What Pastors Have To Put Up With!

Most people who know me know that I love hugs. To know me is to hug me. I remember in college finding a saying that you need five hugs a day to be healthy. In many small groups that I've been part of, I have instituted a practice of hugging. Usually, even those who are not hugging people will participate with at least a side hug.

At the end of the traditional services at Orange, most of the congregation does the traditional thing and greets the senior pastor and I at the door on their way out of the sanctuary. The good folks at Orange are learning that I love hugs, and so each Sunday more and more folks are hugging me instead of shaking my hand. Of course, when my husband comes through the line, he gives me a kiss. Well, this past Sunday, there was a lady in line behind my husband who didn't recognize him from the back. She saw him give me a kiss on the lips and was astounded. What do pastors have to put up with? Kisses on the lips?! And then she realized it was my husband.

Blessed To Be a Blessing

The feedback I received after preaching this past Sunday is that I'm getting more comfortable preaching at Orange :) Here's the sermon:

Blessed To Be a Blessing

Deuteronomy 8:7-18; 2 Corinthians 9:6-15

November 20, 2011

Good morning! It is good to be here with you all again. Last weekend I was at a retreat in the mountains that was sponsored by the school up the road. Some of my former classmates were there as well, and it was good to see them again. This morning we’re going to continue on the theme Pastor Ken started last week. He preached on managing God’s portfolio: God has invested heavily in us and wants to see a return on his investment. By God’s grace we can do something with it, because God wants us to use what he’s given us with him in mind. This week we’re going to flesh out some of those details.

To start with, how did you like that description from the Deuteronomy passage we read? “The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you.”[1] Of course, there’s no timeline given on being brought into this good land. It may have started in July and you thought you’d be all moved in by November, but God never promised that. God’s timing is not ours. The Lord our God is bringing us into a good land, we are still in the process of being brought in, as you can see from the equipment and vehicles and gravel and dirt outside. We are still being brought in; the journey is not over yet. But we know an awful lot about this land, the most important of which is that it’s good. Just like all that God made in the beginning in Genesis, this land is good land. And look at what it’s full of! Water, crops, mines. It’s a land where we’ll lack nothing, where there will be no scarcity. This is the land that the Lord has given us and we are to bless the Lord our God for the good land that he has given us. We are to give thanks, to the Lord, with a grateful heart. This abundant land is where God is bringing us.

Now, there are two responses we can make to God bringing us into this good land. The first one is to forget God. It’s to say that you brought yourself here, that you did this yourself, that the land is good because you made it good, that God had nothing to do with it. You can forget all that God has done for you and given you. You can say, “I did all this. And all by myself. I’m rich. It’s all mine!”[2] It is very easy and very tempting to think that we get ourselves everything we have. Self-sufficiency and pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps is the name of the game in America. Greed is another name. If this is how you respond to what God has given you, then you’re playing the role of the rich fool in the parable Jesus tells in Luke 12. Jesus tells the story of a rich farmer, who’s pretty well to do. One year, he’s got a banner crop that yields tons and tons of grain, so much so that he has to tear down his barns and build bigger ones! And then he spends his time counting his grain, thinking he’s got it made and can just coast for the rest of his life. But God tells him, “You fool! You’re going to die tonight. And then what happens to all your humongous barns stored with grain?!”

So, what are you going to do with all that God has given you? Because God has given you everything that you have. Are you going to buy bigger houses and rent more storage units to house everything that you have? Bigger is better, right? Are you going to keep the good land and all that it has all to yourself? Are you going to deceive yourself and claim that you got it yourself, that you earned it, that it was by your efforts and hard work that you accomplished what you have? Friends, I have news for you. Whatever you have, whatever you’ve achieved, it was by God’s hand. God gave you the strength, God gave you your mind, God gave you the ability. God has blessed you and given you everything. What are you going to do with the blessings you’ve received?

The alternate response to the rich fool is the call story of Abraham and Sarah, found in Genesis 12. Their original names were Abram and Sarai and one day God says to Abram, “Go from your country and your people and the place you’ve lived your whole life to the land that I’m going to show you. I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, so that you will be a blessing.” The blessings that God gives Abram and Sarai are to be used to bless others. The good land that God leads their descendents into, the nation formed by the 12 tribes of Israel, the 12 sons of Jacob, Abraham and Sarah’s great-grandsons, isn’t just for them. God blessed them to be a blessing for others. For example, one of the rules set out in Leviticus for this good land was to not mistreat any foreigners who reside there also. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as if native-born.[3] Israel was blessed with good land flowing with milk and honey, in order to use it to bless others, including others who weren’t like them. We have been blessed with good land; what are we going to use it for? The other blessings that God has given you, what are you going to do with them? Hoard them and keep them to yourself and rent more storage units for them? Or share them. Use them to help others. When you use the blessings God has given you to bless others, it’s one way of thanking God for those blessings. We are to be conduits and rivers of God’s gifts and grace, not reservoirs or lakes. Lakes are limited in what they can do, beyond grow, shrink, or become stagnant. Rivers, on the other hand, have momentum and go somewhere. They channel God’s blessings and take them somewhere. Let’s take the blessings God has given us and do something with them! We are not blessed to hoard our blessings. Rather, like Abraham and Sarah, we are blessed to be a blessing to others.

How has God blessed you? What gifts has he given you? What talents? What riches? What opportunities? And what do you do with them? Do you bury them in the ground or in the bank, like in the parable we read last week? Are you selfish about them, like the rich fool? Or do you share them? Do you recognize that God gives you what you have in order for you to bless others? In the passage we read from 2 Corinthians, Paul wrote that God is able to provide us with every blessing in abundance. God is able to and wants to give us every blessing in abundance. This good land doesn’t just have milk and honey but vines and figs and olives and wheat and streams and iron and copper. God blesses us abundantly. There is no scarcity here. So, what are you going to do with God’s abundant blessings? What are you going to do individually? What are we going to do as a church?

Today is the last Sunday of our stewardship campaign. We’ve been talking for four weeks about what God has given us, what God has done among us, and how God has used Orange. We’ve talked about the saints who have gone before us and about prayer and sacrifice. You have Commitment cards in your bulletins and they were mailed out to your homes a couple weeks ago. What has God given you and what are you going to do with it? As Christians, we are all called to be blessed to be a blessing to others. We are called not to keep our blessings, our gifts, and our resources to ourselves but to share them with God’s world. We have been blessed in order to be a blessing. Won’t you let God do that work through you today? If you need a number as you’re trying to figure out what to write down, consider 10%. That’s the basic biblical tithe, going back to Abram and King Melchezidek, the priest of God Most High, in Genesis 14. God asks you to keep 90% and give 10%. If that number doesn’t feel right, for any reason, try increasing the number you’re working with by 0.5%. You’re allowed to take out your phone if you need the calculator to do the math. Or, try taking the percentage from your gross income instead of your net income. God has blessed us in so many ways, including financially, and it takes many different kinds of gifts to do his ministry. When someone becomes a member or is baptized, the prayer includes a promise on the part of the congregation to “faithfully participate in the ministries of the church by our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service, and our witness, that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” Today, we’re focusing on financial gifts. This commitment is different than the one you made last spring for the capital campaign, which is strictly building. This one is the one that keeps the lights on and the heat working. So, in light of everything you’ve heard the past four weeks, everything you’ve prayed, we ask at this time, during our final hymn, our hymn of commitment, that you write down your commitment to the church and bring it forward. Our reading from 2 Corinthians reminds us that we are to give as we have made up our mind, not reluctantly, or under compulsion. Let us thank the Lord for his blessings to us by offering up those blessings in return.

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[1] Deuteronomy 8:7-10

[2] Deuteronomy 8:17, MSG

[3] Leviticus 19:33-34

We Are Witnesses

This is my sermon from this past Sunday. I've been told for a while that my writing is so particular as to be universal. The congregation found this to be true as so many of them identified in some way with my opening story. It's my story, and yet it's also their story.

We Are Witnesses

Isaiah 43:8-13; 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13

October 30, 2011

The summer that I was 19 I bought my first car. It was a 1996 Honda Civic, silver, four-door, and stick shift. I got it that summer because that was the summer I did summer school here at UNC. Between the requirements for my Elementary Education major and my Spanish minor, there were too many classes to graduate in four years. And I felt a lot of pressure to finish in four years. So, I took summer school. The car was great for commuting from Cary to Chapel Hill four days a week. On weekends, my friends and I would go out to Jordan Lake or down to the beach or to baseball games. The other reason I got the car that summer was that my next year at college would require more visits to local schools to observe and teach, and then my senior year I’d need it for student teaching. After summer school ended and two or three weeks before I was due back at college, my mom and stepdad got a place at the beach for a week, in Atlantic Beach. The same week some of my aunts and uncles and cousins on my dad’s side of the family rented a house in Garden City, SC, just south of Myrtle Beach. My sisters and I wanted to spend time with them, too, so we planned to spend the first part of the week in Atlantic Beach and go down on Thursday to Garden City. My car never made it to Garden City.

It was about a four hour drive and beautiful weather as we took US-17 south through Jacksonville, Wilmington, and on into South Carolina. We were counting Waffle Houses and Wings and it was the summer that Pearl Jam remade the oldie “Last Kiss,” we must’ve heard it on the radio at least three times that day. We got into Myrtle Beach and I moved into the lefthand lane, since I knew we’d be turning left once we left Myrtle Beach. And then, up ahead, there was a car from the other direction trying to turn left into the shopping center on our right. He was mostly in the break in the median, but partly in my lane. The median on my left was a ditch and there were two lanes of cars on my left. And there was the front end of a 1985 Jeep Cherokee straight ahead. I braked hard, left 12-15 feet of skid marks, and hit it head on. The air bags exploded, the windshield glass broke and started falling in the car. The car seemed unsafe to me, and so I got my sisters out of the car. I should explain: I’m the oldest. If I was 19, then one sister was 15, and had just gotten her learner’s permit that summer, and my youngest sister was 10. I felt responsible for them. But God was watching out for us. Talk about guardian angels; I have no idea who called 911 and before the ambulance or the police got there, a good samaritan was there, helping us. I forget her qualifications, nurse, doctor, therapist, I don’t know. And once the cops and ambulance got there, she disappeared. Both my sisters had worse injuries than I did and they got rides to the hospital in the ambulance. The police stayed with me, asking me questions, examining the scene, and gave me a ride to the hospital. It wasn’t until I got to the hospital that the staff there convinced me that I needed to see a doctor, too. Our aunts and uncles were called; our mom and stepdad were called.

The police and insurance people decided that the accident was the other guy’s fault and his insurance company paid out: the value of my car, all of our medical bills, and additional money to my sisters for grief and suffering because they both had scars on their faces from their injuries. It was not my fault, and yet I felt so guilty. My middle sister told me, and this is pretty indicative of her personality, that it was not my fault she got hurt, I didn’t make her get in the car, she got into the car herself. My first car was totaled. The cop at the scene told me that he had seen people die in accidents that bad. And my Grandma, a long-time pastor’s wife, told me that the accident was now part of my story, part of my witness of what God has done in my life. There were guardian angels surrounding us that day, because we should have been hurt a lot worse than we were, if not killed. We shouldn’t have walked away from that accident. But God was taking care of us and protecting us. Grandma told me that this was now part of my witness of what God has done in my life and that I needed to share it.

You may have noticed that repetitive phrase in both of our Scripture readings this morning. Both Isaiah and Paul wrote that “you are witnesses.” You are witnesses of what God has done, of how he has acted, of how he has fulfilled his promises to you. We are witnesses of what God has done in our lives. And we are not only witnesses to what God has done in our lives individually, but also within the faith community. We are witnesses to what God has done here, at Orange United Methodist Church. We are now entering our annual stewardship campaign. If you’re on our mailing list, you should have received a postcard from us this past week. We are in the process of discerning God’s vision for Orange for 2012. And before we move too far forward, this Sunday we’re going to take a moment to look back, and witness to what God has done here over the past year and thank God for his work among us. We are witnesses, all of us. Since I’ve only been here since July, I enlisted some help from some of y’all and I made a list of some of the things that God has done at, in, and through Orange over the past year. It is not a comprehensive list. I have no doubt that everyone here can name at least one more thing that I will not mention. Let’s pause to take a moment to tell God “thank you.” The list can be subdivided into three categories.

The first category is brand new things that God has done. Through the prophet Isaiah, God said, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (43:19). These are the new things God is doing for you to perceive. God led a Scouts Troop and Young Life, which is a high school ministry, to ask us if they could use our space for their meetings and God led us to say “yes.” In the past year, God inspired some among us to provide dinners once a month at the Wesley Foundation at UNC. Those are the last Thursday of the month if the Holy Spirit is moving you to volunteer with them. And not only did God lead us there but God is bringing to us college students and their numbers among us are growing. God did at least two new things this past season of Lent. He instigated a new Lenten lunch study led by Pastor Ken and a new way for us to pray and meditate: using a labyrinth that was painted on the grounds. In May, God helped us send off a young couple into ministry and in the fall he helped us to send off our college students back to school. Also this fall, God raised up leadership for two new groups to start meeting on Sunday mornings, the Faith Journeys Sunday school class and the Young Adults book study. In the past year, God has led 28 new people to come to Orange and decide to become members here. Finally, through the work of the Holy Spirit, eight persons received the sacrament of baptism and were incorporated into the household of God. These are all brand new things! These are things that God has done for us to witness to and thank God for!

The second category is old things done in a new way. John, the author of Revelation, wrote that “the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new’” (21:5). God makes all things new. Here are a few of the old things that God has made new in the past year at Orange. God led a ZOE mission team in February to Kenya. This had happened before, but this time God guided them to focus less on medical work and more on empowerment. Back here at home, God reminded us that we need to know who each other is in our family and so we took pictures for a new church picture directory. God took the previous associate pastor and her family to serve him in Kentucky and he brought me and my husband here. For a time, because some stuff of God’s is seasonal, God directed Dinners for 8. God inspired a Girls’ Night Out last spring, which I heard was a lot of fun and blessed all the ladies who attended. God stirred up the Harvest Festival planning team to bring back the dinner. He piqued the interest in at least two people from that day to come to church here and worship him with us. Things that existed before got made new. God brought Arthur and Mabel Trout from South Africa for us to host for three months this year. They’d been here before, but this time God used them differently than how he had before. Lastly, God worked a very successful new capital campaign this past year. There have been other capital campaigns in the life of Orange, but this one was different. For one, God brought to us Todd McMichen of the McMichen Development Group, an organization that focuses on developing churches, to help us with our campaign and we hired him last February. Through Todd, God has challenged our assumptions, stimulated our passion for his Church and we are slowly discerning God’s vision for our growth. God enabled and granted patience for subsequent small group meetings that forged a comprehensive dialogue among members of our church regarding this capital campaign and stewardship. You probably know God inspired the name: the Gather-Grow-Go campaign, but do you know that God also inspired a musician to write a hymn for it? You can find it on our website. The first phase of this campaign is another thing God is making new – the parking lot. On that Commitment Sunday, last spring, for the parking lot, over $100,000 was given on a single Sunday. That is unprecedented in the history of this church. God moved us forward in a huge way to build. Materials for the second hut are on site and the playground has been renovated and made new. I’ve been told that the staff seem more engaged than in quite some time. Surely, God is making all things new and we are witnesses.

The third and final category is things that God is doing that are on-going. Our God is not a haphazard God or a disorganized God. Remember, in the beginning, God created order out of chaos. When we have a baptism, the opening line of the prayer of Thanksgiving over the Water is: “Almighty God, when nothing existed but chaos, you swept across the dark waters and brought forth light” (United Methodist Hymnal 36). When nothing existed but chaos, God brought forth order. There are some things that God does on a regular basis at our church that have become part of our rhythm and calendar. For example, God has raised up leaders for seven weekly Bible studies. That’s one for every day of the week! One of them, the Band of Brothers that meets Thursday mornings at 7 a.m. at Bob Evans, often includes the Holy Spirit in their attendance number, a reminder that God is present with them. Another ministry God got us involved in is IFC, the homeless shelter down the street. The first Thursday of the month (that’s this week!) God brings together enough volunteers and enough food for us to feed all the homeless persons who come to this shelter for dinner. Again, if the Holy Spirit is stirring in your heart for this ministry, come on out Thursday evening around 5 p.m. Another service God got us into is prison ministry. God has used us to help an inmate return to his community through a faith team. This child of God is now working and making daily progress. One facet of the prison ministry is the annual One Day with God Camp. God enabled us to carry out another one this summer and we witnessed God save new souls that day, children, parents, and prison staff. With God’s help, we have been faithful to take worship services behind bars every 6 to 8 weeks. God inspired someone here to create prayer shawls to hand out to people in need. The Prayer Shawl ministry is growing and the women now fellowship together each month. Many people have been blessed with the shawls. Finally, many of God’s regular activities at Orange involve our children and youth. This shouldn’t be too surprising as I remember from my education classes that kids like and need routine and structure. Some of those regular events that minister to our kids, our community’s kids, and kids around the world are the Angel Tree, Operation Christmas Child, The Zone drama, and Vacation Bible School. Our youth regularly witness God’s goodness on annual mission trips, beach and ski trips, and their weekly youth group meetings.

These are all things that God has done at Orange just in the past year. We, as part of the Orange family, are witnesses to these things. It’s not even a comprehensive list. God has been at work here. God is now at work here. And God will continue to be at work here. Of this, we are witnesses. We are witnesses and we are to share what God has done and is doing in our midst. This is part of our story. And like my Grandma said, this is part of our story to share. We are witnesses that God is faithful and will continue to act as he has promised to. If we are witnesses, we have to know the story we’re witnessing to. Part of gathering with the community of faith is learning the story, remembering the story, retelling the story. This story isn’t ours; it’s God’s. We do not need to feel pressure for writing it or creating it. That’s God’s job. Our job is to share it. Let us leave here telling the story of what God has done among us and giving thanks for it.