Monday, September 30, 2013

A Day of Remembrance and Reckoning

"I will require a reckoning of every human life," says God. (Genesis 9:5)

God requires a reckoning of every human life - those lives we take, which, thank God, I don't, as well as our own life.  Those lives we take... I feel like I watch a lot of killing on TV - NCIS, NCIS:LA, South Park, Alias, Castle, the last movie I saw in the theater, "The Family,"... practically every non-reality TV show I watch (and the only reality shows I watch are on The Food Network).  Yet the closest I've been to someone taken unexpectedly from me was Uncle Bob, my godfather.  He was probably in his 50's, if I had to guess, and it was a surprise.  Yet it's not a surprise that it's September and I'm thinking of him.  Seems to happen every September.  September was the month he died, in 1994.  Almost 20 years.  We had just seen him in June that year, he came down to North Carolina for my confirmation.  I'm pretty sure my sister and I made fun of him, he was a little socially awkward.  But his death was a surprise.  A phone call at 7 a.m. as we were getting ready for work and school one day.  His maid found him unconscious and he'd been that way for 2-3 days, alone in his house, ethanol alcohol poisoning from which he never recovered.  Suicide.  How does God reckon that?  Does he balance it with all the good things Uncle Bob did?  Setting up college trust funds for my sisters and me and seven others?  The charity and good works and generosity?  My sisters and I were the only kids at his funeral.  Or was miserable depression the last word on his life?  What's the reckoning?  He bought us an encyclopedia set, and nice dresses, and educational toys and books, a globe, and jean jackets when they were in style in the 1980s.  What's the last word?  Two divorces?  Haunted by his parents?  No living relative closer than a second cousin who lived in England?  For my confirmation (in the Episcopal Church) he gave me The Book of Common Prayer in Spanish.  How'd he know???  I'd only had three years of middle school Spanish at that point.  He must've been inspired by the Holy Spirit.  And yet three months later he OD'd on alcohol.  What's the reckoning?  Is he in heaven?  Did God have the last word on his life?  

"We pray for those who have died."  (Prayers of the People, The Book of Common Prayer, p. 386)

Monday, September 9, 2013

Look Kids, Big Ben!



16th Sunday after Pentecost
September 8, 2013
Isaiah 40:28-31; Philemon 1-7
Look Kids, Big Ben!

            We have finished our Heroic Faith superhero sermon series and are returning to our regularly scheduled programming, which means back to the lectionary.  Today’s epistle selection was actually the whole book of Philemon.  Don’t worry, it’s only 21 verses.  I shortened the reading to stop with the verse that caught my attention: “the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.”  What, or who, has refreshed your heart?  Or perhaps your heart is in need of refreshing.  Good news, you’re in church and we’re in the refreshing and restoration business. 
            I know five weeks of superheroes wasn’t for everyone, but I can tell you, the superhero sermon series refreshed us preachers and worship leaders.  It was a nice break from the usual, it gave us a structure and a theme for a month, a different way of approaching the Scriptures and preaching and worship planning, and if our purpose in using superheroes was to reach those we don’t usually reach, it worked.  There are at least two families who came specifically for that sermon series.  The series reached out to others and gave us a change of pace with movie nights and t-shirts and popcorn.  Now that it is September and school is back in session, we’re returning to our usual fall routine.  I don’t know about you, but the sermon series refreshed me.  It was a welcome change. 
            What refreshes and renews you?  Exercise?  Time with good friends?  Time spent in a good book?  Vacation?  Researchers from the Netherlands released a study a few years ago about the benefits of vacation.  It concluded that the most benefit people actually get out of vacation in terms of happiness isn’t the vacation itself.[1]  It’s the anticipation of the vacation.  It’s looking forward to the time away, not the time away itself.  Planning the sermon series was as refreshing as the five weeks it lasted.  You should have heard some of our staff meetings!
How about renewal at church?  I love that the 8:00 service allows me to start my Sunday by celebrating communion and inviting everyone to the Lord’s table.  Sustenance.  FOOD.  Eating restores the nutrients to your body.  The bread and the cup restore nutrients to your soul.  Today at the 9:00 service a new family joined.  I don’t know about you, but new church members always refresh me.  Witnessing someone else join the Body of Christ is exciting.  It lifts your spirits.  Or perhaps you’ve come to the sanctuary when it’s empty.  There is something about sitting in there when it’s quiet and still that will calm and refresh your soul.  Worship is for God, not for us, but a common side effect is that it renews us.   
I heard Adam Hamilton speak at a seminar last year and one analogy he shared was about horse manure.[2]  He had researched it for a sermon and learned that there are three basic things you can do to dispose of horse manure.  You can bury it.  You can add chemicals to it to dissolve it.  Or you can compost it and transform it from waste into something beneficial.  If you compost it, do you know how often you’re supposed to turn it over?  Once a week.  Now imagine all the problems in your life, all the stress, all of the stuff going on in your life that you’re trying to figure out how to deal with… are horse manure.  You can bury it, but if you do that, it’s going to take a very long time for it to go away, if it ever does.  You can add chemicals – drugs, alcohol – but they bring on a whole host of other problems for you to deal with.  Or you can compost it, and turn that pile of horse manure in your life into something beneficial.  And the best way to keep your compost moving in the right direction, towards something beneficial?  Come to worship… once a week.
And how about the rest of our Three Hour Challenge?  One hour in worship; got it, you’re here.  One hour in the study of God’s Word, whether it’s Sunday school or one of our other bible studies.  If you’re not already part of one, all of our Sunday school classes would love to have you and we’re starting three new bible studies next week.  I’m leading the Disciple II bible study, which I’ve done before.  On the one hand, I’m wondering why I’ve agreed to do it again because I know it will change my morning routine.  The daily reading is longer than my current morning devotional.  But on the other hand, I’m looking forward to the intentional time studying God’s Word in depth.  I have been blessed each of the four years that I’ve spent using the Disciple bible study curriculum and I’m anticipating another year full of blessings I can’t imagine yet.  Bible study is refreshing. 
The third part of our Three Hour Challenge is service.  Serving others takes the focus off yourself, which is sometimes just what you need.  I’ve been reading some critiques of “selfies” this week on Facebook; “selfies” being pictures you take of yourself, and the concern is that it is a symptom of how self-obsessed our culture is becoming.  It used to be that other people took your picture.  Now, you take your own picture, and it ups your own self-importance.  To become less obsessed with yourself, the prescription is to focus on others and serve.  We offer many opportunities to do that here at Orange, locally, nationally, and internationally.  Service is refreshing. 
            Sometimes, when you’re tired and in need of renewal, you just need a nap.  You need rest.  You need downtime.  And that’s why God created the Sabbath.  God worked for six days and on the seventh day he rested.  God knows the importance of taking regular breaks; it’s what we were created to do as well.  How many of you take a Sabbath day?  Do you regularly take a day to rest and not run errands, clean the house, do laundry, take out the trash, or the work you brought home from the office?  When I was a schoolteacher, that was Sunday for me.  That day doesn’t work anymore, as you may imagine.  Who here can name Pastor Ken’s, Brad’s (the youth pastor), and my days off in lieu of Sundays?  Pastor Ken’s day off is… Friday.  Brad’s day off is… Monday.  And since I’m three-quarter time, I get two days off… Monday and Friday I stay home with Isabel.  Taking your time off, using your vacation days, taking a sabbatical when appropriate, is important. 
            Now, funny story about rest.  There was one day this past week where I was just exhausted and so I went home a little earlier than usual.  Isabel was napping when I got home, so I lay down, too.  You know, sleep when the baby sleeps.  Only I couldn’t fall asleep.  And pretty soon, Isabel was awake.  So I got her up and decided that I was taking her and the dog on a walk.  We went for a long walk, further down the trail near our house than I’ve ever gone before.  It was a solid 45 minutes through the woods, near a stream, uphill and downhill.  By the time we got to the last half mile home, the dog’s tongue was hanging sideways and I was really having to push myself, and Isabel’s stroller, uphill, to get home.  Back at home, our dog laid out on the floor and didn’t move for an hour.  Isabel, of course, had tons of energy, since all she’d done was ride in a stroller.  I turned on the ceiling fan, sat under it, and drank two glasses of water.  Afterward, though, you know what?  I felt great!  I no longer felt tired.  I no longer felt down.  I thought I needed rest, when that exercise and movement was actually really good for me!  It refreshed me and I felt back to my usual self. 
             Sometimes you need to move, and sometimes you need to stop.  That study from the Netherlands?  It said that if you claimed your vacation to be “neutral” or “stressful,” then there were no lasting happiness effects from it.  Now, remember those National Lampoon’s Vacation movies from the ‘80’s?  Those vacations were anything but restful.  In European Vacation, the Griswald family is driving to see some landmark in London, and gets stuck going around and around the traffic circle in front of Big Ben.[3]  For hours.  It’s a change of scenery and a change of pace from their “normal” routine, but it’s certainly not refreshing.  Change for the sake of change is not restorative.  You need a better “so that.”  Change in worship or prayer so that we might experience God’s presence in a new way.  Change in bible study so that we might be more disciplined in our daily reading and study and grow in our faith.  If you’re not being affected by your bible study, then something needs to change, either you and your effort and attention, or the study.  Change in service, so that others are reached, so that others might know the saving love of Jesus Christ our Lord. 
That verse from Philemon was about Philemon refreshing the hearts of the saints.  We’ve talked about how you are refreshed; what do you do to refresh and renew others?  Do you cook for them?  Do you clean their house?  Do you keep their children?  Do you pray for them?  Do you help them navigate stressful situations?  Who, or what, has refreshed your heart, and how do you help others refresh their hearts?  True restoration comes from God alone, as he is the author and sustainer of our faith and of us.[4]  It’s been a rough week for a lot of us.  Thank God that there is a balm in Gilead.[5]  Thank God that he provides a variety of means to renew us.  We don’t have to keep driving in circles looking at Big Ben.  A little planning goes a long ways, and we can plan times of rest and renewal for ourselves and help others to do so as well.  You can’t take a day off without planning to make sure you get everything done in the previous six days.  So if you don’t already, I encourage you to put some down time in your schedule.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.