Community of Grace??

Today’s Zero-to-Hero challenge is one that is near and dear to my pastoral heart – building community. However, this is a very different kind of community. It is one of writers, thinkers, and bloggers. For “Not Quite Home” the community I would like to hang out with and read more from time to time would have to include people who are willing to look for grace wherever it may be found – or wherever it finds them. So, I did a search on “grace” and found some new (hopefully) friends that I intend to read. They are not in any specific order, but I do recommend reading them.

http://www.dianewbailey.net/blog/

Not a WordPress blog but someone who looks for grace in the moment. I look forward to reading her blog! I found poetry and prose on this blog and though I am a great fan of poetry, I haven’t ventured into the sharing of poetry…yet. There is powerful stuff here.

http://dimlyburning.com/

I read a few entries in this blog and I found a whole lot of promise from this blog by a mother. I really hope to see more here. I don’t know what it is about mom’s that allow them to see grace so clearly, even when the light is “dimly burning” but it is there more times than not. I am glad she is sharing her thoughts and observations!

http://.wordpress.com/20totallyjoyouslyimperfect14/01/05/small_3547128317-jpg/

You had me from the title! This is a blog that is just getting started but a whole lot of possibilities in this one. Sticking to that joyously imperfect theme makes a great companion on my so-called endless journey toward home.

http://pulpitshenanigans.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/burning-love/

A Presbyterian pastor with two tattoos…Okay, I’ve got to follow this one. Yeah, I’m United Methodist and male but there are some things about being a pastor that, well, are just about being a pastor. I laughed out loud at the thought of “white” tattoos of “Grace” and “Love.” I’ve never had the boldness to take that step but will enjoy reading from someone who did.

http://abysparchemins.wordpress.com/

Finally, I will be honest and say that I thought I had to find at another guy beside the new blog above (the “imperfect “ one) to follow. But the truth of the matter is that after reading about 25 extremely dogmatic and/or tired writings on “scriptural truth” I was beginning to get discouraged. Do all male bloggers about “grace” feel like they have to have the right answers??? Eventually, my journey allowed me to stumble upon this breath of fresh air. Glad it’s there. Look forward to reading it.

http://geekergosum.wordpress.com/

Okay…just for fun. Read this guy. He’s hilarious!!

Thanks for taking the time to read this and yes, I recommend reading and following those listed above!

Peace!

Looking Around…Again

Bluefield Daily Telegraph photo of the Sunday afternoon work team.

The dust coming off the building as the hammers and chisels worked away at the painted cement on the brick surface made it difficult to look around much at all. However, the sweat coming off of my forehead and rolling into my eyes made it necessary to stop every once in a while and wipe. (At home later that afternoon the sand and grit that had stuck to my sweaty face gave me a free exfoliation as I washed it away. But it felt good. It felt really good.) During those little breaks, I could look around – even if it was a little blurry.

I looked around and I saw at least four generations represented in the work crew. Youth, young adults, middle age adults and even some into retirement were all working away together to help make a way for a local artist to turn a building into a canvas. There were people on ladders and people working at just one level. There was laughter and there were groans. There was the roar of a bucket truck motor and shouts as people tried to talk over it. There was and eerie silence when the motor stopped and I could hear car horns honking as people drove by, encouraging us in our work to make our city a little brighter.

I looked around and I saw history repeating itself and prepare to repeat itself yet again. The man who led the project said to me, “My dad and I planted those trees across the street thirty years ago. I still remember it like it was yesterday. Now we are getting ready to cut those trees down as part of this project so everything can be seen better; so the whole town looks a little brighter.” If I were standing on this same lot thirty years from now, I am sure I could look around and see one of a number of youth who were working that day tell someone, “I remember the day we worked to clean off this wall so this painting could be done. I still remember the dust like it was yesterday! But now it’s time for a new building so that the whole town can seem a little brighter. I’m just glad I can be a part of this new day.”

I looked around and I saw one of our youth offering a cold cup of water to a person standing on the street. She started to give him a piece of pizza from the lunch we shared before the work began and then thought better of it and gave him the whole box. He took it gladly and humbly and walked away to some of his friends “from the street” to share.

I drove by that lot on my way to the hospital later that day and stopped for just a minute. The work wasn’t complete, that was certain, but I looked around at what we had completed to see what I could see. I looked around again and saw…well, I saw that the Kingdom had come near.

Looking Around

In the Fall of 1989, I was headed back to college after a break of a couple of years. I was a new student pastor – in Kincaid, WV – and a new student at what is now West Virginia University of Technology. (It was just known as WV Tech when I was there.) I had spent the summer getting to know my two new churches, was enjoying the “newness” of ministry and really looking forward to getting back and finishing my education.

The first day of classes arrived and I found myself running late to make the trip across the mountain that separated Kincaid and Montgomery. I rushed out of the house and then back into it to get my book bag and then hurried toward my car a second time. I got in, started it up and backed up in my parking area (yes, the parsonage actually had a space where you could park four or five cars – the down side of that was that you had a steep driveway to get onto Johnson Branch Rd.) and within a second or two found myself stopping abruptly and unexpectedly as I smashed into another vehicle parked behind me.

Now, if I back up a couple of days I can explain how the vehicle got there… My neighbors across the street were have a lot of company visiting them from time to time and graciously I invited them to park in this nice parking area since there home had very limited parking. Well, obviously my neighbor took me up on the offer and her brother from Ohio paid the price. I tore the tailgate right off of his truck as I backed up in a rush that morning not even checking my rearview mirror simply because I had become so accustomed to driving there that I didn’t think I needed to pay attention.

Oh, they were gracious in accepting my apologies and were even good enough to work out a reduced price for me to pay for the damages. However, no one from that family ever parked in the area again!

Sometimes, I fear that we are so accustomed to seeing certain things around us – or not seeing them – that we fail to notice when something changes. (How many people have seen the new signs for Princeton? Has anyone noticed that the dead tree in the fountain area across from the church has been removed?)

My reason for telling all this is pretty simple: If we desire to be the church in the heart of Princeton then one of the main things we will have to do is keep our eyes open no matter how many times we are around our community. There are countless ways that we can show our love (be the heart) for this community – if we aren’t to busy getting to our destination that we fail to notice what is really happening around us.

Jesus is ready to come back to this community and we can pave the way by spending our treasures – time, talents and resources – where we see the needs. That is, as long as we aren’t so busy that we back into them and cause damage instead.

The church in the heart of Princeton! I know we love this place and we love this community. I just pray that we are ready to be Jesus as each and every opportunity arises!

Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also…You must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour. (Luke 12:32-34, 40 NRSV)

Ask Almost Anything…Question about the beginning

How was there nothing in the beginning?

When I set out to do the sermon series “Ask Almost Anything” on the suggestion of our awesome Technical Director at First UMC, Princeton, I assumed I would get questions dealing with the burning issues of the day…abortion, sexuality, and as shown from the last blog entry – divorce. I assumed these questions would come up because, well, they are questions that are on the hearts and minds of people everyday. And yes, the majority of our questions fell into a category I would call “social” questions.

Yet, every once in a while, someone would text in with what I would call a purely “theological” question like the one I am answering today – “How was there nothing in the beginning?” [This question takes me back to Divinity School days when I studied such things as creatio ex nihilio (creation from nothing) and creatio ex materia (creation out of some external matter) and creatio ex deo (creation out of the very being of God). However interesting the arguments may be for each of these positions they end up being just that…positions in arguments that one person likes and another person doesn’t. Talking about them doesn’t usually get us anywhere fruitful.]

One of the very many things that I have learned in 20+ years of serving as a pastor is: “there is no such thing as a ‘purely theological’ question.” I keep this in mind whenever I am asked something like this. It keeps me from slipping back into one of those “positions” and into language that most of the time is just, well, boring. There is usually something more to the question than just wanting to know about the “beginning of things” and there is something more than just wanting to ask a question that might stump someone…or at least make them think really, really hard.

Since these questions were given to me anonymously, I really don’t have any way of knowing what the question behind the question might be but for the sake of this answer, I am guessing that this person, whoever they may be, was wondering about the truthfulness of Scripture.

Most translations of Genesis 1:1-2 have the two verses separated as two complete sentences. The NRSV – which I happen to prefer most of the time – does not. It reads:

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, ²the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

Translation differences such as this one leads to the arguments about creation out of nothing, or creation being an “ordering” of chaos, or finally creation being something that came forth from God. The two sentence translations lean toward “out of nothing” and the single sentence translations lean toward the “ordering of creation out of chaos.” Either translation could be used for the idea that God created out of God’s own being.

What all these have in common and what ALL the translations of the Bible hold is that God was there in the beginning. So, there has never been a time when there was “nothing”. God has always been. God is. God will always be. (Perhaps that is why God gave Moses the name “I am” when asked! God simply is.) On a side note…it is hard for me to imagine the existence of “nothing.” Like “darkness,” which is really just the absence of light, “nothing” is the absence of “anything.” Therefore, if “nothing” can’t exist on it’s own. It’s just not logically possible.

So, even though the question of where this universe came from in the “beginning” is one that will be debated for a long time, the answer we choose doesn’t effect the Truth that Scripture is attempting to allow us to grasp – God created…therefore God was there in the beginning. Scripture can be trusted to impart to us Truth…even if it isn’t as clear as to how to understand the truth that comes from that Truth. (Yes…the use of capital letters is important here.) Our task is to concentrate on the Truth – for that is what points us to God.

(And yes…I intend to see Star Trek this weekend!) 🙂 “Live long and prosper!”

Nest question: “What is the best way, when reading the Bible, to grasp a better understanding if you are unable to go to a study group?”

A great detour…

Thanks to Amy Shanholtzer for sharing this video. It really is worth the time to watch. I think this would be a great detour on any journey home.

Watch “Take a Seat – Make a Friend?” on YouTube

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