Wilderness Time

“The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, ‘If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’” (Exodus 16:2-3, NRSV)

Dear friends in Christ,

At a recent Tulsa District gathering our new District Superintendent, Dan Peil, shared his thoughts about the state of the church and asked us to reflect on this Old Testament lesson. I want to take this time to talk a bit about what Dan said and how it relates to our faith community. There has been a lot of talk in recent years about how “the church” is in a wilderness period. Membership is declining, attendance is down, and giving is off. There are lots of opinions about why this is happening and even more on how we go about fixing the problem. You see this is a problem shared throughout the country across all mainline denominations. There just seems to be a move by many to seek their spiritual food outside the walls of “organized religion.” Many people in our mainline churches bemoan this trend and cry out that everything was great back in the “good old days” when church was the center of community life and Sunday was family day and everybody gathered at church in the morning, then around the table for lunch, and then back at church in the evening, every Sunday without fail. Back then, they tell us, society was better off, everything was simpler, there was less crime and our families were stronger. If we could just go back all our problems would be solved and our churches would be healthier.

This sounds a bit like the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. If only they had never rebelled against Pharaoh; if only they had never left slavery in Egypt; at least they would have had a place to sleep and something to eat. We need to listen to what God had in mind for those whining Israelites. God told Moses that he would rain bread from heaven and the people should gather only what they need for a day. “In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not.” (Ex 16:4) The story continues as God provides and the people complain. Ultimately, Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, ‘Draw near to the Lord, for he has heard your complaining.’” And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. (Ex. 16:9-11)

Being the church and fulfilling our mission as disciples is not about going back to the way things used to be, or doing things the same way we’ve always done, or sitting around complaining about how bad things are. Nothing in our world is about keeping things the same or going back to those good old days. That’s not the way this world works and it’s not the way God’s world works. God is always moving forward leading us toward the divine vision of what the world should be. God has always called us to follow; we hear that command in both the Old and New Testament. The problem seems to be that God is out there on the horizon and we just can’t seem to keep up. We continue to cling to the comfortable and the familiar while God is calling us out to the challenging and the difficult. We think in terms of human economics where resources are scarce and we need to hoard what we have like the servant who took his master’s money and buried in the ground for fear of losing it and getting into trouble. God calls us to take what we’ve been given and use it, invest it, plant it, and risk it so that God’s economy can multiply it and make it fruitful.

Like the Israelites, we are required to make difficult choices as we seek to draw near to the Lord and follow God’s leading through the wilderness. Sometimes these choices will be costly; they will be emotional; they will involve changing our perspectives and our priorities. Often the choices we must make will cause disagreement. Nonetheless these difficult choices must be made to enable the whole church to serve God’s mission.

When we talk to people who have left the church or never even tried the church we often hear complaints about what the church represents, about how behind-the-times the church is, or how exclusive the church “club” is. It seems to me that we could go a long way toward addressing these complaints if we had the courage to move forward with God instead of clinging to the past and wondering why things can’t stay the same. No organization can survive unless it keeps moving; the church is no exception. God has been moving forward since the beginning of time urging Creation to grow and change and adapt. God is constantly calling us to keep up. I pray that we will all “draw near to the Lord,” and be able to discern how we might better respond to the leading God offers to each of us.

In Jesus’ name,
Pastor Don 

You Are Beloved

“And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’” (Matthew 3:16-17, NRSV)

A couple of years ago I read a wonderful book by Henri J.M. Nouwen called, “Life of the Beloved.” (I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about living a spiritual life in our secular world. If you want to borrow my copy, just ask.) This isn’t a new book; it was originally printed in 1992. It is a book that was written to respond to questions from some non-Christian friends who wanted to know how Nouwen might explain his faith to those who most needed to hear – people who did not believe in Jesus Christ. In the end, though, the book did more to speak to those who already believe than it did to satisfy his intended audience. Nouwen reminds us that we also are God’s beloved children. He says, “Yes, there is that voice, the voice that speaks from above and from within and that whispers softly or declares loudly: ‘You are my Beloved, on whom my favor rests.’ It certainly is not easy to hear that voice in a world filled with voices that shout: ‘You are no good, you are ugly; you are worthless; you are despicable, you are nobody.’” (30-31)

Living a life of spirit-filled faithfulness to God is not easy in a secular world that constantly pulls us away from God and tries desperately to convince us that we are nothing unless we have the “right” job, the “right” clothes, the “right” hairstyle, weight, car, home, etc., ad nauseum. The truth is: we are God’s beloved; we are not subject to the judgments of this world – we are beloved by God and that’s all that really matters. This is a wonderful truth to keep at the forefront of your mind every day. Only God’s opinion matters – not the opinion of advertisers in the media or your neighbors down the road. The negative voices we hear in our culture are so loud and so persuasive that it’s really easy to believe them. But listening to these voices leads us down a path of self-criticism, self-loathing, and self-rejection. We can so easily fall into the trap of believing what the world tells us that we risk forgetting the truth that God offers us. The clamor of our culture can drown out the still, small voice of God telling us we are beloved. Once we really hear this voice of God telling us that we are beloved, we want to hear more…we want to know more…we want to be more as a beloved child of God.

This is a message we must dare to claim and share with others. The reality of our world is that “many children never feel really welcomed in the world. Beneath their nervous smiles, there is often the question: ‘Am I really wanted?’…Our world is full of people who question whether it would have been better had they not been born. When we do not feel loved by those who gave us life, we often suffer our whole life long…” (57) We cannot allow the people of this world to convince us that anyone is without value. We cannot give in to a culture that manipulates, controls, and destroys the true beauty of a soul created by God and loved by God. We are God’s beloved and we must let others know that they too are beloved by God.

As more people become aware of this truth, divisions will close and wounds will be healed. “The Spirit of God, the Spirit that calls us the Beloved, is the Spirit that unites and makes whole. There is no clearer way to discern the presence of God’s Spirit than to identify the moments of unification, healing, restoration, and reconciliation. Wherever the Spirit works, divisions vanish and inner as well as outer unity manifests itself.” (135)

Only God has the power to bring people together and to bridge the gaps that divide us. Only we have the ability to open our hearts to hear God’s truth and share it with everyone we meet. This combination of God’s power and our hearing is an awesome force in the world to say to someone, “You are the Beloved of God and God loves you and wants to be in your life today.” Be God’s Beloved today.

God bless,
Pastor Don 

Be Smart. Be Well. :: Food Safety :: Cooking with Kang

Be Smart. Be Well. :: Food Safety :: Cooking with Kang