Stop

What does this road sign mean to you?

Stop. Do you ever really stop? As I was hurriedly driving through town trying to get this and that done, trying to use my time with the utmost efficiency so that not a minute went wasted, I noticed that we humans rarely stop. This could be another lesson I've learned while observing my dogs because they are all too good at  stopping from taking time to smell the flowers, pee on a bush, say hello to other furry friends, cuddle in a lap or soak up the sunniest part of the yard, dogs can teach us something about stopping. As my late father-in-law used to say as he chased such rabbit trails that I too am in the habit of doing, "However, I digress." This is not a post about lessons learned from dogs, but simply an observation of the fact that rarely do we US East Coasters stop. We're always on and rarely off. We're people of production who've been taught to judge ourselves and others by how much we do and accomplish. I used to love the advice of my first FCA huddle leader, "Do not fear death, fear a wasted life," but I think such a phrase all too well defines our over zealous on-the-go way of life; it is sadly a truth about who we are and what we value, a lifestyle that keeps us all occupied 24/7/365. Many of us truly fearing deep inside a wasted life that will not be remembered for any accomplishment.
As I was driving through town, I noticed that rarely does anyone completely stop for a stop sign. You know those big, red signs that by law instruct us to completely stop? Some of my athletes I've coached have failed the driver's exam because they did not make a full and complete stop. Most of us pause ever so slightly to make sure no other cars or people are preventing us from hurrying on to whatever task we are currently in hot pursuit. I'm guilty of this--all too guilty in fact. Stop signs are merely suggestions, just the way speed limits are suggestions, right?
I noticed myself and others disobeying the law time and time again all within the span of an hour, none of us thinking anything of it; no one ever really does until someone gets hurt, I think. Such a rush pace of life in the fast lane is exhausting. I was in a clergy peer group discussion in Nashville at GBOD (General Board of Discipleship), and when asked to describe adults today the number one description was "tired." There is no time to stop, to break, to breathe. I remember during my first six months at my first appointment, I was utterly overwhelmed and exhausted. I started going to a pastoral counselor to unload some of the burdens and pressures I had been heaping on myself. I remember telling him after just six months in the "real world," "If these six months are a window into what being an adult is all about, I don't want to be an adult." He said to me, "But life--adult life or any life--doesn't have to be that way. We've made life that way. Perhaps as a leader in the church, you need to teach that there is another way."

Do you ever just stop and praise God
for his beautiful handiwork?

Just as we often ignore the big, red stop signs of our everyday existence as drivers, we, Christians, tend to ignore or at least play down the whole 4th commandment where God commands us to "observe the Sabbath and keep it holy," or in other words stop and honor God of Lord of the Sabbath. Yes, Jesus "worked" on the Sabbath (Mark 2) and in doing so he honored our Father as Lord of the Sabbath, but we cannot deny that Jesus was also very much in the habit of keeping Sabbath by stopping, retreating away to pray, to be alone, to worship, to eat, to commune with his closest friends. This one incident in Mark 2 does not null and void the full picture of Jesus' life and ministry that illustrates much sabbathing, coming to a full stop before God.
Our modern concept of Sabbath being an hour or two on Sunday is merely a rolling stop at a stop sign, and let's be honest, for most of us, the hour or two we church together is more about us than it is about God. Yes, I said it. The music that's not to your taste, the person sitting in your pew, pews being roped off, the preacher's mediocre sermon, the person wearing jeans or bringing coffee into the sanctuary, a fussy baby wouldn't irritate or distract you so much if you were really there for God. "The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath." Or as contemporary Christian singer and songwriter, Matt Redman, sings, "I'm coming back to the heart of worship/it's all about you/all about you, Jesus/I'm sorry for the thing I've made it/When it's all about you/It's all about you Jesus." Redman's song is about worship, but the same could be said about getting back to the heart of the Sabbath; it's all about Jesus, and yet do we even really stop for Jesus?

Another Lesson from a Dog

Wiley

My sister's dog, Wiley, has been living with me and my husband for almost three months. He is just a puppy, and he needs lots of attention. Recently he has started to guard the dog food with a ferocity we have never witnessed in him until now. We put out three bowls in the morning and evening; one bowl for every dog. Wiley likes to eat from all three bowls, and he doesn't like to let Zip or Nova, our two dogs, eat from any of the bowls. He hasn't quite learned to share very well yet, and because of that he has put on a few pounds. At first Hiram (my husband) and I didn't notice Wiley standing guard over the food bowls. I usual put out the food in my morning rush to get ready for work, so I don't sit and watch them eat. And Hiram usually fills the bowls as we are fixing or eating our supper, so again, we don't watch them eat. We noticed Wiley had gained quite a few pounds--more than just the typical puppy filling out, though that is what we attributed his weight gain. But last week when we did watch the dogs eat, Wiley bounced from one bowl to the next, not allowing the other dogs to eat at all even though there was plenty of food to go around. Our dogs do not go without food; they are well fed and loved members of our family. Wiley must know, after 3 months of this same feeding routine, that there will always be food every morning and every evening as sure as the sun rises and falls, and yet still he guards the food as if he doesn't know when and where he will get his next meal.

Jesus said in Matthew 6, "Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, and what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them." And yet, many of us still hang on to food, clothing, and other material things like we don't have enough when the reality is that many of us living in the US and sitting in pews on Sunday have more than enough. Then why do so many refuse to share, to hoard, to guard what they claim is theirs? "Where your treasure is, there your heart will also be." Many hearts are given to the treasures we hoard for ourselves while many in our own very community don't have access to the basics such as shelter and food. Maybe it's time we all read the parable of the rich young ruler (Matthew 19, Mark 10, Luke 18), and recognize that many of us (Myself included! I'm a product of consumerism!) also would have a hard time letting go of all our possessions, but letting go of all we have and all we are is exactly what Jesus calls his disciples to do when we choose to follow him. Too often we forget that greed--ever so prevalent in our culture--is a sin. So too is gluttony, and who can argue that we are gluttons in more ways than just food gluttons. In another parable Jesus says, "Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." When we stop greedily guarding ours as ours and only ours, then just maybe God will be able to use what we have to help others who do not have. John Wesley said earn all you can and save all you can, so that you can give all you can. The truth is that many of us live lives centered on self, and with a little more attention and intention, we will be able to give much more than we think we can; but yes it may involve sacrifice. If all your basic human needs are met, then you have enough to help make sure others' basic human needs are also met.  So ask yourself: WWJD--what would Jesus do? "Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the son of man has no where to lay his head." Are you ready to follow Jesus?

A Lesson from a Mannequin

I have a mannequin in my office. Yes, a three-dimensional representation of a human form that displays clothes. I don't know what I am going to do with it, but when a friend offered a free mannequin I thought it might come in useful one day. But for now she stands in my office in a pretty Banana Republic dress though she lacks a head and both arms. As I was sitting in my office trying to find inspiration for Sunday's sermon, it suddenly occurred to me that too many people who call themselves "Christian" are not too different than my mannequin. Much of my frustration as a minister in our world today comes from people who would rather play church than be church--much the same way kids play house or play school. Too many people equate being Christian with showing up in their Sunday best with smiles on their faces every Sunday morning for worship; but there is more to being church than showing up and dressing the part of a dutiful Christian. John Wesley had a couple names for such Christians: "almost Christians," "honest heathens," "nominal Christians." I can hear the band Casting Crowns singing "If we are the body, why aren't his arms not reaching?/Why aren't his hands healing?/Why aren't his words teaching?/And if we are the body, why aren't his feet going?/Why is his love not showing them there is a way?" Doesn't Jesus tell us in Matthew 28 to "go and make disciples of all nations…" In Matthew's Gospel alone, Jesus says "go" almost 150 times. Jesus lived a life on the go, serving everyone from the most marginalized people of society to Roman centurions, lawyers, tax collectors, and everyone in between. He lived Sunday every day. He came to be God incarnate, and such living couldn't just happen in the temple or synagogue! Jesus set an example for us to be people who go, reach out, speak God's word of love to a world that is in need of hearing, feeling and seeing God's Word embodied. Such a life cannot happen visiting our pews every Sunday, or staying within the comforts of our church facilities. Faithful going means leaving our churches to be God incarnate in our world. A pastor long before I came to Wesley Memorial posted a sign as you leave the church offices, "You are now entering the mission field." To not go and do and serve for and in Jesus' name is to be no more useful to the Kingdom of God than the mannequin who stands in my office who neither walks, speaks or reaches out. In John Wesley's 1741 sermon, "Almost Christian," he accused the church of being asleep," or by my interpretation being no more than mannequins. How, then, are you embodying God's word in all you do and say outside of your church building? Don't settle for merely playing church, be the church! Who knows, such people might just change the world!