Personal Piety as Confidence

 

Greetings Sisters and Brothers of hope…

Job 4:1-6

4 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

 “If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?
    But who can keep from speaking?
 Think how you have instructed many,
    how you have strengthened feeble hands.
 Your words have supported those who stumbled;
    you have strengthened faltering knees.
 But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;
    it strikes you, and you are dismayed.
 Should not your piety be your confidence
    and your blameless ways your hope?

 

We already knew from God’s own words that Job was pious and blameless…”he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”

 

Eliphaz has probably seen similar situations. You offer to speak your opinion about the matter, and people get upset with you. But you just have to have your “2 cents worth” in it!

Eliphaz praises Job for his good deeds and character.

And then Eliphaz points out that when Job has suffered, he has become disappointed.

 

In Matthew 5 Jesus gives us this encouragement…

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Job, because he was righteous, was persecuted by Satan. Eliphaz reminds Job that  we are not rewarded with ease and comfort for our piety and blamelessness, sometimes calamity falls upon us Yet we are blessed, yet we have hope.

Please know that nowhere in the Book of Job does God speak of Job as anything less than righteous and considered Job his servant.

Continue in your good character and deeds for these make us servants. And being pious and righteous during times of trial makes us Christ-like servants!

Peace, Mike

Christians Amidst Chaos

 

Greetings Cherished Children of God…

   Have you ever considered the words of Jeremiah the prophet to those in exile?

Jeremiah 29: ⁴ This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ⁵ “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. ⁶ Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. ⁷ Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

Even in the New Testament Paul and Peter encourage folk to obey and respect leaders. That was at a time when Nero was Emperor. He was somebody particularly troublesome for Christians.

1 Peter 2: ¹³ Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, ¹⁴ or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. ¹⁵ For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. ¹⁶ Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. ¹⁷ Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.

Far from calling us to be threats to the prevailing culture surrounding us, God encourages us to live productive lives in the midst of discomfort and contrary conditions.

God encourages the Israelites to pray for their captors. God encourages Christians to be at peace with human authority.

Also, in both, the Jeremiah and 1 Peter encouragements, there is a sense of us Christians being about our business as Christians rather than cultural or political subversion.

Let us not indulge in anxieties about whether or not things are falling apart. Let us “Know that God is indeed God” and that all things work for the good of those that love God.

Be about that today. Be about loving God and neighbor. The rest is up to God.

Peace, Mike

Angels, Up and Down the Ladder

 

Greetings Sisters and Brothers, beneficiaries of God’s interventions…

Genesis 28: ¹² He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

In 1968, at age 13 and reading through Genesis rather studiously, I was theologically tickled by this verse. “What in the world is going on here?”, I pondered.

Jacob is having a dream in which this vision occurs. Yet there are no verses around it to explain or describe its meaning. There seems to be nothing to “contextualize” this verse. And yet it is there!

Many Bible commentators say something about this verse, but they are all just “reaching” for a meaning.

Still, I can’t help but take a stab at it…

1.     God is continually in relationship and working with humans and all of creation. We are not left alone.

2.     Verse 14 says…Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. I think these ascending and descending angels are busy at work making God’s promise a reality. He will for us as well as for Jacob.

3.     We don’t see this ladder of angels and thus, we tend to think that God has become detached and remote.

4.     Jacob was not told, nor did he ask what those angels were doing. And yet, I speculate on their activities. Often, we may not be told how God is going to keep his promises.

5.     I think the verse about the angels ascending and descending is meant as a comfort to us that God is always at work for the good of those that love him, whether we see it or not.

I encourage you to travel the day knowing that God is with you and I hope you get a good night’s sleep.

But use something softer than a stone as a pillow!

Peace, Mike

The Leveling of Your Path

 

Greetings All…

An Old Testament Jewish fellow by the name of Baruch was the scribe for prophet Jeremiah.

Baruch also wrote a book, though it did not make the cut for our Old Testament, still some of the readings are part of the schedule of Scriptural readings through the year.

This is one reading suggested for preaching…

Baruch 5:1-9
5:1 Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God.

5:2 Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God; put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting;

5:3 for God will show your splendor everywhere under heaven.

5:4 For God will give you evermore the name, "Righteous Peace, Godly Glory."

5:5 Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height; look toward the east, and see your children gathered from west and east at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that God has remembered them.

5:6 For they went out from you on foot, led away by their enemies; but God will bring them back to you, carried in glory, as on a royal throne.

5:7 For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low and the valleys filled up, to make level ground, so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God.

5:8 The woods and every fragrant tree have shaded Israel at God's command.

5:9 For God will lead Israel with joy, in the light of his glory, with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.

Please note how verse 7 here very closely resembles verse 5 of chapter three of Luke…

3:5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth;

And also chapter 40, verse 4 of Isaiah…

Every valley shall be raised up,
    every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
    the rugged places a plain.

Be very assured that whatever obstacles may seem to be in the way, God is working on removing those obstacles and leveling our path toward him.

This idea of leveling the path seemed important enough for God to inspire Isaiah, Baruch, and Luke…perhaps it is an important enough of an idea that we should cast our faith upon it!

Rejoice this day for God will show your splendor everywhere under heaven.
Peace, Mike

Accurate Scales and a Truthful Tongue

 

Greetings Sisters and Brothers of a faithful tongue…

Exodus 20: 16 You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

Some folk round off that verse to say “Don’t lie”. But it is much more important than that!

The function it served in the day of Moses was to ensure that the court, those that sat in judgement, could always count on honest testimony from petitioners and the accused as they made their decisions.

I quote Bible scholar Walter Breugemann from his commentary on Exodus regarding this verse…

“Community requires drawing a line against private interest in order to make social relations workable.”

This verse is not just about a person saying what they want to get their way, protect themselves and such. The deeper point is to preserve harmony in a community.

All of the Ten Commandments are about loving God first and then neighbor as self.

Just like the importance of maintaining accurate scales, Proverbs 11:1, the reports which we give regarding other people should be as honest as we would want them to be about us.

I offer what James warned all Christians of…

⁹ With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.

Again, the Commandment in Moses’ day was about court testimony. Of course that would apply today as well. But also, it should apply in our personal lives as we speak about those not in our presence.

Today is a good day to practice being Christian in all that we say as well as wearing the symbols of our faith, such as cross jewelry!

Peace, Mike

A Contemplation of Exodus 20:17

 

Greetings Sisters and Brothers content with God’s gifts…

Exodus 20: ¹⁷ “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

All of these things which are mentioned…even the wife, were of economic value in Old Testament times.

And, according to study, I doubt that the coveting is a simple “I wish I had my neighbor’s life” kind of sentiment. It seems to be an active coveting toward trying to figure out how to actually take stuff away from the neighbor.

If we are not careful, the envy of what others possess, can cause us to break relationship with our neighbor. It makes sense that in most of these Commandments God was trying to set things in order so we could all get along with each other as Commandment number ten does.

But I think, yet more importantly, this commandment teaches us that we should be grateful for what God has given us rather than plot to take away what God has given others. God knows what we need. Scripture is full of promises that he will deliver all that we need.

Psalm 37: 4 reads…

Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

That is the King James language. And many other translations say the very same words.

If you seek true contentment, delight yourself in the Lord, not in the neighbor’s stuff!

Have a truly gifted day.

And praise God for even the smallest joy or convenience you experience!

Peace, Mike

Licensed Local Pastor: A Personal Appreciation

 

 

   As a voice of full support and recognition for the role of Licensed Local Pastor I offer the following points:

    I very much appreciate that there are Elders, Deacons, lay people and Local Pastors who take the time out of their very busy personal and ministerial lives to check in with me to see that I am progressing well and that “things are well with my soul”. Yes, it is a Book of Discipline requirement. But it is not required of these folk to participate. Those that do participate do so in response to a call to faithfulness. And yes, perhaps a call from their Conference Superintendent.

I applaud my Indiana North District Committee on Ministry for their diligence, effort, and care each year. It is meaningful to me personally that I have the opportunity to meet with people who have much experience on congregational dynamics and education in ecclesiastical matters regarding ministry.

Many churches, nondenominational and otherwise, do not make available to pastors this type of “check in” and support.

Thank you, all members of such committees for your time and care.

Another point of appreciation is that the required and suggested questions to be asked of Local Pastors at these annual meetings work well to help me build and develop my ministry within my appointment.

As I know that I will be asked these questions, I use them through the year to give guidance and structure to my personal development (continuing education, sabbath/rest) and my church ministry (new programs, creative outreach efforts).

Without such guiding questions, and check in, a pastor may feel alone in trying to figure out “Now what do I do? How can I be fruitful?”

Without such accountability a pastor could wind up going adrift in doctrine and theology until it no longer resembles Methodism.

Again, thank you, district Committee on Ministry for your attention.

Yet another point of appreciation for the role of Local Licensed Pastor is that the role is designed, particularly due its accountability, such that Elders and Deacons and others have high respect for the role and personal trust in the clergy of that status.

    At least that is what I have always experienced.

I find it affirming and reassuring that I have the approval of the District Committee, the concurring approval of the Annual Conference Clergy session, and my appointment by my Conference Superintendent,

I personally value this role highly.

In conclusion, I applaud the District Committees for their work.

Get to Know the Ministry of Jesus at Granger Good Shepherd United Methodist Church

 

There are four biographies of Jesus in the New Testament. I think it is critically important for people who call themselves Christian to read these biographies.

During the month of July, and into August and September, we will be getting to know Jesus a bit more intentionally as we read through and hear the Gospel of Matthew.

I anchor my preaching about the Gospel of Matthew and the teachings, miracles, and ministry of Jesus in the principle of making real and true the prayer “thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”.

I believe a major point, if not the ultimate, of the Gospel of Matthew, from the perspective of Jesus’ ministry, is making Kingdom stuff happen in the here and now. I claim Matthew 28: 19 and 20 in support.

Again, the focal point to which I reach in my preaching is “thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”.

The accidental founder of the Methodist movement, John Wesley, is known for “practical theology” or “doing good works”.

Works won’t save us. That is the gift of Christ. But if we are saved, we ought to feel compelled to good works… “thy will be done”.

Of course, my writing here is an invitation for the reader to attend.

Maybe you wake up on a Sunday morning and wonder “What shall I do with my morning?” Come on over. There is no obligation to transition from visitor to member.

Maybe you are a student at a college and will be taking a class on religion. Make your visit here. Take notes for your paper.

Perhaps you are looking for a safe place to re-engage church after a set-back at some other church, maybe just sheer curiosity, pay us a visit.

Bring your coffee.

 

Bible verses and sermon titles for August

Date	Scripture	Title
August 6	Matthew 14: 13-21	The Kingdom of Heaven Intervenes in Worldly Economics
August 13	Matthew 14: 22-33	Truly You Are the Son of God
August 20	Matthew 15: 21-28	Really, a Message for the Disciples
August 27	Matthew 16: 13-20	The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven

Leisure Club, Concord 1969

 

 

Leisure Club. Concord Junior High School September 1969.

That’s me, front row, second from left.

Students were required to participate in a club. I chose this one more for its name than the description with which it was accompanied…”activities will be playing cards, and board games”.

I was never much into board games or card games. But “Leisure Club” had an air of a British Gentleman’s Society.

So, I arrived.

I sat through the whole of the first episode, content to watch and observe.

You see, my activity is to observe, calculate, anticipate people in their activities, hobbies, and such, and then record my findings.

Oh for sure, I will become involved in a hobby or activity enough to gain a better idea of what it is my objects of observation are doing and how best to describe the situation.

But my true hobby is to write about such people and their hobbies, activities, accolades, and adventures.

People are genuinely fascinating!

Some play cards very competitively, truly reaching toward the win at any cost.

Others play cards quite casually, paying more attention to the jokes that classmates tell.

During leisure club there at Concord in 1969 I could light on to the subtle way in which people flirt and flourish in romantic innuendo.

Oh, I have notes I must never share!

After a few such episodes of casual observation rather than participation, Mr. Grieser and Mr. Cassels approached me and presented me with the ultimatum “You will have to participate or find another club”.

And so I found a game to join.

To this day, I am never as good at participation as I am at being witness to how others participate.

You see, I believe God creates each person as some truly wonderful work of divine art.

I love witnessing the interaction of divinely orchestrated human experience.

I have discovered and I assert, no matter who you are, you’ve got talent!

Participate in the divine orchestra.

I’ll take (discreetly descriptive) notes.

Transforming Society is About Conversion Rather Than Coercion

 

photo from Britanica.com
I claim Fair Use

I recently saw a question on Facebook put forth to pastors from a pastor…”Do you preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other?”

Of course, the responses were varied, opposing, and generally “all over the place”.

I typically stay away from the newspaper when preaching and I encourage others to stay away from it for church and congregational purposes.

The Biblical church was not and should not be today about attempting to influence or change society or culture through force of government or indoctrination in schools, or even shaming.

Moses and the prophets declared their messages to Israel/Judah, not the world at large. Paul wrote to churches about misconduct. Peter wrote to Christians. Peter, when declaring "We must obey God rather than men.", was speaking to religious authorities, not the Roman government. 

The Biblical model is about the people of faith getting our own house in order.

Attempting to impose upon the culture at large or individuals what is in essence a matter of personal conviction is simply not the mission of the church or the great commission declared by Jesus.

Matthew 28: . ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

The mission of the church is to make the argument, prove the case, bear personal witness on the merits and credibility of Christ.

As the church makes disciples, as those disciples learn the teachings of Jesus, the culture around us transforms naturally and authentically, without imposition or coercion.

I assert that it is a matter of poor stewardship of time, pulpit, money, and other resources for a church or pastor to point accusatory fingers toward society at large as if we were  modern day Pharisees.

If you feel a call to prophet preaching, preach to the church.

The congregation and the individual Christian more effectively build the church, and thereby transform society more genuinely, by using all of those resources to make more disciples and by becoming more like Jesus in attitude, behavior, and word.

Making society in the image of the church begins with making the church more like Jesus.

Transforming society to church and Biblical image is about conversion rather than coercion.

Encouraging Churches to Be Good Neighbors in Their Communities

 

In Jeremiah 29 we find a “letter to the exiles”. God, through Jeremiah instructed the exiles to be good citizens and neighbors even in the city of their exile.

We read verse seven… “Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

I submit that as good advice for contemporary houses of worship in today’s communities.

In the State of Indiana, churches are exempt of paying real estate tax or personal property tax. Very often churches, due to this exemption, hold much property, sometimes acres of real estate that, if it were available on open market, would be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions.

No taxing jurisdiction, school, county, fire department, realizes any tax revenue from such exempt property.

This exemption has the effect of transferring tax burden from the church to the increased burden of individual property owners.

Given this fact, that individual property owners are in a sense “sponsoring” the local church, providing for fire and police protection, I encourage churches to be good neighbors to the community. Seek peace and prosperity, pray for the community.

Practical suggestions might include offering your facility as a polling location for election day. Churches typically have great parking and can accommodate voters.

Perhaps allow your facility to be used free of rental cost to people or organizations within a determined geographic area or radius.

Open your facility to be used for “town hall” discussions.

Maintain your playground equipment such that it is of the highest safety value.

Most churches I know of do indeed make attempts to be good neighbors.

My encouragement is that you are reminded that the non-exempt community, even folk who may not think the way you do on religious matters, are providing much actual dollar exemption to you as a religious organization. Have a policy of intentional action to be a good neighbor.

 " a good neighbor is a very desirable thing"  Thomas Jefferson

The Beatles 1969 Rooftop and Pamela's Lipstick

 

  

(Jeff Hochberg/Getty Images) (Icon and Image/Getty Images)

  It was sometime during the first week of February, 1969, that I read of the Beatles rooftop concert which had taken place on January 30 atop their headquarters at 3 Savile Row, London.

My elementary school library subscribed to the Times of London, which arrived by mail, days after publication.

I sat there, a seventh grader, in the library of Carstens Elementary school, Detroit, Michigan, by a window, the outside view adorned with much descending snow, reading the Times. It made me feel sophisticated and internationally intellectual to read a newspaper from a different nation.

summer view of now closed Carstens Elementary

    As I read from page to page reports of economics, Parliament, Queen Elizabeth, somewhere tucked deep into the strata of the paper I discovered a photo and brief description of the Beatles rooftop performance which arrested my attention. The report focused mostly on the disruption it had caused to traffic and business activity. I was amused.

    My tablemate, Pamela, was not as she was attempting to attract my attention and favorable comment on her new lipstick which she had moments earlier applied and of which she was considerably enthused.

    I continue to be amused, these fifty-four years later, not only of the report in the Times, but that I have associated it with Pamela’s momentary displeasure.

By the way, I remember reading “Yardley” on the lipstick case. It was a rich burgundy color that rested upon her lips, which were seventh grade-awkwardly posed as if an advertisement.

Eventually, having searched for word or description which might regain her favor of me, I offered “stunning”, which seemed to appease if not please.

Scrutiny of a Paragraph from "Hard Times"

 

 

          The following six sentences are from “Hard Times” by Charles Dickens…

 

“The scene was a plain, bare, monotonous vault of a school-room, and the speaker’s square forefinger emphasized his observations by underscoring every sentence with a line on the schoolmaster’s sleeve.

The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s square wall of a forehead, which had his eyebrows for its base, while his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves, overshadowed by the wall.

 The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s mouth, which was wide, thin, and hard set.

The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s voice, which was inflexible, dry, and dictatorial.

The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s hair, which bristled on the skirts of his bald head, a plantation of firs to keep the wind from its shining surface, all covered with knobs, like the crust of a plum pie, as if the head had scarcely warehouse-room for the hard facts stored inside.

The speaker’s obstinate carriage, square coat, square legs, square shoulders,—nay, his very neckcloth, trained to take him by the throat with an unaccommodating grasp, like a stubborn fact, as it was,—all helped the emphasis.”

Those six sentences, italics mine, form one paragraph. I have separated the sentences here so as to help identify the usage of the words “emphasized” and “emphasis”, within those sentences.

In sentence one we see the word used as a verb applying to “observations”.

In subsequent sentences we read how the emphasis was aided by some opprobrium of personal trait of “the speaker”.

I am convinced that Dickens, a master of opprobrium, did not, in these sentences, exhaustively apply opprobrium, but did so sparingly so as to avoid reaching the point of intolerance of the reader.

I hope, in my scrutiny of this paragraph, to have helped the reader grasp an appreciation of Dicken’s style of over-emphasis of garrulous detail.

Envious of his writing style since first reading “Hard Times” in 1969, I have tried to emulate to some degree his expertise of adjuring words and imagery such that my reader would respond with either chuckle, chortle, or well-chosen opprobrium.

In Which I Celebrate Herman Melville's "Burglariously"

 

  

artist:Joseph Oriel Eaton

  Being an appreciant of the complex sentence structure, labyrinthine grammar, and plenteous punctuation, adjective, and adverb, of 19^th century literature, I decided to read some short stories by the acclaimed Herman Melville so as to humor my pining for such literary device.

    While reading “Temple First” (of “The Two Temples”), I adventured upon the word “burglariously”.

I have noticed other 19^th century wordsmiths of grandiose application take nouns and adverbalize them for the effect of eccentricity.

I particularly enjoy this particular term for its unwieldy enunciation. “Burglariously” just doesn’t roll off the tongue in ease. One must decidedly take a moment of tongue-taming to coax it forth from the lips.

But, indeed, once practiced twice or thrice, the word does respond in obedience and thereby arouse attention from unexpectant hearers and, invariably, critics of creative, albeit, somewhat nugatory prose.

In Anticipation of the Season of the Unraveled Mummy

 

 

   Neighborhood porches sport candle-lit Jacko’ lanterns along with store-purchased ghosts and skeletons which dangle from hooks and sway in the evening breeze.

Television sitcoms, advantageously scripted for the approaching holiday, celebrate the theme of Halloween.

The aroma of pumpkin spice is seemingly ubiquitous and mocked even more so.

Yes, the accoutrements of autumn attend to our spirit of celebration and festivity.

But let us not forget the tradition of expertly launching a roll of toilet paper such that it decoratively drapes upon tree limbs and other items upon a lawn while homeowners sleep or pretend to do so.

Yes, some homeowners know that it is coming and, perhaps having no other entertainment for the evening, inconspicuously watch from a darkened room while sipping on pumpkin spice tea and quietly playing Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, chuckling as some launched rolls fail to cooperate and thus fall with a thud upon the moist blades of grass.

Ah, to remember our teen years when our preference for double ply was due to its tolerable quality of ductility.

The morning after such act of tradition I drive by and, seeing the display of toilet paper hanging from trees, I think…” There’s a bunch of unraveled mummies walking around nekid out here somewhere!”.

And I hope that they are smart enough to stay off the roads.

Eternal Defender of the Queen's Humour!

Bettmann Archive/Getty Images

All of my life there has always been Queen Elizabeth II. I was born in 1955. Her coronation was June 2, 1953.

 During the 1960s, my early years into teens, I lived in Detroit where I listened to CKLW radio station originating in Windsor Ontario. I watched tv stations which came out of Canada. There were many stories about her and her family. During my younger years she became more recognizable to me than American Presidents.

    Queen Elizabeth II has served as Head of State for Great Britain over the course of thirteen American Presidents.

Often spoken of with the title “Defender of The Faith”, Elizabeth is also the formal head of the Anglican Church.

While many people think that the British Monarchy is obsolete in contemporary times, I think that longevity of service as Head of State and Head of Church provides for and supports the national identity, current and historical.

I would not advocate for such an arrangement in the United States, but this arrangement for Great Britain enables them to “know themselves” beyond transient political fixation driven by political party messaging and media headlines.

Queen Elizabeth II has served the Crown and her people with a dedication and sincerity that I describe as admirable.

God save our gracious Queen!
Long live our noble Queen!
God save the Queen!
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us,
God save the Queen.

Thy choicest gifts in store
On her be pleased to pour,
Long may she reign.
May she defend our laws,
And ever give us cause,
To sing with heart and voice,
God save the Queen.