Calling all college students

I scream... You scream... we all scream for ICE CREAM! May 27th at 7pm Scott and I are hosting an ice cream extravaganza for all those who are college age. You do not need to actually be a college student, you just need to be of college age. Those who are graduating from high school this spring are also welcome to come. Basically we'll hang out, eat ice cream, play air hockey, some foosball, some wii, and just generally get to know each other. Bring your friends, and spread the word.

This ice cream extravaganza will be the kick off night for the college age bible study Scott and I will be hosting at our house. We'll meet on wednesday nights at 7pm. We'll be using the nooma videos (www.nooma.com) which means there's no reading you need to do in advance!

So come check it out. Join us on May 27th for ice cream and fellowship. And then come on the wednesdays after that to join us in conversation about life and faith.

If you want more information or would like to be added to our email list for further updates. Send me an email and we'll get you added to the list.

Woohoo! Icecream! I'm excited!

Stay in Love with God

This is a sermon I preached this morning. It's the third in a series on Wesley's three simple rules. The scripture passage is John 21:14-17. Click here to read the scripture passage first.

Stay in Love with God

I have a confession to make. I am uncomfortable with the phrase “saved.” I’ve often come across people on the sidewalk outside a busy shopping center or outside the student center on a college campus who are kindly asking people whether or not they are saved. And I must admit, that in those situations, I’m one of those people that suddenly finds the sidewalk quite fascinating, and I suddenly happen to have a period of momentary deafness where I can’t hear people around me, and I just generally try to become as invisible as possible.

It’s not that I mind having a conversation with people about life and faith. In fact I love that. It’s not that I haven’t accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I’ve done that. It’s not that I think other people shouldn’t have a relationship with Jesus, I absolutely think they should. But I think it’s the question itself that makes me so uncomfortable.

The question itself seems to make the underlying assumption that being saved is the end, that accepting Jesus into your life is the end, that this one time profession of faith is the end. But that would be like saying a wedding is the end of a marriage. It’d be like saying that giving birth to a child is the end of your parental responsibilities.

That sounds ludicrous to us because we all know that relationships are work. We know that you need to put time and energy and effort into a relationship if you want it to be a relationship that is close, healthy, and full of life. We know that our marriages wouldn’t be very healthy if we didn’t spend time with one another. We know our relationships with our family wouldn’t be very good if we didn’t communicate with them. And our relationship with God is the same way.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that we have to do anything to earn God’s love and forgiveness. I’m not saying that at all. God offers us love and grace, acceptance and forgiveness through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus that we could never earn or buy or deserve. But God wants us to be in relationship with God so badly that Jesus would willingly die to make that known to us. All we have to do is accept God’s gift freely offered.

But if we want to make the most out of that gift, if we want to get the full benefit in this life time of the incredible gift of love and grace that God offers us, then we have to nurture our relationship with God. Someone could give me a wonderful house for free but if I don’t live in it, I’m not getting the full benefit of it. Or someone could give me a fantastic new car but if I don’t ever drive it, I’m not getting the most out of it. It’s the same way with the gift God offers us.
God offers us the gift of being in loving relationship with God.

Accepting that gift is like telling someone you love them for the first time. It’s often a powerful and emotional experience. It’s an experience that stays with you and often molds or shapes you in some way. But our goal as disciples isn’t simply to fall in love with God, it’s to stay in love with God.

In Wesley’s three simple rules, the third rule is to stay in love with God. There were six things Wesley said we should do as often as we could in order to nurture our relationship and stay in love with God. The six things Wesley said we should do are: Public worship, The Lord’s Supper (which we call communion), Searching the Scriptures, Pray privately and with family, Study the Bible, and Fast. Public worship, the Lord’s Supper, Searching the Scriptures, pray privately and with family, study the bible, and fast.

That’s a bit of an intimidating list to look at. We all have certain things that we already do pretty well. And we all have certain things that we don’t do so well at. I look down that list and think, “public worship. All right! I’ve got that one covered. I’m in public worship practically every week!” But then I look down the list again and see fasting. Fasting! We all know how much I like food! I really struggle with fasting. I try to fast, I really do. But I never seem to make it very long.

Some of these are just more natural for us than others. And we will all be good at different ones. But Wesley believed that these six things helped convey God’s grace to us in our daily lives. In other words, these things help keep us in love with God because they help us to know and experience God’s love and grace for us. They help keep us in love with God because we are reminded everyday of God’s love for us.

Public worship is a way that we offer our love and praise to God, but it’s also a way that we experience God’s presence in our lives. Searching the scriptures and studying the bible keep us connected with God as they tell us of God’s ongoing activity in the midst of human history. It’s through the biblical story that we come to see the lengths and depths God will go to to be in relationship with us. Praying helps keep us in communication with God, as we talk to God and as God talks with us. Communion helps us experience God’s grace in a tangible way. Fasting helps us to depend solely on God.

That’s the irony of it all. The more we receive and experience the love and grace of God in our lives, the more we grow in our love of God. That’s exactly what happened with Peter in our gospel lesson for today.

Our scripture passage today, takes place after Jesus has been arrested and killed. Only moments before Jesus’ arrest, Peter professed that he loved Jesus so much he would do anything for him, including die for him. But Jesus informs Peter that actually Peter will deny even knowing Jesus three times that very night. And Peter does just that. After Jesus is killed, the disciples are devastated. Now we find Peter, right where he was the first time Jesus found him. Peter’s out fishing with some of the other disciples.

The Resurrected Jesus finds them and calls out to them from the lake shore. Once they recognize him as Jesus, Peter rushes to him. Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me?” This is the same Peter that had this incredible moment of divine revelation and professed Jesus as the Christ, the messiah. This is the same Peter that so eagerly wanted to follow Jesus that he gets out of the boat and walks on water. And now Jesus asks, “Do you love me?”

Those of us who have read this story before, know that Peter loves Jesus. We know Peter has professed his love for Jesus, that he committed his life to Jesus, that he had literally given up everything to follow Jesus. And yet Jesus asks, “Do you love me?” Not “Did you love me?” but “Do you love me?” Jesus wants to know if Peter still loves him.

Peter says, Of Course I love you. Jesus says, “Then feed my lambs.” And Jesus asks Peter again, “Do you love me?” and Peter says, “Yes I love you.” Jesus says, “take care of my sheep.” And Jesus asks Peter a third time. And a third time Peter declares his love for Jesus. Jesus once again says “feed my lambs.” Three times Jesus asks Peter if he still loves him. Three times Peter professes his love for Jesus and Three times Jesus tells Peter how to live out that love of Jesus.

Staying in love with God involves worship, the lord’s supper, prayer, studying the scriptures, and fasting but it also involves feeding the lambs, caring for the sheep and tending to the needs of others. Rueben Job says staying in love with God “not only includes practices that bind us to God every day, but [it] also includes actions that heal the pain, injustice, and inequality of our world. “ I like the way he says that. Staying in love with God includes practices that bind us to God every day, but also shares that love with the community.

Terri Charlton shared with us earlier in the service a little bit about stewardship. I know stewardship can be a touchy subject, in part because we equate stewardship with money. But that’s not what stewardship is supposed to be about. Stewardship is supposed to be about the practices that bind us to God every day. Stewardship, whole life stewardship, not just what we do with our money, is about staying in love with God.

That’s why we’ve provided these questions in the bulletin for you to be praying about. There’s no one size fits all way for us to stay in love with God. We are all unique individuals and so our relationship with God is going to be unique. We want you to be praying about what are the practices that bind you to God? How do you connect with God? How do you feel present with God? How do you communicate with God? How do you learn more about God and God’s plan for your life? Basically, How do you stay in love with God?

It won’t happen by itself. We have to work at our relationship with God if we want it to be fruitful. Start with the six things Wesley suggests. Come to worship. Answer the invitation Jesus offers us to share a meal with us. Search the scriptures and read all about the love God has for you. Talk to God and listen for God’s words to you. And fast, from particular foods or certain activities so you can rely more on God.

Jesus asks us, “Do you love me?” Not “Did you love me?” But “Do you love me?”

Amen.

Stressed Out

Sorry I haven't posted yet this week. Things have been a bit hectic. In every job there are times when things are stressful. I can honestly say that the last several weeks have been really stressful. Here at Calvary we've been making lots of plans for the upcoming year as well as preparing for Holy Week. In addition to that, Scott and I are closing on a house tomorrow. It's the first house either of us has ever bought so all of this is new to us. There's lot of paperwork, and a seemingly endless line of decisions, big and small, to be made. Then there's the packing, and the painting and the moving. And all of that adds up to a stressed out me.

But today, I have had one of those days that reminds me why I love my job so much. I got to visit with several different people today. The new materials we are using for the college age bible study we are starting just arrived. And I got to have lots of very genuine conversations with people. That's what I love about my job. I love building relationships with people. I love helping people connect with God. I love being able to be present with people when they are hurting or struggling or just needing to know someone cares. I love talking with people about their faith and encouraging them in their journeys.

I don't so much love all the meetings and all the committees. I do them because they are a means to all those other things that I do love. They help to plan and organize for the events or classes or worship services that help connect people to God. But they are not an end in themselves.

And right now, even though my to-do list is still long. Even though I have a very busy weekend of dealing with house stuff in from of me and still haven't written my sermon. Despite all of that, I'm way less stressed then when I woke up this morning. I'm way less stressed because I got to experience the things I'm passionate about. I got to use the gifts that God has given me and I got to experience the presence of God in my life and in the community around me because I used the gifts God has given me.

We all experience stress in life. There's no way to avoid it entirely. We can minimize it, and we can manage it but the stress is still there. So it's important to have good coping mechanisms in place. I know for me, one of my coping mechanisms is to be intentional about doing something I'm passionate about. That's the funny thing about the way God works. The things that we do that are live-giving, and encouraging for others, are often the very things that are life-giving and uplifting for us. I spent the day caring for other people, and in turn, found myself in the presence of God, and more full of life or energy than I have been all week.

How is your energy and stress level this week? When was the last time you did something you're really passionate about?

Young Adults

Young Adults. It's a phrase that means different things to different people. And if you are a young adult, the various ways the phrase is translated can be a source of much frustration and angst. In fact, I'm feeling some of that frustration and angst right now.

I'm in the process of trying to coordinate a mission trip for young adults from our conference. But as I've been calling around trying to find a site for our mission trip, every time I mention the phrase young adults, I automatically get the question, "Oh, well what ages is your youth group?" To which I reply, "This is a group of young adults. It is not a youth group. They are all over the age of 18." I know alot of youth groups go on mission trips, and that different policies apply to youth and to adults. If it was just a simple matter of clarification, I wouldn't be frustrated.

But that question is symbolic of the way the church views young adults. So often young adults are viewed as old youth and they are treated much the same way. It's really no wonder that the vast majority of churches have almost no young adults. Too many churches put too much emphasis on the word young and not enough emphasis on the word ADULTS. It's hard to feel like a contributing part of the community when you're still treated like someone who needs a chaperon and it's even harder to feel like the community is a place where you can learn and grow, when they haven't even recognized the growth you have already experienced.

Young adults can vote, and thereby play a role in impacting the future of our nation. Young adults can be drafted into the military and forced to serve their country in combat. Young adults can live on their own, enter into a legally binding contract, buy a house, work a full time job, and are faced with all the same realities and decisions a middle aged adult is. That doesn't mean we are perfect, we don't make all the right decisions. We are going through huge periods of transition, and are discovering in new ways what our own identity is. And that process is messy.

In all of that chaos and transition, we need the church. But young adults don't need the church talking down to us or acting like we are still children (even if in some cases we are young enough to be your children or grandchildren). What we need is for the church to be willing to enter into the messiness with us. We need the church to recognize that we have grown and learned and developed some of our gifts, spiritual and otherwise. We need to be given opportunities to use those gifts in meaningful ways. We need to be given opportunities for leadership. We need the church to treat us like the adults that we are, and give us responsibilities that reflect that level of individual maturity. We need to know that God loves us even when we mess up, even when we don't know who we are, even when we don't know what to do next.

We aren't perfect, and we don't pretend to be. But we are adults and the church ought to treat us as such.

Traditions

In the book of Acts, the gospel is spreading like wild fire as the apostles preach the good news and do miraculous signs and wonders by the power of the holy spirit. Even in the face of persecutions, being jailed, flogged, and killed, the apostles proclaim the news that Jesus Christ is God's son and we have been reconciled to God through Jesus' birth, ministry, death, and resurrection. The church spread and spread, and eventually even the gentiles began accepting Jesus. As the gentiles began accepting Christ, it created this big controversy in the church over whether the gentiles need to be circumcised or not. It really was a question of whether gentiles needed to convert to Judaism before they could become Christian. Ultimately it was decided that the gentiles did not need to be circumcised first because Christ had opened the church to all people.

To many of us, the question of circumcision seems silly or in some cases legalistic. But the heart of the question still applies to us today. Ultimately, the question of circumcision is really a question about how to we change and adapt as the church expands and new people join the church? What are the traditions in our community life together that are non-negotiable? What are the things that are less important, what are the things we are willing to let go of to incorporate new people into the church?

As Calvary seeks to grow and to reach out to the community around us it's important for us to consider what we are willing to let go of. What are the non-negotiable traditions that we must be intentional about maintaining?

Do No Harm

Below is the sermon I preached this morning. It is based on the scripture Ephesians 4:25-32. Click here to read it.

Do No Harm

When I was about 6 years old we took a trip across country and saw part of the Oregon Trail. We have this picture of my family standing in the ruts created by the many wagons that passed through the area. So many wagon traveled down the Oregon trail, we’re talking about thousands and thousands of wagons, that the wagon wheels would carve ruts into the ground. In some areas as the wheel ruts got deeper and deeper the wheel axle began to scrap a path through the ground as well. In the place where my family stopped to take a picture, the section where the wheel axle scrapped a path through was about 4 feet deep, and the wheel ruts themselves were several feet deeper than that.

You can imagine how challenging it is to climb in and out of a rut that deep, let alone how challenging it must be to try to get a wagon out of a rut like that. Once your wagon was in a rut that deep, you were pretty much forced to follow the path that had been carved out ahead of you, at least until the rut became shallower and you could get the wagon back out. When you’re in a rut that deep, you don’t just decide to turn left when the path keeps going straight. It’s not impossible to deviate from the path, it’s not impossible to get out of the rut, but to do so take a conscious effort, and a whole lot of effort at that. Getting out of the rut is difficult. You have to get everyone out of the wagon and figure out a way to lift the wagon out. It’s difficult, time consuming work.

I think in many ways being Christian in a largely secular society is just as difficult as trying to get a wagon out of a four foot deep rut. It’s easy to get in a rut, to literally follow behind the thousands of people who have gone before us, it’s easy to get sucked up in to the mentality that everyone else is doing it so it must be ok, it’s easy to take the path of least resistance, the path that has already been forged. And most of us get swept up with following the masses more than we realize.

But as Christians we are called to intentional living, we’re called to be set apart and to live differently so that our entire lives are a witness to the love and grace of God. We’re called to think differently, and talk differently, and act differently. And we know that. We know that’s what we’re supposed to do.

But there are ruts all around us. Last week, our youth talked to us about the many different types of ruts there are in all of our lives. We’re surrounded by the ruts of violent media, of judging others, and of music that promotes drugs, violence, and sex. We’re told we can secure our own future if only we were rich enough or skinny enough, or popular enough. Society has carved the disposable rut, where we’re told that everything from cell phones, to relationship, to the environment are disposable and should only be valued so long as they provide us with instantaneous gratification. There are ruts all around us, and even when we manage to get out of one rut, it’s easy to follow into a different one. Being a Christian is hard work especially in the complicated world we live in.

It is precisely because the world we live in is difficult to navigate as a Christian that John Wesley created what he called the three simple rules. He encouraged all the Christians in his care to follow these three rules. The three rules are: Do No Harm, Do Good, and Stay in Love with God. So for the next three weeks Dennis and I will be preaching on these three simple rules.

Do No Harm is the first of the three rules and in many ways is the foundation for the other two rules. You can’t do good and help another person if at the same time you are harming them. You can’t stay in love with God while at the same time hating your neighbor. Do no harm is a precursor to the other two rules.

In many ways the rule to do no harm seems like a really basic and self-explanatory kind of thing. Of course Christians shouldn’t do harm. And when we think of this rule many of us think to ourselves, “Well I’ve got this once covered. I don’t murder or steal, or abuse people. I don’t intentionally harm other people.” But the reality is that each of us in this room have harmed someone at some point in our lives. What’s more is that every one of us has intentionally harmed another person. We may not do it often, and we may convince ourselves it’s ok because we do it way less than other people we know. But each of us has done it. If this is such a simple rule, why is it that so many people do so much harm to others?

For starters it takes a lot of self-disciple to do no harm. It takes effort to see each person we come into contact with as a Child of God. It takes a lot of faith to trust that God will lead us when we are faithful. A lot of the ways that we harm other people happens in the common routine occurrences of day-to-day life. Conflict is a part of our daily lives and how we handle that determines whether we will learn and grow from that or whether we will do harm to one another. We have to remember the rule to do no harm even when we are dealing with people we don’t agree with, especially when we are dealing with people we don’t agree with.

That takes intentionality. It takes reminding ourselves very specifically that the person we don’t agree with is a child of God; that God loves them and cares for them every bit as much as God cares for us. When we get into those conflicts, if we really want to do no harm, then sometimes we need to step away and cool down to get a little perspective.

Rueben Job, a United Methodist Bishop says it this way, “If I am to do no harm, I can no longer gossip about the conflict, I can no longer speak disparagingly about those involved in the conflict. I can no longer manipulate the facts in the conflict. I can no longer diminish those who do not agree with me and must honor each as a child of God.”

Our scripture passage for today warns against some of the very same things. We’re told not to lie, not to speak falsely about our neighbors, not to harbor anger, not to steal, not to say anything that tears others down, but instead to say only what builds up other people.

Following the rule to do no harm takes effort. We have to be disciplined enough not to be nasty and hurtful even if others are being hurtful towards us. That means we might be viewed as weak and vulnerable instead of powerful and in control. Doing no harm means being willing to be honest about when we’ve made mistakes and not making other people look bad to protect ourselves.

Rueben Job says another reason we sometimes do harm to one another is because, “We have bound ourselves to a certain ideology or theology rather than binding ourselves to Jesus Christ as both Savior and Lord of all. We may have permitted our loyalty to a theological position to trump our loyalty to Jesus Christ.” Sometimes we convince ourselves that it’s ok to say whatever we want about people who disagree theologically with us. We convince ourselves that they aren’t really Christian if they believe such a thing. But what we fail to realize is that we aren’t acting very Christian when we behave in such a way. It is possible for thoughtful, faithful people to have differing theological opinions.

When we find ourselves tempted to harm those who disagree theologically with us we should remind ourselves that as Christians we have much more that unites us than divides us. Our loyalty to God as revealed in Jesus Christ, should supersede our loyalty to a specific belief or to those who think just like us. We should be willing to consider the possibility that we don’t have it all figured out, that we might have something we can learn from those who disagree with us. But we’ll only learn from those who have different opinions than us if we are willing to engage in healthy conversation instead of doing harm to one another.

There are many reason we do harm to one another but the rule to do no harm also applies to ourselves. Over-eating, smoking, lack of sleep, and lack of exercise are ways many of us do harm to ourselves. If you know you have high cholesterol, don’t eat fatty foods. If you know you’re diabetic, don’t eat sugary foods. If you know you have high blood pressure then take the medication your doctor prescribes you. Often we rationalize our self-destructive behavior by convincing ourselves we aren’t hurting anyone. But the truth is we are hurting ourselves, and when we hurt ourselves, we also hurt those who care about us.

It’s easy to fall into the ruts of doing harm to one another or to ourselves. The ruts are all around us. But we can get out of them if we are intentional about the way we live our lives. We need to constantly seek to see others as a child of God. If you have trouble seeing a particular person as a child of God then maybe you need to take a picture of them and hang it somewhere you will see it every day with the caption under it that says child of God. Each time you see the picture, pray for that person. Pray that God would bless them and lead them in a faithful life, but also pray that you would see that person they way God sees them.

Seeing one another as a child of God, and being intentional about our actions can go a long way in our efforts to do no harm. Climbing out of the ruts of doing harm can be difficult and challenging. But the more we practice a life of doing no harm, the more we carve out new ruts and the easier it is to follow.

Amen.

Recreation

I'm currently on vacation. Actually I've been on vacation since friday. With each subsequent day I've gotten more and more relaxed. Today as I was wandering around sight-seeing, I was reminded reminded that vacation is recreation.

Recreation. It's really a pretty odd word when you stop to think about it. Most of us when we think of recreation we think of playing and just generally relaxing. Accourding to Merriam-Webster.com recreation is defined as "refreshment of strength and spirits after work." Have you ever noticed the recreation is spelled the same way as re-creation, as in being created again?

I honestly don't think that was an accident. Receation is a form of re-creation. It is in relaxing, and yes, when we actually stop working that we are refreshed and in a sense are re-created. We weren't designed to work non-stop. God tells us to rest and to be re-created. Yet most of us aren't very good at resting.

I think in this economy, with so much unknown and with so much stress in many different areas of life, it's even more important for us to make time for recreation. Maybe that's taking time to play a game with your kids, maybe it means going for a hike or watching a movie. When we take time for recreation we are allowing God to re-create us. And that is just as productive as if we spent that time working.

What do you need to do to spend some time in recreation and being re-created this week?