New Seasons of Life

Yes, I'm a church nerd, but I always look forward to the season of Easter.  I look forward to a great Easter Sunday morning at church, yes,  but, then, I enjoy reveling in the 'afterglow' of the next few weeks.  I spend those weeks looking for signs of new life, reflecting on the experience of the cross, and expecting resurrection, not just because of old stories found in the Bible, but I expect signs of resurrection in the world around me.  I suppose signs of new life are always present, but I get excited about the season of Easter because it helps me to pay attention to the amazing things God is doing in this world.  This year, though, Easter wasn't the season I expected it to be.

This year, I found myself tired as I came to Easter because I was doing a mandated (by the United Methodist Church) internship at BroMenn Regional Medical Center along with my full-time job.  Because of my exhaustion, I didn't really take in Easter the way I ought to have, perhaps.  More devastating, however, was the abrupt end to our pregnancy after Carrie and I suffered a miscarriage.  A season that was supposed to draw my attention to new life became a season of loss and exhaustion.

Today, as I look toward Pentecost (this Sunday) and a new church season, I realize something, suddenly:  Even though I had a difficult season...there is hope.  I have an opportunity to let go of the troubled weeks of Eastertide and celebrate the hope of a new season in my own life.

You see, professionally, as I plan worship, I will set aside the themes and scriptures of Easter and I will prepare for a new season of different scriptures, songs, and worship themes.  I guess, in my personal life, I would do well to set aside the difficulties of these past weeks and months, in a similar way, and allow myself to focus on a new season and find hope for better weeks ahead!

For me, the hope that comes in a new season is:

• the possibility of getting pregnant, again;
• welcoming a new pastor to my church and fostering a new friendship;
• renewing my own body and spirit this summer with exercise, right eating, and spiritual disciplines;
• working on my relationship with my wife that the experience of this season would help us to deepen our relationship for the next.

As we leave the Easter season, we don't leave behind the message of Christ or hope for the future.  Likewise, as we move from one season of life to the next we should never lose sight the experiences we have had, yet we have an opportunity to look for new life and experience resurrection.  Over these next weeks, I pray that we will continue to experience Christ's resurrection and I pray that it will draw our attention to the resurrection all around us and help us to find renewal in our own lives!

blessings,

Moments of Panic

Scripture: Luke 2:41-52 (CEB)

"...but the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents didn’t know it. Supposing that he was among their band of travelers, they journeyed on for a full day while looking for him among their family and friends. When they didn’t find Jesus, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple."  - Luke 2:43b-46

About a year ago I had a 'moment of panic.'  I had just been diagnosed with a brain tumor, I was working with two families experiencing loss, and the Senior Pastor at my church was about to leave on vacation for a month.  When I got to Christmas Eve at my church in Pontiac and as I shook hands and greeted people I began to feel overwhelmed.  What was truly overwhelming was the way in which person-after-person cocked their heads to say, "are you okay?"

Each thing on its own would have been fine, but this perfect storm hit that night.  During that service as I sat up front, when my responsibilities were concluded and my mind drifted a bit, it all washed over me.  I knew I was going to fall apart right in front of the entire church.  I didn't.  I made it to the back steps of the church instead of greeting people and I fell completely apart crying. I sobbed, alone, in the dark for the longest time.  I collapsed in a 'moment of panic.'

Have you ever had a moment of panic?  It is different for everyone, but I suspect most of us have felt a moment like that.  It could be a missing child, a confrontation, a call from a creditor when you have no money to pay, legal trouble, abuse, job loss, divorce...  I don't know what you have experienced (or maybe you are experiencing), but I suspect this is a pretty universal feeling.

In the scripture above,  Mary must have found herself in a moment of panic.  I can almost see it and hear it:  She is in the midst of a loud parade heading home.  There she stands with voices, laughter, and rejoicing as her community heads home from the festival. Can you imagine how the world must have become muted and far-off when she had her moment of panic? Can you imagine how her stomach must have twisted and fallen when she realized her son was not in this large parade of safety and happiness?

In a moment of panic: Mary & Joseph must have been frantic and must have hurried back to Jerusalem.  They found the boy, feeling at home, in the temple challenging others and being challenged, himself.  Yet, the story doesn’t end when the young Jesus is found. The story is about more than a young boy being physically found by his parents.

This story is about a messiah who took Mary and Joseph’s moment of panic and turned it into something else. They worried for their little boy's well-being, but the Christ child saw it differently:  He asks, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” They had a moment of panic, but young Jesus turned it into a moment of clarity.

I wonder, though, it you'll allow me to go off-point for a moment.  I want to talk about where this all happened.  It’s the end of a festival.  When Mary & Joseph return the temple must have been nearly empty compared to a day earlier.  For us, on the week after Christmas it isn't much different: Christmas eve and Christmas Day have come and gone; Warm feelings were felt as we sang ‘silent night’ on xmas eve; and then everyone returns home.  The temple...the church...is empty.

The good news is that our God can take a quiet temple and turn it into a place of growth and faith.  For us, today, this text reminds us that when we face a moment of panic, pain, grief, trouble, strife...when the world becomes muted and joy seems distant...we are to face that panic and return to the temple.

We are to return to our community of faith and when we come to the otherside of our trouble, Christ may just help us see the world differently.  Our panic and trouble can become a growing faith: through scripture, challenging questions, the people around us, and, of course, God’s Holy Spirit.

Christ takes our human worries and pain and asks us to look at the world from another perspective.  We are shaken by our pain & worry, but God helps us to see more clearly.

For me on that Christmas Eve that filled me with so much anxiety? I don’t know if I made it about Christ the way I should have.  I don’t know what I did right or what I did wrong.  And am sure that my life is no more valuable than others who didn’t survive when confronted by illness.

But I know with certainty that I grew and, as I look back, I see that others grew out of my 'moment of panic'.  I also know that my community of faith and my God: loved me, challenged me, prayed with me, and, ultimately, changed me.

I do know that on the other side of my own “moment of panic” I see the world differently and, I hope that,  I love more fully.  Oh, I’m not perfect - not even close.  I'm not even sure if I'm better than I was.  God doesn’t promise that, but in my moment of panic and struggle: God & my community helped me through that terrible time.  They helped me to look back with clarity and insight.

When you find yourself struggling, I want you to know that church should be a place to struggle.  When you feel lost or broken, I want you to know that you can be found.  When the world has taken something from you, or you feel loss: know that you can gain something from a community of people who live out their faith and, of course, from your God.

In your moments of panic and trouble.  Go with haste to your true home.  Find a church that cares and allows you room to struggle and grow.  I know you would enjoy mine...

Resurrection & New Life: God At Work

Meet Andrew Mortonson

My guest blogger, today, is Andrew Mortonson.  He is a member of First United Methodist Church in Green Bay, Wisconsin and is active at the Wesley Foundation at the University of Illinois in Urbana/Champaign (UIUC) where he will (in August) finish his Masters degree in Aerospace Engineering.  ...And I am really proud of Andrew's most recent announcement:  He has already gotten a job with Rolls-Royce as an Engineering Associate after graduation!

Beginning to See God at Work

Today's Scripture:  Luke 24:45-49

There was always a plan – a reason, a goal for tomorrow. I had always known the next step in life and was always fully prepared to take it. I had a stable family, good education, and a loving church home. I knew where I would go to college since before I started high school, and there was never really any question I would get in. I was blessed in many ways as a child. 

I grew up in the church, and for a large part, my faith was always laid out before me. Unlike many of the other kids my age at church, I learned and grew in my faith and continued being an active participant after confirmation. Being an active Christian wasn’t necessarily the cool thing to do, but in a Christian community like Green Bay, you never are really challenged in your faith. I often found myself in more discussions with other denominations, especially Catholics. 

When I went to college, I moved into a fraternity, and most of my influences were anything but Godly. I continued to succeed in school, but I felt incomplete and often alone. The summer after my freshman year, people from my home church asked me if I had found a new church to serve at school. When I admitted I hadn’t, they often encouraged me too look, or gave suggestions. I agreed that I would look at the Wesley foundation on campus, partly just to keep people off my back. I fortunately found a new home and gained many new supportive friends.

For the next two years, I felt like I knew where I belonged. While I occasionally struggled with friends and classes, I knew that God was providing for me. However, in my senior year, that feeling began to fade. I thought I had lost God’s call; I wasn’t really sure what my future path should be. I graduated college with Honors, but like far too many people that year, I had no job, and returned to live at home. Once again, I felt very much alone. Even though I was living with my family and had many loving people around me, I was completely lost.

I can understand what the Disciples must have felt around the crucifixion. Only a week before, they entered with Jesus triumphantly into Jerusalem. Going to serve with Jesus was not easy, but I’m sure after a while, they all felt like they were where they belonged. Only a few days later, they were lost, and felt very much alone. 

My story did not turn around in just three days, yet I know that even in those times, God was working in my life. I began to get involved in the praise band at my home church, and the other members often helped remind me that I was not alone. But the real point where I began to see God working was when one of the women in the church came up to me and started asking me details about my life. She knew that I had been looking for a job, and she wanted to know what kind of job, and what I was interested in. Then she told me that she needed to know all of this so she could properly pray for me. She prayed with me, and hugged me and promised me that her prayer group would continue to keep me in her prayers. 

It was about this time that things started to turn around. I applied to grad school and began to attend that fall. Through the two years that I have been studying, I only recently was assured funding for the remainder of my program, but I trusted wholly in God. Within a few months of returning to school, I began dating the woman who became my fiancée, and now within the last week, I was offered a job after graduation. Almost exactly the position I had wanted three years earlier. 

After Jesus arose on Easter, the Disciples went on to spread the gospel throughout the world. But they needed fellowship and support from other believers, and to fully place their trust in Jesus. In the same way, I could not be where I am today without the prayers of family and friends and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Even more, I know that I can impact the lives of others simply through words of prayer and support. At our lowest points, the promise of God’s perfect grace, through the resurrection, allows us to put all of our faith in Him. In Luke 24, Jesus appeared before the disciples who had gathered after the crucifixion. 

“Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’” Luke 24:45-49 (NIV)




**top image found at:  http://imlivinginadream.wordpress.com/2011/06/13/on-101-goals/
**image of Andrew Mortonson found on his Facebook.

Creation, Part 1

Hey, It was exciting that I got to go lead Bible study this week at Evenglow after all these weeks of medical leave.  We studied Genesis 1:1-2:4 (the first of two Creation Stories).


Before I get into the scripture.  I need to explain how the ancient Hebrew people understood the order and structure of the cosmos:

Image found at:  http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/103/aristotle.htm

They believed there was a God which separated the waters above and the waters below with a firmament.  Now, before you dismiss it as something "primitive," keep in mind these early people were trying to explain the world as they experienced it.  The heavens sometimes broke forth with rain (The waters above came down), for instance.  So keep the image (above) of how the ancient Hebrew people saw the cosmos.


This image of the world brings up some problems.  Look at the picture again.  What does this mean for the Ancient Near Eastern people?

1. What happens if the firmament breaks?
2. How do the people see the shape of the earth?
3. What do the sides of the dome mean for the people living on the earth?
4. What dangers do you see in this world?
5. Are there any advantages to looking at the world in this way???

Image found at:  http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/103/aristotle.htm

Now as we prepare to read the scripture, imagine that you are in the ancient Hebrew world and living in a tribal society.  This fragmented people must have felt alone and vulnerable.  I mean, they lived in a world where an angry God could just let the firmament fail and leave them drowned and dead.  They live in a world where earthquakes can swallow up cities.  but the Hebrew people had a God that was faithful and steadfast and kept them safe in a crazy world of hurricanes, floods, and roving dangerous bands.


Okay, so let's take a look at the scripture, Genesis 1:1-2:4.  It was meant to be performed for others, so we'll be reading a paraphrase from "The Message" by Eugene Peterson and I hope that you will read it out loud and, perhaps even, dramatically:

Genesis Chapter 1 

1-2 First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don't see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God's Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss. 

3-5 God spoke: "Light!" And light appeared. God saw that light was good and separated light from dark. God named the light Day,God named the dark Night.It was evening, it was morning—Day One. 

6-8 God spoke: "Sky! In the middle of the waters; separate water from water!" God made sky. He separated the water under sky from the water above sky. And there it was:God named sky the Heavens; It was evening, it was morning—Day Two. 

9-10 God spoke: "Separate! Water-beneath-Heaven, gather into one place; Land, appear!" And there it was. God named the land Earth.God named the pooled water Ocean. God saw that it was good. 

11-13 God spoke: "Earth, green up! Grow all varieties of seed-bearing plants, Every sort of fruit-bearing tree."And there it was.Earth produced green seed-bearing plants,
all varieties, And fruit-bearing trees of all sorts. God saw that it was good. It was evening, it was morning— Day Three. 

14-15 God spoke: "Lights! Come out!
Shine in Heaven's sky! Separate Day from Night.
Mark seasons and days and years, Lights in Heaven's sky to give light to Earth.”And there it was. 

16-19 God made two big lights, the larger to take charge of Day,The smaller to be in charge of Night; and God made the stars. God placed them in the heavenly sky to light up Earth And oversee Day and Night,
to separate light and dark. God saw that it was good. It was evening, it was morning— Day Four.  

20-23 God spoke: "Swarm, Ocean, with fish and all sea life! Birds, fly through the sky over Earth!"God created the huge whales, all the swarm of life in the waters, And every kind and species of flying birds. God saw that it was good. God blessed them: "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Ocean! Birds, reproduce on Earth!" It was evening, it was morning— Day Five. 

24-25 God spoke: "Earth, generate life! Every sort and kind: cattle and reptiles and wild animals—all kinds." And there it was: wild animals of every kind, Cattle of all kinds, every sort of reptile and bug. God saw that it was good.  

26-28 God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, And, yes, Earth itself,
and every animal that moves on the face of Earth." God created human beings; God created them godlike, Reflecting God's nature. He created them male and female. God blessed them:"Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth." 

29-30 Then God said, "I've given you
every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth And every kind of fruit-bearing tree,
given them to you for food. To all animals and all birds, everything that moves and breathes, I give whatever grows out of the ground for food."And there it was.31 God looked over everything he had made;
it was so good, so very good! It was evening, it was morning— Day Six. 

Genesis Chapter 2 

Heaven and Earth were finished, down to the last detail. 

2-4 By the seventh day God had finished the work. On the seventh day God rested from work. God blessed the seventh day and made it a Holy Day.Because on that day he rested from work:
all the creating God had done. This is the story of how it all started, of Heaven and Earth when they were created.

Did you read it aloud and with enthusiasm?  Were you able to pay attention to what was happening in the story?  Here are a few questions for you to consider about this text before I talk with you:

1. When people heard this account of creation, what did they get from it?
2. What is it important that the writer talked about day and night and light and dark?
3. What is the role of God in this account?
4. What is the role of human beings?

This week you'll notice a new trend with my video.  I'm trying to keep it very short :-)