"Quarreling With God"
Exodus 17:1-7
The Israelites were on their way to the Promised Land. Moses had successfully convinced them that they should leave their life of slavery in Egypt. He had successfully convinced the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses to let his people go. True, he had resisted the role God had been calling him to play, but he finally did what God wanted him to do.
Now, it wasn’t an easy trip. There was the problem with crossing the Red Sea - there was the lack of food in the wilderness. The account I am dealing with in this sermon post is of them being holed up in Rephidim and there being no water. And for the third time the Israelites start complaining about their situation. They even suggest that perhaps they were better off as slaves and should go back.
The target of their grumbling is Moses, practically accusing him of malfeasance. No question that Moses had made his share of mistakes. I mean, if he really did lead them zigzagging across the Sinai for almost 40 years, you do have to wonder about his capabilities as a tour guide. It wasn’t like they were trying to get to the other side of the then known world. The standard joke has been of course, that Moses, being a man, refused to ask for directions.
So, the Israelites do what they do best – they quarrel with Moses – they are verbally abusive and they wonder about God’s presence with them. Moses – “the man who had stood up to Pharaoh and stood down the whole of the Egyptian army now (feared) that his own people (would) stone him!” (1) Moses fearfully went to God and offered his own complaints about this yet another obstacle in the way of his people trusting him to lead them to the Promised Land.
And God again responds as God always seems to in the book of Exodus with (and I love the way William Ritter puts it in his sermon “What Have You Done For Me Lately?”) “(God responded) with just enough of an intervention to quiet things down and keep things moving. No express train to the Promised Land. No clear, flowing stream in the desert. No fleet of bottled water delivery trucks on the horizon (“Look, Aaron, it’s the Aquafina man.”) Just a rod and a rock … a couple of love taps … and (wonder of wonders) a drinking fountain.” (2)
If you have problems with the miraculous ways in which God seemingly intervenes in the Old Testament, you might find it helpful to remember that the stories are written after the events and their purpose is to convey something about God. This is a religious story. The scriptures are not an attempt to write a historical this happened here. It’s not required that the events unfolded exactly the way the story is told. Something significant happened – the people’s needs were met and they stopped complaining – and they attributed what happened to be a word or a demonstration from God about their relationship with God. It gave them hope for the future. It reassured them that God was with them. The intent of the story is to somehow convey the transformation in God's people as a result of some God-moment at this juncture of their journey, experience in the wilderness.
So, what might this story have to say to us in our day? The purpose of stories in the Bible are not simply so we can marvel at how amazing God’s intervention in the history of the Israelites was. It’s also to provide us a mirror which we can hold up to our lives – the situations that surround us. I think there are a couple of things with which this story should help us.
First, we need to take a careful look at the things in life we believe to be limitations – obstacles – initiative stoppers – and see if there’s something we’re missing. Everyone knows you can’t get water out of a rock anymore than you can get blood out of a turnip. Well, that’s true if all we see is the rock.
In today’s story Moses went to God and God told him to go to a certain spot and strike the rock with his staff. Moses did as he was told and water began to flow. Now, it’s not that there wasn’t any water there, it’s simply that they couldn’t see the water, didn’t have access to it, didn’t know how to tap into it. “The true miracle wasn’t water appearing where there was no water – the true miracle was they stopped seeing rock and finally saw water beneath.” (3)
In Richard Bach’s paperback Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah he writes: “Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they’re yours.” (4)
In Piero Ferrucci’s book Inevitable Grace he comments: “How often – even before we began – have we declared a task ‘impossible’? And how often have we constructed a picture of ourselves as being inadequate? … A great deal depends upon the thought patterns we choose and on the persistence with which we affirm them.” (5)
Let me share with you an example of how this plays out in life – in the life, say, of a church. A Vermont Methodist church was experiencing some decline in the 1960s and ‘70s. The church’s membership rolls included over 800 members in 1963 but by 1982 they were down to an average of around 30 in worship on Sunday mornings. On the back of the church was attached a two-story education building, with a basement, that had been brimming with children and youth in the ‘60s. The attendance and membership of the church had declined so much they no longer held Sunday School. In order to save some money the thermostat was set at the bare minimum. There really weren’t too many signs of life except when they held worship. Some had come to refer to the education building as an albatross – a liability.
In 1983 a new pastor was appointed who was heard to remark: “An empty building? Wonderful! I wonder how we could use this asset.”
Not too long after, the pastor noticed an advertisement in the local newspaper of a hospital bed that a family was willing to donate to anyone who would pick it up. The pastor arranged for this to be done and had it stored in the basement of the building thought of as an albatross.
The following week's bulletin announced that a bed was available to be loaned free to anyone who might need one. The next week a woman recovering from hip surgery called and asked to use it. That would have been fine except that a week later another person called in need of it also. When the pastor noted the need for an additional bed the following week during the announcements, a woman in the church stood up and said she had one in her attic that she would be willing to donate.
Soon the word was out and canes, crutches, walkers, shower seats, wheelchairs filled the liability basement space in the education building. A ministry was born that became known as the Hospital Equipment Loan Program. A volunteer secretary started to work out of the church office every morning to keep the in/out log on the hospital equipment.
The success of the Hospital Equipment Loan Program caused the church to start a Second Hand Clothing Store on the main floor. It was followed with a special-needs pre-school ministry. Then followed an ecumenical Soup Kitchen. The old Educational Building was no longer seen as an albatross, but rather as an asset for the church’s Outreach Ministries.
You see, the church stopped seeing the rock and trusted God to let the water flow. Oh, did I mention that the average worship attendance a few years back had reached 150! (6) If we are to be all we can be – all God believes we can be – all God wants us to be - as individuals and as a church – a community of faith, then we must believe that our faithful God will provide for us abundantly – will reveal to us the water, the possible – when we only see the rock – or, the obstacles – or, the liabilities.
Now, there’s another piece of good news this story reminds us of. It is revealed in what happens to the Israelites’ question about whether God was with them. How many times in our lives have we faced situations that have caused us to wonder whether God is with us or not? You know, when things like a marriage breaks up or we lose a job or we become aware that we are facing some life-changing health concerns. Yep, I've succumbed to the lament a few times over the years, especially the last few.
It’s been my observation that many people believe – as the ancients before us did – that there are two ways to determine whether God is with us or not. Some suggest that if life is easy, is good, then God must be present and on our side. The other is that if life is tough, if it’s difficult, then God must not be around – must not be on our side – has forgotten about us. I think both are false and let me offer a few comments about why I think the way I do.
How often have we heard someone say: “I know this is God’s will for me because everything worked so smoothly. I didn’t have a single problem. It has to mean that God is supportive of what I’ve done – of what I’m doing.” Now, it may be true that at times when things go well God is present and is pleased, but it’s not a perfect gauge. Living the good life – having good health, a job, a home, plenty of friends, nice neighbors doesn’t always mean that God is pleased with us - supportive of our choices - present.
How many situations around us can we name where people are prospering and living seemingly carefree lives that we know to be wrong – evil? How often have we wondered the same as Jeremiah: “Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive?” And remember how Job struggled with God around this issue? Remember when he asked: “Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?” And, remember how he went on to complain about how easy it seemed for the wicked – living in safe houses, having healthy livestock, living prosperously, and then going to their graves in peace? (Job 21:7-13)
God sends rain and sunshine on the just and the unjust. God waters the gardens of all of us. God doesn’t go through the world and have rain fall on one house and not on the house next door because someone in the house runs a bar or earns a living selling drugs to addicts or stayed out late last night or cheats on their income taxes. We simply cannot determine whether God approves of one person over another because things seem to be going one’s way – whether throughout a life or when one thing happens positively in a person’s life. Doing wrong and getting by with it doesn’t mean that God accepts or approves of the wrongdoing or the wrongdoer. (7)
Then there are those who choose to believe that whenever life gets difficult, well, it must mean that what you are doing is not OK with God – that God is absent, that God doesn’t care about you. I can't tell you how many people unintentionally hurt me when the ALS symptoms first surfaced - suggesting that it was God's way of slowing me down, God trying to tell me to improve my eating habits, wondering if the symptoms were somehow a result of a lacking in my spiritual life or I needed help psychologically. How often we’ve acted like the Israelites – something isn’t working out, we’re struggling (the Israelites were thirsty and they griped about it and then they began to wonder if God could be with them still if they were having such problems). Difficult times in life no more means God is not with us than everything running smoothly means God likes us and is present with us.
One preacher argues this point by offering a summary of some familiar bible stories. He reminds us of the time after Jesus held one of his open-air classroom sessions by the sea that he sent his disciples into a boat and told them to go to the other side. Now, despite the fact they obeyed, things got a little rough and they feared for their lives. They did what they were told and still faced some adversity.
Then there's the story of Joseph being thrown into prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Even though he spent two years in prison it didn’t meant that God wasn’t on his side. Remember that God later used him to save his nation from starvation.
Oh, and then there is again the story of Job – his wife trying to get him to curse God and kill himself because of all that went wrong in his life – his children being killed, his herds being destroyed, boils all over his body. Wow, if there ever was anyone who had a right to feel as if God had deserted him it had to have been Job. But in the end we learn, as Job did, that that wasn’t the case at all.
And remember Paul’s being shipwrecked after setting out to preach in Rome because he believed that’s what God wanted him to do? Fourteen days in a storm while doing something God wanted him to do?
And then there was Jesus’ own life here on earth. He hung on a cross and while dying for a crime he didn’t commit even cried out similar to the Israelites: “My God, My God! Why have you abandoned me?” According to the way some folks see things, Jesus’ crucifixion must mean that God was absent – that God abandoned Jesus.
We have to be careful trying to judge everything that happens in life by the apparent facts – by those things we see. We must be very careful not to wonder every time something bad happens to us whether God has left us – whether God cares for us – whether God is punishing us. (8)
Here’s where it’s at for me, folks: the good and the bad that happens in our lives and in the lives of those around us has nothing to do with whether we are good or bad people – whether God is present or absent. God is present whether good or bad is going on in our lives – not causing both to happen – that is, not causing both good and bad by some spin of a wheel of luck in heaven, but rather, simply present to help us deal with – cope with – make something out of whatever comes our way.
Some have heard me say something like this before: God does not sit in an easy chair in heaven and select who is going to die and who is not as a result of a senseless act on our part – God is not sitting on his throne pointing to this person as one in whom cancer cells are going to grow exponentially and toward another and benevolently, arbitrarily, determine the cancer will go into remission – God is not this power in the world choosing which one of us is going to mistakenly rush through a red light and suffer a terrible accident maiming or killing another person while allowing others of us to get away with it.
No, God is present with us – all of us – whenever the good or the bad happens to us – to help us with our guilt (perhaps) – to motivate us to make changes in our lives that might benefit others or ourselves (perhaps) – to help us to see water where we only know rocks to be (perhaps). God simply promises to be with us – that’s it – that’s what the story reveals to us – tells us – no matter what happens to us – no matter how alone we feel – no matter how rocky the way we walk through life is. We can manage because God is with us.
Has God left us when bad things happen to us? Of course not. God’s promise is to be with us in the valley of the shadow of death – that means in the presence of evil happening all around us and even to us.
Is God with us when good comes our way? Of course, but not somehow different or more remarkably or uniquely than with others not so fortunate or lucky or blessed. Quarrel with God all you want - complain to God – argue with God – get mad at God - but never forget that God is still with you - still loves you – still cares about you.
1.Leonard Sweet, “So You Want to Be in the Lead?” Collected Sermons, ChristianGlobe Networks, 2007, 0-000-1415.
William A. Ritter, “What Have You Done For Me Lately?” Collected Sermons, ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., 0-000-2005.
Steve Burt, “But You Can’t Get Water Out of a Rock!” What Do You Say to a Burning Bush, (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing, 1995), 0-7880-0457-3.
Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of A Reluctant Messiah (New York: Dell, 1977), p. 100 as quoted in “But You Can’t Get Water Out of a Rock!”
Piero Ferrucci, Inevitable Grace (Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1992), p. 177 as quoted in “But You Can’t Get Water Out of a Rock!”
“But You Can’t Get Water Out of a Rock!”
“Is God With You, Or Not?”, sermons.com, Lent 3 Cycle A, 0-89536-825-0.
Ibid.
Friday, March 21, 2014
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
"Music Therapy Unleashes Memories"
''Music Therapy Unleashes Memories"
So, early in our stay on Ft. Myers Beach this past February, Denise, the Hope Hospice social worker, visited with us and shared some of the possible services we could utilize during our stay. One that I hadn't experienced before was a music therapist. I mean, I've heard of it, even recommended it, and maybe even self-treated with it on occasion, but experienced it with a trained professional? Well, no.
So, with a little unneeded encouragement by Denise I agreed to "let" her come out and see where it went. After all, I listen to a lot of music, had been the recipient of its magical/mystical/marvelous movement in my being for years. Over the years I have expanded the styles of music that I enjoy or appreciate. Where once (high school) it was exclusively pop/rock, the unfolding decades have allowed the music snob/bias/limited layers to be peeled away resulting in pleasant and surprising exposure to jazz, classical, hymns, folk, spirituals, disco, hip-hop, punk rock, Gospel, Celtic, blues, barbershop, praise, contemporary Christian, accappela, etc. (Admittedly, I allow more space on my internal karaoke machine for some types more than others, but I don't want to get into that in this post.)
Well, when Melissa, Hope's music therapist, arrived the first time with her folk guitar and her iPad she asked me what my favorite kind of music was - you know, what I'd like for her to play, I, of course said "I like about anything but I still most appreciate classic rock and roll, folk music and pop music from the late 60's." Then she smiled. I thought that was interesting so I observed: "that's what everybody says, right?"
"No, she said, most of the people I share with want 40's music. Classic rock and folk are probably my favorites as well and I don't get to play them much. So, what do you want to hear? Who are some of your favorite artists or songs." And so, I mentioned The Beach Boys, John Denver, Johnny Mathis, The Beatles, The Oakridge Boys, Peter, Paul & Mary, the Mommas and the Pappas, The Four Seasons, etc.
She started with one that she likes to sing for everyone and then came Little Deuce Coup, If I Had a Hammer, California Dreamin, She Loves You, and then we embarked on a little conversation about where enjoyment of that music came from - what memories it allowed to surface - why the tears - what I felt when I heard that music. I grinned and said "therapy time." She smiled as if to imply, "you know too much." But we talked about high school band, playing a clarinet, the friendships made, church and school choir .... and about one of the best memories of my high school days - being a member of a high school rock band, a combo, The Cimbles!
Then I had to stop talking - loss of energy and surfacing of emotion. I just let her sing for awhile as I remembered Mike "Stack" Stackhouse (vocals, guitar, keyboard), Paul (Breasty) Quint (vocals, guitar, trumpet), "Butch" Gibson (vocals, guitar), Jim "Mouse" Heringhaus (drums), Bill "Krink" Kreinbrink (bass), Denny "Bones" Frey (trumpet), Bill Glassner (trombone), and me "Toots" (clarinet and later on sax). (My apologies if I forgot someone. I'm sure some of them will read this and maybe post some corrections.)
The songs flooded my mind and heart: "Lonely Bull", "Walk, Don't Run '64'" (I believe this one included a drum solo by Mouse), "Our Day Will Come", California Girls", "When I Fall In Love", "Stranger on the Shore", "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", "I Left My Heart in San Francisco", "Chug-a-lug", "Surfin' U.S.A.", "Da Doo Ron, Ron", "Fun, Fun, Fun", "Help Me, Rhonda", "I Saw Her Standing There", and on and on.
But it wasn't just the music I was remembering those afternoons Melissa played for me - it was the camaraderie - the gigs - the friendships - the discussions - the arguments - the friends who encouraged us and followed us - a late night drive between Findlay and the Grove Skating Rink (don't ask!) - dances in school gyms - political gatherings that tested our musicianship - the guys who've gone on and made a career with their music - the choosing the last song of the evening or before a break so we could dance with our girlfriends - I seem to remember getting stuck playing "Stranger on the Shore" a lot when everyone else wanted to get something to drink or eat or kiss a little! No hard feelings or anything though!
Music and memories - the stuff of therapy and the healing of one's spirit. Thanks, red sweater brothers. You were one of the best experiences of community I had in my life and I treasure the memories as I continue to listen to music as the healing agent of my soul it continues to be while dealing with the destruction of my physical body that ALS presents!
Music is on my mind this week as we prepare to kick-off the Bill's Backers fundraising efforts with a Folk Music Sing-a-Long this weekend in Columbus.
So, early in our stay on Ft. Myers Beach this past February, Denise, the Hope Hospice social worker, visited with us and shared some of the possible services we could utilize during our stay. One that I hadn't experienced before was a music therapist. I mean, I've heard of it, even recommended it, and maybe even self-treated with it on occasion, but experienced it with a trained professional? Well, no.
So, with a little unneeded encouragement by Denise I agreed to "let" her come out and see where it went. After all, I listen to a lot of music, had been the recipient of its magical/mystical/marvelous movement in my being for years. Over the years I have expanded the styles of music that I enjoy or appreciate. Where once (high school) it was exclusively pop/rock, the unfolding decades have allowed the music snob/bias/limited layers to be peeled away resulting in pleasant and surprising exposure to jazz, classical, hymns, folk, spirituals, disco, hip-hop, punk rock, Gospel, Celtic, blues, barbershop, praise, contemporary Christian, accappela, etc. (Admittedly, I allow more space on my internal karaoke machine for some types more than others, but I don't want to get into that in this post.)
Well, when Melissa, Hope's music therapist, arrived the first time with her folk guitar and her iPad she asked me what my favorite kind of music was - you know, what I'd like for her to play, I, of course said "I like about anything but I still most appreciate classic rock and roll, folk music and pop music from the late 60's." Then she smiled. I thought that was interesting so I observed: "that's what everybody says, right?"
"No, she said, most of the people I share with want 40's music. Classic rock and folk are probably my favorites as well and I don't get to play them much. So, what do you want to hear? Who are some of your favorite artists or songs." And so, I mentioned The Beach Boys, John Denver, Johnny Mathis, The Beatles, The Oakridge Boys, Peter, Paul & Mary, the Mommas and the Pappas, The Four Seasons, etc.
She started with one that she likes to sing for everyone and then came Little Deuce Coup, If I Had a Hammer, California Dreamin, She Loves You, and then we embarked on a little conversation about where enjoyment of that music came from - what memories it allowed to surface - why the tears - what I felt when I heard that music. I grinned and said "therapy time." She smiled as if to imply, "you know too much." But we talked about high school band, playing a clarinet, the friendships made, church and school choir .... and about one of the best memories of my high school days - being a member of a high school rock band, a combo, The Cimbles!
Then I had to stop talking - loss of energy and surfacing of emotion. I just let her sing for awhile as I remembered Mike "Stack" Stackhouse (vocals, guitar, keyboard), Paul (Breasty) Quint (vocals, guitar, trumpet), "Butch" Gibson (vocals, guitar), Jim "Mouse" Heringhaus (drums), Bill "Krink" Kreinbrink (bass), Denny "Bones" Frey (trumpet), Bill Glassner (trombone), and me "Toots" (clarinet and later on sax). (My apologies if I forgot someone. I'm sure some of them will read this and maybe post some corrections.)
The songs flooded my mind and heart: "Lonely Bull", "Walk, Don't Run '64'" (I believe this one included a drum solo by Mouse), "Our Day Will Come", California Girls", "When I Fall In Love", "Stranger on the Shore", "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", "I Left My Heart in San Francisco", "Chug-a-lug", "Surfin' U.S.A.", "Da Doo Ron, Ron", "Fun, Fun, Fun", "Help Me, Rhonda", "I Saw Her Standing There", and on and on.
But it wasn't just the music I was remembering those afternoons Melissa played for me - it was the camaraderie - the gigs - the friendships - the discussions - the arguments - the friends who encouraged us and followed us - a late night drive between Findlay and the Grove Skating Rink (don't ask!) - dances in school gyms - political gatherings that tested our musicianship - the guys who've gone on and made a career with their music - the choosing the last song of the evening or before a break so we could dance with our girlfriends - I seem to remember getting stuck playing "Stranger on the Shore" a lot when everyone else wanted to get something to drink or eat or kiss a little! No hard feelings or anything though!
Music and memories - the stuff of therapy and the healing of one's spirit. Thanks, red sweater brothers. You were one of the best experiences of community I had in my life and I treasure the memories as I continue to listen to music as the healing agent of my soul it continues to be while dealing with the destruction of my physical body that ALS presents!
Music is on my mind this week as we prepare to kick-off the Bill's Backers fundraising efforts with a Folk Music Sing-a-Long this weekend in Columbus.
Saturday, March 15, 2014
SERMON: "The Answer Is Blowing In the Wind"
"The Answer Is Blowing in the Wind"
John 3:1-17
We often note how many of the people who hung around Jesus were people like us – just ordinary common folk. The guy the author of John is referencing in this 3rd chapter of the Gospel of John doesn’t fit that mold. Nicodemus was a man of influence – an insider if you will. He was a Pharisee – a theological VIP. He knew what was happening around Jerusalem and the synagogue. He was a mover and a shaker. Late one night he went to visit the itinerant preacher Jesus.
I’m not going to spend any time in this sermon rehashing the various reasons Bible scholars have considered might have been why Nicodemus went to visit Jesus in the middle of the night. Suffice it to say, there are sermons galore that could be and have been preached on those topics alone. Whatever the reason was, this much we can be sure of – it wasn’t to engage in small talk. Despite the fact that is how Nicodemus began the conversation, it didn’t take long for Jesus to move it to a deeper level.
Jesus basically told Nicodemus that he wasn’t going to find relief for what was bothering him, concerning him, by adopting/adhering to some new set of rules – that it was going to take being born from above. True, the Hebrew words for “again” and “from above” sound a lot alike. True, they might have been whispering to one another. True, these might be explanations for why Nicodemus acted so shocked and confused by what Jesus said and essentially asked: “Are you saying that I’ve got to crawl back into my mommy’s belly?” (1)
Jesus immediately corrected Nicodemus’ faulty query and repeated his reference to the need to be born from above trusting that this learned Pharisee would recall what he had been taught about the prophetic references offered by Ezekiel and other prophets concerning the need for a new heart, a new spirit. I find it so interesting the way some of our faith choose to reference Nicodemus’ misunderstanding as the litmus test for whether someone’s truly on the journey with Jesus or not. One preacher observed: “Sometimes I wonder if these folks
feel like, since Jesus said in this very passage that he didn’t come to condemn the world, God must have appointed them to do it!” (2)
The fact that Jesus responded to Nicodemus’ questions suggests to me that he wasn’t concerned about what motivated Nicodemus’ questions – that he wasn’t the least bit disturbed by them. Rather, his primary interest was to make understandable this central teaching that guided his ministry. Basically, he was saying to Nicodemus, “Nick, this new birth, this entering the Kingdom of God, happens when you are born of water and the spirit. Your physical birth came by your mother - flesh like you, giving physical birth to you. Your spiritual birth comes by the Spirit.”
And then he created this mental picture with a little play on words made possible by the Greek language. The Greek word for spirit and wind is the same word. In effect he said to Nicodemus, “You can hear and see and feel the wind; but you do not know where the wind comes from and where it is going. You may not understand how and why the wind blows; but you can see what the wind does. It’s the same way with the spirit and those who are born from above by the Spirit.” Another preacher put it this way: “Don’t be afraid stupid. Instead, listen to the wind (which blows where it wants to … when it wants to … to the degree that it wants to ... for as long as it wants to). You can’t control it. You just receive it. You move with it. You go with it.” (3)
I will never forget my first encounter with an approaching hurricane. It was 1985 and we were camping at Myrtle Beach State Park. We had a tent top type camper – a Coleman Minuteman. My parents were camping with us in their motor home.
Early one morning my dad and my son and I got up early to go fishing – they, because they loved to fish anywhere, anytime; I, because I liked to fish at the ocean and wanted to spend the day with them. We went fishing off one of those long piers that populate the coastal areas. Our first hint should have been that no one else was on the pier. We just assumed that we were more enthusiastic than others. The weather was terrible. The wind was blowing so hard we could only throw our lines off one side of the pier. And the waves, well, the waves were higher than anything we’d ever seen. We were novice ocean fishermen. We simply thought that was part of the thrill of fishing off a pier.
After a couple of hours of not catching anything, I walked back down the pier to the bait house to use the facilities and secretly get relief from the wind. It was then I noticed several folks in the bait house crowded around this little 9” television set watching and listening rather intently to the weatherman describe the situation. I began to catch phrases in their conversation. Things like: “Hurricane Bob,” “looks like the eye is going to hit pretty close to Myrtle Beach,” “should hit land overnight tonight,” “rumor has it we’re going to have to evacuate.”
Now, there’s a lot more to the story that would only make my dad and me look bad and stupid and stubborn and reveal which was which. The wind we encountered later that night, after leisurely packing up and eating at one more restaurant (want to guess where I received my love of seafood?), the wind we encountered trying to evacuate Myrtle Beach and get to Columbia, South Carolina was one kind of wind to be sure. It was even greater than the “high wind warning” we've experienced around here a few times the last couple of years.
Now, those of us who golf a little, or a lot, all have seen that golfer far better than me, bend over and pick up a few blades of grass and throw them into the air so as to discern which way the ever so gentle wind was blowing. That’s another kind of wind. (4)
Some of us fondly remember the line in Bob Dylan’s popular folk song of several decades ago that proclaimed the answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind. Dylan asked numerous questions in the song that reflected age-old questions and questions people were asking about social issues of that day: “How many roads must a man walk down before they call him a man?” “How many times must cannonballs fly before they’re forever banned?" “How many years must some mountains exist before they are swept to the sea?” “How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t see?” And each verse was followed with the almost philosophical and for sure one of the more thought-provoking truths of all time: “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind, the answer is blowin’ in the wind.”
It’s how the spirit works – like the wind – entering us with it’s answers – it’s suggestions – it’s influence from where we do not know – often from unexpected sources and at unexpected times. There simply are those times when we know – just know – that the Spirit of God is speaking to us, is working inside our hearts and minds and souls. There are those times when we sense something happening from beyond ourselves and yet, within us, causing us to think new thoughts, to make new affirmations, to allow new decisions to take form within us.
Now folks, don’t miss the point of there being different kinds of winds. There is not just one way this being born of the Spirit – from above – happen. For some of us it truly does happen suddenly – the moment can be named it was so powerful or insightful or meaningful. But, for others of us there was no one night flashpoint – no one dramatic moment – no spiritual rush – just this gentle push here, little nudge there – but a movement in a direction you never dreamed of going, a leading you to do something you never thought you’d do. (5)
Another way to ponder the way the spirit moves into our lives is to think about the way love moves into our lives – you know, when you first became aware that someone else loves you and cares for you or you love them or care for them. Some of us can name the exact moment – where you were – what restaurant you were eating at – what movie you were watching – what the other was wearing - what bridge you were walking toward - who else was with you.
Others of us can’t pinpoint a moment at all. For us, it was just this experience here and another one over there and a deepening and gradual awareness that there might be something between us and this other.
While it’s tempting to tell our whole story, since I've done it before on this blog I'll use the Reader’s Digest version this time. We were acquaintances for a year – had some of the same college friends, were from the same county, were both math majors, were with each other often when others were around – but that was it – we were just friends. And then one of the friends we had in common came to visit one of us during the summer and there was a night of dancing at "My Place" to the Orange Peels From Florida and a long walk to the bridge on West Main Street in Ottawa. One of us at least began to think “Huuuummmm? She really is someone pretty special. I wonder if this could lead to something more serious?" It took the other several more times together. At any rate, the point is, sooner or later we responded to something happening, growing between us – just at different times.
The answer is blowin’ in the wind – the spirit moves into our lives like the wind – like love – and has its way with us. Sometimes these moments have come for me when I have been in worship on a Sunday morning – sometimes they have come to me while I’ve been privately meditating – sometimes when I’ve been traveling in the car from one hospital to another or from one appointment to another – sometimes it has happened to me while I’ve been listening to a song on the radio – sometime when I’ve been sitting on the beach or up on a mountain – sometimes I’ve sensed God’s spirit in the voice of a child – sometimes when I’ve heard a friendly hello – sometimes I have sensed it in tears of sorrow and sometimes when there’s so much joy in the room the event seems bigger than life, like when a baby is born. More recently it has been observed/experienced in the kind gestures of support from family and friends or while reading.
God’s spirit moves in this world like the wind – like love. We can’t see it moving, but we can feel it, we can sense it and we can see the results of its presence. We never know when the spirit is going to blow into our lives but we do know that the potential for it to influence us is present at all times and in all places.
Yes, “the answer, is blowin’ in the wind, my friends, the answer is blowin' in the world.” The Holy Spirit is among us. It is with us every moment of our lives. That should be a comforting thought – not a scary one. Sense it in you – sense it renewing you – sense it filling you with hope and love and peace and joy – sense it birthing you again – from above – be open to it and it will happen.
1.William A. Ritter, “Gales, Breezes and Lots of Hot Air,” Collected Sermons (ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., 2005 via www.esermons.com) 0-000-2005.
2.Johnny Dean, “The More I Understand, the Less I Know,” www.esermons.com, 06/02/09, 1998.
3.“Gales, Breezes and Lots of Hot Air.”
4.Ibid.
5.Ibid.
Prayer: O Lord, how we need to sense the wind within us every day. How we need to be born from above – to have our outlook on our lives and the world transformed – to be brought into a closer relationship with you. Breathe, O Lord, that the wind upon which the Spirit travels might enter our lives. Let your Spirit blow free and strong within us. Let the mystery of your Spirit blow like the wind through our hearts and souls. Let it blow a word of understanding that will enlarge our vision of your call on our lives. Let it blow a word of peace to calm our fears. Let it blow a word of hope to give us courage. Let it blow a word of love to give us joy. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
John 3:1-17
We often note how many of the people who hung around Jesus were people like us – just ordinary common folk. The guy the author of John is referencing in this 3rd chapter of the Gospel of John doesn’t fit that mold. Nicodemus was a man of influence – an insider if you will. He was a Pharisee – a theological VIP. He knew what was happening around Jerusalem and the synagogue. He was a mover and a shaker. Late one night he went to visit the itinerant preacher Jesus.
I’m not going to spend any time in this sermon rehashing the various reasons Bible scholars have considered might have been why Nicodemus went to visit Jesus in the middle of the night. Suffice it to say, there are sermons galore that could be and have been preached on those topics alone. Whatever the reason was, this much we can be sure of – it wasn’t to engage in small talk. Despite the fact that is how Nicodemus began the conversation, it didn’t take long for Jesus to move it to a deeper level.
Jesus basically told Nicodemus that he wasn’t going to find relief for what was bothering him, concerning him, by adopting/adhering to some new set of rules – that it was going to take being born from above. True, the Hebrew words for “again” and “from above” sound a lot alike. True, they might have been whispering to one another. True, these might be explanations for why Nicodemus acted so shocked and confused by what Jesus said and essentially asked: “Are you saying that I’ve got to crawl back into my mommy’s belly?” (1)
Jesus immediately corrected Nicodemus’ faulty query and repeated his reference to the need to be born from above trusting that this learned Pharisee would recall what he had been taught about the prophetic references offered by Ezekiel and other prophets concerning the need for a new heart, a new spirit. I find it so interesting the way some of our faith choose to reference Nicodemus’ misunderstanding as the litmus test for whether someone’s truly on the journey with Jesus or not. One preacher observed: “Sometimes I wonder if these folks
feel like, since Jesus said in this very passage that he didn’t come to condemn the world, God must have appointed them to do it!” (2)
The fact that Jesus responded to Nicodemus’ questions suggests to me that he wasn’t concerned about what motivated Nicodemus’ questions – that he wasn’t the least bit disturbed by them. Rather, his primary interest was to make understandable this central teaching that guided his ministry. Basically, he was saying to Nicodemus, “Nick, this new birth, this entering the Kingdom of God, happens when you are born of water and the spirit. Your physical birth came by your mother - flesh like you, giving physical birth to you. Your spiritual birth comes by the Spirit.”
And then he created this mental picture with a little play on words made possible by the Greek language. The Greek word for spirit and wind is the same word. In effect he said to Nicodemus, “You can hear and see and feel the wind; but you do not know where the wind comes from and where it is going. You may not understand how and why the wind blows; but you can see what the wind does. It’s the same way with the spirit and those who are born from above by the Spirit.” Another preacher put it this way: “Don’t be afraid stupid. Instead, listen to the wind (which blows where it wants to … when it wants to … to the degree that it wants to ... for as long as it wants to). You can’t control it. You just receive it. You move with it. You go with it.” (3)
I will never forget my first encounter with an approaching hurricane. It was 1985 and we were camping at Myrtle Beach State Park. We had a tent top type camper – a Coleman Minuteman. My parents were camping with us in their motor home.
Early one morning my dad and my son and I got up early to go fishing – they, because they loved to fish anywhere, anytime; I, because I liked to fish at the ocean and wanted to spend the day with them. We went fishing off one of those long piers that populate the coastal areas. Our first hint should have been that no one else was on the pier. We just assumed that we were more enthusiastic than others. The weather was terrible. The wind was blowing so hard we could only throw our lines off one side of the pier. And the waves, well, the waves were higher than anything we’d ever seen. We were novice ocean fishermen. We simply thought that was part of the thrill of fishing off a pier.
After a couple of hours of not catching anything, I walked back down the pier to the bait house to use the facilities and secretly get relief from the wind. It was then I noticed several folks in the bait house crowded around this little 9” television set watching and listening rather intently to the weatherman describe the situation. I began to catch phrases in their conversation. Things like: “Hurricane Bob,” “looks like the eye is going to hit pretty close to Myrtle Beach,” “should hit land overnight tonight,” “rumor has it we’re going to have to evacuate.”
Now, there’s a lot more to the story that would only make my dad and me look bad and stupid and stubborn and reveal which was which. The wind we encountered later that night, after leisurely packing up and eating at one more restaurant (want to guess where I received my love of seafood?), the wind we encountered trying to evacuate Myrtle Beach and get to Columbia, South Carolina was one kind of wind to be sure. It was even greater than the “high wind warning” we've experienced around here a few times the last couple of years.
Now, those of us who golf a little, or a lot, all have seen that golfer far better than me, bend over and pick up a few blades of grass and throw them into the air so as to discern which way the ever so gentle wind was blowing. That’s another kind of wind. (4)
Some of us fondly remember the line in Bob Dylan’s popular folk song of several decades ago that proclaimed the answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind. Dylan asked numerous questions in the song that reflected age-old questions and questions people were asking about social issues of that day: “How many roads must a man walk down before they call him a man?” “How many times must cannonballs fly before they’re forever banned?" “How many years must some mountains exist before they are swept to the sea?” “How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t see?” And each verse was followed with the almost philosophical and for sure one of the more thought-provoking truths of all time: “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind, the answer is blowin’ in the wind.”
It’s how the spirit works – like the wind – entering us with it’s answers – it’s suggestions – it’s influence from where we do not know – often from unexpected sources and at unexpected times. There simply are those times when we know – just know – that the Spirit of God is speaking to us, is working inside our hearts and minds and souls. There are those times when we sense something happening from beyond ourselves and yet, within us, causing us to think new thoughts, to make new affirmations, to allow new decisions to take form within us.
Now folks, don’t miss the point of there being different kinds of winds. There is not just one way this being born of the Spirit – from above – happen. For some of us it truly does happen suddenly – the moment can be named it was so powerful or insightful or meaningful. But, for others of us there was no one night flashpoint – no one dramatic moment – no spiritual rush – just this gentle push here, little nudge there – but a movement in a direction you never dreamed of going, a leading you to do something you never thought you’d do. (5)
Another way to ponder the way the spirit moves into our lives is to think about the way love moves into our lives – you know, when you first became aware that someone else loves you and cares for you or you love them or care for them. Some of us can name the exact moment – where you were – what restaurant you were eating at – what movie you were watching – what the other was wearing - what bridge you were walking toward - who else was with you.
Others of us can’t pinpoint a moment at all. For us, it was just this experience here and another one over there and a deepening and gradual awareness that there might be something between us and this other.
While it’s tempting to tell our whole story, since I've done it before on this blog I'll use the Reader’s Digest version this time. We were acquaintances for a year – had some of the same college friends, were from the same county, were both math majors, were with each other often when others were around – but that was it – we were just friends. And then one of the friends we had in common came to visit one of us during the summer and there was a night of dancing at "My Place" to the Orange Peels From Florida and a long walk to the bridge on West Main Street in Ottawa. One of us at least began to think “Huuuummmm? She really is someone pretty special. I wonder if this could lead to something more serious?" It took the other several more times together. At any rate, the point is, sooner or later we responded to something happening, growing between us – just at different times.
The answer is blowin’ in the wind – the spirit moves into our lives like the wind – like love – and has its way with us. Sometimes these moments have come for me when I have been in worship on a Sunday morning – sometimes they have come to me while I’ve been privately meditating – sometimes when I’ve been traveling in the car from one hospital to another or from one appointment to another – sometimes it has happened to me while I’ve been listening to a song on the radio – sometime when I’ve been sitting on the beach or up on a mountain – sometimes I’ve sensed God’s spirit in the voice of a child – sometimes when I’ve heard a friendly hello – sometimes I have sensed it in tears of sorrow and sometimes when there’s so much joy in the room the event seems bigger than life, like when a baby is born. More recently it has been observed/experienced in the kind gestures of support from family and friends or while reading.
God’s spirit moves in this world like the wind – like love. We can’t see it moving, but we can feel it, we can sense it and we can see the results of its presence. We never know when the spirit is going to blow into our lives but we do know that the potential for it to influence us is present at all times and in all places.
Yes, “the answer, is blowin’ in the wind, my friends, the answer is blowin' in the world.” The Holy Spirit is among us. It is with us every moment of our lives. That should be a comforting thought – not a scary one. Sense it in you – sense it renewing you – sense it filling you with hope and love and peace and joy – sense it birthing you again – from above – be open to it and it will happen.
1.William A. Ritter, “Gales, Breezes and Lots of Hot Air,” Collected Sermons (ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., 2005 via www.esermons.com) 0-000-2005.
2.Johnny Dean, “The More I Understand, the Less I Know,” www.esermons.com, 06/02/09, 1998.
3.“Gales, Breezes and Lots of Hot Air.”
4.Ibid.
5.Ibid.
Prayer: O Lord, how we need to sense the wind within us every day. How we need to be born from above – to have our outlook on our lives and the world transformed – to be brought into a closer relationship with you. Breathe, O Lord, that the wind upon which the Spirit travels might enter our lives. Let your Spirit blow free and strong within us. Let the mystery of your Spirit blow like the wind through our hearts and souls. Let it blow a word of understanding that will enlarge our vision of your call on our lives. Let it blow a word of peace to calm our fears. Let it blow a word of hope to give us courage. Let it blow a word of love to give us joy. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
Friday, March 14, 2014
"Hospice Subs Bring 'A' Game!"
"Hospice Subs Bring 'A' Game!"
Most know that we've been receiving help from the Ohio Health Hospice folks since late summer. What a help they have been to both Dorothy and me! As I think I've observed before in a post their addition to our caregiving team has been a great plus.
We decided to utilize their help as a result of the four near falls in one week in July. At that time we also decided that traveling very far was no longer going to be part of our normal lifestyle. Transferring between the power wheelchair and toilet and shower chair and bed with the sliding board just seemed like too big a challenge for us.
Well, by October we were reconsidering our initial reaction. Hearing other people talk about going to Florida and an improved confidence on our part utilizing the sliding board caused us to ponder whether it might be possible once more. In our view there were several factors that had to work out in order for it to be possible:
1) We knew Dorothy would need help with the driving. My sister, Nancy, agreed to accompany us on the way down, and my cousin, Corwin, and his wife, Rita, offered to share the return trip driving. (Of course, all three of them spent a week in Florida partaking of the seafood, warmth, and beauty of the southwestern Florida area and flew one way! Such sacrifices some people are willing to make to help us continue enjoying life! - Just a sarcastic tease because we really did much appreciate their help and company.)
2) The most difficult concern turned out to be trying to find a combination wheelchair/commode/shower chair that I could transfer in and out of between the power wheelchair and it had to fold to save space in the car. Despite attempts by local medical equipment companies, the ALS Association and hospice we finally had to spend more than we had hoped and had to order one ourselves online. Thankfully, the PHAALS (Playing Hardball Against ALS) organization which received its start in Putnam County (from which both of us take great pride in it being our birthplace) granted our request for help with the purchasing.
3) We knew we would again need handicapped rooms enroute and once we got to Ft. Myers Beach, Florida. We again felt we needed to go with a motel with the risk of a possible last minute change in my health. We contacted the Holiday Inn we stayed in last year (now a Wyndham Garden facility) and fortunately dealt with the manager with whom we worked last year. She visited us once a week and our room had a semi-private patio and wonderful view of the expansive beach!
4) Our final concern, and perhaps most decisive, was what about hospice? Would they object? Not a worry. Every person on the Ohio Health Hospice staff, the ALS Association staff, the Ohio Health ALS Clinic and pulmonary doctor, and our families and friends all encouraged us to go. So, then the issue was making contact with the Ft. Myers Beach area hospice program which was Hope Hospice.
So, I have finally arrived to the place in the post which was the primary motivation for it. New faces. New members of our caregiving team. They were hardly subs! They certainly didn't perform their service/ministry tasks any less professionally or authentically. I used the term "sub" in the title of this post simply as an attention getter!
Oh, how I appreciated those three showers each week by the aide, Anita! I cannot compliment the work of aides enough, folks. And there was the comforting initial visit by the Hope doc, Dr. Atlas, and her prompt attention to a new physical development; the weekly visits by the nurse, Mary, paying particular attention to ongoing medication use and the checking of vitals; weekly visits by a massage therapist, Judy, allowing my muscles to move in ways I can't make them anymore and bringing much needed pain relief; the conscientiousness, affirmation, and encouragement of their social worker, Denise; and the new and unique release/reflection the two visits by Hope's music therapist, Melissa (more about this experience in a feature post, provided.
Hope Hospice - new friends, new members of the Bill's Backers team - truly did bring their "A" game. They brought it! And we are most appreciative!
Most know that we've been receiving help from the Ohio Health Hospice folks since late summer. What a help they have been to both Dorothy and me! As I think I've observed before in a post their addition to our caregiving team has been a great plus.
We decided to utilize their help as a result of the four near falls in one week in July. At that time we also decided that traveling very far was no longer going to be part of our normal lifestyle. Transferring between the power wheelchair and toilet and shower chair and bed with the sliding board just seemed like too big a challenge for us.
Well, by October we were reconsidering our initial reaction. Hearing other people talk about going to Florida and an improved confidence on our part utilizing the sliding board caused us to ponder whether it might be possible once more. In our view there were several factors that had to work out in order for it to be possible:
1) We knew Dorothy would need help with the driving. My sister, Nancy, agreed to accompany us on the way down, and my cousin, Corwin, and his wife, Rita, offered to share the return trip driving. (Of course, all three of them spent a week in Florida partaking of the seafood, warmth, and beauty of the southwestern Florida area and flew one way! Such sacrifices some people are willing to make to help us continue enjoying life! - Just a sarcastic tease because we really did much appreciate their help and company.)
2) The most difficult concern turned out to be trying to find a combination wheelchair/commode/shower chair that I could transfer in and out of between the power wheelchair and it had to fold to save space in the car. Despite attempts by local medical equipment companies, the ALS Association and hospice we finally had to spend more than we had hoped and had to order one ourselves online. Thankfully, the PHAALS (Playing Hardball Against ALS) organization which received its start in Putnam County (from which both of us take great pride in it being our birthplace) granted our request for help with the purchasing.
3) We knew we would again need handicapped rooms enroute and once we got to Ft. Myers Beach, Florida. We again felt we needed to go with a motel with the risk of a possible last minute change in my health. We contacted the Holiday Inn we stayed in last year (now a Wyndham Garden facility) and fortunately dealt with the manager with whom we worked last year. She visited us once a week and our room had a semi-private patio and wonderful view of the expansive beach!
4) Our final concern, and perhaps most decisive, was what about hospice? Would they object? Not a worry. Every person on the Ohio Health Hospice staff, the ALS Association staff, the Ohio Health ALS Clinic and pulmonary doctor, and our families and friends all encouraged us to go. So, then the issue was making contact with the Ft. Myers Beach area hospice program which was Hope Hospice.
So, I have finally arrived to the place in the post which was the primary motivation for it. New faces. New members of our caregiving team. They were hardly subs! They certainly didn't perform their service/ministry tasks any less professionally or authentically. I used the term "sub" in the title of this post simply as an attention getter!
Oh, how I appreciated those three showers each week by the aide, Anita! I cannot compliment the work of aides enough, folks. And there was the comforting initial visit by the Hope doc, Dr. Atlas, and her prompt attention to a new physical development; the weekly visits by the nurse, Mary, paying particular attention to ongoing medication use and the checking of vitals; weekly visits by a massage therapist, Judy, allowing my muscles to move in ways I can't make them anymore and bringing much needed pain relief; the conscientiousness, affirmation, and encouragement of their social worker, Denise; and the new and unique release/reflection the two visits by Hope's music therapist, Melissa (more about this experience in a feature post, provided.
Hope Hospice - new friends, new members of the Bill's Backers team - truly did bring their "A" game. They brought it! And we are most appreciative!
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
SERMON: "Ashes, Ashes"
"Ashes, Ashes"
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 Psalm 51 II Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
We read in Genesis 18:27 these words: “Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes.” The season of Lent begins on a Wednesday and the reason why is its own story.
Lent lasts 40 days and the number was chosen because it corresponds to the number of days Jesus spent in the desert being tempted. Now, if you’re mathematically inclined you’ve already done the calculation. There are actually more than 40 days between the Wednesday on which Lent begins and Easter Sunday morning. What gives? Well, here’s how it’s figured. In the early church, the length of the Lenten observance varied, but eventually it began six weeks, or 42 days, before Easter. But, since Sundays weren’t supposed to be considered fast days, that only left 36 days of fasting. So, in the 7th century, four days were added before the first Sunday in Lent in order to establish 40 fasting days. Hence, the first day of Lent is a Wednesday!
We call this first day of Lent "Ash" Wednesday. The custom comes from an old ceremony when Christians who had committed “serious,” “grave,” faults/sins were obliged to do public penance. The Bishop blessed the hair shirts which they were to wear during the forty days of repenting for their wrongdoing and sprinkled ashes over them which had been made from the palms from the previous Palm Sunday celebration. Then, while the faithful - everyone other than those who had committed “grave” misdeeds – while the faithful recited the Seven Penitential Psalms - Psalm 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143 - those destined to 40 days of repenting were turned out of the holy place because of their sins, as Adam and Eve were turned out of the Garden of Eden because of their disobedience. Now, get this: they were not allowed to enter the church again until Maundy Thursday after having won reconciliation by doing penance for the forty days and receiving sacramental absolution. (1) Later on the practice included ALL Christians in recognition that, “ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (2)
"With the ashes on our foreheads, our sin is quite literally ‘before’ us, and we echo the Palmists’s prayer. Ashes, the residue of a burned-out fire, is meant to symbolize the less-than-spectacular state of humanity. Gray and lifeless, ashes make it clear that something is not right, that human beings have settled in the dust and settled for the worst.” (3)
"Lent is (indeed) a somber time, a time for reflection and growth, a time to change our ways and deepen our commitment. Our Lord entered into suffering and death during this period on our behalf. The least we can do is enter into the spiritual demands of the season for Him.
“This Lenten season will carry us through the next five Sundays. We will walk in the shadow of the Cross. We will taste the dryness of the desert and feel the loneliness of the wilderness. If we truly step into the spirituality of the Lenten season, we will feel like we have walked through the valley or shadow of death itself.
“Then we will come to Holy Week. We will see the triumph and tension of Palm Sunday, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem and set the stage for His final passion. We will see the trial and tribulation of Maundy Thursday, when Jesus was arrested and condemned to death. We will stare into the unspeakable darkness of Good Friday, when our Lord hung on a Cross to die.
“And then, finally, we will come to the bright light and magnificent redemption of Easter morning. The Resurrection will be real and meaningful to us because we will have walked to Calvary to get there. Again, if we really enter into the spirit of Lent in the forty days ahead, we will be happy and grateful for our Lord’s victory when it finally comes on Easter Sunday.
“But (on Ash Wednesday) we begin with dust and ashes. We begin by hearing Abraham speak for all of us: ‘Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes.’
“Who among us would care to say this about ourselves? How many of us can be as honest as Abraham? It goes against the grain, doesn’t it, this spirituality of dust and ashes.
“It stands in contrast to the superficial piety and self-seeking silliness which too often passes for religion today. It contradicts the religion of self-esteem; it violates the ‘Praise the Lord and give me the goodies” religion which this self-satisfied age is content to hear. But scripture says that to everything, there is a season. There is a time to make a joyful noise unto the Lord,’ and there is a time for dust and ashes.’ Ash Wednesday is a time to strip away our vanities and delusions. It is a time for dust and ashes.
“’Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes.’ It may not sound so at first, but this spirituality of dust and ashes is good and healthy for us. It leads us to admit our frailty and confess our sin.” (4)
Do you remember your parents telling you that you should eat such and such a thing because it was good for you? In an article in Homiletics magazine, Brian Gray reflects on those words in his life related to his experience with spinach. “’Thirty seconds to finish eating your vegetables, young man, or you’re in big trouble … and remember – vegetables are good for the body.’
“The anguish which was my childhood. Facing a four-bite creamed spinach enemy. Sliding a lukewarm, leafy mass off the spoon into reluctant mouth. Pursing tight lips to keep that villainous vegetable behind them. A gulp of milk to wash it down, a hard swallow, and only three spoonfuls of agony left. But hey – I’m told, ‘It’s good for me.’
“Today I love spinach. I start with fresh spinach, not that frozen green block that was once creamed for me. I sauté it in a little olive oil, rough-chopped garlic and kosher salt. It’s not only good for me … it’s flat-out good. So something changed over the years. I learned to prepare and enjoy that which was once merely the object of childhood obedience. Force-fed nutrition became a culinary pleasure. And then, like now, spinach is still good for my body.” (5)
I suppose one of the reasons my eye caught this little illustration of Brian’s was because it has been my experience as well concerning spinach. I hated it as a child. And today, well, especially fresh spinach which I didn’t know anything about growing up, well, bring it on. And, I don’t even mind the cooked stuff, especially if there’s plenty of vinegar around.
But, Gray went on to say: “A Lenten fast can be the same ‘it’s good for you’ routine. We preach a fast – a 40-day laying aside of some habit or vice – and we tell people it is good for them. But if they stop chewing their nails until Easter, will they be more like Jesus? Is giving up candy a monastic spiritual discipline? Who are we kidding? When did the church calendar become cod liver oil? Is it merely something we unwittingly consume for our health … just like our parents did … without ever seeing the benefits?” (6)
"What better evidence of the perception of Lenten dirge do we need than Fat Tuesday? Historically, people celebrated Mardi Gras or Carnival (which is Latin for farewell to meat) as a last vestige of enjoyment before the 40-day Lenten fast weighed them down. Finish the party so we can start the liturgy.
“Instead of taking Lent, thawing it out, creaming it, and serving it like some ‘it’s good for you’ family vegetable recipe, what if we became culinary artists who prepare and enjoy Lent instead of obedient children who merely swallow the traditional family meal – how about fasting from some object or pattern that really prevents us from intimacy with Christ.” (7)
And then he offers some suggestions quite a bit different than the traditional giving up Pepsi or desserts or TV: give up the snooze button, talk radio, working those extra hours on Saturday, perhaps instead of depriving, how about embracing something new – some new spiritual discipline, reading a book, a daily jog, committing to loving something tangible.
Lent is corporate remembering the last days of Christ. We begin with dust and ashes, but it is important to know that we do not end with dust and ashes. Finally, it is the goodness and mercy of God we dwell on, not just our own unworthiness. We began by confessing our sins, but we end at the table, the place of our redemption and reconciliation with God. It is good and proper that we are both reminded that we are of dust and a redeemed people all at the same time.
1.David E. Leininger, “Good News in the Ashes,” Collected Sermons, ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., 2005, 0-000-0000-16.
2.Psalms 6; 32; 51; 102; 130; 143.
3. http://www.homileticsonline.com/Installments/feb2094.htm.
4. Erskine White, The Victory of the Cross, “Dust and Ashes,” (Lima, Ohio: C.S.S. Publishing Company, Inc., 1991), 1-55673-227-5.
5.Brian Gray, Homiletics, p. 7.
6.Ibid.
7.Ibid.
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 Psalm 51 II Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
We read in Genesis 18:27 these words: “Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes.” The season of Lent begins on a Wednesday and the reason why is its own story.
Lent lasts 40 days and the number was chosen because it corresponds to the number of days Jesus spent in the desert being tempted. Now, if you’re mathematically inclined you’ve already done the calculation. There are actually more than 40 days between the Wednesday on which Lent begins and Easter Sunday morning. What gives? Well, here’s how it’s figured. In the early church, the length of the Lenten observance varied, but eventually it began six weeks, or 42 days, before Easter. But, since Sundays weren’t supposed to be considered fast days, that only left 36 days of fasting. So, in the 7th century, four days were added before the first Sunday in Lent in order to establish 40 fasting days. Hence, the first day of Lent is a Wednesday!
We call this first day of Lent "Ash" Wednesday. The custom comes from an old ceremony when Christians who had committed “serious,” “grave,” faults/sins were obliged to do public penance. The Bishop blessed the hair shirts which they were to wear during the forty days of repenting for their wrongdoing and sprinkled ashes over them which had been made from the palms from the previous Palm Sunday celebration. Then, while the faithful - everyone other than those who had committed “grave” misdeeds – while the faithful recited the Seven Penitential Psalms - Psalm 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143 - those destined to 40 days of repenting were turned out of the holy place because of their sins, as Adam and Eve were turned out of the Garden of Eden because of their disobedience. Now, get this: they were not allowed to enter the church again until Maundy Thursday after having won reconciliation by doing penance for the forty days and receiving sacramental absolution. (1) Later on the practice included ALL Christians in recognition that, “ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (2)
"With the ashes on our foreheads, our sin is quite literally ‘before’ us, and we echo the Palmists’s prayer. Ashes, the residue of a burned-out fire, is meant to symbolize the less-than-spectacular state of humanity. Gray and lifeless, ashes make it clear that something is not right, that human beings have settled in the dust and settled for the worst.” (3)
"Lent is (indeed) a somber time, a time for reflection and growth, a time to change our ways and deepen our commitment. Our Lord entered into suffering and death during this period on our behalf. The least we can do is enter into the spiritual demands of the season for Him.
“This Lenten season will carry us through the next five Sundays. We will walk in the shadow of the Cross. We will taste the dryness of the desert and feel the loneliness of the wilderness. If we truly step into the spirituality of the Lenten season, we will feel like we have walked through the valley or shadow of death itself.
“Then we will come to Holy Week. We will see the triumph and tension of Palm Sunday, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem and set the stage for His final passion. We will see the trial and tribulation of Maundy Thursday, when Jesus was arrested and condemned to death. We will stare into the unspeakable darkness of Good Friday, when our Lord hung on a Cross to die.
“And then, finally, we will come to the bright light and magnificent redemption of Easter morning. The Resurrection will be real and meaningful to us because we will have walked to Calvary to get there. Again, if we really enter into the spirit of Lent in the forty days ahead, we will be happy and grateful for our Lord’s victory when it finally comes on Easter Sunday.
“But (on Ash Wednesday) we begin with dust and ashes. We begin by hearing Abraham speak for all of us: ‘Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes.’
“Who among us would care to say this about ourselves? How many of us can be as honest as Abraham? It goes against the grain, doesn’t it, this spirituality of dust and ashes.
“It stands in contrast to the superficial piety and self-seeking silliness which too often passes for religion today. It contradicts the religion of self-esteem; it violates the ‘Praise the Lord and give me the goodies” religion which this self-satisfied age is content to hear. But scripture says that to everything, there is a season. There is a time to make a joyful noise unto the Lord,’ and there is a time for dust and ashes.’ Ash Wednesday is a time to strip away our vanities and delusions. It is a time for dust and ashes.
“’Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes.’ It may not sound so at first, but this spirituality of dust and ashes is good and healthy for us. It leads us to admit our frailty and confess our sin.” (4)
Do you remember your parents telling you that you should eat such and such a thing because it was good for you? In an article in Homiletics magazine, Brian Gray reflects on those words in his life related to his experience with spinach. “’Thirty seconds to finish eating your vegetables, young man, or you’re in big trouble … and remember – vegetables are good for the body.’
“The anguish which was my childhood. Facing a four-bite creamed spinach enemy. Sliding a lukewarm, leafy mass off the spoon into reluctant mouth. Pursing tight lips to keep that villainous vegetable behind them. A gulp of milk to wash it down, a hard swallow, and only three spoonfuls of agony left. But hey – I’m told, ‘It’s good for me.’
“Today I love spinach. I start with fresh spinach, not that frozen green block that was once creamed for me. I sauté it in a little olive oil, rough-chopped garlic and kosher salt. It’s not only good for me … it’s flat-out good. So something changed over the years. I learned to prepare and enjoy that which was once merely the object of childhood obedience. Force-fed nutrition became a culinary pleasure. And then, like now, spinach is still good for my body.” (5)
I suppose one of the reasons my eye caught this little illustration of Brian’s was because it has been my experience as well concerning spinach. I hated it as a child. And today, well, especially fresh spinach which I didn’t know anything about growing up, well, bring it on. And, I don’t even mind the cooked stuff, especially if there’s plenty of vinegar around.
But, Gray went on to say: “A Lenten fast can be the same ‘it’s good for you’ routine. We preach a fast – a 40-day laying aside of some habit or vice – and we tell people it is good for them. But if they stop chewing their nails until Easter, will they be more like Jesus? Is giving up candy a monastic spiritual discipline? Who are we kidding? When did the church calendar become cod liver oil? Is it merely something we unwittingly consume for our health … just like our parents did … without ever seeing the benefits?” (6)
"What better evidence of the perception of Lenten dirge do we need than Fat Tuesday? Historically, people celebrated Mardi Gras or Carnival (which is Latin for farewell to meat) as a last vestige of enjoyment before the 40-day Lenten fast weighed them down. Finish the party so we can start the liturgy.
“Instead of taking Lent, thawing it out, creaming it, and serving it like some ‘it’s good for you’ family vegetable recipe, what if we became culinary artists who prepare and enjoy Lent instead of obedient children who merely swallow the traditional family meal – how about fasting from some object or pattern that really prevents us from intimacy with Christ.” (7)
And then he offers some suggestions quite a bit different than the traditional giving up Pepsi or desserts or TV: give up the snooze button, talk radio, working those extra hours on Saturday, perhaps instead of depriving, how about embracing something new – some new spiritual discipline, reading a book, a daily jog, committing to loving something tangible.
Lent is corporate remembering the last days of Christ. We begin with dust and ashes, but it is important to know that we do not end with dust and ashes. Finally, it is the goodness and mercy of God we dwell on, not just our own unworthiness. We began by confessing our sins, but we end at the table, the place of our redemption and reconciliation with God. It is good and proper that we are both reminded that we are of dust and a redeemed people all at the same time.
1.David E. Leininger, “Good News in the Ashes,” Collected Sermons, ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., 2005, 0-000-0000-16.
2.Psalms 6; 32; 51; 102; 130; 143.
3. http://www.homileticsonline.com/Installments/feb2094.htm.
4. Erskine White, The Victory of the Cross, “Dust and Ashes,” (Lima, Ohio: C.S.S. Publishing Company, Inc., 1991), 1-55673-227-5.
5.Brian Gray, Homiletics, p. 7.
6.Ibid.
7.Ibid.
ASH WEDNESDAY SCRIPTURE
I plan on rewriting an Ash Wednesday sermon later tonight, but for now offer this lectionary reading according to the prophet Isaiah for consideration. I thought it was especially relevant and thought-provoking considering the conversation around giving up and/or adding things to the discipline of the season of Lent. I would especially invite us to consider verses 6-8.
Isaiah 58:1-12
58:1 Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins.
58:2 Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God.
58:3 "Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?" Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers.
58:4 Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.
58:5 Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?
58:6 Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
58:7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
58:8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
58:9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
58:10 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.
58:11 The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.
58:12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.
Monday, March 3, 2014
"A Benefit of ALS & A Trip to Southwestern Florida"
"A Benefit of ALS & Trip to Southwestern Florida"
Well, we're heading back to Ohio North (affectionately known as the freezer and snow ice machine) from Florida (even more affectionately known as Ohio South). Despite my posting only sermons these last few weeks, several blog possibilities have been being considered and germinating in my mind. I'd like to blame this lack of focus on the unavailability of time, physical energy, motivation, or/and pure enjoyment of the weather and food. My best thought would be a little of all.
This is our third consecutive month-long visit to Southwestern Florida since my ALS diagnosis in August, 2010. The first winter we took trips to Vancouver Island with some ONU friends and then Hawaii with a clergy friend and his spouse. We've also taken a cruise with our family and Dorothy's sister's family, as well as journeyed to Williamsburg three times, New York City, Gatlinburg, Michigan, Pennsylvania and went with the church mission team to New Orleans.
Each place and trip has its own memories and unique offerings. Do you want to know one of the things I enjoy about southwestern Florida is? There are a lot of us (Ohioans) in the area (thus the Ohio South reference above)! While we don't know everyone from Ohio in the area we've discovered our share of family and friends. I've started compiling a list so I donn't miss folks. I despise neglecting to iclude people.
As most are aware I still enjoy my basketball (watching college especially) and know my Ohio family and friends well enough to be confident they do as well. As a result I've chosen each year to organize a get-together at one of Ft. Myers' Sports bars. Each event has been well-attended and each year we find new folks before and after (to my chagrin) the event.
This year, knowing that I can barely carry on a conversation with one person let alone 40, I pondered why I still wanted to do it. And then I remembered that one of my top five strengths on the Gallup StrengthFinder survey I took a couple of years ago was arranger. I absolutely love getting people together - seeing them mingle and strike up conversations and meet new people! I find it interesting about myself since I am somewhat of an introvert. It's really quite easy to pull off. All I do is post on Facebook and send an email to those I have email addresses for. I rely on word of mouth for the rest.
Do you mind if I share with you some about the group that gathered this year? If you mind, I guess you'd better stop reading now, because here I go! Besides Dorothy and me, her brother and sister and her sister's husband, my cousin and his wife (who came down for a week to help us drive back), the group included four dentists (our Urbana and Lima family dentists and two from Maple Grove and their spouses, the couple who served as the youth coordinators in the first church I served after graduating from seminary, their daughter who was in the youth group and was on the age-group track team I started and coached in that community (Mad River Missiles), people from the Urbana (4), Lima (9), Linden (2), and Maple Grove (4) churches I served, a couple that moved to Florida over 30 years ago from Lima and their son who ran on another age-group track team I started and coached (the Northern Ohio Wings), the pastor with whom I did my student pastoring while in seminary and his wife, four couples from Putnam County including one of Dorothy's cousins who was just one of the best basketball players ever to play the game in Putnam County and an absolute super nice guy, some friends from high school who recently moved to Florida, a man who stayed with us at Annual Conference, and friends of Dorothy's sister and husband who've become friends of ours as well. There were some who weren't able to make it and with whom we were able to spend some time with as well - two couples of our longest friends from ONU and a Worthington UMC couple. Quite a collection, huh! It was fun and interesting. And, the Buckeyes won!!
Before I was able to finish this post we met another cousin and one of the kids from my Lima Trinity YF and her husband at our favorite Atlanta restaurant which she introduced us to our first year heading to Florida - Pappasito's. What a wonderful visit we had with these close relatives and friends that we don't have the opportunity to see very often! It helped heal the wounds of the Buckeye loss in the afternoon. Oh, and the three of them discovered that they attend the same church and recognized each other!
My point: It's a small world, friends! And while I despise ALS I really appreciate the people who are willing to be with us in spite of my awkwardness, inabilities, and lack of conversation. Go world!!! And thanks, everyone!
Well, we're heading back to Ohio North (affectionately known as the freezer and snow ice machine) from Florida (even more affectionately known as Ohio South). Despite my posting only sermons these last few weeks, several blog possibilities have been being considered and germinating in my mind. I'd like to blame this lack of focus on the unavailability of time, physical energy, motivation, or/and pure enjoyment of the weather and food. My best thought would be a little of all.
This is our third consecutive month-long visit to Southwestern Florida since my ALS diagnosis in August, 2010. The first winter we took trips to Vancouver Island with some ONU friends and then Hawaii with a clergy friend and his spouse. We've also taken a cruise with our family and Dorothy's sister's family, as well as journeyed to Williamsburg three times, New York City, Gatlinburg, Michigan, Pennsylvania and went with the church mission team to New Orleans.
Each place and trip has its own memories and unique offerings. Do you want to know one of the things I enjoy about southwestern Florida is? There are a lot of us (Ohioans) in the area (thus the Ohio South reference above)! While we don't know everyone from Ohio in the area we've discovered our share of family and friends. I've started compiling a list so I donn't miss folks. I despise neglecting to iclude people.
As most are aware I still enjoy my basketball (watching college especially) and know my Ohio family and friends well enough to be confident they do as well. As a result I've chosen each year to organize a get-together at one of Ft. Myers' Sports bars. Each event has been well-attended and each year we find new folks before and after (to my chagrin) the event.
This year, knowing that I can barely carry on a conversation with one person let alone 40, I pondered why I still wanted to do it. And then I remembered that one of my top five strengths on the Gallup StrengthFinder survey I took a couple of years ago was arranger. I absolutely love getting people together - seeing them mingle and strike up conversations and meet new people! I find it interesting about myself since I am somewhat of an introvert. It's really quite easy to pull off. All I do is post on Facebook and send an email to those I have email addresses for. I rely on word of mouth for the rest.
Do you mind if I share with you some about the group that gathered this year? If you mind, I guess you'd better stop reading now, because here I go! Besides Dorothy and me, her brother and sister and her sister's husband, my cousin and his wife (who came down for a week to help us drive back), the group included four dentists (our Urbana and Lima family dentists and two from Maple Grove and their spouses, the couple who served as the youth coordinators in the first church I served after graduating from seminary, their daughter who was in the youth group and was on the age-group track team I started and coached in that community (Mad River Missiles), people from the Urbana (4), Lima (9), Linden (2), and Maple Grove (4) churches I served, a couple that moved to Florida over 30 years ago from Lima and their son who ran on another age-group track team I started and coached (the Northern Ohio Wings), the pastor with whom I did my student pastoring while in seminary and his wife, four couples from Putnam County including one of Dorothy's cousins who was just one of the best basketball players ever to play the game in Putnam County and an absolute super nice guy, some friends from high school who recently moved to Florida, a man who stayed with us at Annual Conference, and friends of Dorothy's sister and husband who've become friends of ours as well. There were some who weren't able to make it and with whom we were able to spend some time with as well - two couples of our longest friends from ONU and a Worthington UMC couple. Quite a collection, huh! It was fun and interesting. And, the Buckeyes won!!
Before I was able to finish this post we met another cousin and one of the kids from my Lima Trinity YF and her husband at our favorite Atlanta restaurant which she introduced us to our first year heading to Florida - Pappasito's. What a wonderful visit we had with these close relatives and friends that we don't have the opportunity to see very often! It helped heal the wounds of the Buckeye loss in the afternoon. Oh, and the three of them discovered that they attend the same church and recognized each other!
My point: It's a small world, friends! And while I despise ALS I really appreciate the people who are willing to be with us in spite of my awkwardness, inabilities, and lack of conversation. Go world!!! And thanks, everyone!
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