Thankful Thursday

Recently, I had my annual staff evaluation.  I really appreciate evaluation time because it gives me the opportunity to get honest feedback which I know is given with love and from the perspective of folks who want me to continue to grow and mature in the gifts that God has given me.  One part of the evaluation is a self-evaluation, which is the hardest part of the evaluation process because it means that I need to be honest with myself about my growth areas.  This is normally a good thing, but if you know me really well, you know that I am already pretty hard on myself (which is, in itself, a big growth area) which makes self care a struggle when you toss and turn at night over very minor things which no one else is going to remember in a couple hours...except for me, of course.  I'm getting better at this.  Having a life-partner who constantly reminds you how great he thinks you are, and yet is willing to call you out when that is necessary, is a very helpful thing for someone like me.

So I've been thinking of ways that I am good at self-care.  Or ways that I am getting better.

One way is in the wellness quest.  I'm getting better every day at getting exercise in and keeping better track of what I eat (though, honestly, the monthly work day is a free for all lunch day because you simply cannot turn down any of the delicious food that the church ladies have made...and that's all there is to it. ). 

Another way is in my attempts to take time every day to be thankful.  I'm not the best at weekly thankful Thursday posts, but God knows when I thank her for the gifts she has given me and I continue to strive to make sure that folks around me know how thankful I am that God has placed them in my life...and that's what matters.

But since it's Thursday, here are some things I am thankful for that I wish to share with you:
- For Lutheran's singing in harmony (I may be biased, but we do it the best)
- For Legos
- For Workday lunches
- For the Communion Coffee and Workday folks
- For folks unafraid to dole out hugs during the passing of the peace
- For being reminded that God loves me
- For being reminded of how precious life is and how God is present in each moment of life
- For exercise and for rest

Wellness update

Yesterday was my second session with Manon. She is my physical trainer...and she's really good at getting my rear in gear. And boy do I feel it today!  There I muscles I am working now that I had allowed to get lazy while other, bossier, muscle groups took over. 

That ended two weeks ago when I discovered my trapezius muscles again. 

They're yelling at me again today...and I don't mind one bit.  I enjoy the fact that I am learning how to use my body properly in order to maximize my health and wellness goals.  In just two weeks, my posture is better, my feet are not as turned out, and I'm more motivated to get moving just about every day (and the two pounds I have lost are a bonus!).  I still really dislike the treadmill, but thanks to a kindle, and amazon prime membership, and unlimited free streaming of Glee episodes, it's bearable for 30-45 minutes, 4 times a week. 

The best part about working with Manon is with her being aware of my travel schedule in the next couple weeks, my exercises can be tailored so I don't have to pack a bunch of stuff to keep up with the routine (all I need to take to NOLA and Detroit is 1 resistance band...score!)

On the diet end, I'm doing really good and have been doing a lot better at keeping the stress eating at bay.  My big success here is to carry healthy snacks with me and to have them in abundant supply at home so that they are easy to access.  This also means that the unhealthy snacks are off the shopping list.  Surprisingly, Chris doesn't mind this as much as I thought he would since he is also on a health quest to gain muscle mass.  Also, we have discovered how yummy Quinoa is!  And a lot easier to make than I thought (hooray for rice cookers!).  Next time we get some I'm going to try a quinoa and black bean recipe I got from a lady from church.  Looks like it would go well with Tilapia or Flounder (or on its own if it's just me eating it...I don't know if Chris believed me when I told him how much protein is in quinoa). 

Also on the wellness quest topic. I finished the Hunger Games series...totally different ending than I thought it would be. But, I read three for fun books in a month, which is HUGE for me. I'm really close to 10 books read this year, which is something I don't normally do, and I think it's great.  I'm moving on to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, but will need suggestions after I am done reading that book.  So please, provide suggestions...

So things are looking up.  I have more motivation and am in a place where slacking off isn't an option if I want to accomplish the goals I have. 

How the Spirit Moves - A sermon for July 1

I struggled with a sermon text in a way that I never have before. How to preach on a text when God is never mentioned, when all the text is is a sample of true lament being read to an audience who lives in a culture that no longer knows how to truly lament. 

I needed to write something. Anything. And so I did.

But the Holy Spirit would not let me preach what I wrote.  She made me preach something else. And it was all Spirit. I did nothing but give voice to the words God put in my heart. 

The text of the sermon I wrote is below. The sermon I preached was recorded here. It is titled Lament.

July 1, 2012

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27

In 1952, President Harry S. Truman signed a bill which created a mandate for each following President to declare a National Day of Prayer.  This date was originally intended to be picked by each President, but in 1988, it was permanently set as the first Tuesday of May.  The National day of Prayer had its origins in 1775, before the Declaration of Independence was even signed.  It was declared by the Continental Congress and was described by George Washington as “a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer, to acknowledge the gracious interpositions of Providence; to deprecate [to pray or intreat that a present evil may be removed] deserved punishment for our Sins and Ingratitiude, to unitedly implore the Protection of Heaven; Success to our Arms and the Arms of our Ally” 

Subsequent National Days of Prayer have been declared in times of crisis by Presidents John Adams and Abraham Lincoln, who wrote: “...it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord."

In essence, National days of Prayer were intended to be days of humility and national lament, to re-declare our dependence on God in all manners and forms that God is called upon, and to ask God’s continued guidance and healing.  And according to Wikipedia, the National day of prayer is now celebrated by folks going to courthouses, churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, with luncheons, picnics, concerts, etc.  But those events have never been on my radar. 

Sure, I see the national prayer breakfast on the news and hear about who gets to speak at that each year…but I don’t think that the National day of prayer is held to the same importance that it was in 1775 or even 1952.  Partially because our religious demographics have changed and the number of folks proclaiming atheism or agnosticism have increased greatly.  But I also wonder if we have, as a country, have become so caught up in waging moral and ethical wars on each other, many in the name of God and country, that we have forgotten the lessons of events like Pearl Harbor and 9-11 which, for a little while, brought this country together to lament and to rebuild, to stand united instead of divided.  

We can certainly look to David as a reminder of what it means to lament in the midst of loss and division.

David had just returned home from battle against the Amalekites and had been there for two days when men approached him and informed him that Saul and Jonathan died in battle against the Philistines.  Jonathan had been killed by the opposing forces, and Saul, when he realized that the battle was lost, he fell upon his own sword after his servant refused to run him through with it.  This is not the version of the story that David hears, however.  Upon hearing that Saul and Jonathan are dead, David tore his clothes and began mourning, and fasting, and praying for Saul and Jonathan.  During this time, David meets an Amalekite soldier who tells David that it was he who killed Saul, not Saul who killed himself.  This information does not bode well for the Amalekite, who soon after meets his own death for claiming to have killed the Anointed of the Lord.  This part of the story was not included in our reading, however, just the information about David’s return and the lament that he teaches the people. 

David’s lament over the deaths of Saul and Jonathan is beautiful in its poetic nature, if not unusual in its content. 

There is amazingly unexpected mercy for Saul in David’s words.  Saul, who had invited David into his home to play the lyre and soothe Saul’s often frayed nerves, had attempted on many occasions to kill David, especially as Saul’s paranoia increased in his later years.  And yet David speaks words of genuine grief over this man’s death.  David recognized and respected greatly the nature of Saul’s title as the Anointed of the Lord, a title the two men shared as Kings of Israel.  When David was given the chance to kill Saul, he backed down and refused to do it, showing mercy to Saul who had shown David little mercy.  And now, with genuine emotion, he mourns Saul’s death, knowing that this was the Lord’s Anointed who had died, and knowing that this meant defeat for Israel. 

And then there is David’s lament over Jonathan, a man whose love to David passed that of women.  David and Jonathan had been wonderful friends for a long time and, in fact, they entered into three covenants together.  It says in I Samuel that Jonathan loved David as he loved his own soul, protected David from Saul’s many attempts on his life, and even ceded the throne to David even though Jonathan was the rightful heir according to what was expected among men.  So we see David not just mourning the death of the Anointed of the Lord, who was also David’s greatest enemy, but he is also mourning the death of his most beloved friend.    

Both men died in battle, both men were swift and strong on the field of battle.  But as we know all too often to be true, the weapons of war often perish.  And so, though divided in life, Jonathan and Saul did not die divided, they died together on the Mountain of Gilboa.  O, how the mighty have fallen!

God is never mentioned in David’s lament, which is unusual considering other biblical laments like our psalm this morning “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications!”  That being said, there are glimpses of God within the lament over the loss of Saul and Jonathan.  There is mercy proclaimed to one who showed no mercy to David, who in the midst of paranoia and jealousy attempted to rob David of his life. There is even a hint of forgiveness for Saul for his lack of mercy.  There is also healing that comes from words of lament spoken over the death of a beloved friend…this mercy, forgiveness, and healing are things that God brings to us in the midst of crisis and loss.

In a short period of time, we here at Trinity have experienced a lot of loss.  Friends have moved, other friends and family members have died, and in the midst of all this loss, David’s lament and the lament of the psalmist become our laments.  And just as in the laments of David and the psalmist, within our laments, we hear the voice of God speaking of healing, mercy, and forgiveness.  And in this, we can stand united, knowing that when we lament and go to God for healing, God will be there to grant it to us.   

Real life Hunger Games

Two weeks ago, I began a journey through the Hunger Games series.  I have since spent many hours devouring the first two books and am anxious to read the third book (Cliff hangers make me anxious).

The books are addicting, they draw you in and have kept me in more suspense than the John Grisham novel "the street lawyer, " and "water for elephants" (It's rare that a book will grab my attention as much as these novels have).

Suzanne Collins succeeded in roping in thousands upon thousands into her novels, she also wrote books that are an incredible social commentary for our current times.  Basic plot:  Post apocalyptic America, now called Panem, is divided into 13 districts, all of which are ruled by the Capitol.  At one period in Panem's history, there was a rebellion.  The Capitol squashed the rebels and as a result, the Capitol punished the districts every year by forcing them to send 1 male and 1 female teenager into the hunger games (District 13 doesn't send tributes because it's a wasteland).  In the hunger games, 24 teens go in and only 1 comes out, leaving the other 23 tributes dead.
Where the real social commentary comes in is not in the games themselves, but in the contrast between the Capitol and the districts.  In the Capitol, they lack nothing.  There is no hunger, no poverty, and lots of excess (they drink ipecac syrup at parties so they can gorge themselves on delicious foods all evening).  In the districts, there is lots of hunger, lots of poverty, and people doing anything they can to survive.

I see some of this happening in real life.  In the Capitol, politicians lack very little, if anything.  They have outrageous salaries, even more outrageous pensions, and their health care packages are the best in the country. If SNAP funding, the earned income tax credit (EITC), and the child tax credit (CTC) get cut from the federal budget, they are not going to feel it.  Meanwhile, in Lawrence, KS, there are families who work for minimum wage, have no pension, who depend on free health care clinics (Major props to Health Care Access for providing such excellent care to these folks)...and have found SNAP, the EITC, and the CTC to be a hand up when faced with the necessity of feeding their children, avoiding eviction from housing, etc.  Most do what they can to survive and we have many agencies in this town that do everything they can to help folks out of tough situations and back onto their feet.

We are the richest country on the planet, we can apparently afford to pay congress generous salaries ($174,000 for 'regular' congressmen and women, plus benefits in 2012, according to www.house.gov), we have citizens that can afford to spend millions financing political campaigns, and yet, do not have the financial resources to ensure that every single child in this country goes to bed with a full tummy.  Furthermore, we are told by congress that by cutting funding to programs like SNAP, we are helping parents to get out of the situation they are in so they can better care for their children.  When I hear the words "cut SNAP funding" the first thing that pops into my mind is that we will have more than 1 in 5 children going to bed hungry, which is the current (and a very unacceptable) statistic.

So I wrote my congressmen about my concerns. Senator Roberts was gracious in his response and addressed my concerns.  Senator Yoder, on the other hand, spent two pages bashing the current administration and never once addressed my concerns for the children of this country and our charge as Christians to care for the least of these.  I find this unacceptable.  I wrote Senator Yoder back to tell him this.  Still waiting on a response.

Now, I get that we are in the midst of great federal debt. I also get that it is irresponsible to spend more than we have.  But not if it means that more people will live in hunger and poverty when there is obviously enough money in this country to fund adequate governmental programs without the government getting too big.  And I'm not advocating socialism...but I am old enough to remember a time in this country where there was no federal deficit at the same time that millions of jobs were created (I'm looking at you Clinton administration).  And I don't care if it was President Clinton or the congress that was responsible for this (or maybe they actually worked together on this...what an unique idea!).  So see us go from that to such a large federal deficit in less than a decade, befuddles me. 

But I still have hope as I imagine what could happen is congress made the same median wage that the rest of us do, what would happen if they had the same health care that we do.  How much more they would have their sights set on matters of justice.    

These are not purely political issues I speak of, they are justice issues.  Children going to bed with full tummies is a justice issue.  Helping parents get out of poverty so they can feed their kids without the need for SNAP and the EITC is a justice issue.  Doing everything we can to ensure that every citizen of this country gets to fully live out their 14th amendment rights is a justice issue.

These are things that Jesus preached about.
   

Thankful Thursday - the VBS edition

Every year I convince myself that VBS will not be as tiring as the year before. Every year, I am wrong.  It is a good exhausting.  Kids really get what praising God is all about. It's about time for prayer and for being serious...but it is equally about time for play and for recreation (or is it re-creation?) And with 73 of them running around the church this week, it's hard not to be reminded of this. 

This week, I am thankful for:
For 2,3, and 4 year olds who are so excited to tell you about their day
For a week of abundant laughter
For getting to see faith through the eyes of a child 
For getting to share the message of God's love with 73 children and their parents
For an opportunity to share ministry with our ecumenical partners (Plymouth UCC, you rock!)
For getting "Oh, Oh, Oh, let's go! Operation Overboard! Dive deep into God's majesty" stuck in my head
For naps
For God's grace when you get the words of the day wrong (Trusting Jesus and Claiming Jesus are similar concepts!)

Next week's Thankful Thursday will be the confirmation camp edition.  I'm already singing camp songs in anticipation of this awesomeness. "shake a friend's hand, shake a hand next to you, shake a friend's hand and sing this song!"

The sun sets on Camp Tomah Shinga, confirmation camp 2010

A Top Ten for Tuesday

With my wellness goes moving along smoothly I have been listening to more music, which is one of my goals.  And as a result, I've realized how eclectic my music collection is! To that end, I give you a top ten list:

Top Ten 80's songs for doing chores: (in no particular order)
10: Faith - George Michael
9: You Spin me Round - Dead or Alive
8: Tainted Love - Soft Cell
7: Love is a Battlefield - Pat Benetar
6: Take On Me - Aha
5: Walk like an Egyptian - The Bangles
4: Karma Chameleon - The Culture Club
3: Heaven is a Place on Earth - Belinda Carlisle
2: Our house - Madness
1: Wake me up before you go-go - Wham

What songs help you though housework/general chores?


p.s. Total miles logged - 22!!

“What is God Like?” A Sermon for the Feast of the Holy Trinity

June 3, 2012

Holy Trinity Sunday

Isaiah 6, Romans 8, John 3

 

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our father, our lord and savior Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, the great Three-in-one, One-in-three, amen. 

Lots of time, and energy, and trees, have gone into an attempt to explain what we celebrate today.  How does one speak about the Holy Trinity, a God who is simultaneously one-in-three and three-in-one when there is very little in scripture that actually speaks of the Trinity?  When I was in confirmation class, our teacher, Mrs. Ropes, explained the concept of the Trinity to us using an apple and an orange.  With and apple or orange, or many other forms of fruit, you have three parts: the fruit, the rind, and the seeds, all three are apple, but in different forms…and all three forms make up one piece of fruit.  Now Chris was taught about the Trinity using water. Water exists in three forms, solid, liquid, and gas, and yet it is always water. 

It makes sense to explain something as abstract as the Trinity in such concrete terms…especially with young teens, who think better in concrete terms but are starting to think in the abstract.  But even as good as these examples are, it still doesn’t capture the entire mystery that is the Trinity.  It’s probably because the Trinity is what it is, a mystery…and sometimes a little mystery in the world of faith is ok. 

The word Trinity never appears in the bible, and there are only a few references to a three personed Deity actually mentioned, the most clear reference being in the Great Commission in Matthew’s Gospel where Jesus sends the disciples out to baptize in the name of the father, and the son, and the holy spirit. So when you think about it, today we celebrate both a teaching of the church and a great mystery. 

What is the Trinity?

Scholars and church leaders have tried for centuries to explain this, but in the end they have all thrown their hands up and allowed the mystery to remain, recognizing that the more we think we have a handle on who God is, the less we actually do.  So how do you preach a sermon on a topic that the more we realize we don’t understand and cannot understand, the better off we are? 

Instead of trying to find the darkest corner of scripture and the churches history to figure this all out and come up with the answer that solves the mystery once and for all, I think that it is better to take a look less for proofs about the Trinity and more for information on what God is like. 

There is a lot of talk about what God is like.  Just turn on the TV and evangelists will all give you their take on God.  Lately, it seems, you don’t even have to look that hard to find preachers talking about what God is like, just turn on the news and you will find it.  God wants you to be rich, if you have enough faith and give enough money to the church…God is angry at this group or that group, that’s why natural disasters have happened around places where those people live…God hates you and me and our children and our whole country…God loves this country best, that’s why we are the richest country in the world, even though one in five children in this country go to bed hungry at night.  Have you heard these messages? 

There are lots of folks out there preaching them.  And sure, there are troubling passages in scripture that may lead some folks to think that these things are true.  Plagues, folks getting struck down by lighting for worshiping incorrectly, she-bears, the trials of Job, the list goes on. 

But it seems to me that there is a danger when we look only to these troubling passages, when God starts to take on a form that only shows one side of God’s story, is the story of God and what God is like being told by folks made in the image of God? or folks who have made god in their image?  Writer Anne Lamont once wrote that you can be sure that you have made god in your image when god hates all the same people that you do.  It’s a pretty spot on assessment of something that is really easy to do. 

But there is another side of the story, one that comes from our scripture passages this morning.  One that tells a story of God that counters stories of a god who is angry and vengeful and hates you and me and the country we live in.

The first thing we hear is from the prophet Isaiah who is reporting on a vision he had of the temple of the Lord and the greatness and majesty of God…a grandeur for which the only response is worship and praise…and we sing with the seraphs and cherubs around the throne of God each time we celebrate communion and sing “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, Lord God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory!” 

And then we hear from Paul, in his letter to the Romans, about the love of God which, through the work of the Spirit, has called us all to be adopted to be God’s daughters and sons and invited us into and intimate and loving relationship with our creator.  This is a relationship that allows us to be free from fear, for it is not with a spirit of slavery that we have received, but rather that spirit of adoption.  And so, like an adopted child cries out to his daddy or mommy, and they respond with all the love they can muster, so we can cry out “Abba, Father,” knowing that God will hear us and that God cares for us in our relationship with him. 

But that’s not all.  Yes, it could be enough to just stop there and still have an image of God, a caring creator who is great in majesty, but God kept going. 

In the gospel reading from John we hear about the ultimate love that God has for us.  In his visit to Jesus, Nicodemus got a glimpse of a God whose love is so great that God did not even withhold his own son, but rather sent his son into the world so that the world might be saved through his life giving death on the cross.  Jesus told Nicodemus that he did not come into the world to condemn the world, but rather to save it. 

On Trinity Sunday, we have a God who defies definition.  The doctrine of the Trinity, how God is one-in-three and three-in-one, is something that we cannot explain…and that is ok, not everything in this world needs to be explained away, that is where our faith comes in…faith in a God whose love also defies definition, as well as logic.  When we confess our faith in God, we confess our faith in a God of great grandeur, a God who has made us his own and claimed us to be his children, a God who hasn’t withheld anything from us, not even his own son, so that we could be given abundant life and be empowered to call out to our heavenly parent and serve him without fear, knowing that we are cared for and heard…even when the answer we get is not necessarily the one we are looking for. 

So let’s celebrate, let’s celebrate the Holy Trinity, the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit, an indescribable God of love and grace. Amen.