Easter Let Loose

Easter has come once again! The creation has been bursting forth with evidence of the resurrection for weeks now: Green the grass, ripe the bud, pink the flower, blue the sky, beautiful the butterfly, risen the Lord! Easter has come, but it is not gone!

In the drama, The Trial of Jesus, John Masefield has the centurion Longinus report to Pilate after the crucifixion of Jesus. Longinus had been the officer in charge of the execution, and after his official report, Procula, Pilate’s wife calls the centurion to come and tell her how the prisoner had died. This was important to her because she had dreamed about Jesus the night before his death and tried to warn Pilate to let him go.

After the centurion gives her the account of Jesus’ death, she asks, “Do you think he is dead?” Longinus answers, “No, lady, I don’t.” “Then where is he?” asks Procula. Longinus replies, “Let loose in the world, lady, where neither Roman nor Jew can stop his truth.”

Indeed, Jesus is let loose in the world. His truth continues to change hearts and lives. It is such a profound truth that we cannot let it be forgotten or misinterpreted. It is the One Truth that can set us free.

One Sunday late in Lent, a Sunday School teacher decided to ask her class what they knew about Easter. The first little fellow suggested, “Easter is when all the family comes to the house and we eat a big turkey and watch football.” The teacher suggested that perhaps he was thinking about Thanksgiving, not Easter. Next, a pretty little girl said, “Easter is when you come down stairs in the morning and you see all the beautiful presents under the tree.”

At this point, the teacher was quite disappointed. After explaining that the girl was probably thinking about Christmas, she called on a boy with his hand tentatively raised in the air. Her spirits perked up as the boy said, “Easter is the time when Jesus was crucified and buried.” She felt she had gotten through to at least one child, until he added, “And then He comes out of the grave, and if He sees His shadow we have six more weeks of winter.”

What do you believe about Easter’s truth? Is it accurate? In what way is Jesus alive in your world, your life? Ponder anew the mighty truth of Easter. Let its truth loose in every corner of your thoughts. Jesus is alive!

Passion Week and the Emergency Room

Ten Plagues? Lately it feels like it. If I counted back to Cindy's mother's death 18 months ago it seems like we've been through plenty. If frogs start falling from the sky I know we're in trouble. Cindy's mother died suddenly in August 2009 but we're still settling up her estate and personal belongings. Narcie found out less than a year ago that she has a brain tumor. Cindy has had three surgeries since January, including one more last week. What I thought would be enough money in my Medical Reimbursement Account to last a year hasn't lasted 3 months. My brother died suddenly on his birthday last August. In the last 3 weeks 2 grandchildren and 2 children have had strep throat. Now I have pneumonia, and I'm sure that I'm leaving something out.

Sure, there's been plenty of good stuff, too. Cindy and I had our 35th wedding anniversary last December. Josh and Karen had their first child last week: Kaela Lynn McClendon. Being a District Superintendent is still a pleasure. Working with friends to help the UMC be a stronger church globally and locally has been a blessing, too. Teaching UM History at Lutheran Seminary has been a joy. Good with bad, bad with good - C'est la vie, right? Life is this tension between good news and bad. I guess I'm a little gun-shy right now, but what I've been lately calling "a prolonged anxiety" is real. The scary thing is that I've been so blessed. There are some people who go through this kind of stuff their entire lives, so why should I be different?

So why should I think that I'm too special to get caught in life's cross-hairs? Jesus' Holy Week was utterly awful and he was/is Special with a capital "S." How easy it is for us Christians to think that we should be exempt from life's junk. How easy it is to think that people get what they deserve. Jesus' suffering during Holy Week clears up that falsehood because thinking people get what they deserve is a lie! Premillenialists may hope for a "Beam-Me-Up, Scottie!" rapture, but the early church's view of the rapture with one woman left at a handmill and the other taken sounds more like Roman soldiers capturing one and leaving one behind to me. It's not about an easy escape route! Look at early church history's facts. On average, the early church had 5,000 martyrs a day for 300 straight years. Doesn't sound like an easy life, not even close, and certainly doesn't jive with my utopian "God will protect me and reward me" selfcenteredness.

Truth be told, none us get what we truly deserve. We deserve every bad thing imaginable. Go to your local Emergency Rooms and you'll find the proof. Being in an ER is not a great experience unless you really have a penchant for studying people or might be a masochist. Cindy and I were there for 9 hours before it was decided that she needed to be admitted. Without sounding too much like a doubter concerning how much of the imago dei is left in people, I have to say that there were times in Cindy's ordeal that I pondered whether if I were somehow able to die for the sins of the whole world, would I - in the context of who and what I saw in the ER? Frankly, Cindy was the only person there who would have been worth it from my vantage point. I was tired, frustrated, bothered by the drama taking place around me, and wasn't in any mood for the sheer raunchiness and apparent lack of any manners in the people around us in the waiting room. There wasn't enough security for the menagerie including me. It was a human zoo and I was one of the animals.

And Passion Week kept smacking my brain. Sitting in the ER with Cindy writhing in pain put some perspective on the incarnation and upcoming Passion Week for me. Theoretically I knew that Jesus died for every one of the people gathered in the ER and would have done it even if it had been just one, and not just Cindy, but how much Jesus loves us has never hit me this profoundly before. Humanity is fickle, sinful, and yet God loves us! He became incarnate in Jesus and took our sins upon himself. Thinking about all this I have to admit that I'm still more than a little jaded by the whole ordeal, but I think it got my attention in good ways. If God loves us so much in spite of who we are and how we act, then I better start seeing our human commonality more than spending my time dividing the sheep from the goats.We're all made in God's image, however marred we all are.

Before I start judging the idiocy of the Palm Sunday crowd and preach about how they turned on Jesus by Good Friday, I can look in the mirror and see the same fickleness. By God's grace and love I can look in the same mirror and see the faces of every person from that ER. Everyone is included in Jesus' passion. Lord, help me to open my eyes and see that your Passion is for all of us, not one soul left out.

Remember, You Must Die!

There is a novel by Muriel Spark titled Memento Mori. It tells about a group of friends, all over sixty-five, who one by one receive anonymous phone calls telling them, “Remember, you must die!” The novel, partly serious, partly humorous, tells how different individuals come to terms with the telephone message. Though reactions vary, a common reaction is fright.

Still, the anonymous caller often causes characters to think back over their lives and assess how they have lived – about the good they have done as well as the not-so-good. In a way, the message they receive about death forces them to come to terms with the meaning of the life they have lived. Somehow death leads them back into life.

Lenten season is a reminder that we too must die, especially to sin. By dying to sin, we are led back into a fuller life of grace and good works. We put our faith into action through loving deeds. As someone has said, “We are judged by our actions, not our intentions. We may have a heart of gold – but so does a hard-boiled egg.” I proved that actions are more significant than intentions with last week’s bulletin cover. As an unthinking hard-boiled egg, my lack of sensitivity in using humor about gender roles proved that faith is either undergirded or weakened by our actions. I am sorry.

Jesus said, “By this shall all people know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.” Educator Jeffrey Holland tells about a pre-school teacher who faced what she thought was “burn-out.” She had begun to despair about some of the children in her class. She wasn’t sure if there was something wrong with her or the current crop of pre-schoolers. Then her mother died.

She took a week off from her teaching duties to handle the funeral and have some time alone to deal with her feelings. She loved her mother very much. Her frustrations at the pre-school seemed like an even heavier burden at this point in her life. When she went back to her classroom she felt more like a soldier going into battle than a teacher.

The first day back was what she expected. Her hurt and despair produced resentment that she kept carefully hidden. She went through the paces like a professional, smiling at the right times, and was fairly patient considering the environment and her raw feelings. But then it happened. She had come around the corner to discover Rachel picking the last chrysanthemum from the pot in the hall. Rachel was the most distant and disruptive child in the class. In a stern, trembling voice the teacher demanded, “Rachel, what are you doing?” Rachel held out the flowers she had already picked. “Mrs. Terrell,” she said, “You used to be like a mother. Would these flowers help you to be like a mother again? I know you are fussed in your mind. Wouldn’t you like some flowers?”

Mrs. Terrell thought, fussed in my mind? You mean it shows? To a five-year-old? She spoke: “Rachel, what is a mother like?” “A mother is like you used to be,” Rachel said. “A mother likes being with children.” “But Rachel,” said Mrs. Terrell, “I like being with children. I’ve just… well, I’ve been… well, Rachel, my mother… passed away, and…” Rachel meekly interrupted, “You mean she died?” “Yes, Rachel,” said her teacher sadly, “She died.”

Rachel looked up at her teacher and asked, “Did she live until she died?” Mrs. Terrell thought, what kind of question is that? “Well, honey, of course,” she said, “All people live until they die; they…” Rachel interrupted her again. “Oh. No they don’t, Mrs. Terrell. Some people seem to die while they are still walking around. They stop being what they used to be. Mrs. Terrell, don’t die just because your mother did. Be alive while you are alive.”

Out of the mouths of babes. How do we witness to the world that Christ is alive? We do it by loving one another – dying to self and living for others. If I can do this then Lent will have been a worthwhile spiritual journey and Passion Week all the more meaningful!

Acute Appointment Anxiety

Being a District Superintendent is something that I honestly love being and doing. I just got back to the office after spending several hours with a pastor and spouse walking, talking, and having lunch together. This time of year is when I spend three hours with each clergy doing whatever they want to do. We build relationships and we get to know each other a lot better than we do when we're having consultations in my office. These times are a blessing. I'll never forget last year around this time as I was with several of my clergy on a canoeing trip when I got the call about Narcie being in a hospital by herself and finding out she had brain tumor. A few days later I was doing pottery with some clergy when she called to let me know the scary prognosis. We were there for each other. I broke down and cried and they cried and prayed with me. Transparency and vulnerability is a good thing. We need community, especially as clergy who are always giving, giving, giving. I want to say thanks for everyone's support, and ask that you continue to pray that Narcie's tumor disappears and/or doesn't grow. She goes back for her every 3 month MRI next week. This is when the prolonged state of anxiety gets acute. Help!

This is also the time of year when every United Methodist Clergyperson has acute appointment anxiety. Am I moving, or not? It's the same for local churches. I'm  getting last minute phone calls from churches either lobbying for their pastor to move or stay. We start appointment making this Friday morning and it's an arduous task bathed in prayer and full of emotion. We want to do what's best for both churches and clergy, all to the glory of God. Our system is so different from the way average Americans think. It's my perception that Americans would rather go out and pick their pastor the same way corporations and businesses hire people. The United Methodist system of episcopal supervision and appointments listens to what churches need and tries to match those needs with a particular clergyperson's gifts and graces.

In our system we believe God calls people to ministry and the Annual Conference through the Board of Ordained Ministry and the Clergy Session validate that call. From then on we are a sent ministry. UM churches don't send out "pulpit committees" to guage a potential pastor. The SPRC meets with me and the other DS' to discuss the needs and we try to find the right person. I ask the Staff-Parish Relations Committee to do a secret ballot and vote on what the church/community needs during this season of its life in a pastor. I give them 3 choices that summarize Par. 340 "Duties of a Pastor" in our Book of Discipline. The choices that I think sum up what every pastor should bring to the table are: Leadership, Proclamation, and Pastoral Care.

Anyway, I use this information to guide my thinking about the clergy leadership that a church needs. This is what all DS' do. We know that clergy exist for local churches, not the other way around! The local church is the primary arena for disciple-making. Please pray for us as we attempt this week to make this happen through the appointments. The church's relevancy to the world depends on getting this right!

Earthquakes and God???

Why do earthquakes happen, cancers occur, wars start? I like the tune of Twila Paris' song, "God Is In Control," but I don't like the lyrics or what they seem to say. I have heard enough malarkey from well-intentioned people concerning my daughter's brain tumor, "It's meant to be," or the ubiquitous "Everything happens for a reason."  Well the reason most junk happens in the world has nothing at all to do with God, except that God gets us through the stuff. God doesn't cause bad things to happen. Take a look at James 1: 13-17, "God doesn't test anyone...Every good and perfect gift is from above."

So why the earthquake - ever since the fiasco of the Fall this world's natural laws have run amok. Proof: Jesus was asleep below deck while with the disciples on the Sea of Galilee. They were afraid that the storm was going to drown them. They woke Jesus. He came up on deck and it says, "He REBUKED the winds and waves." If Jesus is God and if God controls nature and everything in it, then why would Jesus have to rebuke the storm. He only uses "rebuked" in the NT for evil anyway. The point is obvious to me. There are things not under God's control.

Bad things happen because of our choices; the choices of others, the general decay in the world because of the Falleness of Creation (the biggie); and evil - never God. So what does God do? God works miracles and that's the line I want to be in in heaven as I ponder theodicy. I want to ask God why did God intervene and heal my Dad and not my Mom. If we had taken a family vote it would have come out very differently, thank you very much. God redeems the junk caused by life. God (Romans 8:28) can work all things for good, but God doesn't cause them! There are so many variables, but God is constant love.

So, with earthquakes, Hurricane Katrina's, cancers, brain tumors, and the like - I'm going to trust God with the solutions, not blame God for the confusion. It's a huge difference to me!

Lenten App

I just noticed an article in our local newspaper about a new iPhone app for people who need to confess their sins. Sounds like an interesting way to add substance to our Lenten spiritual disciplines. The article asks, "Can your iPad or iPhone bring you closer to God?" It is aimed at Roman Catholics as the app is titled "Confession: A Roman Catholic App." It costs $1.99. Cheap enough, but is it cheap grace?

My wife knows after 35 years of marriage to ask another question after I say a generic, "I'm sorry." She asks, "Why are you sorry?" Now that really gets into a full-disclosure confession. It also makes sure that I think more than twice before I commit the same stupidity again. It isn't $1.99 grace, and it isn't cheap.

Lent is a season when we need to enter into Christ's passion and suffering so that we, too, may rise on Easter. The word, "Lenten," comes from the Old English word, "lencten," "to lengthen." Lenten season literally implies that we take a longer look at ourselves. As the days get longer so should our spiritual disciplines.

John Wesley organized the people of the 18th English Wesleyan Revival into classes and bands so that they might be accountable helpers for one another's spiritual growth. He saw salvation not as a forensic matter to be proved in court by a time-specific body of evidence; i.e. "I was saved at 8 p.m. on March 11, 1971." It included known events but wasn't limited to one-time shots of salvation. Wesley emphasized the therapeutic nature of Christ's redemptive work. His notion of salvation certainly was a process - a healing, therapeutic process that led through his via salutis (way of salvation) by stages  of prevenient grace, justifying grace, and sanctifying grace. It was dynamic (therapeutic) not static (forensic). It was never-ending, always a growing in grace and upheld by the means of grace!

All the more reason as the season of Lent starts that we commit ourselves to more than a $1.99 iPhone app. Find your prayer partners, friends, Sunday School & Bible Study colleagues, Clergy buds, and neighbors who are just simply intrigued by Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday; and ask "Would you like to help me have a better Lent this year?" I pray that we will be surprised and hope-filled by the amazing ways that we can grow in grace this Lent.

Transfiguration Pinnacle and People

Epiphany season in the church has been a time through the centuries to sense the power of God’s self-revelation to the world. It is the season of encouragement that immediately follows Christmas and precedes Ash Wednesday and Lent. Epiphany is a reminder that though Christ is about to enter his “dark night of the soul” in the controversies that led to his crucifixion, he knows full well just who he is. He is God-Incarnate, God-in-the-Flesh.

This knowledge changes everything. It doesn’t lessen the pain and humiliation that Christ is about to undergo, but it does help him endure it. Epiphany season ends with the greatest affirmation of Christ’s personhood, Transfiguration Sunday, which we commemorate this Sunday. On the sacred mountain, Jesus is reminded that only he is God’s beloved son. Though the valley of suffering is deep beyond compare, God will transfigure the ordinary into extraordinary, the crown of thorns into a crown of Gold.

Transfiguration Sunday’s climatic end to Epiphany season doesn’t diminish the pain Jesus resolved to endure, but it did fortify his soul for the journey. Isn’t this why we come to Sunday School and Worship? Isn’t the Lord’s Day our Day of Transfiguration? We seek to find out who we are on Sunday and pray that it helps us through the dark nights of the work-a-day week.

Such a transfiguration took place in the life of a man named Ben Hooper. Fred Craddock ran across an elderly gentleman by this name at a restaurant just off I-40 in east Tennessee. The older gentleman found out that Fred Craddock was a seminary professor, a teacher of preachers, in Atlanta. The gentleman, without hesitation, said that he had a story to tell about a preacher. Fred had heard many such stories over the years but he listened attentively. The old gentleman told how he was born in the hills nearby, and that his mother was not married. He described how children made fun of him and called him names. He recalled how everyone would stare at his face trying to figure out who his daddy really was.

The old man said he felt embarrassed and unworthy everywhere he went, especially church. At church, as a young boy, he would slip into the back pew after the singing began and slip out before the last hymn finished. One night, however, the new Methodist preacher talked long and hard about God’s grace and love for everyone no matter who they were. He was mesmerized. Before he could slip out, a group of people had already queued up in the aisle. Before he could move, he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was the preacher! He spoke while staring at the boy’s face, “Well, son, let me see who you are. Oh, yes! I see a striking resemblance. You’re a child of God … Go out and claim your inheritance!”

The older man told Dr. Fred Craddock that night transfigured his life. He felt God’s grace like never before. It changed him forever. Fred Craddock asked the man what his name was again, knowing this would make a great story to tell preachers. The old man replied, “Ben Hooper.” “Ben Hooper, Ben, Ben Hooper!” Craddock thought to himself. And suddenly it came to him that his father had once told him about the time when, for two terms, the people of Tennessee had elected a man named Ben Hooper, who had been born to an unwed mother, as governor of their state. What a difference transfiguration makes!

Think about the millions of people around us who need a transfiguration. They wonder if the institutional church is relevant, and so do I. However, the Gospel is relevant, if we'll connect to people and let people know through word and deed that Jesus has made a difference in our lives. People are starving for salvation and need transfiguration. I pray that we will guide them in real, relational, and relevant ways to an encounter with the Living God!