Andy's Blog: A Personal Word

August 2008 Archive

August 26, 2008

Aug. 26, 2008

On our trip to Ireland this summer, we stopped to hold a service at the sight of a “holy well” outside the city of Galway. It was an isolated spot tucked away in the woods. There was a reason for that. There was a time under British rule when Catholics were not allowed to practice their faith under the threat of imprisonment.  Churches were closed, religious services prohibited. But the people didn’t stop. They would gather secretly in out of the way places with guards posted to watch for British troops – and they would worship. This “holy well” was one of those places. 

I saw it in the former Soviet Union in 1967. The few churches that were open were under surveillance by the police. Your name would be written down if you attended, and you could be blacklisted from good schools and jobs as a result. And yet, the two churches we attended were packed. Under threat, people still gathered for worship.

There is something so basic about worship that you can’t stop people from doing it.  The Psalmist writes, “As the heart longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” In Ecclesiastes it says, “God has put eternity into our hearts. There is the famous line from St. Augustine, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in God.” Worship arises out of this deep yearning to connect to God. It is one of the fundamental drives of life.

Of course, the problem is that we can end up worshipping the wrong thing. The truth is that everybody worships something. In the Soviet Union, we visited the tomb of Lenin in Red Square, which was, in effect, a religious shrine. Some folks worship at the altar of success, sports teams, heroes, celebrities, political parties – the list is endless. For worship is, at its core, a declaration of what we consider to be worthy in life – what we place first.

For United Methodist Christians, one of the means of grace and one of the ways in which we grow in faith is public worship. Weekly worship is central because without it, we can soon forget the God who made us, and we end up worshipping the gods that we make for ourselves. We live in what is essentially a secular/pagan culture with its own pantheon of gods. Daily, we are bombarded with the stories of these gods – gods of power, success, sex, and greed – so it is easy to get caught up in these stories.

Gathering to worship the God of Jesus serves to detoxify and inoculate us against these false gods. It reminds us of who we are and who God is so that we can become who we are. It fulfills the deepest longings of our heart. It grounds us so that we don’t get ground up in the daily grind.

August 19, 2008

Aug. 19, 2008

One of the great stories of this year’s Olympic games is that of Dara Torres, the 41 year old swimmer. After winning four medals in three Olympic games, she retired from competitive swimming in 1992 because she thought, at 25, she was too old. In 1999, she resumed training and left Sydney with three bronze and two gold medals. Now a mother and competing against athletes half her age, Torres has won more medals at this year’s Olympics. Torres said she was competing again at 41 for her daughter, “to show her when she is a little older that life has no boundaries if you commit yourself to your dreams.”

Just having passed one of the “milestone” birthdays myself, watching Torres win medals at an age when you are not supposed to has given me hope! Life doesn’t have to end when you are 40, or 50, or 60, or 70...if you remain alive, look toward the future, and keep hoping and dreaming. 

One of last year’s hit films was “The Bucket List” starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. The two men have nothing in common except the fact both are terminally ill and share a hospital room. Together, they decide to escape from the hospital and head off on a road trip with a wish list of things they want to do before they die. It turns into a journey of friendship, discoveries and redemption.

At Trinity, we are focusing on the theme “Growing on Purpose.” Behind that theme is the belief that God works within us to complete us if we open ourselves to his grace. Growing in grace is the Methodist way of being Christian.  This growth doesn’t stop as long as we stay alive to the possibilities that God offers us. We have to make it our purpose to grow and God does the rest. 

So, dream a little, dare a little.

August 12, 2008

Aug. 12, 2008

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” That’s a question we all used to get when we were children. At age 3, our son wanted to be a garbage man.  When he was 9, it was a professional ball player. Later, it was a mountain climber/a cyclist. Our daughter wanted to be a teacher when she was young, and later a counselor. Now, she is thinking about law school. One way we think about growing up has to do with what we want to do professionally: butcher, baker, candlestick maker. 

Another way of growing up is physically. Our bodies grow and mature. We get taller and stronger as we grow. Unfortunately for some of us, it is wider later in life. Our bodies are always growing, always renewing themselves.
Psychologists talk about a person’s mental age. Someone can be forty years old, but emotionally still be a child or teen. Emotional maturity has to do with our level of self confidence. It has to do with our honesty, our ability to express love, our awareness of others, and responding appropriately to change.

In the same way, we can speak about spiritual maturity. In Ephesians, Paul wrote of growing in maturity “to the measure of the full stature of Christ.” Spiritual maturity is measured by our conformity to Christ. That doesn’t happen all at once. It is a process which we Methodists call sanctifying grace.  Sanctifying grace is God at work within to move us to live a life controlled by love. 

Recently, there was an article in Newsweek about Kirk Douglas, who is 91.  Kirk says the greatest dividend of growing old is the discovery of the true meaning of love. He admits that, in his younger years, he was wrapped up in himself. Recently, Douglas and his wife led a campaign to build 400 safe playgrounds for the children of Los Angeles. “Now in my golden years, I’ve learned that you can’t know how to live until you know how to give.” Douglas is still “growing up.”

Growing up is not just something that happens to us. We have to become engaged in the process. We have to grow on purpose. 

This Sunday is GROW SUNDAY at Trinity (hopefully every Sunday is Grow Sunday). In the gym and first floor commons area, there will be booths
representing growth opportunities. I invite you to “grow up.”

August 5, 2005

Aug. 4, 2008

Columnist George Will points out in a recent column that many American workers fail to sign for company pension plans, which are tax free and often matched by employers. It is free money. All that people have to do is opt in. But many fail to do so. Why?

It is the power of inertia in human behavior. Even otherwise smart, analytical people often make foolish choices by default. People are busy, their lives are complicated, and they don’t have the time nor inclination to think through even important choices – from health care plans to retirement options. They choose the default option by not making a choice – the option that goes into effect if the chooser chooses not to make a choice. Often the default option is not the one that is in the best interest of an individual.

What is the default option when it comes to faith? For Methodist Christians, the default option is grace. God loves all of us, all the time. It is God’s nature to love. Grace is freely given. We do not earn it, merit it, or deserve it. God chooses to love us through no fault of our own!

But if God’s grace is faith’s default option, we also believe that we must choose grace.  We believe in free will. We have to accept what God so freely offers. God gives us the choice to accept or reject the love God offers. A faith that heals, saves and restores is not a default option; it must be chosen by us. And that choice must continue if we are to grow in grace, allowing God to form in us the image of Christ. The end is to love as Christ loves.

In our Methodist tradition, growing in grace is the ongoing part of what God is doing to save us. This doesn’t happen by default. Because of the power of inertia in human behavior, we have to GROW ON PURPOSE. To grow, we have to intentionally open ourselves to grace through those practices that tune our hearts and minds to God. The work is God’s, but the choice to allow God to do that work in us is ours.

We call those ways by which we open ourselves to grace “means of grace.” The “means of grace” are those practices which put us in the place where God can work within us and through us. They include things like prayer, sacraments, scripture and works of mercy. These things are not a matter of duty, but they are a way of life. They provide a way in which we actively choose Christ who has already chosen us. The Christian life cannot be had by default. It is an option we must choose. We have to GROW ON PURPOSE.

GROWING ON PURPOSE is our church-wide emphasis for this Fall. There are dozens of opportunities for each of us to make a choice to strengthen our faith – Sunday School, small groups, mission opportunities and more. These options are available on the church website (http://www.trinitybirmingham.com).  On August 17, GROW Sunday, you will also have the opportunity to explore options. Beginning this Sunday, I will begin a sermon series on our Methodist understandings of those practices by which we Grow on Purpose.

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