You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To

One of the coolest things about starting at a new church is to find out those wonderfully serendipitously joy-giving moments, when you discover something absolutely wonderful is part of the makeup of the church. Every pastor has experienced these moments---they mostly have to do with a particular person or group who so much have their fingers on the right spot---are really in touch with the transcendent that it just blows ones mind.

Sometimes those moments may be a little different. Last week I learned that Kansas City jazz bassist James Albright is a member of McMurry. He has a regular gig, I think, at Unity Temple on the Plaza on Sundays (that, by the way, being exactly two blocks and a half blocks from my condo ). You'll have to watch this YouTube video most of the way through to see him, but here he is in a combo from last September. He is amazing as an upright bass player and electrical bass. And you can imagine, my mind is just a-goin' with ideas. He really is considered about the best jazz bassist in town. I have heard him several times over the last 10 years---my heart is happy too!

There will be other of these moments at McMurry and I intend to share them!

Sunday's Coming

I have a feeling I am behind the times in that I have not seen this, but Mike Wright-Chapman put it on his facebook page and I could not help myself. Hope it gives you a smile.

The View Across the Pond

Just a picture I took this afternoon across the pond, while standing on the driveway at the new district office. The deer didn't at all look scared, just stared back at me, and sort of acted like our cats do when they're laying on my bed.

The new office is just a lovely setting, peaceful, green and it feels like home. I hope all you HNDers will get to see it soon!

Baking Biscuits

It's Friday night at 10:05 and I think I will go to bed soon. This is evidence enough for people who know me that I am still sick. Transitioning time, no matter how good the transition, is a stress thing--you know that if you have ever taken one of the polls which tally up your stress points. Made a little more stressful are two churches which still have not received appointments yet. And the fact that I am not sleeping and I have an "acute" cold---sounds more legitimate than just a "cold" Oh, enough about me.

I am going on record here that there are a couple of advertisements that are driving me batty, which air during Cards games. One is the talking hat in the Steak n Shake commercial. The other one is the Hardees commercial above where a bunch of guys are sitting around the TV watching NASCAR, when in walks their host from the kitchen with a freshly baked biscuits and says, "anybody want a biscuit?" The guys look at him like he is a total wimp and outcast, and the Hardees voice comes on and says, "guys don't bake" meaning real men eat biscuits at their place. Who are they kidding? Real men in Harders bake biscuits every day, the ones they are trying to sell with this commercial. Not to mention their total old-world mindset that men don't do women's work. Gee. And I would guess that a few of the guys reading this could and would bake biscuits if they wanted to. And besides someone needs to teach those guys around the TV some manners when they are in other people's homes and they are offered biscuits, no matter who baked them.

Where is Gloria Steinem when you need her?

Ok, time for bed and hopefully a more hopeful attitude tomorrow. And time to welcome home my son Caleb who is back tonight from six weeks with his grandparents at the camp. And Caleb does bake biscuits and a whole lot of other things. Be proud of yourselves, baking men! Follow your call to make that red velvet cake! Make the lasagna one that will live in your wife;s mind forever! Make those cookies and eat 'em all yourself! Be who you are and don't let Hardees take it from you!!! After all, Jesus was a baker of sorts, turning those few loaves of bread and providing enough for 5000 men (plus the women and children present!) Get those oven mitts out and spill that flour! I am proud of you!!!

The FIrst Pic of McMurry Folk

Today I met with Trish and Krise Richardt, McMurry folk, to talk with Trish about worship at our church. Krise is the SPRC chair. They were very helpful. 'Tis VBS week too so there were lots of folks at the church working on set-up and decs. Looks really good!

While talking with Krise and Trish, Krise told me that when he started coming to church, and when he moved from sitting in the balcony to the nave (he didn't say nave) after he had attended for a while, he and Trish too I guess, sat on a row with older women. He took on the task of getting these older women's hymnals opened to the right page...they wanted their hymnals on the right page for the singing of the hymns, even though most knew the hymns by heart anyway. This was before the time of the screen in the sanctuary. I think Krise said that some had eyesight that was failing, but they still wanted the hymnals turned to the page...

I get that. If you have been in worship all your life, and your body is growing old, and you are nearer death than birth, it is good to hold a hymnal. It is good to know that you can still hold the book that contains the songs you have sung all your life--and some new ones too. It is good to know that the hymns you sung while standing on the pew when you were 5, your father's arm about your waist, is there, reminding you that the Everlasting Arms upon which you lean, do keep you safe and secure from all alarm. It is good to know that that hymn which was being sung when you made a personal commitment to Christ is there, to help you remember the blush of first faith reminding you that you can come to those everlasting arms with no guile or pretence, but just as you are. It is good to know that the hymn you tried to sing at the funeral, in the darkness of your husband's death, is there, reminding you always that there is a help for the helpless, and that abiding love is Jesus.

To hold that book that contains the songs of your life is like holding not just your own memories in your hands, but to hold the marvelous assurance of One who has always and will always hold you, love you as youare, and who willl be there with you when the eventide is falling fast.

And to have a young man open the book, get you on the right page, to be honored by him in such a beautiful act, is the only way that holding the book, those memories, that assurance is made more beautiful still.

Lime Green Ministry

Three days before annual conference, Jill Daniel, student pastor at Wellington UMC for the past three years, called to ask me a question: should she wear conservative brown or lime green for the commissioning service? That really is not so odd a question for her to ask me, since I consider her my friend and colleague. And if you can't ask a friend what color to wear at commissioning, who can you ask? I do not remember the first thing I said, but I ended up saying, "Yes, of course" (which is something Jill says often) ...yes, of course, wear lime green" and she did. A beautiful flowy, chiffony dress with layers and she even wore lime green jewelry. And her wonderful husband Ken wore a lime green sports shirt. They were glorious in living color. However, that is not Jill in the picture nor is it HER lime green dress....or mine.

In our short conversation, I got it that Jill was saying more than that she liked lime green better than brown. She wants her ministry to be lime green and not brown. There is a time for brown--when a non anxious presence is needed--however, I think that non-anxious presence is too often an excuse for a pastor who would rather stand around and smile and say "there-there" instead of having the courage of his or her convictions. And non-anxious presence of course is good if everybody in the church is in a ruckus. Brown is good when it is time for a wedding or a funeral or most other milestone type worship where the Solid Rock needs to be represented.

However, I, like Jill, want to have a lime green ministry, and to tell you the truth I think I have pretty much had one to this point. I now have entered the gates of metaphor just to let you know. I want to be alive and joyful in ministry; I want to dare to be a little different; I want people to know that the Lord live in my heart in loving color, in nuances of color, and that my heart is a prism through which his light bounces off and out so that it is not my own lime green folks see, but the gorgeous twinkling, sometimes muted, sometimes bold colored rays of light of the Lord.

And a note to the McMurry folks reading this---I do not own a lime green dress. But I sure am looking forward to being in a joyful, living ministry with you.

Mumbling the Words

I don't know how many Trekkies there are out there---I am not really one, but I was an early teenager when the original Star Trek series was on. One particular episode (#52) named "The Omega Glory" was really fascinating to me. Captain Kirk et al, had been lured to a planet where Yangs had fought the Kohms for centuries. When Kirk is tested to complete the words to a document that the Yangs call "holy words" you will see here what happens. This clip is about 9 minutes long, but enjoy a blast from the past

What has happened is that in this parallel planet to earth (notice the American flag in the background), Yangs and Kohms (Yankees and Communists) too had a cold war, but it ended in bitter conflict that was still going on when Captain Kirk got there. The holy words, which the Yanks thought were only for chiefs, are really the Preamble to the Constitution. The Yanks repeated the words "E Plebneesta) which in fact were "We the People."

Yes, a real stretch I would say too. Captain Kirk passionately explains that these words were for every person, even Kohms.

It really makes me think about what happens sometimes in the church. Mumbling the words, but not really claiming the meaning. Repeating creeds, or Bible verses, or hymns of the faith that we know by heart, liking the sound of them, the familiarity of them, but not really allowing Christ to infiltrate our speaking of the words with a heart felt meaning.

Most often this is not the case for us. Most of the time, we do mean what we say and sing. Sometimes in fact we are hit smack dab in the fact by what we say or sing. At Annual Conference, Michael Slaughter, author and senior pastor at Ginghamsberg United Methodist Church, preached prophetically on the need for every church to get involved in its own community. He was urging us to look again at the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats. What if God really means this? That unless we feed the hungry, comfort the sick, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned, we will be a goat in the latter days of judgment? We know the scripture, but do we just think about this, or are we out there doing it? Do we mumble the words by heart, but do not heed the words with our hands and feet?

Methinks I have been mumbling too much, and me thinks it's time to live the truth instead .

.

Twix and Tween time

My today is full...

Still appointments to make

Still pastors to listen to

Still wonderful Barbara

Still a few more meetings

A few more check requests to sign

Full of emotions

A breaking heart of a church in my district

Anger at myself that I don't "have 'em all done"

And

Satisfaction, really, that by God's grace

The district has great pastors and churches of all sizes

That hope does reign

And that mission is blossoming in beautiful ways

And the future...

Only 20 days till I become the pastor at McMurry

Till I get to love one specific bunch of folks

And preach

And hurt when they hurt

And laugh

And lead

And pray in new ways

Praise God, for yesterday and the regrets I have in some decisions I have made in the past. Praise God for today, and the responsibilities that sometimes weigh heavy, but which I still bear gladly, and Praise God for tomorrow, for a church named McMurry, for good people already welcoming me, and for another chance to pastor.