I just participated in the funeral of a long time church member this week. I invited the previous pastor of the church I serve to come and assist in the funeral. They were good friends and shared a long in his tenure here. In hearing the former pastor's words, sharing conversation with he and his wife at the luncheon, I heard Jesus words about taking on his yoke and the burden. I have to be honest I have really been over using the comment, "Seriously?" But I heard those words after that day of the funeral and thought Seriously, Jesus?
The former pastor shared the fact that the man we were speaking of was one who understood the idea dn actions and involvement needed in being a disciple. He built this "grill." I have it in quotes because to see it you would say that is more than just a grill. It is a cooking machine. Several propane tanks, large surface area and the ability to attach it to a tow hitch and take it anywhere, was really a work of art. John, the deceased, used that grill not just for church functions but along side the church. He often grilled for the community attracting people with some great eats.
The church sadly while, the actual facility is in immaculate shape, the membership has grown older, people have moved away and there are no children. So goes the saga of a city church as more people live for short periods of time before moving on. As I spoke with the former pastor at lunch, he shared that he was enjoying his retirement. But as we talk about the church in specific and the general church health, it was clear his retiring came for him after being tired of trying in my opinion. He and his wife shared his passion for what Jesus calls us to do and be. He shared how he would often speak the truth to power in conference meetings but only to go unheard. As we talked and I shared my story, letting the lines replay through the rest of the day, I began asking myself if this was to be my fate as well? Would my "banging my head against the wall" attempting to turn churches around simply end up in my wanting to ask to serve a church where I could "relax" and bide my time until retirement? Would the infrastructure of the United Methodist Church, burden me with more statistics, requirements, hammering me about apportionments, and such that it would lead to the beating down of my spirit for ministry? Has it already done that? To me? To others?
In several of my appointments, I have gotten so far with people being excited about what is happening to only have to move because they couldn't afford full time ministry, or the people who want their "club" back complaining to others about me. I do not envy the district superintendent's job. To have to visit so many churches, and attempt to get a handle on where they are based on your pastor's assessment, or those of the church cannot and is not an easy job. After yesterday I wondered if like myself, they too have been beaten down to a point where it is easier to allow the status quo to reign than to challenge churches so that apportionments are paid and visionary pastors are moved on. Or where they visionaries at one time but through the infrastructure, lost that because the institution needed propped up? Are we all like the picture to the left feeling off our feet and going nowhere?
In speaking to the people in the Gospel of Matthew, he said, ²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”(NIV) 
But read it again in The Message: ^28-30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Have we taken what Jesus has given us in this yoke & burden and put all kinds of layers on it that it is no longer what He intended? I have seen it on a sign: "Love Me. Love Others. It isn't rocket science. -God." I believe in the United Methodist Church because it ties together in faith the concepts of social & personal holiness. But for those of us as clergy or lay leadership in our local churches, I think are losing this. When we become tired of fighting for the least and the lost, when we would rather keep our mouths shut so we don't move to another church, we have given in to the loss of the dream of the kingdom that has been given to us to share. 
I will be honest, I do not know where I will land. That is for God to decide. Wherever I land I pray that it will be a place that is not afraid to be who God called them to be. Jesus was always upsetting the applecart of the comfortable people in the religious world he lived in. Should we not be doing that as well, job security or not? The other part of the this scripture is about rest. Clergy as well as lay people need rest to continue living a life of the gospel. Always take time and don't feel guilty. Jesus spent time away in communion with God. We should be doing no less and in these days we need it more often.
May God grant us all who are working for His kingdom rest and a reminder that the yoke is easy and the burden light in spite of all the infrastructure. I may be struggling but I would not trade a day in Christ's service. May the moments of the inbreaking of the kingdom make our hearts sing and move us forward in service through grace. Easy Yoke? Light Burden? Seriously? YES!

Last week I was on vacation. Normally, I don't travel anywhere or do day trips to various places. However this year was different. I have been dating Cathy for the nine months. She and I and her daughter Caitlyn, went to Ocean City Maryland. What you need to understand is that Caitlyn is a special needs child. She is 20 yrs old, diagnosed with cerebral palsy, suffers seizures, diabetes, unable to speak and is wheelchair bound. As I have gotten to know Cathy, I have also gotten to know Caitlyn. Some people might think Cait can't experience the world around her. You would be wrong. She loves pudding. She loves to laugh. While she may not be able to see except for shadows, her eyes can tell a story.
Cathy told me that Cait loves to travel in the van. That was pretty clear by her expressions in between naps on the four hour trip. Yet I was to experience so much more from Cait's perspective. While her hearing is oversensitive, and we needed to protect her eyes from the sun with sunglasses, She wanted to spend every minute in her chair on the balcony. We moved her inside the room from the balcony and she had what could be described as a meltdown. Yet we didn't want her to get sunburned. So we put the front wheels of the wheelchair over the threshold of the balcony door with most of her inside. IN a split second she was quiet and relaxed again.
I can sit her at my computer and tell you that she also loved the boardwalk. Cait likes to be in motion. If you stop pushing her in her chair for too long. Well...you will know it. But the additional attraction is not simply the movement for Cait on the boardwalk. It was I believe a multi-sensory experience for a child who, again, many would think wouldn't she could experience anything. Her experience on the boardwalk was, in the hearing of the people, the seagulls, the waves. Her experience on the boardwalk was the motion of her chair as well as the "bumps" of the actual boardwalk as her wheels traveled over each board. And while she may not be able to see as you and I do, the light and dark of the experience, along with all the other senses, brought her to her place of peace.
Too often in our lives we see aside other people's experience in favor of what we know and experience. rather than listening and hearing how something impacts or impacted someone, we assume we know. I have been on mission trips to Russia and heard people ask, "How can people live like that?" The fact is if you lived the way they do, you too would have to adapt as they have. One of my pet peeves is hearing people say, "I know how you feel." Often it is said as something for comfort. But can we truly understand how people feel? How they experience things we have not experienced?
In my short time getting to know Cait, I have seen someone, again who one might think has no concept of the world around, experience the world I experience, in a way that is as real as what I experience or even more so for Cait. Most times, there are few activities for Cait. She has come to enjoy those experiences we often take for granted. The brightness and the warmth of the sun in our face. The sounds of the waves crashing against the shoreline with seagulls crying all around. The feel of the sand, the "bumps" of the boardwalk and so much more.
Take some time to focus. Take a deep breath and listen. Take a deep breath and look around. We all have a different perspective on this world around us. No one is better than another. Yet together, our perspectives can make our world come alive in ways we hadn't ever thought of before. Cathy and I may be able to share our worlds with each other without even thinking. But I have found that I am also enjoying the perspective that God has given Caitlyn to share. Maybe if we took some extra time with people like Ciatlyn, we might be able to understand this world in a whole new way.
Peace

This past week I got a belated but expected birthday gift: a colonoscopy. I turned 50 in December of last year and it didn't take long for my health insurance folks, who are very preventive conscious, reminded me of my age and the need to have this screening done. 

A couple weeks ago, I and another colleague were invited to offer a short seminar on Holy Communion for a district's licensed local pastors. I am part of a group called the Order of Saint Luke. The Order of Saint Luke is dedicated to sacramental and liturgical scholarship, education, and practice. As a religious order, it is a dispersed community of women and men, lay and clergy, from many different denominations, seeking to live the sacramental life. The Order is Wesleyan and Lukan in its spirituality, Methodist in its origins, sacramental in its practice, and ecumenical in its outlook. Part of our rules of life include magnifying the sacraments. It is about worshiping them it is about holding them up as symbols of our faith, as symbols of God's grace and a way to living as a holy and a living sacrifice in union with Christ's offering for us.
That being said we had a wonderful exchange of ideas and questions regarding practice, liturgy and some nuts and bolts of the How tos. Overall I know my colleague and I were very pleased with what we heard in their practice remaining faithful to the sacraments.
During both sessions, my colleague Kathy asked the question about how many of these pastors saw people during the use of intinction for Holy Communion, pinch the bread with two fingers and try to dip the bread in the cup or faux dip the bread so they didn't have to touch the juice in the cup. Many of the grou p giggled at what they heard and yes that had happened. Kathy proceeded to share that God and Jesus don't want us to "take" a pinch but receive all that God has for us through Christ. When we come to communion, we are looking for grace to continue our journey and to receive abundantly.
There are two services where I serve. At the early service, we get a small number of people and I do not always have someone to assist in communion. So I will bring the bread and the cup forward, saying the words as they take some of the bread. I had to laugh and giggle a little bu moreover became concerned as all of the 15 plus people in worship all took only a pinch of Jesus. Then some didn't even let the bread, small as it was, it the grape juice or they confidently "faux" dipped the bread in the cup. I was concerned one because some see intinction as a way of transmission of germs. Well when one takes only a "pinch of Jesus" and then hits the juice with that tiny bit and their fingers, is it any wonder people see it that way. I was also concerned that in their taking only a "pinch of Jesus" that they were saying, this was all their faith could handle or how much they really wanted to have Jesus in and around their life.
At the end of the service, I asked everyone how many took only a pinch of bread. I shared with them that Jesus did not say come to me all you were heavy laden and I will give you a pinch. Jesus didn't say I have come that you might have life but only a pinch. NO! Jesus came that we might have life and have it abundantly! I make two large loafs of bread each month just for this service. God's grace is not given out in a pinch but in overflowing abundance.
The sacrament of Holy Communion is an outward and visible sign of an inward spiritual grace given to us even though we do not deserve it. We should not come and approach receiving the sacrament as if we don't deserve it or are worthy. The fact is we are not BUT...because of what Jesus did for you and for me, we are made worthy, as we are justified in our faith to come forward and partake of the holiest meal!
So the next time you have communion at your church, help people to understand they need to stop pinching Jesus and take hold of all God has promised through him by accepting or breaking off a hunk of bread so that we all might "taste and see how good the Lord!"

Have a Blessed Holy Week and a Joyous Celebration of the Resurrection!

I have made two trips recently which frustrated me but also provided some insight into our journey into Lent. The trip was round trip from Harrisburg to Kingston, PA and back. The trip north was a tough one. I love driving, but it becomes tiring for me when dealing with the elements. For the trip north, the element was fog. For the first part of the trip it was light and visibility was not bad. As I began to go up in elevation and mountains, specifically the area of Schuylkill County PA, the fog as with most weather in that area, goes from bad to worse sometimes. This was one of those times. The fog become more dense and difficult to see through. I did my best to concentrate on tail lights in front of me and the reach of my low beam headlights. I was doing pretty well. That was until people, who do not know their own capacity to drive in difficult weather, and do not know their vehicle capabilities, seemed to take bead on my vehicle. Cars which had passed me like I was standing still were now at a crawl if you can call 50MPH a crawl. In fact, if memory serves me correctly hazard flashers should be used when traveling below 40MPH. I was unaware  the law had changed to go faster than the speed limit as one person flew by me. Then there were the people travelling slower than they should on an interstate. I found myself using my cruise control to maintain my speed only to have to continually shut it off because of the spasmodic driving by those around me> People were speeding up and slowing down rather than maintaining their speed appearing to use cruise control.
Once we got through that particular county the fog cleared and, people "returned to normal."
The same thing occurred on my return trip. Same county but this time, what started as rain, became snow in that county. It was the kind of snow that "comes at you" through the windshield if you know what I mean. Again people were clearly not confident of their driving abilities for whatever reason. In fact one vehicle, a 4x4 SUV, I passed at least half a dozen times without changing my speed as they could not figure out the capabilities they had to drive in this weather and that of their vehicle. The worst part was this vehicle PASSED  me the same number of times I passed it in this snow squall and it would fade out of sight after passing. Then it would come back into view.
As Christians we sometimes are unsure of ourselves and our abilities to live out our faith. First we have to know what gifts we have. There are many spiritual gift surveys which will help you find them and use your passion to live out the Gospel. The second thing is being a part of a community of faith. Many people are struggling with the same issue of capabilities. This community of faith can encourage, teach and provide fellowship around who we are and what we are called to do.
If we don't find out what we have and how to use it, how can we ever expect to become who God has called us to be? Just llke driving a car in difficult weather, where one must trust driving skills and the capabilities of the vehicle, so too as a Christian we must learn our capabilities. We must have faith in God, the gifts God has given and the passion/drive we have to live out our calling. If we don't we end up starting, stopping, turning around and getting lost in the process. That is where a community can help. Communities of faith help us understand our gifts, find our unique calling, lift us when we fail and cheer us and praise God when the Spirit helps us succeed in our mission.
Weather can change in an instant. So when driving you need to be ready. Life is the same way. We never know when something surprises us, like an illness which causes us to slow down a little to get our bearings and move slowly in order to be sure we get where we are going.
As we travel in Lent 2012, know your capabilities, connect with a community of faith and trust in God to help you become who you are called to be.
PS- If I ever pass you on the road, just a reminder, it isn't NASCAR! Arrive alive!
Peace