November, 17th 2009
Every year as we approach Thanksgiving and the days leading to Christmas, we are not just overwhelmed with advertisements from stores, but we are also overwhelmed by the contrasting information that reminds us of our brothers and sisters who are struggling for food and water and shelter. I say "overwhelmed" in regards to poverty issues because the numbers are staggering and hard to imagine in our world. The following came from a news report I read yesterday.
According to a new government report, the number of Americans who lack adequate, consistent access to food rose to a new high of 49 million last year. Especially discouraging is the number of children who live in households with low food security, which rose from 12 million to 17 million in just over a year. The UN says about a billion do not get enough to eat.
The report coincided with the world food summit in Rome in which the UN Food and Agriculture Organization summit approved a new strategy to fight global hunger by helping poor countries feed themselves while rejecting a UN appeal, to commit 44 billion US dollars a year to fund it.
We can only hope that this is a small beginning to a big problem.
Small beginnings are not insignificant and big gestures often fall flat or run out of gas before they start.
William Wilberforce, who fought his whole life to end slavery in Britain, said, "Things great have small beginnings. Every downpour is just a raindrop; every fire is just a spark; every harvest is just a seed; every journey is just a step because without that step there will be no journey; without that raindrop there can be no shower; without that seed there can be no harvest."
In one of the services yesterday, we sang the old camp song, "It only takes a spark to get a fire going... that's how it is with God's love..."
As we feel overwhelmed by the big problems, remember that we begin with small things, caring for those near or far that we can help, and together with all God's children we create a flood of compassion.
Tom
November, 10th 2009
"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." (Hebrews 10:23-24)
Peter Gomes drawing from that passage suggests that we might add a new category of "prayers of encouragement" to our Sunday prayers of concern and celebrations. Gomes explains by saying, "We would think of ways in which we can encourage our fellow believers to love and good works. We would think of ways in which we can be of assistance to the people we know and with whom we share the faith and the pew. This means making an assessment of people's strengths and opportunities rather than of their weaknesses and needs. We would also be praying that they may be encouraged to do something for themselves, something which God enables them to perform to the mutual benefit of the faith and the community."
That is one of the best suggestions that I've heard in awhile. I would encourage us to make that a regular prayer for one another that we may grow in grace and fellowship.
Tom
November, 3rd 2009
Several people have asked about where we stand with regard to the old post office. The assessment and drawings from the structural engineer, as well as preliminary use plans are being completed. Members of the SWATT team (our Wednesday men's group that cares for our buildings) have been making some of their own assessments as well, crawling under the floor and peering into the ceiling and roof. We are trying to be as thorough as possible in our assessment of the building so that we are not surprised by any major problems. We have been reassured to this point by what we have found.
There is always a delicate balance in restoration of an older building. We would like to begin as quickly as possible while we have momentum and a vision for its use, but we also want to do the best that we can to evaluate the building. Our hope is to come to the church with an update soon.
Tom
October, 27th 2009
This past weekend we celebrated with my family at my sister's wedding. We shared a condo on New Smyrna Beach and enjoyed the ocean breeze and sound of waves. I have always found the beach a great meditative place where my soul is rejuvenated. On a couple of mornings I would rise before the sun to walk and sit on the beach. The first morning was calm and quiet, with small waves gently breaking on the shore. Just a little bit before sunrise, the sea birds began to make their appearance. My favorite is the pelicans flying in formation, occasionally diving into the ocean for a passing fish. At those moments, the wonder and beauty of creation lifts the spirit in prayer and praise.
I read a poem while at the beach that captured a similar holy moment. The poem by John Ciardi is a prayer written after watching a heron taking flight from a pond and quoted in "Seven Sacred Pauses" by Macrina Wiederkehr.
What lifts the heron leaning on the air
I praise without a name. A crouch, a flare,
A long stroke through the cumulus of trees,
A shaped thought at the sky—then gone. O rare!
Saint Francis, being happiest on his knees,
Would have cried Father!
Cry anything you please.
But praise. By any name or none. But praise
The white original burst that lights
The heron on his two soft kissing kites.
When saints praise heaven lit by doves and rays,
I sit by pond scum till the air recites
Its heron back. And doubt all else. But praise.
Tom
October, 20th 2009
Randy Simpson did a great job in sharing not just his own struggle with mental illness, but in challenging us to embrace those who are different from us, becoming a community that loves and accepts people as they are. Randy also reminded us of the isolation and loneliness that comes when people are stigmatized due to illness or for any other reason. It is in the difficult times that people need their family to surround them and to find strength, courage, and hope. I am grateful for Randy's vulnerability in sharing his story, because it the story that many share and need to find encouragement to share. I believe that we are a church family that can and does provide a loving community for all of God's children. It has been the history of First Christian Church to embrace that powerful witness of Christ's compassion and love.
Romans 15:7 has become one of my favorite bible verses, as we hear Paul declare, "Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God." The word translated as "welcome" can also be translated as "accept, receive, take aside." It is more than a surface greeting, but a genuine acceptance just as we have been accepted by Christ. It is a summary of Paul's arguments against prejudice, which he calls a scandal to the gospel. Embracing the believers in all of their diversity glorifies God.
Tom
October, 13th 2009
When asked how we met, Angie and I have always answered that it was in a psychiatric hospital. After a pause, we then add that we were working there while she was in college and I was in seminary. That usually catches attention, partly because of the stigma associated with mental health. It was a great opportunity to become familiar with issues confronting many families that are often hidden and treated with embarrassment and shame. Not everyone has such an opportunity and the stigma that surrounds mental health usually keeps people from talking about it at all.
Last week, Oct. 4-11 was Mental Illness Awareness Week which is intended to promote education and community support for mental health issues. The National Alliance for Mental Health states that "real recovery from mental illness requires community action, understanding and teamwork. Recovery is possible because of improved science, better community support and reduced stigma. But significant barriers still exist. Services are at risk, insurance can be insufficient and stigma, though less today than when MIAW was founded, is still prevalent."
In Luke 8: 26-29 we read about a man called Legion, because he was seen as having many demons, which was how mental illness was understood at that time. People with mental illness in biblical times were often banished from their communities because of the community's fear of behaviors they did not understand. In Luke's version of this story, Jesus intentionally sought out this man just as the church must do today. Because of Jesus' love and compassion, this man was healed. Even though this man wanted to follow Jesus, he was sent back to the full membership of his own community. And so it was that a person with a mental illness became the first evangelist to the Gentiles. The church today is called to embrace those who struggle with mental illness and be instruments of healing and wholeness.
This Sunday, Randy Simpson will share his own experience with mental illness. He and I have been discussing this for the last year as we both desire a more open conversation within the community about issues surrounding mental health. Randy will encourage us and challenge us to grow in our awareness of mental health and to be a community of healing and compassion, embracing those who struggle with mental health and their families, providing a safe place and enabling wholeness.
We are the family of God who have opened our hearts and our doors to our community, may we continue to grow in our compassion and love.
Tom
October, 6th 2009
Maybe you read the news report about a group called the Conservative Bible Project that is asking for help on a Wikipedia-type website to create a more conservative socio-political version of the Bible. Their concern is that committees in charge of updating Bible versions, like the NIV, are "dominated by professors and higher-educated participants who can be expected to be liberal and feminist in outlook."
We understand the confusion and reactions to changes in updating the various translations, especially with the use of gender-inclusive language when the Greek or Hebrew word is neutral. That is a change that takes time to get used to reading. However, this Conservative Bible Project is troubling because it seems to only have a political agenda attached to the "updating" focusing on "free-market ideology."
The Bible can be troubling on its own, whether you are conservative, liberal, or somewhere in between. As we have read this past week in Mark's Gospel about some of Jesus' tough words on divorce or wealth, we struggle just as the disciples did in trying to understand and live faithfully.
The translations and paraphrases have been attempts to make the Bible more accessible. It is meant to be read again and again, because at various times in our lives, it speaks to us differently. It may come across as more conservative or liberal depending on where we are in our struggles. It is our own bias that can get in the way as we read ourselves into the text. The struggle is to let the text speak to us so that we are transformed and not the other way around.
I was reminded of a quote from William Sloane Coffin who reassures us as we struggle with these texts, for "wrestling with Scripture, far from a sign of weakness, is a reflection of religious faithfulness.
What else should you wrestle with if not the Bible? What struggle offers more reward? The Bible is like a sacrament, a means of grace; it mediates God's presence in the life of each of us and God's concern for the whole planet."
Tom