In Zimbabwe, this Christmas season will continue to be one of isolation for those unable to travel to Old Mutare, where Project Tariro is helping people learn to live positively with HIV/AIDS. There at the clinic, hope is being shared through healthcare, support groups, income generating projects and nutritional gardening. While many at the clinic are thriving because of available drugs and support, many more in the outlying communities are still waiting for their hope to come.
This Christmas, why not provide transportation to those who are waiting?
Project Tariro’s Community Health Workers are in need of a vehicle to transport patients for necessary treatment and prescriptions. The van (with maintenance and drivers) is expected to cost $40,000. Friends of Project Tariro is seeking to raise this amount of money by asking faithful people like you to make a contribution.
Would you want a wheelbarrow to be your ambulance?
It was for one child who needed transportation
to the hospital.
Transportation can be a matter of life and death. One single mother died recently because there was no transportation to get a hard-to-fill prescription. We want to make safe, reliable transportation a reality.
Will you help by giving at least $25?
To give online, go to https://www.support-africauniversity.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=202, choose your amount and type Project Tariro in the "other" category.
As an added incentive to watch us meet our goal, you can log on to Facebook (Friends of Project Tariro) to follow the assembly of the vehicle. You have the option to indicate which part of vehicle you want your gift to support, which will be monitored by the four, members of the recent Deacon Caravan as listed below. They have agreed to help keep the momentum going to help us “assemble” this vehicle.
Rev. Barbara Schrier’s GPS Group: The directional parts of a vehicle remind us of the goal to find nooks and crannies where people who feel most forgotten are found.
Rev. Gregory D. Gross’s Power Group: Any vehicle needs an engine, gas and power to reach its destination. May we be reminded of the energy needed by staff and volunteers to keep this mission going and keep them in prayer.
Rev. Alicia Cargill’s Image Group: As a car is known for its reliability, so is an important mission like Project Tariro. The Image Group will pray that Project Tariro will become known for its success and reliability in "helping people live positively in community."
Rev. Denita Conner’s Road Handling Group: Have you ever had a bumpy ride? We pray that Project Tariro , given the circumstances in Zimbabwe, will have a smooth journey and overcome any obstacles.
Following one of the groups will be both fun and meaningful. Take time to share this information with others! Put the brochure in a prominent place – on your desk, coffee table, refrigerator or share with another person. Go online and write about it on Facebook or Twitter. Encourage people to visit the Project Tariro website (www.projecttariro.com). You just never know the impact that your words may have.
P.S. Mark 16:18 says, "They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." To heal, first we must get the patient to the healers. Your generous contribution will make that a reality. Please give a gift that brings joy to your heart.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
I'll Be Home for Christmas
This is my sermon from Sat night Dec 11, 2009 at 61st Avenue UMC, Nashville:
I’ll Be Home for Christmas
We all know the Christmas song, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” It paints such a beautiful picture, doesn’t it?! People there we love getting things ready for us…snow, mistletoe, presents under the tree. Everything we would want! You can just imagine it…surrounded by those you love. Bellies full, toes warmed by the fire. Satisfaction.
These feelings don’t come from just being in a house – they come from that feeling of home and that can come to us at different places. Maybe some of us feel home when we are with family. Maybe it’s with friends. Maybe it’s here at 61st Avenue. Home is satisfaction in the heart – being “right” with the ones we love.
That’s not always an easy thing to have though is it? The Whitney Houston version “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” begins with these words:
“I’m dreaming tonight of a place I love even more than I usually do. And although I know it’s a long road back, I promise you…I’ll be home for Christmas.”
How do we get to that place that feels like home? How do we get our relationships in order so we get that feeling? Tonight’s scripture is about repenting…that word might cause a feeling of dread in our hearts…maybe it conjures up old feelings of someone trying to beat you over the head with religion. But repentance is God’s way of making a home…sweeping out the trash to make way for the good stuff.
It may feel like a long road back to home, but God is near, and will always make a way – even when we think there is none.
Today’s scripture begins with John the Baptist getting angry at people assuming they are entitled to a place in God’s home:
Luke 3:7-18 (The Message)
7-9When crowds of people came out for baptism because it was the popular thing to do, John exploded: "Brood of snakes! What do you think you're doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to deflect God's judgment? It's your life that must change, not your skin. And don't think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as 'father.' Being a child of Abraham is neither here nor there—children of Abraham are a dime a dozen. God can make children from stones if he wants. What counts is your life. Is it green and blossoming? Because if it's deadwood, it goes on the fire."
To make God’s household right, John is saying that we need to turn our hearts around and that it needs to show! That people around us should see us blossoming! And that this happens from the inside out – not just by washing our skin with waters of baptism but by changing our lives.
Have you ever had people say words that ring hollow? Maybe someone who says they’re sorry but they go right back to what they’ve been doing all along? That hurts doesn’t it?! That’s what John is saying here – that God expects us to turn our lives around – to express repentance with our ways, not just our words.
All of us have gotten this wrong – and sometimes we mean well, we just don’t follow through. When we do that with relationships in our lives, we feel it even more strongly because it breaks up relationships. When we do wrong to someone, we need to show that we are sorry by our new ways, not just continuing old ways with new words!
When my sister was raising her daughter Amy, Amy would sometimes say she was sorry about doing something wrong. And Susan would say, “Don’t be sorry. Be better.” That’s kind of what this scripture is saying. Don’t speak words that have no meaning to you and expect things to be better. You’ve got to participate in being the meaning of the word! You’ve got to be the dictionary that explains repentance to others!
Sometimes home feels far away because of something beyond our own doing – something that has happened to us like divorce or death, prison, maybe mental illness, addiction, the list goes on. When a situation is in our hands, we have control over what we can do, right? When the other person in the relationship is not honoring the relationship, sometimes we do what we can and we move on. This can be really painful, but even then, having a good relationship with God – the head of our heart’s household, can provide us with what we need to find that contentment even in the face of sorrow.
I have seen this illustrated in many places, where people who are hurt by others move into Christian community and find a true home among others who know what it’s like to be hurt and excluded. Sometimes the home we find in Christian community may feel more like home than any place we grew up in. I see this lived out in many places, but one place especially touched my heart this October when I traveled to Zimbabwe. It’s Project Tariro – Tariro means hope in the local language – and Tariro provides a community of love especially to those whose blood relatives have turned their backs.
Play Video: http://umtv.org/archives/adult_aids_health_care.htm
While I was there, I met a young girl named Thandi – a twelve year old girl. Her mother, Nora, had been diagnosed with AIDS and her family threw her out. Nora was faced then with raising her daughter amidst unbelievable poverty – the kind of poverty where most people around you have nothing and there’s nobody even to beg from. But Thandi and her mom came to Project Tariro and found that there were others like them who had also been turned out by their families who were finding a way by having a nutritional garden, counselors, health support and more . In March of this year, Thandi’s mother died when the medicines she needed were not available. Once again, her own family would not or could not help. But the Christian community that surrounded them did not let them down. Thandi is living with the pastor there and is able to continue schooling and is getting what she needs to survive. She is not alone.
When we realize what it means to be “home for Christmas” we are able to help others who are without. The scriptures that I read before continue with the crowd’s continued interaction with John the Baptist:
10The crowd asked him, "Then what are we supposed to do?"
11"If you have two coats, give one away," he said. "Do the same with your food."
12Tax men also came to be baptized and said, "Teacher, what should we do?"
13He told them, "No more extortion—collect only what is required by law."
14Soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?"
He told them, "No shakedowns, no blackmail—and be content with your rations."
When we really repent, we see an outward change that helps those around us.
I’ve seen this at 61st Avenue, in other places in Nashville and again in Africa. I feel uncomfortable when people look at me like I’m good for going there to Africa to help others. I’m no better than anyone. And really, when I go there, I am the one who comes back full. I am the one who has been home for Christmas. Because when I’m there, I see glimpses of heaven in the way that people love one another and love God. The first time I went to Zimbabwe, a child who had an old pair of shoes received a new pair, only to run and happily give the other pair to a child without shoes. I have met elderly people who barely have what it takes them to survive for a day stand and sing with joy that God has shown favor upon them. I have listened as a woman who lost three siblings last year to political violence sing to me her profession of faith – Because He Lives. Because He Lives – I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know who holds the future, life is worth the living just because he lives.
I’m always amazed at how people whose faith is strong can get through tough times. But it’s because I have witnessed this that I can share with you that it is possible! Even when times are unimagineably tough, people who have a strong faith in God persevere and overcome in time. Things are different. Home can be found in the midst of a desert where others find only desolation. This is what happens when we are changed from the inside out.
The final portion of this scripture shows people questioning John who has been saying these things.
15The interest of the people by now was building. They were all beginning to wonder, "Could this John be the Messiah?"
16-17But John intervened: "I'm baptizing you here in the river. The main character in this drama, to whom I'm a mere stagehand, will ignite the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He's going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He'll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he'll put out with the trash to be burned."
Are we ready for Christ? December 24 is just around the corner…the time that we recognize Jesus’ birth and spiritually prepare for receiving him in our hearts. What trash do we have to be swept out?
Another song sung this time of year is “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” The difference between Santa and the messiah – Jesus Christ – is that Santa comes to those who are nice, not naughty. God sent Jesus especially to the “naughty” as the gift to end all gifts! All God asks us to do is to prepare him room. May we prepare for His coming – making space knowing that maybe this year, we will find the true meaning of being home for Christmas. Amen.
Worship Response: If you would like to come forward as a sign of sweeping out a new place for Christ in your life, you may do so by taking a rock from the manger. Take it as a symbol of things that get in the way of your relationship with God and your relationship with others. Let God know that you want help in making way. And He who goes before us with grace and mercy will help.
I’ll Be Home for Christmas
We all know the Christmas song, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” It paints such a beautiful picture, doesn’t it?! People there we love getting things ready for us…snow, mistletoe, presents under the tree. Everything we would want! You can just imagine it…surrounded by those you love. Bellies full, toes warmed by the fire. Satisfaction.
These feelings don’t come from just being in a house – they come from that feeling of home and that can come to us at different places. Maybe some of us feel home when we are with family. Maybe it’s with friends. Maybe it’s here at 61st Avenue. Home is satisfaction in the heart – being “right” with the ones we love.
That’s not always an easy thing to have though is it? The Whitney Houston version “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” begins with these words:
“I’m dreaming tonight of a place I love even more than I usually do. And although I know it’s a long road back, I promise you…I’ll be home for Christmas.”
How do we get to that place that feels like home? How do we get our relationships in order so we get that feeling? Tonight’s scripture is about repenting…that word might cause a feeling of dread in our hearts…maybe it conjures up old feelings of someone trying to beat you over the head with religion. But repentance is God’s way of making a home…sweeping out the trash to make way for the good stuff.
It may feel like a long road back to home, but God is near, and will always make a way – even when we think there is none.
Today’s scripture begins with John the Baptist getting angry at people assuming they are entitled to a place in God’s home:
Luke 3:7-18 (The Message)
7-9When crowds of people came out for baptism because it was the popular thing to do, John exploded: "Brood of snakes! What do you think you're doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to deflect God's judgment? It's your life that must change, not your skin. And don't think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as 'father.' Being a child of Abraham is neither here nor there—children of Abraham are a dime a dozen. God can make children from stones if he wants. What counts is your life. Is it green and blossoming? Because if it's deadwood, it goes on the fire."
To make God’s household right, John is saying that we need to turn our hearts around and that it needs to show! That people around us should see us blossoming! And that this happens from the inside out – not just by washing our skin with waters of baptism but by changing our lives.
Have you ever had people say words that ring hollow? Maybe someone who says they’re sorry but they go right back to what they’ve been doing all along? That hurts doesn’t it?! That’s what John is saying here – that God expects us to turn our lives around – to express repentance with our ways, not just our words.
All of us have gotten this wrong – and sometimes we mean well, we just don’t follow through. When we do that with relationships in our lives, we feel it even more strongly because it breaks up relationships. When we do wrong to someone, we need to show that we are sorry by our new ways, not just continuing old ways with new words!
When my sister was raising her daughter Amy, Amy would sometimes say she was sorry about doing something wrong. And Susan would say, “Don’t be sorry. Be better.” That’s kind of what this scripture is saying. Don’t speak words that have no meaning to you and expect things to be better. You’ve got to participate in being the meaning of the word! You’ve got to be the dictionary that explains repentance to others!
Sometimes home feels far away because of something beyond our own doing – something that has happened to us like divorce or death, prison, maybe mental illness, addiction, the list goes on. When a situation is in our hands, we have control over what we can do, right? When the other person in the relationship is not honoring the relationship, sometimes we do what we can and we move on. This can be really painful, but even then, having a good relationship with God – the head of our heart’s household, can provide us with what we need to find that contentment even in the face of sorrow.
I have seen this illustrated in many places, where people who are hurt by others move into Christian community and find a true home among others who know what it’s like to be hurt and excluded. Sometimes the home we find in Christian community may feel more like home than any place we grew up in. I see this lived out in many places, but one place especially touched my heart this October when I traveled to Zimbabwe. It’s Project Tariro – Tariro means hope in the local language – and Tariro provides a community of love especially to those whose blood relatives have turned their backs.
Play Video: http://umtv.org/archives/adult_aids_health_care.htm
While I was there, I met a young girl named Thandi – a twelve year old girl. Her mother, Nora, had been diagnosed with AIDS and her family threw her out. Nora was faced then with raising her daughter amidst unbelievable poverty – the kind of poverty where most people around you have nothing and there’s nobody even to beg from. But Thandi and her mom came to Project Tariro and found that there were others like them who had also been turned out by their families who were finding a way by having a nutritional garden, counselors, health support and more . In March of this year, Thandi’s mother died when the medicines she needed were not available. Once again, her own family would not or could not help. But the Christian community that surrounded them did not let them down. Thandi is living with the pastor there and is able to continue schooling and is getting what she needs to survive. She is not alone.
When we realize what it means to be “home for Christmas” we are able to help others who are without. The scriptures that I read before continue with the crowd’s continued interaction with John the Baptist:
10The crowd asked him, "Then what are we supposed to do?"
11"If you have two coats, give one away," he said. "Do the same with your food."
12Tax men also came to be baptized and said, "Teacher, what should we do?"
13He told them, "No more extortion—collect only what is required by law."
14Soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?"
He told them, "No shakedowns, no blackmail—and be content with your rations."
When we really repent, we see an outward change that helps those around us.
I’ve seen this at 61st Avenue, in other places in Nashville and again in Africa. I feel uncomfortable when people look at me like I’m good for going there to Africa to help others. I’m no better than anyone. And really, when I go there, I am the one who comes back full. I am the one who has been home for Christmas. Because when I’m there, I see glimpses of heaven in the way that people love one another and love God. The first time I went to Zimbabwe, a child who had an old pair of shoes received a new pair, only to run and happily give the other pair to a child without shoes. I have met elderly people who barely have what it takes them to survive for a day stand and sing with joy that God has shown favor upon them. I have listened as a woman who lost three siblings last year to political violence sing to me her profession of faith – Because He Lives. Because He Lives – I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know who holds the future, life is worth the living just because he lives.
I’m always amazed at how people whose faith is strong can get through tough times. But it’s because I have witnessed this that I can share with you that it is possible! Even when times are unimagineably tough, people who have a strong faith in God persevere and overcome in time. Things are different. Home can be found in the midst of a desert where others find only desolation. This is what happens when we are changed from the inside out.
The final portion of this scripture shows people questioning John who has been saying these things.
15The interest of the people by now was building. They were all beginning to wonder, "Could this John be the Messiah?"
16-17But John intervened: "I'm baptizing you here in the river. The main character in this drama, to whom I'm a mere stagehand, will ignite the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He's going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He'll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he'll put out with the trash to be burned."
Are we ready for Christ? December 24 is just around the corner…the time that we recognize Jesus’ birth and spiritually prepare for receiving him in our hearts. What trash do we have to be swept out?
Another song sung this time of year is “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” The difference between Santa and the messiah – Jesus Christ – is that Santa comes to those who are nice, not naughty. God sent Jesus especially to the “naughty” as the gift to end all gifts! All God asks us to do is to prepare him room. May we prepare for His coming – making space knowing that maybe this year, we will find the true meaning of being home for Christmas. Amen.
Worship Response: If you would like to come forward as a sign of sweeping out a new place for Christ in your life, you may do so by taking a rock from the manger. Take it as a symbol of things that get in the way of your relationship with God and your relationship with others. Let God know that you want help in making way. And He who goes before us with grace and mercy will help.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
A 61st Avenue Psalm
In Bible Study last weekend, we read Psalm 124, then wrote from the experiences and words of the crowd, our own psalm. These are the words of those living on the streets, those who've gotten off the streets, those addicted and recovering, and most of all, those who've experienced God's presence:
We could never have made it without God.
Listen up! Are you with me?
We could never have made it without God.
When all our enemies rose against us to beat us with more than just a rod,
we would have been lost, lonely, downcast, or even killed.
We felt like a child who had lost his parents,
filled with bitterness and hatred.
After walking through the darkness for so long,
we have finally seen the light; we found that we were not alone.
God was on our side all the time.
Our God is an awesome God.
If God be for us, who can stand against us?
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Had It Not Been for the Lord
Sermon for 61st Avenue UMC, Nashville, TN Oct 10, 2009, 6 p.m.
Psalm 124
1-5 If God hadn't been for us —all together now, Israel, sing out!—
If God hadn't been for us
when everyone went against us,
We would have been swallowed alive
by their violent anger,
Swept away by the flood of rage,
drowned in the torrent;
We would have lost our lives
in the wild, raging water.
6 Oh, blessed be God!
He didn't go off and leave us.
He didn't abandon us defenseless,
helpless as a rabbit in a pack of snarling dogs.
7 We've flown free from their fangs,
free of their traps, free as a bird.
Their grip is broken;
we're free as a bird in flight.
8 God's strong name is our help,
the same God who made heaven and earth.
If it had not been for the Lord, where would we be? Tonight, we will look at three stories of people who can testify to God’s commitment to life – in all of its goodness – they’ve come through situations that others would have considered hopeless. Whether we acknowledge it or not, God is walking alongside us – through the peaks and the valleys – empathizing, sympathizing, and yearning for life in its abundance to be restored within us and throughout creation.
Let us pray.
This summer, while United Methodist Communications was conducting training for six conferences in Africa, I came to know a pastor from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Pastor Louis Loma Otshudi came to the U.S. to learn about communications technology. While he was here, his host family came to me, saying that he had saved a baby’s life in the Congo - that the baby was now living in Houston and that his family was coming to Nashville to visit Pastor Otshudi. That was the beginning of what I knew about a baby named “Innocence” whose life is a testimony of “had it not been for the Lord.”
Watch Video: Congo Family Adoption
“It wasn’t just another thing he did for the church – he saved that baby’s life.”
God’s most precious gift is life. And God doesn’t want to see that gift – life – go to waste.
Sometimes we go through things that we think we can never get through – mountains too steep to climb or valleys too low to ever climb out of. Yet I’ve met people who’ve come through things that I thought would have destroyed them. I’ve witnessed people who’ve come through war and prison and torture, the loss of family and loved ones – still proclaiming the goodness of God – and how if it had not been for the Lord, they surely would not have made it.
God’s mercy isn’t just for those who’ve earned some special right to it. God’s mercy is for ALL. When we read this psalm, we could get hung up on the part “If God had not been on OUR side...” Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that God is only on one person’s side in an argument (usually our side). I don’t think God is on any one person’s side – God is on the side of life, love, peace, hope, joy, redemption, salvation, and grace. God calls all of humanity to be on God’s own side – it is there that we all can find the true meaning of life. No matter who we are.
In 2008, I heard of a man named Corey Wagner, living in the Adams County Detention Facility in Colorado, and of his pastor, Yong Hui McDonald. I’d like to share their story with you.
Watch Video: Art by Inmates
Sometimes people think that God has brought them to trouble, only to raise them out of it. I don’t see it that way. I think that this world is full of brokenness and that each of us has choices to make and that we will encounter the choices that other people make – sometimes wrong choices - that hurt us in the process.
In the midst of trouble, I think of God as the Great Recycler – you know? Taking the brokenness of our lives – the junk the trash the pain the hurt and making something beautiful of it. For Corey Wagner, he took his junk to prison, but God has turned that junk into something beautiful – not for Corey to hoard for his own happiness and redemption but for other inmates who may finally recognize God’s grace as they experience it through Corey.
If you study the Bible – you’ll see that the great heroes and “she-roes” of the Bible are not people who lived perfect lives. They are people who finally got on their knees and humbled themselves, admitting that they were not perfect and calling upon God’s help. And through that admission, God’s grace accomplished amazing things through them. Look at Moses – who killed an Egyptian – King David – who had an affair with a married woman and had her husband killed to hide his sin – look at the sinful woman mentioned in Luke whose humility and devotion to Christ raised her up as an example of dedicated worship.
Our last story is of a pastor whose ministry became even more vital when he admitted his own brokenness.
Watch Video: Recovery Church
All of us are broken – we come from various places of brokenness and we may be at different places on the path to healing. Sometimes we think that a person has it together because they look alright on the outside, maybe they wear the right clothes, drive the right car, live in the right neighborhood. But we just never know what’s going on inside a person – what pain they may be hiding from others just to live into that “right” image.
God knows. God knows what is going on inside of you and me, right now. And no matter what you’ve done or how broken you think you are, God’s love is still there for you – going before you and behind you and beside you – waiting for you to receive.
Romans 8:38-39 says:
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Psalm 139:8 says:
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
There is no place we can go, no place we can hide, nothing we have done or can do to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Are our souls open and ready to receive this transformative love? Are we ready to make that difficult climb out of the valley or up the mountain?
I’d like to close with these words from a hymn:
(Listen) God Hath Not Promised
God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.
But God hath promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love.
What is your story? How do you say now or how will you one day say, “Had it not been for the Lord?” If you feel led to open yourself up to God’s grace this night, we invite you to come forward. If you’d like to take the hands of people here in this congregation so that your walk will be shared by others you can love and be loved by, please come during the hymn of invitation.
“What a Friend”
Psalm 124
1-5 If God hadn't been for us —all together now, Israel, sing out!—
If God hadn't been for us
when everyone went against us,
We would have been swallowed alive
by their violent anger,
Swept away by the flood of rage,
drowned in the torrent;
We would have lost our lives
in the wild, raging water.
6 Oh, blessed be God!
He didn't go off and leave us.
He didn't abandon us defenseless,
helpless as a rabbit in a pack of snarling dogs.
7 We've flown free from their fangs,
free of their traps, free as a bird.
Their grip is broken;
we're free as a bird in flight.
8 God's strong name is our help,
the same God who made heaven and earth.
If it had not been for the Lord, where would we be? Tonight, we will look at three stories of people who can testify to God’s commitment to life – in all of its goodness – they’ve come through situations that others would have considered hopeless. Whether we acknowledge it or not, God is walking alongside us – through the peaks and the valleys – empathizing, sympathizing, and yearning for life in its abundance to be restored within us and throughout creation.
Let us pray.
This summer, while United Methodist Communications was conducting training for six conferences in Africa, I came to know a pastor from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Pastor Louis Loma Otshudi came to the U.S. to learn about communications technology. While he was here, his host family came to me, saying that he had saved a baby’s life in the Congo - that the baby was now living in Houston and that his family was coming to Nashville to visit Pastor Otshudi. That was the beginning of what I knew about a baby named “Innocence” whose life is a testimony of “had it not been for the Lord.”
Watch Video: Congo Family Adoption
“It wasn’t just another thing he did for the church – he saved that baby’s life.”
God’s most precious gift is life. And God doesn’t want to see that gift – life – go to waste.
Sometimes we go through things that we think we can never get through – mountains too steep to climb or valleys too low to ever climb out of. Yet I’ve met people who’ve come through things that I thought would have destroyed them. I’ve witnessed people who’ve come through war and prison and torture, the loss of family and loved ones – still proclaiming the goodness of God – and how if it had not been for the Lord, they surely would not have made it.
God’s mercy isn’t just for those who’ve earned some special right to it. God’s mercy is for ALL. When we read this psalm, we could get hung up on the part “If God had not been on OUR side...” Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that God is only on one person’s side in an argument (usually our side). I don’t think God is on any one person’s side – God is on the side of life, love, peace, hope, joy, redemption, salvation, and grace. God calls all of humanity to be on God’s own side – it is there that we all can find the true meaning of life. No matter who we are.
In 2008, I heard of a man named Corey Wagner, living in the Adams County Detention Facility in Colorado, and of his pastor, Yong Hui McDonald. I’d like to share their story with you.
Watch Video: Art by Inmates
Sometimes people think that God has brought them to trouble, only to raise them out of it. I don’t see it that way. I think that this world is full of brokenness and that each of us has choices to make and that we will encounter the choices that other people make – sometimes wrong choices - that hurt us in the process.
In the midst of trouble, I think of God as the Great Recycler – you know? Taking the brokenness of our lives – the junk the trash the pain the hurt and making something beautiful of it. For Corey Wagner, he took his junk to prison, but God has turned that junk into something beautiful – not for Corey to hoard for his own happiness and redemption but for other inmates who may finally recognize God’s grace as they experience it through Corey.
If you study the Bible – you’ll see that the great heroes and “she-roes” of the Bible are not people who lived perfect lives. They are people who finally got on their knees and humbled themselves, admitting that they were not perfect and calling upon God’s help. And through that admission, God’s grace accomplished amazing things through them. Look at Moses – who killed an Egyptian – King David – who had an affair with a married woman and had her husband killed to hide his sin – look at the sinful woman mentioned in Luke whose humility and devotion to Christ raised her up as an example of dedicated worship.
Our last story is of a pastor whose ministry became even more vital when he admitted his own brokenness.
Watch Video: Recovery Church
All of us are broken – we come from various places of brokenness and we may be at different places on the path to healing. Sometimes we think that a person has it together because they look alright on the outside, maybe they wear the right clothes, drive the right car, live in the right neighborhood. But we just never know what’s going on inside a person – what pain they may be hiding from others just to live into that “right” image.
God knows. God knows what is going on inside of you and me, right now. And no matter what you’ve done or how broken you think you are, God’s love is still there for you – going before you and behind you and beside you – waiting for you to receive.
Romans 8:38-39 says:
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Psalm 139:8 says:
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
There is no place we can go, no place we can hide, nothing we have done or can do to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Are our souls open and ready to receive this transformative love? Are we ready to make that difficult climb out of the valley or up the mountain?
I’d like to close with these words from a hymn:
(Listen) God Hath Not Promised
God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.
But God hath promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love.
What is your story? How do you say now or how will you one day say, “Had it not been for the Lord?” If you feel led to open yourself up to God’s grace this night, we invite you to come forward. If you’d like to take the hands of people here in this congregation so that your walk will be shared by others you can love and be loved by, please come during the hymn of invitation.
“What a Friend”
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Incarnational Love
This story from 61st Avenue United Methodist Church is a poignant message of Christ's love exemplified through a humble servant. It was written by the pastor, Rev. Paul Slentz. I hope that it touches you as it did me. The church is located at 6018 New York Avenue, Nashville, TN 37209.
“...As part of this thanks, let me share with you something that happened here just a couple of Saturdays ago that reminded me of why the ministry here is important. This is a story that features Brenda Hix, our lay leader, who many of you know.
It started with my driving the church van down to the park across from the Downtown Library to pick up homeless folks to come have a meal and worship with us. I saw that a young woman and her boyfriend who had worshiped with us for the first time the week before wanted to come again. They are both very young, appearing to be in their early twenties, and the young woman has a severe disability that keeps her in a wheel chair. She also has a love of music. The first week I picked her up, she sang along with the Christian songs playing on the radio to and from church.
Well, this second week, with some difficulty we lifted her up into the front seat of the van and got her wheel chair situated as well. I could see that she looked very depressed. But what really hit me and made me feel so badly for her was that she was just terribly filthy. She was wearing the exact same clothing she had had on the week before, it had been very hot in the intervening days, and the pad she sat on was urine soaked. Frankly, the smell was so overwhelming that it was hard to sit next to her on the van. She did not sing along with the radio this time.
When we got to the church, I immediately went to Brenda and explained the situation. Without blinking an eye, Brenda took that sad young woman into the woman’s room, bathed her, clothed her, cleaned her wheel chair, and, most important of all, spoke comforting words to her. At one point Brenda had to come out of the restroom just to get some air, and she was even gagging a bit. But she stuck with it, and after about half an hour that young woman emerged clean as a whistle and with a smile on her face. She then ate supper and joined us for worship, where once again she sang her heart out and clearly was enjoying herself.
After the service was over, I thanked Brenda profusely and told her that she had loved that woman with Christ-like love. And indeed Jesus did love people in that same up-close way. Jesus’ love was incarnated love, in-the-flesh love. My guess is that some of the folk he placed his healing hands on didn’t smell so good either. I am so grateful that his love continues to be expressed in an incarnated way through the hands of somebody like Brenda.”
“...As part of this thanks, let me share with you something that happened here just a couple of Saturdays ago that reminded me of why the ministry here is important. This is a story that features Brenda Hix, our lay leader, who many of you know.
It started with my driving the church van down to the park across from the Downtown Library to pick up homeless folks to come have a meal and worship with us. I saw that a young woman and her boyfriend who had worshiped with us for the first time the week before wanted to come again. They are both very young, appearing to be in their early twenties, and the young woman has a severe disability that keeps her in a wheel chair. She also has a love of music. The first week I picked her up, she sang along with the Christian songs playing on the radio to and from church.
Well, this second week, with some difficulty we lifted her up into the front seat of the van and got her wheel chair situated as well. I could see that she looked very depressed. But what really hit me and made me feel so badly for her was that she was just terribly filthy. She was wearing the exact same clothing she had had on the week before, it had been very hot in the intervening days, and the pad she sat on was urine soaked. Frankly, the smell was so overwhelming that it was hard to sit next to her on the van. She did not sing along with the radio this time.
When we got to the church, I immediately went to Brenda and explained the situation. Without blinking an eye, Brenda took that sad young woman into the woman’s room, bathed her, clothed her, cleaned her wheel chair, and, most important of all, spoke comforting words to her. At one point Brenda had to come out of the restroom just to get some air, and she was even gagging a bit. But she stuck with it, and after about half an hour that young woman emerged clean as a whistle and with a smile on her face. She then ate supper and joined us for worship, where once again she sang her heart out and clearly was enjoying herself.
After the service was over, I thanked Brenda profusely and told her that she had loved that woman with Christ-like love. And indeed Jesus did love people in that same up-close way. Jesus’ love was incarnated love, in-the-flesh love. My guess is that some of the folk he placed his healing hands on didn’t smell so good either. I am so grateful that his love continues to be expressed in an incarnated way through the hands of somebody like Brenda.”
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Proverbs 20:5 says: “A person’s thoughts are like water in a deep well, but someone with insight can draw them out.”
Last night at
Steven walked into the room after we had already gotten started. A young man with shades and a hat on, I assumed he might sit there with skepticism and not participate. But when I asked the group which scriptures they go to when they are anxious, he quickly recited the passage from Isaiah 41:10:
“Don’t be afraid, because I am with you. Don’t be intimidated: I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will support you with my victorious right hand.”
Time after time he confronted my assumptions, sharing among strangers his search, his struggle and the respite in scriptures he had found. Had I passed him by on the street outside the sacred walls of this little church, I never would have imagined the depth of spiritual searching and knowledge that dwelled inside him. I would have missed out on one of God’s Images…the Imago Dei within him.
Charles Dickens wrote about Kit in The Old Curiosity Shop: “Thank Heaven that the temples of such spirits are not made with hands, and that they may be even more worthily hung with poor patchwork than with purple and fine linen!”
My prayer is that my eyes become like God’s – looking upon humanity from the heart, not just the outer appearance. I just don’t want to miss out on the joy of finding such unexpected treasure.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
It was a baptism of sorts.
The rain last Saturday morning was torrential as Jerry and Karren left the motel where they’ve been staying to move into a house apartment. Driving up to the motel, I found them sitting outside with all of their belongings, waiting for me and Robby to arrive. Most of their things fit into my Honda Civic – we loaded their belongings and drove off to their new home.
The rain did not let up, reminding me of
Baptism brings one into community – making visible the need for that person in Life’s Circle … to complete the great connection. Duane Clinker said that baptism should be public because it is a “coming out as a follower of Christ.” Rain is a very public thing…filling ponds and creeks and rivers…filling potholes in neighborhood streets for children to splash and play in. Rain, as baptismal waters, ushered Jerry & Karren into a new community that day with possibilities of new life. From their isolation on the streets, to a motel room with constantly changing neighbors and now into a neighborhood where children play and roses grow, God’s grace is present…with mercies as new as the morning dew. It was a day of new beginnings.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Someone once told me
that our words should guide our actions. That what you say should really point to what you’re going to do. It’s easy to say you’re going to do something and never get around to it. Last week I learned just how important it is to do what you say you’re going to do.
Out at Tent City last fall, a young homeless man called "Ox" told me that he was a lifelong United Methodist – which church he belonged to – who his youth pastor was. Turns out, I know his youth pastor and thought that it’d be a good idea to call and let him know where one of his youth had landed. A couple of days later I followed through and called. Peter reflected about Ox’s troubled life and how he had ended up on the streets. The pastor thanked me for letting him know and said that he would go to Tent City to look for him. He did. Ox reconnected with him and others in the church – helping other homeless folk through Room in the Inn, and attending church regularly. When he didn’t show up that Sunday morning, people noticed. Later that day the pastor got a call from his brother saying that Ox had died.
Charles Dickens wrote in Oliver Twist: “There is no remorse so deep as that which is unavailing: to be spared its tortures, let us remember this in time.”
Following through on kind intentions can prevent unavailing remorse…I’m so thankful that procrastination did not rule the day I was to call Peter. I’m so thankful that a day’s interruptions did not block the path to Tent City for Peter. I’m so thankful that Grace paved a way between Ox and his faith community – that Mercy made the past surmountable and that the Love that never lets us go was palpable in Ox’s last days.
My friend Jerry said to me last night, “I know I’m not in control. It’s just a ride.” In the whole scheme of things – in the big picture of life, maybe we don’t have control. But over that which is within my reach, this is my prayer:
A Franciscan Benediction
May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that we may live deep within our hearts.
May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that we may work for justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in this world, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done.
Out at Tent City last fall, a young homeless man called "Ox" told me that he was a lifelong United Methodist – which church he belonged to – who his youth pastor was. Turns out, I know his youth pastor and thought that it’d be a good idea to call and let him know where one of his youth had landed. A couple of days later I followed through and called. Peter reflected about Ox’s troubled life and how he had ended up on the streets. The pastor thanked me for letting him know and said that he would go to Tent City to look for him. He did. Ox reconnected with him and others in the church – helping other homeless folk through Room in the Inn, and attending church regularly. When he didn’t show up that Sunday morning, people noticed. Later that day the pastor got a call from his brother saying that Ox had died.
Charles Dickens wrote in Oliver Twist: “There is no remorse so deep as that which is unavailing: to be spared its tortures, let us remember this in time.”
Following through on kind intentions can prevent unavailing remorse…I’m so thankful that procrastination did not rule the day I was to call Peter. I’m so thankful that a day’s interruptions did not block the path to Tent City for Peter. I’m so thankful that Grace paved a way between Ox and his faith community – that Mercy made the past surmountable and that the Love that never lets us go was palpable in Ox’s last days.
My friend Jerry said to me last night, “I know I’m not in control. It’s just a ride.” In the whole scheme of things – in the big picture of life, maybe we don’t have control. But over that which is within my reach, this is my prayer:
A Franciscan Benediction
May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that we may live deep within our hearts.
May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that we may work for justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in this world, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Ox is dead.
This brawny, blond headed young man who I met while he was living at tent city is dead. Last time I talked with him he said that he liked living at tent city because he knew that he could leave his stuff there and others would watch after it. He had community there. Apparently, he got himself off of the streets and into an apartment. As I heard it, week before last, he took his anti-seizure meds after drinking and it killed him. He spent 6 days in his apartment before his body was discovered. Ironically, if he’d still been at tent city people would’ve noticed…somebody would’ve checked on him. I guess there are some things worse than being on the streets – it’s out of community.
Weekend before last, while I was out of town, I dreamed that Raymond died. Another street person, I was so worried about him that I called the church to check on him. Raymond was ok, thank God. Living in community with street people is hard. You open yourself up to having your heart broken. You meet someone that you come to love, and then they’re gone. You don’t have a number or a street address. You hear rumors about what happened to them, but you never know quite for sure. What about Karen? The young woman who was HIV+ and had Hep C? Her bright blue eyes and childlike character brought me joy each Saturday night that I saw her. Years later, I don’t know if she’s alive or dead.
Being in ministry with the poor is tough – not that any ministry is easy. You do have to prepare to have your heart broken. More times than not, things go wrong for these people instead of right. Why do I put myself in this difficult position? It’s because I meet Christ in the midst of it all. Oscar Wilde put it beautifully:
In the midst of heartbreak and bearing one another’s pain, we hold on tighter to the One who knows suffering…who carried our burdens all the way to the cross. God’s love for us would go just that far. When I Survey the Wondrous Cross challenges me to remember this truth, and to do something about it…to carry this truth into my living.
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Weekend before last, while I was out of town, I dreamed that Raymond died. Another street person, I was so worried about him that I called the church to check on him. Raymond was ok, thank God. Living in community with street people is hard. You open yourself up to having your heart broken. You meet someone that you come to love, and then they’re gone. You don’t have a number or a street address. You hear rumors about what happened to them, but you never know quite for sure. What about Karen? The young woman who was HIV+ and had Hep C? Her bright blue eyes and childlike character brought me joy each Saturday night that I saw her. Years later, I don’t know if she’s alive or dead.
Being in ministry with the poor is tough – not that any ministry is easy. You do have to prepare to have your heart broken. More times than not, things go wrong for these people instead of right. Why do I put myself in this difficult position? It’s because I meet Christ in the midst of it all. Oscar Wilde put it beautifully:
If a friend of mine gave a feast, and did not invite me to it, I should not mind a bit. but if a friend of mine had a sorrow and refused to allow me to share it, I should feel it most bitterly. If he shut the doors of the house of mourning against me, I would move back again and again and beg to be admitted so that I might share in what I was entitled to share. If he thought me unworthy, unfit to weep with him, I should feel it as the most poignant humiliation…he who can look at the loveliness of the world and share its sorrow, and realize something of the wonder of both, is in immediate contact with divine things, and has got as near to God’s secret as anyone can get. De Profundis
In the midst of heartbreak and bearing one another’s pain, we hold on tighter to the One who knows suffering…who carried our burdens all the way to the cross. God’s love for us would go just that far. When I Survey the Wondrous Cross challenges me to remember this truth, and to do something about it…to carry this truth into my living.
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
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