Sunday Schedules

A couple of Sundays ago, I took the morning off.  Yes, I was in town, not at the cabin or anything.  Didn't have to take my kids to any sports tournament. No relatives were coming over, so I didn't have to clean the house. I wasn't on vacation. I didn't really have a any good excuse not to go to church (and I'm a pastor!)  I was a little under the weather, but could have easily made it.  I simply asked the other pastor if I could take the morning off and he said, "Yes."  (thanks Bill)

Not that I'm going to do it all the time, but I did learn some things.  Mostly, that it was pretty nice to sleep in, drink a cup of coffee, leisurely read the entire paper and eat a late brunch.

Knowing where my paycheck comes from, I won't be doing this very often.  I also know I didn't want to go all day without going to church. I wanted the time with God, the community, the fellowship time (and the cookies?)  So I went to church, as usual, at 5 p.m. at Northern Light and got fed.

What I don't understand, is why more people don't do this.  It's kind of a re-structuring of the way people think about their Sundays, but it seemed to make sense to me.  Stay out late Saturday evening if you want.  Go to Grandma's for brunch. Watch a little TV.  Catch up on the laundry, fix the leaky faucet, rake the leaves, whatever ... relax a little ... and then go to church.

If I could get away with it more often, I definitely would.   

Farming

I never thought I would like farming.  I grew up in the country, but not FARM country.  We used to drive by some farms, though, on the way to the suburbs, where I have lived for the last twenty-seven years.  Even though I've been fully itinerant as a United Methodist minister, I've always secretly prayed I wouldn't get sent to farm country.
I may have to reconsider.
Our work team just back from farming in Jamaica.  We planted 144 avocado tress within two acres on a hillside by a school we support there.  I knew it would feel good to help the local agricultural students to learn the basics, and that it would feel good to help the school become more self-sustaining.  What caught me by surprise was how much I enjoyed digging in the soil. 
Others have told me how great it can be, including my wife, who, unlike me, enjoys her day off working in the garden.  I also remember another man once telling me, "Never trust anyone who isn't willing to put their hands in the dirt."  I thought he was rather eccentric.  Not so sure anymore.
It was pointed out to me that the first person created in Genesis lore (Adam) was a gardener.  "And the Lord put him in the garden to dress it and keep it."  And the Hebrews raised vegetables in Egypt. (cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic)
And when Jesus needed to talk with his Father, he sought the solitude of a garden. People who tell you to never trust a non-gardener, also say, "The most important growing which takes place in a garden is that of the gardener himself or herself." 
I know my wife will want me to join her out back this year again.  So far, I have resisted.  But, I might surprise her this spring.  And after I plant a few flowers and pull out the weeds, I might just sit there and have a little talk with the Master.

Volunteering is a Win-Win Opportunity

I'm delighted to be going to Jamaica again this week, not in the least because there are eight new people coming with me who have never been on a mission trip, let alone to one out of the country.  It seems everyone wins on a volunteer-in-mission experience.  The people and communities they serve benefit.  Trip participants become closer to one another.  Team members and hosts become close as they serve one another.  There is nothing like living, eating and working together for a week or two to build community and fell connected to others working to accomplish the same task.

Many times persons who volunteer receive just as much or more as the persons they go to serve.  Lives are touched and changed through their experience.  People learn what it means to put their faith into action.  They see the example of God's work through their hands.  A new school is built, a church is painted, or a new roof is put on an elderly woman's house.  Not only can the volunteers feel good about what they did, but usually the children of the school come to shake their hands and sing songs, or they might attend services in the renovated church, or they receive a meal cooked by the owner of the house.

Particularly when visiting another culture, participants also begin to question what they value, what they believe in and how they should live.  Statistics show that teens who are involved serving others are half as likely to get involved in risky behaviors.  Going on mission trips changes the way youth and adults look at the world, at the poor, at their time and financial commitments.  It may also change the way they feel about their church and what it means to be a part of a community of faith.

Volunteers also feel empowered as they learn construction, leadership, planning and interpersonal skills.  One might learn how to swing a hammer.  Another might share her gift of caring for children.  Many may even learn lessons of patience and flexibility when projects and timelines don't materialize quite the way they were planned.

Everyone wins on a volunteer-in-mission trip.  It is one of the fastest growing movements in the modern church.  The reasons are simple:  trips like these make the world a better place and make us better people.

Learning from the Less Fortunate

All last week our site in Anoka hosted overnight guests in the church.  These families are at a local day center (or go to school) during the day and stay in our Sunday School rooms in the evening.  We give them a warm place to sleep, meals, transportation to and from the center, and friendship.  We work with Family Promise of Anoka County along with twelve other congregations who agree to host them one week at a time for four weeks a year.  It is a wonderful program in many ways, not in the least that the faith community, county and schools all work together to do this.  Its called by different names in various places and is quickly spreading throughout the country.  The success rate of getting people off the street and into permanent affordable housing is nearly 100%.  We never see the same families again each time we host.  I suggest others look into this ministry.

Last Tuesday I was having a bad day.  The snow was beginning to hit.  I was in a crabby mood.  After eating dinner with our guests, three girls, ages 7-9, decided to spontaneously put on a "show."  What followed was about a half hour of singing, dancing, giggles and just plain silliness.  When it was over, one of the mothers said, "I am so blessed." 

Who knows what these girls had been through in the last few weeks/months?  But we were meant to sing and dance.  God put it in us.  At all times ( the Apostle Paul reminds us) we can "count it all as joy."

Lesson learned.

Learning to Love Yourself

I was out of the country last week when Whitney Houston passed away, but heard about it, of course, because she was an international star.  What great talent.  What a tragic life. Adored by millions.  Suffered from a lack of self-acceptance, never thinking she was good enough.  Traveled with an entourage of up to one hundred people, but still felt alone and depressed.  Raised in a good Christian family and loved Jesus, but sadly never quite learned to love herself, even though it was the title to one of her most famous songs.

Judaism's basic daily confession of faith, called the Shema, was repeated by Jesus when asked about the greatest commandment: "Love the Lord your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself."  The two commandments actually stress THREE loves - the love of God, the love of neighbor and the love of self.  Many good people manage to do a good job of the first two, but fail miserably at the third. 

Genesis reminds us that God said "Let us make humans in our image ... in our likeness" ... and after doing so declared them all VERY good.  But we forget or don't believe it.  Self-love is not evil or wrong as long as we don't overemphasize it over the other two. As a matter of fact, it's just as important "AS" (Jesus' words, not mine) loving others.   If we take a balanced and moderate approach, it actually helps us be a more complete and functioning person.  And we are just simply loving the same person that God loves.

George Gallup has found out that people with a positive self-image and healthy love of self demonstrate the following qualities:
1.  They have a high moral and ethical sensitivity.
2.  They have a strong sense of family.
3.  They are far more successful in interpersonal relationships.
4.  Their perspective of success is viewed in terms of interpersonal relationships, not in materialistic terms.
5.  They're far more productive on the job.
6.  They are far lower in incidents of chemical addiction.
7.  They are more likely to get involved in their community.
8.  They are far more generous to charitable institutions and gave far more to relief causes.

At Houston's funeral service, Kevin Costner remarked that as she entered Heaven, God could finally tell her that she was "good enough."  Truth is, she was good enough all along.  It's true for all of us. Let's try to remind each other of that ... maybe even daily.

Imagine No Malaria

My brother, Rich, served in Liberia for the Peace Corps in the 1980's. Living "up-country," he helped design and build roads to remote villages.  While there, he contracted malaria.  Thanks to good medicine and medical personnel provided by the Corps, he was fine.  Ten years later, I started going to West Africa myself to build schools, and met many people who suffered from the disease.  I know what the symptoms of it are after personally experiencing them - mostly uncontrollable "chills," nausea and a few other things I won't mention.  I've never had it bad, but cannot give blood when the American Red Cross comes to our church.  Again, thanks to vaccines, I don't suffer from it much.

That is not true for many of our friends around the world.  In Sierra Leone, where I've been a dozen times, 38% of children below age 5 die from malaria.  Routinely, parents don't name their children until they know whether or not their newborn is going to live. Four out of ten outpatient cases are malaria related.  It is a SERIOUS problem.  Recent findings from the New England Journal of Medicine state that 200 million people are sickened by malaria each year. 

Bill and Melinda Gates have decided they cannot stand by and not do anything about this.  They've given hundreds of millions of dollars in an effort to eradicate the disease, mostly by funding research to find new, more effective vaccines that can be inexpensively spread through out infested areas.  Preliminary results are encouraging, with the risk of being infected about half of what it used to be.

The United Methodist Church is concerned, also.  Our denominational relief agency (UMCOR) has trained 3,500 volunteers in an effort to eliminate the spread of the disease. Some of them are in Sierra Leone, where they distributed 400,000 bed nets through Operation Classroom, part of 3 million distributed country wide in partnership with other organizations.  Village leaders were also trained in ways to slow the growth of mosquitoes which carry the malaria parasite.

I urge you to "imagine no malaria" in the world.  That is the official name of our United Methodist campaign, too.  Google it to find out more.  Let's all be part of the cure.  The children of the world are waiting for us.   

Room for One More

So there's a big game this Sunday night.  Some giant guys are playing some patriotic ones.  They hail from two cities we don't care much about unless we live there.  Most people have never met any of the players.  But that doesn't matter.  They will pummel each other over a funny shaped ball for about three hours.  I don't know why they just don't give each team one.  Then they wouldn't have to fight over it.  

I know it's a big deal, because I've been invited to three different parties, even though they know we have worship services at the time. They have assured me that they would have room for one more.  It's great to get the invite, but did they really think I might skip leading a service in order to see the game?

There's a lot to be said, though, about making room for one more.  I remember when we used to have family dinners growing up. Frequently, my grandfather would come waltzing in just in time to sit down to eat.  It was okay to do that where I come from.  Friends could call a half hour before the meal and invite themselves over.  Once in a while my relatives would call and say they were in town and would like to visit for a couple of days.  An hour later they would be at the front door.  This unfortunately happens less often now as families move geographically and emotionally farther and farther apart.

The tradition of the empty chair is a fixture at the greatest Jewish feast of the year, called Passover.  Malachi reminded the Hebrews that an empty chair at the table, and a front door left slightly ajar, symbolically welcomes Elijah to come and join the feast.

These days people seem to be able to find room for one more person at the big party, or one more charge on the credit card, or one more shirt (on sale!), or one more toy in the garage, or one more dessert.  I've been guilty of all of them.    But what would it take to make room for one more name on our "need to visit list," one more hour of volunteer work, one more call to someone who is lonely or struggling in some way , or one more meal for someone who is hungry?  Probably taking something away.  Or as Jesus would say:  "Stop building barns you don't need."