In this time of disaffiliation and turmoil within The United Methodist Church and with the “revival” at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky (and I will admit that I’m skeptical of the event – even though I believe that a movement of the Spirit is possible today as part of God’s prevenient grace wooing us to God, Asbury Seminary (yes, a separate entity from the college, but just across the street) has been ground zero for some of the “stuff” that has led us United Methodists to where we find ourselves today), what are we expecting as Christ followers? That may be a strange question, but I wonder if God isn’t doing a new thing? If so, how should we respond?

Is it possible that in the midst of the pain of disaffiliation that God is opening us up to new possibilities of outreach to a community of people who have been disenfranchised by our actions (or lack thereof) or who have been ignored because (we think that) they just aren’t important?

What if, in the midst of the turmoil, God is calling us to engage with the most vulnerable to help them with some of the situations that they are facing in life? What if God is calling us to create pathways of opportunity to help people to rise out of the situations that have held them back from reaching their potential? What if God is seeking to spur us out of our comfort zones so that we might get down into the muck and the mud with our brothers and sisters who are without hope, partner with them, and lead them to a new reality that overcomes the barriers that they have always faced?

What if we open ourselves to the new things that God is doing in our midst, get out of the way, and serve as conduits of hope and encouragement to those who experienced neither of those things before?

What if…?

These are the questions that I am asking myself. These are the questions that are keeping me up at night. What is God asking of me? What is God expecting of me? What new things can I be part of as we seek to reach out to the community around us? How can we continue to let folks know that God loves them, is there for them, and never abandons them to face the world all alone? If God IS doing a new thing, where do I fit in?

Something to think about as we enter into the Season of Lent.

It’s hard to believe that the last post on this blog was in 2018. In the meantime, I have posted updates on our church website at www.mcfarlandumc.org and on our church Facebook page. But this blog, with which I have had a love-hate relationship since 2004 has been neglected and ignored for almost 5 years now. That’s hard to believe.

This is the third iteration of the blog that I started in 2004 when I entered candidacy studies to explore the call that God had been pressing upon my life since the early 70’s but I avoided with a passion because it wasn’t what I wanted. That exploration led to being admitted to candidacy for ministry in The United Methodist Church, the church that I was raised in, confirmed in, that disappointed me and caused me to leave it for a season before a marriage helped lead me back into it with a new fervor.

The various iterations of this blog helped me to voice my frustrations with the forces that have sought to destroy not only The United Methodist Church, but all of mainline Protestantism since, I believe, the progressivism that spawned Teddy Roosevelt and the focus on worker’s rights that heralded the turn of the 20th Century. The Methodist Episcopal Church advocated in its statements on Social Witness the ideas that formed the foundation of the Middle Class that came to fruition following World War II. The old money interests whose Ox was gored in all of this have played the long game not only in the church but in the American political establishment as well.

The groups that have advocated for the current splitting of The United Methodist Church have lied and misrepresented to cause division in the church just like their secular parents have lied and misrepresented to lead to the political divisions in our nation. Over the years I’ve called out the lies of the IRD and the misrepresentations of the folks at Good News and other organizations especially when their lies could be demonstrated by just watching the full video record of what they were misrepresenting. To say that I hold total disgust toward them and their tactics is an understatement. But, like the lies, misdirection, and deception that has led us to the place that we find ourselves in American politics, the same on their part has led us to this place in the church. By the way, the way that we interact with LGBTQ+ folks is a SCAPEGOAT people. The issue at the bottom of all of this is POWER and CONTROL.

This being said, I am disturbed at the way that all of this is falling out. I am disgusted with the way that the WCA crowd is crowing over the number of churches that are voting to disaffiliate from the Holston Conference specifically or the UMC in totality. But I am also disgusted by the folks who plan to remain who are basically saying “don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” To my mind this whole situation damages our Wesleyan witness as we gather in a circular firing squad to get our way.

In the meantime, the Wesleyan witness of grace is being shoved to the wayside for expediency.

The next couple of years in the UMC will be a challenge. As a leader in the Holston Conference, I’m not going anywhere. To the folks that are leaving the UMC, go with God. To the folks that are staying with the UMC, stay with God. To all, please stop scapegoating and demonizing the other side. It destroys our witness when we demonize each other. If our mission is to “make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world” then we’re tossing that aside to make political points… shame on us.

We’ll make it through this nonsense. But I figure we’ll be bloodied in the process because we are too vain and too ignorant to do otherwise. And it’s a damned shame because God is greater than our divisions. In fact, the divisions would be gone if we put our trust and faith in God instead of our own understanding and prejudice.

All the best.

Wayne

Here is a good analysis of the challenge facing us in the United Methodist Church as the February 2019 General Conference approaches.

Believing, Belonging, and Behaving in the United Methodist Church

This morning, I had the opportunity to experience my first Free Store at McFarland UMC. Now, you need to understand that the Free Store collects donated clothing and personal care items for those in need. I understand from Vicki Riddle, the co-ordinator and driving force behind the free store, that folks start arriving around 7:30 a.m. to be first in line to shop at the free store which opens at 9:15 or so.

We gathered in the Sanctuary at 9:00. After instructions from Vicki about the process (everyone registering is given a number and a few groups at a time are allowed to shop based on a first-come first-served basis), I gave a devotion based upon the Parable of the Prodigal Son, a devotion that was designed to reassure folks that they are a beloved child of God, no matter what they might have been told by others. Once we prayed, folks moved from the Sanctuary to the Hospitality space and the hallway to wait for their turn to shop. Coffee, cookies, and snacks were available while folks waited their turn. It was a pleasure to talk and pray with some of the clients. It was also a pleasure to talk with some of the volunteers that make this ministry happen.

The Free Store clientele reminds me of the clientele that we saw at the Tri-State Food Pantry during my time at Sand Mountain, people who just needed a hand-up and not a hand-out. There were folks who got the limit of what they could get and there were folks who just got what little they needed. Everyone who came had a chance to get something that they needed.

As I watched the morning unfold, I got to see the church be the church. People of different backgrounds reached out to their neighbors in need to provide a bit of comfort and a bit of respect for them as children containing the image of the living God within them. And, as I watched the church be the church, my heart was strangely warmed to see that my folks “get it.” Once again, I am so blessed to be their pastor.

My first Sunday in this new appointment to McFarland UMC (101 E Gordon Ave., Rossville, GA) was July 1. I started moving into the office on June 20, but then Charlene and I took a leisurely trip to/from Saratoga Springs, NY to visit our daughter, Monica. After a couple of weeks of introduction, I will be starting a new sermon series following the Revised Common Lectionary readings in Ephesians that I’m calling “No Longer Strangers.” The texts and rough topics for this series are:

July 15        Ephesians 1:3-14     All in the Family
July 22        Ephesians 2:11-22   Aliens No More
July 29        Ephesians 3:14-21   God’s Powerful Love
August 5     Ephesians 4:1-16     Bound Together
August 12   Ephesians 4:25-5:2  Making Peace
August 19   Ephesians 5:15-20   Overflow

Paul’s letter to the Church at Ephesus is an interesting, and controversial, text.  However,  it is an important text dealing with how we, as the church, relate to each other and to the community in which we serve.  As we approach this first series together, I would invite you to read the entire letter to the Ephesians in one sitting.  It won’t take you more than a half hour.  Read to get a feeling of the gist of this letter.  If you have a copy of The Message by Eugene Peterson, read that since it will provide you with an overview of the letter.  Then set it aside for time.  Next, take your study Bible and read the text for this week. Note what you find that resonates with you.  Read it again.  Set it aside for a bit, then read it a third time, paying attention to the things that call to you in the text.  Once you do all of this preparation, you will be ready to engage the text in worship on Sunday morning.

As we enter into this 3rd week together, I look forward to engaging further with you.  Visitation with the shut-ins begins this week and I look forward to meeting all of you, hearing your stories, and establishing a vision for McFarland for the years to come.

I’m so thankful to be your pastor.  I am so thankful for the reception that you have given to me as we get to know each other.  My prayer is that we will seek and conform to God’s will for this community and our place in it.  Please pray for me as I pray for each one of you.

Blessings,
Wayne

Last Sunday, in the opening of the Acts of the Apostles, we found Jesus making his last appearance with the disciples.  They were gathered on the mountaintop at Olivet and Jesus final words to them are reported with minor variances in the four Gospels, but there is a common theme.  In his final words, Christ commissions the disciples to go and preach repentance in Jesus’ name to all the nations.  In Luke’s Gospel, we hear:

Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things.  And see, I am sending upon you what my Father has promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.

Parallel texts can be found in all of the Gospels and in the opening of the book of Acts.

In John, we hear “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

In Mark, “Go into all the world and proclaim the Good News to the whole creation.”

At the opening of the book of the Acts of the Apostles, we hear “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

But the description of the final words of Christ that we know best are found in the Gospel according to Matthew:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

This Great Commission, as it has come to be known, along with the other scriptures, call all of us to a life of action.  Hear again the action words in the Great Commission.

We are to go.

We are to make.

We are to teach.

And, we are to remember.

When Jesus ascended to the Father as we heard it described in Acts 1, we hear these words: “While he was going and they (the disciples) were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them.  They said “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?  This Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”  The angels were telling them to get off their duffs, to stop looking and start living; living the life that Jesus had called them to live and living the commission that he had given to them.

The disciples returned to Jerusalem, to the same upper room that they have occupied since the time of the crucification and they wait.  Well, the waiting is over.  It’s the day of Pentecost.  The Holy Spirit has arrived and the Spirit has arrived with a vengeance.

We’re told that like a mighty rush of wind, the Spirit swooshes in upon them, descending upon them like tongues of fire.  In that moment, they are seized with a power to speak in other languages… not some gibberish “spirit language,” but languages that are the native languages of the folks passing by in the streets below… and the disciples are all telling of the Gospel of Jesus Christ fluently in these foreign languages and the people who hear them are amazed.  Everyone wonders what this is all about… some of the more cynical among them speculate that the disciples are drunk.

When Peter addresses the crowd, he reminds them of the words of the prophet Joel…

In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
    Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
    Your young will see visions.
    Your elders will dream dreams…
And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. (Acts 2:17,21 CEB).

Peter continued the sermon, encouraging those who were listening to give their hearts and their lives to Jesus, to change their lives and at the end of the day, nearly 3,000 were baptized and they became a community of faith.

The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers. A sense of awe came over everyone. God performed many wonders and signs through the apostles. All the believers were united and shared everything. They would sell pieces of property and possessions and distribute the proceeds to everyone who needed them. Every day, they met together in the temple and ate in their homes. They shared food with gladness and simplicity. They praised God and demonstrated God’s goodness to everyone. The Lord added daily to the community those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47).

This was the day that the church was born.

Recently, we’ve heard the news from the Pew Study of Religious Life that Christianity is losing ground in America.  Almost across the board, the percentages of people in America who identify as Christian are dropping.  The number of persons identifying as having no religious preference, the “nones” are increasing…these folks aren’t necessarily atheist (people who believe that there is no god) or agnostic (folks who really aren’t sure if there is a god or not), they are typically folks who really don’t care either way.  There is another number that is increasing as well, and these are the “dones” the folks who have just dropped out of the church because they are tired of the infighting, the hypocrisy, and the close alignment between some factions of evangelical Christianity and a social conservatism that is shrill, hateful, and so far removed from the concept of loving neighbor…the 2nd part of the Great Commandment, if you can remember.

Now, I’m not worried about the Church.  The holy, apostolic, and universal (or catholic) church.  I’m not worried about it because Jesus told Peter in Matthew 16:18 “upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”

But I am concerned that we in North America just don’t get it  Not long ago, Dr Marsha McFee, a leader in worship design and practice presented this thought, “It’s ok if people hate you because you are a Christian.  It’s not ok if people hate Christianity because of you.”  This quote came from her atheist neighbor who heard it from who knows where.

In so many cases we have forgotten that the church is the people, broken people who have been empowered in their baptism and in the baptism of the Holy Spirit with gifts that are to be used to build the kingdom of God here on earth.  In too many cases, the focus of the church has become the building; in too many cases, that building has either become an albatross or an idol or both and it causes us to lose sight of our mission.

Paragraph 120 in the Book of Discipline tells us what our mission is: “The mission of the United Methodist Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”  That is the mission of every one of us in this room today.  The mission might sound vaguely familiar.  Matthew 28:19 anyone?  “Go and make disciples of all nations…”  I told the folks at our Wednesday night dinner and devotional that the Greek could also be translated this way, “As you go, disciple” which changes the word disciple from a noun… an object to be acted upon to a verb which connotes action.

With the idea that mission informs vision which in turn generates missions into the world, I want to share the vision statement of the Holston Annual Conference with you… it’s something that we should be hearing often… and believe me, you will:

God envisions
bold, passionate, and joyful communities of faith
where the spiritual hunger to worship God and to serve Christ
sets disciples on fire with Spirit-filled, risk-taking love for all God’s children
until Holston Conference reflects the saving grace
and redeeming justice of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Where is our boldness?

Where is our passion?

Where is our joy?

Several years ago, Bishop Swanson asked us to consider the question, “If you church closed its doors tomorrow, would anyone notice?  Would anyone care?”  It’s a question that has been haunting me for the last couple of weeks.

First, let me salute the ministries that are being done through the UMW, through the Food Pantry, through individuals working with Relay for Life , the Quilts of Valor program and others.  We do a pretty good job of caring for each other and, when we see a need we try to help.  This not only plays out in the local community, but elsewhere as well.  For example, when the Sand Mountain choir had its Valentine Dinner last year, a portion of the proceeds from that night went to Heiffer International to purchase a water buffalo for a family… a gift that will be a long term benefit to that family.

These ministries are great things, but I think we can do better.  I’m not suggesting that we should re-invent the wheel, but that we can find ways to work together with our other United Methodist churches in the area to make an even bigger difference in the lives of people that we touch.

Once again, this year’s Annual Conference mission offering is staying right here in the Holston Conference to fund block grants to churches and ministries within the conference that impact children in poverty.  These block grants will be divided among the 12 districts in Holston and they will be administered at the local level.  Bishop Taylor has challenged us to a minimum of $10 per regular attendee, not only that, but she has challenged each of us to give 10 hours of service to a ministry that benefits children in poverty… to my mind, the Tri-State Food Pantry fits that definition.

To put this into perspective, for this church:

Rising Fawn: $300 Sand Mountain: $310

That doesn’t sound like a lot, but if all of the churches in the Holston Conference, some 887 congregations, met the goal of $10 per average attendee, we would raise $685,000 to help children in poverty right here in our own back yard.  We proved that we could accomplish big goals 3 years ago with our $1 million dollar goal for Imagine No Malaria. We raised $1.2 million… pretty impressive considering the most that we had ever raised in a conference offering before was $175,000.

Finding ways to work together with Trenton, New Salem, Morganville, Slygo, Whiteside, Wildwood, and Payne’s Chapel and, of course, with (Rising Fawn/Sand Mountain), we can make a greater impact on Dade County than we could ever do on our own.  Finding ways to work in tandem with the Upper Sand Mountain Parish in the North Alabama Conference could help us to have an impact upon an entire region.

I’m not asking us to work harder, although that wouldn’t hurt, but by breaking down the barriers, whether they be jealousy, pride, or any number of things that provide stumbling blocks to our mission of making disciples and caring for the least of these, I believe that we can work smarter and reach more people who need to see the church in action, but more than that, they need to see Jesus reflected in all that we say, all that we do, and in all that we are.

And it doesn’t matter how old or how young we are, this calling is for all of us.  As we hear from the prophet Joel, your young will see visions, your elders will dream dreams.”  You’ve heard me talk about Peg Butler, telling you that at age 97 she considered her ministry to be driving the old folks to the store.  She died two years ago at age 104 and 6 months.  One of the stories told about her at her memorial service was from when she was in her mid 80’s and serving on a visitation team at Brainerd UMC. She would stop by to greet visitors to the church, leave them a basket of home made cookies and invite them to come again.  On one visit, as the story goes, as Peg issued the invitation, the person receiving it said, “I don’t know.  I’m 73 years old and find it difficult to get out.”  Peg’s response was “Well, I’m 86 and I’m there every week.”

On the opposite end of the scale, 7 years ago, a 10 year old boy named Jack Skowronnek, read a book about a 4 year old boy with cancer and his teenaged brother who shaved his head in solidarity with his baby brother when the 4 year old lost his hair from chemotherapy.  Jack started what is now known as Jack’s Chattanoggins and on July 17,  the 17 year old Jack will be at the Chattanooga Market where folks will be shaving their heads to raise money for Children’s Hospital at Erlanger.  So far, over $130,000 has been raised.

Your young will see visions, your elders will dream dreams…

As the body of Christ, we should be in the vision and dream business as we go about seeking God’s vision and God’s dreams for us and our communities and then making those dreams happen.

We are not alone.

We can make a difference.

Together, we can transform the world in Jesus’ name.

So, what are we waiting for?

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

It seems that there is one thing of which we can be certain: we live in a time of uncertainty.  We live in a time of great change. We live in an age where the Christendom paradigm, that structure which presumes that the vast majority of people around us share our faith and our values, is changing.  I agree with Roberts and Meade that the changes have been coming for some time and we have just been unprepared for the changes that come with the paradigm shift.

Our folly, I fear, is that our reaction to these changes has been the wrong reaction.  It seems that the loudest “Christian” voices have reacted with a shrill voice shouting out in the language of persecution.  Now, I will concede that in some areas of the world, especially in the Middle East where ISIS seems hell-bent on destroying anything and anyone that does not fit into their extremist worldview, persecution is real.  However, and you can disagree with me on this point, but, claims of persecution in the United States are, at best, a gross exaggeration.

In the midst of the changes that we see happening around us, we should be standing true to what Jesus identified as the “greatest commandment”: “‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31 New Revised Standard Version).  But, in too many instances, it seems to me, we react to the changes that we see happening around us in a manner that demonstrates anything but love.

In his sermon, “On Love,” Wesley addresses the passage in 1 Corinthians 13:3, “If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing” (NRSV), and he points out that our motivation means everything:

There is great reason to fear that it will hereafter be said of most of you who are here present, that this scripture, as well as all those you have heard before, profited you nothing. Some, perhaps, are not serious enough to attend to it; some who do attend, will not believe it; some who do believe it, will yet think it a hard saying, and so forget it as soon as they can; and, of those few who receive it gladly for a time, some, having no root of humility, or self-denial, when persecution ariseth because of the word, will, rather than suffer for it, fall away. Nay, even of those who attend to it, who believe, remember, yea, and receive it so deeply into their hearts, that it both takes root there, endures the heat of temptation, and begins to bring forth fruit, yet will not all bring forth fruit unto perfection. The cares or pleasures of the world, and the desire of other things, (perhaps not felt till then) will grow up with the word, and choke it.” – (http://www.umcmission.org/Find-Resources/John-Wesley-Sermons/Sermon-139-On-Love#sthash.WcqgUtXC.dpuf)

It seems that we have let perceived power and status get in the way of our true mission as given to us by Christ.  And I contend that, in a time when others advocate that we climb into our bunkers and hole up in our silos to separate ourselves from the world, that we should reject those calls to isolation and step boldly into the world to share “a more excellent way,” a way based in the love of Christ.

During the Easter Season I was preaching a series based upon the lectionary readings from the Epistle texts of 1 John which, along with the Gospel texts, focused primarily upon an attribute of God that challenges us as we attempt to live into the life that God calls each of us to live through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit… a life that is centered in the love of Jesus, the love of God, and the capacity of the Holy Spirit to give us the strength that we need to embody that love to a world that has no idea what love is.

John tells us that God is love.  He tells us that we love because God first loved us.  It is a message that the church needs to hear, because, to be perfectly frank, we haven’t been so good at this crazy and unruly thing called love.

And the wonderful, crazy thing about God’s love is this: God loves us whether we want God’s love or not – and it makes no difference whether we are worthy of God ’s love because, as I hope every one of us knows, we are most assuredly, most definitely un-worthy of God’s love and grace.  That might not mean a lot to those of us sitting in this classroom on a Monday morning in Atlanta, but it can make all the difference in the world to a person who has been beaten down by the stress of trying to be worthy of God’s love… something that is preached by too many of our brothers and sisters, but mostly brothers in denominations that are more about rules than they are about grace.  That’s the message that way too many of the people that we serve at the Tri-State Food Pantry have heard their entire lives… a message telling them that “you’re not good enough” and “if you don’t follow the narrow rules that we set out for you and use against you in our effort to define who’s in and who’s out then all you can look forward to is damnation to the eternal fires of hell.”

Now tell me, where is the Gospel in that?

The overarching story of God, personified in Jesus Christ and told to us in the fullness of Scripture is a message of love.  All of humanity is created in love, created in the imago Dei, the very image and likeness of God.  Paul reminds us in Romans 5:8, “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”  Think about it: Christ died… for us… so that we might live and so that we might share that love with others in the name of Jesus.

We are the body of Christ.

We are a body that exists for one purpose: to love God with everything that we have and to love our neighbors as God loves us.

We are the body and we are Christ’s representatives to the world.  And those of us who claim the faith of Jesus must make our stand in the world to proclaim Christ to everyone in every corner of the earth. Just like the song by Casting Crowns says:

Jesus paid much too high a price
For us to pick and choose who should come
And we are the Body of Christ 

But if we are the Body
Why aren’t His arms reaching
Why aren’t His hands healing
Why aren’t His words teaching 

And if we are the Body
Why aren’t His feet going
Why is His love not showing them there is a way
There is a way.

Jesus IS the way.

Jesus calls us to throw aside our prejudices and our fears and to go into the world and engage the world with his message of love to all people… period.

The work won’t be easy, but if we give our all to the honor and glory of God, then the rewards will be plenty.  And the best part is that we won’t be there alone and on our own, because Jesus, through the Holy Spirit will be by our side as we go about His work – the work not of a kingdom that is yet to come, but a kingdom yet to be revealed in the here and now.

We are the body of Christ and it’s time for us to get to work.

Thanks be to God.  In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

We continue our adventure with David, who, as you recall, has been anointed by God to become the new King of Israel to replace Saul. Last week, we watched as he found victory over Goliath of Gath. Now, this week we enter a new phase of David’s life as he prepares to ascend to the throne as the new king of Israel.

It has been a long, and dangerous journey. When David killed Goliath, he was hailed far and wide for his heroism, and this was a threat to Saul. In the meantime, David and Saul’s son, Jonathan, became very close friends. In fact, they became inseparable, almost like twin brothers from different mothers. They became closer than family… as close and dear friends can become… and their closeness bothered Saul too.

Saul wanted to keep David close at hand in order to keep a watch on him as his popularity with the people of Israel continued to grow. So, he brought David into the royal household to keep an eye on him. But Saul’s plans went awry very quickly. For one thing, Jonathan’s fondness for David grew quickly, and Jonathan could sense that his father did not have the best intentions for his friend.

Long story short, David ended up running for his life once Jonathan got wind of what was up with his dad. Jonathan did his best to protect his friend.

In the meantime, the Philistines regrouped and attacked the army of Israel and in the battle, Jonathan and his brothers were killed and Saul was gravely injured. His injuries were so great and his fear of being killed by the Philistines was so strong that Saul ordered his armor bearer to kill him so that he would avoid the indignity of death at the hand of his enemies. When his servant refused to kill him, Saul took his sword and committed the first act of suicide recorded in the Bible.

That is the backstory leading to our Old Testament text for this morning.

Once David has received word of the death of Jonathan and Saul, he leads the nation in mourning and lament over their death.

In the Jewish tradition, there is a prescribed period of mourning… it is the minimum amount of time that is expected for propriety sake, but it serves as the official time of mourning for all of the family and friends of the deceased. There is nothing that limits the time of mourning for as long as it may take, but the minimums are designed to give the family time to process their grief and hopefully work through their loss.

One of the problems that we have in our society today is that we have forgotten how to grieve. When a loved one is lost, there are many who try to comfort the survivor with platitudes that, all to often, don’t bring comfort, but bring more pain and sorrow upon them.
One of the best ways that we can help someone who is grieving is to give them the space to grieve. Give them the space to be angry at God, if necessary, and stand by them and support them in their grief.

I remember my Aunt Vola Mae and my Uncle Mac. They were married for 52 years. From what I understand, they argued incessantly for about 50 of those years. Imagine if you will, that Aunt Vola was Aunt Esther to my Uncle Mac’s Fred Sanford. If you get that picture, then you can understand what I’m trying to describe here.

When Mac died in 1986, it was after a brief illness, I seem to recall that from diagnosis to death was only about 2 weeks. And during those 2 weeks, Vola never left his side. Constantly caring for the man that I had only heard her refer to as “that old fool”… and that was when she was being nice to him.

I will never forget very early in the visitation at the funeral home, a long time neighbor of theirs told my Aunt Vola, “well, he’s in a better place” and my Aunt Vola lit into her “And you think that is supposed to make me feel better? Right now there is a hole in my heart that he filled ever since Olivia died (Olivia was their daughter who died shortly before her first birthday). All of the fussing that we did over the years was our way of coping with the death of our baby. You don’t know squat and I wish you’d just leave.” My aunt Vola died less than 2 weeks later… from a broken heart that had been held together for all those years by “that old fool.”

The book of Lamentations and the Psalms give us a window into the human condition. Alternate readings from Lamentations and the Book of Wisdom remind us that “God didn’t make death” that “God takes no delight in the ruin of anything that lives” and that “death entered the universe only through the devil’s envy” (Wisdom 1:13, 2:24 CEB). We are also reminded that in hardship and in death, “certainly the faithful love of the Lord hasn’t ended; certainly God’s compassion isn’t through” (Lamentations 3:22 CEB). Psalm 130 reminds us that God hears us when we cry out from the depths of our despair and our anguish, in the midst of our pain and our sorrow, and delivers us from all of that if we seek his face and rest in his amazing grace.

We are reminded that in the midst of our grief, God is with us. Ready to hold us. Ready to allow us to rest in God’s presence. Ready for us to rage and cry out and exhibit our grief in whatever way that we must so that healing may begin… so that wholeness may once again be ours. Our God is our help in ages past. He is our shelter when the stormy blast of life’s struggles and heartaches threaten to consume us in our grief, our anger, and our despair… and God in Jesus Christ is our hope for things to come.

Jesus tells us “I am the resurrection and I am life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, yet shall they live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. I died and behold I am alive forevermore, and I hold the keys of hell and death. Because I live, you shall live also.”

David placed his hope in the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. When we are faced with uncertainty, when we are faced with a changing culture, and when we begin to face tremendous change in our lives and in the society surrounding us, we don’t need to fear… we don’t need to hunker down in our silos and act like we’re under attack… we don’t need to waste our time lamenting the fact that things have changed and perhaps not to our liking. In times like these we need to get to our knees, seek God’s will in our lives and then step boldly into the world, not to condemn the world… even Jesus didn’t come to do that (cf John 3:17), but to engage the world with the love of Christ… a love ordered by God, exemplified by Christ and enlivened and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Instead of getting on our soapbox and crying woe is me and woe to you who disagree, we should be bearers of Christ’s love to all people. And we should show them that we are Christians by our love, not by shouting out what we are against.

For too long, the church has been in a comfortable position. It was pretty much accepted that people were Christians, whether they were part of a church family or ever even attended church or not. Ever notice how many times you see in an obituary that someone was of the “Methodist faith” or the “Baptist faith”… pretty much a declaration that the last time that person set foot in a church was well beyond anyone’s memory and probably beyond several folks lifetimes.

For too long, we’ve had it easy, whether folks were in the pews or not. And for too long we have let cultural hot button issues as defined by the folks with the biggest and loudest mouths, especially here in America, define what was or wasn’t Christian… what sins were important and what were not. We’ve had too many voices shouting out about the unborn while turning a blind eye to those who are born, not caring about poverty, or justice, or mercy.

We’ve singled out homosexuality to be a major sin while ignoring the other things that Paul lists like gossip, slander, gluttony, and divorce. And in the process of all of this, we have made the church look hateful, intolerant, and irrelevant in the lives of too many people.

We have emasculated our witness by shouting about what we are against instead of lifting up what we are about. We have forgone the love of Christ and the idea of doing unto others as we would have them do to us, to become nothing more than crybabies who throw tantrums if we don’t get our way. It’s been our way or the highway, instead of pointing to Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life for far too long and it has got to stop.

We are called to love… period. Jesus declared that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church, but we have abandoned the message of Jesus for a message of condemnation and the world has seen the hypocrisy that is evident in such a stand.

So, as society changes around us, we don’t need to abandon Christ, we need to hold on closer to Christ with both hands and boldly share with others the risk taking love of Christ. We need to look to Christ for our inspiration and we need to love others as he loves us.

It might not be easy. It might even be painful. But no one has ever said that following Christ would be easy or painless. We may not agree with someone’s lifestyle, but that has never given us permission to act in a hateful way toward them.

Friends, if we live out our lives seeking to exemplify Christ’s love in all that we say and do, we will do more to change lives and hearts than we can ever begin to imagine. Our protests against what we see as another’s sin will never lead that person to Jesus. Our living as though Christ makes a difference in our life can make all of the difference in the world. Thanks be to God…