Becoming

“Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse.  'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.'

'Does it hurt?' asked the Rabbit.

'Sometimes,' said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. 'When you are Real you don't mind being hurt.'

'Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,' he asked, 'or bit by bit?'

'It doesn't happen all at once,' said the Skin Horse. 'You become ….’”

The Velveteen Rabbit

I once was asked why I didn’t title my sermons.  

My not serious, tongue in cheek, quip was that I was a closet Episcopalian, and while I believed in Jesus, I didn’t believe in titles.  Episcopalians do not title their sermons, Methodists normally do.  But I assure you, I am not a closet Episcopalian.  Their Sunday duds are just not me.  I might become an Episcopalian, but I doubt it. 

I wonder if the issue is less about title and more about the why, the purpose of the sermon, and for me, it is about being, becoming.  “What does it mean to be a Follower of Christ?”  

Spanish has two verbs to be.  One has an element of permanence, and the other is understood to be temporary.  If you use the wrong verb to say someone is smart or beautiful, you are actually suggesting it is not part of their normal state.  I see this doing/being in the same way.  We have to do the church enough, that at some point it stops being doing, and it becomes a vital statement about who we actually are. 

I assure you that after having prepared right at 500 sermons I am not the same person I was 500 sermons ago.  Church is a different reality for me than twenty years ago, sometimes even twenty minutes ago. 

Being a Christian within the church is, in the sense of the two Spanish verbs to be, permanent and temporary.  Gradually as we become real in terms of being little Christs, the meaning of Christian after all, he becomes permanently part of who we are, and we leave more and more of the temporary behind. 

Wesley would call it "moving on to perfection." 

I suspect this moving on is never completed, that in this life, we are never fully 100% finished.  To paraphrase Paul from 1^st Corinthians 13, I suspect it is a state of constant becoming, a state of seeing in the mirror and just getting it dimly, always seeking more light, more clarity, moving always towards becoming. In the words of the Skin Horse, you become real, real as a follower of Christ.

Selah, Dennis

Denied Pain: A Redux

“Courage is forged in pain, but not in all pain. Pain that is denied or ignored becomes fear or hate.”

 Brené Brown, Braving the Wilderness

 I think many of us know the expression, “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.”

As Brené Brown offers in Braving the Wilderness, that expression is sometimes, but not always,true.  Courage can be forged, but fear or hate might be as well.

Too often those in pain try to talk to someone, you, me or another friend, about their pain.  On our best days, we listen.  On our worst, we tell them to be tough and soldier on.  I have, too often, witnessed this danced out with exactly this be tough and soldier on choreography when asked to deal with depression.  Sadly, I have led this dance myself more than once.

A person has a broken ankle and we stop, cast them, operate if necessary and shower them with special care.  A person has a broken heart stemming from life’s pains, and we often, too often in my opinion, tell them to suck it up and drive on.

On forced road marches in the Army, I often heard non-commissioned officers telling soldiers to “take two salt tablets, put your mind in neutral, and drive on.”  It worked.  Often in fact.  Not always.  When I comment that we need to be prepared to listen for the pain, it is the deeper pain that is being denied, or ignored.  That is the type of pain that leads to anger and/or fear.

A powerful, insightful, book I read several years ago was Hillbilly Elegy.  The author deals well with the deep pain of living in a culture where that pain is denied or ignored.  To re-quote Brown:  “Pain that is denied or ignored becomes fear or hate.”

I think there are movements in this country right now feeding from the trough of denied or ignored pain.  These movements are across our political landscape, and not isolated to any one group.

How people are often moved to action is through a careful, intentional dose of hatred that is used so stoke the ovens of fear.

What we have too often is a single coin, with two sides:  one side – fear, the other - hatred.  Fear and hatred are two sides of the same coin, minted by those who use that coin to fund and fuel dissension and separation.

We live longer, have less poverty, are better educated, and are generally healthier than at any time in human history.  But still we live so often in fear.  Communities lock down because of a shooting and helicopters fly over our heads shaking us out of a world of confidence into a world beset with basic human fear, and we ask do I face this and rise, or do I flee, and if I do flee, where do I go that is truly safe?

So often FEAR is Forgetting Everything is All Right and that is a basic element of the human condition.  I was once told, there are 365 times we are told to Fear Not in the Bible.

In Romans 5: 3-5 we are told “we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”  Each of us has a role in the steps here from suffering to hope.  Moving from suffering to hope is not a personal, singular journey.  Each of us are potential messengers of the Gospel on this journey.  

Our task, our sacred call, is to listen deeply for the pain in others (or ourselves) and be agents that cause that pain to not be denied or ignored.  Listening to others is important.  Allowing yourself to be supported by others serves to help release that pain.

Sometimes we minister by quietly sitting, quietly listening.

     Sometimes we minister by moving from sitting and listening to rising so that we are instruments of change in a world that might too often be guilty of the charge of not listening for the pain.

          Sometimes, two salt tablets and putting our minds in neutral is not the Christ-like response.  You figure that out by listening, and being open to not believing everything you think.

               Sometimes what doesn’t kill you, makes you meaner or more fearful.  Learn to recognize that in yourself.  Be alert to seeing it in others.

Everyone of those sometimes contains a suggested Christ-like response:  be a friend to those to whom love is a stranger.

Selah, Dennis

I published a slightly different version of this two years ago based on a Sermon Series preached at Hilltop UMC in Sandy, Utah, thus "a Redux".  

Now as a Threshold Moment

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Hebrews 11: 1 (New International Version)

Several years ago I was attempting, and failing, to make a sermon illustration using physics. 

I asked if anyone knew the Second Law of Thermodynamics.  I wasn’t really expecting an answer but voices in the congregation shouted “Bonhoeffer!”  We laughed and it is still funny. 

When Bonhoeffer is the answer to the vast majority of my questions when preaching, shouting out his name is the “just right” answer, right? 

We see the same kind of “just right” answer from the children to questions during Children’s Time:  “Jesus!”

In Utah, at Hilltop United Methodist, I was in a choir where when the director would ask a question about a vowel sound, we would all shout out “schwa”!  That sound is the most common English language vowel sound in our spoken language, and most of us don’t even know what it is!  It is the ‘uh’ in how we say Philip in English.  A gazillion examples of this sound exist:  Again, family, bottom, support, and syringe all have an “uh” sound and that sound is the schwa.  Schwa is “just right.” 

Those three answers are often the expected response to those particular questions and often, they are “just right.” 

Sometimes however, the proper response to a moment in our lives is unexpected, it might not always seem quite right as it is happening to us.  In fact, that response may actually seem dangerous. 

Let’s return to the question that got the answer “Bonhoeffer!”  Let me offer you one way to understand that law of Thermodynamics is left on their own systems move from order to disorder.  You might hear it phrased things move from order to chaos.  But when the moment is a threshold moment, when the ingredients and the moment combine just right, something miraculous happens – instead of chaos, the system moves to a new complexity that has a new order.  In other words, it moves from simplicity to an ordered complexity.  It may look like chaos for a while, but it doesn’t stay that way. 

I offer the decision from antiquity to not eat gathered grain, and instead, put it into the ground.  One scholar calls it a Goldilocks moment:  when the right ingredients encounter a moment when everything is just right.  It’s miraculous, and it is a threshold moment. 

On an Easter Sunday a few years ago, I used the idea of Peter pondering the empty tomb and the women’s encounter with the Risen Jesus.  It was a threshold moment. 

In physics, a threshold moment doesn’t require our assent, but in our theological, spiritual, and religious world, it does. 

We must assent to the possibility that something miraculous has happened:  the moment is just right for a new reality, a new creation:  it is both faith and trust. It is also scary because it is so dangerous. 

Alix Harrow writes:  “Thresholds are dangerous places, neither here nor there, and walking across one is like stepping off the edge of a cliff in the naive faith that you'll sprout wings halfway down. You can't hesitate, or doubt. You can't fear the in-between.”

We can’t fear the in-between.  We must be prepared to step off that edge in faith, in trust. I wonder if now isn’t for many of us a threshold moment, and needing faith and trust to step out into a new unknown.

Scary. Dangerous. Necessary.

Selah, Dennis

United but not Untied

Recently, my wife and I went to the Turks and Caicos to reaffirm the wedding vows of two friends. Great people.  

That Sunday morning, most of the community gathered from across the United States was Roman Catholic, so that was where we went ... the local RC Church.  

The experience was transcendent.  The music had a local flavor but used ancient words.  The liturgy was powerful and the sermon orthodox.  The gathered community was multi-cultural and young. I was strongly touched by the remembrance of what God has done mixed liberally with our anticipation of what God is yet to do, making our now a special, worshipful, grateful, place. 

Following communion, the priest invited those who could not take communion to come forward and receive a blessing.  About 25% of those present came forward ... 

People don't have a tattoo that says "I am divorced" but I wonder if that wasn't a significant element of this sub-community, that was still seeking the blessing of the church? I felt like I was witnessing beauty.  

This observation led me to wonder how is it that Jesuits and Franciscans can get along? It intrigues me that Catholicism can at times be so both/and rather than always either/or. I am mindful RC can be either/or, just not always.  

Catholicism can truly be quite orthodox in what it tolerates (or doesn’t), but at the same time, seek a big tent approach on many things.  

I wondered then if the second most famous quote that John Wesley never said might potentially apply: 'In essentials, unity; in non-essentials liberty, and in all things, charity.'

Elements of our community seem in a rush to declare schism the reality and that we should proceed as such. I do get it.

While I get it, I not so sure I agree with what I get. I vote slow down, please.  

What if we instead tried to reach some agreement (I didn’t say consensus for a reason) about what we agree on – and define these as elements of unity, granting liberty on those issues we did not declare to be essential. 

Baptism of former members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS is the preferred term at least in Utah, preferred over Mormons) might be a United non-essential, that would be quite essential to the UMC in Deseret (the name for the LDS footprint in the West).  For me, what does the person receiving the LDS baptism think of the theology behind the action words of ‘baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit’?  I am not saying it IS a non-essential, just it might be.  Deseret is probably Utah, Southern Idaho, Western Wyoming and Colorado, Northern Arizona and Eastern Nevada and there it would be an essential, but for the national “United” church, I think ‘meh’ might be the general reaction to this issue.  At least to most members of most non-Deseret touched conferences, I suspect. Trust me, for the United church to essentially say 'the baptism of your parents, grandparents, and other relatives is not a Christian baptism [our current position]' may make sense to some, but it is problematic in the extreme in Deseret.

I intentionally chose a regional issue rather than a national one, so we could potentially see one such issue through different lenses.  

   

What if our #nextmethodism/#dreamumc modeled an organization of local churches within (still) regional conferences who had a common set of non-essential values.  We are United on essentials, but on what has been agreed to be non-essential, we are not.  We are in effect, on non-essentials, Untied. 

We could then I think evolve into a system where certain national and international boards and committees are united between the two untied elements.  The United Methodist Committee on Relief comes to mind, but maybe the board that manages our health and benefits?  I would hope that we could hold United that which provides hospitals in Africa.  The United Methodist Church says this is an important essential of who we are and we are going to fund this.  I think the fewer illustrations I offer here, the better the dialogue will go.  A lot of hobby horses out there for sure. 

I probably don’t get it, but is the potential loss of our ability to link the needs of the world with the passion of our hearts a risk we wish to take over doctrinal issues of tradition and scripture?  I think most of us, if not nearly all of us, can agree that Jesus called on us to reach out to those in need and hear in their voice, their needs, and their calls for justice.

Can’t we find a way to stay United on the essentials and agree to a Grace-filled state of being Untied over the non-essentials? 

If we want to find solutions, I think we can.  I confess often, I hear voices that are uninterested in finding solutions.  Show me where I am mistaken. 

If Catholicism can simultaneously embrace Jesuits and Franciscans, I wonder if we are not able to simultaneously embrace two sides which see the world on some issues, very differently  

Selah, Dennis

A Prayer for January 9, 2017

O God, you say 'where your treasure is, there will be your heart.' Let us treasure Justice, Humility and Mercy. Amen. Lk 12:34 Mic 6:8

A Scarlet Letter

Jesus says in Matthew 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life” (ESV).

Paul writes in Philippians 4: 6 “do not be anxious about anything” (ESV). 

Our theme at Hilltop, where I serve the people of Sandy, Utah, in October, 2015 was “Let your faith be bigger than your fear.” Great idea and I promise not to advocate exiting a perfectly good aircraft without a parachute: with a parachute is an act of faith, without a parachute is an act of lunacy. Safety is important. I always fasten my car seat belts for even the shortest trip, well, almost always. But are we sometimes overly safety conscious? The late Rabbi Edwin Friedman offers we live “in a ‘seatbelt society’ more oriented toward safety than adventure.” I think he is on to something here. Let's hold that thought briefly and come back to it later. 

Many of the clergy I interact with have reached a place where one of the harshest direct criticisms we can level on another clergy is, “you are an anxious presence.” It has a mystical, red letter, scriptural authority. Immediate penance and repentance is expected when this is uttered, immediate. Hester Prynne, Hawthorne’s heroine in The Scarlet Letter, was required to wear a Scarlet A, for adulteress, on her dress. In my world the Scarlet A is for anxious, and we within the clergy world avoid that A as if it were a virus. A leader endowed with non-anxious presence boundaries repels anxiety as a virus. 

Here is the issue: who gets to define what anxiety is? 

Anxiety might actually be a reaction to another’s desire for urgency. Urgency is often required to bring about change. Some of that change could be altering the status quo. Anxiety might be our preference to hang on to that comforter that is the status quo.

Is it a good idea to let anyone and everyone be the true definer of what is anxiety? Friedman urges us not to give excess power to the most anxious presence in the room. I posit conversely should the one in the room with the largest stake in the status quo decide what anxiety is. If we don’t want to allow the most anxious presence to have the power, I don’t wish to empower one person to define what anxiety is. Dialogue is called for, and honest disagreement may emerge. But a dismissal with the remark, ‘you are just an anxious presence’ needs to be expunged from our leadership tool belt. 

Your anxiety may be my urgency. Your anxiety may be my raising the temperature in the room to bring about change. 

John Kotter is an expert in leading change. To paraphrase Kotter: ‘The first step in leading change is creating a sense of urgency.’ Urgency might mean we need to move from a too comfortable world. The poet Brian Andreas writes: “Most people don't know there are angels whose only job is to make sure you don't get too comfortable; fall asleep ; miss your life.” Overcoming comfortable and missing our life’s call might require urgency. 

I believe the church may have reached a place where we need to listen to angels that endeavor to be sure we are not too comfortable and wake us up.

Jesus and Paul and Friedman urge us not to be anxious. What element of our leadership life have angels looked at and said “wake up, you are letting comfort dictate what is going on, following the call of Jesus may not be comfortable or safe.” 

There is an irony in my use of Hester Prynne: she is arguably the person of most character in The Scarlet Letter. Her Adulteress A is gradually transformed to an item of beauty, embroidered as a reflection of her inner character. What if allowing others to brand us with an Anxious A is actually a mark of our own transformation, an item of beauty?

Returning to Friedman: What might it take for us to leave the 'seatbelt society' and instead seek a holy adventure in some presumed unsafe wilderness? (Exodus meets contemporary safety standards.)  

To be clear, Jesus says to not be anxious. Paul says to not be anxious. It is scriptural to not be anxious. As we jointly tackle an uncertain future, let’s understand that the issue here is urgency and moving from the status quo, and not allow anxiety to define us.

But we need clarity within community as to why and what defines us as anxious. For Hester, her Adulteress A became a scarlet letter of distinction and honor. Maybe if others label you with a Scarlet Anxious A, but you are, in holy humility, confident that you are a Jesus-like and Paul-like non-anxious presence, let it be a scarlet letter of honor. Urgency and raising the temperature in the room so that the status quo is chased does not immediately equal anxiety. 

If the issue is urgency and changing the status quo, I believe we can wear that scarlet letter with honor. 

Selah, Dennis

Pastor's Musings -- from Psalm 46 -- "Be still, and know that I am God"

Be still, and know that I am God

Psalm 46:10a, New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Psalm 46 is a Song of Zion.  Zion is another name for the city of Jerusalem.  The Songs of Zion celebrate Jerusalem primarily because of its special relation to Yahweh, the God of Israel.  Zion was “the city of our God” (Psalms 48:1-2, 8; 87:3), the object of God’s special love (87:2), chosen (78:68-70; 122:3-5; 132:13-18) and established (87:5) by Yahweh. Jerusalem, a symbol of unity for the scattered tribes of Israel, could not be seen in simple terms. This place was Yahweh's.  The second part of the name Jerusalem reminded the listener of the word shalom, meaning peace. The root of that word denotes completeness, wholeness and soundness.

“Be still and know that I am God” and we will sing of completeness, wholeness and soundness. 

Our theme for this newsletter is “Relax.”  We have a God and it is not us.  Knowing that God is God, and we are not, will invite us to seek opportunities to be whole.  My sermon on the last Sunday of Easter was focused in part on what it means to be whole. 

Wholeness includes an element of self-care.  A classical sermon illustration is the instruction we receive during our safety briefings on airplanes as it relates to oxygen masks:  place your own mask on first before helping others. 

Be still, let God be God, and take a moment (or five) to breathe deep and focus a little on self-care.  In Philippians 2, Paul invites the church in Philippi to “make my joy complete” by being like-minded with Jesus as our example.  Jesus strove to take care of himself, retreating often to places alone where he could pray and listen for God. 

We are going to try and model a little of that this summer.  The choir will take some time off, committees are encouraged to pick a month they won’t meet, and this particular newsletter is for both June and July.  Other examples could be offered up.  The key is to take a little time to relax, let God’s Holy Spirit be given a chance to re-enter our lives and invite us to “be still.”  Marilyn and I are going to travel which will include seeing children and grand-children but also seeing Utah.  We have as we start our fourth year here at Hilltop not seen much of the state outside of the Salt Lake Valley. 

We invite everyone to slow down and reestablish relationships and practices that help make you whole.  Self awareness is a critical element of our Christian walks and pausing to discern what it is that makes you whole, makes you complete, makes you sound is essential.  Allow your spiritual tanks to be supplied, use this summer as an opportunity to first place on your own oxygen mask before trying to help others. 

Relax and let God be God.  Sing a Song of Zion, a simultaneously simple idea embedded within a framework of rich meaning and context.  Be still and know that God is God. 

Selah, Pastor Dennis

Hilltop highly resolves to … what?

There is a lot of energy present in the sanctuary when we have nearly 300 people present. As I stand in the middle of that gathered body I feel like I am at one with you. It is often extremely uplifting.  Why can’t we just keep it like it is forever?

Does anybody really believe that something that is not growing can hold a level of energy indefinitely? I would suggest that one of our New Year’s resolutions is that “Hilltop highly resolves to … keep growing.” Product innovator Robert Cooper sounds like a theologian when he writes, “Every moment of our lives we are either growing or dying—and it’s largely a choice, not fate. Throughout its life cycle, every one of the body’s trillions of cells is driven to grow and improve its ability to use more of its innate yet untapped capacity.” Paraphrasing a little what Jesus says in John 10: “I came that [you] may have life, and have it abundantly.” We have an enormous amount of untapped capacity at Hilltop to extend God’s Kingdom in the South Valley and share the abundant life that comes of knowing Christ.

We have begun the conversation necessary to start framing what a second service might look like. Here is what we are thinking:

· The current multiple musical groups and styles will be the framework at 9:00 am.

· Sunday School is retained for now at the 9:00 hour because we know there are parents who want to worship while their children are in Christian Formation.

· Launch in September.

· Make the decision if we are going to Launch in September, in May.

We would like to see attendance targets of about 275 as an average achieved for non-Easter Sundays in March and April along with clear covenants by enough, about 100, to make such a service well attended and have energy.

I believe we need to continue to grow. Yes, retain elements of our history but also to grow. The product innovator I quoted earlier, Cooper also writes that such thinking “…turns conventional thinking upside down…As … people—there is no staying the same. If we aim for some middle ground or status quo, it’s an illusion—beneath the surface what’s actually happening is we’re dying, not growing. And the goal of a lifetime is continued growth, not adulthood.”

I believe that our Triune God calls us to constant and continued growth.

 

I suggest that one of our community resolutions be “Hilltop highly resolves to launch a second worship service in September, 2013.”

 (Pastor’s Musings – January, 2013)

Henri meets Forrest

My time with the church yesterday could almost be characterized as Henri Nouwen meets Forrest Gump.

My chosen scripture was Psalm 30 where my focus was on the idea of how the psalmist has gone down into the pit but has been transformed from “mourning” (King James Version) into “dancing” and “joy”.   It seemed to me that part of the message was that the psalmist had been transformed by his own acknowledgement of "mourning" that he could help others with their own transformations.  

My approach was to talk to an element of the human condition, spiritual brokenness, and see how Nouwen and Gump simultaneously speak to us.

The chosen Gump scene was Jennie and Forrest encountering her home where she was exploited and abused by a father who knew no boundaries.  As she sees the house she remembers and in anger confronts her demons and starts to throw rocks at the house, and eventually she runs out of rocks.  Forrest as narrator tells us that sometimes “there just aren’t enough rocks.” 

My big idea was that at times we are all Forrests (healers) and we are all all Jennies (the wounded).  Nouwen calls us “wounded healers” and he posits the idea that it is from our woundedness that makes us better healers.

Nouwen writes:  What we see, and like to see, is cure and change. But what we do not see and do not want to see is care: the participation in the pain, the solidarity in the suffering, the sharing in the experience of brokenness. And still, cure without care is as dehumanizing as a gift given with a cold heart.

The issue is in part the seeing.  It is in the seeing, through our own life experiences, that we become healers. 

Forrest is a simple soul.  He operates off wisdom like proverbs, i.e. “stupid is as stupid does” and “life is like a box full of chocolates.”  Our spiritual maturity often pulls us from this world of “do this and that will happen” simplicity into the more Job-like world where we don’t understand why we suffer. 

Our journeys requires both:  simplicity in conversation with complexity.  Forrest Gump meets Henri Nouwen.  Forrest throughout the movie is an unapologetic care provider:  to his mother, to Bubba, to Lieutenant Dan, to Jennie and finally to little Forrest.  He lives a complex, care-providing life framed in a vision of simplicity.  This isn’t a simple story.  But he helps people move from despair to a joy where they can metaphorically dance. 

Forrest is an instrument of God’s Grace.  He is touching people, Jesus-like.  Don Bubna writes:  Jesus didn't have to touch lepers. He could have been just as effective from a hundred yards away. But he touched them.   

We are all called to be Forrests:  touching care providers.

We are all called to be Jennies:  prepared to be touched by others when it is necessary for our healing. Letting others touch us in love requires letting our boundaries down, maybe just a little., maybe a whole lot.  

Sometimes, as healers we are asked to be a quiet presence when those who are compelled to throw stones at old memories just need someone to hold them in love, at least until they decide that there aren't enough stones in order to make them whole.  I wonder if that isn't moving from mourning to dancing?  

Selah.  

Full

First Sunday of Lent and after a careful review of the lectionary texts, I decided to preach on temptation. 

The text for the day was Luke 4: 1-13 (NIV).  Jesus is full of the Holy Spirit, is tempted three times by Satan and Jesus wins.  Luke tells us that Satan will return at a time more opportune. (Fans of "Dragnet" can hear the music:  dum-de-dum-dum).

I started with remembering how we used to have those things called "Service Stations" and how when your car pulled up in one of them, a bevy of attendants fell out of their office and washed our windows, checked our air and oil, as well as filled up the car with gas.  People under 30 were excused for not knowing what I was talking about ...

Would it be so simple to get a fill up of the Holy Spirit. 

Can you visualize it?  You pull into the local Holy Spirit Service Station and tell the attendant "fill 'er up, I'll be back in a second". 

Jesus was "full of the Spirit" and arguably, that helped him in his temptation in the desert.

Satan tempts Jesus three times and twice Jesus responds with scripture.  The tempter is one cunning dude, so on the third try, he uses scripture on Jesus.  Jesus, full of the Spirit, rebuffs the gestures and Satan, momentarily defeated rides off to tempt another day. 

We are told quite clearly that Arnold-Like in Terminator:  "I'll be back" (click to left to see). 

This is the first Sunday of Lent and the passage is the Gospel lesson every three years on that first Sunday, but it is about the beginning of Jesus' ministry, not the end.  What is going on here?

It is part of the Lenten story ... the Journey to Jerusalem with Jesus because at its core, it is about purpose.

Satan is trying in this story to divert Jesus from his purpose.  All three temptations are relevant, but the third one, being saved from death, strikes at overturning the very core of the Jesus Project.  Jesus is here in order to die to free us from our sins.  Jesus is to be the perfect Passover Lamb.  But to be that Lamb, he must consent to his own death.  This passage is about an abortive attempt to divert Jesus from that objective.

Satan:  "I can save you from your divine purpose." 

The reality is that each of us has a project, a purpose, an objective to accomplish on behalf of God, and what are the temptations that lead us astray? 

During the sermon I read from Jonathan Goldstein's midrash-like Ladies and Gentlemen:  The Bible where Eve is tempted by the Serpent.  The serpent is very cunning and Eve is spiritually seduced by making the sinfulness of disobedience seem like "no big deal".  Goldstein is quite clever in his approach.  That is the way we are indeed tempted:  sinfulness is no big deal, right?  In addition, we often aren't tempted by getting these clear on/off, one/zero, black/white choices.  It is rather, by subtle, slow manipulation of the story so that our sinfulness in assenting to the temptation seems like "no big deal."  But all of them divert us from our purpose, our divine purpose. 

In Luke:  Jesus wins. 

But at the end of the Lucan pasage, we are told that Terminator Arnold-Like, Satan could almost say "I'll be back". 

The core Lenten Question is:  when Satan comes back, will we be filled with the Holy Spirit?

Prayer, devotional time, conversation with Christian friends, bible study and mission moments are all ways to pull into that Holy Spirit Service Station and say "fill 'er up". 

Time of Talents, Treasures and Time

Our stewardship focuses on three things: Talents, Treasures and Time.

For me personally, of those three, I lose focus on my time the easiest.

I let my time get away by reading too much stuff on the internet. Political magazines also help get in my way with my time management. I confess: I am a political junkie.

But besides being a political reading junkie, I also have this enormous problem with the word no: I don't like to say it. Pastors aren't supposed to ever utter no, no?

The reality is that I need to learn how to say it a lot more frequently.

Look at where I am now: two days away from needing a sermon and the day of a long scheduled class, and nothing on the printed page for either. Why? A near total inability to say no.

The issue is of course about knowing how to erect appropriate boundaries. We don't want inappropriate boundaries which cause people to see you as unapproachable. On the other hand, we don't want inappropriate -- and here is the real rub -- ineffective -- boundaries that simply don't work.

I do respect others who seem capable of setting boundaries and keeping them up when needed and allowing them down when that is needed as well.

My guess is a goal for life.