WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT YOUR FAMILY?

The parenting website All Pro Dad asked recently, “What do you know about your family?” For example, they asked whether your children know:
the name of your first pet and how you got it,
your favorite food when you were growing up and who made it for you, or
how much you made an hour for your first job?

On the other side, they also ask, "Do you know your children’s...
favorite holiday memory?
dream vacation spot?
current best friend?"

There are more of these. You can find them by pointing your Internet browser to: http://www.allprodad.com/playbook/viewarticle.php?art=386.

Now let me ask you: do your children (whether their young or grown) know:
the time you felt closest to God?
a time you felt God had abandoned you?
what you believe about heaven?

And/or do you know your children’s:
thoughts about God?
feelings about the church?
reasons for believing or not believing in God?

Some people believe that we ought to let our children come to their own conclusions about faith. In the long run, we really have no choice. In fact, many children rebel against their parents' beliefs in adolescence. But if they don’t know what you believe, and you don’t know what they believe, what is there even to rebel against?

As May turns into June, we find ourselves traveling between two parenting holidays: Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. This is a prime opportunity to learn from both your children and your parents what their faith means to them. Use this article as an icebreaker if this is new territory for you. Learn at least one new thing about a family member this week, and you will have started down the road to a closer, more meaningful relationship and probably a happier life for you both.

GIVE UP LENTEN ACTIVITIES FOR LENT?

When I saw the local funeral director at the post office Monday morning, he asked how I was doing. I responded, "Great! It's the day after Easter!" When I thought about that comment, I wondered why I should be so glad that Easter is over--Easter, the highest point in the Christian year. Actually, the season of Easter lasts eight weeks, so it isn't really over. What is over is Lent.

Lent, a season set aside for reflection and reconnection with God in preparation for the celebration of the Resurrection, often gets filled up with extra activities that can easily keep us from engaging in the reflection and reconnection we seek. There are extra worship services, extra Bible studies, extra choir practices perhaps (in our case, for both Holy Week and Easter), and, of course, practice for the Passion drama Palm Sunday, among other things. This year, we even had a couple of winter storms thrown in for good measure. In addition, I decided this year to try to read through all four of the gospels during Lent. I didn't make it. I didn't have time.

I also didn't have time to take the Lenten retreat I desired in order to sit back and ponder the meaning of both Lent and Easter, so as Easter approached, I felt tense and unprepared. Which makes me wonder whether we ought to give up most of our special Lenten activities and preparations and take just take some time to sit at Jesus feet, like his friend Mary did.

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed [Jesus] into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:38-42 (NRSV)

I don't know whether I would actually spend more time "at the Lord's feet" if I didn't have all those other activities. Some of them may even help me reconnect with him. But next Lent I just might have to take a look at which of those Lenten activities I might be able to give up in order to spend more time in reflection and less time being "worried and distracted by many things."

In the mean time, happy Easter!

Blessings,
John

WHO'S YOUR FRIEND?

"I longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you." (John 15:15, NIV)

I've just about stopped adding to my list of "friends" on Facebook. While it might be nice to think that I'm friends with my bishop, a famous author, or even a kid in the youth group, I've begun to have second thoughts whenever I'm asked to add another "friend" to my list.

To me a friend is one with whom I can share my innermost hopes and dreams, as well as my trials and defeats. A friend is one who, whether I write to express a new thought or an old emotion, will write back to show his/her understanding. Few of my Facebook "friends" will do any such thing. Come to think of it, few people I know will do that at all. I written before that Facebook friends seemed to be consumed with what they themselves are doing. That's not always the case, but it often seems to be. Even some non-Facebook people who say they are my friends grow weary after a while of responding.

The old hymn, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" says that Jesus is our friend, because we can take all of our griefs and cares to him in prayer. On the other hand, Jesus himself told his disciples that he considered them his friends because he had already told them everything he had learned from his Father.

Let me rephrase that. I tend to consider someone a friend if I can tell him/her what's on my mind and get a response. Jesus called his disciples friends, because he had told them everything that was on his Father's mind. What kind of response did he expect? Just one verse prior to the one above he tells them: "You are my friends if you do what I command" (vs. 14).

And what is that? "Love each other as I have loved you" (vs. 12). It is love that on the Father's mind constantly. It is his Father's love that Jesus tried to teach and demonstrate in his interactions with his own followers and friends. In turn, it is that love that he expected, even commanded, those who followed him to share with others.

Many people, myself included, tend to think of friends as people who will demonstrate a friendly sort of love to them. In that way we try to make them our servants. Jesus, on the other hand, expects his friends to demonstrate love for one another, to, in effect, be each other's servants.

Now, as I go down my list of Facebook friends (and other friends, as well), a new thought will occupy my mind: "How can I show them God's love?" When I'm through doing that for the "friends" I already have listed, I just may have add some new ones. That is how God's love spreads.

Blessings,
John

Where are the sick?

"Jesus said to them, 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'" (Mark 2:17).

Time after time I've seen it. Someone makes a mistake with their life--something obvious and public--and all of a sudden they disappear from church. Or someone becomes mentally ill, and the same thing occurs. When you get sick, you go to the doctor. When you get really sick, you go to the hospital. But get spiritually sick, and suddenly you are isolated as if you have some horriby contageous disease.

Jesus encouraged the spiritually sick to come to him, so why is that the church seems to be such an anti-magnet to the same crowd? Could it be that the majority of people in the church (pastors included) are under the illusion that we are spiritually healthy, and that the sick belong somewhere else, lest they "infect" the rest of us? Where else can they go to encounter Jesus in his flesh and blood--in the body and blood of Christ that is offered in Holy Communion and in the flesh and blood of human beings created in the image of God and redeemed by Jesus so that they might BE Jesus to others in this world. Shunning them or (God forbid) driving them away would be like the hospital receptionist telling a prospective patient that he/she is too sick to be there, and yet it happens all too often in real life.

A colleague of mine decided this past week to remain an independent evangelist rather than tie himself down to a particular congregation. I was disappointed, because I believe that he needs the stability a congregation would bring, but I also understand. As an independent evangelist he is free to minister to those who know they are spiritually ailing, wherever he might find them. As a pastor in a congregation he might well be distracted by the concerns of those who believe they are healthy, or at least pretend that they are, while hiding their sickness inside. The reality is that a parish pastor typically ministers to both, and, if fortunate, he/she can empower those who really are more healthy to help those who are more in need of spiritual healing. That is the power and potential of true Christian community.

My fervent desire for the church is that it might become more like an Alcoholics Anonymous group, where everyone knows that he/she is still sick and in need of constant repentance and reassurance, where the confession we say at the beginning of the worship service is said honestly and with a passion, so that everyone who comes might be willing to simply relax into the company of fellow sinners who are only too eager to help each other experience the love of our Creator God, the redemption of Jesus Christ, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and the blessed consolation of the saints who are the living body of Christ.

STAY CONNECTED

In the middle of a storm, it's important to stay connected. I've heard stories of blizzards on the farm, when farmers would tie a rope from the house to the barn, so that they wouldn't get lost or disoriented and wind up stuck out in the cold and snow. Nowadays, if someone should have to venture out on the road in a storm, they can take along a cell phone and keep people on each end of their journey informed as to their progress. Either way, staying connected is not only a good idea, it can save a person's life.

Likewise, as you and I encounter difficult times in life, it's also important for us to stay connected--to people we know and love, to groups and/or practices that keep us anchored, and, of course, to God. In times of sickness, mourning, marital or financial trouble, staying connected through coffee-chats, phone calls, e-mails, worship, prayer and devotional reading can help people see their way through the storm and back home to safe ground.

We're in the midst of quite a storm right now. Economic uncertainty, fighting in two countries, and competing moral values in society can leave us wondering where we're going, or at least, when we're going to "get there."

God knows and can guide us along our way. The Bible is full of stories of people who have weathered life's storms. Others close to us may have similar experiences and can offer wisdom and encouragement. Staying connected with any and all of these can help us to keep from getting lost in the present storm--and any future ones as well.

Life will always bring us storms. Winter snows give way to spring downpours and summer's tornados. Whatever the season, then, it's always important to stay connected.

Blessings,
John

HOW DO YOU SAY "THANK YOU"?

What's you favorite way to say, "Thank you"? Flowers? A card? A gift? The words alone? What's your favorite way to be thanked? Are the two the same?

Food and affection are two of my favorite ways both to thank and be thanked, but it depends on the person. Our congregation recently received quite a large gift of money from a relative of some of our members. I didn't send the donor food, and since he lives in another state, I couldn't give him a hug. I probably wouldn't have done that, anyway. I simply wrote him a letter suggesting the possible effects his gift might have on the congregation and its ministries.

Which reminds me: one of the ways that I say "Thank you" to God is through my gifts to the church and others who can put the money I give to use in the service of others. And one of the ways I might say "Thank you" to God for some new thing I have been able to purchase is to use it for the benefit of God's work in the world. For example, when our family got our new "media center" computer a couple of years ago, the first "media thing" I did on it was to make a DVD for a worship service. I didn't really plan it that way; it just happened. Granted, I have a calling that makes things like that more likely to happen, but it could happen to others, too.

You buy a new car, and the first thing you do with it is give someone a ride to the doctor's office who doesn't have a car of their own. You buy a new video game console, and first thing you do is to share it with your youth group. I had a counsin who used to invite Bible college students out to their lake cabin. There are certainly a lot of ways one can say "Thank You"--to God and to anyone else who happens to have blessed your day.

Blessings to you.
John

MIRACLES HAPPEN AS WE DO OUR JOBS

They're calling it "Miracle on the Hudson," the landing of a United Airways plane safely in the Hudson River after its engines were disabled by birds in flight. The captain is being hailed as a hero; he maintains he was just doing his job. That's often the way it goes.

Healing events that would have been considered miraculous even fifty (perhaps even twenty) years ago happen routinely today because doctors, nurses and researchers do the work they were trained to do. Mental illness that once may have been labeled as demon possession can now often be miraculously treated with drugs and/or therapy. A runner's pair of amazing prosthetic legs caused a stir when they were deemed an unfair advantage by his opponents. Just as it was said of Jesus, the blind receive sight, the lame walk, and the sick are healed, all because of people who day after day, simply do their jobs.

Certainly the unexplainable continues to happen: the untreatable illness that suddenly disappears, the unavoidable collision that is avoided, etc. But miracles large and small also happen when people like you and me use the gifts God has given us and the roles God has give us to do the work God has called us to do.

You see, we are God's hands in this world. We were put here to do God's holy work in the midst of God's creation. It's a miracle, they say, every time a baby is born. But it's a miracle, too, when you think of it, every time that same little child grows up to be a happy, healthy, responsible adult, because of the gentle guidance of a loving parent or guardian. It may have been a miracle that that airliner landed in the Hudson, but it's also a miracle that more such emergency landings do not occur--a miracle due in no small part to the skills practiced by those who design, build, test, maintain, inspect, fly and guide those planes. Sometimes it seems a miracle that one can put a teenager through a drivers'-training course and have him/her come out able to guide a ton of metal, plastic and rubber safely down the road. All too soon I will have to trust that the miracle will, indeed, occur for our own children, through the work of someone who is just doing his/her job.

So thank God for the unexplainable miracles, to be sure, but also for those that happen through the ordinary work that you, I, and others do day after day, with the miraculous help of God.