it came to allowing Gentiles to be Christians without needing to be Jewish too. He also struggled with the distinctions between rich and poor, slave and free, women and men and gifts of the spirit that were all being used in churches to segregate and create categories of who is more and less acceptable.

A lot has changed over the centuries with the doors of the church and society opening wider and wider to include and accept more and diverse people. But still this issue of who belongs, who is acceptable, what is required for participation and salvation runs through Christ’s church and our culture. I think God, Jesus, Paul and millions of others over 2000 years have made it pretty clear that everyone belongs and that the church exists for one primary purpose – to help people know God. The church isn’t about correct belief. It is about knowing God, helping others to know God and caring for others so that they can get to a place where they can know God. It is about living as God wants us to live. When we throw up barriers, limit who it is that can be a part of the church or society we keep people from knowing God – we violate our primary reason for being.

This second week of Advent we are using the word “peace.” To be fully included in the life of a faith community, to know God and to be surrounded by people who care for you, nurture you and support you brings peace to you and your life. Living in peace is living in a state of harmony with yourself, others, creation and God. Being a part of a community of faith assists you in living in this way. We cannot keep others out nor can we make it restrictive or difficult for those outside to come in. We are God’s hosts and the church community is God’s home and we are charged with the task of welcoming all people!

If you believe that the grace of God is real and that the love of God is real then you have to believe that God wants, needs and expects God’s home to be a place of welcome and peace for all people. There are no restrictions. Even Jesus needed to be reminded of this when he encounter that Canaanite woman whose daughter had a demon. Peace will come to our lives and world when those who are faithful children of God begin to practice what God desires for all – inclusion, welcome, a place at the table and a room in God’s home.

Meditation: When have you been excluded from somewhere or something? How did it feel? What examples can you think of that show inclusion or exclusion? What does it mean to live in harmony; to live in peace? When have you practiced the art of inclusion – hospitality?

Prayer: Thank God for all those moments in your life where you felt included. Thank God for those who have worked so hard to build an inclusive world and church. Pray for those who still are or feel excluded from society and the church. Ask God to help you and our church be a haven of blessing and place of peace for all people.

How? How do we accomplish the mission?

2011-12-06T19:26:00.000-08:00

Week of November 27, 2011: How do we accomplish this mission? [Love Sunday of Advent]

Theme/Title: "How? How do we accomplish the mission?"

Scripture: Galatians 3: 28; Jeremiah 29: 11-13; Genesis 1: 24-27 & Isaiah 58: 5-11

Media:

YouTube video “inclusion is belonging” by TorrieatKIT

YouTube video Jack Johnson – Hope by Jack Johnson

YouTube video “The Crying Indian – full commercial – Keep America Beautiful”,

YouTube Video “Poverty – PSA” by nuitsdelapleinelune

Reflection: This week we enter the season of Advent, a time of preparation and reflection. Each week of Advent has a traditional theme that reveals an aspect of the season. This week we use the word “Love.” What does it mean to prepare our hearts and minds and spirit for the coming of God in a baby – for the Incarnation? How do we understand “love” in the context of Advent, our mission to boldly shape partners of God for the transformation of the world, and as we seek to discover how we will transform the world?

Love in this context is a verb – it is the “how” questions answered. Love is what we do and how we do it in our effort to transform the world. There are four issues or needs that VHUMC and its faithful are uniquely positioned to effectively address in our community and world: inclusion, hope, the environment and poverty.

Love is including everyone in the entire life of our community and it is seeing that every person in our society and world has their basic rights protected and that they can live up to their fullest potential. Love is helping others find reasons and ways to hope and be hopeful about the present and the future. Love is healing our earth and working to see that this creation continues to thrive and support life for millenniums to come. Love is caring for the basic needs of people everywhere and addressing the causes of poverty and eliminating them.

You and VHUMC already love in these ways – maybe not fully or passionately – and we need to be more and do more if the world is to be transformed. Some are passionate about these issues but not sure how to put that passion to work. Some want to do more but are unsure it will make a difference. And some feel like they are bashing their heads against the wall and getting nowhere. Which are you? It is time we combined our efforts, join forces and take what we already do and crank it up. “What the world needs now is love, sweet love, no not just for some but for everyone!” It’s time to show the love, be the love and to witness to the love.

Meditation: What are you most passionate about? What issue or need are you most fired up about? What are you already doing to include others, to heal the environment, to bring hope and to end poverty?

Prayer: Pray for those who suffer most from hopelessness, exclusion, poverty and the damaged environment. Celebrate the places and ways you are already addressing these needs. Pray for those who work to attend to these issues. Ask God to reveal to you how VHUMC can tackle these issues to transform the world.

What are we to be about?

2011-12-06T19:02:00.000-08:00

Week of November 20, 2011: Boldly Shaping Partners of God for the Transformation of the World

Theme/Title: "What are we to be about?"

Scripture: Matthew 25: 31-40; Acts 1: 6-8 and Revelation 21: 1-5a

Media:

YouTube video – USA for Africa – We Are the World (Official Video) by USAforAfricaVEVO

Reflection:

It’s time for you to make a choice. We’ve been exploring Biblical values, looking at why a mission is important, traveling through the various meanings and possible implications of a mission to boldly shape partners of God for the transformation of the world and we have arrived at the moment of truth. Do you agree with this mission? Will you adopt it as your own and do all you can to accomplish it?

I cannot be clearer about what it is I hear God calling us to be and do. I cannot write, speak, or share anything new about this mission. I firmly and wholehearted believe that God is calling me and this church and the church to this mission. I believe that in order for the world to address its problems and resolve its issues faithful people must embark upon this mission. We cannot wait until tomorrow. We cannot pause and want to study it more. We cannot withhold our efforts, our resources and yourselves any longer. The world needs us now, right now.

It’s time to step up and claim your place in God’s universe. We cannot wait for someone else to step forward. If we delay we risk waiting too long and the results will be disastrous. I have faith that somehow things will work out but they cannot if people of faith will not do what we can to make the world over into what God has intended it to be.

Meditation & Prayer: What do you think is the mission God has for you, for our church and for the church? Meditate on all that has been written, said and shared over the last nine weeks. What comes from all this? Reflect on and pray the words to the song “From a Distance” written by Julie Gold and best known I think as sung by Bette Midler:

From a distance
The world looks blue and green
And the snow capped mountains white
From a distance
The ocean meets the stream
And the eagle takes to flight

From a distance
There is harmony
And it echoes through the land
Its the voice of hope
Its the voice of peace
Its the voice of every man

From a distance
We all have enough
And no one is in need
And there are no guns, no bombs and no disease
No hungry mouths to feed
From a Distance
We are instruments
Marching in a common band
Playing songs of hope
Playing songs of peace
They are the songs of every man

God is watching us
God is watching us
God is watching us
From a distance

From a distance
You look like my friend
Even though we are at war
From a distance
I just cannot comprehend
What all this fighting is for
From a distance
There is harmony
And it echoes through the land
And its the hope of hopes
Its the love of loves
Its the heart of every man

The Whole Kit and Caboodle

2011-12-06T18:47:00.000-08:00

Weekly Devotion - November 13, 2011: Boldly Shaping Partners of God for the Transformation of the World

Theme/Title: "The Whole Kit and Caboodle"

Scripture: 1 Samuel 2: 7-8; Psalm 24: 1-6; John 3: 16-17; Romans 12; 1-21;

Media:

YouTube video: “We Are All Humans of Planet Earth (Song)” by ZiYuFilms

Reflection:

“For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and on them he has set the world.” “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world and those who live in it; for he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers.” Creation, the universe, the world, the earth; they are God’s and God’s handiwork. What is comes from what God has done. But it hasn’t turned out the way God intended.

God created the world and then God placed within it humankind. God did this because God wanted to have a partner, someone to be in a deep, intimate and life-giving relationship with. In order to have this be a reality God had to give humankind freedom – freedom to choose to be in a relationship with God or to choose not to be in that relationship. God had to set us free in order to see if we would return and do so of our own free will and choosing. This is all well and good except that we humans make choices and then change our minds and then do things we regret and then try to get back into the relationship we turned down often without changing the habits or behaviors that caused problems for the relationship in the first place.

God’s intention for the world has run up against the results of human choices and freedom and the world and its inhabitants (human and otherwise) are suffering for it. But when people realize that a relationship with God fills the void they have in life, when they enter into a deep and intimate relationship with God they see the world that is and they come to know the world God intends and they see the disconnect. The faithful also know that things can change.

“For God so loved the World that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3: 16-17 NRSV)

In Romans 12 Paul spells out how citizens of God’s world are to live while being sojourners in the world that is. He summarizes the entire chapter in one sentence: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Transforming the world begins when we start overcoming evil with good. Living as the people of God is living in such a way as to help creation move in the direction of God’s intention for it. The world is God’s, we are God’s children and if we truly want to live in the world God created we must strive to change the present course of human existence so that the universe may once again align with God’s intentions.

Meditation: Where have you struggled with being a citizen of God’s kingdom and a sojourner in the world that is? What does it mean to have a deep and intimate relationship with God? What choices have you made that have either pushed the world away from God’s intentions for it or helped to realign it with those intentions?

Prayer: Ask God to forgive you for those times and actions that pushed the world away from God. Ask God to forgive others who have done the same thing. Pray that all God’s people will find their way to God. Pray that the faithful will join efforts to realign the world with God. Thank God for those who are working on this realignment.

Transformers

2011-12-06T18:36:00.000-08:00

Week of November 6, 2011: Boldly Shaping Partners of God for the Transformation of the World

Theme/Title: "Transformers"

Scripture: Matthew 18: 1-5 & Matthew 20: 1-16

Media:

Reflection:

I am fascinated by the Transformer movies (use to be by the cartoon series on TV when the boys watched it some years ago). Not only the story line about alien machines that destroyed their home planet in war for domination but also by the way these machines can transform into all sorts of different things, especially modes of transportation. I can never look at a Mack Truck or a Camaro again without thinking about how it might look as a robot.

The same thing happens when I see a child or watch folks getting paychecks – I can never look at those events without hearing Jesus say “unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” nor “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” You see, God wants this world to change! That’s clear from the Biblical values we have been taught and the sense of what is right and wrong that many of us are born with. The world as it is isn’t the world God intended and so a transformation is needed. The world as we know it must shift and transform into a kingdom that looks, feels and functions differently – like a car transforming into a robot, similar but different.

We sometimes sing a song “Enviado Soy de Dios”(*) and part of lyrics are: “The angels cannot change a world of hurt and pain into a world of love, of justice and of peace. The task is ours to do, to set it really free. O help us to obey and carry out your will.” That’s what it means to be partners of God for the transformation of the world. We know what the world, creation is meant to be and God has made sure that we have the gifts, talents and resources to make the transformation but God cannot – more accurately will not force us to act. We have to choose to do it, we have to have the will to put our comfort, our wealth and our very way of life on the line so that we can bring about the world God intends.

Ultimately we are to be about the building of a kingdom that is childlike, that operates not according to what we think is fair but according to the laws of grace, generosity and love. We are to transform our world by working for justice, peace, and the unalienable rights we all are due as human beings and beloved children of God.

Meditation:

Can you remember when have you experienced a transformation; a change so dramatic that nothing was ever the same again? If not, image what it would be like to do that. If you have ever participated in a restoration project remember that effort and see it as a symbol of transformation.

Prayer:

Thank God for the changes and transformation of your life. Pray for those who need to transform themselves. Pray for those who work to transform the destruction we have caused creation into life and health. Pray that we all may do what we can to transform creation into all that God intents for it to be.

Created in the Image of God

2011-12-06T18:26:00.000-08:00

Week of October 30, 2011 – Boldly Shaping Partners of God for the Transformation of the World

Theme/Title: "Created in the Image of God"

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3: 5-11; John 15: 12-17; & Genesis 1: 26-31

Media:YouTube video “The Vocal People (amazing creative team work)” by kishorjagirdar

Reflection:

Being a partner of God is an awesome responsibility. It means we take ourselves and our lives very seriously. If we are partners of God – a partner is one that is united or associated with another or others in an activity or a sphere of common interest – then we share with God a desire to change the world and see that all people have the basics of life. To be a partner means working with, side-by-side, sharing in the task, contributing to the effort, doing your part, not your will but our will be done. Being “Partners with God” means working with God to make God’s dream for creation come true.

If you’ve ever played a card game where you partner with someone (bridge or pinochle for example) you know that partnering means sometimes you take the lead and sometimes your partner does. But the goal of your partnership (besides winning) is to do the best and be the best you can be together. Partnering means trusting each other, learning how each other work, and spending time together working on your effort. This is how we are partnered with God. But it is also a much deeper partnership.

To be partners of God means living together, working together and being willing to sacrifice your own wants, needs and desires for those of God. It means sometimes your will, sometimes God’s will and sometimes a compromise of wills. God isn’t an autocrat. God wants partnership and that means giving and taking and compromising, it means working together and realizing that the sum of the parts is greater than the parts separated.

While it is true we are not God, it is also true that we are very, very close to God and that we share with God a desire for the world and all its peoples to live having all their basic needs met. God created us so that God would have partners to help bring about the kingdom. God wanted our input, our observations, and our reflections. God knows that by our teaming up today, tomorrow can be better than if we work separately from each other. God needs us, not because God lacks anything but because God knows that only through cooperation and teamwork can God’s dream come true because it is a dream that includes each person and their unique piece to bring about the perfecting of creation.

Meditation:

Think of a time when you were part of a team that accomplished something truly special. Remember how working with others to achieve a common goal felt. Can you think of a time when you could not pull a team together and something wonderful was missed? How do see yourself in partnership with God and with other faithful people?

Prayer:

Pray for those who are teaming up to be God’s hands, voices, and feet. Pray for the church that it might be a good partner with God. Pray for yourself and the partnerships you are involved in. Ask God to help you find the team you need to join to do the work God needs you to do as God’s partner.

Being Crafty

2011-11-06T19:39:00.000-08:00

Week of Oct. 23, 2011 – Boldly Shaping Partners of God for the Transformation of the World

Theme/Title: “Being Crafty”

Scripture: Isaiah 64:8; Colossians 3: 12-17; Romans 12: 14-21 & Luke 6: 27-31

Media: “2nd Grade Teacher” by Target on YouTube

Reflection:

“You are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” God has crafted us into who we are and God has placed within us a desire to be in relationships with God, others and ourselves that are healthy and that help move humankind to the place God dreams we will be.

Many things have shaped us over our lives: experiences, successes, failures, risks, rewards, teachers, mentors, youth leaders, pastors, where we grew up, the schools we attended, the churches we were a part of, the organizations and institutions we belonged to, who we befriend and who we trust. We are a product of so many forces and ingredients all of which play a part in making us who we are. One key component in all this shaping is the choices we make concerning how much any influence will rule who we are and how we live.

We also are shapers, crafters, we are people who mold and influence others. We are parents, co-workers, bosses, friends, grandparents, teachers, neighbors, members of groups and organizations, we serve on boards, we vote, we mentor and we live our lives of faith openly and honestly. All this shapes others in various ways and to varying degrees.

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” This is the advice of Paul and Jesus concerning how you craft others and how you continue to shape yourself.

Faithful living involves one in a constant creative act – shaping yourself, crafting yourself so that you reflect the grace and love of God accurately and clearly to the world. But it also is a shaping, a crafting of others through your words and deeds that helps create something that also reflects the grace and love of God accurately and clearly to others. Shaping is a constant element in faithful living, crafting self and others is part of the work of partners of God, transforming yourself, others and the world brings creation one step closer to God.

Meditation:

Who is it that helped shape you? What events, experiences, and opportunities formed you? How has God been active in crafting you? Reflect on both the positive and the negative as both have tremendous influence on who you are and how you live faithfully in the world.

Prayer:

Offer a prayer of thanksgiving for those who shaped you. Give thanks for the institutions and organizations that influenced you. Thank God for the negatives that also helped make you who you are. Ask God to open the hearts and minds and spirits of others that they may be shaped into faithful children of God. Pray for an enemy or someone who wishes you harm.

Being Bold

2011-11-06T19:26:00.000-08:00

Weekly Devotion – October 16, 2011 – Boldly Shaping Partners of God for the Transformation of the World

Theme/Title: “Being Bold”

Scripture: Mark 15: 42-43; Ephesians 6: 10-20; & Acts 19: 8-10

Media: Montage of boldness http://proves.glogster.com/boldness/

Reflections:

We progressive, United Methodist Christians don’t want to offend, make people feel uncomfortable or in some way cause someone anxiety. We also live by a motto: “Live and Let Live – Believe What You Will.” So it is hard for us to think about being “Bold!”

Boldness implies all the things we are hesitant to do and be: A bold person may be willing to risk shame or rejection in social situations and be willing to bend rules of etiquette or politeness. Boldness does not necessarily mean obnoxious; it is possible for one to be bold, while staying silent. Outside a social context, "boldness" can also refer to a willingness to get things done, even despite risks.

There is no other way to get the message of God’s grace and love out into the world except by faithful people boldly speaking the truth and living the faith. How can we hope to make the world a better place if we aren’t willing to be bold about it? You can’t change the world and remain hidden, soft-spoken and unnoticed. Think about those who have changed the world: Civil Rights marchers, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., suffragettes, Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid movement, demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, Egypt, Libya, and Syria, those who participated in the “Prague Spring”, etc… examples of boldness for a cause that was just and right, a cause whose goal was to change the world for the better – which is God’s goal too.

To be bold means taking a risk, being visible and willing to suffer the consequences of the boldness you live. Boldly doing anything shows your level of commitment and reflects the seriousness of what it is you are being bold about. Only when people of faith are willing to boldly engage others and the world do great and wonderful things happen. If Joseph of Arimathea hadn’t asked for the body of Jesus there won’t have been a tomb. If Paul hadn’t been willing to stand up to the arguments, taunting and physical abuse we might not have the church we have today.

We all need to be bold in living our faith – like it or not God needs us to be beacons and loudspeakers broadcasting the grace and love of God to the entire world by our words and actions and in this way we can shape the world and others into what God dreams it can be.

Meditation: Have I been living my faith boldly? If so how? If not, why not? How serious am I about what I believe and value? Am I serious enough to live it fully and obviously? What would me living my faith boldly look like, sound like, feel like?

Prayer: Pray for boldness. Offer thanks for the boldness of others. Pray for God’s help to live your faith boldly.

“Your Mission Should You Choose To Accept It…”

2011-10-13T09:36:00.000-07:00

Weekly Devotion – October 9, 2011 a Mission

Theme/Title: “Your Mission Should You Choose To Accept It…”

Scripture: Exodus 32: 1-14; Luke 14: 28-33; & Matthew 5: 13-16

Media: YouTube video “Following the Leader (Disneyland Fun)”

Reflections:

Jesus makes a great point when he talks about discipleship and uses the example of someone planning to build a tower needing to estimate costs before beginning construction in order to know it can be finished. This is called planning ahead. This is knowing your mission and how you plan to complete it.

The story of Moses calling God to task and reminding God of the mission they are on together shows how important it is to take a long view and to understand where you came from what you have done and why you are doing what you are doing. A mission takes commitment, time and sometimes while in the middle of accomplishing it you wonder if the effort is worth it and need to be reminded that it is.

When we look to what it is we are to be about as the church and as faithful children of God, we see that we are embarked upon a mission – we are to flavor the world, to shine a light on the world, and to guide the world to a place God desires it and us to be. How can we do anything without knowing what it is we are to be doing as faithful people of God? A mission defines our purpose and ultimate destination and guides us as we move ahead to live faithfully and fulfill our covenant with God.

A mission is that statement or phrase that we look to for guidance and inspiration as we move forward. It is the concept that we are trying to make real, the target we are shooting for, the result of our actions and activities. President John Kennedy had a mission for our nation, put humans on the moon by the end of the 1960s. This mission then informed and guided all the efforts by industry, the scientific community, the military, the government, and countless other individuals and groups each with various goals but all focused upon accomplishing the mission. Or how about on Star Trek: “Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” This is the mission that all the crew focused upon and worked toward accomplishing. To get anything done, to get anywhere you need a target – a mission.

“Boldly Shaping Partners of God for the Transformation of the World” is our God given mission. The words could be different but the idea is the same – we are to be about helping others know God, deepen their relationship with God and as faithful people working together with God we are to change the world and help move it closer to what God dreams it will be while loving and serving others.

Meditation:

Reflect on a time when you were involved in something big, something that had a clear mission and you played a role in fulfilling that mission. Remember a situation where a mission was not stated or clearly defined. How do these two experiences differ? How did you feel? What happened?

Prayer:

Offer thanks for the missions that you have helped to complete and the accomplishments they achieved. Pray for our church as we embark upon our mission. Pray for yourself and how you will be involved in the successful completion of the mission we have been given.

Weekly Devotion – October 2, 2011 Biblical Values Part 3

2011-10-03T20:40:00.000-07:00

Theme/Title: Called and Sent

Scripture: Matthew 28: 18-20; Luke 24: 44-48 & Acts 1:8

Media:

"First Contact" by Moviemomentsdotorg

Reflections

We are to care for others, work for justice; spend quality time with those less fortunate then us. Love is the prime value and motivator for our lives and relationship, especially love for God and others. These are the values we learn from the Bible. These are the values we know come from God. These are the values that Jesus taught, lived, died for and calls us to emulate in our lives. These are the values that caused John Wesley to challenge the Church of England and to develop a new faith community. These are the values that provide the foundation of the United Methodist Church.

But there is one more “value,” if you well, that is Biblical and essential for people of faith and lives of faith. That value, is witnessing, sharing, living as a faithful child of God – the belief that what you have found is so critical to you and your life that you cannot help but want to share it with others.

As Jesus came to help us understand what God calls us to so now we are sent out to share that knowledge and that call. Jesus directly and specifically commands us to teach, to forgive, and to witness at home, in the surrounding area, throughout the nation and the entire world. We cannot deny that this is our call and our commission. But this isn’t some kind of evangelist tour sort of sharing and witnessing. This is a living and loving witness; it is who we are shows what we are. The value here is one that admits to the tremendous gift we receive when we accept God’s grace and love, when we seek to put love into action and when we invest fully in our relationship with God, self and others.

This value of sharing and witnessing is based upon one premise: those who we share with must have their basic needs met. How can we talk about God, forgiveness, teach about God’s way, or expect others to love God and other people if every part of their being is trapped in a life or death struggle for survival? Our first, best witness is to live out the values of God by seeing to the basic needs of all people everywhere. As their needs are met, as they move from survival to living, people will have the opportunity to come to know God in the ways we know God.

Witnessing, showing the world who we are and whose we are is a Biblical value and is a value God desires for our lives. The people of Israel were to be a light unto the nations; Christians are to teach the world about love; we are to share – to witness – with all we say, all we do, all we support, how we use our time and talents, and what we challenge and oppose. Jesus said, “you will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth."

Meditation: How is it you witness to your faith? How do you show love to the world? Can you risk comfort, acceptance, and anonymity to live out God’s values?

Prayer: Pray for those who place themselves in difficult situations as they witness to their faith and live out the command to love. Pray for those who need strength to show their love to the world.

Weekly Devotion – September 25, 2011 Biblical Values Part 2

2011-10-03T20:08:00.000-07:00

Theme/Title: Jesus’ 411 God’s Values

Scripture: Leviticus 19: 17-18; Matthew 22: 34-40

Media: YouTube “The Youngbloods - Get Together”

Reflection:

So what more do we need to know about God’s values and Biblical values? Well, we who are United Methodist and Christian claim to follow this renegade carpenter from Nazareth who decided that the Jewish religious authorities of his day had sucked the life from there tradition and its true meaning and significance and so he begins to ask questions, challenge their interpretations and all around speak a word that shook the very foundations of their institution and even that of the Roman Empire.

People liked what this Jesus had to say and they felt in their hearts that he was on the right path, that something about what he said made sense in a primal and deep way. So they asked him to explain things, to help them find the truth he knew and to aid them in their efforts to understand God and God’s desire for humankind and creation. And what he said, what he did, and the stories he told got the attention of those in power and they too wanted to know what he was about, only their motive was to try and find a slip-up so they could discredit Jesus and his understanding of God’s values.

So a lawyer questions him about the greatest commandment – Jesus answers correctly from the institution’s point of view: 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This commandment is the foundational commandment of the Jewish faith because it expresses their monotheism and The Shema (Deuteronomy 6: 4-5) is the supreme summary of this expression.

But Jesus doesn’t stop there, in the same breath he adds the Leviticus commandment about loving your neighbor and makes the declaratory statement that “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” The lawyer had no answer for this. He couldn’t challenge Jesus’ statement because it was a vital teaching of Judaism this loving your neighbor. He couldn’t fault him on his tying the two commandments together because the rabbis and teachers had done so. But Jesus had made a bold declaration that any other law or prophetic word was contained within these two commandments and that was way beyond anything anyone had said before. And the lawyer didn’t have a response – he hadn’t thought about it in those terms and he was caught up short.

Weekly Devotions - September 18, 2011 Biblical Values Part 1

2011-10-03T20:03:00.000-07:00

Theme/Title: Knowing God’s Heart

Scriptures: Psalm 146; Isaiah 58: 6-8; and Micah 6: 6-8

Media: YouTube video “Our Caring” by Johnson & Johnson health channel

Reflection

As persons of faith we naturally wonder: “What is it that God cares about?” We search for meaning and we look for direction as we journey the path of faithful living. In this crazy world where so many people and faith groups clamor for our support and try to show us the path of faithful living we need some guidance, some map to follow, sign posts that point the way God wants us to go.

What we seek most of all is to know God’s heart. To be able to know with some certainty what it is that God would have us be and do and the dream God has for creation. We wish God would call us on our cell-phones, send us a text, or e-mail us a message or YouTube link where we could hear from God what it is God wishes for us and creation.

Sometimes we forget that for millenniums God has been in deep, intimate relationship with people and that through these relationships God has let us know the values that God treasurers and wishes her children would treasure too. Over 4 billion people follow the teachings of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and all three of these faiths share a deep and unequivocal understanding of the values God desires we live out in our world. A billion others follow other faith traditions but they too share a clear understanding of how it is we are to live.

Simply put, 5 billion faithful people believe that “what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” I can only speak with confidence about Judaism and Christianity but I think I can safely say that God has made it pretty clear what it is God values: “This is the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I'm interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. (Isaiah 58:6-8 The Message). God values compassion, sharing, justice, fairness, and living rightly. God calls us to value the same things.

Meditation: Read Psalm 146 and reflect on what it tells you about the things God values.

Prayer: Pray for all those who need justice and do justice, for those who need kindness and who practice kindness, and for those who walk alone and those who walk with God.