Parent Props

We know about famous people because they are – well – famous!  We read, watch, listen and maybe even have an opportunity to meet them.  However, we never hear much about their parents.  Everybody is familiar with, or knows something about Abraham Lincoln.  But, I’ll bet you don’t know who his father was? 

 

There are reams of parents names, lost in the dark recesses of the bin of forgotten oldies, whose children go on to celebrity and historically-documented fame:  Leonardo Da Vinci, William Shakespeare. 


Shakespeare had parents!  John Shakespeare, instead of being respected as the father of the great playwright, history records him as an official “ale taster.”  

 

There are more: George Washington, Albert Einstein, Walt Disney, Bob Dylan, Beyonce and even Charlie Brown.  Have you ever seen Charlie Browns Father?  Didn’t think so!

 

We parents don’t get much respect, even if our progeny become famous do we?  We birth them; it’s our genes, our DNA that we pass on to them.  We raise them and teach them.  Whatever they have, whatever talent, in some part comes from us parents – right!  Where’s the parent “props?”

 

We all have heard of John the Baptist.  Especially around Christmas time, because he is the one who reiterates Isaiah’s prophecy of the one to come – the Messiah, the Christ, the Lamb of God.  

 

He gets all the credit for assigning these words to Jesus. He’s also celebrated in history as The Baptizer, the one who started the Jordan River thing.   He wore weird hippie-clothes and ate wild honey, but do you know who his father was?  No respect - no props!

 

 

But we may shed some light on the subject this Sunday as we continue The Light Of The World Advent Sermon Series.  

 

You’ll want to pay attention to what John’s father had to say.  It has already changed your life, but there is more and it has to do with our fathers DNA!  Come worship with us this sunday and we will shed some light on the subject!

 

 

God's Sorting Hat

Have you ever been called out by a hell fire and damnation preacher?  You know, one of those hard core, pound the fist on the pulpit, veins popping out from the neck and forehead, turn or burn proclaimers of God’s love and kindness?  Before they are done with you, they usually offer you their convicting challenge, “Are you right with Jesus?”


We’ve all heard of the “Come to Jesus moment” where we fess up for all of our faults, foibles and failings. The phrase is based on the concept of the moment at which you experience or display a conversion or recommitment to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.   In the secular world, a "Come to Jesus moment" also refers to a dawning or epiphany in which one realizes the true weight or impact of a negative situation or fact.  Some might call it “an aha” moment of truth where one reassesses one’s life priorities.

Most of you know my background and my pathway to ministry. Back in the day, I could not only blend in with the surfer hippies of the day, I was one!  When not wearing a clerical robe, it’s easy for me to blend in and look, well, normal.  It’s always interesting - on occasion - when I have been challenged about my “rightness with God” by a zealous evangelical who was unaware of my “born again” position with God.  I have to admit, it is fun to be a little playful with some of these “street-corner evangelists.”  

However, it’s not always on a street corner.  I once attended a funeral for a friend who had attended another denominational church, where the preacher called out the entire congregation.  While pointing to the casket, he challenged us that we had better “get right with Jesus because this (pointing to the dead body) could be you tomorrow.”   Wow!




 It's great theatrics and often very manipulative, but is it true?   Is there a point where God will actually divide us like the famous sorting hat used at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies?  Will some of us who are “right with Jesus” be sorted from those who are left behind, put into the rejected bin?

We have seen many versions of this sorting of objects based on some critical criteria for quality assurance in movies, commercial and assembly lines.  It’s the process of sorting higher quality items from lesser – we call it grade “A” or “B.”  Firsts or seconds. 

Really?  Some of us will be tapped as grade "A" sheep and others tapped as the “left behind” teeth-gnashing goats?  Sounds great if you are God’s sheep, but how do you know?  And, if not, what happens then?

What should be of interest to us is exactly what determines who’s right and who’s left. And, is there anything we might do in order to be tapped on the right side of our head with Jesus’ long staff, and thus be determined one of His sheep?

 

The answer might surprise you.  Here's a hint.  You cannot love God and Jesus just because you say the words!   It takes something more in addition.  If you would like to know the "more" join us this Sunday in worship as we explore the question, "Are you right with Jesus?"

Time Restricted, Timed Out, or Timeless

There are a few really sad moments in life.  Moments which, at the time, seem like the end of everything.  Moments of deep disappointment and humiliation that seems to crush our world at that instant. 

Can you remember when this happened to you: “you have to be ‘this’ tall to ride this ride?”  You can see it now, cant’ you?  The excitement on a child’s face melting into tears just because their age doesn’t match the requirements to be amused by life’s ride.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being told my age eliminates me from part of life!  Still, I suppose even I practice age-discriminating judgments.  I value life experience and the wisdom and maturity of thought that living life can produce.

   

What is the age of respect?  I think all of us come at this question in different ways.  In our modern culture, sometimes we give children too much power and respect well beyond their wisdom.  We poll elementary students on who should be president, or if drugs should be legalized, and report it on the national news.

 

Still, other times, we give children too little respect.  Children should be seen and not heard.  There are churches who take all the children out to their own a private worship because the adults are bothered by squirming and voices of their children.

We are living in a time of age confusion.   It puzzles us to the point where being a particular age seldom satisfies.  Isn’t it interesting, that when we are young, we long to be older; and vice versa? 

  

There is the giant step from twelve to thirteen where we receive the magic title “teenager”.  

 

Or age sixteen, the magic age of a driver’s license. 

Or age eighteen, the magic age of majority. 

Or sixty-five, the magic age of retirement.  

We spend most of our lives anticipating age milestones, but as we enter the twilight years, we long to be young again: to feel the excitement and have the energy to pursue adventure!

 

Another great irony is that those living at the extremes of the age-spectrum are often treated the same by the world.  They are undervalued, disrespected, and disappointed by all the signs that say, “Your age will restrict you from the ride of life!”  We either time in, time out, or run out of time. 

 

Is God a respecter of age?  Does God love us, view us, and sort us by age?  What part does our age play in the Christian content of our lives? 

 

This Sunday we will continue our sermon series, “Connecting the Content of our Lives” as we explore age! 

 

Inconspicuous Christianity

Do you have any really peculiar friends or acquaintances in your life?  If not, look in the mirror, it may be you, but no one dared to tell you yet!  



       
I am sure that through the years some probably said I am their “weird religious friend.”  I think nearly all of us have some really interesting acquaintances. 

Within my circle of friends, and even family relations, there really are some folks who might just scare you.  Remember, I grew up in the 60’s!  Some are, in or have been, in jail. Some were (hopefully no longer) downright criminals.  And unfortunately, some are now dead. 

 

How much of us do we really let people see?  Are there people in your social or familial circle with whom you might be a bit embarrassed, or even scared to share your faith because your “religious content” would be awkward or out of place?  

 

It has been true for a long time, but even more so today, that we have family, friends and work place colleagues who never really know much about our personal faith in Jesus Christ.  Sure, they may know we are a Christian, or “religious” or we go to some church, but that’s about as much as our firewall-of-faith will allow us to present to them. 

 

 

It’s not just that we are very private about our “religious faith,” but like the cowardly lion in the wizard of OZ who reads aloud the warning sign, “Haunted forest: I’d turn around if I were you,” we promptly turn around in like manner and retreat.

 

When it comes to our relationship with God, we have read the warning sign, “Do not bring your faith into the big three: family, friends and workplace colleagues. Don’t you dare go in!  It’s too dangerous; I’d turn back if I were you!”

 

If this is true, and I think it is for most of us, how do we connect the content of our family and friends with our relationship to God?

 

How can you be a Christian, leading a life of true and effectual discipleship in your family?  Even Jesus had trouble in his own home town.

As you know, we never talk politics or religion among our family members!  It’s politically incorrect and may even get us kicked out of the family!

 
How can you be a Christian, leading a life of true and effectual discipleship amongst your friends?  As you know, we never talk politics or religion among our friends.  It’s politically incorrect and may even get us kicked out of our “friends club!”

 

How can you be a Christian, leading a life of true and effectual discipleship in your work place?  As you know, we never talk politics or religion at our work place.  It’s politically incorrect and probably will get us fired! 

 

And for some, we may not dare to share too much of our personal faith in church. That’s a private matter and too much “religion” may get you excommunicated from the congregation.

Family, friends, and work – these may be the most difficult content of our lives to connect with God.  Come and hear this Sunday as we explore how to connect the content our family and friends with God!  

 

The Ingredients Of Your Life

Media marketing continues to ask “What’s in your wallet?”  Right--like the most important thing in my life is a small plastic card I sit on!  However, there is another group growing in passion and popularity which asks a much better question, “What's in your food?”  More specifically, do you know what you’re eating?  

Have you read a food label lately? Did you look closely at all the strange and wacky pharmaceutical-sounding ingredients?   The labeling of the ingredients in the food items we consume is huge and controversial, including several legislative initiatives to not only take the jargon out of the ingredient labels, but to actually be honest about what’s inside the products we buy and eat.

Don’t you look more carefully these days at the label?  20 years ago, most of us only looked at the price.  Now we tend to micro-scan the label because we want to know the full story on the ingredients within the package that will soon end up within us!

And, it’s right to be discerning.  I saw a news segment last week highlighting that what we believe is inside a product, is not present at all.  One example was pumpkin spice coffee.  The amazing thing was the pumpkin spice coffee actually had no pumpkin listed as an ingredient!  

The best example I found was a product which listed raspberry flavor; however, on close examination of the ingredients, it was only artificial raspberry flavor.  You may want to stop reading now because that artificial raspberry flavor contained castoreum which is extracted from the anal glands of beavers!  Maybe they should label it beaverberry!  

We pay so much attention to the prepackaged ingredients we consume but so very little attention to the “ingredients” which make up the content of our lives.  Who are we really?  What is it that makes you, you?  What are all the realities that you carry within?

 Our lives are a complexity held within our soul. We are all made up of a variety of accumulated experience or “ingredients” -- the content of our lives. 

So, if we were reading a list of all the ingredients (contents) that have been poured into, forced into, or invited into our lives, what would they be?  I’ll bet you can list out many of the “ingredients” that make up the content of your life.

Now look at your list.  These things are living in us all the time. But how much of our content is connected to the living God who made us and desires a full and complete relationship with us?  This is so crucial, because God wants us to be fully connected people. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I am really tired of being fragmented.

Several weeks ago, I suggested that a significant goal for our lives was a process of connecting the content of our lives within God and God’s purpose!   This Sunday we begin that journey with a new series called “Connecting the Content.”  I promise it will be way better than beaverberry!  See you in worship!

Renewing Hope

During the past 25 years, I’ve officiated at more weddings than I can remember.  Occasionally, when I see some of the pictures of these services on my shelf, I wonder about all those couples and how the hope of those wedding-moments has been transported and supported through the years.

Surprisingly, several months ago, I receive a call from Austin – a man whose wedding I conducted did ten years ago.  I remember it well because we held the service on the beach in the midst of a full-blown hurricane.  No kidding!  We ran out in the storm on a board walk, speed through the vows, and ran back into a restaurant across the street for the reception.

 

Since the beach wedding was literally a wash-out, he wanted to bring the hope of the moment alive again.  He asked me if they could have a redo, only this time with all the bells and whistles they missed before – a wedding renewal.  It was a wonderful request!  So, we held the renewal service last Saturday on the beach in Daytona. 

 

Here is the greatest part - it was all a surprise to his wife, Jena.  He told her they were having anniversary pictures taken on the beach to celebration the union exactly ten-years ago to the day.  He blindfolded her and led her down to the beach.  In contrast to the hurried-caned wedding, this day was beautiful -- a wedding-day-dream. 

The sun was beginning to set on a backdrop of blue sky with just the right amount of dotted with fluffy clouds for texture.   And, at just the right moment, he removed the blind fold and revealed to her a wedding gazebo and chairs filled with all of the guest and family from the original wedding – including me, the officiating pastor!  The tears began to roll down Jena’s face.  Austin had actually done it – recaptured the wedding hopes of a moment ten years before.

 

I don’t know about you, but I find it difficult to maintain the heights of hope and joy from one particular moment to the next.  Hope seems to drift in and out of my live at times leaving me a bit hungry for re-fulfillment.

 

 

 

 

I think soon or latter, everyone finds it hard to maintain these hopeful positions in life.  It’s because the dark clouds of a broken world have a habit of sweeping over us periodically, diluting down our hope -- shifting us away from the light into overcast darkness.

 

This seems especially true for Christians!  We may be people of faith, but we are just as susceptible to the dark clouds that would sweep us away from our relationship with God as anyone! 

 

 

I believe we all long for a sense of hope – maybe a chance to have a do-over – a renewal that actually recaptures the hopes and dreams, like that of a perfect wedding day.

This Sunday in worship, we will explore a renewal that guarantees a hope that doesn’t just drift in and out of our lives.   You can hear all about it as we talk about “Raider’s of the frozen Dark.”