Give Me a Story to Tell and Make it Relevant

I like story-telling, narrative preaching or whatever you want to call it. My grandfather, Papa, as we called him, would let me snuggle in the bed with him and he would start a story and tell me to finish it. It was great at such an early age to be mentored in the art of story-telling. Papa would lead off with a wild yarn and I would try to make it wilder, then he would ask the hard but creative question, "What did the story mean to you?"

Story and meaning have been on my mind as I've been perusing the UMC Call to Action Committee's reports on our church. It has been interesting to read the Towers Watson report on the driving forces of vitality in the UMC. One of the factors mentioned specifically is "Using more topical preaching in Traditional service." I've been a lectionary preacher for years, but have always attempted to be topical at the same time: timely, practical, relevant. The studies of our denomination have been fascinating. You can find the Towers Watson and Apex reports at http://www.umc.org/calltoaction under "Research Projects."

The Towers Watson summary says that there are four key areas identified as vitality-drivers: number of small groups, empowered and effective lay leadership, relevant worship experiences, and excellent pastoral leadership including good preaching and length of tenure. Likewise the Apex group has studied the UMC and has found that mission clarity, competency, and "distance issues" between the general agencies, Bishops and the local church have exacerbated a relevancy crisis for our denomination.

The point that keeps zinging me is about story-telling and relevancy. As a District Superintendent I'm going from charge conference to charge conference this time of year. I am trying to support connectionalism and especially connectional giving in these difficult economic times. I am absolutely convinced that people will give if they can put a face on apportionments. The same is true for local churches. The studies show that churches that have more face-time activities are vital. If the general church via agencies and bishops can give more face-time to local constituencies then they will be more relevant. It's all about telling a personal story.

My fear is that we have too many people from bottom to top and top to bottom that don't have a story to tell. We aren't doing so hot in terms of relevancy because we're not answering all the questions that people are asking. Sometimes we're answering questions that people are not even asking. That is useless. But, I'm thinking in the back of my pea-brain, that the story that is too often untold or the penultimate unanswered question is "What is the meaning of life?" If I cannot answer that question with the Jesus-story in my own story then relevancy is shot to you-know-where. The Gospel is the essence of relevancy.

So I'll finish with a story. Make of it what you will. Talk is cheap and actions speak louder than words. It seems in this story that the Pope needed a heart transplant. After word spread that the Pope needed a new heart, letters, emails, phone calls, and telegrams poured into the Vatican with offers from people to give the Pope their heart. The Pope pondered how he would decide from so many donors whose heart he would take. He couldn’t believe that so many people were so willing to give up their lives so he could receive their heart. He came up with a plan. On the appointed day announced ahead to the world, he would stand on the balcony of the Pope’s chambers overlooking St. Peter’s Square and drop a feather. Whoever it landed on would be the blessed donor. The day came and the Pope stood and dropped the feather. It floated down, down, down, until it was just above the heads of the gathered throng. People were shouting, “Take my heart, Pope, Take my heart!” Then just as the feather almost landed it was, “Take my heart, Pope – Blow,Whew; Take my heart, Pope, Blow/Whew”

Are We What We Wear? Maybe, Maybe not!

I came to work yesterday in jeans and a casual shirt. I was very tired from Charge Conferences, didn't feel like dressing up, so I just came to the office for pastoral consultations as is, and went to Charge Conference dressed the same way. I've felt a little guilty ever since. I need to take some clothes to the cleaners, but that's just an excuse. I just didn't feel like it.

How does it make you feel to go to a special function and there is someone there who is inappropriately dressed? Are you tired of the dressed-down casual look that is so pervasive in our society? Ball caps don’t cut it in fine restaurants do they? Where are our standards of proper decorum? But just as quickly as I want to put up fences to keep the riff-raff out, I am reminded that Jesus wasn’t very exclusive. Unlike Augusta National, He let just about anybody into the Kingdom. It was the Pharisees who had such impossibly high standards that they missed the Messiah and the Kingdom.

Thinking of Pharisaical dress codes reminds me of a family that had invited a college student and his date over to their house for Sunday lunch. As everyone started to relax, the host said to the young man, "Why don't you take your coat off?" The host had already taken off his coat and tie. The young man kind of hem-hawed around, however, as if he didn't want to do it. Finally, he got the host off in a corner and said, reminding the man of an old trick that he knew well when he was in college, "The only parts of my shirt I ironed were the cuffs and the collar." He had pressed just the parts that showed. The rest of the shirt looked as if he had ironed it with a weedeater! That was the way of the Pharisees: the part people could see looked great, but their interiors were a different story.

Jesus wants us to look good inside out. His solution to our dress code dilemma is found in the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit’s work in Sanctifying Grace that creates clean hearts and lives in you and me. We cannot measure up on our own, but God can make us new creatures! Eugene Peterson puts it this way, "The gospel life isn't something we learn ABOUT and then put together with instructions from the manufacturer; it's something we BECOME as God does his work of creation and salvation in us and as we accustom ourselves to a life of belief and obedience and prayer."

This is a good old-fashioned Wesleyan emphasis on Sanctification. We’re saved by grace, to be sure, but there IS a dress code! Consider this pastor's dilemma:
There were two evil brothers. They were rich, and used their money to keep their evil ways from the public eye. They even attended the same church, and looked to be perfect Christians. Then their pastor retired, and a new one was hired. Not only could he see right through the brothers' deception, but he was also a good preacher so the church started to grow by leaps and bounds. A fund raising campaign was started to build a new sanctuary.

All of a sudden, one of the brothers died. The remaining brother sought out the new pastor the day before the funeral and handed him a check for the amount needed to finish paying for the new building. "I have only one condition," he said. "At my brother’s funeral, you must say that he was a saint." The pastor gave his word, and deposited the check. The next day, at the funeral, the pastor did not hold back. "He was an evil man," the pastor said. "He cheated on his wife and abused his family." After going on in this vein for awhile, he concluded with, "But compared to his brother, he was a saint." He did what he agreed to do. Quite ingenious, don't you think?

Compared with yesterday I have on pressed slacks and a dress shirt, no tie, but a blazer. I figure I owe it to the clergy I'll be seeing today to show them due respect, and the Charge Conference tonight that I care enough about their church to show it in how I look. Sounds contrived, but it's a fact: what we look like should reflect our inner opinions of who we with or what we're doing. More importantly I pray that today I will look better on the inside than the outside.

World Communion Is Real Presence

World Communion Sunday has me thinking. When I was a youngster in my home church we went to Sunday School and afterwards made our way into the sanctuary. The educational building was behind the sanctuary so that if you went from one to the other you usually entered through the back door that opened into the sanctuary right beside the pulpit and altar. If we saw the communion elements and the white cloth spread out we immediately pressed our parents into leaving early.

Communion services were so long and were as somber as a funeral service. We used the old ritual; where what we said reversed our efforts at the Protestant Reformation’s focus on grace. We went back to something that resembled a large confessional booth. We used words like, “We bewail our manifold sins and wickedness which we from time to time have committed in thought, word, and deed…” I felt sinful enough already. Our communion service seemed to add to my sense of guilt. The words of pardon were miniscule in comparison to the confession. I usually left feeling worse.

This is one reason that today when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper; we attempt to focus more on Christ’s marvelous work of grace than on our power to reform ourselves. We, more often than not, now refer to Communion as the Eucharist. Eucharist means Thanksgiving. The most important thing that we do when we come to the Communion Table is say, “Thanks!” to Christ for his gift of mercy. Rather than focus overly on our sinfulness, we thank God for God’s graciousness. What a better perspective!

World Communion Sunday is an event that bridges denominations and spotlights our commonality in the Body of Christ. This world would be so much better off if we looked for that which we hold in common rather than our differences. Holy Communion, rightly observed, reunites the Church. This is the pastor’s hope when he or she holds up the loaf of bread and says, “Because there is one loaf, we who are many, are one body in Christ.”

Therefore, our focus this week is in how to get over our differences and find common power to live in Christ. The Eucharist is a time of positive celebration, reunion, prayer for healing, and a sacred time to put others before ourselves. In my first parish I had three churches. I remember how shocked I was as I went to my first communion service at the smallest church of eight members. When I arrived there was a loaf of sliced “Wonder” bread still in its wrapper on the altar and a bottle of Welch’s grape juice and some small paper cups. They had not had communion in years. I was soon to find out why.

I went through the ritual and opened the altar for people to partake and NOBODY came forward. The reason they hadn’t had communion in years is that they were afraid. They knew full well that they were not living as consistent Christians. They felt too unworthy to come to the Table. I quickly switched sermons and preached on grace. Still nobody came up, but by the time I left there five years later, a few did. Those few moved from guilt to grace, judging to acceptance. They found real communion with Jesus, a sacrament indeed.

Dentist Thomas Welch found himself in a somewhat similar situation back in 1869. Communion was problematic for a number of reasons. The alcoholic content of the wine was one of them. Dr. Welch was the Communion Steward for the congregation of First Methodist Church of Vineland, New Jersey. To his dismay more often than not communion either set some of the participants off on an alcoholic binge or a rush to judgment by the abstention crowd. He and his family did experiment after experiment to come up with a solution and they did. He created unfermented grape juice, dubbed it “unfermented wine,” and soon churches all around wanted the product. By 1890 “Dr. Welch’s Grape Juice” had become a staple on communion tables, where it remains so today, all because someone saw communion as a sacrament that brought Christians together, not divided them!

Charge Conference Christians

Everyone wants to put on a good face for Charge Conference. They are in full swing right now. I actually went to bed last night counting how many Charge Conferences I have had instead of counting sheep. Charge Conferences are in full-swing, along with consultations with pastors about their ministry. I have heard some great reports which underscore the very reason we have these annual meetings. The most distinctive Wesleyan doctrine is sanctification. We are “Methodists” because we believe in a methodical way to live our faith, making sure that we are held accountable. All those forms are our empirical way to gauge how we’re doing spiritually. At least that’s how I rationalize it. The bottom-line is that we believe Jesus didn’t save us to leave us the way we were found, but to transform us and the world. We need transformation, not just at Charge Conference reporting time but year round.

I wish there were a pill that would really cure all that ails us. Some might say that our national malaise is the product of a poor economy, the war on terror, midterm-election year mudslinging, the disintegration of the family, and sorry football teams. It’s tough when sports, your source of distraction from life’s difficulties, only adds to the problem. What I’ve found when life is on the slippery slope is to do something worthwhile. It doesn’t matter so much what the task, just so it takes commitment.

Psychologists, for years, have said that one of the best ways to get out of the doldrums is to make yourself do something for somebody else. They’re right! If we give in to the pits we’re never going to get out. Commitment is the ability to push through the pain, the angst, the pessimistic cynical mindset in which we find ourselves and keep at the projects that we’re supposed to complete. George Miller gave an interesting analogy, “The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you’re hungry again.” What he’s saying about Italian food is true for me. It sticks with me for a long time.

When we’re a little down, we shouldn’t give in to it. We should stick to the things that we know that we’re supposed to do. Sure, I know very well that I don’t feel like going to walk, but I also know the endorphins that are released when I exercise will make me feel better. Unfortunately, many of us easily avoid the things we should do. Jerome K. Jerome, who lived from 1859-1927, said it for all sad-sacks and procrastinators, “I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.”

So maybe we shouldn’t vegetate and let our burdens build up. Doing something good and worthwhile is a better answer. It’s all about commitment. Lewis Smedes puts the matter quite plainly, “I want to say to you that if you have a ship you will not desert, if you have people you will not forsake, if you have causes you will not abandon, then you are like God… When a person makes a promise, she reaches out into an unpredictable future and makes one thing predictable: she will be there even when being there costs her more than she wants to pay. When a person makes a promise, he stretches himself out into circumstances that no one can control and control at least one thing: he will be there no matter what the circumstances turn out to be. With one simple word of promise, a person creates an island of certainty in a sea of uncertainty.”

Many years ago a pastor preached on three different kinds of believers: “if,” “because,” and “regardless.” An “if” believer follows God IF he or she receives blessings and rewards in return. This person waits to see what God will do first, then decides whether or not to respond in obedience. A “because” believer follows God BECAUSE God blesses the person. This person has seen the connection between personal obedience and God’s blessing and wants to keep it going. A “regardless” believer follows God REGARDLESS of the person’s circumstances, cynicism, and hardships. A “regardless” believer honors commitment and knows that God is faithful to the faithful. Which am I today when it comes to the seemingly mundane paperwork and meeting schedule that exhibits a long obedience in God’s direction?

Mystery of Suicide

I woke up this morning to hear the news that Kenny McKinley, former University of South Carolina, star football receiver had apparently taken his own life. Friends, former teammates, coaches, and fans are shocked. He was here at the USC-Georgia game two weeks ago. According to everyone, he seemed fine. Of course, he has been injury-plagued over the last two years with the Denver Broncos. There was no suicide note, no explanation. Other than his injury there was no thought that something like this would happen.

I have never experienced suicide in my own family, but as a pastor I have dealt with quite a few. Every time I was shocked. One was especially difficult. It was an older man who was beloved in the community. His wife had some very tough health issues and had to be moved to an assisted living community. Apparently, he couldn't take it and took his own life. I have preached the funeral of a murder suicide, too, and there have been other tragic events in the churches that I served where someone took thier own life.

It is always hard for me as a pastor to know what to say in this situation. And I have often wondered why I didn't pick up on some kind of signal that this might happen. I have felt the sting of the prophet Jeremiah's words when he warns that we should not say, "Peace, peace, when there is no peace." Yet, the presence of the Incarnate Christ who came to know our pain as the Man of Sorrows gives us hope, whether we can say the right words or not.

I try to think of God's mercy like this: If human courts will acquit someone of murder because of insanity, then God's mercy surely must prove more complete than that. I have known people so full of despair that they couldn't see past their own hand much less their problems. In that moment of sheer pain and darkness they have done the unthinkable. I pray in God's mercy that they are just as acquitted as we humans would absolve the temporarily insane.

It's a mystery, and no easy answer is forthcoming. I'm reminded of Deuteronomy 29:29 again and again, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law." What this means to me is that there are some things we can't know or perceive and we must leave those unfathomable mysteries to God. Let's stick to what we can know and about which we can do something.

I'm certainly not advocating suicide as an option to life's dilemmas. Its pain and unresolved issues for families last generations. There is NOTHING beneficial that can come from doing such a thing, but I think God's word to me this morning is to cut people who have committed suicide some slack, and open my eyes to the unseen hurts around me. A simple "Hey, How are you?" isn't enough to delve into the human heart. If there's anything at all to take from this it is to live more intentionally in community where we rub shoulders and look into one another's faces and hearts. Facebook is a good thing but it cannot replace real community, face-to-face.

The Church is the best place for us to have deep relationships with one another. Small groups, Sunday School classes, mission projects, and other significant church activities put us side by side in an intimate setting where we can get to know the unseen pain of others. In our economically dark and terror-filled world, we need Jesus and He is most easily seen in one another. I hurt for the McKinley family and for any family that has faced such a tragedy. May they find peace among us, and help through us.

Holy Spirt or Holy Spirit

Have you ever felt so tired that you feel like a bug smacked on a windshield, or as flat as a frog run over in the road? That's how this Friday is hitting me. Its been an emotional week, anxiety then great news about Narcie, charge conferences every night with some tensions and a lot of celebration, phone calls to pastors/churches about their connectional giving, and the usual swinging door cacophony of people who don't like something about their pastor or something else. I have had consultations all week with clergy and that has been so good. Sharing prayer, support, and visioning for the future - good stuff, but I'm beat. I used to get up in the morning and walk for a hour praying my way to strength for the day. I'm too busy/tired to do it right now.

We're planning on going to see Narcie, Mike, Enoch & Evy, plus Josh and Karen this afternoon, spend the night coming back to Columbia tomorrow to go to the USC-Furman game with my brother, preach a church anniversary Sunday am followed by 3 charge conferences and a new Hispanic/Latino church start meeting. Whew! When will there be a let-up? So much for Sabbath, but we must have time to reflect and worship or we don't have anything to offer this hurting world. Every minister that I've talked to has shared their fatigue, some with tears, some with excitement tinged with fear of running out of gas. Some have been all smiles. What has made for more smiles than miles? It seems that the clergy who are taking care of themselves through exercise, time off, date nights, or some kind of Sabbath are the ones who are still smiling.

In reading lately about how many more Americans are below the poverty line right now tells me that they need the Gospel's message of hope now more than ever. If we're beat or beat-up then we aren't the voice of hope. They're going to go to the upbeat church with the upbeat music with the upbeat sermon. If we aren't full of the Holy Spirit then we won't have anything to offer. I'm afraid I resemble a Holy Spirt more than Spirit. So, I am running on empty, but ready to relax and recharge. Got to, have to, must get some nourishment from God if I'm going to be an effective witness for Christ. May God's grace win your heart this weekend and not the tyranny of the urgent. I'm going to start prayer-walking again in the morning.

Great News and Responsibility

I'm a happy Dad right now. Life isn't perfect but Narcie just called me with her doctor's report from the latest MRI. Those of you in the loop know that on June 11 of this year she had to have brain surgery on an oligodendroglioma tumor. They didn't get it all, and we have been waiting with hope for the 3 month check-up on its growth.

In case I don't pass this on correctly, please check her blog. The tumor HAS NOT grown since the surgery. Something is still there, a fuzzy line, scar tissue, maybe swelling, too, but shout Hallelujah! Now, of course, the best news would be that it wasn't there at all, but, hey, I'm more than okay with this news. I am next to ecstatic! She will have MRI's every three months to check the status. The doctor says radiation and chemo are out because of the tumor's location and type. Suits me, sometimes the treatment can be worse than the illness. She has no negative issues from the initial surgery. Praise the Lord! She will never have a normal brain scan, but I know folks that fit that description and they haven't had brain surgery. Ha!

So I'm happy, relieved due to this bit of hope, and will keep praying and waiting faithfully until the next test. Please keep praying for her and her precious family, and if you have any nickels to spare: The air conditioning/heat pump went out at The Winthrop Wesley Foundation yesterday, and she doesn't have $12,000 to get a new one. HELP! The address is Winthrop Wesley Foundation, PO Box 5009, Rock Hill, SC 29733. Look at my last blog for some more incentive if you need to.

I want you all to know how grateful I am for your prayers and encouragement. It's been tough to juggle the mental and emotional pins of this summer's saga with Narcie and my brother's sudden death, but God is so wonderfully present with us. Our Connection has been alive for us more than ever. I am so glad to be a United Methodist! But then I know that there are people hurting all around and didn't get good news today. I just got an email from a fellow DS who was in Africa for our Worldwide UMC trip a few weeks back. One of the speakers at her Listening Post was Dr. Mirielle, the Director of Nursing at the Lupandilo School of Nursing in Kamina, Congo. In the midst of a C-section for her second child she cried out as the baby was delivered and died. How awful.

How do we handle good news and bad and reconcile them with a God who loves us all? Deuteronomy 29:29 comes to mind: "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever." So what to do? Give to God all that God we can't handle or understand and do something about the things we can do something about.

I know this story will muck up the tenor of the mixture of gladness and sorrow that's on my mind, but those who know me understand I'm a story-teller and especially like humor because it gets me through the tough times. So here goes: There was this golfer who had a miserable game one day. It was such a bad round that he skipped stopping at the clubhouse and went straight to his car. As he approached his car he noticed a police car with its lights flashing. An officer stepped out of the patrol car and hurried up to the melancholy golfer. “Excuse me,” the officer started, “but did you tee off from the 16th hole about 20 minutes ago?” “Why yes, I did,” the duffer replied. “Did you happen to hook your ball, so that it went over the trees and off the course?” the trooper asked. “Yes, it was a terrible shot, but how did you know?” the club member asked. “Well,” said the policeman very seriously, “your ball flew out onto the highway and crashed through a windshield. The car went out of control, running five other vehicles off the road and causing a fire truck to crash. That fire truck was on its way to a fire, and so that building is a complete and total loss. I want to know what you are going to do about this?” “Hmmm,” the golfer mused. “I think I need to close my stance, keep my head down and tighten my grip.”

What are we responsible for and what are we not, and what ties this to everything with Narcie and Wesley? Narcie's brain tumor is something that I can't handle, but God and good doctors can. The Wesley Foundation air conditioning is something I can do something about. I can also do something for motherless children, too. Hey, maybe this is a thought for tonight's Charge Conference where I'll probably hear several reasons why they can't pay their apportionments that fund Wesley and help children all over the world.

Taking responsibility for that which is legitimately mine is one thing, and giving the rest to God makes for a centered life that is free from worry and filled with appropriate responses to crises. It moves me from turning my worries into prayers in some instances (Like Narcie), and turning them into action in others (Winthrop and Connectional Giving).

Campus Ministry is Where the UMC Began!

As I begin Charge Conferences I have just come back from a Cabinet Meeting where we talked about the terrible situation we face in connectional giving in our annual conference. I know times are tough and money is tight, but I am very upset that all of our SC Campus Ministries were told 2 days before school started that they would not receive any program money for the rest of 2010 or 2011. My daughter, Narcie, is a Campus Minister and the UMC is the only denomination that was founded in a university. John Wesley was a campus minister. Right now, I know of at least 4 seminary students, future ministers, who have come out of SC’s campus ministries. Our future clergy are being sold short because of poor giving and that will show up in the kind of preacher some of you will get.

I’m upset on two levels. One is that Narcie has her first post-brain tumor op MRI this coming Tuesday and she already has enough stress on her than to have the ministry money plug pulled out. On the second level I am appalled at how this economy has made us more selfish than giving. Instead of pulling together in prayer, shared giving, common causes – I sense we’re in an “every man for himself” phase. That’s not good. We need each other now more than ever.

The late Paul Harvey reported that a woman called up the Butterball Turkey Company's consumer hot line and asked about the advisability of cooking a turkey that had been in her freezer for 23 years. The customer service representative told her that it might be okay to eat it if the freezer had maintained a below-zero temperature the entire time, but even so, the flavor would have deteriorated so much that it wouldn't be very tasty. Said the caller, "Oh, that's what we thought. We'll just donate it to the church." The church has received more than her share of “old turkeys.” Parsonages are too often filled with cast-off furniture from people who upgraded in their own homes. People aren’t tithing or even coming close. Churches have become self preserving silos and don’t give a rip about “the least of these.”

I recently saw the movie “Lost in Woonsocket” and would recommend it to anyone who is trying to figure out how to help those who are struggling, and the frustration that goes along with it. But, even if we fail sometimes, sometimes we succeed. Gone are the days of easy employment searches, and name-your-price job opportunities. Reaching the end of a job interview, the human resources person asked a young engineer fresh out of MIT, “And what starting salary were you looking for?” The engineer said, “In the neighborhood of $135,000 a year, depending on the benefits package.” The interviewer said, “Well, what would you say to a package of five-weeks vacation, 14 paid holidays, full medical and dental, company matching retirement fund to 50 percent of salary, and a company car leased every two years -- say, a red Corvette?” The engineer sat straight up and said, “Wow! Are you kidding?” And the interviewer replied, “Yeah, but you started it.”

All kidding aside, what are we going to do about this economic melt-down – hunker down in selfishness or believe Jesus that we should give it all away? I say let’s get together and get real, helping everyone that we can. Here’s a thought, go to http://winthropwesley.com and make a donation to help campus ministry. Check out the sites for all the other campus ministries in SC and do your part. Find a way to donate time if you don’t have the money. I know that I’m trying to do my part and not just because two of my kids are ministers because of campus ministry. What are we going to do? Do it!

Pre-Game Jitters and Prayer

Should I pray about the Gamecocks’ game against the University of Southen Mississippi tonight? I’ve got the jitters. It’s 5 hours or more before the kick-off and I’m already dressed in my team colors, hat is on my head, and my “Beat Southern Miss” sticker is on my favorite Gamecock shirt. I’m going to pick up my brother at Bojangles and head to our parking spot and I’m a little freaked. Our mantra year after year is “Wait until next Year!” Well, this is next year. I’m going to pray, but I hope with some priority perspective.

The longest prayer I ever heard, and I mean ever, was at a high school football game. A pastor in that small town had evidently been saving up for his big chance to pray under the “Friday Night Lights.” He prayed for the football players, the referees, the coaches, the assistant coaches, the cheerleaders, the bands, the parents, the teachers, the school administrators, and the highway patrol officers who were directing traffic. No joke, he prayed so long and for so many people that the game started 20 minutes late!

Don’t get me wrong! I’m all for prayer, and “Sweet Hour of Prayer” is one of my favorite hymns. Nevertheless, prayer at sporting events bothers me, and it’s not just because I’m such a stickler about the separation of church and state. I think my problem stems from being a University of South Carolina Gamecock fan. I grew up going to all the games. I heard Dr. Lauren Brubaker of U.S.C.’s Religion Department pray at every game year after year. Here’s my problem as a U.S.C. fan. If you pray for the best team to win, that’s probably the other team. If you pray for nobody to get hurt, that might negate Carolina’s only hope of winning. Bottom line, I agree with Hall of Fame catcher, Yogi Berra. Once, when a batter stepped into the box and made the sign of the cross, Yogi said to him, “Let’s just leave God outta this, okay?”

Okay, I yield. I know prayer helps us in everything, but really… should we pray for our team to win? There’s an anonymous tongue-in-cheek story that puts this question in perspective: “Jesus Christ said he had never been to a football game. So we took him to one, my friends and I. It was a ferocious battle between the Protestant Punchers and the Catholic Crusaders. The Crusaders scored first. Jesus cheered wildly and threw his hat high up in the air. Then the Punchers scored. And Jesus cheered wildly and threw his hat high up in the air. This seemed to puzzle the man behind us. He tapped Jesus on the shoulder and asked, “Which side are you rooting for, my good man?” “Me?” replied Jesus, visibly excited by the game. “Oh, I’m not rooting for either side. I’m just enjoying the game.” The questioner turned to his neighbor and sneered, “Hmm, an atheist.”

Is God an atheist when it comes to sports? What harm is there in praying for good results about a game, a great round of golf, or a super outing on the lake? The answer is, “Nothing,” unless we take God’s apparent disregard or ambivalence to our request as indifference. God cares, for sure, about every facet of our lives, but maybe God has bigger fish to fry than who wins the game, and God expects us to be the cooks. Luke DeRoeck put it this way in a letter to the editor of Sports Illustrated, “To suggest that God really cares about the outcome of a sporting event is preposterous. Conservatively, 20 million people in the United States went to bed hungry on Super Bowl Sunday. A God who cares about the outcome of the Super Bowl is not a God I ever want to meet.”

Being a good sports fan is great. I know I love my team. Being a disciple, however, is more important than anything! That God is God and the Gamecocks are not will hopefully calm my pre-game jitters. We’ll see.

Mt. Mitchell at Midnight

I just got back from our Columbia District Clergy Retreat on top of Mt. Mitchell in Western North Carolina. It is the tallest peak east of the Rockies, 6,684 feet. It was 30 degrees cooler and the weather was absolutely perfect. I have been there so many times when we had lots of wet weather, or the wind was 50 mph. These past three days were perfect.

The sky was so clear that 4 of us hiked up to the summit in the dark. The Milky Way was hovering over us, and the Big Dipper seemed so close that you could reach out and touch it. The photo above is the four of us standing on top of the observatory at about midnight. It was awesome! One thing that hit me is that darkness helps you see what would normally be invisible. There are dark times in our lives: uncertainty, anxiety about health, finances, ministry, etc. God light shines best when we allow our eyes to adjust to the darkness and see the unseen yet real presence of God.

The whole retreat was helpful. New friends were made. We shared together our thoughts on Peter Steinke's book on being a courageous leader without reactivity in the face of anxiety. We ate Black Beans and Rice one night, Chicken Bog with Smoked Sausage; anyway it was GREAT. We did have a bear visit us last night but no injuries and no damage to our tents, just a little excitement.

Anyway, I've been taking groups of preachers up to the top of Mitch for 5 years now. Having a quiet place to go above the cell phone towers and the fray of the tyranny of the urgent is important. We ain't Superman and even he needed a Fortress of Solitude. This was ours for a few blissful days.

With Labor Day approaching and knowing that so many people are feeling stuck in jobs just for the benefits and not a calling, I certainly hope that those who feel like this are able to find a place where there can be responsive reflection and not anxious reactivity. Peace, Peace, Peace - In the dark, God's light still shines.