Good Things Come in Small Packages
Selections from Matthew 9 and 10
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
“He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.” – Matthew 9:35-10:7, 10:39-42
Twelve people. That’s all it took to change the world.
Jesus picked twelve people to deliver his message of hope and love and today more than 2.5 billion people consider themselves Christians.[1] Just twelve. He sent them out to minister to those in need without money, a suitcase, a change of clothes, or reservations at a nearby hotel. They didn’t have a support staff to help make arrangements for their arrival. They didn’t have a marketing team or social media to promote who they were or what they planned on doing. Literally, all they had were the clothes on their backs. This morning, I have with me my Bible, my iPhone, my laptop, a watch, pen and paper. And I just live down the street. Can you imagine trusting God so much that you would carry nothing with you but your clothes? Christ told them to trust in the Lord to provide for their needs because “the worker is worth his keep.” And so they did. Just twelve people. And it’s not like there were tons of Christians around that they could go and stay with. These were the FIRST twelve so they were pretty much on their own. Now, we have churches with anywhere from a handful of members to literally tens of thousands. But these twelve people stepped out in faith and were willing to do God’s work and together they changed the course of history.
I wonder if those early disciples could see some of our churches today what they would think?
Could you imagine being Peter or John and walking into a mega-church or a giga-church like Andy Stanley’s North Point Community Church or Adam Hamilton’s Church of the Resurrection where literally thousands of people are all gathering together and worshipping God? I’ve been in places like that, and I have to tell you there is something incredibly powerful being in a room the size of a concert hall where everyone is singing, praying, and listening to the Word of God together. It makes you feel connected to a much bigger movement in the world and can make you feel Christianity is powerful and growing. But as many people in church circles are discovering, bigger isn’t always better. Bigger isn’t always better. Bigger doesn’t mean that you are more in touch with God. Bigger doesn’t mean Christ will come into your life in a deeper way. There is a reason why most of these mega-churches heavily rely on small group ministries. There’s a reason why they want you to get involved in Sunday School, in mission work, in local charities. It’s because God doesn’t appear to us in anonymity. God is reaching out all the time to you, to me, and to all of us, but if all you do every week is walk into a mega-church, pick up a hymnal, sing a song, and leave, do you know Christ any better than you know Paul McCartney or Beyonce? Christ walks with you every day and everywhere. He wants to have a deeper relationship with you beyond a once-a-week, 20-minute sermon. He wants you to know him and to experience His love for you firsthand. Big churches mean more people and more resources, but that doesn’t mean that small churches can’t do big things, too.
Size alone is not a measure of worth to God.
Size alone is not a measure of worth to God. If God only cared about size or wealth or prestige or any of the other things the world generally measures “success” by, he never would have chosen Israel to be his chosen people. Abraham and his children would have been just any family of Joe Schmoes wandering the desert. Moses himself told the assembled peoples of Israel in Deuteronomy,“The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). We see in the Bible, time and time again how true this statement is; God does not pick the mightiest or the smartest or the strongest of people to be his messengers. Often, they are normal, flawed people like you and me. Take for example the story of Samuel. If you remember, God rejects Saul as King of Israel and tells Samuel to go looking for a new one. During his search he goes to meet Jesse of Bethlehem and immediately, he thinks he’s found the new king in Eliab, Jesse’s oldest son, but the Lord hears Samuel’s thoughts and says to him in 1 Samuel 16:7, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at outward appearances, but the Lord looks at the heart.” So, in a scene reminiscent of Cinderella[2], Samuel asks to see each of Jesse’s other sons. But as each one walks by, God says “Nope, not the one.” And after all of Jesse’s oldest sons walk by and the Lord rejecting them all, Samuel asks “Are these all the sons you have?” and Jesse admits, “There is one more, but he’s out in the back tending the sheep.” Tending the sheep! Could there BE any clearer sign for Samuel? It was like the glass slipper fit right on this youngest son’s foot. And when the youngest son walks in, God tells Samuel, “That’s the one.” And so began the reign of King David, slayer of Goliath and long considered the greatest king of the Israeli people. David wasn’t the biggest or the oldest or the smartest nor was he free of sin, but God did say that David was a man after His own heart, and THAT’S what was important to God. His heart, not his size.
In our earlier reading, we heard about Gideon, one of God’s heroes.
In fact, I would say one of God’s first superheroes. If there were comic books back in those days, he certainly would have been up there with the Avengers and Batman. They would have called him The Amazing Gideon or The Incredible Gideon or something like that. Gideon is one of my favorite characters in the Bible because to me, Gideon is the everyman. He has doubts. His faith doesn’t come easy. He feels unworthy. And he’s afraid of failing. When the angel appeared, Gideon even said, “But Lord, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” But God tells Gideon, “I will be with you…” So God puts Gideon in charge of saving Israel from the Midianites, who are not a small clan and an incredibly violent one. By this time, the Israelites have had to hide out in caves in the mountains to try and avoid them. To make it worse, the Midianites teamed up with the Amalekites and a bunch of other people. The Bible says there were so many of them that they were “thick as locusts” and that “their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.”[3] So Gideon calls up an army of 32,000 men hoping that’s enough to defeat these overwhelming odds, and God tells him, “That’s too many.” Now if I were Gideon, I’d be thinking God was kidding. But instead, Gideon tells them if they have fear they may leave, and 22,000 go away. I wonder how many of us would have been in that 22,000. And then the Lord says, “Still too many.” And he tells Gideon to divide them up by how they drink at the river. In the end, Gideon is left with 300 men. That’s it. 300. To take on the grains of sand on the seashore. And you know what? He wins. Gideon, this guy who threshes wheat, who has doubts, and who is afraid of failing. This guy who is the least of his family in the weakest clan of Manasseh. Because it’s not size that matters to God, but your heart.
Inspiration doesn’t just come only from the Bible, though.
God gives us many real-life stories to learn from. too. When I was in seminary, there was a small-church of 86 members who started a program to feed every school-aged child during the summer for six-weeks. [4] St. Andrews UMC saw a need in the community and wanted to fill it. They petitioned for assistance from the county and were told that if they were willing to commit to the project, the county would, too. They did. And within a short time, St. Andrews was sponsoring 7 different food locations around one of the poorest counties in the state. Every child who needed a meal got one five days a week, for six weeks. Soon, other churches from all different denominations and even the local community center all pitched in to help out. And this little church of 86 people was able to pass out 6,000 meals to hungry children. They weren’t a huge mega-church or a giant corporation with millions of dollars, but a small family of God reaching out to the community. They didn’t have a lot of resources, but they had a heart for God and a desire to help their fellow human beings, and through their effort, they were able to bring the light of Christ to the lives of these children. Our God is a God of miracles and He lives in the world today. God can work wonders in you, too. If we keep God as the central focus of our lives and our church, He will help us grow and be effective stewards of His will in the world. You don’t have to BE big to do big things you just have to have a BIG heart. Just remember, every big thing started out small. Rick Warren’s church of 30,000 people started off with just him and his wife. Gideon had only 300 men and they took on an army! St. Andrews UMC had 86 members and passed out 6,000 meals in 6 weeks. And just remember, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, called to him only 12 people who forever changed the world.
[1] https://goodfaithmedia.org/global-christian-population-projected-to-reach-3-3-billion-by-2050/#:~:text=The%202%2C604%2C381%2C000%20estimate%20for%20mid,than%20the%202022%20report’s%20estimates.
[2] http://www.asails.freeserve.co.uk/King%20Eliab.htm. Rev. Andrew Sails used the Cinderella reference in a sermon on a completely different subject, but it was such a clever comparison, I wanted to use it.
[3] Judges 7:12
[4] Sybil Davidson, “Small-membership church leads effort to feed kids county-wide,” 8/18/2006.
Michael Jordan…A Failure?
How can failure make you great?
Michael Jordan is perhaps the greatest basketball player of all time. There are others you could argue might be better or at least on a level with him – Lebron, Magic, or Kobe come to mind, Steph is one who approaches that level – but Jordan is one of the best if not THE best of them all. He led his team to six world championships and a world record 72-game winning season at the time (now 73 thanks to Steph Curry’s Golden State Warriors). He has won the league MVP five times, been in 14 All-Star games, elected All-Star MVP three times, elected NBA Finals MVP all six times his team won, and led the league in scoring 10 times. Yet Michael Jordan has failed over and over again. The mistake that is easy to make is to think failing makes you a failure. Failing does not make you a failure. In fact, it can make you great. Jordan cites all those times he didn’t come through as the reason for his success. He once said, “I’ve missed more than nine thousand shots in my career. I’ve lost almost three hundred games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”[1]
Jordan is not alone in succeeding through failure.
Walt Disney was once fired from a newspaper job for “lacking imagination and having no good ideas.” Thomas Edison was told he was “too stupid to learn anything.” And a man named Akio Morita once made a rice cooker that couldn’t cook rice. He only sold 100 of them. But Akio didn’t give up. Instead he founded Sony, a company known for their high-quality work.[2] All of these men failed, yet all of them are considered unqualified successes because they didn’t let their failure impede their progress. To them failure wasn’t a limitation, it was an opportunity to find another way to succeed. We all have limitations.We don’t have enough money. We don’t have enough time. We don’t have enough resources. But the difference between success and failure is in how we perceive those limitations. Instead of looking at it as a barrier, those who are successful see it as a learning moment. They don’t see failure as a statement about their ability, but as a necessary step TOWARD success. Thomas Edison made the remark, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”[3] No matter what we do in life, whether it’s a new job, a new hobby, a new way of doing things, we are likely to bump into our fair share of failure. We only BECOME failures when we allow these bumps in the road to stop us from doing what we need to or should do.
The apostles didn’t allow anything to stop them in their mission.
They faced the same problems in THEIR ministry as we do in ours – a lack of money, a lack of resources, and a sense that time was running out. But instead of looking at these as limitations, they found a way to accomplish their goals despite them. This passage below takes place not long after Jesus has returned to Heaven. The Holy Spirit has descended upon the disciples and has empowered them. And with this newfound power, they go out into the world and begin to make new disciples for Christ. These new believers are so overwhelmed with the Holy Spirit that they form a fellowship that cares for one another and looks after one another in remarkable ways. So the passage we’re about to read is about the conversion of this beggar who sits at the gate.
One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.
6 Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. – Acts 3:1-9
The miracle is the first thing that stands out, but there is more to the story.
A lame beggar is sitting at the gate to the temple courts and as Peter and John are walking by he asks for some money. But instead of giving him money, Peter heals the man’s leg! This man who has never been able to walk before is able to get up and jump up and down. The man instantly praises God. His first act after receiving this gift is to praise God. Most of us would say THAT was remarkable. But consider this. In his book “It” Craig Groeschel asked this question: what if Peter and John DID have money? Peter says, “Silver or gold I do NOT have, but what I do have I give you.” If they had money, would they have given this man what he asked for instead of what was needed? Would they have been challenged to meet the man’s REAL needs? Perhaps THAT is the most remarkable thing, that it is sometimes in the limitations that we find the most blessing. Sometimes it is in the limitations that we find the most blessing. Peter and John didn’t give up trying to help the beggar. They didn’t ignore him or say “Sorry I don’t have any money to spare.” They gave him what they could and it turns out what he really needed – the healing power of Christ.
Do we challenge ourselves to overcome our limitations like Peter and John?
Or do we use them as an excuse for not doing what needs to be done? Limited resources, limited number of people, and limited in physical ability shouldn’t be impediments, but simply define for us our boundaries. It shouldn’t stop us from doing effective ministry, but instead give us a framework to do it in. The disciples certainly were poor and small in number. Maybe they had more physical ability than we do (definitely more than me), being mostly fisherman or people who did manual labor, but there are lots of things they didn’t have that we do today. A building for example. A piano or organ. Pews for sitting down. A stove for cooking food. Running water, air conditioning, a speaker system. There are lots of things they didn’t have and yet they changed the world. If our challenge is to fulfill the Great Commission then we have to challenge ourselves to ask what are WE doing to do our part? We cannot allow our limitations to prevent us from doing what needs to be done. We can’t allow our history, our personal preferences and our likes and dislikes hold us back from achieving for God what needs to be achieved, or we are guilty of being failures instead of people who fail. Because everybody fails. It’s what you do with your failure that determines your success.
It’s easy to make excuses. It’s better to find solutions.
We cannot afford to become complacent in our lives or in our ministry. We have to always do “the next thing.” Not the “popular thing” but the “next thing,” whatever that “next thing” is. For our church is the “next thing” that meets the needs of our community and allows us to show them the love of Christ. When Walt Disney created Disneyland, he wanted to create a place that families could take their kids that would be clean, fun, safe, and magical and where they could do things together. When Disneyland opened in 1955 it hosted 50,000 people on that first day. Certainly, most would have considered that a success. In fact, in it’s first operating year alone, Disneyland had over a million visitors. Walt could have stopped there. Certainly, people would have come for quite some time as people did. But Walt never stopped tinkering with the Park. He once said, “Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.” He constantly challenged himself to do the “next thing” what he called “plussing it.” Last year, Disney theme parks had more than 157 million visitors.[4] It is too easy for us to settle into old routines and habits and call them traditions. We have to not only be willing to change, but be the catalysts for change in our communities. Like Peter and John, we have to figure what it is that people need and give them that, and in the giving show the love and power of Christ.
Sometimes we are our own worst enemies. We find ways to defeat ourselves before we even begin.
We imagine we can’t do something so we don’t even try. We imagine we won’t like something, so we don’t even give it a chance. But there’s more than one way to fail. Wayne Gretsky, perhaps the greatest hockey player of all time, said, “You miss 100% of the shots you never take.” How can we learn and grow from our mistakes if we’re too timid to make any? The fear of failure in itself becomes an impediment to our success. It becomes a limitation we put on ourselves. I want to challenge you as we reflect upon what it is that holds you back, in your personal life, in your career, in your faith. What is it that prevents you from doing the “next thing” and can you overcome that limitation? Because I believe you can. I believe we all can. I don’t think it’s easy and I do think it will likely take us failing a number of times before we find what works, but it is within you. The goal is to keep trying and IF we fail to learn from the failure. Michael Jordan failed making more than 9,000 shots. Walt Disney got fired for lacking imagination. And Thomas Edison had to discover 10,000 ways to fail before inventing the light bulb. And a man who made a rice cooker that couldn’t cook rice founded a company that made nearly 80 BILLION dollars last year[5] and employed over 114,000 people.[6] Not a bad way to find success in failure. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
[1] Craig Groeschel, It, p. 112.
[2] http://www.creativitypost.com/psychology/famous_failures
[3] http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/failure
[4] https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/most-popular-theme-parks-world-2018/index.html
[5] https://www.statista.com/statistics/279269/total-revenue-of-sony-since-2008/
[6] https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/csr_report/employees/info/
Equal In All Things
23 Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. – Galatians 3:22-29
I want to share a little bit with you about my mom.
My mom is great. She was the “cool mom.” All the neighborhood kids knew her. Whenever we had study groups, she would always offer our home as base camp. When we were studying for the SATs, we pulled a couple of all-nighters, and my mom let my friends crash at our house. She would always bring out the popcorn, chips, and soda for everyone, and there were times I wondered if my friends actually liked me or just my mom. She listened to top 40 music, watched the movies we liked to watch, and followed along with all of our TV shows. But it was my mom who got me into the Beatles. She had both the Red and Blue albums and I’d listen to them over and over. She also introduced me to Star Trek, Tommy’s Hamburgers, Tagliarini Casserole, and so much more. She was so influential to my life, that it’s hard for me to understand there are people out there who think less of my mom, simply because she’s a woman.
Sexism is alive and well in the 21st century.
Even in the church. There are still people today who believe women should not be church leaders. They think women should stay silent. They don’t belong as pastors and preachers. And worse they use the Bible to justify it. It’s not enough they quote Ephesians to tell women they should be subservient to their husbands or how they’ve used the Bible to justify the physical abuse many women have suffered over the years. But they also use the Bible to tell women how to behave inside the walls of the church. 1 Corinthians 11 – women should cover their heads. 1 Corinthians 14 – women should remain silent in church and bow to the wisdom of their husbands. 1 Timothy 2 – women do not have permission to teach a man or to have authority over him.
But the author of those passages is the same one who wrote the letter to the church in Galatia.
This is the same guy who said we are all equal before God. That there is no Jew nor Greek, no slave nor free, no man nor woman in Christ Jesus. The Apostle Paul says very clearly that in all things we are equal before God. So how do we square these two versions of Paul? By understanding first what Paul did and then understanding the context of what he wrote.
We know just from reading Scripture that women were essential to Israel.
Many had high leadership positions and held great influence among the Israeli people. Take for example, Deborah from the book of Judges in the Old Testament. Deborah was favored by God and even spoke to her. It was Deborah who led the Israelites to victory against Sisera, the commander of the Canaanite armies. It was Deborah who gave Israel their freedom. And Barak, the leader of Israel’s armies, even bowed down in submission to her. The Bible tells us, “Village life in Israel ceased, ceased until you, Deborah, arose, arose a mother in Israel.” (Judges 5:7) Even Paul himself relied on women in his own ministry and they were instrumental in launching the Christian movement. Scholars believe Phoebe was considered a deacon in this new faith community and was likely the person Paul entrusted to deliver the letter to the church in Rome.[1] Priscilla and her husband would teach others about the fullness of God, and Priscilla even taught Apollos, a man who was considered a great follower of Jesus. And then there was Junia who was called an apostle of Christ. A woman on equal footing with the other apostles. Her name in the letter to the Romans (16:7) had long been translated as “Junias,” a male name until the correct translation was found in recently discovered documents. Scholars believe it was mistranslated out of prejudice against women. Early translators could not believe Paul would consider a woman to be worthy of being an apostle so they changed the name, much like you might have Roberta changed to Robert or Gabriela into Gabriel. For a woman to be called an apostle, especially by Paul, would have upset the entire structure of the church which relied on the weaponization of Scripture to suppress those they didn’t want in power. But if Paul did value women as leaders in the church, why did he go and write those passages that made it seem like he didn’t? Scholars today believe those negative passages weren’t mean to be a blanket statement against all women or even most women, but instead were meant to apply to specific churches at specific times. But for too long, we have taken his writing out of context and used it to suppress women as teachers in the church even when they have proven to have been effective in the role.
Speaking of which, there is an amazing woman who exhibited a gift for teaching God’s word.
Susanna Wesley, mother of all 19 children in the Wesley clan, was a person God used in a strong way to share the good news of Christ – especially in the life of young John and his brother Charles. [2] While her husband, Samuel was away in London she had begun to read to her children and teach them about the Bible as a supplement to what they heard in church. Her servants told Samuel’s parents about this, and they came to hear. They were so impressed with her lessons that they told their friends as well, and soon the number of people who came regularly to Mrs. Wesley’s lessons numbered in the hundreds. Over 200 to be exact which upset the curate to no end who had fewer people attending worship than Mrs. Wesley, a WOMAN, was receiving in her own home. He wrote a complaint to her husband, Samuel who responded by telling Susanna that it was his desire for her to stop. She wrote back, telling him “what good the meetings had done, and that none were opposed to them but Mr. Inman (the curate) and one other. She then concluded (her letter) with these wonderful sentences: ‘If after all this you think fit to dissolve this assembly do not tell me you desire me to do it, for that will not satisfy my conscience; but send your positive command in such full and express terms as may absolve me from all guilt and punishment for neglecting this opportunity for doing good when you and I shall appear before the great and awful tribunal of our Lord Jesus Christ.’” Needless to say, Samuel didn’t send any such command. You could say Susanna was Methodism’s first female pastor.
Anyone who reads the Bible knows women play an important role in the shape of our faith today.
Mary, mother of Jesus; Mary Magdalene; Ruth; Esther; just to name a few. But it doesn’t take much to also know that women were often mistreated, even by people we read about in the Bible. There are many stories that tell of horrible things having been done to women and how little society thought of them. But in none of those stories does Jesus ever support that kind of thinking, nor did he ever treat women in that way. In fact, Jesus treated women with dignity and respect which was a revolutionary attitude in his time. He was always progressive in his thinking compared to the world around him. He was constantly challenging the way things were for the way they should be. We need to carry on his legacy to make this world a better place for all of God’s creation. When one of us is diminished, we all are. And we would be fooling ourselves if we thought women were truly equal to men, even in America let alone the world. Let’s just look at one measurement of equity – the pay gap. Equal Pay Day this year was March 14th. That means on average, it takes a woman two and a half extra months to make as much money as a man. That number hasn’t significantly changed in 20 years. Even when accounting for variables like child care, flexible hours, taking time off for childcare, etc. women still make 8% less than men in the same job. According to the World Economic Forum, it will take 135 years for women to reach global gender parity. 135 years.
This isn’t a simple task.
But then nothing worthwhile ever is. We have to do better as a society in how we treat each other. And believe it or not, that begins with you and me. You might not feel like you’re in a position to do much to solve the world’s problems; you can’t solve the pay gap by yourself or stop every instance of gender discrimination that happens around the globe; but it takes millions of tiny steps, one at a time to make the world a better place. And that is something anyone can do. You can start by making sure to treat people with dignity. To value them, not to degrade them. To treat them as persons of equal worth as Christ would. And to make conscious choices to support women and women’s rights whenever you have the chance. By ourselves we barely move the needle, but together we can shove it to where it needs to be. Today, start with simply honoring the women in your lives – the daughters and granddaughters you hope will have the chance to live up to their potential, the wives and partners who face discrimination and lost opportunity just for being women, and of course the moms in our lives who nurtured and raised us just out of the love in their heart. Whether they are your biological mother, your adoptive mother, your grandmother, your friend who was like a mother to you, make sure you let them know how important they are and how much you love them. We can make a difference, one small step at a time.
[1] Archaeological Study Bible, p. 1860.
Glass Houses
Lefties are people, too.
But you may not know it from how the world has treated us. Centuries of prejudice and discrimination have dogged those of us who use our left hand. Art, literature, cultural traditions – these have all been biased toward right-handed people. Try playing a guitar or almost any musical instrument and you’ll find that it’s always harder for us lefties. Scissors, desks, notebooks – almost all geared toward the right-handed people of the world. For most of history, being left-handed meant there was something wrong with you. It’s even reflected in our language and in our culture. Did you know the word for “right” in Latin is “dexter?” As in “dexterity” or “ambidextrous.” Usually, it means someone who is versatile, limber, or skilled. All good things. You know what the Latin word for “left” is? “Sinister.” I don’t think I even have to explain that one. Do you know why people wear wedding rings on their left hands? To fend off evil.[1] You know why we throw salt over our left shoulder? To fend off evil. It took until the 20th century in America let alone the rest of the world, to understand that being left-handed did not mean that you were wrong, evil, or sinister.
It was even common to try and “convert” left-handed people.
As if you could train the left-handedness out of them. Why you would want to is beyond my understanding, but it happened to me. When I was little, we’d go and visit my grandparents, and anytime I picked up a fork, a pencil, or a pen; anytime I picked up anything with my left hand, my grandmother would take it from my left and put it in to my right. She grew up believing being left-handed was a bad thing. Now, I don’t know if she thought it was bad simply because it made life harder and she was trying to save me from the suffering, or if she thought it was bad because evil spirits would inhabit my body and take control of me, but she would try to train the left-handedness out of me. My mom had to keep telling her that it was alright, that it was natural for me to be left-handed, but sometimes I wonder if I’m ambidextrous because my grandmother was always trying to get me to use my right hand. Now, of course, we know those of us who are left-handed are more creative and intelligent than you poor right-handed people. We are, after all, the only ones in our “right minds.” But seriously, centuries went by and most of society believed left-handed people were evil or under the influence of evil spirits just because we were different.
As a society, we are quick to pass judgment on those who are “different.”
Those who look different, think different, or act differently than we do often get treated as pariahs. And whether we realize it or not, we treat them much like we used to treat lefties – as if there was something wrong with them instead of simply people who were different. If you look at the long stretch of history, society has done this to pretty much every group of people on some level. We have a horrible track record with people of color, with women, with gender and sexual identity; we’ve been nasty to children, the elderly, and to those who don’t ascribe to “our” religion. If there’s a group of people out there that we can name as the “other,” you can bet history hasn’t been kind to them. And that’s what we are about to see in our reading today.
1But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” – John 8:1-11
We have all been this woman.
Maybe we haven’t committed adultery, but we’ve all done something wrong and been called on the carpet for it, and we pray that someone will have mercy on us for our mistakes. And here, Jesus shows that mercy. He shows his love and compassion for her and forgives her. We are all in need of forgiveness. But here’s what’s really interesting. When you read the story, you’re tempted to think it’s the woman caught in adultery that is on trial, but actually it’s not. It’s Jesus. HE’S the one they are trying to condemn. If you read verse six it says, “They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.” They were hoping Jesus would say something so over the top that they could justify arresting him and accusing him of heresy, and if you notice, in the Bible, they do this over and over again. In fact, they were so overzealous, they didn’t even follow their own laws, the laws they were mad at Jesus for breaking. Deuteronomy 19:15 says you need at least two or three witnesses to convict a person, but they didn’t bring forth any witnesses against this woman. Deuteronomy 22:22 says that any man caught in adultery must die alongside the adulteress, but again, they never brought him forth either. They were so blinded by their own prejudices against Jesus they violated the very thing that made them mad at Jesus to begin with and they broke the law.
And that’s the danger.
You can become so blinded by your fear, by your anxiety, by your unwillingness to accept things that are different, that you miss out on opportunities in life. You miss out on the important things like love, forgiveness, and peace, and instead get wrapped up in the petty small things that in the scope of it all are really unimportant. The Pharisees and the church leaders missed out on the coming of the Messiah. They were so consumed by their fear of Jesus and their anxiety about what he did, they couldn’t see that the Christ they had been praying for was standing in their midst. The church of today still does this. And unfortunately, more often than not. One of my pastor friends told me about this woman who was coming to visit the church. She was dressed in clothes that were a bit ragged and worn but you could tell she was dressing in the best clothes she had, and her children were wearing regular kid clothes. Nothing fancy, just shirts and pants. As she walked up to the church doors, the usher turned to the woman and said, “At THIS church, we dress up for God.” Red-faced, she turned away and left and as far as I know, she never came back. That was a person looking for the love of God and realizing it wasn’t in THAT church. I hope she found it in another, but would you be surprised if she never came back? Sometimes we stand in judgment of others without recognizing the circumstances. If that usher had simply taken the time to notice that this woman might not have any other “nicer” clothes or had thought about the fact that God doesn’t care what you wear to church, maybe he wouldn’t have been so harsh. Because more than anything, God cares about our presence and not how we present. God wants us to be a part of a loving, worshiping community of people so we can grow in our faith together. We need to accept people as they are. Not how we want them to be.
There’s an old saying, “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.”
That comes from this passage we read today. And it’s a reminder that we are just as vulnerable and just as flawed as the people we want to criticize. We need to keep that in mind before condemning others. It’s a reminder we need to be careful not to reject others based on our preconceptions. When we do that, it is easier to let go of the anger, the spite, the fear, and the anxiety that comes with labeling someone as the “other.” And we make the world a better, healthier place. Remember, God wants us to be inclusive, not exclusive. When we fail to do that, we miss out on opportunities – not only to show God’s love, but to embrace people who might enrich our lives. Think of all of the great left-handed people in the world – Paul McCartney, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Scarlett Johansson, Clayton Kershaw, and President Obama just to name a few. Think about a world without them if people still thought being left-handed meant you were evil or possessed. How many people in our own past did we miss out on because people couldn’t see past something arbitrary like that? How many people misjudged us for something inconsequential or even plain wrong? Give people a chance. Give them a chance to show you that God is working in them, too. And hug a lefty today. They are the only ones in their right minds.
What If God Were Black?
That’s a question posed by Robert F. Kennedy back in 1966.
What if God were black? We tend to see the world from our point of view and as you can imagine, there are as many points of view as there are people who have them. And since our point of view is formed and shaped by our lives, it’s hard for us to imagine how other people look at the world. But what if our assumptions of the world were turned upside down? What if the things we thought made us superior or better or right were…wrong? What if God were black?
Saddleback Church ordained its first three female pastors a couple of years ago.
This was an historic occasion. Not because they were female. The United Methodist Church has been ordaining women as pastors since 1956. But because Saddleback Church is part of the Southern Baptist Convention which expressly forbids women from preaching. By the way, in case you think this was an outdated policy that simply hadn’t been overturned, the SBC wrote this into their Baptist Faith and Message statement in the year 2000.[1] Prior to that there had been rare exceptions where a woman was ordained in the Baptist tradition. But that changed at the turn of the century. Owen Strachan, a faculty member at the Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote this: “There is no exception to 1 Timothy 2:9-15. Not Mother’s Day, not when a woman has real gifting, not when the elders endorse women preaching. Based on his creation order, God only calls men to lead, preach, teach, & shepherd the flock…”[2] If you’re confused by this, Strachan is basically saying that because God created men first, they get all the prime jobs while women are left to pick up the scraps. They don’t make an argument based on talent or gifts or experience. It’s based on the “created order.” And that’s the official stance of the Southern Baptist Convention. So, what if God was a woman? If it’s all about the “created order” what if God were a woman? Would the men of the SBC willingly give up all their positions of power and take up housekeeping as a profession? Because God could be a woman. Or asexual. Or gender-fluid. While it’s true the Bible often refers to God using male pronouns, no one has ever seen God to know what God looks like. God could BE anything.
But the SBC isn’t the only group of people with a distorted view on reality.
Before we pile too deeply on them, and believe me there’s a lot we could say about their beliefs, we need to realize this inability to live in reality isn’t limited to far right evangelical groups. It’s something that is a danger to us all – left, right, and center. It doesn’t take much to find people with a distorted view of reality. Each of them believe whole-heartedly in their view, not because it’s the truth, but because of the lens through which they see the world. The question we need to ask ourselves is: How is our world view shaped by our beliefs and, more importantly, are we open to thoughts and ideas different from our own? The challenge for us constantly is to make sure we are not seeing life with blinders on, but are receptive to the movement of the Holy Spirit and consider the ways we are limiting our own worldview. Jesus challenges us to be receptive, to open our hearts to where God is leading in this passage we’re about to share.
4 While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: 5 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. 6 Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”
When he said this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” – Luke 8:4-8
What kind of soil are you?
Usually, we picture ourselves in this story as being the farmer. When read that way, this is a story to encourage us to keep sharing God’s love regardless of where our efforts land. Some will be receptive to it and some won’t but for us to be diligent in continuing forward. But I read a reflection by Rick Warren of all people who looked at this parable in a new light. What if WE are the SOIL? What if God is constantly trying to share his love for us and WE are the rocky ground or the thorny ground or the hard ground where the birds ate it all up? Perhaps this story is trying to share with us our need to be like the good soil, fertile and ripe for planting. We need to constantly keep the soil of our hearts tilled and rich and overturned so we are receptive to where God is leading us. We can’t afford to have our hearts become hardened or rocky or riddled with thorns. When that happens we become unyielding to the work of God.
Which takes us back to our question, “What if God were Black?”
Robert Kennedy wrote about his experience in South Africa when that country was still practicing apartheid – a system of racial segregation which classified white citizens higher than anyone else in society. In part, the white population justified their treatment of Coloured and Black people based on the Bible, saying this was part of God’s plan.[5] When Robert Kennedy went to visit, the government didn’t want to approve his visa, but most people thought he could be the next President of the United States and the South African government didn’t want to have bad relations with the next leader of America so they reluctantly let him in.[6] This is a part of what he wrote about his experience: “During five days this summer, my wife Ethel and I visited South Africa, talking to all kinds of people representing all viewpoints. Wherever we went-Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Stellenbosch, Johannesburg – apartheid was at the heart of the discussion and debate. Our aim was not simply to criticize but to engage in a dialogue to see if, together, we could elevate reason above prejudice and myth. At the University of Natal in Durban, I was told the church to which most of the white population belongs teaches apartheid as a moral necessity. A questioner declared that few churches allow black Africans to pray with the white because the Bible says that is the way it should be, because God created Negroes to serve. ‘But suppose God is black,’ I replied. ‘What if we go to Heaven and we, all our lives, have treated the Negro as an inferior, and God is there, and we look up and He is not white? What then is our response?’ There was no answer. Only silence.”[7]
What preconceptions and maybe misconceptions are you holding onto?
What are some ways you might be limiting the work of the Holy Spirit in your soul because you are not open to new or different ways of thinking? Our own denomination is struggling with this right now. We are not immune from this struggle to be the good soil. Right now, we are asking the question, “Do people who identify as LGBTQ+ qualify to serve in pastoral leadership?” It’s an argument that has been raging on for decades and one that will inevitably split us apart. But why? Why is our interpretation on who is fit to serve so narrowly defined? Why is it we predetermine if someone is qualified based on such shallow guidelines instead of by the fruit of their labor? The same argument used to hold women back from serving as pastors is the same argument used against people of color and is the same argument used against the LGBTQ+ community. When will we learn?
We are our own worst enemy.
We hold ourselves back from all God has to offer because we don’t spend enough time being open to the work of the Holy Spirit. I want to challenge you this week to test your soil, to be open to different perspectives. Many of us have a tendency to immediately push back on new ideas, to dismiss them out of hand before even considering it. Instead, be intentional. Hold back from your gut instinct. Promise yourself you’ll give every idea at least ten seconds of time to ponder the possibilities no matter how outlandish they appear to be on the surface. That doesn’t mean they AREN’T outlandish, but I think you’ll be surprised at how often you are resistant to new things and how just taking a deep breath can give you the chance to be inspired by something different. Just like a farmer working the land, we need to till the soil once in a while to keep it fertile and prosperous. So, too, do we need to till the soil of our minds and challenge our preconceptions of the world.
[1] https://scotmcknight.substack.com/p/the-heart-of-the-sbc-opposing-culture
[2] https://scotmcknight.substack.com/p/the-heart-of-the-sbc-opposing-culture
[3] https://www.bbc.com/news/52847648
[4] https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/13/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-aoc/index.html
[5] http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2413-94672015000200011
[6] http://www.npr.org/2011/08/12/139449268/remembering-rfks-visit-to-the-land-of-apartheid
The Fierce Urgency of NOW
Pets are precious.
If you’ve got pets, you probably feel the same way. So when we go somewhere as a family, it is really important to us who watches our pets, because we want to know they are left in good hands. Most of the time we’ve been fortunate and had amazing pet sitters. But this one time, we had one that was… less than amazing. They weren’t abusive. They didn’t hurt the dogs in any way. But you could tell, almost from the get-go, their heart wasn’t in it. When they came over to meet the dogs, they just didn’t give off that dog-loving vibe. All the best ones would get down to the dogs’ level and really interact with them. This person kind of just patted them on the head and turned immediately to the business of dog sitting. The logistics. It didn’t feel great, but we needed someone and our usuals weren’t available. While we were gone, I received an email thanking me for my purchase on our PlayStation. Granted, it was a free purchase, but why were they using my account in the first place? And then when we got home, we found things out of place, not put away, not cleaned up, a few things that were broken, and even some missing Tupperware. None of it was a big deal, but it let us know what kind of person was in charge of our pets. And I did love that Tupperware.
A good pet sitter and a bad pet sitter comes down to perspective.
Not our perspective, but theirs. A good dog sitter looks at the job as a responsibility. They take seriously that the pets entrusted to their care are precious and treat them as if they were their own. Maybe even better. A bad dog sitter doesn’t have to be evil or have evil intent. But instead they look at the job more about what they get out of it rather than what they put into it. People look at it as a responsibility or they look at it as an opportunity. Which one do you want caring for your pets? And while it can be both of those things, most of us want the person looking after our pets to be the kind of person who looks at it as a responsibility first and an opportunity second instead of the other way around. When it comes to the planet Earth, which kind of person are you? Responsibility or opportunity?
At the end of the day, we’re all just planet sitters.
The earth doesn’t belong to us. God put it in our care. As David wrote in the Book of Psalms, “The earth is the LORD’S and everything in it, the world and all who live in it… (Psalm 24:1)” We’re here to look after it, but it belongs to God. How do you think we’re doing? If God were going to give the human race a Yelp review, how many stars do you think we would get? We tend to be pretty oblivious to the damage we’re doing to the earth, either consciously or unconsciously. The big disasters get all the headlines. The Exxon-Valdez oil spill. The disaster on Deepwater Horizon. Those are the ones that make us wake up to the harm human beings are causing the planet. But the real harm doesn’t come from these one-off disasters as awful as they are. The real harm comes in the little things we do constantly, every day. Sometimes, it’s things we do without even knowing it. Like CFC emissions.[1] Do you remember when CFCs were a big deal? Hairspray would get the bad rap, but that was nothing compared to the CFCs coming out of refrigerators and air conditioners all over the world. That’s what was causing the real damage. It took us a long time to figure out that CFCs were destroying the ozone layer, the tiny, thin sheet of protection the earth had against the sun’s killer radiation. Once we did figure it out, it still took us more than a decade to do something about it. Big manufacturing companies blocked our way, claiming the results were inconclusive or the study wasn’t done properly. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? It’s part of the Playbook of Greed. These big companies didn’t want to let go of their profit margins or put in the hard work of doing what’s right. And while it would be easy to blame it on nameless, faceless companies, we have to remember it was people like me and you behind those companies. It was people like me and you who chose to drag our feet instead of doing what was right. It was people like me and you making the decisions to put profits over people.
We’re supposed to be caretakers of the planet.
Our mindset should be one of responsibility, not opportunity. But too often we give in to our own weaknesses, own selfishness, our own greed instead of doing what’s right. If you have a Bible or Bible app on your phone and want to follow along, find the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament beginning with chapter 25, verse 1; Leviticus 25:1. Now I’m as guilty of this as any of you and we’re all guilty to some extent. Our crimes don’t have to be on a massive scale like DuPont dumping toxic sludge into the rivers of the Ohio[2] or Hyperion pushing out syringes and tampons onto California state beaches.[3] Again, it’s in the little things we do as much as the big ones that add up to the ongoing damage to our planet. We have to treat our planet with respect. And that’s the point of this passage from Leviticus. Hear now the Word of God.
The Lord said to Moses at Mount Sinai, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord. 3 For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. 4 But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. 5 Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.
23 “‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers. 24 Throughout the land that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land.
The Word of God for the people of God and the people said, “Thanks be to God.”
Even the land was granted Sabbath rest.
You work the land for six years and on the seventh, you let it lay fallow. Again, God built this natural cycle of work and rest not just into our bodies but into the very planet itself. Farmers do this all the time. They rotate crops and allow fields to lay fallow for a season so it has time to replenish itself and doesn’t get overworked. But even in this passage, God reminds the people of Israel that the land belongs to God. And then that last line resonates with our call to care for the earth. God tells them, “Throughout the land that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land.” Even the earth itself is important to God, not just the people living on it. The very earth is deserving of redemption. And you can see how this plays out in this time of crisis that we are in with weird but wonderful ways. Over Beijing, there is this permanent cloud of haze caused by the poorly regulated pollution in China and the billions of people living there. It wavers and wanes, but pretty much there is a constant cloud of pollution just hovering over the land. Until the pandemic. After just one month of quarantine, after one month without factories churning out American cell phones and workers driving to and from work, the skies over most of China were clear and clean of nitrogen dioxide.[4] After just a month! The same is true for every major metropolitan area in the United States, from New York to the Bay. Even the notorious LA smog reduced dramatically since shelter-in-place orders were given.[5] It’s simply remarkable to watch the earth’s ability to heal itself if we simply give it the chance. With so much less human noise in the world, animals started to come out of hiding and roam into places once dominated by people. Bears came all the way into Yosemite Village, mountain goats walked down hills and strolled into towns, and coyotes were found wandering about San Francisco. This crisis opened up our eyes in many different ways, and this is one of them. God is showing us we need to do a better job of working in harmony with his creation instead of abusing it for our own purposes. We need to slow down once in a while and appreciate what God has created and give the earth time to breathe and to heal. And we need to take seriously the responsibility that God handed to us to care for this planet before it is too late.
A few years ago was the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.
And Creation Justice Ministries,[6] an interfaith group dedicated to preserving the environment with the belief that God is calling on us to be better stewards of the planet, adopted the theme of “The Fierce Urgency of Now” for this special occasion. Borrowing from the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., they challenged us not to wait, but to do something about the crisis of planetary abuse human beings are inflicting on the earth. In the words of the great Dr. King himself:
We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood—it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, “Too late.” There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect.[7]
Let God know you were vigilant for the earth. Let God know you took the path of responsibility over opportunity. For we are all planet sitters and it’s up to us to be worthy of the trust that God placed into our hands.
[1] https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/cfcs-ozone.html
[2] https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/02/08/ohio-files-lawsuit-against-dupont-allegedly-dumping-toxic-chemical-into-ohio-river/320113002/
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_sewage_treatment_plant
[4] https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2020/03/03/coronavirus-nasa-reveals-how-cinas-lockdown-drastically-reduced-pollution/#6f4c151b2a75
[5] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/22/climate/coronavirus-usa-traffic.html
[6] http://www.creationjustice.org/mission.html
[7] https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/beyond-vietnam
Faith and Family Trip to Disneyland 2024 – Hospitality
What is hospitality?
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor… 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. – Romans 12:9-10, 13
Jesus modeled it. Paul wrote about it. But are we doing a good job of it in our churches and personal life? What lessons can we learn from the absolute master of hospitality – Disneyland! Join us as we find out what it means from Disney to offer hospitality and how we can apply those lessons into our own context. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
Next February, we are headed to Disneyland for our seventh Faith and Family Trip! I am excited to share this adventure with all of you and hope this is a great chance for us all to get to know each other better and inspire us to do more as people of faith. Here are the details:
- Date and Time: Sunday 2/18/24 (optional dinner on Saturday)
- Cost: $50 NOT including admission
- Will include lunch on Sunday, hefty snack, and souvenir!
- Everyone gets a t-shirt!
- What to Expect: Attractions in the morning, lunch and a tour in the afternoon, and a fun group activity for prizes! Everyone gets a little souvenir as well.
Our plans are to meet up early on Sunday to take advantage of being there at opening, have some devotional time together, and head into the park. We’ll go on some rides in the morning, have a mid-morning snack and lunch together, and take a tour emphasizing our theme of hospitality by a former cast member – me! And then we’ll have a cool scavenger hunt for prizes as well as other fun stuff! And more rides. After that it’s free time! We will have an optional dinner the night before for those arriving early and you can join me for dinner at the park if you’d like as well or just go off and have fun.
And it will be FUN! Hopefully you’ll also walk away with a different perspective on church. Our goal is to integrate best practices from the outside world and apply them to how we can be more effective for Christ. This trip will be focused on hospitality and how we can use our own radical hospitality to reshape how others see us and grow our church together. Can’t wait to see you !!!
Chocolate Chip Cookies… And God!
Chocolate chip cookies are my favorite!
For anyone that knows me, that’s probably not a big surprise. Homemade are the best! There’s something about the love and care that goes into a cookie from home that you just can’t get from a machine. Probably my favorite chocolate chip cookie is the Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Pan Cookie. It’s sort of like a blondie and a chocolate chip cookie combined into one. Yum. These were the chocolate chip cookies of my youth. My mom would make them on very rare occasions, and they tasted so good out of the oven, they would melt in your mouth! I love the taste of brown sugar and butter with the hot melting chocolate chips as it just oozes across your taste buds. The best. But have you ever thought about what goes INTO a chocolate chip cookie? I never really did. Sugar, brown sugar, flour, salt, baking powder, vanilla extract, eggs, and of course chocolate chips. Pretty much what you’d expect, right? A lot of the same basic ingredients you find in most baking recipes. But did you know crystallized sugar originally came from India? It was discovered about the 5th century. Today Brazil is the biggest exporter of sugar. The story is similar for the vanilla bean which is used for the vanilla extract. Originally found only in Mexico, the Totonac people of the Mazatlan valley were the first to cultivate it. But after a 12-year-old slave by the name of Edmond Albius discovered how to hand-pollinate the plant, the vanilla industry thrived and today most vanilla is produced in Madagascar. The chocolate chip cookie itself is a 20th century invention of Ruth Graves Wakefield of the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts. She was the one who blended in chunks of chocolate into a cookie back in 1937 to make one of my (and the world’s) favorite desserts today. The chocolate chip itself wasn’t created until 1941 when chocolate companies decided to package chocolate into baking morsels. Before that people would have to break apart the chocolate into chunks on their own. And the famous Nestle Toll House Cookies were named after the place of their birth in Massachusetts. So each time I bite into one of my favorite homemade chocolate chip cookies, I have to thank the people of India, Brazil, Mexico, Madagascar, and Ruth Graves Wakefield of the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts.[1]
All of that to say that life is far more complex than the narrow window we view it through.
To describe a chocolate chip cookie I only expanded upon three of the ingredients and already had to credit five completely different civilizations across history. Who knows who else we would include if we traced the history of flour or baking powder or brown sugar? I can generally give credit to God and the chicken for eggs, but who first thought to combine it with flour to make dough? In our attempt to simplify the world into manageable nuggets of information that we can remember, we often forget the complexity that makes up God’s brilliant design. We forget about the diverse nature of the world and how each part was created by God and contributes in its own way to a far more complex world than we can understand.
Our reading today comes from the Book of Genesis, Chapter 1.
As you probably know, this chapter is about the beginning of all creation and the writer gives us a glimpse into the work God has done. Prior to our reading, God has already been creating tons of different stuff. He’s created the heavens and the earth, light and darkness, and the water and the sky. The basics. Then God gets into even more complex stuff – land, vegetation, and time. Think about that. God CREATED time. Next, he created the stars and the sun and the moon, but so far, no other life on the Earth other than plants. And then this is where we come in.
20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. – Genesis 1:20-25
We sort of take creation for granted don’t we?
I mean we have birds and fish and whales and if you believe in evolution dinosaurs which are very cool and lions and cows and all of these other kinds of animals. Just tons of different animals populating the Earth, and this is BEFORE human beings even come into the picture. But have you ever asked yourself why? Not why did God create these things before humans although that’s a great question, but why did God create them at all? Why did God create waters teeming with living creatures? For me, I would have been happy with just the fish. And maybe whales. But why bother creating the rest? What purpose do they serve? But “God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.’ …God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.” Just because the answer isn’t obvious to us doesn’t mean there isn’t a purpose there.
Take for example the jellyfish.[2]
You might wonder why God would create jellyfish? They seem more troublesome than they are worth. They have a sting that at its most severe can cause death. They can be problematic in other ways, too. Did you know back in 1999, they were responsible for a cascading blackout in the Philippines? And back in 2008 they caused the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in San Luis Obispo to shut down for two days! But jellyfish have their upside as well. They are considered a culinary delicacy in many Asian countries. And they are also harvested for their collagen, which is used to help treat rheumatoid arthritis. On the surface, we might dismiss the jellyfish as pretty useless or even deadly, but they serve serve other purposes as well. Some of which we know and probably some of which we don’t. Which is to say God creates this huge diversity for a reason and just because we can’t always see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
But diversity is useful in many ways. Even in church.
A recent study on church congregations revealed how important diversity is to God’s purpose. Baylor University released its findings after doing research on churches over a twenty-year period and came to the conclusion that racially diverse churches had higher attendance on average than their largely all-white counterparts. These findings contradict some long-held beliefs in what has been referred to as “the homogenous unit principle” – “the idea that churches flourish if they stick to people of the same race and class.”[3] Believe it or not, this isn’t just a theory held onto by scholars and scientists but by many folks sitting in the pews. The number of times I’ve heard people saying the same exact thing – that our best outreach strategy is to reach out to “people like us” – would probably surprise you. Most of these people would never think of this as being racist, but being practical. But as this study showed, diversity leads to better results. Consider this: claiming to “hire the best person regardless of gender” was often an excuse for not including women in leadership, but as studies have shown, companies with more women on their board of directors tend to be more successful and profitable than their counterparts.[4] We have to overcome our fears and our prejudices to embrace the rich diversity of God’s creation. It’s not only the right thing to do (which should be enough) but is also the route that will lead us to helping others come to faith in Christ.
Diversity is something God is great at.
Look at our earlier reading today. I love the image Paul uses in this passage from 1 Corinthians that we are all parts of one body and no matter how we behave or what we think about one another, it doesn’t take away from the fact we really are connected in God’s great creation. He writes in verse 15, “Now if the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body….But in fact (verse 18) God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.” We are all different. We all come from different backgrounds with different life experiences, and those allow us to bring our unique gifts to the table. It’s in diversity that we come up with new and different ideas, things any one of us may never have thought up on our own. And it’s those new ideas and new ways of doing things that continue to help us grow in our faith, in our soul, and in our understanding of one another. Let us learn from the chocolate chip cookie and embrace our differences so that together we might be greater than the sum of our parts.
[1] Research for this section was done by referencing Wikipedia for “sugar,” “vanilla,” and “chocolate chip.”
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jellyfish
[3] https://www.umnews.org/en/news/racial-diversity-linked-to-church-growth?mkt_tok=MDc4LUpYUS02NDMAAAF8V8jHdEHFMt6nzBMNx5VfAmLVmNqiPxhxTkkKUI9G8TpZvVNLaMqnlYen_2D1W2GbxxYd9wn5XD3Jr4dKNHzZ-UAtoSPeV5ktRBKmiUeprpz23g
[4] https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/ecpe/why-diversity-matters-women-on-boards-of-directors/#:~:text=The%20business%20benefits%20of%20having%20women%20on%20a,runs%2C%20makes%20decisions%2C%20and%20ultimately%2C%20on%20its%20success.
The Flaw In Our Gospel
Jyn Erso died so the Rebellion might live.
Jyn’s tale of sacrifice and redemption is powerful. The plans she gave her life for were transferred to the ship, Tantive IV moments before she was killed. The envoy on board used her diplomatic ties to travel into a restricted system and take those plans to the gathering Rebel forces where an attack was being put into action. The leader of that diplomatic envoy? Princess Leia Organa. And as Paul Harvey used to say on his famous radio show, “Now you know…the rest of the story.”[1] If you like Star Wars, you know Luke, Leia and Han would find a way to deliver the plans to the Death Star in time so Luke could blow up the Empire’s massive battle station. And although Jyn’s story ends on the planet Scarif it is not the end of the story. Her tale is just one in a much larger tapestry, and even though it is great all by itself, it’s made more meaningful because of the larger story of which it is a part. Where does your story end?
Faith in Christ is essential to Christianity, but it is not the end of the story.
I was reading an article from Outreach magazine, and Ken Wytsma wrote something that stuck with me. He said, “If all we have is Good Friday, then we are missing Easter.”[2] He argues the flaw in our Gospel story today is focused so much on getting people to believe we fail to see the larger picture. That we are only telling half the story. He wrote in part, “Personal salvation for the individual took the spotlight (in how we convey the Gospel) rather than Christ’s redeeming work for the many. There was an overemphasis on salvation for me…” Jesus didn’t turn to his followers and say, “Oh, good. Now that you believe in me, my work is done.” He told them “…you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth (Acts 1:8).”
The cross is the beginning of our journey. Not the end.
If you have a Bible or a Bible app on your phone, would you please go to Matthew 5:14. One of the things I love about Methodism is our emphasis on striving toward “Christian perfection.” John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, believed this was something each of us could actually achieve. But whether we attained this lofty goal or not, it was an ideal we should constantly strive for. And it wasn’t an ideal for the super-pious or for the winner of Bible Trivial Pursuit. It was an ideal Wesley honestly believed was within reach of anyone. And again, you didn’t need to go to seminary or become a priest to be equipped to do this work. He felt ordinary people doing ordinary things could do it. Things like prayer, worship, communion, reading your Bible, and attending a small group were ways you could achieve this goal. Will most of us get there? Probably not. But it’s the journey that makes it worthwhile. It’s the journey that honors God. Getting to the cross IS important, but where you go from there is equally important. There is a reason Jesus emphasizes discipleship and not conversion. Conversion is a moment in time, but discipleship is a lifelong process. It becomes part of our character. It defines who we are.
True discipleship takes place in community.
Faith is not a solo journey. We are meant to travel this road together. Jesus sent his disciples out into the world two-by-two. He told us that where two or more are gathered, there he would be. Even in the Old Testament, we read in the book of Ecclesiastes, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: 10 If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.” Our faith is meant to be developed in relationship with one another. Not only do we gather strength in numbers, we also are able to test our belief, help each other, and be a stronger witness for Jesus in the world. And at the same time we are growing in our faith, we are supposed to share it with the world as it says in this brief passage from Matthew.
14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. – Matthew 5:14-16
Our love of Christ was meant to be shared with the world!
It isn’t supposed to be hidden away, yet so many of us have a hard time sharing our faith or inviting people to church. We say we’re worried about what people will think of us. We say we’re worried we don’t know enough. But are those just excuses for not wanting to put ourselves out there? Because we are more than willing to talk about our favorite places to eat or our favorite movies or our favorite sports teams. We have no problem sharing those things that are important to us so why should our faith be any different? When I was serving at Roswell UMC in Atlanta, GA, there was a monthly street fair during the summer near our church, and if you’ve ever been to Georgia in the summer you know how hot it gets. So we would take part in the fair by handing out free cold bottled water to people passing by and we’d give out little cards inviting people to come to our church. One of our members quit the church because of it. I remember calling her on the phone when she transferred her membership to find out what happened. Maybe we had done something wrong without realizing it. Maybe someone said or did something to make her feel unwelcome or unappreciated. But when we talked, she told me it wasn’t anything we did to her. She just didn’t want to belong to a church that evangelized in public. Keep in mind this wasn’t a requirement for the church and about 99% of our members did not participate. It was just a handful of people who wanted to do something tangible to show the love of Christ to our neighborhood. The woman who left our church said she didn’t think it was right. I was really confused what wasn’t “right” about it so I asked her and she responded, “I just think faith is a personal thing.” And she’s right. I agree 100%. Faith is personal, not private. It is meant to be shared. It is a personal choice like raising your children, but how many self-help books on raising kids were you given when you had your first child? How many people felt free to share their own personal parenting philosophy? Just because something is personal doesn’t mean we can’t share our thoughts, opinions, and preferences with those we love. We trust they will understand it’s out of love we share those things and in turn listen to them when they share with us. Our faith, like a fine wine, a good meal, or wonderful music, is made all the better when others experience it with us, so why not tell people about it? How will people know the difference Christ can make in their life if we aren’t willing to share it with others?
The challenge is not whether we should share our faith but finding our unique voice to do so.
How Jesus has touched your life is almost surely different from how Jesus has touched mine. We may have many similarities, but our stories are unique to us. And so is how we will share it. For those who are bold, let them proclaim it boldly! But for the rest of us, we need to find our voice either literally or figuratively. So this week, I’m asking you to think about one person or persons who you wish would come to church with you. Think of one person or persons whose life would be made better, who would feel more at peace, who would feel less alone in the world if Christ was a part of it. And pray about how you might share the love of Christ with them. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is the most phenomenal event the world has ever seen. But it is so far removed from our everyday life experience, that it takes a personal connection to often make it real. Among those who don’t come to church, a personal invitation from a friend was still almost twice as likely to be effective as anything else.[3] And among those seeking to explore faith, more than half of them were looking for casual one-on-one conversations with friends and family.[4] Even as our experience with traditional church is changing, people still crave personal connection.
Jyn’s story is only a part of the Star Wars saga.
It isn’t the whole story by itself. It’s a vital part that helps us understand all that comes after it, but it isn’t complete without the hope and redemption that follows as a result. The Gospel story isn’t meant to be a shelter from the storm. It isn’t a safe haven from the world we live in. And it isn’t a safety net in case there is an afterlife. The Gospel story is the armor and shield God gives us to have the strength to go out into the world and share his message of hope and redemption to a world that needs it now more than ever. As Ken wrote in his article, “The gospel isn’t simply good news we hear – it’s good news we become. We aren’t simply recipients of grace, but agents of grace as well.”[5] If all there was to the story of Jesus is the cross, there would be no Christianity. It’s what happened after that changed the world. Be a part of the story. Help to change the world.
[1] Paul Harvey was a radio host for a show he created called “The Rest of the Story” which ran for decades. He was known for offering an unknown glimpse into the past of someone famous that revealed something or just enlightened the audience about someone. Many of his stories are archived on Archive.org a non-profit organization seeking to preserve internet knowledge – a library for the Internet. https://archive.org/details/PaulHarveyTROTS/
[2] “Why Race Belongs In Our Gospel Conversations,” Ken Wytsma, Outlook Magazine, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Outreach, Inc. Colorado), p. 60
[3] The Barna Group, Churchless, 2014 p.28 (Kindle edition)
[4] https://www.barna.com/research/opportunities-for-faith-sharing/
[5] Ibid, p.64
Five People You Won’t Meet in Heaven
What in the world is a gigachurch?
Churches are growing so big today they had to add a new type of church – the gigachurch. A gigachurch is a church that has more than 10,000 in worship during a given week. 10,000! Can you imagine that? At one time churches were just churches, but eventually some grew so big we called them megachurches and those worshipped over 2,000 a week. But now we have gigachurches. Could you imagine our building holding 10,000 people? We would definitely need that new sanctuary. And probably more parking. How would you feel if EVUMC became a gigachurch? Some of you would be in awe! Some of you…would feel uneasy. There are people who love coming to a church where it feels like family, where you know almost everyone’s name. They worry about losing the intimacy of a small church. They worry a church that’s too big will mean we can’t truly build community or grow deeper in our faith. But are those real concerns or are they masking something else? Maybe a fear of change?
The truth is, people who go to big churches feel as connected as all of us.
To God and to each other. It would be a mistake to think otherwise. Some people prefer small churches. Some prefer big churches. But we can find connections to God and our faith in every setting. Size does not determine the depth of our faith. There isn’t some inverse correlation between numbers of people and how much you’re able to grow in your relationship with God. For every church, no matter how big or small, you get out of it what you put into it. No matter the size, you can always find a community of people to belong to, to help you grow deeper in faith. No matter the size you can find ways to serve the community and the world. Big doesn’t necessarily mean better, but it also doesn’t mean it’s worse either. Just because it’s different doesn’t make it less meaningful.
Talking about church growth makes some people feel uncomfortable.
Like that’s not what church is supposed to be about. That somehow if we try and grow the church we’re losing sight of helping people grow deeper in their faith. Or that we’re forgetting what it means to be a church. But church growth is helping us to not only grow deeper in our own faith but to help others develop theirs. Numbers are simply one way to measure how effective we are in accomplishing the mission that Christ himself gave to us. And that mission is the same now as it was 2000 years ago when Jesus walked the Earth, to make disciples in his name and baptize the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It’s what is known as the Great Commission, and until that mission is accomplished, we should be devoting our time, energy, and effort into making it a reality. Imagine a world filled with people who were actually followers of Jesus Christ. People who acted like he did, loved like he did, and gave of themselves like he did for one another. What an amazing world that would be!
God cares about the numbers.
God cares about the numbers because behind every number is a real person. When I was doing research for our sermon today, I read that line and it stuck with me.[1] Behind every number is a real person. If the Bible is any indicator, God cares very much about the numbers. In fact, there’s a whole book in the Bible called Numbers, and in chapter 26 of that book, it lists how many men were in each clan. By the end of that chapter, we know the total number of men in Israel was 601,730. That’s a very specific number. In Acts 1, the Bible tells us there were about 120 Christ followers, men and women both, and this was right after Christ went back up to Heaven. In Acts 2, we find out 3,000 people came to Christ in that one day. By Acts 4, we find out that the number of men, just men, who believed had grown to about 5,000. That doesn’t include the women and children which would have made that number even bigger. By the end of the book of Acts, there are so many people coming to Christ, they simply say over and over again how their numbers kept increasing. And even though their numbers kept increasing, they didn’t say to themselves, “Well, that’s pretty good.” Instead, they went out into the world, sending disciples to the ends of the known earth to teach about the love of Christ. They felt this way because they took seriously what Jesus told them.
Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’
“But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’
“Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’
“But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’
“There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.” – Luke 13:22-30.
There are so many people out there who do not know the love of Christ.
There are so many who don’t know what it means to have Christ at the center of their life, or how that helps you, or how that can help make this world a better place. What are we doing about that? Because Jesus makes it very clear not everyone gets to Heaven. And that thought disturbs me as I’m sure it disturbs most of you. We don’t like to think about that. We don’t like to think about people NOT making it into Heaven. I mean, we’re fine if Hitler doesn’t make it. But it’s hard for us to imagine Aunt Sue or Uncle Bob not being there. They’re good people after all. But what if that’s not enough? I know that’s a disturbing thought, and some of you probably don’t believe it to be true. But should we take that chance? What if you’re wrong? Should we gamble on the lives of others just because we THINK it may not be true? Jesus’ words are not ambiguous. “…Many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.” What if those who are not able to are people we could have reached out to? Now, I don’t know who is going to make it and who won’t. I leave that to the grace of God. But it is imperative we help others come to faith in Christ. Like I said, not just because we care about their eternal future, but because we care about their lives in the here and now. Living a life with Christ at its center is the greatest gift we can share. Church growth is a byproduct of our passion for sharing the love of Christ.
Thinking about our church growing might scare some of you.
Not because you don’t want people to know the love of Christ, but because it means things will change. And we worry about change. We worry about what the future might have in store for us when we leave it up to God. We worry that it won’t feel like the same church anymore and it causes fear and anxiety to swell within us. I had someone come up to me one time after I gave a sermon about church growth who asked me how big I’d like for us to grow. I told him I didn’t know, but that I would like for it to grow as big as God wants it to be, and he replied, “Well I hope we don’t grow too big.” Which is a strange response, because if you asked this person if he wanted to see the world come to faith in Jesus Christ, he would have said “yes” without a doubt. But I also understand why he replied that way. He was worried he would no longer recognize the church he had grown to love. He worried that if we grew too big, it wouldn’t feel the same anymore. But that is a fear borne out of the unknown. It isn’t based on fact, but out of this idea that the church would change in ways we MIGHT not like. But is that a reason to stop growing? Is our discomfort a reason to stop growing? Or do you think Christ wants us to trust in him that we will always be able to find our space within the church? Too often we allow our fear get in the way of how Christ wants for us to live and it hampers us as we strive to bring his vision for the world into reality. At Roswell UMC, we were definitely a megachurch. Our average worship attendance was around 1,500. Our membership was about 7,000. You might think people would get lost in a church that size, but just the opposite. They had Sunday Schools for adults bigger than our church here. They would have their own speakers, their own music, their own announcements, their own prayer time. It was, for all intents and purposes, church. So they broke bread with one another and shared time together and they found their own intimacy, even in a church that big. They found a place to call their own while still being part of something much bigger. We are afraid of the unknown but God will take care of us.
You’ve probably heard of the novel The Five People You Meet In Heaven.
Or maybe you’ve seen it on TV. In any case, it’s about a man who dies in a tragic accident while saving a little girl, and on his way to Heaven he bumps into five people who have made a difference in his life. It’s a really sweet tale about the impact we have on the lives of others and how our choices are significant whether we realize it or not. But when we think about facing our fears about church growth, about pushing back on change, I wonder if it might have been better to have a book called The Five People You Won’t Meet In Heaven. It would be the tale of five people who will never know the love of Christ in their life because we were afraid to reach out to them. The five people who didn’t make it because we were unwilling to change. The five people who don’t know God or Jesus because we thought we had done enough.
There’s this Kevin Costner movie called The Guardian that I like mostly for this one scene.
Throughout the whole movie, we hear that Kevin Costner is this legendary Coast Guard person who’s saved tons of lives. But he won’t say how many. He keeps evading the question. At one point in the movie, he decides to go into retirement and this young guy he’s been helping to train asks him, “Hey, there’s something I’ve got to know. What’s your real number?” And Costner says, “22.” And to this young guy, that’s far less than he expected from someone everyone considers a legend, so he says, “22? That’s not bad. It’s not 200 but…” and Costner says, “22 is the number of people I lost, Jake. The only number I kept track of.” As much as we celebrate the impact we make on the world around us, I hope we are equally driven by those we have yet to reach.
Change is scary.
But the consequences of not changing are even scarier. When people are critical of growing churches by saying it’s not about the numbers, the truth is it’s all about the numbers. Just maybe not the numbers you’re thinking of. It’s not about dollars and cents. It’s not about filling the pews. It’s about people knowing the love of Jesus Christ. And if we can be a part of the solution to that problem all of our efforts are worth it. Have faith in God that as we grow, you will grow too. Have faith that as our church changes there will always be a place for you and it will continue to be meaningful. Have faith that we don’t have to lose who we are, but instead we can become something even greater when we do it together. And remember this, behind every number is a person waiting to know God.
[1] I wish I could remember where I read it so I could give credit to the author!
Craig's Corner 