Come as you are …

No, I’m not referring to the latest misguided attempt at figuring out when the world will end.  Why does it not surprise me that Harold Camping is not admitting defeat even though May 21 came and went without drama, rather he has an explanation with a recalculation to October 21!   But enough of that.

Our reading this week was about a very different sort of left behind.  When Jesus ascended into the clouds, according to Acts 1:6-14, he left us behind to continue his work, to serve as he served, and to live as he lived.  The disciples asked if it was time for them to go with him.  The answer was clearly no.  It’s not up to us to know the time.  And, they were also warned not to be caught looking up into the heavens waiting for his return.  Don’t look for me in the heavens, look for me in the person right next to you. 

Yes, we were left behind.  We were left behind for the good of the world.

This message comes just as we are heading into summer.  I’ve learned to really appreciate summer since I moved to Cleveland — the warm and sunny days are precious indeed after a harsh winter.  I’ve also been told that many churches drastically cut back on programming because people just don’t come in the summer. 

I’ve never been a believer in a 9 month gospel so we at Disciples Christian Church are not only continuing our two Sunday morning worship services at 9 and 11, our Prime Time (10:00) will NOT go on its usual summer hiatus.  We don’t expect to change anyone’s vacation plans just because there is something going on at church.  Vacations are important to finding balance in our busy lives.  But, we are inviting and encouraging everyone to spend their staycations with us!  Staycations are about taking full advantage of what home has to offer.  And home is where your church is.  Or, maybe it’s that you are at home when you are at church! 

Jesus also said  in this passage that we are to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth.  So with that in mind, we are going global this summer.  We have so many world travelers in our congregation — and whether they have travelled for pleasure or education or mission, they are eager to share their experiences with us this summer.  Each week a new presentation about a different destination by one of our own.  There’s a buzz about this unlike anything I’ve experienced during the summer at any church.  At our kick-off brunch yesterday, we all got our passports, and we’re ready to travel.  It’s a great way to get to know one another better — as traveling companions in Christ’s name.  

Disciples Go Global.  Starting this week with our Peace Corps volunteer in Madagascar, continuing through Ecuador, Mexico, France, China, and other destinations being added each week now through September.   We’re ready to travel the world from the comfort of our home — our growing congregation!

Summer blessings –

Pastor Kris

If you were presented with an opportunity to impart your wisdom to the world, what life nuggets would you offer?  If you could determine what your legacy would be now while you are still active and alive, what would that legacy be?

I doubt that most of us will be asked, but it is common practice on college campuses for professors to be invited to present series of lectures addressing just those questions.  One such professor, the late Randy Pausch of Carnegie Mellon, wrote a book about the experience, titled The Last Lecture.  Pausch knew he was dying of pancreatic cancer leaving a wife and young children behind.  His intentional legacy of “Follow Your Childhood Dreams” was left not only for his family but for millions of readers. 

This past week Oprah’s millions of fans were tuned in to catch what her parting words would be as she brought 25+ years of her Chicago based talk show to a close. Hers was a message of the importance of loving each other and finding your own power within.   Unlike Pausch, hers was not good-bye, rather it was until we meet again — on her new cable television network!  She hopes her millions of fans will follow.

Last lectures.  We have one left for us by our savior Jesus Christ.  It’s found in the gospel of John, chapters 13-17 and is known as “The Final Discourse.”  Jesus knew he was going to die.  He knew what he wanted to say to his followers.  He lectured them about how they must live according to his commandments.  His commandment to love even your enemies.  His commandment to love and serve God.  In its first hearing, only the disciples were in the audience.  Jesus must have wondered if the disciples would know what to do without him.  He must have wanted to know that his words would have an effect beyond those who were listening that day. 

I believe it is human nature to want to know that we’ve been listened to.  Even if we don’t consider ourselves wise, we’ve learned important stuff through the years.  We want to know that something we did mattered to someone or something.   We need to know that we mattered enough to be loved and remembered. 

It’s likely we won’t know in our lifetimes.  It’s even more likely that whatever our effect, it won’t be for an audience of millions.  And rarely are we afforded the opportunity to direct our legacy with our final words. 

We are back at work now following Memorial Day weekend.  We have put flag and flowers on the graves of our fallen military heroes, our sons and daughters, fathers, and those unknown to us.  As a congregation, we are grieving the loss of two of our 90 year olds.  One was a man who never missed a Sunday morning worship and coffee hour if he could possibly help it.  He was friend and quiet example to all, even the newest among us.  The other a woman who had far too many health issues to be anywhere but home or hospital or healthcare facility, but is remembered as one of our first women in leadership.  Hard to believe women were not elders or moderators or pastors just decades ago! 

Neither of these special people were able to leave last words for us.  There wasn’t time.  And probably neither one of them expected that we would hang on their words listening.  This is what makes Jesus’ last lecture so critical for us. 

We need his words to provide the answers to the questions:  can we still love even when our hearts our breaking?  Will our futures be filled with love even when people of significance are no longer here with us? 

Yes, we can, and yes, we will.  Jesus said:  I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.  The world will no longer see me, but you will see me.  Because I live, you also will live. 

And just as critical as Jesus’ words are the people who heard them and lived them.  Deaths that are still fresh in our minds and hearts, alongside the great cloud of witnesses who not only professed Jesus, keep him alive for us.  They lived as he commanded.  In obedience.  In prayer.  In service.  In love.

Now it’s our turn to begin living our legacy.

She came through my line at the door after worship and said, “have you ever read The Lottery?”  It was an unexpected question, and I replied quickly that I had not — but after preaching twice on a Sunday morning, I’m lucky to remember my name!  As a preaching colleague used to say — it’s like having jello for brains!  She promised to send me a link and wanted to know what I thought. 

Later in the day over a relaxing dinner, it started coming back to me.  David and I agreed that we must have read it in a high school literature class.  I re-read it this morning.  I only wish I’d known to do that before I preached yesterday. 

The sermon that prompted her challenge to me was the story of the Stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:55-60).  I’ m always glad to know that people are listening, but even more than that, I hope there’s a connection that relates to every day living.  I was blessed on both counts!  She was listening, and she could not have been more right-on topic.

Read it for yourself.  It won’t take but a few minutes.   http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lotry.html.  Originally published in the New Yorker Magazine in 1948, you’ll be surprised how eerie the message and how sinister are its characters.    You’ll find several commentaries on-line, but as she suggested to me — let it haunt you awhile first.

Couldn’t happen, right?  Especially not to such nice folks as us.  

Blessings,

Pastor Kris

It was yesterday’s sermon title.  I used it to describe how we settle back in — more or less — to the routine of our faith once Easter has come and gone.  The so-whats and the ho-hums descend upon us pretty quickly.   We contrast that with the early disciples as described in Acts 2:42-47 who were doing quite the opposite — realizing that by saying Christ is Risen everything was remixed and reordered and new.  All who believed were together and had all things in common … and day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

We have a long way to go to be that together as a community of faith.  But I will say that yesterday was anything but ho-hum.  It began with one of our newest participants walking forward at 9:00 worship to place his membership at Disciples, recommiting himself to a previous confession of faith.  It continued during our time of prayer when visitors and long-time members alike felt comfortable enough to share aloud their concerns, their joys, confident in the power of community prayer.   

The theme for the rest of the morning and afternoon was compassion.  Disciples is launching another effort for putting together hygiene kits for Church World Service — see details at www.discipleschristian.org — for the many tornado and flood victims in the southern U.S.  It’s a simple and inexpensive way to be hands-on compassionate.  We hosted a piano-duo concert, with pianists Shiho Saito and Josh Vogel, that was a benefit for relief efforts in Japan through Week of Compassion.  Shiho and Josh had just arrived in Japan for a concert tour when the earthquake hit and spent some days in temporary shelters so the cause is especially near and dear to their hearts. 

Will we ever live into the ideal of those first disciples who were so together in their faith?  Perhaps not.  But we do see glimpses into the togetherness.   We see glimpses when our hearts are open.  We see glimpses when we are generous.   We see glimpses when despite our differences we share in the building of God’s kingdom here on earth by sharing our abundant resources. 

We can be pleased about what we’re doing at Disciples Christian with yesterday as an example, but it’s got to be about more than one day.  Being a disciple is not a one-time experience.  It’s not about symbolic gestures.  As theologian Walter Brueggemann writes, Jesus is “in the generosity business and that means being constantly alert to any mismatch between the generosity of God and the needs of the people. If you share your bread with the neighbor, the world will be made new.  Generosity isn’t something you just think about, it’s something you do.”

Christ is Risen!  Live it every day.

Pastor Kris

 Our President Barack Obama announced his decision yesterday that photos of Bin Laden’s body would not be released.  I understand this decision came about on many levels, some of them having to do with national security and possible retaliation in the world.  I am not naive enough to believe that this decision or Bin Laden’s death will put an end to the evil of terrorism,  and our prayers must continue.  But since yesterday’s announcement, I have experienced a renewed sense of hope for our country and our world.    My hope comes from a sense that this decision came not just from security advisors and possible terror warnings.   My sense is that when President’s said, “this is not who we are” as a country, that he was also saying “this is not who we are” as children of God.   

May we together as a church and people resist the temptations to be who we are not while boldly living out who we are.

I share this link with you, a statement from our denomination’s General Minister and President.  I appreciate her words:  http://www.disciples.org/OfficeoftheGeneralMinisterandPresident/SharonsBlog/tabid/758/EntryId/38/Life-Hope-and-Love.aspx

Blessings,

Pastor Kris

I’m departing from the usual commentary on yesterday’s sermon for this week’s blog.  That seems especially old news today because like you, I awoke this morning to the news that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by American Navy Seals and his body buried at sea.   It’s difficult to know what to write because this news is either too fresh or too long in coming, depending on one’s perspective now nearly ten years after 9/11.   Bear with me in these early thoughts.

Like you, I remember vividly where I was and what I was doing when the attack began on the World Trade Center.  I will never forget the hours that followed as Americans feared the worst in ways never before experienced.  I know that it was critical to my personal well-being in those hours of horror to be at my church.  I needed to be with people; specifically I needed to pray with my brothers and sisters in Christ.  I worked together as part of a staff team that hastily planned a worship service for that night.  It was a relief to have something tangible to do, and the church was packed with others who needed to be there too .  We were drawn to and strangely comforted by being with others who were just as confused and frightened.  For a few years after, we would observe the day again in worship, remembering our grief and praying for peace and an end to the evil scourge of terrorism. 

As details are now emerging from this super-secret mission, I am grateful for the bravery and competence displayed from the early planning stages to last night’s raid.  I am grateful there was not more loss of life.    I give thanks for whatever closure Bin Laden’s death has for families who still grieve not just here in the United States but throughout the world wherever this evil has struck and killed.  I celebrate the new life and development that is emerging from the Ground Zero site.  I pray Bin Laden’s death is an end to terror, though I’m realistic enough to know it most likely is not the end.

But I cannot as a Christian rejoice over killing anyone. 

I have called to mind several scriptures this morning.  Among them are these:  Proverbs 24.17, Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice;  Ezekiel 18.32, I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord;   From Romans 12:  Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all….. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.  And from Jesus according to Matthew 5:43-44, You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.   Perhaps you have been reminded of other passages. 

I’m working through all of this myself and have been reading whatever I can find from voices I respect.  Here are some links that may be helpful to you as well

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/religion/  (“The Christian Response to Bin Laden’s Death,” “Muslim-Americans React,” “Hate Osama but do not rejoice in his death”, etc.)

http://blog.sojo.net/2011/05/02/how-should-we-respond-to-the-death-of-osama-bin-laden/ by Jim Wallis of Sojourners. 

http://brianmclaren.net/archives/blog/on-waking-up-to-todays-news.html by Brian McLaren. 

http://blog.onbeing.org/post/5133870125/do-not-rejoice-when-your-enemies-fall

I invite your comments and do not expect that you’ll agree with everything that I”ve posted.  I encourage you to do some digging on your own and would welcome your sharing that with me.  

 Yesterday we heard Christ’s words to the disciples as he breathed on them the Holy Spirit :  Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I send you.  And we are sent charged with living as Christ taught us to live which was how he lived.   The memory of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are fresh enough in my mind and heart for me to realize just how difficult it is to follow him.  The joy, hope, and promise of Easter tells me that I’ve got to keep at it.

Blessings,

Pastor Kris

Easter morning has passed, and we are already mid-way into our usual weekly routine of work or school, grocery shopping and paying bills, wanting to get outdoors to do yard work, and opting instead to stay inside where it’s dry.  As I write, the skies are clouding up again, and storms are coming.   Has Easter come and gone?

The children and I shouted — and I do mean shouted — Christ is Risen on Sunday morning.  And an excited full-house shouted back — He is Risen Indeed.  Alleluia.  But the shouting didn’t need to end on Easter — we ought to still be shouting.  Easter was not the end of the story.  Not at all.

…but from the resurrection of Christ, a new and purifying wind can blow through our present world. If only a few people really believed that and acted on it in their daily lives, a great deal would be changed.  (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).     The strong winds that are blowing up a storm outside my office remind me that we who believe in the message of the empty tomb should be out there right now blowing up a storm of He Lives!  Just make sure that when you say those words, you also proclaim that because He lives — so, too, do you.  Christ is risen also means that at the same time you have risen.  That you have also received this gift from heaven.  This proclamation is about us too.

In the words of Clarence Jordan:  The crowning evidence that Jesus was alive was not a vacant grace, but a spirit-filled fellowship.  Not a rolled away stone, but a carried-away church!

Care to be carried away with us here at Disciples Christian?  Stay tuned and prepare to be blown away as the Easter story continues this week when Jesus appears to the disciples and breathes on them the Holy Spirit.

And with that, Jesus sent those disciples out into the world.  Mid-week.  Amidst all the routine and the challenges.  And he expected those disciples to change the world by their spirit-filled presence.

He is alive.   We are alive.  We have a message to take into the world.

Pastor Kris

There’s nothing quite like the anticipation on the morning you’re going to be baptized.  Yesterday morning there were six who had done their preparation work in Pastor’s Class and one-on-one time with me who were nervously, excitedly, patiently and not so patiently waiting for the big moment.  With especial thanks to Emily Charalambous who makes it her job every year to be our “baptism mom” behind the scenes holding the towels, mopping up, doing whatever needs to be done.  And this year, a shout-out to Patrick Reed — one of the nervous ones last year — who took it upon himself this year to keep it loose (but not too loose!) for his six friends in the minutes before the service began.

The congregation was filled with anticipation also, especially given the new format this year of a worship service reserved just for baptism.  It was a good mix of first service and second service folks, meeting in the middle of the morning to celebrate as one church these six who were being baptized into The Church.   Immediate and extended families and our Disciples’ children were crowded together up close in the choir loft and on the chancel floor to get a birds-eye view, while photos of each were up on the big-screen for all to see.

 I was filled with as much anticipation as anyone!  Baptism Sundays never get old for a pastor.   The Parade of Palms that followed just added to the excitement of the day.

Our newly baptized were eagerly and anxiously awaiting their big moment yesterday.  Our congregation with these newest members as special guests celebrated with lunch and cake and laughter.  Such a special day!  And this morning we woke up and it was Monday again, time to get back on track with school and work, doing homework and paying bills.  Making choices about how to live.   Will the effects of yesterday linger?  Will we still be a little wet-behind-the ears with anticipation for the possibilities of a life immersed in Jesus Christ?  Will we still feel the power of the Holy Spirit that descended on us yesterday?  Will it make a difference?

I pray so.  Because for as big a moment as we experienced yesterday, there are more big moments ahead.  It is Holy Week.  Christ’s Passion.  Maundy Thursday and remembrance of Jesus’ last supper nears.  The cross of Good Friday afternoon looms large.   Our baptisms and proud church family moments must bring us also to the foot of the cross.   The anticipation of the empty tomb and the glory of Christ’s Resurrection on Easter morning is best experienced through a determined and faithful walk through the darkness of this week that precedes it. 

Join me on that walk? 

Blessings,

Pastor Kris

"Give me your tired, your poor, ..." That was my dad and the grandmother I never met.

Hope.   It was the title of my sermon this week based on the passage from Ezekiel 37:1-14.  It’s the story of the dry bones in the valley, and God telling the prophet that he would bring them alive again.  It is a story of hope, and we are working our way through Lent with another hopeful scripture:  “if anyone is in Christ, there is  new creation:  everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)  But mid-week when I actually started writing, I would have changed the title to:  Hope is Hard.  

From the ancient times of the prophet Ezekiel who was trying to roust the exiled people of Israel from their deep sadness — to the 1920’s when my father and my grandmother arrived from Romania at Ellis Island — and to all the issues facing people today  — I was especially aware this week of how difficult life can be.  

I had the opportunity this week to be in NYC for a few days.  David and I spent one afternoon making the trek to the Statue of LIberty and visited Ellis Island  They say that when the eastern Europeans who’d been at sea for weeks would first see the Statue — the cheering could be heard for miles.  Hope within sight at last!   Just minutes away from disembarkation at Ellis Island.  And yet, once reaching the shore, you could be sent back to the country you’d fled for a variety of reasons.  If you were one of the lucky ones who got to stay, life would not be easy for at least a generation.  My father’s parents died within months of each other from tuberculosis before his 16th birthday.    My father was on his own with two younger sisters.  He lived through the Great Depression as an orphan.  WWII came and he was drafted into the Army.

And yet when asked what he was most proud of, he said it was his American citizenship and his three children, who unlike him graduated from college even though he could not afford to send us — in America, if you work hard in school, you will find a way. 

Hope is hard.  But a life without hope is no life at all.  Without hope we are like those bones in the valley.  Dry.  Lifeless.  And only with God can we come alive again. I’m fortunate that I have my dad as an example of not giving up.  Growing up in an immigrant’s household, I have probably carried that spirit into my adult life.  Hopeful and realistic.   Good qualities in my line of work — leading an old church through transformation.  For all the hopeful signs of growth, we could decide that the work is just too hard.  Doing the work of church transformation is hard.  It’s like a creaky old ship — maybe like the one my dad came over on — that very slowly cuts a wide berth as it finds its new course. 

Hope is hard.  A life without hope is no life at all.  A life of hope that looks for the hand of God?  Priceless and unending.  I give thanks for the life in these bones!

Blessings –

Pastor Kris

It’s not often that we read from the King James translation of the Bible on a Sunday morning.  Most often we read from the New Revised Standard translation (our pew bibles) that has gender-inclusive language. Sometimes we read from The Message translation that has “current, fresh, and understandable” language.  But this morning was different — we were reading the 23rd Psalm, and it just doesn’t sound right unless it’s the language of “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.  He maketh me to lie down, …”  I didn’t grow up in a church that asked us to memorize scripture — but I grew up knowing this passage by heart.  Perhaps you can still recite it too.  Though this psalm is an appropriate one to read at funerals and memorial services, I believe it can be even more critical for us when we are in the midst of life.

Have you ever been scared?  Really scared?  Have you ever felt all alone and overwhelmed?  Have you walked that valley filled with shadows?  The writer of the psalm has, and he learned to trust that his Good Shepherd God was walking with him. He laments that he’s in a darker place than he ever imagined he’d be and God answered:  The darkness will not win.    One of our children said it best this morning in Young Disciples Moment, sometimes I think there are monsters in my closet when I go to bed, but when my mommy comes in, I’m not scared of them.  Just as God is like the Good Shepherd who tends to his sheep 24/7, God is also like that mommy. 

It’s generally believed that King David wrote the 23rd Psalm.  David who knew pain and darkness much of which was his own making.  And if it wasn’t David who wrote it — whoever actually first spoke the words of this psalm; they were spoken from personal experience of being really really afraid.  And his experience was this: 

God was there.  What God gave me was without limits.  I trust in him.  I have confidence in my God.  This is my testimony and I offer my praise to him. 

One man’s testimony has endured and inspired and comforted and led people to The Good Shepherd – our God — for centuries.  I’m quite sure the ancient Psalmist is not the only one who could inspire us.  As a pastor privy to people’s experiences of walking through darkness, I I know many who have been really scared and yet have known and felt the presence of God walking through the darkness with them.  I believe the darkness is not quite so frightening the next time because you know that you have been lost and found.  Can you imagine the effect your words could be to someone  who just knows about the lost and not the found? 

I challenge and encourage you to use your words to make a difference in someone’s life.  To close this posting — and as I closed my sermon this morning — here is an improvisation I found on the 23rd Psalm.  Her words inspired me this week as I prepared to preach.  Perhaps they will encourage you too.  Maybe you’ll spend some time writing your own.  Who knows how critical those words will be to you the next time the darkness comes?

I am a child of God
  I have everything I need.
This beautiful earth feeds my body.
  You feed my soul.
You guide me in the ways of Life,
  for You are Life.
And though I will walk through dark places, and eventually to death,
  I need never be afraid.
For You are with me always,
  In You I can find comfort.
With Your help, I can face whatever comes.
  My joy overflows.
Your goodness and blessing will be with me
  Every day of my life — and forever.

Christine Robinson, 2006.

as found on:  http://doubterpsalms.blogspot.com/2006/09/psalm-23-comfort.html