Stuff I Shoulda Known Sooner...and Said More Often

For 41 years I delivered sermons from pulpits and spoke in leadership roles of various sorts...leading workshops and training events , addressing district and conference meetings, answering questions in official settings, etc.

It came with the job.  Pastor/Preacher.  Executive Director of an Urban Ministry agency. District Superintendent.

There are some stories to tell.  I made some genuine flubs.  I said some funny stuff (not always meaning it to be funny...it just came out that way).  I might have spoken some wise words on occasion. 

These last six years of serving a local church...after serving in administrative roles for the previous 16 years...have left me with some regrets that I could have spoken more wisely and more directly in my younger years.  In fact I now find that there was Stuff I Should Known Sooner...and Said More Often.

But, I didn't know it sooner and did not say it often enough.

With age comes wisdom.  Here is some of the stuff I shoulda known sooner...and said more often:

-Don't settle for skimming the surface of life...all the Good Stuff is below that.
-This world is a very tough place...tougher than you think.
-Each of us is pretty much like all the rest of us...in some very significant ways.
-That Kingdom Jesus spoke about is now (and always was) within us.
-God is a living mystery...never anything less.
-If it ain't patient, it ain't love.
-From Here-to-There just may be the longest, hardest journey we will ever take.
-Serendipity could turn spiritual in unguarded moments.
-"In-Between" is one of the most gnarly, dark places in life.
-God is always...or at the very least, almost always...at work among us.
-Our ideas about God and Life are too small...seriously, way too small.
-Our doubts and fears about God and Life are too big...seriously, way too big.
-We must love like our lives depend on it...because they do.
-Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning.
-If we take new paths, there will be new possibilities.
-The four actions of God that may best describe the Divine One are these: God Creates, God Loves, God Redeems, God Continues.

There's other Stuff...I may get to a recounting of that at another time.

Times Change - Life moves On

The countdown is almost at an end.  My final Sunday as a pastor under appointment by a Bishop is this weekend.  We've already moved into the home we purchased for retirement.

We are remaining in (what a good friend calls) The Peoples Democratic Republic of Bloomington.  The southside...near the Country Club...and a large Middle School...on the edge of an old limestone quarry.  

Whatever comes next is just around the corner for us.

I get a chance to personally welcome the pastor who is appointed to serve at St. Mark's beginning on July 1st.  He will serve with Mary Beth Morgan...with whom I have served these past six years.  He happens to be the husband of Mary Beth Morgan...so that is nice...very nice.  For them and for the church.

Here is some of what I will say on my final day in the pulpit...as Times Change and Life Moves On:

Four Theological statements I believe are true…
-God Creates.
-God Loves.
-God Redeems.
-God Continues.

Four Real-Life statements I believe are true…
-We ought to take into account who others are, and what others do, and think, and believe. 
-Anyone not willing to risk is not really willing to live.
-We either get better or get worse…and its always the right thing to choose getting better.  
-Its important to find ourselves in harmony with God’s activity in the world.
 

I think my four Theological Beliefs

and my four Real-Life Beliefs
help make it possible for me to actually experience
whatever Most Excellent Harmonies God wants to send my way.

In my years here in Bloomington…at St. Mark’s Church…
I have more than once found myself wondering:

So…what-and-where…are those Most Excellent Harmonies that God deals in?
And my answers, today, are these:

I believe…We find God’s Most Excellent Harmonies in the unexpected Places where we least expect to find God.
And in those Places we just may find
the undeniable sense of the Holy that will catch our attention.

I believe…We find God’s Most Excellent Harmonies in the unexpected Times
when we would rather wallow around in the muddle and muck
and rehash old, unresolved issues.
And in those Times we just may find
God offering a new insight, a new direction, a new purpose.
I believe…We find God’s Most Excellent Harmonies in the unexpected
Situations that might seem trivial:
things like a passing comment,
a line from a movie, a face in a photograph, a shared cup of coffee…or bottle of beer.

And, I believe…We find God’s Most Excellent Harmonies even as
Times Change and Life Goes On.
We will find them in the Ministries of Jimmy Moore,
and Mary Beth Morgan,
and in the Congregation of St. Mark’s United Methodist Church.

What Tomorrow Holds...

Today I was invited by a group of teenage girls who are part of a pastry cooking class that has been meeting at St. Mark's over the past three days to join them in a Tea and Pastry Party in Garton Hall.  Real china to eat on and drink from...linen napkins...fancy presentations of all the many pastries they had made...and good conversation about what the girls would do with the rest of the summer.

One of the girls was going to spend time in a Swahili language class; another was going to San Francisco with grandparents to celebrate her 12th birthday; another would involved in softball and cheer-leading camps; another was traveling to take part in an ice-skating camp...what a wonderful lunch-time it was.  The chocolate eclairs were great!

And then there is Tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Thursday. The 11th of June, 2015.

If all goes well, I will wake up about 6:45 or 7:00 am, grab a Grande Non-Fat Latte at the Starbuck's drive-thru, and tee-off with my usual foursome at 8:15; I am scheduled to get daughter to summer school class at 1:00 pm, and then check-in at the office.

That's the plan.  It may or may not work out as listed above. 

Then again, Tomorrow could go completely off script and be filled with unexpected events and happenings.

Tomorrow could turn out like this:

Or, Tomorrow could wind up being like this:

Based on some Yesterdays, Tomorrow could be like this:

Its never easy to know what Tomorrow will hold in store...maybe something like this:

Or maybe...Tomorrow there will be another Tea Party!

More Than You Bargained For...

I grew up in a very small town about seven miles west of South Bend, in northern Indiana.

I was born in 1945.

In the 1950s and early '60s, when I was growing through childhood and my teen-age years, Lydick was the world I knew.

My parent's home was on a gravel road...as I remember, there were only two main paved roads in town: Edison and Quince.  There was a four-way stop where those two roads intersected.  No stop lights, no street lights, no police department.

Lydick had one grocery store, one gas station, one tavern, one Gleaner's Hall, one barber shop, one volunteer fire department, one grade school, one middle school (no high school...we went to New Carlisle for that adventure), one brick church, and one Ice Cream Parlor.

The Lydick Ice Cream Parlor served up hamburgers, french fries, soda fountain drinks...and great malts.  I loved the chocolate malts.

Those malts always arrived on the soda fountain counter just as pictured above.  A glass full of cold malted milk and ice cream...and more in the metal container in which the delicious drink was mixed.  How great is that?  More than enough.  More than you would expect.  More than you bargained for!

Fast forward.

I now live in Bloomington, in central southern Indiana.

I think every street in town is paved.  We have four-way stops, but we have way more stop lights...heck, we even got roundabouts.  There's not just one of anything...so far as I can tell.  Two institutions of higher learning, we got.

I eat lunch at 5 Guys probably once a week...on average.  I always order the same thing: Single hamburger (ketchup only), regular order of fries, and a small soft drink.

Look down into that bag.  That's how my lunch order at 5 Guys arrives.  See that container of fries?  And do you also see all the other fries that come with the order but will not fit into the paper cup designed to hold the fries?  How great is that?  More than enough.  More than you would expect.  More than you bargained for!

Truth is like that, I think.  Love is like that, I think.  And God is like that, I think.

Like those malts served up at the Lydick Ice Cream Parlor. And like those fries served up at 5 Guys.

There's always more to truth, and love, and God than fits neatly into a single container.  There's always truth, and love, and God that spills over and needs more space than what is allotted.

Anybody...or any group...or any institution...serving up "all there is to know" about truth...about love...about God...ain't worth your time. 

Hold out for the people, groups, or institutions that offer up servings like the ones in the pictures above.


  

Only 18...

Its almost over.

In fact, its close enough to say that "Its all over but the shouting!"

In June of 1974, I preached my first sermon...I can still remember the title of it..."God Is Not a Spaceman"...at an evening service in Edgewood United Methodist Church.  Other than the title (which has stuck with me for no explainable reason), and that the theology I employed to develop that sermon would most likely turn me off all these years later, I can remember nothing about what I said...and cannot begin to imagine what people must have heard.

BTW: I am very much aware, all these years later, that what I say in a sermon is not always what people hear when I preach that sermon.  And so, at the beginning of each of my sermons I always say, "Might what I say, and what we hear, be for us...at least in part, this day...the Word of God."

It is 41 years later and I am ready to keep in a digital file on my home computer only 18 sermons that I would want to possibly read again at some point...or reflect on, if the mood ever strikes me.  Now, during the early years of my preaching, sermons were either hand-written on legal pads or typed on my manual typewriter or produced on my Brother word processor...so no copies of those relics are extant.  Basically, during 8 years as the Executive Director of Metro Ministries, and 8 years as a District Superintendent, and now 6 years at St. Mark's here in Bloomington...I have whittled what I have to say down to only 18 sermons. 

To my mind, these 18 are pretty good sermons.  They repeat certain themes over and over again.  Themes like:
-God Creates
-God Loves
-God Redeems
-and God Continues. 
That's pretty much the drum I have been beating for the bulk of my preaching career.

From those 4 Theological Themes come 4 real-life applications.  The applications read this way:
-We ought to take into account who others are, and what others do, and think, and believe.
-Anyone not willing to risk is not really willing to live.
-We either get better or we get worse...and its always the right thing to choose getting better.
-Its important to find ourselves in harmony with God's activity in the world.

Yup, that's it...41 years and 18 sermons (worth keeping).

I do want to thank the many people who listened to these 18 and all the others didn't make the cut.

I have also tried...really tried...to never ask people, in a sermon I have preached, to believe the unbelievable.  These 18 meet that self-imposed standard, according to me.

Every Single Day...

To quote Henry David Thoreau:
"In the long run (we) hit only what (we) aim at.  Therefore, (we) had better aim at something high."

Back in 2013, Dick Christopher died.  Dick was one of the finest District Superintendents I served under (as an appointed United Methodist pastor).  He was a good man.  The world would be a better place with more like him around in every generation.

Rev. Andy Kinsey presided at Dick's memorial service, and remembered out loud that one of Dick's favorite Bible passages was "Make love your aim."  (1 Corinthians 14:1)

In the Message translation of the Bible (which I prefer), the verse comes out this way: "Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it - because it does."

Got me to thinking...if we want to aim high, we could do a lot worse than to aim for love.

Of course, that would be a daily task...

 Every Single Day we are allowed to choose to forgive and to seek forgiveness in our most near and common relationships.



 Every Single Day we are free to release grievances, let go of resentments, and get beyond self pities and jealousies.

Every Single Day we can choose to ditch our attempts to control situations and control other people.

Every Single Day we can actually choose grace over judgment, and mercy over self-justification.

Every Single Day we can choose to see beyond the end of our nose, and beyond our own wishes and desires.

Every Single Day we try hard to express the Really Good Stuff that is within us...instead of the junky stuff that too often spews out.

Every Single Day there is the chance to choose gratitude over complaint, peace over disharmony, and hope over despair.

And if...
If our daily routine produces fear...then love is not our aim.

If our daily routine is self-diminishing...then love is not our aim.

If our daily routine motivates hate...then love is not our aim.

If our daily routine produces shame...then love is not our aim.

If our daily routine robs us of grace...then love is not our aim.

"Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it - because it does."

2016

In 2016, when the General Conference of the United Methodist Church gathers in Portland, Oregon, I will be 71 years old.  I have been a card-carrying member of the the UMC since 1968 (and before that, a member of the Evangelical United Brethren Church...the EUB and the Methodist Churches merged in 1968, forming the UMC).  I have been a pastor in the UMC since 1974...and in 2016 will have been retired from the profession for a year.

The logo for the 2016 General Conference is "Therefore Go."  The Scriptural basis for the logo is found in Matthew 28:19-20...Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: “God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”

So the 2016 General Conference is built around Jesus saying to his early followers (the Church fancies itself the successor to that group): "Go. Train others in all I have commanded you." 

And the only "commandments" I recall Jesus offering were these: Love God and Love Neighbor, and Love One Another as I Have Loved You.

Nice.  Simple.  Easy to remember.

Very hard to pull off.

And in relation to the God's sons and daughters who are homosexual the UMC has yet to pull it off.

However, every General Conference (the get-togethers take place every four years) has the opportunity to right previous wrongs and set a new course...has the opportunity to enact wonderful ways for its membership to Love God...Love Neighbor...Love One Another Like God Loves Us.

And so, in 2016 the General Conference of the United Methodist Church has an opportunity to show a 71 year old current member that it can pull off loving all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, the kind of love that God showed all of us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

To continue our current position regarding homosexuality as "incompatible with Christian teaching," is no longer tolerable...if it ever was.

I hope my denomination is smart about this issue next May in Portland.