Pastoral Thought--July 30

This week I have spent a lot of time thinking and reading about joy. For joy is an essential emotion in our lives with Christ; it is a gift from God that we live into. But we cannot think about joy, and how to respond to it, or even how to pass it on, without also thinking about how prayer brings joyful ideas, words, and thoughts into our minds. While there are appropriate and necessary times to "bow our heads" in lament, or in times of need to God, I find that most often my prayers, which may begin in a self-centered arena, move into thoughts of joy the longer that I linger in the discipline. The more that I am honest with God, the more I find God revealing places and moments to reflect joyously from my day.  

For example, the guy who tailgated me today as I went to an appointment at my doctor’s office, and how also raised his hands in protest that I was only going 10 miles over the speed limit, no longer is something that I roll my eyes at or become frustrated by. Instead, the longer I spend time in prayer with God, the more I feel differently. I feel joyful that I was able to go to that appointment in a non-rushed mindset or practice. My morning, up to that point, proceeded smoothly—and that brought me joy. This unnamed man may have normally frustrated me on a normal day when I was driving, but today, I felt nothing negative rising up in me as I drove.  

The Way of a Pilgrim is a 19th century Russian work recounting the narrator’s journey as a pilgrim practicing the Jesus Prayer. For those not familiar with this prayer, the Jesus Prayer is a simple prayer that is repeated as often as needed. Tracing its roots back to 5th century Egypt, the Eastern Orthodox Church has adopted this prayer as part of their regular worship and find it helpful it moving their thoughts from places and moments of frustration (something they may define as sinful) into a posture of joy and peace. 

When you pray the Jesus Prayer, you can find a rhythm to your breathing that helps ‘pace’ how the prayer is said. Each clause being an opportunity to breath in and breath out. The text is simple: 

"Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

So in The Way of a Pilgrim, this prayer is the central guiding feature of the book. Along the journey, the narrator encounters individuals who he uses to debate or ask questions about the necessity of praying continually (taken from 1 Thessalonians 5:17). In one of those discourses, we find the Pilgrim being given this response which I think is helpful as we seek to remain joyous in a world filled with moments of frustration and resignation: 

“The soul which is interiorly united with God is full of joy and like a gentle and simple-hearted child does not judge anyone, neither the Greek, the pagan, the Jew, nor the sinner, but looks at everyone without exception with a pure eye, rejoices with the whole world, and desires that all, Greeks, Jews, and pagans, praise God."

I wonder today if God has brought before you the opportunity be joyful? Maybe something has caused frustration or sadness to grow in you? If that is the case, then what would it look like be “interiorly united with God” so that God’s joy can change your life and heart? 

Blessings

Rev. Derek

Pastoral Thought--July 29

This week we are focusing on the idea of joy and how that ‘joy’ can take shape in our lives. 

Yes we want live joyously. Yes, the joy we experience in Christ Jesus is real and personal. And yes, we want that joyful experience to be repeated in ourselves and in the church. But how do we differentiate between joy and a sense of contentment—which seems like a natural trap to address? Using yesterday’s image, how do I determine if the casual conversations that I had with my neighbors because my AirPods didn’t work well, are anything more than just a moment to be content at the order of my day? I can look up to the sky afterwards and think, “well that was nice.” What makes that moment, or these encounters, joyful in nature? 

What I am talking about is the experience of reaching a point of mystery. . . This is where joy can begin if we are willing to linger a bit in the moment. 

In a book that I cherish, Gilead, Marilynne Robinson tells the story of John Ames, an Iowa pastor writing in his journal. John knows that his life lis about at its end, as cancer has come and is taking him away from his family far earlier than expected. So, John goes about writing in his journal so that later his son will have these words to remember his father by after he is gone. I have read, and re-read sections of this book more times then I can count as the message of the book lives on with me. 

But one story sticks in my mind. Whenever I think about the book, my mind rests on the story from page 94-5 (I don’t even have to look for it among the highlights and marks on the pages). I know right where to find it. 

In this story, John is a young boy. His father, and other members of the community have been called to the burning, smoldering remains of a church. It was struck by lightening a few days ago and burned down. When they arrive embers from the fire are still visible. So what’s left needs ‘pulled down’ to protect the rest of the community from catching fire. The men work in the rain while the women prepare lunch in their wagons. The smell of pies and cakes are on John’s mind as he watches. The Bibles that can be saved are piled in one place, the hymnals in another. What cannot be salved is buried. The old pulpit is placed under a tree with a horse blanket to protect it from the rain until it can be moved again to its new home. Ash from the fire, when combined with the rain from the day, made a river of gray that covered the all of men. The rain mixing with the burns and scorches the men are dealing with. John says that it was hard to tell one from another on that day. . . 

While sitting under the wagon in a vain attempt to stay dry and play with some friends from church, John is fed a piece of charred biscuit by his father. The rain water running off his father's hat. John said it was the first time that he felt he was receiving communion as it was passed from father to son. John narrates the story in this way:

“There’s a sweetness in the experience which I don’t understand. But that only enhances the value of it. My point here is that you never do knows the actual nature even of your own experience. Or perhaps it has no fixed and certain nature. I remember my father down on his heels in the rain, water dripping from his hat, feeding me biscuit from his scorched hand. . . . In those days no grown woman ever let herself be seen with her hair undone, but that day even the grand old women had their hair falling down their backs like schoolgirls. It was so joyful . . . I mention it again because it seems to me much of my life was comprehended in that moment. . . .when I took communion from my father’s hand."  

This story was one where John could have fallen into the trap of contentment. His family was with him and they ate together. It was a productive day. But instead, John looked deeper and saw in the charred biscuit the presence of God—even if that presence wasn’t named directly. I think that is how it became a moment of joy. He found God in a place that he didn’t expect. God was present in the mystery surrounding a church ‘pull down.’ This makes me wonder, what unexpected place could you find God today if you looked at things through a different lens or perspective? 

Do you have your own ‘biscuit in the rain’ story that has shaped much of how you live and feel joy?  

Blessings

Rev. Derek

Pastoral Thought--July 28

It has been too hot to run with Luna recently. But today we finally got out together. She was overjoyed as I put on my hat, double tied my shoes laces, and went to the closet to fetch her harness. Up and down the steps she went, crying/whining in anticipation. It was finally happening!!! As I snapped the harness around her at the door, she hopped out the door and trotted as far as the leash would allow (which is about 12 feet). I selected the workout I wanted to use on my iPhone for the morning and pressed play. Peloton trainer Andy Speer’s voice came on, as did some music, and off we went trotting down the parking lot and getting ready to run to Forest Edge.

Now normally, I use a black set of earbuds when I run. The cord on those headphones is soooo long that it almost comes down to my knee—which is not safe when running. This fact presents me with choices. Do I tuck it into my shirt? Or I wind the excess cord around my iPhone. Neither is the great option but they work. Today, I thought, “Hmmm, let’s try the AirPods again.” My wireless Apple earbuds are great but I worry that they may fall out of my ear while running. And with Luna, pulling me around the street in excitement, that is not a good mix. I would probably end up sitting in the street if that happened with a mixture of embarrassment and resignation on my face and Luna wanting to run some more. But back to my day. . . 

Andy’s voice came through loud and clear in my right ear as we started warming up, but the left one. . . nothing. Silence. I ‘fiddled’ around with the left one. I tapped it. . . No change. . . Discontent. . . Reconnect. . .  Re-sync. . . . nope. I offered a silent prayer that this would work so I could run. Didn’t help. Silence in my left ear only. I thought, “okay,  this is going to be weird.” But I was 2 minutes into a run and wasn’t turning back (or more likely, Luna wasn’t willing to turn back). I hope it would fix itself. 30 minutes later and still only the right one worked. It never fixed itself. 

I wonder you have had that same experience in your day?     

The balance of what should be happening, what you should hear, how life progresses, is off and it throws the whole thing out of equilibrium for you. Expectation and reality do not mix in those places well. We have had a lot of chances to reflect on what is happening “out there” as a church. But today, as I did yesterday, I wonder if that unbalance is an opportunity to find joy in a new way? I wonder if God is waiting.  

I could not hear the trainer’s voice clearly today. The music was quieter. But it allowed me to hear traffic clearer—which is a good thing when you run with a puppy. I could monitor my own breathing better and try to calm my breath a bit. The guy who sits on his front porch some morning and I had a conversation about what he did before he was retired (he judged livestock and poultry. So he felt Luna was a beautiful dog, in his opinion. Which I would agree with). I wished a lady and her friend a good morning as they walked, and I heard he say back to me “have a nice day”—something I have not heard recently but assumed she was saying. Two girls were running and asked if they could pet Luna—I said yes. Wouldn’t have heard that if the left one was working. Maybe the lowered-volume of my day was a way for God to break in and give me the chance to see my neighbors differently and to be joyful because of them? 

C.S. Lewis said that “Joy has indeed one characteristic . . . the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again.” I find myself wondering if tomorrow I should hope my left earbud does not work so that I can experience joy, as I did today, in a consistent way. . . I wonder, can you find the places in your day when God is attempting to break through, with joy, to bless you?   

Blessings

Rev. Derek

Pastoral Thought--July 27

Every student struggles in some subjects throughout their academic career. As we know, not every concept comes naturally to our minds. While we have to work to master some subjects, others just don’t seem to settle in our minds well. 

For me, the struggle was always with geometry. It was the only class in my entire academic career (which as you know has been extensive), that I could not navigate. While other classes, and subjects brought about periods of struggle for me, geometry was the hardest thing I ever tried to tackle. No matter how long I studied, or how diligently I did outside of the class homework, or whose help I sought, the Geometric concepts never (and I do mean never) became clear in my mind. 

The only time that I did not finish a grading period with a “D” in geometry was the one grading period around Christmas when I was awarded 300 bonus points. It was our teachers gift to us to have a week of trivia that ended with bonus points being given based upon our team’s results. In that grading period, when my scores were combined with the bonus points, I received a “B-.” Like I said, I’m not very good at geometry. 

Oh, Pascal and the cursed geometry that you invented. . . how you haunt me even today. Thankfully JonMark understood geometry so I was not needed to assist with homework. He would work through it silently, and I was thankful. Emma was a different story. It seemed almost every day she asked for help, and every day, I told her that I didn’t understand the concepts. She looked at me blankly expecting that I would figure the problems out for her. I couldn’t. . .  

I bet you didn’t know that while Blaise Pascal is credited with the creation of geometry, he was also a well known as a Catholic theologian in the 17th century. After having an experience with God, Pascal began to write poetry, or open verses, expressing how the encounter between God and himself, changed Pascal forever. In the pocket of his favorite coat he had embroidered the word “FIRE.” But he didn’t explain why that was there. 

A mind that was built to understand the complexity of geometry, was held captive by the work of Jesus and the love of God. He often expressed a sense of joy to God for what God’s work in his life meant. 

He wrote:

Greatness of the human soul.

O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee,

But I have know Thee

Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy. 

This is life eternal: That they might know Thee

The only true God, and Him whom Thou has sent, Jesus Christ,

Jesus Christ,

Jesus Christ. 

I have separated myself from Him; I have fled, renounced, 

Crucified Him.

May I never be separated from Him. 

I wonder today, at the start of a new week, in the places of your day that and life that seem unclear or even impossible to navigate, if you can find Pascal’s joy? And if you find in, I wonder what God is asking you to do with that joy? 

Blessings

Rev. Derek

Pastoral Thought--July 23

As I compose these pastoral thoughts for you, they have, more or less, been carried in the same tone or voice. I wanted to share with you each day something positive, something aspirational, something biblically based, something hold onto when you hear and experience so much negativity surrounding covid-19. When the world tells you to lose hope (which seems to happen almost daily if not hourly), God offers you Christ Jesus as our hope, our grounding, our stability, our center. This choice made not so that we would just ‘forget’ about the pandemic, or its impact on our daily lives, and just hum happily down the street. Instead, I hoped that these words would help you re-focus on the God who calls Himself, Emmanuel. 

Yet part of the re-focusing process is also the needed time to self-reflect on how we are living with God and with each other. 

You and I see many people each day who are in themselves attempting to navigate this viral outbreak in many different ways. Some handle it in a healthy way. They speak about what they feel in a positive way and in their words we can hear some level of hope. But others attack on social media or in person, and we know them well. Their venom about this issue is clear—I don’t have to say much about this either. In noticing and judging how other people act in the face of this pandemic, we can fall into the trap of judgment and self-elevation. 

There is a poem entitled As the Ruin Falls. It was written by C.S. Lewis. It is more or less a confession from Lewis’ heart after a time in Sunday School. When I first read his words, I identified so strongly with the sentiments that he expressed that I had to stop mid-poem and put the poem down. It felt like Lewis was speaking directly to me, calling my name. But I assume I am not the only person who feels this way when we read these words:  

"All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through:
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.

Peace, re-assurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin:
I talk of love --a scholar's parrot may talk Greek--
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.

Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack.
I see the chasm. And everything you are was making
My heart into a bridge by which I might get back
From exile, and grow man. And now the bridge is breaking.

For this I bless you as the ruin falls. The pains
You give me are more precious than all other gains."

I invite you to use this poem today as a way to reflect back on how you are interacting with people today. How do you encounter them? I wonder if Lewis is speaking directly to you? We hope to be better, but are we living ‘better’ lives as the summer continues onward? These words sting a bit when we read them, what changes does God ask you to make today as you think and reflect? 

Blessings
Rev. Derek

Pastoral Thought--July 22

When this years VBS program was announced, I was curious to learn how the program would unfold in the face of covid-19. Would we be in the Red Phase? The Yellow? Was it possible to be in Green when VBS started? Much was unclear, and so, frustration could germinate. Then as the weeks progressed, and Butler county moved through the “phases” into Green, excitement grew about what was possible. . . as did a sense of curiosity, grow in my and the leaders of the church. And so we asked a lot of questions: 

1- What would this year’s program look like with social distance guidelines and masks? 

2- Would it be possible to care for the young people of our community as we have in previous years? 

3- And of course, all of us asked: Should we do this? 

I am happy to say that on Wednesday morning our program is going well. Our fears, or anxieties unnecessary. God is with us at VBS here at Plains. Sure, we do not have 100+ children testing our ability to teach them, or pushing us with their energy to be louder and more excited. |Learning God’s word now is more intimate and personal. Instead, we have something different that I want to reflect with you on. 

We have 20 children. They sit socially distanced apart in pews and families with masks on as they travel around the church. Those 20 children bring something personal to the program that can speak to us. Each evening when I pray for them I do not have to ‘yell’ over them. I do not get to wind them up by asking questions like: “did you have fun?” And then wait for the screams before I leave the stage. Instead, I have the chance to listen to their answers. I have the chance to interact with them personally. I am so thankful that we decided to hold our VBS program because something happens when we dwell with God and with people.

The primarily source for my doctoral studies, The Rev. Samuel Wells, wrote these words that sum up how we can encounter VBS this year. In his book, Walk Humbly, he wrote: 

"Dwell with God. Walk with God. Immerse yourself in God’s story. Open you existence to God’s essence. Every day, discover more about God’s goodness, truth, and beauty—in scripture, in history, in the world, in the universe, in happiness, in the face of tragedy, in abundant life, in the shadow of death: and call that praise. . . . Abide in the stillness such reflections yield."

(Re-read that quotation slowly this time)

The pacing at VBS is different but we are dwelling with God and immersing ourselves in the stories and growth of the children and the leaders. I wonder, where in your day today can you use Wells’ quotation to dwell with God? And what will you learn from doing so? 

Blessings

Rev. Derek

Pastoral Thought--July 21

As I am watching the rain, and enjoying how it continues to come from the heavens long after I figured it would stop, I find my mind naturally drift toward either covid-19, and all that is involved with this pandemic  or, what the future of our world/country look like in a more general sense. Back and forth my mind goes like a pendulum that seems to never find peace. 

I met a gentleman today who plays in a worship band at his local baptist church. This church has been able to meet, as we have at Plains, for some time in person. I could see a sense of contentment in his eyes. He was comforted and blessed by his faith and work in worship  . . But there was something else there to consider, if I looked. 

As we talked more he opened up. He said that the bass player of their worship band succumbed to covid-19 recently. The bass player was a young guy too. He stood in silence for a second looking at the ground through his blue homemade mask.

He went on to say that his church has a lot of anxiety right now. They don't know what to do; he doesn’t know what to do, or even how to begin mourning. The church believes what they are doing is helpful, but. . . fill in your own blank. Our conversation only lasted about 2 minutes. I had to get moving. But from that short encounter I could see that his mind was conflicted. Perhaps he is not the only one in our community who struggles in this time with how to live as a Christian??

Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica, who was a Serbian Orthodox Elder and writer, wrote in his book, Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives: 

“Our life depends on the kind of thoughts we nurture. If our thoughts are peaceful, calm, meek, and kind, then that is what our life is like. If our attention is turned to the circumstances in which we live, we are drawn into a whirlpool of thoughts and can have neither peace nor tranquility.” 

When we think about what Elder Thaddeus’ words it is important to notice that he is not saying we should not practice an indifferent mind and “don't worry be happy." Instead, even in the most conflicted situation, the ones we feel out of control with and in, perhaps how we engage those moments is impacted in how we practice of faith in Christ. Perhaps the frustration that you are feeling with covid-19 has gotten the better of you from time to time. If that is so, I wonder how Elder Thaddeus’ words could help reorient your mind today? 

Maybe if I delayed a bit longer with this young man something positive and helpful could have grown. I wonder how things could have gone differently. 

Blessings

Rev. Derek