I was totally irritated this week when, after Chris Brown performed at the BET Awards, in a tribute to Michael Jackson, he broke down and people wondered if it was all a show.
Not only that, but an unforgiving spirit hung over all the television commentaries and blogs. Because Chris Brown treated Rihanna so poorly, it seems that many to perhaps most refuse to forgive him and doubt that his “remorse” is sincere.
I found the entire situation troubling one, because too many people automatically thought that Brown was merely being dramatic, and two, I would bet that many of those people turning their noses up at him are probably people who call themselves Christian, meaning, they are under divine command to forgive.
Brown was singing “Man in the Mirror” when he broke down, in tears. I thought, as I watched him, that many of us have looked into a mirror and finally seen who we really are, and have not been happy. Many of us have realized, seeing ourselves honestly for perhaps the first time, that we have messed up and messed up bad. Such a realization could bring anyone to tears.
If Brown had one of those kinds of moments, coupled with a profound sense of sadness that the King of Pop is really gone, yes, it might move him to tears.
I hate what happened between Brown and Rihanna. There is never a reason to hit a woman. That’s what I was taught. That’s what I thought, even, when I saw video of a cop hitting a belligerent girl in the face with his fist. My father said a real man never hits a woman, even when she pushes him. His advice, added to my own beliefs, makes me hate what happened to Rihanna at Brown’s hands, and in fact, makes me hate it whenever I hear of or see domestic violence.
But it happened, Rihanna (rightfully so) stopped seeing Brown, Brown went to court and did his community service. I hope he is in anger management classes …but even if he isn’t, the episode with Rihanna is over. If he is sorry, we who call ourselves Christian ought to receive his repentance and perhaps his disdain with himself with grace.
God receives us when we’re like that, and God does it with grace and love.
There are some things that all of us have done for which we will be deeply sorry for and maybe even embarrassed about until we breathe our last breath. The difference between us and Chris Brown is that our agony and embarrassment is private while his is virulently public.
But we certainly count on being forgiven by God, and if we’re with the right people, we hope for their forgiveness as well. It is part of the ethos of belonging to the Christ to not only accept forgiveness from God, but to give forgiveness to those we’ve wronged and receive remorse from those who offer it.
I hope Chris Brown drowns out the cynical opinions offered on his breakdown Sunday. I hope he gives his tears and his heart to God and gets the strength from God to go on and to get stronger. I hope that whatever is in him that drove him to hit Rihanna is slowly dissipating from his spirit.
And I hope that we who call ourselves Christian will let go of some of our cynicism and catch hold of more of God’s grace, so that we can give to others what has been freely given to us.
Have a good week.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
We Can
We can do anything we want. We merely have to really want to do it.
The driver, the force behind great things being done is not money, but it is the spirit and faith of the person or persons pushing their vision.
Too often, because there is a lack of sufficient funds (and there is always a lack of sufficient funds) people fold their arms and purse their lips and say “we cannot do it,” or “it can’t be done.”
What about God? What about the fact that we say all the time that we can do all things through Christ? Whatever all we do not have, we have God.
If we do not make God the center of all we do, then we “do religion” in vain. God desires us to try Him/Her, and to taste and see that God is good. If we never try God, we never taste God and God’s goodness.
It seems, though, that the best way to taste God’s goodness is to focus on others, not on ourselves. It seems that God wants to show us “the power of one, plus God.” One person, on fire, undeterred, unafraid, and steadfast about “doing good and using God,” can make God show up and show out.
We know that a vocal minority can persuade a silent majority that impossible-sounding things are beyond the scope of God. Really? This God, who made the world and everything in it? Can that truly be the case? Remember the story of Joshua and Caleb, and the 10 other spies sent to scope out the Promised Land? Ten spies came back with a negative report, and were able to sway the majority of the Israelites that they could not get into the land.
Only Joshua and Caleb said that because of God, “we can surely enter this land.”
The majority of Israelites believed the negative report and in fact did not see the Promised Land.
That is not the God I know. This God is a “rewarder of those who seek Him.”
This economy is bad, but God IS. God is …good, able, merciful, knowing … God IS.
As we move to raise the money for our parking lot, I hope we keep that thought in front of us and in the center of all we do. We don’t have the money (now), but we have God, always. God IS.
Let the redeemed say so…and move on it.
Pastor Smith
The driver, the force behind great things being done is not money, but it is the spirit and faith of the person or persons pushing their vision.
Too often, because there is a lack of sufficient funds (and there is always a lack of sufficient funds) people fold their arms and purse their lips and say “we cannot do it,” or “it can’t be done.”
What about God? What about the fact that we say all the time that we can do all things through Christ? Whatever all we do not have, we have God.
If we do not make God the center of all we do, then we “do religion” in vain. God desires us to try Him/Her, and to taste and see that God is good. If we never try God, we never taste God and God’s goodness.
It seems, though, that the best way to taste God’s goodness is to focus on others, not on ourselves. It seems that God wants to show us “the power of one, plus God.” One person, on fire, undeterred, unafraid, and steadfast about “doing good and using God,” can make God show up and show out.
We know that a vocal minority can persuade a silent majority that impossible-sounding things are beyond the scope of God. Really? This God, who made the world and everything in it? Can that truly be the case? Remember the story of Joshua and Caleb, and the 10 other spies sent to scope out the Promised Land? Ten spies came back with a negative report, and were able to sway the majority of the Israelites that they could not get into the land.
Only Joshua and Caleb said that because of God, “we can surely enter this land.”
The majority of Israelites believed the negative report and in fact did not see the Promised Land.
That is not the God I know. This God is a “rewarder of those who seek Him.”
This economy is bad, but God IS. God is …good, able, merciful, knowing … God IS.
As we move to raise the money for our parking lot, I hope we keep that thought in front of us and in the center of all we do. We don’t have the money (now), but we have God, always. God IS.
Let the redeemed say so…and move on it.
Pastor Smith
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Rachel, Weeping for her Children
Too often, we have no idea of the depth of suffering in our own country.
I read a troubling report this week that said this summer, literally thousands of school children will face hunger. These are kids who have relied on free lunches (and in some cases, breakfasts as wee) during the school year. With school out, and with free feeding programs scattered throughout cities and food pantries nearly dry, these same children will be left to eat junk food or compete for left-over food that just will not stretch far enough.
Because of this crisis, the report said, these kids will show up for school less healthy than they are now, and therefore, less able to learn.
This year, the report said a record 20.5 million school kids needed subsidized school lunches. For many, that lunch represents the only food they get on a daily basis.
If it is a fact that the kids will rely more on junk food to fill their empty stomachs, not only their ability to learn but their health will be compromised. Junk food adds empty calories and pounds, but little nutritional value, and food from fast food restaurants don’t do much better. Therefore, kids can be expected to be more obese, and suffer from diabetes and even hypertension, illnesses that are affecting more and more young children at an alarming rate.
Though the federal government provides funds for free school lunches, there are more hungry school children than there are federal dollars enough to feed them. Food sites which receive federal funds must be in areas where there are enough poor children to meet federal requirements. It is possible, therefore, for an area to be poor, but not poor enough, to qualify for free food.
The result is that the kids go hungry.
Some people in some areas have addressed and are addressing the problem and are distributing food from coolers in the backs of their vans or trucks, or from their church basements for fellowship halls, but food distributed this way does not qualify for federal funds. These lunches are paid for with private funds.
Still, the alternative is not acceptable; the thought of kids being hungry all summer is as troubling as was the thought of women re-using dirty diapers for their kids because they cannot afford Pampers. The economy may be getting better for some people, but not for the masses, not yet. If there are hungry children, then there must be food for them. Surely, we the community cannot let them languish and be miserable.
What do you think?
Pastor Smith
I read a troubling report this week that said this summer, literally thousands of school children will face hunger. These are kids who have relied on free lunches (and in some cases, breakfasts as wee) during the school year. With school out, and with free feeding programs scattered throughout cities and food pantries nearly dry, these same children will be left to eat junk food or compete for left-over food that just will not stretch far enough.
Because of this crisis, the report said, these kids will show up for school less healthy than they are now, and therefore, less able to learn.
This year, the report said a record 20.5 million school kids needed subsidized school lunches. For many, that lunch represents the only food they get on a daily basis.
If it is a fact that the kids will rely more on junk food to fill their empty stomachs, not only their ability to learn but their health will be compromised. Junk food adds empty calories and pounds, but little nutritional value, and food from fast food restaurants don’t do much better. Therefore, kids can be expected to be more obese, and suffer from diabetes and even hypertension, illnesses that are affecting more and more young children at an alarming rate.
Though the federal government provides funds for free school lunches, there are more hungry school children than there are federal dollars enough to feed them. Food sites which receive federal funds must be in areas where there are enough poor children to meet federal requirements. It is possible, therefore, for an area to be poor, but not poor enough, to qualify for free food.
The result is that the kids go hungry.
Some people in some areas have addressed and are addressing the problem and are distributing food from coolers in the backs of their vans or trucks, or from their church basements for fellowship halls, but food distributed this way does not qualify for federal funds. These lunches are paid for with private funds.
Still, the alternative is not acceptable; the thought of kids being hungry all summer is as troubling as was the thought of women re-using dirty diapers for their kids because they cannot afford Pampers. The economy may be getting better for some people, but not for the masses, not yet. If there are hungry children, then there must be food for them. Surely, we the community cannot let them languish and be miserable.
What do you think?
Pastor Smith
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Walk Together Children
Today we begin the next 20 years.
A new day, a new focus, a new spirit …giving back to God with everything we’ve got, trusting that as we honor God, God will honor us.
It is a fact that too many of us are afraid to step out of our boxes and onto the waters of life. We get used to doing things one way and we are just afraid to venture out.
Over the years, we have talked about “being more out in the community,” but we have not done it. Today, we get up and begin the process of really getting out.
We have been blessed deeply. In spite of so few resources we have done much, but God isn’t even close to being through with us, nor is the first part of the history of Advent United Church of Christ completed.
If we open ourselves to God, we can see what God sees, hear what God hears, and feel what God feels. If we open ourselves to God, we are indeed “new creatures,” losing our fear and increasing our faith.
I said in our Wednesday afternoon “Crazy Faith” Bible study that fear is like the oil we have seen in images from the Gulf oil spill. As oil does not mix with water, even salt water, neither does fear mix with faith. We cannot afford as individuals nor as a church to be leaden down with oil, as are the poor birds and wildlife we have seen on television.
We have been blessed and saved in order to bless and lead others to salvation. We have been freed, some of us, from bondages that kept us cooped up for a long, long time. Did we gain our freedom to stay in the cages? I think not.
And so today begins the first chapter of the last part of the first volume of the story of Advent United Church of Christ. There will be several chapters and all will be stories of how we waited on the Lord but worked as we waited, how we shed fear in favor of faith, how we soared over challenges and problems and became the place that God ordained us to be from the beginning.
For the record, I love you all. I love you because you do give, you do push (even if I have to prod you a bit), and you are growing in the Lord. This place is not the same that it was a year ago, and a year from now, the growth will be even more evident.
We have much, so much, to do in order to make the Kingdom of God alive in our community and in our city, Advent UCC style! We have many clarions to blow to let people know that God is love and because we love God, we are love, too.
Martin Luther King Jr. used to tell workers and volunteers who were working to get black folks the right to vote in the hostile South, “Walk together, children. Dontcha get weary.”
Seems like the message we need to hear and internalize right about now. Our real work is only just beginning. Walk together, Advent. Dontcha get weary.
Have a good week.
Pastor Smith
A new day, a new focus, a new spirit …giving back to God with everything we’ve got, trusting that as we honor God, God will honor us.
It is a fact that too many of us are afraid to step out of our boxes and onto the waters of life. We get used to doing things one way and we are just afraid to venture out.
Over the years, we have talked about “being more out in the community,” but we have not done it. Today, we get up and begin the process of really getting out.
We have been blessed deeply. In spite of so few resources we have done much, but God isn’t even close to being through with us, nor is the first part of the history of Advent United Church of Christ completed.
If we open ourselves to God, we can see what God sees, hear what God hears, and feel what God feels. If we open ourselves to God, we are indeed “new creatures,” losing our fear and increasing our faith.
I said in our Wednesday afternoon “Crazy Faith” Bible study that fear is like the oil we have seen in images from the Gulf oil spill. As oil does not mix with water, even salt water, neither does fear mix with faith. We cannot afford as individuals nor as a church to be leaden down with oil, as are the poor birds and wildlife we have seen on television.
We have been blessed and saved in order to bless and lead others to salvation. We have been freed, some of us, from bondages that kept us cooped up for a long, long time. Did we gain our freedom to stay in the cages? I think not.
And so today begins the first chapter of the last part of the first volume of the story of Advent United Church of Christ. There will be several chapters and all will be stories of how we waited on the Lord but worked as we waited, how we shed fear in favor of faith, how we soared over challenges and problems and became the place that God ordained us to be from the beginning.
For the record, I love you all. I love you because you do give, you do push (even if I have to prod you a bit), and you are growing in the Lord. This place is not the same that it was a year ago, and a year from now, the growth will be even more evident.
We have much, so much, to do in order to make the Kingdom of God alive in our community and in our city, Advent UCC style! We have many clarions to blow to let people know that God is love and because we love God, we are love, too.
Martin Luther King Jr. used to tell workers and volunteers who were working to get black folks the right to vote in the hostile South, “Walk together, children. Dontcha get weary.”
Seems like the message we need to hear and internalize right about now. Our real work is only just beginning. Walk together, Advent. Dontcha get weary.
Have a good week.
Pastor Smith
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Warnings by God Ignored?
I was thinking about the reason people sometimes can survive horrible hurricanes and tornadoes is because a warning is given that the storm is coming and people respect the warning.
Those who do not respect the warning, or cannot for some reason, too often do not make it through the storm, past the storm, or in the storm.
We get warnings in our lives about impending storms, too. God sends us warnings that someone or something is not good for us, but we ignore the warnings, so when the storm comes, we caught in it and really do not do well. We blame God but it isn’t God’s fault. God warned us; we chose to ignore Her.
As much as we do not want to, say, evacuate when the warning of a dangerous storm is given, it so often turns out that evacuating saved our lives. Why is it, then, when God gives the warning to evacuate a certain course of action and we do not do it, that we blame our shredded spirits on God?
With us all having a finite number of days to live, we ought to think twice about wasting valuable potential joy days trying to weather a storm God never intended us to weather. Much of our misery could be avoided if we would trust God. It is a fact that many, too many people go to church but do not trust God and live and eventually die captive to winds of life we chose to challenge than to avoid when God told us to run for cover.
So, in spite of having a God who is good all the time, we live on the periphery of God’s kingdom blessings of joy and peace. Our choice.
With all we have to do as individuals and as a church, I pray that more and more of us will listen to God’s persistent warnings and heed God’s directions that we take different paths. Our doing what God tells us might not set well with some people around us, but we exist to please God, the source of all we are and all we will be. In the end, all things work for good for those who love the Lord…and whose love for God is marked by trusting what God tells us to do or not do.
It must seem sometimes to God that we are storm chasers, that we consistently push the envelope and dare life and its storms to sweep us up in their mighty currents. There are people who can chase storms and be OK, but they are few and far in between. Most of us are not equipped to handle the vicissitudes of life. We would do well to take cover under God’s protection, something we can only do if we love God enough to trust him.
The storms of life will never cease, but neither will God’s love and wisdom for us, a love and wisdom that says to us, “Back up! Move away! Come to me!” When we do not heed God’s warnings, we must need expect that we will be tossed and turned. Hopefully, more and more of us are getting tired of being tossed and turned.
Have a good week!
Pastor Smith
Those who do not respect the warning, or cannot for some reason, too often do not make it through the storm, past the storm, or in the storm.
We get warnings in our lives about impending storms, too. God sends us warnings that someone or something is not good for us, but we ignore the warnings, so when the storm comes, we caught in it and really do not do well. We blame God but it isn’t God’s fault. God warned us; we chose to ignore Her.
As much as we do not want to, say, evacuate when the warning of a dangerous storm is given, it so often turns out that evacuating saved our lives. Why is it, then, when God gives the warning to evacuate a certain course of action and we do not do it, that we blame our shredded spirits on God?
With us all having a finite number of days to live, we ought to think twice about wasting valuable potential joy days trying to weather a storm God never intended us to weather. Much of our misery could be avoided if we would trust God. It is a fact that many, too many people go to church but do not trust God and live and eventually die captive to winds of life we chose to challenge than to avoid when God told us to run for cover.
So, in spite of having a God who is good all the time, we live on the periphery of God’s kingdom blessings of joy and peace. Our choice.
With all we have to do as individuals and as a church, I pray that more and more of us will listen to God’s persistent warnings and heed God’s directions that we take different paths. Our doing what God tells us might not set well with some people around us, but we exist to please God, the source of all we are and all we will be. In the end, all things work for good for those who love the Lord…and whose love for God is marked by trusting what God tells us to do or not do.
It must seem sometimes to God that we are storm chasers, that we consistently push the envelope and dare life and its storms to sweep us up in their mighty currents. There are people who can chase storms and be OK, but they are few and far in between. Most of us are not equipped to handle the vicissitudes of life. We would do well to take cover under God’s protection, something we can only do if we love God enough to trust him.
The storms of life will never cease, but neither will God’s love and wisdom for us, a love and wisdom that says to us, “Back up! Move away! Come to me!” When we do not heed God’s warnings, we must need expect that we will be tossed and turned. Hopefully, more and more of us are getting tired of being tossed and turned.
Have a good week!
Pastor Smith
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)