An early start on Thanksgiving

(I've not been posting much lately. There is a good reason, and it is good news, but I will save that for another time. For now let me say I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.)

Well, it seems that the holidays are upon us. Next Thursday is Thanksgiving Day, also known as national day of gluttony, but we won't talk about that. Have you ever noticed that preachers never preach on gluttony the Sunday before Thanksgiving? That being the case, I'm not going to blog about gluttony, at least not this close to Thanksgiving.

However, what I will do is talk about one of the things for which I am especially thankful. I've been in the ministry for a long time. I've had my share of ups and downs in churches. I've had moments of absolute delight and joy. And I have had those moments that felt like I was Julius Caesar in the Senate. At this moment, I have to say I am genuinely thankful that, by God's grace, I serve the congregation I serve.

It struck me this afternoon while I was catching up on Facebook messages and one of the families that had recently been transferred by the Army out of our community gave a recommendation to someone moving into the community, via Facebook, that they needed to check out our congregation. I'm thankful that I serve the kind of congregation that is highly endorsed by its alumni.

This afternoon I went by to see a man who visited our church a few times and had taken a pretty bad fall recently. He wasn't home so I didn't get a chance to visit with him. One of the things I know is that the people from our church checked on him, visited him when he was in the hospital, ran errands for him and are generally helpful. It is a warm feeling in the heart of a pastor when you know that the people in your congregation are doing pastoral care simply because they love others.

Earlier today, I visited a man who is homebound and has a number of health issues that have been lingering for a very long time. I hope that he's getting better and has turned the corner, but I'm not qualified to make that assessment. However, I know that every week or so one of the men of our church goes by to see this fellow, sits, visits, and helps him where he needs help. This man will never be a rockstar, famous personality, or social media influencer. The man from our church goes by and encourages him because Jesus loves this homebound man and so does the fellow who visits him. 

A lady in the church asked if she could have a favor from the congregation. She wanted to host Thanksgiving dinner for extended family and for anyone in the community, but didn't have a place to go on Thanksgiving. She wanted to know if she could use our church building for this occasion. This was not some systematic, strategic, outreach ministry attempt. This was the organic natural expression of love and service of a lady in our congregation for the community and for people who might not have a place to be on Thanksgiving. I had nothing to do with the organization of this. I didn't have to ask or beg people to help. It just happened. All I have to do is show up in the middle of the afternoon and have a piece of pie and a cup of coffee.

Recently, I received from my congregation a pastor appreciation gift bag. The kind notes, sweet and generous gifts moved my heart deeply. But not quite as deeply as the feeling I get when I watch this congregation being the people of God.

Now, don't get the mistaken idea that this is a perfect congregation. We are far from a perfect congregation because we are made up of imperfect people. But we are a group of people that genuinely love the Lord, genuinely love others and express that love in real, tangible ways. And for that I am truly thankful. 

What is in a meal?

What is in a meal is more than just the dishes offered or the ingredients.  It is more than gluten, vegan or low carbs.  What is really important about a meal is the interaction.   I am writing this during the lunch rush at a popular deli. Almost every table has a few people engaged in conversation.  One table has a bunch of foreign nationals who are here attending school.  It is fun to see them chatting in their mother tongue.  It must feel great to have a break from immersion in a foriegn language and hear and speak your home language. At another table a handsome young man and a pretty young lady are not flirting, but the male displays his plumage while the female is pretending not to notice or be impressed.  I can’t really tell if she is impressed or not, neither can the male and I’m not sure if she knows.  There is another table nearby where two tech sorts are pouring over the screen of a laptop while animatedly discussing some point that would be lost on everyone except other tech sorts.  There is a large table in the corner where a group of young soldiers laugh, talk and render to each other good natured harassment.  A wife has just joined her husband, they are young, in love and thrilled with the moment away from work, kids, and other concerns.  They are having a sort of mini-vacation in the middle of the week. There is the young professional that just caught herself sort of dancing from the waist up to the catchy tune on the radio, to the amusement of her tablemates.  

What do they all have in common?  In one way or another and to different degrees, they are all building memories.  Who knows the afterword of the stories.  Maybe the flirting couple will get married and some day confess, “Remember the lunch at….”  The lonely foreign nationals may return home and always remember the oasis of home they shared over a meal.  The tech guys may build the next great O.S.  

Every meal is more than the food.  It is the connection that we make with each other.  It is the connection of laughter and tears, of stories and jokes, it is the holding of babies not your own, and getting a break from your kids.  The power of a shared meal is vital to the life and well-being of a family, a community, or a church.

This Sunday we will have the opportunity to build those kinds of relationships and bonds at church.  Every 5th Sunday of the month is our time to share a meal and in the process share life.  We are far from the ideal church, but every shared meal moves us a little closer in that direction.  Please join us Sunday, bring a dish to share and most of all, bring a heart to open to others and be filled with the grace of God’s people. 

Of big planes and little things

Charles Vernon Boys wanted to build a better scale.  To do that he needed to build a better balance arm.   Boys’ work for a better scale has been overshadowed by his other invention.  Boys believed that glass would make a better balance arm that metals.  Since glass is stronger than steel of the same size, a very fine rod of glass might be the balance arm Boys was looking for.  He developed the tool to make this ultra thin rod.  He created a special crossbow that would fire a glass rod, on end of which was moltan.  The result was a thread of glass.  On one occasion he was able to produce a thread 90 feet long.

Fast forward about 100 years and the Airbus A380 takes to the sky thanks in part to Boys’ discovery.  Rather than a typical aluminum hull, the largest passenger aircraft in the world has a hull composed, in part, of the material Boys discovered and developed.  You used it last night and this past summer and, without knowing it, for most of your life.  But we don’t call it glass rods or glass threads, we know it as fiberglass.  

It is a long way from a single thread of glass to the world wide 12.9 billion pounds produced In 2021.  But that is the point; it had to start somewhere.  There are big results from tiny or what seems to be inconsequential actions.  WE often think we have to do big things and great things and very noticeable things if we are going to make any impact.  That may be more a product of propaganda than of the historic record.  A great many world-shaking discoveries and accomplishments did not begin as a big deal.  

What I am suggesting is that we all should go and do little things, lots of little things.  Do them with grace, love and kindness because you never know what the result might be.  WE have been told to plan and act strategically.  We are to make a point of maximizing our impact through leveraged relationships and opportunities.  I once believed that, but I am having my doubts.  What I do not doubt is that caring relationships are built with small moments, things, words, and deeds.  And it is relationships that really make the greatest impact.  

Sin and a leaking toilet

As many of you know we bought a fixer upper home a little less than two years ago.  It is a wonderful home with, as they say in the business, good bones. However, that was a lot of fixing up to do.  Most of it was a matter of redecoration, but some things were a little more involved.

One of these was a toilet that would rock a little bit.  Now, I love a rocking chair as much as the next guy, but there are times I do not want my seat to rock.  The rocking was progressing and becoming more pronounced.  This manifestation convinced me that I needed to be proactive.  

As I began the process, I discovered that this symptom represented much deeper and more involved problems.  The rocking toilet was an outward manifestation of deeper problems.  The good news is the problem has been resolved.  However, it was not just a matter of wedging a penny under the edge of our porcelain bowl.  I will spare you the details, but I will say it was a job that required a lot of hard work.

As I worked on the project I began to think of it as a parable.  In our lives, and those we know, we often see the manifestation or the outward expression of more deep-seated issues.  We may see aggressive behavior without considering what is the root cause.  The passing sexual innuendo is noted without a thought of what is beneath.  The passion for comfort food is not associated with anything other than the taste we enjoy.

But what is on the surface often reflects something deeper within.  When we start looking deeper we find things we do not like or want to admit.  We realize that it is not just a short fuse, but a sinful, angry spirit or attitude that is the pattern for life.  The meaningless joke is not so meaningless because in our heart we really do believe we are better than others.  

Once we begin to pull back the facade we find there is a lot of hard work to be done to correct the problem.  We peel back one error and discover behind it something else and oftentimes something worse.  Dealing with the sin in our lives is not easy.  God will forgive us, but He respects us too much to violate our freewill and makes us want to be whole and righteous.  That partnership with God in our moving forward requires effort on our part. Sometimes it is hard work.

There is the option of ignoring the little issues of disobedience in our lives that may be indicators of deeper issues.  But, like a rocking toilet, it will only get worse and will one day collapse.  The difference is that having your toilet fall through the floor is a temporary disaster.   Falling through the practice of sin is more painful and can be eternally regretted.

Beware of the experts

Hurricane Ian has clobbered Florida and is about to do more to the coast of South Carolina.  We have been exposed to massive amounts of expert opinion and news coverage about how bad the storm was.  While I do not want to minimize the hardship this storm has caused.  I want to offer a word about the ‘experts’.  

One week ago the storm track had Ian making landfall near St Mark’s in the eastern part of the Florida panhandle.  They missed landfall by about 350 miles.  It was also predicted to be a cat 2 not the major storm it was.  In fact, the storm was supposed to be named Hermine.  But the experts were mistaken and a tropical storm in the Atlantic formed before Ian and took the name Hermine.  Not to mention that, like most years, this was predicted to be more active than usual for tropical storms.  The experts told us that we should expect about 20 named tropical storms, 10 of which would be hurricanes and 3-5 would be major storms (cat 3 or higher) and that the hurricane season would peak in the first 10 days of September.  Remember Colin, Fiona, or Gaston.  No?  I didn’t think you would.  

Now, I am not trying to knock the weather service or say you shouldn’t prepare for natural disasters.  What I am saying is that when the experts make confirmed pronouncements based on the testimony of scientists and their observations, we might want to take that with a grain of salt.  They may have special insights or they may be making guesses. 

When it comes to the pronouncements of secular, social scientists on matters of humanity and moral conduct the possibility of error is even more pronounced,  So, when scientists tell us all life evolved over millions of years, gender can be fluid, sexual standards are mere social constructs, or the Bible is not an accurate history, you may need to have your “I doubt it” warning light go off. 

If the experts were half as good as they thought they were, they would be ten times better than they are.  If they were 1/1000 as accurate as the Word of God, they would be perhaps 100 times better than their track record indicates. 

 

Shark sightings in impossible places

Some years ago there was an unbelievable spike in the number of shark sightings. Sharks were being seen in numbers that were absolutely unprecedented and in locations which they had never been noticed before. It was an unbelievable increase in the number of sharks.

Not only were there more shark sightings than ever before, sharks were showing up in places where they had never been seen before. There were even shark sightings in freshwater rivers. On one occasion, there was a shark sighting in a river 120 miles inland. This sighting indicated that the shark had swam upstream, had actually crossed over a number of rapids and had jumped up a falls.

What was causing this incredible increase in the number of shark sightings? Was it a dramatic change in shark populations? Perhaps it involved a food dynamic in the oceans. Possibly there were larger and more aggressive predators in the deep waters causing sharks to come in close to the coastline and even into rivers.

The actual reason turned out to have little or nothing to do with oceanography or with the environment of the oceans’ ecosystems. The reason for all the shark sightings occurred in the study of one Peter Benchley. In 1974, Benchley wrote his first novel which became a best seller and was, in 1975, the summer blockbuster movie Jaws.  The sightings of all those sharks were the result of a movie that captivated audiences and captured imagination. After the movie Jaws, people were seeing sharks everywhere even in places where it was utterly impossible for sharks to be.

Which brings to mind this question, “What captures your imagination?”  “What dreams and goals do you have?”  Here is another question to think about, “What do you think captured the imagination of Jesus?”   If you came across Jesus alone looking at the night sky and asked, “What are you thinking about?” What might He say?  Before the universe began he thought of you and all you could be.  In the mind of the Creator were countless galaxies, but there was also you.  He thought about the rings of Saturn and the hairs on your head.  He may have thought of all the wonderful and loving things you could do.  Perhaps that is what needs to capture our imagination, the thoughts of the eternal Son for us before time began.  Maybe then we will better see what God is doing in the world around us and everywhere that we can join in.  It is better than seeing sharks.   

Do we tolerate bad priorities in our lives?

If you will tell me what choices you make, I will tell you what your priorities are.   There are times that we will say things are our priorities, but the choice is that our lives do not reflect those kinds of priorities.

Unfortunately, too many people who claim to be disciples of Christ live lives that do not reflect Christ and His kingdom as their priority. Let me share with you a funny and sad story about choices that reflect different priorities.

One day my secretary came to me and said that several of the women of the church were going to be going over the weekend for a women's retreat. I was pleased. I imagined them going to the church camp and spending the weekend in prayer, Bible study, and perhaps even fasting. What actually happened was about eight of the young mothers in the church went to Orlando and stayed in a hotel so that they could go to the first available viewing of the latest part of the Twilight saga. It was going to be a midnight showing on an IMAX screen, and they didn’t think they would be able to drive home and come to church.  So, the “women’s retreat” Twihards were willing to ditch gathering with their brothers and sisters in Christ and worshiping the Lord in order to watch an incredibly stupid movie.

Now don't start saying Charlie hates Twilight. On second thought, you can say that.  It is in my opinion one of the most repulsive, idiotic, film series in the history of humanity and I would rather go to the dump and shoot rats than watch even one episode. But even if it were a great film like  “Lord of the Rings” or “Schindler's List”, ditching worship in order to watch a movie with friends reflects skewed priorities.

I don’t believe a person is saved or lost because of their attendance in worship.  I do not believe that church people should be treated like a captive audience and those who lead churches can expect or demand attendance or participation.  What I do believe is that the Gospel is the best news ever.  I believe the Bible is compelling and amazing.  I believe a Biblical worldview is supremely elegant and beautiful.  I believe that the smartest person in all of human history, Jesus Christ, has plenty to say for us today.  And I believe that for everyone who is a disciple of Jesus, because He is so wonderful and His grace is so amazing, it would be silly to allow anything to take priority over worshiping Him and being with His people.  There is nothing better.

Perhaps we need to rethink our priorities.