Saturday, August 16, 2014

"My Dilemma: A Personality Trait Issue"

"My Dilemma: A Personality Trait"

As I've been watching the Ice Bucket Challenge phenomena the last few days, a certain personality trait has resurfaced and created a dilemma in my life. Every couple of hours I've reposted my grandson's Ice Bucket effort and challenged a new group of friends and family. The more people I name the more concerned I become about leaving someone out - overlooking, forgetting someone and thus hurting their feelings.

Yes, I know it's a good personality trait to not overlook people, be concerned that everyone is included. Over the years I've also learned that sometimes traits can be both good and bad. That is, sometimes a strength can also create difficult times for us. The Gallup folks have done a really excellent job of helping us examine this duality in our lives with the research that resulted in the StrengthFinders survey and books. Definitely highly recommend their work if you want to understand yourself.

So, rather than continue stewing and posting I'm just going to make this blog post inviting all my friends and family to consider taking the Ice Bucket Challenge! No one needs to feel neglected or not needed or unimportant to me. This effort is huge and I know you all want to be a part of it!
Give where you want but especially consider those ALS organizations that know what is going on with research and where the funds will be best used. We give to the Central & Southern Ohio ALS Chapter which sends a portion of our gift to national where there is a knowledgeable research staff. If you're unsure but want to help, feel free to support a team member of Bill's Backers at the Walk to Defeat ALS - Columbus. If you go to the site, you can also join our team and walk with us on Sunday, September 21 at the Columbus Commons.

Go to http://web.alsa.org/goto/billsbackers. If you simply wish to join our team and make a donation, proceed to the Register drop down box and join the Bill's Backers team as a walker or virtual walker and make a donation as a team member or to any of the team members already registered.



Bill

Friday, August 1, 2014

SERMONS: "Meals By Jesus"

"Meals By Jesus​"
Matthew 14:13-21

The writer of the Gospel according to Matthew introduced this amazing meal scene, the feeding of the 5,000 plus, with these words: “When Jesus heard what had happened he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.” It’s obvious the writer believed that Jesus going off to be by himself was a direct result of what he had just heard. What he had just heard was that his cousin, John - John the Baptist, had been murdered by King Herod - brutally murdered - beheaded.

What happened was, King Herod fell in love with his brother Philip’s wife, Herodias. Herod convinced her to divorce his brother and marry him - which she did. John the Baptist continually let Herod know he believed what he had done was wrong, that he should admit it, repent of his actions, and take steps to correct it.

Herod really didn’t seem all that bothered by John’s constant public condemnation of his lifestyle. But, Herodias, now that was another matter. She was a little more thin-skinned - definitely bothered. So much so, she demanded that her partner in crime, King Herod, silence John by putting him in prison and killing him. Herod drew the line at imprisonment. He said there was no way he was going to end John’s life over such a thing - too much potential for bad publicity. He knew that the people considered John a prophet and might react if he had him killed.

Enter Herodias’ daughter, Salome. Herod threw a birthday party for himself. For after dinner entertainment, he had his stepdaughter perform one of those exotic dances for which she was so well known. Herod was so thrilled by how well everything went at his party, especially the dancing of his stepdaughter, that he wanted to give her something for her part in the festivities. So he promised her the moon. He offered her anything she wanted. After a brief side conversation with her mom, Salome asked for John the Baptist’s head on a platter per her mother’s, Herodias’, suggestion. Herod reluctantly ordered it done. (1)

After burying John’s body, his disciples went to Jesus and told him about the incident. As a direct result of hearing the news, Jesus “withdrew by boat to a solitary place” - to grieve? - to wrestle with the reality that the cost of discipleship had drastically increased? - to reflect on what it might mean for his ministry and life from then on? - to lay low for a little while? - to check in with God? - to get away for a little R & R, a little rest and relaxation? - to get refueled or to rechart his ministry plans? We don’t really know why for sure - probably partially for a little bit of all those reasons.

The disciples probably welcomed the thought of some time away from the daily grind of the ministry that was growing daily and becoming more and more demanding of their time and energy. The crowds were getting larger - the number of sick that were being brought to Jesus was growing. The disciples probably were feeling overworked and overwhelmed by all the human misery with which they had to deal.

And so, they were glad to take off their beepers and unplug their earphones and put up their “closed for the Day” signs and head out on to the lake with Jesus for a little fishing and sleeping and goofing off. (2) However, neither Jesus nor the disciples got the R & R they went after that day. By the time they docked their boat on the beach, the crowd was already forming. They deserved the rest they had planned. They deserved some time away to regroup - to refocus - to reflect - but it didn’t happen.

Now, Matthew doesn’t tell us how the disciples felt about the interruption of their time away, their much needed rest, but we can about guess. In an article by Roger Talbott he proposes for us some of the times when we’ve felt like how we guess the disciples felt: “you know, how they felt when the crowd showed up.”

* “The two of you haven’t had a night out without the kids in weeks. You finally get away. The waiter has just brought your appetizer when the babysitter calls and tells you the youngest has a high fever and has started throwing up.”

* “You’ve been planning this vacation for six months. Your reservations are all made and three days before you are scheduled to go your mother calls and says your dad is going to have a quadruple bypass as soon as the doctors can get his sugar stabilized.”

* “You haven’t had a day off in three weeks. Friday morning your sister calls, says her father-in-law has died and wonders if you could take her kids for the weekend.”

* “It has been a very long day. You woke up before dawn because your arthritis hurt so much. You had to go to the grocery store and take your dog to the vet and on the way home your car started to act up and you had to leave it at the garage and get a taxi to take you home. All you want to do is go to bed when the phone rings and it’s your friend who lost her husband last month and she just needs someone to talk to.”

* “And always, when we think we have given all we have to give there is always more need: the starving people in the midst of a famine; refugees from war; the devastation of floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes; to say nothing of our neighbors who are hungry; the children who need someone to care about them; the youth in our community who have nowhere to go and nowhere to grow.” (3)

Yes, we know how the disciples probably felt when their planned and hoped for R & R got interrupted without any help from the author of Matthew. And he apparently didn’t feel the need to report it either, since there’s no reference to it in the text.

Such is not the case when it comes to how Jesus felt though. The author wasted no words describing it - he said it clearly and bluntly: “he had compassion for them.” He felt their pain, their questions, their seeking spirits, their guilt, their need to have him pay attention to them, their needs. And so he put aside his fears for his life, his doubts about his career, his questions about what direction his ministry should take from that time on, his need for personal spiritual refreshment, renewal, his need for rest and relaxation and went to work compassionately satisfying their every need.

Compassion, you see, knows no boundaries. There’s no protection from when it might be necessary to call upon our reserve energy and attentiveness and caring and understanding spirit and sincere smile or hug. Compassion never takes a vacation nor can it ever be withheld.  There’s nothing any more important than offering compassion, being compassionate, when a situation develops around us. There is no limit on the compassion this world, our neighbors, friends and family members, yes, but also strangers to us - people we don’t have a lot in common with - the poorer than us and the richer than us - the more educated than us and the less educated than us - the more physically advanced than us and those more physically challenged than us.

A very good friend of mine, Deb Campbell, died several years ago. It was almost one year from the day she was diagnosed with cancer. Deb was a truly unique person - she lived her faith - she was a Servant Leader - the leader of Servant Leadership groups throughout the conference. I went to her funeral. She prepared a piece for us all to read at her funeral. It was entitled “The Chemotherapy of Love” and one of the paragraphs in the piece seems apropro for today.

She wrote: “Being Love. So often we stop with the me-and-Jesus part of our faith. But, as Tony Campolo said at annual conference a few years ago, 'The problem with Jesus is that when he comes into your heart he brings his friends. And they may not be people you would choose as friends.' It is through our relationships with others that Jesus grows us up in love. The scripture puts it clearly: If we do not love our brother and sister we cannot love God (I John 4:20). This is our lifetime work. How can we love, i.e. accept the other in loyalty and seek their good, the people who drive us crazy? Perhaps the problem is that we never fully accept the fact that we are the beloved.” (4)

There’s simply no limit to compassion when it comes to being a follower of Jesus Christ’s. We’re always on duty - always. If there’s anything that bugs me about we Christians, it is the way we have turned the priorities of the Christian lifestyle around in recent years partially because of pop psychology. Instead of: Jesus first, others second and ourselves last (J.O.Y.), we’ve replaced it with: ourselves first, Jesus second and others last.

Do you mind if I get something off my chest? I hope you answered in the affirmative in your hearts and minds because I’m going to do it. There’s nothing that gets to me anymore than we Christians walking around complaining about how overworked we feel - complaining that too much is expected of us - complaining that the church needs too much of our money, our time, our skills.

Friends, Jesus Christ died for us! He had so much compassion for us, he gave his very life for us. And when we said yes to him, yes to his offer of forgiveness and grace and removal of guilt from its stranglehold on us, yes to his lifestyle - we died to ourselves and were born again in him. As a result, we have committed everything about ourselves to his work - our time, our money, our children, out attitude, our lifestyle - everything! It takes more than one hour/week praising God or one day/week of our lives doing church things. Being a Christian is 24 - 7 = 24 hours/day, 7 days/week. If you’re looking for a one day a week church, a one day/week Christianity, where nothing is expected of you the rest of the week, you’d better look at one of those mega-churches on the edges of town. You’ll find out that it’s not the way it is in any church that is trying to live out the call of Jesus Christ. Compassion never goes off duty.

Nothing is to stand in the way of our being compassionate - that’s what Jesus showed us is our lot in life when he willingly took that detour from his planned schedule and paid attention to the crowd that day. And he did so with such concentration, such intensity, that the day got away from him. He lost track of the time. His disciples didn’t though. They were still in touch with what they lost out on - they recognized the grumbling going on in their stomachs - they had sized up the situation and knew there weren’t any fast food restaurants close enough to feed the mass of humanity that surrounded them. And so they said so to Jesus. They finally said what they probably had wanted to say all day long, “Send the crowds away, Jesus.”

And, as the disciples prepared themselves to help direct the crowd to the surrounding communities and to recommend their favorite eating establishments, Jesus threw them another curve and revealed yet another important aspect of being a follower of his. “You give them something to eat.” “You feed them.” And then the complaining, the whining, really got going: “We have nothing here, Jesus, but these five loaves and two fish. There are 5,000 men here, which means there are probably 10,000 people here counting wives and children and they all need to eat. There’s simply not enough to go around, Jesus.” They tried to beg off by making excuses that sounded legitimate to them. They tried to get out of doing what Jesus instructed them to do by confessing their limitations.

Truth be told, the disciples taught us well - we’ve developed, refined, our own excuses for not serving the way Jesus calls us to. “I’m too old for this sort of thing.” In the last couple of churches I've been associated with members in their 70's, 80's, and 90's worked at soup kitchens and food pantries, went on mission trips, sorted clothes, etc. “I’m too busy.” “I’ve already given and done my bit.” “I’m not ordained.” “This is not my gift.” “I’ve got too much on my plate right now.” (5)

Jesus refused to accept the excuses of the disciples and he refuses the ones we’ve come up with as well. His response to their excuses was: “Well, bring what you have to me.” “Bring me the five loaves and 2 fish.” The disciples did and Jesus took the 5 loaves and 2 fish, looked up to heaven, gave thanks to God for the fish and bread, blessed and broke the bread. Then he gave it to his disciples and sent them to their waitering ministry. After everyone had all they wanted to eat, the disciples gathered up the leftovers - twelve baskets of broken pieces.
 
Now comes my favorite observation about this reported event. The miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 or 10,000 happened not when Jesus did his thing but when the disciples did their thing - when the disciples served what they had. The five loaves and two fish didn’t suddenly explode into giant loaves of bread and Cedar Point carp size fish after Jesus took the bread and blessed it and broke it. No, the miracle happened when the disciples passed the baskets through the crowd - when they did their part and the others in the crowd perhaps pulled out the food they had on them and selfishness and hoarding, got replaced with giving and sharing. (6)
 
“Meals By Jesus” are meals his followers serve - they are the meals served on Sunday mornings to the homeless or down on their luck - they are the meals served at soup kitchens - they are the cans of cookies college-age ministry teams prepare and send several times a year - they are the funeral meals funeral meal ministry team provides after a funeral for families who need to be ministered to in this way - they are the meals provided for families after a new baby is born into their household - they are the sacks of groceries volunteers hand out at pantries - “Meals By Jesus” are those things his followers do after they’ve offered Jesus who they are and what they have. (We've been the recipients of such meals for several months and sense Jesus present with us through the providers.)

Do you hear the call of Jesus Christ in your heart? Do you feel him tugging at your gut, your billfold, your schedule? What will be your response? Jesus says to each one of us - “bring me what you have, who you are, and I’ll bless it and it will be enough for you to fulfill your ministry. I’ll make it worth more than it seems to you.”

I hope the sequence of actions the writer of Matthew reported sounded familiar to you - Jesus taking bread, blessing the bread, breaking the bread and then giving the bread to his followers to distribute. If they remind you of Holy Communion - they should. We say them every time we celebrate the Lord's meal. I invite you to remember that this holy meal is both to fill us with a sense of God’s grace in our lives when we perhaps don’t deserve it and to fill us with the desire to go from our places of communing to live a life through which others will experience forgiveness and grace as well - to go forth and be the servers of Jesus’ meals. It’s a means of grace this meal - freely offered to all, just as God’s grace is freely offered to all.

1 Clergy Journal, April, pg. 36.
2 “Prayer and Compassion Fatigue”​
3 Ibid.
4 Deb Campbell, “The Chemotherapy of Love”
5 Homiletics, pg. 48
6 Frank Schaefer, “Feeding 5000"