The Great Gift Exchange

            Every December at the church where I serve we have a Christmas gift exchange party. I have heard these referred to by different names, one of the most common is a “White Elephant Gift Exchange”. The way the game goes is that you bring a wrapped gift and then everyone draws a number and you get to either select an unopened gift and see what’s in it, or you can “steal” a gift that someone before you has already opened. Sometimes you get what you want, sometimes someone else takes what you want and you get the leftovers.

            The week after Christmas retail stores, both online and brick and mortar stores will be overrun with exchanges. Gifts will have given, opened, and then taken back to be exchanged for something else.

            That’s part of the Christmas season.

            Interestingly enough, our Christian life is much like this. And what better time than this Christmas season to make an exchange?

            Read this passage from Isaiah and then you’ll see how it works:

“He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
    and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,
   and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty
    instead of ashes, the oil of joy, instead of mourning, and a garment of praise
    instead of a spirit of despair.”

--Isaiah 61:1b-3a

            Exchange your ashes for beauty. Cash in your mourning for joy. Take your despair to the return desk and walk away with praise.

            Did you catch all of that?

            Your ashes, your mourning, your despair need to be placed in the exchange bin. You’ve carried these things around long enough. It’s time to give them back. These are the gifts you’ve been given, perhaps, but you don’t have to keep them. The Christmas gift exchange has begun!

            Jesus has some new gifts for you: Beauty, Joy, and Praise.

            That sounds a whole lot better than what you’ve got now doesn’t it? But here’s how this works, you can’t hang on to old gifts and get the new ones. You have to give the old ones up first. You have to give up the despair, the mourning, the ashes of this temporal life. That sounds like something that we all want to do, but deep down you know that it really isn’t that easy, right?

            I agree with you. It’s not easy. But it is simple. It is the way that God has created us to live in this life. We are burdened down with things that are just part of this earthly existence, but not part of who we are.

            Everyone has experienced pain, hurt, and disappointment. That’s why we have the ashes, despair, and mourning. But today you can trade those things in. You can give up the ashes of the past for the beauty of eternity. You can exchange the mourning of loss and death for the true joy that a relationship with Christ Jesus brings to life. You can let go of the despair of regret and put on new clothes of constant praise.

            The past is over. But your future is awaiting.

            Welcome to God’s Gift Exchange. It’s your turn.

A reflection on Hope

 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. (Romans 8:22-25)

               WARNING: The following contains completely honest reflections on Hope from a Methodist pastor…

Hope. It’s an important word in our daily lives. It’s an important word in our Christian faith. It’s been an important word to me over the last few weeks. My mom had been in the hospital for three weeks, and over a week ago she went into hospice care. She didn’t want any more tests, no more procedures, no more blood transfusions. She was tired from years of battling physical issues. She was a fighter, for sure, but she was tired.

               “It’s like putting new oil into an old cylinder,” she told me, “I just want to go home”.

               Of course by “home” she meant heaven. The one true and real home that we are all created for. Billy Graham said that we aren’t citizens of this world, we are just passing through. Mom was prepared for her real home.

               And I had hope. Hope that God would take his faithful daughter soon. Hope that God would comfort our family in this loss. Hope that promises of God’s presence would be recognized and felt.

               And so we waited. Day after day, night after night. As she grew weaker, and more tired, then as she was non-responsive most days and as the morphine increased.

               And I had hope.

               During this time I was with five other families who lost loved ones. Most were quick deaths, unexpected, even. I sat with families that wondered why their brother/mother/aunt was taken in death, while I was wondering why my mother wasn’t.

               These families didn’t want death to come, and yet I prayed for death to mercifully come quickly every day and it didn’t. My mom wanted to see Jesus, and yet Jesus was seeing plenty of other people every day, but not my mom.

               Why is that, God?

               Nothing that I was hoping for was happening.

And then 11 later days it did.

               While my wife, Heather, who has been my rock and my best friend during this entire process, and my sister, stood around my mom’s bed she had a moment of direct and focused eye contact with me. I could see her love, and then she blinked…and she was gone.

               What I had prayed for had happened. And in the midst of the pain, in the middle of the loss and beginning of grief, there was that Hope again. 

               It had never left. 

               I had pushed it away a little, I think, but it was still there. A Hope that had redeemed her body and given her a new life. A Hope that saved her, and saved me. A Hope that “we wait for it with patience”.

               And that’s where I hadn’t been doing a good job. Oh, I am pretty good in reminding others the need to wait for the perfect timing of God, but when it came to my mom and her daily slow process of actively dying, I wasn’t patient. I wanted God to act, and act now. And He didn’t.

               And I am thankful for that. 

               I am thankful that we were right there with mom when her last breath was breathed here on this earth and her spirit soared to eternity. I am thankful for the Hope that my mom had in Jesus and in the fact that she is in the presence of God right now. I am thankful for the Hope that I have, even when I wasn’t paying attention to it, even when I was more focused on “my will” than “Thy will”.

               And this Hope is here for you too this Advent season. After all, Advent is about waiting. And none of us are good at it, maybe that’s why God gives us opportunities to do the things that we aren’t very good at.

               Hope is available in Christ Jesus. And God knows we need it.

Merry Christmas mom!

Overwhelmed

This month at the church where I pastor I have been preaching a series called “Overwhelmed”. The idea is that there are things that seek to overwhelm us in life. Things like debt, stress, expectations that others place on us, the expectations that we place on ourselves, and simply the events and stresses of our daily lives.

            Turn on the TV and watch a little bit of the news. Overwhelmed.

            Talk to your friend who is going through a divorce after decades of marriage. Overwhelmed.

            Listen to the doctor explain the diagnosis and the treatment options. Overwhelmed.

            Look at your checkbook and bank balance. Overwhelmed.

            Think about all that you have to do this week, all that is expected of you by your spouse, your boss, your children, your church, your….Overwhelmed.

            Life can seem to be overwhelming at times. Shoot, life can be overwhelming most of the time!

            But only if we let it. I know, that sounds like a really pat answer when we are faced with the giants that threaten to overwhelm us. But here’s the thing: these are all external factors. I realize how huge the OVERWHELMER seems right now. I know that there is nothing else that

Jesus said to not worry about any of this (see Matthew 6:25) and don’t let your heart be troubled by outside things (see John 14:1). Paul wrote to not worry about anything (see Philippians 4:6).

            There is also a difference is being “overwhelmed” and being “overcome”. To be overwhelmed is to be completely engulfed b something for a time. It may be a circumstance, or an emotion, it could be fear. It could also be an overwhelming of the goodness of God, a feeling of being overwhelmed by his love and his mercy, his grace and his forgiveness. So, not every overwhelming is a bad thing! To be overcome is more sever, when we are overcome something has “come over” us that has weighed us down to the point that we cannot get back up on our own. It feels like Hulk Hogan just dropped an elbow on us from the top turnbuckle and is now pinning us down to the mat. All that’s left to hear is the referee’s three count and the bell to ring. We feel done, like this is the end.

            “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”—Jesus (John 16:33).

            Jesus has already overcome the “world”. That seems a little vague, and to be honest, rather large! The world. The word that John uses there for world is “κόσμος”, or “cosmos”. This word has the definition of the world, the universe, all earthly affairs, principalities, the inhabitants of the earth, diseases of the world, and all ordered things in the earth. That is pretty big, and Jesus said he has overcome all of this already!

            As Christians, we believe that the Holy Spirit dwells in us. That this gift of the Spirit (Comforter, Advocate, Helper) was promised by Jesus to all believers and given by God to us to be in us and to work through us. That’s pretty big too, I must say.

            Bigger, I would argue, than the overwhelming thing that is up against you. Maybe it’s a little about perspective. The more we look at something the bigger it seems. The closer we get to something the bigger it appears. This is definitely true of the overwhelmers, but it is equally true of God. The more we focus on Jesus and his kingdom, the more we seek to be agents of grace and love in a hurting and broken world, the more time we spend looking at God, the bigger he seems to us. Not because he has in any way changed, but because we have.

            At times we will all feel overwhelmed. But we are not overcome. Jesus has already proved to be the Overcomer, now rest in that knowledge. Be overwhelmed today with how much you are loved by the God of this κόσμος. Be overwhelmed that your sins are forgiven (see 1 John 1:9).

            “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)

           

"Is God really with us...or not?"

Let’s do this together today. Grab your Bible and read Exodus 17:1-7.

The Israelites are in the desert, and they are thirsty. 

They still are picking up pints of the manna each morning, they are still having quail flown in from God in the evening, but they don’t have water. And water is important. So they complain. Against Moses. It’s always easier when there is someone to blame, after all. And so Moses brought their complaints once again into perspective and told them that they are really complaining against God, that they are testing God.

And what's astonishing is that God doesn't seem to mind in the least. God seems to welcome the challenge. Thomas doubts that Jesus is risen, and Jesus doesn't say, “Be Gone You Doubter!”  He says, “Look, touch, see for yourself, test it out.” We get this idea that matters of faith can't be proven, that the brain and faith are opposite realms, that science and faith can’t coincide. No wonder that kind of spirituality is irrelevant to the real world! God welcomes a sifting of the evidence; God loves hard questions. God revealed his self to Israel and to the world in the person of Jesus. Emmanual means “God with us”. And Jesus answered plenty of questions.

Ironically, that’s the question of the day in verse 7 “Is God really with us or not?”

Now here's the wrinkle in this story and in our lives that really matters. The Israelites are simply trying to survive. Survival is no small thing; and, in fact, we find ourselves far more intrigued by survival than we care to admit. The movie 127 Hours is about the story of Aron Ralston, who winds up cutting off his own arm in order to escape a canyon in Utah where he is hopelessly trapped. The book Unbroken tells the incredible story of Louis Zamperini, who survived a crash in the Pacific, weeks on a raft battling sharks and Japanese planes, and then months of torture in a prison camp. But we are wired to want more than mere survival.

Not many people want to just survive, we want to thirve.

And so survival is underrated--until you think you might not survive.  The doctor says, "It's malignant; there's a 30% chance of survival" or "You have six months to three years to live." Or if you have ever had a near death experience that in reality lasted a few seconds but at the time seemed like everything was going in slow motion, where people say their entire life flashed before their eyes because they thought this was the end; they weren’t going to survive. Or perhaps it is when you feel so down or broke or alone that you just don’t know how you’re going to survive another day. Now when that happens, your full time business is survival, and you want nothing more than one more time to stick your feet in the ocean or tuck your son into bed or tell that person, “I love you”.

And in the midst of that trying to survive, the question will come up, “is God really with us or not?”

We often don’t ask that question when we are thriving, but it is when we are fighting to survive, trying to make it another day, wondering why this has happened, that the questions come.

And God does not shrink from your questions. I believe he embraces them, he answers them, and then in some way he provides for us day after day after day after day, just like he always has.

“Is God really with us or not?” God was with them in a cloud by day. God was with them in a pillar of fire by night. God was with them during the plagues on Egypt and God was with them when they were liberated from captivity. God was with them when they stood at the Red Sea. God was with them when they were hangry, and he fed them. God was with them when they were thirsty and he gave them living water to drink.

The people of Israel found fault with Moses, with God, and probably, somewhere deep inside, with themselves. God's response? It's all grace, it's all mercy. They survive to live another day to try to grasp the unfathomable, the presence of God that isn't a flashing light or a winning lottery ticket, but the mysterious presence of God noticed in the silence, in manna from heaven, in water from a rock, and in bread and wine at the table.

And that water that the Israelites were thirsting for, it was right there under the rock the whole time, just below the surface of what they could see. The problem was they were only focused on their problem (no water) and they couldn’t see God’s solution (providing in a new and unexpected way).

God’s grace, God’s love, God’s provision was right there, waiting to be set loose.

But the people couldn’t get to it on their own, this was a source of life that only God can give.

               So today, perhaps you are wondering the same thing: “Is God really with me or not?”

               The answer is yes, He is.

Age Well

As I am writing this week’s column I have been thinking about a sermon I will be preaching later this week at a United Methodist senior adult gathering in Elizabethton. This will be my first time speaking at a senior adult event, and I am honored that they asked me, though I have been struggling a little with the invitation. I am not a senior, yet. But the reality is that I am rapidly approaching this stage of my life, and rather than view it with fear or avoidance, I am choosing to embrace it as the gift that it is.

            God has gifted me with this life, and I am enjoying it. And so I have been looking over Scripture passages that might be a good fit for this senior adult event. I thought about Abraham and Sarah, and how God made a promise to them that they would have a child in their old age. Sarah thought this was so unimaginable that she laughed out loud at God. I thought about Moses, who was in his 80’s as we was leading the Israelite people on their trek around the Sinai Peninsula after their exodus from Egypt. I thought about Caleb, who was one of the first spies sent in to check out the land of the Canaan, the “promised land” that God would give to his people, and how at the age of 85 Caleb said that he felt as young and strong as he did when he was 40. And as Solomon aged he looked back on his own life and gave views of life and death.

            There are some great stories in the Bible of aging well.

            One of my favorites is Psalms 71. This was a song written by an older man who was looking back on his own life. Here is something that I appreciate about his perspective: he isn’t focused on regrets. I am pretty sure he probably had some, but that isn’t the focus of his psalm to the Lord.

            “You have been with me from birth, from my mother’s womb you have cared for me. No wonder I am always praising you! My life is an example to many, because you have been my strength and protection. That is why I can never stop praising you. I declare your glory all day long. And now, in my old age don’t set me aside. Don’t abandon me when my strength is failing” – Psalm 71:6

            I think as we get older we can look back at our lives and see that God really was with us through it all, whether we realized it at the time or not. And that is cause for celebration; that is cause for continual praise!

            I pray that when I am 80 I can look back on my life as an example of the love and grace of God. But the beautiful reminder is that I don’t have to wait 40 years for this. I can do it now. I can, by the grace of God, live my life now as an example to my spouse, my children, and my friends. And part of that involves praising God. He has been with me. He is with me. He will be with me.

            And so we pray that God does not set us aside, or abandon us in our old age. The reality is that there are people that will. As we get older we just can’t do all the physical activities that we once could, we can’t run as fast or as long as we could when we were younger. And sometimes it seems that society values the young and the strong more than the wrinkled and the wise. But that is not true in God’s eyes.

            The psalmist prays, “Don’t set me aside”. And God won’t. And neither will His church. It takes all of us together to live abundantly in this Christian life. We can do it together, and we can finish well, until the day we all stand before our Lord, and then may we hear “well done, my good and faithful servant”.

            Praise Him today for the gift of today, and age well, my friends.

A Kingdom Eclipse

               Yesterday was the day of the eclipse. #Solareclipse2017. The hype and preparation and warnings had abounded for months. Moon pies and Sunkist drinks were the snacks of the day. Companies tried to all get in the marketing frenzy of this event by altering their items in a way to appeal to the eclipse theme, Denny’s offered all-you-can-eat pancakes for $4 (since pancakes are round like the moon and sun), and Krispy Kreme put out their one day only eclipse donut (their traditional glazed covered in chocolate). Of course, I also heard the doomsday predictionists, that this celestial event was God’s sign to America, our need to repent and an indicator of His coming judgement and imminent arrival. I read more than a couple articles that stated that Jesus would step out from behind the moon as it passed in front of the sun so that when the moon moved the Son would be in place of the sun.

                I don’t doubt or deny our nation’s need to repent. I know full well my own need of repentance on a daily basis, but I don’t think that this eclipse was sent by God as a sign of our need of repentance. The sings of our need to repent and turn to God are right in front of us every singles day.

                I know that one day Jesus will return and that the “sky” will be the avenue in which he comes. After Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, His disciples were standing looking up into the sky because they had just seen Him taken up into heaven right before their very eyes. While they were gazing upward, an angel appeared among them and said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday He will return from heaven in the same way you saw Him go” (Acts 1:11).

                I also believe that when the masses of people are predicting that this is the day Jesus will come to judge the nations, that it probably won’t be. Jesus was pretty clear that His return would not be announced and expected, but that it would rather be like “a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2), and that only God knows when this will happen (Matthew 24:36).

                So, yesterday I stood with hundreds of others in downtown Jonesborough as we all looked up into the heavens as the moon passed in front of the sun. Amazing shadows were created, the temperature dropped about seven degrees, there was a stillness and quietness around, and I was reminded of some other words of Jesus.

                                                         

                “The kingdom of heaven is near”.

                The gospel writers record this as a common saying of Jesus. When He was preaching and teaching, when He was sending out his disciples to share this good news of God’s reign, and when He was healing physical and emotional pain. The kingdom of God is one of wholeness, where there is no sin, no pain, no tears, no hate, no death. In this kingdom God reigns as king, and we live as His people in peace. Jesus said this kingdom was near, and at times said this kingdom was “at hand”, and in response to being questioned about this at one time said the kingdom is “among (or in) you” (Luke 17:20-21).

                One of my favorite books on the concept of this “kingdom” is Announcing the Reign of God by Mortimer Arias. In this book Arias says the kingdom that Jesus talks about is like an “eclipse”. What he means is that the kingdom of God is partially already visible to us, the arriving of this kingdom was ushered in when Jesus came (John 1:14) in flesh and blood, so we can see glimpses of this now. We see these glimpses when we see people love rather than hate, give rather than take, help rather than hurt. This is the Kingdom Eclipse.

                The Kingdom is coming, in fact the Kingdom is rapidly advancing. Just remember to not stand around staring up the sky for too long, there is work here to do today. Work of justice, mercy, love, reconciliation, repentance, forgiveness, and grace. So be full of these because we don’t know when His Kingdom come, but it will. And right now it’s just an Eclipse of the Kingdom.

HOPE

            Today I awoke to news of another suicide. A friend of wife had a young family member who took her life yesterday. Unfortunately, this is not a rare occurrence. Saturday I sat with my brother in law and three of my children and talked about Chester Bennington, the lead singer for Linkin Park, who committed suicide by hanging in his Los Angeles home July 20. We talked about Chris Cornell, singer for Sound Garden, who took his life May 18 after a show in Detroit. We talked about Curt Cobain, of Nirvana, who ended his life April 5, 1994 in his home with a cause of death by self-inflicted shotgun wound. All of these men seemed to be living the life that many musicians only dreamed of. They seemed to “have it all” on the outside.
            The accounts of suicide are not limited to the rich and famous, and the reasons are as varied as people themselves. Over the last two years several high schools in our area have been devastated by suicides of teenagers, often those who appeared to have so much going their way and living a happy life.
 The truth is that there is so much that is going on under the façade that we portray to others. Often times depression and doubt is damaging these persons, who ultimately feel a sense of hopelessness in their lives.

            I have known several people who have attempted suicide, but have survived, often by the quick responding of a family member who finds them and acts quickly.

            In 2016 the National Suicide Prevention Network estimated that 44,193 Americans took their own lives.

            That is 121 suicides per day just in our country alone.

            There is reason for concern here.

            If you are reading this and you have had suicide affect your family, I want to encourage you that there was nothing you could have done or said to prevent it. I have talked with and counseled individuals who feel like they should have “noticed” something more, or “said” something or “done” something more.

            This is regret, there was nothing that you could have done.

            I have talked to individuals who have said that they should have shown more love to their family member or friend who took their life. But again, there was not “more” love that you could have shown that would have prevented this tragic action.

            And I have talked to individuals who were concerned about the eternal security of their loved ones, believing that all suicide victims go to hell.

            Let me say this loudly, I don’t believe that. In fact there is so much that could happen between a person and God in their final moments of life that none of us can even possibly grasp or understand.

            Suicide is a tragic and needless loss of life, but is a very real epidemic that we as a culture are facing. And we cannot be silent about it.

            We must talk about it. We must learn to not look the other way. We must learn to be able to let others know when we are not OK. We have to be in relationship together.

            There is hope!

            And taking your own life is not the answer.

            Jeremiah 29:11 says “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

            And I believe this. Hope and a future. That is God’s plan for us. But we have to be here for each other, to love, to listen, to encourage, to cry with, to just do this life together.

            It’s not hopeless. There is hope. There are people that love you.

            Call this number if you need to talk, or give this number to someone you know:

                        1-800-273-8255  National Suicide Prevention Hotline.

                        Or text “TALK” to 741-741

There is Hope. And His name is Jesus.