Saying Good-bye

Sunday was out last service in the old building.  

We sang our #1 favorite song, "Lord of the Dance". We had a children's chat reminding us that when we leave our house we are still a family - when we leave the church building we are still the church.  Offering was taken and announcements made about dates and times to help pack and move.  Scripture was read from Exodus 33: God told the Israelites to go, leave Mount Sinai and go to the land flowing with milk and honey that God had promised.  I preached about moving and moving on.  How this is hard work, heart work and yet it brings peace and joy when we work through that hard stuff.  I reminded the congregation that God gave the Israelites the Ark of the Covenant as a sign of God's real presence with them wherever they went as the traveled through the wilderness.  We have our own signs as well: the cross, the candle, each other.  Wherever we go, God is already there.

Then we had a litany of thanksgiving for all the good things God has done in this building.  We sang "Now thank we all our God" and as we sang the verses, people came up and removed items from the front of the church.  The altar cloths, the banners, the candle, the Bible and, finally, the large wooden cross.   Then the church left the building.  And we stood in front on the grass to proclaim the words of de-consecration together.  "This building having been consecrated and named Calvary United Methodist Church together with the land on which it stands we now deconsecrate and release for any honorable use.  We declare that it is no longer a sanctuary of God"  Finally, we held hands and sang "Shalom to You".

After the service ended Kevin said to me, "you have to appreciate the symbolism of the motorcycle guys reving it during the words of de-consecration".  One of the dangers of worshipping on Hwy 71 is the traffic noise and some motorcycles had rotten timing Sunday.

It was symbolic -- words we really didn't want to hear, words we really didn't want to say were drowned out by the roar of motorcycles.   And I was glad no one could hear my voice because I was choking up in that moment and barely squeaked out half the words.

It is hard saying good-bye.  Even when you know that this is the right choice.  Even when you know the future God holds has great things because you are saying good-bye.  It is still hard.  And that is ok.  If we don't grieve, then there was no love, caring, or attachment.
Because it hurts, we know that there was love.

I was looking around this morning and noticed that where the cross hung on the wall was a very slight shadow.   Can you see it in the picture?   Even as we move forward as a congregation and build a new church, the lasting imprint of the ministry Christ has done in this church will never be forgotten.

Memories of the joys we have shared, the comfort in times of sorrow will be in our hearts.  And the memories remind us of God's love and care.  I remember so many myself.  The Sunday I left the church crying because I found out Kenneth (my stepson) would not be allowed to live with me anymore. The joyful Sunday I baptized my sons, Sampson & Isaac.  The Sunday I confirmed my son & daughter, Catherine & Isaac.  The Sunday Kenneth joined as an adult member.

This building has been "home" to our spiritual lives.  It has been important.

This morning my friend Gayle came to haul my pew to the new house.  I took this picture while I waited for her.  The pew leaving the building.  Going on into a new life, fulfilling a new purpose as a part of my home.  The building is going on to a new life and purpose too.

This congregation has a future, a promise of better land "flowing with milk and honey" where God is leading us.  We will be at home there, and it will be worth the journey.

Wherever we go, God is already there.
Thanks be to God

Two more Weekends!

Its really amazing how fast the past month has gone, and now we only have 2 more weekends before we are officially out of this building!
WOW
Its really scary and exciting at the same time.
In some ways I can't wait to not have to walk up the steps and not have this cramped little office with too much stuff and too many people needing to do work.  Yet its also a huge safety net - the place where everything goes and we can always meet there at the office.
What will I do without all my stuff?
Of course I will have plenty of stuff.  Just moved to the new office space (in the Iowa Rock and Roll Museum in the East Oaks Mall by the Lighthouse)  and my books will move to my house.
It is hard to say goodbye.
And we grow in new directions when we move forward with God.

God bless us all in these next few weeks.

God is Outside

From the University of Rochester website, see full article here

Being outside in nature makes people feel more alive, finds a series of studies published in the June 2010 issue of the Journal of Environmental Psychology. And that sense of increased vitality exists above and beyond the energizing effects of physical activity and social interaction that are often associated with our forays into the natural world, the studies show.

Richard Ryan, professor of psychology, psychiatry, and education

"Nature is fuel for the soul, " says Richard Ryan, lead author and a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester. "Often when we feel depleted we reach for a cup of coffee, but research suggests a better way to get energized is to connect with nature," he says. 

The findings, adds Ryan, are important for both mental and physical health. "Research has shown that people with a greater sense of vitality don't just have more energy for things they want to do, they are also more resilient to physical illnesses. One of the pathways to health may be to spend more time in natural settings," says Ryan. 

In recent years, numerous experimental psychology studies have linked exposure to nature with increased energy and heightened sense of well-being. For example, research has shown that people on wilderness excursions report feeling more alive and that just recalling outdoor experiences increases feelings of happiness and health. Other studies suggest that the very presence of nature helps to ward off feelings of exhaustion and that 90 percent of people report increased energy when placed in outdoor activities. 

What is novel about this research, write the authors, is that it carefully tests whether this increased vitality associated with the outdoors is simply the feel-good spillover from physical activity and people-mixing often present in these situations. To tease out the effects of nature alone, the authors conducted five separate experiments, involving 537 college students in actual and imagined contexts. In one experiment, participants were led on a 15-minute walk through indoor hallways or along a tree-lined river path. In another, the undergraduates viewed photographic scenes of buildings or landscapes. A third experiment required students to imagine themselves in a variety of situations both active and sedentary, inside and out, and with and without others. 

Two final experiments tracked participants' moods and energy levels throughout the day using diary entries. Over either four days or two weeks, students recorded their exercise, social interactions, time spent outside, and exposure to natural environments, including plants and windows.

Across all methodologies, individuals consistently felt more energetic when they spent time in natural settings or imagined themselves in such situations. The findings were particularly robust, notes Ryan; being outside in nature for just 20 minutes in a day was enough to significantly boost vitality levels. Interestingly, in the last study, the presence of nature had an independent energizing effect above that of being outdoors. In other words, conclude the authors, being outdoors was vitalizing in large part because of the presence of nature.

Washing Judas' Feet

I Found this awesome article "At Judas' Feet"  Here's a piece of it:

That is what servanthood is -- cleaning up other peoples' messes. That is what the Lord came to do. He spent his life cleaning up the messes that we make, putting things back together. He was a servant; he poured himself out even to the point of death.

The thing that is instructive to me is that Jesus poured himself out as a servant even for Judas. All the way through Jesus' association with Judas he was reaching out to him. He knew from the very beginning who it was who would betray him. Many times, through allusions, he would try to draw Judas toward him. His comment in the Upper Room that he was aware of what was going on was one of these attempts. Toward the end of his life, as he approaches the cross and sees Judas moving irrevocably toward betraying him, Jesus reaches out for Judas. Then, in this incident in the Upper Room, he washes the feet of Judas, the betrayer.

Evidently, all through their association, Jesus never gave any hint to any of the disciples that he knew it would be Judas who would betray him. The disciples were not aware of who the betrayer was when Jesus said that one of them would betray him. No one knew. The Lord loved Judas. There was never a hint of resentment, never even one note of bitterness. He just loved him and kept reaching out to him.

What beauty!  How awesome is Jesus?!?!  Loving even Judas to the very end, washing his feet even knowing what Judas would do within the next couple of hours.  God loves us with this kind of amazing, grace-filled love.

Then Jesus commands his disciples to do the same, to be servants after Jesus' heart.  

So, could you wash Judas' feet?  

Could you wash the feet of a hypocrite? a traitor? a murderer?

Could you wash the feet of a Boko Haram or Taliban or ISIS leader?

Jesus commands us to pray for our enemies and wash each other's feet.  Big stuff, hard stuff, life changing stuff of God.

Meditation - A part of Ancient Christian Tradition

Since the Great Enlightenment in the 18th century, Western culture has continually tossed away emotional and spiritual expression for logic and science.  This cultural shift led us to forget, and in some places, reject large parts of of our spiritual heritage.  This is why meditation and other Eastern practices seem new to us -- our foreparents didn't pass down our own heritage of meditation and spiritual connection.

Prayer is Talking to God - sharing your fears, hopes & dreams

Meditation is Listening to God -
God's fears, hopes and dreams for you and the world

Contemplation is taking a phrase or piece of scripture and going over it in your mind letting it sink into your heart


How to Meditate

Create "Holy Space", a quiet comfortable spot away from the phone and other distractions.  If you are a beginner then having a picture, candle or incense to look at may be helpful.  Having a comfortable chair or cushion to sit on is important too.  If you have a timer, set it in the other room so you aren't tempted to look at it, but can hear it when it dings.  5 minutes is a good starting time.

Get comfortable, but not lounging-back straight and feet flat on the floor or folded.  Stretch your arms up and then let them rest lightly on your knees.

Let your eyes and face relax and your gaze be soft, not really looking but resting on your candle or other focal point.

Clear your mind.  Think of your mind as the surface of the lake.  Any ideas that pop up are leaves floating on the surface that you gently push away.  Focus on your breathing, in and out in deep long breaths.  Picture light from heaven shining down onto the top of your head, into your body, down into your heart and lungs, your breath is moving that light throughout your body.  Into every finger, into every toe.  Feel the warmth of God's light and the warmth of God's love for you.
Keep breathing, keep picturing that light, keep feeling warmth in your head, heart and body.

You are meditating!


If, after you meditate, thoughts/memories/feelings surface that trouble you, this is the Holy Spirit helping you work through things you have suppressed.  Please call your pastor!
Talk about those things, and keep meditating.  God the Great Physician is working on your heart and mind to help you get rid of things you don't need.

Resolve for Spiritual Health

Most of us think of New Year's resolutions for physical health:  lose weight, eat better, move more, drink water etc.

Spiritual health is just as important as physical health.  In fact they are interconnected.  Our physical bodies and spiritual bodies are a part of each other.  We can exercise  and eat right but if we don't take care of our spirit/soul then we are still missing a piece of optimum health.

So what does spiritual health look like?  This is a good question.  I googled spiritual health and came up with 99% pictures of people doing yoga.  And I have to laugh because yoga is good, I love it, but its not the only way to be spiritually healthy.  Its just the biggest fad, and it new to our culture so it is easy to point out.  Prayer, compared to yoga, seems boring.  Worship, compared to yoga, is so unhip.
hmmmmmm.    So many seekers try yoga and drift to Buddism, without trying some of the spiritual practices of Christian tradition.

Over the past 2,000 years Christianity has produced many spiritual masters such as Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Saint Francis of Assisi, and Saint Benedict, more recently there have been CS Lewis, Thomas Merton, and Barbara Brown Taylor.   These are only a few.  They have produced masses of books, poems, songs, prayers, meditations and philosophies for us to learn about spiritual health.   Pick a person, read about them and their spiritual practices.  And then practice.

The most important thing about spiritual health, like physical health, is not what you know  but whether you practice.  Practice prayer.  No one is perfect in prayer.  We practice it.  Practice meditation.  Practice worship.  Practice giving your worries and struggles to God.  Practice your faith.

Resolve for spiritual health in 2015 by resolving to practice a way to draw nearer to God and more in balance with body-mind-spirit.

Hear an audio introduction to Christian Meditation here by Laurence Freeman, an Benedictine monk who has made his life practice to teach meditation.

Happy Hanukkah!

Hanukkah, or the Festival of the Dedication, is a Jewish holiday that remembers how God was with the people during a time of great struggle.  The Greek Emperor Antiochus persecuted the Jews and wished to make them give up their identity, their God and their temple worship.  His troops swept into Jerusalem and took over the temple,  bringing in statues of the Greek gods and making an offering of pigs -- heretical to the Jews.  The people revolted, and took back the temple.  In order to rededicate the temple to the One God, they needed oil to relight the eternal flame.  But in the sacking of Jerusalem they could only find enough oil for one day.  God made the oil last 8 days, when supplies came to refill the oil.  Therefore, during Hanukkah we light candles for 8 days and eat oily foods to celebrate God's miracle of keeping the holy light going.

Jesus was a faithful Jew, who celebrated the Jewish festivals.  

He would not have celebrated Christmas, or his own birthday,

 but celebrated Hanukkah.

Hanukkah is mentioned in our Gospels, in John 10:22 Jesus is walking in the temple during the festival of the Dedication.   There is a nasty confrontation with some of the leaders, and Jesus has to flee their wrath.  But clearly, Jesus is at the temple during the festival and assumedly participating in the spiritual life of the Hanukkah holiday.

So what?

Well, here is another opportunity to celebrate God at work during this holy-days season.  Take some time to look up Hanukkah traditions, light a candle tonight and eat some oily fried foods (remember, its all about God making the oil last!)  Remember that we are brothers and sisters with our Jewish neighbors and that our God is their God.

Hanukkah is more Biblical than Rudolph, Frosty or even (gasp!) Santa - so go ahead and light some candles and praise the God of light!