I Smell A Rat

Last Month (December 2014) there were several news reports of a woman in Florida whose house had been invaded by 300 rats (see here, for example). It all started in 2012, when her three pet rats escaped and began following the Old Testament command to “Be fruitful and multiply.”  Now, several years later, these faithful little creatures had obediently multiplied into an estimated 300, all living under her roof.  They were in every room of the house, in the cabinets, in every nook and cranny, and along with the rats came their smell, their droppings, and their damage.  The woman said:  "I didn't think of it as a big deal or a problem. I still don't, but it really got out of hand." Rescue workers were busy trying to trap all the rats (alive) so they could be placed in a good home.  

Now I’m not against pet rats.  They’re great company for people who want and love them. But like any pet, they need to be cared for properly.  They need to have clear boundaries and appropriate limits.  Let them run free and unchecked, and they will soon take over your home in very unhealthy ways.

And it seems to me that this is the case with many things in life.  A lot of things are fine in controlled moderation, but let them run wild, and you’ve got a problem.  There’s nothing wrong with eating, for example, but if you stop eating to live and start living to eat, you end up with some weighty problems.  Any addiction can ruin your life.  Candy is perfectly legal and cocaine very illegal, but both can kill you if you’re hooked on them. 

Unchecked emotional and spiritual issues are frequently sources of danger.  Infestations of anger, bitterness, envy, and a whole slew of inner pests have brought down many a strong person.  Even human beings (including family and friends) may become so inappropriately demanding that they literally take over your life and drain you of your time and energy, eventually killing you with stress. 

This is why I think it’s good to spend some time every year engaging in spiritual pest control.  It’s good to look at the “rats” in our lives, identify the things that may be growing out of hand, and then act to bring those creatures back in check.  Some need to be exterminated; some need to be controlled, and some just need to be placed within proper boundaries. 

Frequently people do this at the beginning of every year with New Year’s Resolutions, and the entire season of Lent (this year starting on February 18^th and leading to Easter) is traditionally a time for Christians to practiced inner spiritual fumigation. But whatever your excuse, I invite you to do a self-pest-control inspection. 

Jesus told a parable about a foolish person who built a house on the sand.  “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!" (Matthew 7:27 NRSV).  The same thing happens in the end to the foolish person who doesn’t deal with termites, mold…and rats.

Yours in Christ;

David

The Most Important Person in the Bible

OK, so I'm getting this up a bit late!  Here it is anyhow.  

  

            A Sunday School teacher shared with her class the story of the Birth of Jesus, how Gabriel had appeared to Mary, how Mary had faithfully agreed to have the baby Jesus, how she and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem, how Mary gave birth to Jesus in a stable because there was no room for them in the inn.    After telling the story, the teacher asked, “Who do you think the most important woman in the Bible is?”  Of course she was expecting the kids to say “Mary,” and was therefore surprised when one of the students answered “Eve”.

            “Why do you think Eve is the most important woman?” asked the teacher.

            “Because,” said the student,  “Eve has two holidays named after her:  Christmas Eve, and New Year’s Eve.”

            While we may not all agree on who the most important woman in the Bible is, most of us would agree that Jesus in the most important person.  The Christmas season is a time to celebrate his birth, and remember his importance.  He is the Messiah, to which the Scriptures point and the King of Kings who stands above all earthly kingdoms.  But Christmas also reminds us that Jesus didn’t come for his own sake.  He came for the sake of others.  He was born for you and me, he lived for you and me, and he died for you and me.

            As significant as the well being of Jesus was, he considered our well being to be of greater significance.  As precious as the life of Jesus was, he considered our lives to be more precious.  Jesus was truly important, but it’s ironic that he was important because he considered others to be more important.  He told his disciples:  “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45 NRSV) 

            During the Christmas Season, it’s easy to become so focused on the person of Jesus that we forget about the generous and loving Spirit of Jesus.   We admire him, but not his teachings.   His figurine sits at the center of our nativity set, but not at the center of our life.  We put him on a pedestal, without bothering to put him in our heart.  And in spite of all our words about “putting Christ back into Xmas” and how “Jesus is the reason for the season”, we forget that – in a real sense - we bumbling human beings stand at the heart of Christmas, and we bumbling human beings are the reason for the season.  If we didn’t need a light in our darkness, the Light of Christ would have never been given.            

            Who is the most important person in the Bible?  In a sense, you are.  And I am.  And our neighbor is.  It’s for our sake that God gave the marvelous gift of Jesus Christ.

            This Christmas may we do more than remember Christ.  We have an important part to play in the holiday as well.  May we gratefully embrace his love, and share it with others. 

Merry Christmas

David

Unrecognized Blessings

Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall tells a story in her book The History of Germany about the emperor Charles the Fifth.  Charles fought numerous religiously motivated battles, and was largely victorious, but when he grew old he tired of ruling.  So he stepped down as king, dividing his lands among others to rule.  Then he retired to the monastery San Yuste in Spain, and devoted himself to his life-long hobby:  Clocks.  In particular, he spent much of his time trying to make two clocks keep time with each other.  This he found to be more difficult than imagined.  It was so difficult in fact that he finally gave up on the task.  In the end he is said to have remarked, “I cannot even make two clocks keep time together, and yet I set myself to force a million souls to conform to one belief.”

How do you get everyone to conform to one belief?  You don’t.  Even in a single congregation you’re going to find people representing different perspectives on issues, and entertaining different interpretations of the Bible.  Charles apparently thought this was a bad thing.  I’ve come to believe that it’s one of God’s greatest blessings!  And it makes me wonder, with Thanksgiving fast approaching, what other “bad things” in my life are also unrecognized blessings?  So I’d like to make a short list of 10 blessings that I sometimes forget are blessings.

1.      I’m thankful for the differing opinions I find among my friends, for they make my life interesting.

2.      I’m thankful for problems and hardships, for they motivate me to grow.

3.      I’m thankful I don’t always get what I want, for I’m often better off without it.

4.      I’m thankful for the mistakes I make, for they teach me something valuable.

5.      I’m thankful for weeks when everything goes wrong, for they help me appreciate the weeks when everything goes right.

6.      I’m thankful for winter, for it fills the world with beauty.

7.      I’m thankful I’m growing older, for it improves my perspective and clarifies my values.

8.      I’m thankful for the pain of losing a loved one, for it’s the price I must pay for love.

9.      I’m thankful for our yearly Stewardship Campaign, for it reminds me to live my faith financially as well as spiritually.

10.  And I’m thankful I get to write a “Pastor’s Column” once a month, for it reminds me to think about all the “bad things” in my life that are also blessings.

This year, let’s look beyond the obvious and give God thanks for all those unpleasant things that really enrich us in the end.  What’s on your list?  What “bad things” in your life are you thankful for?

Thankfully yours;

David

“Getting To Know Others” (Pastor's Newsletter Column for October 2014)

The Boss of a factory prided himself in the heavy demands he made on his employees, and their ability to meet those demands.  So he was less than pleased when, one day while walking through his factory, he noticed a young man leaning against a stack of boxes doing nothing.  The areas Foreman wasn’t around, and apparently the man thought he could get away with a little unsupervised relaxation.  The Boss watched in quiet irritation as the idle employee yawned, checked his watch, scratched his head, kicked at some dirt, and finally sat on the floor.   

This was more than the Boss could take.  He strode up to the young man and shouted, “You!  How much do you make a week?”  The young man replied $250.00.  The Boss swooped into the cashier’s office, took $250.00 from the cash box, returned, and threw it at the young man.  “Take it and get out!” he demanded.  The young man took the money, and left without so much of a glimmer of shame crossing his face.  “We don’t need the likes of him working here,” thought the Boss to himself.

Then he tracked down the Foreman. “You know that lazy bum in front of your office,” he said.  “I just gave him a week’s pay and fired him.  What’s the matter with you, letting him get away with such unproductive behavior?”

“You mean the kid in the red shirt?” asked the Foreman.

“Yeah! The kid in the red shirt!”

“He was waiting for the twenty dollars we owed him for lunch,” the Foreman said.  “He works for the coffee shop around the corner.”

We may think we’re good at reading people, but it’s quite easy to make mistakes, and quite easy to get people wrong.  In 1931 Charlie Chaplin entered a “Charles Chaplin Look-Alike Competition” in Monte Carlo.  He only came in third.  Apparently the judges weren’t quite the “Charlie Chaplin Experts” they thought they were.  And sometimes we’re not the judge of character we think we are.

This is why snap judgments and first impressions, as essential as they sometimes are, can be misleading.  And this is also why I am appreciative of the two free meals we’ve done as a congregation.  Those two meals have given me an opportunity to meet people I never would have met, and get to know some folk a little better then I otherwise would have known them.  The meals have opened doors into the community, not just for me, but also for our congregation.

When I see people of Maple Avenue working together to make these meals happen, when I see how generously this congregation has supported the program with donations, when I see people, in spite of their honest concerns, giving the ministry the benefit of the doubt, and when I see people from Maple Avenue actually sitting at tables with others from Daycare and the neighborhood, actually chatting and getting to know them, then I’m filled with a strong sense of pride.  I do think we have a terrific congregation, and I just wanted to let you know what I think.

So a word of thanks to all who made donations and worked to make this happen.  And a “thank you” to those who helped.  And a thanks to those who came, ate, and mingled.  This is much better than relying on snap judgements.  We're really getting to know others, expanding the walls of our ministry, and carrying the light of Christ into the world.

Thanks for being part of this.

In God’s peace;

David

“Turning Wine Into Water?”

There’s an African folktale of a Chief who was getting married, and he invited everyone in the village to the wedding celebration.  He was providing a great feast, and all he asked was for each family to bring a jug of palm wine to share.  One family didn’t have any palm wine, and even though they had enough money to buy some, they hit upon a different plan.  The husband reasoned, “Rather than wine I will carry water in my jug.  Several hundred people will attend the festival, and when they get there they will all pour their palm wine into the community pot.  What will it hurt if I pour in water instead of wine?”  The day of the wedding arrived, and as each guest poured a jug into a great earthen pot.  When everyone had arrived, each guest was given a glass to drink, and as they lifted their cups to their lips there was a collective gasp.  The pot was full of water!  Each guest had thought that their one jug of water wouldn’t be noticed and no one had actually brought the needed palm wine.[1]

If there’s something important that needs to happen, and everyone assumes that someone else will do it, it will never get done.  Everyone’s presence and participation is important in the end.  Your presence and participation are important. 

With summer vacations fading away, and kids back in school, I’d like to ask two things of everyone.

First, come to church as regularly as you can.  Our average attendance figures are not horrible, but they can be much better.  If a hundred people attend church every week, average attendance is 100.  If these same people attend every other week, average attendance drops to 50.  And if they attend once a month average attendance is only 23.  It’s easy to drift away during the summer months, so I’m asking everyone to make an effort to drift back now that summer’s coming to an end.  When you’re not here, you’re missed.  I don’t say this because we only care about numbers.  I say it because we care about you and you enrich our fellowship with your presence.

Second, invite and bring friends.  One of the blessings I received from the two musicals we did this summer was getting to know quite a few folk who aren’t actually from our congregation.  What I’ve heard is this:  They love our church because we are so actively involved in making the community a better place.  I always like to hear this from people in the community, and this is one of the reasons I’m so proud of Maple Avenue United Church.  I hope you’re proud as well.  We’ve got something great to share.  Please help us share it.

I can’t believe that summer’s almost over, and Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years are just around the corner.  I look forward to experiencing these blessed things with you.  Join us, and bring your friends!

In God’s Peace;

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[1] Adapted from William R. White, Stories for Telling: A Treasury for Christian Storytellers (Augsburg Publishing House; Minneapolis 1986) pg. 66.