Things Can Be Repaired

Today (December 27) I was returning home for lunch, and had pulled partway into the garage when I remembered that I had forgotten to pick up the lunch meat for my sandwich.  So I threw the car in reverse, quickly backed out, and before I knew it my front bumper was dragging the ground!  It had caught on the edge of the garage, and pulled almost entirely off, dangling by a couple screws on the driver’s side.  Hmmm.

It’s amazing what a moment of carelessness can accomplish if you don’t put your mind to it.  There was only minor damage to the garage door, but the car looked pitiful.  So after talking to the body shop, getting an estimate, they gave me the good news.  The car can be repaired!  

 

I can’t repair the car by my own efforts.  I don’t have the skills, or the knowledge.  But there is a place I can take it where it can get the care it needs.  There is someone there who can repair it.  Bad things happen.  Sometimes they happen because we’re careless, and sometimes they happen regardless of precautions.  And sometimes we need to visit the repair shop.  But things can be repaired!

I’m not necessarily talking about cars here.  People are the same way.  We make messes of our lives, encounter brokenness in our relationships, and lose our way.  And frequently, we don’t have the skills or the knowledge to repair our lives by ourselves.  But things can be repaired.  And church is a place we can go where this can happen.

This past year, 2016, has not been one of my favorite years.  Our congregation has lost some good people, and we face difficult challenges as we enter the coming year.  But the start of a new year should be a time of hope for all people of faith.  We have nothing to deal with that, by the power of God, is beyond repair.    Jesus Christ can and does make us whole, and his ability to repair lives is one of the things that proves who he really is.

Now when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and proclaim his message in their cities.  ²When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples  ³and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"  ⁴Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see:  ⁵the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.  ⁶And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me." (Matthew 11:1-6 NRSV)

Jesus still makes us whole.  This year I hope you will commit yourself to visiting the repair shop that is Maple Avenue United Methodist Church, invite your friends and neighbors, and together we’ll allow Jesus to prove himself once more.

However 2017 unfolds, I have this hope.  Regardless of the bumps and dents in our lives, things can be repaired.  

God Bless You This New Year!

David Rockhill

Happy Holidays

It’s interesting that in the country of Singapore, Christmas is a big deal.  Christmas shopping accounts for half of the country’s annual retail sales.  Shopping malls turn into extravagant theme parks while traditional hymns play over the loud speakers everywhere.  What’s surprising about this, however, is that while most of the people there enthusiastically embrace the holiday, only about 13 percent of the population are Christians.  Most of the citizens love the holiday without embracing all of its religious themes.

Now some Christians might be bothered by this, but I’m not one of them.   I don’t have a problem with non-Christians embracing the holiday, just as I don’t have a problem with non-Christians not embracing the holiday.  And by the same token, I don’t have a problem with Christians who celebrate Christmas, and Christians who don’t celebrate Christmas.  And yes, there are Christians who refuse to celebrate Christmas.

There is actually a long tradition of Christian opposition to the Christmas season.  Most of us are just starting to burn off some of the calories we consumed over Thanksgiving, a holiday whose origin we trace back to the pilgrims; but pilgrims refused to celebrate Christmas and Easter!  According the history site, Mayflowerhistory.com: 

They believed that these holidays were invented by man to memorialize Jesus, and are not prescribed by the Bible or celebrated by the early Christian churches, and therefore cannot be considered Holy days. "It seems too much for any mortal man to appoint, or make an anniversary memorial [for Christ]," taught the Pilgrims' pastor John Robinson.  (http://mayflowerhistory.com/religion/)

The Puritans, for years, tried to outlaw the holiday, and even today Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, some Church of Christ folk, and some Baptists, refuse to celebrate Christmas for many reasons including its alleged (and likely) pagan roots.  And as many scholars point out, nobody has the faintest idea when Christ was really born since the Bible and early Christians never mentioned a date or time of year.

But I don’t believe any of this matters.  I hold to the Apostle Paul’s view regarding this issue.  In Paul’s day there were Jewish Christians who had a whole slew of holidays the Gentile Christians were ignoring (like Hanukah), and the Gentile Christians observed some days the Jewish Christians ignored.  Each side thought the other was wrong.  So Paul settled their argument with these strong words:

Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand. Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God. We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.  (Romans 14:4-8 NRSV)

In other words, stop picking on one another just because you don’t observe the same holidays in the same ways, and do what you do for the glory of the Lord.

I love Christmas, and I’m going to celebrate the turkey stuffing out of it!  You do what you think right. But from my perspective, celebrating the birthday of the Prince of Peace is the perfect opportunity for me to embrace those around me with kindness and respect.  Even, or especially, those who see things differently.

So whatever your traditions, however you celebrate, I wish you a holiday full of blessings and grace.  And in that vein I’m going to offer you a greeting that has, in some circles, become controversial.

Happy Holidays

David

A Second Helping Of Thanksgiving

Many Americans don’t know this, but the first recorded thanksgiving celebration in North America took place forty-three years before the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, and was observed by Martin Frobisher, an English pirate/explorer.  He was trying unsuccessfully to find a passage to China and India, and after leaving England with three small ships, encountered storms and ice.  One ship was lost, another abandoned, and when they finally arrived safely on land in what is now Newfoundland, Canada, he was glad to be alive.  So on May 27, 1578, Frobisher and his crew had a celebration of thanksgiving for their safe arrival.

Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving much like Americans, but they have their holiday the second Monday in October, which this year was on October 10^th.  And since we were on vacation in Newfoundland on this day, I’m writing this article as one who has already celebrated Thanksgiving once this year.  On November 24^th when most other Americans will celebrate the holiday for the first time in 2016 Patsy and I  will be celebrating it for a second time!

Like Frobisher’s search for India, our Canadian Thanksgiving didn’t go as planned.  The week before, we had passed a church in Clarenville, Newfoundland, that was putting up a sign:  “Thanksgiving Turkey meal, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.”, and we thought that since we’d be back in the area on the Canadian Thanksgiving Day, we’d drop in.  We were looking forward to celebrating with other Canadian Church Folk, and enjoying the turkey and whatever else Canadians eat for the holiday (poutine, maybe?). 

But Thanksgiving Day in Newfoundland didn’t go as planned.  Hurricane Matthew hit the island, and it rained all day.  We made it to the Clarenville area just fine, even though we were stranded there because the only road crossing Newfoundland washed out.  Still, we were looking forward to the 5 p.m. Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner.  But when we pulled into the church parking lot, no one was there.  We apparently hadn’t stayed long enough for the entire sign to be erected.  It actually read:  “Thanksgiving Turkey Meal, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., on October 19^th”. The dinner wasn’t for another week!  So we had to find a restaurant open on a holiday and like much of life, we had to resign ourselves to things not going as planned.

But we still had a great time.  We still were thankful.  And I think that’s what Thanksgiving is really about.

We’re not thankful because our life flows smoothly, we’ve got lots of good things, and a feast sits on the table.  We’re thankful regardless of the storms of life, our possessions, and our food. Gratitude is an attitude, and thankfulness flows from our heart, not our circumstances.

Habakkuk knew this when he wrote:  Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails, and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls,  yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation. (Habakkuk 3:17-18 NRSV).  

We don't always embrace this kind of attitude, and I think that’s what the holiday of Thanksgiving is really about.  We’re not thankful one day a year.  We’re reminded one day a year to be thankful every day.

Our Canadian Thanksgiving didn’t go as planned and who knows if our U.S. Thanksgiving will.  But regardless, I’m going to have more than two Thanksgivings this year.  I’m going to have a helping of gratitude every day.  And why not?  I’m grateful in so many ways everyday for you, and for all the blessings that enrich my life.  I hope you are grateful as well.

Yours in Christ;

David

Don't Be A Sap

Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.  (Galatians 5:19-23 NRSV)

Last month (August 2016) a man living in Pennsylvania was getting tired of a neighbor’s tree.  The tree had branches that hung over the man’s parking space, and like many trees it tended to drip sap…all over the man’s car.  So finally the man was fed up and in anger he took a chainsaw and cut down the tree.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t an experienced tree-trimmer, and the 36 inch diameter tree toppled over onto his own apartment building, causing extensive damage and resulting in the building being condemned.  All five people living there, including the angry tree-slayer were forced to move out and find new lodging.

And that’s an example of what often happens when we allow our negative emotions to get the better of us.  We end up hurting ourselves more than anyone else, making the world and those around us miserable.

The Apostle Paul contrasts the fruits of the spirit with the fruits of the flesh in Galatians, and it’s interesting to note that almost all of the “fruits of the flesh” are problems we have when we act without thinking, while the “fruits of the spirit” are qualities that arise out of loving self-control.  In fact, “Love” and “self-control” are themselves two fruits of the Spirit.

Since you’ve caught me in acorny mood, I’m going to have a little fun with this.  So if you’re not a fan of puns, you might want to be like a tree and….finish the article later.  Here are some insights that have grown out of my life and faith.  When I’m done, you willow me one.

1.  Root your response in the fruits of the Spirit.  It’s hard to go wrong when you’re motivated by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Paul knew what he was talking about.

2.  Leaf your anger behind before making any kind of major decision.  Anger and good judgement seldom go hand in hand.  When good judgment is important (which is most of the time) you’re barking up the wrong tree when your judgment depends on your worst qualities.

3.  Make calm communication a root-ine. If you have a problem with someone, talk to them calmly, honestly, and in a non-threatening way.  It’s amazing how many problems can be resolved by people who are willing to listen and share.

4. If you’re stumped by a problem consider your options.  Sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees.  There are often many positive options available if we only take a moment to look for them.

5. Find re-leaf in compassionate fellowship.  If you surround yourself with a community of Spirit-fruitful people, the qualities of the Spirit will begin to stick to you like the sap on a car.

6. Plant the seeds of understanding and peace throughout your life.  We tend to sow what we reap, and if we plant anger and resentment, we will wake up and find a forest of anger and resentment growing all around us. Be sure to plant the good stuff.

7. Avoid idolo-tree, and ground your faith in God.  When God becomes the center of our focus, minor inconveniences tend to lose their power over us.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the world is in dire need of people who are truly watered by the Spirit of God, bearing the fruits of that Spirit, boldly branching out of the trunk of Jesus Christ.

We are called to be this kind of people.  And as such a people, I believe we can be an orchard of light in our world and community.

Yours in Christ;

David

“Making A Better Door”

If anyone has ever said to you “You make a better door than a window”, you probably already have a sense of what the phrase means.  Wictionary, the online dictionary, defines it in this way:

(idiomatic) To obstruct someone's view, especially as a result of thoughtlessness.   Usage notes:   Often used in the second person — "You make a better door than a window" — as a tactful way of asking a person to move aside so that one may see.

I leave it up to you to decide whether it’s a “tactful” way to ask someone to move.  But regardless of your feelings for the phrase, it came to mind last week when I was reading about the Wheelers Avenue Baptist Church in Huston Texas.  I was reminded because this predominantly black congregation had some front doors with a story.  It seems that during the days of segregation, there were numerous doors in the city that you were barred from using if you happened to be born the wrong color.  One set of these doors adorned the front of the Loew's State Movie Theatre.  And so, years later when the theater was being torn down, its doors were purchased by the Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, and installed in the front of their new church building.  So every Sunday the worshippers passed through doors that use to exclude them, but now welcomed them in.

Every Sunday, thousands of African-American worshippers stream through them. Every week, Wheeler's custodians polish them. And every once in a great while, the church's pastor or Lawson (now pastor emeritus) will preach about those doors, the doors that the civil rights movement opened. 

Doors can do two things.  They can open up to welcome people in, or they can close tightly to shut people out.  And it seems to me that in a real sense, we are all doors. We can openly welcome people into our lives and the fellowship of God’s Kingdom; or we can close up tight and keep people out our hearts and our fellowship.

This is a good thing to remember as we enter the month of September.  During this month we will be having a special worship service every Sunday.  On the 4^th we will recognize workers, inviting folk to come in their work clothes, with special music featuring Jessica Moore.  On the 11^th we will have one service at 10:30 at Collett Park, where we will celebrate those who serve others, like the Red Cross and Salvation Army, followed by a pot-luck.  The 18^th will have young people involved in our worship participating and sharing their talent.  And the 24^th will be a musical extravaganza – a celebration of our unity – with a meal to follow.  

We hope you’ll participate in all of these services and invite your friends and neighbors.  These will be good services, but more important than any program is the friendship and love offered by the individual members of our family of faith to the visitors who walk into our midst.  And in this area, I feel very confident.  Maple Avenue is a welcoming congregation, and it does my heart good to see how our church family can quickly embrace others.  

To this end, this is a good month to be intentional about being the best door possible.  The United Methodist Church, over the past few years, has used the slogan:  ‘Open Hearts. Open Minds. Open Doors.’  This September let’s make this personal.  It’s our hearts that are open.  It’s our minds that seek to grow.  And we are the inviting doors through which people can enter into the fellowship of Jesus Christ.

So the next time someone tells you that “You make a better door than a window,” respond with an enthusiastic “Thank You!  I’ve been striving to be the best door possible!”  We have a congregation full of nice doors, and September is a time to swing into action.

Your’s in Christ;

David Rockhill

From Hair(spray) To Eternity

As we end our run of the musical Hairspray I want to thank all those involved in the production, and those who have seen, or will be seeing the performance.

The musical, Hairspray is set in 1962 Baltimore during the Civil Rights movement, and deals with the issue of integration and race relations.  It reflects a time in our nation’s history when Petula Clark (who was white) could spark a heated national controversy by simply touching the arm of Harry Belafonte (who was black) during her 1968 television special!  And while we’ve made some headway in race relations since then, it’s ironic and sad that these issues are still real and painful 50 years later.  People continue to shun or mistreat others over superficial differences.  We still struggle to get along, frequently forgetting that “it’s what’s inside that counts.”

Sadly, the Church has not been immune to these divisions.  As the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., once said: "It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o'clock on Sunday morning."  Half a century later this is still the case.   So why can’t Christians (and others) all just get along? And why are churches still largely segregated?  Obviously, not all congregations welcome all people, and if you visit a congregation and get the sense that others aren’t comfortable around you, you probably won’t come back.  But by the same token, if you visit a congregation and you aren’t comfortable around others (who may be fine with you), you also won’t be back. 

We hang out with people who make us comfortable, and we’re most comfortable with people who remind us of ourselves.  Folk naturally want to hang out with other folk of the same age, social strata, race, opinion, and appearance.  And while courts can force schools to integrate, they can’t force churches, or social circles, to do the same. Embracing people who are different from what we’re use to is always stressful and difficult, and that’s why many of us simply avoid doing it.  Yet, in the modern world, embracing people who are different from us is essential, and in the Church it’s a mandate from Jesus Christ!

So if this production of Hairspray can get people talking about these important issues, all while laughing, singing, and working together, than it has done something good.  If it can remind us that people are important because of what’s in their heart, it’s taught us a valuable lesson.  If it brings people together who would otherwise remain strangers, in the audience, cast, and crew, than it’s given us a commonly shared experience we can build on.  And by being part of this event, you’ve been part of something significant as well.  

Jesus spoke much about love.  It was his bottom line.  It should be ours as well.  As the Chorus, and Tracy, sing in “Without Love”:

Without love, Life is like my mother on a diet!
Like a week that's only Mondays; Only ice cream, never sundaes
Like a circle with no center; Like a door marked "do not enter!"

Whoever you are, whatever you’re like, however you look, in whatever way you self-identify, you are loved.  Let’s get to know each other.  And thanks for spending this time with us.

David Rockhill

Abraham’s Dysfunctional Family

It’s a sad and stressful thing to be caught in the middle of a family squabble. Most of us have seen first hand the scars such conflicts leave behind.  And dysfunctional families don’t just make each other miserable; they drag down everyone around them.  Unfortunately, we are currently in the middle of a family fight dating back hundreds, even thousands, of years. 

Historically speaking, the three major world religions that have had the most difficulty getting along all come from the same family and claim Abraham as a common ancestor.  This is why Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (I’m listing them in chronological order) are called the “Abrahamic Religions”.  Jews and Christians trace their linage through Abraham’s son Isaac, and Muslims through Ishmael.

I will refrain from going into detail regarding the times people from one group of Abraham’s family have oppressed or killed people from another group, but no branch of his offspring emerges from the mud of history looking clean

This long-standing lack of harmony is not really a surprise, in light of the sibling rivalry running rampant through the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament).  Abraham’s children, Isaac and Ishmael, were not on the best terms.  In turn, Isaac’s children--Jacob and Esau--also had major conflicts.  And then Jacob’s brood took family feuds to a new level, with their mistreatment of Jacob’s favorite son, Joseph.  They say that family patterns repeat themselves, and this seems to be the case with the conflicted family of Abraham, right down to his present day descendants.  In spite of this, I think there are some things we can learn from Abraham’s ancient offspring, which can be useful to Abraham’s family today.   So I’d like to address all Jews, Christians and Muslims, and lift up three lessons I believe we can all learn from our Spiritual forefather’s family line:  Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, and Joseph and his brothers. 

First of all, we need to stop demonizing one another.   God made promises to both of Abraham’s children, Isaac and Ishmael.  Regarding Ishmael, God said to Abraham:  “As for Ishmael, I have heard you; I will bless him and make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous; he shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation “ (Genesis 17:20 NRSV  ). Both of Abraham’s children had a destiny, and both children were important to Abraham and God.  Neither was purely good or evil.

So it is today.  It’s no secret that there are good people in each of the three Abrahamic religions, and there are jerks as well.  So we need to resist the temptation to paint each other with broad good and evil brush strokes. 

Secondly, we need to refrain from violence against one another.  Christians and Jews trace their spiritual heritage through Jacob, but in spite of the fact that Jacob was no angel and took advantage of Esau, Esau refused to harm Jacob. When Jacob returned home, afraid of his brother’s wrath, instead of seeking vengeance Esau welcomed his brother with hugs and tears.

The older brothers of Joseph came close to killing him, but they eventually decided against it, selling him into slavery instead.  Ironically, this decision to let him live had the unforeseen consequence of saving their own lives and the lives of their families!  There was no way they could have known the end results of murder or mercy, and thankfully, they let him live.

Even though the descendants of Abraham didn’t get along, (and still don’t), mercy outweighed violence (and still should). 

Third, we need to seek peace.  Isaac and Ishmael came together to bury their father Abraham in the cave of Machpelah.  Esau embraced Jacob, kissing him and weeping when he returned home. Joseph forgave his brothers, and the family was reconciled.  Dysfunction was part of Abraham’s legacy, but so was forgiveness and grace.  It’s that forgiveness and grace that we need more of today.

The Hebrew Scriptures say this:

Do not take revenge nor bear a grudge against the children of your people. You must love your neighbor as [you love] yourself. I am God.

(Leviticus 19:18 The Living Torah)

This sound a lot like this story from the hadith – oral traditions regarding Mohammed:

A Bedouin came to the prophet, grabbed the stirrup of his camel and said: O the messenger of God! Teach me something to go to heaven with it. Prophet said: "As you would have people do to you, do to them; and what you dislike to be done to you, don't do to them. Now let the stirrup go! [This maxim is enough for you; go and act in accordance with it!]" (Kitab al-Kafi, vol. 2, p. 146)

And this in turn sounds a lot like Jesus’ words, spoken almost 600 years earlier:

"In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 7:12 NRSV ).

I think it’s time we all took this idea seriously.

David