Breathe Deeply

Below is the sermon I preached today on Acts 2:1-21. Click here to read the scripture passage ebfore reading the sermon.

Breathing Deeply

As much as I enjoy being away at a conference or on vacation, there’s a part of me that dreads coming back. Not so much because of the work that piles up while I’m gone, but more because I can never manage to remember what setting I was using on the treadmill. So I simply dread that very first workout once I’ve gotten back from a trip.

This last trip that I took was no different. I found myself standing on the treadmill, desperately racking my brain trying to remember the setting. After awhile I come to the conclusion I’m just going to have to guess or I’ll never get around to the actual workout, I’ll just spend all day standing on the treadmill staring at it. So I muster my courage and I guessed. I picked something that in my mind had to be reasonably close.

The first part of my workout went well, I was feeling pretty good. Then as the treadmill begins to pick up speed, I realize that I have in fact, guessed wrong. I chose a setting that was harder than the one I had been on before. “Oh well,” I think to myself, “It’ll be a little harder, but I can do this.” And for those of you who have run before, you know that a large part of running is mental. So I’m having this mental conversation with myself about how I can do this, it’s really not that much harder than what I was doing before, I’m only feeling this tired because I was expecting the old setting, at this point I’m telling myself anything I can think of to motivate me to keep running. But the longer my workout goes, the heavier my legs seem to feel. I find myself slowing moving further and further back on the treadmill and I am gasping for air. I feel like I just can’t get enough air.

At this point I really want to stop running. And I find myself wondering how people would react if they walked into the room and realized their pastor had flown off the back end of the treadmill and was flattened against the wall. I begin to think I really should slow this thing down, after all, that’s the pastoral thing to do right? Because I wouldn’t want to traumatize anyone who happened to walk in and find me in an unconscious heap on the floor from having flown off the back end of the treadmill.

But I’m too stubborn to give in. I really hate quitting. So I find myself trying to combat these negative thoughts, trying to find any source of motivation to keep going. I think one of the occupational hazards of being a pastor is that you bring God into everything. And I certainly was going to need some divine intervention to make it through this workout! Yet all I can hear is my gasping for air. So with each gasp for breath, I start to say, “I have the breath of God within me.” I have the breath of God within me. And I’m breathing really fast so I’m saying it over and over again really fast. IhavethebreathofGodwithinme.IhavethebreathofGodwithinme. That starts to perk me up a bit, so now I’m starting to get a little feisty about it. I start saying things like, “I have the breath of God within me! And I am not going to let a machine, defeat the breath of God. The breath of God is stronger than this machine, it’s stronger than the ten pound weights that seem to have magically appeared on my legs, it’s stronger than anything else that exists.”
I wish I could say that I finished that workout strong and feeling really good. I didn’t. But I did finish. I finished that workout still gasping for air and still saying over and over again, “I have the breath of God within me.” In fact, I spent the rest of the day repeating that phrase in my head as I went about my work.

As funny as that story is, we all know how important breathing is, how serious it is. We know that when we stop breathing, we lose our life. The very first thing that we have to do when we are born is breathe. And it’s the very last thing we all do before we die. Our life is tied to our breath. It’s a fact that’s known all too well to those who have ever had a loved one on a ventilator. It’s a fact that’s known all too well to those who have asthma, a condition that threatens one’s breath, and therefore one’s life. Our life is tied to our breath.

I think it’s because of this relationship between breath and life that I so love the image in Genesis of God breathing life into Adam. I picture God kneeling down beside Adam in the clay that he was just moments ago formed from, and God leaning full body over Adam as God breathes into Adam, forcing air into his lungs for the first time; a lot like when someone is giving CPR. What an intimate and messy picture of God imparting life into humanity.

I find it really fascinating that the same word in both Hebrew and Greek can be translated as wind, or breath, or spirit. In Hebrew the word is ruah and in Greek the word is pneuma. And so the passage in Genesis could just as easily be translated as God breathed God’s spirit into humanity. And the passage from Acts that was just read could be translated as “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the breath of God…”

We all have within us the breath of God, the Spirit of God. And that’s what we celebrate today, on Pentecost Sunday. We celebrate the powerful and dramatic way that God’s spirit is poured out on those gathered in Jerusalem. It reminds us that the church is inseparable from Christ. Because to be separated from the source of our breath, to be separated from the spirit of God, is to lose our life. Without the Holy Spirit, we aren’t the church. Without the Holy Spirit, we’re just an old lifeless institution.

Luckily that’s not the picture that Luke paints for us in Acts. Instead we have this incredible image of life and passion and vitality that is described in this passage from Acts as the Holy Spirit is poured out. We can practically feel the wind blowing on our face and see the tongues of fire resting on everyone. We can hear the commotion as the noise level begins to rise, everyone speaking their own language and yet everyone hearing in their own language and understanding. There’s preaching by Peter and over 3,000 were added to their number that day! It’s a really chaotic and lively image of what it means to be the church.

Yet so often, as individuals, or even as a community we don’t feel that lively and energetic. We often feel just the opposite. When we find out that a loved one is sick it can feel like we just had the wind knocked out of us. Or it can feel like we are suffocating under the weight of our worry and axiety as we wonder if we’ll have a job next week. Sometimes it feels like we’re gasping for air, desperately trying to keep our head above water as we juggle the demands of work and family.

Sometimes as a community it feels like any minute we might go flying off the back end of the treadmill as we try to provide more and better ministries to the community. Or how we’ll accomplish the vision God has laid out for us. So often we don’t really feel all that inspired or empowered.

Honestly, that’s how I imagine the disciples feeling at the beginning of this passage. I imagine them feeling like they had just gotten the wind knocked out of them. It was bad enough that Jesus died, but then he was resurrected and they’ve spent that last seven weeks with him. And now, all of sudden, he’s gone again. He’d warned them that he was leaving, but I imagine it was still a painful parting for the disciples. I imagine them feeling like they are suffocating under the weight of their own grief, dazed and confused about how exactly they’re going to fulfill all the commands Jesus gave them before he left.

But then God’s Spirit is poured out on them and fills them with power. It transforms them from scared disciples that were hiding in a locked room after Jesus’ death into the powerful and passionate body of Christ alive in the world. Peter, the one who flat out denied Christ, the one who flat out lied about knowing Jesus, now stands boldly preaching before the crowd in Jerusalem. As the story of the early church continues to unfold in the rest of Acts, we see the disciples empowered to venture off into unknown places to spread the news of the Gospel. They preach and pray and spread the good news even in the face of the floggings, stoning, and being imprisoned. And we’re told that they do all of this with great joy!

The same Spirit that was within them is within us. God has breathed the breath of life into each of us. God has breathed the Spirit of God into each of us. That same Spirit that empowered and transformed the first disciples into the church, the body of Christ, can fill us with power and transform us. God’s Spirit can fill us with what we need just as it filled the disciples with what they needed. That Spirit is just as powerful today as it was on that first Pentecost.

Like the disciples we have to learn to trust in the power of that Spirit. Not only did the disciples receive the Holy Spirit, but they trusted it and relied on its power. They didn’t have to talk or keep talking and that incredible miracle of understanding and unity would have ended. Peter didn’t have to explain it. But they did keep talking and Peter did explain it, because they trusted in the Spirit that had filled them. Peter trusted in the power of the Holy Spirit to speak through him and to bring others into closer relationship with God.

So breathe deeply! Today if you find yourself hurting, if you feel like you’re suffocating or just might fly off the back end of the treadmill then breathe deeply. Breathe deeply and inhale the Spirit of God. Lean into that spirit, trusting it to carry you through. And when times get tough you can even repeat my little running mantra, “I have the breath of God within me.” If you are hurting or grieving or wondering if you have the strength to carry on, breathe deeply and inhale the Spirit of God.

If the opposite is true for you, if you find yourself feeling full of the Spirit, if you’re feeling strong and empowered to live out the vision God has for us, then breathe deeply and breathe out the love of God on others nearby. Chances are there is someone near you that desperately needs to feel the life giving power of the Spirit of God. So breathe deeply and exhale the love and grace of God on those around you who are hurting and feeling lifeless.

Regardless of where you find yourself this day, Breathe deeply.

Amen.

Ever wonder what pastors do during the day?

Now you can know. Well at least some of it anyway. I'm going to give this twitter things a try. So I'll occasionally send updates to it through out the day. But, for those of you out there who are just a little too nosey, I want you to know that I will not be posting where my husband and I are going on our dates or the like. As much as I love all of you, there are some things you just don't need to know.

So stay tuned for my twitter updates that can be found in the left hand column of my blog.Tweet-Tweet! (sorry, couldn't resist)

God-bearers

On Monday evening I had the privilege of hearing Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu preach at the festival of Homiletics. Desmond Tutu was instrumental in the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. Not only did was he instrumental in the social justice movement that ended apartheid, he also was instrumental in helping the whole country to move forward together. Through, preaching and example, he helped the country to forgive and to forge a new future together.

As he preached he talked about how it is possible to forgive and move forward after all the atrocity that has happened to the people. One of the things he talked about as being crucial to this process as seeing everyone as a God-bearer. He said once you see each person not only as someone that God cares about and loves and values, but also as someone who has the Holy Spirit with in them, someone who has the ability to bear God to the world, then forgiveness becomes possible. He went on to say that each of us is exactly that, each of us is a God-bearer.

I really do believe that. Every person is a God-bearer. Each of us is a carrier of the Holy Spirit that first gave us life and each breath is a reminder of God's spirit within us. But one of the things that has occurred to me is that far too often, those of us who call ourselves Christians, even those of us who go to church on a regular basis, act much more like God-barriers than God-bearers.

We each have within us the potential to be a God-bearer to the world. We have the potential and opportunity to demonstrate in a small way the abundant love and forgiveness, compassion and hope, life and grace that God offers each of us. But when we act in ways that are contrary to our Christian identity we become God-barriers rather than God-bearers. When we judge people instead of love them, when we hold grudges instead of forgive, when we look the other way so we don't have to act compassionately toward another, when we choose destructive behaviors that hurt others or ourselves, when we say one thing and live out another, we become a barrier to people coming to know and experience God. When we do those things not only are we failing to live a christian witness, but we are proclaiming a bad witness. People who are not christian see those behaviors, they see that we are not living what we claim to be, and they decide being christian really just means being a hypocrite. They decide the values we are living out aren't the values they agree with. And so rather than being a God-bearer to the world, we become a God-barrier.

But each of us has within us the potential to be a God-bearer. We can, simply by the way we live our lives and interact with others, become a way through which people experience and come to know God. Have you been a God-bearer today? Is someone better off today because you are a part of their life, even in some small way? Has someone experienced acceptance, forgiveness, or caring from you? Did you talk to someone today that might not have anyone else say anything to them all day? Do you treat the cafeteria people, the custodians in your office, the delivery people, or the starbucks barista as a real person? Do you know their story or even their name? How have they seen God through you?

Inquiring minds want to know...

This is the time of the year when we start trying to nail down preaching themes and small group ideas and the like. Dennis and I always have particular things that we think it's important to include in the preaching rotation. However, as I was pondering what things to preach on in the coming year I began to wonder what you would like to hear sermons on.

What are the topics that you are interested in or struggle with or want suggestions on how to deal with? What are the areas where you are confused about what God intends for us or the things you'd like to know more about? I can't promise that we will preach on all of them but I would like to know what is on your minds and hearts.

Same thing for small groups. Are there areas you'd like to learn more about? Would that be a particular book of the bible? Is that a theme? Is it a book study? Do you like studies that include a video? What time would you most like to have the study? Would you rather have the study with people your own age or a wide range or ages? Would you rather have the study at church or at a house in your neighborhood?

Please leave a comment about your thoughts on any or all of the above. Even if you don't attend Calvary, your feedback is welcome as well.

Inquiring minds want to know, how can we help you grow in faith?

What is Baptism?

Below is the sermon I preached yesterday on Acts 8:26-40. Click here to read the scripture passage first.

Baptism and Teaching

A long time ago, someone once said to me, “You don’t just marry your spouse, you marry the family.” I think there’s a lot of truth in that statement. You don’t literally marry the family, but in being married to your spouse, you are now bound to their family. More than likely you will see their parents and siblings on most major holidays, you’ll have both the privilege and the burden of the advice they’ll give you, and in some cases you’ll see their family more than you see your family. When you get married, not only are you committing yourself to your spouse, but you are also being grafted into a new family.

Baptism is like that, it’s being welcomed into the family of God. We are incorporated into the body of Christ, the Church, through baptism. Baptism is the act of God claiming us as God’s own children. As we are claimed as part of this new family, we are given a new name. In baptism we are given the family name. That’s why when you are baptized the pastor will say, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” That is the name by which this family is known. This family is known by the name of the triune God we worship. Baptism, like marriage, is the way that we are welcomed into a new family. In baptism we leave behind our old identity and we take on the identity of the family of God.

In the United Methodist Church we baptize infants as well as adults. The reason we believe it’s acceptable to baptize infants is because we believe God is the primary actor in baptism. God is the one acting to pour out the grace of God on the person being baptized. We believe that grace of God is active and at work in our lives long before we can even recognize it, let alone accept it. It is this grace that helps us to realize that we even have a need for the grace of God in our lives. It is this grace that helps us to turn towards God and answer the invitation to be in relationship.

In Baptism, this grace acts to forgive us of our sins. Most of us have heard the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. While we aren’t being punished for their acts, that story does tells us about how humans have rebelled against God. It tells us about how that rebellion caused strife within humanity and we have wounded one another over and over again. In baptism, our wounds are washed and God continues the long process of making us whole.

When you put all of those pieces together, we realize that in baptism God claims us, cleans us, and names us. If you are ever feeling unworthy or unwanted, know that there is a God who wants to claim you, clean you and name you as God’s own!

As amazing as all that is, baptism is not the end of the story. We see in today’s scripture passage that teaching goes hand in hand with baptism. The Holy Spirit commanded Phillip to go up along side the Ethiopian’s chariot. As he does so, he hears the Ethiopian reading aloud a passage from Isaiah. So phillip asks him, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The Ethiopian responds, “How can I unless someone explains it to me?”

Baptism is this incredible act of God on our behalf. We can experience it’s power, but without someone explaining it to us, we won’t fully understand it’s meaning. If you were baptized as a youth or adult, then there’s some teaching that happens before you were baptized. Like Phillip explaining the passage from Isaiah to the Ethiopian. Somewhere along the line some had to tell you about the God made known through Jesus Christ. Someone had to tell you that this God was willing to be wounded so that you could be made whole. Someone had to tell you that you are valuable, that you have worth, that you are wanted by the One who created you. Like the Ethiopian in today’s scripture passage, sometimes teaching is what leads us to baptism.

But Teaching also happens after baptism. If you were baptized as an infant in the United Methodist Church then your parents, and the congregation, took certain vows on your behalf. They promised to raise you in the church. They promised to teach you what the values of this family are, the family of God. They promised to teach you how to live a Christian life and what it means to be a follower of Christ.

In confirmation you are then given the option to take those vows yourself. In confirmation you are given the opportunity to claim the family that first claimed you. In confirmation you are given the opportunity to claim the God that first claimed you. But you also take on the responsibility to continue to learn and grow in your faith.

But regardless of if you were baptized as an infant or an adult, there’s still more learning to do after baptism and confirmation. In the great commission at the end of the gospel of Matthew, Jesus says: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded.”

These are Jesus’ parting words to the disciples before he ascends to heaven. It’s his last opportunity to speak to the disciples in person and these are the words he chooses to speak. He doesn’t stop with telling them to spread the good news. He doesn’t stop with telling them to baptize them. Jesus himself finds it important enough that in his parting words to the disciples he tells them to teach the baptized.

When you get married, you know your spouse pretty well. But you certainly don’t know everything about them. Sometimes you’ll learn little things about the other person, like they make tacos differently than you do, or maybe they leave their shoes in the middle of the living room floor everyday, or maybe they have longer hair than you do and it is constantly clogging the drains. But mostly, you and your spouse are learning how to live in relationship with one another. It means that sometime you have to learn how to do things differently than you had done them before. It means sometimes you’ll have to learn new ways of reacting to certain things. It also means you will have to help teach your spouse new ways of doing things. You’ll have to help them understand your family dynamics and how to navigate particular circumstances.

Being a Christian, being part of the family of God is a lot the same way. We have been claimed and incorporated into a new family. But we will still need someone to help us learn how this family works. We’ll need to learn new ways of responding to things. Slowly over time we’ll begin to learn the dynamics of this new family. We’ll learn that this family is about forgiveness. When one of us is hurt by the other, we talk to them about why we were hurt, and then we forgive. We’ll learn that this new family isn’t just about taking care of yourself, it’s about doing what’s best for the family, for the whole community.

Jesus tells us to teach one another all that he has commanded us. We cannot do that on our own. Because so much of what Jesus teaches us is about how to live in community, it’s about how to be a part of this new family.

If we are not in bible study, with a group, how can we expect to even know what Jesus commands us, let alone live it out. If we are not in worship, how can we expect to recognize God’s presence at work in our lives at other times. If we are not active and present in this community, how can we expect to know one another’s burdens, let alone be able to encourage, lift up, hold accountable, or forgive one another.

Baptism is a wonderful act of God in which we are claimed, cleaned, and named. But is we are to fully understand that, and full live out that new identity, then we must continue to learn from one. How are you allowing the community to teach you?

Are you involved in a group bible study? Do you come to worship on a regular basis? Are you present and active in the community so you know what the needs are? Do you read scripture on a regular basis? If not, Why not? Why not?

We are a lot like the Ethiopian. How can we understand, unless someone explains it to us? How are you allowing the community to teach you?

Amen.

Death of a friendship

Grieving. It's one of the messy parts of our humanity. God created us to be in relationship, not only with God but also with one another. When those relationships end, it hurts and grief ensues.

We're used to hearing about people die, but we don't often talk about the death of relationships. Sometimes it's a romantic relationship, sometimes it's a business relationship, often it's a friendship. Relationships die for any number of reasons. Sometimes people simply grow and change and drift apart. This happens a lot when high school graduates head off to college. Many of them come home during summer after their freshman year at school, only to find that time has changed them and their friendship. Some of those friendships die.

Sometimes friendships die of a wound that's not properly cared for. One party in the friendship is wounded, and the friendship never recovers. Often it dies quickly after being wounded. Other times it dies slowly of internal bleeding. Sometimes a friendship dies from lack of nurishment. One or both parties simply stop trying, stop putting time, energy, and effort into caring for the friendship. Sometimes a friendship just suddenly dies for no apparent reason. And the party who's left is left to wonder what happened, if there's something that could have been done, if there's someway it could be repaired.

But regardless of how a friendship dies, when they do die, we grieve. It's important for us to acknowledge the pain and the hurt that happens in this type of death. It certainly is usually not as intense as when a loved one physically dies. It's a different type of hurt and pain but it is hurt and pain nonetheless. It's also different from a physical death in that we have to find closure in different ways. In a physical death there's a body, a funeral or memorial service, often a grave that can be visited. But with the death of a relationship, there is no body, no graveside to visit. There's no service where society recognizes the loss you've experienced. It becomes difficult to find closure to that friendship, especially if it happened with no explanation.

We do well to acknowledge our grief and work through it. Grief brings up all sorts of emotions within us: sadness, hurt, anger, frustration, confusion, loneliness, irritability, and numbness to name a few. It's important for us to acknowledge those feelings and work through them. Otherwise they just fester within us. As we go through the hard work of grief, eventually we do get to a point of closure and acceptance. We get to a point where we can remember the good times with joy and we can laugh at the funny photos we have. Eventually we do get to a point where we can begin to heal from the wound that was left by the friendship's absence.

God created us for relationship. Sometimes those relationships die and we grieve their death. But that doesn't mean the relationship was worthless or pointless. God is still able to use those relationships to heal us and others, to bring about forgiveness and love, to help us be better people, to help us learn what our gifts are and to help us realize the things we need to change. No matter how long or short a relationship is, God is able to bring about all sorts of good out of it. On the occasions I have grieved the death of a friendship, this is what brings me comfort. I trust that God is still at work in their lives, constantly working for their good. I was privileged to be a part of that for a time. Although the friendship is dead, I know God's love for them is not.