Are You There God? It’s Me, Craig.
Eyes open or eyes closed?
When you pray, do you do it with your eyes open or closed? I think most people’s gut reaction is to say with our eyes closed. But there are times you might pray with your eyes open. Like when you’re driving. I think if I’m praying while driving, it honors God a lot more to do it with my eyes open than closed. Someone once asked this same question of me and it really got me thinking about prayer. Was there a right way to pray? I guess I had taken it for granted that there were certain “rules” about prayer, but were those assumptions right? The person who asked me was a clergy friend of mine from another church. I don’t know what inspired him to ask, but he shared that he always prayed with his eyes open and wondered what the rest of us did. I had never heard of that before. Like I said, there were occasions when I WOULD pray with my eyes open, like while driving a car, but overall I just assumed most people prayed with their eyes closed. I wish I asked him why he did it the other way. Maybe it’s because when we’re talking to someone it would be impolite not to look at them. It makes others feel as if we don’t care. There was a study done of patient complaints at a large hospital and they found this exact result: “9 out of 10 letters included mention of poor doctor-patient eye contact; a failure which was generally interpreted as ‘lack of caring.’”[1] Plus, eye contact “produces a powerful, subconscious sense of connection” and those who seek eye contact are “judged to be more believable, confident, and competent.”[2] After all, prayer is simply a conversation with God.
But it IS God.
I mean, as much as we want to believe Jesus is our friend, we’re still talking about the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE! Averting our eyes is both about respect for God AND a kind of reverence / awe / fear over a being who can literally create us from nothing. Remember when Moses wanted to look upon God? He asked God to show him his glory and God said, “Okay, but I’m going to shield you with my hand until I pass by and then you can look at me from behind because no one can look upon me face-to-face and live.” God wasn’t threatening Moses, he was looking out for him. God is just so far beyond our comprehension that to stare at God directly would drive the average person insane. When I try to think of an apt analogy, I think about the book of Revelation, probably the scariest, weirdest and at the same time most hopeful book in the Bible. It’s got all of these bizarre images of the sun being blacked out and Jesus with a sword coming out of his mouth and tons of other unbelievable pictures John writes about. But John was doing his best to interpret what he was seeing in the only way he could. The reality of God is so far beyond human comprehension this is the best we could do. So whether you pray with your eyes open or your eyes shut is really a matter of perspective and choice.
The same with your posture.
The way you position your body doesn’t really matter. In fact, the Bible doesn’t advocate for one way or another. Daniel, the guy who literally got thrown to the lions, used to get down on his knees three times a day to pray and give thanks to God (Daniel 6:10) whereas according to Mark (Mark 11), Jesus refers to people standing up to pray. And Jesus himself lays flat down on his face in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39). None are said to be more effective or more “right” than the others. Jesus also doesn’t tell us what position our hands should be in when we pray. Do you interlock fingers or do you pray with your palms facing one another and your fingers touching? Maybe you pray with your hands raised to God or you lie them flat on the ground. When I was a kid, I used to think that just maybe you were supposed to aim your head at your hands and then your hands would direct your prayers to Heaven. Sort of like an antenna for God.
So is there a right way to pray?
There is. But it’s probably not what you think about when you first hear this question. This passage that follows is what we most often refer to as “The Lord’s Prayer” but I’ve also heard it called the “Our Father” which is always baffling to me. Not the “Our Father Prayer” but the “Our Father” as if everyone should know already what that is (side note: danger of church-y words used to show how “in” we are). So even before we start praying we have differences. But when you read this prayer, you’ll notice some slight differences from what we typically say in church.
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’
Notice something?
This prayer and the one we read earlier in Luke are different. The one in Luke is shorter. It doesn’t say “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” as it does here in verse 10. And in verse 12 we ask God to forgive our debts and we forgive our debtors, but in Luke we ask God to forgive our sins. Luke’s version doesn’t mention at all deliverance from evil. So did Luke leave a bunch of stuff out? And what about the line, “Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen?” How come neither of them say it? It turns out that last line of The Lord’s Prayer is called a doxology, like we sing after an offering.[3] A doxology is simply a short verse of praise to God to sort of wrap up the prayer. It’s a good way to remind ourselves who is truly the focus of our prayer – God. And it was common for prayers to end with a doxology. It happens in the Bible quite often.[4] But if Jesus didn’t say it, then does that mean we shouldn’t?
The problem with The Lord’s Prayer is Jesus didn’t mean for it to be a script.
He didn’t literally mean there was only one way we should use to pray to God. Can you imagine how boring that would be for God? Sure we say it every week, but when we read examples of Jesus’ prayers to God, they don’t sound like this at all. Jesus prayed when he raised Lazarus. Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus prayed on the cross. [5] And each one of these prayers was vastly different from the others and all of them were different than what he taught us to say in this passage. That’s because Jesus was giving us a rubric for how to say a prayer, not what the prayer should actually be. The Lord’s Prayer is a rubric for prayer, and not the exact words that a prayer should be. Stephen Miller, in his book The Jesus of the Bible writes something quite prolific. He wrote, “What’s troubling to some Christians today is that Jesus’ example of what prayer should be – a conversation with God – has become an example of what prayer should not be: mindless repetition.”[6] Jesus’ example of what prayer should be – a conversation with God – has become an example of what prayer should not be: mindless repetition. How many times have you said The Lord’s Prayer without giving it a second thought? How many of you were pressured or forced to remember it to pass a test or to feel like you fit in? Don’t get me wrong. The Lord’s Prayer is extremely important, but more for what it can teach us than for exactly what it says.
The Lord’s Prayer helps us to focus on God.
It’s too easy to just come to God with a laundry list of things. God isn’t someone who responds to “honey-do” lists. Instead Jesus is trying to get us to focus on God and fulfilling God’s will. To help us understand how much we rely on God and not to take God for granted. The first part of the prayer is all about lifting praise and glory to God. “Hallowed be thy name / Thy kingdom come, they will be done.” And then we move into the asking part. But I think if you read it carefully, you’ll see that it’s not so much asking, as reminding us whom we need to rely on. “Give us this day our daily bread.” “Forgive us our trespasses,” sounds like we’re demanding God do something for us. “Hey, God! Give me some bread!” But really these are subtle reminders that God is in charge. Only God can forgive sins. Only God created the animals and plants we rely on for food. Then we are reminded how much we need to forgive others as God has forgiven us. And finally we ask God to, “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil,” because without God’s help, we will delve right into our own selfish and sinful ways. All of it, the entirety of the prayer is to remind us that it is by the grace and love of God that we are who we are.
Prayer is more about attitude than aptitude.
It isn’t about the exact words you use. It’s about communicating with God from the heart. It isn’t about the way your body is positioned. It’s about approaching God with gratitude and trust. Too often in our conversations with God, we do all the talking. Maybe we should listen more. I have to give my parents credit. They indulged my love of reading and let me read a lot! They bought me tons of books, brought me regularly to the library, and trusted me to know what was appropriate and what wasn’t. They even let me read Judy Blume books. I read the “boy” books of course like Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Superfudge. But they also let me read stuff like Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. I didn’t know that was revolutionary except whenever I mention it, people are surprised and sometimes shocked. But it was the first time I read a book about a kid who prayed. It meant a lot to me. We could talk all day long about the theology of the book, but it was my first introduction to a God who listened and cared about what I had to say. A God who was patient as we tried to figure out what role God played in our lives. And a God who just wants us to come back and talk with him. Is there a right way to pray? Yes, but it’s not about form or function. The right way to pray is to do it often and from the heart. The rest will come in time.
[1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2014/08/21/facinating-facts-about-eye-contact/#1dbc512b518b
[2] Ibid
[3] Interesting article on the doxology from this website which corroborated other accounts I found about it: https://www.ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/DOXOLOG.HTM
[4] https://www.gotquestions.org/doxology.html
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayers_of_Jesus
[6] Stephen Miller, The Jesus of the Bible, (Barbour Publishing, OH), 2009, p. 176.
Genie in a Bottle
What would your three wishes be?
If tomorrow you found a genie in a bottle and they granted you three wishes, what would your three wishes be? Now, as anyone knows who has seen Disney’s Aladdin, you can’t wish for more wishes. So barring that, take a moment and imagine what you’d wish for. I’ve vacillated between asking for things that help humanity like “world peace” and things of a more personal nature like a trillion dollars. I don’t know how long world peace would last, but it would be pretty nice. And with a trillion dollars I could end world hunger AND have enough left over for a nice house and a car. At least that was my thinking back when I was 10.
When it comes to prayer, we sometimes have a 10-year old theology.
We treat God like a genie in a bottle. We pray when we need something and then wait for it to happen and we think there’s something wrong when things don’t go our way. In fact, we get pretty upset about it because we treat God as if we only had three wishes. Often, we ignore God unless we need something huge as if we’re saving him for the really important stuff. Miraculous healing. Getting that job we’ve been hoping for. Fixing our relationships. The big stuff we feel we can’t do on our own. We don’t come to God with silly things like being a better spouse or being a good parent. We can take care of that ourselves. Just go to Barnes and Noble and buy a book on it. We don’t need God for THOSE things. So when we come to God with our big requests, we kind of expect him to answer. After all, isn’t that what he’s there for?
Some people take this to an extreme.
I had a friend who believed God would give you ANYTHING you wanted if you just had enough faith. Seriously. Anything. I questioned her about this and asked, “So if I wanted a Ferrari, God would just give it to me? Like POOF, here’s a Ferrari?” And in all seriousness she said yes. That if I had enough faith and just prayed over and over and over again for a Ferrari then God would give me a Ferrari. I must not have prayed hard enough. Or had enough faith because I still don’t have a Ferrari. Not that I want one. The insurance alone wouldn’t be worth it. But I must have done something wrong since that prayer never came to pass. In her mind, God’s ability to grant wishes wasn’t limited by number or size. It was all based on your faith. If you didn’t have it, you didn’t get it.
These are just a couple of the bad examples of prayer theology out there in the world today.
And the Bible doesn’t do a lot to clear those things up. Not unless you spend time actually studying it. Sometimes I cringe when I read certain passages like the one from Luke (Luke 11:5-8). It seems as if Jesus himself is saying that if you pester God long enough, he’ll eventually give you anything you want. Forget about love, God responds best to “shameless audacity!” Right? Isn’t that what it’s saying? But that isn’t what it’s saying. Jesus is trying to tell us to put our trust in God. We should be bold in our prayers instead of timid.[1] We should pray with persistence not because God will give in, but because our persistence is evidence of our trust in God. I know it seems like a cop out, but God doesn’t always answer our prayers in our time or in our way. But God is not bothered by our persistence. The other message Luke offers us is when we pray in our need, especially in our need to help others or to act in ways that honor God, God will respond. Again, it may not be in the way we want or expect, but God is honored by the focus and meaning of our prayer. You notice in Jesus’ example it wasn’t about a guy praying to get a Ferrari. It was about a neighbor wanting to offer hospitality to a friend who has just returned on a journey. Now you can question why that friend came to your door in the middle of the night in the first place, but probably because that friend is in need. And that changes the dynamic of the story. If you are knocking on God’s door to do God’s will, God will respond. If you’re bugging God for your own selfish ends, you’ll probably get a different response. Take a look at this passage from our reading today.
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. – Matthew 6:5-8
Prayer is about the heart.
Prayer is not about “what,” it is about “why.” Look what Jesus tells his disciples, “…for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” He doesn’t require you to pray to transmit your needs. He already knows them! Prayer is about something different. Prayer is about your earnestness to be in relation with God. Prayer is about trusting in God. It doesn’t matter what words you use or how many words you can cram into one sentence. Do you remember the story about the tax collector and the Pharisee who both go to the temple and pray? The Pharisee goes on and on about what a good follower he is and he demeans the tax collector right in front of him. And the tax collector has a very simple, short prayer. “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” That was it. And that was the prayer God was hoping for. Humble, sincere, trusting. That’s what matters to God.
The most effective prayers I’ve ever offered were like this.
They came not from my desire for something, but from my humility, sincerity, and willingness to trust in God. And I actually did this once as Jesus described. I actually went into my room, closed the door, and just laid there on the floor in prayer. We were living in Georgia and my District Superintendent called me to let me know that he had found a place for me to serve. The church I was at, Roswell UMC, was downsizing staff and as the newest member I was first on the list to go. So my DS was looking for a place for me and found a church in Covington, GA. Covington was about 2 hours away from our home (more with traffic and in Atlanta there is always traffic). Plus, they had a parsonage so we’d have to live in town and Cassie would have had to commute to work, meaning she would have to leave the house at about 5am each morning and return about 8pm each night every day. And at the time our girls were very young. Covington is also racially divided and I have to be honest I was a little worried about that. It just seemed to be the wrong fit for our family and for the gifts and talents God had given me. So I prayed about it. I literally went into my closet (my closet at the time was actually big enough for me to lay down inside of it), closed the door, and just prayed. I didn’t offer God a wish list. Instead I just said, “God, I can’t believe this is the place you want me to serve. It just doesn’t seem to be where my gifts would best be used, but if this is your will, I’ll make it work. But if it’s not, then please open a door and I will step through it.” After praying like that for a while, I got up and went into my office where I was working on some paperwork and in less than an hour I got an email from Rev. Mariellen Yoshino asking how I was doing. We had met at one of the Japanese Clergy Caucus meetings and she had recently been appointed to be one of the DSs out here in our Cal-Nevada Conference. So I told her about my situation and that I was praying about it and almost immediately I got a response asking me to hold on. About an hour later, I got another phone call from my DS saying an amazing opportunity opened up in California and the Bishop has given permission for me to talk to the DS out there about it. He even said, “You know Craig, you don’t have to accept the position since it is out of conference, but we can’t offer you anything like this.” After I got off the phone with him, I talked to Rev. Mariellen who said she’d like me to come out to California and meet with a church she had in mind. So I did. Up until that point where I had laid down in prayer and just turned it over to God, everything had been going wrong. There was even more to the story than just that, but nothing seemed to be going our way. Then in one swift movement, suddenly new opportunities blossomed right in front of us. To me it was an answered prayer in the most profound and stunning way.
There have been other moments like that, too.
Times when I was humble enough to know I knew nothing. Times when I was actually able to lay down my fears and anxieties at God’s feet and trust in his judgment. Only in those moments was I really open to his movement. Only then did I hear God speak into my life in such a profound way. And I can tell you for sure that in each instance I did not know what to expect. God’s answer was completely different than what I would have picked for myself. And yet each answer was amazing. I don’t know how God will answer your prayers. I don’t know that you’ll even know when he does. I am sure there are many instances where God has impacted my life and at least for the moment I haven’t realized it. But I do know God is not a genie in a bottle waiting to answer your every need. I know God doesn’t base his answer to prayer on how hard you pray or how often you pray or how persistent you pray. I know God doesn’t promise to give you everything you want, but instead will be there for you in your need. So I encourage you to pray strongly and boldly and with your full trust in God. And know that God is listening.
[1] https://bible.org/seriespage/9-persistent-friend-luke-115-13
Does Prayer Work?
Does prayer work?
If you ask around you’re sure to get a variety of answers and not all of them consistent, logical, or with sound theology behind it. Whether or not prayer works often is in the eye of the beholder. The devout follower will undoubtedly tell prayer works. The skeptic will tell you they aren’t sure. And the unbeliever will tell you prayer is a fairy tale people tell themselves to feel better about living in a random and meaningless world. Science doesn’t help much here either. For as many studies that prove the benefits of prayer there are those that show they don’t matter at all and there was even one study where the subjects did worse when they knew they were the object of people’s prayers.[1] All of these results might seem confusing and lead us to conclude… absolutely nothing. It’s hard to know if prayer works when we get inconsistent answers. At least from our point of view. And perhaps that’s the real problem. We don’t know how to measure the effectiveness of prayer. The problem isn’t so much if prayer works as it is how do we measure the effectiveness of prayer. Dr. Candy Brown from Indiana University in Bloomington wrote that most researchers study prayer as they would any other phenomenon. They set up studies, they do double-blind trials, they set up a control group and an experimental group, and then they compare results.[2] But maybe that’s part of the problem right there. Maybe you can’t measure the effects of prayer simply by doing blind trials. As Brown noted, “…when people actually pray for healing, they usually get up close to someone they know, touch the person and empathize with their sufferings… Double-blinded, controlled trials are not the only — or even the best — way to gauge the effects of this kind of prayer practice.”[3]
We might also wonder, “How long should we give God to respond?”
How long is long enough to say that a prayer didn’t work? The problem with testing God in this way is we expect God to keep to our timetable. Sometimes that works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But can we accurately gauge the success or failure of our prayers based on that alone? There’s a song by Garth Brooks called “Unanswered Prayers” that speaks to this point in particular. In that song, Garth points out that in his youth he kept praying and praying for God to help him get into a relationship with a girl in school that he liked. But God didn’t answer that prayer. At least not in the way he wanted. It ended up because he wasn’t in a relationship at the time, he met the woman who would one day become his wife who he loved more than anything. How different might his life been if God had indeed granted that one prayer. He sums it up in the chorus, “Just because he doesn’t answer, doesn’t mean he don’t care. Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.” We’re going to read about one of those unanswered prayers in our reading today.
Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”
Next to the Lord’s Prayer, this is probably the most famous prayer in the Bible.
Jesus, in the moments before he is arrested and taken away, goes off into the garden at Gethsemane to pray to God. He tells God how overwhelmed he is with sorrow and he asks God if he can avoid what he is being asked to do. He knows what’s coming. He knows he is about to be put to death on a cross. He knows how painful and horrible that death is. And he begs God to let him off the hook. But God doesn’t do it. God doesn’t take away Jesus’ pain. God doesn’t save Jesus from a death most would consider cruel and evil. Instead, God lets it happen. If it were anyone other than Jesus, I think we would be upset about it. We would think of all people in the world, God should have saved Jesus. After all, Jesus is blameless, without sin, and a miracle worker. Of all the people ever born on Earth, Jesus had the closest direct pipeline to God. And yet, God didn’t even save him. Why wouldn’t God answer this one prayer for Jesus? The thing is God answered many of Jesus’ prayers. Pretty much all of them except this one. He healed the man born blind, he fed the 5000, he healed the centurion’s son, he healed the man who was lowered through the roof of the house, he turned water into wine, and he even brought back Lazarus from the dead. And that’s the short list. But this one prayer God did not answer. We know why because we are at the other end of history, but at the time Jesus was mocked for God’s inaction. They ridiculed him. Dared him to save himself. Put a crown of thorns on his head and a sign above him saying “King of the Jews.” If there was ever any evidence that prayer didn’t work, this was it! Except that God had something else in mind.
We know the end of this story.
We know Christ died for us. But at that time it must have been hard to swallow. Look at Peter. He denied even knowing Jesus. Hardly any of the apostles came to watch him being crucified. Jesus was left alone by almost everyone. But we know how the story ends. We know Christ rose from the dead. We know because of his willingness to trust in the Lord, we have been forgiven for our sins. And we know God had something greater in mind than what we could possibly imagine. We have such a limited idea of who God is that we judge him based on our criteria. And if God fails to live up to our expectations, we tend to think he must not care, or he must not have heard, or he must not exist. But God operates on a whole different level than we do. The concepts of time and space are not the same for him as they are for us. And a being who lives in a reality so different from ours cannot and should not be judged by our standards. And this is where trust comes in. We need to trust God hears our prayers. Our prayers are not falling on deaf ears, but on the ears of someone who loves us intensely. And just because we don’t get the response we’re looking for doesn’t mean God doesn’t care.
I do believe God answers prayers.
Why he answers some and not others, I don’t really know. I don’t know if he actually doesn’t answer them or if we’re just not looking for the right response. It could be God answers every prayer in his own time, in his own way. Some prayers seem to get an immediate response and some never even seem to get a number in the queue. Sometimes it takes years to see a prayer get answered, even decades. I am still struck by the story of a man I was able to baptize much later in his life. I believe he was in his 60s or late 50s. Either way, God caught up to him and struck him in a powerful way. He told me that pretty much his entire adult life his mother had been praying for him to come to know God, to be baptized and accept Jesus in his heart. And for decades that prayer went unanswered. Finally, he came around and only about a week or two after he was baptized, she passed away. He hadn’t been baptized just to please his mom’s dying wish because her death was unexpected. She was older to be sure, but had no indication she was close to passing on. It was hard for me to hear this story and not think she was holding on just long enough to make sure her son was alright before letting go.
Does prayer work?
It does. Scientists may not be able to prove a direct correlation between prayer and healing but they can’t disprove it either. Again maybe we have a far too limiting way of looking at prayer. When we pray for healing that healing can occur spiritually or emotionally instead of just physically. So when we attempt to measure the effectiveness of prayer, maybe we’re looking in the wrong place. Maybe instead of the body we should be looking for healing of the heart or the mind. Maybe the healing that takes place isn’t in the person but the people around them. God’s idea of healing might just very well be different than ours. Or perhaps the problem is judging God by measuring what we want to see. Is it only healing if God meets X, Y, and Z criteria? Or could healing happen in different ways and in different times? If the apostles had their way, Jesus wouldn’t have died in the first place. But it was because he died we know Christ today. They just couldn’t see it that way at the time. Maybe our vision is too narrow.
Also, maybe our definition of “works” is too narrow.
Science definitely proves there are benefits to prayer. Prayer has been shown to improve self-control, to make you nicer, to help you be more forgiving, to increase your trust, and offset the negative effects of stress.[4] Pretty awesome benefits. I would think that anything that give you more self-control, makes you nicer, more forgiving, trusting, and less stressed out definitely “works!” I want you to give prayer a chance. If you don’t already pray regularly, try doing so. Pray every day even if it’s just a little bit each day. Don’t worry about saying the “right” prayer. If you haven’t prayed much, believe me I think God will be happy with incremental steps. But just pray. And don’t go looking for monumental results right off the bat. If they happen, great! But if not, remember that doesn’t mean God isn’t listening. Maybe we just need better ears to hear. And if you do pray regularly, try spending at least as much time listening as asking. Sometimes God works in the silence far better than in the noise. But more prayer is something we could all benefit from. Does prayer bringing healing to a person every time, the way we want it to, when we want it to? No. Does prayer guarantee bad things won’t happen to you? No. But does prayer work? Most definitely, yes!
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/31/health/31pray.html
[2] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/candy-gunther-brown-phd/testing-prayer-science-of-healing_b_1299915.html
[3] Ibid
[4] https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/more-mortal/201406/5-scientifically-supported-benefits-prayer
Pictures on the Refrigerator
Are you a “fridge family?”
Growing up we didn’t put that much up on the refrigerator. At least not that I can remember. Don’t get me wrong, my mom kept everything we did. I still have this expandable folder filled with every report card and certificate I was given from Kindergarten until I graduated. We just didn’t put that much up on the refrigerator. Except this one drawing my mom put up when I was around 5 years old. It was a drawing of the Mach 5 from Speed Racer that I did for my dad’s birthday. At that age, I used to love drawing cars of all kinds – any vehicle really. I’d invent my own tanks, my own submarines, my own rocket ships, but my inspiration for all of them was the Mach 5. I loved all the gadgets his car had. So naturally, for my dad’s birthday, he’d want a picture of the Mach 5, right? In my head, it was the thing I loved drawing the most and I loved my dad, so it only made sense to draw him a picture of that for his birthday. My parents were both proud of it and put it right up there on the refrigerator.
At some point, though I stopped making drawings for my parents.
I don’t know why in particular. Maybe I just out grew it or became focused on other things (ironically I draw stuff for my own family now). My mom and dad never complained or asked me why I stopped, but they must have missed it. They must have missed this small way I could show how much I appreciated my parents. We do the same thing to God. We forget God. And if we’re honest, many of us do it pretty regularly. In the day-to-day bustle of our lives, it’s easy to put God on the back burner. But God misses us. God wants to have a deep and abiding relationship with us. And when we turn away, even though he understands, God hopes we will one day come home. Jesus told the story of the Prodigal Son to his disciples to illustrate this point.
Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. – Luke 15:11-24
God is waiting for you!
How incredible is that? What an amazing feeling to know no matter how far we’ve gone, no matter what we have done, God is waiting for you to come home. And when you do, he will celebrate your return! I’m sure the son who came back was not expecting a banquet. In fact, I imagine he was expecting quite the opposite. He was prepared to grovel and beg for forgiveness. He probably assumed his father would be likely to reject him, and why wouldn’t he? The son had treated his father with utter contempt and disrespect, demanding his inheritance even before his father had died. He was basically saying to his dad, “I wish you were dead, then I could live the life I want to live!”[1] How self-centered would you have to be to do something like that? So the son knew to return home would be more than just swallowing his pride. He even prepared a speech to say when he came back, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” He was DESPERATE. His life was so bad he wished he was eating the food of pigs. That he was reduced to being a servant of pigs would have been seen as ghastly to the Jewish people hearing this story.[2] After all pigs were unclean animals. But to be reduced to having to feed them? It was humiliation piled on top of humiliation. He had to go back and just hope for forgiveness. But what did his father do instead? He gave him a celebration! He killed the best calf and had a big party! To come home to that kind of reception must have been beyond the son’s wildest dreams.
Whenever one of God’s children comes home, he celebrates.
And we are all God’s children. We are all his creation. So no matter how far any of us strays from the path, he is just so happy you’re back. It’s like the story of the lost sheep. The shepherd doesn’t spend time nurturing the 99. They are happy and content and being well fed. They are safe because they have each other. So the shepherd goes after the one who is lost and astray and does everything he can to bring him home. God keeps reaching out to us through the people in our lives. Through your boyfriend or girlfriend who asks you to go to church. Through your grandmother who offers to say a prayer for you. Through that little flyer in the mail that says, “Come visit us!” God keep reaching out hoping one day you’ll respond. And he is patient. So patient he is willing to wait as long as it takes to bring people home. We read that in Peter’s second letter to the church where he is responding to some people who are anxious for Jesus’ return as prophesied. And he tells them, “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:8-9).” That’s how important you are to God. He’ll hold the bus just for you. He’ll keep the doors open on the train just for you. If you’ve ever been on a subway or BART, you know how important that is. You could be literally just a few seconds away from getting on board, but there is no mercy on BART. Or if you’ve ever raced to the elevator and someone holds it open for you. You know they could have gone. It would have saved them some time. But instead they waited for you. So does God. Because it is more important to God to have you come home than it is to get there a little bit quicker.
You are here.
So most likely God is important to you. But how often between Sundays do we spend time with God? Most of us probably struggle with that to some extent. We are busy. Working, trying to pay the bills, running around with the kids. It probably feels like there is no time left for God in our busy, busy schedule. But what I’m saying is you should MAKE time for God. And not just because it will make God happy (because it will), but because we all need God more than we like to admit. That’s the flip side to the story. It’s more than “come back to God because it will make him happy.” It’s “come back to God because without him you’ll mess things up and pretty soon you’ll be wishing you had a pig trough to eat from.” God gives us that peace that passes all understanding. God gives us the plug to fill the giant spiritual hole in our lives. All we need to do is come home to receive it. God shouldn’t be someone you “make time for.” God should be the one indispensible part of your life that you ALWAYS have time for. It’s everything else that needs to make room for God.
We are a fridge family.
Ever since Emma was little, we put stuff up on the refrigerator. Drawings, pictures, awards, report cards – you name it and it went up on the fridge. We kept every single ornament Emma made since she was in kindergarten and those go up on the Christmas tree every year, too. Not just because they are meaningful to us (which they are) but because we want her to know that no matter where she is or what she is doing we love her and are proud of her. She is my child. And she always has a place to come home to as long as I’m around. God feels that way about all of us. He loves us so much he doesn’t care how far away we are or what we are doing. He wants us to know there is always a place to come home to. If you’ve been away from God for a while, come back home. He wants to be close to you once again. If you’ve never been close to God, come give it a try and see the impact a life with him could be like. Make time in your life for what is truly important – faith, family, and friends. Don’t neglect those things just because something seems more urgent. I think you’ll find that when you make time for what’s really important, your life will go much better than if you don’t. If you don’t carve out time for those things, you’ll find how easily they slip away when in truth they are the most important parts of who you are. I may not draw pictures for my parents very much, but I still have a way to put something up on their wall. Every year, we create a family calendar with pictures and words that we send to both my parents and Cassie’s mom. It’s my own small way of taking time out to let them know, even though we aren’t around as much, they are still so very important to us. Make sure you take time out to let God know he is still in your heart, too.
[1] http://www.crivoice.org/inheritance.html
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Prodigal_Son
Who’s Cheating Who?
Here’s a riddle for you.
If you love The Lord of the Rings this might be familiar. It’s from The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien during the scene where Bilbo and the creature Gollum are trying to outwit each other. Bilbo makes a deal; if he wins this contest of wits, Gollum has to show him the way out. But if Bilbo loses, Gollum gets to eat him. Pretty high stakes. So this is one of the riddles Gollum gives to poor old Bilbo.
Do you know the answer? The answer is time. Time is the thing that devours all else. It’s the one thing by itself that can grind stone, slay kings, and beat a mountain down. Because time stops for no one. Time is also the one thing we can never get more of. No matter how much money or power or influence we have, we can never buy more time. It’s also the one thing we never know how much we have. When we’re young we think we have all the time in the world. We rarely think about what happens “after;” what happens when this existence ends. In our middle years, our lives are crammed with things that eat up our time – family, work, friends – and again we don’t seem to think about the “future.” Only in our older years does life seem to slow down enough to at least ponder it. But even then, do we take it seriously?
We don’t have as much of it as we think.
Time is the most precious commodity we have and we can easily waste it. Either intentionally or not, we don’t always make the best use of this incredibly limited resource. We choose to do one thing over another, often knowing which one would be the wiser choice, but instead choosing something more fun or more immediately rewarding. Like going out to dinner when you really should be working on that presentation for work. Or going to Disneyland with your friend Mark when you’ve got a midterm the next day – not that that ever happened. Sometimes it’s not even choosing one thing over another. Sometimes we simply procrastinate when we could be doing something productive. I remember one time when I was a grad student at CSULB and I asked one of my former professors if he would write a good recommendation letter for me. And he said, “No.” I was shocked because we always had a good relationship and I did exceptionally well in his class, but he told me one time he had asked me to follow up with a colleague of his and I never did. For that reason, he didn’t think he could in good conscience write a good letter of recommendation for me. And he was right. He did ask me to follow up, and I just put it to the side thinking I’d get to it one day, but “one day” never came. I missed a real opportunity because of that. And even though I learned a lot in his class, that was probably the most valuable lesson he ever taught me. I still think back on that day and it motivates me to do things I would otherwise be tempted to push aside. Most of us can think of at least one moment in our lives where we did the same thing; where we made the choice to spend our time unwisely.
God tells us sometimes those decisions have huge consequences.
In this passage, we find Jesus surrounded by a HUGE crowd of people. There are thousands around him and they are literally “trampling on one another.” Jesus is trying to teach them to focus their life not on the worries of this world, but on the God who loves them. But then out of nowhere, this guy yells out to Jesus. And that’s where we pick up the story.
13Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
14Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
16And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
18″Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ‘
20″But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21″This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” – Luke 12:13-21
Do you have your priorities straight?
This guy didn’t. Jesus just gets done telling this whole group of people not to worry about the things of this world. He tells them they should be focusing on God, on what’s really important. And this guy yells out, “…tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” And while it’s tempting to look down on this guy who literally ignored everything Jesus said, isn’t it true at times we are just like him? We put off what we should do or what would make life better, because we’re “tired” or we are worried about what people will think of us. Sometimes we put things off because it makes us “uncomfortable.” Or sometimes we’re like this guy in the story. We just want what we want and we ignore what’s really important.
Stephen Covey had some great advice about this.
If you didn’t know, he’s the author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and in that book he writes, “The key is to keep the main thing the main thing.” You’ve probably heard that before. The key is to keep the main thing the main thing. We know this intellectually, but we don’t always do a great job of executing it. We know we should put God first, but we skip church for more “pressing” matters. We know we should put family first, but we are worried that there are too many things to do at work. Covey addresses that also, “Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.” Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important. Unfortunately, that’s also true. We find ourselves in firefighting mode and we end up responding instead of planning. Or we allow the urgent things to move ahead on our priority list, not because they are more important in the long run, but in the short. So how do we get around that? Covey says, “The key is not to prioritize what is on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” The key is not to prioritize what is on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. If family time is important, make sure you spend that time with family. If God is important then carve out time for God. It’s as simple as that. But have the courage to do it.
Andy Stanley said something that changed my life.
“Never sacrifice what only you can do for something someone else can do.” Andy is the lead pastor at North Point Community Church based in Atlanta, and I went to a seminar he was teaching. He told us we are always cheating on someone. What he meant by that is we are constantly “choosing to give up one thing in hope of gaining something else of greater value.”[1] Work, spouse, career, kids, dreams, hobbies – there simply isn’t enough time in the day to do everything for everybody including ourselves. So we cheat. We take time we could be spending on one thing to devote it to something else. The problem occurs when we neglect one or the other so much we create a void. “Suddenly” our spouse asks us for a divorce, “suddenly” our kids start having problems, “suddenly” we get passed over for a promotion. The truth is none of those things are “sudden.” They are usually the result of not being able to maintain a healthy balance in our lives. It just seems “sudden” to us because we weren’t paying attention. We weren’t scheduling our priorities but instead prioritizing our schedule and often it’s our families that get the short end of the stick. Work is immediate. Work offers tangible benefits. But work can be done by someone else. We are often not as necessary as we like to think we are at work, but we are indispensable in one arena – our family. So Andy reminds us, “Never sacrifice what only you can do for something someone else can do.”
I will only ever be Emma’s dad.
I will hopefully only ever be Cassie’s husband. And unless there’s some incredible miracle, I’ll be the only son my parents will ever have. Pastors come and go, but I play a role in my family no one else can fill. That doesn’t mean there won’t be times when the church comes first, because that happens a lot. It just means I can’t afford to neglect my role as son, father, and husband because no one else will ever be those things to the people in my life. I want to challenge you today to think about who you are cheating in your life. Are your priorities where they should be? If they are, great! But if they are not, if you take a deep look inside and find you’ve been cheating the wrong people, consider what you can do to balance the load. Don’t let the world dictate what’s important. Find within yourself what’s important, and then do THAT!
[1] Andy Stanley, When Work and Family Collide: Keeping Your Job From Cheating Your Family, Kindle Version, pg. 1
Walk to Emmaus – A Life Changing Experience
7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. – 2 Timothy 1:7
That was the passage used on my Walk. It still encourages me and reminds everyday of the person God created me to be. The Walk to Emmaus changed my life. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a weekend experience with God where you dive deep into the love of Christ in every way possible – intellectual, emotional, and tangible. I don’t know if I would be a pastor today if I had not gone. It helped me to experience the love of Christ in such a real way and made the Kingdom of God seem like a possibility instead of just a dream. Not everyone has that experience, but if you’re willing to “let go and let God,” you might just encounter the living Christ for yourself.
Gwen and Dave were two friends of ours who had known Cassie a long time. When Cassie and I were serious about our relationship, they invited us to come to their church, Alpharetta First UMC. It would eventually become our church home, too. They had already seen Cassie grow in her faith and I guess noticed a change in me as we began attending regularly and became more involved in the life of the church. So they invited us to come to a weekend retreat about faith – the Walk to Emmaus.
We decided to give it a try.
I hadn’t heard much about it before Gwen and Dave. Some people thought the Walk to Emmaus was some kind of “cult gathering” because people who had gone were so secretive about what happened during the weekend, but it was nothing like that at all. It’s like a surprise party or an awesome Christmas present. If you tell someone in advance what to expect, it’s just not the same. Or like The Usual Suspects. If you know the end, it kind of ruins the movie. I’d rather not ruin the movie.
I will tell you one thing. You are asked to surrender control for the weekend. That’s a tough one for some people. That doesn’t mean you’re locked up or can’t get away. Instead, you are asked to give up your phone and your watch. That’s pretty much it. And whoever sponsors you for the weekend is the one who takes you and drops you off. So no car. Not a lot to give up, but in our society today? It’s a LOT to give up. The point is to give control over to God and not worry about things like “what time is it?” If you focus instead on the experience, you’ll gain so much more out of it. If that’s impossible for you (and for some people it is), then know you will likely not get much out of the weekend. And to be fair, you’re probably not quite ready for it, and that’s okay.
For me, I encountered the endless and boundless love of Jesus Christ at the retreat and Cassie did, too. Since I went first, I was able to attend the closing gathering for her and saw how deeply moved she was by the whole weekend. No, I didn’t “see” Jesus but instead encountered Christ through the love and devotion of the people there. That is really the only way I know how to describe it without spoiling the surprise! And you don’t want to spoil the surprise. Believe me, it’s better than Disneyland (and if you know me, that’s saying a LOT).
If you’re curious about it, please feel free to contact me and I’m happy to share more. You can also visit their website. We were in Atlanta at the time so we went on the North Georgia Walk to Emmaus (Mens Walk #103), but now that we are serving in the Bay Area, our local Walk to Emmaus group is the Grace Emmaus of California / Nevada. No matter where you live, I know either group would be happy to answer your questions, too.
Oops…Emergency Appendectomy!
Sometimes completely unexpected events just…happen.
So it’s been two months plus, going on three and suddenly I found myself back in the hospital, undergoing surgery, and spending nearly four days in recovery. Wow. Emergency appendectomy. Two weeks before I was in the emergency room for stomach and chest pains which they diagnosed as gallstones, but my nephrologist thought it could also be ulcers since my stomach was still upset. The pain continued quietly for those two weeks when suddenly it flared. I thought I pulled a muscle or something because it was that stabbing kind of pain, but when I started to run a low grade fever, I called our kidney transplant team. The transplant protocols probably saved my life. When you have a transplant, they give you a list of possible rejection symptoms and two of them are pain in the transplant side and fever. I called just to be safe. They told me to come in just to be safe. And after hours of exams, blood tests, and consults the results came back – appendicitis. But with my recent kidney transplant surgery, what was best for me?
Normally, it wouldn’t even be a question; immediate appendectomy. But because Three, my new kidney was positioned right on top of the appendix, they were worried about accidentally damaging it. After consulting with the transplant team though, the surgery doctors decided to go in. The risks were worth it. And I’m so glad they did. At some point, the appendix ruptured and spread its infection inside my body. And as you know with my immunocompromised state, that could have been really bad – potentially deadly. The protocols are there to save your life and it did mine. They were able to pull it out through laparoscopic surgery even partially ruptured. They did have to create an extra incision because of the positioning of my kidney but still that was way better than having to open me up. After removing it, I had to stay in the hospital for a series of antibiotic regimens and to monitor me for signs of infection. Most people would be out in a day or two but because of my situation they definitely wanted to be on the safe side.
Thankfully, I’m recovering at home. It’s been five days since I left the hospital and while much of the pain has subsided and most of my bodily functions have returned to normal, I’m still in pain. Most of the time it’s a very dull, throbbing pain (like a 1 or 2) but at times it flares up to a 6 or 7 and I have to take pain meds to control it. I don’t like to do that and try to take as few as possible, but being in pain is also not good for my recovery so it’s a fine balancing act. At this critical stage, we’re watching blood pressure, temperature, sudden weight gain, and swelling as indicators of infection or something not working right. Thankfully, all signs are pretty normal. My pain is getting better day-by-day, but I can still only walk around for limited amounts of time before it comes back. I’m not sure exactly why it hurts, but it is definitely coming from the area where the appendix was. We go back on Monday for follow up. Keep me in your prayers as we traverse this bump in the journey and I’ll let you all know how it goes.
Sharing is Caring
Lawry’s Prime Rib is the BEST prime rib on the planet.
Hands down. And I’ve looked around. Some places are good, some are even great, but the overall experience at Lawry’s is absolutely the best. Now, if you want ribs, Lawry’s isn’t the place. If you want great pasta, I wouldn’t go there. But if you want the most tasty, drip-worthy, explode-in-your-mouth-with-flavor prime rib in the universe, Lawry’s is where you want to be. Not only is their prime rib an event by itself, but they have the most amazing sides to heighten your flavor parade. From the spinning bowl salad to the Yorkshire pudding to the creamed spinach, it’s all spectacular. And the service? It is beyond top notch. To be fair, it’s more of a special occasion kind of place. Most of us couldn’t afford to eat there every night, but if my family lived closer, we’d be tempted just because it’s so good. When you find something so amazing, whether it’s your favorite restaurant, your favorite grocery store, your favorite ice cream parlor, you can’t help but want to tell people about it, because half the fun is sharing it. When you see people you care about discover for themselves what you’ve already known, it warms your heart. Who wouldn’t want to change someone’s life for the better?
Now if you asked me how they make the prime rib so good, I couldn’t tell you.
If you wanted to know why the spinning bowl salad has that perfect blend of flavors, it would be as much a mystery to me as it was to you, although I would guess “beets” or maybe the dressing. And if you wanted the secret to their raspberry English trifle, I have no idea. I’m not a chef. I don’t have any culinary training and I never went to cooking school, but I do know what I like and why I think it’s special and I’m pretty sure I’ve already convinced some of you to give it a try. My testimony about how great it tasted, my enthusiasm for the service and the atmosphere, the fact that I’ve returned again and again would probably weigh heavily in your decision to come with me next time I went (and if any of you ever want to go, just let me know). Just because I don’t know some of the details or that I might not understand how it all works wouldn’t bother you in the slightest. So why is it we don’t feel equipped to share our faith as easily as we would our favorite places to eat?
We have this crazy idea we have to be seminary graduates to share our faith.
That somehow we have to be experts in theology to tell other people why Jesus is so great. We get intimidated because we think if we try talking about why Jesus makes a difference to us, people are going to expect us to have all the answers, but that isn’t true. They might be skeptical, they might be fearful, they might even have questions you can’t answer, but that doesn’t take away from the power of your story. No one expects you or anybody else to know any more about religion than they do about a restaurant. Think about the number of things you talk to people about to convince them to do or try something new – the schools we attended, our favorite vacation, our favorite sports teams. I was born and raised in LA, so my favorite team is the Dodgers and serving in the Bay Area can be quite a challenge for a Dodgers fan, but I told a friend of mine I was looking at it as simply a new mission field. Once people discover the beauty of being True Blue, they’ll see the error of their ways. Sharing your faith should be no harder than sharing your favorite baseball team – even in the Bay Area. It’s simply sharing what you know. In church we use the word “witness” but all that is is sharing what you know. You don’t have to be an expert or have any special training because it’s a personal account of things that have happened to YOU. And who could be a better witness to what has happened in your life than you?
But don’t take my word for it.
Let’s listen to God’s Word instead. This is the passage right before Jesus leaves Earth to return to Heaven and he’s speaking with the disciples one last time. Over the last forty days, Jesus has proven himself over and over again, but now his time is done and he’s about to leave when he shares with them this one last command.
4On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
6So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” – Acts 1:4-8
You will be my witnesses.
Most of us probably would have thought Jesus would go to the rabbis or other leaders of Israel to share his message of love, salvation, and forgiveness. I mean, they would be most likely to recognize him for who he was right? They had the credentials. And as far as we know, none of Jesus’ core disciples were religious leaders of any kind. They were fishermen and tax collectors and whatever else. The Bible isn’t clear on what they all did for a living, but we know most of them were regular folk like us. They didn’t have any training in the books of the Torah any more than a child would have learned. They didn’t have special knowledge of God’s Word before meeting Jesus. But that’s all they needed; their own personal experience with Christ. Jesus didn’t single out the really smart people or the really rich people or the really powerful people and say “you will be my witnesses.” He says to everyone who can hear – poor or rich, powerful or weak – “you will be my witnesses,” because all of us have the ability to share our faith. Book knowledge alone isn’t going to change the world, it’s each one of us connecting to the people around us in our own unique way. It’s our personal testimony to Jesus that will make a difference. Christ knows the most effective witness is a personal witness. And that’s why he encourages everyone to bear witness to their faith. Nearly 2000 years before the Internet, Jesus knew the best way to spread the Word wasn’t going to be with billboards along the Roman road or publishing an editorial in the Roman Times, or sending out a Holy e-blast; it was going to be through people like you and me. He knew the best way to get people to believe in him was through personal connections. We have far more influence in our own social circles than anyone else, and that’s what is going to make the most difference, when friends and family hear from us the impact Christ has made on our lives.
Sharing our faith isn’t an imposition.
Far from it. Sharing our faith is like throwing a lifeline to some drowning in the water. If you really feel Christ has made a difference in your life, why wouldn’t you want others to experience that, too? People have said to me, “I don’t want to push my religion on other people.” And I have to ask “Why not?” We feel completely fine pushing everything else from our favorite spatula to our favorite brand of eggs – why not our favorite religion? Your favorite spatula isn’t going to be of any use when you die, but preparing for your eternal life in comparison seems pretty important. Why is it so hard to talk about then? Maybe because it is such a sensitive subject. Like politics, it seems near impossible to change someone’s mind about religion once they’ve made a choice. But does that mean we shouldn’t try? Before you say “no,” I want you to consider something else – silence is a form of communication. Silence is a form of communication. Saying nothing is as much of a choice as it is to say something. Saying nothing conveys the idea that we don’t care or we don’t have an opinion or it’s not important enough for us to share our thoughts. And is that the message we really want to get across? Are we so scared to share our thoughts about Christ that we would rather sit idly by while others make choices that lead them away from God?
I think what happens is people get confused about what it means to share their faith.
I hear the excuse quite often that “faith is personal.” I completely agree with that. So does Jesus. But while faith is personal, it is not private. Faith is personal, not private. Meaning that your faith is a personal journey and a story only you can share. And only you are the expert on faith in your life. But faith was never meant to be hidden away like some secret treasure or worse like something we are embarrassed by. Christ makes it abundantly clear in the Great Commission that our primary goal as Christians is to share our faith – “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).” And he told us in our reading this morning, “…you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth (Acts 1:8).” We must not be afraid to share our faith. Too much is at stake. How you share your faith is as personal as your faith journey. You have to discover for yourself how you can best do that and it’s different for everyone. Let us commit to praying about one person who could really benefit from being closer to Christ. Think of one family member, one friend who is far from God who you might invite to church to experience God the way you do. And then pray for God to open a door for you to share what you already know. Let God use you to share his love, you never know where it may lead.
First Impressions
I really didn’t know much about art.
Growing up it wasn’t part of our household, that is until my French teacher, Ms. Stein introduced me to the impressionists. Something about that style of art really spoke to me. The colors, the stroke patterns, the movement in the painting that made it seem to come alive. My favorite by far was Monet. I am always in awe of things that are clever with multiple dimensions and in every painting he did, you could almost see the people moving through the city or feel the steam of the train in the station or watch the ripples in the water. But what really got me – what impressed me the most – was the way he constructed each picture. Each brush stroke was carefully and meticulously placed, one after another. Up close, the colors sort of melded together and you’d have greens and pinks and blues all mixed in so tightly that it didn’t look like much of anything.
But when you pulled away from the painting, each element became more and more clear. The people, the city, the water, the sun…all of it was brought together into one beautiful image. And as Ms. Stein was telling me about Monet, I could picture him sitting in front of a canvas delicately and intricately placing each brush stroke, each one having a purpose in creating this larger picture. She told me that was the gift of the impressionists and particularly Monet. They were able to keep in mind the finished product while concentrating on each detailed stroke of the brush so that it turned out exactly the way they wanted it. To me, that is downright miraculous and so when I look at a Monet, I imagine this is what it must be like for God when he looks at our lives – a symphony of color that individually night seem out of place or without meaning, but when you look at the whole picture becomes alive and beautiful. If you have a Bible, would you please turn to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 9, beginning with verse 14. If you have a Bible app on your cell phone, feel free to pull it out and go that same place: Mark 9:14. In a minute we’ll be reading from this passage.
For us, I think we’re too close to the canvas to see the whole picture.
We are not the artist and so for us, sometimes life doesn’t make sense. We see glimpses… streaks… instead of the whole thing. And at times that can make it difficult for us to have the kind of faith that the writer in Hebrews 11:1 referred to when he wrote about a “faith in what we hope for and certainty in what we cannot see.” There are times we cannot see the forest for the trees. And especially in difficult, troubling, or trying times in our lives it can make us feel distant from God. Most of us have felt that at one point in our lives or another. It’s like being at a party or going out with friends, and still feeling like the loneliest person in the world. You’re so isolated that you begin to wonder where God is in all of this. It’s those times, and those times especially when we need to turn toward God.
14 When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. 15 As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.
16 “What are you arguing with them about?” he asked.
17 A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. 18 Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”
19 “O unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.” 20 So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.
21 Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”
“From childhood,” he answered. 22 “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
23 ” ‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.”
24 Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” – Mark 9:14-24
It is hard to put our faith in things unseen.
We have a hard enough time trusting in the things that we CAN see let alone in those things we cannot. And our culture reinforces our sense of distrust. So having faith is at times hard, especially when it comes to the health and well-being of loved ones. This dad in our reading is a great example of that. We’ve probably all had moments of doubt like he had. He wasn’t completely without faith. He had enough faith to bring his son this far, but he has doubts, too. He wonders if Jesus can really do this thing. He has a seed of doubt that tingles in his mind. “…[I]f you can do anything…” he says. And I imagine Jesus gives him both a penetrating and a loving look at the same time. He looks at him and says, “IF you can? …Everything is possible for him who believes.” And instead of denying his feelings, instead of trying to convince Jesus that he really does believe, he does what we all should do in times of doubt. He turns to Jesus and he admits, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” I do believe. BUT help me overcome my unbelief.
I have struggled with this in my own life.
I am not afraid to admit it. We are human after all and we have been trained so well in the ways of the world that we believe we can do anything! But as it says in Phillipians 4:13, “I can do all this through HIM who gives me strength.” It is through the grace of God that we are able to achieve anything. Whether by divine intervention or by the gracing of our gifts or by the support of family and friends, it is because of God that all things are possible. I take that with me wherever I go and it helps me to have faith when it seems like every road is blocked and I have not been disappointed. I may not always understand at first where the road is going, but I have faith that God can see the bigger picture, even when I can only see the brush strokes. For me, that describes my journey in ministry. Every time I felt a bump in the road, it was God who led me out of it. Even in the difficult parts, I look back and feel that God not only helped me through it but nurtured me to grow and learn in ways I never thought possible.
Once I heard my call, I immediately began having doubts.
Was this the right move? Did I really hear God correctly? Because in order for me to pursue this calling, I’d have to give up my career in marketing – and I was making good money. It also meant going back to school. And the only approved Methodist seminary near us was at Emory University. I had been out of school for nearly a decade and wondered if I could even get in. There were other schools around the country, but with Cassie being the only one employed while I was in school, I couldn’t ask my family to move. So I applied to this one school and prayed, “Okay, God. If this is REALLY the path you put me on, I’ll get accepted.” And I did. I was so happy! That lasted for about one week when I received the letter telling me how much it would cost. Cassie told me not to worry and that somehow we would find the money, but I didn’t want my family to suffer or struggle for something I was still trying to work out so again, I prayed to God. I didn’t tell Cassie this, but I told God that this was my path and I didn’t want them to struggle because of it. If this was really what he wanted me to do, somehow I’d get a scholarship. And again, I did. Not only did I get a scholarship, but I ended up with a full ride plus money for books. When I got the scholarship letter, I looked up to God and said, “I guess this is a ‘yes’.”
My whole journey in ministry has been that way.
From the time I served three wonderful rural churches in Georgia to today with all of you at EVUMC, my whole journey has been one of God’s continuing grace and revelation. Every time I ran into bumps or obstacles, doubts or concerns, EVENTUALLY I would surrender my pride and go to God in prayer. I’d place my faith in him. And when I did, my prayers were answered although almost never in the way I thought it would. It was always better. God’s ways are not our ways. His vision is much bigger than ours. And I’m sure that is the case with us going on this journey together. Because I know God brought us here in this place and in this time for a reason. I don’t know what that reason is like I didn’t know why God brought me to any of the other churches when it happened. But I have faith that God’s vision is far better than my own. I can say one thing. I am grateful for this opportunity. I am grateful to God for being here with all of you. I hope you will allow me to journey with you, to get to know you, and to find out more about God through you. I think God will take us on an amazing journey together.
God works in our lives in different ways.
And it’s not always obvious to us how our struggles, our pains, and our triumphs enter into this greater tapestry. But even when we can’t fathom how these things fit into the world, we can trust that God does. So when we have questions and when we have doubts, I urge you to turn to God and ask him to help you in your unbelief. There is no sin in admitting that there are things we don’t understand. There is no sin in hoping for more faith, to trust more fully in our Lord. I urge you to move toward that place where you are able to proclaim as the psalmist did, “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.” May we all continually move toward Christian perfection, knowing that we have a God who loves us more completely than we can ever know. And even if we can only see the brushstrokes of our lives, we can trust that God has the vision to see the whole painting. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Top 10 Moments at BMUC
Reflecting on our ministry together the past four years.
Any time you leave a place, especially one where you journey together with a group of people, it’s natural to do some reflecting on the past. As I’ve shared a number of times, as long as we don’t get trapped by the past, it can be worthwhile and even healthy to look back now and again. Even more so if it helps us to move forward. So to bring closure to our time together – with one more Sunday to go, here are my top 10 moments at BMUC:
10. 90th anniversary celebration – It was wonderful to be able to celebrate 90 years of ministry together and invite back our former ministers and those who served here at BMUC. Bishop Grant Hagiya came to deliver the message and it was so appropriate since BMUC was the place he received his first appointment. We got to visit with friends and family, those who had been gone from the church for a while, and special guests who participated in the festivities. Manju from (now closed) Benkyo-do and bento box lunches from Sumo Sushi made for an amazing meal. Everyone got a gift from the church as a reminder of the legacy that is BMUC.
9. Bishop Carcano’s visit – It was the first time a sitting Bishop had come to BMUC and was a treat for our congregants who were able to break bread with her and experience a real connection to our wider legacy in the UMC. Bishop Carcano wasn’t able to be with us during the 90th anniversary celebration but definitely wanted to be present at our church to share in the good news of nine decades serving God. Not only were we blessed to hear a message from her, but also took communion together.
8. 12 Days of Christmas – I LOVED this! During our pandemic Cookies and Carols in 2020, Naomi Sanchez, our Music Director, planned a coordinated Twelve Days of Christmas sing-a-long and asked everyone to hold up a paper or poster of your “day” on the screen. Lee Marrs was the “partridge in a pear tree,” but instead of having one image, she created TWELVE DIFFERENT IMAGES which was amazing by itself, but as we realized what was happening, people were just overjoyed – especially Naomi whose face just lit up in disbelief.
7. Cookies and Carols – Speaking of which, Cookies and Carols was something new our Outreach Committee hosted to bring in people from the community during the Christmas season. The first year we did it, we called it Cocoa and Carols (although cookies were involved) and it was a big success with many people from the community coming and singing with us. In 2020, we were in the midst of the pandemic so we shifted and did online cookie decorating and then singing together which were great to lift our spirits and keep our community focused on the season. In 2021, we did both in-person and online which was a ton of fun.
6. Day of Remembrance – This was memorable for two reasons: 1. We did our first (and sadly only) Spam Musubi cook off (to honor the creativity of camp life under harsh conditions) and 2. We joined with other historically Japanese-American churches across the country to reflect on what the day meant to us. It was the first time I can recall where we did a joint service and it was such a blessing to work with the other pastors and especially Bishop Sano who gave the message for our time together. It was also an opportunity to again connect with other churches and realize we share something in common that makes us stronger.
5. Creativity in worship – I can’t say enough how blessed I am to work with such talented (and good-hearted) people like Naomi, Jill and Tak. Together, we’ve been able to push the boundaries in worship and hold the congregation together even in the midst of the pandemic. We did hybrid worship, we introduced online giving, we found new ways to creatively sing and stream and do communion, and we were able to at the same time minimize our risk of COVID. Nearly every highlight on this list is due in part or more to these awesome people who deserve a big shout out!
4. Black Lives Matter – I was so honored to serve at a place that took seriously the Black Lives Matter movement and took to heart DS Rev. Staci’s message to churches to DO something, not just talk about what was going on. During the summer of 2020 when racial tensions reached new highs, the Black Lives Matter movement sprang into being. Instead of paying lip service to that time, our folks donated money to support the Black community both here and nationally. We ended up raising over $8000 to give to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and to OCCUR which supports Black-owned businesses in the Bay Area.
3. Easter Outreach 2021 – Our Outreach Committee came through again with an innovative way to do Easter for the community. We did a Safe and Socially Distant Easter Egg Hunt which drew nearly 50 kids from not just our neighborhood but from around the Bay. Almost none of them were from BMUC! At the same time we decorated the cross with flowers, sticking to our tradition, but changing it up a bit to give people the chance to visit and it was a huge success. The stories about Jesus were inspiring.
2. Kazumi’s Baptism – Baptism is ALWAYS a highlight for me and I was so honored to be able to take part in Kazumi’s. Not only is Kazumi (and now her brother Akira) one of the first babies born to the congregation in a while, but her parents are such wonderful people. It’s always special to be part of a person’s journey of faith and baptism is one of those milestones along the way. It was also the first one I’ve had the chance to do while here at BMUC so it was even more exciting!
1.Faith and Family Trip to Disneyland – These Faith and Family trips are so special to me because it gives me a chance to take time and really get to know people, but it also is an opportunity to share something I’m passionate about – bringing faith into the real world. And Disney. These trips are an opportunity for me to put into action what I earnestly believe: we have to make faith real and tangible for others to follow Christ. Disney does hospitality exceptionally well, and it’s a great real world example of something we can do in our own churches to bring faith alive.
There were many wonderful moments we’ve had together at BMUC and these are just a snippet of them. I really believe in this place and the people here. Although I’ll be leaving, I hope if you’re in the Berkeley area, you’ll pop by and spend some time getting to know them. If you’re looking for a church home, this is a place to put on your list! May God continue to bless this church and the people in it. And praise Jesus for the chance to serve here and journey in faith with these people.
Craig's Corner 