Two Weeks

Updated sign outside The Federated Church in

Weatherford, Oklahoma

When this post goes online, it will be the exact two week anniversary of our arrival in Weatherford, Oklahoma. Thanks be to God.

I sit here in the living room of the parsonage, listening to Elton John's Tumbleweed Connection, Elton and Bernie Taupin's au mage to the American West, while I contemplate the blessings we have received since coming to this community in Western Oklahoma.

In a way, I first came to this community when I found the Federated Church online at the Presbyterian Church (USA) Church Leadership Connection (CLC) Website. For those who don't speak Presbese, CLC is the Presbyterian Church "Help Wanted/Pastors Available" website.

When I saw that the congregation was a federation of three different congregations, the United Church of Christ, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and the Presbyterian Church (USA) under one roof, I was interested, and amazed.

I saw this and thought this was very interesting, sure; but more than that I thought that these people must be very interesting, very adaptable, and very in tune to the Holy Spirit for this to not only work but to thrive. I won't tell you I was right, that's giving myself credit I don't deserve. These people deserve all of the credit for being their own trinity: three denominations, one congregation. It's three faith traditions, but only one faith. These people are Christians first and foremost, disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Arriving, Marie and I were overcome with wonder! The city isn't huge, but a University, on the Interstate, about an hour from the state capital makes a city of 10,000 more like a community of 25,000. The services, the people, the vibe of this town are a welcome change for us.

There is new hope here. I have a sense of hope and joy I haven't had in a long, long time. This is a hope and joy in doing what I have been called to do in a place I have been called to do it.

Tonight I've been reading some of my old blog posts. Many of these posts have an element of David's Psalms of Lament. (Others would say they are the rants of a man with depression... be that as it may, let's stay theological here.) I share my woes, I shake a fist at God and man, and I give thanks and praise God. Because God is God and I am not.

I feel like a Heisman winner right now. I want to thank God, because no one can do what God has done or what God will do. To God alone goes the glory. We also thank Jody and Suzy and the Search and Call Committee of the Federated Church who brought us here in the first place. I not only thank the congregation for voting to call us, but I thank the three who voted against us for taking the pressure off of me "to please everybody."

Being a perfectionist and a middle child, I want to please everybody. Not a good thing to do for theological and pastoral reasons. Since I haven't pleased everybody from the start, that actually takes a lot of pressure off of me! It doesn't stop hard work, it just kills my perfectionistic streak. Let's face it my perfectionist streak needs to be killed everyday.

Well, we're half unpacked. I need to go to the ETC Shop and Craig's List to look for book cases. Lots of book cases. Murphy's asleep on the floor. And Joe Jackson's playing right now. It's a good night and time to say good night.

God bless you all. God bless Weatherford. God bless The Federated Church. God bless you my wonderful wife Marie. God please bless me too. Amen!

Word and Sacrament

This picture was taken on a lovely, sunny Oklahoma afternoon. The way the light explodes through the rose window into a spray of colors delights and amazes me. Earlier in the week, the Worship Committee and the Board of the Federated Church in Weatherford approved the move of this baptismal font from under the pulpit (not pictured, but on the left in this picture) to this place where it will be seen by all who come to worship.

There is something else wonderfully special about this font, specifically the stand. Under the runner is a small plaque noting that this is not a font stand, this is the original pulpit.

The Federated Church was founded in 1901 as a United Church of Christ congregation. Years later, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) entered into communion forming the Federation and later the Presbyterian Church (USA) joined the Federation.

Of course, the UCC and DOC Churches baptize by immersion. That main baptistery is in the basement of the building. While Presbyterians can celebrate baptism by immersion, it is not usually done that way, thus the font.

Not so long ago, Presbyterian Ministers were called "Ministers of Word and Sacrament" (forgive us, we Presby's get a little wordy), we now call our pastors "Teaching Elders." When I was told that the font sets upon the original pulpit, I thought how glorious it was that this congregation brings these symbols of Word and Sacrament together so wonderfully and so gloriously. It makes me wonder if someone created this symbolic symbiosis intentionally.

Either way, it is glorious. The late Rev. Dr. Stan Hall, Professor of Worship and Liturgics at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary would be delighted.

The Big Lesson of Mayweather/Pacquiao

I love this song:

Here's the lyric that matters for to Floyd "Money" Mayweather:

When they asked him who was responsible
For the death of Du Koo Kim
He said, "Some one should have stopped the fight
And told me, it was him"
They made hypocrite judgments after the fact
But the name of the game is, be hit and hit back

People say Floyd Mayweather fights a boring fight. Can't disagree. He fights an amateur style fight in the professional arena. Hit, stick, get away. He's trying to score points, not knock anybody out.

Floyd Mayweather has decided the name of the game is not to hit and hit back. To Money, it's just to hit and get away. Boring, but hey, he has championships, money, and he just may escape the fight game with his life. When you see so many boxers looking permanently "punch drunk" later in life, he has a point. It's killing boxing for people who were raised on Ali, Frazier, Norton, Foreman, Tyson, Holyfield and other boxers who hit and hit back, but look at these men today, the ones who live beyond "archival footage."

Boring or not, he might be the big winner after all.

Mayweather-Pacquiao and the State of Boxing

I'm not going to watch the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight this weekend for several reasons. First, I don't have $100 plus the extra fees my cable or satellite provider charges. Second, there's the question of paying a guy who has been accused and convicted of abusing women that's morally questionable. But then again, who would think there would be no connection between a violent sport and a violent life. Did we learn nothing from the life and times of Mike Tyson?

But no, that's not why.

This isn't the fight of the century. It should have been the fight of the last century. It should have been the fight of the decade if it were fought in the last decade, but Floyd made sure that didn't happen.

Ali fought all comers. Frazier fought all comers. Ali and Frazier fought each other several times. Ray Mancini and Doo Koo Kim fought to the death. These guys couldn't come to an accord until there was no one left to fight. That's why they're fighting. This is the last big payday for both of them.

Sorry guys, as a sports fan I don't want to have anything to do with this one. It may not be the loftiest reason to skip this one, but it's the real reason I just don't care.

Confessing Sin

I'm working on a sermon to be shared in Dallas in a couple of Sundays. It has taken a new shape since I began. So these paragraphs are irrelevant. Still, they belong somewhere in the world and the Fat Man is just that place.

Yet if there is one thing some Christians have overextended, it’s confessing the sins of others and calling for them to repent. Forgive me if I make it sound like it’s something new because it’s not. It’s as old as the Book of Acts and the Council of Jerusalem. It’s even older than that.

Scripture reminds me that if I say I am without sin I am fooling myself. 1John 8-9 says “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” It never says what will come to pass if I confess somebody else’s sin. 

John 8 actually tells that story. It tells the story of the crowd of holy men bring the adulterous woman to Jesus he reminds them that they have no room to judge her, asking the one without sin to cast the first stone. That piece ends as the one without sin refuses to cast a stone. He calls her to repentance. Holy men call her to judgment and death, without calling her adulterous partner to any judgment at all. Jesus calls her to repentance and new life.

Am I talking about wedding cakes and pizzas, not really. Those are just the fruit of that sinful spirit (a spirit even I am not immune from based on this very sentence). Let us confess our own sins. Let us love as Christ loved us. When we do that I suspect the small stuff will begin to take care of itself.

Liturgies, Old and New?

Today Christians celebrate the Pascha, Easter, the celebration of the resurrection. God came to Earth as a man. Known as Jesus of Nazareth he was, is, was forever and forevermore will be the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed of God.

Today as we worship we share the ancient liturgical greeting of the church--

He is risen.
He is risen, indeed. 

Unfortunately, for many in America this liturgy is being replaced with:

Now first a word on the word "liturgy." In the church today the word means the call and response between a pastor or worship leader and the congregation. This is unfortunate. What the word--the actual word--means is "Work of the people." Liturgy is work. Liturgy is how we live as Christians. Liturgy is how we show ourselves to the world.

There has been a lot of news lately about states and individuals that "choose not to cater" (my wording) to others for one reason or another.  Sexuality is the vogue right now. Bakeries, florists, and pizza parlors are the flavor of the day. This whole issue may be limited to a very few people, but the tempest suggests a hurricane.

And all Christians are being painted with the same brush, "No soup for you."

This does not sound scriptural to me.

According to Matthew's gospel it is written--

When the Pharisees heard that he (Jesus) had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:34-40)

While on Earth, Jesus the Christ, Joshua the Messiah confirms the greatest commandment of them all. It is to love God and love one another. That is the GREATEST COMMANDMENT! I just don't see how  "No soup for you" fits into loving God and one another.

God does not have to be defended. Let me say that again--God does not have to be defended. Today we testify God conquered death. Death. If God can conquer death what we throw in his face won't demand his "A game." Sin offends God, but after conquering death what we've got is small potatoes.

In this space I have recently said "Maybe it's time we get back to the basics of love." Nothing can be more basic than this, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

We will never demonstrate our love crying "No soup for you."

BUT BE WARNED, there is another injunction from scripture which we had better be wary of as well. This from Luke 18:

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14)

That whole "Pride goes before the fall" thing? Yeah, it's scriptural. Let us not rejoice that "we're not sinners like them." That's bad form.

Instead this Easter, let us rejoice, "He is risen, He is risen indeed." Now let's go out there and live and love one another like Jesus did. If we do not then what did he die for?

Black Friday into Good Friday

I've been doing a lot of reflection during this Lenten season. That's not all bad, after all, that's one of the goals of Lent. Here's what I know. It has been a rough five years or so.

I won't continue to bore you with the foils of life, just a quick update on the latest. On Labor Day I began a "career" in insurance. I went to work for Bankers Life. SIDE NOTE: Great company, great products, great local agents (speaking for my former co-workers). If you need insurance in East Texas these are the professionals to speak with. They will make an appointment with you, come to your house or business, and get you set up. As for me, well, I couldn't get it to work. I had one good month out of six. My boss tells everyone to give it six months to see if the business is for you and I did. And it wasn't.

God love 'em, but I couldn't make sales to save my life. Getting appointments was difficult. Getting people to be home for their appointments seemed to be even harder. And if you don't talk to people making sales is not going to happen. So I went back to where I was before that, Motel 6 welcomed me home with open arms.

By now some of you are saying, "Don't you say you're a minister in the sidebar of this blog? What's up with that?" Well, that's a long story for another day but let me say the people of First Marshall, my last called appointment, decided to quit meeting together. With that went pay, housing, insurance and so on. There are other blog posts which show my tenuous grasp on mental health went to the other side of the hedge during these last two years. It got to the point that a year ago I had serious doubts that serving another church was in my future. It felt like the church was done with me.

WARNING, DANGER WILL ROBINSON! Don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying God is done with me. I'm saying I thought the humans who call pastors to churches are done with me.

Well praise God, that season in the wilderness is beginning to pass. I don't feel that way any longer. A year or so ago my Spiritual Director looked at me one day and said, "You know, with all of this horrible, even satanic opposition you're facing; when God comes in Glory there's going to be some kind of joy." In the midst of Black Friday this was a pipe dream. On Good Friday this is my hope.

I'm working and getting paid everyday, something commissioned sales can't promise. While we're about to lose where we're staying-for the third time in 18 months-we have a place to go. AND there is a wonderful congregation of people who are praying for me to be their pastor and they don't even know who they are. (AND there's a church checking my references which is VERY, VERY exciting. I won't share more than that to protect their place in their process.)

I want to leave you one thought, one reflection. Join me on that first Black Friday. Imagine being a disciple, an apostle, a follower; now imagine the events of the prior day... There's the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, what we call Palm Sunday. There's the final meal and instructions--what we now call the Last Supper, the Lord's Supper, the Holy Communion, the Eucharist. Then sleep falls on the weary only to be awakened by the sounds of a unit of Legionaries being led by one of their own to arrest the Messiah.

Oh, the trial, Pilate's question "What is truth?" rings in your ears. Jesus is alone, there's nobody with him as his advocate. He is convicted and sentenced. He will die and die horribly. We know that the only earthly difference between us and him is we are not in the hands of Rome, not yet.

Jesus cries, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" The Son of God is fully separated from God. We can't imagine this level of separation even on our worst days. Still, there's more to come and the horror of what that will be brings fear to paralysis. This is the state of Black Friday before the resurrection. The followers of the way don't know what will happen on that day. They're so afraid scripture doesn't even show them wondering. They simply scatter. Contemplation is a luxury when you fear for your life.

But we know this, we know Easter. We know what was Black Friday only once will forever be Good Friday. Today, reflect on the blackness, but rejoice that as the Easter people we know that the Light conquers the dark.