If you're like me, you've been watching (and reading) the news closely and following the stories about the disaster in Japan. I live in a place where I have no idea what our brothers and sisters are going through and so it's completely out of my frame of reference. Actually, it's out of most of our frames of reference.
At a Presbytery meeting yesterday, we took an offering that gets donated to the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance program, which raises money to fund relief projects in places around the world that need it. The woman announcing the offering and its purpose reminded us that the money we donated to this program last year -- and the money we donate each year to the One Great Hour of Sharing fundraiser -- is the fund that the PDA is tapping into now to help Japan. It's a tangible way to see that the money we give doesn't just disappear into a vacuum. It's actually being used.
I must admit, I don't know a whole lot about the PDA, but I do know that the work they do is absolutely necessary, as is the money we provide through One Great Hour of Sharing. When this fundraiser, which comes up every year during the season of Lent, was announced on Sunday during worship, the man announcing it reminded the people that giving was down last year from the year before, and that's been the steady trend. I'm not sure if we'll see a reversal of that this year with Japan covering the news, but I do know that people all over the world are wondering what's going to happen next. Will Japan face a nuclear melt down? From the depths of our souls, we hope not, but the fear is there.
I haven't heard anybody asking where God is in the midst of this. Some may think the question isn't there because with all the crap going on, people are tired of asking. Others may say that we don't ask the question anymore because news like this doesn't shock us anymore; this kind of news is just a part of our new norm. The best thing I heard was from a fellow pastor who said she doesn't hear too many people asking where God is because we know where God is; God is weeping over His children of all walks of life, regardless of their beliefs. God hears the cries of human suffering and God weeps with those who must endure suffering. God, my friend said, doesn't take a back seat when suffering happens; God steps into the driver's seat to steer while we cover our faces and cry out, "God, o God, why have you forsaken me?"
What I do hear is people asking what they can do. The PDA website has what they call a "GAP" program that we can access when we're asking how we can help. We can Give, Act, and Pray. Above all, pray. Give or Act as you are able, but keep our brothers and sisters in prayer. Keep loved ones in prayer. Keep friends in prayer. Keep a nameless, faceless human being in prayer and in your prayer, remind them that in the midst of mourning, God is there. In times of crisis and disaster, God is there. Wherever people are, God is there, whether we notice Him or not. It's my hope that we notice Him.
My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan and with the loved ones and friends of people in Japan who are living in other places, that they might find comfort and peace in this time of trial. I pray for God's continued presence and mercies to run deep so that we realize that the well-spring of grace will never run dry.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Becki
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Daylight Savings Time
I'm not a morning person these days by any stretch of the imagination, but on the morning of Daylight Savings Time when we "spring ahead," I'm particuarly grouchy. I like waking up with the sun, not before it.
The real problem is that I don't usually sleep well the night we actually change the clocks. It's not so bad in the fall because I know if the alarm on my phone decides to commit mutiny and not work, I have an hour to fool around with. In the springtime, however, if my alarm doesn't go off, I could be in trouble because then I'm running an hour late. Thus, the night we change the clocks I worry about my phone not changing like it's supposed to, and then I don't get up on time, and then I'm late for church, and I'm the pastor so you can see how that would be a problem.
(remember my post about worrying? This is what I mean by taking my own advice)
So I don't sleep well the night we change the clocks. The result this morning was I ended up waking up about ten minutes before my alarm actually was scheduled to go off, and I was delighted to look over and see that my phone had actually changed over (it always does, like a good phone). I laid in bed, in the dark, wishing I had that extra hour and pining for the fall when we get to "fall back" and gain an hour of sleep.
And then I heard something. Something I haven't really heard in a while. In the stillness of the dark, early morning, I heard birds outside my window, singing.
Praise God for the birds. It was the birds this morning that made me find the silver lining in my Daylight Savings Time cloud. DST means spring is coming. DST means we're almost done with being nervous about whether or not we'll have another blizzard before the summer. The flowers are about to (and some already are) showing their sprouts and pretty soon some green will find its way back onto the barren trees. The yearly resurrection of everything that vanished in October, from birds to the bees to the flowers, is slowly making its way back to our world. Suddenly DST becomes a beautiful thing.
That doesn't mean I'm any more awake now than I was an hour ago when I got up, but I'm thankful for the birds that were singing outside my window. It reminded me that God is good and despite getting up before the sun, God is there even in the wee hours of the morning.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Becki
The real problem is that I don't usually sleep well the night we actually change the clocks. It's not so bad in the fall because I know if the alarm on my phone decides to commit mutiny and not work, I have an hour to fool around with. In the springtime, however, if my alarm doesn't go off, I could be in trouble because then I'm running an hour late. Thus, the night we change the clocks I worry about my phone not changing like it's supposed to, and then I don't get up on time, and then I'm late for church, and I'm the pastor so you can see how that would be a problem.
(remember my post about worrying? This is what I mean by taking my own advice)
So I don't sleep well the night we change the clocks. The result this morning was I ended up waking up about ten minutes before my alarm actually was scheduled to go off, and I was delighted to look over and see that my phone had actually changed over (it always does, like a good phone). I laid in bed, in the dark, wishing I had that extra hour and pining for the fall when we get to "fall back" and gain an hour of sleep.
And then I heard something. Something I haven't really heard in a while. In the stillness of the dark, early morning, I heard birds outside my window, singing.
Praise God for the birds. It was the birds this morning that made me find the silver lining in my Daylight Savings Time cloud. DST means spring is coming. DST means we're almost done with being nervous about whether or not we'll have another blizzard before the summer. The flowers are about to (and some already are) showing their sprouts and pretty soon some green will find its way back onto the barren trees. The yearly resurrection of everything that vanished in October, from birds to the bees to the flowers, is slowly making its way back to our world. Suddenly DST becomes a beautiful thing.
That doesn't mean I'm any more awake now than I was an hour ago when I got up, but I'm thankful for the birds that were singing outside my window. It reminded me that God is good and despite getting up before the sun, God is there even in the wee hours of the morning.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Becki
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Worry-wart
Yeah I am. I admit it. I worry about stuff. I worry about everything. I've always been a worrier, and I come from a very long line of professional worriers. The pay and the benefits are awful, but it's a full-time gig.
I preached about this on Sunday when I preached from Matthew 6. It was one of those sermons that pastors preach to the congregation, but really it's a sermon to ourselves. That happens sometimes. We intend for our sermons to reach the masses, but sometimes it's we pastors ourselves who really need to hear what the Spirit is speaking through us. This Sunday, the Spirit was telling to stop worry about stuff I can't control and just focus on living my life as God calls me to live.
That is so hard to do!!! Sometimes the stuff we worry about is legit, meaning we really should worry about it. It's easy enough to say, 'Well, it's in God's hands' as if that truly makes the worry go away. As human beings, we are conditioned to worry, so becoming non-worriers is really a matter of reconditioning.
So how do we recondition ourselves to become non-worriers?
Here again, I'm writing this more for me because I've still got a lot on my mind and apparently I didn't take myself seriously when I said it the first time last Sunday.
We recondition ourselves by taking a proactive approach to facing worry head on. Using money as an example -- because it's getting deeper into tax season and in the present state of the economy, that's an area most of us struggle with -- here's how the thought process can go:
Step One: Naming the emotion and the thing causing that emotion.
Example: I am feeling anxious. The cause of my anxiety is money.
Step Two: Brainstorming ways to control the cause of the worry.
Example: I'm feeling anxious about money. What can I do about it? I can create a budget that shows me where my money is going, how I'm using it, and how successful (or unsuccessful) I am at saving it. Once I have a physical way to see my income and expenses, I can brainstorm new ways to save money in the places I can control (get a lower-priced cell phone plan, walk instead of driving to save $ on gas, call credit card companies to see about lowering monthly payments, but watch out for interest that makes you pay more in the long run).
Step Three: Put a verbal phrase to reality.
Example: In reality, there are some aspects of the income and expenses that I can change. There are some that I can't. I have to accept that and take a proactive approach to the things I can change.
Step Four: Pray about it.
Example: Gracious God, creator of all things, help me to remember that anything I have in this life is only mine for a little while. Encourage me and strengthen me as I strive to have serenity to accep the things I cannot change, the courage to change what I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. God all things are yours. I am yours. Help me to see all the ways that I am truly blessed. Amen.
Step Five: Move on.
You've faced it. You've prayed about it. Now move on with your life.
It's a process, like anything else. It takes work. But it's a simple way to look at reconditioning ourselves to stop worrying about things we have no control over. There will always be things that are out of our control. It's justa fact of life. That's the reality of the universe. God's in control, not us. As long as we continue to try to control things we have no control over, we will continue to be plagued by chronic anxiety.
Like I said, in some ways I'm preaching more to myself than to you. That being said, maybe you'll still find this helpful.
Christ has given us this promise that no matter what road we're walking, we're not going at it alone. In John 14, Jesus tells the disciples that he's going somewhere they can't follow. They will, however, follow soon. Thomas pipes up, "We don't know where you're going. How can we possibly know the way without you?" Jesus says, "I am the Way." For a while after Christ ascended back into Heaven, the new sect that would eventually become Christianity was called "The Way." In John 14, Jesus promised that as long as we walk in The Way, we will never be alone because the "advocate," the Holy Spirit, walks with us, teaching us what we need to know. Think about the inspirational story "Footprints" (search for it on Google if you don't know it). Sometimes we only see one set of foot prints, and it can feel pretty lonely when we forget that when we see one set of footprints, it's because God carries us.
Faith and trust should be easy, but they're not. They're things we have to cultivate and condition ourselves with. When we have that spirit of simplicty and cultivate that spirit of thanksgiving, and when we take a moment to really see all the ways that we are truly blessed, we realize that God does keep that promise to give us what we need.
God created us in love, taking the time and care to form each and every one of us piece by piece by piece. We do the best we can with what we have been given, and that's all we can do.
May God grant you peace of mind and give you courage as you strive to cultivate a spirit of thanksgiving and contentment.
I'll be right there with you, struggling side by side with you, praying with you.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Becki
I preached about this on Sunday when I preached from Matthew 6. It was one of those sermons that pastors preach to the congregation, but really it's a sermon to ourselves. That happens sometimes. We intend for our sermons to reach the masses, but sometimes it's we pastors ourselves who really need to hear what the Spirit is speaking through us. This Sunday, the Spirit was telling to stop worry about stuff I can't control and just focus on living my life as God calls me to live.
That is so hard to do!!! Sometimes the stuff we worry about is legit, meaning we really should worry about it. It's easy enough to say, 'Well, it's in God's hands' as if that truly makes the worry go away. As human beings, we are conditioned to worry, so becoming non-worriers is really a matter of reconditioning.
So how do we recondition ourselves to become non-worriers?
Here again, I'm writing this more for me because I've still got a lot on my mind and apparently I didn't take myself seriously when I said it the first time last Sunday.
We recondition ourselves by taking a proactive approach to facing worry head on. Using money as an example -- because it's getting deeper into tax season and in the present state of the economy, that's an area most of us struggle with -- here's how the thought process can go:
Step One: Naming the emotion and the thing causing that emotion.
Example: I am feeling anxious. The cause of my anxiety is money.
Step Two: Brainstorming ways to control the cause of the worry.
Example: I'm feeling anxious about money. What can I do about it? I can create a budget that shows me where my money is going, how I'm using it, and how successful (or unsuccessful) I am at saving it. Once I have a physical way to see my income and expenses, I can brainstorm new ways to save money in the places I can control (get a lower-priced cell phone plan, walk instead of driving to save $ on gas, call credit card companies to see about lowering monthly payments, but watch out for interest that makes you pay more in the long run).
Step Three: Put a verbal phrase to reality.
Example: In reality, there are some aspects of the income and expenses that I can change. There are some that I can't. I have to accept that and take a proactive approach to the things I can change.
Step Four: Pray about it.
Example: Gracious God, creator of all things, help me to remember that anything I have in this life is only mine for a little while. Encourage me and strengthen me as I strive to have serenity to accep the things I cannot change, the courage to change what I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. God all things are yours. I am yours. Help me to see all the ways that I am truly blessed. Amen.
Step Five: Move on.
You've faced it. You've prayed about it. Now move on with your life.
It's a process, like anything else. It takes work. But it's a simple way to look at reconditioning ourselves to stop worrying about things we have no control over. There will always be things that are out of our control. It's justa fact of life. That's the reality of the universe. God's in control, not us. As long as we continue to try to control things we have no control over, we will continue to be plagued by chronic anxiety.
Like I said, in some ways I'm preaching more to myself than to you. That being said, maybe you'll still find this helpful.
Christ has given us this promise that no matter what road we're walking, we're not going at it alone. In John 14, Jesus tells the disciples that he's going somewhere they can't follow. They will, however, follow soon. Thomas pipes up, "We don't know where you're going. How can we possibly know the way without you?" Jesus says, "I am the Way." For a while after Christ ascended back into Heaven, the new sect that would eventually become Christianity was called "The Way." In John 14, Jesus promised that as long as we walk in The Way, we will never be alone because the "advocate," the Holy Spirit, walks with us, teaching us what we need to know. Think about the inspirational story "Footprints" (search for it on Google if you don't know it). Sometimes we only see one set of foot prints, and it can feel pretty lonely when we forget that when we see one set of footprints, it's because God carries us.
Faith and trust should be easy, but they're not. They're things we have to cultivate and condition ourselves with. When we have that spirit of simplicty and cultivate that spirit of thanksgiving, and when we take a moment to really see all the ways that we are truly blessed, we realize that God does keep that promise to give us what we need.
God created us in love, taking the time and care to form each and every one of us piece by piece by piece. We do the best we can with what we have been given, and that's all we can do.
May God grant you peace of mind and give you courage as you strive to cultivate a spirit of thanksgiving and contentment.
I'll be right there with you, struggling side by side with you, praying with you.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Becki
Friday, February 18, 2011
Ponderances with Paul
The Apostle Paul, not the Beatle Paul.
I've lived in a couple of different types of homes. My first home, although I can't remember it except for small little shadows of images somewhere in the back of my mind, was a mobile home on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware. My parents and I lived there for about two years until my brother was born, and then we moved into a one-story rancher in New Jersey. The house belonged to my great-grandparents before my parents bought it, and it is in that house that my parents and sister still live to this day. There was a brief period in 1993 when I lived in a two-story house with my parents, brother, and grandparents. Being in a two-story house is a lot different from being in a small rancher. We did that for about three or four months while our house underwent some major repairs following a house fire.
After high school graduation, I began life in a dorm. Even dorms come in different styles. My first dorm was a small room with no air conditioning, though we did have heat. I shared the room with another girl and we had community style bathrooms that was shared between the forty girls on the floor. My senior dorm was much nicer, with carpet and temperature control and defined separation between my side and my roommate's side. In the senior dorms, I only had to share a bathroom with my roommate, which was much easier when it came to coordinating shower schedules. In seminary, it was back to community style bathrooms, but I didn't have a roommate, so that was a plus.
Now I live in a one-level two-bedroom apartment by myself. I have neighbors around me, but I'm pretty much on my own in my adult life.
Each of us has experienced a kind of home, whether it's in a small farmhouse cottage, a one-story-rancher, a city row house, or a huge mansion with more space than you could ever want. Some people make their home on the city streets under bridges and in alleys. We all try to do the best we can with what we've been given, for the most part.
It's easy to identify what kind of a home certain creatures live in. I recently watched an episode of Barney (the purple dinosaur, yes...stop judging me! Okay. I'll pause while you laugh. Okay, that's enough.) and they were talking about different kinds of homes that animals live in. Birds live in nests, fish live under the sea, dogs have dog houses, etc.
It's a lot harder for us to say what kind of house God lives in.
Think about that for a second. Where does God live? If you ask a child where God lives, you get all kinds of creative answers: "In the sky" "Up in Heaven" etc. Our concept of where God lives is what I call a tangible abstract: We don't know what it looks like (hence the abstraction) but we come up with a concrete answer that we can get our heads around (that's the tangible).
Does God really live anywhere?
In biblical history, God lived in the temple. At least, that's what the Israelites thought. When David wanted to build a house for God in 2 Samuel 7, the prophet Nathan speaks on God's behalf: Did God ever ask to have a house made of cedar? No. Up to that point, God lived in the tabernacle, a big mobile tent and the symbolic nature of the tent was the idea that it could be moved: God could go wherever the Israelites went, regardless of what land they occupied. Granted, God follows in the next breath by saying that one of King David's offspring will build God's temple. When Solomon oversees the temple (I can't bring myself to say that Solomon built it because the reality is that Solomon didn't actually get his hands dirty...that's what slaves were for.) construction in 2 Kings, he declares before the people, "Will God indeed dwell here on the earth? Even the heaven and the highest heavens cannot contain you much less this house that I have built." Solomon got that God didn't dwell in the temple. God's presence could be in the temple and his eye could be over the temple, but God wasn't going to actually set up shop in the temple.
But the Israelites can't get their head around that. God lives in the temple. Period. Where the temple is, God will be also. That's what the Assyrians and Babylonians were counting on when they conquered them. Take the people away from the their land and their temple, you take them away from the God, leaving them godless and, hopefully, easier to subdue. And then in Ezekiel 10, God's glory leaves the temple not only because bad things were going on in the temple, but because God cannot be contained in a temple. There is no corner of the world where God's creation can go to get away from God. Wherever we are, God sees. Whatever we do, God sees.
Which brings me to Paul. In I Corinthians 3, Paul reminds the people of Corinth that Christ is their sure foundation and the work they do as a community of faith must be done with materials strong enough to build on that foundation. A time will come, Paul says, when the materials that weren't done with Christ in mind as the foundation will burn away and turn to ash. But the materials that were done with Christ in mind as the foundation will survive and the builders' rewards will be great.
But still, this does not mean that God lives in a house. This builder bit is a metaphor. A figure of speech. Like "water under the bridge."
Pauls says in verse 16, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you?" Many of us can remember that little ditty from our early Sunday school years: "I am the church, you are the church, and we are the church together." I firmly believe that to be true. God dwells in each of us individually, but the body of Christ really thrives when we come together corporately. God is in me, God is in you, and God is even in the people you might not expect to be a dwelling place of the Spirit of the living God. As temples of God, it is our calling in life to discern whether or not the materials we are using to build on the foundation of Christ are solid materials, or wood that is rotting away.
If you act with Christ as your guide, and do everything with the Spirit of Christ in mind, those materials will be solid. If you act with hate or chaos in your heart, if there is deceit and malice, those materials will rot away and the building will not continue to stand. That foundation is solid, but it's our calling as Christians to make sure that we are building up the walls so that when God puts on the roof at the end of days, we have a structure that God can say, "Well done, good and faithful servants."
Is it easy? Eh. Depends on how you look at it. It takes work, for sure. That's why community is so important. But it's worth it. In all that we do, whether in word or in deed, let us do it all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to the Father who is through him.
Happy building!
Peace,
Pastor Becki
I've lived in a couple of different types of homes. My first home, although I can't remember it except for small little shadows of images somewhere in the back of my mind, was a mobile home on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware. My parents and I lived there for about two years until my brother was born, and then we moved into a one-story rancher in New Jersey. The house belonged to my great-grandparents before my parents bought it, and it is in that house that my parents and sister still live to this day. There was a brief period in 1993 when I lived in a two-story house with my parents, brother, and grandparents. Being in a two-story house is a lot different from being in a small rancher. We did that for about three or four months while our house underwent some major repairs following a house fire.
After high school graduation, I began life in a dorm. Even dorms come in different styles. My first dorm was a small room with no air conditioning, though we did have heat. I shared the room with another girl and we had community style bathrooms that was shared between the forty girls on the floor. My senior dorm was much nicer, with carpet and temperature control and defined separation between my side and my roommate's side. In the senior dorms, I only had to share a bathroom with my roommate, which was much easier when it came to coordinating shower schedules. In seminary, it was back to community style bathrooms, but I didn't have a roommate, so that was a plus.
Now I live in a one-level two-bedroom apartment by myself. I have neighbors around me, but I'm pretty much on my own in my adult life.
Each of us has experienced a kind of home, whether it's in a small farmhouse cottage, a one-story-rancher, a city row house, or a huge mansion with more space than you could ever want. Some people make their home on the city streets under bridges and in alleys. We all try to do the best we can with what we've been given, for the most part.
It's easy to identify what kind of a home certain creatures live in. I recently watched an episode of Barney (the purple dinosaur, yes...stop judging me! Okay. I'll pause while you laugh. Okay, that's enough.) and they were talking about different kinds of homes that animals live in. Birds live in nests, fish live under the sea, dogs have dog houses, etc.
It's a lot harder for us to say what kind of house God lives in.
Think about that for a second. Where does God live? If you ask a child where God lives, you get all kinds of creative answers: "In the sky" "Up in Heaven" etc. Our concept of where God lives is what I call a tangible abstract: We don't know what it looks like (hence the abstraction) but we come up with a concrete answer that we can get our heads around (that's the tangible).
Does God really live anywhere?
In biblical history, God lived in the temple. At least, that's what the Israelites thought. When David wanted to build a house for God in 2 Samuel 7, the prophet Nathan speaks on God's behalf: Did God ever ask to have a house made of cedar? No. Up to that point, God lived in the tabernacle, a big mobile tent and the symbolic nature of the tent was the idea that it could be moved: God could go wherever the Israelites went, regardless of what land they occupied. Granted, God follows in the next breath by saying that one of King David's offspring will build God's temple. When Solomon oversees the temple (I can't bring myself to say that Solomon built it because the reality is that Solomon didn't actually get his hands dirty...that's what slaves were for.) construction in 2 Kings, he declares before the people, "Will God indeed dwell here on the earth? Even the heaven and the highest heavens cannot contain you much less this house that I have built." Solomon got that God didn't dwell in the temple. God's presence could be in the temple and his eye could be over the temple, but God wasn't going to actually set up shop in the temple.
But the Israelites can't get their head around that. God lives in the temple. Period. Where the temple is, God will be also. That's what the Assyrians and Babylonians were counting on when they conquered them. Take the people away from the their land and their temple, you take them away from the God, leaving them godless and, hopefully, easier to subdue. And then in Ezekiel 10, God's glory leaves the temple not only because bad things were going on in the temple, but because God cannot be contained in a temple. There is no corner of the world where God's creation can go to get away from God. Wherever we are, God sees. Whatever we do, God sees.
Which brings me to Paul. In I Corinthians 3, Paul reminds the people of Corinth that Christ is their sure foundation and the work they do as a community of faith must be done with materials strong enough to build on that foundation. A time will come, Paul says, when the materials that weren't done with Christ in mind as the foundation will burn away and turn to ash. But the materials that were done with Christ in mind as the foundation will survive and the builders' rewards will be great.
But still, this does not mean that God lives in a house. This builder bit is a metaphor. A figure of speech. Like "water under the bridge."
Pauls says in verse 16, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you?" Many of us can remember that little ditty from our early Sunday school years: "I am the church, you are the church, and we are the church together." I firmly believe that to be true. God dwells in each of us individually, but the body of Christ really thrives when we come together corporately. God is in me, God is in you, and God is even in the people you might not expect to be a dwelling place of the Spirit of the living God. As temples of God, it is our calling in life to discern whether or not the materials we are using to build on the foundation of Christ are solid materials, or wood that is rotting away.
If you act with Christ as your guide, and do everything with the Spirit of Christ in mind, those materials will be solid. If you act with hate or chaos in your heart, if there is deceit and malice, those materials will rot away and the building will not continue to stand. That foundation is solid, but it's our calling as Christians to make sure that we are building up the walls so that when God puts on the roof at the end of days, we have a structure that God can say, "Well done, good and faithful servants."
Is it easy? Eh. Depends on how you look at it. It takes work, for sure. That's why community is so important. But it's worth it. In all that we do, whether in word or in deed, let us do it all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to the Father who is through him.
Happy building!
Peace,
Pastor Becki
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Interfaith Harmony Week
The United Nations designated the first week in February as Interfaith Harmony Week. While I think we should be respecting and learning about other religions at any time of the year, this is the week set aside to really raise awareness and call our attention to how we interact with our brothers and sisters of other religions.
So this week I decided that I would spend a little time learning about another religion. Where I live in Illinois is not a religiously diverse community. I live in the kind of small town where the mayor put a giant nativity scene in the downtown square. There are religiously diverse communities outside of this small town and not too far, but this town itself is not that diverse, so I don't interact a lot with people of other faiths.
The religion I decided to spend time with this week was Buddhism. I knew very little about this faith, so I watched a PBS documentary and did a little online reading. It's a fascinating religion. Buddhism entered the world long before Christianity did, but it's fascinating to think about the parallels between stories and aspects of the Buddhist faith that correspond to the Christian faith. There are things about Buddha's life, for example, that parallel stories about the life of Jesus Christ (see the story of how Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by Satan vs. the stories of how Buddha was tempted by the god of desire). Obviously there are areas in which Christianity and Buddhism differ radically, but I've learned overtime that the best way to learn about your own faith is to study the faith of another. Here's what I learned about my own faith.
I could not be a Buddhist, but I have a profound respect for their ability to find joy wherever and whenever they are. In the Christian tradition, we live this life in preparation for the life that comes after. We deal a lot wiht the question of what comes after. Often we ask, "What happens when we die?". We believe that what happens when we die is we are united in mind and spirit to our Creator. At least, we hope that we have lived lives that lead us down that path to that end. The Buddhist tradition does not ask what comes after because there is no need to. It's about being content in the moment and finding joy in everything around you. I suspect most Americans would have a hard time being Buddhist because culturally we have an almost impossible time finding contentment in anything.
Learning about the Buddhist tradition, though, made me think about my own faith and how much we do concern ourselves with the future. We put a lot of stock in stuff and the American Dream has the mentality of "Whoever dies with the most toys wins." Ideally, the Christian is able to put aside the wants of today for the needs of tomorrow. Ideally, God is enough, but rarely is that the case these days.
In my quest to simplify my life, I've decided to adopt some aspects of Buddhism. I don't mean I'm going to convert to Buddhism and adopt these philosophies, but I want to attempt to be more content with what is going on in this moment and stop worrying so much about a future that may or may not come to pass. We can affect change, but it is God who brings us where we need to be.
Specifically, I've decided to adopt three of the four principle noble truths of the Buddhist faith: first, that suffering (or discontentment) exists in the world. Second, suffering has a cause. Third, you can be free of suffering by understanding the cause of suffering. The Buddhists say that the cause of suffering is coupled to the stumbling block of desire. That's not to say that desire is a bad thing, because the human being was created to desire things. But if we turn to our own Christian faith and believe what the the Westminster Shorter Catechism says -- that the chief end of mankind is to serve God and enjoy Him forever -- then we take steps in our life to ask ourselves if the things we desire are really things we should be desiring.
What is it in your own life that is blocking you from finding joy? Eternal joy is a life with Christ. Are there things in your life that block you from seeking that eternal joy? What causes you discontentment? Is it worth it?
I'm over simplifying the noble truths, of course, and I'm not suggesting that we should convert to Buddhism. I'm simply suggesting that we should take our cue from our Buddhist brothers and sisters and find ways to seek contentment in mind, body, and spirit from the Creator that took such great care to put together these bodies we have and the world we have to live in. Maybe it will help us focus on the things in our lives that really are important.
Interfaith Harmony Week is over, but the learning never stops. Take some time to explore another religion. Like I said, sometimes the best way to learn about our own faith is to learn about the faith of others. There's no better way to walk with Christ than to fully understand why you've chosen to walk with Christ.
May you find peace and harmony in your lives this week and always and may God hold you to the light as you continue to discover new things about how your faith is your own.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Becki
So this week I decided that I would spend a little time learning about another religion. Where I live in Illinois is not a religiously diverse community. I live in the kind of small town where the mayor put a giant nativity scene in the downtown square. There are religiously diverse communities outside of this small town and not too far, but this town itself is not that diverse, so I don't interact a lot with people of other faiths.
The religion I decided to spend time with this week was Buddhism. I knew very little about this faith, so I watched a PBS documentary and did a little online reading. It's a fascinating religion. Buddhism entered the world long before Christianity did, but it's fascinating to think about the parallels between stories and aspects of the Buddhist faith that correspond to the Christian faith. There are things about Buddha's life, for example, that parallel stories about the life of Jesus Christ (see the story of how Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by Satan vs. the stories of how Buddha was tempted by the god of desire). Obviously there are areas in which Christianity and Buddhism differ radically, but I've learned overtime that the best way to learn about your own faith is to study the faith of another. Here's what I learned about my own faith.
I could not be a Buddhist, but I have a profound respect for their ability to find joy wherever and whenever they are. In the Christian tradition, we live this life in preparation for the life that comes after. We deal a lot wiht the question of what comes after. Often we ask, "What happens when we die?". We believe that what happens when we die is we are united in mind and spirit to our Creator. At least, we hope that we have lived lives that lead us down that path to that end. The Buddhist tradition does not ask what comes after because there is no need to. It's about being content in the moment and finding joy in everything around you. I suspect most Americans would have a hard time being Buddhist because culturally we have an almost impossible time finding contentment in anything.
Learning about the Buddhist tradition, though, made me think about my own faith and how much we do concern ourselves with the future. We put a lot of stock in stuff and the American Dream has the mentality of "Whoever dies with the most toys wins." Ideally, the Christian is able to put aside the wants of today for the needs of tomorrow. Ideally, God is enough, but rarely is that the case these days.
In my quest to simplify my life, I've decided to adopt some aspects of Buddhism. I don't mean I'm going to convert to Buddhism and adopt these philosophies, but I want to attempt to be more content with what is going on in this moment and stop worrying so much about a future that may or may not come to pass. We can affect change, but it is God who brings us where we need to be.
Specifically, I've decided to adopt three of the four principle noble truths of the Buddhist faith: first, that suffering (or discontentment) exists in the world. Second, suffering has a cause. Third, you can be free of suffering by understanding the cause of suffering. The Buddhists say that the cause of suffering is coupled to the stumbling block of desire. That's not to say that desire is a bad thing, because the human being was created to desire things. But if we turn to our own Christian faith and believe what the the Westminster Shorter Catechism says -- that the chief end of mankind is to serve God and enjoy Him forever -- then we take steps in our life to ask ourselves if the things we desire are really things we should be desiring.
What is it in your own life that is blocking you from finding joy? Eternal joy is a life with Christ. Are there things in your life that block you from seeking that eternal joy? What causes you discontentment? Is it worth it?
I'm over simplifying the noble truths, of course, and I'm not suggesting that we should convert to Buddhism. I'm simply suggesting that we should take our cue from our Buddhist brothers and sisters and find ways to seek contentment in mind, body, and spirit from the Creator that took such great care to put together these bodies we have and the world we have to live in. Maybe it will help us focus on the things in our lives that really are important.
Interfaith Harmony Week is over, but the learning never stops. Take some time to explore another religion. Like I said, sometimes the best way to learn about our own faith is to learn about the faith of others. There's no better way to walk with Christ than to fully understand why you've chosen to walk with Christ.
May you find peace and harmony in your lives this week and always and may God hold you to the light as you continue to discover new things about how your faith is your own.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Becki
Saturday, January 29, 2011
We Remember
In 2005, the United Nations designated January 27 as Holocaust Remembrance Day in commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp (the Soviet army liberated the camp in 1945). Last Sunday, a teenager in my church came and sat down in my office and asked me some tough questions about God. Among his questions was: "Where was God during the Holocaust?"
Tough question. Impossible question, even.
I'm reading a book right now by Elie Wiesel called "The Night Trilogy." The first part of the book is Wiesel's memoir about his life in the death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. The second and third parts are fictional stories that he has used as his way of processing the memories that haunt him. I can remember going to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. when I was in college and seeing the terrible things that human beings did to other human beings.
Where I'm living in Illinois is very close to Peoria, Illinois. At an outdoor shopping outlet mall in Peoria, there is a Holocaust memorial. There are two parts to the memorial. The first section has 18 glass containers shaped like the Star of David. The cases together contain 6 million buttons. These are buttons that you would find on a button down shirt or on a pair of jeans. Each button is different. This part symbolizes the six million murdered Jews. The second part of the memorial has five glass cases shaped like triangles to symbolize five million enemies of the Nazi state who were also murdered. If you stand in the center of the memorial, you are faced with a total of eleven million buttons. It's an incredible feeling to be standing in the middle of eleven million buttons and realize that each button is differnet, symbolizing a unique individual that lost his or her life to something so horrifying.
It's mind-boggling to think that a human being is capable of doing to another human being what people did to each other during the Holocaust. The people who suffered in the concentration camps were not even seen as people, but as disgusting dogs who deserved to die like disgusting dogs. When it was over, the world made a committment to make sure that nothing in history would ever even come close to the Holocaust ever again. We know that if we don't learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.
Which makes my heart ache when I look at the world and still see genocide going on. Rowanda. Darfur. And now there are riots and violence happening in Egypt and Tunisia. I know we're not at a point where we can compare what's going on in Egypt and Tunisia right now to the Holocaust -- not even close -- and it is my sincere hope and prayer that we never GET to that point. At what point can we say that we as a human race have grown up and learned to get along with each other? We can agree to disagree. What kind of a god asks his people to kill and make other people suffer on his behalf?
Not the kind of god I know and follow. The Nazis believed -- Hitler believed -- that wiping out the Jewish people was what God wanted them to do. And so we end where we began, with the teenager in my church asking me where God was during the Holocaust.
Did God allow the Holocaust to happen? Yes. I believe that He did. And here's why: God gave human beings the free gift of free will. The problem is that it turns out free will comes with a very expensive price tag. Put in the wrong hands, free will can spiral out of control and we interpret the God of love as a God who asks us to wipe out entire races.
I submit into evidence the cruscades.
The Holocaust happened because human beings took what was given as a gift and used it for evil. Terrible evil. God allowed it to happen because if God stopped it, we cannot say that we have free will, and I believe that we have free will. I also believe that God heard the cries of His people and cried wept with them in their suffering. That's where God was during the Holocaust: weeping with His people. And praise God that other people used their free will to get the Nazis out of power because nobody deserves to have happen to them what happened to the people who lost themselves to the Holocaust.
It's easy to say this now from my perspective because I wasn't alive then. I wasn't in the Holocaust and I'm not Jewish. So it's easy for me to say that. If I wasn't a Christian and I had suffered in the Holocaust, I might not be saying this. I might not believe in God anymore. I don't know if I would be strong enough to believe in God if I had been a victim of the Holocaust. What I do know is that the human race has to step up and remember the Holocaust. We have to speak out against those who say it didn't happen. This is NOT a conspiracy theory. This actually happened. It is a hideous part of the history of the human race. Genocide is worse than cannibalism. We MUST learn from our history or we WILL be doomed to repeat it.
I don't think world peace needs to be an impossible dream. I think that if we are to live as co-creators of God's created reality, we can find a way to live in harmony with each other and respect each other's ideals. We don't have to agree. But we don't have to kill each other over our disagreements, either.
Remember the Holocaust and continue to pray for those in the world that are persecuted because they believe something different than someone else. My hope and my prayer is that the human race can find its common ground not in the same God and not in the same political system, but in the same foundation of the human existence: we want peace.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Becki
my picture of the Holocaust Memorial in Peoria with the buttons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/indifferentchildoftheearth/5046199608/
Tough question. Impossible question, even.
I'm reading a book right now by Elie Wiesel called "The Night Trilogy." The first part of the book is Wiesel's memoir about his life in the death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. The second and third parts are fictional stories that he has used as his way of processing the memories that haunt him. I can remember going to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. when I was in college and seeing the terrible things that human beings did to other human beings.
Where I'm living in Illinois is very close to Peoria, Illinois. At an outdoor shopping outlet mall in Peoria, there is a Holocaust memorial. There are two parts to the memorial. The first section has 18 glass containers shaped like the Star of David. The cases together contain 6 million buttons. These are buttons that you would find on a button down shirt or on a pair of jeans. Each button is different. This part symbolizes the six million murdered Jews. The second part of the memorial has five glass cases shaped like triangles to symbolize five million enemies of the Nazi state who were also murdered. If you stand in the center of the memorial, you are faced with a total of eleven million buttons. It's an incredible feeling to be standing in the middle of eleven million buttons and realize that each button is differnet, symbolizing a unique individual that lost his or her life to something so horrifying.
It's mind-boggling to think that a human being is capable of doing to another human being what people did to each other during the Holocaust. The people who suffered in the concentration camps were not even seen as people, but as disgusting dogs who deserved to die like disgusting dogs. When it was over, the world made a committment to make sure that nothing in history would ever even come close to the Holocaust ever again. We know that if we don't learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.
Which makes my heart ache when I look at the world and still see genocide going on. Rowanda. Darfur. And now there are riots and violence happening in Egypt and Tunisia. I know we're not at a point where we can compare what's going on in Egypt and Tunisia right now to the Holocaust -- not even close -- and it is my sincere hope and prayer that we never GET to that point. At what point can we say that we as a human race have grown up and learned to get along with each other? We can agree to disagree. What kind of a god asks his people to kill and make other people suffer on his behalf?
Not the kind of god I know and follow. The Nazis believed -- Hitler believed -- that wiping out the Jewish people was what God wanted them to do. And so we end where we began, with the teenager in my church asking me where God was during the Holocaust.
Did God allow the Holocaust to happen? Yes. I believe that He did. And here's why: God gave human beings the free gift of free will. The problem is that it turns out free will comes with a very expensive price tag. Put in the wrong hands, free will can spiral out of control and we interpret the God of love as a God who asks us to wipe out entire races.
I submit into evidence the cruscades.
The Holocaust happened because human beings took what was given as a gift and used it for evil. Terrible evil. God allowed it to happen because if God stopped it, we cannot say that we have free will, and I believe that we have free will. I also believe that God heard the cries of His people and cried wept with them in their suffering. That's where God was during the Holocaust: weeping with His people. And praise God that other people used their free will to get the Nazis out of power because nobody deserves to have happen to them what happened to the people who lost themselves to the Holocaust.
It's easy to say this now from my perspective because I wasn't alive then. I wasn't in the Holocaust and I'm not Jewish. So it's easy for me to say that. If I wasn't a Christian and I had suffered in the Holocaust, I might not be saying this. I might not believe in God anymore. I don't know if I would be strong enough to believe in God if I had been a victim of the Holocaust. What I do know is that the human race has to step up and remember the Holocaust. We have to speak out against those who say it didn't happen. This is NOT a conspiracy theory. This actually happened. It is a hideous part of the history of the human race. Genocide is worse than cannibalism. We MUST learn from our history or we WILL be doomed to repeat it.
I don't think world peace needs to be an impossible dream. I think that if we are to live as co-creators of God's created reality, we can find a way to live in harmony with each other and respect each other's ideals. We don't have to agree. But we don't have to kill each other over our disagreements, either.
Remember the Holocaust and continue to pray for those in the world that are persecuted because they believe something different than someone else. My hope and my prayer is that the human race can find its common ground not in the same God and not in the same political system, but in the same foundation of the human existence: we want peace.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Becki
my picture of the Holocaust Memorial in Peoria with the buttons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/indifferentchildoftheearth/5046199608/
Friday, January 21, 2011
Church Growth
I would like to take this opportunity to brag about my session. We've been working together since September and I think we've done a lot of trust and relationship building in the last five meetings that I've been their moderator and pastor. At our meeting last night, we got into talking about a vision for the future here at our church in Illinois and the energy level was so incredible and the excitement over the church's potential was so visible, that I felt extra encouraged and strengthened by what we're doing here.
I have to admit, I've been questioning some points of my call lately. There were (and still are) moments when I was convinced I'd been hired to change a church that doesn't want to change. And there's certainly a place for small church ministry. Small churches are an opportunity for people to really get to know each other on a more personal level than you might in a church of 5- or 600 with three services on two different days of the week. Some people look especially for the small-church atmosphere. But in that case, a church has to own up to their identity as a small church and find ways to grow without really growing. Since that's as silly as it sounds, small churches are not doing so well in today's economy.
And maybe that sounds unfair, but most of us can say we knew a small church that recently closed its doors due to lack of membership and, related, lack of funding.
So at our meeting in December, I challenged my session to think about our church here in Illinois and come to our January meeting with a vision for the future. We asked:
1) Where do I see our church in 1 year?
2) Where do I see our church in 5 years?
3) Where do I see our church in 10 years?
4) Where do I see our church in 50 years?
5) How do we get there?
As we started talking about our visions for the church here, the energy level was noticably higher and the excitement was visible. People talked about fellowship activities they "used to do" and asked, "Why can't we do that now?" There's absolutely no reason why we can't do that now! We brainstormed for about an hour and we came up with a pretty solid plan on how we're going to get there. I was really impressed with my session and their excitement about growth. As a pastor, that tells me that while there are definitely some who don't want the church to grow (whether they would say that out loud or not), my session proved to me last night that they trust me to lead them through a period of change and growth. My session proved to me that there are folks in this congregation that recognize that a church's life means growth (spiritually and physically) and growth means change, and change will lead to more growth.
The most interesting vision for the future was on the five-year-plan when someone said they'd like to see so many people here that we need a new building.
So how do we get there? How does growth happen? It starts with a tangible plan. This congregation, like many other congregations, needs a concrete plan. Abstract is too much to try and get our head around. Personally, I also am keen on having a plan, so we were on the same page about that. Change doesn't happen overnight, but we have a plan now to get us on the right track. In the next year, we are looking to move towards a second service to start in the fall, fellowship events that continue through the summer, the revival of a church-wide prayer chain, and an occassional blended contemporary and traditional worship style at our current 9:30 service. We're also looking to reach out to members that we haven't seen in a while and find out 1) why we haven't seen them in a while and 2) how we can encourage them to come worship with us again. It's great to reach out to visitors and hope for new members, but we also want to step up our outreach plan for those we haven't seen in a while who are still current members. In addition, we want to partner with some neighboring Presbyterian churches and do more things together to encourage relationship and fellowship.
Growth is not easy, but it is possible, even for small churches. Growth is also necessary if a church wants to retain its life. We cannot carry out the mission of God in this world if we don't know what we stand for. We cannot carry out the mission of God in this world if we don't have a vision for the future. It's important to set goals as a congregation and realize that not everyone is going to be on-board. There's no way to please all of the people all of the time. The human-factor makes that impossible. But it is possible to agree that we as a congregation have to love and support each other and part of that process means having a vision for the future with a tangible way of realizing that vision.
Our theme for 2010 was "We are blessed to be a blessing." Our theme for 2011 is "Do it in the name of Jesus Christ," based on Paul's letter to the Colossians where he says, "Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him" (Col. 3:17). As a church, we can grow. As we seek new ways to discover how God is calling us as a congregation, we do so trusting in the Holy Spirit to bring us where we need to be.
Praise God for the work we are doing here in this church!
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Becki
I have to admit, I've been questioning some points of my call lately. There were (and still are) moments when I was convinced I'd been hired to change a church that doesn't want to change. And there's certainly a place for small church ministry. Small churches are an opportunity for people to really get to know each other on a more personal level than you might in a church of 5- or 600 with three services on two different days of the week. Some people look especially for the small-church atmosphere. But in that case, a church has to own up to their identity as a small church and find ways to grow without really growing. Since that's as silly as it sounds, small churches are not doing so well in today's economy.
And maybe that sounds unfair, but most of us can say we knew a small church that recently closed its doors due to lack of membership and, related, lack of funding.
So at our meeting in December, I challenged my session to think about our church here in Illinois and come to our January meeting with a vision for the future. We asked:
1) Where do I see our church in 1 year?
2) Where do I see our church in 5 years?
3) Where do I see our church in 10 years?
4) Where do I see our church in 50 years?
5) How do we get there?
As we started talking about our visions for the church here, the energy level was noticably higher and the excitement was visible. People talked about fellowship activities they "used to do" and asked, "Why can't we do that now?" There's absolutely no reason why we can't do that now! We brainstormed for about an hour and we came up with a pretty solid plan on how we're going to get there. I was really impressed with my session and their excitement about growth. As a pastor, that tells me that while there are definitely some who don't want the church to grow (whether they would say that out loud or not), my session proved to me last night that they trust me to lead them through a period of change and growth. My session proved to me that there are folks in this congregation that recognize that a church's life means growth (spiritually and physically) and growth means change, and change will lead to more growth.
The most interesting vision for the future was on the five-year-plan when someone said they'd like to see so many people here that we need a new building.
So how do we get there? How does growth happen? It starts with a tangible plan. This congregation, like many other congregations, needs a concrete plan. Abstract is too much to try and get our head around. Personally, I also am keen on having a plan, so we were on the same page about that. Change doesn't happen overnight, but we have a plan now to get us on the right track. In the next year, we are looking to move towards a second service to start in the fall, fellowship events that continue through the summer, the revival of a church-wide prayer chain, and an occassional blended contemporary and traditional worship style at our current 9:30 service. We're also looking to reach out to members that we haven't seen in a while and find out 1) why we haven't seen them in a while and 2) how we can encourage them to come worship with us again. It's great to reach out to visitors and hope for new members, but we also want to step up our outreach plan for those we haven't seen in a while who are still current members. In addition, we want to partner with some neighboring Presbyterian churches and do more things together to encourage relationship and fellowship.
Growth is not easy, but it is possible, even for small churches. Growth is also necessary if a church wants to retain its life. We cannot carry out the mission of God in this world if we don't know what we stand for. We cannot carry out the mission of God in this world if we don't have a vision for the future. It's important to set goals as a congregation and realize that not everyone is going to be on-board. There's no way to please all of the people all of the time. The human-factor makes that impossible. But it is possible to agree that we as a congregation have to love and support each other and part of that process means having a vision for the future with a tangible way of realizing that vision.
Our theme for 2010 was "We are blessed to be a blessing." Our theme for 2011 is "Do it in the name of Jesus Christ," based on Paul's letter to the Colossians where he says, "Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him" (Col. 3:17). As a church, we can grow. As we seek new ways to discover how God is calling us as a congregation, we do so trusting in the Holy Spirit to bring us where we need to be.
Praise God for the work we are doing here in this church!
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Becki
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