I Wonder--April 24

In the rush for productivity, we often rush too quickly. . . We rush to be effective and be thorough. But in doing so, we might just miss the opportunity to Be the Church that Jesus asks us to be. 

I wonder when was the last time you interrupted your well-laid, well-thought out, plans to reach out to someone and share good news with them? When did you last put aside productivity and to choose to dwell with the other person?

On each Wednesday at noon I have a zoom meeting with a group of ministers. We meet for 1 hour to discuss the sermon text for Sunday and talk about general worship plans that we are making. During that meeting my iPhone rang on the table next to me. I saw the call and I read the transcript of the voicemail sit came in. The transcript told me that there was good news waiting for me--but it never said what the good news was. It was up to me to call back. 

The meeting ended at 12:50pm and I got back to work while forgetting the voicemail which I imagine is a temptation that you might fall into. After all there are things to do, and tasks to work on. Yet something in the back of my mind kept reminding me "check the voicemail. Make the call."

It was only when I did that I heard the good news--and it was well worth it! 

I felt my heart swell and my spirit lift during that call. The entirety of the call was less than 2 minutes. But I had a choice to make. I did not have to call back. I could have waited; I was busy. 

Perhaps you have the same choice running through your mind today as you read this post. 

But I encourage you to resist that temptation. You are not too busy to interrupt your day and let God break in and change you, and by extension change the other person. Make the call. Listen to message. Be the Church. 

I Wonder--April 15

As I was reading today I came across the following entry that made me stop and think. 

Yes, today is Tax Day. And yes, I do not enjoy today either. It is a day that I too complain about. But perhaps these words that I share with you below might give you a reason today to pause. They might give you a chance to think differently as you seek to live out your faith as a member of the Body of Christ. 

While thinking about Tax Day, Ryan Holiday wrote:  

"Everything we do has a toll [or price] attached to it. . . Rumors and gossip are the taxes that come from acquiring a public persona. Disagreements and occasional frustration are taxes placed on even the happiest of relationships. Theft is attack on [the] abundance and having things that other people want. Stress and problems are tariffs that attached to success. And on and on and on [this goes]. . ."

There are many things we can complain about in life and many things that we cannot escape. Instead of just complaining or bemoaning them, as we are tempted to do. Perhaps today, we have the chance to notice where our energy rests, where our attention lies. 

And as we notice this could we focus our attention away from poor choices and back toward living and acting as God intends for us? Maybe the price that we need to pay is one of following the cost of discipleship? 

I Wonder--March 27

Last night Bethesda had the opportunity to care for their community. We served our community in faith and in love by providing food to any needy individual who came to the church until we ran out of food. 

It was a night of community building and communal ministry. And I wonder if it was also a night of worship? 

James K.A. Smith says this: 

"Worship that restores us is worship that restories us." (You might want to read that again.... it is not misspelled). 

As we met with members of our community last night and as we listened to them we heard stories of their lives that they felt comfortable sharing with us. We heard stories that they were comfortable sharing--and we never pressed them for any details. 

We heard stories about their families. Stories about their Easter plans. We heard stories about teenagers just learning to drive and stories filled with the hope that families would come together around the Easter table.

We heard stories about the how Jesus would bless the community on Resurrection Sunday but that particular stories was interspersed with stories about the loss of work and the struggles of health and the struggles to make ends meet. 

As I listened to so many stories that were shared with me, and heard the accounts of stories that were shared from other church members, I worked if together, in our act of service, were we not worshipping God? Was this act of worship not something that was re-shaping the story of Bethesda, and the people of Bethesda, who gathered in the parking lot and offered a word of encouragement and blessing to their neighbors? 

We know that stories come in all shapes and sizes, perhaps as you listen to one today, it might become an act of worship that changes you because it is an act of worship. Take some time today in Holy Week to share one today. 

 

I Wonder--March 19

Many aspect of our Christian faith are just the way that they are. The practices of faith resemble what tradition taught us that they were and they are. 

But sometimes, when we linger around Christ, when we watch, and wonder, and study God's word, the Lord might just break through and ask us to look at things from a different perspective that challenges us to grow and widen our faith and gaze.  

As an example, let me tell you a story from this year's confirmation class. 

To set up the story, let me also say that I have used this process three times in confirmation. 

Previously I have handed out the same exercise and asked the students, and their mentors, to consider "The Church." I want them to 'build a church.' They are asked to make certain decisions and choices and then talk about why and how they made those choices. From there we enter into a group discussion about what a church looks like and how 'The Church' is formed and established and sustained. 

The process is straightforward and I have never had any issue with it... until I handed the assignment out this last time and one of the students remembered the passage of scripture that talks about how Jesus lives in our hearts. This student wondered: if Jesus lives in their hearts, and if Jesus walks with them everywhere they go, then does it not stand to reason that the church is not a building, but isn't the church 'me?' Am I not the church, this person reasoned? 

Now while you might roll your eyes at the teenage logic that was presented. The student was correct. 

The church is not a building. Frankly building-centric logic is what got the Pharisees into trouble with Jesus and His message. Since God lives in each of us, and God walks with us each day, wherever we commune with God can be, and should be, an active place of worship where we are molded and shaped by God. 

From a teenage question came a meaningful pause for the group. And the adults who sat among the students felt the pause grow in us as we noticed that God was breaking in.

Some things in our faith are just the way that they are. But there are also places in our faith to draw close to God and wonder if more is possible? I wonder if you can find something today in your faith and in your relationship with God that can be broadened and expanded? What might God be telling and showing you?  

I Wonder--March 14

In our Christian faith there is always room to expand and grow as we spend more and more time with the Lord. We can add a spiritual discipline to our life at any point--and God invites us to do so. We can read the Bible differently. Study the Word using a new translation or begin a new devotional practice. 

Lent is not the only time that God invites us to try something different. 

This sense of experimentation has been on display in the life of the confirmands here at Bethesda. As I have listened to them, I have heard them consider how they might augment or change how they practice their faith. In some moments they double-down on what they believe. . . but in others, I see their brows scrunch and they wonder... is this the time to try something different. Either way, their experimentation has been positive and healthy and enriching.  

From places of wonder and experimentation God can do great things. But we must have the courage to wonder what is God asking us to become. 

Consider these two examples as demonstrations that trying something new can have dramatic results: 

Georges Perec wrote an entire book without using the most common letter in the French alphabet: e. His book went on to become one of the most celebrated experimental works in modern literature. 

The painter Yves Klein decided to limit his palette to one color. This let him to discover a shade of blue no one had ever seen before. The shade itself was seen by many as effectively becoming the art itself, and was later named "International Klein Blue." 

These are just two examples of people experimenting and trying something new, something unheard of, and their efforts changed their community. 

So I wonder, what practice of your faith could you do differently, could you try? What might reshape you? It might be something you try just for a week or even a season. . . who knows the effect could end up reshaping your faith and your relationship with the Lord. 

I Wonder--March 12

Imagine with me a great runner. . . They are fast. Strong. Agile. For years they honed their form. When this person runs, their arms and legs flow smoothly. Their heart pumps fresh blood throughout their body. Their lungs send plenty of oxygen to their organs. 

Running for this person is graceful. Smooth. It is elegant. They seem to glide when they run. It is as if their feet do not even touch the earth. . . They fly. 

Now imagine it is the day of an important race. 

After years of faithful, diligent, practice, this runner comes to the starting blocks. They are locked in; ready to run and ready to perform. They blast out of the blocks establishing themselves in the lead of the race. They move to the front of the pack gaining a commanding lead when all of a sudden they crash to the ground like a sack of potatoes. 

The other runners pass them. But the runner is not deterred. They return to their feet to begin again. But this time the runner is bloodied, bruised, and broken. They stumble; they cannot regain their footing and finish dead last. 

So I wonder, is our runner whose story we just imagined a bad runner? Of course not. . . They just had a bad race. 

If that runner was part of your family, and if you cared for that person, you would comfort them. You would tend to their wounds and offer them words of encouragement and remind them that there would be another race that they could win. You might help them train and encourage them to put this bad memory behind them. You might say, "press on toward the goal."

 

And I would do the same. 

So the question for today is: do you live this way when someone in the Body of Christ falls down on the track of life, cuts their knees, bruises their soul, and finishes in last place for the day? Or do you remind them that they failed epically and offer them little if any grace when that is truly all they want and need in the moment? 

In the Christian faith God asks us to practice what the gospel teaches knowing that we will not perfect our faith. But each day, we hope and we believe in what is possible. . . and as we do, we offer grace to those who fail.   

I Wonder--February 28

Have you ever stopped to consider what God's answers to prayer sound like in your life? 

Consider them with me for a moment. . . We come to God for a variety of reasons.  This is why space needs to be created when we pray to be still. In the stillness of our hearts, we find room to let our hearts express what is deeply occurring there. Prayer is communing with God on many levels. 

But have you stopped to consider God's response. . . what does it look like and what could it should like? 

Lauren Winner once said these words: 

"Most women are 'sure to remember exactly what the OB or nurse or midwife said--positive or negative.' I wonder what Jesus heard His father say in the garden. Whatever it was let Jesus go on."

Think about that idea for a moment. In the garden Jesus pours His heart out to His Heavenly Father. We know that Jesus asks that the cup pass from His lips on more than one occasion. None of the gospels record what God in heaven said to His Son. But whatever it was, however that response took shape, it gave Jesus the resolve to continue toward the cross undeterred. 

God spoke to His Son and the Son heard it clearly. 

You see, I believe, God always answers our prayers. The challenge that we must face is are we willing to linger long enough to hear the answer. 

I wonder today if you, among a busy and perhaps painful day, can find some room to just stay where God is and listen to hear what God's answer sounds like?