Lent Week 2

Part of the Lenten Journey, we are going through some of the spiritual disciplines in some small groups. We meet once a week to go over the concept and then we’ll be using the rest of the days of the week to spend some time practicing the discipline. If you would like to join along, but are unable to attend any of the small group sessions (Thursdays at 11am and Thursdays at 7pm), I’ll be posting the weekly individual, short devotionals. This week we focus on study and prayer.

Day 1
Reading the Verse
⁴²Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: 
   ” ‘The stone the builders rejected 
      has become the capstone^{the Lord has done this, 
      and it is marvelous in our eyes’ Matthew 21:42}

Practicing the Discipline:
Read Matthew chapter 20 through Matthew Chapter 22.  How does the context affect the meaning of the verse?

Rereading the verse
⁴²Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: 
   ” ‘The stone the builders rejected 
      has become the capstone^[a]; 
   the Lord has done this, 
      and it is marvelous in our eyes’ Matthew 21:42

Praying the prayer:
God of Love and Power, helps us to understand the scriptures as we study them so that if Jesus asks us if we have ever read them, we may answer yes!

Day 2
Reading the Verse
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16 (ESV)

Practicing the Discipline:
Think about the words teaching, reproof, correction, and training.  How might Scripture be profitable in each of these areas?

Rereading the verse
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16 (ESV)

Praying the prayer:
Lord, may we utilize scripture so that we might grow closer to you.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Day 3
Reading the Verse
6 The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.  Psalm 12:6 (ESV)

Practicing the Discipline:
Reflect on the things most precious to you.  Does scripture rank up with silver?  If so, why is that the case?  If not, why not?

Rereading the verse
6 The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.  Psalm 12:6 (ESV)

Praying the Prayer:
Lord, you are more precious than silver, as are the Scriptures. May we se them to worship you.  Amen.

Day 4
Reading the Verse
5 Then I said:  “O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you. 7 We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.  Nehemiah 1:5-7 (New International Version)

Practicing the Discipline:
There is a link between scripture and study.  So today, pray like Nehemiah.

Rereading the Verse
5 Then I said:  “O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you. 7 We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.  Nehemiah 1:5-7 (New International Version)

Praying the prayer:
O Lord, help us to remember our trespasses, and while remembering them, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.  Amen.

Day 5
Reading the Verse
15For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[a] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. (Ephesians 1:15-17 New International Version)

Practicing the Discipline:
List out several people on a piece of paper.  Pray for each of them and their situations by name.

Rereading the Verse
15For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[a] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. (Ephesians 1:15-17 New International Version)

Praying the Prayer
Holy God, help me to be the kind of person who prays for others, so ultimately that I might be the person that better loves my neighbor.  In Christ, Amen.

A close encounter of the rock kind

CNN.com reports today that an “Asteroid passed within 38,000 miles of Earth on Monday,” but “the 40-yard-wide rock was nothing to be worried about.” 38,000 miles is nothing in terms of space, and in fact, is just over twice the distance of some of the satelites orbiting the earth that help control our communications ability.  That’s just a little too close for comfort. The particularly troublesome part is that there are literally millions of astroids, comets, and other space debris that orbit the Sun and could, at some point, collide with the earth.

Many in the Church mark Ash Wednesday as the beginning of the season of Lent.  On Ash Wednesday, we remember our mortality.  It’s a sobering service, but it is a reminder that who are; a reminder of who we are not.  In some strange way, when I read stories about large pieces of space debris coming dangerously close to earth, I have another “mini Ash Wednesday.”  I recall that I am not all that I think I am, and I am humbled by God’s presence in my life, and God’s presence throughout the universe.  Thanks be to God.

Now, if only more news stories that I read helped me put into perspective my relationship with the Trinity….

Hope and the Future

I think there’s reason to be optimistic in a time and culture where optimism is replaced with “cautious cynicism.” The problem with being cautious is that it often means that we talk ourselves out of the things that we should be doing because we overestimate the repercussions. The problem with being a cynic is that it creates a mentality that even if you try something, you anticipate failure. Instead of “cautious cynicism”, I say we choose “unadulterated hope.” I say choose this way of thinking because it celebrates the possibility, but at the same time, it gives us room to fail, which is important to have if we ever want to know success.

An old adage goes something like this:

When the world says, “Give up,”
Hope whispers, “Try it one more time.”

And perhaps Teddy Roosevelt can say it even better:

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

From a speech given in Paris at the Sorbonne in 1910

Do you choose to be in the arena, knowing that you might lose? Or are you cautious, never getting into the arena, knowing that you might get hurt? One choice is bound in the hope that there is a victory to be won, the other choice is tied to cynicism. As for me, I choose the former: I choose hope.

Dreaming again

I caught myself dreaming again about the possibilities of the church in this time and place. The church has been around for roughly 2000 years in a multitude of forms and providing context for divine experience and thinking for billions upon billions of people. A quick sketch of the history of the last two thousand years reveals that the Church has endured, and indeed thrived, in tenuous times. The common thread though is that it had people to dream dreams for what and how the church might thrive in their particular context, whether it be home-churches in western Africa to the greatest basilicas in from Rome to Rio de Janeiro, to the neighborhood church of suburban United States. The methods that worked during other times and places may not work today, but we must retain the ability to dream. Despite it’s age, the church must dream.

I ran across this from C.S. Lewis:

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.

The church might be old. In some ways it might even be old-fashioned, outdated, and irrelevant. But I refuse to stop dreaming for I believe the same Church that has endured for two-thousand years will continue to endure. It just won’t look the same, just as church in 1980 did not look like church in 325 ad. So, dream. Dream big. Dream small. Dream -in-between. Whatever it is, just dream.

A song in your heart

There are days that, for no reason at all, I wake up renewed, rejuvenated, invigorated, and ready to go where God leads. Today is one of those days. I wish they came everyday. They don’t, and in fact, they don’t come nearly as often as you would think or that I want. So, today I thank God for the gift of life, for the chance to follow where God goes, and for the ability to jam to the Johsua Tree album full blast in my car singing at the top of my lungs.

These types of days are gifts, and for today at least, I treasure it. When was the last time you thanked God for the good days?

Lent Week 1

Part of the Lenten Journey, we are going through some of the spiritual disciplines in some small groups. We meet once a week to go over the concept and then we’ll be using the rest of the days of the week to spend some time practicing the discipline. If you would like to join along, but are unable to attend any of the small group sessions (Thursdays at 11am and Thursdays at 7pm), I’ll be posting the weekly individual, short devotionals. This week we begin the Lenten season on the disciplines of solitude and silence.

Day 1
Reading the Verse
Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:10, NIV).

Practicing the Discipline:
Meditate on being still before God. Set a timer and spend 3 minutes in silence.

Rereading the verse
Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:10, NIV).

Praying the prayer:
Holy God, help me be still so that I might hear your voice. Amen.

Day 2
Reading the Verse
“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (Mark 1:35, cf. Luke 4:42).

Practicing the Discipline:
Get up early the next morning and spend some quiet time with God. If it’s nice enough, spend it outside, away from your house.

Rereading the verse
“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (Mark 1:35, cf. Luke 4:42).

Praying the prayer:
God, you are there even when I am alone. Keep watch over me so that I might be your servant today. In Christ, Amen.

Day 3
Reading the Verse
Abraham’s servant “went out to the field one evening to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching” (Genesis 24:63).

Practicing the Discipline:
This evening, take some time after dinner and before bed to go on a walk. As you walk, pray.

Rereading the verse
Abraham’s servant “went out to the field one evening to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching” (Genesis 24:63).

Praying the Prayer:
Holy One, as Abraham’s servant, may we seek your will, not our own.

Day 4
Reading the Verse
“I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds” (Psalm 77:12).

Practicing the Discipline:
Spend some time thinking about all the majesty that surrounds you in nature, your relationships, and other blessings in your life.

Rereading the Verse
“I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds” (Psalm 77:12).

Praying the prayer:
Lord God, despite all your vast Kingdom, you call me friend. That deed in itself is mighty. Amen.

Day 5
Reading the Verse
“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).

Practicing the Discipline:
Spend some alone time meditating on how your words and your meditations might be pleasing to God.

Rereading the Verse
“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).

Praying the Prayer
God of Grace, my mouth and heart are not always in sync with you. Forgive me that I might be a living sacrifice for you. In Christ, amen.

Smelling like ashes

The tradition is that the palms that were waved to recapture some of the majesty of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem are burned 10 months later to become the ashes for Ash Wednesday. This is an ancient tradition, dating back to the 12th century. Ash Wednesday is a personal favorite worship service. The solemn reminder that we ultimately are God’s is moving as the Lenten journey begins. The service hasn’t even started yet, and already it’s a different feeling from previous years.

I have participated in a number of Ash Wednesday services, both as parishioner and clergy member, but not until today had I actually burned palms to make them into ashes. It’s not as easy at it would sound. I first tried burning them in a cast-iron skillet on the fellowship hall counter, but the flames of the first few burned leaves let me know quickly that was not a good idea. So, I moved it outside. This perhaps would have worked, had Hutto not had a normal, 20 mph wind raging from the south. I could not get a match to light, let alone a fire to burn.

My next solution was to find an aluminum pot with a lid. This was the winner. I could place the palms in the pot, light them with the match and then cover them to let them smolder and produce the ashes.

So, after burning my fingers, almost setting the church on fire, smelling like I just finished chain-smoking a dozen cigars, and looking the fool’s part, there will be ashes burned from the previous years palms for tonight’s service. Praise be to God.

Three P’s

Bishop Lowry has spent the last several months visiting every congregation in the conference. It’s a move that I admire because it 1) lets non-clergy know that the Bishop is their bishop too, 2) related to the first, the Bishop is not some talking head, but accessible and personable, 3) it lets the Bishop survey the state of the conference on both a local and a general level, and 4) the Bishop is able to offer a brief inspirational message.

The Bishop made his visit to Hutto last week. Because Bishop Lowry must travel to a number of congregations, he has a self-imposed time limit of 30 minutes for each congregation. The 30 minutes paradoxically passed slowly yet quickly. But, in the end, after listening to the lay members share their hopes and dreams, and in some regards, their struggles, the Bishop offered three points to remember (in good Methodist fashion as he offered three points all with the same starting letter).

1. Prayer – be a congregation that is deeply committed to being connected to God.
2. Professions of faith – be a congregation that is deeply committed to introducing people for the first time to the grace/love/power of Christ.
3. Practice of ministry – be a congregation that is deeply committed to practicing out the faith in mission and ministry.

These points are nothing new. The church has been talking about these for a long time. In fact, I would venture to say that these points are similar to the description of the church in the first chapters of the book of Acts. So, even though they may not be anything new, they are things that we may have forgotten, and we need to be reminded of who we are called to be. I know I need that reminder more than I care to admit. My guess is that you need to be reminded of them too. Thanks to Bishop Lowry for offering that reminder to us.

relearning tennis

I haven’t played tennis seriously in more than 8 years.  Let me put it this way:  I went to get my rackets restrung, and the stringer noted that my rackets hadn’t been made for several years now.  I couldn’t believe that, so I went and checked it out on the web.  He was right, my wilson prostaff 6.1 classics are no longer made.  Not only that, but a website that shows you comparable rackets based on weight, length, stroke, and head size of the racket, returned a search result of zero.

There was a time when I was fairly decent at the game of tennis.  I played several times a week, including many tournaments.  My shots were fairly consistant, I could generate a forehand winner from just about anywhere on the court, and my serve was a weapon.

But, in a resolve to get a little healthier, I have joined the Round Rock Tennis association, where I will be playing in a doubles league.   I’m a little nervous about it.  I went and hit serves for the first time in a long time, and while I could still get the ball in, I was amazed at how many times I hit the ball and thought “you used to be able to hit it a lot harder than that.”

We’ll see where this goes, but regardless, I will try my best to have fun with it.

Any advice for getting back into the game?

Running Down a Dream

I have been dreaming lately, but not the kind of dreams that you have in your sleep.  I have been dreaming about the possibilities that are presenting themselves in the life of the church.  A lot of people have written about dreams.  Here are some of my favorites:

“I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours” -Thoreau

“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one, I hope someday you will join us, and the world will live as one.” – John Lennon

“If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

“Analysts have always tended to measure a society by classical economic and social statistics…Such statistics are important and revealing. But there is another statistic, much harder to measure, that I think is even more important and revealing. Does your society have more memories than dreams or more dreams than memories?” – Thomas Friedman

Do any of these strike you?  What dreams do you have for your own life?  What about God’s dream for the church? Do they match?