pastor john's Weblog

Are you angry? You're not alone. From the beginning of time people have been angry about things that happen in their lives. That anger then turns into dislike and then into hatred, and is almost always focused on other people. "Why can't we all just get along," a song says, and you would think that our basic humanity would make that possible, but it is just the opposite. Our basic humanity makes it impossible.

Of the three great monotheistic faiths, only one effectively deals with this human flaw. It is only in Jesus that we find something very different happening. Instead of finding ways to deal with anger like, "an eye for and eye...," Christianity gives us a solution to anger, and that is forgiveness. We forgive because in Jesus we are forgiven. Jesus died so that we might be forgiven and that is unique to our faith.

Forgiveness is foreign to us...but in Jesus I feel God is trying to pull humanity into an evolutionary leap of consciousness. Anger is natural, but forgiveness not only offsets it, but transforms it into some brand new. We no longer can hate. We no longer can get caught up in revenge. We no longer can give into our base instincts. We are called above all that into something holy and sacred...we are called into the universal hymn God is singing across the cosmos, and that is love.

So, if you are angry don't, as Paul said, let it lead you into sin...instead let it lead you into reconciliation, that highly evolved state of being based on holy love.

Do things seem to be getting harder to you??? It seems that way to me with the economy going nowhere, jobs in jeopardy, salaries being cut, people worried, distressed...freaked out. A.A. Milan said in a children's poem years ago, "Where am I going, I don't quite know, down to the streams where the bluebells grow...anywhere, anywhere I don't know. And truthfully that seems to be where we are today...we don't know. And that seems to be the forecast for the future as well...we don't know.

So, what do you know. God has said that He has plans for us, not to harm us, but to give us a hope and a future. We who are Christian then look to Jesus to see where we are going and what we need to be doing and how we need to be acting.

Number 1 - Jesus tells us not to worry.
Number 2 - Jesus tells us to seek the Kingdom and its righteousness and all else will be given to us.
Number 3 - Love is the way to go in our relationships with God and others, and with the world.

So, who are you going to put your trust in... Hope in God, hope in God.

I have been wondering about the growing lack of respect and compassion that seems to be blanketing our world. Individuals, institutions, all leaders and those in authority…everything is under attack, nothing is sacred. I believe this is creating a climate of nihilism, where what is negative reigns supreme. It comes very close to resembling an unconscious wish for anarchy and chaos, instead of order and civility.

If nothing, if no one is worthy of our respect, then what are we left with…a collection of self righteous individuals…are we getting back to the garden where each of us is tempted to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and think we are as good as, as wise as, as capable as God? Are we becoming practical atheists where we mouth the faith but live as if it wasn’t real? Maybe we are just really scared.

Above the din, above the sea of negativity, above the darkness that threatens to undo everything is the Light…John said it best,
John 1:5 The light shines in the dark, and the dark has never extinguished it.

I think that we need to be careful about who we really identify with, who we really call, “Lord,” who we really are following…
Matthew 7:14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those that find it are few.

Culture is so enticing and powerful, as Jesus would say, “watch out!”

9/11, I will never forget that day. The horror of it still is haunting. The images of it still are burned into my consciousness. Those behind this evil act were themselves irreversibly linked to all that is evil. For them to think that violence and death are the true instruments of God is so galling that I can hardly stand it. I am tired of all those anywhere who think that God stands behind any kind of hatred. I am sick of those who are so small they think that God blesses their simple minded violence.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity, Yeats said so long ago…but it is so true. We need to stand up for what is truth, for what is love, for what is forgiveness, and for what is compassion. We can not let our own hatred and jealousy blind and bind us so that we too are caught in the trap Evil is setting throughout the world.

We need to see the heroes of 9/11 as an example that we will emulate…those who ran into the burning buildings while others fled, to help those who were trapped and save lives instead of destroying them.

A lot to think about today…

It is hard to begin, it is even harder to begin again...sometimes life just seems to beat us down. I think of Cole's paintings in the National Gallery that follow a persons life...at the adult stage the man is in a boat going down rapids without a paddle...but the interesting thing about that painting is that unseen behind the man is an angel way up in the clouds watching, even praying...Cole has it right, often as adults things get kind of scary, even out of control, but God is there anyway, and when we have to begin again, God is there even though it is hard.

This week we are going to be talking about beginnings and hope...always in a beginning there is wonderful potential that God is calling us to fulfill.

The summer is winding down, school is back in session, and vacations are coming to an end...endings, those are hard, one of the hardest things we do actually. It is difficult to end somethings, it is something we try and look past, ignore, put off...but nevertheless endings always come.

Herman Hesse called these endings, stages that we progress through step by step. To mature we need to be able and willing to take the next step, whatever that may be so that we can continue to become who we were created to be.

The greatest step, Hesse said, would lead us to new and wider spaces...of course he was talking about death. We know through Jesus that the greatest ending of any of our lives leads us not into oblivion, but into the Kingdom of Heaven. Indeed heaven is a new and wider space than we can even imagine.
Sunday we are going to talk about endings and the fear that grips us when we think about them.

Vacations, or as the English and Irish says, "holidays," are a major focus right now as we get into August. I just want to commend taking time away, even if you aren't planning anything yet, I think it is useful to disconnect so that you can reconnect!
Going away doesn't have to be expensive or extravagant, it can just be a drive up into the mountains, some 35 minutes from us here in Warrenton. It can just be a drive out in the country on a sunny Sunday after church. It can be sitting in your backyard watching the fireflies.
We need time to disconnect, all of us. No one is so important that they can not take a little time off.
I am going to be talking this Sunday about the value of disconnection. Next week will be about the opposite connection! You see there is a season for everything :)

When I was in junior high we lived in Alexandria and my parents made sure that we (brother, sister and me) took advantage of the DC area by going to museums, free concerts, military tattoos, and the FIREWORKS on the Mall! I have to admit that I like the fireworks the best...it was fun going downtown early in the day with a picnic and staying till the whole sky filled up with the biggest, loudest, most spectacular fireworks I have ever seen. One of the reasons I like going to DisneyWorld (besides the obvious) is that they have some of the best fireworks around in the evening. There is just something thrilling to me about those displays of color and sound that I just can't get enough of!
Fireworks this weekend, of course, are about the birthday of our country. To me they are about what we as American's prize the most, which is freedom. Liberty is something at the core of who we are as a people. The interesting thing is that our founding fathers and mothers felt that the freedom they sought and fought for was a God given right that all people should enjoy. They based this upon the Biblical principles they embraced and found in Jesus...
This Sunday I am going to unpack that connection between freedom and faith!

Sarah McQueen was ordained as an Elder in the United Methodist Church on Monday night. Right before the service she was celebrating at a local restaurant with family and friends...not only her ordination, but her birthday, which was Monday as well. One of the gifts she received was a stole which she is modeling at the dinner (this is one that Gina got for her). As she was standing there with the stole on I was thinking how lucky not only Warrenton United Methodist Church was in having her on staff, but how lucky the United Methodist Church in general was to have her as a full time Elder.
Sarah's gifts for ministry are abundant and growing, and it is a delight for me to be working with her. This Sunday we will celebrate her ordination, and I know that you too will want to greet Sarah and congratulate her on this signal accomplishment.

On Memorial Day Beth and I went with mom to the Dallas arboretum and saw this very interesting plant. On the outside it was forbidding, prickly and harsh, but on the inside, when it bloomed, it was breathtakingly beautiful. Spines on the outside, but gentle, flowing, slender, and startlingly blue on the inside.
I think that there are a lot of people like that. They present themselves as hard, spiny and dangerous, but really it is all a front to protect what is beautiful on the inside.
The good news about the church is that you can take the risk to open up and be your true self. As brothers and sisters in Christ we do not have to be so guarded and suspicious. We accept each other, love each other, and care for each other because of Jesus who first loved and cared for us.
So, if you are feeling hard and guarded, come to the one place in this world where you can let your true self shine!