Listen Up

Sometimes, the hardest thing about writing is listening, and the hardest thing about listening is hearing, and the hardest thing about hearing is perceiving, and the hardest thing about perceiving is learning, and the hardest thing about learning is adapting, and the hardest thing about adapting is owning, and the hardest thing about owning is living, and the hardest thing about living is being, and the hardest thing about being is . . . . .

And it goes on and on. "The greatest risk of being ecumenical," said Rev. Dr. Allen Miller from Eden Seminary, "is that of being converted. For once you fully, truthfully, enter into a conversation with a person of another tradition, you risk being changed. And any change, no matter how minor, is in some small manner, a conversion, because your being can no longer live as once you did." I have never forgotten that lesson from the World Religions Class which Dr. Miller taught and he was probably one of the first 'ecu-maniacs' of which I became aware. He believed folks from every tradition, every religion, should always sit at table together and learn from each other. Dr. Miller believed, and I have come to firmly hold that, in so doing, the world would find its way to peace and justice, for the greatest schisms in peace and many of the greatest injustices throughout history have been inflicted upon humanity and justified in the courts of public opinion for the sake of religion, whatever its ilk or name. Listening, and all of its various manifestations and extensions, is the hardest task any one of us will undertake, for active listening requires the one with ears to fully hear the words, context, and feeling behind the words spoken by the other. Maybe that is why Jesus said that so often, "Let the one who has ears to hear, listen."

I was in Barnes and Nobles the other day and, as nearly always happens, started paging through the volumes upon volumes of 'best sellers' which were on the front tables. So many words being written, so many books being bought and sold, so many thoughts being presented, but what difference do self-help books really make if the person reading the words is seeking only someone else's opinion of how to make their life better? What ever happened to listening to the Word talk about how life is 'good' from the very beginning of creation? Or does that thought scare us, for it might mean that there is no one else to blame for our bad attitude and behaviors other than ourselves, and we certainly don't want to hear those words, do we?!

Jesus prays out loud that we might intimately understand that God prays for our welfare, for our understanding, and for our very lives. Maybe we would be well served to listen for a while, that in listening, we might hear the meaning of our name spoken on the lips of the God of all creation. Who knows, maybe the swords will become plowshares and the spears become pruning hooks? What will it cost us to listen? What will it cost us if we don't?

Only God knows.

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Don

Church Signs

The congregation with which I am blessed to be in ministry made an intentional move to proclaim the Gospel to the masses driving by our facility every day by installing a 'Church Sign' near the highway about ten years ago. Thousands of folks drive by our sign every day and every week I strive to share a unique theological perspective on the world. Sometimes the sign messages are better than others, but seldom are they ever a copy of another sign. In my heart, using a Church Sign message that others have seen or read in a book or heard from someone else is akin to standing at the pulpit on Sunday morning and reading some other Pastor's sermon: at best, plagiarism, and at worst, unfaithful. Using the messages of others without even attempting to discern God's word for this place, time and context, is limiting the power of God to be relevant in the lives with whom I am called to serve.

So, this morning, I changed the sign for the week to come and, more poignantly, for the weekend at hand, which is Memorial Day weekend. The sign this week reads,

BEFORE CAMPING, COOKING

& BOATING, THANK GOD FOR

THE VETERANS WHOSE LIVES

HAVE MADE IT ALL POSSIBLE

Nothing flashy, nothing particularly catchy, and nothing new in the heavens above or the earth beneath, but original to the thousands who will, in the days ahead, parade their campers, RV's, boats, and weekend outing supplies past the worship home of our congregation on their way to Carlyle Lake to 'celebrate' a long weekend. Being grateful to God is not a new perspective but, for many who drive by, it will be the only invitation to remember 'why' we have a long weekend that they will hear . . . . and, for many more, it will be one of the few invitations to prayer they will hear at all. If half of those who go by read it, and half of those think about it, and half of those do it, then there will still be a thousand or two prayers of thanksgiving offered to God for those who have left their giftedness and talents on the battlefields of the world that, in freedom, we might go where we want, do what we want, and say what we want . . . . even blog what we want.

Their ongoing sacrifice is not lost on me as I write these few words a day. Among those for whom I continue to give thanks to God for their service are the members of the congregation I serve who continue to serve here and abroad for the liberties we enjoy. Freedom and liberty are not entitlements, either from God or from man, they are gifts whose purchase continues to be paid by those who believe the cost is worth the investment. Wonder as I might about how that investment is being appreciated by the millions whose presence on this earth reflects a greater degree of amnesia regarding the history into which they are born, than an appreciation of the environment which they enjoy at the cost of others, still, when I think of it from God's viewpoint, whom among us can ever fully appreciate the freedom into which we have been born through Christ?

So, the struggle continues and sign writers try to be clever while God just prays we notice. "For freedom, Christ has set you free . . . ." yet, the powers and principalities demand on earth a blood payment in every generation for that which is truly heavenly. Thank God, once and for all, Christ sets us free, a gift we should never forget, even as we remember those of this age who embody that sacrifice anew.

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Don

Myanmar, China, Missouri: Common Ground

As of this morning's news, Myanmar continues to count the dead with the numbers already exceeding 28,000 even as the world waits to assist with the living, China's Sichuan province and extended territories are digging out from the effects of a 7.8 earthquake, sorting through the rubble of schools and hospitals, unsure of the total casualties and injured, as Seneca, Missouri, sorts through the remnants of a tornado that left at least 22 dead and many more severely injured. In taking in all of the related information on each of these world events, it made me wonder how God does it: how God can listen to the voices of all God's children in all these places in all these catastrophes; how God can respond to every prayer and every petition; how God can reach out in tenderness to the mourning while those seeking healing cry out in a loud voice still; how God strengthens the rescuer and gives peace to the caregiver; and, how God does it everyday.

I am hearkened back to the words of Exodus in the Hebrew scriptures as God speaks to Moses at the site of the burning bush with the words, "I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them . . . ." (Ex. 3.7-8a) The God we worship, the God of all creation, is not a God removed, but a God present, a God in the midst of our shared experience. What transpires in Egypt does not stay in Egypt, any more than what transpires in Vegas stays in Vegas: God observes, God hears, God responds. This cannot be lost on any of us today.

In the same way that the Egyptians had a choice in how to treat the resident alien among them, whether to enslave or to embrace, to execute justice or to execute for just us, to extend or withhold mercy, so the world community is in the position of expressing God's care and compassion in every situation. What happens in Myanmar happens to my sisters and brothers. What happens in Sichuan province happens to my sisters and brothers. What happens in Seneca, Missouri, happens to my sisters and brothers. Regardless of geographical boundaries, governmental figureheads, and physical and financial limitations, you and I are the hands of faith reaching out in healing, the balm in Gilead if you will, to our extended family in need, wherever they may be. It isn't some sort of test that God has devised to see how we will respond, it is the course of nature and our journey on this earth together . . . and we have the free will whether to pray or be silent, to extend assistance or withhold mercy, to love in spite of differences or to spite the differences with apathy. It is a faith choice whether or not we will live on common ground or die in our separate certainties.

God has already announced God's Good News in being present for those who are the most marginalized, the deepest in pain, the farthest from home, now it is ours as to how to live that Good News. God hears every cry and our ears hurt with the sound of all the voices. God sees the pain and we are tempted to avert our eyes in horror from the sight. Yet, God's community will only be built when life reaches out to life, transcending every barrier and living every prayer.

It is easy to wonder how God does it, for that makes everything God's issue, God's responsibility, God's worry. The more difficult question might be in whether we fully believe that God is God of all humankind. For, if that is what we truly believe, what answer will we give when asked why we did not share when others were in need. Truth be told, tomorrow may be our turn to cry out and what will be our hope then?

It is something to think about when pondering what God is doing in the midst of that which is both good and difficult in life. As Christ teaches: God is already giving God's answer, the question is not of how God responds, but how we choose to be in God in our response.

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Don