What to say...

     I've attempted a couple times now to sit down and write some sort of "Christmas Newsletter" here.  I even have a draft made up that has an overview of our year and lots of pictures of our crazy year from Pittsburgh to Florida to Grand Junction, and everything in-between.  But I never left it feeling very good about what I was writing or putting in the letter.  It seemed a bit too surface-level for all that has gone on this year, and really, the last 3 1/2 years.  So I'm starting over, and writing more about the real stuff that we've experienced this year and what God is showing us, growing us, and teaching us through it all...

     I guess this morning kind of epitomizes our year in a nutshell.  I woke up with anxious thoughts of worry, and concern, and being totally overwhelmed by our financial situation.  My mind was reeling with not having any idea how we will deal with the seven months of missed payments on two of our four credit cards.  The balances were big when school ended, not even counting my school loans, and now they're astronomical.  There are medical bills unpaid.  One card gave us lower payments and interest for six months, but come February they'll go back up....and while we are so excited for our call to North Carolina, my income will barely cover half of our expenses (and truthfully, I have concerns about what Kim will be able to find there work-wise, and how much it will pay).  And this is income just to pay the regular payments...not catch up on anything.  They are very real concerns.  It's big...too big for either of us to handle.  Do we file bankruptcy?  Can we even afford to?

     And then there's the guilt and shame...  We should have lived more frugally.  I should've gone out for coffee or pizza less...not gone so crazy having people over and supplying food and drink, not bought the extra books.  I should've.  I should've.  I should've...

     This isn't the first morning I've woken up concerned about money.  We've had three bills over these last seven months that were non-negotiable, they had to be paid:  our health insurance, our phones, and our storage unit with all our stuff in Pittsburgh.  These totaled around $1000 each month, and you know what is absolutely crazy and mind-boggling?  Every month we always had enough money to pay those bills, and actually we always had more.  It makes no sense.  The only time we were actually employed was in August working on the orchard, or a few days in September when I worked in the vineyard.

     I've written before about how God provided in amazing ways throughout our time in seminary, why do I continue to fear that He's suddenly going to STOP and say, "Ok, Sally, Kim, that was the last of it, you're on your own now?"

     Every morning Kim and I try to read the lectionary together (various readings in the Bible), many times a chapter from a book we're reading together, and then we pray together.  This morning's readings, like all mornings, started with two Psalms.  The Psalms many times have us praising God and giving thanks for who He is, for His ways, for His unchanging love for us, for His acceptance and forgiveness and power and amazing ways of making Himself known to us....I could go on and on..

     But the Psalms also open our eyes to how others have let God down, just like we have.  They show us people who couldn't see God's face and were scared and anxious - as we sometimes are, too.  They show us people pleading for forgiveness, acknowledging their sin, and coming to God in repentance, in humility, in trust...  

     The Psalms remind us that we aren't the only ones who have trodden this road of uncertainty and doubt.  They show us that we aren't the only ones who can overnight go from nearly total trust, to crumbling on the brink of what we think is the end of our lives as we know it.  They showed us all this again this morning.

     Our next reading this morning was in Isaiah where we read about people who honor God with their mouths, but their hearts are far away from Him.  My hand goes up.  Here I am, that's me.  I've done that.  I did it this morning!  I will say all the right things and then not trust God in the simplest things, let alone the big ones.

     Finally, our readings finished in Luke 1 appropriately enough, four days before Christmas.  The angel Gabriel comes to Mary and tells her to not be afraid, the Lord is with her!  He tells her all that is going to happen and what she's supposed to do, and she answers, "How can this be...?"  And the angel, the messenger of God, tells her how it's going to go down saying that, "Nothing will be impossible with God."  And Mary's response?  "Here am I, the servant of the Lord..."

     It struck me this morning, the simple faith of Mary.  It struck me that, whether Mary really was a virgin or whether an angel really came to her or not is inconsequential to me in my faith.  The person of Jesus has been very real in my life...numerous times.  God has shown Himself to me and proven Himself to me and provided for me - so many times - that it could only have been Him!  He is so much bigger, has such a broader view, and has such a better plan for me than I could ever come up with...  Why do I continue to doubt that any situation is impossible for Him to handle?  Why do I continue to fear that something I interpret as "bad" happening means that God is not in the picture?

     All He wants is US, you and me.  Here am I...the servant of the Lord.  He says, "Follow me....love Me, put Me first....and love others....shine My light in dark places..."  When we do that all else falls into place.

     That is what our year has been - over and over and over again.  Coming back to putting God where He belongs....first in our lives, and loving Him through worship, through gratitude, and through loving others and trusting in Him.  We'll be telling stories for the rest of our lives about how God has guided us, loved us, provided for us, and surrounded us with others who trust in Him and help encourage us and be His hands and feet in our life.  2012, for us, has been the year of receiving.  Not always an easy thing to do...but in learning to receive from others (housing, gift cards, winter clothing, money for bills, dinner out), we have also learned how better to receive from God.  That is our prayer for you as well...

     May God bless you in the days and months and years to come, and may Jesus be as real to you as He has been to us this year.

     

All our love,

   Sally & Kim

Bumps in the Road

We've had a bit of a rough week. Our female black lab, Charlie, has been in obvious pain on-and-off for a couple of months. Our vet friend gave us some pain killers a month or so ago, but this last week they didn't seem to help. We called our vet and told her our situation and she told us to bring Charlie in, that they have a fund that can help financially.

Long story short, Charlie's pancreas and liver weren't working well and were continuing to fail and we ended up having to make the difficult decision to put her down last Friday.

This is not the first dog we've put down. But Charlie was with us during a particularly challenging time in our lives - going through seminary - and was definitely a big part of our story in Pittsburgh.

I find myself tearing up at the most mundane moments... Fixing dinner and looking down to find that expectant and hopeful face looking up at me. Going upstairs to bed and expecting to see a big black circle already curled up on the doggie bed.

I was browsing through the pictures of dogs and puppies at the Humane Society, online, and at various rescue agencies when I finally realized I was looking for Charlie. None of these dogs were fitting the bill.

We're going to two memorial services this week. Having just gone through this with Charlie, I can't imagine what it must be like to lose a spouse or a parent... What a gift God gives us in ALL His creation - humans and animals alike. They come into our lives and challenge us and love us, change us and contribute in molding us more and more into the likeness of Jesus. And then they leave us.

I found myself yesterday, as I was walking with Sean and Megan's dog Emma, feeling angry. "C'mon God! Can we just GET ON WITH IT?! What more is there to learn? What more is there that we need to go through before we're ready for this church You have for us?!!! Enough already!"

I had a Skype interview with a small church in NC last week, and after talking again with one of the folks on the Pastor Nominating Committee it sounded like they were just going to finish checking my references and they'd be inviting me to come and preach in a neutral pulpit. But it's been a number of days now and I've heard nothing. The up and down of this process is exhausting.

We've learned a lot through our seminary experience and in the last five or so months, and I think the biggest thing God wants us to continually learn through all of this is to cling to HIM. As much as we love the people around us...as much as we love the sweet animals He's blessed us with...God wants us to come to Him when we're hurting. He wants us to come to Him when we're struggling. He wants us to come to Him when we're angry - even angry with Him!

I know I can be overly dependent on my animals - and my people. I'm learning to lean more and more on Him, fully. One more lesson learned (or at least eyes have been opened - it'll be a lifetime of learning to live it).

Are we there yet?
~Sally

Ok God, We're Ready!

Well, we've come a long way from graduation day. We lived two months in Florida with family and made our way to Colorado in August - looking for work to pay the bills and continuing to wait for God to call us to a church. Along the way we were challenged to let God out of the box we had put Him in, and in so doing we expanded our possibilities to churches across the country. It seems that God continues to challenge us to trust Him....on every level.

He has provided for us in amazing ways over the last four months as we have both searched for local jobs and continued to apply for church positions. Generous friends have gifted us with money, others have hired us to housesit and paid us generously. Family has provided housing and food, gas money and even entertainment! We have been hired to pick peaches, to pick grapes, to sort grapes, and now maybe even bottle wine. We have been given the opportunity to broker apples for groups to sell as fundraisers - and that will probably pay our "non-negotiable" bills for November! We've done what we could - applied, made ourselves willing to work, and God has provided - many times abundantly....and still....we wait...

About three weeks ago I had a church request a video sermon. I had had one church earlier in the summer request one and I had hurriedly put one together and recorded it, but I wasn't totally happy with it. So I recorded another, and made them both available to the church.

The following week I was looking through all of the churches (four, I think) open in Colorado. I became intrigued with a small church in Alamosa, a town in southeast Colorado with a population just over 8500. It is agricultural and hosts many Mexican migrant workers. They have a large Hispanic population and there are many ministry opportunities within the community. The more I looked at it the more excited I got at the potential for ministry at this little church. The only problem was that it was a part-time position. They had a manse (church-owned house for the pastor), but only paid around $27,000. We need a lot more than that to cover our bills. But maybe I could garner support as a "missionary" from friends and churches to cover the other half of the salary. I felt certain that if God called us there, He would provide.

So I applied for the position in Alamosa. A few days later I received an email that the church has a candidate that they are fairly certain on, but if things don't go as planned they'll keep my information. I was disappointed. I really thought God might be calling us there...

A week or so later a funny thing happened. I had contacted a church in NC asking if they were still accepting PIFs (Pastor Information Forms) since they'd been advertising for a couple of months. The woman replied that they were, and the committee was meeting on Wed. (it was Mon.). So I sent my information.

Thursday morning I received an email saying that they spent most of their evening talking about my information and they would like a video sermon...

The next day I received another email from a different church in NC that I had been really excited about. They also wanted a video sermon.

Three days later - this last Monday - I got a call from a church in OH wanting to chat.

And yesterday I received an email from a church in TN with a list of questions they want me to answer, as they are also interested in me.

I listened to a sermon this morning from First Pres. Grand Junction about the transforming power of Christ. The pastor, Travis, talked about how growing churches, churches that are being transformed by the power of Jesus, are churches who take risks. They are willing to take risks as they live into the call Christ has on them.

In the same way, PEOPLE being transformed by Christ, individuals who are growing in their faith, are those people who are taking risks for Christ.

I truly believe that all this craziness with all of these churches contacting me has come about because, once again, God challenged us to trust Him - to take a risk for Him (in applying to the Alamosa church)...and because we were faithful, He was faithful as well.

I could be TOTALLY wrong, but I think God uses opportunities like the Alamosa church to ask us, "Do you REALLY trust Me? Are you REALLY putting all of your hope in Me, or in yourselves and your own efforts? Do you have to see everything lined up perfectly before you'll follow Me?" Our answer, our mantra has become, "We trust You fully, Lord. For everything."

As the days get colder and my summer clothes aren't providing enough layers, I have no doubt that God will provide.

As the gas tank nears empty and the $3.79 per gallon seems much more tolling than it used to, I have no doubt that God will provide.

As we tire of living in someone else's house, depending on others for almost everything, I have no doubt that God will provide.

We worked at the homeless shelter last week serving dinner to the residents. As I looked at those people it came to me that the only difference between us and them was loving family, loving and active church family, and faith in a God who is much bigger than you or I.

We give thanks daily, sometimes hourly, for all He has provided and all He will provide. We know He has a church for us that will be just what we need to draw us nearer to Him - and we will be just what they need as well. Oh Lord, we pray it is soon, but we know that whenever it happens it will be just the right time...

Oh Lord, may all that we do, all that we live, draw not only us but also those we share it with, ever closer to You. Amen.

~Sally

And now the REAL fun begins!

Well, I'm sitting here in our office at home surrounded by boxes on the floor half filled with books and office supplies, school records and other paperwork and trying to decide if they get shipped to Florida, sent to storage, or will come with us in the car. Tough decisions!

My classes ended well - even my Barth class! I had numerous papers and sermons to write, but God was gracious and gave me all that was needed to complete them and even get halfway decent grades on them! My back continues to pay a big price for all of this sitting and reading and writing...

I have sent my PIF (Presbyterian lingo for resume - Pastor Information Form) to numerous churches in Florida. God even moved me to send it to a new church development in CA (but thankfully they didn't want me, I think God just wanted to remind me that it's His plan, not mine that we're following)!

We've always kept it in the back of our minds that if I didn't have a call by graduation that we would just go and live with Lee and Bobby (and Charlie and Sarah and Rilo) in Florida. So as I've been getting one letter after another saying, "Sorry, we don't think you're the right fit for our church," we've been aiming towards Lee's house and looking for jobs in the Ft. Pierce area.

As we've thought and prayed more about it I thought, well, if I'm going to be working a regular job, then I may as well just start pursing new church development since that's where my heart is really at. It just so happens that the Presbytery where Lee lives has a really good NCD Commission with resources and goals and leaders who have actually planted churches! Earlier I talked with the chair of the commission and he told me that if we end up there, they will send Kim and I to be assessed and if it turns out that we're a good fit for church planting then they'll supply me with a coach and other resources. So I'm kind of excited about that!

The scary part is just the financial end of things. We're leaving seminary with a huge amount of debt, and so I don't have the luxury of just looking for work that would put me in a good situation to meet lots of people (which as a church planter is ideal), but I need to find something that is going to pay decent so we can keep up with things. We're probably going to need another car as well...the list could get really big, so I'm not going to even go down that road...too overwhelming at this point.

So what we do hold on to is the fact that God is SO much bigger than anything that we are facing! We hold on to the fact that it was God who led us and brought us to this place, and has faithfully provided for all of our needs and even some wants over the last three years, and He's not going to just drop the ball and tell us we're on our own now.

The big picture can be quite daunting and overwhelming when we spend too much time looking at it. That must be why Jesus tells us in Matthew 6,

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feed them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat? or 'What shall we drink? or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

So we're taking each day as it comes. Lee, Sammy and Charlie are driving up from Florida for graduation, and Karen and Dave Jensen are flying in from Grand Junction! We are WAY excited!

The service of Thanksgiving is Thursday evening - I'm singing a duet and leading a congregational song. Then there's an awards brunch on Friday and early dinner at the seminary, followed by graduation commencement at 7pm that evening at East Liberty Presbyterian Church.

http://www.cathedralofhope.org/about/church-history-architecture.html

It will be beautiful!!!

Saturday at noon we're having a BBQ with all sorts of friends stopping by to visit and get our last goodbyes in. Then Sunday we're picking up a truck and taking just about all of our earthly belongings to a storage facility where it will stay until I get hired by a church and they pay to have it moved, or by God's grace we get a chunk of money and we can have it moved down to FL. That part is kind of scary too... So I'm looking at things and packing them with an eye towards - "how would I feel if I never saw this again?" If I can't bear the thought, it gets mailed to FL (or goes in the very limited car space). Otherwise it gets packed in a box with a prayer that maybe someday I'll see it again.

God is BIG...and I trust that whatever happens will be for His glory and not mine...and I'm ok with that. And the best part is, I know that when everything's said and done with this part of the journey, we'll have another great story to tell of God's love and faithfulness and how He grew us even closer to Him.

So that's our story for now! Please pray for us in this time of discernment, transition, and hope. And speaking of hope... I'm going to be flown back to Pittsburgh July 1-2 to go to a meeting during the PC(USA)'s General Assembly to join a discussion about connecting "mission rich" congregations who would love to get "first call" pastors who seek to lead to new ministries, new church starts and/or the renewal and transformation of struggling congregations. I'm very hopeful.

With that I will go for now. We thank God and we thank you for the many prayers, emails, cards, FaceBook posts, and phone calls that have encouraged us, and supported us emotionally, spiritually, and financially. We simply could not have done this or survived this adventure without the body of Christ holding us up. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing.

Blessings to you all...

~Sally & Kim

Nothing's Impossible With God - Acts 10:34-43

I wanted to share my first Easter sermon here. It took me an entire day to write... I toiled and toiled, and called a friend, and even after it was done I didn't feel that good about it. BUT GOD showed up on Sunday morning - and low and behold, His Spirit did a big work, and I knew it, and it somehow became a great message. So here you go. He is Risen! He is Risen, indeed!
~Sally


Greenfield Presbyterian Easter, April 8, 2012

As I began reading today’s text my first thought was, “Wow, the last thing I read about Peter this last week was how he denied knowing Jesus!”

How did Peter go from denying he even knew Jesus to preaching to a Roman soldier and his family?

What do we know about Peter’s experiences with Jesus...?

First and foremost we know that Peter loved Jesus immensely.

When I think of Peter I always think of him as a big, lunky kind of guy. He was a fisherman, like with nets, so he had to have some muscle...and when you start reading about some of the things he did and said you start getting this picture... yeah, Peter (aka the Rock)... kind of an appropriate name for him!

Some have said that Peter was a model disciple...and I think they say that because we get to see a lot of Peter’s humanity. A lot of times Peter opened his mouth and spoke before he thought, and I think, in a way, that makes us like him more - because he wasn’t perfect!

We read in the Gospels how Peter tended to be a bit more outspoken, as well as the one who would just jump in to things. When he saw Jesus walking on the water, he hopped right out of the boat and just started walking towards Jesus on the water as well!

Then his humanity kicked in, he looked down at what he was doing and he realized he was walking on water, and he started going down. Oh, yeah, gotta keep the eyes on Jesus!

When Jesus asked his disciples what people were saying about him, he wanted to know who people thought he was.

So after sharing how some thought he was John the Baptist and others said Elijah, Jesus asked the disciples, “But what about you guys? Who do you say I am?”

Right away Simon Peter piped up and answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus blessed him and told him that he was “Peter,” (the Rock), “and on this rock I will build my church...” Wow, what an honor. Peter must have felt pretty special...

And then without even turning a page, within the very same chapter of Matthew, as Jesus is foretelling his death, Peter opens his mouth and tries to shut Jesus down.

Jesus was telling the disciples how he’d have to go to Jerusalem and suffer and be killed, but Peter didn’t want to have any of it and told Jesus, “Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you!”

To which Jesus replied, “Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you don’t have in mind the things of God, you’re thinking of the things of men.” (Matt. 16:23)

Wow. From one extreme to the other! Peter could be so dense! Poor guy, but that’s why I like him so much. I think I relate a little too closely!

And it just doesn’t quit. At the last supper, Jesus starts washing the disciples’ feet and once again Peter tried to stop him. After Jesus told him He had to wash them, He’s showing the disciples the way of servanthood... of course Peter says then why don’t you go ahead and wash my hands and head as well!

Peter. Peter. Not much later Jesus informs Peter that he, (Peter), will deny that he knows him three times. It had to kill Peter to hear it, and of course, he adamantly argued that he would never deny Jesus, he loves him...

But later on, when confronted and accused of being one of Jesus’ followers, Peter was insistent, and denied knowing Jesus at all. Isn’t it funny that the disciple who identified Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, denied knowing Him at all when it came right down to it?

Oh the guilt and pain he must have felt when he heard the rooster crow that third time...

Peter failed Jesus miserably...we all fail Jesus miserably.
Have you ever said something that you wish you could’ve taken back? Have you ever done something that you wish you wouldn’t have done?

Thankfully, for Peter and for us, that’s not the end of the story, is it?

It’s not the end of the story because if we had to live perfectly, do everything perfectly, and work to make everything right, then we’d never please God.

More often than not we find ourselves in need of more patience, more kindness, more self-control.

We raise our kids to be nice to one another as we yell at them to hurry up and get in the car so we can go to church and worship Jesus!

We complain about the lady at the register being curt with us or our neighbors never acknowledging us, but how many times have we gone out of our way to truly ask how someone is doing or made the effort to build a relationship?

Yes, we all fail miserably, and no matter how hard we try we’re never going to be perfect. We can never do enough, work enough, or earn enough to please God.

But that’s why we’re here! And that’s the Good News that Peter was exuberantly telling Cornelius and his household!

In the death of Jesus, God has made the way for us to be perfect in His sight. In the death of Jesus the price for our sin was paid in full, and we no longer have sin coming between ourselves and God.

By the power of the resurrected Christ we can approach God with confidence because our sins are forgiven!

The very core of the Good News centers on Jesus’ victory over sin, death and judgment.

On Easter morning, Resurrection Day, Jesus Christ beat death and hell when he came back to life!

Can’t you just picture Peter? When the women came back from the tomb and told the disciples that it was empty, Peter took off like a shot. On the one hand he had to be grief-stricken thinking that maybe someone had stolen Jesus’ body.

But on the other hand, there had to be a thread of hope, a hope that would eventually grow believing that Jesus had overcome death itself, and that in that victory he - and we all - can have victory in our own lives.

In our scripture today Peter recognized that God brought him to the house of Cornelius so he could share with him the Good New of Jesus - even though Cornelius wasn’t a Jew.

Peter realized that God was showing him a new thing! God was showing him that the message of peace through Jesus Christ - the message that every person can be reconciled with God - is for everyone...

God’s love and forgiveness in Christ is for Jew and Greek, men and women, natives and illegal immigrants, gays and straights, married and single, black and white! God wants to be reconciled to all of His creation.

God showed us in Peter that He can and will use anyone to share the Gospel, to share the Good News of freedom in Christ with the world.

Peter, who usually acted first and thought later.
Peter, who one minute could be tracking right along with Jesus and the next minute be speaking out of his own selfish desires.
Sound familiar?

Every one of the disciples were imperfect, and look what God did with them!

When we follow Jesus, he empowers us to both turn away from the shameful and sinful things that seem to trap us, and to embrace an amazing quality of life. The Bible calls it “zoe” in Greek, abundant life or life to the full!

And a big part of that abundant life is made up of hope, and it’s the hope that comes from the reality of the resurrection. It’s the hope that helps us to live every morning as Easter morning!

I have to believe it was the first time Peter saw Jesus after the resurrection... Peter and some of the other disciples had been out on the Sea of Galilee fishing all night and they’d had no luck.

Then from the shoreline someone calls out to them and tells them to try throwing the net to the other side of the boat, which they do, and they haul in a huge amount of fish.

Then John recognizes that it’s Jesus and tells Peter, “Look, it’s the Lord!” and as soon as Peter heard him he grabbed his clothes and jumped off the boat to swim to Jesus.

I keep picturing the movie Forrest Gump. You know, when Forrest has his own shrimp boat and he’s out on it and see’s Lt. Dan, his good friend from the war, sitting at the dock in his wheelchair, and Forrest is so excited to see Lt. Dan that he takes a running leap off the boat and swims like all get-out...the boat’s still going out to sea, but Forrest doesn’t care! It’s Lt. Dan!!!

That’s how I see Peter. He can’t wait for the boat to get to shore - it’s Jesus - and he’s alive and right there on the beach!

Jesus, whom he’d denied, yet loved so much, is right there. Alive.

God went to great lengths to restore His relationship with His creation, His creatures, you and me. He sacrificed the life of His own son so that we wouldn’t have to pay the price ourselves.

As Peter tells the story of Jesus to the household of Cornelius he gets to the part about Jesus’ death. He says, “They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.”

“They killed him by hanging him on a tree...BUT GOD raised Him”

Those words, “but God” are the church’s only good answer to the trials and problems that we all have to deal with.

A pastor wrote about a tv documentary that he once watched that traced the lives of some of the world’s religious leaders.

They were personal looks at the lives of people like the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Pope, the Dalai Lama, the chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, the President of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Rev. Mark Hanson, Bishop of the ELCA and President of the Lutheran World Federation.

The pastor wrote, “One of the most moving parts of the show was when Mark Hanson sat at his kitchen table and talked about his family’s struggle with his son’s drug addiction.

He said that the most difficult day of his life was the day he left his 14 year old son at a treatment center; feeling as if he had failed as a parent; not knowing if this would work, not knowing if he had lost his son forever; not knowing what else to do.

He then talked about how faith had carried him through when nothing else would. It was for the Hanson family, a deeply personal “but God” moment.

Trying to reason our way through grief and loss, trying to make sense of the senseless, trying to convince a world gone crazy with the desire for more of everything and anything - that that desire is deadly of both body and soul; these things are, at the end of the day, pointless.

There is no reason which can assuage our grief, there is no sense to be made of the raging evil we see around us, there is no way to divert the addicted and bloated from seeking their fix, be it oil or drugs. The only answer we have to offer to these things, (that Luther summed up as Sin, Death and the Devil), is those two words, “but God!”

At Easter we celebrate the ultimate “but God” moment, the raising of Jesus from the dead. It is both the proof and the promise of our faith. It reminds us of what God HAS done in the past while promising to us what God will do in the future.” 1

Peter had much to witness to, and thanks be to God that he did! We are an imperfect people, but God loves us and wants to give meaning and purpose to our lives, and He will - because nothing is impossible with Him. Amen.

Are You A Spiritual Risk-Taker?

This is my sermon for tomorrow. It is Week 7 of our 50 Day Spiritual Adventure "Daring to Dream Again: Overcoming Barriers That Hold You Back." The scriptures for this sermon is: Luke 1:26-38; 2:33-35; John 19:25-27. I hope it blesses you.


Greenfield Presbyterian 4-1-12

It’s Palm Sunday, and may seem a bit odd that we have read scripture of Jesus’ birth being foretold and as a youngster! I agree! But by the time we make it around to the end of the sermon hopefully it should all make sense!

Today begins Week 7, the last week of our 50 Day Spiritual Adventure, Daring to Dream Again: Overcoming Barriers That Hold You Back...and today we’re going to talk about being risk-takers, going outside of our comfort zones for God.

Hopefully going outside of your comfort zone isn’t a totally foreign idea to you! But for some of us, I know, we can avoid discomfort like the plague.

The Bible is full of faithful people who stepped out of their comfort zones for God...
Abraham as he took his son Isaac up on the mountain to make a sacrifice to God (of his son!),
Moses, confronting Pharoah and leading the Israelites out of Egypt and to the Promised Land,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ruth...the list goes on and on.

Today we’re looking at Mary, Jesus’ mother, as someone who is a good model for us of someone who was a spiritual risk-taker. God asked Mary to be a part of His dreams, and it changed the course of her life and the course of history forever!

When we think about who Mary was and what her situation was, we need to step back a little bit....step back to before God appeared to her through the angel Gabriel.

Mary was betrothed, engaged to be married to Joseph - a just and good man, a descendant of the great King David. Things were looking really good for Mary.

No doubt, Mary saw this relationship and upcoming marriage to Joseph as a gift from God. And there is also no doubt, that as a young women in that time and that place, her betrothal to Joseph was probably her greatest security.

Certainly Mary had her family, like her cousin Elizabeth who she went and visited after Gabriel confronted her, and friends in the village. Those were also some of Mary’s securities.

What are some of your greatest securities?

Your income?
For Mary, I’m sure that her marriage to Joseph represented financial security for her as well.
Your position?
For some this is tied heavily to income, for others it may mean status, or happiness because they love it or feel they’re making a difference, or something else.
Your house?
When you have a home to go to you can feel much more secure!
Your emotional comfort?
I know I don’t like conflict and tend to avoid it. Is it my security?
Your family?
You know that if nothing else, your family is always there for you.
Your friends?
How many do you have on FB?
Your parents’ approval?
You’ll never lose it, right?
Your appearance?
How about your retirement package?
Because that’s what security is all about right? Planning for the future, being prepared. Taking care of yourself. Right?

What in your life represents security for you like Mary’s engagement represented to her? (pause)

These are all wonderful things that God blesses many of us with. But He also asks us to hold on loosely to them... Hold them with an open palm.

With an open palm because if or when He comes to you with a dream He’d like you to share in, He doesn’t want you clinging to them as if they were your biggest security.

He may ask you to put all of those things which make you feel secure into His hands and ask you to totally trust Him. Will you be able to leave that comfort zone?

The angel Gabriel came to Mary and told her that she was a favored one of God, and that God was with her. And then notice the next words...

It says, “Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.” Um, yeah.

Mary finds that God is going to make her the mother of the son of God, despite the fact that she’s a virgin...for nothing is impossible with God.

Now, I’m not really sure what you say to that...

But Mary’s response was, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” (1:38)

She could’ve pulled a Jonah and taken off somewhere.

She could’ve done like Moses and argued with God about how there must be someone more well-suited for the job.

Or she could’ve done like Samuel’s sons did - and do whatever she darn well pleased...but she didn’t.

Mary stepped right out of that future of security into a future that was unknown and totally in God’s hands. Easy to talk about...difficult to do.

And as life goes on things get more and more interesting for Mary. She goes off to visit her cousin and finds that Elizabeth indeed is pregnant, just as the angel told her.

Mary becomes pregnant, has her son and names him Jesus, has visits from all sorts of people affirming the uniqueness of this child...and then they take him to the temple to circumcise him and present him to the Lord.

While there the prophet Simeon, besides foretelling the things Jesus will bring about, says that, “a sword will pierce your own soul too.” (2:35).

We see numerous things throughout Jesus’ life that must’ve pierced Mary’s heart...

All of the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and younger who were killed because of Jesus’ birth;
The flight to Egypt which took them far away from any family or friends;
Knowing that Jesus was who he was, and then not being able to find him for three days at the temple;
Hearing or seeing the treatment that some gave Jesus; and finally,
Seeing her son beaten, crucified, and finally dying on the cross.

Yeah, quite an example of stepping out of comfort and heeding God’s call. Makes you want to jump right in, doesn’t it?

Do you think after all that Mary would still say, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”?

Let’s face it. Mary had a rough life, and hardly comfortable.

But comfortable isn’t one of the things that God promises us, is it!

My guess, is that if we could ask Mary if she again would say, “I am the Lord’s servant,” she’d say, “in a heartbeat!”

Because once we get over being uncomfortable when we follow God, we see and experience wonderful things that we never would have seen or experienced if we had held on tight to our comfort.

As your life with the Lord unfolds have you ever found yourself telling God, “Hold up! Stop! That’s too much...too far....too uncomfortable for me!”

(Maybe some of these challenges we’ve been given in this Adventure?)

If so, I want to challenge you to go back and figure out, exactly, where your security lays. What represents your comfort zone? Get an actual picture of it and put it in your Bible.

Is it your job? Take a picture of your desk and stick it in your Bible.

Is it money? Take a picture of some cash or your paycheck and stick it in your Bible.

Figure out what it is, take a picture, and keep it in God’s Word as a reminder of what your struggle is, that you need to hand it to God, and where your real security is.

Today is Palm Sunday. Jesus has been telling his disciples that time is coming near and he will be leaving them. Actually, he was even very specific and told them that he would be killed...but they didn’t want to believe it.

That’s pretty uncomfortable to think about.

As Jesus came into Jerusalem on the back of a colt the crowd of disciples began praising God “in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:”

“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

And interestingly enough, some of the Pharisees told Jesus to rebuke his disciples. Apparently they were uncomfortable with their outbursts.

And Jesus told them that if his disciples weren’t able to yell praises that the rocks themselves would cry out in praise. (Luke 19:39-40)

Hanging out with Jesus can be really uncomfortable.

He has this habit of showing us where our loyalties are misplaced.

He has this habit of constantly giving praise to God, which sometimes makes us uncomfortable... because we like to praise ourselves.

He has this way about Him that always points us back to the One in whom we can always find our total security.

Last weekend was the World Mission Initiative Mission Conference at the seminary and Kim and I went to one of the plenary sessions to hear one of the speakers, Chris Haw.

Chris is a young guy, probably in his late twenties, who grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. He was a Catholic as a youngster, but as an adolescent he attended Willow Creek Community Church, a huge mega-church known for their dynamic worship and discipleship, and ministry to church leaders.

So Chris had a strong faith as he went off to college at Eastern College in PA. He had heard Tony Campolo, a writer, speaker and professor at Eastern - and he was so impressed with him he chose Eastern to attend.

While in his last year at there, Chris knew of a Catholic priest who was coming to talk about mission and evangelism. The professor hosting the priest was one who not many students liked, and so out of pity, he decided to attend the talk.

The priest started telling the few students who were there about where he lives in Camden, NJ. Camden, in it’s heyday had been a city with lots of manufacturing and industry, but over time the plants shut down and people moved away.

What’s been left are mostly poor, minority, and crime-ridden neighborhoods. The city government has been corrupt, the school system and police department have been taken over by the state, and in 2008 Camden had the highest crime rate in the country with 2,333 violent crimes per 100,000 people (compared to the national average of 455 per 100,000).

The priest told about how the area has two superfund clean-up sites, and numerous sites where the soil was so contaminated that nothing can be built on it until it is cleaned out.
As the priest went on Chris thought to himself, wow, this place sounds like hell! I think I want to move there! And move there he did.

He asked the priest if he could move into one of the abandoned houses, and the priest directed him to one where he actually had a key to the door!

Since he and his wife moved to Camden, Chris has learned more about the area and its people and tried to reach out in real ways...

He and his wife and young daughter share their house in community with some other people from the area, one person who used to be homeless.

He tries to make friends with the neighborhood kids, and helps out at the Catholic Church where he became a member.

It’s a rough, sometimes difficult, and stretching existence...but stretching in ways that we can’t even imagine.

Chris shared about an 11-year-old boy who had been out in the street when guns came out and as he turned his head to look, the bullet shot right through the boy’s eyes and part of his nose.

Chris asked the audience with tears in his eyes, “What do you do with that?” He says the boy is now blind and the priest has asked if Chris will help catechize the boy, help teach him his catechism... Chris’ heart was so crushed he could hardly talk to the group.

Chris is another extreme example, I think, of moving out of your comfort zone to follow the dream God has for you.

There is so much more to his story that encompasses ecology, and the economy and economic justice and social justice and so many more things...but the point is that Chris and his wife made the big decision and decided that they could let go of their securities, and trust God for everything.

Where do you find your security?
In what do you find your security?

We can lose it all in a moment. Nothing is certain...nothing, except the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Can you put your total trust in Him? Will you?

God has dreams for you, and He wants you to trust Him.

Be a spiritual risk-taker and trust God as you step out, maybe into a little bit of discomfort, but also into a new adventure of seeing how God will use you to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the world.

If you keep your eyes on Him, and not on whatever comfort you had to let go of, He will lead you and grow you and hold you close as you live into His dream for you.

May you be blessed to do so. Amen.

1 Samuel 24 - Discover God’s Present Involvement in Your Life

Since I had requests, here is this Sunday's sermon. Hope it blesses you. ~Sally

Greenfield Presbyterian 2-26-12

Don’t you wonder how many things go on in our lives that God brings about that we have no idea He had a hand in it? How much do we miss? How much do we take credit for ourselves when it was actually God at work?

This week’s theme on our 50 Day Spiritual Adventure is about Discovering God’s Present Involvement in Our Lives. So it begs the question, “How aware are you of God’s involvement in your life?” Do you even look for Him?

On this Adventure we’ve been asked to read the daily scripture readings and answer the questions in the devotional as we go along. Today we’ll add to that. Our second Adventure Application is to do a Daily God Hunt Sighting and write it down in your journal.

It is a great daily exercise to help us keep our eyes attuned to God’s work in the world and in our lives!

As we look to today’s scripture in 1 Samuel it seems fairly easy to see where God was at work...but as we look closer, we’ll see God was doing a lot more than what we just see on the surface.

In the chapters working up to 1 Samuel 24 Saul has been getting more and more violent towards David. Saul is the seated king, but God has since rejected him because of his rebellion and sin. The prophet Samuel has anointed David as the next king and Saul is extremely jealous.

So Saul has been chasing David all over the countryside trying to kill him. He was waylaid a bit by an attack by the Philistines, but now he’s back on the trail.

So Saul is searching for David with three thousand of his men! And Saul needs to stop at the rest stop and relieve himself, so he finds the nearest cave and goes inside.

Unbeknownst to Saul, David and his men heard Saul was coming and hid out in a cave...the exact same cave that Saul is now standing in!

David’s men encourage him - Look! This is the day that God was telling you about! Today is the day God has delivered Saul to you! Take him out! He’s right here! You’ll never get a better opportunity than this! You can do whatever you want to him!

Now after all that David has been through with Saul you might just expect him to sneak right up to him and slit his throat and it’s done. Over. No more hiding, he can take the throne, get on with life...

But David doesn’t do that.

David, very quietly, sneaks up to where Saul is...and simply cuts a little piece of the fabric from off of his cloak, and returns back to his hiding place.

He barely gets back to his men and he’s feeling horribly guilty. Who is he that he should do anything to the reigning king? God anointed Saul after all. Who is he, David to take advantage of the situation and bring him down?

God, after all, is who is in charge, not David. So David keeps his men from doing anything to Saul, and after Saul leaves the cave David follows and calls out to him.

David, standing in the mouth of the cave, calls out to Saul as his servant - My Master! My King! He falls prostrate on the ground calling out to Saul and begs him to stop listening to those who say that he is after Saul.

He then explains, showing Saul the piece of fabric, that he had the perfect opportunity to take him out of the game if he had wanted to...but he didn’t.

He pleads with Saul telling Saul how he hasn’t sinned against him, and yet Saul continues to hunt him down and tries to kill him, and then he turns the tables and says, “So who’s in the right here? You or me?”

David says that Saul may be killed, but it won’t be by David’s hand, it will be by God’s. David won’t touch Saul.

May God be our judge and decide who is right!

At this Saul weeps and it seems that he finally realizes that his days as king are numbered. He finally acknowledges that David will be the next king, but it still isn’t until much later that Saul finally dies and David becomes king.

At first glance we look at this story and say, wow, look how God choreographed bringing Saul and David together in the same cave. That was certainly no coincidence, that’s pretty amazing!

And it is! But that’s just the beginning!

Certainly for David this is a big God Sighting! God brought Saul to the cave where David was at and finally brought them to a point where David could actually speak to Saul and get him to stop pursuing him.

But think of the process that David went through in that cave, which I think, was an even bigger deal to God...

David was given a perfect opportunity to kill his pursuer, to kill the man who had been chasing him all over the place and nearly killed him a couple of times! David’s men even encouraged him - “Here’s your chance! Just like God said! Your enemy was delivered ‘into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’” (vs. 4)

So apparently even God left the door wide open for David to do whatever he wanted to with Saul.

But David stepped back and thought about the bigger picture, he is “stricken to the heart”...

David knew that God had anointed Saul to be king, just as he had been anointed. God had shown David numerous times in his young life that His plans are much bigger and better than our own. So David trusted that God would deal with Saul when God wanted to.

But David also knew that he had a huge choice in that cave. In their time power changed hands, many times, through violence. So why not now?

Saul was in a very vulnerable place in that cave...to say the least! David knew that vulnerability can easily be exploited and taken advantage of...and the thin line between knowing this and acting on it was before him.

David was overwhelmed at that moment.

In that moment, David, instead of being violent...resists it, and instead chooses compassion, forgiveness, and trust in God’s overriding justice to deal with Saul.

Don’t you think that that is what God wanted him to take away from the experience - more than just the coincidence of the cave?

Sometimes we see the obvious works of God in our lives, but we may have to look a little longer or harder or deeper to find the real work that God wants us to see.

It’s an awesome thing to see God’s hand, to see evidence of His presence at work in your life. The more we see, the more excited and energized and focused we become on living for Him and doing His work in the world!

It’s much easier to have a sustained, strong faith when we’ve trained ourselves to see God at work in and around us.

God promises us all over the place in the Old and New Testaments that He won’t leave us. Like in Deuteronomy 31:8 - The Lord himself goes before you and will always be with you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.

So God Sightings, like David’s, are a great daily habit to start looking for - and a great thing to share and point out to others as well.

Like I’ve shared with you through many a sermon - whether it was in my life or Kim’s or someone else’s - hearing a story of how God showed Himself is encouraging to others - and we don’t do that nearly enough!

God’s Word tells us to look for Him. In the great Jeremiah 29 scripture where God says that He has a plan for us - “a plan to prosper us and not harm us, plans to give us a hope and a future”...He then goes on to say, “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord.” (vs.11b-14a)

So even as God’s people were captured in Babylon, as told in Jeremiah, God says, Don’t stop looking for me!

The Psalms encourage us by saying, “...let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.”

God tells us to look for Him, and so maybe a good starting point is in prayer, ask Him to reveal Himself to you as you go through your days.

As Matthew 7 told us, Ask...Seek....and Knock...

When we ask, God promises we will receive. When we seek, God says we will find. And when we knock, God says the door will be opened!

God’s not going to answer our requests to see Him with lame examples of Who He Is! If you ask for it, He’ll show you Who He Is!

And there are a few different ways that God may show Himself:


In an answer to prayer.
I have a great example of this! About 3-4 weeks ago I woke up from what was for me, a nightmare. First, I dreamed that it was July and we were living in the extra bedroom at my sister’s house in Florida, and all the bills were coming due, and neither Kim nor I had a job or any money to speak of. It was a nightmare.

Then I got to thinking about what money we had currently and how spring break always screws things up and we end up having to wait much longer to get student loan money in the next term to pay our bills, and I got that much more stressed out.

Needless to say, I was up for the day - despite the fact that it was around 4am... So I just started praying. I really wanted to hand all of the worry and concern over to God and just put my total trust in Him that He not only would provide us with income now and in the future, but that we would be at a church that is the right church and not just a job, but a church where Kim and I would be a good fit for that particular congregation. So I poured my heart out to God.

It think it was a few days later I was talking with the elder at my home church who is my liaison to the session, and she reminded me that a check would be coming from the church any day now.

A week later as the mail came we not only had a huge check (MUCH more than we expected) from our home church, but we also had another big check from a grant that I had forgotten all about that only gets distributed twice a year.

Needless to say - we attributed all of this to God!!! Thank You Jesus!

Evidence of His care
I think this last example is both - answer to prayer and also evidence of His care. We also see this as people reach out to us unexpectedly with love, with tangible things like help in our homes when we’re ill, or meals, or maybe someone stops to help you when the car breaks down. Sometimes we get that financial help or provision when we haven’t even prayed for it!

Unusual linkage or timing.
This is the obvious God Sighting of David’s story in 1 Samuel 24. I have a friend from high school that I reconnected with on Facebook the year before we moved from Colorado. We weren’t real close or anything, but we caught up with each other’s lives and she shared that she and her husband were separated and trying to work things out - she was in Denver, and he was with his folks on the western side of the state near where we lived.

Not long after learning all this I saw on FaceBook that Jackie’s husband had had an accident on his ATV and was flown to a hospital in our town, so I messaged Jackie and let her know that I was there if she needed any help.

Jackie eventually contacted me and we met ONE TIME. That was almost four years ago now, but Jackie still talks about what an answer to prayer I was for her - being in a strange town and not knowing anyone.

The other thing I was able to do was to hook her up with another friend of mine whose daughter had been in a bad car accident the previous year and had the same type of injuries as Jackie’s husband. My friend was able to connect with Jackie in a way I couldn’t and help walk her through what was ahead.

The whole experience has ultimately grown Jackie’s faith along with that of her family members. I’m just so happy that we reconnected when we did on FaceBook.

Help to do His work.
I feel like finding Greenfield Pres. was a God Sighting for me. You are helping me grow as a pastor and hopefully I am helping equip you to do ministry here!

God says, Look for me! I’m here!

Take the time to write down just one way you see God each day. When you look back on them it’s like a goldmine! It’s so encouraging! It brings hope when your lacking it.

Look at the Psalms and how many of them recount what God had already done. The Psalmist remembers where he saw God so he will have hope for what he’s facing today.

Seeing in order to believe isn’t what faith is about. But believing in order to see opens our eyes and bring a new joy and excitement as we learn to interpret how we see God at work in and through and around us.

Look back on your life...can you see God’s hand at work?

Let’s make “God Sightings” a part of our vocabulary at Greenfield Presbyterian. Let’s make this a place where talking about God and seeing His footprints are regular occurrences. Let’s tell others what God is doing in our own lives and in the life of Greenfield Pres. Amen.