This Sunday, at 10:45 worship, we will be singing two short songs reflecting a southern, African-American Spiritual tradition. I chose these songs because I find them soulful and true-to-life. Though the words are quite simple—“You better min’ how you talk”—the theology is deep: we are accountable for how we live our lives, for what we say and how we say it. That is the lesson we will read in Luke 13:1-9.
You’d better min’ how you talk,
you’d better min’ what you talking’ about,
You got to give account in de Judgment, you’d better min’!
You’d better min’ how you shout,
you’d better min what you shoutin’ about,
You got to give account in de Judgment, you’d better min’.
Confession
Lord I’m bearin’ heavy burdens, trying to get home.
Lord, I’m climbin’ high mountains, trying to get home.
Lord, I’m standin’ hard trials, tryin’ to get home.
I chose this spiritual song as a confession after hearing news about K Latzka’s diagnosis of lung cancer. I felt a bitterness toward God for all of the cancer-stricken people I have known. The more angry I became, the more people I included in my diatribe against God. Then there was silence. Then I remembered a guy named “Job” from the Bible who said “I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul (Job 7:11)…for the arrows of the almighty are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me” (Job 6:4). Mmm, I could hear the spiritual rising up inside me… “bearin’ heavy burdens…climbin’ high mountains…standin’ hard trials.” “Tryin’ to get home.” I am not sure how you are handling this news about K or other difficulties in your own life. Maybe you console yourself with “It is what it is” as you pack the additional burden onto an already heavy load. I turn to God in confession: “Lord, as a reasonably faithful man I suppose by now I should be able to put things like cancer into proper perspective…but I can’t. This stinks, to put it plainly.”
Assurance of Forgiveness
Will there be an assurance of God’s love? What form will it take? Will I understand why cancer exists? Will I hear what the man Job heard from God, something along the lines of “You can’t possibly fathom what is at work here…but I love you anyway!”? The very possibility of hearing a word of grace makes me crave worship-I can’t wait until Sunday to hear God’s assurances.
God has drawn the church into covenant, calling us to be faithful people who walk in the ways of Christ. Yet how often do we explore what that means or examine our behavior against the example of Christ? A time of confession gives us the opportunity to reclaim and grow in our relationship with God.
A covenant is another name for a contract. Our worship service this Sunday will recall a covenant made between Abram and God (Genesis 15). Abram was promised a legacy in exchange for promising faithfulness to God. That is an ancient story and our distance from it is equally vast. The idea that we are all somehow heirs in God’s family and have specific rights and responsibilities seems remote. I have citizen’s rights as an American and thus I have responsibilities to the IRS; do I have similar rights and responsibilities to God?
Confession
God of all people, we confess that we claim you majesty and power for our exclusive benefit. We relish the good things of life and are reluctant to share with those who seem less deserving. We resist the prophets who point out our greed, even when we feel we are being generous. We resent persons in positions of authority over us who seem not to have our best interests at heart. We are angry about one whose evil deeds seem to go unpunished. O God, how can we receive your mercy when we are so reluctant to pass it on? Help us to center our lives in your love more than our own desires.
For weeks now I have driven past a “Vote for Scott Brown” sign that was written in sloppy black ink onto a white, 10-gallon, plastic container lid and bolted to a telephone pole. The sign was taken down not after Scott won the election but after Scott lost the good will that sent him to the Senate. Scott sided with the democrats. Now all that remains of the good will are two bolts with fragments of white plastic attached to a post. We are fickle and merciless. In yesterday’s Boston Herald a woman wrote condemning Tiger Woods insinuating that his hedonistic lifestyle was a direct result of his Buddhist practices and added “When he dies I pray God will have mercy on his pathetic soul”. Does she really pray for Tiger’s soul? Might she also pray for her own?
Assurance of Forgiveness
If we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.
In the name of Jesus Christ you are forgiven. Amen.
At the end of this week’s sermon I tell a story about a man who experienced a divine conversion while visiting the Holy Land. He described the experience as if something had taken a giant pipe-cleaner to his soul. Clean. May it be so for you this Lent.
Each week in Lent we will share a corporate confession in both 8:15 and 10:45 worship. Before seeing these confessions in worship, I will write them in the “Front Porch” and post them on www.frontporchhudson.blogspot.com . The actual confession, written by Lavon Baylor, will appear in black. My responses will be in italicized purple (the color for the season of Lent).
Call to Confession Come all who have inflicted or accepted oppression; we share in the world’s sin. Come all who make distinctions among people; we participate in the brokenness of God’s family. Come all who respond to false voices of the world; God is calling us away from our former limitations. This Sunday we will hear the Bible story of Satan tempting Jesus. Jesus is driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness and forced, perhaps because he was fasting, to hear the empty promises offered him by Satan. Jesus had to learn to discern the truth. We are “called” to confession by the Holy Spirit because we too must learn to discern “false” voices from that which is true.
Confession Holy God, we confess our desire to reshape your world to our own advantage. We are more concerned with what we eat than with who will get to eat today. Our own security is more important to us than the health and safety of all of your children. The first fruits of our labor grace the altars of our own desires instead of honoring you. We prefer that you keep your distance from us unless we need you. We like promises without commands, gifts without responsibilities. O God we confess that our ways don’t work. Turn us around for true worship and service, as forgiven and forgiving people. This confession remembers Jesus’ encounter with Satan in the wilderness when Satan invited Jesus to turn stones into loaves of bread. Jesus quoted Hebrew scripture to insist that we do not live by bread alone but rather by truth which comes from God. Perhaps this is a variation on the proverb “Give a man a fish and he will eat today; teach a man to fish and he will eat tomorrow”. This confession takes that a step further: I can ask God to satisfy my immediate hunger, but with that same breath, I in my great trust in God’s providence might as well ask for the end of all hunger, not just my own. Have I been too selfish to ask God for such a thing? And to work for it?
Assurance of Forgiveness All who call on God will know salvation. Those who cling to God will be delivered. How great is the joy of people who are loved, forgiven and set free to become a new creation, through Christ Jesus. God’s gifts are for you. Receive them in trust, knowing that God’s presence and protection are yours to enjoy every day. This Lent I have chosen to relate the Biblical stories of Lent to the daily opportunity to cook. Chef Matt Williams will join me on occasions as we explore the parallels between the art (and necessity) of cooking and the practice (and necessity) of spiritual devotion. If this sounds like we might be having entirely too much fun in worship and that perhaps Lent should be more morose, please re-read the assurance of forgiveness. The truth sets us free and that…feels…GOOD!
I don’t know of any other pastor who has a fireplace in his or her office! This space was designed in 1913 to be a Lady’s Parlor. The Men’s Lounge was downstairs where the present church office (and another fireplace) is located. These spaces were “re-tasked” as sensibilities changed.
It is time to do some more re-tasking.
I’ll list these in three categories which will be the focus for our church in 2010-2011:
Study.
We have a library that few people actually use. That room is actually more regularly used as a choir room (but with no place to store music), a community meeting room (although the library limits the size needed for these groups) and a Junior High classroom (with nothing on the walls or windows that reflects the age of the learners). What is the best use of that space given our current mission?
We are using a model of Sunday School that divides grades and requires classroom space that we really don’t have. Prior to my arrival in 2007 there was talk of building additions to accommodate that Sunday School model. But there are better models. A workshop rotation model uses space differently and has several other huge benefits: teachers get to work in an area where they feel truly gifted (like drama or music or Bible storytelling) and prepare one lesson taught five consecutive weeks (preventing burn-out!) while kids enjoy Sunday School for the same reasons they enjoy Vacation Bible Camp—great variety. This method can also save money on curriculum! What other models could we explore?
Our one adult class meets in Lamson Hall on Sundays. I would like for that group to use my office instead and free-up that space for large, fun children’s activities on Sunday. And actually, I am not sure my office should be an “office” at all. Could I do my computer work out of the present choir room and allow the office to become a “prayer room” where intimate meetings can take place?
Outreach
When the public enters our church it sure would be nice if there was an obvious reception area perhaps just inside Lamson Hall. Agape Café could use it to welcome guests, Open Door clinic could use it to for more private intake. Imagine how little it would take to provide welcoming space.
Lamson Hall is largely unused six days a week and yet it must be heated. In the winter time residents of the local family homeless shelter could bring their kids out of that home with little room for play and into an expansive play space in Lamson Hall. (In the summer our neighbors could enjoy the playground on our property…just imagine it!)
Worship
We finally cleared the air hockey table off of the downstairs stage and left the altar there instead. Have you noticed the difference in the way that room feels? I have. It is now much easier to imagine worship taking place on the stage…maybe Thursday night after Agape Café? Maybe it becomes a youth stage for their worship services. In fact imagine converting Lamson Hall into a café for teenagers where they could experience poetry slams, live music and, of course, contemporary worship that they would be happy to invite their friends to.
In the main sanctuary the choir cannot see from behind the gigantic wall that surrounds them. So during joys and concerns and children’s message they stand and peek over the wall like Kilroy. Is that full-sized wall necessary or might it be cut down by three feet? And while we are cutting, might we shave-off a few pews so that people who find their way into worship because of our accessible parking lot can likewise find a place for themselves at the center of the congregation rather than on the fringes—the only place wheel-chairs currently “fit”. I know some of my ideas are radical and will not be adopted. I also know that many of you have similar ideas and have not felt comfortable speaking-up. Well, we have a lot to talk about this year!
When our Vision 2012 Team met with a consultant last year we learned that our church did not have a lot of “resiliency”. You might say that the church seemed to have a kind of “flu” bug. The church had experienced division around capital improvements, disappointment at falling short of capital campaign goals and then a rough pastoral transition followed by a worrisome economy. All of these things attacked the immune system of the church, so at the time our Vision Team came together, it seemed to the consultant that our church did not have the strength to even imagine audacious new goals and missions. The focus was on keeping and improving what we already have. When you are sick you don’t want to go outside!
Our Vision Team also exhibited signs of our lack of resiliency. The group named some intriguing ministry ideas such as to begin a Daycare Center, to create a Hudson Bookstore and Café or even to relocate to a storefront out of which Open Door and Agape could operate, leaving worship to take place in member’s homes where better intimacy could be achieved. Intriguing. But when we discussed the importance of really studying the community or reading books to understand the usefulness of these ideas, few among us had the energy. We want to get out of the house, we really do, but we are still under-the-weather.
The Vision 2012 Team isn’t bringing recommendations to the Church Conference that we open a Bookstore or a DayCare center at FUMC Hudson, intriguing as those may sound to some. I think our church is turning a healthy corner and we will soon be able and willing to tackle more audacious ministries for Chirst’s sake, but we can’t move forward on ideas like this without serious engagement with the community and with helpful texts. Still, I am looking for a cadre of dreamers who feel healthy enough to roam the streets of Hudson and Stow and Berlin. Here are examples of what they may be asking:
This summer Dennis and I stopped people on the street at Hudson Fest and asked them to tell us their favorite pizza place and their favorite song right now. Nobody told us that hymns were their favorite songs. Adults in this town like country music and rock music from the eighties and early nineties. Kids like thrash metal, hip hop and country, for the most part. How can we use what we know to meet people where they are?
Later in the summer I set-up a lemonade booth outside the church and asked parents with small children to fill-out a quick survey. The survey asked what opportunity at 34 Felton Street they were most likely to take advantage of. The list contained about fifteen possibilities including some typical offerings like worship and book studies. The three most popular items: 1. A play space for their kids. 2. Gourmet cooking classes. 3. Weeklong-camp during school holidays. How can we use what we know to meet people where they are?
Before Block Party a handful of us walked the church neighborhood inviting folks to join us at 34 Felton. I met with one longtime neighbor of the church who said he had never been visited by anyone from this church before. He was a happy Roman Catholic and so we invited him to Agape Café rather than to worship. I visited one house with a car out front that sported two bumper stickers—a rainbow flag (suggesting to me that the owner of the car is gay) and “Back Off—I’m a Goddess”. A woman came to the door, took the flier and said “Okay I’ll take this but otherwise I’m all set…” The last house I visited brought me face-to-face with a man who said he had only one friend in Hudson, only one person he felt he could trust. Everybody else had stabbed him in the back. He tells me he goes to work and he goes home, that’s it. I suggest to him that there is a third place for him and at least one more friend. He did seem grateful for our thirty-minute visit. None of these three people ever attended Block Party or Agape Café, but I learned much more about how a Catholic, a “Goddess” and an angry, lonely man see our church and community. How can I use what I know to meet these people where they are?
At Church Conference I am looking for people who are not afraid to talk to people about who they are and what they really need. I’m looking for people who have a sense that God wants to do something audacious through our church in this community, people committed to follow the signs no matter where they lead. Are you ready to go outside yet?
The Church offers spiritual formation through worship, education and service.Over time these three practices can transform an individual and by doing so, they transform the world.The Vision Team celebrates the Spiritual Formation that is already taking place at FUMC and yet challenges the church to have greater expectations for church-wide, on-going involvement in these spiritual practices.
Our current approach to spiritual formation is something of a buffet.I think a better model for us is spiritual formation as a box from Angel Food. Let me explain the difference.
I love buffets.I get exactly what I want in exactly the portion I want.As I think about a typical Chinese restaurant buffet I imagine loading my plate with General Tso’s Chicken or Sesame Chicken or Orange Chicken—all basically deep-fried meat morsels coated with sugar-sweet glaze.I skimp on the vegetables so that I get more bang for my buck.It is mostly about loading-up on that glazed chicken.But I don’t usually eat that way at home. At home I am more careful to include good, unprocessed vegetables, higher quality protein without the fat and sugar and higher quality breads than the oil-encrusted flour that blankets the buffet morsel.
By comparing Church spiritual formation to a Chinese buffet I do not mean to suggest that our offerings are unhealthy.Rather I am faulting the cultural pattern of individualism that has crept into most of our program-sized churches in the United States.It seems normative for members to load-up on certain worship morsels while giving scant attention to the broccoli of education and even less acknowledgement that there is mission-work “fruit” at the buffet as well.Churches have lowered expectations to the point where education and mission seem completely optional for adults.I was talking with a Scout leader from another church who shared with me the ways that Scouting has changed in his area.On typical weeknight meetings the group is complete but when they plan weekend camping, fewer than half of the kids attend.He is mystified because outdoor adventure really is at the heart of the program—they are called “scouts” after all!Camping is where the rubber hits the road—where theory becomes practice.Families simply will not commit all of that valuable weekend time to a program like Scouts.They load up on the weekday meetings but miss out on the nutrients.So it is in churches too.Still I wonder if we can shake free of the buffet mentality.
Angel Food delivers a box of essential ingredients to families who place monthly orders.See www.angelfoodministries.comThis month the $30 box includes: a bag of onions, dozen eggs, 2% shelf stable milk, Ribeye steaks, pork chops, quick prep chicken fried rice, a fully prepared lasagna, breaded fish patties, ground beef, broccoli, breaded chicken cutlets, breakfast cereal, hash browns and dessert.I can use everything in this box!I can save a lot of money too, which is the point of Angel Food Ministries, but that is not the point I am trying to make right now in comparing the box to spiritual formation.What I want to emphasize is the breadth and consistency of Angel Food.Spiritual Formation requires breadth and consistency.
A newcomer to FUMC might come expecting the buffet.That is the cultural expectation.Yet in addition to an uplifting worship, they are encouraged, from day one, to claim a full box of resources.The box includes an expectation to be in a small group study as well as the assumption that within weeks or months that newcomer will roll-up-sleeves with us in a setting like Agape Café or raking leaves for neighbors who need the help.On the other hand, long-timers who feel that they have “done their time” in service or study—people who often speak to me in terms of “retirement” from church obligations—these folks also receive the box.Their needs are different than those of newcomers.They may need more cereal and less dessert.But older adults most certainly need consistent spiritual formation in all three areas, worship, education and service.A father brings his daughter to Sunday school but then rather than simply expecting that he will drive over to Honey Dew for coffee, waiting for his daughter to finish Sunday School, the dad meets with other dads (or moms) for a Biblically-based parenting class.After their classes the two meet together in worship.After worship, the two take the “Bonnie’s List” of service options with them and talk in the car about how they can best serve one of the needs listed there.When they get home, mom (or dad) is still sitting at the kitchen table reading the paper when the two arrive home with an idea for service.At the end of the month the entire family attends worship together and celebrates the completion of a family goal.
Spiritual Formation exists to help people heal fragmented, divided lives.Our church serves people best when we offer wholistic spiritual care rather than fragmented options.When we meet at our full church conference on November 21st, let’s make a collective decision to raise our expectations for Spiritual Formation.Let’s offer (and receive) the whole box!
I am not a finance expert nor do I have the experience many of you do with home mortgages. I am in the rare and some would say enviable position of having no mortgage because my family lives in a home provided to us by the church. We actually live in the home provided by my wife’s church. FUMC Hudson also has a home set-aside for the pastor. That home is currently rented, the proceeds funding primarily the $180,000 mortgage (used to purchase a new church boiler a few years ago), followed be taxes (the home is tax-exempt when it is occupied by clergy) and one quarter of the utilities for the house I do live in.
Because the pastor of this church is no financial expert, this church is fortunate to have a skilled finance team committed to responsible fiscal management. Leaders have taken the Financial Peace University course and each one lives the principles of the program:
In addition to working with a team of responsible managers, this congregation is fortunate to have a pastor who does not need to live in the church-owned house. Rent from that house raises $800 a month to pay-off the $180,000 mortgage. Yet the church cannot reasonably rely on that rent to fund the mortgage. The average pastoral tenure is four years in one place. Even if I were to stay in FUMC for seven or eight years (which I hope to do, God willing), it is not always easy to find and keep tenants.
We need a plan to pay-off the mortgage; a plan which requires us to work harder at fundraising and at cost savings. Financial Peace University teaches that 97% of Americans DO NOT seek to pay-off mortgages early. We do not think we have enough money to do so. Our unwillingness to make sacrifices in the present forces us into making longer-term sacrifices that we refuse to fully appreciate. In order to pay-off the mortgage (and to stay out of the habit of borrowing money from savings), we will need to make difficult spending choices. If the mission is worth it to us—if step seven sounds good to us—then we will need to be clear about our objectives and how we plan to achieve that fruitful future. This is as true in the church as it is in our homes.
So I hope you will continue praying for wisdom for your private finances and for our finance committee and other leaders who manage our collective resources. God will direct our way forward!
Saint Paul wrote to the Roman Christians:
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. (Romans 8:18)
